Chapter 63: The Inquisition Arrives

Chapter 63: Chapter 63: The Inquisition Arrives

"Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people." Heinrich Heine

One hour after Thalassa’s resurrection, the vault beneath the altar finally opened.

Thalassa stepped forward and placed two fingers against a thin black line in the stone.

The lock immediately recognized its former guardian, and the stone slowly split apart, revealing a hidden chamber.

Inside was the treasure left behind by the First Ascendant.

The chamber contained a sealed strongbox, a golden scroll case, and several racks of strange instruments that gave off a faint humming sound.

Everything had remained untouched for three thousand years.

Joel looked over the items with interest, but he had no intention of examining them there.

The cathedral was already badly damaged, and they needed to return to the surface before the beacon failed.

"Whatever these things are, we’ll examine them later," he said.

He opened the Sunken Reliquary and carefully stored everything inside.

Within moments, the ancient chamber was completely empty, and its treasures were safely stored away.

[Ding!]

[ Vault of the First Ascendant: opened by warden authority ]

[ Contents: sealed and escrowed, unread, within the Sunken Reliquary ]

Joel also decided to take the Leviathan Priest’s skull as proof of their victory.

When Thalassa was resurrected, her soul had been given a new and more powerful body, leaving the Priest’s old remains behind.

Joel found the crowned skull among the rubble. It was still covered in barnacles, with its glowing eyes and enormous jaw frozen open.

He picked it up and fixed it to the tip of the alpha’s hollow harpoon.

It would serve as a trophy and proof that they had defeated the Level 45 Stratum Boss.

Roan watched him silently.

He had several questions, but after everything he had witnessed, he decided it was better not to ask.

Before they began their ascent, Joel recalled his legion.

Thalassa gave a graceful bow before disappearing. Vulcan showed up but vanished before he could finish speaking.

Nyx, however, had another task.

"Scout the camp," Joel ordered. "Check the exits, find out who’s there, and see if anyone has been asking about us. Don’t attack anyone. Just observe and report back."

Nyx nodded and disappeared into the darkness, moving quickly along the beacon line toward the surface.

Joel and his companions began their ascent.

The journey was long and quiet. As they moved upward, the crushing pressure of the deep gradually weakened. They passed through one gate after another, each closing behind them until the dangers of the Necropolis were finally left below.

By dawn, they broke through the surface with a loud sound.

SPLASH!

But Joel’s thoughts remained on the report Nyx had delivered when they were still a mile below the surface.

She had returned to his shadow with a brief but troubling message.

"Five accounts settled. Whoever was responsible wasn’t at the camp that night."

[Ding!]

[ Accounts settled: rogue students, x5. Levels 19 to 23 ]

[ Method: one cut each, between the fourth and fifth vertebrae. Wards triggered: none ]

[ Kills credit to the host. Experience: Joel +240 ]

[ Survival Accumulation: 0%. The host was never in danger. ]

[ Note: The assassin identified an outstanding account and closed it on her own bookkeeping. Initiative is billable. The house ratifies the collection retroactively. ]

Joel had specifically ordered Nyx to observe, not attack.

But it seemed she had followed an earlier order instead, one she remembered from the ambush that had nearly killed him.

The five people she had eliminated were the same ones who had cut the beacon lines and set up the ambush.

Joel thought about it for a moment.

Nyx had disobeyed his latest instruction, but she had also dealt with the people responsible for almost killing him.

He couldn’t decide whether to praise her or scold her.

In the end, he chose to let it go.

Having a servant who could act on her own was both useful and troublesome. For now, he considered it a good thing.

Joel recalled Nyx into his core, joining the rest of his legion.

Then he continued the final part of his ascent, carrying the Leviathan Priest’s enormous skull on the tip of his harpoon.

He had hoped to return without attracting too much attention.

Unfortunately, carrying the head of a Level 45 Stratum Boss was probably the worst way to do that.

The guards at the camp entrance noticed the enormous skull before they saw Joel and his companions.

For a moment, they stared in disbelief.

Then one of them shouted.

"Someone’s coming!"

Another guard quickly recognized the approaching figures.

"Wait! Isn’t that the squad we thought was dead?"

BRANG! BRANG!

The alarm bells rang across the camp.

Within minutes, students, instructors, and other staff rushed toward the entrance.

For the past two days, Joel’s squad had been considered dead. No one expected them to return, especially not with the skull of a Level 45 Stratum Boss mounted on a harpoon.

One instructor pushed through the crowd and hurried toward Roan.

"You’re alive!"

He examined Roan from head to toe, almost as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Meanwhile, the clerk responsible for recording expedition results stood nearby, still half-dressed.

He looked down at the form in his hands, which listed the squad’s registered ranks, then stared at the enormous skull.

His mouth fell open.

News of their return spread quickly, and several message-kites were already flying toward the academy to report what had happened.

But the camp was dealing with another serious problem.

Five students had been found dead during the night.

Their bodies had been discovered inside their tents nearly two hours earlier, causing panic throughout the camp.

Now that Joel’s squad had suddenly returned, some people began wondering if the two incidents were connected.

The five dead students belonged to the rogue group.

Their tents were surrounded by frightened students and guards, but few dared to approach.

Inside, each student had been killed while lying in bed.

Every body had a single, clean cut at the back of the neck, between the fourth and fifth vertebrae.

The wounds were so precise that they looked almost identical.

Even stranger were the objects placed on their chests.

On the first body was a piece of severed beacon line.

On the second was a signal clamp that had been forcibly removed.

And on the third was a small vial containing the bait used during the ambush.

The remaining bodies had also been left with evidence connected to the attack.

There were no signs of a struggle.

None of the protective wards had activated, and the guards hadn’t heard a single sound during the night.

Whoever had killed those five students had done it quickly and silently.

The crowd kept whispering about a brutal murderer.

But the evidence suggested something else.

Sybill knelt over the third body like a craftsman reading a rival’s stitches. "One cut each, and the tools laid out where the confessors would find them," she said. "That is not rage. That is accounting."

"I want it noted," Roan said, "that we were demonstrably one stratum down, executing a god, at the time in question."

Victor Kole was still alive.

According to the duty roster, he had been assigned to guard the eastern wall that night, making him the only member of his group who hadn’t been sleeping in his tent.

But his survival only made him more suspicious.

With the other five students dead, many people in the camp were beginning to suspect him.

Kole’s face had turned pale, and he had stopped trying to defend himself.

Deep down, he knew the truth.

Whatever had entered the camp that night had come specifically for his group. And for some reason, it had deliberately left him alive.

Across the crowd, his eyes briefly met Joel’s.

Joel gave him nothing.

No smile, no threat, not even a warning.

He simply looked away.

And somehow, that frightened Kole more than anything else.

At midday, the sky suddenly split open.

PWWM!

A bright crack appeared in the air above the camp, and a figure dressed in simple gray robes slowly descended through it.

Before his feet even touched the ground, an overwhelming pressure spread across the entire camp.

It was similar to the crushing force of the deep sea, but far more terrifying.

The newcomer was a Level 60 powerhouse.

Almost immediately, everyone in the camp dropped to their knees, unable to withstand his presence.

Even the alarm bells fell silent.

The entire camp became quiet as the powerful figure landed.

[Ding!]

[ Inquisitorial authority detected: Thomas, Level 60. Class: Truth-Seeker ]

[ Jurisdiction: the Inner Spire, highest division ]

[ Mandate: five student deaths, and unauthorized magic spikes from Stratum 5, magnitude: seismic ]

The man wore simple gray robes and spoke in a calm, firm voice. His cold eyes swept across the camp, showing no sign of mercy.

Almost everyone knew him by reputation.

Rumors said he had once burned down an entire building filled with clerks in Klereon because someone had smuggled out a single page of important records.

He was also known for never rushing his investigations. No matter how long it took, he always uncovered the truth.

"I am Thomas," he announced, looking at the kneeling crowd. "I have come to uncover the truth. Everything else can be negotiated, but anyone who tries to hide it will face the consequences."

He raised a ledger containing readings from the camp’s monitoring instruments.

"Last night, our instruments detected an enormous surge of magic deep beneath the sea. The power was strong enough to suggest that a war was taking place down there. Magic on that scale requires proper authorization."

He paused, his expression growing colder.

"And this morning, I arrived to find five students murdered, with strange evidence placed on their bodies."

His gaze slowly moved across the crowd.

"I want to know exactly what happened here," he declared. "And I expect the complete truth. Nothing will be hidden from me."

Thomas started from the left side of the line, examining each student one by one.

His gaze seemed to see through them, uncovering even their smallest secrets.

Some students began crying as their hidden wrongdoings were exposed. One had smuggled alcohol into the camp, another had borrowed a forbidden sigil, and someone else had lied in a letter home.

Thomas took note of their offenses and moved on.

But when his gaze reached the fourth student, he suddenly stopped.

Hidden inside the boy’s sleeve was a folded page from the Pale Litany.

Thomas discovered it instantly.

SHKK!

A thin beam of white light shot through the boy from head to toe.

THUMP!

His lifeless body collapsed into the mud, and the folded page fell beside him, completely unharmed.

"Simply possessing forbidden material is enough to make you guilty," Thomas said coldly.

The remaining students stood frozen in fear.

The line had grown shorter, and the entire camp became even quieter.

Finally, Thomas’s gaze reached Joel Carrow, who stood beside a pole carrying the skull of a Level 45 Stratum Boss.

The Null-Band on Joel’s wrist continued displaying him as an F-rank, Level 1 Flesh-Guide.

Thomas, a Level 60 Truth-Seeker, focused his powerful gaze on Joel, attempting to see into his mind.

KRK. KRK.

It felt as though someone was knocking on a locked door, searching for a way inside.

But Joel’s mind remained completely sealed.

Nothing moved, and nothing answered.

[Ding!]

[ Cognitive Fortress: mind-reading attempt detected ]

[ Source: Truth-Seeker, inquisitorial grade ]

[ Access: denied ]

[ Note: The house does not open its ledgers for traveling auditors. The door is also load-bearing. ]

Thomas stared at Joel for eleven long seconds.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t see anything hidden inside Joel’s mind.

It was completely sealed.

That only made him more suspicious. An F-rank, Level 1 Flesh-Guide standing beside the skull of a Level 45 Stratum Boss made no sense.

"Luck," Thomas finally said. "But luck alone doesn’t explain how someone like you obtained such a trophy."

His eyes narrowed.

"Luck that great usually hides a secret, boy. And every secret belongs to someone. I intend to find out who."

He made a mark beside Joel’s name in his ledger before closing it.

"Rest for now," he announced to the camp. "The second investigation begins at dusk. I’ve already uncovered one dangerous secret today, and I expect to find more tonight."

Joel remained calm.

He had survived the dangers of the Necropolis, defeated powerful monsters, and gained incredible treasures.

But now he faced a Level 60 investigator he couldn’t easily defeat, bribe, or drive away.

So Joel simply gave Thomas a polite smile.

Behind that smile, however, he was already thinking carefully about every secret he needed to protect.