Chapter 155

### Chapter 155: Bait

With the vibrations from the ground, Godfrey successfully sensed the zombie puppets that had been ambushing him. He immediately drove his Bone Blade into the building, swiftly cutting down the zombies. The zombies were massively beheaded and dismembered, and Godfrey harvested them all.

“Ha… Did you find my zombies by some means? According to that old man, this should be the so-called Listening Earth Sigil,” he murmured with a smirk.

Somewhere in the school, in a spacious and bright room, Dorothy chuckled softly while sensing frontline information. Beside her stood Vania, anxiously gripping a long sword.

“W-what’s the situation outside, Miss Dorothy?” Vania asked nervously.

Vania, who was supposed to return to Tivyán in a few days, suddenly received an invitation from Dorothy to participate in another operation. Remembering the dangerous situations at Field Mansion, she wanted to refuse, but when Dorothy mentioned it was related to Akasha’s will, Vania found herself unable to turn it down.

Although Vania was unclear why the deity’s gaze would fall on the inconspicuous Igewent, and what Akasha’s will truly meant, divine will was divine will. For someone with Vania’s experience as a senior clergy member, divine will was inscrutable and cannot be defied. Therefore, she had little hesitation in agreeing after Dorothy brought up Akasha’s will.

She certainly could not know that Akasha’s will was equivalent to Dorothy’s own will.

“The situation is okay; those guys still have some tricks up their sleeves. After all, they’re Black Tier; they’re not so easy to deal with…”

‘Black Tier… How did you provoke enemies of the Black Tier again, Miss Dorothy? Aren’t you still an apprentice yourself?’ Vania thought to herself, while Dorothy continued to control the distant battlefield.

Back in the school’s open area, after cutting down all the zombie puppets, Godfrey collected all the bloodied Bone Blades around him. Just as he stood up with a smile, ready to change locations to destroy the surrounding stone statues, several figures suddenly emerged from behind windows and pillars, shooting at them with firearms.

Some of these individuals were newly reappearing ambushers, while others were those elderly puppets whom Godfrey had previously disarmed or pierced through the chest, but now were standing lively again to resume their assault.

Gunfire erupted once more in the schoolyard, forcing both Godfrey and Oswan to rely passively on their Bone Shields for defense.

Dorothy’s zombie puppets were like zombies; as long as their spinal cord wasn’t severely damaged, they could continue to move. Godfrey’s recent attack only took out two of her puppets; four others could still act. In addition, Dorothy summoned more reserve zombie puppets hidden within the campus. Her control over the puppets surged back to five, and they continued to assault Godfrey and Oswan, who thought they had managed to suppress the situation.

Dorothy had stored around twenty zombie puppets throughout the school. These zombies formed her “human resource” reserves, ready to fill in the frontline losses quickly. The number of these reserves was enough for Dorothy to consume a long stretch of time.

“Those guys are back! They aren’t normal people; they’re puppets! They’re the Flesh Puppets of the ‘Cup’!”

As they once again fell into passive defense, Godfrey exclaimed angrily beneath the protection of his Bone Shield. This situation reminded him of days ago on Knight Road when he had been toyed with by an Extraordinary Being using “Cup” puppets.

This can’t be the same person, right?

Godfrey thought inwardly. However, the reality left him no room to ponder; he turned to his partner Oswan, who was defending himself vigorously.

“Do you have any more Listening Earth Sigils? I need to clean these guys up!”

Hearing Godfrey’s words, Oswan turned his head and replied, slightly irritated, “There are two sigils left. This thing isn’t easy to handle; we have no idea how many puppets that guy has. If we run out of Listening Earth Sigils and still haven’t cleaned up these puppets, it’ll be terrible.”

“So, don’t worry about these Flesh Puppets! Find the guy’s main body! Once we deal with the main body, everything else will be easy!”

Oswan shouted at Godfrey, who felt there was some sense to it. The scarcity of Listening Earth Sigils and the unknown number of enemy puppets made it wiser to seek out the opponent’s main body.

Thinking of this, Godfrey withdrew all his Bone Blades, then released the ghosts that had been attached to them, letting the ghosts autonomously scatter and search the surroundings at high speed, passing through obstacles. Meanwhile, Oswan continued to focus on defending his position, occasionally getting hit by incoming bullets that knocked him down multiple times, causing more and more injuries. If they couldn’t resolve these zombie puppets, they would be unable to move freely within the campus.

After a while, the ghosts returned, delivering their reconnaissance findings to Godfrey, who heard crucial intel.

“There! In that church over there! There are two women!”

Godfrey pointed towards a towering steeple church at the far end of the open area, away from the school’s main body, shouting that it was likely where the puppets’ controller was hiding.

“Good! Let’s go!”

While saying this, he began moving his Bone Shield to follow him, and Godfrey and Oswan quickly advanced towards the church under its protection.

The medium-sized church was built on a lawn, far from the main body of the school. As they approached the church, they moved away from areas responsible for structure within the school; suddenly, the ambushing zombie puppets decreased, allowing them to move much more freely. Seizing the opportunity, they charged into the church, determined to k*ll the hidden controller within.

“They’re coming, Sister Vania; be ready…”

In the wide hall of the church, at the front of the altar, Dorothy leaned on her cane and said to the nun beside her. Vania nodded, gripping her sword tightly, then drew a sigil.

Dorothy positioned herself prominently in front of the altar, awaiting the enemy.

‘There’s a statue of Audric in the school; not only is it part of his spiritual reserves, it also forms a part of his workshop’s infrastructure. It must not be destroyed or moved prematurely; it is an essential point in this battle and the key for Audric to overcome great foes.

‘Therefore, protecting the statue is paramount. If I unleash killing moves in the school, Audric’s statue will surely be affected. So… the main battlefield that determines the outcome cannot be in the school… but here, in this church that is away from the school’s main body.

‘And to get them to willingly come here, the only way is for me, as the hidden manipulator, to act as bait and lure them in…’

Standing in front of the altar and leaning on her cane, Dorothy silently awaited. Shortly after, Godfrey and Oswan, wielding Bone Blades and Bone Shields, crashed through the church doors and saw Dorothy standing in front of them. Godfrey was taken aback.

“What? It’s just a little girl!?”

“Don’t worry about what she is; k*ll her!”

Oswan shouted directly at Godfrey, and Godfrey immediately acted, commanding the Bone Blades to fly straight towards Dorothy!

Just as a Bone Blade slashed in front of Dorothy, a blade of iron crossed in front of her, blocking and deflecting the Bone Blade with a clang.

Holding the long sword, Vania in her nun’s attire stood before the altar, guarding Dorothy from the incoming attack.

“Sister Vania, from now on… my safety is in your hands.”

Gazing at the nun protecting her, Dorothy said seriously and slowly, and the sword-wielding nun immediately replied, “Understood… Miss Dorothy… I will do my best to protect you.”