The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 29 Father
With a thud, a ball of green flame suddenly lit up from the lamp holders on either side of the hall's entrance. Immediately afterwards, another pair of lamp holders ignited. Two strips of green flame lamp holders stretched rapidly along the rock wall into the hall, eventually meeting at the end. The underground space, illuminated by illumination magic, was once again stained with a lingering, luminous green glow.

The figure on the rock pedestal in the center of the hall also became clearer.

"It's not a rotting corpse..." Leslie stared at the skinny old man with a somewhat weathered face. The blue flames in his eyes had faded, so short that it seemed like an illusion.

"It just doesn't look like it. If he couldn't even maintain his composure, he wouldn't be sitting there," Eric said. Fortunately, the necromancer looked the same as he remembered, otherwise he would be even more surprised than Leslie.

"Then what should we do now..." Leslie tilted his head back, indicating whether he should retreat back to the team first.

Eric sighed and tightened his grip on his sword. "I'd like to, but will he agree?"

According to the mechanism in his memory of his previous life, when these green flames were ignited, they would have entered the challenge state.

"I'm afraid... no... intruder."

The one who answered him was not the captain of the guards, but the necromancer in the hall ahead. His voice was hoarse and he spoke in a halting manner, as if he had forgotten the language, but soon he became fluent.

"Come here, come here... I haven't seen any living members of my kind in decades. Let me take a good look at you."

Leslie was extremely cautious, thinking that he would not fall for such a simple trick, so he did not move at all, while the young master next to him actually took a few steps forward.

"Master!"

"It's okay." Eric raised his hand to signal, and did not get too close. He stopped in front of the pair of flame lamp holders at the entrance of the hall.

"Just a few decades? More than two hundred years have passed."

The old man's eyes widened, surprise and confusion showing on his dry face. "Two hundred years...has that long passed? What time is it now?"

"728 AD," Eric replied, not moving closer. He just stared at him from the entrance and the underground hall, which was illuminated green by the flames.

The terrain and environment were not much different from what he remembered, so the mechanics were probably the same too.

The old necromancer sat there for a moment, as if unable to accept such a huge span of time. "It seems I have been asleep for too long."

No one spoke.

After a short while, he seemed to notice the two people at the entrance again. "Who are you? How did you get in? Has the seal on the exit been lifted?"

"Lifted."

After examining him thoroughly, Eric returned his gaze to the old man. "As for me, I am Eric of the Kimino family."

"Kimino..."

Judging from the old man's expression, he seemed to have heard of this surname. "Could it be Jiminno, one of the Twelve Founding Knights of Delan?"

Eric glanced at him and said, "Exactly."

"Then it seems we are acquaintances."

The old man smiled at this time, but with his dry face, it was not really good-looking.

"When I was young, I stayed at the Duke of Kimino's house for a while. The Duke was very interested in the anti-aging techniques I was researching. We had a very pleasant conversation, and he even gave me a lot of money as a reward. I still have some of it."

Duke...

His address made Eric feel a little emotional for a moment.

This old man is indeed an antique from more than two hundred years ago. It's a pity that he is not well-informed and his words reveal flaws.

He glanced at Leslie, and sure enough, the captain of the guards also frowned.

Eric took a half step forward and asked, "Have you really stayed in the Duke's Mansion?"

"Well……"

The old man raised his head and said, "I don't think there is another Duke of Kimino's family in your Delan."

He lowered his gaze and looked at Eric. "Seeing you, I feel like the scene from two hundred years ago is still before my eyes. You look so much like your ancestor, especially that beautiful golden hair. I'm sure your family is still as prosperous as ever."

"Unfortunately, the Kimino family has fallen on hard times."

Eric sighed and shook his head. "As for the ancestor you mentioned, if we're talking about the same person, then he was later demoted to earl by the emperor due to his defeat in the war. Even his family's territory was taken away, and he was exiled to this remote and impoverished area of ​​Dent County."

"Yes, yes..."

The old man's expression froze, and then he sighed softly.

"What a shame! Duke Kimino is a good man... Even if the war is lost, it's probably not his fault."

"Who says it isn't?"

Eric shook his head, took a half step back, and the raised sword was quickly covered with a layer of golden light.

"However, as early as three hundred years ago when the dynasty was restored, the Kimino family, embroiled in civil strife, had already been reduced to marquisates. I wonder which Duke Kimino's palace you visited two hundred years ago?"

"..."

The old man fell silent, then moved his lips. He was too lazy to pretend anymore and started cursing: "I knew that no nobles are good people! Seeing a frail old man with gray hair like me, you didn't just come over to help me and chat with me, but you actually played tricks on me!"

Eric smiled, pointed at the old man, and turned to look at Leslie, "I'm anxious."

"Golden-haired bastard!"

The old man changed his expression faster than turning the pages of a book. While cursing, he slapped the armrest of the rock seat, as if he wanted to stand up but couldn't.

"If I wasn't sealed here and unable to move, I would definitely come over and crush your dick, stuff it in your mouth, cut off your head, and throw it in front of your mother who has slept with so many people! Bah! What a scumbag noble!" The old man kept swearing. Before Eric could react, the captain of the guards got angry first and was ready to rush in with a sword to chop off the old man's head.

"Don't be impulsive!" Eric quickly grabbed Leslie. "This old man is using connections and scolding us, and pretending that he can't move. He's just trying to trick us into getting in."

He pointed at the green flames circling the hall. "Once you rush in front of him, those flames will hit your face. Each ball of fire is a layer of curse. Ten layers means death. Instant kill."

Leslie broke out in a cold sweat, "How insidious."

"The trigger range is very limited, just don't go in."

The old man who had almost cursed Eric's three generations suddenly stopped talking and frowned when he heard this.

"...Boy, who are you and how do you know my trap so well?"

"I am your father."

"..."

The old man almost suffocated. He took a deep breath to calm down and resisted the urge to curse at him.

Just like he said, all the coaxing and insults were just to trick them in - if he didn't play dirty or launch a sneak attack, he probably wouldn't have much of a chance, especially with the knight behind that kid, who knew what level of warrior he was, and he looked dangerous.

Rather than feeling humiliated, he felt a growing fear of the unknown.

He had sensed the movements above in the past few days, and the speed at which those people advanced shocked him. The little tricks he used to secretly stimulate their murderous emotions did not work in the end. How could he dare to take the initiative to fight them?

He had been hiding underground for so long, hoping to rely on these traps to fight for a glimmer of hope of survival, but this golden-haired boy actually saw through it completely and understood it so clearly.

How on earth did he know?
Know anything else?

The old necromancer was silent for a long time, then changed his tone and spoke again, "I apologize for my previous disrespect. I believe there should be no hatred between us. There is no need to go to the point of life and death."

Eric said nothing, just looked at him.

After a pause, the old man continued, "I am Flanders, from Custer..."

"—You are a necromancer from the original academy on Casterfel."

Eric interrupted him and finished his introduction. "I've traveled extensively across the continent. Because I insulted the statue of the heroic King Utu, 'Reining His Horse,' in the White Horse City of Cogano, the local governor issued a wanted order, leading me to flee to Dent County."

"..."

The old man Flanders opened his mouth and closed it a little after a while. "I'm speaking for Governor Ottville..."

"-When the plague broke out in Dent County, Ottville, it was you who proposed to the then governor a plan to drive the infected into the mines. This would not only prevent the plague from spreading further, but also allow you to obtain countless experimental materials at once and continue your research on necromancy. But I didn't expect that the governor had no intention of letting you go and sealed you and your students in the underground mines." Eric once again said for him what he wanted to say and didn't want to say.

"..."

Shock and confusion superimposed on each other, breeding more and more uncontrollable fear. At a certain extreme, Flanders was not so scared anymore.

"Are you... a descendant of Marz?"

"Who is Marz?" Eric asked.

"My student, the only one who didn't come here with me."

"Oh, I'm not, and I don't know him." Eric shook his head, "I'm not lying to you, I'm a descendant of Kimino."

"impossible!"

The numbness that had just built up in the old man's heart collapsed instantly. "Then how did you know all this?! Apart from my students, no one else could know!"

Because these are the lines from the boss battle, you said them yourself.

Eric smiled slightly, said nothing, and continued to act mysterious to put pressure on others.

"Who are you? Did those traitors up there tell you? ... No, I've cut off their tongues. They can't speak..."

The old man looked like a madman, lowered his head and began to mutter to himself, as if he was completely immersed in his own world and had no defenses at all.

"Don't let your guard down," Eric said to Leslie. "This old man has a lot of tricks up his sleeve, just waiting for us to get there."

"I understand, young master." Leslie had encountered countless traps along the way, and he would never dare to take a step forward.

Eric then told him to retreat back to the other side of the team and bring the others over.

"What about the young master?" Leslie was even more worried about his safety.

"Don't worry, I'm not stupid enough to challenge him in a one-on-one fight." Eric never looked away. "I'll just hold him back here. If he can't beat me, he'll definitely run away. He won't dare to chase me."

"Master...Okay, I'll be right back."

As Leslie turned around, he saw Eric swinging his sword at him. He was terrified and quickly dodged forward.

Ding!
As soon as he stood firm, he found that Eric was not attacking him, but a bone spur flying towards him.

Looking into the hall again, the originally skinny old man was now covered in black air, his hair and beard were standing up, the blue flame in his eyes was ignited again, and more dense bone spurs were floating behind him.

He raised a hand and pointed this way.

"None of you...don't even think about leaving."

Give me back the cat. I don't want to play with it anymore.



(End of this chapter)