North District, beneath St. Samuel's Church.
Silas lowered his head to read a file marked "Confidential" at the top, his expression cold.
Written on it was the following:
[Name: Ince Zangwill, former Archbishop of the Church, a Gatekeeper who failed his promotion.
Record: Joined the Night Church in the year 13XX, became an assistant priest. In 13XX, due to good performance, promoted to priest... In 13XX, failed the promotion to Sequence 4, "Undying," and subsequently applied again to the Holy Sanctum for promotion, which was rejected. Consequently, his mental state grew abnormal, and he defected while carrying Sealed Artifact 0-08. He later arrived in Tingen, where his use of 0-08 resulted in severe losses for the local Nighthawks squad, and he made off with the ashes of Saint Selena...
Based on reasonable inference, Ince has very likely switched to a different pathway for advancement, and has become the Sequence 4 "Nightwatcher."
After leaving Tingen, the target is suspected to have returned to Backlund, and in cooperation with the Demoness Sect, brought about the Great Backlund Fog incident.
He has appeared there. A special squad has been dispatched to hunt him down; as of now, no trace of him has been found in Backlund. It is speculated he may be lying low, or may have already reached another region...]
"Damn it..."
Silas cursed under his breath. Not only had the key portions of the file been redacted, but it appeared the trail had gone cold as well.
That damned Ince was still slipping free of the Church's pursuit, enjoying his own life somewhere out there.
His finger traced across the blacked-out blocks of text.
By his estimation, this redacted information was probably connected to the Loen royal family.
Klein had already shared the relevant intelligence with him before: it seemed Ince had reached some form of cooperation with the royal family.
No wonder he hadn't felt the least bit guilty about shelling the royal palace!
But if even the Church had no leads on him, how was he supposed to track the man down and get his revenge? Should he go after the royal family directly, or draw on the Church's resources and conduct a large-scale sweep...
"Your Excellency Ishmael."
Silas's train of thought was suddenly interrupted.
A Red Glove member had appeared outside the door at some point, and spoke to him respectfully. "Good news. The Blood Clan has finally loosened their tongues... they've agreed to help, and have already given us the whereabouts of those cultists who worship the Primordial Moon."
So the upper ranks of the vampires really did know something...
Silas thought to himself.
As the organizers of this trial, they were surely keeping the situation under their control behind the scenes; there was no way they'd let the younger generation charge in blindly with no preparations in place.
"Go fetch Soest. His squad can move out."
Silas said as he closed the file and stood up.
Though he put on an air of urgency, in his heart he already knew that even if they tracked down those few cultists, they'd most likely already be corpses by the time they arrived.
Because he'd already shared the intelligence with the Moon beforehand.
No matter how useless that fellow Emlyn might be, he was at least a Sequence 6, and he'd borrowed the Magician's notebook besides.
By the time Silas led his own team over there, Emlyn would likely have already finished hunting down the targets and left.
"Your Excellency Ishmael, there's one more thing."
The Red Glove said. "Archbishop St. Anthony requests your presence."
"The Bishop wants to see me?"
Silas's brow furrowed slightly.
"Yes. It's probably because the Blood Clan's protests have grown too intense, and to placate them, he wants to have a word with you."
The man answered.
Wants to have a word with me, does he... Looks like I won't be able to lead the team out after all...
Silas thought to himself.
Still, going out there this time would only amount to collecting corpses anyway, nothing dangerous about it, so there was no problem letting the Red Glove squad go on their own.
"Understood. Lead the way."
He said, and followed behind the Red Glove, leaving the area.
Meanwhile, in the East District, on Whale Street.
Emlyn White, dressed in the shabby clothes of a commoner, trailed at a distance behind a man.
By openly selling the wooden doll at a Beyonders' gathering, he had finally succeeded in hooking one of the followers of the Primordial Moon.
That man was none other than one of their hunting targets, Galis Kevin. This Galis Kevin now wore an expression brimming with fanatical devotion, clutching the wooden box containing the strange doll tightly to his chest.
"Still walking, huh..."
Emlyn rubbed the small notebook in his pocket, unable to stop himself from licking his lips.
His original plan had been to trail the man back to his home and then strike from ambush.
That way would be easier to handle and far more discreet, without risk of being noticed by ordinary people.
But Galis Kevin's residence turned out to be unexpectedly far, and he'd kept on walking ever since leaving the gathering, all the way until now.
Fortunately, the target finally came to a stop, turning to walk into a run-down apartment building.
So this is where he lives... Wait, no!
Emlyn, watching from a distance with his sharp vampiric eyesight, suddenly felt his gaze sharpen. He saw Galis Kevin knock on the door of one of the rooms, and then someone opened the door from inside... and that person turned out to be the last hunting target, Argos.
Two followers of the Primordial Moon, meeting up here!
Crouched in the corner, Emlyn's expression went momentarily blank.
If it were one against one, he wouldn't have to worry in the slightest.
But two against one left him feeling somewhat uneasy. After all, he spent most of his days cooped up at home and had little real combat experience.
He watched helplessly as Galis excitedly showed the box to Argos, then stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.
Guess I'll just have to wait a while longer...
Emlyn thought to himself.
Now he knew Argos's residence as well; all he had to do was wait for the two of them to split up again, and he could pick them off one by one.
That way, having successfully hunted down all three targets, he'd become the undisputed winner of this trial.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help pulling out that "Lenormand's Travel Journal" and flipping through its pages.
"Divination Interference," "Open Door," "Lightning Strike," "Conjuring Trick"... The yellowish parchment was densely inscribed with abilities, and this was the greatest source of confidence for tonight's operation.
Emlyn's finger paused, flipping to those three pages scorched a yellowish brown.
Those were the pages capable of recording demigod-level abilities.
Shhk!
The instant his finger touched the paper, a thick, gloomy aura surged up along his fingertip at once, making his whole body shudder involuntarily, as if he'd sunk into a dark, freezing shadow.
"Cull of Spiritual Flesh"?
That sounded like such an evil technique.
Emlyn looked over the description on the page and quickly guessed that this was an ability provided by Temperance.
If he used this move, he'd probably be able to kill both of them inside in one go... No, wait, according to the rules, once a "recording" was used up, it needed to be refilled again... having Temperance record something for him again wouldn't come cheap...
As he familiarized himself with the location of each ability in the notebook, he took out several vials of potion, dabbing some on his skin and drinking the rest, gradually letting his form fade into concealment.
Once Galis steps out, I'll slip into Argos's room and go all out...
Just as Emlyn was working through his battle plan, he suddenly heard a piercing scream ring out.
"AAAAAAAH!"
It was a voice both frenzied and brimming with joy.
BOOM!
In an instant, dense grass and blossoms burst into growth, tearing through the room's windows and door, spilling out into the open!