Chapter 77.3

The old black magician who continued the ceremony in front of the altar felt its power. Due to the absence of the carnelian crystal that was supposed to suppress the World Tree’s power and ensure the stability of the ceremony a great deal of power was being consumed.

The old man had even used his men’s mana and soul as a sacrifice to forcefully start the ceremony. But now was the limit. It was self-evident that the ceremony would fail at this rate.

He then sensed the footsteps coming from behind.

Is it the black magicians waiting outside?

No. It was obvious that if it were the black magicians, they would have felt the mighty power coming out of the altar and not approached it. If so, the sound of the approaching footsteps meant that the paladins had arrived.

The old man bit his lips. He didn’t even know when they had charged in because he was too engrossed in the ceremony. However, reaching this far was no different from saying that they had dealt with all the black magicians outside. It was obvious that he would fail at this rate.

The old man got rid of his nervousness and let go of the control of the ceremony.

"Glory to the great person."

The old man sacrificed himself to make the ceremony a success. The mana of the altar greedily tied up the body of the old man eventually swallowing him.

The altar began to emit black light.

-o-

"Get down!" Leisha exclaimed as she suddenly felt the mana wave intensify.

Lancelot and Mac crouched.

Leisha quickly conjured up a spell so that they wouldn’t be blown away by the mana waves. She let out a coarse breath after enduring a few minutes of violent waves.

"Huha!"

The perspiring Leisha ran to the source of the mana wave without even taking a break to wipe off the sweat. Feeling nervous and tense from the unknown ominous mana, she prepared herself.

In the room deep inside the temple, there were the bodies of the black magicians, an altar, and an old man.

The old man stood dazed at the altar. Then his head turned in the opposite direction of his body and looked at them.

Seeing the old man’s head turn at an impossible angle, they realized that he was no longer a human but something that was in the shape of a human.

At that moment, Mac quickly wielded his sword and shot a sword aura towards the monster in the form of an old man. It was the result of instinctual discomfort and rational judgment that the monster needed to be eliminated immediately.

The monster raised his hand and tried to stop the sword aura by shooting out black mana, but the arm was cut off before it could conjure up the black mana.

- Akniatkyu Yiseokyi. (Is this a body?)

The monster shook its truncated arm in a strange manner while making an incomprehensible sound as if the sound was being played in reverse. Then the black mana wrapped around its severed arm and turned towards the truncated arm. And in an instant, the severed arm clung back to its shoulder.

Then the monster looked at Leisha.

- Ahnookssi ohkyiak reungukryuk yigohok. (You have the carnelian crystal.)

At the same time as the sound, the monster gave off a grotesque laugh.

- Ahtssuhssi ootreuduh reunitgyu. Ahdnatah mak akehun. ( I’m thankful to you. I was able to gain a body because of you.)

Leisha didn’t know what it was saying, but feeling goosebumps from it, she poured a lot of mana into attacking it.

- Apnuap anah reugitaht uinakni. Ahknigitap uiahtniahtmak yiseokyi. (Is this how humans respond to thanks? I’m learning something about human common sense.)

Despite Leisha’s attack, the monster’s body quickly regenerated.

Mana exhaustion made Leisha’s body tremble. She felt like she was going to faint immediately, but she still closely observed the monster’s regeneration.

"The altar...! Ugh! Ha-ah-ha-ah. The monster’s mana is coming from that altar!"

As Leisha pointed to the altar with a trembling hand, without a word, Mac immediately rushed at the monster. Lancelot followed.

The monster shouted as he saw Lancelot swinging his sword wrapped in sword aura towards the altar.

- Yanyissik neutoom! (What do you think you’re doing?!)

The monster ignored Mac slicing its body and tried to attack Lancelot. However, due to its physique, it could not chase after Lancelot as it kept having to regenerate from being repeatedly cut apart by Mac.

When Lancelot hit the altar without mercy with his sword aura, it cracked and began to break.

- Utbuh neunoot reugut eckhurri! Ehtninit kyu the ekhutt! Whetna! (No! I just gained a body! I can’t die like this!)

Mac thrust his sword into its head. The monster wildly shot out mana in every direction to get rid of him.

"Hurry!"

Sensing Mac’s urgency, Lancelot smashed the altar with even greater strength.

Mac flew toward the wall from the monster’s mana. Recovering from Mac’s cut, it attacked Lancelot.

Kang!

As the monster was about to strike Lancelot, the altar was completely broken and the black light that was emitting from the magic circle on the altar began to fade. At the same time, the body of the monster began to turn to dust from the tip of its body, and the unmatched ominous mana scattered.

- Leseok lesanna neunyitgut ehkurri ohtohssuhbuh namnitgyu. Ehtnineup reussehnwuh reuni gyuuhjeul... (I just wanted a body. I wouldn’t have died like this if I didn’t have a body...)

When the monster disappeared completely, Lancelot collapsed on the spot after seeing its attack that had reached as close as his nose.

"Hua! That was scary." Lancelot wanted to cry right away from relief and fear.

After seeing the monster disappear, Leisha finally fainted after barely holding on to her consciousness.

"Oof!"

Mac was flung with force enough to smash the walls of the temple, which had been supported by the power of the World Tree. Nevertheless, he ran over quickly and caught Leisha’s body as it fell down.

"Aigo, my body is aching all over."

Mac slowly put Leisha on the floor and tried to move his body. He felt he had about three broken ribs.

Mac, whose ribs had not broken just once or twice, naturally tried to take the Mirpa Special medicine out of the pocket on the belt.

"Oh no. Lancelot, I think you should carry her on your back."

The impact from flying into the wall broke the bottle containing the medicine.

"I can’t move my legs."

As Lancelot looked at Mac with moist eyes, Mac sighed.

-o-

The paladins had wiped out all the black magicians in the holy ground. They shook off the blood from their swords and resheathed them.

"Thank you, Miss Saintess. Thanks to your support, we were able to wipe them out quickly."

At Mario’s greeting, Hillis smiled with benevolence. "No, it’s all thanks to the strength of the paladins. Rather, I feel that I was insufficient and was just a shackle to you all, so I’m sorry."

That smile, which seemed more sincere and holy than anyone else, seemed to purify his heart.

Mario was convinced of the rumors that the Saintess was kind to everyone and disliked those who were evil. His colleague and lover, Vibrio, always had a troubled smile whenever there was talk regarding Hillis. He assumed that she had that smile because she worried that if she openly boasted about her sister, then she may look foolish.

"But Paladin Mario, how come you are here?" asked Albatoss.

Mario hesitated before he answered, "Actually, I came at the behest of Cardo Fernando."

"His Excellency, Cardinal Fernando?"

"Yes. He obtained information that there might be heretics in the southeast of the empire and told us to come check it out."

Albatoss nodded in response. "I see. Indeed, His Excellency is always at the forefront in punishing heretics."

Inside the temple, Fernando was with the hardliners. He was a devout believer serving as the head of the heresy interrogation department when he was young. If there were rumors about heresy, it was quite understandable that he would send his own paladins.

"But how come Miss Saintess is—”

As Mario tried to ask, there was a sudden fluctuation of ominous mana.

"There must still be some black magicians left!"

Hillis and the paladins quickly headed to the source of the mana in indignation. The said source was inside a temple in the heart of Zaharam. The paladins became more resentful of the fact and went in.

As they entered the room at the deepest part of the temple, they saw the bodies of the black magicians, the broken wall, and the mysterious altar that was destroyed.

"Oh, you’ve arrived? Miss Saintess, I’m sorry, but could you please heal me?"

When Mac raised his hand from in between the black magician corpses, Hillis was shocked and quickly treated him.

"Eya, thank you.”

After his ribs stuck back together in one go, Mac moved his body about. He found no abnormality. It seemed to be even more effective than the Mirpa Recovery Medicine.

Hillis asked after the ominous mana that still lingered in the room, and Mac told the truth.

"The altar was certainly destroyed."

Mario checked the front of the destroyed altar.

After pondering over Mac’s explanation, Hillis spoke, "Could you perhaps come with us to St. Percival? I really want to give you a reward for this.”

Mac stared at Lancelot, the latter naturally shook his head.

"We have to go straight to the capital. We don’t have time to go all the way to Percival."

Mario and his subordinates were about to fume at Lancelot for daring to refuse Hillis’s offer, but Hillis was quick to act.

She approached Lancelot and said, "Who did you say you were looking for in the capital? The capital is very wide. It’s going to be hard for just the three of you. But in our temple, there are so many believers. If I cooperate with you, it wouldn’t be hard to find a single person in the entire empire, let alone just the capital."

Lancelot said without even a moment’s thought, "We will go. St. Percival."

If they could get Hillis’s help in finding Denburg, it may take less time.

In the past, Denburg the wise man told him to use all the things that could be used.

-o-

In the middle of the mountains somewhere, a middle-aged man rode a horse to visit an old mansion that had ivy and vines climbing its walls.

Malecia, the one-eyed man, had been riding for days without even being able to bathe. He tied his horse to a nearby tree and went straight into the mansion.

He entered the mansion without knocking or wiping off his shoes and headed straight to the second floor. He took a deep breath in front of the largest room in the mansion.

Knock, knock!

The door opened on its own.

Inside the room, an old man in a black mask sat still in his chair, looking out the window.

When Malecia entered the room, the door closed by itself. He knelt on one knee on the spot.

"I am sorry. I failed the ’experiment’ you ordered."

The old man in the black mask spoke calmly, "Is that so."

The reaction indicated that everything that happened in the Holy Land Zaharam was good. He wondered if he should ask for the name of the old man, who had commanded him to try and succeed. But the question was truly useless.

"I’ll have to prepare for the next experiment.”

The old man in a black mask got up and picked up the letter lying on the table. The paper had twelve constellations and a picture of a sheep.