Free Web NovelChapter 228: The Spider and the Empress (5)
The dark corridor stretched on endlessly inside the hidden passage behind the wall. Professor Baldwin and I stood at its entrance.
I looked inside. “Is this....”
“It’s a secret passage within the imperial palace,” answered Professor Baldwin.
“A secret passage?”
“It was built so that the Imperial Family could escape if the palace were ever overrun or surrounded.”
“Ah!”
Since this was an Imperial Palace, having an emergency escape route like this wasn’t strange at all.
“But what happens if an outsider discovers this secret passage?” I asked.
“Normally? They’re executed on the spot. Why else would it be called a secret?”
“Then we should restore the wall before anyone sees it.”
We stepped inside and pushed the wall back into place. Ashen Flames ignited at my fingertips, illuminating the corridor.
Amused, Professor Baldwin said, “You’re using the Primordial Flame as a torch... I don’t know how to feel about that.”
“Well, didn’t you once use it as a lighter?”
“Ahem. When you put it that way, I suppose so.”
Looking embarrassed, she took the lead.
Noticing something odd, I said, “Do you still sense that presence?”
She narrowed her violet eyes, staring toward the seemingly endless corridor. “It’s quite far, but... yes. It’s coming from deep within this passage. We should move as quietly as possible from here on.”
Then, she wrapped my head in spiderweb threads, and her voice reverberated directly inside my mind. “Can you hear me?”
It wasn’t a magic spell; she was transmitting her voice through the vibrations of the web itself. That way, it wouldn’t be caught by any magic detection devices or spells.
I glanced at her and nodded. “Yes, I hear you clearly.”
“Good. Let’s move.”
I dimmed the Ashen Flame’s glow and walked down the passage alongside her. After we had walked straight for more than ten minutes, the narrow passage widened into a large cavern. Just then, we heard a faint sound of movement.
Professor Baldwin said, “There are people nearby.”
Inside the cavern, groups of figures in gray robes were scattered about, searching for something.
“What are they doing?” I asked.
“Not sure. Seems like they’re looking for something.”
Among the crowd, a conspicuously white-haired man caught my eye. Unlike the others, who wore animal masks, he alone revealed his face. It was the Archbishop of Depravity, Mephisto.
Seto’s information was correct. The Church of Eternity had indeed joined hands with Mephisto and infiltrated the palace. Since it had come from him, I had suspected the information could be false, but the confirmation was right before my eyes.
They were moving busily, clearly searching for something. I wondered what it was.
At that moment, a man wearing a bear mask turned to Mephisto, asking in a frustrated tone, “Are you certain this is the place?”
“Yes. It should be somewhere in here.”
The bear-masked man let out a quiet sigh. “Those Apostles of Ruin, where the hell did they hide the ember—”
Suddenly, Mephisto raised a hand, cutting him off. “Wait.”
He slowly turned, eyes narrowing. “Who’s there?”
Have we been found? I wondered.
I had suppressed my presence as much as I could, but it seemed like he had still detected us. Clicking my tongue, I was starting to rise when metallic echoes rang through the cavern.
A voice rang out. “As expected, it really is you, Archbishop Mephisto. I thought I hid my presence well, but you still noticed.”
From the side of the cavern opposite to where Professor Baldwin and I had been hiding emerged knights in golden armor. They were the knight order that protected the Imperial Family, reputed to be the strongest on the continent.
I thought about why they would have come here. Maybe they had also tracked the Church of Eternity into the palace. However, if that were the case, then something was weird. Why would they be hiding? Why would the police hide from burglars inside a house? It made no sense. More than that, they knew Mephisto was the one who had infiltrated the palace.
Mephisto narrowed his eyes at them. “The Order of the Golden Knights, you managed to sneak in here, I see.”
“The Blessing of Ruin conceals all traces of dark mana.”
“Has the Archbishop of Ruin already recovered enough power to use his Blessing?”
The knight at the front shrugged and smirked. “Haha! Already? Do you think infiltrating the Order of the Golden Knights is something one can accomplish overnight? Lord Amon recovered his strength long ago.”
The Archbishop of Ruin, Amon, was ranked first among the six Archbishops. He was the strongest Archbishop and, in my past life, the one who played the most crucial role in breaking the Demon God’s seal.
He was also the very first one the Demon God killed upon awakening. When the Demon God rose from the Abyss, the Archbishop of Ruin was engulfed in its flames and burned to ash. It was a surprisingly pathetic end for the strongest Archbishop.
But that was the kind of entity the Demon God was. It didn’t matter whether one was an enemy or an ally; everything was simply dragged into the abyss of destruction. He was a being for whom the word catastrophe was almost too mild.
Anyway, what the hell is going on here? I thought.
Apostles of Ruin were hiding inside the Order of the Golden Knights? If so, why weren’t they joining hands with Mephisto, who was also a demon, but instead glaring at each other like they were about to kill one another?
I frowned as I watched the cavern, the tension thick enough to explode at any moment.
Mephisto bit down hard on his lip. “Amon... already regained his strength long ago? And you expect me to believe that nonsense?”
The knight shrugged and drew his sword. “Whether you believe it or not doesn’t matter. Because the Embers of Ruin have already begun to burn.”
“Tch!”
Black fire wrapped around the knight’s sword.
The man in the bear mask lifted a massive hammer, shouting, “Damn it! Everyone, prepare for combat!”
The other figures in animal masks pulled out their weapons as well. In an instant, the underground cavern beneath the Imperial Palace transformed into a brutal battlefield.
Through the threads, Professor Baldwin asked, “What... exactly is happening, Dale?”
“I have no idea,” I replied.
I had simply followed the traces of the Church of Eternity, and suddenly I was watching a battle between the Apostles of Ruin and the Church itself.
Had this also happened in my previous life? If so, which side had killed Camellia? The Apostles of Ruin and the Church of Eternity, Amon and Mephisto—who was involved in the empress’s death, and why were the two sides fighting?
As I continued struggling with my thoughts, the battle between the knights and the Church of Eternity grew fiercer.
“Die!”
“Hraaaah!”
With Mephisto on the Church’s side, I had expected the cult to overpower the knights. But the battle unfolded in the complete opposite direction. The Church members fell one after another under the knights’ attacks.
“Haha! So this is the power of Eternity? Tough as cockroaches, but nothing special!”
“Ghhk!”
“Arghhhh!”
Even Mephisto was slowly being pushed back by their coordinated assault.
It wasn’t that the Church of Eternity was weak. The Apostles of Ruin were simply too strong, far stronger than what I remembered. At this rate, the Church of Eternity was going to lose.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind. Among the six Archbishops, the only one whose death was never confirmed... was Mephisto.
Mephisto had simply vanished one day. Even on the day the Demon God awakened and destroyed the world, he never appeared. What if he didn’t disappear, but died here? It would explain why no one ever learned what happened to him and why he suddenly vanished from history.
The battle tilted further toward the Apostles of Ruin, with the members of the Church of Eternity groaning and having a tough time.
“Argh!”
“Khahk!!”
The knights, their blades wrapped in black flame, were each strong enough to rival an Archbishop. I had fought Apostles of Ruin several times in my previous life, but they were never this absurdly powerful. I didn’t know why they were so strong now, nor why demons were fighting other demons. But one thing was certain. If this continued, Mephisto would die. And if he died now, there would be no one left who could explain the tangled mess of events unfolding here.
I clicked my tongue and stood up.
Professor Baldwin looked at me. “Dale?”
Ignoring her voice ringing in my head, I kicked off the ground and leaped into the battlefield.
Startled by the sudden movement, a knight stared at me in shock. “What the—”
I swung my sword, coated in Ashen Flames, at him.
The sudden ambush shattered the knights’ formation.
“Ghhk! W-who are you!?”
“Who is that bastard!?”
Mephisto didn’t miss the opening and ordered the others, “Now!”
The knights fell like a tower with its foundation knocked out. In seconds, the tide of battle reversed. I darted through the knights, cutting them down with savage precision.
“Aaaagh!”
“Gghk! Guaaah!”
Each Apostle of Ruin was as strong as an Archbishop, but even they couldn’t withstand the combined assault of me, Mephisto, and the Church of Eternity. More knight corpses filled the ground. Though some apostles still fought the members of the Church elsewhere on the battlefield, the outcome had already flipped.
Mephisto stared at me with trembling eyes. “You...”
I faced him. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but let’s settle this one first. What exactly is your goal?”
Why was a demon siding with a hero to fight fellow demons? Until I understood that, nothing else mattered.
Mephisto fell silent, pondering what to say for a long moment, before he finally spoke in a low voice. “I have only one goal.”
His voice sank even deeper. “To stop the resurrection of the Demon God. That is my purpose.”
“What?”
