Chapter 428: The Power of the Sun (2)

“...This is the place.”

Yurin Huygar had led Karyl to a dank, gloomy place—utterly unfitting for the clean, orderly city of Heim. The area was all but deserted, likely because reaching it by carriage from the inner city took considerable time.

For some reason, Yurin seemed hesitant to step inside.

Drip... drip...

The sewer, thick with moss and grime, gave off a heavy stench. Stagnant water kept flowing out in steady streams.

“Hmph.”

Karyl scanned his surroundings.

“Normally, priests would be stationed here to maintain the sanctum, but during the purging process ordered by you, Lord Karyl, many of the priests assigned to this place were removed...” Yurin glanced at Karyl, watching his reaction carefully as he spoke.

“I see.”

Surprisingly, Karyl didn’t seem upset or angry about the deplorable condition of the sanctum.

“If anything, this means you’ve been doing your job well.”

“Haha... You flatter me.”

“How long has it been since the Church finished cleaning up the remnants of the Wooden Cloud?”

“It’s been over a month now. In the beginning, there were still many factions that remained loyal to the bishop. Some of the remnants even wanted to resist you, Lord Karyl. We had to operate in secret. I should have handled it more swiftly, but...”

“A month, you say.”

Karyl crouched down and scooped some of the foul, stagnant sludge with his bare hand, lifting it to his nose.

Yurin frowned at the sight.

“Is that a new weird hobby of yours? Why are you smelling that?” Allen Javius sounded bewildered as he watched Karyl examine the sewer water closely.

“Isn’t this too filthy for something that has been sitting here for just a month?”

“...Sorry?”

“This drainage is not even connected to the main buildings in Heim. There are no kitchens nearby, no food being prepared here. Even if it’s been neglected, it shouldn’t be this bad. This almost looks like... food waste.”

The thick sludge slipped slowly between Karyl’s fingers, some of it sticking to his hand.

“Or vomit, perhaps.”

Gulp—

Karyl slowly walked toward Yurin and grabbed his cheek. The stench from the sludge on his palm was almost unbearable, but Yurin could not even think of pulling away.

“You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?”

“I... I don’t know anything. This really is the sanctum used to store sacred relics, and it is true that the priests who managed it were affiliated with the Wooden Cloud and have been eliminated,” Yurin explained, his voice shaky.

“Hmph...” Karyl narrowed his eyes slightly. “Did you notice anything strange about them?”

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

“S-Strange...? Like what...?”

“What about the priests who followed them, back when Rael Stallen was killed in the capital? Tell me the truth. Did you really eliminate them yourself?”

Yurin opened his mouth, but no words came out.

“Or did they kill themselves?”

“H-How did you...”

“I knew it.”

Karyl didn’t seem the least bit surprised.

“They were growing Black Spores in a hidden location deep within the Blood Cave. It’s a demonic fruit with powerful hallucinogenic properties. The ones stationed here were likely high-ranking members of the Wooden Cloud. Either they were carrying the fruit, or they had been consuming it for years.”

“Hallucinations...?”

“They were trying to turn the Church into a cult. In some ways, the Wooden Cloud was even more consumed by faith than the Church itself. So much so that they didn’t fear death.”

Yurin listened with a tense expression.

“On the other hand, the reason I entrusted you with the Church is that, despite being a priest, you were already working with the empire. You don’t strike me as a zealot, so I thought you wouldn’t be swayed by the Wooden Cloud. So far, you’ve managed not to break that trust.”

“Ha... Haha...” Yurin laughed nervously.

“Still, I do not believe for a moment that the Wooden Cloud is finished just because Rael Stallen is gone. I’m using Hagane to smoke out the rest of them, but it won’t be easy.”

Yurin was taken aback by how casually Karyl spoke of collaborating with the Demon King himself—not that he could argue or complain.

“Did you inspect this place yourself?”

“Well...”

“I see you did not. What’s the matter, priest? Is the Madman actually scared? Were their suicides that horrific?”

“...I apologize.”

Karyl raised an eyebrow. He had only asked on a whim, but Yurin’s serious demeanor was unexpected.

Clang—!

Karyl stepped past the sludge-spewing sewer and drew his sword, slicing through the chain that locked the sanctum door.

Boom—!

With a sharp kick, the heavy stone door split open, and a cloud of smoke drifted out from within.

“Well, fine. At most, this is just a vault where sacred relics are kept. What I find strange is that someone like you, someone who has always craved power, has reached one of the highest ranks in the Church, and yet never even bothered to take a look at the relics in here. The Yurin Huygar I know would’ve been eyeing this place the moment he ascended to the position.”

Karyl narrowed his eyes. “Why didn’t you inspect the sanctum? There must have been something that held you back.”

Ramine’s flame emerged from Karyl’s Ein Trigger, dispersing the oppressive darkness and revealing a staircase that led underground. The sanctum now seemed much larger.

“Tell me about their deaths,” Karyl said as he began walking inside.

“There were just... so many of them. I don’t even know where to start...”

“Start with the bishop, obviously. The rest are just branches growing off the same tree.”

“Rael... You mean her?” Yurin Huygar asked cautiously, but Karyl simply shot him a cold, disappointed look.

“No, the previous bishop. You remember him, don’t you? When I first met you in Heim, the bishop was someone else, but by the time I advanced to the capital, Rael had already taken the position.”

“...Right.”

“So how did that one die?”

“Well...”

Before Yurin could answer, a low growl echoed from below.

Krrrrgh...

“Hah... Are you sure this is where the Church keeps its sacred relics?”

Karyl kept going, seemingly unbothered by the ominous growl, as if he had expected something of the sort.

“Tell me what happened back then. I want to hear about the things that went on inside the Church, things I wasn’t aware of. Like how a servant girl like Rael managed to seize control of the whole Church.”

Back then, when the Church handed the Grimoire of Nightmares over to Nine Darhon, it was Rael who transported it. At the time, there was still another bishop above her, meaning she had not yet been the head of the Church.

When the Ten of us visited the Church to receive Yula’s message, Rael wasn’t the bishop.

In his previous life, the bishop hadn’t died, and that alone confirmed that something had shifted dramatically in this life—the path they had walked before had strayed in a different direction.

Before, the Platinum Dragon intended to make Rael the leader of that sect. That’s why he kept the Church and the Blue Roar separate.

Indeed, the Church and the Blue Roar had operated independently. In hindsight, that separation was the reason the Platinum Dragon had managed to execute his plans both inside and outside the Church.

But this time, he made Rael a bishop, even before the Oracle had been prophesied. There must have been a reason he felt like he had no other choice.

The most obvious reason was Karyl himself, but that didn’t provide much of an answer. After all, Karyl had altered his current life so much that there was no way to tell what exactly had made the Platinum Dragon change his mind.

At first, I thought Narh Di Maug made Rael the bishop to test the limits of Divine Power in human hands. But now that I think about it, there was no real need to kill the previous bishop and merge the Church with Blue Roar. She would’ve had more freedom operating solely as the leader of the sect.

~

“...Salvation!”

The priests surrounding Rael suddenly clutched their heads, screaming in agony.

“Tarak...?”

Allen frowned in distaste as he watched the scene unfold.

Squelch—

Crushed beneath the dragon’s paw, Rael burst like a balloon. All that remained of her was a crimson splatter on the floor.

“Foolish woman...”

Narh Di Maug’s sneer rang out through the chaos.

~

Karyl replayed that scene in his mind as he descended deeper into the darkness.

No doubt about it...

The Platinum Dragon had ended Rael's life without the slightest hesitation, right as she was about to invoke the power of Tarak.

She died far too easily.

Half-elf, half-human, Rael had been part of the Platinum Dragon’s experiments. Whether she was born of a union between human and elf, or created by the dragon himself, remained unclear.

In any case, what mattered was that she could wield the power of Tarak. At the time, the Platinum Dragon had hastily killed Rael to prevent Yula from witnessing her use that power. The reasoning was sound, but the dragon’s urgency was what struck Karyl as strange.

He had even wondered if Rael had merely been a placeholder. If another substitute was waiting in the wings, then killing her alone wouldn’t have stopped the rise of the cult.

If that was true, fighting Narh Di Maug to the death right there, in the capital, had been the right choice.

Still, Karyl couldn’t assume that any replacements, if they truly existed, were gone just because the Platinum Dragon himself was gone.

“It was a rebellion.”

“Hmm...?”

“I know it sounds blasphemous to describe something that happened inside the Church that way... but that’s how it looked to me.”

Yurin snapped Karyl out of his thoughts.

“Go on.”

“It was before the empire deployed its forces. The Church, at least on the surface, was supposed to remain neutral, but everyone knew that the former bishop, Lord Remiel Zur, was aligned with the empire.”

“So?”

“On the day the priests gathered to offer support to the empire, a girl appeared.”

“Rael, I presume,” Allen remarked, a trace of amusement in his voice.

“Ah...!”

“Keep going,” Karyl urged without looking away.

“Y-Yes... So... the moment that girl arrived in Heim, something unbelievable happened.”

Yurin let out a wary sigh before continuing, “The priests who had been gathered for battle suddenly began proclaiming her as a saint. In hindsight... when you mentioned that those who consumed the demonic fruit experienced hallucinations, Lord Karyl, I began to wonder if they had already eaten them by then.”

“Hmm...”

“Karyl, remember when we searched for the Platinum Dragon’s lair in the Promised Land?” asked Allen, his voice radiating an eerie energie.

“Th-The forbidden land...? You mean the dragon’s holy grounds...”

Yurin’s eyes widened, stunned that Karyl had actually trespassed onto the dragon’s domain.

“You remember that the lair was empty when we got there, right?”

“Of course, but the mess left behind showed exactly what kind of messed up things he’d been up to. There was evidence of human experimentation scattered all over the place.”

Gulp—

Yurin realized the conversation was reaching a level well above him.

“I’m starting to think this vault might not be the kind of place where you casually grab a few treasures and walk out.”

“Why?”

“Dragons are prideful and arrogant creatures. They always mark their territory. That is how they preserve their sense of dignity.”

“...”

“And yet that lair was abandoned.”

“Why are you only bringing this up now?” Karyl narrowed his eyes slightly.

“I needed confirmation. The Platinum Dragon is unlike any other dragon. He tried to deceive a god to attain divinity himself. Knowing that, I figured a lair was too trivial for him.”

“And now?”

Allen slowly turned his head.

“You’re thinking it too.”

His shadowy visage shifted into something like a grin.

“The wastewater flowing through the sewer. You examined it like you were possessed. You sensed Tarak in it, did you not? And those scraps flowing through the sewer? You yourself said it looked like food waste.”

“Hmph.”

The corner of Karyl’s mouth rose slightly.

It wasn’t long before they reached the final door of the sanctum.

“The power of the sun is the power of purification. And yet... I can feel the presence of Tarak behind that door. You know exactly what that means.”

Karyl slowly approached the door and reached for the handle.

“There’s something alive in there.”

Creeeak...

The creak of the door was almost like a ghostly wail.

“This might just be the new lair the Platinum Dragon created after abandoning the Promised Land.”