Chapter 88

Level Up Heresy Inquisitor – Chapter 88 (88/227)

Chapter 88: The Covenant Group

“Ahh… You must’ve worked hard.”

Eil felt a solemn mood come over him.

Regarding the reason why the promising Ranker Roden suddenly disappeared, there had been all sorts of speculations among users, but who would’ve thought it was due to military service?

And now that he thought about it, Roden was also a Korean player like himself.

No wonder he seemed quite different compared to before—there was an awkward story behind it that made him unable to laugh or cry.

“Eil, have you served in the military?”

“I have… How did you know I’m Korean?”

“Ah, just by looking at you, it’s obvious! And Koreans are good at virtual reality games, right? Eil is no exception!”

“Hmm, please hold back on the national pride talk.”

“National pride? What nonsense! Arme-nia had so many Korean Rankers. You and me are Korean, and even Aimee from Easthorn and Ashira from New World were Korean too. So yeah, Koreans are just naturally good at this stuff.”

Roden passionately argued his point.

Scratching his head, Eil subtly changed the subject.

“So… putting that aside, are you aiming for Ranker status again this time, Roden?”

“Of course!”

“It won’t be easy though.”

“Naturally, it won’t be easy. But it’s definitely achievable. Competition has gotten fiercer since Armenia, and I’m already a year behind schedule, which puts me at a disadvantage. Still, I can overcome that. Isn’t getting into the rankings your goal too, Eil?”

“Well, yeah.”

At Roden’s words, Eil chuckled and nodded.

It was a lofty goal that some might call absurd, but aiming for the rankings wasn’t bad at all.

Roden stared blankly at Eil’s smirk for a moment.

“By the way, Eil, you’re surprisingly normal. Watching your videos, I thought you were completely insane… Sorry. Anyway, I figured you were someone unique, and after losing, I was worried about how you’d die.”

Roden shivered dramatically as if recalling something horrifying.

He probably imagined being tied to a pillar and burned alive.

“You know, it couldn’t be helped.”

“Haha, I understand.”

Roden, who understood the existence of divine ranks and the system of churches and believers, knew that users were being watched. He could roughly guess Eil’s situation as a heresy inquisitor under the Light Church.

‘Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen any messages since clearing the Village of Doom.’

Thinking while checking his personal interface, Eil realized it had been quite a while since a message from the Goddess appeared.

Even though Eil had received extravagant rewards for completing a sudden quest by defeating one of Benaaron’s minions, he hadn’t received any special patronage from the Goddess afterward.

‘Could it be she needs to rebuild her influence?’

For the divine ranks in Warode to directly intervene in the world or bestow something on players, they needed to expend a certain amount of influence.

It was easy to predict that Loo had spent a significant amount of influence dealing with the Greed Demon Benaaron and offering quests with substantial rewards.

But that wasn’t all.

‘There’s no way she exhausted all her influence just from that.’

The divine ranks weren’t simply handing out quests and contributions because they had spare capacity. The actions of their believers created results, and those results influenced the divine ranks.

As an Apostle, not just an ordinary believer, Eil’s actions naturally caused greater ripple effects, which was also why Loo pushed herself to make him an Apostle shortly after awakening.

There must be some kind of plan or situation going on.

Although Eil was her only Apostle, Loo managed the entire region of Warode and likely had many things to focus on.

In fact, Eil was the only user who constantly received messages from a divine rank.

Creak!

Reaching the end of the passage, they faced a door and pushed it without hesitation.

The heavy door slowly slid open against the floor, revealing the other side.

“This is…”

Eil’s eyes narrowed at the familiar sight.

It was a scene he had seen before—the large room, the altar, and the bodies scattered across the floor.

This was the Demon Altar from the Village of Doom and its traces.

‘It seems the same ritual was taking place here…’

Judging from the preparations, it looked like a summoning ritual for a Demon Lord was underway, and judging by the size of the altar, it seemed even larger than before.

However, there were noticeable differences compared to last time.

A massive black magic circle covered the entire floor, much bigger than the four smaller ones above.

Moreover, upon closer inspection of the bodies lying on the ground, it became clear they weren’t sacrifices brought in but rather the fanatical guardians of this place.

“How did you guys get in here?”

A cold voice came from atop the altar.

Looking up reflexively, they saw a woman dressed in a violet robe, holding a staff.

Above her head floated the mark of heresy.

“Ah, the outer magic circle was damaged, causing a crack. So you must be agents of the Heretical Interrogation Office. This actually works in our favor.”

The woman struck her staff against the ground.

Her body levitated slightly off the floor, and with her robe billowing, she descended from the altar.

“That guy looks like the boss; let’s finish her quickly.”

Roden raised the spear slung over his shoulder and aimed it at her.

But Eil quickly extended his arm to stop him.

It wasn’t the right time to start the battle yet.

“That emblem… Are you a mage from the Covenant Group?”

“How do you know that…?”

Her eyes gleamed with surprise.

The crescent moon insignia clearly marked on her robe…

Upon seeing it, Eil immediately recognized the organization she belonged to.

“The Covenant Group…? What’s that?”

Roden whispered beside him.

Not only was it unexpected to encounter another group at a fanatic’s altar, but it was also a name he had never heard before.

It was natural that Roden wouldn’t know.

Their identity had been kept under wraps as a secret society.

Even Eil had struggled to obtain this information, trading rare bits of data for it after paying through the nose on premium sites.

Still, he never imagined he’d encounter the Covenant Group in such a setting.

They were a secretive organization operating underground, dedicated to the liberation and preservation of forbidden magics banned by the kingdom, conducting covert research and experiments. Yet, what business did they have with the Blood Twilight Society, a group of demon worshippers? It didn’t make sense.

“Why is a member of the Covenant Group involved here? You clearly have no connection to the Twilight Society?”

“Clearly, you know something about us. Who are you?”

“I asked first.”

“Hmph, interesting.”

Smiling at Eil’s response, the woman found the unexpected intruders intriguing despite her original intention to eliminate them.

“Before we proceed with the deal, let’s start with names.”

“Eil. And you?”

“Mute.”

Mute removed her hood, revealing her face.

The fact that a member of a secret society revealed her face so easily meant she had no intention of letting them leave alive. Their current conversation was merely based on the certainty that they wouldn’t survive anyway.

“Why are you working with these crazy people? I didn’t want to either. They’re smelly, ignorant, and stupid enough to bow down to demons. But we agreed to collaborate temporarily since we share a common enemy.”

“Common enemy?”

“Yeah, I’m here to destroy the Light Church.”

“What…? But you didn’t seem to have any major grudge against the Church. Why go through all this trouble?”

Eil asked skeptically.

A heretic hunter obsessed with rooting out evil and a magician dabbling in forbidden arts seemed like polar opposites, yet oddly, neither showed much interest in each other.

To begin with, the Church’s definition of heresy depended on the type of magic practiced.

Whether one dabbled in forbidden spells or indulged excessively in voodoo practices…

Ultimately, only those committing injustices and wicked acts were branded as heretics and subjected to rigorous judgment.

Unless they sought revenge against the kingdom for suppressing all forms of forbidden magic indiscriminately, it didn’t make sense for her to aim to dismantle the Church outright.

But she stopped answering questions.

“Enough answers from me. Now it’s my turn. I know you’re here under the orders of the Heretical Interrogation Office, but I don’t know if you’re directly affiliated with the Church as an inquisitor.”

“Yikes, I’m not!” Roden recoiled, shaking his head.

However, Eil nodded affirmatively.

“I am indeed a Heresy Inquisitor.”

“Is that so? Then does the Heretical Interrogation Office have information on the Covenant Group?”

“No, only I know about your existence.”

Mute seemed satisfied with Eil’s answer, smirking as she stepped back.

“We’ll save the question of how you discovered us for next time. Your turn again.”

“Why does the Church need to be attacked?”

“We have grand plans to realize our goals, and your Church is bound to interfere. We’re just removing a thorn in our side preemptively.”

“So what exactly are these plans?”

“That’s too big a question, isn’t it?”

Mute grinned mischievously.

Eil didn’t expect much from such a broad inquiry, so he moved on to his next question.

“Alright, then what about these corpses? They look like followers of the Twilight Society.”

Eil scanned the bodies sprawled across the floor.

There was no way these people deep inside, where the entrance wasn’t even open, died due to external intrusion.

“That… Well, there were differences in opinion. After gathering so many souls, all they wanted to do was feed them to demons. If we used them directly, we could achieve our purpose much more effectively. So we took them. We modified the altar a bit and refined our plans accordingly.”

“Betrayal, huh.”

“Maybe.”

She shrugged nonchalantly.

Then she posed her follow-up question.

“My turn again. Tell me how you learned about the Covenant Group. Be honest.”

“I first heard about it from an info merchant in Ascalon. It cost a fortune…”

“Lie.”

Mute frowned sharply, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Her tone turned icy, and her expression hardened drastically.

“The deal’s over.”