Chapter 167: Chapter 167: But Then The Bus Flipped Over

All the stats except durability and skill increased.

Even the magic power, which was getting harder to increase, went up from 21 to 22.

In terms of pure magic power, I had surpassed Elisha long ago, and now I was on par with or slightly higher than Carla.

But, of course…

“Gah… Is this everything, Student Yandel?”

…Compared to Iona, who looked like she just drank juice with caterpillars in it by mistake, it wasn’t even close.

She asked, looking at the blood packs scattered at Iona’s feet.

“It’s over, but… are you really okay, Professor? It seems like the number of blood packs you’re drinking is increasing.”

“It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s not that I lack magic power, but the more I fight, the more my vampiric thirst builds up. Even though beast blood is less efficient, drinking blood is still drinking blood.”

“Well, if you say it’s okay… then it’s okay. I’ll start by telling you the location of Kundal Harbor.”

Recalling the landscape I saw on the minimap, I sketched a simple map on the ground.

“From here like this… there’s a place with warehouses lined up a bit away from the port and village…”

“Huh? It seems smaller than I thought. It’s wide, but not as much as Student Yandel was worried about.”

“What you see isn’t everything. These guys mainly use undead, so they tend to bury them in the ground. You’ve seen the branches we’ve destroyed so far, right? They were all underground.”

“Ah? Ah? So, like other branches, the whole area around this warehouse is an undead field…”

“The entire port village is harboring undead underground. It’s not called the arsenal of the Intolerant Plunder for nothing.”

“…Surely not all the villagers are followers of the God of Plunder?”

Iona clamped her mouth shut and wiped away her slightly playful expression.

Her eyes, as if she would erase the entire village if necessary, held such a severe intent that I couldn’t help but swallow hard, even though it wasn’t directed at me.

“It’s similar but a bit different.”

“Uh? Uh? What does that mean? If they’re followers, they’re followers; if not, they’re not.”

“They’re not followers, but they’ve been brainwashed for a very long time, working for the Intolerant Plunder against their will.”

“…The entire village?”

“Yes. The entire village.”

One of the representative powers of the Intolerant Plunder was the evil eye.

The effects of the evil eye varied greatly, but one thing that would always appear was a mental type of evil eye.

To the outside observer, the residents of Kundal Harbor seem normal, but they would show a twisted side when it came to anything related to the Intolerant Plunder.

For example, if asked if they’d seen any undead recently, they would try to change the subject sneakily.

Or, if asked if they were hiding anything in the warehouse, they would deny it and claim it was something else, with each person claiming different items were stored.

Yet, if you tried to check the warehouse, they would charge at you, foaming at the mouth, accusing outsiders of theft.

Above all, if you would point out their inconsistent behavior, they would repeat their words over and over, as if they were broken.

They might not worship the Evil God, but their actions clearly protect the followers of the Intolerant Plunder.

“They’re probably planning to use them as hostages or human shields if necessary.”

“Uh-huh. No matter how much mind control and curses are used, maintaining mental domination over so many people is difficult. But again, beastmen, huh?”

Iona sighed deeply.

Kundal Harbor was a small village on the outskirts of the beastmen area of the Crasius Kingdom.

It was mostly not Levantin Empire territory, but that wasn’t a problem. Academy professors and students belong to the academy, not a specific nation.

For the purpose of cult subjugation, treaties allow them to go anywhere in any country, with a few exceptions.

The problem, however, was that the majority of the Crasius Kingdom’s population was beastmen.

If elves had been halved in power due to sealing spirits, beastmen had a critical weakness discovered during the last war.

Beastmen, born with strong physical abilities and high pride, were an excellent warrior race, but…

Their strength-giving ferocity, in turn, eats away at their minds, such as getting intoxicated by battle and unable to discern friend from foe, or going into heat at certain times, causing their bodies to burn up.

As a race with strong instincts, they carry more problems than any other.

Of course, the beastmen were not fools, so they would undergo their own training to be able to control this.

The problem was that controlling their instincts made them vulnerable to psychic attacks from the outside.

As a result, at the beginning of the War of the Gods, they were thoroughly exploited by cults like the Intolerant Plunder and the Ugly Prosperity that stimulated the mind and instincts.

Given their innate strength, it was probably hard for them to overcome their inherent weaknesses.

Iona recalled those times.

“Still! Still! There must be a way! It might take some time, but if we focus the impact underground instead of on the surface, right?”

“Huh? There’s such a thing? I was just going to say it’s okay as long as we have enough potions and don’t kill anyone…”

“Scary! But I’ll remember it! As insurance for when we need it!”

For a while after that, I shared all the information I knew and checked the plan with Iona.

And when I felt confident that it was about time…

I held hands with both Iona and Carla, entrusting our bodies to the surrounding magic power.

Whoong.

Now, the sensation of crossing space has become somewhat familiar.

A strange sense of vertigo, along with the vision obscured by dark red magic light, slowly dissolved into the air.

I quickly took in the changed surroundings from just moments ago.

The sky burned orange as the sunset slowly approached.

Similarly, the vast sea, reflecting the sky’s light, sparkled.

And lastly, the sight of fishermen wrapping up their day…

“…Huh?”

There were no fishermen in sight.

Just in case, I checked not only the beach but also the village side, but it was the same.

Thanks to moving a bit away to launch a preemptive strike with wide-range magic, I could clearly see the vicinity of Kundal Harbor.

But looking around, I couldn’t see anything moving.

Only a heavy silence weighed down on the village.

“Professor? Something seems wrong.”

“…No. No. It looks like we’ve come to the right place. Yeah. We really came to the right place.”

Iona’s voice trembled slightly.

She looked at the lifeless village with a serious face, as if seeing a different scene than me.

When I slightly turned my head to check on Carla and Elisha, it seemed no different on their side.

Suddenly, it seemed like Iona didn’t understand why she was acting this way.

But the confusion was short-lived. Iona took out a bottle containing ashes from her bosom.

The ashes swirled inside the bottle on their own, as if reacting violently to something.

“Professor? What exactly is that…?”

“It’s the ashes left from burning one of Ayla’s arms.”

“…What?”

Why was the Professor’s sister mentioned here?

To my bewildered voice, Iona, with trembling hands, put the bottle back into the void.

“Student Yandel knows, right? That I’ve been searching for Ayla for a very long time.”

“Of course. I’ve read the diary and heard it directly from you.”

“It wasn’t completely without results for 300 years. Just once. I managed to find Ayla.”

In that battle, she had managed to tear off one of Ayla’s arms.

But that was it.

Ayla managed to escape from Iona, and for the past several decades, she had been holed up somewhere.

The research that Professor Talmont did, even to the point of plucking his own hair, was to track Ayla’s location using the arm torn off at that time.

The research was a half-success, managing to make it react if the arm’s original owner—Ayla—was nearby.

It meant finding some connection from the damaged body, so the research was only stuck on tracking that connection, which resulted in Professor Talmont’s hair being reduced.

“And remember what the branch head we first interrogated said?”

“The gathering of the high priests of the Evil God’s cult… Could it be?”

“It’s not certain. But if it’s that, wouldn’t it explain why Ayla is here?”

The Evil God hadn’t recovered enough to appoint apostles yet.

The cardinal level was essentially the head of each cult.

So, a gathering of high priests usually meant the archbishops were gathering.

But this place was the arsenal the Intolerant Plunder.

Even if they were all under the same Evil God’s cult, strictly speaking, they were different cults.

They wouldn’t openly disclose such an important facility.

Sending Ayla, a cardinal, because Sofia alone wasn’t enough… that theory seemed to make sense.

Of course, there could be another reason for the visit.

The important thing was that Ayla was here and that something serious was happening.

Only these two things mattered.

Finally understanding the situation, Iona spoke to us.

“Anyway, anyway. This changes things. It’s too dangerous here, so you guys should go back. I might manage if it were just an archbishop, but I don’t have the capacity to take care of others while dealing with a cardinal level.”

“But the promise…”

“Whatever the situation, it’s not more important than your life, right? I’ll send you back with teleportation right away, so go.”

She was right. No matter how important the achievement, it wasn’t worth more than our lives.

“What about you, Professor?”

“I…”

After a moment of contemplation, Iona smirked on one side of her mouth.

“I have to finish what I started.”

“……”

She must be talking about the final showdown with Ayla.

It wasn’t something that could be stopped by persuasion. Iona’s principle of action was revenge.

A flame that had not been extinguished in the face of the Great War and 300 years would certainly not be extinguished by the threat to her life or my dissuasion.

Iona intended to fight Ayla today, no matter the outcome.

“…I’ll call for backup right away. That’s okay, right?”

“Enough! Enough! Maybe it’ll be over before they even arrive.”

Iona, slightly boasting, stood in front of us, holding hands.

This time, without holding my hand…

“I’ll send you directly to my lab. You might feel a bit nauseous since it’s a long distance in one go!”

With those words, Iona drew a circle above our heads.

Once again, a vast amount of dark red magic power rose, obscuring our vision.

If I close and open my eyes briefly, I should see the scenery of Iona’s lab.

Immediately, I had to inform the Church of Righteous Radiance and the academy about this situation.

Whether it was another branch or direct royal support, the goal was to send backup to Iona as soon as possible.

That was all I could do.

Well, if I had to say, I could provide whatever weaknesses of the archbishop-level cultists I would come across.

After that, all I could do was hope that Iona and the reinforcements would fight well.

Forcing down the bitter feeling inside, I went over what I needed to do again and again.

But…

When I blinked, the scene in front of us was not the changed landscape.

Crash!

With the sound of breaking glass, the curtain of dark red magic shattered into pieces.

And there was Iona, clicking her tongue, and a doll staggering towards us from afar.

Iona stepped forward as if to protect us and said…

“Run back right now.”

As the pressure surrounding Iona disappeared, a dangerous allure began to dominate the surroundings.

She must be giving up on controlling her charm to focus all her power.

With a voice mixed with a strange intimidation and sweetness, Iona shouted again.

“The teleportation seems to have been blocked by interference, so run to the nearest village now! I’ll hold them off here.”

As Iona’s words ended, familiar faces appeared behind the staggering figure.

Seeing a strange mix of bishops to archbishops from various cults, I realized.

Iona’s bus had flipped over.