Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 182

The train was stopped.

Alloken, bishop of Heavenly Blood, had been completely neutralized.

Methyn staggered across the train roofs to check on the condition of Alloken.

'…A massive explosion from sanctified zombies. The power is incomparable to that of exorcism.'

The hellhound that Alloken shaped to his flesh had disappeared without a trace. Alloken himself was spewing black liquid from his mouth, and the only sign of life coming from him was the very faint rise and fall of his chest.

These were typical symptoms of a necromancer with a ruptured core. The smell alone confirmed it. He would never be able to use dark magic again.

'I wanted to capture him myself, though.'

In the end, the one who captured Alloken was not Methyn, nor another inquisitor, nor that Efnel student. It was a necromancer.

While mulling over that strange fact, Methyn handcuffed Alloken.

Meanwhile, Rete, who had restrained the female inquisitor and put her in a cabin, approached Simon.

"Well, I guess I have no choice but to acknowledge your skills this time."

"…"

Simon was gasping for breath, crouched down on the train roof.

"You saved the passeng— Hm?!"

Something was wrong with Simon. It was a struggle for him to drop the crown, and his whole body was trembling. Soon, his shaking arms moved to put the crown back on his head, but…

Thud!

Simon dropped the crown in an act of great will. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.

"Huh, what's wrong?"

"Get away from me!"

Simon's shout made Rete flinch and stop walking.

She had never heard him yell so forcefully.

"Take this and go! Leave me!"

Simon slapped the crown over. Not given time to think, Rete grabbed the crown and held it in her arms.

"What's wrong?! Please, you need to at least tell me something!"

"Kugh…! I don't have time to explain, so just go! Now!"

She wanted to cast a healing spell or a blessing to strengthen his mental stability, but Simon was adamant in telling her to stay away from him.

She stepped back slowly, before turning around and running.

'Just what's with this crown?'

In the end, Simon couldn't hold it any longer.

The whites of his eyes showed, and he charged at Rete on all fours while hissing like a beast.

"…!"

She was caught up to in a flash. As Simon's arm neared the crown, Rete turned away in fright and hugged it even tighter.

Slaaaaaaaam!

Suddenly, Simon went flying, bouncing across the roof of the train.

[I knew this was gonna happen.]

Prince, his hand outstretched in a punch, was approaching with a nonchalant look about him.

"You're…!"

As Simon tried to get back to his feet, Prince lunged at him. He grabbed Simon by the hair and used that grip to throw Simon to the floor. Rete yelled in horror,

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

[Stay out of this, priest.]

Simon's whole body had gone limp when he was slammed into the roof. Then, maniacal laughter escaped his lips. His golden eyes returned to their original color.

"…Thank you, Prince."

[You think this is funny? I'm the one getting scolded by Pier if you overdo yourself and get hurt!]

"I had no choice: my opponent was too strong. But please, take the crown away. I'm going insane."

At that, Prince turned and approached Rete. She looked back and forth between Simon and Prince, still clutching the crown with wary eyes, but when Simon nodded in approval she nervously held out the crown.

Prince snatched it away from her and put it back on his own head.

[If something's up, call on me immediately, you got it?]

"Yeah, thanks."

Ssssssshhhhhhhk.

Prince's entire body and crown turned pitch black, and his body dispersed like smoke as though the soul had escaped. Then, all that remained was the body of a regular zombie.

"H-He disappeared?"

"He just went back to where he came from."

Simon groaned as he sat up from where he was thrown onto the hard metal roof. Rete rushed to his side.

"Are you alright? Do you need some healing or—?"

"No need. I just need something to revitalize my body, thanks."

Rete gave him a fortitude blessing modified for a long duration. Only then did Simon stagger to his feet. Rete stood beside him and exclaimed,

"Ah, don't force yourself! If you're tired, why don't you just sleep?"

Then, suddenly, Simon shoved Rete away.

Her eyes widened as she fell on her butt in a daze. A scowl formed on her face, and she soon lost her temper.

"I was just trying to help! Do you want to d—?!"

"You don't have to worry about making sure she's not associated with you."

She turned around to the source of the unknown voice. Inquisitor Methyn was walking toward her, dragging behind him the fat body of the captured Alloken.

"In the name of the great Goddess, I promise that there will be no harm to you nor priest Rete."

"…"

But Simon only tightened his mask. He still didn't reveal his identity. Rete was thinking hard, not sure about what to do.

'Should I deny my relationship with Simon, or should I just help Simon finish this guy off?'

As those thoughts rushed through her head, Methyn stated,

"You are a necromancer, yet you risked your life for believers from the Federation. In the end, you saved hundreds of lives. I admit it, the inquisitors—myself included—were completely useless. We were no better than a single necromancer."

He plucked the inquisitor's badge from his chest and tossed it away.

"Thus, I'll give up on your interrogation."

Simon and Rete stayed silent, things flowing differently to their expectations.

"You've saved hundreds of lives and deserve a huge award on Sky Island for that. But you're a necromancer, you won't gain any reward here. Yet you saved people regardless. I'd like to express my gratitude on behalf of the inquisitors."

Methyn bowed.

"Thank you."

At the sincerity in his voice, Simon drew back the jet-black he whirred up. Of course, that didn't mean he let his guard down.

"You… Are you sure about doing this?"

Said Rete, looking at Methyn.

"You might enter a 'slump'."

A priest's divinity comes from their faith.

However, if a person begins to doubt their faith, the medium for divinity, the doubt can snowball and become irreversible.

Priests call it a 'divinity slump' when an event shakes one's faith and makes it impossible to use divinity as well as before.

There were countless examples of priests in the Holy Federation who had returned to being citizens after experiencing a slump, whether due to war or unreasonable orders.

Someone like Methyn, who held unwavering conviction and passion, was especially vulnerable to slumps.

"It doesn't matter. What's wrong is wrong, after all."

Declared Methyn, looking at Simon.

Methyn wanted Simon to say something, but he remained tight-lipped. He was thorough till the end.

* * *

* * *

The situation was finally somewhat under control.

Rete, an Efnel student who held absolute authority, and Methyn, the only surviving inquisitor, worked together to set the passengers at ease and round up the remaining remnants of the Heavenly Blood cultists.

The captured Heavenly Blood cultists were tied up and thrown together into the cargo hold, and Alloken and the female inquisitor were sealed by Methyn himself and attached to torture wheels.

"Don't go anywhere and keep an eye on these bastards, senior Ellen."

"Of course! Leave it to me!"

Said Ellen, saluting.

Rete and Methyn came back to the engine room.

"Oh, the two of you are back!"

Simon, who returned to his apprentice status after removing his mask and reversing his robe back to white, held his hands in prayer as a greeting.

"Hah, do you want to die? You're slacking off so much, honestly."

Chuckled Rete.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, priest."

"I know my place. I was just cleaning up the grunts in the tail."

Methyn let out a feigned laugh as they both exchanged lies in casual conversation.

"Well, please come on in."

The three of them walked into the engine room. It was already cleared of corpses. In the center of the engine room, there was the permanent divine circle that allowed one to control the train.

"Priest Rete, are you able to operate it?"

"I'll take a look."

The magic circle was complex enough to make Simon feel dizzy just looking at it, but Rete felt it was doable, and she slowly began picking apart the configuration.

Meanwhile, Methyn began to explain,

"We've regained control over the train, but that doesn't mean the threat of Heavenly Blood is over."

Simon nodded.

"Yeah, we don't know when Heavenly Blood's headquarters will send a followup group."

"Right. They're trying to use everyone on this train as a sacrifice. HQ must've realized that they've lost contact with Bishop Alloken. Without a doubt, they'll send more troops."

"That's why we're trying to get the train moving and go, I see."

"Correct."

Methyn waved a briefcase he held in his hand.

"While priest Rete assesses if she can get the train moving, let's check out this information on Heavenly Blood."

The briefcase was filled with confidential documents from Heavenly Blood. Simon's eyes widened.

"Where did you get this?"

"It was in Alloken's subspace."

The two searched through the papers, looking for anything that might give them a hint.

Fanning out the papers, Simon immediately noticed something odd.

"All of these orders have a bishop's signature on them, but it's never the signature of Alloken, who claimed to be a bishop himself."

Every order had the signature of a bishop other than Alloken.

"That is, apart from this one."

Simon pointed to the mission paper on the far right.josei

"A request for a mission to hijack the divine train. This is the only paper with Alloken's signature. And even this was authorized by another bishop."

"I see…"

Simon got a strong hunch that Alloken might've been a puppet ruler. Maybe there was a difference in rank between bishops, or Alloken was a rookie bishop and schemed this ploy to show his worth.

'Mmm.'

Simon rifled through the document.

[Divine Train Hijacking Plan]

-Appeasement of Inquisitor 'Sarah Crawford'.

-Preparation of hijacking divine train 1631, which Sarah Crawford is in charge of.

-Assassination of inquisitor 'Odell McFerdin', Sarah Crawford's fake lover, and obtaining his biometric face.

Sarah Crawford was the traitorous inquisitor Rete had captured. Simon knew this much from Rete.

He moved on to the next page.

-Hijack of divine train complete. Transporting to headquarters.

-Turned captured passengers into blood zombies.

-Leaked information to Inquisition Bureau. All headquarters members have evacuated.

At this point, Simon had to pause to process what he just read.

'What kind of bullshit is this? They're deliberately leaking information to the Bureau?'

Simon flipped to the next page with a serious expression.

-Inquisitor chief and war hard-liner 'Rate' raids scene.

-Rate obtained evidence from headquarters that Dark Territory is behind Heavenly Blood. Anti-necromancer sentiment grows.

-Encourages war between Holy Federation and Dark Territory.

'Woah, this thing…'

Simon felt the back of his throat go dry.

'…is scaling up like crazy, huh?'

——