Hyperdimensional Warlock

Chapter 4374 Misunderstanding
But to their utter surprise, Priest Sean's strength was far beyond their imagination.

He drew his knight's sword from his waist with a backhand motion. The sword flashed like lightning, and with a flick of his wrist, he deflected and parried all the incoming arrows without even scratching his clothes.

As One Ear spoke, his tone still carried a hint of fear: "That priest's sword was ridiculously fast. He could even use the force of the arrows to deflect them back, causing several of our brothers to be hit by arrows."

The thieves panicked instantly.

If they were to face the enemy head-on, even all of them combined might not be a match for Father Sean.

Just as fear and panic were spreading, someone suddenly glimpsed—

The informant they were trying to rescue was still locked in a prison van, and standing next to the van was a woman with an outstanding presence.

Judging from her attire, she was clearly not a prisoner, yet she followed the escort team the whole way.

Although we don't know who she is, her presence here might be related to Father Sean. Perhaps we can use her to break the deadlock.

Thinking of this, the man had an idea, and immediately drew his bow and nocked an arrow, aiming the arrowhead directly at the woman.

However, he did not fire immediately because the prison van was in that direction, and he was also worried about accidentally shooting the informant he was trying to rescue.

But just as he aimed, Father Sean seemed to have caught a glimpse of his movement, his sword swing abruptly halting as he instinctively turned to protect him.

It was this act of assistance from Father Sean that brought a flash of wild joy to his eyes!
This subconscious protectiveness, whether it stemmed from the priest's compassion or from the woman's special status that compelled him to protect her, was something he could exploit.

He immediately shouted, "Shoot that woman!"

The other thieves were taken aback at first, but quickly realized what was going on.

To break the deadlock, the first step is to exploit the enemy's weaknesses!

This woman is very likely to be Father Sean's weakness!

Everyone drew their arrows and aimed them at the woman.

Several scouts skilled in archery fired first, but they shot with great care—the woman was clever, hiding completely behind the informant, and hitting her could very likely implicate the informant.

Therefore, most of the arrows fired by these scouts merely grazed past the woman, seemingly dangerous, but in reality, they were all tests.

Even though Father Sean saw through this intention, he dared not gamble with lives at stake.

The next moment, he abandoned his own defenses and lunged in front of the woman, forcefully blocking all the arrows.

His actions further proved that their conjecture was correct!

The key to breaking the deadlock lies with this woman!
The bandits immediately locked their bowstrings tightly to the woman, shouting at her and forcing Priest Sean to lay down his weapon.

How could Father Sean possibly back down? A struggle flashed in his eyes, mixed with a hint of fear, as he angrily rebuked, "If you have the guts, come at me! What kind of hero attacks an innocent woman!"

His desperate attempt to defend himself only drew ridicule.

“Priest, don’t forget, we’re not heroes, we’re not thieves!”

Amidst the thieves' laughter, arrows were fired wave after wave, each seemingly aimed at the woman, but in reality, they were meant to distract Priest Sean and force him to defend himself.

If he were alone, Priest Seymour could easily deflect all the arrows with his knight's sword.

But now, he has to protect a woman who has no fighting ability, and it's difficult for him to be completely foolproof.

A stray arrow grazed his shoulder, and Priest Sean let out a muffled groan, but still held the woman tightly behind him.

At the same time, he attempted to deflect the arrows to kill the bandits.

His actions did indeed harm some of the notorious thieves, but the pressure he faced did not ease.

Because the thieves had already seen his decline.

If he persists for a while, he will definitely lose his composure.

However, to the thieves' surprise, the opportunity came even faster than they had imagined!
The rain of arrows grew denser and denser. In the chaos, an arrow that had been deflected by Priest Sean went astray and struck a woman in the back, piercing her chest.

The woman looked down in shock, not expecting to be shot by an arrow. Blood gushed out, and she collapsed to the ground.

Father Sean's pupils contracted sharply; that moment of panic completely exposed his weakness.

More arrows seized the opportunity to pierce his body. Even though his swordsmanship remained sharp and the ricocheting arrows felled several bandits, he himself was already riddled with arrow wounds, his armor was torn, and he was covered in blood.

He stared at the bandits who had taken advantage of his vulnerability, his eyes bloodshot with boundless rage and sorrow.

Finally, Priest Sean staggered and knelt on the ground, using his last strength to embrace the dying woman. With a sudden roll, the two of them plunged into the turbulent River of Sorrow...

……

“This is the intelligence provided by One-Ear.” Uriel’s voice was clearly off as he said this, his eyes were red and tears were welling up in them, but he seemed oblivious to it.

Kemai stepped forward, gently patted Uriel's back, and whispered, "I'll talk next, you take a break first."

Blanche also came up and helped Uriel to the side with a worried look on her face.

Seeing Uriel's fluctuating emotions, Angel had already guessed what was going on.

"That woman is... Rigota?"

Kermaine nodded: "Yes, One-Ear himself participated in the rescue operation, so he still remembers what happened. Uriel confirmed the woman's appearance with One-Ear; it was Rigota."

Upon hearing this, Angell couldn't help but let out a deep breath.

Who would have thought that such a change would occur?

At this moment, Uriel suddenly said, "I asked One-Ear, and Rigota was with Priest Sean at the time. Her foot was fine; she could even run..."

In other words, although Priest Sean said he was taking Rigota out to carry out the execution by burning boots, he did not actually do so.

Otherwise, Rigota wouldn't have been able to keep both her feet intact.

"At first, I thought Rigota's disappearance was the work of Priest Sean... I never imagined it was the Forty Thieves..."

“On the contrary, Father Sean is…”

Uriel stopped abruptly, lowered his head, and fell silent. Only a patch of dampness could be seen slowly seeping from the ground.

Angell was naturally able to understand Uriel's unfinished words.

From One Ear's account, we know that although the arrow that Priest Sean fired ultimately caused Rigota's death, it was not his intention.

The root cause was still the robbery by the Forty Thieves.

Uriel wasn't stupid; he naturally knew right from wrong.

From the fact that Father Sean defended Rigota, he could further confirm that Father Sean had not only not wronged Rigota, but was actually her benefactor!

Priest Sean did not torture Rigota, thus saving her feet.

The reason Rigota didn't return to Lantern Harbour the night she was tortured was probably to avoid being discovered that her legs were unharmed.

The next day, Priest Sean returned to Dawn City under the pretext of "escorting criminals," and then secretly took Rigota with him.

This is actually also a way of protecting Rigota.

Because as long as Rigota returns to Dawn City, everything will be fine. Both Gulemo and Uriel are in Dawn City, and with their connections, they can easily escape the blame for that unwarranted "heretical interpretation."

So, everything is connected.

Father Sean was not only escorting criminals, but also protecting Rigota home.

But no one could have predicted that they would encounter the Forty Thieves along the way.

Uriel kept his head down and remained silent, but everyone could guess the ups and downs of his emotions. At this moment, he was not only grieving for Rigota's tragic death, but also feeling guilty for his unwarranted misunderstanding and resentment towards a benefactor.

“You don’t need to blame yourself. It’s all the Forty Thieves’ fault,” Blanche whispered in Uriel’s ear. “Although it would be difficult for the three of us to defeat the Forty Thieves in the dungeon, the dungeon is just a dream. There’s also reality.”

"Once we get back to reality, I'll ask my teacher to help me capture all forty thieves and bring them to you!"

This isn't the first time Blanche has said these words.

Previously at the Dead Tree stronghold, when Uriel learned about Rigota's information, his anger surged almost instantly, and he nearly attacked the Forty Thieves on the spot.

Blanche stopped him and then said these words.

Uriel did indeed take it to heart.

Whether it was him or Blanche, they still treated the instance as a dream, so Uriel felt that killing the Forty Thieves in a dream was pointless and wouldn't avenge Rigota.

If you're going to kill them, then in reality, wipe out all forty thieves.

So Uriel endured it. —Of course, he had no choice but to endure it; with the strength of the three of them against the Forty Bandits, even if they were just remnants, they could still easily annihilate them.

……

“This is indeed important intelligence,” Angell remarked.

This is information that even the Church of Glory was unaware of.

If the Forty Thieves hadn't revealed it themselves, no one would have known that Priest Sean wasn't alone at the time; he had Rigota with him.

At the same time, this intelligence also indirectly helped prove Father Sean's innocence.

What kind of person he is is still unknown, but based on the information available at the moment, Father Sean is most likely a good person.

Ke Mai wholeheartedly agreed: "This intelligence is indeed very important, but unfortunately... it's not a fragment of the truth."

Current exploration progress: 38%

After obtaining this information, the exploration progress increased by 3%.

Compared to the previous 30% exploration progress given by a single truth fragment, this increase is not much. However, if you want to complete the game perfectly and achieve 100% exploration progress, these small increases are more important than the increase given by a single truth fragment.

“Sigh.” Ke Mai sighed: “They’ve uncovered a hidden character, who, in my opinion, is far more important than the identity of that Father Sean, yet it’s not a fragment of the truth.”

Blanche shook her head: "You're blinded by your own involvement. Think about it yourself, without the illusion node to protect you from the Whispering Curse, how would you normally find out that the evil spirit is Priest Seymour?"

Don't be fooled by how easily Kemai obtained this information; it was all based on the powerful effects of the illusion nodes.

Without illusion nodes, it would be impossible to resist the Whispering Curse, let alone use the caravan's identity to intimidate the Forty Thieves and obtain information.

Therefore, this is the obstacle of perception; being in the midst of the situation prevents one from seeing the key points.

Kemai pondered for a moment, scratched his head, and softened his tone: "It seems that's really the case. Without the illusion node as a foundation, the first fragment of truth couldn't have come so easily."

“I was wrong,” he paused, still somewhat unwilling, “but I still think that Rigota’s identity must be very important, and the fact that it only added 3% to the exploration progress is too little.”

Blanche pondered for a moment and said, "Perhaps Rigota isn't crucial in the main quest? After all, what we need to investigate this time is the truth about 'evil spirits,' and Rigota isn't an evil spirit."

Ke Mai opened his mouth, pondered for a long time, but couldn't find any rebuttal, so he could only shut his mouth in embarrassment.

But at that moment, Angel suddenly spoke up: "Actually, I think the same as Kemai. Rigota's identity may really be very important."

Blanche looked bewildered: "Huh?"

Kemai immediately perked up: "Look! Lord Angell supports me too, which means I wasn't wrong!"

Angell continued, "I think your conclusion is correct, but your perspective on this matter is wrong."

"Have you considered the possibility that there might be another way to acquire Rigota's identity, and that method might be the key to obtaining exploration points?"

Seeing that everyone still looked puzzled, Angel continued to explain, "I left for a while because Darkman was eliminated... I went to see Darkman."

“I went to Darkman to get information about the Whispering Curse, and he gave me some information.”

"I believe this intelligence is related to the second fragment of the truth."

At this point, Angel paused for a moment: "At the same time, I suspect that this information is also related to... Rigota."

Uriel, who had been keeping his head down and silent, suddenly snapped back to reality upon hearing Rigota's name.

Angel didn't keep them in suspense and said directly, "I won't explain the specifics; you can see for yourselves."

To everyone's surprise, a gentle breeze suddenly arose.

Accompanying the wind are countless illusionary nodes, invisible to the naked eye...

These illusionary nodes slowly gathered in the center of the three, eventually constructing an illusion that was almost real.

The illusion depicts Darkman's journey during the Whispering Curse.

For the rest of the time, none of the three spoke, but instead focused on experiencing and observing Darkman's dreamlike journey.

From a tense and absurd urban fantasy to a maze of increasingly encroaching corridors, you finally arrive at a bizarre and peculiar pure white room.

Although the dreamscape has many flaws due to Darkman's technical skill and memory limitations, the main scene is high enough that it does not affect the viewing experience, and it even allows for pauses to analyze some details.

Because the illusion could be accelerated, they finished watching Darkman's dream journey in just twenty minutes.

While Kemai and Blanche were still immersed in the bizarre illusions after watching, Uriel was the first to come to his senses and exclaimed, "The scene in the City Dream is Evening Lights Harbor!"

"I've been to Port Eternal Lights!"

"The shapes of some of the buildings inside, including the illuminated lighthouse, the Weaver's Clock Tower, and the White Sail Wharf... these are all landmark buildings of the Port of Ephemeral Lights, and I would never mistake them!"

Then, Uriel added, "And that church, that's definitely the branch of the Church of Radiant Light in Evening Lights. I've been there many times before in search of Rigota, and it looks exactly the same. Even the colored lights outside the church are very similar to those in reality!"

In addition, there is another key point.

The dolls in the maze corridors were all dressed in divine robes.

Angor and Darkman didn't recognize these robes, but Uriel knew them very well—these were the robes of the Church of Light! They represented the priests of law enforcement!