Chapter 557: Heretic
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Royal Knight who suddenly appeared at the banquet wore clergy robes that were lined with armor. And his breastplate had the insignia of a ranked Disciple of Glory. This meant that he was at least on par with the bishops of the realm. Having the authority to enter the palace at will however, meant that he was ranked even higher. The knight headed straight to the Pope as soon as he got into the hall. Two of the cardinals beside the pope stood up to stop him. The knight stopped gingerly before he reported something to the cardinals. The two cardinals then nodded and sat down, giving him the approval for the urgent report.
Yet Hao Ren found the knight fishy in all aspects. A sense of danger tingled his senses.
Vivian stood up too as she silently shuffled to a more spacious area by the corner. Y'zaks patted Y'lisabet on her little head as well. "Stay here and don't move."
By then, the knight was about 10 m from the pope and the king. Before the latter rose to question him, the knight bowed and reported, "Your Holiness, Your Majesty, I bring news about the Cult of Origination!"
King Mhoren quickly rose. "What? Have we finally found them?"
"We found a coven near the capital. The heretics have already fled, but we managed to gather a list of their members and ritual records." The ranked knight pulled out a scroll from a pouch on his chest. "This is the main information compiled by Cardinal Bluck."
The pope raised his hand and the scroll flew into his grip. He then opened the scroll to read its contents.
"Your Holiness..." The ranked knight waited for a few seconds before he looked at the pope. He noticed that the latter was frozen in place upon reading the scroll. Turning around, he spread his arms open, and in a peculiar high-pitched voice, he proclaimed, "The Pope has returned to the goddess' side!"
The silence in the hall was palpable as confusion reigned. King Mhoren suddenly shouted. "Seize him!"
The undercover guards, who dotted the hall recovered from their stupor and went into a furore. Most of the attendees quickly drew all sorts of small arms from their dress, and with various enchantments protecting them, they charged at the knight. The Royal Guards outside swarmed into the hall as well. It was a scene of total chaos.
However, the first to attack was Big Beardy, who sat on the table to the left of the pope. The moment the ascetic monk realized that something was wrong with the pope, he swiftly deployed a few divine spells to protect the pope. Even before the king gave his order, Big Beardy had already began to lunge at the enemy.
A blast rang out as Big Beardy's twin fists, enchanted with a faint golden glow, slammed against the knight's chest. His divine spell created a massive shockwave around him. But the knight did not appear to feel any pain as he gave Big Beardy a maniacal smile. He then lifted his arms to grab the ascetic.
Big Beardy realized that his attack—meant to pulverize the target's innards and bring the battle to a swift end—was ineffective. The target before him was clearly not human. He immediately pulled back, keeping some distance. At the same time, the charging guards had reached the knight with dozens of blades plunging into him.
A crackling sound like metal piercing into rotten wood was heard. The rotten blood that bled from the knight's wounds was so black that it was unnatural. The guards, sensing that things were amiss, prepared to pull back, but their weapons were stuck inside the enemy. They immediately let go of their weapons as they retreated, while the rest of the soldier formed a shield wall in front of King Mhoren and the pope.
The next second, even more cracking sounds came from the knight's body as a gush of rotten, blood-like liquid flowed out of his wounds like it was alive. It headed with deadly intention towards the nearest Royal Guard. Another pool of blood splashed against the floor before it made its way towards the heavily guarded King Mhoren, smoke trailing in its wake.
At that very moment, a blinding flash of lightning swept past them as a swarm of bats appeared out of thin air. They surrounded the knight, and formed an impenetrable shell of bats. Within the shell, lightning struck and a miniature storm formed. As the screeching wind bellowed, the rotten blood seeped out from the gaps between the bats. The blood curled about as it streamed forward, seemingly trying to escape. Yet, its attempts were futile as ice-cold winds formed around the shell, and every strand of blood that attempted to escape froze in the blink of an eye!
The guests and audience in the hall had only begun to realize what was going on. The ministers fled the hall, while the knights and clergymen with combat prowess swarmed forward to protect the king and pope. The scene was chaotic as shouts and screams of panic rang. Amid the chaos, the Aerym elves deployed their magical barriers to protect their queen, Hao Ren and the rest as well.
The "storm of bats" in the middle of the great hall lasted a good 10 seconds, and as every second passed, the sounds of clashing within the shell grew. Then, with a final violent roar, the shell disintegrated as Vivian reformed mid-air. The vampiress landed beside Hao Ren and her face was pale, almost sick. "...That stinks! The blood's gone bad! I shouldn't have tasted it!"
Hao Ren almost puked on Vivian's behalf the moment he heard that...
As the bat swarm went away, the monstrous knight appeared once again before the crowd... His armor was rent and scorch marks were all over his body. The massive loss of blood had caused his form to shrivel, and he was encased in a block of ice. Yet, the ice block was rapidly coming apart and the weapons that were stuck in him had corroded to a point where only their grips remained. This was undoubtedly a monster in the guise of a human, and it was still alive!
The cracking of the ice continued before the ice block was destroyed by the monster's enormous strength. The blood within his body was pretty much drained by now, and it seemed that it had lost the ability to control it after being encased in ice. The monster gave up on using the blood to attack, and charged headlong towards Hao Ren.
"F*ck! It's coming our way!" Hao Ren was disgusted by the creature's look and immediately responded with a high kick. He seemed to have underestimated the monster's strength, because even though his kick sent the monster back, his other leg had sunk a good few inches into the ground.
The monster did not try to attack again after it was kicked. As it growled, it turned to face the closest window. It wanted to escape.
By now, Hao Ren had drawn his pistol, and just before he pulled the trigger, something sparked in his mind. "Take it alive!"
Lily charged forth with fang and fury the moment the monster tried to escape. As she heard Hao Ren's request, she quickly retracted her claws. The werehusky deftly leapt about 10 m into the air before she landed in the middle of the monster's escape route. She then shot out a punch at the monster.
The monster did not dodge and responded in kind. A massive crash followed as the shockwave shattered the dishes on the nearby tables The ground behind Lily started to crumble as cracks, which streched a few meters formed under her feet.
"Grrrrrrrr—" Lily's irides glowed as she growled menacingly. Raising her arms again, she charged at the monster once more.
This was a pure brawl without much finesse. The two beings of immense strength were destroying everything around them. Every time Lily threw a fist, the air around her exploded. Every punch, every jab caused the floor to shake. It was clear that she was the superior melee fighter: she had the hunting instincts of a wol... canine, and her strikes were lightning quick. She could even find time to pick up a loose brick to act as a weapon. Her fighting style was pretty much a random storm of fists and bricks. The monster on the other hand, was sluggish. Perhaps Vivian's attack had severely damaged it or its physiology. The monster's reaction was always a step slower than Lily, and it was not long before it was beaten to a pulp.
After a frantic exchange, Lily drew a distance between herself and the monster. Most of the tables and flooring around them had already been pounded to dust. Lily's eyes were glowing and she was looking around for something to use as a weapon. But alas, all broken tables and bricks had already been thrown. That left the werehusky in an extremely foul mood.
The monster realized it was no match against Lily and turned tail to run.
It ran directly into Y'zaks.
The next scene was basically something you would want to censor with mosaic. Even in human form, Y'zaks was the best fighter present, and facing the monster knight was nothing to him. Hao Ren only saw the demon king grabbing his opponent by the arm before twisting and cracking its limbs into impropable angles. The monster even tried to use a spell to counter him, but against a demon king's resistance to spells, the sparks it produced were harmless.
The demon king threw the immobilized monster to the ground. Before he could speak, a white shadow darted towards the monster. Lily sank her fangs into the monster's limb, trying to tear it apart. As she tore into the monster, she let out a low growl, "Arrrr... Grrrr..."
She was really consumed by battlelust.
Y'zaks raised an eyebrow. "Trying to one-up?"
Vivian simply shrugged. "A glory hound you might say."
"Awooo?"