Chapter 445 - 209: Change of Master

"Mr. Blake??"

"Yes."

Sean nodded seriously. "You heard me right. It’s Mr. Blake. He’s back, and he’s given everyone a mission."

Hoyev: "!!!"

"Really? You’re not lying to me??"

"I wouldn’t dare," Sean said. "I can joke about anyone, but never about Mr. Blake."

"Exactly!" Hoyev couldn’t agree more. "Mr. Blake is our god!"

The astonishment in his eyes melted into pure delight.

"I knew it! I knew Mr. Blake wouldn’t abandon us to go die alone."

Sean: "..."

’Why does that sound so strange?’

’Was he supposed to take you all with him to die?’

But that was genuinely what Hoyev was thinking.

To fight for the Holy Sanctuary, to fight for Mr. Blake—he would willingly die to do so!

"I’m done talking. I’m packing my things and heading back now."

Hoyev spoke in a rush, his restless heart impossible to conceal. "Be careful tonight when you make your move."

"And be careful on your way back. Don’t get yourselves killed."

"Farewell!"

With that said, he also left the hotel.

Only Sean and Elise remained in the room.

Elise smiled and shook her head. "I really don’t know where Mr. Blake gets all this Charm. It seems like everyone adores him."

Sean glanced at her and asked coolly, "And you’re no different?"

"Who says? I’m different," Elise said. "I follow Mr. Blake because of his deeds, and the same goes for my work with the Holy Sanctuary. That’s respect, not adoration, and certainly not admiration."

As she spoke, she gave Sean a flirtatious look. "By comparison, the one I truly admire is a certain Mr. Writer. Every time I read his work, I can’t help myself. I just want to moan."

Sean: "?"

"Just shut up."

’If anyone heard that, they’d think I write smut.’

"Stop flirting with me all the time." He scoffed. "Go change your clothes. We’re heading back to the church."

Elise: "Huh?"

"Go now?"

"Haven’t we already scouted the place?"

The only Grand Mage in town, Fan Ke’er, was away, so there were no other Wizards who posed a threat.

"We’ve scouted the place, but we haven’t poured the gasoline," Sean said.

A place as important as a church is bound to have decent fire safety measures. If we don’t plant some flammable materials inside beforehand and disable the hydrants and what-not, the fire might not catch properly. What if it gets extinguished halfway through, and they spin it as the ’Master’ putting out the flames? We’d end up helping the Church Court instead of hurting them.

Sean would not allow that to happen.

If they were going to burn it, they had to burn it to the ground.

Soon, Sean and Elise changed their outfits, once again disguising themselves as out-of-town tourists. They donned Western-style cowboy hats and headed back to the church.

The Priest’s assassination, and the particularly gruesome nature of his death—he’d been practically castrated—sent a shockwave through the town as soon as the news broke. Gothra Town was a small place; it was impossible to keep such a thing quiet. By the time Sean and Elise arrived, the church was packed with people, inside and out.

Sean even saw a familiar face.

The female receptionist from the hotel.

He hadn’t seen her when he and Elise came downstairs at the hotel just now, and he’d assumed she was napping in a back room. Instead, she was here, caught up in the commotion.

She was on the shorter side, hopping up and down as she tried to peer through the crowd. "Hey, can’t you guys duck your heads a little? I can’t see a thing!" she grumbled.

Sean: "..."

’Gossip truly is human nature.’

Excellent. This gave him even more confidence in his plan to shake the townspeople’s faith.

The scene was chaotic. Taking advantage of the large crowd, Sean and Elise used an Invisibility Spell and slipped into the church unnoticed.

"Mr. Writer, I think we forgot something," Elise whispered.

Sean: "What?"

Elise: "We didn’t bring any explosives."

Sean: "..."

He gave Elise a look one might reserve for an idiot. "We’re in a new town and short on time. Where exactly were we supposed to get explosives?"

Gothra Town might be remote and poor, but it was still part of the Empire and subject to its laws. Guns weren’t illegal, but explosives were; they were a Class III controlled substance, not something you could just pick up at the store.

"Then how do we set it off without explosives? How will we get it to burn?"

Elise asked, "With my screaming?"

Sean: "?"

Elise snickered. "Just kidding."

She reigned in her mischievous thoughts and asked again, "So, alcohol or oil?"

Sean: "An Array."

Now it was Elise’s turn to be confused. "?"

She looked at Sean, astonished. "You know Magic Arrays?"

Sean: "The way you say that..."

’I’m Mr. Blake. Is there anything I can’t do?’

’I can do anything, except for the things I can’t!’

"Keep a lookout for me," Sean said in a low voice.

Then he slipped into a restroom and began to lay out the Magic Array.

Calling it a Magic Array was an exaggeration; it was really just a part of one.

More accurately, it was a special application of Magic Power.

It involved inscribing Magic Power into the ground as ancient runes, which could then be released when needed. It was the magical equivalent of planting a time bomb.

The biggest difference between this technique and a true Magic Array was that an Array could be maintained with a continuous supply of Magic Power. This, however, could not. It was a one-time use item; once activated, it was gone. Its power was also relatively low, but its advantages were clear: it didn’t require multiple Wizards Casting in unison. A single person could do it all.

After all, the most labor-intensive part was embedding the ancient runes. The detonation only required a snap of the fingers.

Things went smoothly.

From 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., over the course of three full hours, Sean planted a total of 256 ancient runes. At an average of one every 7.8 square meters, his "firepower" covered the entire church, leaving practically no dead zones.