Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 186

The Heavenly Blood troops who pursued the train had returned to their headquarters. Simon, Rete, and Prince hid behind a tree a short distance away, analyzing the situation from a distance.

The headquarters was a massive cave modified into a building. It looked like a barren field from the outside, but when Rete broke through the illusion, the massive building became clear.

Believers were bustling around like they were preparing for war, and zombies were scattered throughout the building.

[There aren't many organizations even in the Dark Territory who control that many zombies.]

Said Prince.

[And many of these are humanoid zombies. What's going on here?]

"…"

Rete, standing beside him, sighed heavily.

"What do you think? Those were made of our own people."

"There's one more thing that I'm curious about…"

Followed up Simon.

"If the Holy Federation is so active in suppressing and eradicating heretics, how did a cult of that size even form?"

"Heavenly Blood isn't just an average cult. It's quite the special case."

The 'Religion of the Goddess', the state religion of the Holy Federation, had always faced heresy in its history.

But as its power grew, the number of cults grew exponentially with it. An ignorant person was more likely to be swayed by the sweet promises of those in front of them instead of the difficult scripture.

Rete gave a simple example.

"It's like going to rural towns and showing them you can use divinity."

She held up her palm and made it shine with divinity.

"What would people who'd been farming all their lives know? They've been raised to trust those who can use divinity."

Cultures often formed around exiled priests or those who naturally wanted divinity without ever entering the Coffin of Divinity, wielding unorthodox doctrines.

But Heavenly Blood was different. They inflated their numbers in a deliberate, unconventional way.

"They have begun to spread 'cores' to civilians."

Simon's jaw dropped at that.

"Cores? In the Holy Federation?"

"As you know, the Holy Federation has tight media control by Efnel. The people only know that the Dark Territory bastards are despicable and evil, and they certainly wouldn't know about cores."

Simon went deep into thought.

"I can see why Efnel would want to hide the core's existence."

"And why is that?"

"Because anyone can awaken it."

Rete nodded with a stiff face.

"Exactly."

Jet-black was more accessible than divinity. Assuming there was a practitioner on hand, they could simply create a core in your body, and that was it.

Even those not compatible with divinity, those who are destined to farm for the rest of their lives, could gain new talent by awakening to jet-black.

In Efnel, however, doctrine denies the use of jet-black and necromancy.

What if the lands of the Holy Federation were to be flooded with necromancers who had awakened their cores? And what if they organized, working together to resist the current Federation?

Prince, who had been listening to the story silently, burst out laughing.

[From Efnel's point of view, it couldn't be worse! I see, I see…]

"That's exactly what Heavenly Blood is doing now. Shoving false scriptures down the throats of ignorant villagers, convincing them that these are the true doctrines of the Goddess, and promising to let anyone use divinity. Efnel controls the divinity, but Heavenly Blood says they'll let anyone use it."

"So that's how they lure people in, plant cores in their bodies, and turn them into necromancers, huh?"

"Yeah."

Thoroughly indoctrinated in the cult's doctrines, the followers of Heavenly Blood believe that their jet-black is the 'true power of the Goddess'. The result was a strange hybrid: a necromancer who utilizes jet-black while worshipping the Goddess.

"That is the true color of Heavenly Blood."

Simon nodded with a heavy heart. The story felt a little creepy to him.

[Wait, woman, you completely forgot to answer my question!]

"What do you mean?"

[I was asking why there are so many humanoid zombies in the Heavenly Blood cult.]

"…Why do you think?"

She sighed.

"They use those who died from the core operation, those who can't modify jet-black, those who refuse to join, and anyone else they can kidnap or capture to use as guinea before turning them into zombies."

Heavenly Blood injected people with a 'special', modified core.

After awakening it, they could drastically reduce the 1-2 years it takes to learn jet-black manipulation, grant a higher divinity resistance than the average necromancer, and implant people with a special form of hemomancy.

But of course, it was not without horrible side effects.

"So the chief inquisitor is trying to…"

Simon summarized,josei

"…blame all of this evil on Kizen and the Dark Territory necromancers, not on the cult that sprang from the Holy Federation, am I right?"

"Exactly. That's also what the higher-ups in Heavenly Blood want, and I supposed they've got a whole bunch of fake orders in their headquarters that say they're from Kizen."

The situation was growing graver than they ever imagined.

Saving Anna's life was important, but at this rate, Les Hill would be caught up in war in the pursuit of Anna's cure.

"They must be stopped, whatever it takes."

Murmured Simon, clasping his hands together. Rete nodded.

"Well, we stopped them hijacking the divine train, so the worst is out of the way. Now, we need to stop the chief inquisitor and Heavenly Blood from manipulating the information."

Simon looked at the briefcase in his hands.

This evidence, from that bishop of Heavenly Blood, would be the key to stopping the war. But the media was too controlled to release it to the press. It could fall into the hands of the chief inquisitor.

But they couldn't just head straight to the Pope, so the next best thing was to take the evidence to a priest who opposes the war and who Rete trusted.

That was the gist of the plan.

"Well then, since it's almost time, I'll set up the teleport guidance circle."

Squatting down, Rete coated her fingertips in divinity and began to trace a line on the floor. Simon and Prince watched in silence.

"What?!"

Rete was filling in the formulas, deep in concentration, but the formula on one side kept disappearing. When she filled in the disappeared formula, the other side vanished instead.

When Prince saw this, he scoffed and said,

[Hey, woman, didn't you say you were the best in Efnel?]

"Hey, stop calling me woman! I'll smash your head in!"

[Stop calling me undead!]

Interrupting the two's pointless squabble, Simon also squatted in the place and looked at the magic circle.

"What's wrong?"

"My calculations aren't wrong, but the circle keeps unnaturally disappearing. This is weird."

She paused for a moment before conjuring more divinity and drawing the magic circle directly in the dirt. However, the dirt crackled for a moment before shifting and breaking the formula.

"Teleport nullification? Just when did they…"

Her gaze turned to the sky. Pure white divine shells were raining down from above.

"Holy sh—! Dodge!"

* * *

* * *

The three of them immediately jumped away. Dozens of divine shells flew through the air and landed right where they were, exploding on impact.

"Ughh!"

Simon was knocked off balance by the tremendous force, rolling across the ground instead of landing properly. Rete and Prince managed to stick the landing, narrowly dodging the strike.

[Wh-What happened?]

"There seems to be a teleport nullifier in the area! It destroyed my formula and attacked after tracking the circle's location!"

[Is it those Heavenly Blood bastards?]

"There's no way such heretics are capable of such a complicated task!"

Rete continued, gritting her teeth,

"This must be the inquisitors! How did they get here already?"

Simon looked ahead into the distance.

It was as Rete said. Troops burst from the forest to the north and marched toward Heavenly Blood's headquarters.

"Th-This can't be! They're supposed to be here 2-3 days from now!"

"Weird…"

Simon put his brain to work.

It would make sense for the inquisitors to come after Heavenly Blood once they spread the information. Yet the cultists were unprepared and stuck inside, the inquisitors even setting up a teleport nullifier to lock off any possible avenues of escape.

It could only mean one thing.

"Looks like the Inquisitor Bureau had already found them out."

Rete nodded, also having grasped the situation.

"So what do we do now? This is completely outside of our expectations."

"…"

After a moment's thought, Simon urgently ordered,

"Prince, get inside the subspace!"

[Huh? Alright.]

Moments after Prince entered the subspace, a pure white spear shot out toward them. The two quickly dodged to either side of it.

"This is…"

Two men wearing inquisitor uniforms on horseback were rushing towards them. Simon and Rete quickly turned and ran.

"We're inquisitors!"

Shouted one of the men riding a horse.

"Surrender now and submit to interrogation! Refusal to comply leaves you subject to execution!"

They were meticulous. Tracking the coordinates, sending a divine barrage, and then sending troops to confirm the kill.

"You don't have to listen to them."

Said Rete, twigs snapping beneath her feet as she ran.

"Inquisition, my ass! They almost killed us with their artillery barrage. They crossed the line first, so we'll do the same."

Simon nodded. If they followed the inquisitor's order, they would obviously have the evidence taken away from them.

The two of them jumped into the trees, and the inquisitors on horseback followed after them, chopping down trees as Simon and Rete flitted between them.

"Halt!"

"Running only deepens your sins!"

They were using the inquisitors' mantra, but the look in their eyes was that of fanatics.

Simon turned to Rete.

"This won't do. Let's take them down."

"I guess we have no choice."

The two of them, running through the trees, immediately turned and dropped to the ground. The inquisitors stopped, tugging at their horses' reins.

They looked mildly perplexed at the sight of Rete's Efnel uniform, but being under the direct authority of the Bureau, they didn't seem to mind.

"On your knees and hands above your head!"

"Any sign of resistance and we'll kill you."

Simon and Rete bent their knees, not to kneel, but to get ready to fight. One of the inquisitors smirked and pulled out the sledgehammer on his back.

"Oh, you want a piece of me? Way bett—"

It was then. The two inquisitors on horseback floated up, trapped in a water droplet.

"Wh-What's going on?!"

They flew off into the distance.

Simon blinked.

"What happened?"

"Ah! She's here!"

Rete smiled and pointed up. Inquisitors heading to Heavenly Blood's headquarters had also stopped to stare.

A woman with sea-blue hair descended from thousands of meters above, shining with a brilliant light. She held a white flute in her hand and was playing it slowly, creating not music but the sounds of nature and the ocean.

Swaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Simon gulped.

"She's a…?"

"Yeah. She should be something like Teacher Anna's immediate junior. She is…"

She clasped her hands together and said with a slightly red face,

"Saintess Israfill."

Heavenly Blood cultists and inquisitors alike, while preparing to either defend or invade the headquarters, all became bewildered by the sudden appearance of Israfill.

Leit's face in particular was red with rage. He clutched his cross-sword and grinded his teeth.

'Disrupter… When I'm close to finishing!'

No one in the Holy Federation was immune to the inquisition. Nominally, Reit held higher investigative power than even an archbishop.

The seven Saintesses, however, were a different matter, as they were treated as pseudo-gods. They were beyond the authority of humans.

And Israfill led a moderates faction who opposed the war.

'What do you plan to do, Saintess?!'

The sky began to rumble with her flute performance.

Leit sensed that his worst-case scenario was about to unfold.

——