Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 487 - 486: Encirclement

I’m doing dirty work.

Amber actually knew this from a very early time.

After understanding the operational methods of the Intelligence Agency and comprehending the basic concepts of "infiltration, sabotage, intelligence" as described by Gawain, she foresaw what kind of work this special department might engage in.

The Military Security Intelligence Bureau, a comprehensive intelligence department acting to maintain homeland security, but often, homeland security relies on the insecurity of the enemy to sustain. However, not all confrontations can be conducted openly; those activities beneath the surface are the tasks of the Intelligence Agency.

What is considered righteous by the Cecil Clan might not be so righteous to the enemy. Sometimes you need assassination, sometimes you need poisoning, sometimes you need to destabilize and divide the enemy internally, and sometimes you need to steal and infiltrate... Of course, intelligence work is not always so extremely dark; many times, publicly flowing information is also an important source of intelligence for the Intelligence Agency. But when confrontation enters extreme situations, the methods of work inevitably become darker.

Amber doesn’t really care about these things, because her original occupation doesn’t seem to be much brighter...

On the contrary, she is glad that someone can recognize her talents and put them to proper use—perhaps what she and her subordinates do is not very upright, but at least, she can be sure her actions will bring peace and tranquility to more people.

The Holy Light church on this land is a tumor, and as a tumor, it should be excised with a knife.

In Lu An City, the tense situation is on the brink of explosion.

Various rumors are spreading throughout the city, and those civilians who have accumulated enormous pressure in hunger and panic seem to have lost their minds. They have forgotten the oppression of the Transcendent and have begun discussing horrifying matters in various dark corners. Every time night falls, and after the knights and soldiers patrolling the town move away, those dark alley corners emitting a musty smell in the Outer City District reverberate with a chilling whisper. When the sun rises, bold slogans attacking the cathedral directly and even blasphemous heterodox symbols begin to appear in certain corners of the Outer City District.

The church district dispatched wave after wave of inspection teams, bearing the emblem, robed in black, Disciplinary Monks even walked directly into every household to question or even interrogate anyone they suspected. People were constantly being taken from their homes, and sent back mostly in a near-death state. Less than a third returned home unscathed.

Yet even though knights and priests are running around exhausted, patrolling and capturing throughout streets and alleys day and night, the limited manpower is almost not enough to cover even a third of the city.

Even inside the church district, the situation is worsening. The split between the lower clergy and priests has almost become an open fact. An increasing number of small church leaders are starting to refuse to execute orders from the cathedral. Some priests are questioning the authority of Fran Belon, the temporary archbishop; another segment is even starting to doubt the strange actions and words of Southern Border Archbishop Leimont before his incursion into the Cecil Clan, with information spreading that Archbishop Leimont had been beguiled by the Eternal Sleepers, but the source of this news remains shrouded in fog.

And in such a coexistence of tension and high pressure, more and more flyers keep appearing in the city, even within the church.

"The enemy has infiltrated! Their destruction is almost insane! The threat is beyond imagination!!"

At an urgently held priest meeting, Fran Belon waved his arms wildly, his eyes reddened as he cried out loudly. The priest, known for his devoutness, reliability, and majesty, lost his usual composure at this moment, filled with anger as he faced the unheard-of destructive methods of the Cecil Clan.

"We have already dispatched all the Church Knights, Disciplinary Monks, and Exiled Knights who came over to the Outer City District. Every day we confiscate a large number of flyers and heterodox items," a priest stood up and said, "We still..."

"Doing this is useless!" Fran Belon interrupted the priest without hesitation, "Those flyers... They appear faster than we can burn them!"

"The saboteurs are lurking in the city, we must find a way to catch them," a Disciplinary Monk in a black robe stood up. He was the leader of all the Disciplinary Monks, "They are very adept at hiding, mixing among the crowd, every unfamiliar face warrants suspicion..."

"Unfamiliar faces also include those Exiled Knights and aristocratic offspring who came over, along with their vassal followers." Another priest stood up and interrupted the leader of the Disciplinary Monks, "They are distributed among the current knight patrol teams and inner city church districts. Should we check them as well?"

The voice of the Disciplinary Monk was as cold as winter: "All are suspect. Perhaps the enemy infiltrated among them and thus entered the city."

Fran Belon knocked on the table: "We are playing right into the enemy’s plot—it’s division they want."

The priests fell into commotion, the oppressive, tense atmosphere haunting the hall.

In the unbearable suffocating atmosphere, Fran Belon finally spoke again.

"We cannot allow the situation to deteriorate further," the temporary archbishop said with an exceedingly somber expression. As a powerful Order Supernatural, he finally had enough of the troubles brought by those foolish, weak ordinary people, "We need actions frightening enough to impress everyone—search house to house, bring all suspects to the square, I will use a Great Divine Incantation to detect their faith, all who falter shall face the stake! Also, bring those weak-willed clergy from the small church districts to the square to witness the execution!"

A burst of commotion instantly broke out in the hall, and after a moment, a priest stood up: "Archbishop, are you sure you want to use a Great Divine Incantation to judge so many people? It consumes a lot, and once used, many may be identified as faith-shaken..."

Ordinary people are not firm believers by nature. Even in this church city of Lu’an, the lower class civilians are merely ordinary followers. After such a long period of blockade, pressure, and panic, even the clergy’s faith is undergoing immense trials, and the situation for the civilians would be even worse.

Those capable of becoming priests are not fools; although they always boast of the omnipotence of the Holy Light, they are quite clear-minded about the human heart. In such adverse conditions, with a single Great Divine Incantation, how many among the tested civilians can maintain devout faith?

However, Fran Belon has his considerations and his decision is made: "It must be done—we must prove the power of the Lord before everyone, and define this matter: those whose faith falters, those who defile the church, those who defile myself and the former archbishop, it’s because their faith wavered, they were seduced by the devil, they are ones already shaken in faith, thus all they say is utter nonsense and completely untrustworthy."

Upon hearing the archbishop’s words, the priests in the hall could not help but nod slightly in thought.

With the situation gradually spiraling out of control, dragging a few targets out, pointing all unstable factors toward them, and then categorizing them under the reasons of heterodoxy, disbelief, madness, and burning them away at the stake is the most effective solution in this situation.

At least in the past years, the effect of such "heresy trials" has been consistently successful.

"Announce to the entire city, the highest state of lockdown, tell everyone, their archbishop will conduct a heresy trial in the square," Fran Belon stood up, his gaze sweeping across the hall, confirming no dissenting views, "Do not conceal news of the Divine Incantation; instead, emphasize its effects—we aim to induce panic among those who infiltrated, and even further shake those about to face trial. The more shaken they are... the easier they are defined as heretics at the start of the trial, and the easier we can blame everything on them."

The priests exchanged glances and then bowed their heads in front of Fran Belon.

The news quickly spread from the cathedral and began to reach the small chapel area and the outer city district.

In an underground facility in the small chapel area, a tall, thin priest dressed in a gray burlap robe, typically worn during penance, walked barefoot on the cold stone pavement.

A disciplinary monk in a black robe walked silently beside this priest.

A faint noise came from above, sounding like many people moving around, mixed with what seemed to be the sound of orders being relayed.

The priest in the burlap robe couldn’t help but stop, tilting his ear slightly to listen, and after a moment, he raised his head: "Orkut, what’s that noise?"

The disciplinary monk replied coldly: "It should be the notification for the heretic trial. Don’t overthink it, you can’t get involved in this matter."

The priest in the burlap robe widened his eyes slightly and after a moment, he said in a low voice as if talking to himself: "To have a heretic trial in this situation... there’s no way out, absolutely no way out... Orkut, you..."

The disciplinary monk interrupted the priest’s words: "Save some of your energy, the cathedral is in charge of this matter."

The priest in the burlap robe abruptly fell silent, plunging into sudden silence.

After a long silence, he raised his head and looked at the dim, gloomy passageway ahead, extending into the darkness, where several other penance priests in gray burlap robes were walking under the supervision of a disciplinary monk.

The dark road was like the future of the city, slipping into darkness.

...

In the temporary base of the Intelligence Agency operatives, all the action team members gathered together, and Amber looked at her subordinates in front of her with a cheerful smile on her face.

"The ’heretic trial’ has finally arrived, I thought they wouldn’t use it. It’s always been their specialty, those clergy can endure for so long, that’s impressive."

One of the operatives spoke up: "The situation has deteriorated to this point, they will definitely use the ’heretic trial’ to ’maintain order,’ and they must be aware of our presence, so this trial is probably also aimed at capturing us."

"With that bunch of fools... if any of you get caught, I’ll dock your pay for eighty years!" Amber smirked, then bent down to pick up a cloth bag at her feet and placed it on the table—seemingly containing metal objects, it clattered when placed on the table.

Under the curious gaze of her subordinates, Amber opened the bag and took out the items inside.

They turned out to be pre-assembled, packaged rune triggers, and of a specially designed compact size.

Amber distributed these rune triggers to her subordinates: "Take one each, keep it close to you."

One of the team members couldn’t help but be curious: "Boss... what are these things?"

"These are good stuff given by higher-ups—the Holy Light resonance nodes, part of the White Knight’s equipment, but specially designed to be removed and operated independently from the White Knight’s armor," Amber explained as she tucked her trigger into her waist pouch, "With it, you won’t have to worry about the so-called ’heretic trial’."

The team member clicked his tongue in amazement: "That powerful, huh?"

"Of course it’s powerful, it can even make you act like a devout saint under the influence of ’Great Divine Incantation’ or other ’judgment spells’—well, maybe not that exaggerated, but it’ll definitely fool that Fran Belon," Amber said with a disdainful expression, "That guy, despite being called a bishop, is just a makeshift choice since the death of Leimont and a bunch of powerful Order Supernatural. I doubt that guy can even properly perform a complete Great Divine Incantation."

Having said that, the half-elf’s face suddenly revealed a somewhat sly smile: "And... these resonance nodes have some little functions that will certainly surprise those clergy."

Seeing her subordinates’ curious and expectant eyes, Amber’s smug mindset was greatly satisfied: now she could finally slightly understand the feeling Gawain had when he would propose a remarkable idea and receive those envious looks.

However, she didn’t immerse herself in this feeling for too long, nor did she keep teasing her team members—the action personnel must know the specific functions of the tools they are equipped with, which is key to ensuring mission success, so after a bit of self-satisfaction, she began to seriously explain the effects of those Holy Light resonance nodes...

At the same time, on a high ground outside Lu’an City, Sir Philip, responsible for monitoring Lu’an City and enforcing the blockade, awaited the arrival of Sir Byron with the support supplies.

"Those clergy in Lu’an City should be about done," Byron said candidly to Sir Philip as they met. "I’ve brought weapons specifically to deal with them."

"Weapons?" Sir Philip curiously looked at the wagons of supplies brought by his old partner, "Weren’t we not going to directly attack Lu’an City?"

"Of course, we won’t attack." Byron grinned, attempting to show a mysterious smile, but it ended up looking like a monkey successfully stealing a banana. Upon seeing his partner with such a smile, Sir Philip knew it coincided perfectly with some task assigned by their leader, which perfectly matched with the wicked schemes Byron always had.

He didn’t ask further because he knew, his partner couldn’t help but spill the beans.

"We brought a hundred thousand flyers," indeed, Byron barely held out for a few seconds before revealing the plan, "packed inside artillery shells."