"Hehe, did you think we revealed our whereabouts when we were fighting the monsters? You overestimate yourselves." A dry laugh came from the treetops.
The adventurers looked up and saw a few skinny men in black robes standing on the branches under the moonlight. They seemed to be weightless, and although they were standing on the branches, the branches did not bend much.
The man who was laughing was standing on the highest treetop. If you look closely at his feet, you will be surprised to find that they were not in contact with the branches at all. They were just floating in the air strangely.
"You don't think that you few can grab the supplies so easily, do you? This is just a bait. I have already placed my magic marks on this batch of supplies. As long as I track the location of the marks, I can easily find you." The man in black standing at the highest point sneered.
"It's an honor that you have dispatched a high priest and five priests to deal with us." The leading adventurer drew his sword, but a few drops of cold sweat had already flowed from his forehead.
The cult's high priest was roughly as strong as an S-class adventurer, and the ordinary priests were also as strong as an A-class adventurer. Except for himself, all of his party members were B-class adventurers. With such a huge gap, it was simply impossible for him to win.
"What a pity..." The leading adventurer sighed.
"It's a pity indeed. If you walk another mile or two, you will reach the magic interference area left by Nymega. Although the interference is weak, it is enough to prevent us from tracking the magic mark. It's too late to say anything now, but I am still willing to give you a chance - tell me the whereabouts of Nymega, and I will let you leave safely, and I can also give you anything you want: gold coins, beauties, equipment, anything." The man in black said in a low voice like a spell.
"Save yourself the trouble. You know very well that there is only one thing I want, and that is your head!" The leading adventurer laughed dryly a few times, and suddenly moved, swooping down to the big tree in an extremely low posture, and stabbed one of the men in black with his sword.
His surprise attack was unsuccessful as at least three men in black attacked at the same time, firing a black sphere at him.
The adventurer swung his sword to the left and right like lightning, and deflected the two black balls on his left and right at a clever angle, but the last black ball at a tricky angle circled around from below and exploded behind him, and a black and dirty magic power immediately covered his whole body.
The adventurer retreated hastily, but his magic-resistant armor had been corroded and riddled with holes, and it looked like he could no longer withstand the next attack.
"Tsk, surprise attack is useless? In any case, we must not expose Miss Nymega's position. Let's go together and fight them!" The adventurer took off the armor that had lost its defensive ability, raised the sword again, and rushed forward fearlessly with several other companions.
"Unreasonable." The man in black standing on the treetop sneered and waved the staff in his hand. Dozens of black chains shot out from behind him and tied all the adventurers in front of him to the ground in a moment.
"You are clear about this, right? The magic of our dark priests can corrode both metal and flesh. I can completely control the intensity of the corrosion and heal you while corroding you, leaving you with only a skeleton alive." The man in black flew in front of the adventurers and said with a sullen face.
"Hah-teh!"
The only answer he got was a well-aimed spit on his cheek.
"There's no hope. Even if you don't tell me, I have ten thousand ways to find Nymega." The man in black twitched his eyes and raised his staff high.
The raised staff immediately fell to the ground, along with the black-clothed man's skinny right hand.
"It's rare to find such a fanatical suitor. What a pity, I'm already taken." A sweet voice sounded in the moonlight.
"Nimega?! Hehe, I didn't expect you to be stupid enough to show up on your own initiative. It's really a piece of cake." The man in black laughed dryly with shining eyes.
"In order to conceal your whereabouts, you can't bring so many people with you, right? You wanted to kill me, but you didn't expect that this is also the best opportunity for me to kill you." Nymega sneered, and with a few light swings of the sword in her hand, she cut off the black chains on the adventurers.
"Hehehe, you and I are equally strong, and you just succeeded in a sneak attack, so you think you have the strength to fight, right? How ridiculous! This is the short-sightedness of people who lack the protection of God!" The man in black said as he suddenly tore off his black robe. The several men in black behind him were immediately shattered into pieces and turned into pitch-black magic power that poured into his body.
After absorbing the magic power of several subordinates, the skinny figure of the man in black suddenly swelled up a bit, and the magic power in his body surged like a wave.
"Isn't it just relying on sacrificing subordinates to gain a brief advantage? It sounds so high-sounding. After all, you are just a magician. In the absence of vanguards, killing you is no different from killing a chicken." Nymega sneered, flashed behind the man in black, drew her sword from the blind spot of his vision, and slashed his body with one sword.
However, the sword seemed to strike the air without any real feeling. Sensing that something was wrong, Nymega quickly stepped back and found that only the hilt of the sword was left in her hand.
The entire sword was corroded by the magic power of the man in black.
"Oh my, this is really... terrible." A few drops of cold sweat seeped out of Nymega's forehead, and her fingers slowly reached towards her chest.
Chapter 153 Cursing the Holy Church
"Nimega, the bishop thinks highly of you. Although you have caused us a lot of trouble, he is still willing to give you a chance. Adventurers seek nothing more than fame and fortune, and we can give you more of both. I advise you not to be ungrateful and refuse a toast only to be punished." The man in black saw that Nimega's weapon was destroyed, so he was no longer on guard and walked over to persuade her with confidence.
Behind the man in black, the adventurers who had just broken free from their restraints picked up their weapons and rushed over. The man in black didn't even look at them, but waved his hand and a black mist covered them one by one.
"The bishop said it himself: If you are willing to submit to the Holy Church, he is willing to appoint you as a messenger of the Church, and you can choose any consecrated weapon. You should know how precious that kind of equipment is. As for money and houses, there is no need to mention them. By then, you won't have to fight with a group of burdens, and you can enjoy wealth and glory. Isn't it wonderful? Even if you don't consider yourself, you should always consider your subordinates. If you want to escape, I may not be able to keep you, but they will definitely die here." The man in black glanced at the adventurers who were struggling in the black fog.
"If you want to kill them, just do it. They have been prepared to lose their lives." Nymega said coldly to the man in black.
"Humph, I don't believe you would be so ruthless!" said the man in black. He stretched out his hand and was about to kill an adventurer for Nymega to see. Unexpectedly, as soon as he raised his hand, his arm was bound by a sticky thing.
"What is this? Slime? How did it get here?!" The man in black was shocked. Just as he was about to reach out to tear it open, a flash of sword light appeared behind him, and his entire body was cut in half.
"Sure enough, Abe's body can withstand even this cursed sword, let alone corrosion magic. This is also thanks to you using the black fog to deprive them of their senses. I don't want to use this trick in front of others." Nymega breathed a sigh of relief and inserted the golden sword into her body from the chest. The slime part that bound the man in black's arm also retracted into the body.
"Sister, the black fog hasn't dissipated yet." Aibei reminded.
"Strange, the caster is dead, and the magic should dissipate if there is no one to maintain it. Could it be that..."
"Hehehe, that's right! I'm still alive! No, I can't say I'm alive, but I'm not dead either. How can I die so easily when I serve the Holy Supreme with my body?"
Suddenly, a strange laugh came from behind Nimega. A huge black gas emerged from the body of the man in black and condensed into a hideous human face in mid-air.
"What's going on? This feeling... is very similar to the tomb where I got this sword!" Nymega pulled out the golden sword from her chest, staring at the black air in front of her.
"Oh? Your sword has a similar aura... So you are not entirely human? Hehehe, even I can be wrong sometimes. Your body has merged very well with the monsters! A monster like you who is neither human nor ghost should join the Holy Church! Humans will not accept you!" The black gas monster laughed.
"Who is a monster? Who are you calling a monster? Your whole family is monsters!" Before Nimega could respond, Abe, who usually had a good temper, suddenly became furious, drew his sword, rushed towards the black air, and slashed at it.
The golden sword can turn the parts it hits into a fragile golden substance. The principle behind this is a powerful curse. Although the black air is not a tangible thing, it is still affected by the curse. When the sword is slashed, the black air turns into golden dust wherever the sword reaches.
But compared with the huge volume of the black gas, this amount of damage is just a drop in the bucket.
"Aibei, don't be impulsive. This guy is very powerful. He has surpassed the scope of humans." Nimega hurriedly took back control of her body and took several steps back to a safe distance.
"Sorry...sister, but this guy gives me a very dangerous feeling. It will be bad if we don't kill him here." Abe said nervously.
"You're right... If we don't kill him, we won't be able to rescue our companions, and everyone in the camp will be found sooner or later..." Nymega took a deep breath and suddenly jumped several steps to the side. The arm holding the sword stretched out like a rubber band, and with the momentum of the sprint, she drew a big circle and slashed fiercely at the black air.
With the help of the expanded attack range, a large piece of the black gas was cut off at once, and countless golden dust fell down, like a golden rain.
"Hmph, you are really a rude person who doesn't want to accept my offer. Looks like I have to let you sleep here forever!" The black energy seemed to sense some threat. It no longer tried to persuade people to surrender leisurely. Instead, it launched a dark magic, generating hundreds of black spikes in the air and shooting towards Nymega.
The coverage area of the spikes was too large. Seeing that she could not avoid them, Nymega had to retract her arms and try her best to block with the golden sword.
But the blocking range of a sword is limited after all. Under the continuous attack of the spikes, Nymega was still stabbed several times.
The black substance slowly spread in her body, and Nymega felt a piercing pain. She knew that this was corrosive magic. Although she had a certain resistance to this kind of magic after combining with the slime, it would still cause considerable damage if it directly invaded her body.
“Hehehe, see? You are considered to be the best among humans, but compared with me who is blessed by God, you are totally insignificant!” The black energy laughed arrogantly and summoned more spikes around him, as if he was ready to consume her to death with long-range attacks.
The spikes shot out again. Because Nymega's mobility had decreased, the attack range this time was smaller and more focused, as if it was ready to kill Nymega in one go. The face made of black air let out a hideous laugh, as if it had already celebrated the victory in advance.
As the spikes fell to the ground, the black air's wild laughter also increased by dozens of decibels. However, when he looked closely, he found that there was no sign of Nymega among the spikes.
Heiqi hurriedly used his magic power to explore the surroundings. He quickly re-locked Nymega's position and turned to look at that location.
At that location, a dark-skinned elf was standing on the top of the mountain, holding Nymega in his arms. He used a knife to cut Nymega's skin and squeeze out the blood that had been corroded by magic.
"You have help? Although I don't know who you are, there will be no good results if you go against the Holy Church." Heiqi instinctively felt the threat from the other party, because he was unable to catch any trace of her action of carrying Nimega away.
"This guy has transformed himself into a magical creature. Physical attacks are useless. Do you know what to do?" said the dark elf who rescued Nymega.
"Hey, who are you talking to? Is there anyone else here besides you and me?" The black energy was stunned for a moment, and suddenly felt a powerful magical wave coming towards him nearby.
"Wait a minute! I..." The black gas hurriedly concentrated its magic defense in that direction, but the cold magic overwhelmed his defense with unreasonable quantity and froze all the areas covered by the black gas.
"broken."
With a slight hum, the entire huge block of ice shattered instantly, and the life force of the black air dissipated into the mountains.
Chapter 154: Reunion with Nymega
"Sorry, I'm late." Isidor, who shattered the black energy with one move, walked towards Nymega with an apologetic look on his face, and stretched out his hand to create a bottle of life potion for her to drink.
"Am I dreaming? I didn't expect to see you again." Nymega said, stroking Isidor's cheek with tears in her eyes.
"It's not a dream. I got the news that you were leading the attack in Grimdor, so I rushed here. Thanks to Iovia's reconnaissance ability that discovered the dark magic here, we were able to find your location." Isidor said gently.
"You are Miss Iowa, right? Thank you so much. My companions..."
"Don't worry, the black fog has dissipated. Even though they are temporarily unconscious, it's only because their vitality has been sucked away by the black air. They will be fine after a rest." Isidor said as he concocted more life potions and asked Iovia to give them to the other adventurers who had fainted on the ground.
Iovia quickly fed the adventurers potions, then came to Isidor and whispered, "There are other dark magic auras approaching nearby. We'd better leave as soon as possible before they notice our location."
"Is her injury serious?" Isidor asked.
"It's not serious. Although corrosive magic is very harmful to the body, she seems to have a strong resistance to it. I have released most of the corroded blood, and she can now move normally. But if we want to eradicate it, it's best to bring her back to Grimdor and let Fidna shine the holy light on her." Iovia said.
"Iowa, you're right. My injury is no longer a problem." As if to show that she was safe and sound, Nymega stood up from the ground, drew out her golden sword and swung it vigorously a few times.
"I'm glad you're okay. Take us to your camp." Isidor said as he summoned several evil creatures and asked them to carry the unconscious adventurers and supplies.
Nymega nodded and took Isidor and Iowa to a secluded place deep in the mountains.
The adventurer in charge of night watch was so frightened by the evil creature that he blew his whistle and woke up all his sleeping companions. Nymega hurried forward to explain, and after some communication, the adventurers finally put down their weapons and let everyone into the camp.
"I'm sorry for offending you just now. We were chased by the cult in the mountains and had to hide here and there. We are a little nervous. Please forgive us." The adventurer who blew the whistle just now said to Isidor repeatedly.
"It's okay, you did a good job. If this was an enemy attack, your reaction would be equivalent to saving the entire camp." Isidor smiled and patted the young man's head, then casually constructed a good knife for him.
"I didn't ask much because the situation was urgent just now, but you have really become a lot stronger. You froze the black air in an instant. And your appearance seems to have changed a lot, too." Nymega said as she looked at Isidor carefully.
"I've been through a lot, and it's hard to explain it all at once. Let's talk about you first! I heard from Dora Mei that your plan was to return in half a month. Why haven't you gone back yet?" Isidor asked.
"I had planned to evacuate immediately after a successful attack. But I didn't expect that the cultists guarded the granary very closely, and they didn't let down their guard at all just because they were in the rear. In desperation, we could only attack the grain transport convoy. After several successes, they tightened their protection of the grain carts. I knew that this result was not enough to delay the siege, so I took the risk to lead people into the city to destroy the cultists' armor-making factory. The operation was very successful, but it also completely angered the cult's top leaders. They sent a large number of people to cut off the route back to the south. I had to lead my men to the mountains and deal with them relying on the advantage of adventurers' familiarity with the terrain." Nymega said with her head down.
"You did a good job, but anyway, we can't stay in this camp any longer." Isidor shook his head.
"I understand. Actually, the cultists have recently reduced the number of troops stationed in the south. I have also made a plan to break out, but some of the wounded are not convenient to transfer, so it has been delayed until now." Nymega replied.
"What are your plans now?" asked Isidor.
"Now that you are here, I will listen to you alone - will you take us back?" Nymega said, gently leaning her head on Isidor's shoulder.
The adventurers in the camp all showed surprised expressions. They did not expect that this decisive and resolute big sister would actually behave in such a coquettish manner.
"Of course we have to go back, but before that, we have to finish the work." Isidor smiled, stretched out his hand and took out a cloth bag, constructed a large number of high-level life potions, placed bottles on the table, and then constructed a large number of high-quality weapons and armor, and did not stop until the table was full.
"With these things, we can heal the wounded in a short time and then launch another attack! The cultists will never think that we have the ability to fight back. We will catch them off guard this time!" Nimega said excitedly.
The effect of the advanced life potion was amazing. Just two days later, dozens of adventurers led by Nymega became full of energy again.
Isidor made a rough observation and found that there were at least five A-level adventurers among them, and the others were at least B-level. With S-level Nymega leading the team, their strength was enough to rival an army. However, Nymega did not dare to attack the cultists' granary with such a strong force, so the opponent's defense must be extremely tight.
"If the attack is successful, how are you going to destroy the granary? It's impossible for you guys alone to transport the food back," Isidor asked.
"We have this," Nymega said, pulling a spindle-shaped yellow crystal from her pocket.
"This is a crystal of the element of fire, a creation of alchemy. Although it is small in size, as long as it is injected with magic power and smashed to the ground, it can create a large area of fire. If we succeed in breaking into the granary, we will throw a large number of these crystals to burn down the granary." Nymega replied.
"Have you figured out the location of the granary?"
"Of course, such a large granary cannot be hidden. Our intelligence system has determined the location of most of the granaries. In fact, most of them are the original grain storage areas of Rodria Town. This information is almost all public." Nymega said, taking out a map with the location of the granaries marked on it and showing it to Isidor.
"Let me see. The largest granary seems to be in the northwest, not very far from here. There are three other large granaries, and a dozen small ones..." Isidor carefully observed the location of the granaries, then crossed out the largest granary in front of him and handed the map to Iovia.
"Have all the enemies who came to the mountain to scout been dealt with?" Isidor asked.
"We cleaned it up last night. There's not a single one left."
"Thank you. You can move freely now. You don't need to come to me when you are done. Just go back to Grimdor and reunite with Fidna and the others." Isidor said, taking out a bag, and constructed more than fifty fire element crystals and gave them to Iovia.
"Okay." Iowa took the bag and disappeared in a flash.
"What did you ask her to do?" Nimega asked curiously.
"You'll know later. Anyway, let's rush to the largest granary in the northwest and teach these lawless cultists a lesson!" Isidor shouted.
"Kill!" The adventurers, who had been pent up with resentment for a long time, responded one after another.
