Those time travelers that year

314. Transition (Part 2)

First, a year ago, there were the cultists from the Dark Corner who attempted to cause trouble in the Imperial Capital. Then, cult members released a sealed monster that attacked clergy on a train, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of passengers of varying backgrounds. Now, after only about a year of relative calm, new cultists have emerged, brazenly massacring a church, resulting in the martyrdom of a priest and more than a dozen clergy.

This is intolerable! How many years has it been since the Holy Church began its massive crackdown on heretical forces, forcing these guys to hide like rats in a sewer? How long has it been since such a 'bold and reckless' heretic challenged the Holy Church's authority in this way?

Anyway, this commotion turned the underworld into a boiling pot of oil, causing a sudden uproar. For those heretics who disliked the Church and the Sanctuary, this was definitely good news to celebrate, but for those forces that attached themselves to the Church and the Sanctuary, it was not a good sign.

However, for the Church and the Holy Temple, no matter how much chaos erupts in the Underworld, their absolute advantage allows them to suppress those troublemakers once again. It's important to understand that while all the extraordinary societies in this world are inevitably declining, in terms of foundation, the Holy Temple, having held an advantage for hundreds of years, far surpasses those who have been hunted down for centuries in both resources and combat power.

The loss of a church and its staff is something the church and its people can afford, and could even say they don't need to worry about at all. Of course, while they may not care, the church and its people will absolutely not ignore the issue of saving face.

Shortly after the incident was reported, staff from the nearest church arrived at the scene. At the same time, the local government was ordered to fully cooperate with the church's investigation, sealing off a one-kilometer radius around the church. No one was allowed to enter without permission, including residents who had lived nearby; they were asked to leave to assist with the investigation and were relocated.

……

Iris Galgwen was the first to enter the church. A year later, this female knight of the Sanctuary was even more valiant. Having risen from the fourth to the fifth rank, and with the holy artifact she possessed, she would have the strength to fight the demon that had just broken free of its seal, even if she were back on that death train a year ago.

But it was all in vain! The guy who had once saved her was far more terrifying than she was now. Even the demon who had nearly killed her back then, and whom she still wasn't confident of defeating, had been wiped out by this person. Subsequent investigations, regardless of the methods used, all reached the same conclusion: that demon was utterly dead.

As for who killed him, that's an obvious fact.

When this matter reached the higher-ups, the high command of the Holy Temple reacted strongly to the sudden appearance of a powerful individual. This was because the strength had crossed the Holy Temple's psychological threshold. Under intense pressure from some stubborn 'politicians,' the Holy Temple leadership, disregarding Father Brown's report, forcefully dispatched two Templar Knights Commanders qualified to wield sacred artifacts, leading a contingent to Earl Grete's territory.

Then there is no more...

Although Charles had already gone on his travels at that time, a divine spellcaster was still stationed at the family residence. Having completely controlled and woven the ley lines throughout the entire earldom, Princess Kamishiro was untouchable unless she deliberately left the area. At that time, Princess Kamishiro simply watched with great interest as these 'mortals' came running in to offer themselves up for slaughter. Of course, they wouldn't die, but imagine the torment they endured under a series of negative buffs and various malicious magical traps, such as maze spells and wide-range illusions—spells that, while not fatal, were absolutely worse than death. These unfortunate souls, wielding sacred artifacts and theoretically capable of facing a Servant head-on, were instantly sent sprawling back.

No one died, but they were all driven to neurosis.

When the old guard of the sanctuary finally mustered the manpower and rushed over again, they were greeted by tens of thousands of purple magic circles floating above the count's territory, along with magic cannons ready to unleash a bombardment.

These Holy Temple personnel, wielding sacred artifacts and qualified to fight Servants, are not necessarily Sabers with ridiculously high magic resistance. In fact, a single magical cannon shot from these divine spellcasters could be fatal, let alone tens of thousands of magical cannons aimed at them.

That bombardment would undoubtedly cause the Holy Temple significant damage.

Now that things had come to this, even the powerful church had to calm down... Then, Father Brown's report was finally dug out of the trash heap.

After a series of tests and negotiations, the Holy Temple had no choice but to fabricate a reason to withdraw from this area. The Princess of the Divine Era directly created a barrier using the earth's ley lines, constantly shrouding a mirror space. Any unauthorized possessor of extraordinary power who entered this space would be continuously afflicted with various negative status effects. This was enough to weaken a third-tier being into a severely ill patient struggling to breathe, and a fourth-tier being reduced to an ordinary person. Only the fifth-tier remained largely unaffected.

But how many fifth-tier warriors could the Holy Temple possibly muster, not to mention their overwhelming array of magic cannons? Faced with this situation, the Holy Temple had no choice but to retreat, partly due to the report from Father Brown, a veteran of the great war. No one wanted to suffer too many losses, not even the Holy Temple.

After that, seeing the retreating rabble of the Holy Temple, some of the deserters who had hidden themselves away were tempted to run over and offer their services. Whether they genuinely wanted to serve or were simply using the temple as a shield was a matter of opinion. Faced with these idiots who came knocking on her door, Princess Shindai happily dealt with them and then threw them out. Compared to these completely unreliable pieces of trash, it was much easier and faster to create her own manpower. After all, the entire population of the Earl's territory was essentially qualified reserve talent. With just a little modification and a bit of 'ideological and political education,' a freshly baked 'expert' could be mass-produced.

However, Charles was unaware of these matters, as Princess Kamishiro had not told him. After all, they were merely 'mortals,' and even Princess Kamishiro didn't believe these creatures could be of any use against a barrage of tens of thousands of magical cannons!

If a single magic cannon shot can't solve the problem, it's either because the shot isn't powerful enough, or there aren't enough of them. Therefore, in the face of a formation of ten thousand magic cannons, in this world that even modern society can't match, anyone who comes here is doomed.

Even those reincarnators who are like locusts are the same.

Three updates a day is exhausting! It's even more tiring than the old days of one update from Monday to Friday, and then five updates on Saturday and Sunday...

315. Reasoning

"It seems he was killed by some strange firearm..." Kneeling down, Elise Galgervin carefully examined the already hardened corpse. "...Eight bullets in total, tearing the entire body apart at close range, turning the internal organs into a pulp, and easily shattering the bones..." Elise wasn't very knowledgeable about firearms, so she quickly turned to the 'expert' who knew more about gunpowder weapons and asked, "Father Brown, are there any recent firearms developments capable of firing bullets in a burst of dispersion?"

“…I’m not sure?!” Shaking his head, Father Brown looked at the corpse lying on the ground. It was a middle-aged man wearing a priest’s robe, but now, the stiff body was filled with disbelief, as if he had seen something horrifying. “May the Lord bless you to rest, my brother.” With a sigh, Father Brown knelt down and carefully closed the eyes of the priest who had been dead for many days. Then, he took a white cloth from his attendant and draped it over the dead priest.

Immediately afterwards, the attendant bent down and moved the priest's body away.

After completing these actions, Father Brown turned around and solemnly replied to Elise, "I've heard of a firearms research project aimed at maintaining order in the colonies. However, I haven't heard of any finished products being produced. Moreover, this is far more powerful than those firearms that are still in the design phase."

“Apart from the priest guarding this church, who was killed by close-range gunfire, the other clergy members died for various reasons.” Iris stood up, glanced around at the other clergy corpses, which, like the priest's, were covered with white sheets, and said gravely, “Some clergy members were decapitated with a single blow. The assailant's speed was incredibly fast…”

"It was so fast that many people didn't even have time to react before they were beheaded. Even if I went all out, I might not be able to achieve that level. At least, several consecutive, accurate strikes, each one a decapitation... I could do that too, but I would never be as accurate and... decisive!" Iris's expression was not good, her delicate face filled with hidden emotions. She quickly simulated the scene in her mind, recreating it through profiling.

“First, here…” She stopped at a window in the church, touched the windowsill, and said, “A clergyman seemed to have discovered something and then shouted… He was the first to die, shot through the head by an arrow from outside.” Among the bodies they had just recovered, one was lying here, with only a wound on his head, pierced by something.

"Then, the second and third arrows came in quick succession." Iris said as she took a few steps, "shooting down some clergy who turned to look back. Then, someone jumped in through the window with incredible speed, wielding a short knife, and with a high-speed dash, beheaded one of them before he could even react..."

"After killing the first target with this one strike, he went on to cut down several others in succession."

“And here!” Iris paused, her current location being right where the priest’s body had been. “…The priests guarding this church noticed something was wrong and attacked the intruder with all their might. They used Holy Flame, but…” Iris paused again, pondering for a moment, “The Holy Flame didn’t work. Judging from the priest’s horrified expression before he died…” At this moment, she looked up and, unsurprisingly, saw a charred mark on the roof. “Sure enough, the Holy Flame was deflected.”

“That’s impossible?!” Father Brown’s tone was filled with disbelief. “If it were a bullet or an arrow, I would believe it could be deflected by a dagger, but the Holy Flame is also manifested as flames. Even if it were to touch it, it would definitely cause burning or a small-scale explosion.”

“That’s the evidence! The Holy Flame was indeed deflected!” Iris pointed to the charred mark on the roof. “It’s unbelievable, but that’s exactly how it is!”

Following Iris's finger, Father Brown looked up and saw the charred burn mark on the roof. His face twitched. Deflecting bullets and arrows was to be expected; at least one could imagine the incredible skill involved. But deflecting a ball of fire was beyond Father Brown's comprehension. He had never heard of any swordsmanship capable of such a feat.

"This can't be achieved with mere skill anymore, can it?" Father Brown muttered, his face grim. He had tried to put himself in the opponent's shoes and found himself being instantly killed like a fool. Whether it was a bullet to the head or a decapitation with a single blow, without exception, he met his end.

“I certainly couldn’t do that, even with the full power of the sacred artifact,” Iris said. “At most, I could only extinguish the sacred flames; reflecting the flames is simply unrealistic…” Shaking her head, Iris estimated that although she couldn’t perform such a flame-reflecting technique, judging from this method, the attacker of the church was clearly quite powerful. She figured that without using the sacred artifact, she was no match for this master swordsman. “A fifth-tier enemy!” Iris concluded. “And not just one!”

She stepped over the spot where the priest's body had been lying, took two steps, then stopped and turned to Father Brown, saying, "Here, while the priest was still reeling from the sight of that master swordsman, another new enemy appeared. Then, at extremely close range, eight bullets struck him from behind, killing the fallen priest instantly. Each of those eight bullets could easily shatter bones, so the priest's body was riddled with holes."

“But what I don’t understand is something else. At least four people came in here. Besides the archer, the swordsman, and the guy who delivered the fatal blow from behind and instantly killed the garrison priest, there was another one…” Elise said hesitantly, “He seemed to have drawn something on the ground, but the traces were cleaned up very well. I think this is related to the large-scale loss of vitality and blood from those corpses.”

Father Brown: "Vampires?"

“No!” Elise denied. “It’s something else, but I can’t guess. It probably involves some cruel, dark, and bloody witchcraft knowledge…”

"But besides that, why did these intruders also damage the cross in the church? Was it a provocation? Or was there another reason?"

I've been writing too much and I'm not in the right frame of mind. I also feel that these few chapters have been too weak... I will reflect on this and pay more attention in the future.

By the way, since the author has about 15,000 words saved up, any filler content in the next two or three days will be from those saved-up chapters. After that, I'll try my best to avoid that.

316. Fish that slipped through the net

The Reincarnators are like locusts. They'll be very happy to loot the corpses after you've killed them. But if you ask them to kindly bury the corpses after looting them, then sorry, these guys are always the kind of scoundrels who kill without ever burying the body.

Although they had concealed their tracks and believed no one could find them through them, even casting anti-prophecy spells on themselves, the vanguard team probably didn't anticipate that someone could roughly determine and reconstruct the scene simply through deduction.

But that doesn't really matter; it's not the first time the Reincarnators have killed without burying the dead. And most of the local natives are confused and unfamiliar with the Reincarnators' power system, which is different from their own. There's probably no way they'll be able to track them down... probably.

……

"But why did they destroy the cross?" Standing before the cross, now shattered into pieces, Elise knelt down, fiddling with the irreparably broken rubble, and asked Father Brown, "Is there something special about this church? Like, is there something sealed inside, or is there something hidden there?"

“No, this is just a simple church. Otherwise, the staff wouldn’t consist of only a priest and a few clergy who are slightly better than ordinary people.” Father Brown shook his head and denied it.

"That's strange. To kill everyone in a church for no reason, to carve unknown magic circles on the ground, and to destroy the cross inside the church—there's absolutely no reason for it."

"If it's just a simple provocation, wouldn't it be easier to just destroy the church completely?"

“It’s like… um…” Iris’s gray pupils narrowed, and she stopped abruptly. Then she secretly waved to Father Brown and stood up. “…I remember there was a similar situation before, but those ‘heretics’ chose to desecrate the cross by staining it with the blood of the innocent. This direct destruction of the cross is truly novel!”

“Yes!” Father Brown nodded calmly and said, “Perhaps I should go back and look through those ancient documents. I remember there seem to be similar examples before.”

“Let’s go! Have this place sealed off completely, and send people to guard it day and night. Those attackers left so many traces here, maybe they’ll come back to clean it up…” Iris stood up from the ground, turned around and walked past Father Brown toward the church exit. “Tell the people keeping watch to be careful, the other side is very likely to have at least two fifth-tier experts.”

"Don't worry! I trust those kids I trained!" Father Brown echoed, and followed them out of the church.

After the church staff had carried the bodies out of the church one by one, the doors and windows were all closed. Outside, a team of ten soldiers, armed with rifles, stood guard and dispersed the curious onlookers.

Inside the closed church, in a shadowy corner of the roof, a bat hangs motionless from a beam, its eyes glowing slightly red as it watches the dark silence descend upon the main church.

Time passed little by little, and soon the sun set in the west. As the last rays of the sun disappeared on the horizon, darkness enveloped the entire sky and the world below.

The soldiers stationed near the church where the murder had occurred began to split into two small teams of five and take turns patrolling the area. The citizens who had gathered to watch in the morning, having lost their curiosity as night fell, all returned home.

As dawn broke, the city fell silent. Even the two squads of soldiers patrolling the church leaned listlessly against the wall, staring at the eerily quiet street.

While the soldiers were distracted, wisps of fog began to spread, making the already low visibility even worse. Even when the soldiers lit their lanterns, they could only dimly illuminate a tiny, insignificant area.

But soon, these soldiers wouldn't have to worry about spending the night, struggling to stay awake, and dragging their weary bodies to guard a crime scene where a murder had recently occurred. There was no Grim Reaper here, no middle-aged man who had hundreds of tranquilizer darts inserted but hadn't developed polio, and no idiot with nothing better to do than come and inspect a crime scene where someone had just died.

Anyway, everything changed when a pair of crimson eyes were reflected in the pupils of the soldiers on duty amidst the mist. These soldiers, who could be considered elite in the army, each with experience of fighting and killing, all collapsed and fell fast asleep immediately.

Then, amidst the sound of bats flapping their wings, about a dozen bats emerged from the thick fog and landed on the eaves of a nearby house. The fog then parted, and a girl of about fifteen or sixteen years old stepped through it and came to the church.

With crimson eyes, silver-gray hair, and dressed in a simple set of black leather armor, she wore a greyish-white cloak that covered most of her body. Yet, her graceful figure was still visible, and coupled with her seemingly youthful face, she could easily captivate most idle male nobles, leading them to fight each other fiercely.

Of course, if someone knew her true identity, they probably wouldn't think that way.

The girl adjusted her cloak, turned around and looked around. After finding nothing suspicious, she transformed into an invisible cloud of white mist and spread towards the tightly closed church doors. Then, through the cracks in the doors, the white mist poured into the church.

……

On a rooftop not far away, at an angle, you can glimpse the main entrance of the church in the distance, but it's not so easy to spot from the church's perspective.

Right here, Elise and Father Brown, who had just left the church where the murder had occurred during the day, stood and looked out over the church gate, taking in everything that had just happened.

"...So it seems, Father! There were some survivors from that war you fought in!" Looking at the soldiers, who were just ordinary people, falling to the ground in a deep sleep, Iris said without any surprise, "At least one small fish escaped..."

“I didn’t expect that either!” Father Brown said solemnly. “That battle was so fierce that after the victory, we survivors barely had time to think about it.”

"However, it seems that a simple sealing magic array, especially one that is spread over tens of kilometers, is not necessarily foolproof. There may still be loopholes in some places!"

Sorry for the belated double update. There might only be two posts today, as I have some things to take care of. Sorry!

317. Still Untitled

"Could this be the work of this slip-up again?" Iris looked coldly at the girl who emerged from the mist and placed her on the guard. After that, she turned into white mist and slipped through the gap. She asked Father Brown beside her, "Although I don't think a stray dog ​​that's barely left would have the guts to challenge the Holy See head-on."

“It shouldn’t be!” Father Brown shook his head and denied it. “The fifth class, and there’s more than one. I don’t think a fugitive hiding in hiding could gather so many people.”

"Moreover, each of them is at least equivalent to a Templar Master in the Holy See. If she had that ability, she wouldn't have slipped through the net; she would have died in that war alongside our old comrades..."

“But whether she is the murderer or not, she is indeed an unexpected ‘surprise’!” Elise said. “At least we now know that some of these bloodsucking worms still exist, and they have been living right under our noses for decades without being discovered.”

“There’s one right here, and there are others, in corners we can’t reach… Yes, other places…” As if she had thought of something, Iris’s voice suddenly lowered.

"Are you referring to the matter of Earl Grey's territory?" Father Brown replied silently, "...I've also heard about what happened there. It was beyond the power of the wielder of the sacred artifact. If the other party hadn't shown no intention to kill, that group would have been completely wiped out."

"In this era, the last person with such near-demigod-like power was that vampire elder. Decades ago, the Holy Temple expended most of its resources to finally take it over, suffering heavy losses in the process. But because of that, they still haven't recovered..."

"Then they let some clerical staff who've never been on the battlefield, who don't know anything about the world, rely on their seniority and flaunt their so-called 'old guard'." Father Brown sneered, spitting on the ground, making no attempt to hide his dissatisfaction with the current state of the church's leadership. "They're experts at internal strife, better than anything else. But when it comes to external affairs, I really don't know when those old fogies who refuse to relinquish what isn't even their right will finally meet their maker."

"...Never mind, this is none of our business." Iris said, closing her eyes slightly. "We are merely swords and shields; what we need to do is—"

"—Slay those 'heretics' who harm innocent people!"

"Although the bat wasn't the culprit, it doesn't mean we can just watch it continue to roam this world."

……

Once the hidden members of the sanctuary had their 'prey' delivered to them, they emerged from their hiding places. Some with spellcasting abilities began using mystical methods to cast exorcism spells over the area and started dealing with the hanging bats one by one, clearing out the spies left behind by the escaped foe.

It's simple, and it's not the first time they've done this. Every member of the Sanctuary has learned about the various abilities and methods of the vampires, their greatest enemy in the heretical camp, in class. Even if they may never need to use them in their lifetime, they won't panic when they suddenly do, right?

History tells us that the idea of ​​a master teaching an apprentice while simultaneously guarding against the apprentice starving the master is undesirable. And there's a reason why the Church and the Holy See have been able to suppress heretical beings in this world for centuries.