Midnight, withiown of Harbor, people who had been peacefully asleep were abruptly awakened by the fierce bze and the cacophonous g of crows.

  "Fire... it's on fire!" "Help, someone save me!"

  After more than a decade of peace, the residents of Harbor Town, suddenly utack, desded into chaos. The streets were filled with panid screams echoed in every er of the town.

  At this moment, Lynn stood on the rooftop of a small house, her eyes sing the dire where the fmes raged. This was the magic at work—a spell known as "Tik's Farsight," granting a wizard the precision of a griffon's keen eyesight in a short span.

  During the days Lynn had spent in Harbor Town, aside from gathering intelligend cog bck powder, she hadn't ed her magical studies. She had thhly devoured the book "Foundations of Universal Magic" she had brought along.

  "Is it Jonny and Dove?" Lynn muttered to herself as she gazed at the flocks of gray crows in the distand the figures dang in the firelight.

  Had they mao escape ahead of time?

  Wait...

  Lynn soon noticed something amiss. The two witch's states didn't seem like they had suffered torture. Perhaps... they hadn't fled but were preparing to infiltrate Harbor Town's prison to rescue someone!

  This possibility immediately crossed Lynn's mind, causio furrow her brows.

  Before tonight's operation, he had sidered dozens of ued sarios and even foreseen that the Church might set traps within Harbor Town, waiting for him to fall into them.

  But he hadn't anticipated Archbishop Ao boldly broadcast their as without capturing anyone first.

  The archbishop was undoubtedly taking a risk, betting that these few wizard apprentices couldn't find each other. Otherwise, the public witch hunt ceremony scheduled for tomorrow would be a plete farce.

  In a world where true gods existed, a public witch hunt ceremony, if faked with a few prisoners posing as witches, was nothing short of bsphemy.

  Evidently, Archbishop Anluke had guessed correctly. While Lynn had mao avoid the trap, Jonny and Dove had unwittingly walked into it.

  However, if the two witches weren't captured, then who had leaked information about the Ship Gang?

  Archbishop Anluke's personal presen Harbor Town, enf the port closure and taking a against the Ship Gang, couldn't be faked. This was one of the reasons he believed that these two might be arrested.

  Deep in thought, the g of crows in the sky above Harbor Town grew weaker. This sighat Jonny and Dove were close to exhaustion.

  Lynn didn't rush into a because there were only a few hundred guards surrounding the two witches. Archbishop Anluke and his three thousae guards hadered the se.

  This, too, was a bait, and Lynn was the big fish that Archbishop Anluke wao catch...

  "071, in our current state, what are our ces if we front them head-on?" Lynn silently asked in his mind.

  His greatest trump card was the massive stockpile of bck powder he had hidden at the docks. By exploiting the information gap and the venienagic shaping, he could lure Anluke and the others there and blow them to the heavens. But now, it seemed like achieving that goal would be incredibly difficult.

  "Estimated win rate falls below the safety threshold. As per the agreemeraterrestrials should not be sidered protected targets. Acc to the 'Federal Citizen Life Safety Act,' your priority should be self-preservation."

  Lynn fell silent for a moment and then asked, "So, do you know why Jonny and Dove are risking their lives to enter Harbor Town?"

  "y-seven pert likelihood... they've e to rescue you, sir."

  "So, you knew, 071?" Lynn gazed at the distant fmes, speaking to himself in his mind. "Sometimes, extraterrestrials are human too..."

  Meanwhile, ihe church of Harbor Town, Archbishop Anluke was lost in thought as he gazed at the chaos iown.

  The distant screams and cries made the attending priests turn pale, but Anluke appeared oblivious, turning to his side to address Aydan.

  "How have the interrogations been progressing these st few days?" he asked.

  "Rep, Yrace, there seems to be a powerful psychic magic pced in Hawk's brain. I've tried several methods but couldn't break through that barrier," Aydan expined apologetically.

  A few days ago, while Archbishop Anluke led the elite guards to chase the devilish cultists, Aydan and his team had unched an assault on Urtown. Following the information they had received from Will, they had goo the Drunkard's Tavern to capture the old Hawk, who had not mao escape yet.

  However, what disappointed Aydan was that there was some kind of psychic magic proteg Hawk's mind. Wheried to extraformation using divis, he almost turhe man into a simpleton.

  The only thing they had gained was some information about Harbor Town, found in a secret room in the Drunkard's Tavern.

  "No matter, we'll soon have a new source of information," Anluke said casually, showing no iion of bming Aydan.

  "Yrace, should we sider increasing our forces? If we tinue like this, those two wizard apprentices might escape our trol," Aydan cautiously asked as he looked at the otion to the west of Harbor Town.

  Due to someone's move to ighe town's granaries, most of the stationed guards had been dispatched to put out the fire, leaving only two priests and three hundred guards in charge of the pursuit.

  tinuing like this might endanger more and more civilians...

  Aydan swallowed the tter part of his sentence silently. He had always disagreed with Archbishop Anluke's decision to set the battlefield within Harbor Town. This only put the defeownsfolk in danger.

  "Now is not the time to act, Aydan!" Anluke's weathered face took on a hint of severity as he gazed at the priest before him, speaking again. "Momentary mercy will only lead to more terrible disasters."

  "The hellfire that burns outside Urtown has yet to be extinguished. If we 't capture the wizard named Karl this time, the terrifying ses may repy in every er of the Nordaniaories."

  "Merciful Lord will five our mistakes..."

  Anluke looked back at the fmes over Harbor Town, ting with a raspy voice.

  "May their souls return to the sacred nd, receiviernal proteay their spirits not fall into the abyss of the devil..."

  The priests in the church also showed a passionate expression and soon joined in singing a melodious hymn, wishing that the townspeople who died in this flict, suffering boundless hardships in life, would find new life in the Lord's sacred ground...

  Weebkun