Chapter 284 - Nephram (3)

Chapter 284 - Nephram (3)

Whoosh!

A dense poisonous mist burst forth from Hoosler akin to a fierce gust of wind, completely engulfing Henry.

Tzzzz!

The power of the poisonous mist was incredible. Not only was the poison itself potent, but the mist as a whole was extremely acidic, corroding and dissolving everything it touched.

However...

“Wind.”

Swoosh!

Henry used his wind magic to summon a gust of wind, which swirled around the poisonous mist, gathering it into a sphere before dispersing it.

Henry had emerged from the fog with a furious expression.

“Demon God?”

The poisonous fog had managed to melt off Henry’s Colt Armor and his other weapons, but he himself was fine. He was completely immune to any kind of poison out there.

Nevertheless, Hoosler’s surprise attack understandably angered Henry.

‘I’m sure he said Demon God.’

The Demon God was more powerful than the Demon King. It was the god that ruled the Demon Realm. However, not even Henry, the embodiment of wisdom, had seen the Demon God before. In fact, people weren’t even sure that the Demon God actually existed.

Henry’s expression grew dark as he looked down at Hoosler, who had almost completely melted away.

It was a brutal sight, but amazingly, Hoosler was still breathing.

“Gha...! Aaaghh...!”

Most of his skin had melted away, revealing his bloody muscles and bones, but even so, Hoosler was still drawing breath, his mouth quivering.

He looked like a dead man who desperately wanted to say something but couldn’t because of a silencing spell. However, the reason he couldn’t speak was that the acid had burnt through his throat, melting his vocal cords. Thus, he could only grunt and squeal, which only added to his unimaginable pain.

But melted or not, Henry wasn’t about to give up after fighting his way here.

“Elagon.”

- Khu khu.

“Heal him.”

- Khu khu khu!

Elagon hummed, undisturbed by Hoosler’s grotesque appearance, and started healing him.

A large amount of mana was rapidly drained from Henry’s Circle.

The more powerful Elagon’s healing was, the more mana he absorbed from Henry. However, Henry was unfazed by this and continued staring at Hoosler, who looked terrified as was being brought back from the brink of death.

There was a flash of light that persisted for a few good seconds. Hoosler’s skin and flesh had regenerated, and his damaged organs had been healed back to normal.

Just like that, Elagon had performed another miracle.

Seeing that Hoosler was back to his normal state, Henry said bluntly, “Wake up, Hoosler.”

“...?”

Hoosler slowly opened his eyes at Henry’s command.

Swoosh!

Just then, a sharp sound cut through the air, and Henry instinctively shielded the side of his face with his hand as he felt something flying at his head.

Gush!

An arrow went through his palm. Despite having his magic shield active, the arrow had pierced him clean.

Drip.

The arrow had gone all the way through Henry’s palm and managed to make a small gash in his temple, causing blood to trickle down his cheek.

However, Henry maintained his composure and calmly turned to look in the direction from where the arrow had been shot.

“Hold.”

In less than a minute, the Death Knights fell.

Henry sheathed his sword and looked at the temple. He murmured, “Earth Wave.”

Rumble...!

Just like the Death Knight with the bow from earlier, Henry didn’t give them a warning. His patience had run out, and mercy was out of the question. Besides, now that he had Hoosler, Henry didn’t think he needed any worshipers of Nephram.

Rumble...!

Once he cast the spell, the ground underneath the temple started quivering, losing its hard structure and becoming softer and more fluid, like the waves of a sea. Rocks turned to sand, sand turned to mud, which ultimately started swallowing the temple like quicksand.

“Mmph!”

Hoosler let out stifled cries as he watched the temple slowly sink into the ground. His eyes were so bulged that they looked like they would pop out at any moment.

Henry snapped his fingers and loosened the binding magic from Hoosler’s neck and upward.

“Speak.”

“Inside the temple! There’s someone inside the temple! Please save him!”

“Someone?”

“I beg you! Please! If you save the Messiah, I promise to be loyal to you!”

“Messiah?”

“He’s asleep inside the temple!”

This was an unexpected request.

Henry had thought that Hoosler was trying to curse at him, given how loud he was even through the binding magic, but it turned out to be something completely unexpected.

Henry thought about it for a moment and then clapped, causing the sandy ground beneath the temple to harden back to normal.

Henry walked inside the temple and looked around, and sure enough, there was a boy hanging like a cocoon in a spider’s web, just like Hoosler had said.

“They must be out of their minds.”

Henry clicked his tongue at the unnerving scene, then took the boy and led him out of the temple. He flung the boy in front of Hoosler and asked, “Explain this and don’t leave out a single detail.”

“I-I will explain all of it! So please spare me!”

The poisonous mist had melted off his clothes, so old man Hoosler was naked and terrified. In a panic, he started to explain everything as soon as Henry freed him from his Hold.

***

“Ha...”

By the time Hoosler finished explaining, Henry was sitting on a tall rock, in complete disbelief.

“Warlocks? That can't be...”

Henry was hung on the word ‘Warlock.’

Warlocks were worshippers of the Demon God. So unlike necromancers, who gained power by practicing black magic, warlocks gained power by serving the Demon God.

Also, Hoosler was in fact the leader of the Church of Nephram just like Henry had suspected. Although he and the Messiah were the only believers, Henry didn’t take their presence lightly now that he knew they were Warlocks.

‘Warlocks all of a sudden? I’m pretty sure I already killed them all. But more importantly, how did the Pope know about them?’

There were many things that didn’t add up.

If they were indeed Warlocks, the Pope’s motive for revealing their location to Henry didn’t make any sense.

The Church of Peace had a strict policy that everything associated with black magic and demonic energy had to be eliminated. And yet, Henry found himself in front of two Warlocks who possessed great divine powers—Hoosler, the leader of the Church of Nephram, and the Messiah.

After much consideration, Henry called out, “Hoosler...”

“Y-yes?!”

“What relationship does the Church of Nephram have with the imperial Church of Peace?”

“We...”

Henry finally asked the question that had been on his mind for the past few minutes.

Hoosler swallowed nervously before reluctantly replying, “We... have a pact of coexistence with the Church of Peace.”