Chapter 346
Chapter 346
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 346
Chapter Title: Scribe (1)
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The Pantheon was a massive coalition uniting countless religious orders.
As such, it was home to a variety of factions formed by those sharing similar doctrines and inclinations.
For a mere regular member, one could simply ignore all the complicated politics and focus solely on their faith.
But in any organization, politics grew ever more crucial the higher up the ladder one climbed.
And when that position was one of the twelve seats on the Pantheon’s Executive Committee—a role that determined the direction of this colossal organization and represented a specific faction—it was inevitable that things would get even busier with every incident that arose.
Much like the woman now sitting in the back seat of a car driven by a knight, heading somewhere.
Annoying, but what can you do? That fool Heinrich had to go and stir up unnecessary trouble...
Adeline Schneider, her gray hair framing her face, closed her eyes tightly and pinched the bridge of her nose.
As one of the twelve council members at the Pantheon’s helm and the Chief Scribe of the Reverse Heaven Society’s North American branch, she had been swamped lately due to recent events.
How the hell did he summon a gold dragon? I never imagined he could bring not just himself, but a completely separate entity from another world to Earth. Without divine intervention, summoning a being of that caliber is utterly impossible.
It was on an entirely different level from the incident a while back when a black magician had summoned a dragon.
That had been quite the anomaly and caused a huge uproar, but this time, a living, fully intelligent resident of another world had appeared on Earth. It was truly historic.
In such circumstances, the claims put forth by the perpetrator of that miracle—Heinrich Saint Landgard, the saint of Aouterica—naturally carried even greater weight.
And that was precisely why she was rushing around managing her faction, with the issue even reaching the Executive Committee!
Tch, those fanatics make everything harder. Earthborn traitors who fall for the temptations of foreign gods and defile this land... Now they're even listening to nonsense from some alien outsider.
Adeline’s brow furrowed deeply.
She had risen to her current position through long years of service in the Pantheon, proving her abilities and faith, but she had never once considered her fellow priests as comrades.
She had merely endured them, biding her time in accordance with her god’s will.
Anyway, this is a headache. The Reverse Heaven Society’s name is being tossed around openly everywhere. If the fanatics here start acting on their own, it’ll be exhausting...
To put it kindly, there wasn’t a single priest wielding holy power who wasn’t somewhat insane.
Including herself, of course, as a special case.
The world is full of bad stories about black magic users. But in truth, holy power causes just as much mental corruption.
The side effect of holy power was fanaticism.
It didn’t show as obviously as with black magic, but it was an open secret that most priests were mildly deranged.
After all, drawing power from a divine being of vastly superior stature made it inevitable that the user would be influenced by their object of faith.
Especially in a system where deeper faith granted stronger holy power, becoming a high priest was synonymous with losing one’s sanity.
“Hoo.”
She leaned back against the seat with a soft sigh, covering her eyes with one hand.
Thinking of all the tasks ahead made her head throb needlessly.
...It’s fine. It’s still just in the discussion phase. And they won’t pin it on me, a council seat, without anything concrete.
She just needed to stall for time while pinning everything on the real “follower of the evil god” she had already identified.
She’d have to lay low for a bit, but since it wasn’t time to act rashly yet, that was the best course.
What a pain. Heinrich... I’ll make sure to repay you for this... Hm?
Then, in that moment.
As if snapping her tangled thoughts short—
Screeech—!
The car she was in came to a sudden halt.
Her body lurched forward from inertia.
Already in a foul mood, Adeline’s eyes narrowed sharply upward.
“What’s going on?”
“S-Sorry, Priestess. Someone cut in front suddenly, so...”
Her calm query made the driver knight’s brow twitch.
Sure enough, looking through the windshield, a thug in a motorcycle helmet was blocking the road.
But even after identifying the cause, her hardened expression didn’t soften.
...How did he get this close without me noticing?
She might be a priestess, but she was still a superhuman powerhouse in her own right.
Yet she hadn’t sensed the intruder approaching until he was right there in plain sight...
Honk! Honk!
“Hey, what are you doing in the middle of the road? Move it!”
While she was lost in thought, the driver—wary of her gaze—sounded the horn and raised his voice.
The thug’s suspicious appearance had him on edge, but with a Pantheon council member in the back, he couldn’t afford to hesitate.
Lingering too long might displease her and cost him his livelihood.
“Ahaha, really sorry about that... I just had one thing I wanted to ask.”
“Even so, jumping into traffic like that? What if there’d been an accident?”
“I’m sorry, I really had something urgent...”
The knight’s expression softened slightly at the man’s repeated apologies.
His gentle, almost soothing voice and languid tone exuded harmlessness.
“Anyway, is the Chief Scribe riding in there right now?”
But the follow-up question tightened the knight’s loosening tension once more.
A mysterious thug asking who was in the car.
Clearly up to no good.
“Chief Scribe? I can’t tell you who’s inside, but you’ve got the wrong address. And I’m warning you—the person in here is way higher up than you think. Better back off now.”
But the man ignored the knight’s reaction entirely.
He simply sensed the aura exploding from the back seat and slowly curled his lips into a smile.
“...Looks like I found the right place.”
“Hey! You don’t know what you’re messing with. The Pantheon doesn’t even have a position called Chief Scribe—it couldn’t exist...!”
The knight’s retort cut off mid-sentence.
Suddenly swaying in the driver’s seat, he slumped forward, head slamming into the steering wheel as he passed out.
Bwaaaang—
The horn blared deafeningly.
Against that backdrop, Adeline slowly opened the back door and stepped out, eyeing the mysterious figure with narrowed eyes.
A man in loose clothes hiding his build, his entire head encased in a helmet—clearly someone who knew exactly who she was.
A barrier’s already up. Prepared it in advance and just triggered it? He came ready for this.
Moreover, an eerily inhuman aura emanated from him, like a chunk of nature compressed into human form.
Even to her, seasoned through countless battles on land, sea, and air, it felt profoundly alien.
Before testing his strength, she spoke first to gather intel.
“I don’t know who you are, but do you think you can handle the consequences? Daring to ambush a seat on the Pantheon’s Executive Committee. You won’t die easy.”
“Ahaha... I’m not the type to think about consequences before acting. Honestly, I’m already regretting coming here. Even with this air-purifying magic tool helmet, breathing’s still tough. How do people even live in a place like this...?”
“Save the chit-chat. What’s your goal?”
Despite the clashing auras sharpening like drawn blades, a calm conversation ensued between them.
It looked like it could resolve peacefully...
“My goal...? What else would it be, coming all this way?”
But the atmosphere didn’t last.
Around the helmeted man—wearing an air-purifying magic tool—translucent figures began to materialize one by one.
Beings no one would ever expect to see in this world.
“There’s only one thing I’ve ever wanted.”
“...Spirits?”
Adeline’s face stiffened.
These weren’t mere low-grade ones.
Ultra-high-tier spirits, ones even she couldn’t underestimate, appeared in droves as if waiting for their cue.
Expressing clear hostility toward her.
An opponent she hadn’t anticipated, striking first in a way and at a time she never saw coming.
“My goal is the destruction of the Reverse Heaven Society. In other words—”
“Your death.”
Boom—!
In a form accompanied by fierce explosions and destruction.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Excellent. Better reaction than I expected.
High Elf Harris, visiting Earth after a long time, slowly nodded inside his helmet.
The spirits’ power should have been greatly diminished here, but thanks to the double application of Dimensional Barrier Mitigation, the loss wasn’t as bad as feared.
Rumble—!
Ultra-high-voltage currents poured from Lightning Spirit Watt’s body, while Fire Spirit Kali spewed lava-like flames.
Wind Spirit Pascal unleashed razor-sharp gusts, Sound Spirit Decibel heavy shockwaves.
The newly contracted—and steadily grown—Earth Spirit Hectar, Light Spirit Lumen, and Water Spirit Liter joined in, unleashing their powers without holding back.
“Kuh! Spirits? Completely unexpected. And handling so many at once...? What kind of unique skill lets you do this?”
But that alone wasn’t enough to take down the Chief Scribe, who radiated a sunset glow from her entire body.
Like a divine messenger, she wore holy power-forged armor, wielding a massive shield and hammer in her hands.
With overwhelming defense rooted in pure holy power, she endured the spirits’ barrage like a downpour, buying time.
As if time itself were her ally.
That’s...? As expected.
Harris, having used Dimensional Barrier Mitigation twice before, sensed the anomaly in her holy power.
The efficiency drop from dimensional phase differences that all holy users suffered—she showed none of it.
The Scribe’s holy power must come from the Reverse Heaven Lord. Same world as its source, so no dimensional interference.
That was likely the key to her rise in the Pantheon’s ranks.
Her conditions were fundamentally different from others’, so reaching the top without full effort wouldn’t have been hard.
Well, Heinrich’s in a similar boat.
Harris steadied his breathing inside the helmet, his star-shaped pupils gleaming.
The air-purifying magic tool helped compared to breathing raw air, but as a being closest to nature, his respiration wasn’t just lungs—it was still grueling.
Using spirits makes it worse. Need to end this quick.
Squeeze.
Amid the chaos from seven high spirits’ indiscriminate bombardment turning the area to wreckage,
he gripped Themis—the bow crafted from a World Tree branch—tightly.
With the formation from Infinite Eight Trigrams Flight Art (Revised) around them, collateral damage wasn’t a concern.
He had already moved the driver and car to safety using it.
For him, who could manipulate natural energies freely with Infinite Eight Trigrams Flight Art (Revised), formations creating artificial natural ki to shape the environment were a perfect match.
And he had plenty of knowledge from the Zhuge family and Golden Peak Island!
Creeeak—
An arrow of World Tree branch nocked on the string.
Defying the tension ready to fire, power rapidly concentrated within.
Hummm—
Pure natural force, refined energies, and the spirits’ elemental powers all converged into a single point.
And the moment that destructive energy, compressed to its limit, was released.
———!
A line of light pierced the void, slicing space itself.
Boom—!
After one explosion faded.
Harris’s expression hardened.
“Ah, didn’t see this coming...”
As he stared at the familiar figure who had blocked his target, the Chief Scribe.