The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 122 Heavy rain is coming
Which mark is this?

Simagu, mounted on his horse, flicked his finger and released a ball of holy flame, enveloping and erasing the curse mark on the tree trunk beside him.

The pale flames consumed the nauseating stench. He closed his eyes slightly and quickly sensed the location of the next mark.

Although he wandered around aimlessly in the woods on the outskirts of town, he could sense that the surroundings were becoming increasingly desolate and that he was getting further and further away from Lutia.

Regardless of their motives, it's about time they showed up.

Riding to the next mark, they found themselves in a dilapidated hut in the woods, like a forest ranger's abandoned dwelling.

A dark elf girl, probably in her teens, leaned against the doorway. When she saw him coming, she rolled her eyes, turned her face away, and showed that she didn't want to talk to him.

No.

Not a dark elf.

Xinmagu looked at the not-so-obvious horns on her forehead.

These are the true demons.

He raised his hand, and a ball of holy flame surged from his fingertips. The demon girl showed a wary expression, and at this moment, several more figures walked out of the wooden house. They were all strong and, judging from their skin color, were probably demons, exuding a dangerous aura.

"I might die here today," Simagu thought calmly.

The first to speak was the only one among them who looked like an ordinary human being—a middle-aged man.

"Don't be nervous, High Priest, we mean no harm."

Luca raised his empty hands to indicate that he posed no danger.

"We went to such lengths to invite you here so that we could have a proper talk with you without being disturbed. After all, it's not easy for us to get into the city, especially to the cathedral where you are."

He said "we".

This human was not coerced by the demons; he was one of them.

Xinmagu looked at him for a moment, "What do you want to say?"

Luca gestured for him to come down so they could talk in detail.

The worst outcome would be death. If that was truly their goal, there was no need for further words. Xinmagu dismounted and went to Luca.

"You all go and keep watch around here, don't let anyone get close."

"Yes!"

The demon guards scattered, while the demon girl turned and went into the hut.

“I am Luca, the prime minister under the Demon King.”

After introducing himself, Luca got straight to the point: "My king has unified the various demon tribes and will soon march south to destroy the human empire. I have come here to invite High Priest Simago to join us in this great undertaking."

"..."

Even though Xinmagu's heart was almost numb, he couldn't help but be shaken and shocked by his bluntness.

"Impossible. The rise of the demon race would not have gone unnoticed by the garrison of the Black Ice Wall."

In response to his question, Luca simply smiled. "Has the High Priest ever personally been to the far northern border?"

Xinmagu shook his head. Although he had traveled to the north many years ago, he had never been to the far northern border.

"Then you won't truly understand their situation."

Luca continued, “In the first one or two hundred years, the Knights of the Black Ice Wall did indeed spare no effort to sweep away any demon tribes that might rise, even venturing deep into the far north of the continent. But your empire has been languishing for five hundred years, the emperor no longer has the authority he once had, and those forgotten people on the border have long since become complacent… To be precise, you are the ones who are fooling or even ignoring them, reducing their treatment again and again, and often failing to replenish their manpower, so they can only fool you in return.”

Luca spoke eloquently, fully demonstrating his understanding of the human empire. Simmagu listened silently, numbly meeting the disappointment in his heart, and then watching it flow away.

"More than a hundred years ago, the Knights of the Black Ice Great Wall stopped venturing deep into the Demon Realm and only swept through nearby tribes. The Demon Race should have risen again at that time, but unfortunately, no one like my king appeared, and the major tribes fought each other and were consumed by internal strife for nearly a hundred years!"

"Until the birth of my King Latrell, the young man set his sights on great ambitions, and then spent more than ten years reunifying the seventeen major tribes and one hundred and forty-one minor tribes of the Northern Demon Realm, integrating the demon race, biding his time, and preparing for war, all for the purpose of destroying your corrupt empire and letting the demon race return to its original place!"

"Now, the tide has turned. Once the Demon King's army marches south, no one can stop it. Just like the 'Dark Ages' you mentioned hundreds of years ago, all races will submit to the iron hooves of the Demon army!"

Luca clenched his fists, speaking with such passion that even he was deeply moved.

Simagu calmed down at this moment, saying, "Only when the sword in one's hand is not sharp enough will the person wielding it use sweet words."

Luca paused for a moment, but didn't take offense; instead, he smiled.

This is the Simagu he knew.

"The High Priest is right. The Demon King's sword still needs some time to be honed, but the general trend has already been determined."

Xinmagu looked at him. "So your reason for coming to me is to ask me to persuade the emperor to surrender?"

Luca smiled, then quickly shook his head.

“If that’s the reason, then I shouldn’t have sought out the High Priest, since your words carry no weight with the Papacy or the Emperor.”

Even when someone directly hit a nerve, Xinmagu's face remained expressionless.

“I approached the High Priest because I valued your innate talent. And your situation further convinced me that I made the right choice.”

Luca looked at him. "Is an empire like this really worth the High Priest's protection? Even if we abandon this vague concept, are the corrupt nobles and foolish commoners from top to bottom in the empire worth saving? The Church, which should have taken on the responsibility of saving the world, is now corrupt and bloated, only concerned with making money! By the way, they are already preparing to make a move against you... no, not as you have seen or thought, they intend to completely erase your existence."

Xinmagu turned his head and uttered a silent question with his last words.

"Do you think the Vatican is just sending two apostolic deputies to gradually take your place, and in the end just to strip you of the title of Archbishop of Lutia? That's just to lull you into a false sense of security."

Luca spoke with absolute certainty, even believing it to himself, "Just recently, the Vatican secretly sent someone here to closely monitor your movements using Nightingales, especially when you will leave Lutia. I'm afraid they want to create an 'accident' outside the city, causing you to die in office, so they can take back both the positions of High Priest and Archbishop of Lutia... This is all intelligence that I bought from Nightingales in Lutia for a lot of gold coins, and it is absolutely true."

Xinmagu closed his eyes, shook his head slightly, and let out a cold sigh.

He suddenly remembered the reminder given to him by the quasi-saintess before he came here.

"High Priest Simagu, please return to the city immediately. Do not linger on the road; the demons may be after you..."

Judging from the results, he was right.

But he was only guessing; he couldn't possibly know that demons were coming to find him.

Was his warning... really just a reminder to be careful of the demons?

Has he already heard some rumors while he's in Lessier?

Simagu thought of the late Sergius VI again, and a surge of anger suddenly ignited in his heart.

Is hiring someone to assassinate him really the way the Vatican looks now?

"Stop talking nonsense, what exactly do you want me to do?" His voice was even colder when he spoke.

"That's about it," Luca thought to himself.

"I hope the High Priest will assist my king, along with this corrupt empire, in completely destroying those things you want to change but are powerless to change, and in re-establishing a new order."

Xinmagu slowly turned his gaze. "The Demon King will obey my will?"

"The Demon King has always been eager to find talented people. If you can help my king in another way, he will surely value your opinion even more."

"Which aspect?"

Instead of answering directly, Luca asked him a question: "How much does High Priest Simago know about the 'Demon King'?"

Xinmagu frowned. "I know absolutely nothing about it."

Luca looked at him. "I'm talking about the demon king you've always known."

Xinmagu raised his eyes, "That old demon king from the Dark Ages, Digot?"

"Exactly."

"He unified the demon race, and the demon race collapsed because of his sudden death, that's all."

"Sudden death... Before the 'sudden death,' do you know how many years he lived?" Luca asked.

Xinma Gu pondered for a moment, "More than a hundred years."

“To be precise, it was 201,” Luca said.

"so what?"

Luca laughed. "It seems the demons have been far removed from humanity for too long. Even a wise man like High Priest Simago has confused demons with dark elves. What I'm trying to say is that, as a price for individual strength, demons' lifespans are even shorter than those of humans."

Xinma Gu frowned, finally seriously considering the meaning of his words.

"The Demon King Digot... extended his lifespan through some means."

He paused, then quickly recalled relevant records from mainland history, “...the soul.”

“That’s right.” Seeing that he could immediately make that connection, Luca couldn’t help but get excited. He knew he hadn’t misjudged him!
"After the old Demon King ruled the continent, he slaughtered and collected souls everywhere, converting them into his own lifespan through some kind of secret technique. After his third life-extending ritual failed and he died suddenly, the demon race split and was driven back to the far north demon realm by the human alliance. The relevant research was also lost, and now we can only start from scratch."

Luca looked at Simago and bowed solemnly, "And you are the person I have been searching for with all my might to take over."

So there's a secret behind how the Dark Ages lasted for so many years.

Xinmagu looked at him for a while. "How can you be so sure that I will agree to your request?" "You ask that only because you don't understand how much I care about you."

Luca bowed his head and gave another salute. "I have been watching you ever since you became the High Priest of the Empire. I deeply understand the ideals you have always pursued, and I can feel your despair at this moment better than anyone else... and even your resentment towards the gods who stand by and watch."

Simagu suddenly focused her gaze, her eyes turning icy.

Luca also raised his head and looked directly at him without flinching.

"Your research on the things left behind by the old Demon King only provides me, Wang Yanshou, with a negligible amount of power. Its true power is enough to reshape this world... I mean, to completely reshape it, just like the myth of Yera's creation of the world that you know."

Xinmagu quickly voiced his doubts: "If the demons truly possessed such power, how could they have failed hundreds of years ago, and why would they hand it over to others now?"

“Do you think we don’t want to control it ourselves? But power is only what we can control; otherwise, it’s a deadly danger. Unfortunately, after the old Demon King’s sudden death, no one in the entire demon race could control that ‘thing,’ so one madman after another emerged. Only those with exceptional mental strength have a chance of controlling even one in ten thousand of it,” Luca explained.

So it turns out he might not even be able to keep his promises...

Xinmagu's silence this time was extremely long.

How can I trust you?

Luca smiled, patiently explaining.

"The High Priest should now be an eighth-tier, near-ninth-tier, archmage and sage, but I can only say that killing you without your knowledge, thus eliminating the threat to the demon army's southward advance, is not a difficult task."

"But that's not what we want. My coming here in person to meet you is the Demon King's way of showing his sincerity."

"Danger certainly exists, but it does not come from us, only from that power that no one can control. Your relationship with the Demon King is not that of a subject and a king, but rather one of cooperation and sharing."

Xinmagu fell silent again.

Just then, he saw several silver-haired Arans coming this way together, only to be stopped by the demon guards on the outskirts. They all seemed to know each other.

"..."

After a moment's thought, he understood where the demons' intimate knowledge of him came from.

“Aran is one of yours.”

Luca also saw the Arans outside. He felt disgusted, but remained calm on the surface: "It was the Arans' own decision to place Iris next to the High Priest."

Xinmagu closed his eyes and took a breath, no longer caring about such trivial matters.

Meanwhile, the spy he "adopted" was being held hostage in another place, completely defenseless, even earlier.

"Uh……"

The person behind her showed no pity, gripping her throat tightly.

Alan struggled incessantly, but she was no match for his strength, and her breathing became increasingly difficult. Just when she thought she was about to be strangled to death, the hand on her neck suddenly loosened its grip.

"Ha ha……"

She gasped for breath, greedily inhaling the fresh air, tears streaming down her face.

"I misspoke. Luca sent you here to die."

Eric pulled on the reins and slowly strolled towards a less crowded area. "I must say, you disguised yourself very well. I never thought that you Aran people would have anything to do with the demons."

Alan didn't speak. He lowered his body and rested for a while. Suddenly, he exerted his strength and tried to jump off the horse to escape, but he was grabbed and held by the back of the neck, and pressed down on the horse.

"I won't let go next time."

"..."

Alan closed his eyes, and two lines of tears welled up in his eyes.

She knew that she was doomed to die today...

"Well!"

The person behind her pulled her up again, but the action was rough and showed no gentleness whatsoever.

"Why is the Demon Prime Minister Luca in Lutia? Is it because of Sinmag?"

Alan opened his eyes, and under his restraint, he could only turn his head slightly, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. "Who exactly are you... how do you know so much about us?"

"I am Yera's illegitimate son, known for five hundred years before and after..."

Boom!

A thunderclap suddenly sounded in the sky without warning, and Eric shuddered, immediately shutting up.

He looked up and noticed that the sky had already darkened.

Spring and summer are the rainy seasons in the Breeze Plains area, and afternoon thunderstorms are very common.

This scare made him release his grip on Alan and change his words, saying, "Don't you know that I am the future saintess chosen by the gods? Yera told me about the future a long time ago."

“Heh…” Alan gave a bitter laugh, “Then you should have known about our relationship with the demons long ago.”

"The gods only showed me a picture of the future: the demon army marched south, and you Arans were the first to fall under their iron hooves. That's why I overlooked the possibility that you were colluding with the demons."

Alan's face paled upon hearing this, and then he actually realized that what he said might not be impossible.

Seeing that she remained silent, Eric asked again, "Where did you lead Simmaggu?"

“…I don’t know.” Alan lowered his head. “I was only responsible for luring him out of the city.”

"It really was you." Eric understood why it was Simagori who had come. "What's your plan?"

"Find a way to get the high priest out of the city to meet with Prime Minister Luca and persuade him to join us."

"What can you offer to persuade him?" Eric asked. "What do you have that could possibly sway someone like Simmagu?"

Alan answered weakly, "I don't know."

She paused, then turned to look at him directly for the first time: "How can you be so sure that the High Priest will be moved?"

Eric's face was as somber as the sky. "Because I saw it."

"..."

Alan turned his head away again.

"Say what you will... Anyway, I'm already in your hands."

"It's not you I want."

Eric rummaged around on her body for a while, and found a dagger strapped to her thigh. He pulled it out, sheath and all, and kept it for himself.

"Tell me everything you know, and I can make your death painless."

Alan's body trembled, and then her shoulders began to shake uncontrollably. She bent over, and then bursts of suppressed sobs followed.

"I don't want to die... I haven't even accomplished anything yet... I don't want to die, I don't want to die! Waaah—"

Eric remained silent, looked up at the increasingly gloomy sky, and slowly exhaled.

Just then, Alan suddenly dismounted, pulled out another dagger from somewhere, stabbed the horse, and ran away.

The startled horses immediately began to gallop wildly out of control.

She didn't dare to look back. She ran for a while, but her strength couldn't keep up, so she had to slow down. She couldn't help but turn her head to take another look.

"..."

The horse has stopped.

Eric remained seated on the horse, seemingly calming it down, his palms glowing as if he were treating it.

His face was turned towards her, but they were too far apart for her to see his expression.

Alan slowly stopped running and watched him from a distance, his breathing gradually calming down.

It wasn't that she found an opportunity... she thought.

Rather, he intentionally let her leave, Eric thought, gazing in that direction.

Alan's identity has been exposed, and she has no other skills or value. He has no need to get entangled with her, nor does he have any reason to kill her.

Even if she went to Lukaton to report the news right now, it wouldn't make any difference to him—he couldn't handle them alone.

Besides, killing her wouldn't be easy to explain to Eileen.

"My friend is actually a demon spy. I just hope Eileen won't be too heartbroken..." Eric muttered to himself.

The Aramean woman in the distance stared at him for a moment, then ran off in another direction.

Eric looked away and saw that the wound near the horse's neck had healed, so he stopped treating it and turned to head towards the city gate.

Xinma Gu had vanished without a trace, and he could no longer stop him. With the demons lurking, pursuing them rashly would be tantamount to suicide.

But it's never too late to mend the fence after the sheep are lost.

(End of this chapter)