The Bishops that had stepped out of the Holy Church died before they could even utilize their holy essence to protect themselves.
Even though they were strengthened in their domain, their strength still paled in comparison to Eren who was like a walking catastrophe now.
Normally, Eren would have been more cautious. He would have used the Ancient Dragon Language more carefully, trying to not reveal his identity.
Fortunately for him, today was different. The strongest members of the Holy Church had entered the Dungeon to look for an unknown dragon, not realizing that the dragon was wreaking havoc in their home.
Since the Holy Priestess and Cardinals were absent, there was no one who could recognise the Dragon Language just from the flow of essence around Eren’s body.
Normally, the scent of Dragon Tongue was more evidence. However, after evolution, that scent had become faint, allowing him to not worry about having to destroy the scene later to hide the scent of the dragon magic.
Now, the scent was so faint that it could disperse within a few minutes itself. No other essence or destruction was needed to bury it.
Eren was a demon in the eyes of the Holy Church. He was someone who had come from the Necromancer Tower and somehow managed to pass through the barrier undetected.
The members of the Holy Church didn’t believe that it was a coincidence. Someone had definitely helped him pass through the barrier as the barrier hadn’t alerted them.
There were only two sides that could open an entrance through the Holy Barrier. One was the Holy Church, and the other was the Holy Emperor himself.
In the absence of the Holy Priestess, there was no oversight on the barrier either.
The Bishops had a really bad feeling about this. Just recently, the Holy Emperor had killed their spies and called them the spies of the Northern Continent.
Now, this person was accepting that they were spies from the Northern Continent. They had a really strong feeling that the Holy Emperor had a hand in it. Unfortunately, they had no evidence.
They also didn’t have time to think about it, as the Bishops that tried to stop Eren through the corridors were killed with a magic so strange that it didn’t even feel like something that belonged to the four continents.
The Bishops were looking at Eren progressing towards the center of the Holy Church, leaving corpses behind. They also saw him pull out the hearts of the corpses.
The hearts disappeared in his hands which made them think that he was keeping them in his inventory for some reason.
“Did you manage to contact Her Holiness?” One of the Bishops asked, almost chewing his nails in frustration.
“We can’t establish a connection. They appear to be at a place where we can’t contact them,” came a response from another Bishop who was trying his best to contact the Holy Priestess.
“Urgh, all of them just had to leave now! If they were here, they would’ve easily killed this bastard that dated dirty the holy land!”
Although it looked like a coincidence that Eren just happened to attack when the main force of the Holy Church was away and couldn’t be contacted.
A few of them believed that it was all planned. The main force was drawn out intentionally so the Holy Church could be attacked.
“It’s fine! Contact the Cardinals from other cities! They should be able to arrive faster!” The Bishop came up with a new plan to deal with Eren.
Although the main force of the Holy Church was absent, that didn’t mean the Holy Church didn’t have other forces.
Across the Western Continent, there were many branches of the Holy Church. There was one in almost every city.
Most of these churches were led by the Bishops, but there were also many cities that were led by the Cardinals. Normally, these were cities that were large and had importance for the Holy Church to draw more faith.
All these cities were connected to the Holy Church through portal formations. As long as the formation was activated, a passage could be established with those branches, from where other Cardinals could arrive.
“Even if we contact them, it would take at least a few hours to establish a portal. Can we delay him for that long?”
“It’s not something we have to do. It’s something we must do! We can’t let the Holy Land fall. Otherwise, even if we managed to survive, we would be granted a death worse than you can imagine!”
The leading bishop said, grimacing. Even be understood that portals couldn’t be activated right away.
The Holy Church never expected the main base to be attacked from outside, so they never cared about making these portals connect faster. After all, the Holy Priestess could simply open the void and travel to other cities if she had to.
If anything, the process was intentionally made harder to protect the Holy City from attacks through other cities. It was easier to take down a branch and use the portal to infiltrate the Holy Church than it was to attack from outside, after all.
That’s why, the process was made harder. Not only were a lot of materials needed to be arranged, but also permission had to be taken from the main branch.
The permission could easily be granted, but the problem was arrangement of the materials. At the fastest, it could take a few hours.
That’s why, Holy Priestess had to stay in the Duke’s Palace while the Duke had arranged materials for the portal so that Eren could be brought here.
“Send a message to all higher branches. Tell them that we are under attack and to make sure that they activate the portal within half an hour, even if they have to lose an arm and leg over it.”
The Bishop exclaimed, his fist slamming on the wall in front of him, feeling helpless. He could do nothing but watch Bishops being used as pawns to delay Eren as much as possible.
