Chapter 84: Snake Hunt (1)
“Say it again.”
Bazenhar’s thick voice resonated throughout the room. Hesitantly, the soldier opened his mouth after hearing the angry voice of the old knight filled with a powerful energy.
“After Halsen and Jakseun, the, the plague has spread to Kieu as well.”
Bazenhar’s face hardened at the soldier’s words. He wasn’t surprised. This was the third time he was hearing similar news.
“The plague……”
King Bier II muttered with a dark expression. Having shaken off his illness and regained his senses, he could easily guess that what had struck the kingdom was not a natural phenomenon.
A plague spreading simultaneously, as if someone was deliberately launching an offensive.
“……”
And it wasn’t difficult to guess who was behind it.
The Modesta Catacomb.
Those who had conspired with Prince Arsen to swallow the kingdom whole.
“What are the Inquisitor’s thoughts?”
King Bier II, erasing the bitterness from his face, asked. At his question, the Inquisitor, covered from head to toe in a thick robe, slowly spoke.
“As I mentioned, the plague itself can be suppressed. Countermeasures against the curse have already been developed.”
“It was the curse that first appeared in the city of Ephesus, wasn’t it? I heard that the Saintess played a significant role in reducing the casualties there and subduing the plague.”
“……”
Lephra remained silent for a moment at the king’s question. It was true that the Saintess’ s role was important, but to be precise, it was Luciel who subdued the plague.
Of course, she wasn’t the type to nitpick and boast about such details. There was no need to.
“Ah, to be precise, Inquisitor Luciel-nim played a significant role. He analyzed the curse and devised the appropriate dispel magic. Haha.”
Unable to keep his mouth shut, one of the brothers interjected, correcting the king’s words with a good-natured laugh.
It was a somewhat disrespectful act, but Bier II didn’t seem to mind. In the first place, Inquisitor Lephra and Brother Jerit had come here as representatives of Hesterica.
“Indeed. I knew he was an extraordinary young man from the first time I saw him……”
“I think so too. When I first saw him─”
Swish. Lephra raised her arm to cut off Jerit’s words, who seemed about to share his adventures with Luciel, and spoke in a low voice.
“A direct attack will likely begin soon.”
The plague created by the Catacomb was certainly a threat, but an appropriate cure spell had already been developed. They wouldn’t be unaware of that.
Therefore, the spread of the plague was most likely a tactic to divert their attention.
Now that their plan to easily take over the kingdom and secure a bridgehead to advance into the eastern regions by bypassing Hesterica’s territory had been thwarted, the enraged Catacomb was openly revealing its ambitions.
“……Hmm.”
A worried look appeared on the king’s face.
The national power of the Pain Kingdom had been greatly weakened by the chaos that continued while he was ill. It was true that it was somewhat insufficient to block the power of the Catacomb, armed with evil sorcery and terrifying monsters.
However, the situation wasn’t entirely hopeless.
The reinforcements from Hesterica were currently staying in the Pain Kingdom.
As if to prove this, Inquisitor Lephra’s half-hidden gaze, standing calmly on one side of the audience chamber, shone sharply.
“Yo, Your Majesty!”
A knight, who approached King Bier II with a somewhat hurried gait and greeted him politely, spoke in a voice filled with anxiety.
“We have received urgent news that Petar is under indiscriminate attack from an unidentified black mage!”
“……!”
At the knight’s message, the king closed his eyes tightly, and the knight Bazenhar gripped his sword tightly.
“Prepare the knights.”
“Yes, sir!”
The knight, responding vigorously to Bier II’s order, hurriedly left the audience chamber.
“……Inquisitor-nim.”
At Jerit’s call, Lephra slowly raised her head. Inquisitor Luciel, the most reliable person in times like these, had currently disappeared somewhere, but her duty remained unchanged.
“Prepare yourself.”
Her gaze, as she answered Jerit, was coldly fixed. How dare they stick out their dirty tongues in a place where the Inquisitor and thousands of Hesterica’s elite troops had arrived?
She was not unaware that the fight against heretics was closer to a kind of power struggle than a holy war, as many mistakenly believed. But Lephra said with a firm expression.
“In the name of God.”
🔹🔹🔹
A small garden located in the courtyard of the Shadow Church. And the small spring in the center of it held a special power. Even before I named it Rosalyn’s Nightmare.
Its effect was to move directly to the desired location.
A spatial transfer magic circle that consumes resources that easily exceed the city’s annual budget for a single use has many conditions and limitations despite its exorbitant price.
But the power residing in Rosalyn’s Nightmare ignores all kinds of restrictions that magic circles have.
It is not hindered by interference magic, there is no limit to the number of people, and there is no distance limit either.
Of course, there were a few conditions.
It had to be a place you had been to before, and there had to be an object closely related to the place you wanted to arrive at. And once used, it couldn’t be used again for quite a while. Of course, there was no need to worry about that now. It was clear that no one had used it for at least five hundred years.
It was a demanding activation condition if you considered it demanding, but compared to its effect, it was nothing.
Because moving directly to the heart of the Catacomb, ignoring its barriers, was more tremendous than I thought.
“……It suits this place very well.”
Kazan muttered softly after hearing my explanation. He wasn’t wrong. The Shadow Church was a place where you could open a door directly from specific locations scattered across the continent. It was probably an amplified version of a similar power.
“Wait, then……”
Marchena, who had been pondering my explanation, looked back at me with a puzzled expression.
“Are you saying you’ve been to Harnhell?”
The heart of the Modesta Catacomb. The place where the altar of the Great Demon Modesta is located.
And a place that most don’t even know the name of.
“……”
Surprise, astonishment, suspicion, and so on.
After glancing at the faces filled with various emotions, I stepped forward without answering her question.
A calm spring.
I could feel the surface of the spring, which seemed to shimmer with silver mist, whispering softly.
I slowly reached out towards the spring, which looked as if it were filled with mercury instead of water.
─!
And at the same time, the faint noise coming from the spring grew louder. A whisper that sounded like someone’s cry, or someone’s laughter.
I felt someone flinch from behind at the sudden amplification of the sound.
But they were already somewhat accustomed to the strange noise coming from the spring, so there was no further agitation.
“……”
I slowly dipped my hand into the spring.
A small ripple ran across the surface of the spring, which had only reflected my face, and at the same time, a faint image of someone else flashed by instead of me.
It was an afterimage reminiscent of someone who had died here long ago.
Smoothly.
Ignoring the image, I pulled out the pendant from my pocket. The necklace I had taken from the knight who was leading the bandits in the mountain village.
An object that strongly held the energy of the Modesta Catacomb.
Plop. The spring, swallowing the pendant, began to shake finely.
🔹🔹🔹
Snakes do not have vocal cords.
Therefore, the language of snakes was a word that did not make sense at all. Unless you give a different meaning to the meaningless and faint friction of the air.
But the man sitting in the antique black chair nodded with an interesting expression.
Hiss, hiss.
The man tilted his head towards the giant snake that stretched from the ceiling to his side and smiled faintly.
“Really?”
The Catacomb snakes, improved by powerful magic, were already monsters beyond the category of ordinary reptiles.
They had a hard outer skin that would not be affected by ordinary blades, and they even had resistance to magic below a certain level. Their senses and speed were also superior.
“I’m glad I didn’t leave my seat.”
As if he had heard interesting news, the man with a grim smile on his lips slowly rose. He playfully twirled the reddish-black bead in his hand and slowly said.
“Wake him up. It’s time to give him some nutritious food after a long time.”
Drrrrrr.
At the man’s words, the black mage, bowing his head respectfully, pulled the lever of a mechanical device on one side of the wall with all his might, and an ominous vibration began to spread from the center of Harnhell.
🔹🔹🔹
Tap.
Stepping down from the silver ripples shimmering in the air, I looked around as I set foot on the solid ground. It was quiet, ominously so.
“……This is a creepy place.”
Plop. Marchena, who had fallen from the silver ripples floating above, lightly balanced herself and quietly landed on the ground before muttering.
This place, where even a vampire who loves darkness felt uncomfortable, was Harnhell. The heart of the Modesta Catacomb.
“The ominousness pierces the skin. The place is filled with demonic energy.”
The witch Pekilla, who nodded to Kazan in gratitude for catching her short body as she fell from the air, said with a disgusted expression.
Landing on the ground, she bent down and began to carve something under the silver ripples shimmering in the air. It was a spell to destroy the altar and quickly return here.
Four people, excluding the scholar Graviol, who was not suitable for direct combat, followed me.
Even the dark elf Sienna, who didn’t like me, an Inquisitor, very much.
“……”
Turning my gaze away from her, who was looking around with a slightly frowning expression, I started walking forward.
The surroundings were quiet. It was probably thanks to the fact that a significant number of the Catacomb had left, eager to attack the Pain Kingdom.
But it wasn’t the time to be complacent. Regardless of the situation on Lephra and Jerit’s side, it was wise to hurry as much as possible.
This was where Modesta’s altar was located, and the possibility of the high priest and other monsters remaining could not be ruled out.
The five of us, including myself, moved along the quiet corridor. In fact, it was a place more suitable to be called a cave than a corridor.
The foul smell from the damp earth stung my nose. A faint hissing sound could be heard from the dark passage along with the unpleasant stench.
Fortunately, there was no need to light up and attract attention. Everyone here, including myself, could easily overcome such darkness.
About ten minutes after moving along the winding cave. I felt a slight movement ahead.
A creature hiding in the crevices of the cave and quickly moving away from us. A large snake.
Swish!
At the same time, a streak of darkness passed by me from behind at high speed.
Thud. An arrow made of expensive black iron, containing mana, pierced the snake’s head directly.
The snake, pierced through its vital point, twitched and stopped moving. A clean instant death. It wasn’t bad skill.
“……”
As Sienna, who lowered her bow, reached out without a word, the arrow that was stuck far away floated back to her.
Smoothly. She roughly wiped the mucus on the arrowhead on the damp earth and glanced at me.
Turning away. Unable to meet my gaze, she quickly turned her head and walked forward, seemingly a little embarrassed.
Drrrrrr.
Was that why? She couldn’t react quickly to the sudden shaking of the ground.
“……!”
Urgency appeared on everyone’s faces as the ground shook without any warning. Of course, since everyone was not ordinary, no one lost their balance and fell.
─!
But I could clearly feel it. A powerful and evil will felt somewhere in the damp and unpleasant cave.
“Close your eyes!”
As I shouted to everyone.
Kyaaaak!
A terrifying scream that evoked instinctive revulsion echoed.
I immediately recognized its identity.
A Basilisk.
It was a nightmare bred directly from the Modesta Catacomb.
Leave a Reply