The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 429

261. The Power of the Sun (3)

“B, Platinum Dragon…?!”

“Yurin, step back now. This is beyond your involvement.”

“No, what are you saying? This is the sacred order that serves Yulla! This is the Platinum Dragon’s new nest?!”

Snap-!!

At that moment, Carryl seized Yurin’s wrist.

“Ugh?!”

Yurin couldn’t help but groan in pain, as if her bones were about to shatter.

“Sacred order? Yurin Hugart, are you blind? What did you see in the Empire? Do I need to explain again why I left you in the order?”

“…Because I am not a devout priest.”

“If you know that well, don’t use the word ‘sacred’ in front of me anymore.”

Carryl released Yurin’s arm. Her wrist throbbed with a dark bruise, but Yurin didn’t dare to use healing magic.

A priest’s healing magic was, after all, healing by borrowing the power of God. She was afraid of upsetting Carryl.

“Still, I will follow.”

“……”

“Whether I like it or not, I am a priest. No matter how the world sees it, I have a duty to fulfill my responsibilities for what happens in the order.”

“Then you should have come before I did?”

“That’s……”

Carryl stopped in front of the underground door of the shrine just before entering and asked.

“Continue the story about the former bishop.”

“……Pardon?”

Yurin tilted her head at his words.

“That’s the end of it. The rebellion was successful, and the priests have enthroned Rael Stalen as the saintess and bishop. I think that perhaps Joy Johansel and I were on other missions outside at the time and were summoned back, so we were not affected by the illusion.”

“Or perhaps they willingly fell into the illusion themselves. In the first place, those under Rael would have been Wooden Cloud [a secretive and influential organization].”

“……What do they want?”

Yurin Hugart had always thought of Wooden Cloud as just a secret society in the duchy. However, it was of such enormous scale that it swallowed the entire order, and with the Platinum Dragon involved, they could not be seen as a simple group.

“I don’t know either.”

However, the answer from Carryl was quite simple and clear, which rather embarrassed Yurin.

“Where is the answer for crazy bastards?”

“Ha, haha……”

“The problem is that the world can go crazy because of those crazy bastards.”

Yurin scratched her head at his words.

“Can you still use the priest’s blessing?”

“Yes.”

“I see. Yulla is still lending power to the order.”

“One way or another, there are many who follow Yulla on the continent. The people on the outskirts may not know, but the rumors of Carryl defeating the Nephilim [a race of giants or demigods] who came to deliver the oracle are spreading quickly.”

He said cautiously.

“There are even people who say that Carryl defeated the angels who came to bestow God’s blessing, and as punishment, that tower appeared.”

Carryl scoffed at Yurin’s words.

“The truth will be known someday. Can you follow me without abandoning the power of God?”

“I am neither a knight nor a noble. Before that, I am a priest. I have not said that I will abandon the power of God, nor have I said that I will follow Carryl.”

“Really? Then are you becoming an obstacle to me? If you are a guy who wants to stand on God’s side, you have nothing to say even if you die here now.”

“It may seem disrespectful, but I am still a priest. Because I am a priest, I have a duty to confirm the current situation. The reason why Carryl entrusted the order to me is not just because I am not someone who chases after nobles and accumulates wealth, but because I am not Wooden Cloud, isn’t that more accurate?”

He clapped his hands as if to dust off the dirt and said.

“Heroes are strong. But with that power, they can easily become tyrants, and the people are ignorant. Even if a few belatedly shout the truth, they will succumb to the logic of power.”

“Are you saying I could become a tyrant?”

“You know that’s not what I mean. Although I am not devout, I see God through the eyes of a priest, which is my foundation. And if God is wrong, I have a duty to tell humanity.”

“Believing in God should be the duty of a priest?”

“Because I am not a devout priest. I look at God, but I am thoroughly on the side of humanity.”

Yurin smiled with a playful expression.

Grrrrrrr…….

“So I have to check it out too.”

He passed Carryl, flung open the door of the shrine, and entered.

“What’s inside here.”

* * *

“……”

Yurin, who had confidently taken the lead by summoning a ball of light, felt like retreating several times. The inside of the shrine was in ruins, as if an explosion had occurred.

Moreover, the stone walls were scarred as if they had been sharply cut here and there.

[It looks like it was scratched with claws.]

Aln Zaberius said, looking around the shrine and staring at the remains of the broken pillars.

“If it was destroyed to this extent, there would have been a big commotion in Heim [the order’s sacred ground]… I don’t know anything about it.”

“It could have been when you weren’t there, or they might have sealed it so it couldn’t be heard.”

“Sealed? It is impossible to use magic in Heim. Although magic is said to be God’s blessing, only priests can manifest power here. And priests only use divine power by borrowing the power of God.”

“There’s one exception.”

“……Pardon?”

“A traitor who became an apostle of God while using magic.”

“A traitor……?”

Yurin looked blank, not knowing who he was talking about. He couldn’t possibly know about the events of the Divine Spirit War.

“Nar D. Maugh.”

Carryl simply emphasized the name of the Platinum Dragon instead of giving any explanation.

Thud-

The sound of a stone kicked at the tip of his foot bouncing and rolling across the floor in the silence. At that moment, for some reason, the two suddenly stopped walking, feeling eerie.

“Heok?!”

Yurin Hugart was startled and screamed as he looked ahead. This was because a person was kneeling inside the shrine with his hands clasped together as if praying.

The clothes he was wearing were not those of an ordinary priest. The moment Yurin saw the pattern of the Fascia [a band or ribbon-like decoration] hanging long on both shoulders, he unknowingly swallowed hard.

“B… Bishop?”

He asked in a trembling voice at the familiar face.

[There… I said there was a familiar smell, and it’s similar to the demon nest in the Empire’s capital.]

At that moment, Aln looked around, leaving the frozen Yurin behind.

“That’s right.”

Carryl nodded at Aln’s words.

“T, th… There. B……”

“I know. But he’s already dead. You know that I don’t feel any life from him.”

“But……”

Yurin was curious as to why the former bishop’s body was in this place where the order’s scriptures were kept.

“It’s ridiculous that there is a demon nest in Heim, the order’s sacred ground… But if the bishop was also Wooden Cloud, the fragmented puzzle pieces fit together. If he turned the order into a fanatical cult and the Platinum Dragon used the bishop as an experimental subject before Rael Stalen, it’s not strange that a mere demon nest is in Heim.”

“D, demon nest……”

Step- Step- Step-

Carryl slowly moved towards the bishop’s corpse, kneeling and praying.

Slam—!!!!!

Then, with all his might, he swung his ice claws and smashed the corpse.

“What are you doing?!”

Yurin was startled and shouted, watching the bishop’s corpse shatter and fall.

“We were wrong.”

The shattered bones poured out in all directions, and when the magic-infused bone fragments hit the old wall, the bricks crumbled, spewing dust.

“……!!!!”

At that moment, Yurin doubted his eyes.

This was because countless corpses were piled up behind the collapsed stone wall.

“Those are……”

“Shall I guess? Aren’t those the guys who followed Rael?”

“……That’s right.”

Carryl nodded as if he knew it would be at Yurin’s words.

“To do this under the order. As expected, the dragon’s act of deceiving God is on a different level.”

He said that and spat as if feeling bad, and stared ahead.

“This isn’t the Platinum Dragon’s new lair. No, it must have been a lair. Like the Promised Land, this is also a place that the guy used and threw away.”

[……I think that’s right.]

“It’s just his garbage dump.”

Carryl sneered coldly.

‘Platinum Dragon… You have now disappeared and become my magic, but the things you left behind still exist. I can find the answers to the still unresolved questions there.’

Nar D. Maugh was, as a result, the person who allowed him to obtain the dragon’s heart in this life.

He must have known.

That if Carryl went back to the past, not only Carryl’s future but also his own future would change.

Nevertheless, Nar D. Maugh rather suggested to Carryl how to return to the past.

‘What you were trying to do by using me… Was experimenting with the possibilities of humans the end?’

Carryl shook his head.

He couldn’t ask about his past life. And the person to ask no longer existed.

[Krrrrrrrr…….]

It was then.

The corpses piled up behind the collapsed stone wall stirred, and a sharp cry was heard from within.

[There was a chimera [a creature made from mixed parts of other animals] in the Platinum Dragon’s empty lair. As you said, this was the place where he moved the place from the forbidden area and experimented. Well, it would have been much easier to procure materials here than there.]

“Materials……?”

[Can’t you see it in front of you?]

The corpses that had been piled up a little while ago began to move. Moreover, the bones of the bishop’s corpse, whose head had been broken by Carryl, were piecing themselves back together, piece by piece.

“U, undead……!?”

[To make priests into undead, he really did something crazy.]

Aln looked dumbfounded at the sight.

[Did the Platinum Dragon really experiment with all the possibilities? Not only with races like elves and humans but even with priests with divine power… Next, will it be those with dark power?]

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Carryl scolded at Aln’s reaction.

That’s because the only beings with dark power on the continent were the Immortal Order.

“Yurin. That’s not an undead.”

Then he turned his head.

“Pardon?”

“It’s not resurrected, it’s a synthesis of corpses. It’s a kind of chimera. Look closely. Despite being the body of the dead, it still has divine power. Ordinary black magic would never be able to do that.”

At Carryl’s words, Yurin looked at the wriggling corpses and said.

“That’s ridiculous… Immortality and divinity together. That’s truly blasphemy. The Platinum Dragon did this? Even inside the order?!”

Yurin gritted his teeth and frowned. It seemed like it was something he couldn’t tolerate, no matter what.

“God who leads the heavenly army… Cast the evil spirits that destroy souls into hell.”

He closed his eyes, made the sign of the cross, and slowly opened his eyes.

“May there be joy in Yulla.”

As he recited the prayer, his surroundings glowed red. It was Yurin Hugart’s specialty, the Enhancement Spell.

“To hell?”

Carryl looked around at the sight he hadn’t seen in a long time and said.

“Don’t ask God for that, do it yourself.”

Carryl took out a large hammer from among the sacred objects hanging on the wall.

“Take it.”

As he handed the hammer to Yurin as if throwing it, the hammer that touched Yurin’s hand began to shine brilliantly.

“This is… the Hell Hammer?”

“Unlike Blader’s weapon, the sacred object is a weapon containing the power of Yulla. It’s perfect for using as a tool in the process of injecting divine power. Besides, the name suits you perfectly.”

Carryl chuckled, holding the sacred object.

The Hell Hammer he handed over was none other than the weapon Yurin Hugart used in his previous life when he was called the Madman of the Battlefield. Carryl was filled with emotion as he saw the sight of him glowing red with the Enhancement Spell, just like before.

“I don’t know if they are those who have abandoned God or those who have been abandoned by God… But at least I don’t want to leave them in that state.”

Yurin Hugart gripped the handle of the hammer tightly.

“As a priest and as a human, I think I have to follow Carryl.”

“There’s nothing to gain from serving me? There’s no wealth you want in the free country I’m creating.”

“There is truth, isn’t there? I will bear the duty to convey it.”

[You’re trying to go on a path of self-suffering.]

Aln Zaberius looked at Yurin Hugart and chuckled.

[Fortunately, that path won’t be lonely. There is already someone walking that path before you.]

“……Pardon?”

Yurin Hugart looked at Carryl at his words.

“If you want, you can do that. If there is someone who leaves it in history with a pen, there is also a person who reveals the truth with doctrine. But honestly, I think Joy Johansel is the right person for that.”

Carryl pointed to the Hell Hammer he was holding and said.

“Breaking things is more suitable for you than doctrine.”

Smash—!!!

“Actually, I think so too.”

At that moment, Yurin Hugart struck the head of the former bishop, who had been resurrected as an undead, with all his might.