A Core Ship From The Start - Chapter 73

Chapter 73: Chapter 60: Truth_1

At this moment, the Underground Temple was in a state of utter chaos.

Duanmu Huai and his Puppet Army were fighting fiercely against Iver and his minions, resulting in a complete mess.

As for Iver, he had absolutely no clue that things would spiral out of control like this. He had originally planned to lay a trap, but in the end, he had allowed a wolf into his home. However, for Duanmu Huai, everything was going according to plan!

Although the BOSS was not stupid enough to reveal his true intentions before the fight, for Duanmu Huai, it didn’t matter. The evidence was clear, and no one needed your confession. He didn’t care about your Miranda rights, you can remain silent, but he still has the right to throw you in jail!

By the way, Lorena had, as planned, smashed through the main gate and broken out with the Mechanical Soldiers summoned by Duanmu Huai to meet the Temple Reinforcements at the same time as the battle started. When their people arrive, Duanmu Huai would need no explanations. Rather, Iver would need to explain why he had built a temple worshiping the Evil God here… And the reason?

Who cares! Just fight!

Do you think I’ll stop fighting just because you’ve woven a heart-wrenching story? Not a chance!

For the Judge, motivation doesn’t matter, only results do. As a result, hopes of telling your sad backstory to try and gain sympathy are unfounded. The crimes of undercover killings and construction of the Evil God Temple you’ve committed are enough to sentence you to a burning stake!

“You damned bastard!”

Iver, now in a state of disarray, found it difficult to fend off attacks. The enormous metal palm that appeared behind him helped Iver block the attacks from Duanmu Huai and the Mechanical Soldiers time and again. However, seeing Lorena breaking out through the smashed gate, his face turned white with rage.

Duanmu Huai accurately seized his weakness, that is – whatever Iver planned to do, he certainly needed to remain hidden for now! Once discovered by the church, he’d be doomed!

According to logic, such a thing would normally be impossible. After all, Iver was the Archbishop of the church’s machinery, and he had even won the trust of the church with his own abilities, subtly seizing part of the church’s power. Under these circumstances, Iver did not believe he could lose. Even if someone suspected what he was up to, they would never actually storm in like this… What a joke!

What the hell was wrong with this man?!

At this moment, Iver was about to go crazy. Their enemy had summoned wave after wave of Mechanical Soldiers and Puppets. Although he didn’t know how it was achieved, Iver did not have enough manpower to resist. If it had been in the city or some wilderness, he could perhaps have escaped in the chaos.

But the situation now was completely different. Originally, he had deliberately lured them into this enclosed Underground Temple to prevent Duanmu Huai and others from escaping, but now, he had trapped himself in!

In such an enclosed space, enough quantity was sufficient to overcome all quality advantages. Iver found himself in exactly such a situation. Under the all-encompassing attack of the puppets, he could not effectively fight back. With every blow of his metallic palm, dozens of puppets would be shattered easily, but the puppets that immediately followed filled the gap and continued the attack on Iver.

“Damn… Damn it… Gavi! Help me!”

The Masked Girl Legion was no longer of any use. At this moment, Iver could only hope that Gavi could give him a hand, but Gavi herself was also knee-deep in a hard fight. Although she had strong AOE clearance ability, Ogis had locked onto this, so Gavi had no chance to help her master.

Not only that…

“Sir Knight, we’re back!!”

Upon hearing this icy voice, Iver’s heart sank. He looked towards the gate and saw Lorena leading the Sacred Knights rushing in.

Seeing this, Iver felt his heart sinking into a void.

Grudgingly, the church in this city was quite efficient, not like in many games where they only arrived for mop-up work after the protagonist had defeated the BOSS. With the help of the church reinforcements summoned by Lorena, Duanmu Huai successfully defeated Iver – although his Mech Suit ability was strong, he couldn’t handle all the opponents alone. The church was not bound by any gentleman’s agreement and so the Sacred Knights rushed in – at this point, Iver’s only option was to surrender.

Gavi was not in a better situation either. Her Puppet was destroyed by Ogis and she herself was bound and hung in mid-air by Ogis’ silk threads. However, unlike Iver, who was dispirited, she was grinding her teeth, glaring like a rabid dog ready to bite at any prey that dared come near her.

“Sir Knight!”

As the church’s reinforcements held Iver down and captured him, Lorena excitedly ran over. Behind her, was Merlot.

“Yo, you guys have worked hard, everything went well, didn’t it?”

“Yes, things were rather smooth. Thanks to Miss Merlot. If not for her rushing to inform the church, we would not know what might have happened.”

While saying this, Lorena looked at Merlot, who shook her head slightly.

“It was nothing, it’s my duty as a Priest.”

As she said this, Merlot, with a look of sorrow in her eyes, looked around at the devil statues in the Underground Temple

“I did not expect Archbishop Iver to worship the devil……”

“Indeed, it was quite shocking, but fortunately… Everything is over now.”

Lorena nodded, surveyed her surroundings, and muttered quietly. However…

“No, it’s not over yet.”

Duanmu Huai was staring at the system in front of his eyes, where the task list still hung above.

[Special mission “Chasing the Culprit”]

[Mission objective: Find the real culprit behind a series of events]

[You are embroiled in a mysterious murder case, find out who the real culprit is, and uncover the truth]

The real culprit.

Although Liam made Gavi, he was not the real culprit. He was just deceived and used by Archbishop Evile.

So, is Archbishop Evile the culprit?

Indeed, no matter how one looks at it, he seems like the real culprit. He used Liam to get Gavi and the Masked Female Puppet Army, and carried out mass killings in the city under the cover of night. He also built a temple for the devil and worshipped evil beings. But in the system’s determination, the real culprit was still not him.

So, there was only one answer left.

Thinking about this, Duanmu Huai took a step forward, came to Archbishop Evile who was arrested by

the Sacred Knights, grabbed his collar and yanked him up.

“Wait, what are you going to do?”

Looking at Duanmu Huai’s actions, the Sacred Knights around were also taken aback, but Duanmu Huai didn’t care about them at all, he just stared at Archbishop Evile.

“Who told you to do all this?”

“I, I don’t know what you’re talking about?”

“Killing in the Holy City, building a temple for the Evil God, who told you to do all this! What exactly is the thing you worship?!”

As a judge, Duanmu Huai was familiar with the habits of Evil God Cultists, these idiots who had lost their minds would hold sacrilegious ceremonies, generally for two possibilities.

One is the “Daddy look how awesome and powerful I am, praise me” reward-seeking mode. This is also the motive for most Evil God Cultists to hold ceremonies, longing to gain the favor of the gods they worship through these stupid acts, so as to gain strength and rewards.

These kinds of ceremonies are common and disgusting, but generally, unless it reaches a certain stage, it won’t cause too much disaster.

But the other one is completely different.

That is… the “your superiors have given you a mission, you must complete it” work mode.

Since Archbishop Evile was not a “mommy loves me more” mommy’s boy cultist, then there was only one answer.

He was here to cause trouble on the command of the Evil God!

Therefore, of course, the real culprit was not him!

However, Archbishop Evile did not answer Duanmu Huai’s question——he could no longer answer anyone’s questions.

“Pfft.”

A huge metal palm suddenly appeared from the shadow of Archbishop Evile, the fingers like a lance pierced through his chest, and at the same time, a sweet giggle sounded.

“Huhuhu, I didn’t expect that you could get this far, it seems that Archbishop Evile is nothing more…”

Duanmu Huai and the Sacred Knights looked up at the source of the sound. There was a petite figure floating not far above the temple——it was nobody else but the nun who had led Duanmu Huai and others into the temple earlier. However, her appearance now was completely different from the innocent and lovely look she had before. A pair of bright red curved small horns were evident on her forehead, and what she was wearing was no longer the simple nun’s clothes from before, but a tight mini-dress like a nightclub girl, a red tail swayed behind her, accompanied by bat-like wings, revealing the nun’s true identity.

“De… Devil?!”

Seeing this, Lorena exclaimed in surprise, while the nun giggled and raised both hands.

“That’s right, there are no gods in this temple! In order to turn the human world into a cruel and dark fantasy world, we will invite the Lord from the Ice Hell Abyss!”

“Attack!!”

The Sacred Knights at this moment also came to their senses, hastily raising their bows and arrows and launched an attack at the Devil Nun floating in the air, but their arrows didn’t hit the target, instead, they went straight through the nun’s body, then she floated back like a ghost and quietly disappeared into the wall.

“Although you moved quickly, unfortunately… it’s too late. The blood and souls of the innocents have filled this city, and the Lord of the Ice Hell is about to awaken!”

As the nun’s words fell, the next moment, the whole temple violently shook!