Water Magician - Chapter 411: Spirit Smoke

Editor: Tseirp

“Stefania, get away from there!”

Graham screamed.

Stefania, who had been stunned by Sacharias’s suicide, quickly stepped back and away from Cardinal Sacharias’s corpse.

The other Inquisition officials also moved away from Sacharias almost without delay.

In contrast, the movements of the cardinals and archbishops were more sluggish.

The concept of explosions is also known in the Western Countries.

Of course, gunpowder is not common, but among fire-attribute offensive magic, there is magic that can be called ‘explosion magic’.

Lo and behold, Sacharias’s body seemed to explode.

Those who failed to distance themselves were blown away by the blast.

A cloud of dust erupted.

The dust soon began to swirl.

How many of them noticed that the Pope’s body was gone at this time?

When the whirlpool stopped and visibility restored…

Something… came out from within.

“…Spider?”

“…Golem?”

“It has four legs.”

“The legs… the knees? There are human faces on the knees…”

“The upper body is a human’s…”

“The head… the face is… His Eminence Sacharias…”

“No, look! There’s a face on its stomach…”

“His Holiness the Pope!”

“Okay, I definitely wasn’t expecting that.”

Graham muttered to himself as he looked at what had appeared.

“What’s that… alchemy?”

“No, alchemy couldn’t have compounded six people together in that instant… This is not the work of man.”

Stefania asked, and Graham answered.

As if to confirm Graham’s words, the clear sky began to cloud over and lightning began to flash.

Furthermore, it began to rain from the sky over the entire assembly hall…

Something that wasn’t rain.

A myriad of… monsters.

Raining down on the audience.

“Magicians, put up barriers above! Physical class will protect against enemies from the sides.”

Hugh McGrath sent out orders.

Already, a defensive formation had been set up with the civilian officials in the center to protect them and deal with the falling monsters.

Not only the Kingdom Delegation but also the Empire and the Union had set up similar defensive positions and were observing the situation.

If possible, they would like to move to a safer area.

And as soon as possible.

The biggest problem, however, was not knowing where was safe.

Looking at the sky, it seemed that it was raining monsters not only in the assembly hall but also outside it.

Not only within the Papal Palace but possibly throughout the Holy City.

The Central Countries Delegation had a total of nearly one thousand people from the three countries.

Could they move such a large number of people outside?

That would be impossible.

Because outside the assembly hall, there must be panic among the fleeing Holy Capital residents….

The audience seating area was not necessarily an easy place to defend because of the staircase, but it was still better than outside the assembly hall.

That was the conclusion of the commanders of the three countries, who arrived at the same conclusion while making separate decisions.

While setting up a defensive position, Hugh was conscious of not overlooking everything that was happening.

Though it’s likely not why he noticed, but…

Still, he certainly noticed it fairly early on.

“You don’t need to finish off the monsters. Focus on maintaining your defenses. If you injure the monsters, they will start cannibalizing each other!”

That was what Hugh noticed.

It may have been partly because he saw the ‘Red Bear’ that rained down outside the assembly hall.

The ‘Red Bear’ can be recognized at first glance as an unusual monster that releases fire-attribute magic….

It could be the same red bear previously reported by ‘Room 10’ and ‘Room 11’.

The red bear was attacking other monsters as well.

It meant that monsters were not friendly with each other.

Like the monsters in the forest, they were each other’s enemies, fighting each other if they came into their territory, and attacking and trying to eat those they could defeat…

It doesn’t seem like anyone was controlling all the monsters.

“So the fallen angel-sama can summon monsters, but can’t control them as he pleases.”

Hugh’s muttering was heard by DeLong of ‘Coffee Maker’ who was next to him.

“Is all this… the evil angel-sama’s doing…?”

The concept of ‘fallen’ seemed to be a bit complicated, and even DeLong did not fully understand it, so he paraphrased it as ‘evil’ in his previous statement.

If it was an ‘evil angel’, many adventurers could understand it.

However, the priests frowned…

But when Etho explained that he was ‘not an angel of the Central Countries’, they finally accepted it.

Faith is such a tricky topic…

And those who gave their all to such ‘faith’ were present in the arena.

They were the cardinals and archbishops, the highest-ranking members of the Western Church, except for the pope.

And each of them has a subordinate who is their protégé.

To protect their beloved superiors, the bishops and others in the audience descended to the arena to fight the monsters that fell from the sky.

However, ordinary priests cannot fight.

Combat-ready clergy… the greatest of them is the Order of Holy Knights.

Among them, the Knights Templar are said to be the strongest and have a large number of members.

Of course, they are not monolithic, and it is no exaggeration to say that they are divided into factions almost by battalion within the Order.

However, right now, they were united in their hearts, subjugating the monsters that fell from the sky.

Perhaps the hardship had awakened the faith of the knights.

The knights fought bravely, protecting the cardinals and archbishops with a makeshift roof made of stacked large shields.

Then the long-awaited reinforcements arrived.

“Holy Knights!”

Many priests who saw them shouted in unison.

Holy Golem Knights that protect the church.

They had set out from the golem base inside the Papal Palace and finally arrived at the assembly hall.

All thanks to the mechanics who had holed themselves up inside the base and activated them without running away.

They were overwhelmingly outnumbered by the monsters.

However, the strength of the Holy Knights was on a whole nother level.

It was almost overwhelming.

To the point that the following words might have slipped from the mouths of many that.

“We’ve won”.

And then the monsters stopped falling from the sky.

At that moment, even those who had not uttered the words earlier must have thought, “We’ve won”.

The monsters that landed in the arena were already exterminated.

Originally, they were all monsters of little strength.

They were only troublesome because of their numbers and the fact that they were falling from the sky.

But that was where the real show began.

The things falling down had changed.

A mist descended into the arena.

A golden mist.

A waterfall of gold.

The golden waterfall that once poured down on the border town of QC Duchy…

The very same.

A collection of twenty humanoid-looking smoke bodies… emerged from the golden waterfall that poured down.

Those smokes immediately attacked the Holy Knights as soon as they took shape.

Of course, the Holy Knights intercepted them.

But they were up against smoke.

The Holy Knights’ swords cleaved the smoke, but… it cuts through the air.

But somehow, the blow of a smoke made a big hole in the throat of a Holy Knight, and with that blow, the Holy Knight was defeated.

“Those smokes… are they wraiths?”

“No, they’re too distinctly shaped to be wraiths.”

Stefania muttered, and Graham denied it.

“They’re probably… ‘Spirit Smokes’.”

“I thought… that was just a legend…”

Graham said in a really quiet voice so that no one but Stefania could hear him if he was wrong, and Stefania answered in an equally quiet voice.

The ‘Spirit Smoke’ in the Western Church is the manifestation of the power of angels in the mundane world.

Many angels appear in the teachings of the Church.

Twenty-four of which can be identified by their names.

Others say there are hundreds, or even thousands, in fact, tens of thousands… depending on the school of thought.

These numerous angels, however, have no record of having manifested in the mundane world.

Even the founder New-sama, who is said to have been able to hear the voices of angels at all times, is said to have never actually seen an angel.

The one clear record of what he saw is the appearance of an angel formed from something that looked like golden smoke.

That is what is called ‘Spirit Smoke’.

Therefore, ‘smoke’ can be said to be something special in the Western Church.

It is one of the reasons why Graham is so popular for his specialty… the ‘Sacred Smoke’.

In any case, it is the ‘Spirit Smoke’ that is said to appear when angels exercise their power in the mundane world.

But as Stefania said, there are many among the priests who perceive it as only a legend or a symbolic depiction of something else.

“Of course it is not a legend. True, apart from New-sama, only a few popes have come into contact with it.”

Graham is also known as a researcher of Founder New-sama’s Sacraments.

Therefore, he’s probably one of the most knowledgeable people in the church regarding this ‘Spirit Smoke’.

“The problem is that no one has ever fought ‘Spirit Smoke’.”

“I… suppose not…”

At Graham’s words, Stefania’s face stiffened and she nodded.

Angels, in the Western Church, are those who guide people.

Angels, in the Western Church, are agents of God’s might in the mundane world.

Angels, in the Western Church, are… at least not enemies.

But the ones in front of them right now… didn’t seem to be an ally.

Graham and Stefania had been conversing in low voices since earlier, but they had been retreating ever so slightly.

Along with their subordinates, the Inquisition officers, of course.

They were already a considerable distance away from what had been Cardinal Sacharias, which had appeared from the dust.

In addition to the twenty ‘Spirit Smoke’ that emerged around it…

And then…

“Your Eminence, here.”

One of the Inquisition officials held out a long bag, obviously containing a sword, in front of Graham.

Graham said with a wry smile as he took it.

“A Holy Sword… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to wield it.”

The Holy Sword chooses its master.

A sword said to take the life of anyone it doesn’t recognize as its master…

“There is no one else who can be recognized by the sword in this place but you, Graham-sama.”

Stefania said with a straight face.

At these words, all the members of the Inquisition, clad in black legal robes, nodded vigorously.

(What a burdensome thing, absolute trust…. Roman was able to take on such a heavy burden at such a young age… and throughout the Western countries too. What makes him a hero is not so much his body, but his mind itself.)

Graham sighed in his mind.

A former party member, now in the distant lands of the Central Countries.

Although much younger than Graham, he was someone he truly respected.

Yes, age has nothing to do with respect.

“Well then… am I truly worthy of this?”

Were Graham’s words directed at the Holy Sword or to the absolute trust they had in him…?

Meanwhile, the ‘Spirit Smokes’ had struck the Templars as well.

It was also a one-sided slaughter.

The Knights Templar exterminated the monsters together with the Holy Knights, but there was nothing they could do against the ‘Spirit Smokes’.

They’re impervious to swords.

Which is not surprising, since they are smoke.

They couldn’t defend themselves with shields.

Which they evade as a matter of course being smoke.

It was thanks to the deployed by the archbishops that they were barely able to prevent the front from completely collapsing.

It seemed that while the ‘Spirit Smokes’ can penetrate ordinary ‘magic barriers’, they cannot penetrate , which boasts absolute defense.

However, can be said to be a miracle of God, the very essence of the priesthood.

It is not something that can be performed repeatedly.

And continuous deployment was only possible due to the large number of archbishops who were high-ranking priests.

And just as they were reaching their limits.

A gust of wind swept in front of the and cut through one of the ‘Spirit Smoke’ body.

“Your Eminence Graham…”

An archbishop called out his name involuntarily.

Of course, all the priests know that Graham is also a highly respected ‘vampire hunter’.

That also means that his individual combat skills are unusually high.

However, it’s unusual to not even see the movement of his body, let alone a sword flash.

Another archbishop noticed a smoke, different from the ‘Spirit Smoke’, drifting around Graham.

“Sacred Smoke…”

Graham is also known as a user of Sacred Smoke.

However, even though it is known, most priests do not have an accurate knowledge of the Sacred Smoke….

The ‘Sacred Smoke’ is not only capable of disorienting a person’s senses but also of disorienting the ‘Spirit Smoke’ and even the senses of the monster that was Sacharias.

“Hmm. It may be only temporarily, but it seems that this holy sword has recognized me as its master.”

Graham’s muttering wasn’t heard by anyone.

Graham could hear the cheers of Stefania and the Inquisition officers from behind him.

“Looks like I can cut them down as I please, huh?”

Graham muttered as he slashed at the second ‘Spirit Smoke’ body.

TLN: Please read my translations at tseirptranslations.com, I did not give permission to any site to host my translations. 

If you like my translations, please support me on Patreon and unlock early chapter releases! 7 day free trial is available for Bronze tier now!