Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 179

179. The Silent War (3)

A massive monster filled the back alley of the downtown area.

A hideous black beast rampaged, charging at him.

Surprisingly, this monster was none other than Jaeger, the heretical magician of the Iron Cross, in his transformed state.

Koo-oong!

“Kuh…”

Eile grimaced and slid back.

He had raised his guard head-on, but it was useless to counter the monster’s brute force with his sword.

This was also an Iron Cross member who was a magician (physical type), but he was on a different level from Sludge, whom he had faced before.

A body transformation magic, not just body enhancement.

It was magic that caused extreme transformation to the point of being designated as forbidden magic, although it didn’t cause one to lose their reason.

In reality, his appearance was already more like a monster than a human.

‘Even though it looks like he’s rampaging, in reality, all of his movements are intentional… That’s what makes it more difficult.’

Originally, this pattern of transforming into a monster-like form usually involved a mix of instinct and reason, causing them to rampage like a monster.

But the guy targeting him now was completely maintaining his reason.

This meant that he was showing intelligent movements from beginning to end without being swayed by emotions.

Kwaaaang!

“Ugh… Is it okay to rampage this loudly?”

The continuous roars and collapsing buildings.

It was obvious that it would attract attention, and if the guards rushed in, it would be disadvantageous for Jaeger, the attacker.

Moreover, if they found out that the kingdom’s princess was among those being attacked, the entire city’s forces might rush in.

But Jaeger, leisurely curling his tail, grinned, revealing his menacing teeth.

“I’m not the only one who came here…”

“Eile-nim!”

Seia’s voice was heard from behind, where she had taken refuge.

She seemed to be blocked by something.

A powerful barrier was spread around this place.

Judging from the fact that no one was coming even after the continuous explosions from earlier, it seemed they had taken measures in advance.

“Is there someone else who set up the barrier…?”

“Don’t let your guard down!”

As Eile turned his eyes to find the Iron Cross member who had set up the barrier, Jaeger shouted and rushed in.

Eile, who jumped up to avoid the tail attack, aimed for Jaeger’s broad back.

But what he could use was not only his limbs and tail.

Kwa-ack!

A purple flash stretched out and pierced through Eile, and he rolled on the floor after being thrown off.

Eile, who spat out blood, barely managed to get up.

‘Damn it, to use magic in that form… I didn’t expect it.’

What he shot out was none other than magic.

Jaeger wasn’t just able to use his body.

Being an executive of the Iron Cross meant he was a skilled person recognized in the forbidden magic world.

He couldn’t have reached that position with just the ability to transform into a monster.

Moreover, Jaeger fired off powerful magic in his transformed monster form without a staff or any special preliminary movements.

Tsutsutsut!

This time, a large amount of lightning gathered in Jaeger’s mouth.

Eile aimed for a gap and targeted the princess.

‘Ah, no!’

He belatedly tried to block it, but it was too late.

Because he had been unexpectedly thrown off, the distance was somewhat far, and he was in a position where he couldn’t do anything.

Kwaaaang!

The lightning stretched out and caused a huge explosion.

But a green shield was surrounding her, and Seia was able to remain unscathed.

“I knew you wouldn’t come completely empty-handed.”

Jaeger let out a bizarre laugh as if he had expected it.

The protection magic contained in Seia’s ring had been activated.

As it was a royal artifact, it had tremendous strength.

‘Thank goodness.’

Eile, who belatedly stood next to the princess, let out a sigh of relief.

At that moment, Seia, who was standing inside the shield, spoke.

“Eile-nim! Don’t worry about me and take care of that guy! They can forcibly drag me away, but they won’t directly harm me.”

“Even so, why did you plan such a dangerous thing? If something happens to the princess, we’ll be in trouble too.”

“I couldn’t just stand still when the situation is like this.”

After the Order of Inquisition took full action to track down the Iron Cross members, their activities were greatly suppressed, but coincidentally, it became even more difficult to track their traces.

With the Inquisition’s large-scale pursuit beginning, they were being careful even with small activities and had shrunk back as much as possible.

But from the princess’s point of view, who had become desperate, she couldn’t give them time to plot a new scheme again.

“A great achievement requires a bait to match it.”

Seia smiled.

She already knew that the Iron Cross would target her if she was alone outside.

So she even removed her guards to make them approach.

Against the Iron Cross executives who were shrinking back as much as possible, an amateurish trick like hiding guards was not enough.

She needed a bait to pull the big fish to the surface in one go.

A large bait that would make even the guys who were hiding deep down rush in without even realizing it.

‘Oh, geez…’

Was she originally this reckless, or was her desire for the throne strong?

Looking at her eyes, which were full of determination to take the throne, it seemed like the latter.

In any case, from Eile’s point of view, he had to do it since a royal quest had been created.

Rather, it was an opportunity created by the princess of a nation using herself as bait against the Iron Cross executives who were shrinking back.

“And here…”

Seia secretly handed him an item so that the opponent couldn’t see it.

Then, Eile, who saw the item, looked at her in surprise.

“This is…?”

“Please consider it as an advance payment for this request.”

“What are you whispering about!”

Jaeger, who kicked off the ground and jumped up, slammed down his arms.

Whoong!

Eile, who stepped back slightly, activated the Reverse Play skill at the exact timing.

He spun around and dug into the monster’s blind spot, stabbing his sword.

It was too late to use magic, but Jaeger, who reacted in an instant, twisted his leg and kicked Eile.

Kwaang!

Eile, who was kicked in the leg, smashed the wall with his back.

With his health reduced again, he cast a continuous healing skill.

‘He was preparing in advance… Did he perhaps know that I would use Reverse Play?’

Apart from the rising health, Eile frowned and fell into thought.

Even if he used Reverse Play, it was possible enough to react and avoid or deal with it.

But the fact that he moved his leg straight from that posture just now was impossible unless he was preparing in advance.

It was already known that heretical magicians possessed all sorts of bizarre magic.

Eile had a hunch about Jaeger’s response just now.

‘I should test it.’

Eile raised his sword again and dug into him.

Then, his suspicion became more and more certain in the process of exchanging several fierce blows.

He was keeping in mind not only Reverse Play but also all the skills to be careful of, such as Instant Flash and stun skills, and actually avoided the tricks using them.

‘I didn’t expect him to really be able to see through skills… It’s a relief that players don’t have this ability.’

To be able to see through all the skills he had before even directly clashing.

It was a very difficult ability from the opponent’s point of view.

‘But…’

Eile’s eyes changed as he looked around.

Whether it was because luck was on his side this time, the solution happened to be in his hands.

Pa-a-at!

Black light stretched out from him.

[A skill book has been used!]

What the princess had handed him when the fight first started was the ‘Skill Book of Brilliant Black Light’.

Except for the golden skill book, it was the highest-level skill book, and since it had the modifier ‘brilliant’, there was a high probability that a higher-grade skill would appear.

Pa-a-at!

A new skill came out, and Eile curled up the corners of his mouth as he looked at it.

Then, before Jaeger, who noticed something strange, could read his move, he cast the skill in one go.

Kwaaaang!

The white light that had gathered right behind Jaeger caused a huge explosion.

A unique-grade skill that gathers divine power to cause an explosion, ‘Divine Explosion’.

In addition to taking damage from the quite strong power, one of the main effects of Divine Explosion was a strong shockwave that pushed them back.

The chains that soared from the floor tightly wrapped around Jaeger.

It was the Chain of Divinity skill that he used by calculating the path that the guy would be thrown out on in advance, and Eile, who had knelt down almost at the same time, finished casting.

A giant sword of punishment appeared from the sky.

The sword was aiming exactly at Jaeger’s head, who couldn’t move.

“Kkeuaaaaa!”

* * *

Kwaaaang!

The dust that had risen with the massive shockwave slowly subsided.

Jaeger, who had been directly hit by the Punishment skill and collapsed, was lying stretched out with his transformation magic undone.

“It’s not… over yet.”

Jaeger, who was on the verge of death, said with difficulty.

He was talking about the Iron Cross member who had come with him in case of an emergency.

But at that moment, the barrier of the huge barrier that was surrounding them disappeared.

Koo-oong!

A corpse suddenly fell from above.

It was another executive of the Iron Cross that Jaeger had mentioned.

“N-no way.”

Jaeger stared blankly at the corpse as if he couldn’t believe it.

Eile, who hadn’t laid a hand on the Iron Cross member who had set up the barrier, was also surprised.

“It’s not like we were just playing around either.”

The approaching princess said.

Ta-at!

At that time, one thief jumped down from the rooftop of the building next to where the Iron Cross member’s corpse had fallen, landing lightly.

Surprisingly, it was a face that Eile already knew, Severa Rogia of Bloody Hands.

“I didn’t expect to see you like this, huh?”

Severa smiled as she wiped the blood from her dagger.

It wasn’t just the prince who had been using external figures, and instead of removing the royal guards, she had attached a reliable substitute.

But there was something more eye-catching than the fact that she had appeared.

“That is…”

The insignia written on Severa’s left arm.

It was a special sentence that meant ‘Slayer’ of Bloody Hands.

If they were Slayers, they were the core executives of Bloody Hands and middle managers in charge of not just cities but at least regional units.

In the meantime, Severa, whom he hadn’t seen, had risen from the branch manager in charge of Queen’s Blonde to the position of overseeing the entire Esmair region.

Originally, she was a prominent named NPC even among the branch managers of Queen’s Blonde, so he knew that she would reach that position someday.

But he didn’t expect her to be a Slayer already.

She was just one of the Slayer candidates, so it felt a bit fast for her to have risen right away.

“As you can see, I’m working on a pretty big deal. And the results have been good.”

Severa shrugged her shoulders as she noticed Eile’s expression.

Seeing that she was attached to the princess, it seemed that Bloody Hands had completely turned to the princess’s side.

“Could it be that even this skill book was all calculated?”

“That’s right.”

Seia, who already knew that the Iron Cross would target her, had even grasped the ability of Jaeger, who would approach, to see through her skills in advance.

The reason why she secretly handed him the skill book right before the battle was because of that.

She believed that Eile would be able to use the skill book to defeat the Iron Cross executive even in an urgent situation.

“Okay. The work here is roughly finished. Then let’s move on to the next stage.”

‘Come to think of it, the quest hasn’t been cleared yet.’

Eile thought at Severa’s words.

The royal quest that the princess had given him had not yet been marked as completed.

“I need some explanation as to what’s going on.”

“Your Order of Inquisition has been stirring things up quite a bit, but the others haven’t just been playing around either. Do you remember the letter I first gave you by any chance?”

“Letter…? Ah.”

Eile, who traced back his memories, remembered that he had accidentally obtained ‘Cassano’s Letter’ as a quest item.

After handing it over to Severa, he was able to receive the quest where he first faced the Spirit Stone.

“The Cassano written in that letter is the leader of the Iron Cross. And the only ones who know that are the executives of the same Iron Cross.”

“So you’re saying you’re going to target him?”

“Yes, the Iron Cross’s bases are scattered all over the continent, so it’s not easy to wipe them out all at once. Even if we inflict mediocre damage, they’ll hide even deeper. If we want to be sure, we have to inflict a big blow when we get a chance.”

She meant that they had to cut off the core, not the branches.

It was a plan to break down the core of the Iron Cross, which was the most troublesome thing in this succession battle, and neutralize it in one fell swoop.

“To do that, first…”

The eyes of the group in the room turned at the same time.

Then Jaeger, who had been helplessly collapsed, flinched.

“Eile-nim, can we leave the disposal of this guy to you?”

“Well… that’s our specialty.”