Chapter 56. The torch

“What do you mean, they’re dead?!”
When Ivan shouted loudly, the paladin kept their mouths shut. It meant that he couldn’t talk more here.
“I’m sorry, but it’s not something I can talk about in a place like this. To be honest, things haven’t been sorted out internally yet.”
Then the paladins urged them to follow them. It was by no means common for dozens of paladin and priests to die at once. There was no time to relax.
“Well, I understand.”
Ivan and his party agreed to accompany the paladins and cooperate with the investigation. Because they were very curious about this as well.
Ivan and his party quickly got armed and left the house. Paladins did not stop them.
It means that they are a witness, not a suspect.
‘But it could change at any time if the circumstances change too.’
Ivan thought like that and touched the sword around his waist.
Things were taking a strange turn. If you don’t know who to trust, it’s safe to think of everyone as your enemy.
He headed to the temple of the fire god Kundara. As they went deep inside to avoid the eyes of the believers, the paladins and priests with serious expressions were waiting for them.
Everyone was aware that the situation was serious, and they went straight to the point.
“You said you met demon worshipers in an abandoned underground fortress. Was there anything special about it?”
“It was a ritual. It was an evil ritual that summoned the power of the demon to shake the world.”
“How exactly was it?”
“Drawing flesh and summoning some demons to make sacrifices and weaken the dimensional barrier.”
The testimony of the exorcist, Delfino, was quite in-depth and factual. Knowing what the other person wanted, he was able to get the gist of it.
Ivan finally could ask them about the situation after Delfino told them the story about it for a long time.
“Then can we know what’s going on now? It’s very disturbing that the people we broke up in a good mood suddenly died.”
To that, the priest in charge of the investigation answered with a long sigh.
“Three days after they broke up with you, there was an attack by demon worshipers. After receiving a report about the imminent situation through the emergency communication bead, we checked the scene, and there were signs of a fierce battle.”
“Then what about them?”
“Some have been confirmed dead, and others are missing.”
There was little chance of reviving the missing person. Being missing in this situation simply meant that the body could not be found.
For demon worshipers, human corpses were a wonderful material. Even more so if it were a priest’s.
“We will get them back. We will get our revenge on them. As long as the Eternal Flame watches over us, our will not be broken.”
The priest in charge of the investigation spoke in a rather harsh tone. A dark flame was burning in his eyes.
After the half-day investigation was over, we came out and saw an old priest with his eyes closed.
The old man was wearing a white robe with patterns engraved with golden thread.
He didn’t show a particularly authoritarian look or a high-pressure stance, but he had a feeling of being a high-ranking person in this atmosphere. (dlazarturead(dot)wordpress(dot)com)
Delfino recognized him and greeted him with a surprised expression.
“Cardinal Romerne!”
Cardinal Romerne was the Archbishop of the Western Union Kingdom of the Order of Kundara. In other words, he is the highest Kundara priest in the Western Union Kingdom.
He was too big of a person to meet by coincidence. In other words, it was like facing the duke of any country.
Cardinal Romerne nodded slowly.
“It’s just Romerne. I’m only an old man.”
His smiling face was not bright. Dozens of priests were either dead or missing, so he couldn’t be happy.
“I heard a brief report from Priest Pierre before he disappeared. Your help in the fight against the demon worshipers was great.”
“We didn’t help. It was just that we overlapped while we were chasing them.”
“I see.”
Cardinal Romerne said with a bitter smile.
“Precious lives have been lost. They are all people who burn their bodies to make the world a little warmer. Please help them not to die in vain.”
He said so, and they couldn’t deny it. When the cardinal came out and asked for a favor, the party nodded in response.
“I will cooperate as much as possible.”
“Yes, thank you.”
After the party left, Cardinal Romerne looked at the altar. There was a torch burning as the symbol of the fire god Kundara.
The old priest knelt before the torch and offered a prayer.
“Give us your torch in this dark land.”
The party who came out of Kundara Temple silently packed up their belongings. They prepared to pursue the enemy again.
One attempt was blocked, but those guys didn’t give up. It meant the quest was not over.
“Still, we’ll have to get an additional reward.”
“The fairy forest will take care of it. We are not a race who doesn’t know grace.”
“Well, I hope so.”
The party decided not to act alone but together with the paladins of the Kundara Temple. The enemy attacked and dealt with more than a dozen paladins. It was definitely a formidable force.
“Did you say that the rituals are almost completed in other areas, and this will be the last? Then the power of the demon worshipers that have spread everywhere is uniting here.”
As Ivan spoke seriously, Delfino answered.
“So other denominations are also moving. We’re gathering troops to fight the demon worshipers.”
The paladin of the Kundara Temple also put a word on it.
“Now, two of denominations are moving. The exorcist priests and combat nuns are also active, and they have even requested knights and soldiers from the local lords and the royal family. They’ll never get pass us.”
But Irene disagreed with that.
She shook her head as she checked the paper tied to the ankle of a flying bird from somewhere.
“That’s not enough. They seem to be moving quite seriously.”
Unlike before, she was not hiding the appearance of an elf. She informed that the link between the forests and the fairy forests throughout the Western Union Kingdom was lost.
“Sometimes it can happen naturally, but it can’t happen this widely, in multiple forests at the same time. The force that resists the flow of the forest, the devil’s heap, is influencing it.”
Ivan agreed too.
“You shouldn’t think of the scattered power the same as a united one. Maybe they will even summon the Great Demon.”
“Summoning the Great Demon! That’s absurd…”
“If we can’t stop them, it will happen. Definitely.”
The priest of the Kundara Temple murmured in disbelief.
“Since the Age of Myths, there has never been a case in which the Great Demon has been directly summoned into the material world.”
“It also means that it happened in the Age of Myths.”
Ivan then tapped her own lost eye, the eye patch.
“The demon rages and the forest burns. I have seen such a future.”
It was a sudden confession, but everyone around kept their mouths shut.
Norse myths were all filled with prophecies for the future and stories to prepare for them.
All of them were well acquainted with theology, so they couldn’t refute it.
“Once we check the scene, we should start a search from the area. Joining the pursuit team that has already arrived is our priority.”
There was no time to delay. They hurriedly set off.
Rattle, rattle!
The horses and wagons ran fast. Those who could ride horses rode them, and those who could not ride horses were on the wagons.
The wagon provided by the Temple of Kundara was different from the cheap modified wagons in the past, but it still didn’t absorb the shock properly since it ran so fast.
Ferocious Tooth lamented for three days on why his race had a body structure that could not ride horses.
It must have been quite a daunting task for him as a strong warrior.
We ran nonstop and arrived at the scene of the incident. A place not far from a small town. There were still traces of the battle left.
Broken trees dug up ground, and traces of blood splattered.
All the bodies that were barely recovered had been removed.
Most of the guys who attacked even took the corpses, but only a part of their bodies was left.
Irene, who had guessed the intense battle from the scene alone, frowned.
“It’s awful.”
“Yes. How could such a thing…!”
As she watched the paladin vomit out his anger, she shook her head.
“I don’t mean it that way. It could have been an overwhelming win, but they were playing with them.”
Sueup, hoo-.
Irene inhaled the tobacco pipe and asked.
“How is it, Ivan. Can you recognize it?”
“Well, I don’t know what you’re talking about…”
Ivan, who was talking, bit his lip. Then he looked around and said heavily.
“…there is no spirit at all.”
It was very difficult to see spirits materialized in the physical world. It cannot appear naturally and wanders around in the form of a mental body.
But at the same time, the spirit was the power that permeated everything in the world and was the incarnation of everything in the world itself.
It was unusual for a place where there were no traces of spirits like this.
Exhaling the smoke, Irene explained.
“It’s usually not recognizable, but if you’re an elementalist, you should know. Why did that happen? It was artificially erased. A very powerful force against nature passed by and the spirits disappeared.”
She had a very disgusted look on her face.
“If an attacker possesses such strong power, the battle can’t be this fierce. All I can say is that they were playing with them. Looking for clues like this would be meaningless, wouldn’t it?”
After hearing such a story, Ivan suddenly hardened his expression and held out his hand. The blood sword Brika, rose from his palm and held it in his hand.
“What? Enemy?”
Ferocious Tooth shouted, but Ivan shook his head.
“It’s not. But it feels a little weird.”
Woo-.
The blood sword Brika was trembling. It wasn’t specially injected with magical power, but the sword was trembling.
Does it mourn the death of its former owner? Looking back, it feels like a cry. (dlazarturead(dot)wordpress(dot)com)
It was a sword that had been passed down through blood for hundreds of years. Perhaps a weak divinity has been created.
Ivan closed his eyes and focused on it. To find out why Brika is crying.
“…the divine power is responding.”
Originally, the blood sword Brika was far from anything like a holy sword. I heard from Pierre Lorraine that it was a treasure his ancestors obtained through an unknown path.
However, it was once used by the Blood Saint Alberhom, and for hundreds of years after that, Brika, who continued to accept the divine power of Kundara, the god of fire, had his power buried.
That divine power was responding now. Ivan could sense Kundara of Fire’s anger at the demon who had slaughtered his followers.
Whoosh!
The divine power that had been buried in Brika burned without a trace. And in response to the blood sword, he showed me the scenery of a certain place. Ivan’s eyes began to see an unfamiliar place.
Ruined ruins, mountains, underground, old treasures, grudges.
Drip!
Red blood dripped from Ivan’s lost eyes. The leather eyepatch is wet, and the blood that fell to the floor turned into a black crow and flew away.
“God gives me clues.”