Chapter 108

< 107. Side Mission: There Is No Salvation Outside the Church >


*


“Gasp!”


The traitor team of Iron Side. Or imperial rebels, or military law violators. Every time he heard such titles, Cardis would break out in a cold sweat and jump out of bed.


He grabbed the water cup by his bedside with trembling hands. Damn it, that dream again. The dream of the imperial inspectors coming to arrest or assassinate him.


Lukewarm water trickled down his parched throat. Cardis rubbed his stinging eyes roughly as cold sweat dripped down his eyelids.


“Damn it, hell, those bastards. I, I did it for the empire.”


The proposal submitted by the team leader had been rejected long ago. In his judgment, it was a scheme close to a trick, but ultimately a plan that couldn’t fail. And if successful with minimal risk, the empire could swallow the Great Wilderness.


Once again, a plan to raise the great homeland into a land where the sun never sets!


“What the hell is going on with Iron Side’s Gray Circle…”


Everyone in the empire feared them. Even the high nobles who held immense power and looked down on the masses. All information inside and outside the empire was in their grasp, and those who displeased the emperor rested eternally under their daggers.


They were called the Grim Reapers. Far away, even the Shaksisi of the Sultan couldn’t match their scale and organization.


One team of the Gray Circle, ‘The Gravediggers of the Wilderness’. After they discovered a tomb buried beneath the Great Wilderness, the team leader proposed a project to them.


[The Great Wilderness Overthrow Plan]


Utilizing the numerous magic stones buried beneath the Great Wilderness, a strategic resource, while simultaneously dealing massive damage to the Sultan’s soldiers. It was an extremely sophisticated plan. Moreover, it was a strategy whose effectiveness had already been proven. The team ‘Gravediggers of the Wilderness’ was formed because a wraith called ‘Conclave’ had escaped from a pyramid in the Great Wilderness.


Seeing how that single wraith was gnawing away at the military might of the Western Kingdom Alliance, the team leader thought: If we awaken the other wraiths buried in the Great Wilderness, and if we can utilize them properly, we could deal a significant blow to Kirzat.


That’s what he thought.


-Squeak.


Beyond the window, the dark night of the wasteland stretched out. This massive city, like others that had suddenly risen from the earth, had no lighting except for the moonlight in the sky.


They called this city, bathed in moonlight, the ‘Buried City’. It was a very straightforward naming. Literally, the only residents of this city were buried skeletons and mummies.


Now, the ‘Gravediggers of the Wilderness’ no longer guarded the tombs. They had become part of the tombs. After being branded as a traitor to the empire, their team leader sought asylum with the ruler of this city.


“Damn Pharaoh…”


He remembers the nightmare of Mosat City. The core of the plan was the saint from the Western hicks who had the experience of defeating Conclave. They planned to use that ‘saint’ kid to raise Conclave from the tomb, neutralize it, and pit its wraith army against Kirzat.


To destroy evidence and create a power vacuum, they bombed Mosat City, and using the Conclave wraiths that spread like a plague from that city, they orchestrated a proxy war with Kirzat.


It was a beautiful plan. Until everything went wrong from start to finish.


“Damn it…”


It was said that what destroyed their great magic was likely the saint dispatched to Mosat City. How he managed to reverse-engineer the great magic used by the military alone, without any prior preparation, was unknown, but circumstantially.


Let’s assume. That he did it alone. Then why didn’t he return to report his injustice and Iron Side’s scheme to the homeland?


After that incident, the Western Kingdom Alliance and the churches of the Holy Temple of the Gods all rose against the empire. Support for the war in the Great Wilderness was cut off, and information was obtained that the churches were debating whether to excommunicate or sever ties first.


The situation was the worst. Immediately after, the team leader sought asylum with the Pharaoh, and her team had to choose between the gallows and the Skeleton King.


Of course, they wanted to live. If they survived, wouldn’t there be a chance to clear their name?


Every kind of heretic has a good plan. Until they meet the Inquisition Officer.


Therefore, they had no chance to clear their name.


*


-Whoosh!


The sudden flames at the outskirts of the city caught the attention of all the skeletons, mummies, and the few remaining humans.


It was clear that it wasn’t a natural fire, as skeletons and mummies never set fires.


“What’s going on!”


“Section Chief! Fire, there’s a fire! It’s everywhere! Surrounding the city!”


“I have eyes too, you idiots! Any other information!”


These so-called intelligence agents are all out of their minds! He sighed and glared around. The mummies were slowly moving towards the outskirts of the city.


Hoping that their dried-up bodies would at least be more useful in firefighting than they looked, Cardis drew his longsword.


“Everyone, gather up! Where are you all loafing around when this chaos is happening without even a muster!”


“There was a recent dinner for the 3rd and 5th sections…”


“Dinner, freeze to death dinner. Was it fun chewing on rotten meat?”


Cardis gritted his teeth and hurriedly ran up to the rooftop of the building. The outskirts of this small city, somewhere between a village and a small city, were engulfed in flames, trapping them like a wall!


*


“Brother Visilio, entering.”


-Crash!


A massive warhammer crushed the dry wooden fence as it advanced. Flames were running between the fences and the stone buildings beyond. It wasn’t a natural fire. This was a divine wrath expressed through forbidden arts.


It was the church’s secret incendiary, named [Flowing Fire of Vaitas]. A superheated liquid flame that flowed without explosion, used to divide sections.


-Thud.


-Thud, thud.


And walking through it, without a single soot stain, were five men. Dressed in old priest robes with gleaming silver armor underneath.


“Brother Cesario. To the west. Brother Veronico, Brother Dermot, take the front. Brother Emilio, come with me to the east.”


“Maxto.”


“Maxto Superlaudo. Purge the heretics. Brothers.”


“Deus Vult. (As God wills.)”


The five men ran through the streets. Countless skeletons and mummies staggered to block their path, but they didn’t stop for a single moment.


Like wolves cutting through a flock of sheep. But it wasn’t the sensation of hunting. With astonishingly restrained actions and emotions, they cut down the wraiths with inorganic swordsmanship.


They were a storm of swords, shields, and corpses. Rotten or dried-up arms and legs flew through the air. Exactly one at a time. Stomping on the heads of fallen enemies to ensure their demise with meticulous overkill!


-Crash!


“Beta Point clear!”