Chapter 8 – Attack on Misley (Second Part)
TL: Yuki
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At Mesley Castle, Christie, Sarah and Glen are still against the horde by building a barricade near the entrance of a balcony. With Glen’s swordsmanship coupled by the two top priestess, the skeletons were made into useless mobs, but useless they may be they are still overwhelming in numbers. The three were slowly but surely being pushed into a corner.
「Christy-sama, I’m almost running low on Mana」Sarah gasps as she shouts.
「Endure it, we need to hold on until rescue arrives!」
Christy insisted despite knowing how severe their current situation is. Hoping for a rescue to arrive would be impossible with the sheer number of skeletons attacking them. Her own Magical Power about to be empty, she was also on the brink of giving up.
「As expected of the Princess Shrine Maiden! It seems like our rescue have arrived 」
Shortly after Glen shouted, three priestess jumps into the barricade from the balcony.
「We have come to aid you, Princess Shrine Maiden!」
The one who answered was Ruri, the one have given Derrick a holysword earlier in the battle.
「Thank-you Ruri-san. To Rin-san and Sith-san too」
「Please step back for now, Miko-Hime-sama and Sarah and recover your magic power. We’ll hold down the assault for the time being. 」
「When you can finally recover some magic power, we will make our way outside of the castle」
「Rin, Sith, let’s deploy a barrier at the entrance!」
「Understood, Ruri!」
「We’re on it, Ruri-san」
The trio of priestesses immediately created a triangle seal of scared magic which completely blocked off the entrance from their side. Christie and Sarah sat down and calmed their breath at the same time Glen also took a break still breathing roughly after the long fight.
「The really saved us. To be honest, it would have been really dangerous if you three didn’t arrive. 」
「The Hero of The Adventurer’s Guild is also bad against undead opponents it seems 」
Ruri couldn’t help but laugh as she was deploying the barrier.
「If I was using a holy weapon, I won’t be pinned down by skeletons of that degree.
――――Anyway, what’s happening inside the citadel?」
「You could say that it’s terrible, other than the temple everything was on the brink of destruction. Knights and adventurers are doing their best to help the survivors escape outside of the castle. 」
「Ah, because there were a lot of anti-undead priestesses in the temple like you three. 」
「Yes, and there’s a good amount of stock holy swords in the temple. We were handing them out just a while ago. 」
「Can you give me one……wait you don’t have any with you!」
「Sorry master Glen. The one we were carrying were already given to someone else. 」
Sith answers Glen who was complaining.
「We can enchant your weapon with divine power. It won’t be as good as a holy weapon but it should be good enough if it’s only against skeletons. 」
Holy Weapons are Magic Weapons infused with divine power and is the only weapon considered to be very effective against undead, to which normal weapon can’t usually destroy. However, Divine power could also be enchanted on normal weapons to turn them into temporary holy weapons.
「Ruri-san, how long can the field hold?」
「If we just deployed it as is, then it would probably last for a day. But since there are few people in the citadel for the skeletons to concentrate on, it would only be a matter of time before they start flooding this place. We really to recover fast and leave before that happen. 」
「Is it going to take a lot of time to recover? 」
「At any rate, it couldn’t be helped since Sarah pretty much emptied her Mana 」
Christie replies as she looked at Sarah. However, Sarah was staring at the square without noticing her voice.
「Sa……Sarah? What’s wrong」
「Christie-sama, that! Look at the square!!」
When Christie hurriedly looked in response to Sarah’s call, there was an incredible sight unfolding there. The skeletons were burning up and falling one after another.
While they were watching the scene, a female knight jumps into the square and finished off the remaining skeletons. The sight of the skeletons being shattered into dust with her every swing was truly an overwhelming sight to behold.
As she was sweeping the skeletons on the square, two more figures entered the stage. One was a woman in white robe, probably a priestess. The other one was a boy dressed in magician’s outfit. Was he the one who shot the fireball earlier? Christie was looking at the three while contemplating about the previous events.
「Mari, I’m, done handling all the skeletons in the square!」
Sophie shouted to Mari a she finished off the last remaining skeleton.
「It will be alright. Even if they try to attack, I’ll never let any of them get close to Mari! 」
「Sophie! Haril-kun! I will now be casting 『Breath of the Saint』. I will be defenseless for a few minutes so be sure to protect me for the time being!!」
Standing at the center of the square, Mari gracefully spread her arms towards the sky. Then, particles of light overflow from her body and float in the air for several tens of centimeters.
A magic circle appears at her feet, and its area is expanded steadily. The field never stopped expanding and eventually extended to the outside of the citadel.
And the next moment, a pillar of glittering light rose from the magic circle!
「What’s happening!?」
Glen who was surprised by the light called out to Ruri!
「Is this part of your group’s magic?」
「That, that is not sir! For such a huge sacred magic barrier, is it Holy Field……」
「Ruri Ane-san! Is this the Holy Field of the Holy Magic Barrier? It’s extending even outside of the citadel」
「Yeah, there’s no doubt about it! Look at those skeletons」
When everyone on the balcony looked at remaining Skeletons, they all stopped moving and eventually became pillars of sand and collapsed on the spot.
「A……amazing! To destroy this ridiculous number of skeletons in one shot」
While Rin looking an amazed expression, the rising pillar of light changed. The pillar light was converted into fine particles and began to scatter all over the area. It’s a mysterious photon that gently wraps around when it finds a human corpse while jumping irregularly. And it was slowly sucked into it.
Both Christie and Sarah were familiar with this light.
「Christie-sama!」
「Yes, I know, this is the light of resurrection. It definitely resembles the ones we could see when we were still doing it in practice. 」
It was then that Christie noticed.
「That means, His Excellency!」
When she shouted so, she immediately started running along with Sarah.
When they reached the office, they crouch down beside the Chancellor and called out to him.
「Your Excellency, Marquis Vines!」
Hearing the calls, the Chancellor raised his upper body while groaning.
「I, I was……the pain? I thought a Skeleton stabbed in my chest and I died」
The Chancellor looks around and finally noticed Christie.
「I see, did the princess shrine maiden take care of it」
「No, it wasn’t me, it’s the Saint! The saint arrived and saved Misley!!」
◇◇◇
This is the Square in front of the balcony.
Mari, Sophie and Haril looked at each other and took a break.
「Mari-sama, that was amazing!」
Haril couldn’t help but stare at Mari in admiration, while the level 99 saint smugly answers with a 「Ehem! 」.
「Mari――――――――!!」
Following that was Sophie who glomped at Mari and hugging her intensely!
「Wai, wait, Sophie! It’s embarrassing you know, and Haril-kun is watching」
Mari says as she stared at Haril, who couldn’t help but look away. Ah, what a good boy he is, Mari thought……
「Hey, I said stop! It’s really embarrassing, you know」
「Don’t worry, you will still be the best, even if anybody else sees you!!」
After the hug, Sophie stares into Marti’s eyes. The distance between their faces slowly closed and her reflection could be seen on Sophie’s blue eyes.
(Eh……Hey, are we going to end up in a kissing scene just like that!?)
Mari readied herself, but that moment didn’t really come, Instead, a fading voice saying 「Sorry」 was whispered on her ears.
「I didn’t think about Mari’s feelings after all……I won’t call you Saint-sama anymore. Will you forgive me? 」
「It’s fine, I’m sorry too. When I saw the knight captain, I thought that you didn’t really have that knightly attitude. But I didn’t really understand what that meant」
「Mou, can you forget about that already」
「No I won’t! After all, this is also just my own selfishness. Sophie is my only friend in this world after all. That’s why……I’m really scared of you leaving me alone! I’m really sorry for making you feel bad about it. 」
This time Mari hugged Sophie and Sophie hugged her back while gently petting my head.
……, ……
……Nn?
Haril was the first one to notice the discomfort.
Although it was small, the rhythmic grumbling sound could be heard.
「I wonder what that is?」
Sophie listens closely as she turned towards the direction of the sound.
Grumbling……it kind of resembles the noise of footsteps.
「It’s coming from the East Gate, let’s go!」
Haril starts running, followed by Mari and Sophia.
They arrived at the east gate in no time. And when they observed from the top of the city walls, a monster could be seen heading straight for the Missley Citadel.
It’s a huge monster that’s tens of meters tall, and if that attacks Misley’s walls, it could easily do so without any difficulty and destroy the city. There was a downtown on the outer circumference of the Misley Citadel, and we have to do something about it before it gets there.
「Haril-kun, this will be today’s last task 」
He nodded quietly in response.
「Sophie, can you Haril-kun some time to charge up enough mana?」
She didn’t really need to ask. It could already be seen on her face that she’s full of motivation to do so.
「Well then, start the assault!!」
On Mari’s signal, Sophie jumps off the wall and dashed straight towards the monster. While approaching the monster at tremendous speed, she pull out her sword and used her momentum to cut off it’s leg.
Buuuuoooooooohhhh――――――――!!
The monster staggered for a moment then violently roared and started attacking Sophie.
「It has been stopped! Haril-kun enter chanting mode now, I will provide you with magical power 」
「But Mari-sama. The monster is still too far away! At that distance, the spell won’t be powerful enough. We should get closer」
「It’s fine. Just use my Magic Power and it would be more than enough to cast it from this distance!」
Haril couldn’t help but follow and started concentrating.
「Good, good, I could see Haril-kun’s magic power is getting increasing. You really have a high quality magic power.」
Mari stands behind Haril, puts her hand on his shoulder and pours magic power towards him. After a while, their appearance began to shine because of the overflowing surplus of magic power.
At that time, Christie, Sarah, and Glenn also arrived on the walls of the east gate. They watched Sophie battle with the monster then noticed the shining Mari and Haril.
Sophie dodged all the raging monster’s attacks on a paper thin distance. It was so close in fact that the residents of Misley watching from the Citadel couldn’t help but gasp at every moment.
While in the middle of such battle, communication came from Mari.
『Sophie, can you hear me? If you can hear me, then do your best to run away. Burst Magic will be launched in ten seconds. 』
『OK』 Sophie replied then cuts the monster diagonally before taking distance away from the monster by twisting her body and dashing back.
「……3, 2, 1, Haril-kun, Now!!」
All of the accumulated Magic Power was released at once by Haril’s spell!
A huge magic circle appeared above the monster……then in the next moment, a blinding flash of light rained down from it!!
10 seconds later, the sound of a really loud explosion reached Misley Citadel and then followed by a violent shockwave that almost uprooted the trees near the Citadel Walls.
Sophie was also hit by the shockwave and was buried in dust, but soon got up and spit out sand and dust that entered her mouth. And they look back at the location of the monster, there was almost nothing left but debris and it’s two foot.
The people of Misley who witnessed this all cheered!
It was a loud cheer that had never been heard before!!
「Finally it’s over」
As soon as she said so, Haril felt a heavy weight pressing against his shoulders. There he found Mari leaning against him facing the ground unconscious. If left as is, she would have fallen on the ground.
「Mari-sama……Mari-sama!」
Haril kept on calling out upon the fainted Mari. The people who were watching the scene also started to gather along with Christie, Sarah and Glen.
「Open the way. I am a priestess, please open the way!」
When Christie finally arrived at the location of the two, she immediately examined Mari then breath out in relief as she spoke to Haril.
「It’s okay Magician-kun. It seems like the Saint only ran out of Magic Power so it’s alright 」