Rescue

The bishop turned around in astonishment.

Under the cover of night, three blurry figures emerged from a corner of the village—one tall, two short. They stopped nearby, smiling as they looked at the people of The Church with faintly mocking eyes.

The priests could not help halting their advance as well.

"Those are..."

After taking a careful look, the bishop discovered in utter shock that they were the three captives they had taken aboard—the three young people from the cult who had made the octopuses surrounding their ship retreat, whom the bishop had then tricked onto the ship and forced to reveal their sailing route.

As though a basin of cold water had been poured over his head, the bishop's excitement vanished without a trace. For a moment, he even thought he was hallucinating. The right hand gripping his cross suddenly began to tremble.

How could these three be here?

They had clearly been locked up on the ship, their mental power sealed away with special materials. By all rights, they should have been unable to use any dark arts and could only have squatted obediently in the prison cell below deck.

The situation was so bizarre that the bishop's mind could not process it for a moment. A terrible premonition rose in his heart. He did not know what had happened, but... something was wrong.

What had happened to the fleet?

Even the bishop had been frightened into this state, let alone the other priests present. They had been just about to purify every last heretic when this unexpected twist arose. The people least likely to appear had appeared, and the shock plunged everyone into silence.

The villagers who had narrowly escaped death merely stood there in a daze, staring blankly at the three of them in confusion.

"What