Chapter 117 – Heresy (1)

A heavy silence hung in the air.

Clink. The sound of Serr lifting her coffee cup punctuated the quiet, followed by Rubia’s shaky exhale.

“So…”

“Even the Order wouldn’t risk a direct assault on cities the size of Ursphere or Cartia,” Sirin said, tapping the stack of documents in front of her.

“They’ll have to be more…subtle.”

Click. Serr set down her cup and glanced at the papers, a faint smile playing on her lips.

“My, my, Sirin. What inspired such thorough preparation?”

“I’m capable of planning when necessary.”

“Then perhaps you should have planned more carefully when you demolished the Magic Tower. Your reckless rampage put me in a rather awkward position.”

“That was the appropriate strategy for those despicable spell-slingers.”

Wow. “Spell-slingers.” Right in front of the Tower Master. Bold.

“Despicable? Hah! As if sparrows could grasp the will of a phoenix. It’s hardly surprising that you brutish, earthbound warriors fail to comprehend the lofty aspirations of a mage.”

Earthbound? Brutish?

“Ha! You call cowering behind brave warriors and flinging spells from afar ‘lofty aspirations’? Do you have any idea how much blood is spilled while you mages prepare your ‘miracles’?”

Yes! Exactly!

Though…I’d never actually fought alongside a mage.

But Sirin’s point stood.

Come to think of it…wasn’t Rubia some kind of mage? Though…her casting was rather slow…

“I am quite aware. But without the support of our magnificent magic, your so-called bravery is nothing but reckless stupidity. Is charging headfirst into certain death truly courageous? It’s idiotic. Warriors should be grateful for our support, not insulting us.”

Reckless? Idiotic?

Seriously?

This was infuriating. I had so many retorts…but they all seemed to evaporate before I could voice them.

“A true warrior faces overwhelming odds, knowing they may fall, and fights anyway. That is courage. That is romance. Your calculated, risk-averse tactics? Those are for cowards.”

Yes! That’s it! That’s what I wanted to say!

“How utterly foolish. Why throw your life away needlessly? Have warriors suffered so many blows to the head that their brains have turned to mush? Or does breathing dirt somehow diminish one’s intellect? Even a ten-year-old mage wouldn’t be so stupid.”

Stupid? Hey! That’s going too far, Serr!

Sirin, get her back! You know what I’m thinking!

“The End of Magic? What would you know, hunched over your dusty tomes while the world burns around you? Life is about connecting with others, clashing, struggling, reconciling, and growing. Holing yourself up in a musty room with your nose in a book isn’t living. It’s stagnating.”

Wow. Just…wow.

I wanted to applaud, but…they were still going at it.

I wasn’t scared, okay? I wasn’t intimidated by those sneaky spell-…ahem.

I wasn’t afraid of mages.

“Connecting with humans? Why subject oneself to such stress? Humans are ignorant, selfish, greedy beasts. They take and take, never giving back. They’re cruel and destructive. You know this, Sirin. You’ve seen what they’ve done to me. To this world—”

“That’s why I killed them. All of them.”

Sirin’s voice was cold, flat, cutting through Serr’s tirade. Her expression was a mask of barely contained fury.

“…What?”

The crack in Serr’s composure widened.

“Serr, I couldn’t bear to see you suffer. I acted rashly.”

Wait…what?

The shift in tone was jarring. The anger…gone, replaced by…something softer.

“Is…is that so…?”

Serr stammered, summoning a water spirit and fidgeting with it nervously.

“I…I knew, of course. I’m a genius, after all. A genius knows…everything.”

She peeked at Sirin, a hesitant smile twitching at the corners of her lips.

Sirin coughed, avoiding her gaze, and took a long sip of coffee.

Cartia, who’d been listening with rapt attention, muttered,

[What a bunch of…idiots… Honestly. Is this what I’ve been clinging to life for? None of these people are normal. Not even Sirin, and she’s barely human. Ugh. I should just die already. What’s the point…?]

With a final grumble, she vanished.

“Ahem. Well then,” Sirin said, clearing her throat. “Rubia, take a look at these documents. I’ve compiled a list of the Order’s most likely strategies.”

“Oh…right.”

Rubia, who’d been watching the exchange in a daze, startled. She gently lifted me and placed me on the chair beside her.

“Noah, I’ll explain everything later. I’m sorry, but…”

“Huh? Oh…okay. Don’t worry about it.”

“Thank you.”

She smiled, patting my head, and began to read.

“This part…you think this is the most likely scenario?”

“Probably.”

“Even from their perspective, it’s the most efficient and expedient approach. The question is…how they’ll manage it. The ideal scenario, for them, would be to deploy a few of their Masters. Boost the Order’s reputation, prey on the populace’s fear…make them beg for the drug.”

Serr, back to her usual confident self, nodded.

Rubia sighed, looking at me.

“They’re planning to summon a Beast of the End…in the middle of a city.”

“What…? How?”

“There’s one…trapped in a dimensional rift.” Rubia’s grip on the papers tightened.

“Death Knight Valoran.”

“…Oh.”

“They believe they have the necessary components to open the rift…human lives…and my divine power… The only unknown…is Valoran’s strength…”

“…I see.”

Death Knight Valoran. The third raid boss in the game.

His defining characteristic was his mount: an insanely fast horse. It darted around the arena, making the fight incredibly chaotic. And from atop his steed, Valoran wielded a massive greatsword.

Five phases. Each with its own cinematic and devastating area-of-effect attack.

It was a ridiculously annoying fight.

And then there was his ultimate attack in the final phase…what was it called again…?

A 25-second instant-death curse. One touch from Valoran, and you were dead.

Ridiculous.

I didn’t know how it would translate here, but it was probably similar.

And the fifth phase probably wouldn’t even matter. One hit from that monster, and you were as good as dead anyway.

But summoning something like that in a city…

“That’s…that’s terrible!”

“It is. And the fact that it’s either Ursphere or Cartia…we can’t concentrate our forces on one location, and evacuating an entire city is impossible.”

“Oh no…”

And they were arguing about warriors and mages while something like this was happening?

“What do you think, Sirin?” Serr asked.

“About what?”

“Do you think the three of us can take him down?” Serr, uncharacteristically, dismissed her water spirit instead of destroying it.

Three? Weren’t there four of us?

“I don’t know Valoran’s exact strength…but at full power…maybe sixty percent.” Sirin’s gaze flickered between Rubia and me.

“Without the trial…twenty percent. And there’s no time for that now.”

Rubia’s hand, still clasped around mine, was clammy, cold.

“Twenty percent…that’s…not good.”

Wait. Sirin wasn’t going to fight?

Why? Another secret?

But Rubia and Serr seemed to accept this as a given.

What had they talked about while I was unconscious…?

“Ideally, we’d assemble another subjugation team…but Noah can’t participate. Erden has officially branded you a heretic.”

“…What?”

Me? A heretic? What?!

“I’m…a heretic…? But I’m not—”

“That’s why Erden sent their knights to kill you.”

“Wh-why?!”

“Because Rubia is with you.”

“She is.”

“That’s why.”

“Uh…what?”

What was that supposed to mean?