Archbishop (2)

Archbishop (2)

The moment I heard that the Archbishop had appeared, I immediately asked about their whereabouts.

“Location?”

At my brief question, Espin calmly spoke while taking out a magic book, as if he had been waiting for this.

“… The clock tower near the central government. They say the Archbishop is holding out on the very top floor of that place.”

“Holding out?”

I couldn’t help but feel puzzled at this unexpected word.

If I were a member of the Heaven God Cult, I would have attacked a place related to the Lercier Family.

Or at least, I would have attacked ‘a place where important people or objects are’.

‘But they’ve occupied a worthless clock tower and are holding out there.’

Something seemed a bit odd, so I asked Espin.

However, Espin shook his head and sighed, indicating he had no other information.

“I tried to investigate the reason in various ways… but as you know, the Heaven God Cult is such a closed-off organization. No matter how much I tried to find out, I couldn’t uncover the reason.”

At those words, I nodded and fell into thought.

‘If Espin says he couldn’t find out anything, it’s probably right to assume that it’s impossible to get any information about the Archbishop.’

I was about to dismiss it with such thoughts when a question suddenly crossed my mind.

“… Wait a minute. If you couldn’t get any information about the Archbishop, how were you able to confirm that it was the Archbishop who appeared at the clock tower?”

At those words, Espin snapped his fingers and activated an illusion magic.

Here’s the translated text:

Soon, he showed me a man created by illusion magic like a hologram and spoke to me.

“After the Archbishop occupied the clock tower and killed everyone except the caretaker, it seems he told the caretaker to spread the word to the whole world that the Archbishop had come.”

I couldn’t help but feel strange about those words.

Although they’ve recently changed their direction, the Heaven God Cult is fundamentally known for being ‘secretive and prone to hiding information’.

The situation they’ve created this time shows the opposite behavior, so I couldn’t help but be puzzled.

‘… Has something gone wrong inside? Or is it an individual’s deviation? If not, then… a trap?’

Various speculations came to mind.

However, all of these were mere conjectures made without evidence, and it was necessary to leave them as just thoughts.

So, as I was sighing, feeling my head becoming complicated, Espin looked at me and said.

“So what are you going to do? … Well, for now, I recommend ignoring it.”

“Ignore it?”

When I heard another unexpected statement, I showed my bewilderment.

Espin slowly moves forward and tells me.

“To be frank, it’s the central government or the magic society that should resolve this incident. Not you.”

I couldn’t help but smile at those words.

Certainly, as Espin said, there was no reason why I should be the one to solve this.

“So I think it’s better to wait until they ask for help, or at least until you’re in an advantageous position, and then deal with it.”

It’s certainly a good suggestion, but.

I couldn’t help but hesitate because there were things that bothered me.

“If I ignore it, the Archbishop who has occupied the clock tower might create something that even I can’t handle.”

They would create things that cannot be simply overlooked, whether situations or objects, if given time.

Just as I think it might be right to clean everything up before such things happen.

‘Espin’s words seem right too, it’s a complicated matter in many ways.’

Although Espin didn’t say anything particularly wrong, it was giving me a headache.

I recalled the things the Heaven God Cult had been doing, and decided to just go right away.

“So I judge it’s right to deal with the Archbishop as quickly as possible.”

“Is that so? Then I’ll tell you about the structure of the clock tower and information about nearby facilities.”

Espin nodded as if he had expected this.

This time, he starts to organize and explain to me the blueprints and related contents.

As I listen to this, I smile again, thinking about how strong the Archbishop might be.

* * *

As I headed towards the clock tower, what I saw was literally a landscape as if time had stopped.

Petrified people and corpses.

Small stone fragments and piles of dirt floating in the air.

In this strange scenery that felt like stepping into a frozen photograph, I chuckled and looked around.

‘I suppose what I’m seeing now is the Archbishop’s ability.’

Sensing that the enemy I would face is related to ‘time’, I slowly moved my steps.

‘By the way, his hobby is quite nasty.’

As if recording the moment when living beings die most miserably, the most horrific death scenes were ‘fixed’ and spread out everywhere.

As I was pushing away the blood and flesh pieces about to spill on the ground scattered everywhere with mana, frowning.

In front of the clock tower, I noticed a blood-covered man wearing a rabbit mask, extending his arms to welcome me.

“You must be a guest. Archbishop Jernian is waiting for you upstairs.”

It was an incredibly strange voice.

A voice that seemed to mix insect and human sounds, causing extreme discomfort just by listening to it.

Silently drawing out his mace in response to that voice, he tilts his mask and continues speaking.

“Hm? This is odd. I’m sure I said it was an invitation, but drawing a weapon… I simply can’t understand your intentions.”

Instead of answering, I was about to unleash lightning when.

Before that, I noticed blue mana being shot at the rabbit mask from between nearby buildings.

Wondering what it was, I looked to the side.

I saw quite a number of knights and magicians quickly entering the clock tower.

‘This is getting interesting.’

Thinking it might be better to observe the situation and gather information, I took a step back.

A knight at the front, drawing his sword, spits on the ground and starts cursing loudly.

‘I can’t hear exactly what he’s saying, but.’

It’s probably anger over the destruction of this area.

As I watched, wondering what kind of battle would unfold.

The rabbit mask heaved a deep sigh, shrugged his shoulders, and then wiggled his fingers to start raising those fallen on the ground.

‘A necromancer?’

Judging by the number he’s raising at once, he seems to be quite a powerful necromancer.

However, the knights and magicians who had gathered weren’t exactly outmatched, so they prepared to counter this with seemingly unimpressed faces.

Watching this, I thought it wasn’t a particularly worthwhile battle and was about to intervene when.

“Kieeeeek!”

I saw the skeletons summoned by the rabbit mask gather in one place, forming the shape of a bone dragon and roaring at their surroundings.

“… A dragon?”

It’s somewhat interesting to see them create a new entity using the skeleton soldiers they summoned.

Although it seems less impressive since it’s made of bones.

In reality, it was an amazing fusion, comparable to creating a dragon by mixing living humans, which piqued my interest.

‘What method did they use?’

It seems that rather than actually making it with human skeletons.

They just made it look that way, but in reality, they probably used a sacrificial ritual to summon a bone dragon.

Even considering this, it’s quite an impressive method, so I started to quickly analyze the magic formula to unravel it.

‘Interesting.’

While I was feeling somewhat pleased to learn something fun from an unexpected place.

I noticed the summoned bone dragon opening its mouth wide and shooting a black breath towards the enemies approaching it.

A violent explosion of magical energy.

As I watched the knights charging from the front being ‘frozen in the moment just before melting from the breath’.

I felt my interest rekindling once again.

‘How do they use time fixation? Given the situation, it seems like it was used by the Archbishop, not the rabbit mask… How did they manage to use it at the exact moment of death?’

As I was pondering these various curiosities.

I began to hear loud screams from the magicians in the distance.

“P-please, spare us!”

Hearing such a voice, I thought it was about time for me to intervene and activated my magic.

‘For now, it would be best to capture that guy as research material.’

Thinking it would be good to extract information and experience along the way, I slowly advanced.

This time, the Bone Dragon turned its face towards me and started to roar again.

Seeing this, the fallen magician trembled and blurted out, ‘R-Run away!’

Ignoring those words, I waved my mace and spoke.

“How did you create this Bone Dragon?”

To that question, the rabbit mask replied with a voice full of mockery.

“Why would I tell you that? Besides, even if I did, I don’t think you’d understand.”

“Is that so.”

After giving a brief response.

Using spatial compression magic, I quickly approached and struck the rabbit mask guy’s head hard with my mace.

Crack!

Hearing the sound of bones breaking and the mask shattering, I briefly said to him.

“Then I’ll have to half-kill you to extract the information.”

“Urgh… ugh.”

Perhaps due to the intense pain, he trembled and couldn’t even give an answer.

Seeing his body ‘regenerating again’,

I struck his face once more with the mace and briefly said.

“You showed me something interesting, so I’ll show you something interesting too.”

After saying that, I grabbed the hem of the rabbit mask’s clothes, lifted it up, and made it look at the clock tower while continuing to speak.

“Explosion is art.”

Mimicking a line I saw in a comic book.

I softly chanted a spell at the lower part of the clock tower.

“Point explosion. Overlap.”

What would happen if I added a penetration spell on top of overlapping point explosions in one place?

As I watched the clock tower explode without a trace the moment it was touched by the explosion spell, I gave the biggest smile of all the ones I had today.