Chapter 300: Dekan's Final Plea for Help |
The battle situation, which was just about to stabilize, was once again thrown into a state of unpredictability due to Clay's existence.
"Give me a break... That bastard Sheen... What kind of Mr. Bean secret agent did you arrange...?"
For a moment, Dekan felt like he didn't have the strength to keep standing.
So this is your trump card?
This superior and subordinate are a real power duo.
As expected, you get the kind of spy that matches the commander.
Full of a divine and demonic duality.
This was Dekan's most honest thought at that moment.
Truthfully, Dekan had been eagerly anticipating which Bishop would turn traitor and match his code word.
Wow, that would have been an instant explosion. Game over. He could have fast-forwarded straight to the victory banquet.
Failing that, any of the other Bishops turning would have been fine too.
Dekan would have truly preferred "Unicorn" to be anyone else.
Anyone but the Frenzy Bishop!
The only man in this world that even Dekan could not predict!
Dekan pinched the bridge of his nose.
For a moment, he felt a bit flustered.
Even now, with all clues pointing to Clay being the Kingdom Federation's highest-level spy,
"Unicorn," Dekan still couldn't deduce whether Clay was an idiot agent or a true mastermind.
The man was too difficult to read.
He imagined it was the same for the Resurrection Church.
Even if the Pontiff suspected the Falsehood Bishop, he would never have suspected the Frenzy Bishop of being a mole.
"I'll just take this as retribution for sacrificing my karmic merit, getting stuck with you two weirdos from the Kingdom Federation."
Dekan listlessly glanced at the city defense hub.
The prison was also in turmoil now.
Taking advantage of the Resurrection Church's attack on the Kingdom Federation's central hub, the Calamity Host had begun an assault on the Filowen Prison.
Sheen had assigned 7th-rank combatants to defend the prison during the earliest defensive preparations.
Dekan, who had no more personnel to dispatch, originally had no spare capacity to worry about the prison.
But now, the biggest problem had arrived. The battle at the prison seemed exceptionally fierce, and Dekan couldn't get in touch with the Warden.
It seemed that place was also on the verge of being overrun.
Another huge problem.
「Dekan, what are you hoping for?」
「You're not trying your luck, are you? Hoping that besides the Nightmare Bishop, there's another mole among us?」
「Heh, hilarious.」
「That Nightmare Bishop was just a money-grubber who was about to be exposed anyway. You won't get that lucky a second time.」
「Thank you for initiating this mandatory meeting. It gives us something to laugh at when we're bored.」
The mocking voices of the other Bishops continued to echo in Dekan's mind.
Another minute passed.
There was still no sign of Clay on the map.
The situations on both the Finality Bishop's front and the Falsehood Bishop's front were gradually nearing collapse.
With a severe lack of combat power, they were now using their precious 8th-rank experts as consumables.
Once a friendly 8th-rank was actually killed, the entire line would truly collapse!
He couldn't count on Clay.
Dekan gritted his teeth, seeming to have finally made some sort of decision.
Although he didn't know if it would work, the only one who had even a slight chance of helping him now was her.
「Help me.」
After a slight pause, Dekan finally called out her name.
「Mi'e!」
After two minutes, Dekan's thoughts once again echoed in the Bishop's meeting.
A moment of silence followed.
Then came another round of doubt and ridicule from the Bishops.
「Who is Mi'e?」
「The name sounds vaguely familiar.」
「Is it one of Dekan's teammates?」
「Heh, he's getting desperate.」
「Bishop of Agony, has your desperation driven you mad?」
Dekan ignored these voices and continued to speak in the meeting:
「The situation is on the brink of collapse. This time, I truly have no other choice, or I wouldn't be asking for your help.」
Dekan's words were filled with helplessness.
「Hahaha, what kind of act are you putting on now?」
「Go on, let us see your pathetic, ugly state.」
「Even if such a mole really exists, would they risk their life to help you?」
The Bishops' voices echoed in Dekan's mind once again.
Dekan closed his eyes, his expression blank.
It was as if he had resigned himself to fate.
After coming to the Filowen Kingdom, he had already done his best.
He had done what he was supposed to do, what he wasn't supposed to do, what he could do, and things a 5th-rank expert should never have been able to do—he had pushed everything to the limit.
Now, both the situation and his own condition were about to give out.
The fatigue from continuous combat, the immense backlash from the curse, the depletion of his mana, and the immense mental pressure had caused his vision to flicker and his head to buzz.
However, just as the Bishops were relentlessly mocking Dekan, a new thought came through.
「Then we'll be even after this, okay?」
With those words, the Bishop's meeting fell silent.
***
In the Filowen Royal Capital, on a street where shadows and holy light continuously converged and exploded, the collision of ice crystals with light and darkness illuminated the dark night sky from time to time.
The Shadow Bishop, who was fighting Judith, the Ice Snow Princess, and Cloix, suddenly stopped.
The Shadow Army, which had blotted out the sky in this area, suddenly seemed to have received an order to cease fire.
Then, the Shadow Army gradually dissipated.
At the end of the street, far in the distance, a figure emerged from the slowly scattering dark shadow armor.
Without a doubt, she was the Shadow Bishop's true body!
They had been constantly stalled by the Shadow Bishop in the previous battle precisely because they couldn't find her true body. They never expected that she would now appear to call a truce and willingly reveal herself!
They didn't know what the Shadow Bishop was planning.
Her actions were too strange.
Although the fierce battle earlier made it seem like she was fighting Judith and the others seriously, it was actually more like she was merely entangling them.
The battle between the two sides had been overly gentle; after fighting for so long, no one had managed to injure anyone else.
According to the Shadow Bishop's agile and versatile characteristics, she had several opportunities to break away from the three of them. Yet, she seemed to relish the fight, choosing to stay and continue battling them instead of heading to the arena to support the Pontiff.
But Judith had already seized this opportunity and charged forward, and the Ice Snow Princess was also ready to control the Shadow Bishop!
However, the shadows dispersed, revealing the Shadow Bishop's true form.
This made Judith and the Ice Snow Princess, who had been determined in their assault, hesitate.
It was because of the Shadow Bishop's true appearance.
She bore an extraordinary resemblance to Mi'e!
She looked like a more mature version of Mi'e.
As for her demeanor and expression, one would be convinced that she was Mi'e!
"Who... who are you?!"
PART 2
Judith's eyes widened.
She couldn't accept it, and she dared not believe the situation before her.
The little black-haired girl who had traveled with them all the way to the Filowen Kingdom was actually the renowned strongest card maker of the Resurrection Church, the Shadow Bishop!
The Shadow Bishop revealed a slight, yet somewhat bitter, smile.
"Members of the Idol Group, and Cloix, please stop."
Even the tone of the Shadow Bishop's voice made them waver even more.
It was completely, utterly like the Mi'e they interacted with daily.
But the three of them immediately became vigilant.
This was very likely a trick by the Shadow Bishop, meant to make them lower their guard so she could defeat them in one fell swoop!
But the term "Idol Group"... was a name only the members of the Beautiful Mind Squad used in private.
How on earth would the Shadow Bishop know it?
"I will help Dekan intercept the Finality Bishop. You go intercept the Falsehood Bishop," the Shadow Bishop said softly.
Before Cloix could ask anything, the Shadow Bishop had already turned to leave.
Just as Judith was about to seize the opportunity to rush forward and subdue the seemingly defenseless Shadow Bishop, her hand was firmly grasped by Cloix.
"Let's follow her for now."
Cloix looked at the Shadow Bishop with a complicated expression.
It wasn't just her resemblance to Mi'e.
She was also far too similar to the image of the Saintess of Darkness in his memory.
***
「Who is it?」
「Minos??!」
「This isn't a funny time to be making jokes like this.」
「...You're not... actually serious, are you?」
The thoughts within the Bishop's meeting seemed to detonate in an instant, crisscrossing and causing Dekan's nerves to throb with pain.
「Minos, do you know what you are saying?」
Even the usually taciturn Finality Bishop began to transmit his thoughts.
However, the Shadow Bishop did not respond to them at all.
As if tacitly acknowledging their questions, she simply waited for Dekan's statement.
「You never owed me anything to begin with.」
Dekan opened his eyes and murmured softly.
He had long guessed that Mi'e was Minos.
He just saw through it but didn't expose it.
「I have repaid the debt that the Saintess of Darkness, Milia, owed you.」
The Shadow Bishop replied, then added, as if confirming a code word, 「As for that business of hypnotizing Iris before, I hope we can both take it to our graves.」
「Yes.」
Dekan responded simply.
The matter of scaring Iris into fainting and then hypnotizing her was something only Dekan and Mi'e knew.
With that sentence, the Shadow Bishop had completely proven to Dekan that she was Mi'e.
「Dekan, when we meet again, we will be true enemies.」
When she spoke this last sentence, Mi'e's gradually chilling voice sounded like a farewell.
「...Understood.」
Dekan seemed to want to say something, but in the end, he only replied with a simple thought and let his hand holding the 【Bishop of Agony’s Certificate】 fall as if exhausted.
So, that's how it was...
Mi'e, as he suspected, had also confirmed her relationship with Milia.
Or perhaps, besides the Shadow World, she had also experienced the dream of the Holy Kingdom. Long before she met Dekan at the academy, Mi'e already possessed some of Milia's memories.
The only thing Dekan didn't quite understand was why Mi'e would say "the Saintess of Darkness owed Dekan."
Although Dekan had saved the Saintess of Darkness in the Shadow World, that was ultimately just a reenactment of a historical projection. The one who saved the Saintess of Darkness in history was not Dekan.
Unless...
In the Holy Kingdom of that era, the one who truly saved the Saintess of Darkness was...
Delois!!
Everything seemed to become clear.
For a moment, countless memories flashed through Dekan's mind.
Why Mi'e was so friendly to him when they first met.
Why she had trusted him almost absurdly and became his friend.
Her philosophy on treating friends aligned so perfectly with his own that Dekan had once suspected she was his long-lost half-sister.
So all of this... came from a single sentence Delois had taught Milia—
"Even if there is a risk of betrayal, if both sides remain unchanged, the relationship will never improve. You must trust, even if you might be betrayed. Over time, even a demon can make a true friend."
And also, the time the Shadow Bishop later risked sneaking into the Randil Kingdom to secretly try and help Dekan resolve the threat from the Corrupt Bishop Fahim.
Perhaps that time, Mi'e had intended to repay the kindness Milia owed to Delois.
Unfortunately, Clay beat her to it, so Mi'e didn't really end up helping much.
So, Mi'e saved her repayment for this truly fatal crisis.
Thump.
Dekan finally sat down on the ground, utterly exhausted.
The moment he heard the words "true enemies," Dekan understood—
Mi'e was an Imperial.
The stance of the Imperial Sword Saint Adair was already obvious.
After this life-or-death battle between the Kingdom Federation and the Resurrection Church, regardless of who won, the Salon Empire would take advantage of the Kingdom Federation's greatly weakened state to start a war.
Just now, even though Dekan's first impulse was to say to Mi'e, "Can't enemies be friends?", the words felt stuck in his throat, unable to come out.
Mi'e, who was always so carefree and loved to joke, had actually used such a cold tone with him.
It was exactly the same as during those dozen or so days in the Shadow World, when the Saintess of Darkness regarded him as a mortal enemy.
Dekan knew that Mi'e was serious.
After today, they would become like the demon and the Saintess of Darkness.
A Kingdomer and an Imperial would only be mortal enemies on the battlefield.
"All Kingdom personnel, attention. The Shadow Bishop has defected. Cease all interception efforts against her."
After relaying the order to the entire city through the control hub, Dekan finally completed his work.
Instantly, throughout the Royal Capital, the people who had been watching the battle erupted into thunderous cheers once more.
"What's going on? Dekan convinced the Shadow Bishop to defect too?"
"How on earth did he do it?! Is that even possible?!"
"You can always believe in Dekan!"
"After this battle, he will be a peerless hero of the nation!!"
Even though the cheers coming from all directions could be heard by Dekan in the arena, he just couldn't seem to muster any energy.
He no longer felt the joy of an impending victory as he had in any previous instance.
"In this battle, what have I truly gained...?"
Leaning against the magical apparatus, Dekan tilted his head back, a trace of confusion appearing in his usually resolute eyes for the first time.
If you were to ask Dekan what he treasured most in this world, he could now give an answer without hesitation.
It was definitely not money or fame, and certainly not magic cards.
It was the friends who stood by his side.
If he could, he wished so much that Mi'e could always be his companion, that they could all be happy together forever.
Even if there was a lie between them that they both saw through but never spoke of, he was willing to believe in Mi'e.
But some lies, once exposed, can never be pieced back together.
Dekan was unwilling to imagine the day he would have to face a Mi'e who had truly become his enemy.
No matter how ruthless and decisive Dekan could be towards his enemies, he didn't know if he could do the same to Mi'e.