CHAPTER 197: 197. CHANGE OF PLANS

Port Cheshire was always covered in fog during the winter mornings.

Gong! Gong!

The morning bells rang all over the city as the Sun rose from behind the Sapphire Sea, slowly blanketing the houses with its reddish light and giving rise to sleeping shadows.

Today, Church Knights patrolled all over the cities for some reason, holding flasks of holy water and sprinkling it as they walked while murmuring certain chants.

Starting from the cathedral in the St. Daly District, and going through every junction, every alley, and every street — the knights diligently did the duty they were assigned to.

Not just the Port District, even the Lower Slums were included in today’s practice.

The last time this happened was hundreds of years ago, so the majority of the people, even the nobles, were unaware of what this signified.

However, the clergymen knew exactly what was happening and their expressions went from shock to fear.

This was not just some mere purification, this was a holy ritual to activate a divine array etched into Cheshire’s soil by Saint Dalina.

There were three layers to this array, each of which required a holy ritual to be activated.

The first was the Holy Water Ritual performed by knights who’d given their faith to the God of Light.

The second was the Creed Ritual where masses prayed wholeheartedly while facing the church.

As for the last ritual, it had never been activated and only the Bishop knew about its specifics.

It was said that when all three arrays were activated, it was possible to even kill a Great Demon of the 5th Circle!

"After Gera was ruined, there hasn’t been any news from Sir Panchel. They say he’s alive and well, but who can truly know..." Inside the cathedral, one of the 2nd Circle Priests murmured to the other priests and priestesses surrounding him.

"Is a disaster about to befall our Cheshire as well...?" The clergymen couldn’t help but shudder.

...

Several hours passed and it was the middle of 9 am by now. The morning was ripe.

At the moment, cries of a certain slave trader resounded in the cabins of a hulk anchored to the less frequented pier at the port.

"Aaaaah!" Xenan jolted as Fiona kicked him again in the ribcage which she’d broken.

If not for his base self-regeneration and greater life force as a 3rd Circle Brawler, he’d have already died yesterday.

"You bitch, kill me if you dare!" The scary-looking man in his mid 30s roared without fear.

"Don’t think I’m without backing. The Red Skull Pirates will surely avenge me!" He said and suddenly tried to bite his tongue.

However, an immense mental pressure fell on him and he found it hard to even make a move. A dark figure stepped out from the shadows and said in a leisurely manner,

"Now, now, I can’t have you dying like this."

"W-Who are you...?" Xenan’s previous bravery completely left his body and he started shuddering.

Something about this man felt extremely unsettling. This kind of aura was so evil it made him crawl back even when it hurt.

"Who are these Red Skull Pirates you speak of?" Jake crouched and looked at the man with interest.

"N-No... L-Leave me! What have I-I done to you all?!" Xenan turned around and tried his best to crawl away.

"Not gonna speak... huh." Jake shook his head and extended a hand, using [Demonic Grasp].

Suddenly, the slave trader felt a large invisible force grab and catapult him towards the man dressed in black.

Within a second, his neck was held by a large demonic hand and a piercing sensation hit his mind.

[Degeneration Halo]

"Aaaaaah!"

As Xenan was already a very sinful individual, and his mental defenses were nonexistent due to his fear, it didn’t take long for him to get corrupted.

As Jake let the man go, he went silent for a while before slowly gathering his composure.

"Xenan is at your service, master."

"Hmm." Jake nodded. He took out the Black Reaper from his inventory and used Blood Regeneration on his new servant, healing him completely.

"Now then, I suppose you can start talking."

Twenty minutes later, Jake learned everything he wanted to and left the hulk with Fiona after giving Xenan multiple orders.

However, as soon as he stepped foot into the dock, he immediately noticed something wrong.

’This...’

Demons had high sensitivity towards powers relating to the holy attribute as it was deadly towards them.

And right now, Jake could feel that the city was bubbling with Holy Power to the point it was starting to overtake the surrounding ambient mana.

When the cathedral dispatched hundreds of church knights all over the city in the morning, Jake had already been suspicious. However, he never thought they’d been planning something so big.

At the moment, an unprecedented sense of danger arose in his heart. Jake had never felt this way, not even during his fight in Gera City.

His instincts told him that if he took a step past the dock, he’d be immediately detected and bombarded with holy attacks.

"Did something happen? Why did you stop?" Fiona bit her forefinger and confusedly looked at her daddy who didn’t move after stepping on the wharf.

"Change of plans!" Jake suddenly said, "We’re going to meet this Marquis right now."

Grabbing Fiona’s hand, he immediately used the spell he’d mastered in Tartus, [Lesser Teleportation] and appeared at the busy part of the port.

At the moment, the city had already entered a state of high alert. Under the orders of Bishop Lucas, the church knights and priests were frantically looking for the source of evil that was supposedly lurking within this city.

By now, even ordinary civilians knew what was up, much less slave traders like Ragan and others.

Back at the docks, Jake bit his thumb and burned some drops of his blood to inform his corrupted servants to not come into contact with any clerics, especially not those above the 2nd Circle.

This was because of the situation with the Holy Power. Right now, the Seeds of Corruption he’d placed in people’s minds had become much more noticeable.

As long as a priest or priestess was in the 3rd Circle or above, they’d easily be able to identify the corrupted individuals and purify them.

Once that happened, not only would the corrupt be free from his control, but it would also be much harder to place another seed of corruption in them in the future. This was especially true for ranked individuals who had higher wills.

All his plans would go down the drain in that case!

’Surely they can’t maintain this defense for too long. Once I awaken my bloodline, I’ll conquer not just this city, but the entire kingdom as well.’ Jake thought as he and Fiona boarded a large passenger ship.

This schooner was heading westward along the northern coast, and one of its stops was Basburg City where Marquis Jones’ main estate was located.