Chapter 236
Dongdaemun had an atmosphere unlike the other slums of Neo Seoul.
The Gothic-style buildings evoked the Middle Ages, the air felt so heavy it was hard to breathe, and a strange madness could be sensed in the stiff expressions on the people’s faces.
Levin and Brielle were seated by the window on the second floor of a building overlooking the brightly lit streets.
The place they occupied was a house abandoned long ago.
For some unknown reason, the owner had left, and it had been neglected ever since.
Levin and Brielle had somehow managed to find the empty house.
Since they had slipped in while ghostified, no one realized they were hiding there.
Outside the window stood a massive church.
It was the church where Johan usually stayed.
The center and symbol of Dongdaemun itself.
Levin muttered,
“So you’re saying there’s a high chance the highest-grade magic stone is hidden underground there?”
“It’s information we got from the Goblin Market.”
Brielle answered.
Before entering Dongdaemun, they had contacted Yoo Sehui, the guildmaster of the Goblin Market.
Yoo Sehui handed over all the information she had gathered.
She said that on the day the highest-grade magic stone was stolen and NSSC Team 2 was wiped out, suspicious activity had been spotted at this church.
Because security had been so tight, they couldn’t get close enough to investigate properly, but many holy knights and priests had been going in and out of the place.
Since it was the church at the center of Dongdaemun, holy knights entering and leaving constantly wasn’t unusual in itself. But there was such a thing as an average.
Normally, the number of people coming and going each day remained fairly consistent. But that particular day, the traffic had been unusually heavy.
That was definitely suspicious.
Levin frowned.
“But they’re not idiots. Would they really keep the highest-grade magic stone in their own headquarters? If they get caught, they won’t even be able to deny it.”
“They’re probably confident they’ll never get caught.”
“That kind of confidence only fanatics could have?”
“More likely their brains are so hardened they don’t even think that deeply about it.”
“Either way, we have to get in there, right?”
“What? Don’t tell me you’re scared.”
“Hmph! Who do you think I am?”
“The only ghostification awakener in Neo Seoul?”
“Good. Then leave it to me.”
“Of course I trust you.”
“Heh.”
Levin snorted exaggeratedly.
Brielle simply smiled, knowing he was only trying to calm his nerves.
‘We just need to find the highest-grade magic stone. Then everything will be over.’
The highest-grade magic stone was undeniable evidence.
If they found it in Johan’s residence, there would be no way for them to deny their crimes.
The problem was how to infiltrate the church.
It looked like an ordinary church from the outside, but it was obvious the place would be covered in countless barriers and magic circles. On top of that, numerous holy knights guarded the perimeter.
No matter how powerful Levin’s ghostification ability was, infiltration wouldn’t be easy.
Brielle knew that as well, so she didn’t rush him.
They needed to wait for the right moment.
“By now, they should’ve been discovered.”
“Who?”
Just then—
“Suspicious individuals!”
“Intruders have been spotted in Block 3!”
Urgent voices rang out from the street opposite the church.
The holy knights guarding the church reacted immediately to the word “intruders” and rushed off.
Brielle shot to her feet.
“It has to be Eaton’s group.”
“Seriously?”
“If it’s not them, then who else would be doing suspicious things in Dongdaemun?”
“True enough! Nice!”
Levin threw an uppercut into the air in excitement.
Eaton’s group probably thought they were moving secretly, but evading the surveillance network of a Dongdaemun filled with fanatics had been impossible from the start.
Their suspicious movements had naturally been detected by the fanatics.
It was unfortunate for Eaton, but this was exactly what Levin and Brielle had wanted from him.
To divert the attention of the holy knights guarding the church.
Thanks to that, a gap had formed in the once airtight security net.
Levin extended his hand toward Brielle.
“Let’s go!”
“Okay!”
The moment Brielle grabbed his hand, their bodies blurred like ghosts.
In their ghostified state, they approached the church.
Papat!
As they neared it, sparks burst out alongside a powerful resistance.
The barrier protecting the church had activated.
At that moment, Brielle pulled out a blue gem from inside her clothes and pressed it against the barrier.
It was an item Yoo Sehui of the Goblin Market had prepared for them.
‘She said it temporarily disables barriers by inflicting an abnormal status effect, right?’
Brielle didn’t particularly like Yoo Sehui, but she acknowledged her abilities. That was why she used the item without hesitation.
Srrrk!
As if by magic, a gap opened in the barrier.
Levin and Brielle quickly slipped inside.
The moment they infiltrated the church, the barrier returned to normal as though nothing had happened.
The holy knights guarding the entrance had also abandoned their posts, allowing the pair to enter the church without resistance.
‘Mm.’
The moment they stepped inside, Levin and Brielle’s expressions hardened.
A bizarre energy scraped against their nerves.
The church was filled with an ominous aura that stimulated their senses in the worst possible way.
It felt like stepping into a swamp inhabited by countless insect-type demonic beasts.
Even the murals inside the church were far from normal.
Most depicted Johan floating in the sky while people worshipped him.
Those worshipping him wept tears of joy and ecstasy, but the madness filling their faces made them look anything but sane.
In this place, Johan was a god.
It became obvious that the god Johan preached about was none other than himself.
‘A false god.’
‘Does he intend to make himself into a god?’
Just imagining it was enough to make them nauseous.
Suppressing the urge to vomit, they moved forward.
Suddenly, Levin pointed at a bookshelf standing against the wall and whispered softly.
“That place looks suspicious.”
“Why?”
“You’re right!”
In fact, there wasn’t a single book on the bookshelf.
What was especially suspicious was the absence of even a Bible.
The two of them pushed their heads through the bookshelf.
Since they were in a ghostified state, they passed through it without resistance.
Just as Levin had suspected, there was a hidden space behind the shelf.
A staircase leading underground stretched before them.
A secret passage descending beneath the church.
Levin and Brielle looked at each other.
“I think we found it.”
“Let’s go down.”
Without another moment of hesitation, they descended underground.
The spiral staircase continued dozens of meters below the surface.
When they reached the bottom, Levin released his ghostification.
“I think we can walk normally from here.”
“Good work.”
Brielle nodded and started forward.
A long corridor stretched out underground.
Small rooms lined both sides of the hallway, each sealed shut with iron doors.
“Why would there be a bookshelf inside a chapel? And it didn’t even have books on it.”
“What is this place?”
“Wait, let me check.”
Brielle opened the small window at the top of one of the iron doors and looked inside.
The instant she did, her face turned pale.
“Holy shit!”
“What?”
Instead of answering, Brielle covered her mouth and staggered backward.
Levin frowned in confusion and peered inside the room.
“Fuck…”
His face twisted the moment he saw the inside.
The sight within was that horrifying.
A person whose identity couldn’t be determined had been nailed to the wall like someone hanging from a cross.
The problem was that the person’s stomach had been split wide open, with their intestines spilling out onto the floor.
Naturally, the victim was long dead.
Their entire body bore obvious traces of horrific torture.
Their fingernails, toenails, and even their teeth had all been ripped out. Their flesh had been sliced apart as though filleted, and one leg had been severed around the calf.
Flies and maggots swarmed the rotting wounds, while the stench of decay stabbed at their noses.
Levin hurriedly checked another room through its viewing window.
The situation there was the same.
Someone else had died there as well, frozen in the exact state they had been tortured in.
“This is a torture chamber.”
“Those insane bastards! People who claim to believe in God are torturing others to death?”
“Fucking monsters!”
Brielle and Levin’s eyes reddened with fury.
They continued checking the other rooms.
Every single room was the same.
Not one person was left alive.
Even growing up in the slums, they had never witnessed something this horrific before.
Even in the slums, where brutal fighting was commonplace, no one kidnapped and tortured this many people.
“What the hell did these people do to deserve this?”
“No one knew about this? Don’t tell me even City Hall doesn’t know?”
“City Hall probably doesn’t care about this place.”
Levin ground his teeth.
City Hall rarely paid attention to the slums.
The only place they cared about was Neo Seoul itself.
Whatever happened in the slums was outside their concern.
The people living in Neo Seoul and the people living in the slums were all human beings. But the value of their lives was different.
Even if this truth were revealed to Neo Seoul, they probably still wouldn’t act.
Forcing those thoughts aside, Levin moved again.
They searched all the way to the final room, but only found more people tortured to death. There was no sign of the highest-grade magic stone.
“Maybe this isn’t the place?”
Just as the two exchanged troubled looks—
Clank!
They heard a door opening from the opposite end of the corridor, followed by the sound of multiple people approaching.
Judging from the footsteps, it wasn’t just one or two.
“Hide!”
The two immediately ghostified and slipped into one of the cells.
Moments after they hid, a group appeared.
They were holy knights clad in heavy armor.
Completely unaware that the two were hiding inside one of the cells, they continued talking.
“I still don’t understand why we’re suddenly moving something that was perfectly fine where it was.”
“Because it’s suspicious.”
“What’s suspicious about it?”
“Doesn’t it seem strange? Eaton suddenly appearing in Dongdaemun after being on the run.”
“Well, that’s…”
“All the holy knights in Dongdaemun are chasing him. Yet he deliberately shows himself here. There’s no way he’d act like that without some kind of scheme.”
“Mm…”
The younger holy knight who had questioned him looked annoyed by the explanation.
To him, it felt like his superior was overreacting.
The older holy knight’s name was Victor.
He was the vice commander of the Holy Knight Order, second only to the commander himself.
When Victor reached the end of the corridor and placed his hand on the wall, a dazzling light burst forth.
A hidden magic circle embedded in the wall had activated.
Levin and Brielle, secretly watching, widened their eyes.
‘There was a hidden room there?’
Completely unaware of the two lurking nearby, Victor and the holy knights entered the secret space.
Levin and Brielle hurriedly followed behind them.
They moved so stealthily that Victor and the holy knights failed to notice their presence.
At the center of the hidden chamber, a massive crystal emitted a blinding radiance.
Levin and Brielle recognized it instantly.
‘The highest-grade magic stone?’
‘So it was here.’
The moment they finally found the object they had desperately been searching for, both of them unconsciously held their breath.
“Who goes there?!”
Suddenly, Victor turned toward the ghostified pair and shouted.
He had sensed the subtle disturbance caused by their presence.
Victor’s eyes glowed blue.
He was using a skill called “Eyes of Truth” to uncover them.
Hiding was useless now.
Brielle immediately sprinted toward the magic stone and shouted to Levin,
“Hold them off for a moment!”
“Goddammit!”
Crackle!
Purple lightning exploded from Levin, filling the hidden chamber.