‘How exhausting.’

Gaius thought as he wielded his great sword to cut down the cultists. As a beastman with top-class talent, his stamina is also way above the norm, therefore, physically he still has a lot of stamina to spare, yet mentally, he is exhausted. Gaius’s eyes flickered as he scanned every cultist that came his way.

‘The energy they exude is similar to the old hag, though I guess hers are a lot more refined.’

Gaius studied every Cultist that came his way, the priests trying to wreak havoc by attacking the citizens, the low-ranked cultists who used swords, and more. He studied all of them to gain data for revenge against the Shaman. The reason he decided to stay is precisely for that reason. He thought that there would be more cultists here than if he followed Wilhelm.

With that said, he didn't intend to abandon his duties as a knight, to prioritize protection rather than killing. That is the way he could repay Wilhelm, who saved his sister’s life, which is more important than his own.

Gaius could see a crowd of cultists and they seemed to be in a perfect position for him to cut them down. Gaius gripped his greatsword and went into a charging motion. Mana bellowed out from his figure as he charged at them.

Northern Sword Style.

Gaius utilized the Sword Style created by Beastmans as he wreaked havoc through the battlefield. Each of his swings created a gust of wind due to its sheer force, as it cleanly sliced each and every cultists on the way. The corpses scattered, as blood smeared onto his fur dyeing it red until it got to the point where he looked more like a monster instead of a beastman.

The Northern Sword Style is a swordmanship that combines the instincts of the beastmans that are many times better than humans, as well as the refined swordmanship developed throughout the years by the beastman. As a result, it creates the perfectly balanced synergy between skill and instincts and it shows in Gaius’s swordsmanship.

A cultist’s sword met his back yet his blade couldn’t penetrate through the fur that acts like armor. Gaius spun his body and kicked the Cultist in the ribcage, the bones cracked as the cultist flew away, Gaius then twisted his body to dodge a spell that came flying at him, before charging towards the priest responsible for the spell. However, Gaius’s feet suddenly became constricted and he saw black-purple-like chains wrapping around his body.

It seemed like the priest had set this spell up beforehand and let Gaius charge towards him. The priest smirked as if he had won, however, his smirk soon became a frown as he saw Gaius twisting his body as if he was about to throw his sword.

And the priest’s guess was right as Gaius threw his greatsword surging with mana toward the priest. The priest flinched and tried to defend himself using a barrier however the sword crashed and destroyed through the barrier like glass before demolishing the priest’s body.

The chains disappeared due to the owner’s death and Gaius retrieved his sword and took a deep breath, calming his pounding lungs as he observed the other knights fighting. Most of their swordsmanship was familiar, except for a few who used their own family’s swordsmanship, some used other weapons as well.

One of the middle-aged knights used the shield to block the attacks towards his vitals and dodged the other attacks he couldn’t block, the mana surrounding his sword burst out as Aura formed for a moment as he swung it, killing 5 cultists with one swing. He then dispersed the Aura again before continuing to fight.

It was a smooth movement that deserved admiration. Each of the knights here is the highest level of knights, and most of them can use Aura, though they aren’t using it continually to save mana.

Just then, a Cultist attacked Gaius, who is too focused on observing. Gaius flinched and was about to raise his sword, but Abraham’s sword sliced through the cultists first.

“Don’t daydream in the middle of the battlefield, Gaius.”

“S-sorry.”

Gaius went back to fighting, he wasn’t exhausted yet but the amount of the Cultist is insane. They really have nothing else except for an overwhelming amount of numbers, but that is troublesome enough.

Even now he could see another crowd from behind. None of them bothered to threaten the citizens since most had been evacuated by them before. Gaius breathed out roughly.

‘When would this shit end!?’ Gaius gripped his sword, he prepared for battle before suddenly, a burst of golden light appeared as people clad in white robes surrounded by golden energy pounced towards the cultists.

The energy was not Aura, nor was it mana, but it was familiar to Gaius. Not to mention, the symbol with golden lines shaping a woman surrounded by the Sun etched onto their white robes. It was no mistake.

‘Holy Energy! And the only one that dares to use the Sun as its symbol is the Holy Kingdom that serves the Goddess. Which means those guys are Inquisitors.’

Gaius watched the group of inquisitors killing the Cultists with great skill, they formed a triangle as they moved with great coordination, the Inquisitors in the back cast spells to strengthen or attack the Cultists while the ones in front killed the cultists with their weapons. Their movements were so skilled, and they seemed so used to it that Gaius admired them.

‘As expected from the group that hunts Cultists for a living.’

However, amongst the group, one figure stood out, Gaius could faintly make out the figure of a woman, and she wielded a pure white spear. Only she was not a part of the formation as she went on her own. Her feet glided through the battlefield as she wielded the spear with great skill.

She kept her opponent at bay, using the spear’s long reach to thrust at the opponent’s vitals without endangering herself, and every time the opponent tried to get closer they were met with a devastating swing of the spear. It felt like watching a fairy dancing as her feet glided across the battlefield. Soon the number of cultists decreased until eventually only one was left.

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“Damn ittt!”

The last cultist charged toward the spear woman and the spear stabbed through his body, his body hung limp as the woman then flicked her spear to throw the body away as it rolled on the ground. Mysteriously enough, the red blood didn’t stick onto the spear as it fell down the ground enabling the spear to retain its white pristine form, it was quite a contrast with the blood-soaked white robe of the woman.

The woman walked up to Gaiu’s group and opened the hood of the robe she was wearing, long white hair cascaded down and it drew attention like a single white lily standing on its own in the middle of a barren wasteland. Her golden eyes that is reminiscent of the sun looked at Gaius and the group of knights.

Gaius was stunned for a second before he recomposed himself.

‘Beauty alone. She is almost on the same level as Lady Iris. She is probably the second most beautiful person I have ever seen.’

If Iris’s beauty transcended the human race, then hers is like the pinnacle of human beauty.

Gaius didn't know of her identity, but the other knights did. As they were about to kneel, the woman stopped them with her hands.

“Ah, let’s not do that right now? We are in a rush are we not?”

Abraham is the one who replied.

“It is as you say, Lady Saint.”

‘The Saint!?’

Gaius had never seen the Saint in person but even he had heard of her. Known as the Goddess’ Proxy, she is the one that represents the Goddess in the Human World. Authority alone, she rivals the Crown Prince of the Heinberg Empire.

“Then shall we rush towards the Middle Crystal? It shames me to say this but we only succeeded in destroying the Eastern Crystal which is my group…Honestly, I didn't expect the numbers to be this big so the other group might need some time before finally destroying the crystal. As a Saint, this is very humiliating.”

“It’s not your fault, Lady Saint. No one expected their numbers to multiply fast like cockroaches.”

“Hehe, thank you for saying that. But the only reinforcement to the middle is only us, which is why we should hurry up. Don't you think so as well?”

“It is as you say, Men! We shall go to the middle and aid our Liege on this battle.”

“Yes, sir!”

The knights then rushed towards the middle in an orderly manner alongside the inquisitors. It was then that Gaius felt a sense of incongruity.

‘...Why is the Saint a part of the Inquisitor group?’

Gaius thought about it but shook his head to focus back on the battlefield.

***

‘Fuck, I feel like I'm in a zombie apocalypse because of these guys.’

Wilhelm thought as he saw the mob of gargoyles rushing at him. Now that he was inside the tunnel, and with the situation outside being so dire, he had no reason to hold back anymore. It is the time to pour out every strength and mana he had.

‘Though I will still try to save the Golden Cross for later.’

Wilhelm’s mana surged as he ran towards the crowd of gargoyles attacking them. Using the Heinberg Imperial Swordsmanship, his sword moved like a blur as it tore apart the crowds of gargoyles, he moved like a predator unleashed as he left trails of stone shards in its wake. Fortunately, since it is inside a tunnel, Wilhelm didn’t have to worry about attacks from all directions.

Wilhelm looked to the side and saw Iris who was also laying everything she had, with her starlight-coated sword, and [Star Armor], she used the Starfall Sword Style and Star Magic as each of her attacks created devastation like a storm that passed by. Despite already doing the heavy lifting before, she is still keeping up, if not surpassing Wilhelm in terms of contributions.

‘...Going to be a long way before I catch up to her.’

Wilhelm ducked as he dodged a Gargoyle’s claw before slicing upward, slicing the gargoyle’s body in half only to see three more gargoyles rushing at him, Chirpy flapped its wings beside him before casting [Wind Blades] to rip apart the two gargoyles while Wilhelm sliced the head of the remaining gargoyle. Wilhelm breathed out as his muscles trembled slightly, as time went on his mana gradually decreased into a scarce amount, yet there was still no sight of the Gargoyle’s end.

‘That fucking pig, how much money and Demonic Energy did he spend to create this many gargoyles.’ Wilhelm thought as he gripped the golden cross necklace.

‘At this rate, we won’t even get to the middle crystal before dying, I was trying to save this but maybe it's time to-.’’

Just as he was thinking that, Iris beside him called out to him.

“If we kill all these gargoyles, will we finally reach that damned Middle Crystal?”

“There will be an especially strong gargoyle guarding it, but after we defeat it, we could destroy the Middle Crystal.”

“Can you take it on alone?”

“After exhausting myself here? Hell no-”

“If you do not exhaust yourself here, could you take it on?”

Wilhelm looked into Iris's eyes that is full of determination, he went silent for a few seconds before nodding.

“I'm confident because I have saved up a lot of things for that guy.”

“Good, then please step back.”

Wilhelm wondered what she was doing, but he stepped back as she said, the gargoyles were trying to attack but Iris created a small barrier to block them off; the barrier made from starlight looked thin and brittle as if it would break yet the gargoyle’s punches and scratches didn’t do much damage towards it. Iris mimicked a gun with her fingers and pointed it at the gargoyles.

Wilhelm then felt chills around his body, and his body trembled. Mana erupted from Iris like a raging volcano as it suppressed the surroundings, and the violent surge of mana all compressed to a single point in her finger. Even the gargoyles sensed danger as they started banging on the star barrier even more to try to stop Iris while some began to run away.

‘...What a monster! She still has this much mana!?’

Wilhelm could feel that she was currently going to dry out all of her mana reserves to fire off a grand spell. Soon a bright star appeared on the tip of her finger. The white star brightened lighting up the bleak tunnel and soon the star expanded and exploded into a ray of light.

[Supernova]

The ray of light was bright but Wilhelm didn't look away, the light destroyed all the Gargoyle’s bodies turning stone into dust as the gargoyles let out a hideous scream before disappearing into nothing. Once the light subsided, Wilhelm saw that not even a corpse remained in the path and that the tunnel expanded due to the explosion of light, but fortunately, it didn't collapse, perhaps due to Iris's control.

Wilhelm felt awe at the grand spell and then he laughed.

“Damn, you crazy woman! That’s amazing! What rank is that magic?”

“I'm not sure. My family doesn't rank our magic according to the international ranks except for a few magic spells. We felt like it was pointless to do so.”

Iris's voice sounded fragile. Her body swayed a bit before her body fell to the ground.