They are all characters I control.

If we kill Eleanor, we might lose our chance, especially since Eleanor is also...

Just then, the sound of hooves clashing against armor came from afar.

Eleanor and Mel turned their heads and saw only a group of church knights appear in their field of vision.

Chapter 126 Knight Commander Will

Two miles outside of Forest Valley Village in the North, the temporary camp of the Holy Lance Knights.

A biting wind howled across the snow-covered wasteland, ripping the crimson banner in the center of the camp, embroidered with a burning longsword emblem, straight and fluttering in the wind.

The camp was not large, with about twenty sturdy military tents arranged in a ring.

In the central open space, several campfires burned stubbornly in the cold wind, providing limited warmth for the knights on night watch and their warhorses.

The air was filled with the smells of firewood, damp leather, horses, and steel.

The knights wore thick, crimson cloaks over gleaming standard plate armor. They patrolled the perimeter of the camp or sat around campfires, munching on hard, dry rations with hot water.

The atmosphere was solemn, and the occasional hushed conversations were quickly swallowed up by the wind.

Everyone's face bore the weariness of a long march and continuous battles, but their eyes remained sharp.

After all, they had witnessed the situation in the village not far away, including the half-corpse of the old man who didn't look like a human.

It was still a collapsed cellar filled with the corpses of many villagers, and a withered woman with blasphemous marks on her body.

Of course, there was also a pile of relics belonging to the church knights.

As a branch of the Holy Lance Knights, these church knights would not be foolish enough to make the mistake of complacency and underestimating their enemies. No one could say for sure whether other heretics might be hiding in the vicinity.

But it was already late.

Given the poor visibility and the lack of clarity about the situation, temporarily resting nearby and monitoring the outside world is the right and sensible choice for them.

As for the captain of these church knights, Knight Commander Will was standing at the entrance of the camp, watching the returning knights not far away.

Will was about forty years old, tall and burly, with a face that was sharply defined and covered with dark stubble.

A deep scar runs diagonally from his left brow bone to his cheek, a memento of his early battles against infidels.

He was strict with his subordinates but never harsh, and always took the lead in dangerous situations. He was known in the Knights for his fairness, perseverance, and rich combat experience.

"Still no trace of other survivors, Carl?" Will asked in a deep voice without turning around.

The knight who returned from outside saluted with his right hand on his chest: "Reporting, Captain, no other survivors were found."

This was an expected outcome; Knight Commander Will had witnessed the traces of that battle.

A huge tree, so large that it would take two people to encircle it, was uprooted and disappeared, leaving scorch marks on the ground and a huge crater as if a giant object had smashed into the ground.

Of course, the most shocking thing was the pile of corpses, most of which were concentrated in your cellar and the battleground not far from the cellar.

Will nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

"Be on high alert. Raise the alert level tonight."

"Yes, Captain!"

After giving his instructions, Will turned and walked back into the camp.

After walking to the tent in the very center of the camp and nodding to the church knights guarding the area, Commander Will stood at the door and called out softly.

"I am Will, Eleanor. May I come in?"

Eleanor is a rare female knight in the Order of the Church.

Although there were quite a few women, most of them were priests, not church knights.

But Eleanor was able to join the Holy Lance Order of Knights because she was outstanding enough, both in terms of fighting spirit and talent in holy magic, which was enough for the other knights to disregard the fact that she was a woman.

However, it is still somewhat inconvenient in daily interactions.

“Yes, Sir Will, you may come in.” Eleanor’s voice came from inside.

Will lifted the tent flap and went inside.

Eleanor had changed into a clean robe, wrapped in a blanket, and was sitting on a simple cot.

Her face was still pale, but she had improved a lot.

Another girl who had survived in the village, Mel, was curled up beside her, wrapped in another blanket, and was fast asleep, but her little hands were still tightly clutching the hem of Eleanor's clothes.

Will walked to the fireplace, picked up the kettle, poured a cup of hot water, handed one to Eleanor, and then pulled over a folding chair to sit down.

"How are you feeling, Eleanor?" Will's voice came from inside the tent, gentler than it had been outside.

"Much better, Captain. Thank you." Eleanor held the warm water glass in both hands, absorbing the warmth. She glanced at Mel, who was fast asleep beside her, and lowered her voice.

"My magic has recovered somewhat, and my external injuries have mostly healed, but I'm still a bit exhausted and my memory is confused."

“Hmm.” Will took a sip of water, his dark brown eyes fixed on Eleanor. “Tell me everything you can remember, from beginning to end. Don’t rush, just say whatever comes to mind.”

They had just arrived in the village when they saw Eleanor and the girl Mel.

After confirming that it was Eleanor herself, Will immediately had the other church knights take her away from the village.

He and the other church knights sealed off the entire village.

At that time, Eleanor was not questioned in detail. Now that it is confirmed that the current situation is safe, Knight Commander Will has time to ask her.

"Yes, Commander."

Eleanor took a deep breath; her memory was still somewhat muddled.

However, at this moment, I still tried to organize those fragmented pieces in my mind, recalling them as I slowly recounted them.

"Our team was ordered to investigate a village of heretics, but that village isn't here..."

Eleanor's voice was filled with pain and guilt as she recalled her fallen teammates.

My former comrades-in-arms are now all gone.

Although she didn't see the bodies of her companions, she figured they probably didn't have a good ending.

“I was rescued by a church knight and woke up in a wooden hut where my wounds had been treated.”

"Next, I left the cabin to look for my companion, but I got lost and happened to run into Mel and her friends who were being attacked by wolves."

"They were also poor souls captured by heretics. Their village was burned down, and after barely escaping, they encountered a pack of wolves. But after that, I lost my memory..."

After that, I met Will and his friends.

After recounting her experience, Eleanor looked up at Will: "Captain, what exactly happened? Who healed me? Who destroyed that village?"

Will listened quietly, his fingers tapping lightly on his knees.

He didn't answer immediately, but instead asked, "You said your memory is fragmented, and in two parts? One part is from the attack to waking up in the cabin, and the other part is the 'battle' in Lin Valley Village?"

“Yes, Captain. My memory of that period is almost completely blank.” Eleanor nodded vigorously. “What about the people in the village? Are the villagers alright?”

Will was silent for a moment; the only sounds in the tent were the crackling of the fire and Mel's even breathing.

He spoke slowly, his voice low and steady:

"The people in that village must all be heretics; they must belong to an organization called the 'Church of Life'..."

Chapter 127 Are you loyal to the church?

"Based on the intelligence we have gathered through tracking and reconnaissance, an extreme heretical organization called the 'Church of Life' is lurking here."

"Although you haven't been a member of the Knights for long, you must have heard of this name, right, Elinor?"

“Your team may have stumbled upon one of their activities, or been lured here to ambush them as a valuable ‘sacrifice’.”

Knight Commander Will's words made Eleanor gasp and turn even paler.

"The Church of Life... those guys?!"

Now, she finally knows who killed her squad.

Most ordinary heretics are only interested in making money; they are only after money.

The more troublesome heretics would simply attack or steal the property of the Goddess's Church.

The most terrifying thing is that they have become heretics in climate organizations. These heretics genuinely want to oppose the Church of Goddess, not for money but to pursue their so-called 'faith'.

They draw power from their 'faith' and will stop at nothing to achieve it.

Those heretics are truly insane; the difference lies in the methods they use. The heretics of the 'Church of Life' are already notorious, and it's said they've existed for over a hundred years.

It is rumored that it was created by one of the subordinates and confidants of the evil god emperor.

The evil emperor Claire, who is said to have been purified and erased by the saintess of the Goddess Church, is still alive and has even gained immortality.

Most people don't believe such things, and no one would question the 'saint' of the Goddess Church.

However, the remaining small group was not a minority. They gathered together and formed the 'Church of Life,' which continues to this day.

The 'Church of Life' worships the so-called 'Goddess of Life' and pursues a distorted 'evolution' and 'immortality' through bloody and cruel means. They often use living people to perform evil rituals and concoct so-called 'holy medicines' and 'philosopher's stones'.

I've heard that there are heretics in the 'Church of Life' who have lived for over a hundred years.

If the heretics she encountered were these guys, then Eleanor probably knew what fate awaited her teammates.

Seeing the somber expression on Eleanor's face, Will continued speaking.

“After we lost contact with you, we immediately organized a search.” Will’s tone turned somber. “On the way, we found the remains of the other members of your team.”

"We also found several hastily abandoned or destroyed temporary strongholds of cult members. From a few captured low-level believers, we learned the location of one of their larger strongholds, which is Lingu Village."

“It was not only one of their dens, but also appears to be a place for ‘processing’ and storing ‘sacrifices’.”

He looked at Eleanor, his gaze deep: "When we arrived, the village had become what you see now, with only you and Mel there."

Knowing that her entire squad had been wiped out, Eleanor's lips trembled slightly, but she swallowed the truth.

However, what surprised her the most was that the place where she and Mel were actually the stronghold of the "Church of Life"?

How did I end up in a stronghold of heretics, and unharmed?

"Captain, you mean me? I destroyed that base while I was unconscious? This... how is this possible? I completely..."

"Is there any other explanation, Eleanor?"

Will looked at the female knight in front of him. He naturally did not believe that Eleanor had survived because she had joined the "Church of Life".

Will would not question Eleanor's loyalty and unwavering faith.

However, he could not explain why the heretic stronghold had become such a ruin, and why so many heretics had been killed.

At this moment, Will was undoubtedly giving Eleanor a chance to clear her name of suspicion that she might be a heretic.

Of course, this is also because he is Eleanor's former superior; if it were someone else, they probably wouldn't be speaking like this in the tent.

“No, it’s not me, it definitely can’t be me,” Eleanor shook her head.

Destroying one of the Church of Life's strongholds single-handedly was a great achievement.

However, Eleanor's faith and morals prevented her from doing so.

“Who is that? Eleanor.” Will frowned slightly.

It should be noted that the other church knights had just searched the village again and found no other survivors.

That means that besides Eleanor killing so many heretics, all that was left was infighting and killing among the heretics themselves.

But the infighting among the heretics would not allow Eleanor, a church knight, to live.

“I think it must be another church knight.” Eleanor suddenly recalled the scene she had seen on the memory crystal magic stone.

"Yes, a church knight brought me to the cabin, and I left the cabin to find him."

"After that, when I woke up again in the village, it was probably that church knight who led me there."

“He must have known my whereabouts, or we just happened to run into each other, so he destroyed that heretic stronghold.”

Hearing Eleanor's reasoning and seeing her confident expression, Will also became somewhat skeptical.

Will also had some doubts: was there another church knight mixed in with the heretics' corpses?

He didn't have the energy to check each of the heretics' corpses, as there might be a disguised church knight among them.

"What evidence do you have? I mean, do you know the name or identity of that church knight? We've found the bodies of your squad members."