The short sword pierced Andre's body, causing his expression to freeze for a moment. It seemed that he couldn't believe the sword could penetrate him. Then, the black flames on his body converged towards the short sword, as if the sword had a strong suction force, pulling the black flames into the blade.
Shaun could feel Andre weakening through the sensation transmitted by the short sword. From the beginning, it felt like stabbing into an lifeless log, but now it had the texture of piercing flesh. As the black flames were sucked into the sword, Andre seemed to be drained of strength. Shaun withdrew the short sword, took a few steps back, and watched Andre warily.
Suddenly, Shaun felt the short sword become extremely hot in his hand. Caught off guard, he let go, and the sword fell to the ground with a clang. The black flames that were absorbed into the sword surrounded it and slowly gathered. In a matter of seconds, they condensed into a pitch-black stone with red cracks, forming a strange red symbol. The symbol flashed red light, as if molten lava was about to erupt from the ground.
"You did the right thing, Mr. Shaun." A hand reached over, picked up the short sword, but paid no attention to the black stone. It was Father Schwartz.
"I just had a feeling that Andre, in that state, didn't seem like someone who could communicate. And, of course, I had to settle Izé's score. Whether it's right or wrong, I don't know," Shaun gasped, "He took the sword as if he completely ignored that stone. Does that mean only agents connected to the Prime Secret Stone can see it?"
Shaun's excitement was hard to contain. This was the first time in five years he had seen a secret stone other than the Prime Secret Stone. It meant he could finally gain a true superpower.
Picking up the sword, Father Schwartz placed a hand on his forehead and walked to a position not far from Andre, looking at him.
Andre had completely lost the chilling aura, like a dying ordinary person. However, faint remnants of black flames lingered in his eyes, staring fiercely at Father Schwartz and Shaun.
As Father Schwartz glanced over, Andre's head burst open with a pop. Blood mixed with brain matter splattered into the air and onto the ground, like oil paint flicked from a brush.
After finishing this, Father Schwartz also weakened and sat down on the ground, his face pale.
Shaun looked at the black stone, thinking, "It seems to be the Fire Secret Stone, not the Power Secret Stone that Lola needs. Lola was right; it seems that individuals or objects related to higher-level missions tend to attract secret stones. So, does contact with the secret stone trigger its effects?" With this in mind, he reached out to grab the pitch-black secret stone.
At the moment Shaun's fingers touched the stone, it suddenly separated into countless tiny particles, like black smoke, entering Shaun's fingertips in an instant.
Shaun felt as if he had witnessed millions of years of history in a dream. Scenes of the rise and fall of nature, human wars, massacres, construction, and the flourishing and decline of civilizations flashed through his mind. In Shaun's chest, a fierce and inexplicable aura was stirred by the images of war and destruction, making him agitated, but it was quickly suppressed by scenes of nature's vitality.
Finally, the myriad images disappeared, and a small flame hovered in Shaun's boundless sea of consciousness. In that sea of consciousness, there was a vague circle, and the small flame rested at the center of the circle.
As the surroundings gradually returned to normal, Shaun felt as if he had just experienced an epic dream. Waking up, he had a profound understanding of the world, not just on an informational level but delving into the elemental aspects of matter.
This was the ability triggered by the Fire Secret Stone!
In Father Schwartz's view, who was sitting on the ground nearby, Shaun had picked up the sword, killed Andre with telekinesis, then sat down, looking dazed, with various strange expressions on his face. After a few minutes, his expression and gaze returned to normal.
During these minutes, Father Schwartz, exhausted from expending a large amount of telekinetic power, couldn't use his abilities to kill Shaun. Moreover, killing Shaun did not align with his and the puppeteer's interests, so there were no actions during these few minutes.
After regaining his composure, Shaun experienced this wondrous feeling. Unlike the changes in his body associated with the Prime Secret Stone, this was fundamentally different. According to Shaun's understanding from familiar martial arts novels, being connected to the Prime Secret Stone made him an ordinary master, but being associated with the Fire Secret Stone had elevated him to a master of the innate realm.
"Father Schwartz, are you a member of the Dark Tribunal?" Shaun suddenly blurted out.
To Father Schwartz, this statement was like a thunderclap.
In the history of Christianity, the religion underwent two major schisms. The first occurred during the Crusades, dividing into Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. The second was Martin Luther's religious reform and the subsequent Thirty Years' War, leading to the split between Catholicism and Protestantism. Between these two schisms, there was an unknown split within Catholicism. Around 1291, following the complete failure of the Crusades, some fanatical crusaders who couldn't accept defeat formed a secret tribunal. They continued organizing new crusades despite Vatican opposition and opposition from major Catholic nobles in Western Europe.
These Catholic purists, in a fit of anger, formed another secret tribunal, carrying out secret executions of those they deemed heretics.
This secret tribunal was deemed heretical by the Vatican and was harshly targeted. In the words of those in the know, they called them the Dark Tribunal.
Members of the Dark Tribunal included some high-ranking church officials, nobles, knights, etc., forming a core. They infiltrated various levels of European society, without a central headquarters, only a code of conduct and a secret language for internal communication.
This organization existed for over seven hundred years, deeply hidden. The Vatican was unable to eliminate it due to its deep concealment, and it gradually gained formidable resistance power.
However, once a member of the Dark Tribunal was exposed, the church pursued them relentlessly. So, members of the Dark Tribunal were deeply hidden.
When Father Schwartz heard Shaun's words, he was greatly shocked. Only the boss behind this collaboration knew about his identity.
Father Schwartz deeply regretted not seizing the opportunity to kill Shaun when he was distracted.
After regaining his senses, Shaun merged several clues about Father Schwartz in his mind, especially the conversation when entering the museum. The information about the Dark Tribunal, an organization he had only heard about once from Lola, appeared in his mind in detail. He immediately concluded that Father Schwartz's actions and identity matched those of a member of the Dark Tribunal.
"Regardless of the situation, Shaun must die." Father Schwartz, still shocked, made a quick judgment from the astonishment.
Shaun was thinking about reclaiming the sword. Apart from Father Schwartz, the "magician who retrieves objects from a distance," to the tentacle man, the lizard giant, and the eye of illusion, the abilities of these people were very strange. Shaun thought it was dangerous for them to take away the sword, no matter what their purpose was. With the new ability of the Fire Secret Stone, he wanted to see how much he could accomplish.
While contemplating, Shaun felt an intense pain in his head, as if a force wanted to drill into his brain from the outside.
Shaun knew he was under attack. "I dulled myself by triggering the Fire Secret Stone. Forgot the principle that silence is golden. Why did I ask such a question? Schwartz is coming to silence me!" He intuited that if he let this force continue drilling into his brain, something bad would happen, more than just simple pain. But he didn't know how to resist this force.
He endured the pain and tried to move his body. However, his will seemed to be in a fierce battle against another psychic force, temporarily losing control of his limbs. Only his hands could move wrists and fingers slightly.
Shaun felt a hot flow coming out of his eyes, ears, and nose. He remembered that Andre had just blackened, and now he was experiencing the same reaction. If he couldn't find a way to resist, his head would burst open soon.
Father Schwartz, sitting not far away, also had two blood lines flowing from his nose, a reaction to excessive use of psychic power.
Shaun wondered whether he could endure until Father Schwartz's brain burst or if Father Schwartz would make his head burst first. Shaun didn't dare to gamble.
"If only I had a gun in my hand." Shaun, who never trusted the effectiveness of guns due to his exceptional physical abilities, lamented the fact that he never carried a gun.
As this thought crossed his mind, Shaun felt a peculiar sensation in his right hand. Enduring the pain, he looked at his right hand and saw an exaggeratedly shaped giant revolver. The revolver was not only entirely black but also surrounded by black flames.
Shaun was dumbfounded. "What is this situation? The ability brought by the Fire Secret Stone shouldn't be able to do this, right?"
But the intense pain in his head reminded him that he was still in danger. Following the principle of self-preservation no matter the situation, he exerted all his strength to point the black revolver at Father Schwartz and pulled the trigger.
The gun barrel erupted with black flames, but it seemed that no bullets were fired.
"What kind of ghost is this? Is it like the guns in GANTZ, and people will explode after a few seconds?" Shaun was desperate when he saw that no bullets were fired from the gun.
Feeling helpless, Father Schwartz made a "pluff" sound, and his entire body burst open, body fragments mixed with entrails scattered wildly, even splattering onto Shaun several meters away.
The intense pain in Shaun's head suddenly disappeared.
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The Dark Tribunal is a fictional creation, please don't take it seriously.