Chapter 1 Montillo's Downfall

The decaying Saint Montillo lay on the ground, staring blankly at the vast sky.

His eyes widened.

From the moment of his birth, every event of every year and every day flashed through his chaotic mind, gradually stinging his eyes.

He had just launched a surprise attack on two mafia thugs.

The next second, he was on the ground.

A resounding slap had woken him up.

"Tsk."

Toriado shook his hand. It hurt quite a bit for a mage to slap someone.

"Which faction are you from? You're really brave."

Toriado was a little impressed by this guy.

He had been a bishop for so many years, and this was the first time he had seen a Resurrection Church disciple courting death like this.

Although the two of them were basically the top two bishops in the current era, that didn't mean that saints and saintesses could just hit them as they pleased.

"Do you know how much damage a slap can do to a person?"

Lanchi glanced at the decaying saint on the ground with a hint of pity, saying to Toriado beside him.

"..."

Hearing Lanchi's words, the decaying saint's eyes finally turned red, and a sense of grievance filled his heart.

"You, who exactly are you..."

Having been struck senseless just now, his nearly unconscious brain finally began to function, recalling the two kinds of Divine Era radiance he had seen before he was knocked down, and fear began to occupy his mind.

There was no doubt that they were Primordial Tablets.

The decaying saint was all too familiar with this kind of radiance. His teacher, Cardinal Farmer, possessed the [Primordial Tablet - Decay].

And the dark, obsidian-like profound color that had briefly flashed through the wind and snow must have been the [Primordial Tablet - Seal], while the translucent silver was clearly the [Primordial Tablet - Space].

These two tablets should only be possessed by the Resurrection Church's cardinals!

"Just a regular, passing Brildan good Samaritan."

Toriado put his hands back into his pockets and bent down to look at the decaying Saint Montillo on the ground.

"D-Dimensional Bishop, Toriado..."

The decaying Saint Montillo looked at the man with gritted teeth.

"Lord Toriado, this, this is a misunderstanding. I had no intention of offending you!"

He tried to maintain a calm demeanor as he begged for mercy.

Only the enigmatic, elusive Dimensional Bishop Toriado could possess the Space Tablet. It was said that the Dimensional Bishop had the best temper.

Montillo couldn't understand why the Dimensional Bishop would appear here, disguised as a mafia thug!

This was as unlucky and frustrating as being struck by a meteorite!

"Have you seen Nikola?"

The gentler cardinal asked.

A black centipede brand was crawling on his right cheek.

The decaying Saint Montillo's first target had been him.

From Montillo's perspective, his magic power seemed to be weak, while Toriado's magic power was completely undetectable, so he definitely had to deal with the slightly more combat-capable one first.

But when Montillo attacked him, he realized something was wrong. He couldn't hurt him at all.

Then Toriado's spatial palm strike came.

"Madly in Love... Bishop..."

The decaying saint tremblingly uttered the name.

Toriado being a cardinal was one thing, but Montillo had also heard about the guy beside Toriado who possessed the Seal Tablet from Decaying Bishop Farmer.

More than half a year ago, there had been a change of bishops in the Northern Continent.

The defeated cardinal was Askesan, the Bishop of Annihilation, and the new bishop was named Madly in Love. This Madly in Love Bishop must be the new holder of the Seal Tablet.

The person who could kill the Bishop of Annihilation Askesan was undoubtedly something even more terrifying than Askesan.

"Nikola must be in that container area."

The decaying Saint Montillo couldn't deduce the other party's intentions, so he could only answer like this.

Now the two cardinals were the cleaver, and he was the fish. He could only hope that they wouldn't execute him for the sake of Decaying Bishop Farmer.

Logically speaking, cardinals wouldn't break the rules to kill the saints and saintesses of other branches.

But today, it wasn't the cardinals who were hunting him down, but he had actively launched an attack on the cardinals, so the nature of the problem had completely changed!

"I, I can help you catch Nikola!"

However, upon closer thought, the decaying Saint Montillo also thought that these two cardinals were probably here to kill Nikola as well. Nikola had recently made too many enemies with their Resurrection Church in Brilda. As long as he helped them catch Nikola, they might let him go.

"Ah? You want to catch Nikola?"

Toriado squinted his left eye and asked with disdain.

It seemed that this decaying saint was determined to cause trouble today.

"You not only attacked us, but you also want to arrest a police officer. Do you not understand the law at all?"

Lanchi exclaimed in surprise.

"...You...aren't you here to catch Nikola?"

The decaying Saint Montillo's heart instantly turned cold, and his contracting pupils trembled as he asked.

"I said we're good Samaritans, so we're definitely here to help Officer Nikola catch bad guys. Isn't it just your luck that you ran into us?"

Toriado scoffed.

"A wonderful life with the rule of law, classmate. It seems you need to reflect in prison. Assaulting a police officer is a serious crime. You're lucky to have met us, so we can correct you quickly."

Lanchi nodded gently and sincerely.

The decaying saint asked his question, but the two bishops each said their own thing.

"Don't joke around! How could Resurrection Church cardinals help Nikola, a mere head of intelligence! Aren't you criminals yourselves?!"

The cardinals' answers were like thunder echoing endlessly in Montillo's ears, almost turning his wrinkled brain into a jumbled mess.

At this moment, these two cardinals were more terrifying in his eyes than any other bishop.

They could not be killed, which was a physical terror. They could not be understood, which was a terror that destroyed logic and reason. And they did not communicate normally with humans, which was a terror that severed emotion and sensitivity.

Realizing that he could not escape, and that he was the only one left in this plaza, horror and resentment intertwined to form bloodshot eyes in Montillo's eyes.

Lanchi shook his head.

Looking at Montillo's expression, he took out a Kryan Empire-issued -

[Criminal Record Certificate]

[Upon verification, the person being inquired about: Landri Washington, Nationality/Region: Kryan Empire/Nixasender Province/Karenel Town, Document Name: Imperial ID Card, no criminal record found.]

It was also stamped with the official seal of the Imperial Special Operations Department in the capital, Brilda.

He proudly showed it to the decaying Saint Montillo, pointing to the contents above with another finger, everything unspoken was implied.

"Wow, bro, you even got this thing."

Toriado commented in surprise.

"Nikola stamped it for me."

Lanchi put away the certificate, put it back in his pocket, and looked at the decaying saint on the ground again, his eyes as if asking him, how about it.

"..."

The decaying Saint Montillo's throat was choked tightly.

Don't think that this Bishop Madly in Love looks like a good person.

He kills you while speaking politely!

This is the craziest kind of cardinal.

Professor Landri... is Bishop Madly in Love?

No one had noticed.

No one had noticed that such a figure had infiltrated the Kryan Empire.

"Alright, Director Toriado, take this student away."

Lanchi stopped acting like a mafia member, put his hands behind his back, and said to Toriado.

"Off to the school of hard knocks... the prison, that is."

Toriado gently tapped the decaying saint who was suppressed by the spatial barrier. A translucent vortex suddenly appeared in front of the decaying saint who could not move on the ground, and then twisted and sucked his entire body in.

On the white snow of the mafia harbor plaza, only a human-shaped imprint remained, and the decaying saint had completely disappeared.

"Is this the noblest spatial magic?"

Lanchi was surprised by its convenience. He had never seen Toriado use this move.

Forcibly imprisoning the decaying Saint Montillo in a prison space.

"It can only be used on enemies who have lost their combat power or willing, consenting friends, and it consumes a lot of magic power. It's pretty much a lifestyle storage magic."

Toriado spread his hands and explained.

He wasn't very good at offensive spatial magic. It was just how he was. On the other hand, he easily grasped functional magic.

Spatial magic was originally an attribute that relied purely on talent and was basically impossible to learn.

"The seven of you great demon clans can't even put together a main DPS. You're all supports and healers."

Lanchi commented.

In today's Southern Continent battlefield, eighth-order hero units are often scarce support and healers. As a result, the old demons couldn't find a pure DPS like Profane Qing Merogas or Myriad Might Qing Augrin.

"Actually, the demons' talents and characteristics are subtly reflected in their personalities. Maybe it's precisely because our aggressiveness isn't that strong that we became the great demon clans who survived outside of the main battle faction."

Toriado shook his head and said.

"No wonder Hyperion is so good at running away. Her personality and talent completely match."

Lanchi pondered, resting his chin on his hand.

"She'll be sad if she hears that, nya..."

Cat Boss floated out of Lanchi's shadow and complained to Lanchi.

Lanchi was now also trying to divide the daily tasks equally, trying to break Talia's monopoly.

"By the way, what are you planning to do after you take the decaying saint away?"

Toriado asked Lanchi.

If this seventh-order saint was thrown to Abigail's place, Abigail would definitely fly into a rage, pick up a box, and kick him out as well.

"Put him in the mafia's underground palace. It's vacant now, and it's just right to use as a prison in the future, nya."

Cat Boss suggested.

Right now, their Silver Moon Restoration Society alliance only had these three secret bases that they could use.

Abigail's place was excluded as a common meeting place, and the remaining usable spatial barriers were either Landri's house or the Brilda mafia underground.

It didn't want a decaying saint to be locked in the basement of its house.

"Okay, who's going to question him?"

Lanchi believed that they had a lot to talk to the decaying saint about.

But the Great Poet of Love had been disobedient these past two days.

No matter how they summoned her, she wouldn't come out.

It was estimated that if they let the Great Poet of Love interrogate the decaying Saint Montillo, the Great Poet of Love would also go on strike.

If they wanted to use the Great Poet of Love's power, they could only let Talia fuse the Great Poet of Love and then use it, but Talia wasn't very good at interrogation.

"Just give it to Ifatia. Her interrogations are quite famous. She can be as cruel as she wants."

Toriado replied.

"..."

Lanchi pondered for a while.

He remembered that when he first met Ifatia, she had a willow-leaf knife in her hand.

But he still found it hard to imagine what it would be like for Ifatia, that harmless little girl, to torture enemies.

"You're not bad either, nya. Remember Teacher Lan's 'Mummy Making Class That Even a Three-Year-Old Can Understand' at the Saint Hall Villain's Dinner?"

Cat Boss saw Lanchi's thoughts, floated in front of him with a speechless expression, and said to him.

It had caught up on things at the Itelite Academy after returning from the Northern Continent.

It was very clear what Lanchi had done in the previous two Shadow Worlds.

But by the time Cat Boss understood Lanchi, it was too late.

The reason why Lanchi and Ifatia were like siblings was not only because one was like the old headmaster and the other was like a little sister, but also because of their similar sense of madness. They could both do things that violated human ethics with a calm expression.

The gray-white snow screen enveloped the entire city of Brilda, as if a huge felt absorbed all the sounds in front of the Hasel Harbor Building in the mafia. The white painting restored the undisturbed tranquility of the previous Moon God Festival.

Snowflakes were fluffy like cotton, gently falling on the containers, covering the bare iron skin with a layer of silver.

"Nikola, come out, we're not enemies."

Toriado glanced in another direction and shouted loudly at the container area.

Lanchi also looked in the direction that Toriado was looking at.

After all, Toriado was from a proper mage background. His level of magic manipulation and detection was not the same as his, a summoner. Toriado must have discovered Nikola's location long ago.

There was no response from the container area. Only the fine snow was still falling, making the view in front of the Hasel Harbor Building constantly blurred.

After a long time, Nikola, wearing a military coat, walked over from a distant container corner.

His Imperial military uniform, which never had any wrinkles, now had some burn marks.

Or rather, from the moment he confirmed that this guy was the Dimensional Bishop of the Resurrection Church, any hiding was meaningless.

As long as it was within the range of a bishop-level eighth order, the other party could actually lock onto him with a single thought.

He came to the two of them.

"Dimensional Bishop, why did you save me?"

Red Falcon Nikola had no fear and still maintained the straight back of an Imperial officer like a chess piece.

Too many strange things had happened today.

At the moment when he fell into despair, he thought that he was probably in a situation where he would die nine times out of ten.

Barton Hall saving him was something he could probably guess a possibility for.

That was that the mafia boss Barton had always been loyal to Princess Alexia, so he would choose to help him, Nikola, at this moment.

But the Dimensional Bishop, a cardinal who always had a chaotic brain, had nothing to do with their Imperial military at all. If anything, the Imperial military and the Dimensional Branch used to have a slight antagonistic relationship as gray market merchants.

Even the fact that these two people had just used communication to contact Barton was absurd.

What a world, where a Resurrection Church cardinal had become a partner of justice.