Like a Dry Branch in the Wind

Rietta slowly turned her head. Killian sat at the altar, kneeling on one knee and bowing his head. She tried calling out to him, but her voice did not come out. Her body was not moving well either. Rietta slowly moved her feet, it was as though she was in a dream, trying hard to force her body to move.

As if not realizing Rietta was approaching, Killian was still lowering his head. Rietta barely approached behind him by moving her unfamiliarly heavy body. Her hands that extended toward him did not seem to belong to her. She barely touched Killian’s shoulder.

One, two, three, four. Her fingertips touched one after another. As her palm touched Killian’s shoulder, Rietta slowly swept it down. However, whether he did not realize what she was trying to say or whether the sense of holding his shoulder itself was fake, Killian did not look back on her.

‘There is someone who is not a priest.’

Her voice did not come out. Her words did not seem to reach him. Rietta became nervous.

Along with the huge magic circle spread out on the floor of the square, the magic circle shining under Killian’s feet brightened glaringly and was absorbed into his body. As a result, Killian’s body shone with a silver afterimage. As the wind rose, the hem of his clothes fluttered and sank shortly after.

The great blessing had been cast. Rietta got dizzy as she felt the divine power escaping from her body. Her frayed nerves suddenly loosened up and the feeling of pressure on her body subsided. Rietta tried to open her mouth again but there was no voice at all.

‘Milord… Milord!’

「If any among them doesn’t seem to be priests, put your hand on my shoulder. And if you see plague demons or something dangerous, hug my neck.」

Rietta collapsed as if falling behind Killian’s back and hugged him by his neck in the time that seemed to flow slowly.

‘I can see demons.’

Time went by so slowly. Killian turned his head slowly and grabbed her arm.

Creak…

The Archbishop appeared with his khakkhara after opening the door of the bell tower. He laughed horrifically, no longer being the same person as the one who climbed the bell tower. Covered in blood, the Archbishop lifted the khakkhara high and opened his eyes wide. That moment was as long as a thousand years.

“!”

Time came back to normal. Killian pulled Rietta from his back and lowered her body.

Boom!

The next moment, a black object dreadfully passed by above them and exploded.

“Argh! Archbishop!”

Screaming was heard everywhere.

“Put your head down!”

A priest shouted. An instant later, he lost his neck. Dozens of the priests who were praying suddenly took swords out of their clothes and began to slash the other priests around them.

Both of the Archbishop’s eyes looked in different directions, he smiled horrifically and swung the khakkhara. The darkness shot out from the khakkhara penetrated people’s bodies like arrows. The crowd pushed each other and began to scream and run away.

Pandemonium unfolded in an instant. The next moment, the Archbishop turned his head at a strange angle. He smiled and rushed to Killian. After noticing that he was the target of the attack, Killian pushed Rietta to the side and narrowly lowered his body to avoid the attack.

The spot where Killian got away was crushed and darkened. Killian reached into the air and shouted.

“Sword!”

In the midst of people, a sword thrown by someone flew toward him. Killian snatched the sword from the air and ran. The khakkhara wielded by the Archbishop once again broke the stone floor where he was at.

The Archbishop, whose attack came to nothing again, made a grumbling sound and glowed out of his eyes. The demon who dominated the Archbishop’s body raised the khakkhara in the air. A dark yellow energy spread in all directions as if it were a dust cloud.

A black light came out of the bodies of the slashed priests. They became undead and creaked up. An undead rushed toward Rietta while she was sitting on the altar. As soon as Killian tried to rush with curse words on his mouth, the Archbishop ran toward him

Clash!

The khakkhara and sword collided.

“Giselle!”

Killian shouted, clenching his teeth.

“Protect Rietta!”

One of the priests with a sword jumped in like lightning and blocked Rietta. The white light of the blade staggered and spit the undead’s body vertically. As it was a silver-plated blade, the slashed body of the undead burned and blackened.

Rietta was astonished and covered her mouth. She looked at the back of the priest who blocked her. A woman in a priest’s robe rashly took off her hood. Brown hair tied into a ponytail and an attractive mole under the eye were revealed under the moonlight.

“Lana! Cover His Grace!”

At the next moment, undeads rushed from all sides. Giselle quickly turned around and took a leap with Rietta. In an instant, the ground became distant. Rietta looked down with an incredulous look.

A few men in priest’s robes were the first to take out their swords and wielded them to stop the fake priests. Rietta recognized that many of the sword-swinging people wearing priest’s robes were Killian’s knights. The knights that were mixed in the crowd joined the paladins who were flustered and could not get a hold of themselves.

“Seira! The Emperor’s deputy!”

Seira, who was mixed in between the priests, was already running without a priest’s robe. She swung a halberd to the ground and somersault up to the altar.

Lectus Justin and his guards were dealing with the undeads with swords, but they were in a hurry to defend and could not fight properly.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, Seira turned full circle like dancing. She swung the heavy polearm held in both hands horizontally. At once, the backs of the undeads broke and three undead flew away. Seira put the halberd on the floor again and turned into a somersault. The polearm went around vertically from a distant height. When it fell and stuck its ax blade down into the ground, the body of a huge undead running from behind Lexus Justin collapsed, splitting from the top of his head to the pelvis.

There was no time to appreciate her flashy ax dance. Undeads in priest’s robes flocked to where Giselle and Rietta fell. Giselle pressed Rietta’s shoulder to lower her posture. She wielded her sword above her and slashed those who rushed towards them before jumping back up. The undeads, who were rushing from both sides toward them, clawed at each other and tumbled down.

Shot from the khakkhara the Archbishop wielded, the spear of darkness was attacking and knocking down the fleeing crowd. The bodies of the people who fell after being directly hit by the spear creaked and began to attack indiscriminately, grabbing the ankles of the people who had been running away with them until just recently.

The bodies of the dead priests rose as bigger and more powerful undead at the call of the demon who ruled over the Archbishop’s body. The undeads of the high-ranking priests had grown enormously with the corrupted divine power, they were becoming a monster beyond human form.

They moved stronger and finer than the general undead. They were intensively rushing to Rietta and the other priests, who were emitting powerful divine power, to create stronger comrades.

Killian was the Archbishop’s target, he too was not free. Killian’s knights, who had secured the retreat of the fleeing crown and ran backward through the crown, joined the battle.

Lana snapped her fingers. In the rainy darkness, where it was difficult to identify the people on their side, the bodies of the humans dominated by demons were caught in a blue fire. The undeads slowed down their movements and suffered from being wrapped around the blue fire.

Killian’s knights slashed the bodies of the undead marked by Lana without hesitation and began to protect and evacuate people. The bewildered and confused paladins soon followed them to either cut down the marked enemies or help secure the people’s retreat.

The demon who dominated the Archbishop’s body endlessly swung the khakkhara to create more undeads. Some of them rushed to Killian and some rushed to the knights who were protecting the surviving priests.

Giselle put down Rietta and quickly looked around. The undeads in the vicinity rushed in after finding out that Rietta was a human with an appetizing divine power. In an instant, Giselle pulled another sword from her waist and began slaughtering the undeads who rushed toward them with swords in both hands. Rietta watched with incredulous eyes as the woman she was close to struck down the undeads’ necks with a calm face and trampled on them.

“Elise! Destroy them!”

A tall woman in a priest’s robe was already dancing in the middle of the battle.

After spinning around a huge two-handed sword that looked as tall as her with both hands, her hood slipped back, revealing blonde bobbed hair and an intelligent and elegant face.

Giselle freely moved the swords in both hands and was slaughtering several enemies at the same time. She moved so fast that it was hard to chase her with bare eyes. It all happened with only a single breath that Rietta took.

“Please evacuate this way!”

The paladin Niston shouted loudly. The Order of Paladins stood in a row and built shields to create barriers, securing a way for people to evacuate. Giselle kicked an undead’s back and pulled her sword out of him. She turned in the air and separated the upper and lower bodies of the undeads chasing after her.   

At the next moment, Giselle’s speed slowed down as if she suddenly stopped. A blue light hoisted up from her body.

Her cold downcasted eyes suddenly opened up. A blue light burned from both Giselle’s swords. At the next moment, Giselle disappeared like a flash after lowering her posture. It was only a moment later that the bodies of the undeads were separated and collapsed as if time had stopped.

Even though a considerable number of undeads were gathering near Rietta, there were no undeads able to move around after Giselle disappeared for a while and returned. 

Giselle crossed her two swords. She scratched them, and the blood on the blade gathered at the tip of the swords and fell into the rain.

When the undeads near Rietta were cleaned up, Giselle took off the cumbersome priest’s robe and threw it away. Giselle and Rietta’s eyes met. Giselle smiled brightly and put her index finger in front of her lips.

‘Shh.’

Giselle leaped back into the air and jumped into the midst of priests in the right row of the altar where the knights were struggling to protect the surviving priests. Now that she was free, Giselle moved as if she was flying around. Saying that she did not have time to feel cruel was a lie. Rietta was mesmerized and followed her with her eyes.

“Over there! Run behind the barrier!”

With the help of the paladins, the surviving crowd fled behind their shields. In the opposite row, Elise was holding and swinging a sword as huge as her body with both hands. She cut through the air with her blade, aiming at an aggressive priest. The priest tumbled back, barely missing Elise’s gigantic sword.

Elise pulled close the blade that had gone to her back by inertia as if dancing and embraced it. Pushing the body of the sword with the other hand, she twisted her body slightly and pierced under her side. Her blade unexpectedly protruded from an oblique angle and broke the arm of the undead who was rushing from behind. After lowering her body and tripping up the undead, Elise put her sword in front of her as an axis. She turned around while indifferently trampling on the undead’s back.

As if the great sword was her dancing partner, the nape of the undead was ripped apart with her elegant movements. Using centrifugal force, Elise lifted her sword at an angle and set it in front of her nose. She extended the blade horizontally and went around one more time. The blue-edged sword drew a huge circle.

An approaching fake priest that was armed with a dagger collapsed and stepped down due to the powerful wind from her sword. The undeads, who did not have enough intelligence to read the whole situation, approached Elise and ended up with broken skulls and flew into the rain.

While she was free for a moment, Elise closed her eyes and took a short breath. A blue aura was lifted up from her body. Elise leaned back the sword, gracefully lifted one knee, and swung it with both hands. The overwhelming blue energy broke the floor and flew straight to blow away the faltering fake priests.

Elise turned around again and put the sword in front of her chest. Her eyes found her next subject. Even the undead with an ego felt an instinctive threat in front of the sword’s tremendous attack radius and extreme presence. The undead slowed itself down and distanced itself from her.

“Don’t come closer!”

The paladins who were about to join the battle stepped back after hearing the firm voice that stopped them. Elise intentionally moved to a place without allies within the range of the attack. She crushed the fake priests and undeads with elegant movements like dancing.

Her movement of swinging a large and heavy sword was not as fast and sleek as Giselle, who wielded a double sword, but the long, great sword’s tremendous attack radius was offsetting whatever speed limit she had.

The surviving fake priests on both sides of the altar faltered and stepped back after witnessing the unimaginable sharp sword dance from the women. They began to run away. Giselle’s sharp voice dropped in the air.

“Rachel! Don’t let anyone escape alive!”

Rachel neither showed up nor answered. However, a sharp sound was heard cutting through the wind. The humans that were running away were bleeding on their heads or necks and collapsed.