Chapter 111
Chapter 111
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 111
Chapter Title: The Archbishops' Descent (4)
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“……!”
Egillas reacted immediately.
He hadn’t drawn the Demon Spirit Sword ‘Alkais’ yet, but without hesitation, he raised his hand.
He had already grasped that the attacker was swinging a sword deployed with a sword beam.
“Ugh……!”
Flash!
The mana Egillas deployed in his palm blocked the opponent’s sword beam.
He could tell the assailant gulped upon seeing him block a sword beam with his bare hand.
“Hup!”
Egillas inhaled sharply as he swung his arm.
He grabbed the assailant’s wrist and hurled them straight toward the wall.
“……!”
Boom!
The already crumbling wall collapsed completely.
Egillas grimaced and turned his gaze that way.
“You…… could it be…….”
As he tried to speak while recalling a memory.
A barrage of sword bullets flew from behind, engulfing Egillas.
* * *
Dust filled the air.
As I kept my mouth shut and surveyed the situation, Liz pulled herself up from where she’d been slammed into the wall.
“Did you finish him off?”
“As if.”
The plan was for Liz to draw Egillas’s attention with her ambush, then I’d launch the real strike.
But I hadn’t expected much effect from it.
The goal of this ambush was to rescue Atria, who’d been too late to escape.
Right now, Kain and Robel, who’d charged in with resolve, were getting her out of here.
“Sister, you should withdraw now. I’ll take it from here.”
“…….”
“Please keep watch around for any other enemies.”
Liz didn’t back off easily.
But she knew it too.
If it came to a real fight with Archbishop Egillas, her power as a mere six-star iron-rank knight would just get in the way.
“Sion.”
“What is it?”
“Once this is over, I want to have a talk with you. Just us.”
“……?”
She’d barely spoken to me all this time, and now she wanted a chat?
“Can you promise me?”
“No reason not to.”
“Then it’s a promise.”
Finally, Liz fell back.
“I’ll believe you’ll keep it.”
With Liz gone, I was the only one left in the audience chamber.
No—more precisely, just me and Archbishop Egillas.
“…….”
In the settling dust of the audience chamber, Egillas stared silently at me.
It was hard to spot any damage on his body wrapped in black bandages.
[He took all those sword bullets and he’s fine.]
‘Those bandages aren’t a demon spirit robe, but they’ve got great defense. Combined with Egillas’s mana armor, they can easily block sword bullets like mine.’
Sword bullets strip mana from a sword beam to fire as ranged projectiles. They’re bound to lose power.
[So a full sword beam could pierce through?]
‘Who knows.’
I wouldn’t know without testing it.
I’d fought Egillas once before, but he might’ve gotten stronger since then.
‘Igzard, where are the Emperor and Empress?’
[They seem to be hiding in an underground space. Not many people with them. Looks like they fled in a hurry with only their closest aides.]
I’d never heard of such a place.
Even the Imperial Guard seemed unaware. It must be an evacuation shelter known only to the Emperor and his innermost circle.
‘It’s probably got powerful magical security…… but Egillas could break through it easily enough.’
Egillas already seemed to have noticed the underground space.
With only me here now, if he took me out, he could head underground and drag out the Emperor.
“Archbishop Egillas.”
“……?”
“Why would the infiltration faction come up with a plan like this?”
Hearing my question, Egillas stared straight at me.
“Why do you ask that?”
“There’s been no operation on this scale lately.”
This involved deploying three archbishops.
Something like this only happened during the all-out war twenty years ago.
“It’s unprecedented to target the heart of the Sacred Empire, too. Whether it succeeds or fails, it’ll cause massive repercussions.”
“I don’t follow what you’re getting at.”
“This isn’t an operation approved by Supreme Archbishop Aquilast, is it?”
Supreme Archbishop Aquilast.
The moment I said the name, Archbishop Egillas’s eyes changed.
“Given Aquilast’s temperament, he’d never approve something like this.”
“You…….”
“But it doesn’t seem like something the infiltration faction archbishops would come up with either.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Think about it.”
I nodded slightly as I spoke.
“If the Sacred Empire’s Emperor is assassinated, the Holy Spirit Church won’t sit idly by. Killing the highest secular authority recognized by the Holy Spirit Church is tantamount to a challenge against them.”
“That’s…….”
“Moreover, Cardinal Epitraus, who currently holds real power in the Holy Spirit Church, has close ties to the Sacred Empire’s government. He definitely won’t stay quiet.”
It was obvious as day.
“The Holy Spirit Church is likely to mobilize the Holy Knight Order for all-out war against the Dialogue Church. The Sacred Empire lacks the power to wage war on the Dialogue Church, but the Holy Spirit Church and Holy Knights do not.”
“That won’t happen.”
Egillas shook his head.
“Cardinal Epitraus is a moderate. Unlike the hardliner Cardinal Versachio, Epitraus is unlikely to take such a stance.”
“You know one thing but not two.”
“What?”
“The Epitraus I’ve seen is no moderate.”
Epitraus had tried to use me and Kurt to eliminate Versachio.
He pretends to be moderate on the surface, but he’s the type to swing the sword whenever necessary.
“Cardinal Epitraus will use this chance to take a hard line against the Dialogue Church and shed his moderate image. To secure the next papal seat.”
“…….”
“And if all-out war breaks out like that, the internal dynamics of the Dialogue Church will shift too.”
“Within the Dialogue Church?”
“Yeah. The voices of the decisive battle faction archbishops will grow louder. Isn’t that obvious?”
“……!”
The decisive battle faction has long opposed the infiltration faction.
They see petty terrorism like the infiltration faction’s as pointless and want all-out war with the Holy Spirit Church to seize hegemony—a militant group.
“In the end, if you kill the Emperor, it won’t benefit the infiltration faction. The decisive battle faction will rise instead.”
“No way! After the infiltration faction claims this achievement, why would that happen?!”
“Sure, you’ll get praise at first. Even Supreme Archbishop Aquilast will commend you for the great feat.”
“Exactly! The infiltration faction will gain the upper hand!”
“But Supreme Archbishop Aquilast won’t let you run wild unchecked.”
“……!”
Supreme Archbishop Aquilast has maintained his power by manipulating the three factions: infiltration, decisive battle, and latent.
If the infiltration faction assassinates the Emperor and starts dominating, he’ll bolster the decisive battle faction to restore balance.
“To wage full war with the Holy Knight Order anyway, he has no choice but to empower the decisive battle faction. Their pure combat strength far surpasses the infiltration faction’s.”
At least until the war settles, he’ll keep backing them.
Then discard them like clay oxen later.
“Egillas, among the infiltration faction, Archbishop Sapirus didn’t join this operation, right?”
“What?”
“Archbishop Sapirus is leagues stronger than someone like Archbishop Brishura. Why send a rear-line researcher like Brishura instead of Sapirus?”
“That’s…….”
“Probably because Sapirus saw through it. That even if this operation succeeds with difficulty, only the decisive battle faction benefits in the end.”
“……!”
Among the Dialogue Church’s infiltration faction archbishops, only Sapirus has the insight for such political judgment.
That’s why Sapirus sat this out. Only Egillas, Mekringel, and Brishura joined.
“Archbishop Egillas, whose idea was this operation, exactly?”
“…….”
“In the end, this operation…….”
I stared into Egillas’s eyes as I said it.
“Whether it succeeds or fails, it’s set up to deal a massive blow to the Dialogue Church’s infiltration faction.”
* * *
‘What the hell is this guy?’
Archbishop Egillas was at a loss.
From his words, he understood the Dialogue Church’s internal affairs perfectly.
He seemed to grasp even parts regular Holy Knights couldn’t.
Especially Supreme Archbishop Aquilast’s temperament—something hard to fathom without delving deep into the church’s core.
How could a brat like this see through it all?
‘Did he hear it from Helena Aleyas?’
As the head of the Heresy Inquisition directing Holy Knight intelligence, Helena Aleyas might know such details.
But even so, this young Holy Knight’s statements were astounding.
‘Is this guy really…… just a kid not even twenty?’
Sion Aleyas’s various predictions were highly convincing.
They made him want to slap his knee, wondering why he hadn’t realized.
‘This operation definitely…… wasn’t thought up by me, Mekringel, or Brishura.’
The infiltration faction archbishops fleshed it out.
But the core—burning the palace and executing the Emperor—wasn’t their idea.
‘Could we have been…… dancing in someone’s palm all along?’
A chill ran down his spine.
At the same time, his doubts about the young Holy Knight before him grew.
“Sion Aleyas.”
Egillas opened his heavy mouth.
“You wouldn’t happen to…… have ties to the Dialogue Church, would you?”
“Do I need to answer that?”
“…….”
Hearing that, Egillas finally understood.
He could even grasp why Sion had risen so unusually fast to dominate the Holy Knights.
“So that’s how it is.”
Sion’s ability to accumulate mana so quickly was probably thanks to the Dialogue Circulation Method.
Storing vast mana in a single circle matched its traits too.
Sion had been…… with the Dialogue Church from the start.
“Almost made a huge mistake.”
Egillas shook his head with a wry smile and relaxed his shoulders.
Then, from within his bandages, he approached Sion with a bitter smile.
“So we’re on the same side.”
It was absurd, but also a relief.
Having such a talented youth as an ally made the Dialogue Church’s future seem bright.
“Explaining and advising like this…… means you lean toward the infiltration faction, right? Connected to Archbishop Sapirus, maybe? Or…….”
Now that things were like this, he wanted to consult Sion on next steps.
Whether to go underground and kill the Emperor now, or retreat for today—he wanted his input.
Before long, Egillas saw this young Holy Knight he’d met today as a very reliable ally.
“You’ve got it all wrong, Archbishop Egillas.”
But.
Sion’s cold voice halted Egillas’s steps.
“What did you just say?”
“I said you’re greatly mistaken, Archbishop Egillas.”
Sion raised the Demon Spirit Sword Ashurai.
The moment he saw that flawless stance without a single gap, Egillas felt an eerie sense of déjà vu.
A man who’d held that sword in that pose…… he’d clashed blades with him once before……
“Come at me first. I’ll knock some sense into you.”
In a tone unthinkable for a brat Holy Knight with only eight-star mana, Sion provoked Egillas.