Chapter 339: The Prison – Bloody Hawk

With its immensely strong and tireless alchemical puppets doing the labor, the construction speed of the mage tower in the mage tower increased tenfold. Meanwhile, the others were not idle either; they took this opportunity to level the land to facilitate future construction.

By the time a foundation for the mage tower in Merlinna’s third direct fief had been built and the underground portion completed, it was already the fourth day since Donald and the others received that unfavorable news. Their prey had finally arrived.

The twelve men in black thought their actions were very covert. In reality, after much effort to fly around Dragontooth Fortress and reach the Dragontooth Mountains, they were already detected by Donald’s surveillance network.

Out of caution, Donald did not use sentries with magical fluctuations that would easily reveal their presence. Instead, he relied entirely on biological radars like owls to set up his surveillance network.

Even if discovered, in those uninhabited areas of the mountains and forests—already a paradise for magical beasts—the appearance of some animals would not draw attention or suspicion.

Donald’s assumptions proved correct. Several times, the members of the group came face to face with owls, but Donald quickly ordered the summoned creatures to hide. Moreover, the meat of owls was far less delicious than that of other common birds, so even if discovered, no one would think much of it, let alone shoot two for dinner.

Furthermore, thanks to the powerful senses of the legendary strongman, Donald never allowed the summoned creatures to come into direct contact with the leader, who possessed legendary strength. Otherwise, it would be easy to expose the deception.

Soon, the twelve men reached a hill closest to the peninsula, only a dozen miles away from where Donald and the others were. From this height, they could clearly see the bustling construction of the mage tower on the peninsula ahead.

After arriving there, they did not act immediately but stayed temporarily, as if waiting for something.

Fearing detection by their target, they used only a small amount of dried food each day, never daring to start a fire to cook hot meals!

A few days later, the person they were waiting for finally arrived. Unfortunately, Donald could only control the summoned creatures to monitor from afar, unable to get close enough to observe. Otherwise, they would have recognized that the newcomer was none other than the priest Wayne they had seen before!

As soon as the two sides met, a hoarse voice rang out.

“Is this the Silver-tier guy the Judgment Council sent?”

Hearing the mocking words from the leader of the team, Wayne didn’t get angry and said, “It’s not like we’re in charge of the operation; passing a message should be sufficient with silver-level members!”
In fact, Wayne had no choice but to come here. To deal with those powerful opponents, Justice Hand needed to deploy troops from headquarters. The nearest available troops were at the western base in the territory of Gardrel, where the strongest among them was only at gold level, leaving them unsure about handling these powerful enemies from Celt.
However, well-informed as he was, Wayne knew that there was a team from Prison Guard who had just completed a mission, led by a legendary and highly renowned warrior from within the church. So he informed his superiors to negotiate with Prison Guard to temporarily assign this team over.
With a legendary warrior, two gold-level fighters, and ten silver-level fighters, they should be able to easily eliminate their opponents!
The only problem was that these were members of Prison Guard. To the outside world, Justice Hand was merely the surface-level armed organization of the Three Divine Church, tasked with resolving external conflicts by force. But in reality, aside from the Judgment Council that oversaw Justice Hand’s operations, the church also had a mysterious and terrifying organization—Prison Guard—operating both internally and externally.
Unlike Justice Hand, which had a simple structure, fewer members, and dealt with most of the church’s external affairs in a manner somewhat similar to bounty hunters or mercenaries, Prison Guard was the place where beings deemed heretics were imprisoned. It was the darkest part of the Three Divine Church. Anyone who secretly opposed the church’s doctrines or was dissatisfied with it—whenever any signs were detected—would be mercilessly arrested by Prison Guard’s jailers. Over the centuries, countless innocent lives had been imprisoned there, mostly humans.
Having spent years in darkness, these Prison Guard members, though still part of the church, didn’t possess much of the radiant power. To conceal their identities, most used powers of other attributes. Moreover, they were all eccentric, cruel, and bloodthirsty, which naturally led to their being ostracized by other church organizations.
If it weren’t for the divine decree from the Great Lord of Dawn, who strongly supported the existence of Prison Guard, this dark organization would likely have been overthrown long ago by the higher-ups of the Justice and Warrior Gods, who were also part of the Three Divine Church alliance.

For this reason, not only were the organizations of the other three divine churches less favorable toward Prison, but Prison itself also seemed somewhat independent of the churches, being hostile toward people from other organizations. To ensure the success of this joint mission, Wayne did not respond to their provocations but instead suppressed his anger and adopted a humble attitude. It was not only due to Prison but also because the leader of this group was one of Prison’s four great commanders, the legendary warrior Blood Hawk. This warrior ranked third among Prison’s four legendary strongmen in terms of power, yet he was the last commander from Prison that anyone in the Three Glorious Divine Churches wanted to encounter. The reason for his title stemmed from his violent temper—he would explode at the slightest provocation, and it was said that he enjoyed tearing his victims apart in cruel ways, spraying their blood everywhere, savoring the thrill of such bloody slaughter. Thus, despite believing he had strong connections within the church, Wayne dared not offend this madman, as he was a capricious legendary warrior, and even if he harmed Wayne, the church would not punish him! So, following the unique markers left by the twelve-person team, Wayne pursued them with all his might. When the two sides met, Wayne did not waste any time and got straight to the point. As one of the planners of this mission and a representative of the Judgment Council, although he didn’t need to participate directly in the operation, he still had the duty to explain the strength of the targets to those carrying out the mission! So, despite his reluctance, he had no choice but to make this trip. “So, among the main forces of the target are two great Golden Mages, and there might even be hidden legendary strongmen?” After hearing Wayne’s analysis of the targets’ strength, Blood Hawk spoke unhappily. When those old guys from the Judgment Council first asked him to take on this mission, they hadn’t mentioned the presence of legendary strongmen! “That’s right. Moreover, they have a powerful alchemical magic ship capable of carrying hundreds of people in the air. If given the chance, they can use the ship’s defensive and siege equipment to fight, so we must intercept them before they board the magic ship!” “A magic ship?” Blood Hawk, who had been uninterested until now, became excited upon hearing this. He climbed to the top of the hill and looked toward the distant peninsula, using his vision-enhancing abilities to spot the magic ship, which had previously appeared merely as a black dot.

The moment he saw that massive magic ship, greed flared intensely in his heart. If he could bring such a magic ship under his control and use it effectively, his power would rival that of two legendary warriors. Then, his status in the Prison would rise from third-in-command to first-in-command, second only to the warden. Once the warden stepped down, he would be the perfect successor—someone with immense power independent of the Church, free from having to worry about even the Pope or the Supreme Judge! At the thought of the forbidden techniques passed down in the Prison, which could only be mastered by the warden, Hawk’s heart burned with excitement—half-divinity was within reach! It seemed this mission was well worth taking on! Bloody Hawk thought to himself, though he kept a straight face and complained, “The difficulty of this mission has increased so much. The conditions that old guy promised me must be raised by 30%!” Hearing Bloody Hawk refer to his revered Supreme Judge in such a manner, Wayne felt displeased but still took out a sacred emblem of the Lord of Dawn, murmuring an incantation as he explained the situation on his end. Soon, a bright light shone from the emblem, and an aged, deep voice echoed in everyone’s ears. “Grant his demands and return as soon as the mission is complete!” After those brief words, the light faded. Clearly, maintaining communication over such a long distance required considerable energy, but how could the wealthy Three Gods Church care about such costs? Wayne knew it was simply because the Supreme Judge didn’t want to speak to that Prison commander. In the Supreme Judge’s words, the people in the Prison were like indestructible gold peas—persistent and shameless enough to withstand level-nine magic. Though he disliked them, he had no choice but to accept their existence. After all, they could handle many troublesome matters for the Church! Hearing that the Supreme Judge had agreed to his demands, Bloody Hawk was overjoyed. Not only would he complete the mission and reap extra rewards, but he could also extort a hefty sum from that old guy when he returned to the Prison headquarters. How could he not be happy? He didn’t really take those legendary warriors seriously. As a strong figure in the Prison, his own power far exceeded that of ordinary human legends. Moreover, he possessed many powerful and strange techniques seized from heretics, along with numerous powerful weapons.

Even against three legendary warriors, as long as they weren’t those veteran legends who had fully mastered domain powers and were at their peak, he was confident he could remain undefeated in a one-versus-three fight. Buying some time should be enough for his subordinates to take care of the other targets, after which they could work together to defeat them. If it was just a newly risen legend, he could easily handle them alone without any help from his subordinates! This was the experience gained and confidence developed by Hawk over the years of fighting since joining the Forbidden Prison. He was very sure that even if there were legendary warriors he couldn’t deal with, as long as there were no demigods around, no one could stop him if he decided to leave.