Chapter 268: Light and Darkness

After putting away the mansion, the three of us returned to Fallcry and went on a monster hunt in order to familiarize ourselves with fighting as a team again. Now that we had Bella back as a primary damage dealer, I silently returned to the role of support. That said, I did not remain passive by any means, employing my various energy manipulation skills to create floating weapons that acted in concert with the other two.

During this period, I was able to confirm that Bella had indeed grown more skilled in ways beyond what she had shown. Even when she was forced to fight in melee, her movements were more fluid than they had previously been, allowing her to strike at enemies with the butt of her pistols before following up with a bullet to their bodies.

If she fought Wisteria again in her current state, I couldn’t confidently say that Bella would be able to win. However, she could surely at least force Wisteria to take her more seriously than she had done in their first bout.

As I was thinking about this, I received a surprise message from none other than Wisteria herself. Opening the message, I took a moment to read it between fights, my eyes narrowing. “We need to get back to Fallcry,” I told the other two, who were discussing their recent fight.

Both of them looked at me in surprise, though it was Bella that spoke up. “What happened? Did anything go wrong with the kingdom while I was gone?” she asked, a trace of panic in her tone.

However, Diane shook her head to deny that thought. “No. To my knowledge, there has been nothing major that transpired during the week that you were training. This should be something more recent, right Drake?”

I didn’t know myself, so I could only shrug my shoulders. “Wisteria sent me a message just now. She said that the leader of the League of Assassins wants to meet us at the Sunspire Palace, and that it involves the mission we took in Athua not too long ago.”

With that said, the other two came close, and we teleported back to the castle. Once we arrived, Wisteria was already at the front door to greet us with a polite nod. “Thanks for coming so quickly. The master is already inside, waiting for you.”

“He slipped into the royal palace already?” Bella asked in surprise, but Wisteria cleared her throat to explain.

“He spoke with Nuoda and was allowed in. He didn’t infiltrate like a rogue or anything like that.”

Diane gave a knowing smile at that remark, and we all went inside to find Nuoda sitting together with Erebus, the leader of the League of Assassins sipping at a steaming cup of tea. “Thank you for agreeing to meet me. I know that the three of you were just getting back together after a period of personal training.”

“It’s fine,” I said, moving to sit across from him. Diane and Bella stood behind me, while Nuoda remained off to the side to listen in. As she actually managed the kingdom in my stead, this must have been something rather important for her to listen in on. Meanwhile, Wisteria moved to stand behind Erebus, just as Diane and Bella were doing for me.

“As Wisteria no doubt explained, there has been a change in the situation with Athua as of late. Specifically, the church and the crown are preparing to move for war.” When Erebus said this, my eyes widened. “That’s right. They plan to declare warr against the nation of Fallcry.”

“Why are they going after us?” I asked, confused. “Did they find some evidence linking us to Yatagarasu, or perhaps the attack on the church?”

Nuoda nearly spat out her tea when she heard me mention attacking a church, her hands gripping the table as she stared daggers at me. However, Erebus continued without delay. “Specifically speaking, one of the inquisitors possesses a skill to look into recent events. Using it, they identified Diane as the perpetrator behind the attack on the church’s ‘body insurance’ facility.”

“They claim that her actions endangered the lives of countless clergymen, and even NPCs. At the same time, they are targeting the League of Assassins itself, claiming that we sent her to destroy the facility while colluding with monsters to assassinate one of Athua’s dukes.” As he said that last part, he looked at me with a knowing smile.

I let out a small sigh, shaking my head. “They’re declaring war against an organization like the league? Can the league even be a target of a formal war?”

“Not quite,” Erebus explained. “Specifically speaking, the League of Assassins has no territory upon which to declare war. However, they are declaring the league as a public enemy, their members to be arrested on sight. As far as organizations go, this is no less severe than a war declaration.”

“So, are they going to be sending an army after us?” Bella asked, clenching her fists at her sides. “It hasn’t been that long since we fought the dragons, and now they want to test us, too?”

Erebus glanced over his shoulder at Wisteria for a moment, before looking directly at Bella. “According to the information that we’ve discovered, they have no intention of sending any armies.”

That caught the four of us by surprise, with Nuoda even speaking up. “If there is no deployment of the army, can it even be considered a war? Or are they just sending an elite team of grandmasters instead?”

“No, to my knowledge, there are no plans to dispatch any troops at all,” Erebus explained. “As far as we can tell, the declaration of war is meant to announce Fallcry as an enemy of the people, and keep its growth in check. They can also gather support from other nations that are hostile towards you, like Evergeen. This will limit the amount of people that you can trade with, and there is simply no deadline for when they must deploy their forces.”

“So in the end, it is a cold war?” Diane asked hesitantly. “On paper, we will be at war, but there will be no immediate movement of troops. We’ll just be barking at each other and making threats until either one side lights the spark of conflict or things settle down?”

“Precisely,” Erebus agreed, seeming impressed by the deduction. “However, their side has the support of the church, so people will inevitably be drawn to it. Theoretically, there is little that Fallcry has that can rival them in influence. Even if you announce the joint management of the trait farms between the church and Yatagarasu, they will label it as heretical propaganda.”

“For that reason, we are busy working to collect irrefutable evidence of their corruption.” Erebus leaned back in his seat, a playful smile on his face. “Have you three encountered the changes happening within dungeons as of late?”

“You mean how humanoid monsters have evolved to gain self-awareness?” I asked. “I thought that part of becoming a ‘mob’ involved sacrificing that very awareness.”

“Exactly, which is what makes this situation such a conundrum,” he agreed, though he maintained that smile. “For mobs that were created from a Fallen’s loss of self, they regain their memories up to the moment of their conversion. However, the memories of each mob are reset on death, whether they are a common foe or a boss monster.”

“There are a scant few dungeons containing fallen members of the church, but they do exist. Now that the boss monsters within them have awakened their sentience, the church is moving to lay claim to all of them, even those that exist outside of Athua’s borders. They claim that the dead deserve a proper rest, not to be subjected to an endless cycle of slaughter. Thus, they have been deploying Dungeon Destroyers.”

My eyes widened as I listened to this. “They’re destroying the dungeons themselves? Wouldn’t it be more convenient for them to ally with the dungeons and use them to train their new priests?”

“One would think so, wouldn’t they?” Erebus questioned. “Which begs the question, what are they wanting to keep buried? According to our private investigation, there are multiple dungeons that have been created naturally, where the boss monsters were clergymen that lost their sense of self under mysterious circumstances.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked, confused, though Diane seemed to catch on right away.

“A true death… that’s what they must have thought, right? Any Fallen that becomes a dungeon monster should have never been able to recover their sanity. It’s the perfect way to silence someone. And unlike us Players, Fallen can feel pain. All that they’d need to do is torture them until their minds broke, and they would no longer respawn as a Fallen.”

“Exactly right,” Erebus said, his expression darkening. “The dungeons we’ve identified fall into two categories. First are the ‘mad priests’. These are dungeons where the holy warriors have gone mad and ‘betrayed the light’. Their fighting styles are often berserk, willing to endure any wound to kill a challenger.”

“Second are the ‘utterly devout’. These are like your typical holy dungeon, but the boss monsters are true heralds of light. These are the ones that the church is targeting most extremely, now that their sentience has been restored.”

“Because the mad priests are still crazy, but the others have enough sanity to recall what happened to them?” I asked, and Erebus confirmed it. “So, the league needs to find one of these ‘utterly devout’ dungeons and get the boss monster to share information about the church’s misdeeds?”

To my surprise, Erebus shook his head. “Actually, we are targeting the mad priests. Though the devout are more likely to retain the information, they also still have their loyalty to the church. These individuals lost their sense of reason not strictly due to torture, but rather an internal conflict between serving the church and serving the people.”

“Meanwhile, the mad priests can be calmed now that their awareness has returned. All it takes is the right stimulation. Currently, we have located and secured three mad priest dungeons, and calmed one of the bosses. We’re in the process of recovering critical intelligence to begin a proper investigation of the church, which is when the talk of war came in.”

“Though they claim their cause is for allying with the monsters against themselves and Yatagarasu, they have likely noticed our movements and are taking preventative measures.” After saying this, Erebus let out a long sigh. “As I have said, there are currently no signs of an army being deployed. That fact may change depending on how our investigation goes.”

At this point, Nuoda spoke up. “Sir, may I ask a question?” When Erebus agreed, she continued. “The Fallen that we recovered from the Trait Farm. Many of them showed signs of mental collapse. Why weren’t they turned into dungeon mobs?”

Erebus gave a bitter smile. “The number of people you rescued from that dungeon account for only about two-thirds of those we have evidence of entering. The remaining third will likely appear as low-level dungeon monsters in the future. With their traits and skills having been farmed away, they will be no more than ‘trash mobs’ in a starter dungeon, cursed to suffer even after their fate in life. Of those you rescued, the ones you speak of were likely on the verge of falling. However, you managed to recover them in time, and are giving them a chance to find themselves again. For that, you have my sincere thanks.”

Nuoda’s eyes widened as she processed this information, realizing that there had been more victims that we hadn’t been able to save. She clenched her fists at her sides, taking a deep breath. At the very least, the ones that had been saved were showing more and more signs of recovery, so she could take some solace in that.