I'm in Love with the Villainess!-Chapter 234: A Conspiracy...?

*** Inquisitors - Third Person

"This is it?"

"Yes."

"With all the destruction and empty buildings we passed, this might be the best lead we have so far."

Jayden said, already drawing his blade as he walked toward the broken gates of the abandoned mining company. He was the leader of the Fifth Division of the Inquisitors, a master-level ice mage and a grandmaster-level swordsman.

At twenty-six, he was one of the youngest members of the Inquisitors’ inner circle.

"You said this lead came from one of the academy’s students, right?"

He asked as he traced the jagged breaks along the steel gate and stepped farther inside. The moment he crossed the threshold, his knees threatened to buckle under him from the sheer divine presence pressing down on the place.

Darkness—Elion’s natural antithesis.

And while light was usually stronger than darkness, this wasn’t any ordinary shadow clinging to the mine.

"...Damn it!"

Jayden crashed to his knees, driving his sword into the ground to keep himself from collapsing face-first.

"This place has Goddess Nyx written all over it. Watch your step, unless you want to earn her ire."

Jayden wrapped himself in magic and forced his body upright, using his sword as a makeshift cane while his free hand brushed along the mine’s cold stone walls for support.

The other Inquisitors followed, but even with his warning, some weren’t strong enough to withstand the oppressive divine presence saturating the air.

THUD!

The sound came the moment one Inquisitor stepped inside.

CRACK!

His knees gave out at once, bone cracking under what felt like gravity suddenly doubling. He crumpled to the ground with a ragged scream, fighting uselessly to push himself back up.

Elion and Nyx.

Two gods of the same pantheon who could never truly see eye to eye. What should have been only a faint pressure was multiplied a hundredfold for Elion’s followers. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Get him out of here. Gian, Trost—on me."

Jayden barked the order and pushed himself deeper into the mine. Rusted machinery lay abandoned where it had been left in haste, and the ledgers he found scattered about didn’t match a place that had supposedly been deserted.

It was enough to confirm that this was what they’d been searching for—a place where a beast of pure evil had been born.

A beast they had been sent to vanquish.

But it seemed no one had thought to mention that Nyx herself had a hand in its containment.

"Why did the Grand Priest even bother sending us here? Shouldn’t Nyx’s Shadows be the ones handling something like this?"

Trost spoke from behind him, his gaze wandering over anything that looked even remotely interesting.

"You tell me... it’s like they want us to die."

Jayden replied, and Gian let out a laugh.

"Y’know, I always figured the Grand Priest hated you. Think this is a setup?"

His tone was joking, but his words weren’t. If he’d been even a little more serious, he could’ve been suspected of treason within the Inquisitors.

"You’re lucky I can take a joke."

Jayden chuckled, but his laughter cut off as he caught sight of a huge circular hole in the ground. He stepped closer—and his eyes immediately rolled back from the sheer pain of Nyx’s magic pressing down on him.

He gritted his teeth and shook it off, forcing his vision to sharpen as he doubled the magic coursing through his body.

"F-Fuck, what the hell!?"

He collapsed to his hands and knees, his sword clattering to the ground. Trost and Gian moved to help him—

But Jayden threw out an arm, stopping them before they could get any closer.

"Stay back! You two won’t survive this..."

Once more he forced himself up, his robes suddenly feeling as heavy as steel plate as he staggered forward.

Before he could look down into the hole, a voice stopped him cold.

A voice...

From the exit.

Another Inquisitor?

Jayden and the others turned. A figure in the same uniform stood there—but nothing about him looked normal.

His robes were soaked in blood, his mask was cracked in half, and his sword was warped and dented, drenched in magical signatures that felt disturbingly familiar.

"You’re still alive?"

The mysterious Inquisitor spoke first.

"W-What is the meaning of this?"

Jayden snapped, already signaling the other two to get ready. But it was useless. With Nyx’s presence washing over them, none of them could fight properly.

But then... why was this man in front of them still fine? If he was an Inquisitor too, he should’ve been crushed by it just like they were.

"You should’ve taken Gian’s joke more seriously, Jayden."

The mysterious Inquisitor laughed, reaching beneath his robes.

He pulled out a talisman—or rather, something more than a talisman.

Elion’s divine talisman. An artifact of pure holy light, capable of countering any source of darkness. Even here, in a cave suffocating with Nyx’s presence, it still glowed.

It was protecting him.

"That talisman...! The Grand Priest set us up!?"

"So many questions, when the answer’s right in front of you. Are you really that dense?"

The Inquisitor started forward, and Trost and Gian rushed to intercept him. Their blades met his—

But...

They never stood a chance against someone completely immune to Nyx’s influence.

SLICK!

SLASH!

Trost fell with a blade through his heart. Gian dropped, clutching at his slit throat.

"Times are changing, Jayden. And you? You just don’t seem to fit into whatever Lord Elion has planned."

Jayden roared at the threat, forcing his body to move. The ground beneath him began to crumble under the surge of gravity.

"Do you seriously think this is Lord Elion’s will?"

The mysterious Inquisitor didn’t answer. He simply kept walking until he was close enough to reach out and touch Jayden.

"Goodbye, Jayden."

He placed a hand on Jayden’s chest and gave a simple push.

Jayden was hurled backward into the yawning hole, down into the depths of the False Hydra’s former prison.

"Now then. That should take care of him, if that beast is still alive."

The Inquisitor laughed softly. "Time to report back to the High Priest before the others start getting suspicious."