Chapter 397 — Unfriendly Guests

Once all the Cecil's power of resistance had been broken by the coalition, Gao Yang Cecil alone, a single Legend, could stir up no great storm.

Le Shuang pondered silently how the Blazing Sun Church ought to conduct its work in the Southern Diocese once the ancient, stubborn Cecil family had utterly fallen. Then he lifted his head and looked at the walls of Xuanyue standing not far off. The soldiers on the walls had of course noticed the arrival of uninvited guests; figures were now running to and fro atop the battlements. Le Shuang merely watched them run, his expression gentle and pitying.

He raised his hand, and a mighty shaft of holy light shot up into the sky. Such a blatant provocation—the liege hiding in the city would surely see it.

Then he opened his mouth, preparing to use the divine art "Voice of the Celestial Realm" to call out, to let the people in the city know why the judgment of holy light would fall upon them: it was because they had sheltered heretics and provoked the God of Holy Light that this calamity had come upon them.

But just as he was about to recite the prayer, a humanoid creature, likewise radiant and utterly incomprehensible, appeared on the wall not far away.

The creature was tall and dreadful, its whole body brimming with the glory of magic. Its form was like a mass of unshaped arcane energy, held to a rough human outline by a suit of armor plates carved all over with runes. It appeared floating above the high wall, and before it had spoken a word, a mighty arcane lightning bolt suddenly split the sky.

"So you must be the 'unfriendly guests' my liege spoke of," the inconceivable being of energy spoke, its voice rolling like thunder. "Halt! You have trespassed upon Cecil's land!"

"Where the holy light shines is all the Lord's land!" Le Shuang gripped the long staff in his hand, watching the energy being on the wall warily. He had expected the legendary liege himself to be the first to show himself, never this creature that seemed an elemental or a magical construct. "I am Le Monte, Southern Bishop of the Blazing Sun Church. In the name of holy light, I have come to parley with your liege!"

"Parley?" Kamael's voice rolled. "Parley with twelve fully armed knights? And your blades are already drawn!"

"Because of what Cecil has done of late, we are compelled to face you with the utmost vigilance," Le Shuang called out. "You have sheltered the cultists exiled by the Blazing Sun Church. For the purity of holy light, I am charged to carry out judgment upon the Ember Shadow heretics."

Kamael shook his head. In truth he very much wished to send back a mocking expression, but he had no expressions—he could only shake his head. "Then it seems you will return empty-handed, Your Grace. Those you call heretics have been justly tried under Cecil law and found innocent. They are now lawful citizens of this land, and your actions are challenging Cecil's law."

Le Shuang seemed to have been waiting for that sentence. He needed a pretext, something to make the knights' "exercise of holy light's power" seem a little more fitting. And now the Cecil's thorough sheltering of heretics and the words of that energy being had given him one: since when could a liege's law put a diocesan bishop on trial?

The bishop could not suppress a smile. "In that case, we shall have to resort to force."

The knights raised their longswords one and all, and surging holy light began to churn among them.

But before they could launch their attack, Kamael had already spoken: "Perfect. I can use you to test my new project. Prism Unit—prepare to overload the capacitors!"

(Book recommendation time! *Dimensional Expedition*, a story of breaking ground, farming, and building infrastructure in another world. The author's previous book was *Cultural Invasion of Another World*, quality guaranteed. I tell you, this author has survived the curse that felled his last book and has now cultivated a golden body—steady as a rock!)