Chapter 82
A few days ago.
Charlotte received news from an informant.
It was news that a branch of Liszt had been attacked.
Though it wasn't an incident that spread widely enough to be known outside as it was a small-scale branch, its seriousness had to be recognized given that the perpetrators were black mages.
Upon hearing this report, Charlotte immediately set out to investigate.
-Are you going this time too?
-I know the Princess is working hard for the 'Rose', but using them to cure the disease is too dangerous an idea.
-It's already a time of turbulent politics.
-I hope you realize the responsibility weighing on your shoulders.
Though there was nagging as usual, she roughly ignored it.
As she had been chasing traces of heretics for several months, she was heading to the scene without hesitation this time too.
She didn't inform the Imperial Family of these actions.
There were extremely few people she could trust.
Charlotte moved with only a small escort.
'It's difficult.'
The girl who arrived at the branch.
Though they came to close the cathedral and investigate, there was hardly anything they could find.
Only the copious bloodstains reported earlier were all there was.
While such a horrific scene was painted, no corpses or flesh were visible anywhere, so it was a ghostly situation for those investigating.
Charlotte racked her brain with her characteristic indifferent expression.
Were the missing people really smuggled out?
If so, where should they look for them?
Should they change the search route to surrounding cities even now?
It was while she was chewing over such continuing concerns.
"What is this...?"
In the brief time she had stepped away for communication and returned, all the guards keeping watch at the cathedral were unconscious.
Even the close aides she had brought as escorts were in an unconscious state.
The cathedral doors were wide open.
It seemed something ominous was happening.
Charlotte moved her feet towards the cathedral interior where presences could be heard, while keeping her breath as quiet as possible.
She didn't forget to grasp the sword at her waist either.
"......"
A dark corridor where only an eerie atmosphere flowed.
She walked following the faint light.
As she stepped on the stairs leading to the basement, unidentified thugs standing beyond the corner came into view.
They were all wearing pure white robes.
'That's...'
The thugs seemed to be looking for something.
Charlotte, who had been closely observing their busy movements, soon noticed that there was a familiar face among them.
Her red lips unknowingly muttered the boy's name.
"...Yuda Snakers?"
The person Charlotte had been continuously interested in.
A few months ago, she learned by chance that Yuda was hiding a chilling power, and since then she had been hovering around watching him.
Of course, it wasn't wariness.
It was simply out of curiosity.
Usually someone with such power would reek of evil, but the boy didn't give off any dangerous smell at all.
Rather, he held a cool winter scent that made her want to keep smelling it.
'Why is he here...?'
Could he be involved in this incident?
Charlotte kept peeking at the continuing scene while hiding her body behind the wall.
As a brief time passed like that.
-Break.
The boy suddenly recited an incantation.
The fired bullet touched the dead-end wall, then soon shattered numerous barriers and uncovered a hidden space.
It was the moment traces invisible even to Charlotte's eyes were revealed.
-Such petty tricks don't work.
With light self-talk behind him, the snake stepped towards the corridor made of the unknown.
The other thugs followed him too.
Charlotte hesitated in place.
Rational judgment said it was better to withdraw here, but her intuition kept leading the girl's hand.
It felt like she would miss an important point if she didn't follow.
'Maybe... I might be able to get a clue about the Rose.'
Charlotte, who had been contemplating briefly, soon took a step as if she had decided.
She suppressed her presence as much as possible.
The thugs' pure white robes fluttering.
The long extending bright red corridor.
Music faintly lingering in her ears.
Though it was a somewhat strange scene, the young princess did not hesitate in her steps.
Thinking of the Rose waiting in the stars.
***
We crossed the corridor with unhindered steps.
A wide and long extending path.
Perhaps because everything was red, it was an aesthetically very jarring scene.
What could you expect from heretics in the first place?
"Master."
As I was looking around the empty surroundings, the girl beside me gently spoke up.
It was Neria who had been flipping through documents since earlier.
She seemed to have roughly finished grasping this situation.
"I examined the cathedral's design drawings but there was nothing particularly special. The corridor we're walking in now is a path that shouldn't exist originally. It seems the heretic side directly created this space."
"I see, as expected."
"What do you think, Master?"
"Seeing how they made such a wide space and even hid it with barriers... It seems there is something beyond there."
"Indeed, the demonic energy in the air is getting thicker as the corridor deepens."
"We'll continue advancing for now. Let's not lower our guard."
"As you wish."
We began treading the blood-soaked corridor again.
How long did we walk like that?
After about 10 minutes had passed.
"Master. Someone collapsed ahead."
The figure of someone sprawled far ahead came into view.
It was a man completely covered in black.
Judging by the priestly robes he was wearing, he seemed to be one of the people who went missing during the previous attack.
"I'll check his condition. If he's still breathing, I'll immediately call a medic to treat..."
"That won't be necessary."
"Pardon?"
"Just wait in place."
Though we discovered the man, I didn't allow the members to approach.
There was a reason for not rashly approaching.
Those who had experienced the Great Purge period seemed to have noticed already.
The attire that should have been pure white was dyed pitch black.
'I was hoping it wasn't the case.'
Faint music seemed to be heard from somewhere.
At the same time, the fallen priest twitched a few times, then suddenly stood up and rushed towards us.
His face was covered in bright red blood.
Only pitch darkness remained in his pupils that once shone with light.
"Kyaaaaaaa!!!"
Though it certainly originated from human lips, the scream heard was not human at all.
It resembled the cry of a beast wandering hell.
Rotten blood flowed down like tears.
A priest tainted and corrupted by demonic energy.
Having succumbed to fear, by accepting despair, he lost his faith, so it was the price a lamb who abandoned belief had to bear.
The priest who had lost his reason roughly swung the iron mace in his hand.
"......"
Swoosh-!
Following the strange cry, the rosary in his bosom shook.
On the cross that once loved God, inerasable sin was now stained.
I quietly flicked my finger.
Then.
Slash-.
With a somewhat feeble sound, the priest's head flew off.
The body that lost its center staggered for a moment, then collapsed on the floor in utter wretchedness.
A body crumbling pathetically.
"...Ominous premonitions never fail to come true."
I muttered as if chewing.
I intently scanned the surroundings.
Come to think of it, it was a familiar terrain.
Including my past life, though it was my first time visiting this branch, I had cleared stages with similar compositions several times.
It looked like a 'work' touched by the same person's hand.
"Vice Commander."
"Yes."
"We'll eliminate all priests we encounter from now on. We'll only proceed with rescue if their minds remain completely intact. We'll deal with any targets showing even slight abnormalities."
"Understood."
Neria nodded without a word.
I brushed off the shadow remaining on my fingertips while looking down at the corpse sprawled at my feet.
A priest with rolled eyes while pickled in demonic energy.
'I didn't expect them to start activities already.'
Only then did faint music begin to be heard.
A stream of maddeningly beautiful melody flowing on detestable greed.
In the unknown performance.
I muttered that name.
'The Conductor.'
A mid-boss appearing in the latter half of the original work.
A self-proclaimed artist.
At the same time, the nightmare that left the most casualties in the Great Purge 5 years ago.
We had set foot in the world he had conceived.
If the structure here was the same as the other stages I remembered, we didn't have much time left.
The life of the missing collaborator was hanging by a thread.
"We'll break through at full power from now on."
"I'll take the lead."
"Miss Irene?"
"I'll be faster for minor processing."
Whoosh-!
Irene stepped forward and lit fire on her sword tip.
Following that, her crimson hair was dyed red.
Her pupils that had held deep black were now changing to red and blazing.
The girl drew a sword strike just like that.
Swoosh-!
"Kiiiieek!!"
Another priest rushed from the opposite end of the corridor.
The one already dyed black beyond return was exposed to the red line shot, then right after his whole body was covered in brilliant flames.
It was a flame of life purifying corruption.
Whoosh-!
"Let's go."
Flames dancing clearly even in darkness.
The fox silently turned to look this way.
I and the members who had stopped briefly soon nodded our heads and began kicking off the ground.
Only pure white robes fluttered behind our sprinting steps.