Chapter 104
Sacred Peak, Generosus (1)
The Landea Mountains separated the border between the millennium kingdom of Kaldris and the fairy kingdom of Allendia.
An elegant temple, surrounded by dozens of buildings, stood in a magnificent mountain range basin.
It was the headquarters of the Church of Darkness, the Scotaskia, serving Kybriel.
* * *
The center hall of Scotaskia had a subtle dark color due to the walls being finished with graphite. It was named the Hall of Stars.
A group of priests gathered there to hold an emergency meeting.
A chubby middle-aged woman in her 50s sitting at the table asked as if she couldn’t believe the news.
“Leon Hart is missing?”
It was Sermen, the Saintess of Darkness.
For some reason, people thought of a beautiful girl or an elegant beauty whenever they heard the word ‘Saintess.’ However, even a saintess wasn’t exempted from old age.
An older man with a stern expression, Pope Castalo II, nodded solemnly.
“Yes, Saintess.”
Sermen sighed.
“It’s hard to believe. How could that happen…?”
Leon Hart wasn’t just the eldest son of a local lord.
He was the third person to be blessed by the Goddesses and was the Templar Head of the Church of Darkness. He was a powerful man among those who had enough power and influence on the world in Latna.
He apparently went down to his hometown for a short vacation and was killed there.
“Did he happen to be killed by the incidents during the night?”
One of the high-priests answered the saintess’s question.
“I don’t think so.”
As soon as she heard the news, she immediately sent people for an investigation.
Thanks to that, she was able to grasp the whole story roughly.
“According to Baron Frelsis’s testimony, a group of Hunters came to the mansion and attacked Leon Hart.”
The reckless men fought a fierce battle that destroyed the mansion, but Leon Hart was defeated and got kidnapped in the end.
“Their identity is not yet known, but…”
The High Priest continued.
“It’s the work of Aliens.”
There was a reason to judge so.
Most of Baron Frelsis’s knights and soldiers watched Leon Hart’s final appearance.
They said he was bitten by a big Wyvern’s mouth and disappeared to the other side of the sky.
“They said it was a black wyvern with a silver mane.”
Although most of a Wyvern’s scales were black, it was uncommon for them to have a silver mane.
The other believers gathered in the place and murmured.
“If it’s a silver-maned wyvern…”
“Isn’t that the same monster who murdered the third prince of the Xrad kingdom?”
It wasn’t as notorious as they made it out to be, considering it only killed the third prince of a small country.
However, the dark believers there all knew about the evil silver-maned Wyvern.
That demonic Wyvern’s notoriety didn’t just stem from the murder of the prince.
“I’m sure you’re right!”
“It’s the same monster who massacred the Inquisitor in Onfros City!
Of course, when Effir was briefly subordinated to Alejandro, the Templars they killed were members of the Darkness Church.
It was a complete coincidence, but from the Church’s perspective, it looked as if the Wyvern did it all.
Convinced, Sermen nodded.
“I see.”
They reached a conclusion.
The powerful Alien dealing with the silver-maned Wyvern knocked down Leon Hart and kidnapped him!
It was a surprisingly penetrating conclusion, even though their reasoning was nowhere near correct.
They thought they weren’t wrong, however.
The believers exchanged opinions and agonized.
“As expected, the night’s tragedy was done by the Aliens.”
“What the hell are they after?”
“What are they gonna do with Leon Hart?”
Castalo II mumbled as he smoothed his beard.
“It’s a serious situation indeed.”
The Pope, the saintess, and the Templar Head were the three pillars that supported the Church.
It wasn’t usually a big deal that one of them was missing.
However, multiple unfortunate instances related to the Church of Darkness had overlapped. It threw them into disarray.
“Find him with all your might!”
The Pope’s shoulders trembled in anger as he gave out an order.
“In the name of Kybriel, punish those wicked heretics!”
* * *
“… I’m sure they are running wild.”
Kibie sighed.
“I’m sorry, Castalo and Sermen.”
She looked inside the wagon and continued.
“But we’ve achieved our goal…”
At the corner of the wagon, a young man was sleeping while tied by all kinds of control harnesses and thick chains.
It was Leon Hart, the third blessed individual.
Han-bin’s group, who had kidnapped Leon Hart as planned, immediately escaped from the Frelsis estate.
Along the way, they stopped by a nearby city and prepared all kinds of restraints to tie up Leon Hart.
The problem was that Leon Hart was a very high-ranking Spiritualist of level 112.
No one would dare arrest him with simple Magic Tools.
And there was no way to get better Magic Tools in the countryside, however.
Artis gave them a solution.
‘If quality doesn’t work, we’ll just have to go with quantity!’
Dozens of restraints were purchased and coiled around his entire body.
Thanks to that, they wasted a lot of money, but they overcame such a powerful opponent, so they at least got their money’s worth.
That was the third day.
At first, Leon Hart made all kinds of fuss, shouting lines like ‘Untie this chain right now, you dirty heretics!’, ‘Ah, Kybriel!’ and ‘Forgive your servant.’
It was as if he had given up half-heartedly.
“Of course, he couldn’t have given up…”
Ryu Han-bin murmured as he watched him still sleeping quietly.
“He’ll be looking for a chance to escape.”
Effir, who had just replaced Artis at the horseman’s seat, asked Han-bin.
“How are you feeling?”
Han-bin shrugged his bandaged shoulders.
“I’ve healed enough to move.”
His injuries were so severe they prevented him from standing, but he had become relatively stable after three days.
It was thanks to his generous consumption of healing potions.
Ryu Han-bin’s extreme resilience was also helpful.
“But if a Spiritist had healed me, I would have gotten better a lot faster.”
Confirming the healing wound, Effir felt sorry.
Han-bin clicked his tongue.
“We have no choice. Low-level healing doesn’t work.”
His injury had residual Pranas of a level 112 Spiritist.
A low-level Spiritist wouldn’t have been able to heal him.
“I wish he was on our side…”
When he saw Leon Hart asleep, he felt sorry for him.
Kibie replied.
“Once we get the holy item, Leon Hart will be able to admit to himself that I am the incarnation of Kybriel.”
The problem was the process of getting it.
The Church of Darkness would indeed form a tracking group and follow them ferociously.
They had shown their faces to Baron Frelsis, so the group’s description was revealed.
Above all, tracking was a headache.
He fought Leon Hart and splattered blood all over the mansion. He essentially left tracking catalysts behind.
The Church’s holy warriors would be mobilized for a large scale mission to chase them.
“Is there any way to stop or block that tracking skill?”
Effir shook her head.
“There is, but we can’t use it at the moment.”
That was more difficult to cast than the tracking skill, so they had to be at a minimum level of 80 to use it.
“That’s a headache. I’m sure they’re tracking us down.”
The three strongest men cooperated with the Church of Darkness.
The only answer was to go to the Sacred Peak Generosus as soon as possible.
Ryu Han-bin continued while grooming the Gigant.
“It’s going to be a fight against time.”
* * *
Han-bin’s group left the Meran kingdom and continued heading north.
Han-bin had a bitter smile on his lips as he watched the scene while leaning against the wall of the wagon.
“Oh, my God, someone would think you’re on a leisurely cruise.”
Since a large number of chasers were following them, it was necessary to move as soon and as fast as possible.
According to common sense, they should abandon their wagon, get on the horses, and rush towards the mountain nonstop.
There was a limit to the wagon because of its structure.
Nevertheless, Han-bin’s group didn’t leave it behind.
‘It won’t matter. They would still be faster.’
If it was a short distance, of course, it was better to abandon the wagon and just run.
Golem steeds, in particular, weren’t living creatures.
If someone held the reins, steeds could run all day without stopping.
However, the rider would need to rest.
If it was long-distance, it was better to move nonstop while taking turns sleeping.
Besides, the problem was that they had a lot of luggage.
First of all, they had a big load called Leon Heart.
It was never easy to ride a horse with more than just one person on it.
With all kinds of Magic Tools wrapped around the human’s body, it became even harder.
‘Yes, I understand, but…’
It was still disturbing to move so slowly while they were being tracked down.
He even talked about his opinion with Effir.
-Why don’t you turn into a Wyvern and fly us there? I think that would shorten the time.
It didn’t work.
-I don’t have the stamina to fly that long.
If only Effir were alone, it would be possible to rest halfway through and fly to the Kellev Mountains.
But with Ryu Han-bin, Kibie, Artis, and Leon Hart?
It was far too unreasonable to ask her to fly that far.
-I can last 10 minutes at most? I’ll burn out after that.
Fortunately, there was no delay in their travels.
Their supply was sufficient and long-term preservation of food was possible thanks to the cold storage.
If they kept going at that pace, they would enter the Kellev Mountains in about three days.
“Will we be able to run all the way there without trouble?”
“You’d better not expect too much.”
Kibie shook her head at Han-bin’s words.
The Spiritists’ tracking skill was too efficient.
It was hard to escape them.
“We’re going as fast as we can, but they would probably catch up at least once.”
* * *
At the frontier of the northernmost part of Latna, there was a group of soldiers on the low hill.
A middle-aged knight at the head of the army looked down the hill.
He could see a wagon moving on a rugged road as it crossed the field.
A middle-aged knight, Lord Fraser, smiled coldly.
“Finally found them.”
A templar standing next to him murmured fearfully.
“Are we going to save the leader by ourselves?”
The Church of Darkness went through extreme efforts to save the captive Leon Hart.
Thirty members of the prominent group were level 60 or higher, and 20 partners of the Goddess were mobilized. The Church appointed Lord Fraser as the commander of the chase.
Considering the time they had, they had done their best.
The problem was that they couldn’t handle even Leon Hart with that power.
Lord Fraser, the second most powerful member of the Church, was a level 90 Magic Swordsman.
There was a huge gap between him and Leon Hart, who was level 112.
It didn’t mean that the Church of Darkness was inferior to others.
Leon Hart was simply extraordinary.
The opponent was a powerful Alien who defeated even Leon Hart.
It was natural for the Templar to be worried.
But Lord Fraser shook his head.
“How could he have lost in that one-on-one battle?”
Everyone knew how powerful the determined Leon heart was.
“I’m sure he used a cowardly trick. The unique items of the Aliens have strange abilities.”
Cowardly methods were not accepted as there were more
There were only four of them. They severely outnumbered the kidnappers.
Confidently, Fraser pulled out his sword.
“Warriors of Kybriel!”
He then pulled on the reins of the Golem steed with a shout.
“To the wicked Aliens, send the Goddess’s wrath!”
He led the charge, his steed sprinting down the hill.
Others screamed and began to follow him.
“To the Aliens, we shall send the Goddess’s wrath!”
“For Kybriel!”