Chapter 955

Siegfried and Oscar arrived at the headquarters of the Continent Religious Council and immediately convened an emergency meeting.

The religious leaders of every major order hurried to the council’s headquarters without delay after being summoned by Siegfried himself.

It was an established fact that Siegfried van Proa was the Savior foretold in the prophecy. Thus, it was only natural for them to drop everything and rush over with someone of his stature calling for an emergency meeting.

“What is the matter, Your Majesty?”

“Did something urgent occur?”

The moment they arrived in the conference hall, the religious leaders started murmuring among themselves, unable to contain their curiosity.

However, Siegfried remained silent. His eyes were closed as he sat completely still.

“

Hmm?

”

“King Siegfried?”

The religious leaders exchanged glances with each other, growing increasingly uneasy. More than thirty minutes had passed since they gathered, but Siegfried had not spoken a single word yet.

‘

What could he be thinking?’

‘Hmm... I can’t read him at all...’

Just as their frustration reached its peak...

“Before we begin,” Siegfried finally spoke. Then, he commanded, “Lock the doors, Dame Oscar.”

“As you command, sire,” Oscar replied with a bow before securing the conference hall’s doors.

Saintess Janette was the first to speak after that.

“May we know the reason for Your Majesty’s sudden action?” she asked.

“Certainly,” Siegfried met her gaze and replied. Then, he looked at the other religious leaders and continued, “I have obtained a crucial piece of information. To be precise, I have uncovered the secret behind the invasion of the angels.”

“A-Are you certain?” Saintess Janette stammered with her eyes widened in shock.

“Yes, I am. I now understand how the angels managed to cross over into our world,” Siegfried replied with a nod.

“Oh my god...”

“But what I discovered was...” Siegfried trailed his words as he slowly reached into his inventory, taking out his weapon, the +16 Vanquisher’s grasp. Then, he placed the weapon on his shoulder and continued, “...was something far more outrageous than I expected.”

“W-What do you mean by that, Your Majesty?”

“There is an organization called the Illuminati. They are a secret order that has been operating in the shadows since the Holy War, a group consisting of devout followers of the One True God, the Creator. In other words, they are those aiding the angels in their invasion of our world.”

“I never imagined there would be such an organization...”

Siegfried rose from his seat and said, “And they are... hiding among us.”

It was then.

“...!”

The color drained from the faces of the religious leaders. There was nothing more terrifying than discovering that the enemy was already within their ranks, hiding among their own people.

“By that, do you mean to say that the Illuminati members are here, in this very hall among us?” Saintess Janette asked.

“Well, that, I have no idea,” Siegfried replied with a shrug. Then, he added, “Which is why I intend to find out by interrogating everyone. And I will be starting with the people present in this room.

“You mean to say... you are going to root out the traitors now?”

“Precisely,” Siegfried replied with a nod. Then, he turned and called out, “Dame Oscar.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” Oscar replied with a salute.

“Find the rats.”

“As you command, sire!”

With that, Oscar drew her sword, the Sword of Truth: Fragarach.

Then, one by one, she pressed the sword against the throats of each religious leader in an attempt to root out the rats.

‘

Will there really be one in here?’

Siegfried wondered while quietly observing the process.

The people gathered here were the highest-ranking figures of their respective religious orders, and they were either the leaders themselves or those second-in-command.

If one of them turned out to be a member of the Illuminati, then the situation was far worse than he initially feared.

After all, if the enemy had already infiltrated the leadership of a religious order, then it meant that the order was already rotten to the core.

‘

Please... Don’t let there be one, not here, at least...’

Siegfried silently prayed that no traitors would be found.

Unable to do anything else aside from waiting, he watched the investigation unfold in tense anticipation.

***

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

“Are you a member of the Illuminati?” Oscar asked.

Then, the High Priest of the Church of Martial God roared in outrage, “Absolutely not! I serve only the Martial God Ares! I am no despicable traitor who would sell this world to the angels!”

“Understood.”

Oscar continued his investigation, pressing the Sword of Truth: Fragarach to the throats of each religious leader.

And then—

“Are you a member of the Illuminati?”

Oscar asked the High Priest of the Church of Wisdom, devoted to the Goddess Minerva.

But this time...

“...”

Pallas, the High Priestess of the Church of Wisdom, remained silent.

“High Priest Pallas. Are you a member of the Illuminati?” Oscar pressed.

However, there was still no response.

“Answer me, High Priestess Pallas. Are you a member of the Illuminati?”

Oscar asked three times, and the high priest answered with silence.

“What is the meaning of this?!”

“Answer the question already!”

The other religious leaders grew restless; their voices rose in frustration, and the High Priest of the Church of Martial God was particularly agitated.

“I knew it! You filthy bitch! You were the rat all along!”

The hostility between the Church of Martial God and the Church of Wisdom was no secret. The two factions were constantly at odds, always looking for an opportunity to undermine the other.

And now, the High Priest of the Church of Martial God seized the moment to put pressure on Pallas.

“I will ask one last time,” Oscar declared icily.

All eyes in the hall turned to her.

“Are you—”

“

Ah!”

Pallas convulsed violently, foaming at the mouth before collapsing to the ground.

She trembled uncontrollably as if she was suffering a seizure.

“Damn it!” Siegfried cursed and jumped from his seat, rushing toward the high priest.

However, Saintess Janette was faster.

Wooong!

She channeled divine power into her hands and attempted to heal Pallas, but it was already too late.

“...”

Pallas had died before Saintess Janette’s healing powers could take effect.

“It seems... she ingested poison...” Saintess Janette said, pointing to Pallas’ lips, which had taken on a shade of blue. Then, she observed the lips closely and added, “A poison capable of killing someone this quickly is an incredibly potent one...”

“Damn it!” Siegfried roared in frustration before kicking the dead high priest’s corpse. Then, he glared at the remaining religious leaders and growled, “No one moves. If anyone so much as flinches, I’ll assume you’re another rat and bash your heads open.”

After threatening the entire hall, Siegfried commanded Oscar to continue.

The interrogation continued, and—

“I have finished interrogating everyone, sire,” Oscar said with a bow.

Thankfully, there were no more

rats

within the Continent Religious Council.

However, the atmosphere in the hall remained grim.

“See?! I’ve been saying it for years! The Church of Wisdom cannot be trusted!”

The High Priest of the Church of Martial God seized the moment and made a public spectacle of his adversary. Aside from him, the other religious leaders were still stunned by both shock and dismay.

“How could this be...?”

“

Ha!

Unbelievable! How could something like this happen?!”

“What do we do now...?”

It was a natural reaction.

Just thinking about the amount of information that Pallas had leaked to the Illuminati was enough to send chills down their spines.

Pallas was present when some of the most crucial information was revealed, such as the fact that Siegfried was the prophesied Savior. The fact that the former Chief Archangel, Michael, was the Star and that he was searching for his lost wings was also compromised.

Catching one rat was not a cause for celebration. If a high priest of a religious order was part of the Illuminati, then it meant that the situation was far worse than anyone could even imagine.

Which other religious orders were compromised by members of the Illuminati? Where were they hiding right now? How deeply had the corruption spread? How could they possibly root them all out?

‘

I’m certain that those rats are already present in every religious order on the continent...’

Siegfried thought.

To make things even more complicated, there was no way to find them all. Nobody knew their numbers, where they were hiding, and who they were.

‘

How do you even search every religious order on the continent?’

Siegfried grumbled inwardly.

It was basically impossible to root out the Illuminati members.

How were they supposed to interrogate hundreds of thousands of clergy members from various religious orders?

Only Oscar possessed the ability to determine whether a person was a member of the Illuminati or not. However, by the time she had questioned every clergy member, the rats would have long gone into hiding.

However...

‘

No, we don’t have to catch all of the rats. We just need to catch a few big ones and extract information from them. Finding all of them is not as important as getting vital information about their organization. If we strike quickly, we might get lucky and catch a few big rats,’

Siegfried thought as he clenched his fists.

He decided to catch a few big rats like Pallas, alive, and extract the information they needed from them.

After all, he couldn’t afford to just sit around and do nothing just because there were too many rats out there.

“May I have your attention, please?”

Siegfried stepped forward and addressed the religious leaders.

“I am planning to raid the Church of Wisdom. Does anyone object?”

As obvious as it was, nobody voiced any objection to what Siegfried said.

“We should go there and arrest everyone!”

“Let’s go!”

Every religious leader fully supported his decision.

“Good. Let us go.”

With the full support of the religious orders, Siegfried decided to raid the Church of Wisdom.

‘

Just you wait,’

he thought as his lips curled into a cold smirk.

For too long, he was on the receiving end of the angels’ attacks. This time, it was his turn to strike back.

***

Siegfried led the paladins of the Church of Heroes and raided the Church of Wisdom.

The reason was simple.

Mobilizing forces from each religious order to invade the Church of Wisdom would have been too risky. There was a high chance that the members of the Illuminati lurking in each religious order would realize what was going on and go into hiding, escape, or even launch a counterattack on the Continent Religious Council.

Thus, it was far safer to deploy the Adventurers instead, which would ensure the whole operation was kept under wraps.

The raid on the Church of Wisdom began.

“It’s fine if they end up with a few broken bones or fractures, but make sure you don’t kill them. Subdue every last one of them and catch them alive,” Siegfried commanded.

Two thousand Adventurers consisting of both the Head Crusher Guild members and the Church of Heroes paladins raided the Church of Wisdom.

“Let’s go, boys!”

“Time to turn this place upside down!”

“

Ack!

W-What is the meaning of this?!”

“

Gah!”

“A-An attack! We’re under attack!”

“Adventurers are raiding us!”

The Church of Wisdom was thrown into utter chaos.

“How dare you?!”

“Do you even know where you are right now?!”

“Such blasphemy!”

The paladins of the Church of Wisdom rushed out in a desperate attempt to defend against the raid, but it was to no avail.

Being caught completely off guard by two thousand high-level Adventurers already put them at a huge disadvantage, but the fact that Siegfried, the Lord of Despair, was one of their enemies made things far worse for the Church of Wisdom.

Before the raid even began, the Church of Wisdom already stood no chance...

Thus, Siegfried and his comrades swiftly subdued the entire Church of Wisdom.

One hour later...

“We’ve captured all of the high-ranking priests, hyung-nim,” Seung-Gu reported.

“Did you make sure to gag them properly?” Siegfried asked.

“Yup, we did.”

“Make sure they’re gagged properly. These bastards will swallow poison and kill themselves without a second thought.”

“Don’t worry about it, hyung-nim. I made sure to check every single one of them!”

“Good work.”

“Shall we?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Following Seung-Gu’s lead, Siegfried stepped into the temple of the Church of Wisdom.

“

Mmph! Mmpph! Mmph!”

“Nngh! Mmph!”

Mmph! Mmmph! Mmph!”

The high-ranking priests of the Church of Wisdom were bound and gagged at the center of the temple.

“Dame Oscar.”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Find the rats. This time, make sure they’re alive.”

“As you command, sire!”

At Siegfried’s command, Oscar immediately began interrogating the high-ranking priests using her Sword of Truth: Fragarach.

And then...

“Are you a member of the Illuminati?”

“Yes, I am a member of the Illumi—wait, what?!”

One of the high-ranking priests admitted to being a member of the Illuminati upon getting compelled by the power of the Sword of Truth: Fragarach.

‘

Good. Got him,’

Siegfried thought with a smirk while watching the confession unfold.