Free Web NovelWhen Bishop Beckett regained consciousness, he found himself inside a dark chamber.
He was firmly bound to an iron bed with chains.
From the neck down, he had no sensation whatsoever and could not move.
The instant he woke up, he attempted to activate his Blessings.
On one hand, he wanted to investigate his surroundings.
On the other, he needed to contact the Earl.
However, a subtle dizziness immediately began assaulting his consciousness.
The scene before his eyes seemed to spin repeatedly, making him feel intensely nauseous.
Even the power of his Blessings became unstable.
“There is a Magical Potion that the witches of Moilai call ‘Water of Vengeance.’ If a large dose is forced down the throat of a Blessed servant of the Four Gods, it can temporarily seal the power of the Four Gods’ Blessings.” Leon’s voice came from nearby. “No wonder the Church doesn’t want to promote Magical Potions. Things like this are far too unfavorable to the Church’s system of rule through Blessings.”
Bishop Beckett took several deep breaths and forced himself to steady his breathing before turning his head.
Leon stood beside him with his hands behind his back, looking down at him.
The weak candlelight shone from behind Leon.
His face remained hidden entirely within shadow.
“That Magical Potion is known only to the Witches' Assembly. There’s no way you should know its formula. It seems Weiss Rogers really is in your hands,” Bishop Beckett said.
Weiss had once come into contact with the Great Witch Lamia inside Saint Rosalia Prison.
As a core member of the Rose School, it was hardly surprising that she knew some special Magical Potion formulas.
“Don’t make it sound as though confirming that matters much to you. You were already prepared to drive me into a corner based on mere suspicion,” Leon replied.
“You betrayed the Earl first. Is this how you repay his kindness?” Bishop Beckett asked.
“Kindness? The only difference between what you're doing and what Archbishop Rogers did to the Earl is that you didn’t drive Rena to her death. In the end, weren’t you the ones who forced me to sacrifice Mrs. Hesh in order to save Rena? If the Earl can hate Archbishop Rogers so much, shouldn’t I hate all of you as well?” Leon countered.
Even so, Leon had never truly hated the Earl.
There was even some degree of gratitude.
But he had never once considered offering the Earl his loyalty.
“It was we who gave you your current position!” Bishop Beckett continued.
“Because you wanted me to generate profits for you. And the returns I gave you far exceeded your expectations. The goods you wanted? I supplied more than required. The share of profits from my territory? I handed over every coin.
“My agreement with the Earl was simple. I would establish production for you, and you would provide the means to rescue Mrs. Hesh.
“Our deal never included cooperating in the Earl’s revenge drama. You always treated me as an outsider anyway, didn’t you? Strictly speaking, your attempt to poison Mrs. Hesh was the real violation of our agreement.”
Leon spoke calmly.
“Sally Hesh was insignificant to the Earl. This was an opportunity he gave you! Once you accepted punishment, all you had to do was hand over Weiss Rogers and you could regain the Earl’s trust!” Bishop Beckett said.
Then he added:
“Even now, it’s not too late!”
“An opportunity? Like the one the Earl gave his nephew?” Leon asked.
He had heard about how the Earl executed his nephew, Jay Sid.
The Earl poisoned him, then secretly mixed the antidote into a Magical Potion that would leave him crippled and ordered him to drink it.
If Jay accepted the punishment of becoming disabled, he could live.
Instead, Jay knocked over the antidote.
The poison took effect, and he died during a firefight with the Earl.
That was the Earl’s idea of an opportunity.
Accept punishment and demonstrate loyalty.
Otherwise, die.
“The Earl rarely grants anyone a second chance. If he truly wanted to corner you, you would already be dead,” Bishop Beckett said.
“So after he kicks me, I’m supposed to kneel down and kiss his boot in gratitude for sparing my life?” Leon laughed softly.
“It is your only path to survival. And you abandoned even that opportunity.” Bishop Beckett looked at Leon with complete incomprehension. “You actually declared war on the Earl. What exactly were you thinking?”
“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what I want either. But I do know one thing.” Leon spoke calmly. “Living like a dog under the Earl, the way you do, is definitely not what I want.”
“The most important thing for a person is understanding themselves. What a pity. You’ve wasted all your abilities on your own destruction. Do you really think that eliminating me gives you any chance against the Earl?” Bishop Beckett asked.
“That depends on what kind of intelligence you can provide me,” Leon replied.
“You think I’ll talk?”
“That doesn’t depend on you,” Leon answered evenly.
Bishop Beckett’s heart sank.
He recalled the secret letter he had received.
For Leon to intercept him so precisely at the exact time he received the letter, he must have known his whereabouts beforehand.
That meant the contact point had most likely already been exposed.
The letter itself was probably fake.
Yet no matter how he looked at it, the letter had undoubtedly been written by Zona.
That meant the subordinate he had believed would never break had not only revealed critical information, but had actively helped Leon deceive him.
If Leon dared move against him first, then he likely possessed an interrogation method they knew nothing about.
A tall figure in a nun’s robe stepped from the shadows behind Leon.
Bishop Beckett strained to look.
The face revealed beneath the robe belonged to Rena Lothark.
Yet it was slightly different.
The Rena he remembered should have been much smaller.
Her appearance should have carried the youthful innocence of a teenage girl.
But this Rena appeared far more mature.
There were also the horns on her head.
And those deep-purple eyes...
Bishop Beckett’s thoughts grew increasingly heavy.
The moment he saw those eyes radiating an eerie glow, powerful dizziness began crashing repeatedly against his consciousness.
A Succubus!
This was a Succubus’s allure ability!
Only now did Bishop Beckett realize that during his petrified unconscious state, he had been force-fed more than just the Water of Vengeance.
He had also been fed Rena’s blood.
This made no sense.
Rena Lothark possessed a second-rank witch’s Succubus form.
Then why had she been captured by an Apprentice Knight Order back then?
Could it be that she had obtained that power afterward...?
And there was also Leon’s Werewolf transformation.
That clearly did not resemble a Beastification Potion.
Even the Cursed Blood seemed to be under his control.
None of this existed in their intelligence reports.
These were cards in Leon’s hand that they had never known about.
Bishop Beckett immediately began resisting with all his strength.
He used sheer willpower to fight the allure trying to dominate his consciousness.
After all, he was also a recipient of a second-rank Secret God Blessing.
He possessed some resistance.
Whether it would last, however, was another matter entirely.
Realizing this, Bishop Beckett immediately tried to bite off his own tongue.
Yet he discovered that his jaw muscles lacked strength.
No matter how hard he exerted himself, his teeth could only painfully clamp down on his tongue.
He could not bite through it.
His tongue felt as tough as cured leather.
Leon had never underestimated Bishop Beckett’s loyalty or willpower.
He had also administered a drug that paralyzed the muscles around the jaw.
This was technology developed by the Church.
The dosage had to be controlled with precision.
The target still needed to be capable of speaking, while their bite strength had to be weakened enough to prevent self-mutilation.
Fortunately, they had Weiss—the Church’s finest Apothecary.
At that moment, Leon activated the Cursed Blood.
A powerful numbness erupted once more from deep within Bishop Beckett’s body.
It spread upward along his neck.
At the same time, it triggered a deep, instinctive terror that he could not suppress.
Forced to divide his attention between resisting the fear and resisting the allure, Bishop Beckett lost his balance.
Rena’s allure seized the opportunity and took control.
Despite his desperate resistance, Rena gradually established synchronization with his mana fluctuations.
“You are forbidden from harming yourself,” Rena commanded.
“Ah!”
Bishop Beckett’s face twisted in struggle as he opened his mouth.
He stopped biting his own tongue.
“Tell us everything you know about the Earl,” Rena said.
Bishop Beckett trembled violently.
He managed to keep himself from speaking.
Leon could not help but admire his willpower.
He had personally experienced Rena’s allure.
Without his Werewolf form, and with blood or saliva serving as the medium, he had no ability to resist.
Though perhaps that was because he trusted Rena deep down, whereas Bishop Beckett harbored nothing but hostility and resistance toward them.
“Aren’t you convinced I have no chance against the Earl?” Leon asked from beside him.
“Then what difference would giving me intelligence make? Could it be that you don’t have faith in your master? Didn’t you say I’m marching toward my own destruction? Then help me do it.”
Leon continued speaking.
His words poured into Bishop Beckett’s mind.
At last, a crack formed within the shell of his iron will.
Rena’s will immediately slipped through the opening.
Bishop Beckett’s eyes gradually lost focus.
After several seconds of delay, he opened his mouth and began speaking in a broken, intermittent voice.
Leon listened attentively.
Occasionally, he instructed Rena to ask follow-up questions.
He failed to learn the Earl’s location.
The Earl constantly changed his whereabouts.
Originally, Bishop Beckett could use the Secret God’s second-rank foundational Blessing to place hidden marks on people or holy relics that lasted several days and allowed tracking.
Ordinary people could not perceive such marks.
Transcendents, however, could sense when someone was tracking them.
Transcendents of equal rank could directly resist and erase the marks.
But Bishop Beckett had never placed such a mark on the Earl or the badge carried by the Earl.
The Earl did not wish anyone to know his location in real time.
Not even Bishop Beckett.
Nevertheless, Leon obtained a great deal of critical intelligence.
Including details regarding the Earl’s military strength.
Although he had expected it beforehand, the Earl’s power still exceeded his estimates.
The Earl not only possessed armed forces within his own territories.
Within the Church itself, he could draw upon at least one full regular Knight Order through old connections and carefully cultivated personnel.
Naturally, such deployments had to be conducted under the Church’s authority.
Just as when Bishop Beckett and Aaron had previously handled a case together.
Fortunately, Leon was not overly concerned about that.
The Earl likely would not use regular Church forces for an internal matter.
The Labyrinth on Arend Island remained valuable.
The Earl certainly did not want the Church discovering it.
Likewise, openly moving military forces from one of his territories into another would attract scrutiny.
But the Earl did not need to do that.
Across several southern territories, private mercenary companies existed under the guise of merchant consortium security forces.
Even in River Valley County, there was a mercenary company operating that Leon had never known about.
All of the cadres and their forces were also subject to the Earl’s command.
The Earl had secretly cultivated as many as twenty-three Blessed individuals.
And the Earl himself, once a Knight Commander, was a second-rank Blessed of the God of War.
His Divine Art was called “Divine Armament.”
It greatly amplified a weapon’s destructive power.
An ordinary firearm could blast through a steel city gate in his hands.
A wooden sword could cut iron like mud.
Even his bare fists could easily smash through a wall.
After hearing the detailed comparison of their military strengths, the situation appeared even more hopeless.
Still, there was some good news.
The Earl’s most elite force, the fleet commanded by Johnny Wellman, was currently sailing toward Moirland to fulfill a deal with the Great Witch Arachne.
A round trip would require at least another month and a half before they returned.
Upon hearing that, Leon felt a surge of excitement.
Johnny’s absence was extraordinarily good news.
He had personally witnessed Johnny casually slaughter a Drake while accompanied by only a handful of subordinates.
That force was fully comparable to an elite Church Knight Order.
And Johnny’s terrifying command over lightning—
Unless absolutely necessary, Leon had no desire to face him.
With Johnny present and without Johnny present were two completely different difficulty levels when it came to fighting the Earl.
This time, fortune had finally favored him.
Yet after hearing all the intelligence, the situation remained grim.
The Earl himself knew Johnny was absent.
But the gap between himself and Leon was still the difference between an elephant and an ant.
The Earl simply did not care.
If Leon wished to win, he would have to exploit the Earl’s weakness.
“Tell me,” Leon continued, “where is the Earl’s daughter, Ophelia?”
