Chapter 75: Bathing in Flame (Part 7)
“What did you say?”
Outside the town, the scouting knights bypassed the western entrance. After several tentative advances around the perimeter of the earthen walls to the southwest, they found no trace of any heretics. With the eerie silence of the town weighing on him, the Captain of Knights ordered a white bird to be sent into the town. Moments later, the bird flew to the center of the town, and as the scouting knight who shared its vision reported what he had discovered, the Captain’s eyes widened in both confusion and disbelief.
“A bl**d-red sphere? A woman slaughtered the entire town!?”
He glanced at the subordinate knight, glowing with golden light, who nodded in confirmation. Unable to contain himself, he muttered, “So we went through all this trouble to get here, didn’t even have time to do anything, and found everyone dead? And it was some inexplicable woman who did it? What kind of ridiculous shenanigans is this…”
His tone hinted at some dissatisfaction, and he quickly realized it wasn’t quite appropriate. His eyes flickered as he fell into deep thought.
Suddenly, he recalled that not long ago, two Pope Knights had mentioned something to Bishop Aresta—in the lead-up to the arrival of the First Knights Order, they had chased down an immensely powerful female heretic and killed her near the Sand Valley…
Could it be that the female heretic was actually not dead and had returned to the town?
No.
Impossible…
If the Pope Knight said she was dead, then she had to be dead. Besides, with that Sword Saint around, what kind of heretic could fake her d*ath in his presence and dare to return to the town to k*ll everyone…? Lawrence didn’t believe such an enemy could exist, but he still remembered the seriousness with which the higher-ups spoke of this matter.
That was a rather terrifying heretic…
Though she was presumed dead, it didn’t rule out the possibility of other foes of that caliber lurking about—even if she was just a woman.
“Captain, what should we do now?”
Everyone waited a moment for their Captain to speak. An adjacent knight riding a horned horse instinctively asked, “Should we keep pressing forward or turn back and report to the Pope first… should we even enter the town?”
“…Of course we’re going in.”
The woman in the town might just be waiting for us…
Oh, this is amusing.
Lawrence’s face darkened, and a chilling smile crept onto his lips. He turned to look back and saw that the Knights Order was still quite a distance away, so he spurred his beast forward, tightening his grip on the reins as the beast let out a loud roar. He started galloping toward the town, shouting, “Aresta, unleash the Light of MaFa! Everyone, follow me!”
“Yes!”
The scouting knights responded to the order and urged their beasts to follow closely behind their Captain. The twenty-plus knights surged forward, stirring up dust on the parched earth as they charged straight toward the fiery Meiser Town.
“Ianlot, lock onto that woman’s position! And you two members of the Faith Organization, provide flanking cover—stay sharp; keep your eyes peeled! Even if she’s just a woman, she could be a bl**d sacrifice stage heretic, got it?!”
“Let’s assess the situation when we meet her. We absolutely cannot let her escape before Aresta and the Sword Saint arrive… A bl**d-red sphere? What the hell is that, I have a bad feeling about this…”
But if we could capture her alive and achieve such a feat…
Then the path to advancement should go even smoother.
With that thought, the knight urged his horned horse to speed up, the iron hooves thundering like a rapid drumbeat. The horned horses jumped over the spiked barriers, and in the blink of an eye, they were on the dusty road of the town, racing towards the fiery scene ahead.
The First Knights Order had its own pride; they never intended to mask their sounds or positions. Tactically, they never acted stealthily—what if she was a bl**d sacrifice stage heretic? They weren’t new to battles; if they really couldn’t win, they could at least buy time for fifteen or twenty minutes until the Sword Saint arrived, and then she would undoubtedly meet her end.
Yet pride aside, the knights of the First Knights Order were seasoned warriors. Especially those from the Grace Scale, who had been through many battles, all knew the terror of heretics. No one was taking this lightly, and Captain Lawrence was even more cautious. The moment they entered the town, he held his breath, giving orders while remaining vigilant of the surroundings.
“Sin Barrier!”
“Ianlot, where is that woman!”
“She’s still at the center of the town, but it seems she has noticed our commotion…”
“Keep watching! Report her movements at all times—”
Buzz—
Above the moving squad, golden light poured down, enveloping the galloping knights one by one as thin, translucent arcs of light rapidly gathered around them. The two members of the Faith Organization who were lagging behind dropped their prayer hands and tightened their grips on the reins. The horned horses turned the corner and hit the main road of the town as the compact formation of knights spread out, slowing down to brace for whatever came next.
Whoosh—
Suddenly, an eerie shriek echoed from the front, and right after, the knight who had released the white bird let out a grunt, clutching his forehead as he nearly fell from his beast. He yelled to the Captain, “The white bird has fallen, the white bird has fallen! I’ve lost track of it!”
“Prepare for defense!” the Captain reacted immediately, waving his hand to command, “She’s about to launch an attack; everyone be ready! Faith Organization—”
Before he could finish, a second shriek sliced through the air from afar.
What the…
Bang!
A fierce wind howled, and no one could see what was flying toward them. Captain Lawrence’s mouth was still agape when the head of the knight running beside him exploded without a sound. The light barrier shattered, sending red and white matter splattering across Lawrence’s face and mouth.
The man instinctively ducked, momentarily dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events.
In his original beliefs, the heretics’ dangers lay in two aspects: first, their intensely high heat, making them difficult to approach, and second, their terrifying recovery ability, recovering from any injury short of being fatal within moments.
Based on his past experiences, he knew the powers of heretics accompanied loud disturbances like explosions and flames. The stronger the heretic, the louder the chaos they caused; an attack from someone in the bl**d sacrifice stage should be grand. But he never expected an attack would come so oddly, taking the life of a warrior in the blink of an eye.
“Gerald…”
The horned horse continued its run, and Captain Lawrence glanced back to see the knight named Gerald had fallen off his beast. Staring at the scene, he paused for a moment before coming back to reality, swallowing the bl**d splatter in his mouth with a wicked grin.
“Faith Organization—”
The man turned his head, glaring forward, and shouted, “Onastasi, prepare!”
Buzz—
Before he could issue the order, the elite clerics of the Faith Organization running behind reacted even faster. Splendid golden light burst from their bodies, and accompanied by the hum of divine miracles, a thin arch of light appeared before them, pushing forward as the squad charged ahead.
In the next moment, a third screech accompanied by a whirlwind approached.
“Block it, block it!”
Even though Captain Lawrence widened his eyes, he still couldn’t see what was coming. He barely began to shout when the shrieking wind tore past them from the right, sweeping back.
In his line of sight, the dust rose half a meter high; the Sin Barrier that had just formed was pierced by an arm-thick hole, and the last of the clerics from the Faith Organization was struck in the chest with a similar-sized bl**d hole, sent sprawling off his beast with a deafening thud.
Clatter, clatter, clatter…
As one cleric went down, Onastasi’s Sin Barrier shattered into countless sparkling fragments like dazzling golden glass, swirling in the air before being left behind by the knights, vanishing into thin air.
“d*mn it…”
Captain Lawrence gritted his teeth and yelled out, slightly agitated, “Circumvent! Split into two routes and flank from the sides! Keep your heads down, down!”
“Captain, I see her! She’s over there, behind the tallest earthen building!”
“That woman is heading east! She’s trying to escape—”
“Don’t let her get away!”
“Chase—!!”
Clomp, clomp! The iron hooves trampled fiercely in the town. Up ahead, a bl**d-soaked figure in a cloak leaped onto a building, sprinting towards the east side of the town, where the fire blazed high, the intense heat already palpable from here.
The woman darted quickly across the rooftops, and Captain Lawrence fixed his gaze on her silhouette. He signaled to a nearby subordinate knight and steered his beast into a narrow side alley, lowering his body on its back. He raced a short distance, hearing the continuous sounds of fighting, the explosion of encounters, the hum of miracles; it seemed another knight had fallen.
With a grim expression, Captain Lawrence circled around to the rear of the female heretic, getting closer and closer. As he vaulted over a crumbling earthen wall, he stood in his stirrups, drew his long sword with a loud clang, and leaped forward!
“Humph…”
The fierce man jumped four to five meters high, causing the horned horse beneath him to falter and tumble to the ground. Ignoring it, he scrambled up the wall of a house, perfectly intercepting the female heretic’s path.
Her face was concealed beneath her hood, but one dim eye revealed a cold and harsh expression, as if staring down at d*ath itself. As the two locked eyes, they exchanged no further words; the female heretic extended claw-like fingers enwrapped in crimson flames toward Lawrence’s face. He cleaved with his sword but dodged sideways; the sword struck her outstretched arm with a resounding clang, bouncing off!
Upon closer inspection, her arm bore bizarre, scale-like armor glowing with bl**d-like hues beneath the fluttering cloak.
d*mn! What a monster…
The impact rang painfully in the man’s ears. He stepped back, but the female heretic was ready to pursue. Suddenly, with the sound of rattling chains, two golden chains shot up from the ground, wrapping around her legs in the blink of an eye, preventing her next move.
“Captain—”
Someone shouted from nearby, and Lawrence reacted immediately. He steadied his stance, his right hand glimmering with purple light, gliding over the blade of his long sword. With a vibrating hum, dazzling purple light burst forth from the blade, his gaze fierce, muscles tense beneath his armor. He swung down a second strike, shouting, “Let’s see how you handle this!”
