Chapter 23
About two days had passed since the day I gave Mist her orders.
The Empire's permission to conduct the raid had come surprisingly quickly.
As soon as the Empire granted permission, the others and I split up and began moving toward the enemy bases we had each chosen that day.
Looking at the lounge bar in front of me, I lightly tapped the communicator attached to my ear.
"This is Abel. I've arrived at the destination."
It was a small device made through magitech, resembling a miniature radio.
[This is Breck of the Nostra Family. I've arrived.]
[Ariel of the Church of Light. I've arrived at the hotel.]
[The salon in the noble district. I've just arrived.]
As the voices came through the communicator, I checked the time.
We had agreed in advance that everyone would enter simultaneously in case the mage tried to flee.
The entry time was exactly 8:00 p.m.
Click.
I took out my pocket watch to check the current time.
"The current time is 7:30 p.m. We'll enter in about thirty minutes. The mage may be eavesdropping on our communications, so let's only contact one another once the situation is over or if we've found nothing."
[Understood.]
[All right.]
[Yes. I shall obey your command.]
At the sounds coming through the communicator, I leaned against the wall of the alley and slowly exhaled cigar smoke.
Watching the smoke begin to scatter into the air, I rolled my eyes toward the lounge bar I suspected was the mage's workshop.
The whole affair was proceeding far too smoothly.
But precisely because of that, my nerves began to fray even more.
'Will everything really end this easily?'
The Saintess of the Church of Light, the Nostra Family, and House Nebla's execution squad, [White Shadow].
Our combined forces were not merely excessive; they were practically bursting at the seams.
But I felt strangely uneasy. The problem was that I had no idea what was causing this peculiar unease.
As I passed the time with that strange sense of unease, the communicator began working once more.
"This is Abel. What's wrong?"
And when I heard Ariel's words through the communicator, I frowned without realizing it.
***
Thirty minutes earlier.
"Understood."
Ariel answered Abel through the communicator while looking at the hotel visible from the alley.
A hotel standing about seven stories tall.
Perhaps because it was near the central fountain in the imperial capital, countless people could be seen coming and going.
'As expected, this is a little...'
Ariel watched the scene while hiding quietly, then sighed and checked her clothing.
The nun's habit she usually wore was extremely disadvantageous in battle.
That was only natural, since it covered her entire body. Moreover, it had little elasticity, making it even less suitable for combat.
That was why the Church had created a combat nun's habit for use in emergencies and battles.
'It's embarrassing even in a robe.'
The only problem was that it prioritized functionality so completely that it exposed quite a lot of skin.
Fortunately, when she wore this combat outfit, the holy power it emitted made it look to other people's eyes as though she were dressed in the flowing garments of an angel, which was some consolation.
'Eek! The wind!'
Thinking that, Ariel shivered as a chilly breeze slipped into the combat outfit that left her hips completely exposed.
It was an unavoidable physiological reaction.
'Seriously, what was the person who designed this thinking...?'
Functionality? Of course it was good. There wasn't a scrap of cloth over any joint involved in movement; it was practically the same as being naked!
What could possibly get in the way of moving one's body? Clothes! Destroy them!
The design could only have come from someone thinking along those lines.
"Ugh."
"Saintess."
A voice called out to Ariel, who had been deeply contemplating her outfit.
"What is it?"
Stopping her thoughts at the voice, Ariel turned her head toward the speaker with her usual smile.
"Is something wrong?"
In response to Ariel's question, the priest cautiously spoke with a slightly darkened expression.
"Yes... We're detecting heretical power from that hotel."
The priest's voice had sunk low.
"...What?"
Having momentarily doubted her own ears, Ariel raised her voice without realizing it and stared at the priest.
Heresy? The power of heresy?
There were three types of power that Ariel currently knew of as heretical.
The power of the evil god or demons from legend. However, this power existed only in legendary history or mythology.
And in the present world, there was only one type of power the Church defined as heretical.
"Dark magic?"
Dark magic had not originally been classified as heretical magic.
It had begun as a form of magic developed to preserve the condition of dead meat and prevent food from spoiling.
But the dark mages had fallen into corruption.
They had taken up curses, necromancy, and forbidden arts performed at the cost of their own lives.
"Are you certain it's a type of dark magic that has truly been designated heretical?"
Ariel asked again in a serious voice.
Even if some dark mages had touched forbidden powers, the Church did not classify all dark magic as heretical.
The origin of dark magic was a field of study created to help humanity.
If the Church, which spoke in the name of God, hastily declared all dark magic heretical, it would only sully God's name.
That was why the Church instead distinguished dark magic with great care.
Of all dark magic, only two kinds.
Necromancy, which mocked the dead's final rest by reviving people as undead.
And the forbidden arts, which wielded tremendous power at the cost of one's own or another person's life.
Only these two had been designated heretical.
"Yes..."
The priest gave a heavy nod in response to Ariel's question.
"The power of necromancy is being detected in that hotel right now."
"Ha..."
At the priest's words, Ariel sighed, squeezed her eyes shut, and pulled herself together.
"Let's establish control first. Holy knights and priests, prevent anyone else from entering the hotel. And explain the situation to the Imperial personnel assisting us."
"Yes!"
Saying that, Ariel left the alley and headed straight for the hotel.
About ten minutes later.
Thanks to the priest's quick judgment and the deployment of the Empire's police and knights, the area was brought under control very quickly.
"First, I will fight alongside you as well."
In front of the now-contained hotel,
Ariel said this to the priests and holy knights looking at her.
The priests and holy knights immediately tried to object. Ariel raised a hand to calm their agitation and continued speaking.
"I know what you're worried about. Please listen to me for a moment."
Necromancy. In other words, a necromancer who commanded the undead.
Entering with a large team to fight them carried far too much risk.
A comrade killed by an undead attack could rise again and attack the people who had been fighting alongside them—a true tragedy.
No matter how strong a person's mind was, experiencing such a tragedy would inevitably shake it.
"But if the aura we sense from the hotel really is necromancy, wouldn't it be safer for only a small number of people to go in?"
That was why even in the Church's training, only small teams entered when dealing with necromancy.
As she spoke, Ariel looked at the hotel, which stood about seven stories tall.
"If the entire hotel is swarming with undead, that wouldn't be a number you could handle, would it?"
Ariel estimated the number of priests and holy knights currently around her.
Since this was merely a drug bust, only the bare minimum had been dispatched.
In particular, Ariel had brought mostly priests to treat the drug addicts.
There were only five holy knights, who were supposed to provide the actual combat power.
It would certainly have been enough strength to capture a simple mage.
The priests had also brought equipment for fighting mages, so they could be put to good use.
But their enemy now was undead.
They needed someone with enough holy power to deal with their numbers and enough strength to protect themselves.
So Ariel had no choice but to join the battle.
.
.
.
Having somehow persuaded the priests and holy knights, Ariel quietly stroked one side of the hotel wall and checked once more the energy she felt at her fingertips.
Deep in her heart, she had prayed that it would not be necromancy, but reality offered only the cold truth.
'It's certain.'
Heretical power. The power of necromancy, at that.
It matched the power the Church used as a sample when teaching people about heretical forces to a chilling degree.
Moreover, if it was emitting such energy through the building, then the entire interior must already have been transformed into undead.
'...'
After observing a brief moment of silence for the dead, Ariel raised her bowed head.
The hijacking of an airship by the [Red Dawn Society], followed by the large-scale terrorist attack in which that airship collided with the Empire's Magic Tower.
Alongside that incident, [Mirage], which forcibly awakened ordinary people, had become one of the causes devastating the capital.
It was the catalyst that caused people in the underworld to awaken as ability users one after another, and the starting point of the chaos.
The public was anxious because of the terrorist attack, while addicts in the underworld gained power. It was a situation filled with nothing but chaos.
That had been the Empire's situation before the regression.
But Ariel had always harbored one question.
As she listened to the information about the mage behind [Mirage] provided by Abel and Breck of the Nostra Family, that question became a certainty.
'As I thought, there was an accomplice.'
The scale was far too large for a mere mage to have carried it out alone.
Before coming here, Ariel had already spoken with Abel and Breck of the Nostra Family.
Both Abel and Breck had already suspected that there might be an accomplice.
But they had no decisive evidence, so it had remained nothing more than a suspicion.
"This is Ariel. Can you hear me?"
And now, decisive evidence had appeared in front of Ariel.
Ariel immediately activated the communicator at her ear and spoke to inform the others of this fact.
"I'll say it again. This is Ariel. Can you hear me?"
[This is Abel. What's wrong?]
[Nostra Family. Communication confirmed. Is something wrong?]
[White Shadow. Communication confirmed.]
After confirming that the communicators were connected, Ariel quickly explained the current situation.
She told them that the power of heresy—specifically, the aura of necromancy—could be felt inside the hotel.
"So I'm going into the hotel right now."
[... [White Shadow], you didn't know about this?]
Abel, who had been listening quietly to Ariel, lowered his voice without realizing it and pressed [White Shadow] for answers.
[...Would it be all right if I explained?]
[Go ahead.]
Lena, who was handling the communications, began explaining in a cautious voice.
[About two days ago, the reason we determined that these four places were the mage's workshops was that they had high mana concentrations.]
But.
[After learning that the culprit was a mage, we only conducted surveillance. We couldn't infiltrate and acquire information because it was obvious that we would be discovered the moment we entered a mage's workshop.]
[Then you didn't sense the aura when detecting them from outside?]
Breck, who had been listening quietly, joined the conversation in a displeased voice.
[Judging from the Saintess's words, it seems that during the roughly two days we spent, a dark mage established a lair in the hotel.]
"I agree with that as well."
No, from the outset, no other opinion made sense.
If the necromancer had already established a lair in that hotel, then the Empire would obviously have learned of it and caused an uproar before [White Shadow] ever investigated it.
As they exchanged opinions and Ariel reached the hotel entrance, she spoke one last time through the communicator.
"Since this is necromancy, we need to move as quickly as possible."
The imperial capital. And not just anywhere in it, but near the central fountain, where people were most densely gathered.
It could be contained. The Empire was not so weak that a single necromancer could shake it.
But if undead created through necromancy emerged here, it was obvious that there would be countless casualties.
Ariel could never overlook such a disaster.
[I wish you luck.]
.
.
.
"Phew..."
After ending the communication, Ariel calmed her restless heart before entering the hotel.
"Shall we go?"
"Yes..."
Ariel looked at the faces of the holy knights entering alongside her, then slowly followed the door they opened into the hotel.
When they entered the hotel lobby, they saw a zombie.
As Ariel had expected, the hotel interior was already filled with undead.
The cold, corpse-like aura unique to necromancy that she could feel on her skin was proof of that.
"Haa..."
With a short sigh, Ariel drew her own weapon from beneath her robe.
A weapon specially commissioned by the Church for the Saintess alone.
It looked very different from the revolvers used by ordinary priests. It was a white pistol with a thick, heavy barrel, its color matched to Ariel's pure-white hair.
It was the sort of pistol that, if Abel saw it, would make him think of a certain weapon without realizing it.
Desert Eagle.
"Then."
Ariel immediately fired the pistol.
The moment she pulled the trigger, a bullet packed with holy power shot from the barrel and instantly blew apart the head of the zombie that had been eating a corpse.
"Let's begin purifying the heretics."