"Keep advancing" the three Red Sun Knights coldly ordered.
During this time's Spirit Cleansing day, several of their targets had been exposed among the 10,000-ish population of Lohr, according to the information, they pinpointed their target as a man named Isrig.
This man was a prominent figure of Lohr who pursued higher education at the Academic Capital when he was young, when he returned to Lohr, he opened a pharmaceutical company and was now considered to be one of Lohr's upper class citizens.
After discovering the snake monsters in the city sewers, the Night Watchers had conducted an investigation regarding this matter. By studying the mutated flesh of the snake monsters, they determined the materials necessary to perform this magical ritual.
One of them was the Green-scaled Snake's hide, which was a rare commodity in Lohr with very few uses. On Spirit Cleansing day, the Cardinal purposely examined some of the suspects during the Spirit Cleansing ceremony.
Finally, he found abnormalities with Isrig, and secretly placed a tracking seal on him.
The goal of this operation was to capture Isrig and destroy the lab in which he conducted his wicked experiments.
Because if they only caught Isrig and left his lab intact, there was no telling who or when someone would come across it and continue the experiment.
Lohr had never been short of such ambitious people, and such matters had already happened no less than 10 times in the past.
For example, 20 years ago, a certain citizen obtained a wicked magic ritual from some unknown location. Although he was captured by the Night Watchers before he managed to complete the ritual, his magic notebook wasn't recovered.
Then 10 years ago, a woman managed to complete that magic ritual and successfully summoned numerous earthbound evil spirits; even now, some of those earthbound evil spirits were still wandering around the sewers. This event had successfully contributed to the thriving ecosystem of the Lohr's underground sewers, how marvelous indeed.
But it was no outlier in the rich history of Lohr, just one example out of many.
And so, for occurrences of this nature, simply capturing the perpetrator didn't necessarily mean that it had ended. Only when the corresponding forbidden knowledge had been thoroughly destroyed would such a case be fully closed.
It was also because of this that the Sun Shadow church didn't try to arrest Isrig in the middle of the day while he was alone, but instead waited until late at night when he was currently in the middle of his experiments to attempt capture.
〖 Since they were attacked here, Isrig had most likely discovered that he was currently under pursuit. Hopefully, he doesn't notice the tracking seal and destroy it too quickly 〗
Negary's advancement was perfectly in sync with the Red Sun Knights while not giving off any sound as he moved; a layer of black Biomass Gear covered his body, which fully absorbed any body heat he might be giving off, achieving a preliminary level of perfect stealth.
At least, neither the Red Sun Knights nor the Night Watchers on the other side of the wall managed to discover Negary. This was part of their weakness, having not released their [Origin]; without the improvement on their souls, their sense of perception was highly lacking.
…
"Up ahead" a Red Sun Knight next to Reid muttered. He produced a pendant from inside his pocket, the ruby that was engraved on it was giving off a lot of heat.
This ruby was a divine artifact that the Cardinal created, which was connected to the tracking seal. The closer they were to it, the more heat the ruby would give off. Since the Red Sun Knights carried the Brand of the Red Sun, they were extremely sensitive to heat, which could be considered one way to remedy their lacking sense of perception.
With his reminder, the group quickly discovered their enemy. There was a very well-hidden wooden door on the left side of the sewers that had been painted in an extremely similar color to the walls; even if the Red Sun Knights had light constantly radiating from their helmets, if they hadn't been reminded, they wouldn't have noticed at all.
The group exchanged short glances before a Red Sun Knight raised his shield and charged at the door, rolling once as he broke it open, revealing the peering dim light from within.
The others soon followed him into a relatively spacious secret room.
There were quite a few trunks in the area, which contained a number of Green-scaled snakes, as well as a stack of their hide right next to them. A middle-aged man wearing a feather hat was standing behind a table staring down at it without moving away.
"I was wondering how two of my retinues lost their lives, but never did I think that three Red Sun Knights would come to arrest me" the middle-aged man was Isrig, his voice didn't seem to be in panic and instead felt glad from his powerful subjugation squad.
"Why did a successful citizen like yourself also get involved in this forbidden knowledge?" another Red Sun Knight coldly questioned: "Sinner Isrig, do you have any other accomplices?"
Having a good education, his own pharmaceutical company, a good wife and child, as well as considerable wealth and influence from it all, he could be considered a VIP in Lohr, who would be able to enjoy a very happy life without issues.
"Don't you ever feel that this life is senseless?" Isrig asked him in return: "Ever since birth, no matter your experiences or life, your true thoughts are always limited and restrained, forced to live through the same daily routines"
"Again, again, again and again, I feel like I'm always trapped in the same day, yesterday was Monday, today is Monday, and tomorrow will also be Monday. Nothing. Ever. Changes"
"Because of that, sometimes I feel lost" Isrig continued in a confused tone: "What exactly is the meaning of humans living their lives like this?"
"We are all born convicts, we live in order to atone for our sins. We are the property of God, our everything exists for God's sake!" Reid replied resolutely, wielding his sword against the black sheep who had lost himself in forbidden knowledge: "Accept your judgement and be purified, Isrig"
"God? That is nothing but a big conspiracy!" Isrig laughed in his madness: "I can't find the meaning of my life, so I desire to break this monotonous cycle of a thousand repeats of a single tune, perhaps then I would be able to find my meaning!"
A crossbow bolt abruptly flew and struck Isrig's body, but the bolt easily pierced through without drawing any blood.
Noticing something wrong, Reid hurriedly stepped forward and swung his sword at Isrig's body. The blade easily cut him in half, but the thing that fell to the ground wasn't the halves of his body, but rather a large coat of lifeless human skin.
The table abruptly exploded as a bright green shadow shot forward towards Reid.
As experienced as he was, Reid immediately raised his shield to block, while another knight swung his sword unhesitantly towards the bright green shadow.
Sparks flew, the bright green shadow borrowed the power of the sword strike to lunge itself towards a Night Watcher.
The shadow was so fast that it only flashed for a brief moment before vanishing again, the Night Watcher only felt a slight pain in his neck before his vision became blurry and he collapsed.
『 My apologies, but you are already too late 』Isrig's voice now spoke with a slight hint of a snake's hissing: 『 That was merely my human body's last shed of skin 』
A small human-faced snake was then seen slithering on the ground.
