-Beeeeeeeeeeee!
As Rudell regained consciousness, the first thing he felt was nothing other than his hearing.
A piercing tinnitus drilled into his ears, and involuntarily, Rudell let out a groan while grimacing.
What on earth was happening?
Could it be that a bomb exploded?
What about everyone else?
Is Leje safe?
Amid all the swirling thoughts in his head, a voice began to seep into his ears.
[————-!!]
It sounded like a muffled voice that was hard to comprehend.
But soon enough, the voice started to become clearer.
[R… dell…!!]
[Rudell!!]
Even in his still faint consciousness, Rudell could vaguely sense that the voice was calling for him.
After a while…
“Rudell!! Rudell!! Snap out of it!!”
“Ugh…!!”
With the familiar voice ringing clearly in his ears, Rudell’s consciousness fully awoke, and he opened his eyes, groaning as a wave of pain washed over him.
A hazy figure appeared before him, and after a few seconds of waiting, the outlines of the blurry shape began to come into focus.
“Rudell!!”
Before his eyes was Leje, looking as if she was about to burst into tears while staring at him.
“Leje…? What the heck is going on… Ugh!?”
Rudell’s bewildered voice trailed off as Leje suddenly hugged him tightly.
“Oh thank goodness… I thought something happened to you…!!”
“Ugh…”
Seeing Leje trembling as if trying to hold back tears, Rudell let out a low groan.
Finding out what had happened would be for later.
First things first, he needed to figure out the situation, but there was something even more pressing to address.
“Leje, I’m sorry, but I’m in so much pain right now… can you let go of me…?”
It was about freeing himself from Leje’s grip.
Describing the sensations Rudell felt, it was like being gang-beaten by dozens of people wielding steel clubs.
A literal ache all over, as if his body had been hammered with clubs.
“Huh!? S-sorry!! Eleor!! Help over here!”
“I’m a bit busy right now!!”
Just then, Leje hastily pulled away from Rudell and shouted towards Eleor.
But Eleor was farther away, creating a barrier with her Divine Power and shouting back.
The magic colliding with the barrier exploded in a dazzling display of lights, and at that moment, Rudell realized they were under attack.
“What the hell is going on…?”
“It’s the Church folks; it was all a trap! The fortress, the bombs, the monstrous beasts—everything!”
“A trap?”
Ah, so that’s how it is.
With that thought, Rudell rose to his feet.
He woke up.
“Rudell! You can’t push yourself! You’re seriously injured!”
“It’s okay, I can move a bit…”
Even though he said that, every word felt like it was echoing through his entire body in agony.
Could it be that a bone was broken somewhere?
With that thought, Rudell drew up his magic.
At the same moment, the injuries on Rudell’s body began to heal rapidly.
“What’s this? Divine Power?”
“No, it’s magic. It’s not very efficient, though.”
In fact, there was healing magic among the spells.
However, most mages wouldn’t heal like priests do, purely because of efficiency.
If we assume it requires a Divine Power of 1 to heal the same injury, it would consume roughly ten to, in severe cases, over a hundred times that amount in magic power.
To put it simply, typical mages would find their energy drastically depleted after using healing magic once.
Of course, Rudell currently had the capacity to handle that level of magic consumption, which made this possible.
“Glad to hear it! I thought I’d just have to lie here!”
“You’re not completely healed; it’s just emergency treatment.”
Right now, Rudell was in a state that could be easily described as barely escaping death.
He wasn’t in a condition to perform at 100%.
“Count Weinstein!”
[You’re up!!]
“I’ve been waiting. But where’s Kurt?”
[He’s over there!!]
With a more relaxed expression, Rudell stood up and asked, to which Silphier pointed with her finger in a direction.
Following her finger, Rudell saw Kurt and Fenrir, wreaking havoc among a mysterious group that appeared to be church members.
[Graaaahh!!]
“Whoaahhh!!”
Like a mounted knight, Kurt swung his axe while riding Fenrir, the blue magic power swirling around him as they literally slaughtered the church members.
However, there were a lot of church members, and they were continuously pouring in through the partially collapsed ceiling.
It looked like they were holding their ground for now, but they couldn’t keep fighting like this forever.
“Can you fight?”
“For now, yes.”
At Leje’s question, Rudell nodded.
Though he wasn’t at 100%, he couldn’t just sit around in this situation.
The fact that the church, which had been hiding, began to show itself in front of them was definitely a bad sign.
They had to find a way out of here, no matter what.
“Is everyone ready?”
“Of course!”
[Yes, yes!!]
“Just say the word.”
At Rudell’s question, the rest of the group responded, and with a short sigh, Rudell raised his magic.
Black shadows began to writhe beneath his feet.
“Alright then, let’s do this.”
Saying that, Rudell started shooting spells beyond Eleor’s barrier.
The surroundings were, quite literally, a chaotic mess.
Church mages shot spells that sliced through the air, and the magic that collided against the barriers created by Eleor and Rudell exploded with flashes of light.
On one side, Leje was dishing out invincibility against the church’s fighters, while Silphier was bombarding the church members with missiles and bullets.
In the middle of it all, Kurt and Fenrir were swinging around, leaving trails of divine power behind them.
It was truly a scene that felt like one was smack in the middle of a battlefield.
“Leje! Behind you!”
“I know!!”
“Cough!?”
With Rudell’s shout, Leje swung her sword, leaving a glowing arc that cleaved through the charging church combatants right in half.
However, the church’s fighters just kept coming, as one got taken down, another church member filled the spot immediately.
“Did they seriously come here with a determination to wipe us out?! This never ends!”
The church members were flooding in at an overwhelming rate. Individually, they were nothing special, but the ongoing battle was progressively wearing down Rudell and his crew.
[Killl——!!]
“Are we being attacked by monstrous beasts too!?”
On top of that, monstrous beasts were starting to show up one by one. The church seemed to be hell-bent on pushing Rudell and his team to the brink.
“This might be a bit dangerous…”
Though the church members were definitely the bad guys, they were far from idiots.
The fact they gathered such a force basically screamed that they intended to leave Rudell and his group no chance of escaping.
At this point, Rudell had only one choice left.
“Everyone! Buy me some time!”
With the risk of getting caught up in the chaos, they had to clear the area with powerful magic.
Rudell took a deep breath and began to pull up his magic power, and dark smoke-like energy began to rise around him.
Eleor worked her hardest to surround Rudell with a barrier, while Silphier intercepted the church members and monsters trying to breach their defenses.
Leje and Kurt did their best to divert the attention of the ones outside, preventing anyone from getting too close to Rudell.
“For the glorious god of death, sacrifice your lives!!”
“Death is but a new beginning!!”
“Woooaaaaahhh—!!”
Meanwhile, the church members were relentlessly charging at Rudell and his team, their eyes blazing with determination.
The number of monstrous beasts was steadily increasing, and soon over twenty of them were attacking Rudell and his party.
In contrast, Rudell and his team were growing increasingly exhausted.
Fighting against hundreds of monsters, and following that up with battles against church members was draining them of their stamina.
[Ahh!!?]
“Silphier?!”
An attack that couldn’t be blocked hit Silphier’s armor, and with a scream, her armor flew into the air and crashed down on the ground.
Silphier’s armor soared through the air and collided with the ground.
Seeing this, Eleor shouted in urgency, but she was visibly struggling to fend off the incessant barrage of magical attacks.
Leje and Kurt were also increasingly cornered, and as the situation worsened, a rising sense of anxiety blossomed within Rudell’s heart.
However, he still couldn’t use magic.
Though his power was sufficient, he needed to be careful not to catch Leje and the others in the crossfire.
“Just a little… a little more…!!”
It would take about thirty seconds to gather the magic needed.
As Rudell prayed for them to hold on just a bit longer, he was in the middle of gathering his magic when—
“R-Rudellheit!!”
“Death to the heretic!!”
Taking advantage of Silphier’s incapacitation, a church member dashed through the barriers, brandishing a gleaming dagger toward Rudell.
Naturally, Rudell, who was in the middle of casting a spell, couldn’t move, and Eleor screamed at the sight of him.
“Dammit…!!”
It was just a few more seconds…!!
With that thought, Rudell unknowingly squeezed his eyes shut.
And that was the moment.
-WHHHAAAC!!!
-BLUURRGHH!!
“KAAAAAAAAHK…!!”
With a sound slicing through the air, something flew toward the church member, and just as the dull sound echoed, the member’s dying scream reached Rudell’s ears.
“…?”
Rudell’s tightly shut eyes slowly opened, revealing a familiar sight—a gigantic greatsword.
[WOOOOOOOOAH!!!]
[Wo! Wo! Wo! Wo! Wo!]
[Wah wah wah wah wah wah!!]
Following that, cheers they recognized started to ring out above their heads.
In this sudden situation, both Rudell and his party, as well as the church members, looked up in unison.
And what caught their eyes was…
“You filthy scum who have defiled the mother land.”
A giant man with glowing red eyes, watching the scene along with numerous Nord tribe warriors.
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