Pov Carlos:
It's been weeks since Zenos and his group left the city, shortly after people from the Church of Light arrived asking about him, it didn't take long to find out that Zenos' mansion was gone and that there was no trace of him leaving the city.
During this time the Inquisitors have been asking almost every person in town about Zenos and his group, they want to know his race, age, appearance, origin, and the kind of powers he has, they want to know the same about the rest of Zenos' group.
More than once they have come to my Adventurer's Guild to cause trouble, but even if I have the information they want they cannot force me to speak, even the Church of Light cannot afford to become the enemy of the entire Guild of the Adventurers.
Every time the Inquisitors appeared they tried to get information from the other adventurers, because of this many adventurers have left the city to stay away from the Church of Light.
The problem has become even worse because of the strong prejudice that many of the Inquisitors have against other races, there are many reports of people of the Demis or Beastman races being mistreated by people from the Church of Light.
This sort of thing is causing traders of other races to leave Valen City towards the capital, it has become such a problem that even the Royal Guards have been sent to the city to try to calm things down.
Just when I thought things were starting to go in the right direction was when an Archbishop arrived, he made strong accusations about Zenos being a spawn of the Demon race.
This Archbishop said that Zenos used slavery or mind control techniques to kidnap the Inquisitors who were under his command, the famous Faceless Brothers.
Since then it has only caused me more and more problems, we were already suffering from a lack of people because of the last wave of monsters, but now we are with even less people as adventurers keep leaving, new adventurers don't want to come to Valen city.
I got tired of this and joined up with the leaders of the other Guilds to speak with Duke Valen, so a meeting was arranged with this Archbishop to pressure him to leave the city.
But during the meeting the Archbishop got up and ran to the window and stood looking towards the Forest of Blood, he started to say that he felt Divine power coming from the direction of the Forest of Blood, but he insisted that it was coming from much further away.
So he contacted Church Headquarters and had over 20000 soldiers from his Church sent here using Mages of the Space element, this could have been the same as a declaration of war.
The Duke and the Kingsguard wanted to protest, but just two days later more armies from the other two religions also came to the city, the next day these armies started to leave one by one.
The Duke was worried about what might have happened to alarm so many religions, so a special quest was issued in the Guild, I accepted this quest along with my wife Mari, I also took some people with strong tracking or sensing skills to be able to investigate the What's happening.
After a week we arrived at the mountain range, so we started to investigate around, it took another three weeks and we were only able to investigate less than half of the mountain range, but we were worried about what we had already found.
Now I am in a small destroyed village together with my group we have a bonfire where we are roasting monster meat to eat.
"I miss my beer." (I)
"This is what happens when you drink five barrels in two weeks, if you had just a little restraint it wouldn't have happened." (Mari)
"I thought I brought more, I remember I asked to bring twenty barrels." (I)
"I left it at home, it was taking up too much space in my storage item." (Mari)
"Where are the other two?" (Mari)
"I asked to see how the religious armies are doing, at night it's much easier to spy on them." (I)
I take a knife and cut a piece of meat to eat, then drink some water since the beer is long gone.
"What do you think of everything we've discovered so far?" (Mari)
"Strange, for starters this miasma is full of malice in a way I've never seen it before, there are even some soldiers from some religious armies who are catching the Devil's Madness disease." (I)
"Yes, but there are no records of such miasma ever being found in the mountain range, the last record is just five years ago." (Mari)
"I know, that's my record, at that time there was a war between some monster races and Demis, so I forbade adventurers to come here." (I)
"But the only place with signs of battle is the fortress we found two days ago and some villages like this, now the fortress is in the hands of the Church of Light that arrived there following us." (Mari)
"It had traces of a battle that took place recently, but it had no bodies or weapons, the fortress was also not recorded in any records and I had never seen it when I came here five years ago." (I)
"By the structure, it looked new, maybe it was built a short time ago." (Mari)
"But what makes me more confused is the large number of empty villages, half of them are destroyed and we can guess from the blood marks that were attacked just like the one where we are." (Mari)
"But there are also many villages that are intact, but without any resident, yesterday we also found a village that could accommodate thousands of people, but it was empty." (Mari)
"Something strange has happened here, but for some reason, the Archbishop seems furious these days." (I)
"He's been following in our footsteps, it seems one of the men who followed us to that big village found something he took with him." (Mari)
"Do you know what happened?" (I)
"No, I just know it was a wooden sign with something written on it, but I don't know what it was." (Mari)
"At least we've confirmed the target location of these churches." (I)
"A place that's supposed to have five or six mountains on our maps, but for some reason has a valley full of young trees, it's also the only place where it doesn't have miasma." (I)
"I think there's no doubt that something happened here, I'd like to ask some of the races that lived here, but most of them are gone." (Mari)
"Those who remained were dead before meeting with them, the people of the Church of Light mask two entire villages, the people of the Temple of Law also destroyed a village of Werewolves today." (I)
"That way we'll never know what happened." (I)
"This place has become a great Darknest, and we don't know why." (I)
———-
Pov Archbishop Thomas Galaretto:
When I thought I had finally found that Demon who stole my two tools, I found he was gone, at least this time I know his appearance and name, I found out he was a filthy Dhampir.
Unfortunately, I had to stop my searches for him when I felt weak divine energy coming from somewhere in this mountain range, I have been here for weeks in this deplorable place full of this filthy corrupt energy.
I made some of my subordinates watch over the adventurers who came here, because of that I found out about a giant abandoned village.
My subordinate also brought me something from there, he ran straight to me urgently, the item he showed me was a wooden board with some writing on it, but when I read what was written I burned that thing until there was nothing left.
Plate:
[ If anyone is reading this please send it to Archbishop Thomas Galaretto.
You big dung heap in human form, if you're reading this know that I haven't forgotten about you, I'm simply busy with more important things than a worm-like you, but no need to worry, soon I'll come to you as promised and remember that no one can protect you from me. ]
"YOU FILTHY AND INSIGNIFICANT THING, HOW DARE YOU LEAVE SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO ME, I WILL FIND YOU IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!!!!!!" (I)
———-
Pov Dragon Prince:
I was in my room in the mansion that I was granted to stay during my stay in the capital of the Trigan Kingdom, I have already finished everything I needed to do in this Kingdom, I planned to stay longer in the city of Valen to train, but with what has been happening for there for the last few weeks it wouldn't be safe to go there.
I'm on my bedroom balcony enjoying the view of the night sky as I drink a glass of wine and hold an open letter in my other hand.
"Master, new news has arrived." (Mia)
Sigh
"About Zenos?" (I)
"No, his whereabouts are still unknown, but I have new news about the mountain range." (Mia)
Mia hands me some papers where the situation of the mountain range is being explained, this is information that some spies infiltrated in the Church of Light army have obtained, there is also some information that a contractor from the Assassin's Guild got.
"The situation of the mountain range is very strange, the disappearance of inhabitants, the miasma, abandoned villages, disappearance of mountains, a mysterious fortress, and confirmation of divine power." (I)
"Now I have an overview of the situation, I also understand why so many religions have sent armies there, but none of that matters to me." (I)
"What happens in the mountain range doesn't affect me or the Cartoza Kingdom." (I)
"Keep looking for Zenos, as much as I try to search his past I haven't found anything, it seems as if he didn't exist before he appeared in the city of Valen." (I)
"Why does the Prince try so hard for this adventurer?" (Mia)
"You better not know, the fewer people who know them better." (I)
"Then I will retire to continue the search." (Mia)
After Mia leaves I go in and throw the daddies with the information about the mountain range on the bed, then I lift the letter I got from my sister.
"Looks like she's already started acting, I don't know what relationship she has with Zenos, but I hope it doesn't cause any problems for the Kingdom." (I)
"I'm sure it was you who saved me that day Zenos, so I'm going to pray that this selfish, combat-maniac person doesn't find you." (I)