Chapter 1067: The Saintess of the Night

Chapter 1067: Chapter 1067: The Saintess of the Night

"Welcome back, Holy Saintess! Welcome back, Archbishop-sama!"

Suddenly, aside from the towering, black-haired burly man at the vanguard, the surrounding knights quickly parted to both sides of the road, dropping to one knee in unison and shouting in synchronization.

The unified battle cry of over twenty people echoed far across the quiet, darkened island, startling a massive flock of owls roosting in the neighboring woods and ensuring that Sriya and his squad heard every single word clearly.

’The Saintess... The Saintess of the Night!’

Sriya’s eyes widened, unblinkingly locked onto the carriage.

The procession did not halt. The carriage rolled slowly along the bluestone pathway, passing between the two stone watchtowers and heading up toward the peak of the mountain.

The black-haired burly man seemed to have joined the escort detail as well, marching side-by-side with Augsgur Asher and conversing with him as they moved.

Not until the procession escorting the Saintess of the Night had completely cleared the perimeter of the watchtowers did the twenty-odd guardian knights respectfully rise to their feet, returning to their respective posts to resume guarding the mountain pass.

The moment he learned of the Saintess’s appearance, Sriya became virtually certain that this night-shrouded island was, without a doubt, the main headquarters of the Church of the Night.

No wonder the Holy See and the World Government had never been able to locate the lair of the Church of the Night. It was hidden in such an inaccessible place, insulated first by a family of giant Sea Kings serving as an outer perimeter defense, and second by a ten-kilometer expanse of reef-choked waters that would repel tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of warships alike.

Moreover, the sky remained permanently choked by dark clouds, plunging the entire island into perpetual gloom. Unless someone deliberately flashed a light, even an ability user capable of flight would find themselves completely blind, unable to unearth a single clue.

"Captain Sriya, what should we do?" a soldier whispered nearby.

Sriya fell into deep thought. With the Saintess of the Night present, alongside Obsidian Archbishop Augsgur Asher, even if this island wasn’t the main headquarters of the Church of the Night, it was undoubtedly a place of paramount importance.

"We go up!"

Having made his decision, Sriya said in a low voice, "Find a way to verify whether the cathedral up top is the legendary Temple of the Night. Even if it isn’t, we need to uncover the purpose of the Saintess and Augsgur Asher coming here!"

The Saintess of the Church of the Night was equivalent to the Pope of the Holy See; she would never casually step foot outside the Temple of the Night.

Furthermore, every generation’s Saintess inherited the moniker of the Goddess of the Night, Mavis, and possessed formidable strength. Should a grave crisis arise that the Church’s upper echelon could not resolve on their own, the Saintess would step forth from the Temple of the Night.

Of course, this did not necessarily mean the Saintess was stronger in combat than high-ranking officials like the Obsidian Archbishops, but she was indisputably one of the strongest figures in the entire Church.

If this wasn’t the Church’s true lair and the cathedral above wasn’t the Temple of the Night, then the Saintess and one of the most powerful Obsidian Archbishops appearing here together could only mean something of monumental significance was underway.

If he failed to find out, Sriya, acting as the team leader for the External Affairs Department, would unquestionably be derelict in his duty.

A few seconds later, seeing that no one raised any objections, Sriya took the lead, and the rest of the team followed closely behind.

The bluestone path winding up the mountain was laid out in an S-shape, much like a mountain switchback road, with numerous sentry posts stationed along the route. Because of this, Sriya and his men were forced to scale the steep slopes, dense thickets, and sheer cliffs flanking the path.

Naturally, for a group of superhumans whose Doriki all exceeded 500, a mere several-hundred-meter mountain was nothing at all. They climbed with blistering speed, reaching the summit in barely a dozen minutes, arriving even ahead of the Saintess’s carriage.

Climbing up to take a look, Sriya discovered that this brightly illuminated, massive cathedral was actually wired with electric light bulbs and engineered with remarkable ingenuity. The cathedral grounds occupied the entire surface area of the mountain summit, with its ten-meter-high stone gates opening directly onto the bluestone path leading down the mountain.

However, as Sriya and his subordinates stealthily pressed themselves against the base of the towering outer wall, he was startled to hear a vast chorus of heavy breathing echoing faintly from atop the ramparts overhead, as if countless individuals were lying in concealment up there. For a fleeting second, he even suspected his team’s presence had been compromised.

At that same moment, the carriage of the Saintess of the Night, escorted by dozens of clergy members and guardian knights, drew slowly toward the grand gates.

Just as the procession came within thirty meters of the gates, the expression of Augsgur Asher at the front of the contingent shifted drastically. A jet-black iron fist, the size of a mortar shell, slammed ruthlessly into his face.

With a muffled thud, a ring of kinetic shockwaves blasted outward. Augsgur Asher didn’t even have time to let out a groan before he was sent flying instantly through the air, crashing with a massive boom into an obsidian Black Hawk sculpture a dozen meters away. The five-meter-tall statue shattered directly into dozens of fragments of varying sizes, scattering outward and kicking up a billowing cloud of dust.

"Archbishop Asher-sama!"

"Your Grace the Archbishop!"

"Grand Knight Commander Ivry, what on earth are you doing?!"

The surrounding knights and clergy members stared in shock, looking in utter disbelief at the black-haired burly man standing before them, for he was none other than the Grand Knight Commander of the Church’s Guardian Knights.

For a Grand Knight Commander to assault an Obsidian Archbishop right in front of the Saintess, was this some kind of internal factional purge among the higher-ups?

They had been chatting amiably all the way up the mountain; why the sudden betrayal?

"Dylan Ivry! What do you think you’re doing?!"

A voice as crisp as an oriole rang out from inside the carriage, laced with a trace of annoyance and bewilderment.

"Respected Saintess, I simply wish to sweep away some of the stubborn old fossils within the Church!" Ivry declared with a ferocious expression, his voice burning with fury. "It is entirely because of these spineless old fossils that the great Church of the Night has fallen to such a state. The World Government, the Holy See, the Chris Investigation Bureau... Every Tom, Dick, and Harry rides roughshod over our heads! This is an insult to the Great Goddess!"

The next instant, hundreds of guardian knights and clergy members emerged atop the dozen-meter-high ramparts. They clutched flintlock rifles or wheeled out several cannons, locking their aim squarely on the Saintess and her entourage below.

Simultaneously, accompanied by a chorus of clashing metallic armor plates from within the stone gates, over a hundred guardian knights surged forward, blocking the entrance with drawn blades, swords, hammers, and lances.

"Outrageous!"

Seeing this scene from inside the carriage, the Saintess of the Night demanded with rising agitation, "Ivry, are you attempting to commit apostasy?"

"I am born a member of the Church of the Night, and in death, I shall remain its guardian spirit, how could I ever betray the faith?" Ivry said with an utterly solemn expression, shouting with fanatical aspiration. "I merely wish to make the great Church of the Night rise again in this world, to redeem the lost sheep, and to spread the glorious light of the great Goddess of the Night!"

"We shall eradicate the Yonko of the pirates! We shall execute the heretics of the Holy See! We shall overthrow the rule of the World Government! We shall shroud the entire world in the glory of the Great Goddess! We shall redeem all of mankind!"

In an instant, hundreds of guardian knights and clergy members wore expressions of profound reverence as they roared out the core tenets of the Church of the Night.

"The Night is coming, tomorrow is no more; salvation for all lies only in the Night!"

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