Chapter 17: The Heretics
A middle-aged knight with a scarred face gently pushed open the door to the study. Bowing his head respectfully, he entered the room.
"Your Highness Princess, all those magicians have taken their own lives." The knight bowed deeply, speaking solemnly, "There was nothing on them to indicate their identities."
Princess Helen, still elegant and graceful, was surrounded by mountains of documents - information left to her by Emperor Jupiter about all the ambitious figures he had detected. She put down the document in her hand, nodded indifferently, then glanced at the knight and said lightly, "What about the Shadow Hand? Have them imprison the souls of those magicians for further interrogation!"
"They bore the mark of the cross. Their souls had already escaped at the time of their death." The knight raised his head and handed a parchment scroll to Princess Helen.
"Hmm?" Hearing this, Princess Helen's delicate brows furrowed together, troubled by the fact that their enemies seemed prepared for death. What puzzled her more was the idea that noble spellcasters could so easily disregard their lives - it seemed like something more than just noble pride could achieve. Only one thing in this world could make a spellcaster indifferent to their own life - religious belief. This was definitely not good news for the entire continent.
Princess Helen picked up her quill again, her elegant writing spelling out a few simple sentences on the white parchment, all pointing to one word at the bottom - Heretics!
"Immediately take this to the Archbishop! Summon the court magicians to disperse the clouds, have the elemental mages destroy the downstream dam to open the river channel! Command the Griffin Knights to patrol all towns and villages within the capital's vicinity, and report any abnormalities to me directly."
Princess Helen massaged her forehead, her beautiful face showing uncontrollable signs of fatigue. If there were indeed heretics involved, then the problems left to her by Emperor Jupiter were indeed not minor.
"Yes!" The knight took the document but hesitated before leaving. He looked up at Princess Helen and carefully said, "His Majesty wishes for you to visit him today."
"Hmm?"
As soon as the knight spoke, Princess Helen's expression turned cold. She raised her head, and her sharp gaze made the battle-hardened knight feel a hint of fear. He lowered his head, avoiding her piercing eyes.
"Hmph! Can't wait any longer, can he? Is he in a hurry to repent for his sins in hell? If so, why did he strangle his own brother in the first place?" Princess Helen's chest heaved rapidly with anger and hatred.
She coldly stared at the knight, her voice tinged with scorn: "Since he's already undead, why does he care about the passage of time?"
"Your Highness Princess."
"Get out!" Princess Helen's beautiful face was now as cold and deadly as ice.
The knight took one last deep look at Princess Helen and then turned to leave. This was the first time he had seen the always dignified Princess Helen lose her composure, now resembling a woman blinded by fury and hatred.
The door closed softly behind him.
Princess Helen slumped into her chair, her arms wrapped around herself, curling up like a wounded cat. No one knew how much she hated power, which had forced her to watch her two brothers, the relatives she cherished the most, slaughter each other!
The morning breeze awakened the sleeping people.
The next day, just as the middle-aged nun had said, the torrential rain quickly ceased, and the clouds were dispersed. After more than a week, the sun reappeared in the sky. The floodwater receded rapidly, bringing smiles of joy to people's faces.
Felix learned from the locals that the court magicians had forcibly opened the river channel, blasting a kilometer-long, tens-of-meters-wide channel connecting the Titanian River to the sea with magic. Felix doubted this rumor, as the information he later received indicated that the court magicians used elemental magic to turn the soil into marshland, then, with the help of the army, dug a canal about three hundred meters long and ten meters wide. The roads after the flood were extremely muddy and littered with debris. The entire capital faced a major cleanup.
Felix's private residence, being situated higher up, was unaffected. Saint Erde Cathedral stood a full hundred meters higher than the lower areas of the capital.
On the journey to Deathbell Town, there were four individuals: Felix, the middle-aged nun, and two female knights who had been transformed by the death knight Reinhardt.
As they left the city gates, they encountered a small problem. Due to prolonged soaking by the river, the gears of the city gate had rusted. The gate got stuck halfway, and despite the guards' best efforts, it wouldn't budge, causing a growing crowd at the gate.
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Finally, a spellcaster with a royal mage's badge lost patience. He hurled two "Bursting Flames" spells at the chains. The chains snapped, and the gate crashed down with a thunderous sound, shaking the ground. The spellcaster who had broken the chains galloped out first, followed swiftly by the others.
The roads flooded by the waters were more challenging than Felix had anticipated. In this era, most roads were just covered with sand and stones. The floodwaters had washed away the sand and left behind a muddy mess. There were still puddles in the middle of the road, and the horses risked slipping if they ran too fast. As a result, the group had to slow down.
Things improved slightly when they reached the main roads, which were not flooded. However, a new issue arose quickly – the raging waters had nearly destroyed all the bridges! Except for a few crucial bridges in the capital that were hastily repaired, most others were left with just broken stumps. The bridge-building technology of this era could not withstand the force of the flood, forcing Felix and his companions to constantly change their route.
For rivers less than fifteen meters wide, the group used their ice powers to freeze a path across the river. For rivers wider than twenty meters, they had to find alternative routes, as their powers were not yet strong enough to freeze the main river channels.
The damage from the flood was far greater than they had anticipated. They saw numerous refugees in the towns, homeless, without food or clothing. If food and clothing were not provided soon, these people might become desperate and turn into violent mobs – that's when the real chaos would begin.
Deathbell Town, located north of the Maya Mountains, was about three hundred miles from the capital. Under normal conditions, the journey would take half a day, but now, with the roads muddy and difficult, their progress was severely hindered.
They only reached the signpost for Deathbell Town by evening. The situation was as bad as it could be, as Felix detected a nauseating stench of decay. As they ventured deeper, the stench grew stronger. On the highlands outside the town, they saw graves dug open from the inside out! There were no refugees turned into undead roaming around, suggesting that the heretics had taken control of the resurrected undead.
The air was filled with an odd smell, characteristic of plague-spreading curse witches. They used parts from dead creatures to concoct plagues.
"It's the heretics from the Eastern Orthodox Diocese!" The middle-aged nun's face was cold, her expression filled with deep intent to kill.
She glanced past Felix and said coldly, "Those curse witches always love to spread plagues everywhere, working hand in hand with the necromancers! One collects souls, the other collects bodies."
"Souls?" Felix furrowed his brow, aware that few entities in the material world could threaten the soul. He knew little about curse witches.
"They offer the souls of those who die from the plague to the god of pestilence, in exchange for life and power!" Perhaps because of the formidable enemy they faced, the middle-aged nun unusually explained a lot to Felix.
"The god of pestilence!" Felix's face showed a hint of horror. He remembered the temple of the pestilence goddess he had passed once, a nightmarish experience for him. He turned, his voice trembling slightly, "Are they followers of the pestilence goddess?"
"No. The pestilence goddess has been a deity since ancient times!" The nun looked at Felix with some confusion, as if she had detected a hint of fear in his voice. But she had no time to speculate on Felix's fears. She shook her head, explaining, "The god of pestilence they worship is a malevolent spirit that luckily obtained a fragment of divinity. It has descended to the material plane three times to spread plagues, hoping to gain belief through fear, just like the pestilence goddess."
The nun seemed to remember something. She pulled out a book from her bag and handed it to Felix, saying, "This book contains records about the heretics' deity, 'The Bible - Old Testament'."
She had just remembered that Felix, previously being a low-ranking arbitrator, was not eligible to access 'The Bible - Old Testament.'
"The Bible - Old Testament?" Felix took the book from the nun, examining the legendary text. The Old Testament of The Bible was one of the three main components of 'Revelations,' not something a low-ranking arbitrator like Felix was entitled to.
It was an ancient-looking, thick, black leather-bound book. The term 'The Bible - Old Testament' came into use after the creation of 'The Bible - New Testament.' Before that, there was only one 'The Bible - Old Testament.'
Such a valuable item! It contained most of the divine magic from the Church's golden age, even hidden incantations for invoking godly descent and angelic summoning!
Felix didn't want to let go of the book and shamelessly pocketed 'The Bible - Old Testament.'
"You, you, you..." The nun finally realized something was amiss as Felix nonchalantly put the book into his pocket. Her cold face showed disbelief, staring dumbfounded.
"I'll study it for a couple of days," Felix said, feeling a bit hypocritical himself.
But regardless of hypocrisy or thick skin, Felix had no intention of returning the book. There couldn't be more than 10 original copies of 'The Bible - Old Testament' left, given the years and losses. Missing this opportunity, he didn't know when he'd have another chance to study it.
As one of the three components of 'Revelations,' the original 'The Bible - Old Testament' was as valuable as a lesser artifact. Who would return a lesser artifact they got their hands on? Certainly not!
And neither would Felix. Now somewhat a figurehead Black Robed Governor of the Dark Judgment Division, he didn't believe the nun would fight him over "borrowing" something, especially since he had verbally promised to return it.
The nun stared at Felix for a long time. If not for him being the Notre Dame Cathedral council-appointed Black Robed Governor, her immediate superior, she would have struck him with her sword long ago!
For the sake of acquiring the original 'The Bible - Old Testament,' Felix didn't care about losing face. He managed a forced, amiable smile and stayed silent, letting the nun glare at him.
After a long stare, the nun finally understood that it was impossible to retrieve 'The Bible - Old Testament' from Felix. She glared at him hatefully, then spurred her horse towards Deathbell Town. Her two knight followers also looked at Felix disdainfully before galloping away.
Once they were out of sight, Felix's smile faded. A wisp of black mist appeared in his hand, gradually spreading and then completely vanishing. A strange mental connection formed in Felix's mind.
Calling upon his ogre battle servant, Felix whipped his horse and followed the direction the nun had gone.
If everything the nun had said was true, Felix sensed they might ultimately face an incarnation of a lesser deity!