Parting from Allan, Neulon and Curna made there way to the backyard of the church. Though, Neulon was not particularly happy with that.
"Tch, why do I have to be with this bastard..." He complained, not too loud.
"You said something?"
"No." Neulon grumbled. Even the sight of Curna annoyed him.
"We must work together, it'll be great for all of us."
"So you did heard bastard!"
"No, I didn't. And can you quit being noisy."
"Who are you to order me!"
Again, Neulon could just not bare with Curna.
"W-Whose there?!" Two's argument was loud enough for a knight to be on gaurd.
"Tch, now thanks to you guards will be on alert,"
"...Me?"
"Yes, You. Trash!" And Neulon put all the blame to Curna, as he could not help but sigh.
"I'll take him down," As Neulon was about to drew his mighty sword, Curna stopped him on track.
"Wait... He seem pretty human to me,"
"Huh? How could I possibly believe you?" Though Neulon know Curna is definitive, he just not want to admit it. He utterly dislike Curna.
"Hey, you notice something unusual?" Then few knights approached the single knight. At this, Neulon and Curna decided to stay hidden.
"...Something unusual you say? No, I didn't."
"I see... We have been reported that there are some intruders. We must make our way to main building, let's go. And on't let your guard down."
"Y-Yeah," As the knight turned around, other just looked at each other and nodded.
"Don't tell— They are!" Before Curna could finish and make Neulon alert, the Pishachas, in disguise of knights, stabbed the fellow to death with swords.
"H-How dare they!!" Neulon could not prevent the flames releasing from his body due to anger. As he witnessed Pishachas performing ritual, ultimately turning the fallen into one of them.
Could not stand it any longer, Neulon dashed to Pishachas in fury. Sword on fire, lunched an attack at evil only to be blocked by same fallen knight, Pishacha now.
"Curse you... Curse You All! Curse This Damn Place!!" As Neulon begun to raise his voice, arrows struck all Pishachas in head, as they disintegrated into none.
"You better not charge in such ameture manner," Curna approached Neulon from behind as he looked over the vanishing corpses.
"Fuck Off! I don't need help from likes of you."
Curna put his hand on Neulon's shoulder and tried to compose him, "Neulon, I understand how you feel. But we must not lose our insight. If you keep up like this, we'll eventually alert the enemy force and we couldn't afford that,"
The more Neulon figure out about the situation of Kingdom, the more worried he become of what would come ahead. Such amount of Pishachas in Kingdom, unnoticed, especially in such holy place. It was clear to him that an internal party was involved. Whom he had no clue about. Tension on border of Kingdom due to neighbouring. Constant threat of demon invasion. Even one of those problems was enough to deal heavy blow to Kingdom. All the nuisance was getting on his head.
What's more, all the internal scheming that had been going up until now, Neulon had knew nothing yet Curna was able to figure out, in fact Allan, who was not always here, realised the unseen... And than there was Neulon.
"Commander, my ass..." Neulon brushed off hand on his shoulder as he looked up at sky.
"O Agni Dev, is this a trial? Please guide me... " He prayed to God.
"I wonder if his highness and Prince know about this..."
"If it's Laren, I'm sure he definitely have hunch of everything if not anything."
"Of course, he would. Prince is the greatest among the greats!"
"Why not we get going..."
As Curna and Neulon marched, we encountered numerous Pishachas in disguise... With brilliant team work, they took down every single one of them. Obliterating them in process.
Then, Neulon stopped in the track.
"Huh, what is it?" Curna turned back to see Neulon vigilant. As if he was trying to focus on something.
"Shh... You hear that?" Neulon raised his finger pointing his ear.
"...What? I don't think someone is following us,"
Then Neulon turned around and dashed in opposite direction.
"We must hurry!"
"Seriously, what is it this time?!"
Since Neulon never bothered to explain anything or what he heard, Curna had no choice but to follow him.
After following Neulon on a wild run, Curna does realise there was some patterns he never followed up.
Was Neulon able to notice it before him... What could Neulon possibly saw that passed his sight?
There Curna saw a torch, it's flame fluttering because of air.
"Very well... Shall The Ritual Begin!" An old priest laughed as he and his fellow comrades looked over captives.
Captives were about 30 priests and knights, while the enforcers were not even half the number.
"W-Why? Why you doing this to us elder?!" Said one of the captives.
"That's... Cardinal?!" Curna was as shocked as Neulon.
"...It seem so."
The highest in church was the traitor? Was he the one the one who allowed Pishachas in Kingdom? Was that the only thing he done or there was more? Alliance with demons, weakening of boundary of nation on Lufi Empire?
All these questions were causing conflict inside Neulon... How could no one noticed... How could 𝗵𝗲 never noticed.
"Alright, we'll save them before any harm is caused to innocent,"
"Wait, shouldn't we wait and—," Before Curna could finish his sentence, Neulon launched an all out attack at Cardinal.
A knight who sense it, stepped in to block Neulon's attack, but was turned to ashes as Neulon's blade eradicated both his guard and him.
"... Does he ever hit the mark," Curna murmured to himself.
"Oh, if it isn't great Neulon," Cardinal, not surprised even a bit, smiled at Neulon as he watched his minion turn to rubbish.
Captives, on the other hand, were surprised by sudden ambush, but that quickly turned into relief. They had lot of faith in Neulon.
"Cardinal, you're dead!" Neulon had enough. He was on full rage, even Curna could tell.
"I can same to you, dear Neulon." But Cardinal was enjoying provoking him.
"Why don't you call your friend, who's hiding there, out. Though it won't change the outcome."
"Yeah, you're dead anyways!" Neulon swing his sword but Cardinal floated away. As Cardinal moved out of the way, sword set other knights on fire.
Curna too decide to join as he aimed for other knights.
Neulon, when enraged, is not someone to mess with. Even Curna knew that... but Cardinal seem to enjoy himself which made caused worry to him.
As Neulon kept eliminating Pishachas as Cardinal just moved backward. Curna aimed for his head and launched an arrow at his glabella. It was as if arrow was about to hit him that Cardinal was not there anymore.
"Illusions of course," Curna tried to focus as he launched an other arrow in thin air.
This time he did hit Cardinal on arm, but he just smiled at him as the arrow vanished.
"What ya doin' sucker?! Take him down already!" Neulon was pissed but he could not reach Cardinal because of minions.
"If it'd be that easy, his head would be kissing Celis!"
"Now now, there is not need for you two to lose your cool. After all," Cardinal smiled at duo as he chanted some words.
"A-Aahhhhh!!" Captives screamed in terror.
Duo turned their head just to witness number of Pishachas rising from land.
In an instant, they went from hand full to a terrifying number.
"...H-How?!"
"It... can't be!"
Both greats were shook to core.
Never did they expected thousands of Pishachas to rise up to devour everything.
"Now then..." on Cardinal's command, Pishachas rushed at duo.
. . . . .