Like always, tell me what you think.
The Mission Begins
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The sound of birds chirping could be heard from a nearby tree. Water drops fell from leaves as they splashed onto the floor. A rooster’s morning call sounded, signalling that it was morning.
“Where am I?”
Sun sat up and glanced around from where he had been lying down.
“This place is…”
Underneath him was a large, comfortable bed and as he looked around he became certain that this was his room. Not just any room, but his personal living quarters within the Holy Temple, specifically for the Sun Knight of the Church of the God of Light.
“Why am I here? I was certain that I was in another world…”
Sun blinked a few times and then confirmed that he was actually seeing instead of using his elemental sight, since he was capable of discerning color.
“So I can see…”
If he could still see then it was possible that it meant that he was still in the other world. However, it was strange that this room so evidently resembled his own.
“It might be possible that I’ve returned?”
Although he was content with the possibility that he had returned to his world, he was overcome with great exhaustion. Putting all other thoughts aside, he decided to sleep first and figure everything out later.
“Knight Captain Sun, Knight Captain Sun…”
A familiar voice called out from outside of the room. From the sound of it it must have been Adair, his vice captain.
“Hmm…”
Too tired to deal with it, Sun buried his head underneath his pillow and burrowed himself into the sheets.
The calling from behind the door continued until…
Bang!!
A dark figure entered into the room, one that he was all too familiar with.
“Knight Captain Sun, how long do you intend to sleep?”
Lesus Judgment asked with a stern expression on his face. He was obviously not pleased with the slothfulness that was before him..
“It’s fine, isn’t it? Let me sleep.”
Sun rolled around on his bed, clutching the pillow with his body. He showed no intention of getting up at all.
“If you continue to fool around…”
Lesus’s voice suddenly vanished and was replaced with a sinister voice that he had never heard before in his life. Sun looked up from his bed to find that he was no longer in his bright and spacious room but now in a dark densely wooded forest.
A strange figure now stood before his eyes, a being made of countless shadows coalescing into itself. It opened its mouth, with countless pitch black fangs protruding from within.
“then all that you hold dear will perish, just like before.”
The shadow being melted into the ground and behind it was the cold lifeless body of the Leaf Knight.
“Gaaaaaaaah!!”
*****
“Haaaa haaah.”
Sun woke up with a start, his entire body covered in cold sweat. He looked down at his shaking hands and clenched them to see if he had any feeling in his limbs.
“So it was a dream…”
He looked around once more to check where he was. This time he was inside the wagon used by the expedition.
After a moment he was able to recall all the events that had happened previously. They had lured the giant undeads into a trap but the last undead was alerted far too quickly. Using himself as a distraction, he lured the last undead away from the group. If the paladins had not made it in time, he would have most likely died.
“Just what am I doing?”
Sun just sat there with his thoughts, contemplating his current situation. His entire existence has been turned upside down and was living in an alternate world. There had been one thing that had not changed between the two worlds.
Weakness.
Even now he felt like all his efforts had bore no results and that his strength was paper thin; to him, his power was almost nonexistent and meaningless. With no talent in the sword and surrounded some of the strongest warriors in his generation, he had felt that he would be incapable of protecting anyone.
Despair.
Both worlds had taught to him its meaning quite well. Leaf Knight’s death had weighed heavily on his mind since then.
Leaf had died because he could not protect him.
Because he was weak.
Because he did not make it there in time.
Because...it was his fault that he didn’t stop Awaitsun beforehand.
His indecision had cost his fellow brother his life. The words that Pink had told him remained in his thoughts.
‘If we didn’t kill him then we would not have been able to escape your pursuit.’
She had killed Leaf to buy time for Awaitsun to escape from Sun. Even though he had managed to revive Leaf, the guilt of his death still remained and he blamed himself for it constantly.
This world was not any different. He was incapable of anything beyond that of a mere priest. As his soldiers die before him there was nothing he could do to save them.
With a sigh, he lied back down onto the floor of the wagon.
“Mmmm…”
Now that he had finally reached some clarity in his mind he finally noticed that Alena, the little 10 year old girl, was also asleep in the wagon.
“Such an innocent little child.”
Sun murmured quietly. He had always had a bit of a soft spot. Even though he was weak, he always had a righteous heart to protect others. As long as others were safe, he did not care what became of him.
A scene flashed through his head; a scene when he was young where he was standing with a similarly aged girl.
It was a very hazy memory that he did not recall very well. It was some time after he had applied to become a candidate for the Sun Knight.
“What was that…”
Deciding that it was nothing, he looked down at the little girl and stroked her short black hair affectionately. Thinking about his own childhood, it must have been tough for this little girl to be out in this dangerous place all on her own.
‘With everything in my power I will protect everyone that is close to me.’
Even if it costs me my life…
“Grisia are you awake? The sun has already risen…”
Alveron stopped his sentence short.
All alone in a wagon, covered in sweat with a dark expression on his face while next to a little unconscious girl. To Alveron, it looked like Sun was assaulting a little girl in her sleep.
“...”
Alveron just looked blankly at him for awhile.
“What is it?”
Sun asked, puzzled as to why he had stopped talking all of a sudden.
“Grisia...the priests of the Order of Freya are allowed to get married. Even so...attacking little girls is a crime.”
…
…
It took a few moments for Sun to register everything that Alveron had said in his mind, if fact it exactly took six dots before he realized what he was saying.
“The hell do you think you’re saying?!”
Alveron took a moment to clear his throat before he began to explain himself.
“I understand that some men enjoy woman that are younger than them, but this girl is more than half your age. Wait a moment...could it be that you plan to raise her into the perfect wife for you in the future?”
Sun could not imagine all the sort of obscenities that were running through Alveron’s head. But he had a pretty good idea from how flushed Alveron’s face was as he was speaking nonsensically.
“Whatever it is that you’re thinking, it’s wrong!”
Sun made sure to quickly deny all the things that Alveron was imagining in his mind.
“Oh, is that so?”
Alveron seemed to calm down quickly and then asked another question.
“Then why is it that you do not have a girlfriend?”
It was a very good question. Alveron had heard from the paladins from the church that Sun was quite popular with women, especially when it came to the female users.
Sun averted his eyes before responding.
“It’s just not something that I’m not used to…”
Realistically speaking, he had very few female interactions in his lifetime. He was still weighed down by the thought that women would not like him since he could ‘only love God’, the belief that accompanied the stereotype of the Sun Knight. Honestly speaking, he wanted a girlfriend more than anyone else in the world but habits were not easy to break.
With his face a little bit flushed, he coughed before changing the topic.
“Cough cough...anyways Alveron, what brings you here?”
As if suddenly remembering his original purpose in coming here, Alveron was quickly brought back from his thoughts.
“That’s right. The sun has already risen so it’s as good a time as any to start the operation.”
Sun plan required it to be daytime for it to work since the undead were severely weakened in the light and didn’t receive the night time bonus to their stats.
“Have all the necessary materials been gathered?”
Alveron nodded.
“When you passed out yesterday, Calvin told everyone to immediately start getting everything together.”
If that was the case, then everything was truly ready to begin the operation. Sun placed a blanket over Alena before leaping off the wagon to join with the rest of the group.
***
Sun headed over to the head tent where he met with Calvin and the lead paladins. Behind the tent was a large pile of materials that was covered with a large cloth. Pulling off the large cloth, Sun took a look over the amount that had been gathered.
“This should be more than enough.”
He had asked the paladins the day before to gather various different types of materials. The primary thing that he asked for from them was Holy Water. As member of the Order of Freya, each of them held onto a few vials of holy water each. Calvin, Sun, and Alveron each had about 100 vials of Holy Water on them as well, since they were Priests.
Sun inspected the rest of the materials that had been gathered in the pile. The paladins had cut apart several large trees for wood as he had requested. Apart from wood, there were also a number of other large objects that they had found in the surrounding area such as rocks and metal. Among the other miscellaneous items, these were going to be the most essential.
Picking up one of the items from the pile, Sun inspected it more closely.
“Identify.”
He had picked up the Identify skill back when he was in Rosenheim. In his study for a way back to his world, he had visited various magic shops and libraries where he picked up a number of different skills. Identify was one of them.
[Wooden Board Durability 70/100
A piece of wood cut from a tree. It was not handled very well so the durability is a bit lacking. Can be processed into a number of different items. Tier 2 Materials.
Options: Very tough material. Suitable for making buildings and walls.]
After he checked a number of different materials, he decided that it was more than enough for their purposes.
“Let the operation begin.”
The lead paladins got their divisions of men to come over and pick up the materials. They then slowly began to transport them a short distance from the shrine. Sun walked over to a hastily prepared platform, a small boulder that they had moved over and began to explain.
“For those that do not know, we are now going to attack the enemy headquarters.”
The paladins in the group began to voice their astonishment. Even though they were very righteous men, it was still reckless to fight an enemy force that was several times stronger than them. This was even more reckless since it was the enemy headquarters which increased the effects of the undead strength by an additional 50%, an effect given to monsters during nighttime and in dungeons.
Seeing the unrest among the paladins, Sun continued to explain in a slightly louder voice.
“So we will now begin the plan to destroy the enemy forces and weaken them heavily!”
A sense of bewilderment overcame the paladins. Was it really possible for their forces to wipe out thousands of undead in their headquarters? The very thought of such a thing was inconceivable.
“As you know, the giant undead from yesterday made up only a portion of the undead’s fighting strength. Thousands of undead lurk in the shrine before us, each with their own strengths and abilities. However, the biggest obstacle to us, the giant undeads, have already been defeated. Now we can easily wipe out the rest of them.”
Before the paladins could raise any complaints about the enemy’s forces, Sun shouted out aloud.
“Hear me men! Follow my orders swiftly and we will seize victory shortly! If this is successful, then we will have destroyed more than 80% of the enemy troops and weaken the remaining 20%!”
As impossible as it might have sounded, when the paladins heard this claim they began to burn with an intense willpower as their morale skyrocketed.
“Let us destroy the undead scum and drag out the ones responsible to give them long overdue retribution!”
“Uoooooh!!!!”
Large shouts erupted from the crowd of Paladins as they got ready for combat.
-The skill Righteous Crusade has been learned. When used, the morale of allied church members will increase. Affected by Leadership and Faith.
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-Leadership has increased by 5.
-Faith has increased by 3.
Holy related classes, such as priests, received a large increase in faith for fighting against the undead. Since he was leading the paladins he also received a bonus to his leadership stats.
The Righteous Crusade skill was capable of improving the morale of the church’s units as well as improving their faith stat temporarily and reducing negative status effects. It cost a decent amount of mana but it’s effects were outstanding since its usage was limited.
Sun hastily split the paladins into 3 squads, each of them led by one of the three priests.
Calvin’s squad was responsible for transporting the wood and other materials, as well as placing them in the appropriate locations.
Sun had his squad of paladins grab all the Holy Water and take them to the shrine.
Alveron’s squad was responsible for taking care of their wagons and transporting them to a safe location nearby as well as collecting the necessary materials from their supplies.
“Mission start!”
The paladins quickly grabbed the wood, metal, and rocks and piled them around the entire shrine, primarily blocking off its entrance. They had to move fast before the undead caught wind of their presence. Even though they were masking their holy presence, its effectiveness would decrease since they were so close to the undead forces.
“Next!”
Alveron’s squad then ran up to the shrine and began to cover the barricade in a number of different substances: alcohol, oil, gas, wood chips, paper, anything they could find that could burn.
With a quick fire spell, the entire barricade went up in flames. Still it was nowhere near enough if they wanted to get rid of the undead. The fire would only prove to be a small hindrance to them and they would soon break out in great numbers to wipe out the Paladins.
That was only if it was a normal fire.
“Paladins! Ready your aim!”
Sun yelled out loudly towards his squad of paladins. They were currently on standby with a large number of holy water vials.
The undead began to pour out of the building angrily; that was when Sun gave his command.
“Fire!”
At his command, the Paladins began to throw the holy water vials at their target. However, their target was not the undead that were starting to pour out of the buildings. No, if they did that then they would only kill a measly few hundred undead.
Against an army of a few thousand, they would need something far more definite than that.
The burning shrine.
That was their real target.
Throwing holy water at a fire? Wouldn’t that simply put out the fire?
The answer was no.
It was no simple fire after all. The reason why he had made a separate squad for Alveron was the need for them to acquire oil to create an oil fire.
Once the holy water made contact with the building, it would then quickly evaporate from the heat of the flame and change it from a liquid form into a gaseous form. Once in a gaseous form, the quantity of oxygen present would increase dramatically which led to a greater amount of fuel for the flames.
Even in a gaseous form, the holy water still kept its divinity. The oil fire instantly became a large cast Holy Fire spell, growing greater in strength with each vial of holy water. It would not be ridiculous to say that it was at the same power of a high level advanced Holy Fire spell.
“That’s enough.”
Sun stopped the Paladins from throwing the remaining vials of holy water, which were only about 100 left in number. The undead were now melting away from the intensity of the holy flames. Thousands of the undead perished as they desperately tried to claw their way through the barricade while the undead spirits were vanquished as soon as they made contact with the fire.
Some of the undead finally broke through the barricade but were in a state of extreme weakness.
“Strike them down!”
At his command the paladins pincer attacked all the undead that gradually made their way out of the building. Since there was only one entrance, the enemy would not make their way out quickly so they would only get finished off one by one. In the meantime the other undead were slowly burning to ash as they were stuck within the shrine.
-You have leveled up.
-You have leveled up.
-You have leveled up.
Even though he wasn’t doing much, as a priest he was getting a small cut of experience for each kill. Since there was an absurdly large number of high level undead, he was leveling up very quickly.
After letting it burn for a few minutes, it was now time to put an end to this. The majority of the lesser undead had been dealt with and now there was only a burning building left.
“Alveron. Calvin. Come over here.”
He called them over so that they could put an end to this mess. If they let the fire continue to rage on, then it was completely possible that it could spread and burn down the entire forest. If such an event were to happen then the reputation of the entire church would suffer.
To stop such a thing like an oil fire, it was usually best to deprive it of oxygen or use chemicals to extinguish it. Of course none of those options were viable at this time so Sun decided to use the next best thing he could think of.
“Oh Goddess, grant me the strength to vanquish thy foe…”
“Goddess of Light, hear my voice and lend me your strength...”
“Light brings me power and justice rules my soul…”
Alveron, Sun, and Calvin began to chant a number of different incantations simultaneously.
Their plan was but a simple one. If they could not stop the fire through the usual means then…
“Holy Smite!” “Holy Burst!” “Judgment Hammer!”
After a few minutes, the three of them cast their spells onto the flaming building together.
From the sky, a large number of different attacks rained down
Swords of light rained down from the sky, a pillar of light corroded the entire building, a divine hammer stuck down ruthlessly.
If they could not stop the fire then they would completely and utterly destroy the fire. Crude but effective for their purpose.
The spells continued to rain down on the building for a full minute before it started to show signs of stopping.
-For defeating the undead force without any casualties, the members of the expeditions have received an increase in all stats by 1.
-Since the fire did not cause any destruction to nature, the Church of Freya’s influence has increased by 10.
Soon the dust cleared and the shrine was now in complete ruins. Most would say that their objective was now complete but Sun had a feeling that said otherwise.
“Sacred Rain.”
Muttering a few spell words, Sun called forth holy rain to quickly cool down the debris. Afterwards he gave orders to the paladins to quickly move aside the remains of the building.
“As I thought.”
Like any evil super villain that had a needlessly large building as their center of operations, it was common for there to be a secret hidden area from where they would safely conduct their insidious plots. Somewhere that people would never look in most circumstances. Who would think that an undead lich would make its home in a beat up shack in the middle of nowhere? The same idea applied here. It was more than likely that the Necromancers were hiding underground the facility rather than within it.
Taking half of the remaining holy water, Sun walked around the area and began to spread it across the ground. The Holy Water would work tandem with the Sacred Rain he had cast and would amplify its effects.
Ttiring!
-The surrounding area has become purified. All darkness related skills have received a 50% penalty. Nearby undead are severely weakened.
This was stage two of the plan.
The vast majority of the undead troops would be located in the shrine, but they would all be low level minions. In the underground would be the higher level undead, which would be most likely around level 300. Fighting them in a dungeon like area would be reckless so that was why he was using Holy Water and Sacred Rain.
He was now purifying the area into a sacred soil. Though the effects were only temporary, it would serve their purpose now. The remaining high tier undead would succumb to the vast holiness and receive countless stat penalties. Using a rough estimate, their combat ability would decrease to less than half.
Sun had discovered all of these things while exploring around in Royal Road. A normal fire could easily become a Holy Fire when using Holy Water. He had noticed once when he had accidentally dropped some holy water on the campfire. When an undead attacked suddenly, he had picked up a piece of burning wood and threw it at the undead, causing it to catch fire rapidly.
Blessing a region was something that he learned in the church. It was a common thing to bless a corrupted land to prevent the undead from coming back to life. However, it also could be used to weaken the undead that returned to that region.
Giving the paladins a signal, they quickly pried open the door to the cellar.
“We need to hurry before they notice that we’re coming.”
Given how quickly they had wiped out the undead shrine, the higher tier undead and the necromancers still had no idea that they were under attack. Before they realize, they needed to quickly attack before the enemy has a chance to escape. Thankfully they could not sense the giant Area of Effect spells that were cast earlier since it was difficult to sense elements through a thick layer of soil.
The battles from here on out, however, would require them to not use any holy magic at all to avoid detection. Usually this would be bad since it was difficult to kill the undead permanently since they would rise after death, but since the ground was blessed there was no need to worry.
Thought they were restricted from using strong holy magic, the paladins still could use their offensive holy skills since they were much less potent than priest spells.
“What should we do about Alena?”
Calvin asked as preparations were being made. Sun had to think about this for a moment.
They very well couldn’t leave her here alone since, even without the undead, this place was still relatively dangerous. There was no knowing what would happen in a world like this. They could leave behind some paladins but that would greatly reduce their fighting strength.
A number of different ideas played through his head but none of them were viable. They couldn’t bring her along either since it could be dangerous. He was starting to get fed up from all these choices and no solutions.
“Why don’t we take her along?”
Alveron decided to give a suggestion.
“Why do you say that?”
Calvin wanted to know the reasoning behind such a bold proposition. Surely it was dangerous out here, but it was hardly any better inside the undead dungeon.
“It would probably be safer for her to come with us, since we have paladins and priests in case something happens. She can be safe with us in the back so there’s nothing to worry about. We can just treat her as if she’s another priest.’
Sun looked at Alveron with a look of astonishment.
To think that a priest would discriminate against himself like this!
It was true that the priest didn’t really do much in combat aside from hiding in the back, buffing, and healing. It was a non-combat related class and it held that prejudice from all the melee classes, regardless of the world that they were in. However for a priest to treat himself like this was beyond anything he could have imagine.
He did not know who, but Alveron had apparently been brainwashed by someone.
“You do have a point.”
Calvin mulled over it briefly.
“Does anyone have any objections and other suggestions?”
Sun wanted to say something but he had nothing that was any better that they could do.
“Then it’s decided, we’re taking Alena with us.”
The little girl had already been awake quite some time ago and was sitting on a rock nearby during this conversation, quite preoccupied with drawing something into the dirt.
Calvin walked over to pick her up into the air before he walked over and put her on Sun’s shoulders.
“Here Sun. You can take care of her.”
“Why me?!”
Sun wanted to protest against this sudden treatment.
“You were the one responsible for taking care of her in the first place. If we couldn’t find if she had any parents then we were probably going to have you adopt her.”
There was nothing to be said against this since it was originally Sun’s responsibility to take care of her.
‘They’re planning for me to become a father even though I have never even had a girlfriend before! What the hell is with this?!’
He could only lament at himself at this current change of events.
Since there was hardly any time to waste, the paladins assembled their weapons and ventured into the dungeon.
Their main objective remained unchanged.
Search and Destroy.