South-Eastern part of Erstemensh Theocracy territorry, Twingrips Fortress, Paladin Order Fortress.

Brutally waking up from a nightmare, Ada woke up panting.

"I see, it was a nightmare." She sighed in relief.

The content of her dream was already blurring away from her memories, yet she knew very well that it was about them. If a nightmare were to occur for her, it would be because of them. The dragons that breached the wall a couple of months ago. Even if some time had passed since then, the memories were still fresh. Seven immense and powerful dragons, each wielding seven different elements, breached, at almost simultaneous timing, the barrier that has been known to have withstood any monster attack for millennia and wreaked destruction on everything on their path across the continent.

Luckily for Ada, she didn’t cross paths with any of those monstrosities; she only saw the aftermath. But her parents, her family, weren’t so lucky. They crossed the path of one of the worst of the seven dragons, the one wielding the light elemental. The image and smell of charcoaled human flesh refused to leave her mind, haunting her in her dream every time she closed her eyes. At first, the mere thought was enough to give her nausea, but over time, her mind eventually coped with it.

Sitting on the edge of her enormous and luxurious bed, she stood up and made her way to the curtained windows. Drawing it wide open, she saw, from the room she was in, that outside the structure, the sky on the horizon was already at dusk but was covered by a grey layer of morning fog, so much so that from here she couldn’t see the city that was several kilometers away from here, but in the clear weather, it should be visible from her windows. Rummaging around in the courtyard were the fortress guards.

This place was obviously not Ada’s home, for her home, along with her family, was burned to a crisp because of the light dragon calamity. This structure is one of the two fortresses that make up the church headquarters, known as the Twingrips Fortresses, fortresses which were located in the eastern part of the Meillen Empire territorry. Being homeless was for Ada, for the past month, not very much of a concern, for with the chaos that ensued after the passage of the dragon, she and her magic were at many reprises solicited by the Church, and more precisely, the Archbishop and even, at times, the Holy Paladin, at a hectic rhythm that was beyond what could be referred to as overwork.

It was only now that she was finally given a moment of respite, after four hellish weeks. This place was, as previously mentioned, referred to as the "Twingrips Fortress", a stronghold of the church, comprised of two fortresses, one of which is indeed a fortress held by the workforce of the Paladin Order, but the other one, besides being a fortress, also serves as a Grand-Abbey, a place held and maintained by members of the clergy. Because she no longer had a home, she was to remain on standby in this location until further instruction was given, so she was ordered to rest in the meantime, an opportunity that Ada was not about to waste.

"Attendants!"

As soon as she called, three women dressed as maids entered her room, simultaneously answering, "Here, MyLady."

They were not her personal attendants but rather servants of the fortress, but since she was a guest of the said fortress, it was as if they were her own.

"Prepare my bath."

"Yes, Mylady."

Two of the three women left to take care of the bath she was referring to, while the other was waiting for Ada to give any further instructions.

***

A few minutes later.

Ada was being massaged in a bikini by two of the earlier women, half her body dipping within a small steamy pool with the petal floating at the water's surface, and a flowering flagrance was misting the room.

Relaxed by the treat she was getting, Ada finally let her mind wander away.

Ada is a precious asset for the church. In fact, she was sure to be a precious asset to humanity itself, and she was right to think so. She was born into a very modest noble family from one of the ArchDuchies of the empire, but as she grew up, twenty-five years ago, after undergoing her coronation, she awakened, along with a talent for light magic, a very rare second magic: teleportation magic.

She, who was no one, immediately caught the attention of many important people, among whom were the Archbishops of the church, to which she eventually became a vassal as a Vicar.

Teleportation magic was extremely prized among the other ones, mainly due to its scarcity and its utility. Currently, there was only one other person who was known to have it across the continent, and that person was just like her, a vicar of the church, and was affiliated to another Archbishop by marriage.

But even compared to her only confrere across the continent, Ada knew that she was more special. Because, while both of their magics were teleportation magic, the way they worked was vastly different, with hers being considered more refined and practical in use.

In the four past weeks preceding this one, with the chaos the dragons caused across the continent, she and her magic were overworked to the bone by the ones who were above here, so much that she wasn’t even given the proper time to mourn or even arrange anything decent for her parents, whose remnants couldn’t even be saved. Generally, she takes orders only from the Ezekiel siblings, the Archbishop Ezekiel and the Holy Paladin Ilya Ezekiel, but lately the situation was so cathartic that her services became oftenly borrowed by Arbishops and even the Holy Paladins other than the two precedently mentioned.

Thing had calmed down, she could finally breathe.

All she could beg now was that this could continue for a while, but she knew that was being overly optimistic.

Out of nowhere, a noise, a sound, dragged Ada out of her mind.

A shattering noise reverberated across the corridor, which Ada recognized as something ceramic or glass.

"I will go check, if my lady allows it." One of the women asked, wanting to check, what was wrong.

With a wave, Ada urged her to go, which the woman obliged, but just as she reached the said door, upon opening it, she collapsed, as if having fainted dead.

The woman's first reflexes were to run for her friends, but not even midway, just like her, she fainted and fell flat on the ground.

Ada, having witnessed what happened, immediately stood up, shocked because she knew that it was not normal. Then she noticed it. Fog was seeping in from the little gap that was opened by the servant.

From where she felt it, she sensed more or less a sense of magic.

She immediately retreated in the opposite direction to where the woman was, grabbed a peignoir, and was about to teleport herself away, when suddenly, a loud and deafening explosion shook the floor beneath her and the ceiling above her treamondously.

Dammit! " What’s happening?!" she screamed.

The burdening noise in her ears from the explosion was still buzzing vividly, but she nonetheless could hear a loud.

Once she managed to calm herself down, she immediately started to unleash her teleportation magic. She had no idea, what was going on here, but she knew that it was none of her business.

Just as she believed she would teleport herself

"Wait, what the hell! What’s going on. I can’t teleport. "

That’s right, she couldn’t teleport herself away from this place.

Her heartbeat increased dramatically, even more than from the shock she received from the explosion.

Something like that has never happened before.

Trembling and panic-stricken, she immediately tried something else with her magic. She tried to teleport to the ones she knew were the most suitable to protect her, the Archbishops and the Holy Paladins. The ones she was particularly thinking of were the Ezekiel siblings.

Ada was special because she, unlike her only confrere, was able to not only teleport herself, but also teleport people, even at a distance, as long as she had engraved a certain rune engraved with her own mana onto that person.

This could be an absolute life-saver for her, who had given this rune to almost each one of the fourteen, yet today she couldn’t use it. It simply didn’t work.

Something like that never happened once in the past, and the last time it did, she never felt so helpless.

While still trying to teleport herself away, a wall in the room blew off with a blast.

From the blast’s smokescreen, four people, three men and one woman, with their weapons drawn, emerged, running toward Ada.

Ada recognized these people from their silhouettes.

These four people were Lord Paladins of the Church.

"Vicar Ada, we must leave. Both the fortresses are under attack." the man announced hurriedly.

"Both fortresses!? But by who?!"

This was a church stronghold; normally, it would be almost as secure as a royal palace. Lately, with everything going across the continent, many paladins were sent on missions, but even then, this place was still a well-protected stronghold for what it represented to the church.

"Vicar Ada!" one of the Lord Paladins shouted at Ada.

"Who?!"

"It’s them, the Ar- AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGGGGGG!"

The woman’s speech was turned into an immolation wail by the fire that engulfed her like a dragon's breath engulfing its prey, coming from the smoking hole they made earlier on the wall.

In response to what was going on, the three remaining paladins immediately unleashed their magic toward the source of the fire.

Fire and lightning were unleashed, and a metallic noise reverberated.

While they were still unleashing their attack from above, other explosions of similar intensity reverberated.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

After a while, the three paladins' attacks came to a halt, and intense silence took place, but that wasn’t for long since, not too long after, two breathing could be heard. Breathing is not something that can be easily heard, but the sound they heard, Ada knew, was the sound of respiration, a loud, muffled, almost animal noise.

It was soon followed by two footsteps.

Fearlessly emerging from the smokescreen, were two men, both in white, wearing strange muzzled and goggled masks. One was holding in his hand a strange object, connected to a sort of reservoir he was wearing like a backpack, while the other was holding with both hands a giant white and golden shield.

At the two men's sudden appearance, the three paladins summoned their magic to attack, but before they could, brilliant light bolted toward one of the Lord Paladins. It happened so fast that Ada herself wasn’t sure of what she had witnessed. She just saw the Lord Paladin drawing its sword toward the brilliant light, then she heard the sound of something metal shattering, then something blood and flesh tearing, which was immediately followed by the sight of that said Paladin being cleaved into two symmetrical halves.

"What!"

Amidst the bloody and gory mist, a man appeared.

The man was, in complete contrast to the other two, dressed in pitch black clothes, and was wearing a faceless grey mask with a machete scabbarded on his hips.

Ada, remembering what the female Lord Paladin said about "them," realized who she was facing against.

The white attire, and now this pitch black one, and that machete on his hips.

Ada knew very well that there were only two kinds of people parading around in these kinds of outfits and were openly declaring themselves enemies of the church. These people had, in recent years, joined under a single banner, the Aristocratia.

Still fazed by what had suddenly happened, the two remaining Paladins were dragged back to reality by the man swinging his hand, scattering powder of light that, in the next instant, to Ada’s horror, exploded.

Protecting themselves to the best of their ability, the tree of Ada and the two remaining Lord Paladins were blasted out of the fortress. They were blasted outside from the front room, and they were on to the backyard.

Upon regaining some of her mind from the attack, Ada, at a glance at the surroundings, saw something that froze her in place.

Another man, dressed entirely in white, including his hair, approached them, wearing the same strong muzzed mask as the two others and holding a blood-splattered sabre to his arm.Whose blood? Most likely those of the paladins' corpses behind him,

The man approached them with steps full of assurance, until he stopped a few meters away from Ada and the others. The man didn’t seem particularly dangerous, but there was this strange impression emanating from him. Ada was frightened by his sight, but it wasn’t him that froze Ada in place, but rather what was beyond the man.

Seeing what was behind and above him, just like when she woke, the outside was still foggy, but beyond that fog, she could see that a strange violet barrier was extending toward the sky.

A glance at it confirmed to Ada that that thing was responsible for her inability to teleport away. She recognized it was indeed some sort of barrier mixed with other kind of magic, but she felt that it was also mixed with some sort of teleportation magic or at least some space magic that prohibited her from using her teleportation magic to fly away, which was something that even the fourteen couldn’t do without going to the length of directly harming her.

How was she able to tell that teleportation magic or space magic was involved in this?

She didn’t know, but she knew how to recognize one when she saw one.

Six years ago, during that incident when she wasn’t quite able to use her teleportation magic in the Rosetta Plain, she did research on magic that could have that effect on hers, and she found almost nothing, while doing those research she learned that from time to time, when teleportation magic users are born, there is time where there were some capable of messing up with another one’s teleportation.

Other than the thing they went up against in the Rosetta, that would be the only way to deal with her teleportation, besides that, there was no other logical way to indirectly, without direct contact, stop a teleportation-magic user from teleporting himself away.

Ada knew for a fact that this magic was not of the other man she knew was able to use teleportation magic since this one felt too overly sophisticated for him, meaning that there was someone else capable of teleporting around in these people’s ranks.

The man in white stood where he was not moving a single inch, but the man who waved that attack at them jumped out of the building and was menacingly making its way toward them.

With their weapons drawn against both of the two men, one standing still and the other one menacingly approaching, one of the two remaining Paladins, with their voices trembling in panic, called out to Ada.

"Vicar Ada, hurry up with your magic!"

The man was soon followed by the others.

"Vicar Ad..aa?"

Their eyes met with Ada's and at its sight, both faces went paler than they already were.

No words were needed.

Despite knowing the fate awaiting them, both men clutched their swords, equipped their magic, and charged at the fearlessly approaching man.

A few breaths later, both men's lifeless corpses fell to the ground, cleaved in half. With nothing else in between, the man continued his march toward Ada.

She wanted to run away, but she knew that this would be in vain. When it came to fleeing away, she was invincible with her magic, but without it, she was utterly helpless.

So why run away? when she knew very well that it would be for naught.

Instead, she did what she believed to be the most appropriate thing to ensure her survival.

Earlier, she wasn’t sure as to who and why someone would attack a stronghold like this one, but with the importance and rarity of this magic, she assumed that it could be for her, but the moment she saw that barrier, or to be exact, that prison, she knew that it was there to stop someone like her from running away.

She knew that revealing her name came with risks, but at this point, her life was on the line, so she knew that bargaining was her only way out of this.

She pleaded, kneeling, "PLEASE, my name is Ada Liede, I possess teleportation magic, I can be of use, I swear I can be of use."

The man, completely oblivious to her words, reached in to be just in front of her.

"Vicar Ada Liede?" The man asked if I could confirm something.

"Yes."

As if satisfied by her answer, the man nodded and said these words.

"I, Raziel, crow of the scavengers, by…"

The moment she heard these words come out of the man’s mouth, Ada, from her kneeling position, crawled away in an attempt to run away from that man, completely oblivious to her previous statement about how futile running away was.

Ada, even without hearing the rest of it, knew what it meant for the people of the scavengers.

That attempt to flee from her was not a thought action; it was a natural reaction to the threat of impending death.

Death, which almost instantly grabbed her by the hair.

"Please! Please! I can be of use, I don-" She screamed in desperation, but the man was completely oblivious to her wail.

"-by the authority received from Father and Forefathers, and the duty given by the one we currently serve, the mother of all children of Light, I sentence you to a death unfit for any of your kind. May Death part us and set us on a new path. "

"Please no! Pleas-"

The man's words had been spoken. He unsheathed his machete and, with a swing of it, the woman named Ada Liede was no more.

Her beheaded corpse fell flat on the ground, while the beheaded head rolled several meters away.

With no regard or consideration, the man lit what was left of her ablaze.

***

With the fog engulfing the area gradually dissipating, the masked man in white approached the other man in black and took off his mask, finally revealing a sixty-year-old yet still vigorous man.

"Grudges?"

"Not mine, personally." The man in black answers coldly.

"I see, theirs then. So that was why she wanted us to have our hands off of her. "

"-but I did lose some brothers and sisters because of her."

"I see," the old man in white simply said.

"Lady Serana’s fog is lifting away." We should get moving before the effect fades away. "

"Brother and the others should’ve been done with the other fortress and found the target by now." Her magic came in handy when it came to disposing of the commoners' bystanders. "

"Yes, but we should nonetheless get moving. Her death must’ve already alerted the archbishops and the Holy Paladin by now. "The man said, leaving Ada without even a corpse to be honoured in death like every noble should.

South-Eastern part of the Erstemensh Theocracy territory, Twingrips Fortress, Clergy Grand Abbey.

Amidst the broken glass shards and the smithereens, a young girl walked. Wearing light but full-body armor, she held in her hand a strange metal bar. Looking around, she saw the remains of what, a few minutes earlier, was once a beautiful cathedral-like fortress.

As she walked, amidst the chaos, came mixed blood and broken bones splattered on the ground. She felt an urge to throw up but didn’t avert her eyes. As she advanced, she saw corpses, some in quite a gory state, while others, somehow intact, were left here and there. She heard the sound of a battle raging on beneath the floor she was on.

Noticing the giant altar, above which, a giant statue, the young girl couldn’t help but approach it in curiosity. The statue was one of a woman with seven little girls at her feet . At one point, the young girl recognized the giant statue as one of the apostles, Sora and her seven daughters. It was so well done that the young girl could imagine that it would come out alive at any given time.

While lost in thought, staring at the statue, she suddenly felt something clutching onto her knees.

She immediately reacted, freed herself from the clutch, stepped back half a meter away, and pointed the metal bar she was holding toward her assailant.

She was about to fire the bar, which was her weapon, but froze upon seeing his assailant. It was a bloodied man with literally half of his body crushed under a giant crumble of what was once a piece of the ceiling. While approaching the statue, the young girl didn’t pay a single attention to him as she assumed that he was dead.

"You… son … of a whore…" the man screeched, spluttering blood and saliva.

The young girl, with her weapon still drawn, was lost as she didn’t know what she should do. To her, that man was an enemy, and he was too far gone to be saved, so death was the only salvation she could offer, yet she couldn’t bring herself to fire. Her finger was shaking; she simply couldn’t bring herself to do it.

With the girl still hesitating, the man took the opportunity and suddenly screamed, "Icy Blast."

"Tsk!" Before she could react, an ice mass formed, charging at her. She was left with no choice but to fire, but before she could, something black bolted, and engulfed the ice mass, rendering it to nothing in a matter of minutes.

"Never hesitate," a voice coldly said from where the black thing bolted.

Looking toward the person, she saw a tall man with short hair and cold blue eyes, a few meters away from her, casually approaching.

Once he reached a couple of meters away from the young girl, the man once again, screeched on his dying breath, "Son… of-"

Before he could even finish his sentence, something black once again bolted from the tall man and engulfed the dying man whole, his entire body, including the piece of ceiling crushing the other part of his body.

"Never hesitate, for the next time, you hesitate, it will cost you your life."

The young girl didn’t utter a word, instead she simply nodded.

"If you can’t do that, then maybe-"

"I can do this! Next time, I won’t hesitate. " The young girl raged, not only at the man, but at herself too,

The tall man seemed to still have something to say, but ultimately decided to keep it shut.

"How was it?" The tall man inquired not to the young girl but to the people across the room.

Without the girl's knowledge, the battle from below had already calmed down, and the winner of the battle ascending to this level was audible.

Soon a group was formed, all of them with clothes stained with blood.

A masked man wearing nothing but black announced, "The target was successfully apprehended."

Immediately after, another man in black, came out of the group, holding by the neck a chubby man wearing the usual clergy outfit, as if he was a chicken to be slaughtered. He casually pinned the man to the ground.

"Please spare me, I have nothing but I can-" the man screamed loudly.

"Shut up!"

"Are you all sure this is the man?" The man in white asked the cloaked men.

"Though he still hasn’t displayed his magic, he does fit the description Mother gave us." The first cloaked man said.

The tall, white-haired man approached them and the pinned man, causing the latter to immediately panic, screaming, "Please, please, I swear, I will do anything! Please spare me! Lord Sclain. I can be of use. I will do anything." at the white man.

"Oh, you know me?"

"Yes, my Lord, I swear I can be of use. I will do anything! But please have mercy. I can be of use. "

Even pinned down to the ground, the man repeatedly bowed his head, hitting the ground on several reprises.

The man, whom he called Sclain, crouched at his level, "We are here for a very special someone. What's your magic? "

"Pardon?"

"The next time you answer my question with another question, I will splatter your brain on the ground. I said, ``What is your magic?"

The man, frightened, answered, trembling, shouted "I can use illusion magic,... it isn’t very useful in combat, but I’m sure there-"

"Can't you speak less loudly!" The man, pining him on the ground, shouted.

Completely oblivious to the other man's words, the man kept speaking loudly, "Please I swear to the seven- no I swear to you, I will-"

Before he could finish his sentence, a kick flew into his face, knocking him up.

"He’s the man we are here for." Glancing at the surroundings, the man announced, "It’s time for us to move. It won’t take the church long to send reinforcements to this place. As much as I would like to, there is no need to burn this place. We’re retreating. "

"Yes!" the cloaked men answered in unisson.

"Shania." The man called out to the young girl.

"Yes, Lord Sclain?"

"We’re leaving," the man said, as he headed toward the entrance.

The young girl, named Shania, immediately followed after him.

"As your parents had asked, I showed you what it is like. You’ve seen it, felt it. There is no place for a young girl like you in this. This is not a child's play. There is no fun in this. "

"I know."

"This is… not your war. There is nothing to gain for you in this. "

"I know."

Having reached the door, the man asked, glaring at his eyes with his cold blue eyes, "Then why?"

"I just want to do it. Do I really need better motivation." She said, clutching the bar in her hand firmly.

Though he wasn’t very open about it, the man was slightly taken aback by her answer.

"Not to me, no." The man simply said, "Let's go back, Shania. Let’s get you back to your parents, before I get accused of not being a good baby-sitter."