Chapter 1013: Act 184 – The Battle of the White Lion VII
Fu Sha Square had already gathered quite a number of believers. Due to the sudden dimming of the sky, an atmosphere of unease enveloped the scene. Torches made of cow fat had been lit on the square, their lights intertwining and casting the entire place in a bright glow. The crowd gathered in clusters, whispering to each other. Most people assumed that another solar eclipse had occurred, but the frequent occurrence of eclipses was still not a good sign, thus many faces bore expressions of worry.
The temple gates were tightly closed, the grand arches cloaked in a somber shade as if it were a too-serious religious oil painting. There were a few lower-ranking monks in gray robes on the steps, but as yet no one had come forth to announce what had happened or why the bells had rung.
Romaine led Haruz through the crowd. Fu Sha Temple was a famous historical landmark of Fatan Port, and prior to this, she had visited it once with QiYala and the sprite. She happened to know that the temple had a secret back door. The two quickly slipped away from the crowd and stealthily sneaked into the temple through the back door.
Though the back door was locked, that was no problem for a witch. Romaine used a metal melting spell to open the lock, but accidentally set it on fire, which startled both of them. After struggling to put out the fire, they realized that half the door was already burned away. To destroy the evidence, she had no choice but to have Haruz dismantle the door and hide it, which wasted a good deal of time.
Behind the back door stretched a long corridor, but it was currently deserted. This discovery relieved Romaine. She led the young prince quietly through the corridor. Just after taking a turn, a brightness caught her eyes. Despite the darkness of the temple, there was a hall ahead that was lit. This discovery thrilled her, but then she noticed that there were monk soldiers guarding outside the hall, causing her eyebrows to furrow in deep thought.
Seeing this, Haruz instinctively grew nervous and his first reaction was to retreat. However, he quickly calmed down with the teachings of Brendel in mind. He gestured to Romaine, “Miss Romaine, shall I lure them away?”
The young prince compared his strength with theirs. Though his swordsmanship was not yet up to par, his magic had begun to take shape. The two monk guards were merely of black iron level, and he felt some confidence. Thus, he cautiously made this suggestion.
“No need,” Romaine waved her hand grandly, “You’re a student of Brendel. I can’t have you take such risks. Watch me!”
She paused for a moment, selecting a sleep spell from her repertoire of witchcraft. This spell was akin to the sleep dust in rule magic or the hypnotism in elemental magic, but with its own unique advantage — the mysterious and hard-to-detect nature of witch spells, influencing the mortal world through the dream realm, unknowingly plunging people into illusions.
Romaine murmured incantations towards the monk soldiers guarding the hall door. The two guards’ bodies stiffened simultaneously, and they lowered their heads, falling into a peaceful slumber.
Seeing her spell succeed, she pumped her fist in excitement — no problems! According to the White Mist, as the inheritor merchant lady, her proficiency in witchcraft was high, but she always lacked focus and often dropped things while learning witchcraft, and her spell casting could unexpectedly lead to accidents such as mispronouncing incantations or forgetting trigger words, which were commonplace. Once, she even memorized the incantation of one spell as another, an unparalleled feat.
The sleep spell was a fifth-tier spell, and Romaine could only cast similar spells three times a day. After using it once, the merchant lady turned slightly paler but didn’t seem to mind. Instead, she turned around excitedly to wave at Cruz, signaling the small follower to hurry up.
The two approached the door of the hall, and the two monk soldiers who had fallen under the spell slumbered on, completely oblivious to the uninvited guests. Romaine appeared confident in her spell, not even giving them a second glance, while Haruz was more cautious, observing for a moment before relaxing.
Looking further into the hall, this was the main hall of Fu Sha Temple. Inside stood a statue of the Flame King, Gilt, and under the statue was an altar, surrounded by rows of prayer seats. At this moment, the hall was brightly lit, and on the altar appeared a fiery red teleportation gate. Romaine vaguely felt that this gate was similar to the Flame Door she had seen in Ampere Seale’s place, just smaller. Beside the gate stood Priest Jur福, the head of Fu Sha Temple, and next to him stood a higher-ranking official who was reprimanding him.
There were also many lower-ranking monks standing around. Romaine even spotted Arlevov among them, and seeing this old acquaintance not long after meeting him excited her. She was about to wave to greet him, but Haruz quickly grabbed her sleeve and stopped her from walking out.
“Miss Romaine, I – I think we shouldn’t reveal ourselves before figuring out the situation,” the young prince wiped the cold sweat off his head while whispering to her, upgrading the title of address: “Besides, we did sneak in, after all!”
“You’re right,” Romaine slapped her forehead and realized.
At this point, the reprimand inside the hall was heard clearly –
“Father Jur福, Lady Sidney has betrayed the temple. According to the information we have, she may soon arrive at Fatan Port to collude with the Crown Prince.”
“What!” Priest Jur福 was startled. The statue of the holy maiden at Lion Saint Palace, who was he not familiar with? She is considered the top figure under the seat of holiness, and how could she betray the temple? His first reaction was disbelief, and his second was realizing the rumors about the temple’s split were indeed true. However, as much as he realized it, he still wasn’t very clear on what exactly happened. Although the empire was in civil war, the internal struggle within the temple at the local level has not surfaced yet. After all, the purging of the Silver Queen’s holy seat was still limited to the upper echelons of the temple and had not issued any commands to other parishes.
And these things seemed too distant for Jur福. Speaking of which, not only was he unfamiliar with Sidney, but even the person in front of him, until today, he had only heard their name: “And…”
“You don’t have to worry, this is the will of Queen Majesty and the seat of holiness.”
Jur福 relaxed slightly: “What should we do, sir?”
“The White Legion will launch an attack on Fatan Port soon. The conspirators who seek to split will meet their doom. However, Sidney may secretly use her tricks to get the temple involved in this battle, or even take a stand against Queen Majesty and the seat of holiness. Your task is to stabilize the believers and the lower monks to prevent them from being deceived by that woman.”
“I understand, sir, the believers have been gathered according to your instructions. Shall I tell them everything now?”
“Of course.” The person nodded satisfactorily. The undead army of Owesen should be on their way. Since these summoned undead were all low-level, when they launch a covert attack on Fatan Port, what they feared most would surely be the officials of the Temple of Fire within the city and the ascetics. But if the forces of the Temple of Fire within the city cannot be organized immediately, then they can play the largest role in this battle.
With these undead appearing unexpectedly, plus the hill folk and the White Legion, the balance of this war has tilted stably towards Queen Majesty.
Priest Jur福 had no doubts, and turned to prepare to order the junior monk beside him to open the main door. Although he was the highest-ranking official in Fatan Port, he was still at the lower level within the grand Temple of Fire and was completely unaware of the struggles behind the scenes. As a member of the hierarchically rigid temple organization, his first priority was, of course, to obey the edict from the temple headquarters.
He was already familiar with the figure in front of him, and moreover, this person arrived through the Flame Door on the altar, a secret knowledge of the highest level of the temple of fire. People who could open the Flame Door represented something obvious to him, a temple member.
But when the junior monk left Jur福 and walked towards the main door of the temple, although Romaine hadn’t yet realized the problem there, Haruz beside her was already very worried and said: “Miss Romaine, we cannot let them open the main door. If they control the believers and the junior officers within Fatan Port, teacher and the others will be at a disadvantage!”
“Is that so,” Romaine’s little eyebrows rose immediately, “How dare these guys trip up Brendel, truly despicable!”
Having said that, she pointed towards the door of the temple. The junior monk was ordering the guards to remove the bolt and prepare to push the two heavy wooden doors. But before they could do so, an enormous face suddenly appeared on the doors. This face opened its eyes, scanned everyone in the room, and then spoke up: “Hey, guys, what good luck to have found this door leading to treasures — do you want to pass through me to obtain treasures? No problem, as long as you can solve my riddle!”
The big voice resonated through the entire hall. Everyone who witnessed this scene was stunned, including Romaine and young prince Haruz. Haruz stared at the spell cast by the merchant lady in astonishment, while Romaine’s mouth formed an ‘O’ shape: “Ah, isn’t this seal-off spell?”
“Listen, folks, aren’t you the least interested in the legendary treasures?” The face on the door kept talking, but at this moment, both Priest Jur福 and the big figure beside him had already realized what happened.
“Object activation, capture that witch!” The big figure beside Jur福 had eyes like lightning, seeing Romaine and Haruz hiding behind the side door at a glance, yelling: “Do not let her escape!”
Everyone turned to look at this direction. Among the crowd, Arlevov saw Romaine and Haruz and couldn’t help but pause in surprise.
Priest Jur福, of course, couldn’t recall the young girl who had briefly visited the temple several days ago. He immediately reacted and pointed his finger, summoning a sacred prison towards Romaine and Haruz. But before this spell could even approach the two, a transparent spell shield appeared around Haruz, countering Priest Jur福’s divine art in an instant and canceling it out.
Seeing this, Priest Jur福 couldn’t help but be stunned for a moment, but the big figure next to him realized what was happening: “Immune to spell control? This is the Crescent Ring, from the royal family of Erluin? Capture that boy and keep him alive!”
At this moment, the junior monks and monk soldiers in the hall surged forward. Faced with this sight, Haruz turned pale and couldn’t help trembling: “Miss Romaine, what…what do we do?”
“Of course, we run!” Although Romaine was somewhat dazed, she wasn’t dumb. She grabbed Haruz’s collar and fled backwards in a flash.
The two scrambled frantically down the dark corridor, nearly reaching the previous corner. Romaine, of course, knew that the back exit was right behind there. Once reached, they could circle around to the square. With the crowded square, there would be no way the opponents could catch them. However, it wasn’t that simple. There were even Silver-class guards in the temple, and though her own strength wasn’t inferior to Silver grade, being a mere witch she was still far from matching Silver-class warriors in physical prowess.
The monk soldiers and junior monks chasing behind grew closer. Romaine felt her heart nearly jumping out of her throat, feeling both nervous and excited.
In front was the previous corner. Romaine grabbed Haruz’s collar and rounded the corner in one swift motion. Just as her eyes were about to fall dark, she felt herself bump against something.
She muffled a groan, burying her head into something soft, and quickly widened her eyes to step back, but her wrist was already tightly caught. “Heavens!” This startled Romaine greatly, so she quickly looked up, only to see a beautiful female official who had caught her. The woman was very tall, with platinum short hair, her eyebrows knitted tightly, golden eyes staring at her, her face filled with dignity and valor.
Romaine didn’t recognize the ranks of the robes of the Flame Temple, but she realized that this lady’s rank was high. She had previously met the head priest of the Fu Sha Temple, and his robes were far less splendid than the one in front of her – actually, even cleaner and tidier. Even the high-ranking person from the Flame Temple she had seen before probably didn’t match the elegance of the person before her.
But she felt a little nervous under the gaze, instinctively pulling her hand back. The hand that grabbed her wrist was like steel, not moving an inch. “You’re hurting me…” Romaine murmured shyly, “Romaine isn’t a thief, could you just let us go?”
But at this moment, another somewhat hollow voice echoed, “Miss Romaine, what are you doing here?”
Romaine and Haruz paused at the sound, looking up in surprise to find another figure behind the lady officer. It was a female knight enveloped in pale flames – “Lady Brynhildr!” The young prince exclaimed in surprise, “What are you doing here?”
