Chapter 185: Revolt
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Just like this, the Archbishop unwillingly drew his last breath. Contrary to Baiyi's wish for him to pass away peacefully, he died rather reluctantly. When Baiyi activated his Psychic Energy, he noticed that the Archbishop's soul was still lingering around him after he had passed away. It was as if he wanted to find out more about Baiyi's secrets.
However, at this moment, another chilling and bloodcurdling laughter could be heard coming from the furnace again. Without any warning, the Archbishop's soul was sucked into the furnace by a strong force.
A devotee's soul was a devil's favorite tonic...
"How disgusting!" Baiyi cursed and started to chant an incantation. Five different elemental formations with five different colors began to emerge from behind him --- Fire, Ice, Nature, Wind, and Light. As soon as his incantation ended, five rays of lights shot out from each of the formations and pelted the magical furnace like raindrops.
Unfortunately, all five elemental attacks were blocked by a layer of invisible barrier. The lights that hit the barrier vanished without a trace. It did not even create any ripples on the surface. The Light attack that was usually the best in countering devils yielded no results as well.
However, Baiyi had already expected something like this would happen. With the way that Arthas... erm no, Lord Haart entered the furnace empty-handed, there must be something else that was guarding the furnace.
Baiyi proceeded to try another incantation. He pointed at the furnace with his right hand as he slowly opened his palm. His left hand was holding the wrist on his right hand tightly. Instantly, the five-colored formations behind him turned red in color before it slowly moved from his open palms to his back. Th red color represented the Fire element. The five formations maintained a uniform spacing as they began to arrange themselves in a stack, and a spear that was entirely made of fire slowly emerged from the formation. It looked like it was piercing the center of the five formations.
"Doujou Temple Bell, One-Hundred Eight Fire Dragon Halberds!"
He endured the intense shame that he felt as he shouted out the name of the spell and completed his incantation. This was a new spell that his teacher, the Archmage, had derived and enhanced from the Level 7 Firespear spell. Leaving aside the fact that it was a mouthful to say, extremely weird and embarrassing, this was the most powerful conventional spell that was within the limitation of Baiyi's power that he could cast currently. Nevertheless, he really had no idea where his teacher ripped the name off this time.
"Urghhh..." When he cast the spell, Mia who was studying in class at the moment suddenly felt dizzy. Her entire body became very strained as if something was trying to burst out from her small and petite body. Without warning, she slumped down onto the desk as she whimpered pitifully.
"W-What happened?" Tisdale quickly asked in concern. The instance the words left her mouth, a sudden loud explosion could be heard in the distance. The entire classroom instantly turned chaotic as the students and teachers fluttered to the window to look at the source of the deafening sound. Plumes of black smoke could be seen coming out from the highest building in the academy --- the Mage Tower.
Tisdale turned to look at Mia. However, she seemed to have returned to normal. Perplexed, Tisdale looked at her own tiny hands and shook her head before she lowered her gaze to look at her chest. A faint regretful expression appeared on her face immediately.
Only God knew what she was thinking about at the moment...
"Sis Tisdale, what's going on?" Mia asked when she noticed the students' unusual behavior.
"I don't know," Tisdale shook her head. "It seems like there was an explosion in the Mage Tower."
The students were busy speculating which professor had failed his experiment again or which alchemist made another blunder this time.
Meanwhile, Baiyi who was at the scene quickly cast a Breeze spell. He cleared away the debris and the dust from the attack earlier. He was surprised to see the furnace still standing at the other end completely unscratched. Ripples could be seen on the invisible layer that enveloped the entire furnace before it gradually became calm and turned invisible again.
His most powerful conventional spell had failed to produce any result on the furnace. Instead, the fireball that shot out of the Firespear hit the invisible screen and blew up the entire makeshift church. It created a stir that woke the entire academy up.
This time, Baiyi had no more tricks up his sleeves. The strength of the barrier was far beyond his imagination. No matter what was boiling and churning inside the furnace, there was absolutely no way for him to find out now. His next powerful spell was forbidden spells and the Void Energy. However, he could not do as he pleased with no barrier around him. It would be reckless of him if he decided to cast a forbidden spell right here at this moment.
He shook his head regretfully and decided to retreat for now. After all, what else could he do? Who knew what would eventually pop out from the furnace. Baiyi had noticed earlier that the materials that were dumped into the furnace were not only the Octuplet Twin Crystals that acted as an energy source but other materials like metallic ingredients, bones and claws too. Initially, he found the situation a little strange, but he somehow managed to piece all the puzzles together.
The greatest function of a magical furnace was not to be used as a crematorium. Instead, it was for casting and refining purposes. With all the materials inside, it was obvious that somebody was trying to use this furnace to forge a body for the devil lord. The poor Church with their beautiful intention had completely been tricked by Lord Haart from the very beginning. The entire plan was to liberate the great lord of Abyss from his small prison.
I guess I'll just let those judicial paladins clean up the mess first. I'll enter the scene after both parties have beaten each other into pulps. Since they're both my enemies, I'll let them have this fight to themselves. It's better if I just watch from afar.
"I know, I know. Don't worry! I won't let him go just like that! This is a tactical turn that I'm using. I'll come back, I promise the two of you!" Baiyi relentlessly assured both the Painter and the Apprentice. These two were the first to jump out and voiced their objections the moment they saw Baiyi leaving the scene. After all, Lord Haart who sent them to the Void was their biggest enemy.
However, he found three fist-size crystals on the floor just as he took a few steps out. He used his mana to grab them, and he noticed that they were Octuplet Twin Crystals that were already depleted. These crystals looked just like the crystal glass on Earth. They must have been blasted out from God-knows-where during the explosion earlier.
An idea formed in Baiyi's mind, and he proceeded to put the three depleted crystals into his storage pouch. With a leap, he hopped out of the window and stretched his arms wide open as he looked for a thatched heap to land on.
He could not see any thatched heap, but the scene that entered his sight made him inhale sharply in shock. Chaos had broken out outside the tower. The judicial paladins were divided into two groups, and they were busy killing each other with all their might. It was apparent that one group had the upper hand but they all had a burning mark on their chests.
It seemed like it was not just one or two judicial personnel that had fallen! This was a massive rebellion!
Baiyi was dumbfounded. He knew that his plan of cashing in on both parties' fight had been dashed to pieces. Just as he was about to levitate back to the Mage Tower to deal with the magical furnace, he saw a few marked paladins charging towards the defenseless choir group. If he was not mistaken, the village girl that he had been keeping tabs on was among the choir group as well.
In desperation, Baiyi decided to place his faith in that con artist Oracle again. Without wasting another second, he increased his plunging speed.
The choir group's situation did not seem to be optimistic at all. If would be okay if they were an ordinary choir group. They could have fled off screaming, and the fallen paladins would have probably let them go because they possessed zero threat. However, this choir group was made up of knight trainees and back-up nuns with not much ability but were extremely courageous and devoted. When the choir group saw that there were only two fallen paladins making their ways towards them, this choir group that was made up of about 100 people decided to stand their ground and fight.
It was certain that a bloody massacre was bound to happen at any time now. Let alone the fact that the trainees were weak and weaponless, the outfits that they had on consisted of a variety of gorgeous costumes that would be difficult to run in. How could they possibly fight against two fallen paladins who had boost marks on their chests? In just a blink of an eye, dozens of trainees were beheaded mercilessly.
The choir group immediately realized the enormity of the whole situation. In just a second, the perfect formation was messed up as the trainees screamed and cried while they were running. Unfortunately, everything was too late at this point. Like wolves that had pounced into a group of defenseless sheeps, the two fallen paladins waved their swords around and laughed while they ruthlessly reaped innocent lives. Fresh blood from the victims splashed on their bodies. What was even worse was they stuck out their tongues to lick the blood that was spilled on their swords.
At this point, they were no different from real devils.
Among the crowd, there was one beautiful young girl with a golden braid who seemed out-of-place in the midst of all the running people. It was the village girl Baiyi was looking for. The girl did not look the slightest bit panicked as she calmly walked through the stampede and lifted up a comrade who had fallen to the ground earlier.
"H-Help me! P-Please!" The trainee clutched onto her hand tightly, and it left five red finger marks on her fair arm.
"You're safe! Go!" The young village girl said as she peeled off the trainee's hand. She tore the book-shaped pendant off the trainee's chest and stuffed it in his palm before closing her palm over it.
"You'll be safe. God will watch over you," the girl said in a hurried voice before she quickly went off to help another person in need.
The trainee was stunned. He watched the back of the little girl blankly and looked at the scripture in his own hand. Courage instantly filled his heart. He bit down on lips as he pushed himself up and scrambled quickly towards another wounded comrade who was crawling on the ground. He lifted him up quickly with all his might, and the two of them fled the scene limping and hobbling away.
At this moment, the village girl had run to another injured trainee. The moment she saw his bleeding thigh that was cut by Chi blade, she tore off a part of her skirt without any hesitation and began to dress up his wound.
This did not seem like the first time she was doing this. The long skirt that she was wearing had long been torn into a miniskirt by her. Her pair of snowy fair beautiful legs were exposed under the skirt. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to have the heart to ogle them at this moment.
The trainee that she was helping did not appreciate her kindness at all. With a strong force, he struggled to lift himself up and pushed her away from him.
"D-Don't mind me, Laeticia. R-RUN!"
"No! God says that we should never give up on our comrades!" The girl who was called Laeticia shouted back and hastily returned to the side of the wounded trainee again. "Trust me, we'll survive!" With another push, she lifted the trainee up to his feet and put her arms underneath him as she prepared to leave the scene as fast as she possibly could.
At this time, a vicious gaze suddenly landed on this interesting scene...