Cardinal Bishop Edwell

"Hell... Hell has descended!" "Great Lord, I beg you, save your followers..."

After that apocalyptic scene descended, Harbor Town immediately fell into chaos. The hastily assembled militia guard was utterly incapable of maintaining order. Frantic figures could be seen running everywhere—in the streets and alleyways.

The raging fire that had started at the docks continued to spread with the wind, as if it intended to engulf the entire Harbor Town.

"Move away anything that can catch fire! Clear out a sufficiently open area! Where's the firefighting team? Get moving, all of you!" Tiris, the temporary Guard Captain, shouted himself hoarse, trying to use the isolation method Lord Adrian had taught them to halt the spreading flames.

Unfortunately, the morale of the entire guard had nearly collapsed. Many had thrown down their weapons and fled Harbor Town like madmen, paying no heed to his orders.

As he watched the surging tongues of flame draw ever closer, Tiris fell into utter despair.

Just then, a voice as thunderous as a roaring storm resounded beside him.

"Praise [Ella]—Heaven Descends!"

At that moment, the incomparably chaotic Harbor Town seemed as though time had frozen. Every panicked, fleeing person came to a halt, stopping in unspoken unison and raising their heads toward the night sky.

The dust clouds that had blanketed the city were torn to pieces by some immense force. Then, dazzling white radiance descended from the heavens, bathing every corner of Harbor Town.

Under the sweep of that white light, everyone felt vitality flow back into their exhausted bodies, while the despair and fear in their hearts rapidly faded away.

A man whose leg had been crushed by falling rocks during the disaster discovered in astonishment that his severed leg had been restored. An expression of incomparably fervent devotion immediately appeared on his face.

The raging flames that had covered half the city—hailed as Hellfire, the incarnation of demons—were swiftly extinguished by that power as well, vanishing without a trace.

Then, that flawless white radiance gradually gathered together, forming the phantom of a holy and noble Goddess. She looked down upon all living beings, specks of starlight glittering in her eyes, filled with mystery and majesty.

"My Lord, you have not abandoned your most devout followers after all!"

"The demons... the demons are dead... Great Lord of Stars [Ella], thank you for your salvation..."

"My Lord, I wish to repent for my sins..."

Tens of thousands of townspeople in Harbor Town fell to their knees, praying without cease and expressing their gratitude for the Lord's grace. Many even kissed the ground fervently, displaying their devotion.

Of everyone present, Tiris was the only one who retained some measure of reason.

After being touched by the white light, fervent devotion had risen in his heart as well. Yet he had not fallen to his knees on the spot, as though some miraculous force had stopped him from doing so.

At some point, a middle-aged man clad in a red-and-gold robe and wearing an iron mask had appeared at his side.

"Lord Cardinal Bishop!" Tiris immediately recognized the newcomer's identity from his attire and bowed respectfully.

"Where is Antioch? Why has Harbor Town become like this?" Edwell swept his gaze over the townspeople kneeling on the ground in devout prayer and asked bluntly. "If I'm not mistaken, the witch hunt was not supposed to begin until noon tomorrow."

The Holy City had received Antioch's request for aid two days earlier. The Archbishop of Nordland Territory had led an elite guard in pursuing several wizards and had nearly been wiped out. Even after using the Divine Descent Technique, he had failed to keep his opponents behind.

According to the Tribunal's procedures, no matter how troublesome an Official Wizard was, they were not worth his personal intervention. However, Antioch had specifically mentioned in his letter that the opponent appeared extremely young and would most likely become a threat to the Church in the future.

More terrifying still, this wizard could use a highly unusual kind of Hellfire. If it spread, it could likely burn down an entire town in a short time, yet Antioch had no way to deal with it.

It was precisely because of this that, to ensure nothing went wrong, he had decided to travel to Harbor Town personally. When he sensed the fluctuations caused by an eruption of divine power along the way, he had even left the accompanying Priests behind and rushed over alone at top speed.

Unfortunately, he had still arrived too late.

"This is what happened, Lord Cardinal Bishop. Earlier tonight, two Demon's Followers broke into Harbor Town and set fire to the granary..." Tiris recounted the course of events as concisely as possible.

When he heard that the one who had destroyed Harbor Town's docks was the very wizard Antioch had been pursuing, Edwell's expression immediately grew grave.

A Great Wizard had concealed his strength and disguised himself while infiltrating Nordland Territory. There was no need to think further to know that he must have been plotting some conspiracy to overthrow the Empire and the Church.

With that thought, Edwell looked through the Divine Projection's vision, across the ruins of Harbor Town's docks and the vast sea, and saw the Sail Battleship sailing into the mist.

After roughly calculating the distance, Edwell quickly abandoned the idea of acting. Even if he used the strongest divine spell he possessed, it would not be enough to threaten a Great Wizard from such a great distance.

"You did well this time. At the very least, you prevented the Empire from suffering even greater losses."

In Edwell's view, uncovering a deeply hidden Great Wizard at the cost of only half of Harbor Town was already fortunate.

Previously, he had thought Antioch was useless, to have been reduced to such a sorry state by an Official Wizard. He had been prepared to strip the man of his position as Archbishop after this incident. But now, it seemed that the defeat was not due to any fault of his own; Antioch's failure had been entirely because the enemy was too powerful.

Moreover, Harbor Town's casualties were far lower than he had expected. Edwell had initially thought that in a disaster of such scale, at least half of the tens of thousands of townspeople would have been killed or injured. Yet judging from the number of souls taken into the Holy Land, fewer than five thousand people had died, including three thousand members of the Black Armored Guard.

It was simply a miracle...

"These were all Lord Adrian's instructions." Tiris showed no intention of claiming credit, his face full of resentment. "But Lord Adrian entered the port with Bishop Antioch. By now, I'm afraid he has already..."

"What a pity," Edwell said regretfully. To calm the chaos in Harbor Town in such a short period and organize the militia guard to swiftly evacuate the townspeople—he was undoubtedly a rare talent for command.

"Has Antioch gathered any intelligence about that Great Wizard over the past few days?" Edwell asked again.

Tiris hesitated. Such information was not something a Guard Captain like him could access. Fortunately, Harbor Town's lord, Merk, arrived at that moment. Upon learning of the Cardinal Bishop's request, he immediately ordered someone to bring out the intelligence Antioch had previously handed over to him.

However, after taking the parchment scroll and skimming it for a few moments, Edwell's expression quickly froze.

Carl... the illegitimate son of Viscount Stederland, an Imperial noble. He was only seventeen this year and had disappeared half a year ago. Wizard Coru, whom they had captured, had arrived in Stederland Territory around the same time.

It was speculated that the wizard named Carl might be one of Coru's apprentices.

"Which idiot gathered this information?" Edwell snapped in extreme dissatisfaction.

This was complete nonsense. Could an apprentice who had studied under an Official Wizard for less than half a year cast magic capable of destroying half of Harbor Town?

The intelligence agents of Nordland Territory must have gone mad...

The lord of Harbor Town trembled and did not dare respond.

Edwell paid Merk no further attention. Instead, he took out the golden tome at his waist and turned to its newest page. Using his finger as a pen, he inscribed the new information onto it.

[Name: Carl (true name unconfirmed)

Extremely Dangerous (Great Wizard)

Crimes: Killed Archbishop Antioch, annihilated three thousand Black Armored Guards, destroyed half of Harbor Town!

Bounty: Secas Gold Coins... fifty thousand!]

(PS: The Church's ranks were adapted from a certain religion, roughly as follows: [Priest—Bishop (Archbishop)—Cardinal Bishop (clergy)—Saint (Chief Judge and other high-ranking Church officials)—Pope...])