Chapter 89: Divine Rankers
Whitesky, Rask, the Guild.
Through the small window of the cellar, a white pigeon flew through with something tied to its leg.
It flew close to the ceiling around the cellar, above hundreds of the caged pigeons, and then heard a whistle.
"Whistle~"
A deeply wrinkled man put two of his fingers inside his mouth and blew a sharp note that made the white pigeon land on his outstretched hand.
"A red letter…? An emergency…"
He took the letter from the pigeon's leg, opened it, and read the hastily written letter with his aged eyes.
It was clear that whoever wrote this letter wrote it in a hurry.
"Impossible… One of the World Bosses in the mining town of the Dark Jewel's Corner? It can't be; that's far too deep into humanity's territory.
"They had never gone this deep since the beginning of the Fifth Aeon!"
The wrinkled man closed the letter, slid it inside his pocket, picked up his walking cane, and went up the stairs of the cellar.
The walking cane tapped against the stone steps, leading him out of the cellar and into the bustling building of the Guild.
"…Need one more Leader!"
"…We're in need of a healer. Is there perhaps Healer Magician or Alchemist with knowledge about healing potions over here?"
"…Tank, is there anyone who can take on the role of tank for this mission?!"
In the crowded front lounge of the building, people had gathered from all walks of life—Blessed Ones, all of them.
Sitting around the circular wooden tables, some of the Blessed Ones were drinking and eating while discussing their missions.
Others were trying to find more members for their party, and the rest were crowding around the mission board.
In the mission board, there were all sorts of yellow-colored parchment papers of any available missions.
Or quests, as the Guild liked calling them.
"…Excuse me."
With the walking cane in hand, the wrinkled man made his way past the tall, towering figures of the Blessed Ones, whispering "excuse me" in a soft voice.
Eventually, he reached upstairs, walked to the end of the hallway, and saw two well-armored guards standing before a room.
They stopped him with their swords drawn, asked what he was doing here, and the master of the pigeon showed the red letter.
With a nod, they let him, and as the master of the pigeons entered the room, he saw a majestic round table with twelve seats.
In each of the seats, there was a number etched on the back end—they were well-cushioned seats and almost looked like thrones.
"Master of the pigeons… Have some news for us?"
Jason, the one sitting on the seventh seat, asked with his fingers interlaced and his voice quite even.
"An emergency letter… From Dark Jewel's Corner! It is really alarming piece of news and I don't quite know whether it's a truthful letter either!"
The master of the pigeons said with his old, aging, and slow voice. It took him close to six seconds to speak his words just now.
"Give it to me."
Jason took the letter, opened it, and read through it with his eyes narrowing the further he read.
"One of the World Bosses is in the Dark Jewel's Corner… I think we would've heard a long time ago if one of them decided to descend from the Realm Between.
"All we know is that Perverted Justice is over in his small forest of his, and we've been keeping an eye on him.
"He hasn't gone anywhere."
When the rest of the figures heard of his words—about three others, as the rest seats were empty—they also couldn't believe it.
"Unless Rav'akari has indeed discovered another gateway somewhere close… I think that is a possibility after the Ants Village slaughter."
Gabriel, the eighth seat at the table, said with a serious tone.
"Miriam has gone back to the Earth, and she isn't scheduled to return for another week. With her, we could have seen the current situation over in the Dark Jewel's Corner."
Rose, an extremely beautiful woman, said from over the twelfth seat at the table.
"We should go ride over to the Dark Jewel's Corner. If we feed our horses with god apples, we could make it there by sunrise tomorrow."
Nathaniel from over the tenth seat said.
"Hmm… Is Karu Lee available to come with us?"
"No, he has gone back to Kornacis. I think we will be alone with this, but there are four of us, and we are all Divine Rankers."
Seth said.
"Let's go then."
…
The sun rose from over the peak of the Dark Jewel mountain, shining brightly over the burning town, and the smoke kept rising from the charred remains.
Dark Jewel's Corner was burning.
The scorched corpses of the townspeople littered the streets, the buildings were reduced to ash and rubble, and the once vibrant town now lay in ruins.
At the top of the small hill, the once majestic School of the Divinity and Mysticism was burning like the world's biggest bonfire, sending plumes of thick black smoke spiraling into the sky.
Boom! Crack! Boom! Crack!
At that moment, the windows of the school mansion shattered with flames shooting out like dragon's breath.
It was a devastating sight.
"No…"
Arthur's head looked at the sight of the burning town with a soulless gaze—his eyes looked as if they had seen too much.
"…"
Nefarious, who had returned back to his male self, looked coldly at the burning town around him without sparing anyone.
The orphanage was burned. The God's Temple was burned. The churches were burned.
In that moment, from a long distance away, a cloud of kicked-up dust appeared on the horizon, and from there, horses appeared, mounted with men of the Guild.
"The Guild…"
Arthur whispered.
It looked like there were about two hundred men of the Guild, and in front of them all, there were four horses, mounted with the legendary Divine Rankers.
"It's the Divine Rankers!"
Arthur laughed.
When he first saw the horses, he didn't expect much, as even if there were a thousand High Rankers, they would still die by Nefarious.
However, with Divine Rankers, who had already reached level 7 and above, there was a high chance of victory.
"…They took their sweet time."
Nefarious said, scoffed, and then walked backwards, making a square, and he started clapping his hands.
"Realm Between~ Realm Between~"
"W-what are you doing?"
Arthur asked.
At that moment, Nefarious bowed to the four corners of the rooftop, where there were all the required items for the ceremony.
With that, the mist engulfed Nefarious, and the separated head of Arthur—they disappeared from the rooftop—and the Guild men were only greeted with the ruins of the burned town.
…
End of the First Volume - Nefarious.