"Have you all forgotten your identities? Before becoming wizards, we were all noble children of the Sekas Empire!" Will shouted loudly.
Buck and the others glanced at each other, falling into silence.
They understood Will's experience well, the feeling of falling from heaven into hell was indeed unbearable.
In the midst of the silence, Lynn suddenly spoke, "You should understand, Will, the Church would never change their treatment of us because of our identities..."
What is the most important principle of the Church as a monotheistic religion?
Of course, it is the Doctrine of Divine Creation!
The legendary Lord Eira created everything in the world and bestowed the nectar of life, bringing vitality to the once lifeless and barren land. Because of this, everyone should adhere to the rule of the Church.
And wizards, who sought to decipher the rules of the world's operation and gain power from it, naturally became the Church's mortal enemies.
After all, this was shaking the foundation of divine rule!
"This time is different!" Will said excitedly, looking at everyone present, his entire being looking like a maniac. "Johnny, Lynn, Buck, the Church's primary target is not us. As long as we sincerely repent, Bishop Anluoke and Duke of Nordland will surely forgive our sins!"
"You're crazy, Will!" Johnny sighed, "From the moment we chose to become wizards, there was no way back."
Once one chose to become a wizard, magic power would forever flow within them. In the Sekas Empire, this was a symbol of demons and disgrace.
If Earl Isk knew his second son had become a wizard, his first reaction would be to sever all ties and expel Will from the family...
This meant they could never return to their previous lives...
"I'm not crazy, I know exactly what I'm doing!" Will said with a cold smile, turning to glance at Bai Ge, who had remained silent. He pulled a few magic stones from a hidden pocket in his robe with his right hand behind his back and suddenly, without warning, scattered them towards Johnny and the others.
"Johnny... be careful!" Bai Ge screamed loudly. In her spiritual energy vision, she could clearly see that each magic stone was engraved with a hidden rune.
Just as Bai Ge's voice sounded, several magic stones exploded in mid-air, and the sharp fragments fell like locusts...
The gray-haired witch's expression remained unchanged. She raised her right hand, her fingers tapping as if playing a piano, with runes lighting up one after another on the gloves covering her slender fingers.
A weak flame instantly appeared at her fingertips. Then, the sparks rapidly expanded, and within a second, the scorching tongues of fire covered everything in front of her!
This was the first-level magic—Flame Touch!
As soon as he threw out the magic stones, Will had already planned his escape route. He clumsily rolled to avoid the scorching flame tongues, then prepared to jump out of the wide-open window.
But Lynn was faster. A diamond-shaped ice blade shot forth, piercing Will's ankle, causing his body, which had leaped into the air, to lose balance and crash to the ground.
A piercing cold spread from his ankle, and Will immediately felt his right leg go numb. Leaning against the wall, panic-stricken, he was about to say something when a slender Magic Missile flew over and exploded in his eye socket.
Scarlet blood mixed with brain matter splattered down, staining the wooden floor red. Lynn immediately turned to look in the opposite direction, and Johnny questioned in disbelief.
"What are you doing, Bai Ge?"
When she used Flame Touch, she had deliberately reduced its power to leave Will alive for interrogation.
"There was no time, I had to kill him first!" Bai Ge screamed in terror, holding her head. "Outside... there are at least a hundred guards. We are surrounded!"
Upon hearing this, Johnny immediately ran to the window and cast a fireball technique, illuminating the dark night.
In the burst of firelight, Lynn could see from afar squads of armored guards with crossbow arrows at their waists, silently emerging from the dense forest and rushing towards them.
The person leading them held a scepter and was dressed in a white and golden robe. Even from a few hundred meters away, in the reflected firelight, he locked eyes with Lynn.
"It's Bishop Anluoke of Nordland! We're doomed, we're dead!" Barton recognized him at once and fell into despair.
He had not expected that to capture a few wizard apprentices, the bishop of Nordland would personally take action.
Lynn glanced at the dim Alchemy Array on the ground. Just now, they should have already stopped the magic from being triggered, which meant...
Everyone's gaze turned to Bai Ge.
"It wasn't me... it wasn't me!" The thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl shook her head frantically, her face full of fear.
The chaotic situation and the approaching Church soldiers made Johnny, already mentally tense, feel dizzy. Biting her lip, she forced herself to calm down and spoke in a low voice.
"Listen, it's not as bad as it seems. There's a wide drainage channel in the basement of this mansion that leads directly to the river outside. We can escape through there!"
As she spoke, Johnny turned to Lynn with a pleading look to keep an eye on Bai Ge. She no longer knew whom to trust.
...
A minute earlier, in the dense forest outside Wuer Town, over a hundred neatly dressed guards were slowly advancing under the cover of the tree shade.
Accompanying them, Priest Aaron looked at the distant castle and asked in confusion.
"Bishop Anluoke, according to the previous plan, weren't we supposed to wait until these wizard apprentices reached Harbour Town to take action?"
For the "Caged Bird" plan, they had mobilized a large number of people to monitor the entire Wuer Town, intending to use this group of wizard apprentices to root out and send to hell all those in the Nordland Territory who had forsaken the faith of the Lord.
Now, by taking the initiative, they were undoubtedly destroying all the previous efforts.
"Aaron, a competent hunter must not only learn how to set up intricate traps but also understand the timing of closing the net," Anluoke responded in a deep voice. "A sturdy iron cage may be able to imprison clumsy bird-ostriches, but if a gryphon were to mix in, it would break free and tear the hunter apart..."
"Remember, excessive greed will only make you lose everything in your hands."
The essence of the "Caged Bird" plan was their absolute control. No matter how these wizard apprentices struggled, they could not escape the net they had set.
However, Blaine's death made Anluoke sense unease. Among the apprentices of Kro, there was actually a formal wizard, which completely disrupted his plan.
Having dealt with these devil worshippers countless times, Anluoke was well aware of how troublesome formal wizards could be. Their witchcraft was bizarre and diverse. If not careful, one could easily die unexpectedly.
During the great battle in the Nordland Territory, if Kro had not stayed behind to cover an apprentice's escape, capturing him would not have been easy.
(PS: Bird-ostrich, a kind of herbivorous animal in a different world, can be understood as... ostrich.)