The Villain Saint is my secondary account

The hatch to the lower deck was opened, and a group of Dark Shepherd followers dressed in black robes rushed down, wielding scimitars, and grabbed the unarmed Templar Knights, dragging them out.

"What are you doing?!"

"Torture of prisoners??"

Ye Xiao was naturally one of them. Greta had already woken up and crawled into his collar, while he was dragged and pulled up the wooden steps to the deck by the Dark Shepherd cultists who came down.

Outside the cabin, a pitch-black night sky and a surging sea came into Ye Xiao's view, and the howling, biting wind and torrential rain lashed against his body, which was covered only in a prison uniform.

Not far away, several magnificent ships flying the sun flag blocked the path of the Dark Shepherd's sailing ship like a continuous mountain range, with the Holy Arcane Masters on board raising their staffs, which emitted a dazzling golden light.

The Dark Shepherd's lone sailboat was blocked beneath these large ships, like a lost wolf encountering a pack of furious lions.

The Holy See's fleet, have they found them?

Standing in the wind and rain, Ye Xiao was quite surprised that the Holy Temple could locate them and track them down in this vast ocean.

Oh right, Ye Xiao suddenly remembered that Orfindo and Ella had said that although the members of the Holy Box family could no longer allow new members to join and establish a connection with the Holy Box after it was stolen, the members who had already established a connection could sense each other through the Holy Box.

In other words, Agnes, the detestable second daughter of the Boromeo family who was obsessed with whipping, should be able to contact her other family members.

Therefore, if nothing is unexpected, this large and imposing Holy Fleet is probably here to rescue her.

As Ye Xiao pondered for a moment, the Templar Knights, along with their leader Agnes, were shackled and dragged out, standing in a row on the deck facing the Templar fleet.

"You filthy heretics, I urge you to abandon your futile resistance. Return our believers to us, and in the mercy of my Lord, perhaps you will be spared."

On the Sanctuary team's side, on the largest ship at the very front, an elderly Sanctuary elder and another blonde girl dressed in white stood at the bow.

The elder's powerful voice, amplified by the magic array, traversed the ocean and the torrential rain.

"You lackeys of the Holy Temple, do you even believe your own words?!"

The one who responded to the Holy Elder was the bandaged, black-robed young priestess from the Dark Shepherd's side, "Move your ships away! Or I'll kill these Holy Temple bastards right now!! I mean it!!!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a group of Dark Shepherd followers behind Ye Xiao and the surrounding Templar Knights simultaneously pressed their sharp scimitars against the back of their necks.

Chapter Two: Standoff

So they were being held hostage.

Ye Xiao finally understood why his group had been dragged onto the deck.

Even with a knife hanging over his head, he showed little fear, instead calmly glancing around with the corner of his eye.

He noticed that Agnes did not show any joy when she saw the family fleet that came to rescue her; on the contrary, her pale face was gloomy.

What does this mean? You're not happy that your family sent someone to rescue you?

Ye Xiao sensed something subtle and looked at the blonde girl standing on the bow of the opposing fleet. The girl's appearance was somewhat similar to Agnes's, which reminded Ye Xiao of what Orfindo had told Ella.

After the Holy Grail was stolen, Agnes, the second daughter of the Boromeo family, led Orfindo, Decali, and a group of her Inquisition Knights to sneak out and investigate.

Now, not only have they failed to find the Holy Regalia, but they and their men have also been captured by the heretical "Dark Shepherds."

—I wouldn't say it was shameful, but I was just like a clown.

There is also an eldest daughter in her family, Agnes's older sister Theresa Borromeo, whose prestige in the family seems to have always been higher than Agnes's.

Now it seems that the girl on the bow of the ship in the distance who bears some resemblance to Agnes is probably Theresa.

It's certainly not a pleasant surprise for Agnes to be rescued by her mortal enemy in her family when she's down on her luck. It's even possible that Agnes didn't send out a distress signal, but rather that the enemy found her by using the sigil's sensory abilities.

Ye Xiao pondered for a moment, while the Dark Shepherd and the Holy Temple fleet also stood in silent confrontation for a while.

"Can't you understand me?! You lackeys of the Holy Temple!!"

The black-robed priestess could no longer contain herself and roared again, "Get out of the way!! Or they'll all die!!!"

The words echoed in the storm. Ye Xiao noticed that Theresa whispered something to the elder beside her at the bow of the ship, and then stopped paying attention to this side and walked off the bow of the ship by herself.

They actually left?

Ye Xiao raised an eyebrow. The negotiations weren't even finished, and the person hadn't been rescued yet, and they were already leaving? So confident?

"Heretical... I think you may have some misunderstandings about the Holy Church."

Just then, the elder of the church on the ship spoke again, “As believers of our Lord, we were already prepared to sacrifice for the Holy Light the moment we converted to it.”

"what?"

The girl in black robes froze for a moment, then glared angrily, "You damned lackey, do you think you can scare me with your words?! I'm telling you, if you don't get out of my way..."

Before she could finish speaking, several magic cannons, gleaming with runic light, revealed their barrels on the deck of the holy ship.

"Holy crap!"

Ye Xiao reacted the fastest. Even while the Dark Shepherd followers behind him were still stunned, he had already pounced on the ground.

"boom"

The next second, the roar of cannons shook the night sky.

Golden shells, trailing trails of flame, rained down like a meteor shower.

The fragile medium-sized sailing ship, the Dark Shepherd, was instantly torn apart by the incoming cannonballs, and the collapsing deck, along with the Dark Shepherd followers on it, turned into a pool of blood.

"That holy temple is even more monstrous than a cult!!!"

The black-robed girl, who had temporarily erected a magical barrier, couldn't hold on any longer. At this moment, she had no time to care about hostages or anything like that, and she ran off the deck with several believers beside her.

Before they had gone far, the next round of shelling arrived as expected, completely blasting the sailboat, which was swaying in the storm, into splintered wood.

In the chaos, Ye Xiao and a group of his fellow Templar Knights tumbled off the bow of the ship, their bodies falling into the cold, dark seawater, as if they had been thrown into a washing machine and were being tossed around endlessly.

"Roar!!!"

Immediately afterwards, a roar pierced the night, and a sea monster as huge as a mountain emerged from the sea carrying the followers of the Shepherd of Darkness.

The girl in black robes held a conch shell used to summon sea monsters, grasping the scale-like keratin on it, and rode the sea monsters through the surging waves to rescue her followers of the Dark Shepherd who had fallen into the sea.

On the other side, several knights clad in dark blue cloaks emerged from the deck of the Sanctuary fleet. These were priests from the Ocean Sanctuary, for whom the sea was the most familiar battlefield.

Then, the fleet dropped several ropes from the surrounding area, firing cannons at the sea monster as they slowly approached; the knights of the Ocean Sanctuary leaped off the deck and swam into the sea like agile tuna, heading towards the scattered knights of the Sanctuary.

Wearing shackles, Ye Xiao finally managed to adjust his posture on the turbulent sea and swam towards the sanctuary, splashing his hands around.

High above his head, cannonballs burst like fireworks, turning the sky into daylight, while a colossal sea monster roared and spewed torrents of seawater at a magnificent ship not far away.

Ye Xiao felt like a tiny citizen who had stumbled into a battlefield of giant beasts, his ethereal figure like duckweed being battered by waves in the storm.

He saw that the group of sea knights who came down from the fleet were only trying to rescue Agnes—the meaning was clear: if the other Templars wanted to survive, they would have to find a way to swim across the ropes thrown down by the fleet in the raging waves.

Damn, this is a bit too realistic.

Soaked in seawater, Ye Xiao turned the spellcasting ring "Granx's Spell Amplifier" on his hand and used it to chant, activating Cynthia's divine beast-transformation arms, breaking the shackles.

But instead of swimming towards the fleet, he dove into the sea, his eyes searching for a target in the dark waves.

Before long, he saw the petite Iphie flailing her limbs in the sea like a drowning frog, blowing bubbles. He quickly swam over to her.

But before he could get close, with a muffled "hum", the sea monster's huge body crashed into the seabed, creating a giant wave that swept up Ye Xiao, tumbling him several times like a leaf before pushing him away.

Iphi's figure was also obscured by the sea monster's body, and she disappeared from the dim view in an instant.

Ye Xiao choked on a mouthful of water, feeling dizzy and lightheaded. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dekali swim past him and grab his shoulder.

“Woo-la-wa-la…”

Ye Xiao subconsciously opened his mouth to say something, but instead spat out a string of bubbles and swallowed a bellyful of water.

In the midst of the chaos, Decali naturally didn't notice Ye Xiao's words. He grabbed Ye Xiao's shoulder and, along with several other Templar Knights, tumbled around in the sea several times, getting closer to the group of Ocean Knights who were rescuing Agnes.

Although Agnes was the only target of the latter's rescue, since the colleagues from the Sanctuary had all swum over, they naturally helped in any way they could.

They took Ye Xiao and the Templar Knights by the arms, and in the sea, they set up a magic circle to summon bubbles that enveloped their bodies. Then, they swam towards the slowly approaching Templar fleet with these bubbles in their arms.

Chapter Three: The Eldest Daughter of the Boromeo Family

The dark, stormy night soon passed.

The Dark Shepherds' sailing ships were destroyed, and their leader, a priest, summoned a sea monster and fled with some of his followers amidst the bombardment of the Holy Fleet.

Ye Xiao was rescued and brought ashore by some Templars in the chaos. Fortunately, after being rescued, Decali did not expose his identity. He was still punished as an Orfino, along with the other Templars of the Inquisition.

Indeed, he had to accept the punishment. Ye Xiao didn't know if the Boromeo family of the Holy City was particularly fond of punishing their subordinates, but ever since he infiltrated the city, he was either being punished or on his way to be punished.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking and the horizon began to lighten, Ye Xiao and the other rescued knights, including Decali, were summoned to the captain's cabin.

They rested for half the night in the bunk of the warehouse, and before they could even receive much of the Holy Light's healing, they were escorted over by the other Templars of the Boromeo family, treated like prisoners, as if they were undergoing military training.

In the captain's cabin, Ye Xiao saw Agnes, who was brought along with him and looked pale, and her sister, Theresa Boromeo.

The latter's appearance also conforms to her family's bloodline, with blond hair and blue eyes, but compared to Agnes's youthful appearance, her features are more mature and heroic.

She was no longer wearing the usual gown of a holy arcane mage, but rather a long dress in the Inquisition's uniform embroidered with a sun cross and two-handed swords.

At this moment, the other person was leaning against the captain's chair with her feet together. On the wall behind her hung a straight sword scabbard with gold trim and three deep blue enchanted gems inlaid in the center of the scabbard.

This flashy sword is not for fighting, but for asserting the power of its owner—as the chief judge of the Inquisition, possessing this sword of judgment grants the authority to define heresy and command all sanctuaries to exterminate it, and it can also summon the holy light to judge all evil.

The holy light spell "Sword of Judgment" is a divine spell constructed based on this sword, and there are only five Supreme Judges in the entire Inquisition who possess the Sword of Judgment.

As soon as Ye Xiao stepped into the captain's cabin, he sensed the heavy atmosphere inside.

The Templars looked exhausted, Agnes's face was pale, her upper lip was tightly clenched, and her hands gripped the hem of her skirt.

Theresa didn't say anything, but simply rested her chin on her hand and quietly observed her younger sister who had run away from the family.

Perhaps unable to bear the suffocating atmosphere any longer, Agnes finally shouted out:

"Theresa!!! I was still on the ship last night, and you ordered them to fire the cannons. Were you trying to kill me?!"

"If I die on those heretical rats' ship, do you think you can..."

"Snapped"

Theresa tapped her fingers lightly on the table, a soft sound that instantly made Agnes involuntarily shut her mouth.

The latter was clearly all bark and no bite; her shouting was merely a cover for her guilty conscience about her mistake.

“Well said, Agnes.”

Theresa's cold gaze made Agnes tremble. "So why are you still alive?"

"He arrogantly led a group of knights to sneak out of the family, making his father's prohibitions and authority a joke."

"The investigation into the Holy Casket failed, the entire team was captured by wandering heretics, and he himself was captured and imprisoned, making his entire family a laughing stock in the Holy City."

“Agnes, just because Father indulges you doesn’t mean I will cherish you.”

Agnes gripped the hem of her skirt even tighter.

"I don't understand why someone who shares the same blood as me can act so foolishly and blindly?"

"If you weren't my sister, I would have sent you to your death at sea last night, you fool who brought shame to the entire family."

"But I've found the location of the Holy Casket!"

Agnes looked indignant at her sister's humiliation. "If it weren't for the family's prohibition, and if there were a few more elders with me, I would have had a chance to take back the Holy Box!"

"You mean by finding their way out, that's that den of heretics?"

Theresa gave a cold laugh. "Did you see the Holy Grail in their hands with your own eyes?"

"I……"

Agnes gritted her teeth. "I saw it!"

“Say it again, facing the sword of judgment behind me,”

Theresa frowned slightly. "I won't hesitate to use my words of wisdom to you. If this sword cuts off your head, it only means you have to pay the price for your lies."

Agnes broke out in a cold sweat, biting her lip and daring not to utter another sound.

Ye Xiao, who was listening nearby, sighed inwardly. How dare this guy lie so brazenly? They hadn't actually seen the Holy Box; they had only found a player who might be connected to it.

To risk revealing such crucial information just to save face, if he were Theresa, he too would want to chop this guy up.

"Snapped"

Sure enough, the next second Theresa slammed her hand on the table.

Agnes's body also reflexively shrank back.