Chapter 454: Back to the City
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the end, Benjamin burned the entire village in the mountains to the ground and sealed off both the entrances. After that, he brought his subordinates as well as the newly rescued out of there.
Now that the Door of Oblivion was taken care of and peace was restored once again, they did not want to continue staying there. Such an evil place should be destroyed.
The initial plan that Benjamin had set out to achieve — to find the power of hidden Carretas mages – would have to be abandoned.
"We are unsure about the situation elsewhere but in the recent months, there should have been around a thousand mages who entered the Candela Mountains." The rescued mages explained, "There’s a legend that says that within the Candela Mountains is the mages’ playground. Find it and you may return to the world of our ancestors. We thought that the village was the playground of legend. Who knew we would end becoming their meals."
Benjamin shook his head.
… Return to the world of our ancestors, huh?
Well, the legend wasn't completely fake.
He had entered the mountain range hoping to leave with a large troop of mages. Who knew that he would only come out with just over ten mentally and physically worn out survivors?
Well, at least they did not lose anything in return.
"Have you tidied up the soul information of the two elders?" Benjamin spoke inwardly to the System.
The System was able to read the memories of the two elders in the same way he did Benjamin’s. Because of this, Benjamin knew that the memory of the two elders would be of great use to them.
"What’s the rush? Do you think that it’s very easy to do?" The System impatiently answered, "I don’t get what’s going on with the Spiritual Energy of the two elders. They intertwined and was then swallowed by the wolf so now its memory is also in the mix. The soul information communicated by the holy flames ended up receiving quite a bit of damage."
"… There’s damage? Does that mean it would be hard to go through their memories?" Benjamin was disappointed.
The System answered, "Reading a mage’s memory was supposed to be impossible. I don’t know why the holy flame conveyed this information nor the reason I can decode and read it. You should be thankful that we have anything at all."
Benjamin could do nothing but nod.
Hopefully, he could obtain something useful.
The reference books in the village did not record anything so unique tactic of the cannibal mages would only be found in the memory of the two elders. Although their tactics were evil and had disgusting requirements like eating humans, but… surely not all of them were so strange, right?
This was an ancient yet unfamiliar magic attribute; Benjamin believed that he could gain a lot from it.
"Sir Mage, there’s so many of you… where are you headed to?"
The mages that were rescued followed Benjamin and his gang outward of the mountain range. They were oblivious to the plan and thus decided to ask meekly.
Benjamin responded with a smile, "There isn't much time. We should head back to the city of Carretas to fight with the Church."
The rescued mages looked at one another with perplexed expressions on their faces, "… Church?"
It seemed that they were unaware of the situation outside.
Benjamin had to briefly explain everything. How the King secretly pledged allegiance to the Church, how the Church started to assassinate mages … The huge conspiracy was unloaded all at once on the poor mages mentally exhausted brains.
After listening, the mages astonished.
"Isn’t Icor still situated in between us. How did the Church manage to breach Carretas?"
Benjamin was also speechless. Where did this blind confidence come from?
"Have you been to the Kingdom of Helius?"
The mages shook their heads.
"Then have you seen anyone from the Church before?" Benjamin continued questioning.
"The mage shook their heads again.
Benjamin sighed helplessly, the answer was already obvious. To the local mages in Carretas, the Church was merely a foreign concept that existed in lands far away and was no threat to them.
Hence, Benjamin had to have them catch up with anything and everything to do with the Church. Although there was only a little over ten of them, they were still mages that had foundations in magic and Benjamin still wanted them to part of the team. After all, every little bit helps.
Throughout the process, they also slowly exited the Candela mountains.
Four days later.
In some deserted woods on the outskirts of the mountain range, Benjamin issued the new plan and his subordinates went their separate ways just like before. They headed towards the city base they were in charge in anticipation of their next move.
Benjamin also took some men back with him to Amber City.
After more than a week away, Carretas seemed no different than before. However, the influence of the latest edition of the Declaration of the Freedom of Magic had already spread within the nation.
Therefore, the first thing they had to do was assess the current situation to see if there any new local mages had emerged.
Apart from that, Benjamin had to also rush through the secret letters sent by the king — which had by now piled up like a hill.
Sitting in the inn, he first asked the System to help but the System was busy tidying up and so was unavailable. Benjamin could do nothing more but begin opening the letters and manually reading them one by one.
The content of the secret letters detailed the Church’s movements. It was clear that Benjamin’s actions had the bishop pissed. They sought help from the Kingdom of Helius and asked for a new group of priests and holy knights to be sent over. At the same time, the spies were also investigating Benjamin and his group’s hideout.
Unfortunately, Benjamin and the rest were battling to the death with the cannibal mages at that time, so they naturally came back empty.
The Church also took new measures to try to stifle the spreading of the Declaration of the Freedom of Magic. Now, those who were found to have kept a copy of the book in their home would be beheaded without trial.
Benjamin was taken aback as he read this.
Oh crap… this was intense.
The Declaration of the Freedom of Magic had already circulated to tens of thousands of households. If the Church had claimed the King’s names to punish the people, wouldn’t they cause a mass protest?
But, the King explained further in the secret letter.
After this, Benjamin understood that the Church did not mean to send tens of thousands to the chopping block. What they wanted to do was to dangle a sword around the people’s neck.
The decree had been proclaimed but they did not intend to follow it to a tee; they would merely capture one or two people to serve as examples.