CA - Chapter 85
Chapter 85
In a remote town in the northernmost part of the Gosse Empire, seventh and eighth-generation vampires were scattering due to the fluctuations of light magic. Karen and two Holy Knights skillfully intercepted them, their golden longswords slashing out streaks of white sword energy that left wounds deep enough to see bone on the vampires. The searing pain of the light made the vampires let out miserable screams.
Seeing that the vampires were all subdued, a brown-haired priest walked over from the rear. He raised his staff and softly chanted an incantation. The light elements condensed into a golden ring of light, binding the vampires on the ground together.
Glancing at the vampires struggling within the ring of light, Karen pursed her lips. She sheathed her longsword and looked toward the north of the town, where there were also fluctuations of light magic. She pressed her lips together and started walking in that direction.
“Karen.” The brown-haired priest looked at her and called out to stop her. “Bishop Grace said that no one is to disturb her.”
They had all followed the blonde bishop here to eliminate the vampires. However, as soon as they arrived in town, Tang Qiu had split off from them, taking only two Holy Knights with her. Karen had wanted to follow, but she had been refused.
Karen said, a little unhappily, “Angelica, I know what Bishop Grace’s orders are.”
Seeing that Karen didn’t stop walking, Angelica frowned. Sure enough, she then heard the blonde girl continue, “But I’m very worried about her, so I’m going to protect her.” After speaking, she strode away, her figure quickly obscured by the dilapidated houses.
A flash of worry crossed Angelica’s eyes. A Holy Knight came over to ask if they should bring Karen back. She was silent for a moment, then shook her head slightly. Karen was the strongest among the Holy Knights. Not only was it uncertain if they could bring her back, but if a dispute arose, the impact would be even worse.
She scanned her surroundings. Many civilians injured by the vampires were cowering in corners, trembling. Angelica remembered the order the blonde bishop had given her before coming to the town. She took a deep breath, then turned her head to the clergy behind her and said in a low voice, “Bishop Grace’s orders are for us to comfort these civilians as much as possible. Don’t be stingy with your power of light; use healing spells directly.”
“If you feel mentally fatigued, you can come to me. Bishop Grace has prepared Holy Water of Light for us.”
The clergy nodded and dispersed in an orderly fashion to heal the injured civilians.
In the northern part of the town, Tang Qiu held a silver-white staff. She glanced at the sixth-generation vampire pinned to the ground by Lucille. A white light flashed at the tip of the staff, and a ring of light, avoiding Lucille, wrapped around the vampire. She asked coolly, “Do you have any other companions in the Gosse Empire?”
The ring of light tightened around his body, and the searing sensation of the light magic made the vampire’s expression change. He knelt on the ground, his face contorted as he said, “Companions?” He glared at Lucille with hatred and sneered, “Isn’t this my companion right here?”
Lucille’s eyes turned cold. She bent down and grabbed his neck, her other hand pressing directly against the vampire’s chest. The vampire’s face changed drastically. He tried to struggle, but the ring of light completely suppressed his power of darkness.
A long, powerful hand plunged into the vampire’s chest, and Lucille crushed the vampire’s heart with an indifferent expression.
Tang Qiu watched Lucille toss the vampire’s corpse aside. She glanced down at her blood-stained hand and waved her staff, casting a cleaning spell on her. She raised an eyebrow and smiled, “You’ve been a bit irritable lately.”
Lucille walked to Tang Qiu’s side, her eyes lowered to hide the lingering ferocity in them. She said in a low voice, “I’ve noticed it too.” Lately, her emotions had been easily swayed.
And she also felt extremely hungry.
On the night she and Tang Qiu were intimate, Lucille had thought her uncontrollable desire to drink blood was due to the atmosphere at the time. But later, she realized that wasn’t the case.
When she returned to the Gosse Empire, this thirsty impulse in her heart still hadn’t disappeared. It was only because Tang Qiu wasn’t around that she could still restrain it.
Tang Qiu studied Lucille carefully for a few moments, vaguely feeling that the aura around her seemed much stronger than before. A thought stirred in her mind, and just as she was about to ask something, Lucille suddenly said in a low voice, “A Holy Knight is coming this way.”
Tang Qiu was taken aback and frowned. “What?”
Lucille glanced at a certain spot, and her figure flashed. She left from the other side, finding a hidden place to conceal herself.
Tang Qiu watched Lucille disappear, frowning. She raised her hand, waved her staff, and softly chanted an incantation. A light flame suddenly appeared, engulfing the vampire’s corpse, and in a short while, it was burned to ashes.
As the light flame burned, Karen finally found Tang Qiu. Her eyes lit up. Her knight’s armor didn’t slow her down in the slightest. Behind her was a Holy Knight who had tried but failed to stop her.
“Bishop Grace, how could you send the Holy Knights away and face the vampire by yourself?” Karen walked to Tang Qiu’s side, glanced at the location of the light flame, and said with a worried frown, “This is too dangerous.”
Tang Qiu turned her head to look at her, her tone calm. “Why are you here?”
Karen said as if it were a matter of course, “I am your Holy Knight, so I’m here to protect you.”
Tang Qiu put away the staff in her hand and pointed to a Holy Knight beside her. The usual serene smile on her face was gone. Her voice betrayed no emotion as she asked, “Tell her what the first rule of the Holy Knights is.”
The Holy Knight straightened his back and said mechanically, “The first rule of the Holy Knights is to unconditionally obey all of the bishop’s commands.”
“…But protecting the bishop’s safety is also a Holy Knight’s duty,” Karen belatedly realized that Tang Qiu didn’t seem very happy about her arrival. She lowered her head and mumbled a defense for herself.
“Karen, if you can’t understand what it means to obey orders, I don’t mind if you desert the Gosse Church to guard another bishop’s safety.”
Once a Holy Knight left Eden, barring any accidents, they would guard only the bishop who had chosen them for their entire life. To desert while the bishop was still alive would become a stain on a Holy Knight’s record.
The joy on Karen’s face vanished. She lowered her head, looked at her feet, and replied cautiously, “I was wrong.”
Given Karen’s temperament, Tang Qiu wasn’t surprised she would do something like this. In her opinion, Karen’s talent was immense, but she was not a qualified knight.
She hadn’t originally been in her selection pool, but since she had brought the girl out of Eden, she had to find a way to change her personality. Tang Qiu sighed silently.
She withdrew her gaze from Karen and gestured to the other two Holy Knights toward a dilapidated storage room not far from them. “Open the door,” she said.
The Holy Knights stepped forward, cut the chain on the door with their swords, and then pushed the door open.
Karen was curious and wanted to go in for a look, but remembering Tang Qiu’s earlier words, she stopped herself. She turned her head and looked at Tang Qiu expectantly.
A hint of helplessness flashed in Tang Qiu’s eyes. She waved her hand at her. “Go on.”
Two seventh-generation vampires were still hiding inside. After the door was opened, they tried to take the opportunity to slip away but were stopped by Karen’s swinging longsword. The other two Holy Knights came to assist, and the three of them easily subdued the two vampires.
Karen sheathed her longsword and scanned the storage room. Seeing the floor covered in corpses, her expression became complex and grave.
Tang Qiu walked up from behind her, glanced around, and motioned for them to step back. Then she softly chanted an incantation. The spell wasn’t long, and soon, a healing spell enveloped the entire storage room.
Some “corpses” slowly woke up, but others remained motionless. The Holy Knights went forward and carried the living out from the pile of bodies. Karen looked at the people being carried out and said, somewhat puzzled, “Why are they all men?”
Tang Qiu paused. Before she could speak, one of the awakened men said weakly, “The young women in the town were all taken away by them.”
Karen frowned and said angrily, “Where were they taken? I’ll go save them.” Seeing Tang Qiu looking at her expressionlessly, she awkwardly corrected herself, “The Church will go save them.”
These people had been locked up here since their capture, forced to endure the constant fear of losing their lives. How could they possibly know where the vampires had taken the others? Seeing that the Holy Knights had already carried out all the living, Tang Qiu turned to Karen and said, “Let’s return to the Church first.”
Karen still wanted to ask for some clues about the captured women, but seeing that Tang Qiu had already left, she hesitated for a moment and had no choice but to give up and follow her.
The Gosse Church’s dereliction of duty for over a year had fueled the arrogance of dark creatures. Tang Qiu spent nearly two months leading her people to deal with the stack of distress letters sent by the Gosse Empire. She then spent another half a month expelling dark creatures not recorded in the letters. With the exception of the city occupied by the Black Witches, the Gosse Empire finally returned to a long-lost state of peace.
However, while the Gosse Empire had found peace, the Church was in a state of panic. Tang Qiu had personally led her own people to expel the dark creatures, bringing only Angelica from the Central Church. The rest of the clergy received no orders and could only wait anxiously in the Church.
The longer Tang Qiu was away from the Church, the more frequently Lisa’s door was knocked upon. Most of the original priests of the Gosse Church were spies left behind by Cambecus. They all knew that Lisa was deeply trusted by Cambecus, and when they began to feel uneasy about Tang Qiu’s actions, they subconsciously sought Lisa for help.
Tang Qiu’s series of actions looked as if she had decided to resolve the Church’s external threats first, and then slowly clean up “internal threats” like them. The moment they thought of this, they couldn’t sit still.
The representative of the four priests Cambecus had left in the Gosse Church was a male priest with short, chestnut-colored hair named Willie. Before Tang Qiu’s arrival, he had been exercising the bishop’s authority in the Church. When the new bishop took office, he had been eager to carve out a share of the church’s power and create some trouble for her.
After all, they had Archbishop Cambecus backing them, so he felt the new bishop would have to be somewhat wary.
But to his surprise, the new bishop completely ignored the internal affairs of the Church after taking office. She didn’t even use a single bit of the Church’s power to expel the dark creatures within Gosse’s borders. This began to make him panic.
In the face of absolute strength, the little power he held was of little use. Even the backing of Archbishop Cambecus somehow no longer made him feel secure.
But Willie was not resigned… He wanted to unite with Lisa to deal with the new bishop. At the very least, when the new bishop began to reclaim power in the Church, they had to control half of it. “…Bishop Grace only has one trusted priest by her side, while we have five on our side. Even if she wants to promote her own confidants, it will take time.”
“As long as we… during this time…” Willie’s words were cut short by Lisa’s cold interruption. “I will not participate. You may leave.”
Willie looked at her in astonishment, his face full of confusion. “Priest Lisa, I’m doing this for Archbishop Cambecus as well.” Their continued presence in the Gosse Church meant that half of its power belonged to Cambecus.
They had all heard about the situation in the Bill Church, where power was split between the bishop and the priests. Willie wanted the Gosse Church to become like the Bill Church.
Lisa lowered her eyes, her tone cold. “Don’t make me say it a second time.”
Willie frowned. He leaned in and lowered his voice, “…Refusing to support the Gosse Empire was Archbishop Cambecus’s order. This place is very important to him.”
Lisa’s gaze flickered, and she fell silent. Willie thought she was about to change her mind and was preparing to continue persuading her when he saw her suddenly stand up.
Lisa grabbed Willie’s arm, dragged him to the door, and then pushed him out, saying with displeasure, “Do you not understand my words?”
“I will not be involved in your affairs. If you want to deal with Bishop Grace, then do it yourself. Don’t drag me into it.”
With that, she slammed the door shut with a bang.
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