The Warden of The Witches-Chapter 174:

Chapter 174 - Night Raid

Late at night, on the outskirts of Silver City.

Rebecca stood on a low hill, overlooking the village below.

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She was dressed in the black uniform of a senior inquisitor, her entire head wrapped tightly by a hood and a beaked gas mask, with a rifle, dagger, and a one-handed sword... just as much combat gear as the inquisitor were equipped with. Around her stood four junior inquisitor, similarly dressed but in different uniform colors.

One junior inquisitor, carrying a long-barreled hunting rifle, crouched on the ground, staring at the village entrance, his mastery of black magic granting him temporary night vision and long-distance sight.

Behind him, the other companions checked their gear while keeping watch in other directions.

There were three other groups like this one around the village, led by intermediate inquisitor. This group of twenty was the squad Rebecca was leading today, they closely monitoring the entrances and exits of the village.

Their mission today was to raid the Bountiful Mother Goddess cult stronghold.

Not long ago, Aiden had relayed information to the Inquisition Bureau from the witch gathering, revealing the location of a Bountiful Mother Goddess cult stronghold on the outskirts of the city. Given the facts of the conflict between the witch gathering and the Bountiful Mother Goddess cult, the overall reliability of the information source seemed acceptable.

In the autonomous prefecture, the Bountiful Mother Goddess cult was only classified as a "strictly regulated" religious group, with the reason being that their religious activities were deemed corrupting and involved illegal operations.

This level of "cult" would typically be handled by other law enforcement agencies if it didn't involve black magic. However, according to recent intelligence obtained by the Inquisition Bureau, the conflict between the Bountiful Mother Goddess cult and the witch gathering has led the Inquisition Bureau to suspect a high possibility that the Bountiful Mother Goddess cult is an "heretical cult" with mastery of black magic, and they have taken full responsibility for the investigation.

What's more, just the day before yesterday, the unidentified body of a woman was found in the village. Before the local police station could investigate the body, there was a bizarre phenomenon of self-decomposition. The local police station immediately contacted the Inquisition Bureau.

The Inquisition Bureau preliminarily identified the identity of the female corpse as an artificially created person made by the alchemical spell of life, prohibited by the "Convention," and suspected that the Bountiful Mother Goddess cult hiding in the area had major involvement. Thus, they urgently organized this wave of raid operations.

Rebecca glanced at her pocket watch; it had been three minutes since the scheduled assault time for the other team, but there was still no movement at their stakeout location.

In addition to their team, there was another team of twenty led by another experienced senior inquisitor, tasked with a frontal assault on the Bountiful Mother Goddess cult stronghold located within the village.

The two teams led by senior inquisitor totaled forty elite professionals trained to deal with heretics. Although the lineup was less impressive compared to the massive force mobilized five years ago to dismantle the Blood Moon cult, which also involved the combined forces of other city police, it's worth noting that back then, the Blood Moon cult was unequivocally designated for eradication and possessed considerable armed strength as a cult.

Overall, this lineup can be considered quite luxurious. Even when dealing with Priscilla, an S-rank wanted criminal, they only deployed fifteen people.

They made some preparations for this raid as well. Investigators from the Inquisition Bureau visited the village, identifying recently purchased or rented houses, and infiltrated the cult's stronghold through "believers" within the village.

After preliminary investigations, they concluded that the cult had temporarily dug underground tunnels from the stronghold to other houses in the village as escape routes.

Therefore, the assault team adopted a two-team approach: Senior inquisitor Victor led a direct suppression and assault on the stronghold during the cult's routine preaching activities, while Rebecca's team kept watch on the houses and village entrances where the tunnels might lead, ready to ambush the cult's members attempting to escape through the tunnels.

Several minutes had passed without any activity, which could mean that Victor's team had already suppressed the scene and captured all cult members at the stronghold, or it could indicate that they encountered some resistance during the assault.

If it's the former, Rebecca has nothing to worry about, but she doesn't feel it's that simple.

By disclosing the cult's information to the Inquisition Bureau through Aiden, the Witch Gathering clearly intended to use them as a tool. However, from the perspective of the Inquisition Bureau, even if they knew it was a ploy by the Witch Gathering, they still had to take action against illegal cults operating near Silver City.

The witch that contacted Aiden, Qimora, although not on the wanted list and with no records within the Inquisition Bureau, was assessed by Aiden to be no less powerful than Dailey and Priscilla, both of whom are S-rank wanted criminals.

If the combat capabilities of this cult's stronghold are weak, Qimora, who operates in Silver City, could easily destroy it on her own.

Due to these considerations, Rebecca applied for as much available firepower as possible, even enlisting another senior inquisitor to participate.

After silently waiting in the night wind for nearly two minutes, Rebecca finally saw a signal flare rise not far away—a sign that the other team stationed to the east had apparently encountered cult members escaping from another house connected through the tunnel.

"Two o'clock direction, location C, move in for the encirclement! Quick!" Rebecca ordered.

The team immediately sprang into action, while other teams approached the signaling location from different directions. They effectively sealed off most avenues of escape from that location, and with Victor's team pursuing through the tunnel from the stronghold, the cult members had little chance of escape unless they possessed significant armed forces to break through.

As they approached the target house along the village road, they suddenly heard gunfire.

Rebecca immediately went on high alert—any gunfire, whether from her team or the cult, was enough to warrant caution given the cult's potential armed capabilities.

Rebecca tightened her grip on her gun. The operational directive this time was to capture alive if possible, but any resistance would be met with swift retaliation. The enemies faced by the Inquisition Bureau were often highly dangerous individuals, leaving no room for hesitation.

Just as she was thinking this, Rebecca, enhanced by her night vision granted by black magic, saw two figures appear at the alley ahead. The one Leading the way was a nun clad in a gray robe, followed by an elderly man dressed as a priest.

Rebecca judged that they couldn't see this side yet. Just as she was about to raise her gun to shout a warning, she saw the nun, without hesitation, raise a flintlock pistol in their direction.

In her surprise, Rebecca immediately pulled the trigger.