The Guardian System: The strongest Summoner's quest to save his family-Chapter 441: Kingsgate’s Operation (1)

The building above the basement was a two-story structure that had been used as a storefront before the Church converted it, based on what he saw through his summons. The windows on the ground floor were boarded up from the inside, and the door had been reinforced with iron bars. It looked abandoned from the outside—exactly what the Church would have wanted.

Reidar climbed the stairs, stepping over the body of a Church member who had been killed on the landing, and emerged into a ground-floor room that had been gutted and turned into an office. Desks. Maps were pinned to the walls, and stacks of documents covered every surface.

Through the windows, Reidar could see the streets of Kingsgate.

It was the middle of the day at that point, which was problematic since many civilians were out hunting. Despite this, the streets weren't empty. He could see the people who were going about their business, stopping to stare at the undead soldiers marching past them.

A woman with a child pulled the kid behind a market stall and crouched down, whispering for silence. A group of men reached for weapons, while an elderly man stumbled backward into a doorway.

There was something common about all these people: they were utterly shocked, confused, and scared about the monsters Reidar's summons were streaming into the streets. The fear came from the monsters themselves, but the confusion came because the monsters were utterly ignoring them, at least most of them.

They were still fighting the church members, although finding them was not simple.

The undead marched past the survivors without a second look, heading toward the Church locations that Reidar had marked in the Overmind Consciousness's network.

Through the perk, Reidar saw what was going on. The Night-Stalker Assassins had already hit three safe houses, and the Church members inside were dead. The Juggernauts had reached the first warehouse and were breaking down the doors.

The Demon-Lords were advancing towards the second and third warehouses, maintaining a low altitude over the rooftops to prevent excessive panic among the civilian population. Reidar surmised that the ship had already set sail when a four-meter Inferno Tyrant materialized over the eastern market district.

<The Aegis Phalanx is going to notice this. Soon.>

However, at that point, Reidar didn't care that much. The Aegis Phalanx could ask questions later, but he still had to warn them to avoid a bloodbath. Though the only thing that mattered was stopping the Church before they distributed the food and securing the city.

But that wasn't the first thing to do. Not for Reidar.

He reached out through the Overmind Consciousness and connected to the closest group of summons—a squad of Night-Stalker Assassins and four Spectral Legion Arch-Mages.

<Find Martha and Marcus Miller. Human woman, approximately 5'6", with brown hair, and the boy with her. They should be in the civilian district under Aegis Phalanx protection. Do not harm them. Do not scare them. Approach them as carefully as you can.>

He paused, then added a second order.

<Send additional teams. Spread through the civilian areas. Search every building, every shelter, and every camp. I want them found now.>

The summons moved.

Reidar stood in the gutted building and watched his army spread through Kingsgate like a flood. The Church had spent months hiding in this city, building their network, stockpiling their weapons, and preparing to turn the civilian population into monsters. They had done it carefully and with no one noticing.

But Reidar was not going to be silent. He was not going to be careful, because he was done waiting. The church had been lasting for far too long in his opinion, and with the Allied Worlds situation, if he wanted to avoid the same destiny of the Ignis race falling onto humanity, he had to fully focus on finding a way to prevent humanity from mutating, and that was not going to happen if the church was around.

Reidar also had to set an example to get people to listen to him and the Aegis.

He disliked it, because that would mean he and everyone else would have to act subservient toward the Allied Worlds, but at this point there was no alternative, at least not until he found a way to see if the Ignis' magic circles really did what they promised.

This particular part had to be kept secret. After all, what would the Aegis think if they got word about the circles? What would they think about him or humanity? And if they worked, then what? Would it prove that humanity distrusted them?

So, Reidar had to tread carefully, but first, he needed to find his family.

Through his perks, he felt another warehouse fall. The Juggernauts tore the doors off their hinges, splintering wood and twisting metal as if they were paper.

The Church members guarding the place fought back. A few of them were in the level 300 range and managed to put up some resistance against the Skeletal Warriors. But it didn't matter.

The number of summons was too high, and the level gap too wide, and within two minutes, the warehouse was secured, and every Church member inside was dead.

Another warehouse fell thirty seconds later, followed by a third shortly after, though there were more scattered throughout the city.

Reidar kept watching. The Church was losing ground fast, and they were losing it in a way that left no room for recovery. His army was hitting every safe house, every warehouse, and every meeting point that the Priests had given him all at the same time, leaving the Church members inside with no chance of survival.

Through the Overmind Consciousness, he could see that a dozen locations were secured. Two dozen. Three. The Church's network was crumbling rapidly, with each safe house collapsing before its occupants could issue a warning to the next. Through his summons' eyes, Reidar saw crates of corrupted food, stacks of documents detailing distribution plans, and maps marking civilian gathering points throughout the city. All of it was being seized, cataloged, and secured.

Yet the progenitor and Jorik hadn't moved yet.