—I’ll deal with the believers guarding the archive room. The librarians inside too.

The Heavenly Demon took the lead, with Cale and Alberu following behind him.

Wearing the clothes of a mid-ranking priest, Cale checked the time.

Tap. Tap.

At the series of small sounds, Cale lifted his head and thought,

As expected.

The Heavenly Demon really was incredible.

He truly was worthy of being called the greatest master in the martial world.

The two knights guarding the front of the archive room building.

They looked highly skilled, and they were not careless either. But the Heavenly Demon reached them in an instant.

Before the enemies even noticed him approaching.

Before they could react even if they did.

Tap. Tap.

He lightly struck the two knights’ pressure points.

“......!”

“!!”

They froze in the exact positions they had been standing in while on guard.

The two knights remained standing there, blinking their eyes and nothing else.

—If others come, they’ll notice something is wrong with these two, but until then, we won’t be exposed.

After saying that, the Heavenly Demon searched through one of the guard knights’ robes, took something out, and then strode into the archive room first.

This really is convenient.

With the Heavenly Demon acting as point man, Cale entered the archive room building at an easy but covert, calm but confident pace.

This is the only one.

This building was the only one that did not have windows facing Primordial Night.

Because it has no windows at all.

The inside of the archive room was cool.

They seemed to have set up some kind of magical device to preserve the books in optimal condition.

Step. Step.

Inside the archive room, Cale walked openly.

And so did Alberu.

They had no choice but to.

“There are countless magic alarms.”

Alberu had seen the magic circles and told him that.

Click.

And the Heavenly Demon, standing at the very front, was lightly passing through those magic circles while holding up a permit.

“There are a lot of hidden guards too.”

There were also many people standing guard while concealed inside the archive room.

Swoosh.

But the moment the Heavenly Demon moved lightly—

Just as Cale thought that his movements were like the wind—

Tap.

The Heavenly Demon’s hand moved lightly.

And the people hiding in the ceiling dropped to the floor.

“!”

One of them tried to say something.

Swoosh.

The Heavenly Demon lightly caught him before he hit the floor—

Tap.

Then struck him once more and lightly knocked him out.

And he lowered him to the floor without a sound.

It was an even cleaner knockout technique than Choi Han’s.

Then again, this was the Heavenly Demon, a man thoroughly versed in pressure points, and one who had become even stronger than before.

A man thought strong enough to face the Wanderers.

How could the people guarding this archive room possibly defeat him?

Tap.

He knocked out another one.

The archive room was not large.

It was only one floor, and the area itself was not that wide.

Still, bookshelves lined both sides of the narrow hallway-like path, and records were stored there.

Tap.

And that corridor twisted like a maze.

From the outside, the archive room looked square, but inside, it was almost like a labyrinth.

That was why the hidden guards had not noticed Cale’s arrival.

No.

They did know.

He had entered so confidently that they seemed to think he was simply a priest here on business.

But just as they sensed something odd and tried to react—

Tap.

They were knocked out by the Heavenly Demon’s hand.

Just like that.

“It ends here.”

Using the permit and his knockout technique, the Heavenly Demon guided Cale all the way to the end of the archive room corridor.

Cale turned around.

Wow.

Because it was a maze-like corridor, he could not see everything at once, but—

“Twenty.” 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Just as Alberu said, around twenty hidden guards had been neatly knocked unconscious.

“Oh—”

As Cale looked around in admiration, the Heavenly Demon let out a faint smirk. Somehow, his shoulders seemed to rise a little.

“So there really must be something important here.”

The Heavenly Demon casually turned the topic away for no reason.

“If it were only this big, three hidden guards would have been more than enough. But twenty?”

Looking at the last bookshelf at the dead end of the corridor, where there were no more books, the Heavenly Demon said to Cale,

“Now it’s your turn.”

“Yeah.”

Cale stepped forward.

The archive room.

There was a hidden place here.

That must be why so many people had been hiding here—to guard the entrance leading to that place.

“I can’t sense any kind of energy at all.”

The moment the Heavenly Demon said that, Alberu said to Cale,

“The bookshelf?”

The last bookshelf, where there was seemingly nothing.

“Yes. It’s here.”

Cale took one book from the shelf beside it.

It was a perfectly ordinary-looking book.

Not especially old, but not new either. Just an extremely average book.

Creak.

Following Duke Hinpa’s memory, and recalling the sound he had heard in that memory—

Cale placed the book into the third row of the five-tier shelf, around the left side.

Creak.

He heard that same sound from the memory.

Clunk.

With a small noise, the empty bookshelf moved.

And stairs leading downward appeared.

The archive room had been composed of the ground floor and a basement level.

“I’ll wait here.”

The Heavenly Demon volunteered to stay behind.

“Let’s go.”

Cale and Alberu headed down into the basement.

There were not many stairs.

They reached the lower level quickly.

It’s exactly like the memory.

The moment Cale stepped into the hidden place—

[You have arrived at the hidden place.]

The quest notified him.

Wooooong—

And then a strange sound rang out.

Hm?

Cale turned his head and saw Alberu wearing a troubled expression.

“Well.”

Cale sounded impressed.

“Haa.”

Alberu let out a sigh.

“What’s with you all of a sudden?”

A bright light burst out from the Sun Sword and wrapped around Alberu.

A pure-looking handsome man with golden hair and blue eyes, glowing in golden light.

“You really do look like a Hero!”

Grin. Cale raised a thumbs-up as he said it, and Alberu slowly closed his eyes.

Cale did not tease him further, since they had no time, and moved at once.

“I think the Sun Sword is reacting because there are so many things related to the God of Chaos here.”

As he said that, Cale moved according to Duke Hinpa’s memory.

The basement archive room was different from the one above.

Five altars.

And atop them sat five records.

“Authorities of the God of Chaos?”

At Alberu’s words, Cale nodded.

“You figured it out right away.”

Cale stopped in front of one spot.

A record written in strange characters.

[You have discovered a record related to ‘fear’.]

Fear of Chaos.

This was the record required to activate that skill.

Cale picked it up.

“Mm!”

Then he paused.

“What is it?”

Alberu stepped over to Cale.

But Cale focused on the record.

—That’s the power of chaos.

Just as the Ancient Tree said, the moment he picked up the record—

Tingle.

Cale felt a strange power crawling up through his fingertips.

Ding!

New text appeared in the quest window.

[Resistance has occurred.]

But a new sentence followed immediately after.

[Because you possess Authority (1), the resistance is neutralized.]

Authority.

“It’s the saint’s power.”

Fear of Chaos.

Even though it was inactive, Cale still possessed this power.

That was why he knew he could pick up this record of “fear.”

Cale lifted the record fully.

Once it was completely off the altar, it looked ordinary enough, but there was still a faint, subtle aura coming from it.

Like when the God of Chaos had made Cale feel fear before.

It gave off that kind of aura, however faintly—

It’s getting torn up today anyway.

This record was going to be destroyed tonight.

Cale calmly tucked the record into his clothes.

“Ghk!”

But then he heard a groan.

And was startled.

“...What is going on?”

Alberu Crossman.

He was crouched down, clutching the scabbard.

“Sh-shut—”

The scabbard was trembling violently, and Alberu was gripping it down.

Cale glanced once at the record in his clothes and then at the crouching Alberu, and came to a conclusion.

“I guess it’s the same kind of case as Saint Jack.”

Saint Jack.

As the saint of the Order of the Sun God, he trembled whenever he encountered a certain kind of power, like dead mana, because he wanted to purify it.

Alberu must be in a similar situation.

“It looks like the Sun Sword wants to wipe out every trace of the God of Chaos in here.”

Instead of answering, Alberu hugged the scabbard to his chest and crouched down even further.

It was, truly, a very undignified sight, but—

“Hang in there.”

Cale sincerely cheered him on.

“This is driving me crazy.”

Completely ignoring Alberu’s words, Cale moved to another altar.

[You have discovered a record related to ‘purification’.]

To be exact, it was purification of chaos.

In Duke Hinpa’s memories, this had definitely been purification.

This was the record that would save Choi Jung Gun from the corruption of chaos.

Tingle.

[Resistance has occurred.]

[Because you possess Authority (1), the resistance is neutralized.]

Cale placed the record containing the purification ritual into his clothes.

With this, I can save Choi Jung Gun.

He had secured both of the records he had come for.

“Did you get everything?”

Alberu asked while struggling to keep the scabbard under control.

“Mm.”

But instead of answering, Cale looked around for a moment.

An empty space.

A room containing only five altars.

Step.

Cale began walking.

Pleasure.

[You have discovered a record related to ‘pleasure’.]

Step.

[You have discovered a record related to ‘corruption’.]

And then the final altar.

[You have discovered a record related to ‘@($*%’.]

“Hm?”

A strange light appeared in Cale’s eyes.

The last one.

The record on the innermost altar was written in characters the game system could not interpret.

“Oh?”

A peculiar gleam entered Cale’s eyes.

“Oh no.”

Alberu’s sigh did not reach Cale’s ears.

“Right. If I’m already doing this.”

Cale reached out for the other three records as well.

Tingle.

He obtained corruption.

Tingle.

He obtained pleasure too.

Even if I do this, it’s not like I’ll gain the power of these records.

The saint and the people from the Order of the God of Chaos might be able to use these powers without the records.

Still, you never know, right?

If there was a chance to loot the place, he had to loot everything.

Cale reached out toward the last record, the one with the unrecognizable writing.

Tingle!

It was a much stronger jolt than before, but—

Hm.

Even so, it entered Cale’s hand without much resistance.

After neatly storing away every last record in his clothes, Cale said to Alberu,

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

At some point, Alberu had already stood up again, calmly holding the scabbard tucked at his side.

It seemed the Sun Sword had quieted down.

“That took longer than I expected.”

Just as Alberu said, more than forty minutes had already passed.

Only twenty minutes remained until the agreed time.

“Since the ritual hasn’t started yet, no one will come here in the next twenty minutes.”

Based on Duke Hinpa’s memories, Cale judged that no one would visit the archive room.

Once the ritual is underway and the Night of Pleasure begins, the saint might come here.

But it would not matter even if the state of the archive room guards and hidden sentries was discovered then.

And will he even have time for that?

Tonight, the saint would probably be too busy.

Because the holy land was going to collapse.

“Mm.”

Before leaving the archive room, Cale recalled what he still had to do.

The divine relic. And the saint.

If he had to rank them in priority, the divine relic came first.

If he could not identify the saint in advance, then that was just how it was.

He would see him once the ritual started anyway.

“But Duke Hinpa’s memories didn’t include the location of the divine relic, did they?”

At Alberu’s question, Cale smiled strangely.

“Oh, about that.”

—Sniff, sniff.

For a while now—

“There’s a way.”

—Sniff, sniff.

Someone had been sniffing constantly.

“Please follow me.”

—Sniff, sniff.

The Sound of the Wind.

The thief had been sniffing hard for a while now.

A being with an uncanny talent for detecting divine relics.

—It’s not far.

The Sound of the Wind spoke in an excited voice.

—It’s over there.

Cale began moving in the direction The Sound of the Wind indicated.