Saint Mallory Underground Passage (5)

The one contributing the most to the exploration of the underground passage was none other than the necromancer Scott.

Using a special sight that perceived the aura of living beings, Scott identified the nearby monsters and undead, then moved corpses ahead first to prevent any possible traps in advance, cleared away routes blocked by sewage or filth, and guided the party along the shortest path.

Even Haine, who disliked undead and necromancy, could not bring herself to complain, because Scott’s work was so swift, precise, and clean.

At that moment, Azadine spoke up.

“By the way, Sir Ject. There is something I want to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“That female knight under you, Sir Maya, chased me all the way here and turned into a wereboar, did she not?”

“She said she wished to act independently to take revenge on you, so I permitted it. It seems she was afflicted in the meantime. I have not seen her since.”

“I saw her recently in Saint Mallory. It looked as though she knew I was coming and was waiting for me. Have you really not seen her?”

“We did share on our side that you were coming. She must have learned it through that communication network.”

Ject answered in feigned innocence.

In other words, Ject had informed his subordinates in preparation for Azadine coming down from the Chadra Plateau, and through the contact network among his subordinates, that fact reached Maya.

But Maya becoming a wereboar had been outside his control. That was the excuse he was making.

“You take your subordinates’ lives too lightly. Well, since you carry the blood of the Yaegas God Tribe, they will probably keep following you no matter how you treat them. In an ordinary organization, you would get stabbed in the back. If you are born with blood that precious, no matter how long you live, you stay ignorant of how the world works.”

Azadine half ignored Ject’s excuse and gave that advice instead.

Hearing it, Haine smiled faintly.

‘This madman says whatever comes to mind without thinking ahead… but none of it is actually wrong. This is delightful.’

Watching Azadine subtly needle Ject, she was inwardly pleased.

Just then, Scott, who was controlling the undead at the front, shouted out.

“Chief! We came out into a wide place!”

“Oh?”

“There is a ladder, and a whole lot of potions and magical reagents have been thrown away. I think this must be a Wisdom Order facility!”

Just as Scott said, Azadine’s party arrived beneath a gigantic sewer conduit.

A huge iron ladder clung to the wall as though it rose into the sky, and above it stood a structure made in the age of giants, while countless discarded test subjects, medicines, and traces of magic had piled up below it.

They had reached the heart of the Wisdom Order, their laboratory, without encountering the Angel of Corruption.

‘No, this kind of luck… and at a time like this?’

Haine could not tell whether she should be glad or distressed by the situation.

Until now, the Benevolence Order had formed elite exploration teams and sent them out several times, but none had even gotten near the Wisdom Order’s laboratory.

That was because the closer one got to the Wisdom Order, the more frequently powerful monsters, including the Angel of Corruption, appeared.

Yet Azadine’s party had arrived beneath the Wisdom Order without any real resistance.

‘We cooked the porridge only to feed the dog.’

Ject, too, grasped the situation and clicked his tongue. Thanks to Ject and his subordinates paying a price close to annihilation, the underground had been cleared, and Azadine’s party had reaped the benefit.

Most likely, invisible factors such as the Courage Knights, adventurers, and treasure hunters had also been gathering here recently, creating this coincidence.

‘Will this be all right? If the Wisdom Order’s secret… becomes known to an Arbiter? No matter that the Wisdom Order is our rival faction, he is not one of us, even if he is from the same Rescue Knights Order.’

Haine suddenly grew uneasy.

The Three Archangels had originally been higher-dimensional beings with no material bodies.

However, they descended to this earth to save humanity, which was suffering under the Ancient Gods, and for that purpose they created bodies for themselves.

And when those bodies reached their limits, the Three Archangels would no longer be able to exert influence in this world and would be driven out.

If that happened, it was obvious that the power of the Rescue Knights Order, which borrowed miraculous power and the power of white magic from the angels, would be broken. With mighty Nether monsters still remaining, losing that power would have been no different from telling the Rescue Knights Order to die.

Thus, the Three Archangels resolved to bind their higher-dimensional selves to this world, petrified what remained of their bodies, and sealed their existence within them.

Leaving behind the teaching that the power of white magic would not be cut off so long as the doctrine of the Three Virtues was upheld, these divine beings chose to sacrifice themselves solely for the sake of humanity.

The place where the angels sealed away their worn-out bodies in that way was Saint Mallory Fortress. It was said that beneath the fortress stood the petrified statues of the Three Archangels, and that only the Holy Knights who had achieved the greatest merits were granted the honor of beholding those angel statues once a year.

But among the ordinary angels who followed the Three Archangels, there were also those who chose petrification of their own will.

Their statues had been formed in various places centered around the Three Archangels… but later, as Saint Mallory Fortress transformed into a great city, they became obstacles to the city’s expansion works, and in the end it became necessary to relocate the angel statues.

So the Wisdom Order gathered as many angel statues as possible near the Three Archangels, while those angel statues that unavoidably could not be kept close to the Three Archangels were taken into the Wisdom Order’s own sect holdings.

However, moving the petrified angel statues inevitably caused damage to them.

No one would ever have dared, in impiety, to try to destroy an angel statue, but when moving things made of stone, there was simply no helping the fact that thin parts broke and snapped.

And from those broken cross-sections of the angel statues, blood flowed out. Pious priests and Holy Knights were startled and tried to stop the wounds, but there was no way to stop the blood of one made of stone.

Yet those who came into contact with that flowing angel’s blood found their wounds healed, and miracles occurred in which severed arms and fingers regrew.

Thus they came to learn that angel’s blood possessed wondrous efficacy.

Angel’s blood must not be made to flow.

The Orders of Benevolence and Courage felt ashamed that angel’s blood had been made to flow and sought atonement, but with their abilities there was no way to restore the angel statues that had turned to stone.

At that, the Knights of Wisdom sought to research this angel’s blood, and such fierce disputes of opinion broke out among the three Orders that swords were nearly drawn.

‘We have already committed the sin of damaging the angel statues, but the greater and heavier sin would be to defile the angels’ ideals. To let that flowing blood go to waste is the very act of treason that defiles the noble sacrifice of the angels!’

The Wisdom Knights put forth such arguments and researched the angels’ blood, bringing about various advances in magic.

And they discovered the method of producing ceramite. Ceramite, metal that originally blazed with sacred power, was a sword that the Three Archangels had made and bestowed upon humanity.

That sacred flame possessed such force that even before the powerful forces of the King’s Church and the Divine Gods of the Eight Kingdoms, none could refuse to acknowledge the Rescue Knights Order.

The sight of Holy Knights driving away monsters and protecting humankind with sacred swords imprinted upon the common people that these truly were holy and righteous beings.

They became able to produce those ceramite longswords, but it would do no good for it to become known that they came from angel’s blood, and blood drawn from damaged angel statues at that.

In the end, the Orders of Courage and Benevolence agreed to overlook the actions of the Wisdom Order in exchange for receiving an equal share of ceramite.

All for the justice of the Order.

But now humanity had begun to create not ceramite, but Celestials, artificial angels.

This was an impiety that the Benevolence Order could not possibly overlook.

In truth, the very fact that the production volume of ceramite weapons had continued to be maintained was itself strange.

Within the Benevolence Order, suspicions had begun to grow that the Wisdom Order was intentionally damaging angel statues in order to obtain angel’s blood.

And then Celestials? At first, the Wisdom Order shamelessly claimed that Celestials had been born through the sacred rite of virgin conception.

But from some point onward, the number of Celestials began increasing simultaneously in multiple places.

‘It was dreadful enough that they intentionally damaged angel statues for the sake of ceramite longswords, but Celestials….’

Haine shuddered as she imagined the ugly truth of the Wisdom Order that was about to unfold before her eyes.

No matter what happened, this must not be allowed to leak to outsiders.

Ject, Zebec, that damned orc, and even Azadine.

Formally Azadine was a member of the Rescue Knights Order, but Haine decided that in the end Azadine, too, would have to be dealt with.

And yet that Azadine was now opening the locked door with his back turned toward Haine.

“It is locked with magic and chains. Normally it is made so it cannot be opened from here.”

Azadine checked the state of the door and quietly focused his mind.

Arael’s voice manifested in accordance with Azadine’s will, unraveled the magic cast upon the lock, and separated the chains on the inner side of the door.

Having neutralized the magic, the mechanism, and even the physical bars and chains, Azadine succeeded in opening the door with ease.

It was fairly delicate magic, but for Azadine, who had inherited the abilities of Arael, once one of the strongest mages of the Messenger Clan, it was not especially difficult.

“Remarkable, Sir Azadine. Truly splendid and delicate magical skill. To achieve such development in so short a time without the aid of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth—what an outstanding scholar of magic you are. Before your talent, every mage in the world would lose their shine.”

From behind, Ject sneered. He was sneering because he believed Azadine had taken the copy of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth, but Azadine snorted and replied:

“Sir Ject ought to know if he looked at the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth even a little. Was there any door-opening magic in the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth? Ah, though, Sir Ject’s power comes from necromancy and Nether magic, does it not?”

“Chief. I hate to say this myself, but how about both of you shut up? Even if humans are beasts dragged around by their feelings, they should at least know when to talk and when not to talk, should they not?”

Scott rebuked both Azadine and Ject. His words were right a hundred times over, so both men firmly shut their mouths.