Chapter 370: A Flaw in the Order (3)

On day eight of the capital offensive, once again, the forces of the Black God had successfully repelled the imperial army's assault. No one had managed to breach the cathedral, and the Shadow of Doom remained safe. They were also buying plenty of time, so by all accounts, everything was going well.

Frowning, Diogres Kolon asked Giyen Ren, "Then why does it feel so unsettling? You said that as long as we stall for time, we win, right?"

"That's correct."

"And we're stalling for time right now?"

"Yes."

"Then why are they acting like this?"

"That is..." Giyen Ren trailed off. He had asked himself the same question.

The imperial army should have been growing impatient by now. Even if they weren't, they should at least have been trying something different to change the situation. Yet days passed, and the imperial army's movements never changed.

They attacked, fought, and then withdrew back outside the capital. It made no sense. Why was there no variation in the imperial army's tactics?

Emil Strauss spoke up in a calm voice. "Perhaps it's because the imperial army has suffered less damage than we expected."

Despite being caught in the daily assaults of undead hordes, the fairies, and above all, the cataclysmic spells of the archmages, the imperial army had not suffered nearly as many casualties as one would expect.

They had been striking and retreating at precisely the right times, and there were more powerful individuals among them than anticipated. In fact, there were already four confirmed silver knights among the imperial army, including Sir Chaplin, the commander of the imperial knights, and Desteran, the leader of Search Black. Then, there were two more silver knights among Karnak's subordinates, though no one knew exactly where they had come from.

"There are even more at the purple tier."

And the biggest problem was Karnak's subordinates. They were few in number but elite to the extreme. Even among others of the same purple rank, these individuals were extraordinarily strong.

Giyen Ren nodded. "Especially that red-haired woman. She's quite fascinating."

Diogres agreed. "Her tier and skill are completely out of sync. I saw her, a blue-tier, cutting down a purple knight as if it were nothing."

"How is that even possible?"

"If I could, I'd love to capture her alive and study her."

"I've already given orders to capture her if possible, but no one's been able to."

While the two archmages were casually conversing, Emil quietly shifted the topic. "Regardless, it's true that the imperial army has taken far less damage than expected. In this case, would there be any advantage for them in stalling for time instead?"

The two archmages paused in thought before shaking their heads simultaneously. "I can't think of any."

It was clear the enemy was up to something, but they couldn't figure out what it was. So, they tried interrogating prisoners. Necromancers were especially adept at intelligence gathering. By raising the dead and questioning them, they could extract information far more easily than by torturing prisoners.

But it had been useless. The truth was, not a single person in the imperial army actually knew why they were doing all of this. No matter how many dead imperial ghosts they summoned and interrogated, they were always greeted with the same types of answers.

—I don't know, uaaagh.

—I was just following orders, urghhhh.

—They didn't tell me anything, uuurgh.

There was a reason Karnak always kept everything to himself and told no one around him. He had developed a near-paranoid habit of running operations entirely in secrecy, given information could easily leak with necromancy.

So, the Black God's army tried other methods as well. They sent spirits near enemy lines to eavesdrop on operational meetings. This was a high-level necromantic spell that only a few could wield, but Giyen Ren and Diogres Kolon were powerful necromancers as well as archmages. It was a trivial task for them.

Diogres Kolon rested his chin on his hand with a displeased expression. "Still, we didn't get anything useful."

Emil Strauss asked, "Is the church's defenses that tight?"

Giyen Ren shook his head. "It's not so much the church. There's a powerful necromancer on their side. They've blocked every single spirit infiltration, and the methods are so bizarre that even we can't decipher them."

Emil's eyes widened. "Even for you two, who have received the blessings of Tesranach?"

"It's not a matter of blessings..." Giyen Ren trailed off, his expression as if struggling to find the right words. "It felt like they were on a completely different wavelength. It was necromancy, yet it had progressed in a way we didn't understand."

Diogres clicked his tongue. "Could it be the Twilight Order?"

Diogres Kolon responded, "Or perhaps that Karnak fellow."

By now, they were beginning to suspect that Karnak was a necromancer himself. Honestly, it was hard to miss, given how blatantly he had been using it. The real question was whether what he was using could even be called necromancy.

"It looks like necromancy, but there's no necromantic energy."

"And sometimes there's necromantic energy, but it's not necromancy."

It was clear that it would prove incredibly difficult for Giyen Ren and Diogres Kolon to analyze Karnak's spells. Even if they were the subordinates of the Monarch of Death returned from the future, at the end of the day, they were archmages first and foremost, with their expertise in magic. On top of that, they were still alive, not undead.

Giyen Ren turned to Emil Strauss. "That's why I wish we could seek the wisdom of Tesranach's avatar."

Emil shook his head. "Regrettably, that's not possible."

He raised his right hand slightly toward the two puzzled men, and a faint light danced between his fingers. "I am one who bears the grace of Tesranach. But I didn't come down with the wisdom of death itself."

***

Karnak claimed with certainty. "Emil is probably not a necromancer."

Serati looked puzzled. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because Dios managed to escape unharmed."

The black-and-blue-haired boy had been playing with Floke in her dragon form. He seemed startled by Karnak's comment. "Huh? You mean me?"

Karnak nodded. "Dios was nearly overtaken by the future Diogres because of Emil, right?"

It was Emil's touch that had put him in danger of losing his body and soul entirely, forcing him to narrowly escape with only his spirit using Mediator of Necromancy. In other words, his soul had escaped right in front of Emil's eyes.

Karnak speculated further. "And you think a necromancer would just stand by and let that happen?"

"Now that you mention it..."

It was indeed strange for a necromancer to do nothing while a soul was fleeing right in front of them.

"At the very least, he should have tried to capture it."

Dios broke into a cold sweat. "So I nearly had my soul snatched away too, huh."

The thought sent chills down his spine even now.

It was more natural to conclude that Emil truly knew nothing at the time. "But from what Dios described, it sounds like Emil didn't even notice. Later, the future Diogres must have informed him of the soul's escape, but by then it was already too late."

No doubt, they had likely tried tracking Dios's soul for some time afterward. It was, after all, the soul of an archmage. They wouldn't have wanted to leave such a loose end.

Karnak concluded, "But they never found it."

It turned out to be a stroke of luck that Dios had possessed the body of a boy who was in that ambiguous state—neither truly alive nor dead. Since it defied all common sense of necromancy, it had been pushed down the priority list for search targets.

"At any rate, judging by the circumstances, Emil Strauss may be Tesranach's avatar, but he's not a necromancer."

Karnak could more or less understand Tesranach's situation by putting himself in the other's shoes. If that bastard is someone like the old me, it means he's doing what the old me would have done.

No matter how generously calculated, Tesranach would be limited to sending down an avatar that was only specialized in wielding grace. He would have been limited in sending down an avatar with anything more.

And if Emil Strauss was not a necromancer on Tesranach's level, then Karnak's methods wouldn't be seen through so easily. Naturally, the plan Karnak had devised was kept secret from almost everyone, even his own allies. In fact, even his direct subordinates hardly knew what the plan actually was.

Still, there were those who, no matter what, had to know. They were the ones who would be executing the plan themselves. Preventing them from leaking information was crucial, which was why he had to remain vigilant against spirit infiltration spells.

Karnak raised his head and gazed out the window. But his eyes were not looking toward the capital, Thea Krahan.

Instead, he was facing the opposite direction, toward the southern empire. A sly smile spread across his lips. "It seems I didn't guess wrong, since they haven't noticed until now."

***

It was day 10 of the imperial army's assault on the capital, and once again, the Cult of the Black God had claimed victory. Once again, the imperial army fought diligently, only to withdraw politely outside the capital when the time came.

At this point, it was less like an assault and more like clocking in for battle and clocking out on time each day. As usual, Diogres Kolon and Giyen Ren were in utter confusion.

"What on earth are they plotting?"

"Could they be trying to provoke us into leaving the capital?"

"Do they really think we're that stupid?"

Giyen Ren made a suggestion. "Well, isn't it possible that they're just stupid enough to think we're that stupid?"

Diogres paused for a moment before shaking his head. "No, the imperial army isn't that foolish."

If there was anyone who knew the capability of the imperial army best, it was Diogres Kolon. He, too, had once led the imperial army in defiance against the Monarch of Death, a hero of humanity in his own right. That was why it made it all the more baffling.

Why did it seem like the imperial army had no intention of winning? They only realized the reason that afternoon, after receiving a report from the northern campaign, led by Beltia and Valeria.

—The priests of the goddesses' church have disappeared.

For a moment, they could not comprehend it. The priests of the goddesses' church had disappeared? Was it saying they had abandoned their faithful and fled to save themselves?

That was impossible. They dismissed the ridiculous notion and grumbled, telling the messenger to give a proper report. However, as it turned out, this was the proper report.

—It's exactly as I said. They abandoned the believers they should have protected and all vanished at once.

—Since when?

—It seems to have started around ten days ago.

That was roughly when the imperial army's assault on the capital had begun. Similar reports were received from Rigail and Splendia, the two fallen popes who had been ravaging the southern empire.

—The priests of the goddesses' church have vanished. Are we to keep searching for their traces like this?

—Could it be that the imperial army has already killed off all the priests within the empire?

It was an absurd notion. Of course, there would naturally be some discrepancy between the actual number of priests and the numbers they had accounted for.

But even taking that into consideration, the number of priests the Cult of the Black God had killed amounted to less than twenty percent of the total. Even focusing only on the high-ranking clergy, it would not reach half.

But what other possible explanation could there be for their disappearance? Could it really be that the priests had fled to save their own skins, abandoning their faithful? Sure, there were plenty of rotten clergy in the world. It was certainly possible.

But for all of them to do that? That's impossible. As Emil frowned in puzzlement, a thought struck him. Wait, in a situation like this... what happens?

The whole reason they had concentrated on killing the priests of the goddesses' church was to diminish the pure faith they embodied. But now, with the priests they needed to kill having all vanished, making it impossible to continue...

"Damn it!"

The answer became clear in an instant. Emil hastily drew the light of grace to his fingertips. The light of Tesranach still flickered dimly. But it had been ten days. This meant that the ranking of faith had barely shifted during that time.

"Those bastards, so this is how they're stopping the death of the goddesses' faith!"