Chapter 211: Heresy’s Undercurrent

The soldiers sealed off all the main passages and had surrounded the trade house that was opened by the gray elves. However, this wasn’t able to stop rumors and slanders. Among those rumors were tiny bits of truth that were rapidly brewing in the mouths of these ordinary people. Soon enough, there were countless rumors about dark and bloody sacrificial rituals conducted by evil heretics that started spreading out in the town. The skeletons that were carried out from the trade house deep in the night had already proven everyone’s conjectures.

Under the protection of the soldiers, Duke of the West, Baldwin Franklin was escorted and arrived at the scene with a low-profile. He frowned as he felt extremely terrible as he looked at the trade house that was still constantly drifting out with the faint stench of blood, while he could also see those ignorant masses that were extending their heads and looking over.

It wasn’t necessary for a duke to personally visit and pay attention to the happenings of a small town. However, when the incident happened, Baldwin Franklin happened to be in the midst of a winter hunt in the vicinity of Golden Woods Town.

Recently, the evil heretics had been wreaking havoc at the borders of the kingdom, and the King had also sent information to the duke to be careful of the heretics. The western borders did have plenty of disturbing and horrific incidents that had happened. Duke Baldwin Franklin was worried about this; therefore, he chose to conduct a winter hunt in this secluded place to relax a little. However, it seemed like the evil cults were specially targeting him and had actually revealed themselves in front of him at this critical moment.

“Your Excellency.” A trusted aide leaned over and whispered, “Do you wish to disperse these lowly commoners?”

“They are simply ignorant and don’t know what horror is.” Baldwin was feeling unpleasant as he said, “I asked the soldiers to seal the passages in order to protect these foolish people’s lives. Since they are so foolish and cannot understand this point, just let them gather on another street, and don’t let them affect this place.”

“Yes, Your Excellency. Your benevolence is truly touching.” The trusted aide lowered his head again and asked, “Are you going to enter personally… and take a look?”

“I am here for this purpose.”

Baldwin opened the doors of the trade house and was immediately welcomed with a rush of the concentrated stench of blood.

There were dried up patches of dark red blood that could be seen everywhere in the trade house. It was on the floor, the walls, the roof, and every table and chair; every decoration and every window was splattered with blood. It was truly bone-chilling as it seemed just like a lunatic dipping his hand in blood before carefully smearing each surface.

In between the solidified marks of blood, one would be able to see human-shaped impressions that were of a darker color, and it was extremely eerie.

“What are these impressions?” Baldwin Franklin was able to sense subtle magic waves from impressions.

“It is due to corruption, Your Excellency.” An individual in priest attire walked out from the group of people that were sorting out the scene. He bowed to the Duke of the West with the etiquette of a Holy Light follower and answered respectfully, “According to the marks at the scene, people who were influenced or the participants of the evil cult ritual first entered this hall and conducted a frenzied self-mutilation, smearing their blood in every corner of the hall. They then gathered in these locations and started to boil and corrupt their remaining blood with the influence of the evil magic. The blood and flesh that flowed down from their bodies then formed these corrupted impressions. Therefore, when we entered this place, we could only see skeletons.”

The Duke of the West appeared to be angry as he said, “I do not wish to know so many details, I just wish to know who did it.”

“This is the classic sacrificial ritual of the Oblivion Association,” the Holy Light Priest replied. “They advocate the mutilation of living limbs and the embrace of death. According to my judgment, the heretics that conducted this evil ritual are among the skeletons collected here. For such a scale of blood sacrifice, the heretics will choose to sacrifice themselves with the sacrificial goods to achieve their objective to the greatest extent.”

The Duke of the West looked at the Priest’s eyes and asked, “Their objective? What is their objective?”

“They are probably planning to create a plague and to spread the plague to the western borders of the kingdom and inside the Moss Woods.” The Priest pointed at the nearby wall, and on those walls that were tainted with blood, one would be able to see a faint golden Holy Light rune that was flickering. Traces of black aura were rapidly dispersing under the illumination of the Holy Light. “When I rushed here, the entire building was already overflowing with the presence of plague, and it is fortunate that the Lord guided me to discover the heretics’ schemes in advance. I was then able to immediately dispel the evil magic that was able to take form and also set up a cleansing boundary. Your Excellency, there is no need to worry about the plague now.”

“These degenerated and warped freaks! Their souls should truly be taken by the devil, never to escape from hell for eternity!” Baldwin Franklin was rarely so enraged, but he strived to maintain his image. He nodded to the Holy Light Priest and said, “Father, you have rescued this small town and all the lives in the vicinity! You have to receive my thanks and compensation.”

“Cleansing evil is the path given to us by the Lord.” The priest spoke in a tone that was grieved at the fate of mankind. “As compared to individual gains, I am more worried that those demented heretics would attack places that aren’t able to receive the Lord’s blessings.”

“The Church of the Blood God is just in the vicinity of this trade house, but those priests didn’t feel the evil that happened right beside them.” The Duke of the West shook his head and said, “The first to arrive was actually the Holy Light Clerics that you led…”

“You cannot blame the envoys of the Blood God,” the Holy Light Priest responded immediately. “It just so happens that their theurgy isn’t suitable for this occasion. The God of Holy Light’s power is specialized in eliminating evil, and it happens to be within our duty.”

The Duke of the West revealed a pensive expression. “Eliminating evil… The evil cult heretics are getting more rampant in the kingdom. This is the time when we need the power to fight against evil the most…”

The priest lowered his head deeply and said, “The servants of the God of Holy Light shall not shirk from our responsibilities.”

…

The heretics were causing trouble for the nobles in the entire Anzu Kingdom. However, the southern region that they had disturbed first was in a situation where the days were gradually becoming serene.

It seemed like after the Oblivion Association and the Eternal Sleepers had suffered consecutive setbacks, the dark cults felt that this piece of land — which was adjacent to the Gondor Wasteland and also desolate and backward — was rather troublesome. There were plenty of places to target in the kingdom, and they had temporarily given up their plans to continue causing trouble in this region.

Gawain couldn’t guess the plans of the heretics, but he was very willing to accept these rare moments of peace. He had plans to make use of this opportunity to continue upgrading the technology of the territory.

The analysis of the basic rune arrangements that were done by Jenni and Rebecca were gradually being put to use.

On the table in front of Gawain, there was a generalized vambrace that was already disassembled. This was the “I-Type Scorching-Ray Gun” that was equipped by the territory’s soldiers. As compared to the crude experimental design in the beginning, the mass-produced vambraces’ interiors were obviously more reasonably structured. Each of the components had a specification and was easy to replace. After opening the outer shell and a layer of protection, one would be able to see the modular rune trigger, magic capacitor, magic-conducting stopper, and the Scorching Ray base plate that was situated at the front of the vambrace. Apart from that, the magic-conducting stopper had two empty slots, and it was the design that Gawain instructed previously. It was used for future modifications and also the possibility of an upgrade.

Jenni and Rebecca stood at the side of the table, while the latter took out a piece of rune base plate and handed it over. “This is for you.”

Gawain received the hexagonal metallic plate and could see on the side a row of inscribed words: “Generalized I-Type Forcefield Shield module.”

Gawain opened up the interior slot at the magic conductor and placed this new module inside. There was a slight clicking sound, while the several runes on the Forcefield Shield module lit up. The energy from the magic capacitor had successfully activated this new module.

Jenni stood by the side and explained, “After activating the Forcefield Shield, the Scorching Ray’s shot count will reduce by half. But the Forcefield Shield isn’t a function that must be constantly active. We can add in a new rune trigger to control its activation and deactivation. As the defense coverage of the energy shield is limited. Soldiers are only able to activate the Forcefield Shield during close combat.”

Rebecca quickly supplemented, “Originally, we planned to use the Grade 3 Eggshell Shield, but we realized that the consumption rate was too high. The vambrace would only be able to maintain it for a few minutes. We didn’t have a choice but to put in the Grade 2 Forcefield Shield instead.”

Gawain looked up at the ignorant young lady and said, “What ‘Eggshell Shield’? That is the Mage Protective Shield! Don’t just simply give it a name because it looks like an eggshell alright?”

Rebecca scratched her head. “Ehehe. As long as you know what I mean…”

Gawain was at wits’ end as he looked at this young lady and asked, “How many of the functions can be achieved for the next-generation armor?”

“Oh, oh. We have already successfully combined the Combat Field Pack and the armor, and they can be dismantled. This way, the magic circle on the armor can be supplied by the Combat Field Pack. When necessary, the field pack can be unloaded to reduce weight or to be switched out. The breastplate has also been fitted with a magic capacitor. Therefore, even if the armor is disconnected from the Combat Field Pack, it can still be maintained in combat for a period of time,” Rebecca explained with high spirits and brought out a blueprint that she had been designing for many nights and showed it to Gawain. “Look, we placed a Grade 1 Wind Shield in the breastplate first. It has the lowest level of consumption, and it might not provide any actual protection, but it can filter out poisonous aura or plague-type spells, allowing the soldiers to be safer in harsh environments. Afterward, using your instructions, we have also added Insulation and Weight Reduction runes inside the armor. These are either trivial spells or Grade 1 spells. With the Combat Field Pack as an energy source, it could remain operating without deactivating…”

As Rebecca described with excitement, Gawain nodded with satisfaction. Although the basic functions had been achieved, the use of the new magic circles to achieve effects that were similar to magic equipment seemed to be the correct direction. However, Rebecca stopped talking all of a sudden and had a depressed expression. “Previously, you mentioned adding jets at the back of the armor, while soldiers would simply have to yell ‘charge!’ to rush forward while spraying fire. It is a function that I have no way to achieve. I thought about adding a Fireball magic circle at the back, but I realized that the surrounding comrades would be blasted off…”

Gawain nearly choked on his water and said, “Pfff… Didn’t I tell you that it was a joke?!”

“But it sounds super cool!” Rebecca’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Gawain. “Furthermore, we can also add a bunch of shiny streamers behind the armor, or when they jump up to three meters high, they can shoot out arcane missiles or something…”

“Forget all of those things completely!!”

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