Dawn's Sacred Relic

The center of the Eight Directions Formation.

The head cleric who had been offering worship near the sacred relic widened his eyes.

Swoooosh!

From below the altar offering tributes in the temple’s east, colorful lights surged upward.

The head cleric who felt what shook the Eight Directions Formation felt chills run through him.

[This is ominous! What is it!]

Flustered roars were transmitted to the high priests connected through the Eight Directions Formation.

[I don’t know.]

[It’s not mana.]

[Something unfamiliar burst from below.]

Then, three other high priests urgently shouted.

[I’ll go see!]

[Brothers, please wait!]

[Please control things so commotion doesn’t arise!]

Those three high clerics knew that light’s identity.

‘It’s the laboratory’s direction!’

‘Origin?’

‘Did the flasks explode?’

The three high clerics deployed to the east and south following the Silver priest had also shouldered the role of controlling the laboratory in emergencies.

The other high clerics don’t know this fact.

‘The laboratory must not be known!’

‘Damn, what on earth happened when the priest isn’t here!’

‘If we don’t settle this quickly, the head cleric will notice.’

The three high clerics withdrew all battle clerics.

“Until the incident is grasped, you control the surroundings!”

“Fall back further!”

“Take care of the temple’s apprentice clerics!”

Though they outwardly acted like they cared for the temple more than anyone, they desperately hid their concern about whether the laboratory would be discovered.

The Origin’s light that had surged to the sky was severed.

The moment the three high clerics approached the giant hole drilled below the altar.

Slash!

At the killing sound, two high clerics reacted.

Someone’s neck rolled to the feet of the two clerics who hastily looked back.

“Seventh Cleric!”

“Yeon!”

The body of High Cleric Yeon, who had come here together with them, fell forward.

Behind him, someone with an indifferent expression stood.

“Three high clerics who abandoned the Eight Directions Formation and ran the moment Origin burst.”

When Pernok released his mana, the two clerics tensed tightly at the chilliness that raised goosebumps on their skin.

“You’re the vermin who managed the laboratory for the Silver priest.”

Blue flames burst out everywhere.

‘A mage who handles flames?’

‘Level 7? He’s right before our eyes—why can’t we feel his presence?’

The two clerics activated their magic.

One’s body became gigantic, and the other wrapped solid metal around his whole body.

The level-7 body enhancement type mages ignored the blue flames and rushed at Pernok.

“I have no intention of killing innocent clerics. But you aren’t clerics, so it doesn’t matter.”

The moment the voice suppressing killing intent brushed past the two clerics’ ears.

Boom boom boom!

The flames floating in the air burst in unison.

Though their bodies shook, they didn’t receive damage to their cores.

“……?”

However, the two simultaneously kneeled.

“Cough!”

They vomited blackly dead blood together.

And black veins rose on the two men’s skin and connected to their faces.

‘Poison?’

When they realized the identity of the pain strangling their hearts, it was already too late.

The Dark Squad’s Five Stars.

The level-7 magic that its leader possessed, Dead Mace.

This magic infiltrates the body through pores and instantly poisons enemies.

Pernok had mixed this magic that flames can’t burn with the blue flames and burst them together.

The moment the two reached out their arms to block the flames, the flames disappeared and the poison infiltrated through their pores and spread to their hearts.

“Dou… ble…?”

The two died instantly with their eyes rolling back.

Pernok absorbed the risen souls’ mana and spiritual power.

When the power worth three level-7 mages seeped into his whole body, his fatigue completely vanished.

Pernok glanced at the darkness and spoke.

“Move.”

When the darkness began circling the temple’s surroundings as if understanding, Pernok immediately headed to the center where the sacred relic existed.

* * *

The moment the light burst, Armin witnessed it.

‘That’s……’

He definitely felt power resembling the Origin Marco possessed.

“It was really… true……?”

He unknowingly stopped acting, but no one noticed that fact.

Because the priests’ attention had all remained on the light.

“What’s that?”

“Isn’t that where the altar is?”

“F-fire!?”

An alert rang throughout the temple, and the priests moved busily.

Amid even apprentice priests being deployed and firmly armed, urgent sounds rang out.

“It’s an intruder!”

“An intruder!”

The voices were heard everywhere like echoes.

And the high cleric in charge of one axis of the Eight Directions Formation hardened his complexion.

Because he had heard from the center’s head cleric a voice he should never hear.

“Darkness… has entered……?”

Armin swallowed his dry saliva.

‘In this short moment, he entered the temple center where the sacred relic is enshrined!’

His confused mind was cleanly organized.

The moment Marco’s words were proven true, what he must do was only one thing.

“After we hold the high cleric and move, you also escape from there. If you come to the rendezvous point we discussed, I’ll consider us sharing intentions ahead.”

Armin quietly left the Dawn Temple, taking advantage of the gap when the clerics’ attention had tilted toward Pernok.

Then he entered the secluded alley Pernok had mentioned.

Five children were waiting.

“Are you Marco’s friends?”

“Are you Armin?”

Armin nodded.

“I’m that cleric. Since the alert has spread here, inspections will begin as soon as the temple situation is settled. Follow me and let’s escape from here.”

“But Marco is still there.”

“It’s okay. We separately prepared a place to meet Per outside. If you wait there, the two of them will come.”

The hesitating children nodded after seeing the soldiers in the street.

Armin led the children and escaped from the castle while utilizing his cleric status.

* * *

Pernok twisted his body.

His appearance swelled even more bloatedly, and he completely covered even his nose with black cloth.

Having disguised himself flawlessly, he swept through the temple unhesitatingly.

“It’s an intruder!”

He had killed three high clerics.

Besides them, there must definitely exist those who cooperated with the Silver priest.

But in this breathless situation, he couldn’t leisurely distinguish who was involved.

‘Since I blew up the laboratory, when the investigation enters, the involved parties will naturally be punished.’

He appropriately controlled his strength so that innocent clerics wouldn’t get entangled.

Because the current goal was stealing the sacred relic, not dyeing the temple with blood.

Krrrng!

Around the time he was easily toppling battle clerics and advancing, the stone statues everywhere began moving like living things.

“Keep your distance and form an encirclement!”

A special-type mage who manipulates inanimate objects.

This was definitely Mult, who is said to be the third strongest among the Dawn Temple’s high clerics.

‘If the high cleric in charge of the west’s Eight Directions Formation came this far, then the center’s head cleric has also moved.’

Pernok changed the artifact to spear form and stabbed the bird statue flying overhead.

Whoosh!

Something light dug between the statue and spear and twisted the path.

The bird soared to the sky, and the spear fell to the ground.

“Mult!”

“He’s a level-7 mage! If we drag out the time, the temple might collapse!”

Another high cleric joined.

It was the man called Mohan, whose magic was the least known among the high clerics.

‘There’s one more hiding.’

Pernok remained wary of that person who still didn’t reveal his appearance from behind the pillar.

A skilled person with the capacity to guard the temple well enough that the Silver priest’s absence doesn’t matter was watching this place.

‘It can’t be helped.’

This was the situation where the alert had rung out and even soldiers were swarming.

The longer the combat time extended by appropriately saving strength, the higher the possibility that useless things would get entangled.

Pernok lowered the spear shaft below the ground.

Bang!

At that moment, the lion statue kicked off the earth and opened its gigantic maw.

Simultaneously, Pernok’s bones creaked.

Because pressure was crushing his whole body.

‘Magic that handles gravity.’

Pernok, who had grasped Mohan’s magic, boldly abandoned the thought of deciding victory with enhancement type.

Then he twisted the spear shaft while simultaneously wrapping himself in the level-5 magic Storm.

Swoosh!

In an instant, rough wind arose around Pernok.

The lion didn’t care and tried to devour Pernok along with the wind.

“Dodge!”

Suddenly a shout burst from behind the pillar.

Mult and Mohan immediately reacted.

They didn’t recognize the danger.

But because that person’s words were never wrong, their bodies reflexively moved.

“If you just cross one wall, you’d reach Magus.”

And by then it was already too late.

On Mult and Mohan’s retreat route, Pernok was waiting while lifting the spear.

[Acceleration Lv.5] [Shadow Step Lv.4]

He conversely used the pressing gravity to slide on the shadows, instantly accelerated with Mana Reinforcement, and rode the storm to cross over the lion.

Only the level-7 mage of Magus class who was watching the situation from behind the pillar noticed the naturally connected changes in magic.

Actually, Mult and Mohan, who had been pressing Pernok, didn’t recognize it at all.

Because the acceleration didn’t even leave afterimages in their vision.

Puthwack!

He struck the backs of Mult and Mohan’s heads with the spear shaft and drove them into the floor.

The lion returned to a statue again, and the gravity disappeared cleanly.

Leaving the two unconscious people behind, he revealed his appearance.

“How dare you set evil feet in this sacred place!”

Head cleric Yein.

The Dawn Temple’s highest cleric, whom even the Silver priest doesn’t rashly treat rudely, burst with anger.

Krrrrrng!

Lightning energy swirled in the clouds covering the moon.

Yein’s magic handles thunderbolts.

He, who had stayed as a level-7 mage for long years, had recently become able to burst lightning energy from the sky.

Expanding one’s domain was the Magus’s proof.

Though Yein was still insufficient, he was definitely a skilled person standing before the Magus’s domain.

“How fortunate that the most troublesome one personally came out.”

When Pernok smiled with his eyes, Yein’s momentum was abruptly cut.

“I’ll take the sacred relic well.”

At that moment, ominous darkness burst from the temple center where the sacred relic was enshrined.

* * *

“I’m the decoy.”

Pernok had organized the difficult operation very easily.

“If I process the high clerics, the Eight Directions Formation will crumble, and the head cleric will definitely come find me. And then, the temple’s dense vigilance will all become disheveled.”

An audacious appearance of facing the Eight Directions Formation alone.

“Ride the shadows and bring the sacred relic.”

Marco had thought it was excessive confidence, but he didn’t care more than that.

Because he had thought he just needed to find and take the sacred relic.

But having smoothly entered up to the temple center, his tongue stuck out at Pernok’s operation.

He hadn’t seen Pernok use Origin.

Nevertheless, he had definitely kept his word.

Now it was Marco’s turn to finish the work.

Whoooong!

He spread Origin and intervened in the sacred altar wrapping the sacred relic.

When the surrounding darkness gathered in one place and knocked on the transparent case wrapping the sacred relic.

Bang!

The darkness burst and scattered, and another signal shaking the alert rang out.

“It’s the center!”

“The sacred relic……!”

Though noisy sounds swarmed, Marco didn’t panic and embraced the sacred relic. Then he brought his body to the darkness by the method Pernok had taught him.

Soon Marco’s body melted into the darkness.

It was Origin’s proper combat method of becoming integrated rather than simply using darkness as a part.

* * *

Yein heard the sound of the barrier wrapping the sacred relic breaking.

The darkness rising there resembled that chilliness he had felt 30 years ago.

‘There was one more?’

Because Pernok had destroyed the Eight Directions Formation, he completely hadn’t detected Marco’s existence moving stealthily.

That much, Pernok’s presence was overwhelming enough to summon Yein here.

“Do you know what you’ve just done!”

Behind Yein, who was bursting lightning energy while trying to retrieve the sacred relic first, a spear stuck.

“Those who use sacred objects as mere prison keys only have their mouths alive.”

Pernok, who had confirmed that Marco’s Origin still hadn’t escaped the temple, stared at Yein indifferently.

“Bug-like ones wearing clerics’ masks.”

The moment veins rose on Yein’s forehead.

Krrrng, bang!

Simultaneously with bright yellow lightning falling from the sky onto Pernok, a gale swept through Yein’s body.