How a Reincarnated Warlock Lives – Chapter 131

Chapter 131: The Underground and the Tower (2)

Clang.

A sound that stimulated something instinctive drew everyone’s attention.

A handful of gold coins in the old man’s hand.

Some of them even fell from his hand and rolled on the floor with a clinking sound. The priest hurriedly bent down and fumbled to pick up the large gold coins that had fallen on the floor, but the old man watched him with an indifferent face.

Thud, thud, thud.

Gold coins falling on the stairs at the entrance of the temple, made of smooth marble. Some of the people who were staring blankly at the gold shimmering in the sunlight broke away from the waiting line and hurriedly reached out their hands.

It soon became clear whether they were trying to quickly pick up the gold coins rolling down the stairs and return them to their original owner, or whether they were driven by an instinctive greed at the sight of the valuable platinum coins.

“Gold coins, gold coins!”

“S-Stop! Stop it!”

The surroundings quickly became noisy. The priest, who quickly came to his senses, shouted in vain, but the entrance of the temple became even more chaotic as the gold coins continued to fall from the old man’s hand.

The old man’s hand wasn’t that big. But the gold coins continued to fall. The gold filled both his hands so abundantly that his wrinkled fingers were not visible.

It was as if a large gold coin was springing up from the old man’s hand.

“Th-There. Alright, so just follow me inside─”

The priest, realizing that the old man in front of him was immensely wealthy despite his shabby appearance, said in a flustered voice.

“Get out of the way, get out of the way!”

“You get out of the way! I caught this first!”

As if the gold coins were under some kind of magic, the people who had been waiting in a long, orderly line, each waiting for their turn, were now arguing loudly.

The entrance of the grand temple, leading up to high stairs. People who had turned their gaze away from the beautiful scenery of Mount Calimphus were now pushing each other, looking at the sparkling gold coins on the floor.

At the very front of the waiting line. The old man standing at the entrance of the temple looked down at them with a calm expression from the top of the stairs.

But the old man did not move even at the priest’s words. Rather, he lightly spread open his gathered hands.

Clatter. The gold coins falling to the ground sparkled in the sunlight. It was like a small waterfall of gold.

The old man, who had dropped all the gold coins in his hands to the ground, said in a low voice.

“Who are you looking for.”

“Y-Yes……? Wh-Who─”

Shock and bewilderment. The priest, half out of his mind from the shower of gold coins, saw the old man.

The answer to the question of who he was looking for.

His hand, raised high, was pointing silently towards the sky.

“……?”

The priest’s puzzled expression. That was his last.

Whoosh.

Without any warning, a large flame shot up from the priest’s body.

“U-Uwaaagh─!”

The priest struggled, his whole body burning in pain.

The flames, as if they had a will of their own, quickly spread to those who were scrambling to pick up the gold coins scattered around.

Preoccupied with the numerous gold coins falling from the top of the stairs, the people could not avoid the flames that engulfed them from above.

Melting gold coins and people starting to burn.

“F-Fire!”

“Help me!”

“Get out of the way, get out of the way…… Uwaaagh!”

Soon, terrible screams began to fill the entrance of the temple.

The surroundings turned into a scene of chaos in an instant. The old man, seeing this, chuckled and dusted off his hands.

The old man, who had brushed off all the gold coins from his hands, took out a staff from somewhere.

Thump. He struck the ground with the red staff, which gleamed with a strange luster.

Thump, thump.

The chaotic entrance of the temple. The ominous, repeating thudding sound echoed through the temple floor against the backdrop of the blazing flames.

“What’s going on!”

“Flames, flames!”

Guards rushed out in response to the sudden commotion. Soldiers clad in gleaming armor, who didn’t seem to have much actual combat experience, surrounded the old man.

Although they couldn’t grasp the exact situation, the soldiers raised their spears and swords at the sight of the highly suspicious old man.

“Is this your doing?”

“Reveal your identity!”

The old man, looking at the swords and spears thrust towards his chin, smiled wryly.

“Identity.”

He calmly spoke, watching the soldiers rushing out of the temple entrance, those desperately moving to extinguish the fire, and those surrounding him in layers.

“I can’t lie in front of the sacred temple.”

Wrinkles from his playful smile covered the old man’s face.

“I have many names and identities, but there’s only one you might know. I am─”

A low, whispering voice, as if the old man was telling a story to his grandson at his bedside before he fell asleep.

“The High Priest of the Radechione Catacomb.”

“……!”

As the old man finished his words, a huge tremor shook the ground.

Rumble. The soldiers, sensing something ominous, stepped back, and someone with quick wit shouted.

“Inform the Griffin Tower, quickly!”

Griffin Tower. The home of the Sky Knights, the greatest force of the Grand Temple of Mount Calimphus.

The sight of soldiers running away to deliver the news, or to escape the flames that were slowly rising from the bottom of the stairs.

But the old man didn’t seem to have any intention of chasing them.

Fwoosh!

The bodies of those who dared to point their swords and spears at the High Priest burst into flames as if they were exploding. The old man didn’t even glance at them and raised his staff high once again.

“Pray to God. Who knows?”

He muttered in a low voice.

Boom. At the same time, the old man’s staff fell.

Rumble.

A huge tremor began to erupt from deep within Mount Calimphus.

“Maybe a miracle will happen.”

The tremors shook the surroundings entirely.

Soon, huge fireballs erupted from somewhere, dyeing the sky red, and began to rush towards the grand temple and the towers.

Flames began to rise from the towers, built of stone and glass to reach the sky.

The temple and towers, built with the blood and flesh of countless victims, with wealth amassed through greed, not for the benefit of all, began to burn and crumble.

🔹🔹🔹

A crackling bonfire illuminated the surroundings.

Sparsely placed tree stumps and a small clearing. It was a relatively suitable place to rest in the mountains.

This place was inside the Steel Mountain Range, which divides the territories of the Cravassia Empire and the Church.

We had finished everything here and were on our way back to the Church.

I poured the tea from the makeshift kettle, fixed with twigs over the small fire, into a roughly carved wooden cup and looked up at the sky for a moment.

A faint crescent moon shining between countless stars. The weather was gradually getting colder.

The warm comfort of the bonfire and the fragrant aroma of the tea rising upwards. It was a rather peaceful moment.

“I’m glad it was resolved well.”

Kazan’s voice. He tossed a piece of dry firewood into the bonfire and said with relief, and Marchena snorted and said,

“Well, we didn’t really do anything.”

It might have been a somewhat disappointing journey for her, who had come expecting a fiery battle full of screams and blood.

The opponents were all emaciated necromancers or formless wraiths. And even those, I had mostly dealt with alone.

“Don’t be too disappointed.”

I said, looking at her.

“You’ll experience battles to your heart’s content from now on.”

“……”

She closed her mouth with a somewhat ferocious smile at my words.

We all knew. That the confrontation between the Catacombs and the Church would now begin in earnest.

Anyway, the mission was successfully completed, and we had obtained everything we wanted here.

The fourth legacy, the Bloody Crown, the support of the Empire, and the power derived from a vast number of wraiths.

Of course, the Empire’s reinforcements would take some time as they would depart after all the detailed and tedious agreements with the Sultan were finalized and preparations were made, but the important thing was that we had secured a definite promise.

“……”

I fell into thought for a moment.

The factions of the Church, which had been engaged in meaningless checks and balances with each other, had united. Moreover, the fact that they had swallowed their pride and asked for help from the Empire beyond the mountains was quite significant.

‘Then.’

The remaining Catacombs wouldn’t just sit idly by either. They would likely start moving, with high probability.

The arrogant and haughty Industriousness of the north might not move, but Amadrid and Radechione would definitely be plotting something.

In some form or another.

Perhaps they had already begun their attacks.

Of course, we would be able to find out the details as soon as we arrived in Hesterica. As always, the place that knew the most about the enemy’s movements would be the Inquisition.

“Are we heading straight to Hesterica?”

Marchena’s question. Kazan also raised his head, waiting for my answer.

No matter how adept they were at disguise and concealment, they couldn’t enter the underground of the Inquisition, which was teeming with Inquisitors with keen senses.

Moreover.

They had already clashed with the Chief Inquisitor, Anton Lebecht.

“……”

Marchena uncomfortably touched the long scar on her face. There weren’t many who could leave such a lasting scar on the face of a vampire, whose abilities specialized in regeneration.

“Anton Lebecht, that damn bastard. I’ll have to take his head someday.”

“……”

Anton Lebecht was, in a way, the one who brought me to the Inquisition and taught me the basics of being an Inquisitor, albeit briefly.

Even aside from that, I wasn’t the most appropriate person to be the target of a casual threat to take the head of the Chief Inquisitor.

Well, I didn’t know the exact story, but Inquisitor Lephra, who disliked him as much as Marchena did, might have agreed if she had heard it.

I chuckled, looking at Marchena staring into the air with cold eyes.

“You have no qualms about speaking ill of an Inquisitor.”

Tsk. She clicked her tongue and turned her body away at my words.

Perhaps she had nothing to say in response, or perhaps she was planning to vent her frustration by finding a suitable animal and feeding on its blood.

The next moment.

Against the backdrop of the moonlit night sky, a bat fluttered upwards.

🔹🔹🔹

We didn’t head straight to Hesterica. The first place we headed after crossing the mountains was the Grand Temple of Mount Calimphus.

It wasn’t a necessary stop. If anything, it was just a matter of convenience on our route.

We headed to the Grand Temple to report the success of our mission and to grasp the overall situation of the fight against heresy, but we could see that’situation’even before we ascended the mountain.

“Oh my God.”

The words that came out of Kazan’s mouth, who was usually relatively taciturn. Marchena, who had been looking around with a dumbfounded expression for a while, opened her mouth.

“What in the world…… happened here?”

The entrance of Mount Calimphus, which used to boast beautiful and peaceful scenery, had become completely different while we were away in the Empire.

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