Chapter 462: Count Pierce
On the other hand, Charles showed a mischievous smile on his face and asked.
"Do you want to have a look at it?"
"What-?" Before Cardinal Smith could understand the reason behind Charles's smile, he suddenly felt that the strange invisible strings around his body began to tighten.
Simultaneously, the space around him distorted suddenly and pulled him into the void that appeared behind him.
As he struggled with all his might, he saw the smiling Charles and soon heard an icy voice in his head.
'Try to survive in the pocket dimension. If you manage to survive for two days, I'll let you live.'
A moment later, Cardinal Smith's vision turned blurry, and soon he found himself standing in the middle of a dense forest.
Currently, he stood under a tree shadow and barely managed to stand steadily from the dizziness.
"W-Where am I?" While asking, he looked at the surroundings and soon frowned.
Then, he closed his eyes for a moment and tried to borrow power from Goddess's divine power.
But to his shock, he couldn't!
It was as if something was blocking him from borrowing power from Goddess Zaqiel!
"Is it due to the pocket dimension?" He widened his eyes in surprise and soon checked his Knight Aura.
'Thankfully, I can use my light elemental aura power to some extent.' Although there was only a little light elemental energy present in the atmosphere, he felt that he could survive on his own for a while. He also checked whether he could use sword aura or not and soon let out a deep sigh.
'Next is about my domain power.' He opened his eyes, muttered a strange incantation, and soon spoke.
"Truth Domain!"
But a moment later, nothing happened!
Even though some strange power came from his Inner World, it soon disappeared into the atmosphere!
'As I thought, I need to borrow the Divine One's power to maintain my Truth Domain.' He knew that Goddess Zaqiel's Divine Power played some role in Awaken's Domain Creation process, but he didn't think that it would affect to this extend.
'Tsk, with my current state, I can barely stand against those Demon Sorcerers. And, if I face the Flame Demon now, I'll be captured or killed in seconds.' His face went stiff in a moment, and it didn't take him long to realize the seriousness of the situation.
But before he could think of a plan to get away, two figures descended from the sky and soon landed in front of him.
One was an emerald-haired woman in her twenties, while the other was a long silver-haired middle-aged man. Both held swords in their hands and appeared unique. The emerald-haired woman had two wings made of different flowers that appeared behind her back, while the middle-aged man had bat-like wings.
As Cardinal Smith saw their appearance, he couldn't help but pause in surprise.
"A Druid and a Skinwalker?" He asked.
On the other hand, Irzoch, in Duke Michael's appearance, cast her [Viscious Form] bloodline spell all of a sudden and started to transform. Simultaneously, she locked her gaze on Cardinal Smith and shouted.
"Mind Possession!"
In the meantime, Melody also dismissed her wings spell and muttered in a cold tone.
"Seed of Illusion."
As she spoke, Melody and Irzoch turned transparent and soon disappeared from Cardinal Smith's sight!
The fight between Cardinal and Charles's subordinates had begun.
…
At that moment, Charles raised his hand, touched the green pendant, and shook his head.
"A crippled assassin is nothing more than a toy in front of those two. Let's see if they could defeat that guy in two days." While muttering, he also linked his mind with the pendant and checked the battle. After noticing that Cardinal Smith didn't have much power to kill his handpicked subordinates, he withdrew his gaze from the pocket dimension and looked at the dumbfounded Commander and the knights.
"It's nothing serious. You guys should dismount the horses and camp here." He paused for a moment, looked up at the direction where 'Ironhaven' city was located, and then added.
"Meanwhile, I'll go and say 'Hello' to the Count."
A second later, he cast [Flame Teleportation] spell, enveloped his body in a crimson flame, and disappeared from there.
He reappeared above the Ironhaven City a second later, released his wisdom power, and searched for Count Pierce.
The city was a large one, probably the size of Chester City in Edhen, though it was mostly built of stone. It was surrounded by a massive stone wall and appeared well-fortified.
After looking at the city for a few seconds, Charles zeroed his focus on a particular three-storied building, enveloped his body in a crimson flame, and disappeared from there.
A moment later, he reappeared in a 16*16 ft room and shifted his gaze towards a particular direction.
Even though the room appeared darker, Charles managed to see everything in the small room. To his right, there was a desk and a door on the other side of the room. He saw a couple of chairs as well as a small table with a bottle of booze on it and a plate of fried chicken. At that moment, Count Pierce sat next to the wooden table, held a glass in his hand, and was about to take a sip but froze.
Even though he was just a Radiant Knight, his perception was strong than any mortal.
"W-Who are you?" Count Pierce hurriedly stood up from his seat as he noticed Charles's presence and asked in a stutter.
On the other hand, Charles took a step forward, raised his hand, and spoke.
"Your King."
A cold voice came out of his mouth as he conjured a small flame and let it dance on his palm. Due to the appearance of crimson fire, Count Pierce managed to see Charles's face clearly and soon trembled all of a sudden.
"Y-Your Highness!" At that moment, he felt that a bolt of lightning struck from somewhere and went stiff.
Upon seeing his reaction, Charles wore an amusing smile on his face, continued to walk towards the table, and corrected him.
"It's not 'Your Highness,' Mr. Count. It's 'Your Majesty.'"
Simultaneously, he raised his left hand, pointed his forefinger at Count Pierce's forehead, and cast the [Burning Consciousness] spell on him.
A moment later, his [Burning Consciousness] appeared inside Count Pierce's Inner World and started erasing his memories.
On the other hand, Charles arrived before the wooden table, pulled the nearby chair, and sat on it. After that, he leaned his back against the rail and started reading the new information.
But as he read the information from his memories, he couldn't help but sigh in disappointment. Unlike Duke Michael, Count Pierce knew nothing much about the Light Church. Pierce might look like a Light Church's only ally to outsiders like Royal Family and other noble houses, but the truth was far from behind.
'He was nothing but a puppet. This guy doesn't even know about the Shadow Angels.'
After some time, Charles stopped erasing Count Pierce's memories and fell into deep thoughts.
'This isn't getting anywhere. What should I do now? If this goes by normal means, it might take more than ten years to gain complete control over this world. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time. I urgently need to return to Edhen World and participate in Abyss Planar Invasion. I want to get my hands on the 'thing' that could help me improve my fire affinity to 'Divine' level.' He also wanted to upgrade his system cube to a High-Ranked Series artifact.
'Although this world has many resources and artifacts, they won't be much of any use in the future.' If he chose to stay on this plane, he might become a mighty Ruler in no time. But it would restrict his progression. No, he didn't even have the system to complete constructing the other four spell models.
He pondered for a moment and soon made some adjustments in his plans.
He then entered his Inner World, created new memories based on Pierce's memories, and made them into a small cloud. After that, he also made an imprint with his Will in it and decided to combine them both. He had long known that the Light Church had some way to distinguish one's identity through some soul-searching method. So, instead of replacing Count or enslaving his consciousness using the [Curse of the Overlord] spell, he decided to modify his original consciousness!
Then, he left his Inner World, looked at Count Pierce, and raised his hand. At that moment, a greyish cloud appeared out of nowhere and moved towards Count Pierce's face. Soon, it absorbed into his head, entered the Dark Space, and then combined with his original consciousness!
Meanwhile, Count Pierce returned to his sense, widened his eyes all of a sudden, gripped his head tighter, and started groaning in pain.
On the other hand, Charles stood up from his seat, enveloped his body in a crimson flame, and disappeared from there.
…
