"Those darn dark elves! Do they think they can hide from us forever? The order of the lights of Goddess Kara will eliminate all these impurities from this land. Our goddess was a pure and proud elf.

We won't allow those dark abominations to taint her name. You! Go and check out the water condition. Have those elves finally succumbed to that contaminated water?"

Deep in the forest, a small army of the temple was situated.

This small number of knights, belonging to Goddess Kara and her branch of purification, were ever-vigilant in their belief in the purity of the world.

Moreover, they had only one mission—to eliminate all the dark elves that had given their goddess a bad reputation.

There was no rhyme or reason behind their actions; it was just a blinding faith that bound them to their duty of ridding the world of the evil that were dark elves.

And the one who stood at the forefront of this assault was Brother Gustav.

He was a low-level temple executive but dreamed of making it big one day. But to do that, he needed to show results.

After much hardship and looking around, he had finally found a hideout of the dark elves and wanted to charge in as he pleased.

But he was sure the dark elves would not die just because of this. So, he had a plan: to poison the dark elves over time.

He started with the local water supply, and his contamination hit the dark elves hard.

Their numbers started dwindling, making it harder for him to find them.

Of course, his actions also caused trouble for the local villages, but since he was from the temple, the villagers could not do anything to cause him trouble.

So, he continued. First, it was the water, and then slowly, fruit trees and animals.

He was making it so that the elves would not be able to survive, even if they somehow found another source of water around here.

Brother Gustav was proud of his plan and took pride in it. But it was all shattered momentarily when a guard ran into his tent to tell him what happened.

"T-The water…it is no longer contaminated. Someone purified the water; we don't know when that happened. B-Boss, what do we do now?"

These words made Gustav's heart clench in pain.

He had paid a huge amount of money and resources to contaminate that water. There should have been no way the elf magic could have purified it.

"Find out how this happened! I want to know everything I can about it."

The man spoke confidently, but his guard hesitated before bringing out the stash he had found at the crime scene.

It had a familiar logo, making the brother curse under his breath.

"T-That is-! Duke Lockhart's sigil! Does that mean that the Duke is here, and he helped the dark elves out? Or maybe he helped the villagers out by doing this. I-I don't think we should get involved in all this, brother Gustav."

One of the other ambitious brothers who had taken his side and came out with him spoke.

It was one thing to go up against the dark elves but another to go up against the Duke, who was known to end wars with his massive power.

The order of knights of Kara was small, and they knew they could easily be crushed.

But worst of all, the temple would side with the Duke if he told them what happened. No one would care about the Dark Elves as much as they would about endangering human lives…. on the surface, at least.

"Tsk, we cannot back down now. We have spent a lot of manpower and resources to get this far. If we had back now, all of that would have been wasted. We need to keep pressing forward.

Besides, I doubt it is the duke that came here personally. The last I heard, the royal palace called for him, so he had to leave for that place. And the royal palace is on the opposite side of this continent.

The person who used the Duke's authority is more than likely one of his vessels."

Brother Gustav reasoned, and many thought that his words made sense.

It was concluded that the Duke was not here, but that did not improve their situation much.

"Tsk, we came so far already. We should just challenge this person for authority and make sure to shut their mouths forever. Seeing how we did not get confronted outright, it seems this person does not have good support.

We can easily take them out."

Gustav managed to excite the people he brought with him.

Even if they did not want to participate, it was too late for most of them to back out now. They were stuck here to see things out until the very end.

"Boss! We finally caught it. We caught a dark elf alive. Hurry up and come with us."

A soldier came running inside with a heated face. He looked surprised and delighted at the same time.

It was the first time their soldiers had managed to catch a dark elf alive since most of them ended up up killing themselves if they knew they were going to be caught.

"You did! That is great. Take me to that elf. Since we finally have a dark elf, we can end this useless fade and kill all those elves myself."

Brother Gustav let out a delighted laugh.

He now knew his mission was right, and his goddess intended for him to do this. Why else would she help him like this by sending him a dark elf when he needed it the most?

"You all see this! Goddess Kara's grace is with us and wants us to succeed in our mission. We will end all those vile dark elves here before the Duke and his vassal get involved.

As the proud knights of Goddess Kara, it is our duty to ensure that we win her honor and allow no traitor or enemy to be alive once we are done with them."