at the same time.
A hundred miles away from the royal capital, at the bottom of Pearl Lake.
"What exactly is this place?"
The originally dark tunnel was now illuminated by balls of fire. The large rock hall was full of people—the members of the Black Nightmare Army gathered together after they separated to avoid the church's scrutiny. They looked at this vast underground world with incredible eyes.
Morris turned around in his wheelchair, looked at Benjamin doubtfully, and asked the above question.
"It's a bit complicated to explain, but...you must have heard of the 'Soul Flame' relic, right?" Benjamin thought about it for a moment, then spoke slowly, "This is the real location of the relic."
Suddenly, Morris looked stunned.
"Soul Flame... actually has a legacy? How did you discover this place?"
"It's a long story." Benjamin scratched his head, feeling that it was really difficult to explain the matter from beginning to end, and finally said, "I also discovered this place by accident. It is huge and extremely hidden. We are hiding here now. The church will never find out.”
Hearing this, Morris nodded and said nothing more.
His mind was still filled with all kinds of questions, but as Benjamin said, this underground world was indeed a perfect hiding place. This place is spacious enough for the Black Nightmare Army to continue its operations without hindrance, and the church would never have thought that such a small world existed at the bottom of Pearl Lake.
This tunnel has two exits, the other end of which is near the Crusad Gate. When they want to send troops, they can also leave through another exit and attack the towns in that area.
He was a little curious about what the remains of the "Soul Flame" were, but it was obvious that Benjamin seemed a little inconvenient to tell, so he stopped asking.
Morris turned around and started busy setting up camp with other mages.
Benjamin walked towards the large group of soldiers.
"...Did you find it?"
As he walked, he suddenly spoke in his heart and asked the system in a rather low tone. The system quickly appeared and threw the answer to him.
"I sensed weak magic power fluctuations, which are the fluctuations of messages transmitted by magic props. However, the magic power barrier set up before has blocked the message. I just finished deciphering it, so I am reporting the message to the church."
Benjamin couldn't help but take a deep breath.
There were spies among them, a fact he had confirmed a few days ago.
A few days ago, Duke Colin wrote him a letter telling him the leaked news about the location of the camp in the Warcraft Mountains. At that time, he realized that something might be wrong with the situation - only the Black Nightmare Army themselves knew the detailed location of the camp, and at that time, the church's spies had not even touched the area near them.
Therefore, while moving, he decided to lure out the spies in the camp.
Hiding at the bottom of Pearl Lake, the church cannot find anyone, and the spies will definitely rush to pass the news. Morris also used runes to create a set of tools that could intercept message transmissions.
Just like now, he finally found the traitor.
"I just didn't expect someone like you to be a lackey of the church."
At the edge of the rock hall, there was a hidden tent that had just been set up. Benjamin opened the door curtain and looked at the shocked Bill with a disappointed expression.
He really didn't expect that the first group of leaders who surrendered to him to resist the church forces would turn out to be traitors.
"W-what? Master Mage, I..." Bill panicked. He just hid the communication beads in his pocket, smiled blankly, and spoke in a condescending manner.
Benjamin waved his hand to interrupt him.
"How many people from the church are still hiding in the Black Nightmare Army?"
Cold sweat began to break out on Bill's forehead: "I really don't understand what you are saying..."
Seeing this, Benjamin shook his head. As the water element domain expanded, the soundproof water ball suddenly enveloped them, and then, ice needles with cold light emerged.
"You'll understand soon enough."
One scream after another was isolated in this remote tent. In the underground rock hall, the large group of members of the Black Nightmare Army were still busy, and no one knew what was going on.
And that's about the same time.
Directly above them, in the Pearl Lake area, the church's army had just arrived.
"...Where are the people?"
Due to the chaos in the kingdom during this period, the village by the lake has been completely deserted, and all the residents have fled after several rounds of looting by bandits. The Royal Army stopped by the lake, and sentries were sent out to search around the Pearl Valley. In the end, they brought back an answer that disappointed them.
"I, we didn't find anything... we searched in the direction of the valley, around the lake, almost every corner. This group of traitors should not be around here."
After hearing this answer, Grant, who was riding on the horse, turned his head and looked at the bishop, his face could no longer be described as ugly.
The bishop did not dare to look at him at all.
"Let me ask you, where are the people?"
Grant's voice floated to his ears again, as if there was an echo, and it exploded like thunder in his ears. The bishop felt his head was numb and could not utter a word.
Behind them stood thousands of troops, equipped with the most sophisticated weapons, but they didn't know where they were going. Groups of priests looked at each other in bewilderment, beginning to have an unpleasant look.
The whole place was silent... so silent that it was a bit embarrassing.
I don’t know how long the silence lasted, but the bishop was still unable to formulate an answer. Grant turned his head, looked at the group of sentries who came to report, and ordered again: "Keep looking."
The sentries were ordered to turn around and leave as if fleeing.
"I will spare your life." Grant looked at the bishop again, his voice low, "Now tell me, where did the news that the enemy is in Pearl Valley come from?"
"It's... news from our spies placed in the Black Nightmare Army."
"Where are the others? Contact him now. I want to know where those rebels are hiding."
"I, I understand..."
The bishop panicked and took out the cross of communication, activated it, and tried to use it to send a message. However, no matter how he activated the cross, there was no reaction at all on the cross.
Grant's eyes became colder and colder, and the bishop's movements became more and more panicked.
"... There is no response, there is only one possibility." Finally, Grant impatiently interrupted the bishop and said, "The magical props on the other party have been destroyed."
The bishop lowered his head: "Yes, yes."
Grant turned his head and looked at the vast Pearl Lake, his face expressionless, but the palms under his sleeves suddenly clenched tightly, and his knuckles turned white. Even the horse beneath him seemed to feel something, trembling slightly uneasily.
There were so many people present, but no one dared to say a word.
The bishop's clothes were already wet with cold sweat.
He knew very well how His Majesty the Pope was feeling at this moment - humiliation. Not only the Pope, but as the huge army came to kill him, he was thrown into the air. He was also filled with humiliation in his heart. He knew that they had been tricked. The Black Nightmare Army knew their actions very well, and even the traitor they had carefully placed seemed to be a weight for their opponents to use in their plans.
As long as he thought that they put up such a big battle and went out in glory in front of the whole city, but ended up with nothing, the bishop's heart was filled with shame.
And even my own mood is like this, let alone His Majesty the Pope.
But precisely because he knew it, he felt even more afraid. No one knows what kind of things His Majesty the Pope will do with his heart filled with shame.
Silence...I don't know how long the silence lasted.
"Report!"
The hurried report broke the silence, and the bishop woke up suddenly, as if he had had a big dream. However, when he looked in the direction of the sound, he found that the person making the sound was not the sentries sent to look for the person.
It was a paladin who came at full speed.
"His Majesty the Pope! Something happened! Several nobles headed by Duke Colin suddenly appeared in the palace, bringing several mages with them to kidnap His Majesty! He threatened His Majesty's life and has now escaped from the royal capital. He does not know how to escape. Where has it gone!"