14 - Caged Bird

"Have you all forgotten your own identities?" Will shouted loudly.

"Before we became wizards, we were all noble children of the Sekas Empire."

Buck and the others exchanged glances, falling into silence.

They had all experienced what Will had gone through, that feeling of falling from heaven to hell was indeed unpleasant.

Amid the silence, Lynn suddenly spoke, "You should understand, Will, the Church will never change its treatment of us based on our identities..."

As a monotheistic faith, the Church's most fundamental belief was in the Creationist doctrine. The legendary deity, Aila, had created everything in the world and brought the elixir of life, giving life to the once barren and desolate land. Therefore, everyone was expected to obey the Church's rule.

Wizards, who sought to decipher the laws of the world and gain power from them, naturally became the Church's arch-enemies. After all, this was undermining the very foundation of the Church's religious authority.

"This time is different." Will exclaimed excitedly, looking at everyone present, appearing almost insane. "Jenny, Karl, Buck, the Church's primary target is not us. As long as we sincerely repent, Archbishop Anluke and Duke Nordland will surely forgive our sins."

"You're crazy, Will." Jenny sighed. "From the moment we chose to become wizards, there was no turning back."

Once they chose to become wizards, magic would forever flow within them, a symbol of evil and shame in the Sekas Empire.

If Count Isk knew that his second son had become a wizard, his first reaction would undoubtedly be to disown him and cast Will out of the family.

In other words, they could never return to their previous lives.

"I'm not crazy, I know exactly what I'm doing." Will said coldly, turning to Dove, who had remained silent, and from the hidden pocket of his robe, he took out several magic stones. Suddenly, without warning, he scattered them towards Jenny and the others.

"Jenny, be careful." Dove screamed, her spiritual vision allowing her to see the hidden runes inscribed on each magic stone.

As Dove's voice rang out, several magic stones exploded in mid-air, and sharp shards rained down like locusts.

The silver-haired witch remained unchanged in expression. She raised her right hand, her fingers tapping like playing a harp, and the runes on her gloves lit up in succession.

A faint flame appeared at her fingertips, and then it rapidly expanded, engulfing everything in front of her in just one second.

This was a higher-level magic, "Flame's Touch".

The moment Will threw the magic stones, he had already planned his escape route. He rolled desperately to avoid the searing flames and was about to jump out of the wide-open window.

But Lynn's actions were quicker than his. A diamond-shaped ice blade shot out, piercing Will's ankle directly, causing his airborne body to lose balance and fall to the ground.

A piercing cold spread up his ankle, and Will immediately felt his right leg go numb. He leaned against the wall, panic-stricken, about to say something, but a slender "Magic Missile" flew straight into his eye sockets and exploded.

Crimson blood mixed with brain matter splattered, dyeing the wooden floor crimson. Lynn immediately turned to look in the opposite direction, and Jenny, incredulous, questioned Dove,

"Why did you kill him, Dove?"

When she used "Flame's Touch," she intentionally reduced its power to avoid killing Will and extract some information through interrogation.

"It's too late; I can only kill him." Dove cried out, her hands clutching her head in fear. "Outside... there are at least a hundred guards, we're surrounded."

Hearing this, Jenny rushed to the window and used a Fireball spell to illuminate the dim night.

In the explosion of flames, Lynn saw from a distance a group of armored guards, bearing crossbows, silently crossing the dense forest, heading towards them.

The leader, holding a staff and clad in a white and gilded robe, gazed at Lynn from a distance, illuminated by the firelight.

"It's Archbishop Anluke of the Nordland domain. We're done for." Barton immediately recognized him and fell into despair.

He hadn't expected that the Archbishop of the Nordland domain would personally lead the pursuit to capture a few wizard apprentices.

Lynn glanced at the dim alchemical array on the ground; they had stopped the spell from being cast earlier, which meant.

The eyes of everyone on the scene involuntarily turned to Dove.

"It wasn't me... it wasn't me." the fourteen-year-old girl frantically shook her head, her face filled with a mixture of fear and uncertainty.

The chaotic situation and the imminent Church pursuers made Jenny, who was already on edge, feel a wave of dizziness. She clenched her teeth and forced herself to calm down, speaking in a low voice.

"Listen, things aren't as bad as they seem. There's a wide drainage canal in the basement of this estate that leads directly to the river outside. We can escape from there."

As she spoke, Jenny turned her head and used a pleading look to signal Lynn to keep an eye on Dove, as she didn't know who else she could trust.

***

One minute earlier, in the dense forest outside the town of Ur, over a hundred neatly uniformed guards were slowly advancing under the cover of the trees.

Priest Aaron, accompanying the troops, looked at the castle looming in the distance and asked in confusion, "Archbishop Anluke, according to the plan we previously set, shouldn't we have waited for these wizard apprentices to arrive in the Harbor Town before taking action?"

For this "Caged Bird" operation, they had mobilized a large number of people to monitor the entire town of Ur. They intended to use these apprentice wizards to trace the heretics who had abandoned the faith of the Aila and lead them all to hell.

Now, they were taking the initiative, which undoubtedly disrupted all the efforts they had made earlier.

"Aaron, a skilled hunter not only needs to learn how to set clever traps but also to know when to close the net," Archbishop Anluke responded in a deep voice. "A sturdy cage may hold clumsy ostriches, but if a griffon happens to be trapped inside, it can break free and tear the hunter to pieces."

"Remember, excessive greed will only make you lose everything in your hands."

The essence of the "Caged Bird" operation was their absolute control. No matter how these apprentice wizards struggled, they couldn't escape the trap they had set.

However, Blaine's death had made Archbishop Anluke feel a hint of unease. The presence of a formal wizard among Kora's apprentices completely disrupted his plans. Having dealt with the followers of these heretics many times, Archbishop Anluke was well aware of how formidable formal wizards could be. Their magic was diverse, and a slight oversight could lead to instant death. In the battle in the Nordland domain, capturing a formal wizard was no easy task, especially considering Kora sacrificed himself to protect one of his apprentices and stayed behind.