[Vol. 8] Chapter 273: Heaven and Earth Move
Before the priestess could ask her question, Frederica had already taken the initiative to introduce them. But Vice Commander Arlin immediately frowned.
“Your Holiness, the Purple Mist City guards the border, and the military camp is of utmost importance. If it is someone personally appointed by her Holiness the Pope, that’s one thing, but how can we allow others, especially high-ranking people from the Austre Empire, to enter freely? Also, the inspection of the army is indeed a serious matter. I will do my best to help, but unrelated people must not be allowed to take part. Please think twice.”
Hearing this, the Sword Saint, who knew exactly who he was talking about, could only shake his head helplessly. Frederica also frowned. The one secretly labeled as “unrelated,” Violet, didn’t get angry. Instead, she slapped her forehead as if she had suddenly remembered something.
That annoying way of speaking… She remembered now! It was him!
Arlin Ulysses—this guy was, in a way, “distinguished family.”
If Violet remembered correctly, he had grown up with the current Pope, Edwina Cecilia. As children, they were very close, and Arlin always looked after her. But as they grew older, personality differences began to cause problems.
Later, in a certain incident, Arlin completely misunderstood their relationship and caused a big mess. This made their hidden disagreements explode, and they broke off completely. Because of that, Edwina left the Holy Capital, the Angel City, traveled to other countries, and eventually met a certain recently-arrived priestess in the Human United Kingdom.
No wonder he could reach the high rank of Vice Commander of the [Hand of Judgment] Holy Knight Order at such a young age, and dare to speak so directly to Frederica… There was history between them.
Back during the Fourth Demon War, when Violet first arrived in the Holy Capital, she had met Arlin once at the [Bamboo Lodge] of the Holy Academy. At that time, Edwina, acting as her guide, got so angry at him for meddling that she nearly fought him on the spot. That was why he had left such a strong impression on Violet.
Still, Violet could tell, although Edwina claimed she no longer considered him a friend, you can’t just throw away a bond of over ten years. Obviously, after becoming Pope, Edwina had placed Arlin under her older sister’s command, asking her to look after him.
Otherwise, with his arrogant, blunt personality, it would have been impossible for him to rise so far at such a young age. Just the blunt words he had spoken earlier would have made most other commanders furious.
Frederica, however, was far from ordinary in her temper and clearly understood Arlin’s nature. Though displeased, she didn’t get angry. She simply raised her hand to stop the Sword Saint from speaking, and with a calm but unquestionable tone, ordered,
“I have my own judgment on this matter, Vice Commander Arlin. There is no need to say more. Begin the preparations for inspection.”
“But, Your Holiness—”
“I said—start—the—preparations.”
“…Yes!”
Well, well… one force meets another force.
Watching Arlin’s stiff face as he turned away in defeat, Violet was secretly delighted.
Frederica might only be Edwina’s sister, but she was almost ten years older. She had become the exalted Judgement Saintess very early and had long held great authority. To her peers, she was practically half a senior. Now, as the Supreme Commander of the Eastern Front, her titles gave her overwhelming authority. No matter how arrogant Arlin was, he had to obey.
After seeing him leave, the Sword Saint looked at his disciple, who was too nervous to even breathe, and said honestly.
“Your Holiness, you don’t need to be so hard on your subordinates. The Vice Commander wasn’t entirely wrong. My disciple and I only came here in passing. If necessary, we can leave.”
“Sir Bevis, both you and your disciple are people connected to the Goddess. I am simply following the Goddess’s guidance and doing what I must. Arlin’s failure to understand the will of the Goddess is the true reason I rebuked him.”
While the Saintess and the Sword Saint continued talking in their mysterious, religious tone, Violet’s attention had already wandered. She suddenly turned her head and gazed far into the distance.
In her silver-blue eyes, a flash of black and white light appeared, as if piercing through barriers and empty space to reach some unknown place.
“Whoa…”
“Violet? Why do you suddenly have that scary look on your face? Did that guy just now make you angry?”
Miss Eilush noticed the change in her expression and was the first to speak. The others also turned to look, but the priestess only shook her head and asked the Judgement Saintess instead.
“Miss Frederica, earlier that officer said Commander Fienne went out alone toward the east side of the city. That’s in this direction, right?”
Following the black-haired girl’s finger to the distance, the Saintess looked a bit confused, but still nodded slightly.
“Yes, it’s this way. Miss Violet, what do you mean?”
“Oh… nothing. Just feels like quite a coincidence.”
“Hey, hey! Look at the sky!”
Suddenly, Eilush shouted again. The others quickly and instinctively looked up. What they saw made their eyes narrow slightly.
High in the bright blue sky was a long, black crack that stretched for hundreds of miles. It had been there for over three days now, always catching the attention of everyone in the world. It was like a giant, magnified ant nest, slowly eating away at the massive wall protecting the world, until the day it finally collapsed.
But now, next to that terrifying thousand-mile crack, two smaller cracks, each about one-third its size, had silently spread open. They looked like the main crack was spreading its corruption, revealing the deep, endless black void beyond the sky.
The crack in the sky… was growing again!
At the same time, that strange power leaking from outside the world, changing the very rules of this world, had also become stronger. This was the real reason Violet had suddenly sensed a strange wave just now.
Something big… was about to happen.
“What is that thing anyway? How can it keep getting bigger? What if, in the end, the sun and moon both fall down, or get eaten by that black crack? I’ve got a bad feeling about this sudden change…”
As Eilush spoke casually while staring at the black crack, her words, though just random talk, made the others suddenly tense up. Even Violet looked at her in surprise, which made Eilush flinch, take a small step back, and put on a wary expression.
“W-what? Just because you always call me bad luck doesn’t mean I could really jinx something like this! Don’t give me that weird look! You look at me as if I'm the main character in a story.”
The priestess gave a strange smile and patted her shoulder.
“Relax. I just think you’ve got some talent in certain… unique areas. Maybe you could be a detective one day~”
“Hey! Was that supposed to be a compliment?!”
…………………………………
Even though the change in the sky was worrying, they couldn’t ignore the work in front of them. With the full cooperation of Frederica, Arlin, and the other commanders, the inspection of the army went quickly. By the time the sun was low and the sky was getting dark, the entire [Hand of Judgment] Holy Knight Order, over ten thousand people, had been checked.
The detection method Eilush and Ayla developed really worked. In the process, they found dozens of soldiers with an early-stage “Flesh Curse,” removing these hidden dangers from the ranks.
These Holy Knights, without exception, were shocked to learn of their condition. Clearly, they had been infected without knowing it.
The Flesh Curse usually spreads through eating contaminated food. In the Purple Mist City’s military camp, all food supply comes from a single, tightly controlled source approved by the church. Unless the temple itself had been seriously infiltrated, this should have been impossible.
However, by the Holy Knight Order’s rules, every two weeks soldiers get a rotation break, during which some can freely arrange their own activities. That meant, if something had gone wrong, it could only have happened during this free time.
After questioning and investigating each infected Holy Knight one by one, the Saintess and the others quickly found the source.
It wasn’t some complicated conspiracy, every one of the infected Holy Knights had, during their free time, eaten at certain restaurants in the city. With such a clear common link, the target was now obvious.
And these Holy Knights were only a small part of the problem, the real danger was the city’s ordinary people who had also eaten at those same restaurants. If we didn’t handle this properly…
“Hmph, I didn’t expect those cultists to really reach their hands into my Purple Mist City. How bold!”
After figuring out the cause and effect, Vice-Commander Arlin was furious. He immediately bowed to Frederica.
“Your Holiness, please allow me to take soldiers right away to seal those taverns working with the cult, and arrest the heretics!”
“……”
The Saintess didn’t answer right away. She turned to look at the Spirit Puppet Tribe girl and the Lightborn girl, who had just finished the army’s check-ups and were adjusting strange machines, and asked seriously.
“Miss Eilush, Miss Ayla, is there any way to cure this early-stage flesh-curse infection?”
The two looked at each other. The doll-like girl tilted her head, thought for a moment, and said,
“How to put it… if it’s still mild, I can try a small surgery to remove the main cursed flesh that hasn’t fully merged into the body yet. That would at least slow it down a lot.”
“Slow it down…?”
Hearing the doubt in Frederica’s tone, Eilush helplessly spread her hands.
“What else can we do? This curse is extremely high-level. I’ve done some tests, even machines with no living parts can be changed by it if certain conditions are met. Their bodies have already fused with the cursed flesh, at least a little. I can’t completely remove it.”
“If you really want to cure it, you’d need power equal to or greater than the curse to forcefully reverse the body’s condition. But that’s not something mortals can have. Even if your Church’s holy knight personally tried, it probably wouldn’t work. If I had to say who could do it…”
The girl pointed up at the sky, then copied a not-quite-correct prayer gesture. Everyone fell silent.
Yes, of course the goddess can do anything. But miracles… are not so easy to get.
“All right, Arlin—”
The Saintess was about to give an order when noise suddenly erupted outside, mixed with many hurried footsteps. Moments later, two guards rushed in, supporting a female Holy Knight in ornate armor, her whole body covered in blood.
“Your Holiness! Saint! Urgent military report!!!”
Frederica’s expression changed at once. She rushed forward to support her staggering subordinate.
“Fienne! What happened? Are you hurt?”
She channeled pure holy power into the woman, quickly checking and finding that she was only exhausted, the shocking amount of blood on her wasn’t her own. Frederica sighed in relief. But Fienne’s next words made her heart tighten again.
“Saintess… cough… Saintess! This is no time to worry about me! The camp outside the city has been attacked! A large enemy force is already in close combat with our soldiers! Please send reinforcements immediately!”
“What did you say?!”
Everyone in the tent went pale. Vice-Commander Arlin stared hard at the legion commander, who had been gone all day and now suddenly returned with shocking news, his eyes filled with suspicion, as if trying to see through her.
“Impossible. Purple Mist City is on the front line, yes, but there are still at least three strong fortresses between here and the real battlefield. We have scout posts everywhere along the way. Even if the Austre Empire could fly, they couldn’t sneak a force big enough to threaten the city without being noticed. And Commander Fienne, why did you suddenly leave without telling anyone this morning?”
Unlike Arlin, who was clearly suspicious of her odd actions and shocking news, Frederica seemed to trust her direct subordinate more. While healing her with holy magic, she asked in a low, serious voice.
“Fienne, don’t rush. Tell us clearly, how many enemy troops are there, and what kind? And what’s the current situation of the two Holy Knight legions stationed outside the city, the Valiant Riders and the Holy Wrath?”
Since she wasn’t badly injured, only exhausted, Fienne soon regained some strength under the Saint’s magic. She quickly explained in panic.
“Your Holiness, it’s not that! It’s not the Austre Empire’s army, and they didn’t use some special way to sneak in. It’s those monsters from the diagrams shown by her Holiness the Pope today!”
“An invasion from another world, we are under attack from another world!”