Chapter 707: The Crazy Pursuit
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After about a week or so, Benjamin arrived at the mountains near the border of the Kingdom of Helius.
It could be said that the Church wanted to recover the "Key" at all costs. Priests, paladins, soldiers... like a disturbed beehive, the number of people they sent out were in the hundreds. The incident had gotten so serious that the Church had issued a notice and announced that someone had stolen their "Holy Item" and that they would get it back at all costs.
While under their pursuit, Benjamin and Dick had to be particularly cautious.
"I have a feeling that they might have a way to roughly track which direction we are going," Benjamin said in his mind. "Those priests are always gathering around us, so there is no way to outrun them - I’m sure that it is not by coincidence."
"How would I know?" The System said lazily, "However, the leaf has been specially processed, so it will be no surprise if they had a way to track it."
Benjamin heard this and felt like the statement was reasonable.
That piece of ginkgo leaf was refined into a magic tool by the Church, so it contained a faint magic fluctuation. Therefore, they might have a way to track the leaf, but with the range of its location within limits.
Therefore, Benjamin wrapped the key within an anti-magic water bubble.
Unexpectedly, the water bubbles seemed to have successfully cut off the faint oscillation. The priests flying in the sky suddenly became a lot fewer; after that, they only encountered a few more priest and each time they look very confused as they looked around. Apparently, they could no longer track the location of the key.
Benjamin was relieved, only then did he get the chance to rush towards the mountains at the border of the kingdom.
"Do you plan to get to the other said through the mountain? I heard that there are a lot of magical beasts in the area." Dick shuddered as he looked at the dark slopes of the mountain.
"There is nothing to worry about, I have passed through it several times."
Benjamin shrugged and gotten ready to fly up with Dick. However, after using the water element sensing technique to scan the area, he suddenly stopped in mid-air.
The mountain... something was wrong.
The mountain that was originally filled with a large number of magic beasts was now as quiet as a desert.
"Did you find anything?" Without bothering to explain the situation to Dick, Benjamin asked quickly in his heart.
"There are some fresh footprints on the ground which should have been made during the past few days." The System said. "But other than that, I did not find any traces of priests."
Benjamin rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment.
It goes without saying how important the key was to the Church. Now that it had fallen into Benjamin’s hand, these people would surely go crazy to get it back.
Previously, the mountain on top of the border had a long range, so it was very inconvenient to set up any defensive measures, which was the reason why Benjamin could come and go freely. But…... if the Church was really determined to get the key back, who knows what they might do?
After thinking about it for a moment, Benjamin flew along the border until he had reached the southernmost border of the Kingdom of Helius. However, the mountain was still as empty as though it had just been raided; not even the slightest trace of a magical beast was seen.
Were they trying to scare him?
Benjamin was a little surprised.
He did not question how powerful the Church was, but in just a few days, they had completely wiped out all the magical beasts in the mountain, making it look as though it was a punishment from God.
Who knows how many magic beasts there were in the mountains? Five million? Ten million? How did the Church manage to do this?
Incredible...
Initially, Benjamin thought that leaving with Dick would be a fairly easy thing to do, however, he did not expect it to end up like this. Fortunately, he was cautious, if he were to fly directly into the mountain, who knew what would be waiting for them?
"W-what happened? Is there something in the mountain? We... can we still leave?" Dick was frightened by the serious look on Benjamin's face, so he asked hesitantly.
"There is an ambush waiting for us in the mountain, we might need to use another way."
Benjamin was not sure what kind of ambush the Church had planned, but with that much effort, he suspected that he might be bombarded with dozens of holy light cannons the second he showed himself.
——If the Church was well prepared, even the "Descending of Water" might not be enough to save Benjamin.
Therefore, after considering it carefully, he decided to avoid conflict.
"Then... are we leaving through the Crusader Gateway?" Dick asked nervously.
"They had cleared the whole mountain to prepare an ambush, so what do you think the main gate will look like?" Benjamin shook his head and said, "At this point, I suspect that Grant himself will be guarding the gate, waiting for us to attempt to forcibly break through it."
"Then what should we do now?"
Benjamin thought for a moment and said, "Let’s try the Skyfall Mountains first."
Dick was dumbfounded.
The mountains located to the north of the kingdom, known as the "Border of the Canopy", was notorious for its height. The west side of the Kingdom was a mountain filled with magical beast, and the east was a borderless desert. It was as though someone drawn the 38th parallel on this continent. No one had ever gotten across that desert, and no one knew what was at the other end of the mountain.
However, compared to the Church’s ambush, Benjamin felt that the untouched mountain would be a lot easier to handle.
"But... I heard rumors about that place claiming that it was connected to the realm of God, and it was impossible for an ordinary person to go through the mountain – apparently, all they would see is an endless mountain path."
Benjamin shook his head but was too lazy to speak.
The realm of God? In his opinion, each and every spiritual realm that each religion claimed was in truth just an elemental plane.
If they were indeed able to enter the elemental plane just by getting across the mountain, that would be incredible. Benjamin did not believe superstitious sayings, no matter how tall the mountain was he could always just fly across it, it could not be that the mountain was so tall that it reached outer space, right?
Therefore, he brought along Dick, changed directions and flew to the north side of the Kingdom.
The Church apparently did not expect Benjamin to make such a move, so as he approached the Skyfall Mountains, the number of priests and paladins decreased dramatically. There were some villages and soldiers at the bottom of the mountain, but from Benjamin’s point of view, they were not obstacles.
"You should be honored that you are about to break a world record with me."
Benjamin turned around and looked towards Dick who had an uneasy look and said. Then, Benjamin waved his hands. A large amount of water vapor suddenly emerged and surrounded them before lifting them high into the sky.