"I will take care of the Ice Princess. Be at ease, the rest of you merely need to fulfill your own missions."

The leader retracted the [Blood Pact Incantation]. Her indifferent tone revealed absolute confidence.

She must succeed.

If she fails, even she cannot escape the punishment from the Cardinals.

As for these elites, failure would mean death.

This operation has an unparalleled significance for the Resurgence Church.

If they can forcefully enslave a powerhouse using the [Blood Pact Incantation], the optimal choice would undoubtedly be to capture a tier 8 special class card maker, maximizing the single use benefits of this card.

While tier 8 combatants were already the strongest in the world, enslaving a tier 8 combatant was not as profitable as enslaving a tier 8 card maker, especially a tier 8 special class card maker.

Furthermore, the growth of a card makers' attributes may not be as high as that of a combatant and their combat power may not be strong.

Take the Ice Princess for example, even though she was tier 8 and possessed a powerful deck of cards, her only strong attribute was her Spirit. Her Intelligence was only normal and her Constitution was horribly weak.

Even if she used high-quality offensive spell cards, her damage output would be far less than that of tier 8 combat-oriented mages.

And for some reason, Ice Princess seemed to rarely, if ever, make summoning cards.

The only recorded instance was when she summoned a grotesque Ice Slime.

But Ice Princess seemed to refer to that slime as a wyvern.

It can be confirmed that Ice Princess specializes in ice-type spell cards.

In one-on-one combat, even a tier 7 combatant might be able to defeat her.

Although Ice Princess is not the weakest in terms of combat power among the twelve special class card makers presently certified by the Card Makers Association, capturing her offers the highest cost-effectiveness.

The other eleven are either too cautious, preferring to live in imperial palaces to ensure their safety or their combat power was too strong, surpassing even combatants of the same tier.

There are also card makers that the Resurgence Church finds undesirable and there are mysterious entities with unknown identities.

All in all, the Resurgence Church considered Ice Princess the best choice.

They have also successfully identified her ancient true name, race, and gender.

Once they successfully capture Ice Princess, it will bring revolutionary changes to the combat power of the Resurgence Church!

Only if they failed to capture Ice Princess would they consider capturing Dekan, the quasi special class card maker.

Although Dekan's card making style was more in line with the Resurgence Church, and in some respects, it has even surpassed the ideology of the Resurgence Church, the gap between tier 3 and tier 8 was still too large.

It was just like the significant price difference between tier 3 epic cards and tier 8 epic cards.

Moreover, in Dekan's limited lifespan, whether he can grow to the tier 8 was still unknown.

As a half-elf, Ice Princess was someone with a long lifespan.

It was something other human special class card makers cannot compare with.

"Although capturing Dekan can still be our backup plan, do not have any illusions about using him as a lifesaver." The leader stood up with a warning tone, scanning everyone present once again.

If anyone were to think that they could capture Dekan as a replacement should they fail in their mission to capture Ice Princess, the success rate of the mission will be greatly reduced.

Only by burning bridges can things be done well.

"Understood!"

Everyone respectfully watched her leave.

"Only when our plan reaches the point of complete failure can we consider capturing Dekan at all costs."

With these words, the leader walked towards the temples dusky exit.

In the flickering shadowy light, she completely blended into the darkness.

...

Tristin City.

The Magic Airship Transportation Center on the citys outskirts.

This spacious magical field looks impeccably clean.

There are signs of long-term maintenance.

At the center of the magic array was a giant landing platform. It shimmered with a faint light, indicating that a magic airship was about to land here.

The troops led by Viscount Lampard, the citys lord, were already waiting here.

The young lord was dressed in a white knight's uniform, with a silver waist badge hanging from his waist indicating his identity and authority over this area.

His face bore a serious expression, with a furrowed brow, and his eyes stared at the sky.

A rumbling sound came from the direction outside the city and in the sky, shrouded in clouds and mist, there seemed to be a flying beast approaching with wind and thunder.

Although he didn't yet know the specific situation inside the airship, the warning signals from the magic airship undoubtedly meant that something was wrong.

While the operating cost of long-distance communication magic was high, there were terminals built on communication magic between city-states.

And there were also simple versions of mobile terminals on the magic airships.

The hijackers immediately destroyed the mobile terminals the moment they attacked.

It seemed like they wanted to prevent any information from leaking out.

Incidents with magic airships were rare.

Even if there were hijackers, they wouldn't go through all the crazy efforts in trying to figure out how to hijack a magic airship.

Only terrorist organizations like the Resurgence Church could possibly hijack an airship.

Truth was, even if a magic airship were hijacked en route, the blame couldnt be placed on Tristin Citys lord, Viscount Lampard.

But the lord dared not be negligent.

If the magic airship could land here smoothly, and he missed the opportunity for rescue due to his negligence, then it would be his responsibility.

Most importantly, a princess and a soon-to-be thirteenth special class card maker in the world and the second in the Norton Kingdom were aboard the airship.

Due to the presence of these two, the severity of the hijacking incident multiplied.

With a loud noise, the magic airship began to decelerate when it was several kilometers away from the landing platform.

However, the magic airship hovered in the air for a few laps.

It seemed like it didn't know how to land.

Then, as if the pilot quickly learned how to land on the spot, it began to descend smoothly, creating bursts of airflow.

Seeing the magic airship gradually landing in the normal trajectory, the lord's half-suspended heart relaxed a bit. At least the magic airship had returned intact.

Even if it might still be under the control of the hijackers, there was still room for maneuver.

No matter how one thinks about it, it would be impossible for someone to learn how to operate a magic airship on the fly.

A more reasonable explanation would be that even though the airship was hijacked, the pilot still tried to delay some time to prepare for the ground forces.

"All troops, be on guard!"

"Yes!"

However, after the airship landed on the platform, there was no movement for several minutes.

The knight forces couldn't help but grip their weapons, becoming tense.

Their state of alertness resembled a group of beasts ready to pounce.

The upcoming situation probably wouldn't be easy.

In the worst-case scenario, it would be a fierce battle of wits and courage against ruthless hijackers.

After another few minutes, there was finally movement on the side of the magic airship.

The gangway lowered.

Clear footsteps sounded and a figure walked out of the cabin at a steady pace.

He twisted his neck while yawning and wore a slightly tired expression as he walked down the magic airship.

Noticing the knights, who were on high alert as if facing a major enemy, he seemed slightly surprised.

Then

A friendly smile appeared on his face as he inspected the group of knights, seemingly very satisfied with their reception.

He suddenly started waving at the knights like a royal on a parade.

The lord and the knight squad were stunned; what on earth was going on...

Are we welcoming you?