Chapter 126: The Church of the Sun (1)
Chapter 126: The Church of the Sun (1)
Chapter 126: The Church of the Sun (1)
Both Harrison’s crew and the dwarves’ crew seemed confused. However, neither of them asked any more questions.
“Anyways, everybody knows what they have to do, right?”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“Our side is completely prepared.”
The eyes of both sides sparkled as they nodded their heads.
“Harrison-nim and Bernard-nim, please take care of this child. It is possible that she will play the biggest role in this operation. This child must survive, even if we have to sacrifice everyone else.”
I emphasized Eruni once more.
Neither Harrison nor Bernard had anything to say this time. The weight of my words seemed to have changed significantly as soon as the dwarves appeared.
After seeing the dwarves, they couldn’t look down on Eruni either. They did not ask any more questions about Eruni at all.
“Understood.”
We waited for more time to pass by. Based on the night sky, it seemed to be about 2-3 am.
‘It seems to be about time, so why is there no news yet?’
At that moment, I noticed something happening far away. It was really far away, but since it was hundreds of people moving quickly, people like me, who had very high sensitivity, were able to feel it.
Harrison was the same way.
“Lower your bodies.”
There was no reason to do so. They were not headed in this direction.
I did the opposite and stood up.
“It is time. Let us move.”
“What is going on? Where are those people going?”
‘You don’t need to know. Actually, it is critical that you don’t know.’
“Don’t worry about it. We just need to focus on our part. Eruni, do not leave Bernard-nim’s side.”
“Yes, master.”
“Let’s go.”
I took the lead and started to move. Harrison’s group and Goonto’s group stealthily moved behind me.
***
“Who is there?!”
“You smelly humans. How dare you try to fight against a dwarf brigade like ours.”
It was a deep and rough voice.
All of the humans could not help but be shocked.
“Why are there dwarves here……?”
“No need for you to know! Just die!”
“Dwarves have invaded! Kill them! Protect the church!”
The humans clenched their teeth and started to charge toward the dwarves. Based on just the numbers, they definitely had the advantage. However, the dwarves had much more momentum.
Swoooooosh-
“Aaaaah!”
“Muhaha. How long has it been since we last hunted humans like this?”
The thirty-plus dwarves swung their swords with frenzy. Each time they swung their swords like that, numerous humans fell. They tried their best to resist, but the skill difference was too much.
The only thing the humans could do was request for reinforcements.
“We cannot handle this dwarf brigade on our own. Hurry up and ring the bel……ugh.”
And a moment later.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
A loud bell started to sound in the distance.
However, the dwarves did not even snort. They just continued to kill the humans in front of them, and moved farther into the area.
“We will head to the center. Take care of the leader, and then hunt the rest.”
The dwarf in the lead was Umbach.
Umbach’s attacks were the fiercest of them all.
He already had a ton of anger toward Kang Hwi Ram. Umbach had bowed his head to learn Jewel Alchemy from Kang Hwi Ram, but he could not prevent the anger that built up inside of him every time he needed to do that.
That was why he kept saying to himself that, if the opportunity rose, he would personally take Kang Hwi Ram’s head.
But it was not time for that just yet. That was why he was taking out his anger on other humans for now. He felt himself feeling better just by plowing through these humans.
But suddenly, something weird happened.
Rumble-
The ground seemed to shake, before a bunch of black things rushed toward them from a direction.
“Umbach. Monsters. They are Midnight Black Alligators.”
Umbach saw them as well. Monsters had suddenly appeared in this human territory. And all of these monsters were high leveled monsters.
“What is going on?”
“Are they demons and not humans?”
They did not have time to figure out what was going on.
“No matter. Kill them all.”
Umbach led the dwarves to clash against the monsters.
It was an overwhelming victory for the dwarves. They only lost three dwarves while killing a hundred monsters, including Midnight Black Alligators and the Death Trolls.
The dwarves were both the blacksmith race and the warrior race. Nobody had any fears or sorrows about dying while fighting valiantly on the battlefield.
That was why Umbach and the other dwarves were able to enjoy this victory, even though some of their friends were killed in battle.
“Haha, too easy.”
“Did you see the strength of the dwarves?”
But that happiness could not last very long. It was because the ground was shaking once again.
Following that tremor was another group of black monsters heading their way.
Umbach started to frown.
“What is that now? Why are there so many monsters?”
“Is this a demon cave or something?”
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
But it was too late to retreat. They were already in too deep. There was only one thing the dwarves could do right now.
Fight, and win.
This continued until they finished a brutal battle with the fifth herd of high level monsters. The dwarves won each time.
However, Umbach could not be happy. There were only a total of 14 dwarves, including himself, left after those five herds of monsters.
But the battle was still not over.
No, it was actually just beginning. The human reinforcements had arrived.
And these were not just normal reinforcements. A couple of them had shiny scrolls in their hands.
Umbach knew what the scrolls were. Every time they ripped open a scroll, a dark demon cave opened up and spit out monsters.
“Shit, another demon cave scroll.”
* * *
Rooooooooll-
Paaaat-
Magic force shot out of the marble rolling on the ground.
At the same time, the magic lights lighting up the corridor went out. A magic breaker was used to get rid of the light.
Once it happened, voices could be heard coming from the inside of the corridor.
“What is going on?”
“Why did the magic lights suddenly do this?”
They seemed anxious. It was only normal for humans to get anxious when they suddenly lost their sight.
But I was not like that.
I used stealthy approach to rush through the darkness. I used Goonto’s Twin Blades on the flailing idiots.
Papat-
“Ugh.”
“Kek.”
The followers of the Church of the Sun all died without even knowing what happened. Even the more sensitive ones could only recognize that a dark shadow was heading toward them quickly, only letting them flinch before they died.
It didn’t make a difference. Each person fell in a single slash.
I did not feel any remorse for killing these people. These people were more like mutants whose bodies and minds were corrupted by the demonic aura.
That was the reason the believers of the Church of the Sun were not attacked by the monsters they summoned. In other words, they were pretty much monsters themselves.
The message I heard every time I killed a believer confirmed this theory.
‘They have so many.’
I was averaging 2 to 3 per believer. (TL: The author does not reveal 2 to 3 of what.)
No wonder all of the empires and kingdoms of the continent consider the Church of the Sun to be their mutual enemy.
I quickly rushed toward the center of the area.
Harrison, Goonto, and the rest followed behind me.
“Damn it. Why did you ask me to come if you were going to take care of everything?”
I could hear Goonto’s grumbling voice. I was hunting everyone while Goonto and the dwarves just chased after me.
However, their role was important as well. Every time a fork appeared in the road, they needed to block the path we didn’t take for me.
“Please block this side.”
“Gabito, go.”
“Damn. No fun! Fine.”
I started to run again while controlling my pace for the slower Bernard and Eruni to keep up with me.
‘But just how large is this place?’
I had been walking in a straight line for close to 20 minutes, but still could not see the end.
It felt like I had entered a large demon cave. Actually, that was a pretty accurate description, since this was pretty much a demon cave with human-shaped monsters.
I then suddenly stopped. The path had come to an abrupt end, and a large hall appeared.
It was the size of a basketball court. In the middle of the hall were a bunch of rocks in what seemed to be an altar.
‘What is this place?’
The only thing the map revealed was the location of this place. It didn’t tell me anything about how many people were inside, what the layout was like, or even what this kind of hall was used for.
I just ran straight ahead without thinking about it. I was praying that Eruni’s memories would be unsealed and she would be able to guide me in the right direction.
If that fails, I will have to do whatever it takes to find something that might give me a clue, no matter how long it takes.
But, in order to do that, I would need to get rid of all the believers here.
But, suddenly, I heard Eruni’s sharp scream from behind me.
“Kyaaaaaaaaa!”
I turned around in shock.
Eruni was clenching her head as if she was in pain, and crouched down on the floor.
Harrison, Bernard, Goonto, and the others next to her was shocked as well, and tried to help her back up.
“What? What is going on?”
“Are you okay?”
“Hey! Snap out of it! Are you okay?”
“Leave her alone!”
I urgently shouted out.
They all flinched and moved away from Eruni.
I quickly ran toward her and waited until she overcame the pain.
Of course, I was praying internally.
A bit later, Eruni lifted her head and looked toward the rock altar. Her body then started to shake in fear.
“DId you remember something?”
Eruni nodded her head.
“That is where the rituals of the church took place. And …… and ……”
Eruni had a painful expression on her face. The unsealed memories must have been quite difficult for her to handle.
However, I didn’t need those memories. What I wanted was the secrets for things like the Altar of the Sun.
“You don’t need to think about that. Think about something else. How can we find the Altar of the Sun?”
Eruni turned her head at the phrase, ‘Altar of the Sun.’
There were many exits in the hall. She had turned toward one of the routes.
It was the opposite side of the route we took to enter. The door was closed tightly.
However, the moment I turned my gaze toward it, it started to open, and a group of people wearing red priest robes entered.
None of them seemed to notice that we were in here. They were looking very relaxed.
They then saw our group and collectively flinched, before stopping.
“Who……?”
There was no need to answer them. All of the people we met here needed to die anyways. If we kill one of the believers of the Church of the Sun, we will be saving hundreds of people who will end up dying by their hands in the future.
[Stealthy Approach]
I hid my body and rushed toward the believers of the Church of the Sun.
Unfortunately, Stealthy Approach was not very successful, as the entire hall was lit up with magic lights. Although I was hidden, the blob of shadow that was hiding me was completely visible.
“Danger!”
“Intruders!”
“Open the Demon Caves!”
At that moment, a couple of them took out red scrolls.
‘That is ……!’
I was familiar with the scroll. It was the same as the Demon Cave scroll I earned in Paksen Park after defeating the villain, Ruan.
I suddenly recalled the information in the draft plan about what kind of organization the Church of the Sun was.
They were followers of the Demon Lord. They hid all around the continent and opened up Demon Caves, throwing the world into chaos.
They were trying to open up that kind of Demon Cave right here, right now.
I couldn’t allow that to happen. I could easily keep myself safe, but the problem was Eruni. If Eruni dies here, it would be difficult to find the Altar of the Sun.
“Protect Eruni!”
I quickly shouted while swinging my blades at the believer.
“Ugh.”
I was slightly faster than him. I managed to cut both his arms off right before he cut the scroll. His two hands fell to the ground while still holding onto the scroll.
However, the situation went in the way that I dreaded. I couldn’t stop all of the believers who had a Demon Cave scroll in their hands.
Rip- Rip-
I could hear the sound of about four scrolls being ripped at the same time.
(PR: Well shit.)
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Translator : Miraclerifle
Proofreader :Borderline Masochist