Chapter 193: Church of Order
After an hour walk, we finally reach the Church of Order that the informant said to us to be the main responsible for the disappearance of many individuals.
The Church of Order looked is more comparable to a castle than a church. The Holy Church situated in the last town we visited is not this grandiose. You can tell that the architect and the workers of the place is quite skilled as they built this place to look as detailed as possible from the edges to each and every sides of the walls and pillars.
However, unlike the Holy feeling you get whenever you look in a church, the feeling you get here is heavier and darker. What is more, the malice and hatred is overflowing in this place. There are no other buildings around since the Church of Order is built on a place where you can only see the plains and trees without anything else obstructing the path.
"What are you guys trying to do here?" Aria asked.
"We are going to do our task here and confirm the information if it is real or not," Ishana said.
"I can tell that the aura of this place is very heavy and looking at it for too long is making my head hurt," Aria said before she put her face on Kon's fur.
As expected of someone sensitive in Mana sense, detecting the malice and the dark energy this place is emitting is something she can detect but had a hard time looking at it. As someone who experienced that before can relate on what Aria is experiencing right now.
"Shall we head in now?" Yami asked.
"I am not confident to do this task but I can go in too."
I know they are eager to enter the place, but that is just pure suicide for the two of them.
"Lets wait till nightfall. It is too risky for us to sneak in the daylight," I suggested.
"Then what about the kidnapped victims? Are you saying we should take our time instead of rescuing them?" Yami immediately disagreed.
"Are you an idiot who only has brawns but no brains? If you want to rush to your death then be my guest and go ahead. I am stalling until this nightfall since it is much safer and we can use the darkness of the night to cover our movements, lessening the rate we will be discovered by anyone. If we go right now, getting into a fight and be discovered is very high and if we lost on them, no one will rescue them anymore plus we are also captives. Now, you get my gist? This is for the safety of everyone and not for selfish reasoning," I explained since this thickhead seems to just not think for the greater good but only think for quick way without thinking about the result on his actions.
"I agree with Kazuma's plan to sneak in at nightfall. It's much less riskier than sneaking right now," Ishana agreed.
Yami wanted to say something but he decided to keep quiet instead of saying it since Ishana agreed to my plan.
"Let's make a temporary place to camp for now. Somewhere less conspicuous but still possible to observe the church."
...
As we wait for nightfall, only Ishana and Aria are having conversation right now. Yami is sulking in the corner, while I am busy with spying on the church using the [Insight]. Since the [Insight] has an ability to see through everywhere like having x-ray vision to the surroundings, I am making a good use of it to spy the place without moving a single inch from our temporary camp.
"What is Kazuma doing?" Aria asked.
"Hush, he is using his mapping spell to check our surroundings, I don't now what spell he is using but he can see the surroundings even when he is stationary," Ishana said.
"Oh? That is indeed amazing! If I have the ability to use that, I might have not been ambushed by enemies earlier!"
While listening to their talks, I noticed a few priests went outside the church and went to the nearest road. I followed their movements using the [Insight] and they arrived on the nearby road. From their formations, they are setting up an ambush.
"I found some priests laying out an ambush on the road. I will go for now and capture them. Stay put for now. I will be quick."
Without waiting for their confirmation, I went to the location of the ambush site immediately. I made sure to cover my tracks and movements to avoid the detection of the other party. Based on their movements, they are not anticipating an ambush to them so this will help deal with them slowly.
A few seconds later, one of the priest holding on what I assume to be a blowpipe which might be the one they uses to inflict sleep to the people passing this road. There are no other people near him as he needed to hide and attack in range while the others will deal the finishing blow. It was a perfect chance for me to deal damage to him.
With my crackling palm, filled with electricity enough to down someone to sleep, I struck the priest in his neck and before he can even response, he collapsed to the ground. He will not be able to wake up the next few minutes.
Getting the one who will deal the sleep blow, I went to the nearest attacker. Unfortunately, they are in a group of 3. I don't think luring them will work so if it does not work, one thing is for sure, deal an AOE spell to them, which is unfortunately also a no go. if I want to avoid the detection of these guys, I have to stun them or damage them without making any dangerous sound.
Arriving in their range, I saw the three are still fixated to the road. I quickly made my turn and covered my two palms with a satisfying electricity that is enough to stun them.
"ZAP!"
Two were stunned immediately while the other one has noticed me already and gritted his teeth.
"What are you doing?!" He quickly pointed his staff to my face.
"Nothing personal."
And the last thing he saw in his eyes is the palm of electricity I invoked to make sure he won't die but he will be paralyzed that he will wish he shouldn't have dome what he just did today.