“Who is it?!”
“An enemy!”
“That face... it's Leon Douglas, the one mentioned in the intelligence reports!”
“Wait, no! Didn't the intelligence say he was only Silver rank? How can he fly—”
Boom!
An invisible attack descended from the heavens like a falling meteor, crashing violently into the Black and White Hand stronghold below.
In the next instant, a terrifying shockwave rippled outward from the epicenter of the impact, whipping up a violent gale akin to an oncoming tsunami.
Brick walls, wood splinters, and even the bodies of the Black and White Hand cultists were completely torn to shreds within the raging tempest!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Once the shockwave subsided, only three relatively strong cultists who had barely managed to survive the terrifying blast remained in the ruins of the Black and White Hand stronghold.
But they had only barely survived.
Blood seeped from their mouths as they lay dazed on the ground, staring blankly up at the figure in golden priest robes hovering in the sky.
Only despair remained on their faces.
“How... how can he be so strong...”
They couldn't understand. Wasn't the Leon Douglas described in their intelligence supposed to have only recently advanced to Silver rank?
Why did he possess such terrifying power now?
With just a single strike, over ninety percent of the cultists in the stronghold had been wiped out, unable to offer even a shred of resistance!
Even they, the three strongest members of the entire stronghold, had only survived with critical injuries!
“The intelligence... was wrong!”
A look of grim determination flashed across one cultist's face as he bit down hard on the poison capsule hidden in his mouth.
The lethal poison surged through his body, instantly snuffing out the flickering candle of his remaining life.
A touch of madness flashed in the eyes of the other two cultists. Emulating their companion, they prepared to bite down on their own poison capsules—
Strum~ strum-strum-strum~
The sound of a sacred hymn echoed through the air. In the next instant, the determination in the eyes of the remaining two cultists vanished, replaced by utter blankness.
Leon descended from the sky, staring at the two of them with an expressionless face.
“Come, tell me all the information you know.”
A moment later...
A gentle breeze passed through the muzzle of the Wind-Whisper Heavy Cannon. Accelerated by a mysterious power, it transformed into a supersonic air cannon.
The air cannon blasted forward, piercing the heads of the two cultists. Blood and brain matter splattered instantly.
The last two surviving cultists in the stronghold collapsed into the ruins.
“Only one stronghold left...”
Leon thought to himself. With Alicia having slipped back into his shadow, he took flight once more, heading toward a bustling street in Stormveil City.
The cultists of this final stronghold had chosen an excellent location, situated right where the city's major associations and merchant guilds were concentrated.
“Is their target to strike at the city's associations and merchant guilds?”
Leon couldn't help but wonder.
Fortunately, he had instructed Miles, Viscount Finn, and the others early on. They had already stationed guards around these areas dense with important institutions.
Nothing unexpected should happen.
Shortly after Leon departed, Miles arrived at the stronghold with a group of church priests.
“So fast...”
Miles looked up at Leon, who was rapidly flying away into the sky, and sighed with emotion.
“His mental power is actually so vast that it can sustain flight for this long...”
A hint of envy flashed in Miles's eyes.
Unless it was an emergency, Miles usually traveled on foot or by horse.
He rarely used flight as a means of travel.
This was because flight consumed a significant amount of mental power. To maintain peak condition before a battle, one had to ration their mental power carefully.
But... quite clearly, Priest Leon did not care about such consumption at all.
Initially, seeing Leon flying back and forth and engaging in multiple battles, Miles had planned to bring other priests to support him while keeping watch over the city.
Now, it seemed... Leon didn't need any support whatsoever!
“Priest Sage, take some men to clean up this ruin and reassure the citizens nearby. I will continue to provide support elsewhere.”
Miles withdrew his gaze and spoke to a priest beside him.
“Yes, Bishop Miles!” the priest named Sage quickly replied.
Miles nodded, leading the other priests to continue patrolling other areas.
Leon was incredibly swift in eliminating the enemies and gathering intelligence, so the Black and White Hand cultists initially failed to react.
However, with so many strongholds destroyed one after another and the considerable commotion caused, even the most foolish members of the Black and White Hand would realize what was happening.
Once the cultists sensed something was wrong, they would surely resort to desperate measures, creating chaos in the city to buy time for their escape or to launch their plans prematurely.
“We absolutely cannot let them succeed!”
A look of firm determination filled Miles's eyes.
Like Leon, he never wanted the tragedy that occurred in Soleneum to repeat itself in Stormveil City.
...
Stormveil City.
Gold-Touch District.
This was a highly prosperous district in the city, home to the Mages' Association, the Alchemists' Association, and the Society for the Study of Abnormal Creatures.
Large merchant associations of the Heron Empire, such as the Coo Coo Merchant Association, the Gaga Merchant Association, and the Abius Merchant Association, also had storefronts here.
Right next to the Alchemists' Association, inside a mid-sized merchant storefront...
“Bishop Martin!” A Black and White Hand cultist, face pale with panic, scrambled into a hidden room.
“Bishop, we have a major problem!”
“Our operations in the city have been discovered! We have lost contact with the Ilya Street stronghold!”
“According to intelligence from our lookouts on the street, the one destroying our strongholds is Leon Douglas! The very same heretic who ruined our operation in Soleneum!”
“We don't know when, but he has already advanced to the Gold rank...”
Before the first Black and White Hand member could even finish, another rushed in behind him, shouting loudly:
“Bishop! This is bad! The Blackmoth Street stronghold has also gone silent!”
“Bishop, a lookout has sent word...”
Inside the hidden room, the Black and White Hand members were in utter chaos, all scrambling to report to their bishop, Martin Sommer.
“Damn it! How could they be so fast?!”
Martin cursed inwardly.
Were the members at those strongholds all useless freeloaders?
They couldn't even offer a modicum of resistance against Leon Douglas!
“Once I return to headquarters this time, I must propose a church reform to Archbishop Justin to purge all weak-willed believers from our ranks!”
What frustrated Martin even more was that not only could they not resist Leon, but they had actually surrendered directly and betrayed the Black and White Hand!
Martin could figure it out even with his toes—if there wasn't a traitor within the church, there was no way Leon could have obtained the locations of so many strongholds.
He had his own strict system for managing his subordinates:
Low-ranking cultists would only learn of the plans on the eve of the operation, remaining completely in the dark about everything else.
As for the specific locations of the strongholds, ordinary cultists had no idea; they only knew the location of their own.
Only the leader of each stronghold, who needed to coordinate operations with nearby cells, would know the locations of two or three neighboring strongholds.
Under such strict information control, Leon had still managed to quickly hunt down multiple strongholds. Martin was absolutely certain:
The leader of one of the strongholds must have defected!
And it wasn't just a single leader who had turned traitor!
“Bishop! The stronghold where Lord Fallon is stationed has also presumably been hit! We sent a message over half a minute ago and have received no response!”
Right at that moment, another panicked cultist rushed in, bringing Martin the news of the destruction of yet another stronghold.
Rate on N.U.
