Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 175

175. Pursuit (4)

The Dawn Guild member, captured in Queens Blonde.

Seized by countless believers, he was brutally executed and forced to participate in a street parade.

Although no formal interrogation took place, torture wasn’t very effective on users anyway.

While it could instill immense fear, getting them to talk and extract information was a completely different story.

An inexperienced user might spill, but a semi-ranked player wouldn’t reveal crucial information about their guild.

That’s why the execution was carried out immediately by the believers.

Of course, they didn’t forget procedures such as securing evidence, including photos, and recovering dropped equipment items.

His armor was clearly marked with the Dawn Guild’s insignia.

Along with the captured guild member’s face, it was undeniable evidence.

“So that’s the case…”

Karin, having received the report, rested her chin on her hand.

As the guild leader of Nightmare, she was directly commanding the battle at the front lines, but she couldn’t ignore what was happening behind the scenes.

The uneasy feeling in the rear was confirmed: the Executioners were indeed working with the Dawn Guild.

“The Order of Light has done a great job!”

Lambic clapped his knee and exclaimed.

“To be doing such things behind our backs, their pettiness remains the same. Guild leader, what are you going to do now?”

“Hmm… Do you have any good ideas?”

“Let’s use the ancient spirits too. We can’t just keep taking hits.”

Lambic suggested.

Like the Griffin Guild in the northeast, ancient spirits were incredibly powerful wildcards that could turn the tide of war.

They were a nuisance, requiring constant vigilance even in areas far from the front lines. A major problem could erupt if they succeeded even once.

Holding such a troublesome variable on only one side wasn’t a good thing in many ways.

“Moreover, Dawn can’t receive the Order of Light’s cooperation like we can, so they’ll be much more vulnerable to such operations.”

The Order [Order of Light], filled with Inquisitors who were experts in underground tracking.

Their abilities were beyond expectations, and they were excellently eliminating enemies who had infiltrated the rear.

On the other hand, the Dawn Guild didn’t have any holy relic fragments to entice the Order.

In the current situation, they could use the ancient spirit variable more advantageously.

A powerful variable that could completely break the tense balance if used well.

After thinking for a moment, Karin broke the silence and opened her mouth.

“No, the Prince is only thinking of obtaining the throne anyway. Now that Dawn has changed its stance and sided with the Prince, there’s no need to release the ancient spirit there and destroy them.”

Even if they sided with the Prince now, they wouldn’t be able to gain any real advantage in this war.

At best, they would only avoid being targeted by each other’s ancient spirits.

“We can’t just let those who tried to stab us in the back get away with it… More than anything, something stinks.”

Karin frowned slightly and muttered.

“Something smells fishy.”

One of the six major guilds collapsed, Dawn joined hands with the Executioners and sided with the Prince, and Cerberus suddenly declared war on the Iron Cross.

The overall situation felt awkward, and her intuition kept sending signals.

“Pull the front lines back for a moment. There’s something I need to check.”

Karin stood up from her seat.

* * *

Woowoowoong!

The airship crossing the continent arrived at the station, and people poured out from inside.

The place they arrived at was the metropolis of Nuina in the eastern region.

It was also the territory of the Dawn Guild, one of the six major guilds.

Since it was a city far from the war raging on the front lines, the users who visited this place had no worries.

And among the people who poured out, Eile was the last to get off at the station.

After capturing the Dawn Guild member in Queens Blonde, he headed straight here.

In some ways, it was a sudden move, and it seemed like a dangerous act to enter Dawn’s territory.

However, there was a reason why he went to the trouble of taking an airship here at great expense.

‘Fortunately, I won’t be late.’

After checking the time, Eile hurried down below the station.

Considering the deal with Nightmare to suppress the activities of the Executioners within their territory, coming to Dawn’s territory was clearly an unnecessary move.

But the place he was trading with wasn’t just Nightmare.

The deal he had made with the Iron Cross much earlier.

Surprisingly, the condition he had accepted when receiving the holy relic fragment from Sir was none other than stopping the war between the two guilds, Nightmare and Dawn.

‘Nightmare’s deal was only to prevent the ancient spirit from being summoned. I don’t need to take sides in this war.’

At first, he didn’t understand why the Iron Cross had made such a condition at all.

But as the landscape of Warlord gradually shifted, and after hearing the whole story from Sir a few hours ago, he could understand everything.

‘I knew they seemed to know something all along… I never thought such things were happening.’

He learned all the facts from the Iron Cross after capturing the guild member in Queens Blonde and sharing the information according to the information-sharing agreement.

After that, the Iron Cross told Eile where to go.

Time was tighter than he thought, so he had to move without delay.

‘This should be about right.’

A rooftop of a building with a clear view below.

Eile took his place there, suppressed his presence as much as possible, and watched the deserted street.

The meeting place and time he had been given in advance.

Right at that time, a man appeared from among the people.

A man who hid his face with a pressed-down hood and mask.

He was a suspicious person, similar to the one he had caught in Queens Blonde, and he looked around for a moment before entering a closed building.

‘Okay……’

Eile took pictures of him entering from above as evidence.

And then, an unidentified woman in a robe appeared.

Although it was hidden by the cloak, the crescent moon pattern drawn on the robe was slightly visible as she moved.

She was definitely an Executioner’s dark magic user.

She also opened the door and entered the building where the man had entered, and as soon as the door closed, Eile on the roof moved.

Kwaang!

Eile burst into the room, kicking the door open.

The surprised man and woman turned their heads, and Eile extended his longsword before they could react.

Pook!

“Keuheok……!”

The longsword pierced the magician’s abdomen.

Among the two opponents who were off guard, the one to target first was, of course, the magician with weak health and defense.

“We meet again here.”

“How did you get here……?”

The hood was removed, and her hidden face was revealed.

The magician who was stabbed in the stomach was Mute of the Executioners.

“It’s probably a clone again. But it doesn’t matter.”

Kwadeuk!

Eile twisted the sword he had stabbed in once.

Unlike her previous appearance, her expression, stabbed in the abdomen, was filled with bewilderment for the first time.

Mute, whose life force had run out, collapsed to the floor and scattered, losing her form.

“One down.”

“Why are you here?”

The man who recognized Eile said.

The Order of Light had clearly received a request from Nightmare and was conducting a massive search within their territory.

But he never expected him to appear in Dawn’s territory.

“I need to see your face too!”

Eile kicked off and imbued his longsword with flames.

The man hurriedly took out a dagger and stepped back, and Eile unleashed the Baptism of Fire skill in front.

Hwareureureuk!

The Baptism of Holy Fire engulfed one side of the abandoned building.

The roaring flames caused explosions and heat to rise.

“Damn it……!”

Why did he have to use such a flashy attack?

Even though it was a relatively deserted street, it was still one of the streets in the metropolis, and at this rate, the guards might flock to it.

From his perspective, who was moving in secret, attracting outside attention was not a good thing.

The impatient man hurriedly tried to finish him off and shake him off, and Eile was aiming for exactly that.

The man aggressively used his skills and pushed him, but he repeatedly failed to achieve results.

Rather, each time his movements grew larger, Eile, who had taken the attacks, exploited the gaps and countered even more threateningly.

Bbaak!

“Keueuk……”

The man, who was trying to push him, was instead punched and staggered back.

Clearly, his level was more than 30 levels higher than his.

But the overall movements were rather overwhelming the man.

In the increasingly intense flames of the abandoned building.

The man, whose pride was hurt, bit his lip tightly, activated an approach skill, and stretched out his foot.

Huoong!

At that moment, Eile, using the Reverse Play skill, turned behind him and activated the Flash Cut skill, bringing down his longsword.

‘That won’t work!’

The man, who immediately turned around, blocked his attack path with a dagger.

‘Reverse Play,’ which was well known to many users, was a popular skill among rare skills, but that was why many countermeasures had been studied.

As the level of users rose to the level of semi-rankers, they wouldn’t easily fall for it.

That’s why a variation was needed.

Paat!

The Flash Cut skill, just before activation, was canceled.

The longsword that was being brought down lost its power, and then Eile dug in further and used his martial arts.

Bbaak!

The man’s head was tilted by the blow to the shoulder, and he fell into a stun state.

And at that moment.

The Flash Cut, used once again, stretched out.

Kwaaaaa!

The sword strike and holy fire that stretched out.

It knocked the man, who was trying to resist, helplessly backward and devoured his health.

“Heoeok……”

The man gasped for breath.

He was almost thrown into the flames behind him as he was knocked away, but he barely managed to get out.

But in the process, one side of the cloak covering his equipment was torn, and the pattern he had hidden was clearly revealed.

“T, this……!”

A clear snake pattern drawn on the black pauldron [shoulder armor].

It was the symbol of the Nightmare Guild.

“I knew something smelled fishy.”