Gwalchavad had gotten destroyed so suddenly that I didn't know how he had been beaten. There were only three possibilities if Gwalchavad, who had the Holy Shield, had been beaten without contacting me.

One was that the enemy was so strong, Gwalchavad couldn’t handle it.

Another was that he had accidentally gotten swept up in my grandfather and great-grandfather’s fight.

Finally, thought transmissions could have been blocked.

"It feels like it should be the last one,” I muttered in disbelief. Once again, I cut apart the horned snake that had half-regenerated the moment I stopped.

-Kieeeekk!

The other two scenarios didn’t make sense considering Gwalchavad's skills. And above all, the aura I’d felt from the church was unusual. It was like divine power, but mixed with black mana. It was an unfamiliar feeling to see those opposing forces combined.

"Caradoc, what's going on inside?" I asked.

-Is something wrong? Here, we’ve removed the black knights and have begun to destroy the altar. It’s going smoothly.

Could he not feel that aura from the inside? Well, the altar would be full of black mana, so it wouldn’t be strange for him to be unable to feel it unless he had very keen senses.

-If you feel something strange outside, I’ll assign troops to search...