Chapter 456: Guests

When the knight commander saw Ren's expression and heard the arrogant words he spoke he kept on gnashing his teeth. The knight commander hated it, but even though he was angry and felt extremely humiliated he could not say a word to the monster in front of him. The knight Commander knew instinctively that the monster in human skin was not someone he could handle on his own. one wrong word, one wrong move might spell his doom. As the Knight Commander was feeling frustrated, it was at that moment when every single knight present felt a horrific pressure descend upon them. The Knight Commander knew what that feeling was and was swift to give his command.

"Ready your masks, switch to anti-mage tactics!" The knights were quick and efficient in their movements as they all started to wear masks, they then took out a small ball-like object from their small bags at the side of their hips. The knights pulled something like a pin and threw the ball-like object towards Ren and his group.

The moment the ball hit the ground smoke started coming out of it. The smoke quickly covered the entire hallway and Ren immediately noticed that this was the same thing they used to stop mana from flowing when they were fighting within the city, but a slightly weaker version. The knights then started firing at them, but this time they weren't using the Spell Rifles, but a weaker version one that doesn't use mana.

Ren and Lara quickly used their Spirit Aura to envelope their bodies, while Valdel who had his mana stop flowing had no choice but to retreat at the moment. He then looked at Ren and Lara who despite losing their mana supply were still unaffected by the rain of bullets.

"How are you guys able to do that?" When Ren heard Valdel's question he turned around and showed a smug smile which irritated Valdel.

"Oh this, you don't know how to use Spirit Aura? I guess you need more training after all." Valdel was truly frustrated upon looking at Ren's smug face but more than that he was intrigued by the term that was just used.

"Spirit Aura?"

"Interested? I'll teach it to you later."

While Ren and Valdel were having their casual conversation in the midst of the hail of bullets, the knights were growing confused and a little bit frightened. That was because right in front of them, one of the people who was being hit by their bullets while the mana suppressors were everywhere was casually having a conversation. The bullets that could pierce through steel were bouncing off his body. This was also a similar phenomenon if a bullet hits a mana shield, but that was impossible due to the mana suppressors.

"How are you able to survive that?! What the heck are your bodies made of?" The knight commander could no longer hold it in as he shouted those words in surprise. Ren finally took notice of him and responded.

"Oh, this is nothing much. Still, are you going to show me more, or is this is all you have to offer?" The moment Ren asked that question the Knight Commander gulped as he started to sweat. It was then something started beeping and he quickly took out a black rectangular object.

"What is it, Sir?... You want us to retreat, but Sir!... Understood..." The knight commander felt irritated and relieved at the same time as he received the order to retreat.

"Tactical Retreat!" When the knights heard their commander's order they felt the same as him as they became both relieved and frustrated. Still, they were quick to act and moved backward while continuing to shoot.

"Hmm, so that was it, you're going to run away?" When they heard Ren's disappointed voice they felt a spine-tingling chill run down their spine. It was at that moment they saw Ren pointing his fingers at them. The knight commander had an ominous feeling as the finger was pointed directly at him. He felt like something was gripping his heart ever so tightly.

"Sir Ren, you promised not to kill anyone!" The gigantic beastkin that was at the back suddenly shouted, hearing that Ren lowered his arm and sighed. The knight commander felt the fear gripping his heart disappeared and without any hesitation left the scene alongside his men. Once they were gone Ren sighed.

"If you keep on stopping me like that, we won't be getting our message across."

"What message do you want to send by killing them?! You promised me, Sir Ren, that we would do things my way first. We haven't even gotten to speak with any of them properly."

"Fine, I won't kill them for as long as you haven't tried your thing. So since they don't want to tell us where to find their leader, we should look around ourselves."

...

While Ren and the others were starting their tour of the temple, in a room filled with multiple magic arrays, a group of people were watching Ren and his group's movement using a device that enhances the clairvoyance spell. One of these observers was the head priest Baldur who was currently looking at Ren's face with disgust.

"So that's the enemy of our beloved Goddess. Hmph, he does seem stupidly powerful for a heretic. Still, now that he's here even if they are all heretics, they are still guests, so as servants of the most beautiful, most elegant, most merciful Goddess of all time, we should accommodate them better. Tell Luke to guide them to my office," The head priest Baldur ordered.

"Sir, should we call that squad back for your protection?"

"Why would I need people to protect me? I'm just going to have a little conversation with our guests."

"But Sir-" The person who was going to object stopped as he saw the expression on Baldur's face.

"My son, are you questioning my decisions?" The person quickly stood up and bowed his head as he responded.

"Please forgive me, Head priest. As an apology, I shall take my own life to offer to our merciful Goddess." The person took a knife out of his pocket and stabbed himself. The person died on the spot, the others present didn't even bat an eye as it happened and quickly cleaned the body out of the room. This was a normal occurrence in the temple since if you offended a high-ranking official your whole family might be annihilated, this was the only way to avoid that outcome. Baldur then looked at the ceiling as he cried.

"Oh sweet child, I hope you live in eternity alongside our magnificent Goddess."