13 Mink Street

After Nio and Tafmann left, Eisen arrived carrying a shovel on his back. He first set the shovel down, then took out a slip of paper. There were three lines written on it.

First line: Set up a ritual array here.

Eisen put the note away and began arranging the ritual array.

Once the ritual array was completed, Eisen opened the note again.

Second line: Dig a pit and bury yourself in it.

Eisen picked up the shovel, dug a hole nearby, and buried himself inside it. He deliberately preserved the top ring of turf with the grass still attached. After jumping into the pit, he balanced that patch of lawn above his head.

He took out the note again.

Third line: Upon hearing phrases such as "This is the sacred grounds of the Palace of Remembrance, outsiders may not trespass, no offense may be given..." or similar key expressions, detonate the ritual array.

Eisen silently repeated those words in his mind, then crouched down and completely concealed himself in the grass. Everything had been arranged step by step. He only needed to follow instructions. He liked missions assigned in this manner.

And then, he truly remained motionless in the dirt pit, with only his lips still muttering those keywords.

***

"I've had enough, enough, truly enough of it. Those damned bastards of Order, bastards!"

"Yes, this defeat is suffocating. In the end, they only won by launching a surprise attack. If both sides had lined up properly and fought head-on, Reincarnation might not have lost!"

"At the very least, Order would never have won so easily. Looking at those Order people these past few days, they feel like monkeys with tails stuck behind them, tails raised all the way into the sky. The smell of arrogance coming off them is foul."

"Hahaha, yes. I swear even my uncle's boots, which he never washes, smell better than they do now."

"Enough noise. Since we're out to enjoy ourselves, then relax properly. Leave your worries behind for now. In the future, Reincarnation will still need us to uphold its face."

"Yes, Captain Patt."

"Captain’s right."

Nearly twenty men entered the red booths one after another. Each booth was separated by curtains, and inside stood a simple sofa bed.

After entering his own booth, Patt came out again shortly afterward. He took out a purple ticket and showed it to the attendant at the entrance before going up to the third floor.

A purple ticket was not particularly expensive to him, but earlier, being in full view of his men, there was no way he could buy purple tickets for all twenty subordinates and bring them to the third floor. That price would have been too steep. So he could only accompany them to the second floor first, then come up alone afterward.

When he came back down later, he would have to be quick about it and make sure they did not notice. Otherwise, the team would become much harder to manage.

After arriving on the third floor and entering a private room, Patt walked to the harpoon launcher position and aimed downward, selecting a mermaid in the central pool below. He then returned to the bed and tugged twice at the collar of his priest’s robe.

Though he appeared steady before his subordinates, the depression and fury inside him far exceeded theirs. His men had only endured mockery and ridicule from the people from Order outside the conference hall, while Patt had to also endure the anger of his superiors when meeting with them.

Their church had clearly suffered such a crushing defeat under the leadership of those above, yet now they had come here to seek peace. Even when trying to salvage a little dignity through negotiation, on the first day of talks they were directly cowed by Order's threat to resume war and agreed to nearly every term.

How did those people still have the nerve to get angry? Damn it.

Patt felt parched. He picked up the water by the bedside table, hesitated, then opened the drawer. Inside was a box of red pills, medicine provided for guests to heighten excitement and stamina. He picked one up. Then another. Then another. Three in total.

He swallowed them with water.

Not long after, there came a knock. Several attendants stood at the door carrying a bathtub. Inside the tub was a gentle and alluring mermaid. Patt was very satisfied. His eyes had reddened slightly.

The attendants placed the tub inside and withdrew.

The mermaid took out a bottle of potion and asked silently with her eyes whether the guest wished to use it. Patt shook his head. "Not yet."

Then he took out a thousand Reincarnation credits from his wallet and tossed them into the tub. Credits were waterproof and would not be damaged by soaking. He casually threw the wallet onto the bedside table.

Because of the Church of Reincarnation's defeat in war, Reincarnation credits had already lost nearly half their value. And it was foreseeable that once the results of these negotiations were announced, they would fall even further.

The Church of Reincarnation needed to pay war reparations to the Church of Order. Naturally, the Church of Order would never accept payment in Reincarnation credits. They would demand Order credits. To gather that sum, Reincarnation would certainly need to sell assets and materials on one hand, while massively issuing more Reincarnation credits on the other, thereby stripping wealth from its own church and the faithful within its sphere of influence. Thus, Patt felt no pain spending this thousand credits.

The mermaid blinked. She only knew credits were valuable. She did not know the current prices of the different currencies.

Patt bent down and began stroking her body with both hands. The mermaid stretched herself as gracefully as possible, serving the guest.

At that moment, a thin cord appeared in Patt's hand and directly tightened over her mouth.

The mermaid was briefly confused, then instinctively assumed this was some special preference of the guest before her. But very quickly, she realized she was wrong.

With two sharp tearing sounds, Patt ripped two scales straight from the mermaid’s tail.

Blood immediately streamed from her tail.

“Mmmph! Mmmph!” The mermaid wanted to scream from the pain, but her mouth was tightly bound, leaving her unable to make much noise. Even if the attendants outside heard it, they would likely take it for the usual sounds of service.

"Hahaha!"

Watching the mermaid writhe in pain, tears falling from her eyes, the fire of depression within Patt eased somewhat.

Rip!

Rip!

He continued tearing off scales. The mermaid pleaded desperately for him to spare her, but Patt was in the midst of enjoyment.

Why would he stop? He had accumulated an unknown amount of negative pressure these past days. He needed release.

Rip!

Rip!

Scale after scale was forcibly torn away. The bathtub was already stained red with blood, and the smile on Patt's face grew increasingly savage.

He was not worried the theater owner would dare do anything to him. Even defeated by the Church of Order, the Church of Reincarnation remained an orthodox church. It was not something a mere theater on Darkmoon Island could afford to offend. At worst, he would symbolically pay some compensation later. In any case, the credits were becoming worth less by the day.

Patt continued tormenting the mermaid. The more pain she suffered, the more excited he became, and the more twisted his laughter grew. “Does it hurt? It hurts, doesn’t it? Good. Suffer for all I care. Hahaha!”

At that moment, the ugliest side of human nature was laid bare in full.

And just as Patt lost himself completely in the act, the room door quietly opened a crack. A hand reached in and grabbed the wallet from the bedside table.

Just as the hand was about to steal it away, Patt sensed something and turned toward the door. With a low roar, he rushed over and yanked it open.

Outside stood a man wearing a snake-head mask.

Patt grinned viciously. "You dare steal from me, heh."

Nio's whole body trembled. His left hand still gripped the wallet, while his right drew a shabby little dagger and waved it before Patt. He looked shaken.

"Lowly thing, lower than a dog. You're courting death."

A mass of gray mist formed in Patt's palm, but at that moment, the thief suddenly seemed to go mad and lunged forward waving the dagger. Patt was just about to use the gray mist to bind him, but the man happened to move first and slashed Patt's wrist.

"Hiss..." Blood ran from Patt's wrist.

"Ahhh!" Nio screamed like a thief caught in the act and driven half hysterical.

"Die!" Patt roared. A flash appeared between his brows. A ghostly infant shadow emerged behind him, while a barrier formed before him.

The thief saw the ghost appear and became completely terrified. He hurled the dagger at Patt, then turned and fled without looking back, shouting wildly in the local dialect as he ran.

Naturally, the dagger thrown in panic missed.

It struck the wall.

Then rebounded.

And stabbed directly into Patt's thigh.

"..."

Even combat priests, unless specially trained in physical conditioning, possessed bodies that were only slightly stronger than those of ordinary people. Most of their close combat ability came from using Arts to enhance themselves. That meant that, if the timing was right, it was not impossible to kill several Inquisitors with even an ordinary handgun.

Patt roared again. He yanked the dagger free, ignored his bleeding wounds to charge after the thief on the third floor.

Quite a few of his men on the second floor heard the furious shouting upstairs and poked their heads out of their booths. They saw a man in a snake-head mask running down in panic. Then they saw their own captain chasing after him while bleeding.

"Stop him! Stop him!"

Two subordinates immediately moved to intercept the thief, but he abruptly turned to the side and threw himself onto the railing, sliding down with astonishing speed.

The fastest pursuing member of Reincarnation copied the move, but just as he was about to reach the ground, the fleeing thief suddenly turned around, grabbed his leg, and yanked downward.

The man instantly felt that the thief’s strength was terrifying. His instinct was to cast a protective Art on himself, but at that moment, a violent energy surged into his body, disrupting the gathering of spirituality within him and interrupting the Art.

Thus, completely unprotected, he fell through the air. He struck the marble stairs face-first.

Bang! The abnormal force of impact smashed a piece out of the step itself. His face instantly resembled a Veyn sauce shop, every color of sauce spilling out at once.

The Reincarnation members coming down behind hurried to help their fallen companion. Seeing his miserable condition, they could only mourn his terrible luck inwardly.

The man, already unconscious and breathing more out than in, had no chance to warn them about the anomaly he had sensed moments earlier. He had blacked out completely.

"Catch him! Kill him! Kill him!"

The thief stopped outside the theater entrance. When he saw everyone had caught up, he panicked and bolted down the theater steps into the alleyways.

All the Reincarnation people charged after him. Yet every time they tried to cast Arts, the thief somehow turned perfectly into a side alley by luck. Every time they tried to encircle him in advance, the thief relied on uncanny familiarity with the terrain and found another route.

They chased him for an entire street. Just when they were finally about to catch him, Patt hurled the phantom behind him, intending to seize the thief alive.

But the thief suddenly leapt upward and landed atop a passing carriage.

"Damn it! Keep chasing!"

***

Tafmann was driving the carriage.

Nio, seated beside him, let out a breath, opened the wallet, and pulled out half of the credits inside, stuffing them into Tafmann's chest pocket. After doing so, he even patted his chest. "Your half."

"Heh, thank you." Tafmann continued driving.

"Are they still chasing?" Nio asked.

"They are. Their Arts are boosting their speed."

"Head toward Bernard Hotel first. The side gate."

"There are many of their people there," Tafmann reminded him.

"That’s precisely why we need them to call in more people."

As Tafmann turned the carriage, he asked, "You want to lure the Church of Reincarnation to the Palace of Remembrance?"

“You guessed right. Darkmoon Island’s guards dare draw steel against the Light. Let’s see whether they would dare draw steel against one of the orthodox churches.”

“If they knew what would happen once we forced our way in, I think they would.”

“Not necessarily.”

“We’re not getting in. Reincarnation’s people aren’t fools.”

“Just focus on driving.”

"Heh. Fine." A white glow formed in Tafmann's palm and traveled down the reins into the unicorn pulling the carriage. The beast's spirit was instantly stimulated, and it began running with desperate force, barely preventing the Reincarnation pursuers from catching up.

When they reached the side gate of Bernard Hotel, the carriage turned again.

Several gray clusters of light flew faster than the carriage itself. They were equivalent to the Church of Order's commonly used message crows.

At the side gate, many Reincarnation members had already rushed out. Seeing the carriage and hearing the shouts of their people behind, they immediately prepared Arts to intercept it.

"Faster, faster, they're catching up!" Nio shouted.

"It's already the fast—"

Both Tafmann and Nio abruptly ducked. A wave of energy swept over them, slicing away half the rear of the carriage.

Their lowered posture happened to evade the strike, and with half the carriage's weight gone, the unicorn actually became faster.

Several clusters of gray airflow closed in from both sides. It was a movement Art similar to the Church of Order's black mist stealth form.

Tafmann immediately turned the carriage again and drove into a side path.

"The unicorn is exhausted!" Tafmann shouted.

"Then jump!"

Both men leapt from the carriage. The unicorn completely collapsed, dragging the half-destroyed carriage sideways into the grass. Nio and Tafmann began running on foot.

Truthfully, after losing the carriage, they could flee even more calmly. Though they could not use obvious Arts, which would risk arousing the suspicions of their pursuers, their experience and instincts remained, and the surrounding dense vegetation made concealment easier.

After running separately for some distance, the two rejoined one another with perfect tacit understanding.

The Palace of Remembrance lay ahead. The guards there had already sensed the fluctuations of Arts in this direction and were rapidly approaching.

"We can't get through!" Tafmann said.

"Heh." Nio leapt forward into a flowerbed.

Light and shadow twisted over his body, and he directly used a Light Art to conceal himself. Ordinarily, the concealment would have been poor. The Darkmoon guards ahead had already noticed movement here. They only needed a detection Art or a wide-range scroll to expose whoever was hiding.

The problem now was that a crowd of Reincarnation pursuers was right behind them.

Tafmann hesitated briefly, then jumped into the same flowerbed. Crystalline power of Light formed around him, hiding his body.

"My heavens, why are you hiding with me!" Nio cursed. "Now both of us will be exposed immediately!"

Nio's leap and concealment had seized the final opening just as the guards redirected their attention and rushed over. Tafmann's jump afterward had occurred almost directly under the guards' gaze. It was equivalent to announcing that someone was hidden here.

"This flowerbed is the densest," Tafmann explained. I wanted you exposed.

"Heh heh." Nio laughed.

Hearing the laugh, Tafmann suddenly realized something. He should not have jumped in here.

Sure enough, the Darkmoon guards first froze, then tacitly chose not to surround the flowerbed.

They had seen their general jump into it. Though he wore plain clothes and a mask, they had seen that appearance from him not long ago. They did not know why the general was doing this, but it was not their place to interfere.

Instead, the Darkmoon guards moved to block the Reincarnation people who had chased them here.

During these past days, many within the Church of Reincarnation delegation had already accumulated considerable anger. Leaving aside those who had pursued Nio from the theater with fresh and clear hatred, later arrivals had joined after hearing the commotion, eager to find someone to vent on.

Tafmann looked at Nio crouching in front of him. Has he already discovered my true identity?

"They're going to fight. Once they do, we'll take the chance to get inside and open the coffin to retrieve the Covenant Conch."

"They won't fight."

The Darkmoon captain of the guard stepped forward and called out, "This is the sacred grounds of Darkmoon Island. No offense may be given. May I ask who you—"

To be fair, the Darkmoon captain handled it quite well. He had already recognized the Arts aura coming from that incoming group. At this stage, only the two orthodox church factions staying at Bernard Hotel could gather such a force. He wanted to avoid conflict immediately and calm the situation while learning what had happened.

But he got no further than that.

Nearby, beneath the grass, a man who had crouched there unmoving for half the day slowly raised his head. "Keyword!"

Over there, the Reincarnation priests who had chased all the way here had only just stopped running. Many were still panting. More did not even know what exactly they had been chasing. Then they heard the opposite side shouting, "This is the sacred grounds of Darkmoon Island. No offense may be given..."

BOOM!!!

An explosion erupted beneath their feet.

This was an explosive ritual array personally arranged by an Expositor of the Church of Order, and it detonated at the most suitable moment. In an instant, several Reincarnation priests were blown apart. Many more were blasted, wounded or hurled away. The situation descended into total chaos.

Under such circumstances, the Reincarnation side almost instinctively unleashed Arts toward the Darkmoon guards. And the Darkmoon guards had no choice but to retaliate.

Nio turned his head toward Tafmann and snapped his fingers. "Tch. Now they’re fighting!"

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