Chapter 787: Out to Sea
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Soon after, the black operative who had been sent to the Kingdom of Helius responded to Benjamin.
"... Facts have corroborated with the Wood Family."
Listening to the reply, Benjamin nodded as he fell deep into thought. Regardless of the dispute between the aristocrats and the Church, there was a buildup of ships along the shores of Kingdom of Helius; the Church seemed to be launching its revenge.
Honestly speaking, Benjamin was open to the dog eat dog situation. But the issue was that he felt the overseas worshippers simply couldn’t stop the Church. Once they were wiped out, the valuable information about the psychic powers would fall into the hands of the Church.
Hence, Benjamin felt that could not stand by idly.
About two days later, he made preparations and took off from the academy with the two siblings — The craze from days earlier should have died down by now and the academy was back on track, thus, he could now travel with his mind at ease. The matters of the academy could once again be handed over to Varys.
"Sir Mage, does the Holy Church really plan to wipe out the entire island?"
While flying, the young girl couldn’t hold her tongue and asked.
"The Church has zero tolerance towards cultists." Benjamin replied, "News is that they’ve organized a fleet of ships, ready to send at least a few hundred priests and holy knights. They even prepared items to restrain the psychic powers."
"Then... What should we do? Do w-we stop them?"
Benjamin shook his head, "I actually was looking for an opportunity to vanquish the overseas worshippers. Don’t you want revenge? While the snipe and the clam grapple, it is the fisherman who profits - this is a great opportunity for us."
"Snipe...clam what?"
"It’s nothing... Let’s just get there first."
Benjamin changed the topic and shook his head, ending the conversation with the two siblings.
In the letter the Wood Family wrote to him, they had mentioned that ‘when the snipe and the clam grapple, it is the fisherman who profits’. Although it was not written blatantly, Benjamin had read it with the clarity that these nobles had hoped he would have. They wanted the magic academy to cause a havoc at a time like this. It didn’t matter regarding what, as long as it was troublesome to the Church.
This way, the Church would not have the time of the day to bother with the nobles and the social stratum could profit.
However... Benjamin did not plan to do as they hinted.
After all, this involved personal benefit. Ever since they developed the branch out of the dead soul’s entourage, psychic powers have reached a new height in Benjamin’s personal ranking, becoming more and more important. He couldn’t possibly forego all of the treasures of the overseas worshippers.
— The nobles wanted to deal with the Church while he wanted to handle the Church as well as the overseas worshippers.
It was a two to three-day flight. Benjamin detoured to the abyss in order to bring the sibling duo to the shores of the Kingdom of Helius. He then followed the traces left behind by the Church’s ships and flew towards the direction of the island.
He wasn’t worried about catching up. The Church didn’t know the exact location of the overseas worshippers and would definitely be scouring the seas for quite a bit.
The vastness of an ocean was mapped out extremely poorly due to the poor knowledge of the region. As Benjamin flew in the sky, he could feel the vastness of the ocean stretch to the ends of the earth. He was mildly curious about what unfounded secrets lay hidden beneath the deep blue surface.
And of course, about the countless magical beasts, too.
In contrast to the environment on land, the ocean was dangerous in many ways to the people on it. It wasn’t long before the System detected a group of ocean beasts patrolling beneath the sea. For the most part, they possessed a shape similar to that of a regular fish, but each one of them bore sharp teeth and emitted wave after wave of elemental oscillation. At the same time, there were many that looked like octopuses, giving dangerous vibes and looking appropriately frightening.
But… it wasn’t just that. Apart from these beasts, they could distinctly feel a much fiercer presence beneath the ocean.
"How did you make it out under these circumstances?" Benjamin couldn’t help but ask the sibling duo.
"The elders said that the goddess would guide us through a safe route." The young man thought about it and hesitantly replied, "But... it could be due to other reasons."
A safe route, huh?
Benjamin nodded. After all, life on the island after a few thousand years would have had countless lives lost at sea; this should have eventually allowed them to map out a safe route.
However, he couldn’t exploit this knowledge yet - he still needed to find the Church’s fleet. Therefore, he had to make sure to maintain a fair distance between himself and the surface of the water as he continued searching for the Church.
"... It’s that fleet."
Half a day later, they looked down and finally saw the silhouettes of a few ships.
Hidden between the mist and clouds, Benjamin closed in on the ships. However, what they didn’t expect to find after nearing them was that the Church’s fleet was battling with a giant octopus.
"Quick! Repair the shield on the left! Do not let it sink the ship!"
"You lot, use your grenade of holy light on it. The rest of you, chant with me. We’ll use the cross to blast this thing."
"Patch up the hole on the right, quick! Do not let any water leak in..."
Even from afar, Benjamin could see how chaotic the scene was. The octopus was the size of a castle, each sucker as huge as an adult, opening and closing like humongous man-eating traps. On its damp pale skin, every minuscule break out was viewable in high definition.
As the octopus pounced crawled around on its tentacles, it caused the ship’s barrier to tremble to the point where it was sizzling.
The priests were standing on the ship, staggering from left to right. Some even had to take to flight in order to cast spells to avoid vomiting from the rockiness. And so, even though the magic octopus didn’t possess any elemental attack ability, it still left them disheveled. So far, there were two ships that were suffering damages.
Benjamin was amused by the spectacular sight.
"Oh wow, did they not prepare properly before going out to sea? And they were in such a rush to vanquish other people’s religions too." He conversed in his heart with glee.
If the Church paraded to sea in great spirits yet suffer total loss midway, that would be the day where Benjamin would not stop smiling.
"... You’re thinking too much. Let’s see what happens." The System was silent for a brief moment before replying.
Benjamin wiped the smirk off his face and continued watching. The octopus was using his tentacles to attack the emerging holy shield. However, although the barrier looked fragile, the continuous hammering of the giant tentacles did not break it.
Benjamin couldn’t help but recall the powerful holy barrier in Havenwright.
Could it be a similar technique?
The fleet was steadily sailing, eventually forming an encirclement to silently surround the giant octopus.
"... Let’s begin. Cleanse this stained being."
The chanting finally ended and one of the characters that seemed to be a bishop opened his eyes and looked at the magic octopus blankly. The other priests nodded as starry holy lights amassed. In the end, a large cross formed in midair.
The cross formed right on top of the octopus. A powerful ray cast down. At that moment, the octopus seemed to have realized something and his movements stopped mid-way.
However, the priests did not allow it time to respond.
"Cleansing begin!"
With waves of powerful magic oscillation, the holy cross descended, crashing onto the giant octopus. In a flash, a blinding amount of light shot out; from the perspective of Benjamin, it was as though someone had thrown a highly effective stun grenade.
He and the sibling duo who were far in the sky couldn’t help but squint.
Soon after, the holy light slowly dispersed, leaving only a grilled burnt octopus floating on the face of the ocean.
"Pfft... How boring. Already taken care of."
Benjamin couldn’t help but curl his lips. It seemed that the Church had come prepared. The two damaged ships were patched up in a short time and quickly regained usage as well.
However... perhaps this ended well. If the Church’s fleet was easily defeated, then how could he become the proverbial fisherman that gains all?
He still needed the Church to take care of the overseas worshippers. The Church could not just die off here.
Once they had dealt with the giant octopus, the fleet quickly realigned to its formation before continuing its journey. However, just as they had started moving, they noticed some major ripples turning up out of the blue.
The sibling duo that was brought by Benjamin was in a daze.
"Oh-Oh, no. This phenomenon... They have angered the sea king." The young man was in disbelief, "But... Isn’t the sea king a legend? Don’t tell me it’s true?"
As the sibling duo was in awe, an incredible phenomenon took place.
A raging wave more than ten meters tall hit the hulls of the ships as over ten giant octopuses similar to the magic octopus emerged from the waters.