Ch.134Proxy War (2)

The chaos and aftermath in Amimone City provided the Divine Name Order with ample opportunity to conceal their presence.

With one Magic Tower so perfectly collapsed and the ongoing power struggle to divide its remains, the magical society’s internal situation was too unstable to organize extensive search parties.

Even the search teams looking for traces of the Divine Name Order were only active in Algoth City, making it unlikely for the Ten Towers to locate the Order’s main base.

The priest of Glaukopikos, goddess of war wisdom and strategy, analyzed that the reason for holding the decisive battle in Algoth City was also a tactic by the Ten Towers to facilitate the search for suspects.

Even though the attempt to devour Amimone Magic Tower had been thwarted, Argyrion wouldn’t retreat easily. This was an opportunity to erase traces and potentially acquire the remains of the Magic Tower through legal means.

The calculation was that by pursuing those operating behind the candidates, they could catch Argyrion’s collaborators within the Order.

However, the Ten Towers didn’t realize that the Divine Name Order had nothing to do with Argyrion. The sacred artifacts planted in Algoth City were merely empty shells, their essence completely extracted for the Pope’s plans.

Although it was somewhat uncomfortable to be grouped with apocalyptic cultists like Argyrion, they could gladly accept it as part of the plan to divert the Ten Towers’ attention.

‘While the Ten Towers dig around in Algoth City, we prepare ourselves…’

The Order’s members were adapting to new powers, including the blessing of the Great Temple. Among them, Demos was one of the most enthusiastic.

Though Demos kept his distance from the internal factional disputes between the Papal faction and the Priestess faction within the Divine Name Order, there was one premise that both factions took for granted.

The fundamental premise that ‘someday we must fight the Ten Towers.’ Whether this fight would be a war of annihilation where one side must disappear, or a decisive battle to determine the situation before negotiations, depended on individual intentions, but no one denied that war was approaching.

And Demos was a priest of the war god.

He had accumulated the most combat experience against the Ten Towers’ search parties. It was natural that his grudge against the Ten Towers deepened after his younger sibling’s death.

However, lacking sufficient power to fight the Ten Towers at present, he could only calmly bide his time. While testing his new divine power today…

A message from Ortes arrived.

“Oh.”

Unlike many cautious members of the Order, Demos trusted Ortes quite deeply. Just as the god Enyalios he served symbolized straightforward power rather than war tactics, Demos stubbornly maintained trust once given.

That’s why while the orders of Glaukopikos, Phoibos, and various other gods fretted over Ortes, the Enyalios Order could focus peacefully on training their faithful and combat skills.

“It’s been a while. What’s the matter?”

“I need your help.”

While the Divine Name Order often called upon Ortes when needed, it was relatively rare for Ortes to need the Divine Name Order.

This was because Ortes possessed an unbelievable number of resources for a single individual. Typically, help flowed from those with means to those without.

Demos was quite pleased to be able to repay a favor to his comrade.

“So, what’s the issue?”

But his expression gradually hardened. From information about the “Traitor Orders” in the Divine Name Order’s old records to the shocking explanation that someone was behind these traitor orders.

“You know those orders that were operating normally until suddenly going mad, causing the Divine Name Order to excommunicate them? Those ones…”

“Yes. We called them traitor orders. Their mastermind?”

“Yes. Those traitors, in their final stage, invariably summoned monsters born from sacred artifacts—false gods. There exists someone who prepared for the birth of such false gods.”

“How did you learn this?”

“An embryonic false god has appeared in Algoth City. Yours is a single mind using multiple bodies, possessing abilities I cannot handle alone.”

Demos instantly realized this matter was beyond his sole authority to decide. To subdue the false gods that had inflicted indelible wounds on the Order each time they appeared would require a pan-order alliance.

“Though not fully grown, it’s certainly dangerous. I’ll urgently convene a meeting to discuss this.”

“Thank you. If you need to find me, please send word to the Tabning faction among the Amimone Magic Tower succession candidates.”

Demos admired Ortes’s skill in exerting influence over the Amimone Magic Tower succession battle in such a short time.

***

The test subjects set by the Ten Towers for the Magic Tower Master selection were quite traditional.

They essentially followed the same criteria used in existing Tower Master selections, such as magical supply ability, or items evaluated in Magic Tower promotion reviews.

Of course, the first posted test was less a proper examination and more like a preliminary round to filter out unqualified candidates.

In other words, it was a test that anyone who seriously considered themselves capable of becoming Amimone’s Tower Master had no reason to fail.

Surprisingly, there were numerous failures in a test where there should have been no reason to fail.

The sponsors behind the Tower Master candidates had begun to take more substantial action, having been active since the eve of the festival.

Knemon witnessed the candidate in front of him collapse, clutching his stomach with a “Gaaaargh!” He would be transported to the hospital and disqualified.

“My goodness, everyone’s so reckless.”

“Indeed. Well, at least they’re not indiscriminately hunting people down like on the first night, so I’d say they’re showing quite a bit of restraint.”

As Ortes, who had been a pioneer among those “indiscriminate people hunters,” said this, Knemon could only feel a headache coming on.

“Is it really safe to just consume things so carelessly?”

The candidate who had just collapsed had clearly ingested some kind of poison and suddenly collapsed. Ortes, seemingly unafraid of such dangers, nonchalantly ate the refreshments prepared at the examination hall.

“It’s fine. There are ways to detect everything.”

Then, lowering his voice, he added, “Besides, I need an excuse to move around and look for that thing.”

Though Ortes had already secured the Tower Master candidate that the mental parasite had initially used as a figurehead, the parasite itself hadn’t approached again. Therefore, Ortes was busily wandering around the examination hall looking for traces of the creature that might be exerting influence somewhere.

To Knemon, it seemed unlikely that someone who had suffered greatly at Ortes’s hands the previous night would easily reveal themselves, but he assumed Ortes had his own deep calculations.

“This is the opposite of what I expected. I thought it would try to influence the Tower Master candidates to interfere with the selection.”

Ortes stroked his chin in apparent disappointment.

‘Even as he says that, he’ll probably come back in a few hours saying he’s found a way.’

Dismissing Ortes’s concerns, Knemon set off to take the test. What he needed to do remained unchanged: become Amimone’s Tower Master.

After waving once to Knemon as he calmly headed to the examination room, Ortes began to move again.

If he couldn’t find his prey immediately, he should at least strengthen his snare, shouldn’t he?

On the device in his hand, a notification of arrival from Demos had appeared.

***

Not a single event in Algoth City had gone according to Argyrion’s expectations.

More precisely, not according to Nastion’s expectations.

Sprigo, whom he had at least expected to survive, was dead, and none of the Drachma dispatched with Sprigo had returned. If the commander died, they should have immediately returned to base.

He suspected they might have been captured, but they were designed to automatically explode if neutralized.

All forces dispatched to Algoth City had vanished. Nastion found this stark reality humiliating.

However, other Argyrion executives, including Haltos, did not blame Nastion.

“It’s clear there’s an adversary.”

“There’s no evidence.”

“You still don’t understand? The lack of evidence is the evidence!”

“No.”

Nastion was perplexed, but the executives had their own reasoning. If the Ten Towers had deployed a magician capable of so precisely annihilating Argyrion, traces would have remained.

That was the nature of powerful magicians’ activities.

However, there were no records of where this magician who had completely vaporized Argyrion had come from, what they were doing before arriving, or through what chain of command they had received instructions.

Only the adversary could have so paranoidly attempted to hide their traces and succeeded.

Nastion felt conflicted about finding their arguments persuasive.

Given the situation, he couldn’t oppose the policy of assuming the existence of an “adversary.” Haltos looked around and declared:

“Our first objective is to discover the identity of the adversary. We cannot continue chasing them based on vague speculation.”

“But we have no clues.”

“Then we’ll create them.”

Argyrion was willing to bear any cost to catch the “adversary’s” tail. Even if it meant sacrificing several hard-won Magic Tower Masters.

That was the beginning of how Argyrion’s group, who were trying to create human bombs in Algoth City, came to meet the minions of the mental parasite.