The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 308

It was a massive mill.

Large millstones turned on the walls, powered by waterwheels, and beneath them were huge dishes to catch the ground material flowing from the millstones.

The millstones were turning at that very moment.

With a heavy, grinding sound, something was being crushed, and the millstones were stained with blood.

Blood and stone dust flowed from the millstones, pooling in the dishes below.

They were completely crushing angel statues, then grinding them to extract blood.

After collecting a large amount of angel blood, the priests chanted spells, holding up a young child who had not yet been weaned.

They cut the child’s neck, palms, and soles with a ritual dagger, causing blood to flow from its entire body, and then immersed the child in the dish of angel blood.

As the priests chanted and imbued magic, a transparent membrane began to form around the child’s body within the dish of blood.

Soon, the membrane became a thick egg, which they took out, wiped clean with a towel, and carefully carried away.

Then, instead of a child, an old man’s corpse was brought in on a cart.

“Who is this?”

“It’s Count Dert, a member of the Lyoneer bloodline.”

“A Yegas divine? [Yegas is a term referring to a lineage or family with divine connections] Why did he die?”

“I’m not sure. His Majesty Cohen Lyoneer specifically requested his reincarnation… and sent this spell scroll as well.”

“That’s quite something.”

The casters unfurled the spell scroll that came with the corpse on the cart.

The letters ignited and floated in the air, proving it was a magical tome imbued with powerful magic.

Besides the magical tome, the cart was filled with silver-decorated cups and dishes, gold and silver coins, and more.

It was a bribe.

The casters swallowed hard at the sight of the gold and silver treasures.

“The Northern Empire’s generosity is truly something.”

“Even for an assassin organization, the financial expenditure must be enormous.”

“They’re going all in.”

“Let’s do it.”

They threw Count Dert’s corpse into the millstones, grinding it with the angel statues, and mixed it into the blood dish.

Then, they found another child, immersed it in the blood dish, and were turning the child into an angel egg.

They were using the blood of angels and the lives of infants to reincarnate the deceased descendants of the Yegas divine as Celestials.

*********

“…….”

Azadin hid in the gearbox that powered the millstones, using Arae’s voice to observe the scene.

He had expected there would be a terrible secret behind the creation of Celestials.

This situation was within the realm of what he had anticipated.

However, seeing it firsthand, the horror was indescribably miserable.

They were desecrating the remains of angels who had devoted themselves to humanity, trampling on the lives and destinies of newborn infants, and creating Celestials through horrific magic.

“This is…”

Heine also groaned.

She was also hiding in the gearbox like Azadin, so she couldn’t directly see the ritual. Nevertheless, her dark expression suggested that she, like Azadin, had a way of overcoming the blind spots in her vision.

“This is a secret that cannot be shared with Sir Zekt.”

“Do you think so?”

“It’s too shameful. This must not be revealed to the outside world.”

“If you hide it because it’s shameful, wouldn’t that be more shameful to yourself?”

“…Your words are correct, but reality is not so simple, Sir Azadin. What do you think the ignorant masses would think? Do you think they would think of you or the Order of Mercy and Courage separately if they knew the truth? And hiding shameful parts is not hypocrisy but a natural courtesy. Just as I don’t walk around naked because I was born naked, I wear clothes as a basic courtesy.”

“Shhh.”

Azadin signaled Heine to be quiet. She was getting excited, and her voice was getting louder. The noise of the gearbox would drown out most of their voices, but they were still infiltrating, so raising their voices was dangerous.

“So, will Sir Zekt be convinced if we don’t tell him anything? He’s not the type to stay still if we don’t tell him something.”

“I’ll set a trap and kill him. I’ll tell him we’re going to retrieve the angel egg, send Sir Zekt, and then expose myself to the Order of Wisdom, pitting Sir Zekt against the Order of Wisdom. In that gap, I’ll assassinate him…”

Heine said, then looked at Azadin’s expression.

Azadin’s handsome face wore a subtle sneer.

“Is that the courtesy of hiding your flaws that you speak of? Sir Heine. You are, indeed, a fine guide of the afterlife.”

“Sir Azadin. I know you don’t want to get your hands dirty. You probably think it’s against a knight’s honor to lie to Sir Zekt, even a little, to trap him. But this is a secret that must never be revealed. If you help me, the Mercy Bishopric, the sponsor of our Order of Mercy, will support you. It’s a much stronger support than your current sponsor, Bishop Akenar. Come to think of it, you haven’t specified your affiliation yet. Bishop Akenar is a member of the Order of Courage, but he only cares about the external affairs of the Order and doesn’t know much about the internal affairs.”

Heine tried to recruit Azadin.

However, all the promises she offered were worthless to Azadin.

If he had wanted wealth and fame, he wouldn’t have betrayed the Aragas clan in the first place. He could have had Butuma and Korasar, so why would he seek such petty power now?

Azadin’s indifferent attitude was also felt by Heine.

“Let’s take that spell scroll first. That spell scroll will be proof that the Northern Empire and the Order of Wisdom are damaging angel statues and sacrificing innocent human children to create Celestials.”

Azadin pointed to the spell scroll created to oversee the ritual of reincarnating Count Dert as a Celestial.

Indeed, if they were just to testify about what happened here, no one would believe them.

Even if they took the angel egg, they couldn’t expose the Order of Wisdom’s corruption. Rather, they would only be admitting that another order had infiltrated the heart of the Order of Wisdom and was plotting against them.

However, the spell scroll used in the Celestial reincarnation ritual was a different story. The ritual process would be revealed by those who studied magic, and this ritual itself was the very corruption of the Order.

‘Indeed. This guy, being from the Messenger clan, is similar to us. He’s a spy, isn’t he?’

Heine was impressed that Azadin had immediately found the best piece of evidence at the scene and wrote on Azadin’s palm.

Knock down the ritualists, steal the scroll, and escape back to the underground passage.

When she asked if that was the plan, Azadin nodded.

But just as Heine was coordinating with Azadin, the entire building suddenly began to shake.

“Ugh!”

“Umm!”

A Corrupted Angel roared nearby, shaking the entire building.

“What, what’s going on?”

“A Corrupted Angel so close…”

“We laid down wandering soul-guiding flames, so the Corrupted Angel shouldn’t be coming our way…”

The wandering soul-guiding flames were necromancy that lured wraiths by planting false guidance, controlling the flow of the dead.

The Order of Wisdom had cast necromancy in their underground passage to prevent Corrupted Angels from reaching them, making them attack others who approached the underground passage, thus turning them into guardians of their underground.

But for some reason, that necromancy had been broken.

And…

-Kwaang!

“Azadin! My father’s enemy! You’re here!”

A wereboar in plate armor burst through the door.

“W-what is it?!”

The casters of the Order of Wisdom were flustered.

A holy knight of the Order of Wisdom, who was on guard, drew his sword and approached the wereboar, but the wereboar snorted and charged.

“Ugh?!”

The first holy knight was hit by the wereboar and flew upwards. Like a soldier hit by a battering ram, the holy knight flew through the air and crashed to the ground.

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

At that moment, Scott’s voice came from inside Azadin’s pocket. Azadin took out a dried fish from a small rucksack, and the dried fish head was talking.

It was Scott’s necromancy.

[A hardcore fan of yours came after you, and it’s a big problem. Sir Zekt was going to keep his promise to you at first, but he said he didn’t promise not to let that hardcore fan mess with you, so he even cast a spell on that wereboar.]

“Was there any necromancy cast in the underground passage? Like wandering soul-guiding flames.”

[Yeah. I canceled it! Sir Zekt is fighting the Corrupted Angel. Zibeck and I are running away right now.]

“Good job. Get out of there and escape to the surface. Let’s meet at the Van Dyke Trading Company.”

Heine was dumbfounded as she listened.

So, this commotion was caused because… that wereboar was chasing Azadin to kill him, Scott had canceled the Order of Wisdom’s necromancy in the underground passage, summoning the Corrupted Angel. And on top of that, the rendezvous point was the Van Dyke Trading Company?

It was amazing how he arbitrarily set the rendezvous point there, even though the Van Dyke Trading Company wouldn’t agree.

‘Whether I should call it great improvisation or not. He’s something else.’

Azadin had absolutely not intended to create this situation. However, in this extreme chaos, Azadin calmly proposed a countermeasure, and then he quietly slipped down from the gearbox…

-Thud!

He punched a distracted priest in the abdomen and snatched the scroll from his hand.

“W-what?! Who are you?!”

“You don’t need to know.”

Azadin left those words and rushed towards the wereboar, Meya.

“You!”

Meya, enraged, swung her sword, but Azadin slid between her legs.

“Damn it!”

Heine realized that Azadin was trying to ditch her and escape alone and began to move.

The scroll that Azadin had taken must not be leaked elsewhere. Only her Order of Mercy could properly handle that scroll. If it were leaked to another organization, it would be used as terrible evidence that would harm the entire knight order.

Heine moved along the shadows to pursue Azadin.

*********

The giant’s underground passage had turned into hell.

Three Corrupted Angels and the wraiths they controlled had swarmed in.

Sir Zekt raised the corpses around him with necromancy, infused them with Nether magic, and transformed them into some of the otherworldly death gods. But surprisingly, even though the Corrupted Angels were dead, they were still angels and had strong resistance against the Nether beings.

“This is… I overestimated my abilities too much. Or rather, I should say I got caught up in the flow.”

Zekt clicked his tongue and raised his sword.

Magic swirled around his sword, revealing a faint light.

He was weakened. Today, Zekt had used too much power.

He had been pretending to be calm to avoid showing weakness to Azadin’s group, but it was a mistake to have been working with his own abilities without reliable subordinates.

Zekt also felt that he was exhausted, but he had been trying to appear as strong as possible in front of the calmly approaching Azadin, and that’s how he had gotten caught up in this situation.