Duke Angeros and Holy Knight Angelica, with deep yellow and purplish shaved heads respectively, faced each other across the road leading to the cathedral’s main entrance.
“Are you really planning to go all the way? Angelica?”
“Shut up, you corrupted soul too busy cozying up to the high nobles for your own gain.”
Angelos stood on the left side of the road, behind him lined up a hundred or so Holy Knights following him.
Angelica stood on the right side, with over three hundred Holy Knights behind her.
The Holy Knights were mostly from the local factions, supporting the church’s form of secular intervention.
Most of them were orphans from the church of small territories, well aware of the extent of the local lords’ corruption.
“I cannot cooperate with them. The end of compromise is nothing but corruption.”
“We can’t win alone. Even if we gather all our strength, we can’t afford to increase our enemies.”
“Then we can only leave judgment to the Light.”
The difference in numbers was more than double, and while Angelica was stronger than Angelos and held a trump card, it was a fight she couldn’t afford to lose.
The sounds of neighing horses and rolling wagon wheels could be heard.
“The fourth Bishop Hong is entering!”
One by one, the bishops in red began to enter the cathedral’s walls.
Angelos and Angelica had shared an unspoken agreement that there should be no visible conflict outside the cathedral.
Today, everyone passing in front of the cathedral was clasping their hands in prayer, and they could not show the spectacle of Holy Knights fighting over whether to kidnap, imprison, or expel the bishops.
Absolutely not.
“The sixth Bishop Hong is entering.”
A bishop originally appointed numbering over a hundred.
They were high-ranking officials, judges, secretaries, and legislators.
They were involved in everything happening on the continent, from poverty relief and church administration to grave management and truce negotiations for kings.
However, it had already been thirty years since the last bishop was appointed.
Many had returned to the Light, leaving only thirteen remaining.
“The second Bishop Hong is entering!”
The second Bishop Hong was Argos.
Both Angelos and Angelica’s eyes illuminated in unison.
The bishop, meticulous and diligent at best, fastidiously made his way into the cathedral, followed by the Holy Knights forming a line.
“The first Bishop Hong is entering!”
The oldest bishop, Paolavan.
Angelos and Angelica, along with the Holy Knights split into two, gritted their teeth.
The two they must seize and protect today were about to gather.
Clop, clop, clop.
A carriage with a red flag raced down the main road.
Whoa, the coachman skillfully pulled the reins to slow down.
And the moment the horse’s head entered the cathedral.
BAM!
An arrow slicing through the air pierced the two front wheels of the carriage, shattering them into pieces.
“Ugh!”
The coachman screamed, and the wagon collapsed with a crack, while startled horses lifted their front legs in panic.
Citizens passing by the cathedral gathered in shock.
“Angelos! What have you done?”
Angelica immediately drew her sword, demanding answers.
However, Angelos seemed just as bewildered as she was.
Seeing his expression made Angelica almost lower the tip of her sword.
“I… don’t know. I clearly informed Duke Valencius that we wouldn’t fight outside the church walls.”
Yet, with his next words, Angelica’s fury peaked.
“You actually believed him! The biggest bandit in the capital!”
“!”
Angelos’s eyes trembled like aspens.
Rudi observed the scene from the roof of a nearby five-story building, tightening his mana musket and hiding it beneath a maid dress.
“Hmm, it seems the Holy Knight has a different interpretation of justice regarding Lord Valencius, both inside and outside the gates.”
Sererassie, standing beside him, tilted her head.
“What do you mean by a difference in interpretation?”
Rudi smiled brightly and said, “Once the horse crosses the gate, it’s considered inside, right?”
Sererassie laughed incredulously. “You’re starting to resemble your master.”
Holy Knights are strong.
They draw their strength not from lineage but from faith.
Through years and decades of accumulated sacred power, they wield strength comparable to knights and magicians, who have perfected bloodlines over thousands of years.
And Valencius had no plans to engage in a full-frontal battle with Holy Knights that nearly doubled his own.
“Surprise attacks are a crucial strategy. Fighting honorably is the way of a knight.”
“What I meant by honorableness is not this.”
He walked down the center of the road accompanied by Tenitia, gracefully approaching the immobilized carriage with model-like strides.
His platinum hair was arrogantly tossed back, and his golden eyes glittered sharply.
The white uniform embroidered with gold thread was too extravagant for visiting the church, and the red sash was likewise ostentatious.
A long sword hung at his waist, its scabbard matching the white of his uniform.
Angelos, red-faced with embarrassment and shame, spat on the ground the moment he spotted Valencius.
Valencius grinned broadly and pointed his finger skyward, causing Angelos to tremble.
“Let’s go! We must protect Lord Argos!”
Ultimately, Angelos headed into the cathedral with his Holy Knights to defend the friendly bishops, just as Valencius had preordained.
“Let them be! Securing Lord Paolavan comes first!”
Angelica had to save Paolavan, so she couldn’t afford to block their entrance.
“Please, sister.”
Valencius chuckled wickedly to himself.
Before him were over two hundred Holy Knights, but he believed in his half-sister, the legendary prodigy of magic.
“Valencius!”
Angelica roared at him, glaring fiercely.
Valencius spoke to Tenitia. “Ensure the bishop’s safety.”
“Me?”
“Should I be the one to do it instead?”
Tenitia adjusted her helmet and eyed Valencius critically.
It seemed to her to be better if she handled it herself.
“Don’t get yourself killed.”
“Don’t worry, my lady. I plan to live for a very, very long time.”
Tenitia forcibly ripped open the carriage door and pushed the rushing coachman aside with a single finger, then lifted the bishop as if she were a princess.
“Capture that person!”
“Protect my lady!”
“Wow!”
Valencius stood bravely against the oncoming Holy Knights, completely alone.
White sacred power erupted from the Holy Knights clad in gray plates and red surcoats.
They were fully armed, while Valencius was in the uniform.
At most, two or three could be his limit, even in good fortune.
“You all think so, too.”
Especially the leading Angelica had long been a renowned Holy Knight before her return.
Against her, merely enduring was a daunting task.
With a burst, Angelica launched herself, quickly reducing the distance by dozens of meters.
At that moment, Valencius muttered to himself.
“Is there any bait as good as me?”
On a nearby rooftop, Sererassie stood next to Rudi, chanting a spell through her blue and golden garnet.
“Deeply piercing lightning, spreading in circles, solidifying and pushing away lightning. Follow and follow again, my lightning.”
“You’re not a magician but a bishop, yet you’re pulling this off? Those who accuse magic of being suspicious while using water from magically created sewers and roads? I know nothing about politics. I just know you’re all insincerely hypocritical.”
A sadistic smile crept onto her features.
“Eliminate all my enemies!”
“Truth isn’t something to beg the gods for, but something one must seek for themselves!”
The mana drawn from her heart transformed into a spell through her words, spirit, and staff.
No matter how strong a magician she was, she couldn’t overpower hundreds of Holy Knights simultaneously, but she was also among the richest on the continent.
Sizzling, the blue drake’s horns she wore at her waist reacted chaotically, amplifying her mana efficiency.
While the potion didn’t enhance the magic’s power, it expedited casting speed and reduced mana consumption.
The result was simple and clear.
THRUM!
A colossal wave of lightning unleashed inside the cathedral’s walls.
Originally, it should have struck a single point and ended there, but the lightning spread out like ripples on a pond according to the spell she had developed.
“UAAAH!”
“Cough!”
Hundreds of Holy Knights rushing toward the main entrance of the cathedral rolled to the ground.
Normally, wearing plate armor, most of the electricity would flow through their feet.
However, Sererassie had also developed a spell to ‘push’ electricity into their bodies.
The spell was not meant for murder, and the Holy Knights weren’t weak, so they could withstand the electric shock to an extent, but the unexpected jolt became a source of confusion for the Holy Knights.
“What the hell kind of electric magic spreads this wide?”
“There must be a hidden magician or a demon’s contract mage! Capture them!”
“Focus! We need to retrieve Bishop Hong!”
Angelica gulped, trying to regain her composure.
“Did you think I would fall this easily?”
Rumors of a genius magician in the Imperial Court had circulated. Yet, no matter what, no one could continuously unleash spells of this magnitude. Duke Valencius had turned himself into bait. This worked well; she would take that bait.
Thud, she spread her white sacred power across the ground.
Watching this, Sererassie smiled coyly.
“I knew you’d endure at least once.”
ZZZZZZZ!
Once again, the wave of lightning swept through.
The Holy Knights who had just risen couldn’t withstand the fierce blue torrent crashing down upon them and crumpled to the ground.
“AAAH!”
“Ghh!”
“Did they bring in a grand magician?”
“Focus!”
Had they piled up their sacred power from the very start, they might have been able to just withstand Sererassie’s electric attack.
However, the panic from electricity penetrating their armor, the urgency of the situation where Bishop Hong was being kidnapped, and the unease of what Duke Valencius might be scheming chewed away at the Holy Knights’ morale.
And panicked, hasty, and anxious people usually exert only one-tenth of their true strength.
But.
“You bandit Valencius!”
Holy Knight Angelica, who had shut off her magical realms, was quite familiar with those three emotions.
Electricity crackled between her teeth as she charged forward.
There were still dozens moving.
Valencius waited without lifting a finger.
ZZZZZ!
The third torrent swept the Holy Knights away.
“Hah, haah.”
Angelica exhaled roughly, raising her sword high.
She pushed through, refusing to fall, out of the cathedral’s walls.
Only then did Valencius step forward from next to the carriage.
“Truly strong. I’m glad.”
“You, you.”
“With so many watching, can you handle it?”
Angelica flinched and looked up.
Hundreds? Perhaps thousands? The citizens of the capital stared at her with mixed expressions of shock and fear.
Blocked by the high walls and the carriage, nothing within the cathedral was visible from outside.
‘No way?’
Angelica suddenly imagined the worst-case scenario.
And that imagination swiftly became reality.
Valencius rushed toward her, shouting as if everyone should hear him.
“Angelica, the Blade of Light! Are you okay? Bishop Hong is being attended to by the Imperial Court’s Platinum Knight Tenitia! What’s going on inside?”
“I, I, I… that snake…!”
While Valencius’s infamy was widespread, at least today he wasn’t doing anything directly against the carriage.
The citizens of the capital had no way of knowing about the mana musket or any factions within the cathedral.
To them, it appeared that the carriage had suddenly toppled over, sounds of fighting came from within, and then Duke Valencius and the Platinum Knight appeared, with the Platinum Knight hurrying away while assisting Bishop Hong.
Nobody believed the Platinum Knight would do anything strange to the bishop.
In fact, Tenitia rushed over to a side entrance and passed Lord Paolavan Bishop to another Holy Knight.
Several citizens watching from that road witnessed it too.
That Holy Knight was merely from Argos’s faction.
Though there were those who wondered why Duke Valencius stayed behind there, it was no job to draw the sword against a Holy Knight standing before a wrecked carriage.
“Angelica.”
Valencius smiled broadly.
“Why did you come to capture me? You should have chased after Bishop Hong first or entered the cathedral. What makes me so special?”
“Don’t tell me, today you’re doing nothing…?”
“The Imperial Court must not interfere with decisions made inside the church. It seems you thought I was scheming something wicked. What I’m really doing today is nothing at all. I’m merely masquerading as someone with something to hide to draw all the Paolavan faction Holy Knights toward me.”
“!”
“What do you think the ratio is now between Argos’s faction and Paolavan’s faction inside?”
“…The saint is with us.”
Angelica’s voice trembled.
“Is the saint stronger than a holy one?”
Valencius’s voice did not waver.
“You lost the moment you all came out. They’ll eventually all gather to hold a meeting inside, yet you should have secured it. What was I even doing?”
He laughed brightly, and Angelica collapsed in shock, her face pale.
Surely there had to be a trump card.
She thought so.
Yet Valencius politely helped her up and said, “Logically, how could I defeat the Holy Knights? You all have overestimated me.”
