The morning wind swept through the streets of Orissa City, stirring up a few withered yellow leaves.
At the main gate of the estate, a fully armed unit had finished assembling.
They wore silver-white armor, with the church cross insignia of the Church adorning their chests, and the longspears in their hands reflected a cold gleam under the rising sun.
This was the Holy Paladin Order directly under the Saintess—or rather, the Private Soldiers that the Olivias Family had cultivated through the Church.
Though few in number, only a little over twenty, every single one was a carefully selected elite.
They stood silently in the cold wind, their gazes firm, waiting for the command of their young Saintess.
Eleanor stood at the very front of the formation, her hand gripping her staff tightly, her expression solemn and dignified.
She gave the order in a low voice: “Move out.”
The formation began to advance slowly, heading toward that towering cathedral.
The heavy clanking of armor rang out in perfect unison, striking the stone-paved road with dull thuds, like the beating of war drums.
However, just as the formation was about to turn the street corner, Helos, who had been following close behind Eleanor, suddenly stopped in her tracks. Her gaze flickered for a moment, as if she had just thought of some critical detail she had overlooked.
Without a moment’s hesitation, the young girl turned and quickly walked over to Julius, who was positioned on the flank of the formation.
She reached out and gently tugged at the black-haired young man’s sleeve.
“Julius.”
Julius stopped in his tracks, lowered his head, and looked at her with slight confusion.
Helos stood on her tiptoes, signaling for him to lean his ear closer.
“What’s wrong?”
Julius obediently bent down.
Helos brought her mouth close to his ear and whispered a few words in a voice that only the two of them could hear.
In Julius’s originally calm eyes, a flash of obvious surprise flickered through in an instant.
He seemed to have never expected Helos to make such a request.
But he didn’t ask further.
Out of trust for Helos, or perhaps out of the tacit understanding that had long formed between the two of them, Julius, after his brief shock, nodded without the slightest hesitation.
“I understand.”
His voice was steady and firm: “Leave it to me.”
With that, this chosen one wasted no time at all, turning directly and breaking away from the marching formation.
His figure quickly vanished into the maze of alleys at the side, disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye.
This scene naturally caught the attention of Eleanor, who was walking ahead.
She turned her head and looked at the formation, now one person short, with some confusion.
“Sisi?”
Eleanor asked, puzzled: “Where did Julius go? This is such a critical moment. Why would he leave?”
Faced with her sister’s question, Helos didn’t answer directly. She merely smiled faintly, those pale purple eyes shimmering with a cunning and mysterious light.
“Don’t worry, sister.”
The young girl said lightly: “I just sent him to take care of some necessary clean-up work. After all, you know, when you’re catching rats, you always need to be prepared on both fronts.”
Eleanor was taken aback for a moment, as if she wanted to ask more, but seeing how confident Helos looked, she ultimately chose to trust her.
“Alright.”
Her Holiness the saint took a deep breath and refocused her attention on what lay ahead.
“Then let’s keep moving.”
The main force marched noisily through half the city, finally arriving at the main entrance of the Olisa Cathedral.
At this moment, the cathedral was still in a state of tight external security but lax internal discipline.
When the guards at the perimeter saw the Saintess and the Holy Paladin Order charging in with intimidating momentum, every one of them turned pale with fear, not daring to offer the slightest resistance.
Though they were guards under Duran’s command, faced with this Saintess, who held immense prestige among the people and was clearly in a furious state, none of them truly dared to draw their swords against her.
“Out of the way!”
Eleanor’s staff struck the ground heavily, letting out a crisp ring.
Several deacons who had been about to step forward and question them were cowed by her momentum and instinctively retreated to both sides, opening a path leading into the cathedral.
The formation marched straight in.
They passed through the grand chapel, through the deep cloisters, pressing all the way toward the underground Alchemy Chamber.
Along the way, the Clergy they encountered all hastily stepped aside, watching this murderous procession with terrified eyes, completely at a loss as to what was happening.
Until they reached the entrance to the underground area.
The situation here was clearly different from above.
Standing guard here were no longer ordinary church guards, but a group of warriors clad in dark red armor, radiating a bloody aura from head to toe.
These were the Private Soldiers of Bishop Duran, his most loyal claws.
There were about a dozen or so of these men, armed with heavy weapons, blocking the only path leading underground with deadly determination.
“Halt!”
The leading Private Soldiers captain drew his longsword and barked fiercely: “By order of His Excellency the Archbishop! No one is permitted to enter the restricted area! Violators will be put to death without mercy!”
His voice was rough and arrogant, showing not the slightest respect for the Saintess before him.
Eleanor stopped in her tracks. She looked at these Private Soldiers, who had clearly already prepared for battle, and a chill flickered through her eyes.
She knew that reasoning with these men was pointless.
They only followed Duran’s orders, caring nothing for the Church’s rules, and even less for the Saintess’s authority.
“Step aside.”
Eleanor’s voice was icy: “I am the Saintess of the Southern Diocese. I have the right to inspect every corner of this cathedral! What you are doing now is defying the Church, defying the Goddess!”
“Hmph, don’t try to push the Goddess on us!”
The Private Soldiers captain sneered, a faint red battle aura flaring to life on the blade of his longsword.
“Without the Archbishop’s orders, even the Great Saintess herself would have to wait outside!”
At his command, the dozen or so trusted men behind him raised their weapons simultaneously.
“Boys! Prepare for battle!”
The magic runes embedded in the gaps of their armor began to glow, clearly indicating that their equipment had been magically reinforced.
The atmosphere tightened to its breaking point in that instant.
Eleanor let out a sigh.
Though she didn’t care for violence, sometimes, violence truly was the fastest way to solve a problem.
Her Holiness the saint slowly raised her staff.
“Since you refuse to see reason… don’t blame me for being rude.”
“Attack!”
At her command.
The Holy Paladins behind her immediately let out a unified roar.
They raised their shields and swords, charging forward like a torrent of steel toward the enemy ahead.
“You’re asking for it!”
The trusted captain let out a vicious laugh.
He had absolute confidence in his men.
These were all warriors strengthened with special potions, and every piece of equipment they wore was enchanted armor purchased at a hefty price.
In terms of individual combat ability, he was certain they wouldn’t lose to these showpiece Holy Paladins.
“Beat them down!”
He roared, swinging his sword as he charged forward first.
The mana glow on his blade surged wildly, carrying the force to split mountains and crack stones as it slashed toward the leading Holy Paladin.
At the same time, the Private Soldiers behind him activated the magic runes on their equipment one after another.
Fire, frost, lightning… the magic waves of various elements began to converge in the narrow Corridor.
But at that very moment of crisis, Helos, who had been standing quietly behind Eleanor, suddenly lifted her head slightly.
A mischievous glint flashed through those pale purple eyes of hers.
She had long known these men were not to be underestimated.
Since Duran had dared to set up defenses here, he must have left a contingency plan.
The equipment on these Private Soldiers, even at the lowest level of enchantment, was genuine magical power.
If they clashed head-on, even if the Holy Paladins won, they would likely pay a considerable price.
But playing with magic in front of her?
“Naive.”
A contemptuous smile curved at the corner of the young girl’s lips.
Her mind stirred ever so slightly.
That curse of silence, now fully awakened and completely under her control, silently opened its gaping maw at this moment.
[Domain expanded.]
An invisible wave, centered on Helos, swept through the entire corridor in an instant.
But this time, the wave did not indiscriminately suppress everything like before.
Under Helos’s precise control of her will, it moved like an intricate net, deftly flowing around Eleanor, Gavi, and all the Holy Paladins beside her.
Then, like a mountain crashing down, it slammed hard onto those Private Soldiers across from them!
The next second, a bizarre scene unfolded.
The trusted captain, who had been just about to release his magic, felt the power within his body drained as if by a suction pump, vanishing without a trace in an instant.
The dazzling glow on his sword died out immediately, like a candle just lit and blown out by the wind.
And the Private Soldiers behind him, who were in the middle of activating their equipment, suffered a devastating blow.
The armor that had been gleaming with magical light went dull in an instant, turning into heavy scrap metal.
The fireballs and ice shards that had been converging suddenly collapsed a second before they could take shape, dissolving into harmless elemental particles that scattered into the air.
“What’s going on?!”
“Where’s my power?! Where’s my mana?!”
“Why isn’t this equipment responding?!”
The previously ferocious Private Soldiers immediately fell into chaos.
They stared at their own hands in horror, completely unable to comprehend what had just happened.
The power they took pride in, the magical equipment they relied on to survive, had all failed at this moment.
They had been transformed from magic warriors armed to the teeth into a group of ordinary men wearing nothing but heavy iron shells.
“Now!”
Though Eleanor was surprised by this change, she didn’t let the opportunity slip.
“Charge through! Subdue them!”
The Holy Paladins had no idea what had happened, but the holy light blessing on them hadn’t disappeared.
Faced with enemies who had suddenly turned into spineless weaklings, they showed no mercy.
“Kill!”
Swords thrust, shields smashed.
The battle became a one-sided rout.
The Private Soldiers, having lost their magic and equipment advantage, stood no chance against the well-trained, holy-light-protected Holy Paladins.
Dull thuds rang out one after another.
The Private Soldiers, clad in heavy armor but stripped of the power to support it, toppled over like clumsy tin cans, easily slammed to the ground.
In the blink of an eye, in less than a minute, this conflict that should have been intense came to an end.
All the Private Soldiers were beaten to the ground, pinned down firmly by the Holy Paladins and tied up tight.
The Private Soldiers captain, his face covered in blood, was pressed to the ground.
He struggled to lift his head, staring in terror at the silver-haired young girl in the distance who had remained standing in the same spot the entire time, without even lifting a hand.
“You—what exactly did you do?!”
Helos paid no attention to the wails of the defeated.
She merely cast a cold glance over the magical equipment that had lost its luster on the ground, then withdrew her gaze.
“Let’s go, sister.”
She said softly: “Don’t keep that old fox waiting.”
“Yeah.”
Eleanor nodded.
She took a deep breath and walked up to the black iron gate leading to the Alchemy Chamber.
This time, there were no guards to stop her.
“Boom—”
The heavy door was pushed open by two Holy Paladins with force.
A thick, pungent smell of potions rushed out to meet them.
Eleanor gripped her staff tightly and charged in first, ready to expose Duran’s scheme on the spot and catch the culprit who was brewing poison red-handed.
She shouted loudly: “Duran! Your scheme has been exposed! Surrender immediately!”
But what greeted her was a deathly silence.
There was no expected resistance, nor was there that panicked Archbishop.
The Alchemy Chamber was completely empty.
The massive cauldron was still emitting steam, the liquid inside still churning, but the figure who should have been standing there overseeing the process was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is he?!”
Eleanor looked around in shock.
“Over there!”
Gavi suddenly pointed to the corner of the room.
There, where a bookshelf had once stood, a pitch-black entrance was now revealed.
The bookshelf had been moved aside, exposing a Secret Passage leading deeper underground.
Helos quickly walked over to the Alchemical Table.
She glanced at the cauldron, then at the spot nearby where finished products should have been stored.
Empty.
“Tsk, tsk.”
The young girl clicked her tongue and spread her hands.
“This guy actually ran.”
She pointed at the empty shelf.
“And it looks like he took all the finished Poison with him too.”