Chapter 696 – 696. The Monster’s Warning (1)
“Whoa.”
Returning to his own mansion, the High Priest, Velas Mathed, leaned back in his chair to rest.
“Haha. Just a little more…”
He is one of the high-ranking priests being discussed as a candidate for the pope within the main school of the temple.
He was greatly pleased that his contributions had been acknowledged at the meeting the day before yesterday, when he promised much aid for the restoration of the temple.
The temple’s honor and authority were currently in danger at an unprecedented level, but the precarious internal situation of the temple served as an opportunity for the high priest Velas.
In this situation, he was sure that the personal connections and backgrounds he had formed would increase his influence.
As long as he took control of the temple from within, it would not be a matter of manipulating the contribution he had accumulated as a papal candidate, so High Priest Velas was already drunk with victory.
“Aid is going well.”
The aid of numerous foreign nobles, who had promised him, was going well.
Sooner or later, wagons loaded with enormous supplies were expected to arrive in Erenium, so High Priest Velas only had to proceed with the plans set in advance accordingly.
“Hmm. The problem is… It’s the price they have to pay.”
Of course, the aid promised by foreign aristocrats and royal families is not free favor.
Instead of sending aid that would increase the status and authority of Velas High Priest, they wanted to send a number of priests to them.
Of course, not for good reasons such as to make their country’s interests or their territory safe and rich.
All they wanted was the ‘priestess’.
Among the young priestesses of the temple are many mostly chaste women.
What nobles and royalty wanted in exchange for aid was just a dirty reason to satisfy their desires.
Even while necromancers and numerous terrorist organizations are currently rampaging on the continent, they are just obsessed with satisfying their stomachs and desires.
Among them, the most speculative thing is that there are many people who want Eleanor Armitas, who is being discussed as the next saint.
As Agnes’ successor, she can still exert considerable influence within the Temple of Vesta.
Moreover, since she is also the daughter of Duke Armitas of the Kingdom of Pernias, she will naturally have the opportunity to make connections with the Kingdom of Pernias.
Also, her appearance is also very beautiful and she is called the flower of Pernin, so she is coveted by royalty and nobles of other countries.
Even if she was already a married woman, she wasn’t human enough to give up her greed.
“… Tsk. They are like people full of greed.”
She is already a trash who sells many of her priestesses to other countries for her own success, but their greed knows no bounds.
High Priest Velas clicked his tongue and pondered.
It was too burdensome to touch Eleanor in the current situation.
Eleanor’s status and influence in the temple are the same, but the most problematic is her husband, a man named Eun-hyeon.
Everyone in the temple knew that this necromancer attack could have been passed with minor damage because there was actually Eleanor, as well as Eunhyeon or his other wife, Erin.
High Priest Velas wanted to avoid at least touching Eleanor and the Eunhyeon couple.
“What about those people… It should be enough to throw in the other priests. Hmm… ?”
As soon as he was about to get up from his chair after thinking about it, High Priest Velas found a number of letters on his desk.
The luxurious envelope sealed with wax immediately caught his attention.
“Who is it?”
The servant of the mansion had never mentioned anything like the letter that came to him today.
“Tsk. Have you forgotten?”
Not just one, but a total of six letters, and he skipped them without telling me.
Resolving to warn and educate them once more later, High Priest Velas opened the envelope and inspected the contents.
The letters were from foreign royalty and nobles who colluded with him.
High Priest Velas, who had opened a bottle and read the contents step by step, opened his eyes wide and an earthquake occurred in his pupils.
“Wow, what nonsense… ! Suddenly… !?”
High Priest Velas, who had a look of disbelief on his face, looked at the five unopened letters.
“No way… !?”
I gripped the envelope roughly and opened it with trembling hands to check the contents of the other letters.
The contents of all six letters were the same.
The contents of ‘I will withdraw the aid of the temple that I promised you.’
All the rhetoric that filled the letter was discarded and the concise contents were the same.
But is it really a coincidence that six people wrote and sent letters with the same intention at the same time?
It can’t be.
“Right now… I need to figure out what’s going on right now!”
High Priest Velas stood up to find out what had happened, and immediately tried to shout in a loud voice to call the attendant.
“Hey… ! Town!?”
Suddenly, something gripped his body and blocked his mouth from coming out.
It took High Priest Velas a long time to figure out what it was.
“Quiet.”
I heard the voice, but I couldn’t see the shape.
Before long, High Priest Velas, who lowered his gaze down to check his body condition, was silently astonished.
The black shadows that formed at his toes snaked up like snakes and strangled his body.
“Town! Ugh!”
Even his voice cannot come out properly from his mouth covered in shadows.
He moved his body and struggled to get out of the shadows somehow, but in order to subdue the resistance, the shadows tightened the body of High Priest Velas even more strongly.
“Nice… Ugh!”
“I would have told you to be quiet, but I don’t intend to listen to you at all.”
The shadows moved as if they were thinking.
The shadow that entangled the entire body wrapped around the right hand of the corpse of high ranking Velas.
Kwajik!
When he puts pressure on his fingers, the twisted joint breaks in a deformed shape and the knuckle of the little finger is fractured.
“Town!? Ugh!”
A state where even screaming in intense pain is not free as the shadow seals the mouth.
As the pain paralyzed his reason and his struggle grew stronger, the shadow broke his little finger and then his ring finger without hesitation.
Kwajik!
“Grow!”
“If you don’t be quiet, next time I might pull out your middle finger altogether.”
“Town! Ugh!”
At the shadow’s ferocious warning, High Priest Velas hurriedly nodded his head.
The terrible pain he had never experienced in his life was the horror itself that he never wanted to feel again.
“If you don’t scream, I’ll let your mouth go free.”
“…”
Hearing the shadow’s suggestion, High Priest Velas nodded quietly.
The pang of two of his fingers was still tormenting him, but now it was more urgent to somehow get out of this crisis than that.
Even though the shadow blocking his mouth was released, High Priest Velas fortunately did not scream and call anyone.
Unlike the initial panic when he was attacked, he regained his composure to some extent.
“Did you receive the gift I sent you?”
“If it’s a gift… I hope those letters… !?”
“I sent it. But letters are not forgery. They are all handwritten signatures from them.”
“How did you do that…”
“It’s not that difficult. By breaking into the mansion like this…”
A part of the shadow that was entangling the whole body protruded forward and formed a sharp blade, aiming at High Priest Velas’ neck.
“I just did it because I asked for a little favor.”
In fact, the physical distance was good.
Because he could go wherever he wanted as long as there were shadows.
Previously, he had gone weeks in the shadows without eating or sleeping.
He is an artificially created magic, a shadow that is a spirit.
“…”
High Priest Velas trembled with fear.
Because I was sure it was the truth, not a bluff.
Whether the opponent is royalty or noble, this shadow has the ability to infiltrate the target’s space and assassinate it casually.
In addition, the six royalty and nobles who colluded with him do not have strong power or magicians like the kingdom of Pernias, one of the most powerful countries, so they are vulnerable to such high-level magical intrusion methods.
The shadow’s words are true.
“…”
High Priest Velas was troubled.
This shadow is not undead.
Then, if he works miracles with his divine power, will he be able to overcome this crisis?
No, there is no way this shadow will wait for you to use miracles with divine power in the first place.
The Velas High Priestess, who had no physical fighting ability, was already in a situation where she was on the verge of being imprisoned without any escorts.
“Me, what do you want from me?”
Priest Velas quickly acknowledged the situation and succumbed to the shadow.
His trembling voice was filled with fear, and he begged for his life in a naive way, showing a crippled look.
Shadow Spirit Elvin warned High Priest Velas.
“This is my first and last warning. Do not involve unnecessary outside forces inside the temple.”
“Ha, but in order to settle the current chaotic situation in the temple…”
“Did you not understand my explanation? I would have told you not to involve ‘unnecessary’ outside forces. The kingdoms and nobles of these small and medium-sized countries that you have now attracted are all scum that hide their filthy feelings and ride on your ambitions. Do you think I didn’t know how messed up things would turn out to be by you and them intervening inside the temple?”
“…”
“What you’re trying to do is no different than injecting trash-like germs into your body. And… It is unacceptable that someone like you is aiming for the position of the next pope.”
As if to express her own feelings, Elvin tightened the shadow that was entangling High Priest Velas’ whole body.
“Her… Ugh… !”
High Priest Velas, whose airway was blocked by his strangulation, was unable to breathe properly and struggled with his entire body.
“I warn you once again. If you ignore my warning, you will die.”
“Big… Ugh…”
Distraught from the pressure that seemed to take his breath away, he was unable to properly respond to Alvin’s warning.
But Alvin didn’t care and continued talking.
“If I do, I will die. Even if someone tells this fact, he will die. Even if I tell someone about my existence, I will die. I will die even if I have a useless thought and run away in front of you.”
“Okay, okay… All right… !”
In the grip of fear, High Priest Velas barely answered.
If he couldn’t answer, he feared that he might die, and even though he was out of breath, he desperately spoke out to convey his intentions.
That answer must have been quite satisfactory, and the shadow that was tightening his whole body and neck loosened little by little.
But that’s for a while.
The voice of the cool shadow came again.
“Come to think of it.”
“Again, what’s the matter…”
“You’ve been doing all sorts of dirty things to become a high priest, right? They sold young priestesses who had just finished their apprenticeships to influential people such as royalty and nobles in other countries.”
And the terrible experiences the priestesses had to go through were not necessary to explain.
“That, it is… !”
“A piece of trash.”
The shadow that had loosened again began to entangle High Priest Velas’ whole body and put pressure on him.
And it doesn’t stop there, it twists the joints and bones of the whole body without mercy.
Kwajik!
It twists and pulverizes all joints from the fingers, toes and ankles to the entire body.
The unimaginable pain of his muscles being torn and twisted in a deformed direction covered his whole body, but High Priest Velas, who was again blocked by a shadow, was unable to utter a single scream.
“Town! Ugh! Ugh!”
Finally, the shadow that had shattered every joint in his body loosened and fell from his body.
“Kuh, ugh…”
High Priest Velas, whose entire body was broken, collapsed on the floor in vain.
Not only his limbs, but also his joints and joints of his fingers and toes were all crushed, and he was unable to even stand up on his own.
When he just slightly lifted his head and looked up, there was a person in front of him covered in a pitch-black robe.
Is that a person It can’t be.
That’s a monster
He fell to the floor, unable to move, and his body trembled with fear.
“I know that gaze very well.”
That look at him as a monster was very familiar to Alvin.
But it’s ridiculous.
What on earth is the difference between himself, an artificial spirit with monstrous traits and abilities, and this priest, scum, with a monstrous personality and way of thinking?
Before long, Alvin warned again.
“Tell me again. If you ignore my warning…”
Fu-wook
A blade made of shadows fell on the neck of High Priest Velas.
“Then you really die. I can stick my shadow around your neck like this anytime, anywhere.”
“Al, I see… Is…”
High Priest Velas replied weakly.
After hearing his confirmation, the shadow erased its existence and disappeared as if nothing had happened in the first place.
“Jen… Page… !”
When the shadows disappeared, High Priest Velas spat out disgust as his body ached.
I tried to heal the wounds all over my body by hurriedly generating divine power.
“Uh… ?”
The divine power, the source of miracles, was not used.
“Uh, why… ?”
The strange sensation, as if the divine power itself that existed in his body had disappeared, gradually gave rise to anxiety, which soon turned into confidence.
The goddess Vesta withdrew her divine power from within her own body.
“Oh, no… ! No!”
Her end as a priest, who was abusing the grace of her goddess for personal use, came to an end.
