"Theodore was acting on my orders. He couldn't mobilize that many resources on his own. My goal was also to obtain the Ember Radiance, and my motive is the sa as what Theodore just said..."
"Your explanation sounds quite reasonable..."
Loren found no reason to strike, which made him sowhat dissatisfied, so he decided to keep nitpicking:
"Where's the evidence? Bring out the evidence. Otherwise, how can you prove what you're saying is true?"
Upon hearing this, Lynus felt like a mouthful of blood was rushing up. You accuse , then make co up with the criminal process myself, and then make prepare the evidence myself.
"I have evidence! I can bring in the people I ordered around and have them testify!"
Seeing that Loren was about to make a move against his father, Theodore panicked and quickly spoke up.
"No way. Your people will definitely commit perjury for you. That kind of evidence is useless."
Theodore also felt as disgusted as if he'd eaten shit. He was doing everything in his power to prove his own guilt, yet Loren kept finding ways to pick faults with him.
"Clothes! Those people all have invisibility cloaks from our Langton family!"
Just before Loren's fist landed on Lynus's face, Theodore thought of new evidence, but it was imdiately shot down by Loren:
"Your Langton family has sold quite a few invisibility cloaks, hasn't it? That just ans they bought your cloaks."
This was exactly the argunt Theodore had used earlier to exonerate himself, but now Loren was throwing it back at him.
Suddenly, Theodore even regretted destroying the evidence so thoroughly before. Now he couldn't prove his own guilt at all.
"Not talking, huh..."
Loren grabbed Lynus by the collar and slapped him across the face:
"Talk or not! Talk or not! Talk or not..."
As he hit him, Loren kept pushing Lynus backward, eventually dragging him outside. Everyone else saw Lynus in that state.
The Langton family's mages, attendants, other family mbers... they all saw Lynus like that.
Lynus clenched his fists. He was the one who kept this group in line and rose to this position. He himself was a high-rank mage. He believed Loren was no match for him, and Loren's slaps didn't actually hurt him much. But what Loren was attacking was his dignity...
Yet he didn't dare fight back. The Pope was right there watching him. The mont he made a move, the Pope would kill him in an instant, and then Loren could even more legitimately pin a charge of betraying the Church on him.
Loren had no idea how many slaps he'd landed. His own hand was hurting, and Lynus's face had split open from the beating, looking utterly horrifying.
At one point, soone couldn't hold back and tried to rush in to help Lynus, but Lynus stopped them, utterly humiliated.
Loren felt that if he asked, Lynus would even hand over his own wife.
Bullying soone who wouldn't fight back was no fun. Lynus wouldn't even show a humiliated expression like Theodore had. Finally, Loren let him go, tossing him aside like garbage.
"Forget it. Since you won't talk, I'll go find out myself."
Lynus thought Loren was finally willing to let him off, but in reality, Loren had simply finished venting his anger and was ready to deal with the entire family directly.
He'd already wasted too much ti on these people today. Loren was in a hurry to get back for dinner, so he headed straight for the Langton family's secret chamber. That was where Loren had drawn the altar before.
The Langton family was indeed cautious enough. Even the secret chamber didn't hold anything too secret. Even if everything in there was exposed, it wouldn't have much of an impact on them.
But now, things were different. Loren had given them a big gift.
After Loren left, Lynus was helped to his feet by others. They didn't look down on him for what had happened, which was a testant to Lynus's skill.
But going up against Loren, nothing he did mattered anymore.
"Where's Loren now?"
Lynus downed several bottles of healing potions, temporarily relieving the wounds on his face. As soon as he could speak again, he imdiately asked about Loren's whereabouts.
"He... went toward the secret chamber. He went straight there without any hesitation, as if he knew exactly where it was..."
"Let him go. There's nothing in the secret chamber anyway..."
Lynus wasn't particularly surprised that Loren had found the secret chamber. Since Loren could see through Theodore's watertight plan, finding the secret chamber wasn't hard.
From the start, Lynus had never doubted Loren's identity as the Prophet.
"Sothing's wrong!"
Just as Lynus finished asking, soone rushed in frantically to report.
"What happened?"
After everything that had already happened, no matter what ca next, Lynus believed he could handle it calmly.
"Loren and the Pope... they found a ritual in the secret chamber... a ritual directed at the Outer Gods!"
"!"
Hearing this, Lynus couldn't help but feel shocked. He looked at his son, imdiately suspecting Theodore. After all, he truly hadn't known about Theodore kidnapping Noah.
Theodore felt utterly wronged. He had done a lot of bad things, but he would never do sothing like that.
Soon, Lynus figured it out. This was definitely not sothing the Langton family had done.
No one was stupid enough to perform a ritual directed at the Outer Gods right in their own ho. It was most likely a setup.
"Loren..."
Lynus muttered Loren's na. Only Loren would do sothing like this.
With things having co this far, he went to the secret chamber to see the situation for himself.
"Lynus, you've got so nerve. Coming after is one thing, but actually sacrificing to the Outer Gods? Now I suspect that your kidnapping of my friend wasn't for the Ember Radiance at all. It was for the Outer Gods."
As soon as Lynus arrived, Loren slapped a charge on him. Looking at the bloody ritual in the secret chamber, Lynus couldn't refute it at all. He could only weakly say:
"There's no way the Langton family did this..."
He knew full well how feeble his denial was. By the ti he finished speaking, the fight had completely drained out of him.
"This is your secret chamber. If you didn't do it, who did? Did I sneak in invisible through the wall in the middle of the night, draw this ritual here, just to fra you?"
Loren's tone was laced with amusent. Lynus didn't argue further. He said nothing.
He knew it was hopeless now. All he could do was minimize the losses, but Loren wouldn't let him have his way.
From the very beginning, Loren had been gunning for the entire Langton family. Everything he'd done to Lynus and his son before was just venting his anger.
"Your Holiness, if a noble betrays the Church and sacrifices to the Outer Gods, according to the Bountiful Church's rules, what should be done?"
"Extermination."
The Pope's reply was only two words.
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