Guide Of Miracles (1)

Azadine’s indifferent attitude was also felt by Haine.

“First, let’s take that spellbook. That spellbook itself will become proof that the Northern Emperor and the Wisdom Order are damaging angel statues and sacrificing innocent human children to create Celestials.”

Azadine pointed at the spellbook created to oversee the ritual of reincarnating Count Dert as a Celestial.

Certainly, if they merely testified about what had happened here, no one would believe them.

Even if they took the angel’s egg, they could not accuse the Wisdom Order of wrongdoing. Rather, they would only be confessing that another Order had infiltrated the heart of the Wisdom Order and plotted there.

However, if it was the spellbook used in the Celestial reincarnation ritual, the story was different. Those who studied magic would uncover the ritual procedure, and this ritual itself was their corruption, was it not?

‘This man, perhaps because he is from the Messenger Clan, is similar to us. They were spies from the beginning too, weren’t they?’

Haine admired the fact that Azadine had immediately found the best piece of evidence at this scene, and wrote on Azadine’s palm.

When she asked whether the plan was to defeat the ritual conductors, steal the scroll, and escape back into the underground passage, Azadine nodded.

But just as Haine was coordinating her opinion with Azadine, the entire building suddenly began to shake.

“Uagh!”

“Mm!”

An Angel of Corruption was roaring nearby.

“No, what happened?”

“Why is an Angel of Corruption this close…?”

“We laid down the Wandering Soul Guiding Flame, so the Angel of Corruption shouldn’t come toward us….”

The Wandering Soul Guiding Flame was necromancy that planted false guidance to lure specters and control the flow of the dead.

The Wisdom Order had placed necromancy on their underground passage so the Angel of Corruption would not come to them, but would attack others approaching the underground passage, turning it into a guardian protecting their underground.

Yet for some reason, that necromancy had been broken.

-Bang!

“Azadine! My father’s enemy! You are here!”

And a wereboar wearing plate armor broke through the door and rushed in.

“W-what is that?!”

The Wisdom Order’s spellcasters were flustered. A Holy Knight of the Wisdom Order who had been standing guard drew his sword and approached the wereboar, but the wereboar snorted and charged.

“Urk?!”

The first Holy Knight was struck by the wereboar and lifted upward. Like a soldier struck by a battering ram, the Holy Knight flew through the air, slid across the ground, and tumbled away.

[Ah, captain. Can you hear me?!]

At that moment, Scott’s voice came from inside Azadine’s chest. When Azadine took a dried fish out of his small rucksack, the dried fish head spoke. It was Scott’s necromancy.

[We’re in trouble because your rabid fan chased us here. Sir Ject tried to keep his promise to you at first, but then said he never promised not to mess up that rabid fan, and instead cast magic on that wereboar.]

“Was there perhaps some necromancy cast underground? Something like a Wandering Soul Guiding Flame.”

[Yeah. I dispelled it! Sir Ject is fighting the Angel of Corruption. Zebec and I are running away now.]

“Well done. Keep going out and flee to the surface. Let’s meet at the Van Dyke Trading Company.”

Haine, who had been listening, was dumbfounded.

So that wereboar had chased after Azadine to kill him, the orc had dispelled the Wisdom Order’s necromancy in the underground passage and called in the Angel of Corruption. And in the middle of all that, the regrouping point was the Van Dyke Trading Company?

It was quite amazing that he would arbitrarily set the regrouping point there when the Van Dyke Trading Company would not even agree to it.

‘Should I say his ability to improvise is impressive? He truly is someone remarkable.’

Azadine had absolutely not created this situation intentionally. However, in the middle of this extreme chaos, he calmly presented a response plan.

-Thud!

Azadine took advantage of the chaos the wereboar had created and slipped down from the gearbox. Then he struck the abdomen of the priest whose attention was fixed on the wereboar with his fist and snatched the scroll from his hand.

“Urgh.”

Before casualties occurred, Azadine rushed at the wereboar, Maya.

“You bastard!”

Maya swung her sword in fury, but Azadine slid smoothly between her legs.

“Damn!”

Haine realized that Azadine was not trying to prevent victims from appearing, but was trying to shake her off and escape alone, and began to move.

The scroll Azadine had taken must not be leaked elsewhere. If it was leaked to another organization, it would be used as terrifying evidence that would harm the entire Order.

Haine moved along the darkness to pursue Azadine.

The underground passage of the giants had turned into hell.

Three Angels of Corruption and the specters they controlled had gathered there.

Sir Ject tried to mutate the Angels of Corruption using necromancy and Nether magic, but surprisingly, perhaps because angels were still angels, they possessed powerful resistance against Nether beings even though they had already died long ago.

“Well now… It seems I overestimated my own ability too much. No, perhaps I should say I was swept up in the flow.”

Ject clicked his tongue and raised his sword. Mana swirled around his sword and revealed a faint light.

He had clearly weakened. In truth, Ject was in a state where he had consumed too much power.

However, because he had hidden it while trying to appear as strong as possible before Azadine’s group, he had ended up being dragged this far.

‘Zebec’s skills have improved greatly too. And that orc. Good grief, to think I would fall into a trap.’

There was a story passed down among mercenaries and adventurers, and within their guild, the Cell Sword Guild.

It was said that the end of Verdam, the legendary swordsman who killed a basilisk, came when a wound from being hit by a stray stone thrown by a goblin festered and killed him.

No matter how strong and exceptional one’s talents were, as long as one had a body made of flesh and blood, one could die at any time from a trivial wound or injury. Carelessness and misfortune could drive even any powerful person to ruin.

In that respect, Ject had been far too careless. Zebec and Scott were dangerous individuals he must never have let his guard down against, but had he been too relaxed just because Azadine was not before his eyes?

-Fwoosh!

The tentacles of the Nether monsters Ject had created burned. The Angels of Corruption burned the Nether beings with their magic and gradually approached Ject.

At that moment, a voice suddenly came from above Ject’s head.

“Sir Ject! Are you all right?!”

Surprisingly, Azadine was climbing down a ladder.

“Sir Azadine. That orc spellcaster of yours well and truly screwed me over. To think he would break the guardian rune protecting this place.”

“You mean the Wandering Soul Guiding Flame?”

It seemed Scott had deliberately called in the Angels of Corruption to subdue Ject and escaped together with Zebec.

“Yes. That orc truly is extraordinary. This is the first time I have seen someone better at necromancy than me. In addition, Zebec’s skills have also improved compared to before. I do not know whether he met a good teacher, or whether his suppressed mind was freed and he can finally display his original ability.”

Ject gave a bitter smile.

If Zebec’s mind had been suppressed, it was because of Ject, who had taught him, and the oppressive environment of the King’s Church. In other words, Ject’s statement now was like spitting while lying down.

Of course, most people would think there was nothing shameful at all about such oppression. They lacked even the sensitivity to understand that their existence oppressed others.

On the other hand, Ject had that sensitivity, yet lived while dirtying his hands by his own will. Rather, because he empathized with and understood their thoughts and logic, he could paradoxically bring about an even greater disaster.

“Well, Scott specializes in that, while you learned many other kinds of magic too. There’s no need to feel disheartened just because you lost to a specialist in his specialized field….”

“…….”

“I watched the ritual for making angel’s eggs above. Since I found out the truth, let’s leave this place for now.”

“Are you in your right mind? Can you not see that?”

Ject asked Azadine in return. Even Ject, who had gone through all kinds of hardships, found three Angels of Corruption difficult to handle. No matter how much it was necessary to feign composure, Azadine’s current state was clearly abnormal.

Could someone be this calm without being insane? At that moment, Azadine stepped forward before the Angels of Corruption.

The ruined remains of the rotten angels, holding swords and chains made of bone, recognized Azadine. And the beings of death bound to the Angels of Corruption, the specters, all shot toward Azadine at once.

-Clatter!

The chains hanging from the swords made of the Angels of Corruption’s bones moved on their own like tentacles of living creatures and aimed for Azadine’s head.

When Azadine raised his ceramite longsword and received the chains, the chains wrapped around Azadine’s sword.

-Boom!

An invisible force exploded between Azadine and the Angel of Corruption. A gust of wind rose in the underground sewer, and four strands of tornado briefly formed around Azadine, then vanished.

Because tornadoes appeared and disappeared in an enclosed space, that alone possessed tremendous power, and the specters flying toward Azadine melted away like a layer of fog swept up and torn apart by a strong wind. Even the Angels of Corruption stared quietly at Azadine in wonder at that sight.

“Ahh.”

“Uh.”

And then an anomaly occurred.

‘What? What on earth is happening?’

Ject was also shocked by what was happening before his eyes. The Angels of Corruption were looking at Azadine and kneeling.

The Angels of Corruption made sounds as if they were painfully squeezing them out through their rotten bodies.

“Ahh… Guide!”

“Give us rest!”

The Angels of Corruption yearned for rest and stretched their hands out to Azadine.

“You came down to this land in the flesh to revere virtue and protect humanity, so your devotion deserves praise. Now I shall release the restraints surrounding you, so end your fierce devotion and remain in rest!”

Azadine approached the Angels of Corruption and raised his ceramite longsword. In that instant, dazzling light burst out from the ceramite longsword.

The ceramite longsword had originally been a weapon that burned on its own, but this was not a simple flame. It was brilliant light like the sun that washed away the darkness of evil.

The Angels of Corruption did not resist. As if awaiting the rest that would end their long suffering and wandering, they merely waited for Azadine’s blade.

“May virtue illuminate your path.”

“May virtue illuminate your path!”

Azadine repeated the Angels of Corruption’s words as well and swung his sword.

The necks and bodies of these horrific monsters, who had troubled even Ject, were separated and collapsed.

Since they were undead, they would not stop simply because their necks and bodies were separated, but….

Surprisingly, the Angels of Corruption’s bodies burned on their own, turned to ash, and vanished.

“Hehehehehehe.”

Laughter burst out inside the underground passage. The laughter, like the wild laughter of a madman, was flowing from Ject’s mouth.

“Ahahahahahahaha!”

Ject could not hold back and laughed and laughed again. What the event before his eyes meant was clear.

Azadine had been chosen by the angels.