13 Mink Street

“In my god’s name, I beseech Your divine might to descend and wipe away the dust upon Order.” Derron floated in midair. Before him, a magic box continuously rotated and transformed, calculating every detail required to sustain the Throne of Order before them. His aged figure now radiated an overwhelming authority.

At the very beginning of Hoffen’s notes on ritual arrays, there was a single line of instruction: “Remember, within your ritual array, you are God.”

Around Derron, more than thirty priests were channeling power into him. His son, Eisen, his daughter-in-law, Casey, and his youngest daughter were among them. Five such groups encircled the Church Affairs Building of the Church of Reincarnation. Together, they had summoned the Throne of Order and sealed the entire structure.

The magic box rotated on its own. At this point in time, it was essentially impossible for anyone inside the Church Affairs Building to quickly break out. Moreover, reinforcements would soon arrive.

The reason there had been a delay before this moment lay in the need for secrecy. To launch a true surprise attack, the upper echelons of the Church of Order had used the Church of Pamireth as a smokescreen to mislead everyone. The most difficult part of this deception had not been misleading the enemy, but misleading their own people.

The last orthodox church to fall had been the Church of Light. In the nearly thousand years since then, although the balance of power between the orthodox churches had shifted, the overall structure remained largely unchanged, and no large-scale church war had erupted again.

The longer peace endured, the deeper the exchanges and infiltration between churches became. Some infiltrators had already developed into entire families within opposing churches. Even their younger generations might not know that their own lineage carried such a secret.

Before deployment, many members of the Knight Regiments likely believed they were simply undergoing routine redeployment or preparing for a campaign against the Church of Pamireth. Only after they had passed through the teleportation gates and arrived before the holy lands of the Church of Reincarnation did the soldiers finally understand their true target.

Before the war began, no information could be allowed to leak. To that end, Derron’s department had even carried out a strict internal purge in advance.

The original head of the department had long been a known quantity. Even Derron, as the deputy, had been aware that his superior’s identity was compromised, yet the higher-ups had never moved against him. From their perspective, having an infiltrator at the head of a department was easier to control. Precisely because of his importance, he would not dare place additional agents within his own ranks, for fear of exposure. On the contrary, such a person would be even more vigilant about maintaining the department’s “purity,” guarding against infiltration from other churches that might draw unwanted scrutiny.

In the end, it had become exactly that: one man tainted, the rest of the department kept clean.

At that moment, Derron thought of what his grandson had said earlier that night, about going to dine with a girl from the Church of Reincarnation. He did not believe in such coincidences. It seemed that after joining that hunting hounds squad, his grandson had changed considerably. As a grandfather, he felt no anger at being probed, but rather a quiet sense of pride.

What Derron did not know was that he had another grandson standing on a rooftop behind him, watching everything unfold.

Bang! A rupture appeared above the Church Affairs Building, sudden and eerie. At the same time, a corner of the magic box before Derron went missing.

A Reincarnation Crystal! Derron immediately understood what had been used. It was like using a diamond in place of a stone just to fill a gap in a road. “Eisen, lead a team in pursuit. The rest of you, stay with me and repair that breach to full capacity. Maintain the ritual array at all costs. Remember, this is the key!”

Eisen immediately led a squad in pursuit. As they reached the landing point, they clashed with the escaping group, and a brutal conflict erupted almost instantly.

“Endless reincarnation, undying loyalty!” Five guards clad in dark red armor charged after the pursuing Order priests. Black substances coiled around the armor, and as soon as they closed the distance, they detonated themselves.

Boom! Boom! Violent explosions tore through the area. The Order priests raised barriers to block the blasts, but the explosions carried plague, calamity, and other corruptive elements. Several barriers began to erode beneath that assault.

Many of the priests faltered and retreated. They were members of the ritual array department, not Knight Regiments, garrison forces, or even members of the Whip of Order. They were scholars and maintenance workers, not seasoned fighters. The enemy’s suicidal assault immediately shook them, breaking their formation and allowing the escapees to flee eastward.

“Pursue them!” Eisen cast purification upon himself and plunged into the thick, corrupted smoke. Casey clenched her teeth, applied purification as well, and followed.

***

“They actually broke out,” Karon commented, glancing at the captain beside him. At this moment, he hoped the captain would give the order to pursue. Karon recognized his socially awkward uncle down below, charging forward, and the woman following was likely Karon’s aunt. He had seen their family portrait before.

But the captain always prioritized profit. Karon did not know whether he would bother cleaning up another department’s mess.

Nio spoke with excitement, “What extravagance! Using a Reincarnation Crystal to break through. Do you know what one costs in the credit shop? Three million Order credits!

“They used it the moment the seal went up, even before reinforcements arrived... that means this is a big fish, someone with very high status within the Church of Reincarnation. Normally, we’d never have the chance to hunt someone like this, nor bear the consequences.” He lowered his voice. “Luckily, this is wartime.

“Hunting hounds squad, move out!” Nio leapt, turning into black mist and descending at great speed.

Karon opened the sword case, hoisted the Aelius Sword onto his shoulder, and jumped from the rooftop as well, transforming into black mist to follow.

***

“Miss, go. I’ll hold them off!” Rothan halted, along with his two remaining men. He looked at them. “I’m counting on the both of you.”

“For loyalty!”

“For loyalty!”

The two guards rushed at Eisen and Casey and detonated themselves without hesitation. Boom! Boom!

In such moments, any sort of complex combat became meaningless. Time was everything. Eisen and Casey were blasted back, partly from impact, partly from deliberate evasion.

Rothan appeared before Casey and brought his blade down.

Crash! Her already weakened barrier shattered. A black grid spread rapidly across her chest. He gave her no chance to recover. Instead of withdrawing, he swung again.

A fist-sized hole opened in Rothan’s chest armor, blood gushing out. Casey was struck by the same blow, although the holy relic she wore absorbed much of the impact, a ghastly wound was still carved from her neck down to her chest. The residual forces from the explosion began seeping into her body, corrupting her from within.

Casey crashed to the ground, her face contorted in pain, her spirituality thrown into disarray. She was powerful, but not suited to this kind of sudden close-quarters fight, she simply lacked the experience for it.

Out of the corner of his eye, Rothan saw the male Order priest closing in. He deliberately ignored the man, raising his blade and lunging straight for the fallen female priest, shouting, “If I can take one, I’ll take one!”

Just as he closed the distance and his blade was about to fall, two black rings appeared before him. He sneered. So he can’t fight close combat at all.

Rothan stopped on a dime, then wrenched himself back, red light flaring from his armor as he shot backward. He knew how dangerous his two pursuers were, so he needed to use the chaos created by his men’s self-destruction to secure the greatest possible result.

The black rings pulsed, and two beams shot out. Because of Rothan’s sudden retreat, they only grazed his shoulders, shearing away large chunks of armor. The next instant, he had already appeared before Eisen.

If the Eisen had ignored the woman and fought Rothan directly, remaining steady and undistracted, given Rothan’s already heavy injuries, he would have had no chance. But in trying to save the woman, the man had used a long-range Art and revealed a flaw. That was the opening Rothan had been waiting for.

A blue music box appeared in Eisen’s hand. It split open, releasing a lattice of violet grids that spread out before him. Rothan charged straight into it without hesitation. The exposed parts of his body charred at once, his soul seared by the burning pain, but he paid it no mind and drove his blade forward.

“Order—Protec—”

“Too late!”

The power of protection resisted the blade, but under the force of Rothan’s strike, it gave way, and the tip punched into Eisen’s chest.

Eisen’s body shuddered, yet no pain showed on his face, only a strange sense of release. He spread his arms, black lightning gathering in his palms.

Rothan bared his teeth in a savage grin. “Trying to take me down with you? Well then. Come on!”

...

“Captain, the pursuers below have been intercepted!”

“Our target is the big fish.”

“They’re in danger!”

“Our target is the big fish.”

From above, Karon watched anxiously. Those two were his uncle and aunt. He did not feel strong familial attachment, but “his” mother had still protected him as her own son, despite knowing he was not. That alone was enough, yet Nio only cared about the prize.

“They’re Richard’s parents!” Richard was one of their squad members. Ignoring this would violate Nio’s own rules.

“Go. Finish things here, then head to Gells Photo Studio.” Nio veered off as a black mist, already anticipating the escape route.

Karon did not hesitate. His mist dissipated midair.

Sea God’s Armor.

Darkmoon Blade.

With the Aelius Sword raised high, he plunged straight down.

...

Eisen’s lightning was about to strike when a dark red flash cut through.

Rothan froze. His arms still held the blade, but were no longer attached to his body.

Karon followed through without pause. The Aelius Sword swept across, severing Rothan’s head cleanly. The body collapsed, lifeless. It had been effortless.

Eisen immediately redirected his lightning into the ground, blasting two massive craters. Karon nearly flinched. He had almost been caught in it.

“Karon?” Eisen recognized him.

“Are you alright?” Karon asked.

“I’m fine.” Eisen’s expression stiffened again.

It was hard to imagine that someone who had just been on the verge of dying together with his enemy would have his social anxiety return the moment the danger passed. Uncle, your condition is rather serious.

Karon even suspected that what had nearly been the end just now had, for this man, felt more like a kind of release.

Eisen rushed to his wife’s side and dropped to a knee, immediately beginning purification and healing Arts. Basic healing was something any Expositor could perform, though anything more advanced required a church hospital. For now, the priority was to prevent the toxins from seeping deeper through the wound and causing irreversible corruption.

“See to your companion. Nio’s Squad will continue the pursuit!” Leaving those words behind, Karon hoisted the Aelius Sword and dissolved once more into black mist, vanishing.

“Nio’s Squad... are they Richard’s... teammates?” Casey asked weakly.

Eisen’s one hand continued to release purification over himself, while the other clamped his wife’s mouth shut. “Stabilize your spirituality and expel the corruption. Don’t speak.”

“... ”

***

“Bertha, is the place you mentioned reliable?”

“If we’re not going there, then where? To another stronghold of the Church of Reincarnation? This time, the Church of Order is clearly targeting you. Do you really think they’ve left any of your other bases untouched?”

“How far can the teleportation array take us?”

“It won’t send you back to Reincarnation Valley. At most, it can get you outside York City.”

“That’s enough. Their forces are too concentrated inside of the city. We need to leave York City first and lie low. I need to find out what’s happening outside, why things turned out like this.”

“You really don’t know?” Bertha asked with a faint sneer. “You must have some idea, or else you wouldn’t have tried to break out at all costs the moment things went wrong. You know the Church of Order is dead serious this time. With your status in the Church of Reincarnation, once conflict erupts, you won’t be spared.”

Tarina said nothing. She truly did not know what was happening outside, and she had no intention of telling Bertha about that matter.

“I’m the one who got the worst of it. I only came to sleep with you, and now I have to expose this teleport point. Do you know we didn’t even activate it during the last emergency?”

“I’ll compensate you for this. That, you can trust.”

The two arrived outside Gells Photo Studio. Instead of knocking, they moved to the side. The studio sat at the end of the street, with a side entrance. The door was unlocked. Bertha pushed it open, revealing a staircase leading upward. She did not go up. Instead, she remained where she was, light gathering at her fingertips as she began to guide it.

A faint tremor ran through the staircase. The lowest nine steps sank inward, revealing a pitch-black space below.

“A confinement array?” Tarina asked.

“Yes. It’s extremely sensitive. Even with the power of Light, the slightest mistake during the guidance process will trigger a full self-destruction sequence. That’s why I said this place is absolutely safe. No outsider could possibly enter.”

Bertha bent down and stepped inside. Tarina followed.

After moving forward a short distance, Bertha clapped her hands. Candles flared to life, lighting a wide, circular chamber. The runes of the teleportation array etched into the ground gave off an ancient, weathered aura.

The light also revealed a figure standing within the chamber, a silver mask covering his face. Shock flashed across Bertha’s face. “How is that possible? How could anyone get in here?”

The masked man replied calmly, “Because this array was set up by me.”