A crow landed on the roof of a building not far from hotel Black Dove.
Its red eyes were staring at the people quietly talking in the dark alley below.
‘Chatta, you need to defeat the demon in your heart. We do not have the time to waste now.’
The inquisition leader was staring at the young inquisitor before him. After being driven out from the Hearthstone Tavern, they’ve returned to the chapel. But, the litany recited by the priests and sisters of the chapel were completely ineffective.
Faced with such vile circumstances, the inquisition leader considered returning to the Holy City and coming back to take care of the demon after they received the choir’s blessings.
Unfortunately, there existed an interval between the opening of Norland’s teleportation gates. The next opening of the teleportation gate toward Norland’s neighboring country would be a week later.
Before then, they could only proceed to kill that demon while braving the risk of an inquisitor losing control of himself.
‘It’s... going all over my head. Can you all hear it? Some sticky thing is crawling in my body.’
‘Shut up! Chatta, stop describing it! I really want to throw you into a pool of lava!’
The other inquisitor was also trying his hardest to suppress the voices in his head.
Right after he voiced his complaint to Chatta, he felt the arrival of some sort of danger. Unfortunately, his awareness was mainly focused on resisting those crazy voices in his head. It was already too late by the time he detected the incoming danger.
An arrow. A noiseless arrow was rapidly growing bigger before his eyes. He had no idea where that arrow came from. The last sight he saw was the runes of the magic inscription at the tip of the arrow.
The arrow pierced into that inquisitor’s forehead and struck him into the wall behind. The impact of the arrow was so strong that a large amount of cracks appeared on the surface of the wall.
The inquisition leader immediately entered a battle-ready state. He began searching through the shadows of the alley with his eyes. Three identical arrows were shot toward him. He waved his hand and pulled out a sword. Using his sword, he blocked the three arrows.
He inserted his other hand into his black robe and pulled out a staff. The top of the staff was embedded with the eye of an unknown creature.
No runes appeared the instant he started brandishing the staff. Instead, a power from the source of the soul was unleashed from the tip of his staff. It transformed into a sharp sword-like attack and struck the roof above the alley.
The attack shattered the tiles and bricks. Several feathers fell down with the shattered tiles and bricks. A pitch-black silhouette also fell with them, landing in the alley.
That person gradually walked out from the corner of the alley. When she walked under the moonlight, the inquisition leader’s eyes grew wide open.
“It’s you... you traitor!” Shock filled his voice. The person illuminated by the moonlight was a dark elf.
“Traitor? You were the ones that deceived me! You concealed the truth about the massacre of my race and made me work for you for this many years! Now... it is time for you aberrations to pay that debt of blood with blood!”
The dark elf that appeared was none other than the head of the Black Dove. She did not expect that she would be able to encounter such a major... present... by doing the mission of monitoring Joshua, the mission given to her by her master.
“We’ve also been searching for you! Traitor...”
The inquisition leader did not show any more sentiment toward the dark elf. He raised his staff, a staff as tall as a man, and banged it on the ground. At this instant, the sharp cry of some sort of creature sounded from the stone-paved ground.
The ground the dark elf was standing on began to quake. Tentacles created by an unknown sort of power broke through the ground and grabbed her legs.
The unknown creature’s eye embedded at the top of the staff began to open. An attack so fast that one cannot see with one’s naked eyes shot toward the dark elf. That attack cut her body into countless pieces. But, all the pieces turned into pitch-black feathers that slowly fell to the ground.
“Have you forgotten who it was that taught you all your battle techniques?”
An ice-cold voice sounded from behind the inquisition leader. A dagger shining with a dark green tint pierced into his back. The dark elf also appeared behind him.
But, the dark elf soon realized that something was amiss. She could feel that what her dagger penetrated was not a human’s flesh. Rather... it seemed like some sort of soft-bodied creature.
“All our techniques and wisdom were bestowed to us by God...”
The inquisition leader’s head turned completely around. That was a degree of rotation impossible for a human neck. The dark elf raised her head and looked at the transformed face with disbelief.
“You’ve once had the opportunity to receive God’s endless wisdom. But, you stupidly decided to betray us. Well, that isn’t surprising... A race as lowly as yours will never be able to understand exactly how grand God’s wisdoms are. But, you should me... for I am planning to allow you to once again witness God’s endless wisdom before your death.”
The instant the dark elf saw the inquisition leader face-to-face, she felt as if she had smashed her head onto the bell tower’s giant bell. The incomprehensible pain of her head being ripped apart filled his mind. The next moment, she saw some illusions and began to hear some kind of crazed mutters.
Once an inquisitor of the Heresy Tribunal, she knew what this was. She immediately shifted her vision away from the inquisition leader, pulled out her dagger and retreated several steps away. But, her chaotic mind made it impossible for her to act calmly.
“This is why you elves are so lowly...” The inquisition leader raised his staff once more. But, before he could strike the ground with his staff...
The ringing sound of little bells began to reverberate through the alley. Those ringing sounds resembled the arrival of a calamity.
The hand of that inquisition leader, the hand that he was holding his staff with, instantly withered away. No sign of life was present in his hand anymore.
The aura of death slowly filled the entire alley. The dark elf raised her head up with disbelief. She discovered that there was a figure wearing a shabby cloak standing before her. Through the shattered portions of the cloak, she was able to tell what stood before her... had no flesh and only bones.
Soulstealer!
The dark elf recognized this nightmarish undead creature.
The soul in the Soulsealer’s eyes shifted around toward the inquisition leader. An ear-piercing yet gloomy voice sounded from his skeletal mouth.
“Offer your souls... to the Duke!”
Soulstealer sounded the bells in his hand, Bells of Calamity, again. The inquisition leader wanted to recover his withered hand. But, a great amount of resentment-filled souls rushed toward him while howling in grief.
Had it been before, those souls wouldn’t be able to cause any mental damage to him. But now, even without the attacks of those souls, his own state of mind was already on near-collapse because of those crazy voices in his head.
The moment he was engulfed by the tide of souls, it meant that he will no longer be able to keep his reasons.
The dark elf took out her bow and arrow that very instant. She aimed at the two inquisitors, suppressed the pain in her heart, pulled her bowstring and shot through their foreheads with her arrow.
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Translator YangWenli:
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