24: Chimera (2)

 

A small bug landed on Bishop Lincoln’s hand.

His gentle expression that was fine till a second back twisted into a distorted expression.

“Did it happen?”

He couldn’t believe it.

It was a Chimera made with four kinds of creatures combined with swordsmanship skills that had reached the Expert level and also had holy power.

It wasn’t a finished product, but it was a creature that couldn’t be defeated by just anyone.

‘Did the Count start to move?’

It didn’t seem like that.

If it was the Count, there was a high possibility that even the main body wouldn’t have survived.
And he would have come to destroy the church right away.

The opponent seemed to be someone else.
The moment Chimera that was supposed to monitor the place, turned into a bug, he realized.

‘Magician.
It has to be a magician.’

A Magician that’s at least 5th class.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to defeat the Chimera Paladin.

Was there a magician who reached such a level in the estate?

Even if Count Welton was a Sword Master, it wasn’t like there were no magicians around.

But considering that there was a magician in the family, a 4th class nonetheless.
He knew that a well-prepared magician was strong but not enough to surpass a Chimera Paladin.

‘Wait.
That little boy.’

There was someone, a hot topic in Haiss.

‘Jamie Welton.’

The successor of Welton who visited them.

A rare genius magician who reached 4th class at the age of 7.

‘It is crazy.’

5th class, one had to be at least 5th class.
And even then, the magician had to be experienced to defeat a Chimera Paladin.

‘No.
it is impossible for him to drive the Chimera into a crisis.’

An unknown being intervened.

It wouldn’t matter if it was some skilled adventurer who simply passed by.
However, adventures would never interfere in such things.

If it was some unexpected third force, that would be a problem.

Bang!

Lincoln struck the desk with his fist.

Everything on the table shook.

“What kind of bastard did thi…!”

A swear word that was too harsh to come out of a priest’s lips.

A time where things could go wrong.

‘The experiment needs to be sped up before it is too late…’

Srrrng!

A transparent blade slid quietly on Lincoln’s neck.

Lincoln's eyes widened.

He gulped and rolled his eyes to see who it was.

“Did the second plan fail?”

A voice of unknown gender fell on his ears.

Lincoln’s hands and feet trembled.

Trying to be calm, he said.

“It didn’t fail.”

“Then what is that in your hand?”

A small bug was in his left hand.

The main body of Chimera Paladin, exuding a weak holy power.

“It isn’t complete yet.”

“So, it is okay for an unfinished one to be used like that, right?”

“I didn’t mean that.
However, the experiment is doing well.
Apart from some annoying things.”

“You don’t understand what the annoying things are, right?”

“I don’t need to.
After one or two more times, the experiment will be perfected, and what we hoped for will come true.”

“Couple times.”

The cold blade touched the skin.

Goosebumps rose on his body.
He was pretending to calm it as much as he could, but sweat was flowing out.

“When the Count comes, it is the end.”

“He already knows.”

“He is watching you.”

The presence then disappeared.

Lincoln exhaled and then gasped for air as he looked around.

His office was as silent as it was in the beginning.

He touched his neck.

His palms were wet.
He looked at his hand and saw the red blood over his palms.

“… who?”

If he made even a slight mistake, his throat would have been cut.

“Seven knights.”

One of the seven swords protecting the Archbishop in the Zenith main church was dispatched here.

To monitor him.

Their swords, which were close to their master, couldn’t be helped by his power.

‘If only the experiment could be completed.’

The Archbishop’s face flashed.

He remembered the vicious old man looking down and sneering at him.

‘I’ll take that position.’

In order to do that, he had to speed up the experiment.

Lincoln’s face turned ghastly.

Jamie was on his way back to the mansion after putting the corpse into the subspace.

“Master, Master!”

A familiar voice was heard from below.

Looking down, he saw Azad waving at him.

‘Why is he calling?’

Come to think of it, there was only Raiza in the building where the battle happened.

As he descended, Azad, who approached him, took a deep breath.

“Why is an Undead struggling?”

“Ugh, that.”

At Jamie’s words, Azad lifted his head, then cleared his breath.

A weird one.

As the body of Undead was already dead, it was half invincible.

He didn’t have to breathe, sleep or eat.
Even the menstrual activity halts.

But Azad acted as if he was human.

‘Funny one.’

Different from Raiza.

Did Jamie do something wrong when transforming him?

Although he was assisted by Black, it was done right.
And nothing was wrong with the spell.

There was no law stating that there would be unique species among the Undead, but his behavior was too tilted to the human side.

‘I’ll have to try later.’

He wanted to do it right, but there was so much he had to do right now.

“Why are you here?”

“I came because brother Raiza told me to call Master.”

“How were you planning to call me?”

“Th…
hmm.”

Azad, who thought, tilted his head.

“Well? If I come, the guards will know, and then there will be a mess.”

At that stupid answer, Jamie laughed out loud.

He wasn’t as smart as Raiza, but Jamie liked the audacious behavior.

“Raiza is back and treated, but he will have a hard time moving, so take care of him.”

“Understood.”

“And don’t keep the surveillance.
They are sharp ones.
I will keep an eye on them.”

“Yes.”

“Go now.”

“Goodbye!”

Azad bowed.

Jamie smiled and went to the mansion.

Looking back at Azad, he thought.

‘Maybe he is a special case.’

For the first time, he suppressed the rising curiosity.

Time for everyone to sleep.

Jamie returned to his room quietly and took out the paladin’s body.

Traces of what happened were all over the body.

Traces of black magic were on it too.

“The body is fried.”

Still, it was better.

Because if something was up, then he could track them down with the help of the body.

“Shall I take a look at this shell first?”

What was the achievement?

Jamie felt a little excited and began to disassemble the paladin’s shell carefully.

Some time passed.

In front of Jamie, the body of Chimera was divided into several parts.

The lower body had a red exoskeleton, and the legs of some insects, some organs like lungs had strong fire resistance, and both eyes were of insect eyes.

Finally,

“The basis is human.”

Four creatures were fused.

The fire which came from the mouth, and there was a reason why the paladin didn’t use magic.

“Then, what is this?”

In the center of a Chimera, a combination of four living creatures, a silver marble was embedded.

There was no reason for it to be placed inside the body.

At first, he thought that it was to hold down the characteristics of the different species inside the body.

However, upon further examination, the species were so neatly connected that such a thing wasn’t necessary.

Their research had reached a level that didn’t need anything more.

“Hmm.”

There was no way that they put a useless device into the body.

That was when he thought.

“Holy power.”

He wasn’t sure, but there was no reason for such a thing to exist.

This seems to be the source of the holy power.

‘It isn’t the best.’

Jamie gripped the marble and looked at the chimera parts.

Looking at that, he seemed to have a rough idea as to what they were aiming for.

And their experiments seemed to be close to completion.

“An enhanced paladin.”

Enhanced Paladin.

He didn’t know why, but it was clear what the Zenith church was trying to create.

But why?

‘Why do they need it?’

There was no reason for Zenith Church to create an enhanced paladin.

Apart from hating it, Jamie knew that it was a religion that believed in its members.

The religion wasn’t made of Dark Magicians, so they had no reason to do it.
Jamie couldn’t think of any other reason why they would do this.

‘Are they thinking of war?’

If it was a single enhanced paladin, it wouldn’t be much of a change.
But if many were created, and exceeded ten or hundred or thousand, then things would be different.

Moreover, the Chimera wasn’t even a finished product.

It would be stronger than the current one if it was completed, and Jamie had no idea how powerful the army of such things would be.

“Zenith…”

A God of War, and war is the only place of Zenith.

He wasn’t the God of War because he symbolized it.
It was because he was crazy about slaughter.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand.

‘Let’s not worry too much about it now.’

Whatever Zenith’s purpose was, it wasn’t important right now.

A God was using his servants to kill innocent humans.
They were fooling them with good words and pushing them into hell.

No sense of justice.

Jamie had thrown away his feelings a long time ago.

He had no sympathy for those who died after being deceived by Zenith.

He was just angry at Zenith, and his unchanging attitude.

‘Diablo… live.’

‘Sir Volfir.
Get our revenge.’

‘I’ll wait in hell, Diablo Volfir.’

Jamie's eyes turned purple.

“He hasn’t changed at all.”

Humans.

To be seeing everything in the world as trash and thinking of humans as mere tools.

What made him decide to kill the 12 Gods?

A man who once lost everything.

Tik!

Mighty mana rose and crushed the Chimera’s corpse.

He will never let them do what they want.

To do that, he descended on the land over ten thousand years ago.

Carrying everyone’s wishes on his back.

To walk down the path of destruction.

“Doing the same thing twice is unacceptable.”

A quiet rage erupted.

“Ah! What happened in just one day?!”

“I didn’t expect it either.”

Lincoln made excuses as he covered his ears from the telecommunication area.

“I made it with a lot of effort, but to handle it like a rag!”

The one on the other side was a Chimera maker, and his voice was erupting with anger at the news that his Chimera Paladin was defeated.

“The main body is fine.
So don’t worry.”

“Are you really making such a lame excuse now!”

“I am sorry.
But what can I do? How could I expect the appearance of a third person?”

“Damn it! So what now?”

“I plan to pick another one soon.”

“A child with saintly qualities?”

“Are you crazy? It will be a shame to waste such a kid on something like this.”

“Then what about the chimera?”

The man’s grumbling voice could be heard.

“Anyway, just prepare.
I have done this for a long time, and you already know the basics, so it won’t take long, right?”

“Huh.
This is the end.
I figured out what I was missing.
We just need the material.
The next kid, you have it?”

“Okay.”

Lincoln opened his mouth with a smile.

“The next subject is Ricky.”