Helmut: The Forsaken Child - H.F.C Chapter 424 (Part 2):

“We come from the Mage Association. We wish to speak with High Priest Paolo…”

SLASH!

Crimson blood sprayed across the ground.

The pristine white blade shook off droplets of blood.

Thud.

Beside the fallen body, a severed head rolled on the ground.

The cut was chillingly clean.

“W-What in the—?!”

The dean cried out, his face frozen.

“What are you doing?!”

They had been approaching the Temple’s army slowly.

When a Holy Knight rode out and stopped before them, it seemed unproblematic.

But the moment a mage stepped forward to speak, the knight drew his sword without hesitation and beheaded him.

The motion was so natural, the blade so swift, there was no time to react.

Even a battle-hardened mage couldn’t have countered it.

‘Even so, they had protective barriers around them.’

All four who came were high-ranking mages, not so careless as to arrive unprotected.

Yet the opponent had shattered the barrier effortlessly. A terrifying power emanated from the sword in his hand.

Golden eyes gleamed sharply from beneath the helmet.

A mage shouted as if screaming.

“T-That’s the Holy Knight from the martial arts tournament finals!”

Only then did they recognize him.

The dean’s face contorted as he looked at the slain mage’s body.

“To do this to someone seeking dialogue—what barbarity!”

Levant declared coldly.

“There is no need for talk. Obstructing the sacred army makes you enemies of the temple.”

That was the Temple’s will, the High Priests’ will. He merely followed.

This war would not end until they claimed victory and took the head of the one bearing the Seed of Darkness.

Levant’s eyes glinted ominously.

“Eliminate them all!”

From the approaching army, the priests’ sacred magic poured forth.

Levant raised his sword again. His gaze briefly, sharply scanned his targets.

Had the dean not been there, they all would have perished.

Their survival was solely because the dean was a mage near the level of an archmage.

“They escaped.”

The body couldn’t be retrieved, but—

Levant’s indifferent gaze fell upon the mutilated corpse.

Considering they were part of Renosa’s strength, it was a pity.

It would have been better to wipe them all out here.

Before the sacred magic and Levant’s sword could reach, the dean completed a teleportation spell by a hair’s breadth.

The mages vanished instantly, and Levant’s sword sliced through the empty air where the dean had stood.

Sacred magic struck the vacant ground, purifying the air and dispersing magical energy.

Levant’s brow furrowed slightly.

“Dialogue? A naive notion.”

The Temple’s main force had drawn close behind him. Levant raised his sword hand.

“For the light of humanity, glory to the Temple and Lumen!”

As he charged forward, the Temple’s army trampled the mage’s body into oblivion, leaving no trace.

*

“Good heavens.”

Back at Renosa’s royal castle, the dean pressed his face into his hands. The other two mages sighed, their faces pale.

They had been envoys of sorts. Beheading an envoy was the act of a barbaric nation.

They weren’t knights but unarmed mages. They hadn’t expected the Temple to act so ruthlessly.

“Caesus…”

“We had no time to retrieve the body.”

As one mage groaned, the dean shook his head.

They survived only because the dean had swiftly completed the spell. He wasn’t to blame.

“What of the dialogue?”

Sian rushed out to meet them. Noticing one was missing, he immediately understood what had happened.

“It failed. They attacked the moment they saw us,” the dean said, his gaze shifting.

Beyond, the Black Wing Knights of Renosa stood in formation, with the Grand Duke and Helmut, clad in armor, at the forefront.

The Grand Duke of Renosa and his heir. The image of father and son was unmistakable.

“You’re lucky to have returned alive. I felt them using sacred magic,” Sian said.

“Indeed.”

The dean, face stern, stepped forward. He stood before the Grand Duke and Helmut.

A resolute voice flowed from him.

“As of this moment, the Mage Association will join Renosa’s army to stand against the Temple.”

A fire blazed in the dean’s eyes. He had watched a colleague be slaughtered before him.

They had only sought to prevent war.

For ages, the Temple had treated mages as profane, dismissing them. This time, too, they treated them as worthless. Not even worth speaking to.

“Today, they’ll pay for the life they took.”

For too long, they had bowed their heads.

But at some point, doubt arose. Was the Temple still so mighty? Were mages still so insignificant to them?

No, that was no longer true.

As the Temple’s legitimacy wavered, the time had come to overturn the hierarchy and order they had imposed.

Today, the Temple would witness the power of the mages they had made their enemies.

The Grand Duke nodded gravely.

“Very well.”

The dean immediately informed the Mage Association of the loss of a high-ranking mage.

This gave the Mage Association a clear motive to join the fight.

Word had already spread to the Deus Empire and Basor; all were converging on Latona.

But the first to arrive would undoubtedly be the Temple.

Otaku_Tensei

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