There are a total of six Shadow Priests in the entire Monastery. On the surface, they are just healing Priests, missionaries, or ordinary believers. Only the head Priest, Isillien, knows their true identities.
The powerful abilities of the Shadow Priests have made Isillien envious. He had long expressed his desire to study the path of shadow magic, and his six subordinate Shadow Priests had all given him guidance to varying degrees, but the Grand Inquisitor's progress has always been limited.
Shadow Priests have a way to quickly become stronger: they summon shadow creatures from another world and absorb their energy to enhance themselves.
A few weeks ago, Natasha Kings and her five colleagues were summoned by Isillien, the Grand Inspector who claimed to have found a method for summoning a Shadow Lord in a secret document.
If the combined strength of the group can successfully summon the Shadow Lord and absorb its shadow energy, their combined power will be greatly enhanced.
None of the six could resist the temptation. After more than ten days of preparation, Isillien and the Shadow Priests gathered again late one night last week to perform the summoning ritual.
The ritual went smoothly, but things went wrong. Instead of summoning a Shadow Lord, a raging Hellhound was summoned, and the binding Magic Circle the Priests had painstakingly prepared for shadow creatures quickly became ineffective.
Two Dark Priests, caught off guard, were killed on the spot by the Cerberus. The others fought back fiercely. Hellhound is a very terrifying demonic creature. During the battle, Natasha was stunned by the shockwave from the explosion of Fireball it spewed. When she awoke, she was already a prisoner.
Then she was told that she was accused of summoning demons and murdering innocent people, and was soon brought to Judgment in a secret court. When she saw that the Judgment on the high and mighty throne was none other than Attorney General Isillien, she knew that all her protests and arguments were pointless.
The Hellhound's presence was so great that it alerted the guards on night duty. The incident was exposed, and the summoning ritual could no longer be concealed. In order to shirk responsibility, Isillien pinned all the blame on Natasha. With four of the Council of Five absent (Tyrosus was seriously injured), he could indeed control everything.
This is the "truth" that Natasha Kings, the Shadow Priest, told Unas. Unas couldn't be sure of the credibility of her claims, but he knew that Isillien was indeed no good.
In the game's storyline, Isillien is a major villain. His most infamous act was killing Taelan Tirion Fordring, who wanted to break free from his control, thus separating Tirion Fordring and his son forever. This is a well-known quest in the game.
Unas believed her for the time being, but still had questions. "Since you've already been sentenced to death, Isillien should be trying his best to avoid having anything to do with you again. Why would he suddenly send someone to visit you in such a high-profile way?"
"He probably has spies in the dungeon. When word of my disappearance reached him, he would naturally send people to investigate. Of course, this is just my speculation."
"But Greer didn't come with just the intention of visiting me. Isillien can't wait for the execution day; Greer will definitely execute me tomorrow."
Speaking of her own death, her voice remained calm, and her thoughts were not chaotic at all; she didn't seem like a madwoman. Unas believed her story even more. "It doesn't sound like you're just waiting to die. What are your plans?"
"Why do you think I'm telling you so much? Mental conversations in this Anti-Magic Room are exhausting for me; I don't have the energy to waste on idle chatter."
"Your words weren't wasted; you've almost convinced me. I'm now 80% sure you're a good person." Unas casually handed out an incomplete "good guy" card.
"I wouldn't call myself a good person, but I would never kill innocent people indiscriminately," Natasha's voice turned icy. "All five of my companions died in that accidental disaster, while the culprit went unpunished, and instead, he implicated me. I will make that old dog Isillien suffer every kind of pain in the world before he goes to hell!"
"If you trust me, and we help each other, we might have a chance to escape from here. You don't want to rot in this cave, do you?"
"You have a way to escape from here?" Unas was surprised. The cell door in front of him was manageable; he might be able to smash it open with his Silver Hammer. But the door to the Anti-Magic Room was clearly not so easy to open. What could this Shadow Priest, whose body was limp and whose magic power was suppressed by most of his strength, possibly do?
Natasha simply replied, "We'll have to wait for an opportunity."
"What opportunity?" Unas probed, hoping to elicit her plan.
"You haven't agreed to help me yet," the Shadow Priest said, unmoved by the bait. She chuckled twice and continued, "But I might as well tell you. I planted a Shadowfiend on Todd earlier; it constantly devours the spirit of its host. When Todd brought you in just now, I noticed his spirit was already quite weak."
That's true. Ever since Unas met Todd, he'd noticed that Todd was getting weaker and weaker, and now he knew why.
"Only Todd has the key to the Anti-Magic Room. He personally delivers the food every morning and never lets anyone else do it for him. His mental state will deteriorate further at that time, and perhaps I can control him for a while."
"This is our opportunity, what do you think?"
Unas hadn't figured out how to answer her yet, because he didn't need to escape with Natasha at all; Todd was coming to take him out soon.
As luck would have it, just then a loud "bang" rang out, the door to the Anti-Magic Room opened, and Todd's trembling figure appeared, supported by a handsome boy.
Natasha's voice shifted from surprise to exuberance. "He actually came at this time, and without a single guard! Hahaha, what a perfect opportunity!"
Unas was in a state of utter confusion. If Natasha could really control Todd, then he might have to help her escape from prison, disrupting his plan to leave secretly. It was a real headache.
If she couldn't control herself and left as planned, leaving this good person, who had an 80% chance of being framed, to die here, her conscience wouldn't allow it.
But there was no time for him to think. Todd, who was slowly walking towards him, suddenly straightened his hunched back and slapped the little boy who was supporting him to the ground. The little boy fainted without even uttering a sound.
Seeing this scene, Unas knew that Natasha had actually succeeded. After Todd slapped the little boy down, he was stunned for a moment, and then, under the Mind Control of the Dark Priest, he took out a bunch of keys and began to open the cell doors one by one.
The awakened prisoners stared in disbelief at what was happening before them, until a prisoner limped out of his cell and rushed out of the Anti-Magic Room. At that moment, all the conscious prisoners began to shout wildly.
Natasha seems to want to release the prisoners here to create chaos. Once these spellcaster criminals are out of the Anti-Magic Room, they will definitely cause a lot of trouble for the Jailer.
Unas had neither the reason nor the power to stop it; now he could only look after himself. He took out an ordinary one-handed sword from his backpack and hid it under his black robe. If any foolish criminal tried to assault him, he wouldn't hesitate to give them a good beating.
P. S., another week has passed. Thank you to Niliufengxing, Qiemingjunzi, and Moyefeng for the recommendation votes. Next week will also be Luo Ben. The author needs everyone's support, please add this to your favorites!