How a Reincarnated Warlock Lives – Chapter 90

Chapter 90: Ruins (2)

The collapse of the tunnels of the Modesta Catacomb, which had spread widely underground. It is presumed that the ruins were revealed as a part of the ground far away collapsed.

In other words, it meant that it hadn’t been long since it was discovered. Perhaps because we rushed to arrive in case others got ahead of us, a proper exploration hadn’t even been conducted yet.

The reason why the Holy See had to hurry was clear. Although it was a ruin related to the Church, the Holy See wasn’t the only place that could claim rights to it.

People often thought of the five Sanctuaries that opposed the seven Catacombs as one force called the”Church,”but that was a somewhat incorrect interpretation.

While it’s true that they serve one god, there were slight conflicts of interest between each group.

A subtle power struggle between Hesterica, one of the five Sanctuaries and a large force centered around the Inquisition, and the Holy See was an example of this.

Thud thud thud thud.

Therefore, the problems that would arise from the somewhat rushed strategy were already somewhat predictable.

“E, Earthquake!”

“Surely the ground isn’t collapsing……?”

A sudden situation without prior warning. I could see the soldiers’ faces filled with bewilderment and fear.

On the other hand, Captain Laiber and the members of the Golden Cross Knights seemed to maintain a certain level of composure.

I glanced at the knights.

The overall level seems pretty decent. Well, the Golden Cross Knights are one of the core forces of the Holy See. No matter how small a part of them came, they’re not to be taken lightly.

“Something is coming.”

“Yes, it’s not just a simple tremor.”

Marchena, who had relatively good eyesight and senses, muttered while looking ahead. I nodded at her words and gripped my sword.

Soon, the cause of the tremors revealed itself from the darkness of the straight passage. More precisely, the causes.

“St, Statues……!”

What appeared from the endless passage were statues. Stone sculptures in the form of knights.

“Guardians protecting the ruins? Wait.”

Knight Captain Laiber, who was muttering with a displeased face, narrowed his eyes as if he had discovered something. He had found something in the appearance of the statues made of solid stone.

“Luciel, could those be……”

Lephra also turned to me and spoke with a dubious expression. I looked at her and nodded.

The statues that were running towards the open space with a thumping sound were sculptures of Holy Knights.

“That style, there’s no mistake. It’s the attire worn by the Holy Knights of the past.”

I could hear Laiber’s low murmur. A hint of hope was visible on his face.

Everyone gathered here were forces of the Church. Even from me, Lephra, the Holy Knights, and a considerable number of personnel, divine power flowed that anyone could recognize.

And this place was a ruin related to the Church. If they were protecting such a place, there was a possibility they wouldn’t attack the Church’s soldiers.

“……!”

However, that expectation was ruthlessly shattered in less than ten seconds. Along with the head of the unfortunate soldier standing at the very front.

Thwack!

The size of the statue was only slightly larger than that of ordinary knights, but the power contained within it was tremendous.

I could see the face of the soldier who was directly hit by the weapon made of solid stone wielded by the statue being crushed.

Along with a fountain of blood, screams erupted from the soldiers at the front.

“Ru, Run!”

“Weapons, Weapons up!”

The Holy Knight statues, having trampled the formation that had become chaotic in an instant, began to rampage with a thumping sound.

As if the fact that those who found this place were members of the Church didn’t matter at all.

Crack!

Some of the entangled soldiers attempted to counterattack, but it had no significant effect.

Breaking a statue made of solid granite with weapons like swords or spears was more difficult than one might think.

While it wasn’t difficult for ordinary soldiers to make scratches, the statues, with their shimmering blue eyes, didn’t stop moving.

“Damn it……”

A curse slipped from Knight Captain Laiber’s mouth. A slight hesitation appeared on his face as he gripped his sword.

I could easily read his thoughts.

Judging from the fact that the faces of the statues were all different and the details of their armor and weapons were so meticulous, this was clearly a sacred work depicting the ancestors of the Church.

Therefore, the Holy Knights of the Holy See, who were loyal to the Church above all else, couldn’t easily raise their swords, even though they were ruthless to others.

And separately from that, it seemed like he had a scheme that if they learned the secret of the ruins, they might be able to get their hands on those powerful statues.

According to the information I heard from the Saintess and through brief conversations, Knight Captain Laiber was a person who valued the relics of the ruins far more than the minor sacrifices of ordinary soldiers.

“Lanth! Do you have any information on those!”

Laiber shouted at someone who appeared to be a priest belonging to the Holy See. The young man who received the shout looked around with a flustered face.

Engraved on the wall were phrases like doctrines. And in the middle, a mural of a holy sword was splendidly drawn. There was nothing else that stood out.

If there had been, they would have found it in the first place.

I chuckled at their frustrating appearance and stepped forward. Past or present, Holy Knights are always the same.

Crack!

The sword I swung drew a diagonal line, instantly smashing the statue’s head. Nevertheless, the statue didn’t stop swinging its weapon. After smashing its head, I swung my sword half a turn, splitting its body in half, and only then did the statue collapse, ceasing its movement.

“Th, Thank you!”

The soldier who barely survived thanks to my intervention expressed his gratitude with a touched face. I nudged the remains of the broken statue with my foot and looked back.

“……”

Knight Captain Laiber was looking at me with a distorted face. I looked at him and spoke nonchalantly.

“Are you going to just stand there blankly and watch? Then why don’t you go out and call for reinforcements instead?”

I could see Laiber and the Holy Knights’ faces flush red at my slightly mocking words. But they couldn’t retort to my words.

Right now, those statues weren’t relics to be obtained, but enemies to be dealt with.

Thud.

I lightly kicked the head of the Holy Knight statue that was rolling on the floor. It was quite heavy as it was made of stone, but my body, strengthened by divine power, could handle the stone lump without difficulty.

“……!”

Laiber’s face showed a slight anger as he saw the head of the Holy Knight sculpture rolling towards him.

But now, he and the Holy Knights had no choice. Standing there foolishly and watching was no different from offering their necks to the enemy.

“……Damn Inquisitor.”

After glaring at me for a moment and muttering a curse, he finally drew his sword. After looking around until the very end, even as the soldiers at the front were dying, he gave an order to the knights in a reluctant voice.

“……Destroy the statues.”

“Attack!”

Along with the loud shout of someone who seemed to be his deputy commander, the Holy Knights began to join the fight in large numbers.

As I expected, once Laiber and the Golden Cross Knights joined the battle, the situation quickly turned around.

Whoosh!

The swords of the Holy Knights, imbued with holy light, were swung sharply. Soon, deafening noises filled the air, and stone dust began to scatter.

Lephra, Jerit, and Marchena had also followed me and were already confronting the statues before the Holy Knights. In the midst of that, I saw one statue break through the front lines and run towards the Saintess with a thumping sound.

“Behind me!”

I quickly blocked the Saintess’ s front and swung my sword.

Crack!

A heavy impact was felt on my wrist, and at the same time, stone dust scattered in all directions.

After cutting off the statue’s weapon in one swift motion, I turned my body half a circle and swung my sword upward diagonally.

My steel sword, imbued with the light emanating from my hand, dug halfway into the statue’s thick body.

Thud. Instead of pulling out the sword, I pushed the statue strongly with my foot, and the half-destroyed, off-balance statue collapsed with a rumble.

“A, Are you alright?”

The Saintess’ s worried voice came from behind. Without looking back at her, I nodded and began to destroy the statues again.

It wasn’t an easy battle.

Not only the heads, but even the statues whose legs had been cut off continued to struggle and swing their heavy arms.

However, it didn’t take long for the situation to be resolved.

Not only me, Lephra, and Marchena, but also Laiber and the Holy Knights were not the kind to be defeated by dull statues that were only hard.

Soon, as the battle ended, the priests hurriedly approached and began to treat the wounded.

“Th, Thanks to you, I survived, Inquisitor-nim.”

Several soldiers approached me and expressed their gratitude. Everyone had clearly seen that I was the first one to step forward to help the soldiers at the front.

“……”

Knight Captain Laiber glared at me for a moment, but he couldn’t openly say anything. There was no hierarchy between Inquisitors and Holy Knights, and the Saintess was also present.

He only spoke briefly with a dissatisfied expression.

“There’s no time to dawdle. It’s close to the entrance, so we’ll leave the wounded and some of the priests here.”

It was a somewhat cold remark, spoken because he didn’t want to see the soldiers thanking me, but the wounded seemed to welcome it.

If the vanguard moved forward, this place, close to the entrance, would be more or less guaranteed to be safe.

The vanguard, having quickly reorganized their ranks, soon began to move towards the straight passage again.

🔹🔹🔹

It’s been an hour since we started moving again. After the battle in the open space, there were no further disturbances.

“It seems like those guardians were all there were. That’s a relief.”

One of the Holy Knights muttered as if relieved, walking along the well-maintained passage.

“……”

Knight Captain Laiber didn’t respond to his words, but he seemed to be thinking the same thing inwardly.

Even though we had been walking along the straight passage for a long time, there were no guardians, let alone the traps or barriers that were common even in low-level ruins.

“This is strange.”

Marchena muttered, furrowing her brow. She, who was walking behind me, spoke in a low voice.

“The guardians at the entrance weren’t shoddily made.”

She glanced around and continued.

“I don’t know how old this ruin is, but the fact that the magic cast on those elaborately crafted statues has been maintained means this ruin is not of ordinary grade.”

It was a valid point. It was something I had been keeping in mind to some extent as well.

“Over, Over there!”

A Holy Knight walking in the vanguard shouted with a voice filled with joy, as if he had discovered something.

“Holy Sword, it’s the Holy Sword!”

“……!”

A sense of relief washed over everyone’s faces upon hearing the Holy Knight’s words.

Although there were no traps in the end, walking for hours through a dark passage where anything could appear was quite nerve-wracking.

Soon, everyone’s gaze fell upon what the Holy Knight was pointing at.

A small pedestal a little distance away. And on top of it, a sword lay quietly.

The identity of the object, which emanated an unusual aura even from afar, was recognizable to everyone present.

The Holy Sword.

“Finally……!”

Joy filled Laiber’s face. As Lephra, who had been looking at him with a skeptical gaze, took a step forward……

Clang!

He drew his sword and shouted.

“Step back, Inquisitor! The Holy Sword belongs to the Holy See!”

With Laiber’s words, the Holy Knights rearranged their formation and turned towards us. At the same time, the expedition was instantly divided in two.

Actually, the expression’divided in two’wasn’t quite accurate. There were only four of us on this side, including me, and the Saintess.

“Sir Laiber! What is the meaning of this!”

Saintess Sophia shouted with a rare look of anger on her face. He replied with a cold expression.

“I also don’t wish for conflict between fellow believers. I’m just preventing any foolish acts. You know, Saintess-nim. What the Holy Sword means to me─”

Of course, Laiber’s words were true. As long as he was sane, he wouldn’t attack us and the Saintess here. His goal was simply to grab the Holy Sword and claim ownership of it.

“……”

I didn’t come here to act as a mere porter without any gain. But the reason I didn’t take any action was simple.

I could clearly see the inscription engraved on the pedestal where the Holy Sword lay, far away.

「Prove your worth」

However, no one else noticed the inscription. It wasn’t because it was written in the ancient sacred language of Behzant, which would be fitting for a ruin.

That short inscription was written in the infernal language of Arkzash, the city of sin engulfed in flames, which had disappeared with the end of the ancient era.

And naturally, I was the only one here who could read it.

“It’s true that I had your help, so I’ll pay you accordingly when we return. So for now, just stand there quietly. This ruin is of my ancestors─”

Rumble.

And as if to prove it, the moment Laiber took a step towards the pedestal where the Holy Sword was located, the ground of the passage we were standing on began to shake.

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