Chapter 39: Crafting a Trump Card |
If Jacques were to turn and leave right now, heading back would be the best option, and it would be wise for her to follow suit.
Then, whether she reported the anomalies in Finback Village or simply forgot everything that happened here, both were ways to extricate herself from danger.
If they got involved now, they would likely have to face an Iron Rank priest, an entity capable of controlling Nest Beasts, and a patient suffering from Whale Transformation Sickness.
The two of them were merely fledgling clerics. Meddling in these affairs would be a severe overestimation of their own abilities and extremely unwise.
Isabella herself still harbored the ideal of reviving her family. Under these circumstances, was she really going to risk her life for the people of a small village?
In this moment, Isabella realized exactly how those people in the Church—the ones she so deeply despised—were forged.
Those people were shaped by making this exact choice, time and time again.
If she chose to flee with Jacques today, she would instinctively refer back to this moment whenever she faced similar situations in the future.
Whenever a situation arose, she would choose to escape.
She would gradually devolve into the very kind of person she loathed.
Then, one day, a naive young girl would stumble into her life, voicing "childish and innocent" remarks while looking at her with thinly veiled contempt.
At that time, she would feel a stinging pain. She would then find herself reminiscing about the past, lamenting her lost youth, and becoming either filled with remorse or bitterly stubborn.
But that kind of appearance, no matter how she thought about it, would be utterly hideous.
"Jacques, you need to keep an eye on the caravan that is about to leave. Secretly slip the intelligence from here into the caravan to ensure the Church in Tail Fin Town receives it."
The Church possessed secret communication methods, such as certain Sacred Whispers, which typically only clerics could decipher.
When the caravan entered the town, it would be subjected to mandatory inspections.
Even if these people were smuggling Whalehide Ore, they would inevitably have items used for concealment exposed to the inspecting priests and Holy Knights.
At that time, the hidden message would be discovered, allowing the Church to receive the news.
"Of course, if you leave right now, there is still no problem," Isabella said, not wanting to interfere with Jacques''s choice.
"The transfer order from Tail Fin Town is very clear. As long as you leave, you remain a member of the Dartmenerly Family and a Holy Knight, entirely unaffected by the turmoil here."
"Jacques, I hope you can set those emotions aside and make a serious decision."
"This might be the turning point of our destiny."
"No, I am staying to investigate thoroughly." Jacques''s gaze slowly hardened. If he left now, he would spend the rest of his life living in uneasiness.
Having made their decision, the two immediately sprang into action.
On the other side, Nemus narrowed his eyes, waiting for any movement from Isabella or the old priest.
He was certain that since the veil covering the strange occurrences in Finback Village had been pierced, there was almost no chance this matter would be resolved peacefully.
He would let Isabella take the lead and test the old priest''s true strength; only then would it be time for him to strike.
''The most crucial aspect right now is my own Power of Faith,'' Nemus noted, realizing that this was something he truly could not rush.
''Unless...'' Nemus''s thoughts drifted back to the past. Before falling into the Abyss, he had possessed another identity.
At that time, he might have accumulated some Power of Faith of his own.
However, Nemus was currently unsure whether he could still access that past human identity.
''Moreover, once I touch that thing, it is highly likely to draw the attention of the God of Precepts. I still need to consider this carefully.'' When noon arrived during their search, Nemus deliberately gathered with a group of young people and lit a campfire.
They used bones, cured meat, mushrooms, and wild vegetables to boil a pot of soup.
The young people''s minds were not yet fully rigid. Sitting together around the fire, they listened to Nemus talk about things in Sky Spring City.
The glitz and glamour of the big city was something these small-village residents could not even fathom in their wildest dreams.
Much of their imagination was still limited to a peasant''s fantasy of wealth, believing that people in the big city simply had an endless supply of cured meat to eat.
Nemus merely recounted a few things Nels had once seen, yet these youths were already stunned in place. Even the soup bowls they held paused at their lips as they seemed to ponder all that prosperity and splendor.
''A fairly decent amount of desire...'' Nemus slowly collected the desires welling up from these people.
This was one of the primary materials for summoning demons.
If an ordinary person lacked a method to collect desires, their only alternative was a Blood Sacrifice.
They would have to stimulate the victim''s soul and emotions at the exact moment of murder to attract a demon.
But Nemus had no need for such a wasteful method.
A person had a multitude of uses. A simple sacrifice would merely squander most of their valuable aspects.
As long as one understood the rules, summoning demons was absolutely the most cost-effective choice.
Demons ran rampant in the Abyss, and most of them desperately wanted to cross over to the Material Plane to taste fresh flesh and souls.
A Lesser Demon needed to hunt down at least several hundred of its own kind to advance using their flesh and souls.
With humans, however, they might only need half that number to achieve the same result.
And most importantly, humans possessed very weak resistance.
Hunting their own kind was like a wild beast hunting a creature of similar size in the wilderness; the slightest misstep would result in injury, turning the injured hunter into prey for others.
In the Material Plane, there was no such worry.
Furthermore, because they were summoned, they always had the option of retreating back to the Abyss if they encountered danger in the Material Plane.
Of course, in recent years, summoning a demon had become quite troublesome if one did not know the trade.
Those Warlocks loved to summon demons to harvest as magic materials, completely ruining the market.
The learning capabilities of Warlocks were exceptional. While early Mages had merely been lackeys trailing behind demons, once they gradually broke free of demonic influence, they began to magically alter the summoning rituals.
After all, as innate supernatural beings, even a single drop of a demon''s blood was considered a supernatural material.
Thus, a group of Warlocks emerged who used various methods to trick dim-witted demons into coming to the Material Plane. They would then use Covenants, magic arrays, and other means to cut off the demons'' retreat, effectively treating them as livestock to harvest materials from.
Ever since then, the demons of the Abyss had grown increasingly vigilant. Every time they were summoned, they needed to test the energy reactions of the outside world.
If they detected the energy fluctuations of a Warlock, the summoning was highly likely to fail.
Fortunately, as a member of the demon race himself, Nemus naturally knew how to summon demons efficiently.
Having made all these preparations, Nemus had gained yet another trump card.
However, right at that moment, Nemus heard a loud crash echoing from a short distance away.