Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 1007

"Just now, at the cemetery, I heard the latest about the Flame Demon affair from an acquaintance. The Church has found traces of the cult, the Dead Man's Whip. They don't have many members in Nolan, but they're well-hidden. I expect the crackdown will begin before the end of the month."

It was already the middle of March, which meant the operation would happen within the next two weeks.

"The tattoos on the Flame Demon have been confirmed to be part of the [Exotic Tide] ability. We've gathered some intel from the black market; the demon only appeared in Nolan last winter, but no one knows its purpose for coming here. As for its collaboration with the Dead Man's Whip, we haven't found a reason yet. There's definitely something strange going on."

This was all information Papa Oliver gathered at the funeral. For the Church to uncover so much in just a week, their intelligence network was truly impressive.

Additionally, Papa Oliver heard that over in Bel Diran, the Legacy Sage Church had arrested every living member of the Quake family. During a search of the Quake family's old manor, they discovered traces of some rather alarming cult rituals in the basement, possibly involving live sacrifices.

This matched the information Jenkins had gotten from that coachman. However, they still hadn't discovered where old Quake had obtained such secret knowledge.

Jenkins hoped the Church could quickly get information from the Quake or Antak families about the alliance between the high nobility and the Tree House. That would allow them to purge the aristocracies of the three great kingdoms and root out the corrupt. But the Tree House was buried deep. After Jenkins defeated their level-seven Enchanter in Ruen and Miss Bevanna and the others captured their demigod in Shire, the organization had gone completely silent.

"Let's hope for peace."

Jenkins muttered under his breath.

The monthly gathering hosted by the Corpse Gentleman was about to begin. As much as he disliked the abandoned hospital, Jenkins wasn't going to miss this meeting.

"I thought the Skull Sword might be connected to the Corpse Gentleman," the Professor remarked on the way. "You know, he's probably the most powerful undead-type Enchanter in the city."

"I used to think so too," Jenkins replied, "but the Corpse Gentleman is far more powerful than that Skryu Pompey. If he were the one controlling the Skull Sword, it wouldn't need to hide. I doubt even all of Nolan's demigods combined could defeat it."

As Jenkins answered, he struggled to stuff Chocolate into the black robe he wore to conceal his identity.

The cat felt neglected today. Ever since they had left that morning, Jenkins had been preoccupied with his social life, ignoring it. This left the feline feeling utterly dejected.

It had assumed Jenkins would play with it for a while in the evening, but now he was off to some boring gathering.

At this thought, the cat, which had been wrestling with Jenkins's hand, lifted its head and glanced toward the distant, abandoned hospital. In the deep of the night, even Jenkins's sharp eyesight couldn't make out the buildings from so far away, but the small cat could.

It knew perfectly well what was going on at that hospital and what things were inside it. But the cat didn't feel like giving Jenkins a hint just yet. After all, Jenkins could be so disobedient sometimes.

A sudden memory surfaced: the last day of the previous month, when Jenkins had been looking for a girl to invite to a family dinner. The small cat's spirits immediately sank. It stopped playing with Jenkins's hand and voluntarily retreated into the folds of the robe.

"Hmm? Why is Chocolate being so cooperative? Is it sick?"

The thought worried Jenkins.

There were no other buildings near the abandoned hospital; it loomed in the center of a vast, barren field. As a result, there was no established path for the attendees of the gathering to follow.

Every trip to the hospital required pushing through undergrowth and cutting across a patch of woods. It wasn't an easy trek in seasons other than winter, and when it snowed, the journey became even more difficult.

It was early spring now, but the wild grass in the field already showed signs of rampant growth. Jenkins and the Professor chatted idly as they walked, even marveling at how beautiful the brilliant starry sky was out here in the countryside.

As they walked, Jenkins's ears caught a strange sound. He signaled for the Professor to stop. Squinting, he peered at a small grove of trees up ahead, where a few figures flickered indistinctly in the darkness.

"Enchanters. Two of them. One level-four, one level-five."

Jenkins murmured, judging by the points of light that only he could see. It looked like the level-five was hunting the level-four.

Their position was off to the side of Jenkins and the Professor's path. After a brief discussion, they decided not to get involved in someone else's business.

Jenkins had expected they might get dragged into it, but the one being chased didn't run toward them. Instead, after a dull thud, the points of light from both Enchanters vanished simultaneously.

Jenkins and the Professor exchanged a bewildered glance. They had both heard the sound, but the Professor couldn't see the points of light and didn't know the two Enchanters were gone. Though Jenkins could see them, he knew that when someone died, their light was supposed to fade out slowly, not just vanish in an instant.

In the end, unable to contain their curiosity, they prepared themselves and headed toward the source of the sound.

As they moved through the trees, a white light quickly drew their attention. When they got closer, they saw it: a glowing white portal standing in the middle of the woods, emitting an endless cascade of white light.

Around the white portal, the trees that should have been there had vanished completely. A little farther out, the trees looked as if they'd been bitten by some unseen, ferocious beast. One tree was even sheared in half, its cross-section perfectly smooth—a mark no blade could ever make.

Jenkins surmised it was a spatial distortion caused by the appearance of a Mysterious Realm's entrance, which had obliterated the surrounding matter. If so, the two who had disappeared must have had the misfortune of stumbling right into it.

The Professor agreed, reaching out and tugging on Jenkins's arm.

"Let's get out of here. We can report this to the Church after the meeting. I've noticed that the frequency of these Mysterious Realms appearing in Nolan has been getting higher and higher these past few years."

Jenkins felt the same way. Since coming to this world, he had encountered Mysterious Realms at a rate of almost twice a month. And in most of those encounters, the portal would "coincidentally" appear in a place he couldn't possibly avoid, as if fate itself were playing a joke on him. Chapters fırst released on novel(ꜰ)ire.net