Chapter 69: Fireworks

“Good fellow, they’ve started fighting. That makes things easier.”

On the rooftop opposite the church, Levi held his cane gun and stared at his target, sighing to himself.

Levi naturally knew the main purpose of this operation—forcing the Holy Lord Church of Mist City to expose its own flaws.

The benefit of this was simple: if you don’t resist, then we’ll thoroughly investigate the entire church.

If you do resist, well, that’s even better.

Whether or not there’s a problem, it means there’s a problem.

But this was something Levi could not do.

Only the Queen could do it, or perhaps the Old Butler.

Anyway, it was not something he could do, nor something he would do.

This was also another reason why Levi did not directly attack Bishop Raphael.

As just a screw in the organization, all he needed to do was his part.

There was no need to meddle.

As the civil servant’s golden rule went: the more you do, the more mistakes; the less you do, the fewer mistakes; do nothing, make no mistakes.

Attacking a bishop of the Holy Lord Church could of course be explained as a show of loyalty—since Her Majesty the Queen wanted to deal with the church, then one should worry about what the leader worried about, think what the leader thought.

But—had the leader told you to do it?

Besides, whatever the leader wanted to do, it wasn’t your place to judge.

If you thought the leader should lead in your way, then who was the leader—you or the leader?

So, Levi decisively decided: return, report, and let those above decide.

He was just a scout.

He lit up the map for them, he sent the intel out—how to fight was the Commander-in-Chief’s responsibility.

It wasn’t up to him to decide when this battle should start, nor how to fight it.

Of course, if Bishop Raphael had tied someone up and was about to slice them open, then maybe Levi would have stepped in to stop it.

But since they were just singing and dancing around a model, Levi couldn’t be bothered.

He still cherished this hard-won second life.

Now it seemed his decision had been correct.

“This guy actually has some skill.”

Through the scope, Levi observed the scene inside the church and couldn’t help but take in a breath of cold air.

After Bishop Raphael launched his attack, the Royal Guard soldiers quickly counterattacked.

Yet what followed was astonishing—the bullets striking Raphael didn’t draw blood, but rather a flurry of feathers.

It looked as if they had smashed open a feather pillow.

But what came next was the real problem!

The feathers from Bishop Raphael’s body scattered and attached themselves to the nearby attendants and guards.

Immediately, those people revealed pained expressions, twisting, screaming in agony as they collapsed.

Soon after, one feather after another drilled out of their skin.

They looked soft, yet they were sharp, piercing out from the pores, replacing body hair to become the new rulers of the skin’s surface.

Within moments, accompanied by wretched cries, those touched by the feathers had already transformed into feather monsters identical to Bishop Raphael!

Seeing this, Levi was deeply shaken, while secretly grateful that he hadn’t been stupid enough to fight this guy hand-to-hand.

Taking one hit of that—who could survive!?

But it wasn’t over yet.

Those infected, feather-wrapped people stood up again.

Their eyes glowed red, mouths wide, howling like wild men at the enemies before them.

Then, those infected leaped forward and charged.

“Damn it! Leave now, quickly!”

The Royal Guard Captain shouted loudly, ordering his men to evacuate the church.

He wasn’t a fool; he had clearly seen what happened to those who came into contact with the feathers.

While shouting for retreat, he raised his gun and fired at the feather monsters.

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!!”

Yet those bullets—capable of piercing stone walls—failed to kill the feather monsters.

On the contrary, hitting them only released more feathers, filling the church in an endless flurry.

Carried by the air currents, they drifted gracefully through the hall.

A beautiful sight—yet in the Captain’s eyes, more terrifying than demons!

But still, it wasn’t over.

Just as the Captain prepared to retreat, suddenly a priest lunged forward and wrapped his arms around the Captain’s waist!

“Let go, you bastard! What are you doing!?”

The Captain struggled desperately, but the priest refused to release him.

His eyes shone with fanatic light, his face full of devout madness, staring at the Captain.

“This is God’s blessing! Accept it! Purify your sins! Become God’s apostle!”

“Get off me, you lunatics!”

The Captain raised his gun high, smashing the priest’s face with the butt.

But what chilled him to the bone was that even after his face was bloodied, the priest clung on without letting go.

“Let go!”

At this point, the feather monsters had already crossed the church and were nearly upon them.

The Captain even felt a moment of despair.

Then—gunshots rang out.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!!”

With the rapid gunfire, the Captain saw the first three feather monsters suddenly erupt like barrels of oil set alight.

Flames exploded like fireworks, igniting the drifting feathers around them.

In just a blink, brilliant fire spread across the church, shining like dazzling fireworks.

To be fair, the sparks filling the church were somewhat romantic.

But unfortunately, those inside had no way to enjoy it.

The Captain gritted his teeth, slammed the priest’s face completely into a pulp with the butt of his gun, and the man collapsed wordlessly.

The Captain then kicked him aside, staggering out of the church.

The moment he stepped out the doors, he felt as if he had escaped from hell back into the human world.

But before he could savor his survival, a voice came through his communicator.

“Now is not the time to relax. Do you have incendiaries or flamethrowers?”

“Yes!”

The Captain did not recognize the voice well, but it wasn’t unfamiliar.

He knew it must be the MI7 investigator sent to assist.

The man had said he would provide support from the rear.

Judging from earlier, it had to be him who fired.

“Seal all exits and windows. Bishop Raphael must not escape! Anything that crawls out—burn it!”

While giving orders through the communicator, Levi squinted at the church.

In the black-and-white vision of 【Soul Sight】, he clearly saw Bishop Raphael pacing like a trapped beast inside.

At first he worried the bishop might hide underground, but now it seemed this Raphael, in his current form, had already lost all human reason and consciousness—acting purely on instinct as a monster.

But moving targets were harder to shoot.

Watching the soul light dart around like a monkey in spring, Levi calmly reloaded a bullet, cocked the rifle, and aimed.

Fine—if accuracy wasn’t enough, quantity would do.

He consoled himself, then aimed.

At once, the world slowed.

【Eye of the Reaper】!

Levi locked onto Raphael’s soul light and pulled the trigger.

“Bang!”

The shell flew out slowly, as if played at quarter speed.

Levi already had the second bullet in, aimed, fired.

“Bang!”

Then the third!

“Bang!”

Levi fired five shots in one breath, then exhaled.

Time returned to normal.

“—————————！”

All that followed took only seconds.

The first explosive bullet shattered the stained-glass roof.

The second struck Raphael’s feathered body and detonated.

Feathers burst everywhere, deceptively beautiful.

Raphael’s chest was blown open with a basin-sized hole—but inside was only feathers, feathers, feathers, as if his entire being was nothing but a human-shaped pillow stuffed full.

The feathers scattered like a celestial maiden casting flowers.

Then, three incendiaries flew in a triangular formation, striking his head and chest almost simultaneously.

Flames burst forth.

The fire first ignited the scattered feathers, forming a blazing wall encircling Raphael.

The flammable feathers then drew in the nearby floating sparks.

The final result was—

“Boom—————!!”

Like a bomb explosion, dazzling fire erupted inside the church.

The glass shattered to pieces.

Flames spewed from the windows.

The church looked like a giant oven.

Royal Guard soldiers around quickly retreated, looking up nervously, terrified something white might drift down…

“Done. Job finished.”

Watching the church turn into an oven, Levi sighed in relief and lowered his gun.

Then he checked his quest bar.

Hmm.

Not a bit changed.

Meaning all that was for nothing—though expected.

Because the quest was—

【Quest Activated: 《Chasing Secrets》】

【Quest Objective: Find the hidden danger of Imperial Bridge and resolve it】

【Quest Reward: ???】

Now it was clear—this Bishop Raphael was obviously not the hidden danger of Imperial Bridge.

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