Chapter 134: CARDINAL INQUEST
<Chapter - 134 Cardinal Inquest>
The vaulted nave of the Permafrost Cathedral stretched for three hundred paces beneath towering ribbed arches of frosted star-iron and petrified pine.
Along the nave, hundreds of stained-glass viewports glowed with a sickly, glacial white radiance, casting long, fractured geometric shadows across the frozen marble floor. The air in the sanctuary was freezing, smelling heavily of bitter frankincense, scorched silver coolant, and the suffocating mana static of high-tier sealing arrays. At the far end of the hall, elevated atop seven tiers of polished obsidian steps, stood the High Altar of the 4th Sanctum.
Standing before the altar, draped in heavy white silk vestments trimmed with consecrated silver thread, was Cardinal Malachi.
The Cardinal was a towering, severe man with hollow cheekbones, pale gray hair cropped close to his scalp, and fanatic eyes burning with cold, holy zeal. In his right hand, he held the Grand Scepter of the 4th Inquest—a six-foot rod of pure starlight-silver topped with an oscillating gyroscopic halo that crackled with high-frequency suppression runes.
Flanking the dais were sixteen elite Templar Knights in heavy silver plate, their five-foot executioner broadswords held in rigid, synchronized guard positions.
"You dare cross the threshold of the consecrated ground, unranked ghost," Cardinal Malachi spoke, his voice carrying an amplified, resonating weight that vibrated against the ice-crusted walls.
The Cardinal slammed the base of his silver scepter against the top marble step. A wave of white divine mana flared outward, casting an oppressive, suffocating pressure across the nave.
"The records of the International Hunter Association catalog you as Noah Kurtz—an F-rank porter from the slums of Sentinel City. Yet you carry the unsealed keys of extinct cycles, you dismantle the foundations of our holy outposts, and you corrupt the minds of our consecrated tools. By the authority of the High Pontiff and the Eternal Archive, your soul is declared an absolute heresy!"
Walking calmly down the center of the frosted nave was Noah Kurtz.
His slouching posture was completely unbothered, hands buried deep inside the pockets of his dark woolen coat. His ash-black hair shifted gently in the draft flowing through the cathedral. Pinned over his chest lapel, directly over his heart, the dark ironwood leaf brooch absorbed the harsh ambient pressure, converting the holy static into a tranquil, steady golden pulse. Underneath his coat sleeves, his black ironwood forearm guards circulated his internal Ki in an effortless, zero-waste loop.
Beside him, her pale, delicate fingers intertwined naturally within his right palm, walked Rin Asakura.
Rin wore her soft lavender kimono under her dark navy traveling cloak, the pure white fur collar resting gently against her slender neck. Her simple wooden practice sword swayed at her left hip.
Her crystalline violet eyes looked up toward the High Altar with serene, lethal clarity.
Through Asura’s Touch intertwined with her unsealed void-sight, Rin perceived the true structure of the Cardinal’s authority. She saw the parasitic mana conduits running from his silver scepter straight down into the floor, violently tapping into the dormant Silver-Tier Archive Node buried beneath the cathedral’s foundation.
Slowly, Rin leaned her shoulder lightly against Noah’s arm, her delicate fingers tightening their warm grip around his hand.
"He is wearing stolen vestments, Noah..." Rin whispered softly, her melodic, formal cadence carrying an intimate sweetness that touched his ear. "The scepter in his hand does not channel prayer; it drains the ancient bed of the mountain to fuel his pride. His heart beats with terror because he knows his light is borrowed."
Noah looked down into her clear violet eyes, his steel-gray gaze softening with quiet, genuine tenderness. He gently squeezed her fingers, his thumb brushing across her knuckles.
"The Church has always borrowed its light from old graves, Rin," Noah spoke softly, his flat, rasping whisper carrying an ancient, immovable calm. "They build marble pillars over what they don’t understand, put a lock on the door, and tell the world it’s a miracle."
Behind them on the marble aisle, the heavy, rhythmic crunch-slap of rubber soles broke the holy silence of the cathedral.
Jiho Park trudged forward, dragging his faded slide sandals lazily across the frosted flagstones. Over his broad shoulder, the massive S-Rank Juggernaut carried his oversized canvas duffel bag, packed full of dried meats, three loaves of bread from Riverbend, and the refined gold matrix ore from District 9. He let out a long, jaw-cracking yawn that echoed like thunder beneath the vaulted ceiling.
"Man," Jiho mumbled around a mouthful of dried spiced beef, scratching his messy hair with a thick finger. "Master, this guy in the white dress is louder than the drill truck from yesterday. The benches look cold, and there isn’t a single bowl of soup in this whole place. Can I smash their shiny scepter so we can find a campfire?"
"The scepter contains ancient kinetic alloys, Jiho," Chloe Harrington laughed softly from Noah’s left.
Chloe strolled with her dark leather duster unbuttoned over her canvas vest, her dead platinum revolvers resting quietly in their holsters. She flipped her silver coin in a high, glittering arc through the incense smoke, catching it with an effortless, rhythmic snap. Her sharp amber eyes glowed with brilliant golden probability lines as she tracked the divine formation on the altar.
"Probability vectors on their execution matrix are completely brittle, Boss," Chloe reported, a rebellious smirk playing on her lips. "The sixteen Templars have locked their shields into a synchronized Starlight Phalanx. But the primary energy conduit between the Cardinal’s scepter and the floor has a ninety-eight percent structural flaw right at the second step."
"Look at the subterranean resonance, Boss!" Alistair Vance whispered frantically through the comms earpiece.
Alistair was perched behind a broken stained-glass alcove near the entrance, holding his portable espresso rig with one hand while furiously typing on a glowing holographic tablet.
"The Cardinal isn’t just holding a scepter! He has initialized the 4th Sanctum Heretic Sealing Matrix! It’s an ancient pre-Cataclysm containment program designed to lock an awakener’s spatial coordinates and force a neural system wipe!"
Cardinal Malachi raised his scepter high into the air, the silver halo spinning with a blinding, deafening shriek.
"SEAL THE HERETIC!" the Cardinal bellowed.
Sixteen heavy silver beams of concentrated divine mana shot from the Templars’ broadswords, converging directly with the scepter to form a colossal, glowing silver cage of spatial-binding chains that descended from the vaulted ceiling straight toward Noah’s chest.
Noah Kurtz did not flinch. He didn’t draw a weapon.
"Jiho," Noah spoke flatly, taking a slow step forward.
"On it, Master!" Jiho Park grinned sleepily, casually stepping between Noah and the descending divine cage in his scuffed slide sandals.
[Absolute Inertia: Heavenly Grounding]
KABOOOOM—!
The massive cage of silver divine chains slammed headlong into Jiho’s bare shoulders.
The marble floor beneath his feet cracked for fifty yards, but Jiho’s physical density absorbed the immense spatial weight like a feather landing on iron. Jiho let out a bored grunt, casually rolling his shoulders until the heavy silver chains strained, groaned, and shattered into harmless white sparks.
"Man," Jiho mumbled, brushing silver dust off his thermal sweater. "Master, their cage feels like a wet paper towel."
"BLASPHEMY!" Cardinal Malachi gasped in sheer, unadulterated horror, stumbling backward against the high altar as his scepter sputtered. "MORTAL FLESH CANNOT SHATTER THE HERETIC MATRIX BY FORCE!"
Ashen Step: Frictionless Advance.
Noah Kurtz blurred forward, his boots skimming across the shattered marble without generating kinetic drag or sound.
Holding Rin’s hand securely in his grip, Noah glided up the seven tiers of obsidian steps, stopping three paces before the trembling Cardinal.
Rin Asakura stepped smoothly to Noah’s side, drawing her wooden practice sword in a single, fluid arc with her free hand. She placed the polished wooden tip gently against the central crystal of the Cardinal’s silver scepter.
Circulate.
Noah channeled an imperceptible thread of Gold Sovereign Ki through Rin’s blade straight into the scepter’s intake valve.
Crack.
The grand silver scepter shattered into dull, inert fragments of scrap iron, completely severing the Church’s parasitic connection to the mountain’s bedrock.
Cardinal Malachi collapsed onto his knees on the cold steps, his divine radiance extinguished, his eyes hollow with existential terror as he looked up at the slouching youth and the violet-eyed swordswoman.
DING. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [4th Sanctum Sealing Matrix: Neutralized]
Target: Cardinal Malachi & 16 Inquest Templars
Status: Regional Divine Authority Extinguished
Subterranean Node: Silver-Tier Vault Fully Exposed ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Noah Kurtz stood at the peak of the altar, his steel-gray eyes cold and clinical as he looked down at the defeated Cardinal.
"Your audit is closed, Malachi," Noah spoke softly, his rasping whisper carrying the ancient weight of the Ashen Sovereign.
Beside him, Rin Asakura sheathed her wooden sword, stepping close into Noah’s chest and wrapping both hands gently around his arm. Her crystalline violet eyes looked toward the hidden altar vault slowly unsealing beneath their boots.
"The silver path is open, Noah..." Rin murmured softly, her breath warm against his coat.
"It’s open, Rin," Noah Kurtz said quietly, his hand closing gently around hers. "Let’s go claim the Silver Archive."
<Chapter - 134 Cardinal Inquest>