Chapter 160: Captive Saint

“.......”

Elmia’s eyes sprung open as she woke up to a splitting headache, sore shoulders and fatigue.

“W-what’s this!”

Elmia was standing — no, she was forced to stand.

Chains hung from the ceiling, connected to the shackles binding her, effectively suspending her body.

Both her feet were also bound in chains, so she couldn’t move her body.

The length of the chains binding her hands was just enough so she could stand on tiptoes, so most of her weight was on her shoulders.

“Ugh”

She had no idea how long she had been out cold, but her shoulders were dislocated from supporting her weight while she was unconscious.

Severe pain assaulted her. She tried to put more weight on the tips of her toes just to ease the load on her shoulders.

She also tried to cast Heal on herself, but the shackles were infused with sealing magic, so she could not even release mana, let alone activate her magic.

“What the heck…where am I?”

Even if Elmia was a woman, she was a female knight that had been tempered by the harsh training that all the holy knights must undergo. Moreover, she managed to climb to the position of captain with her own ability.

She had complete control over her body, so even though her position right now was very unstable since she was standing on her tiptoes, she still managed to to position herself in the most comfortable manner possible . The pain on her shoulders eased because of that.

They were still dislocated, so the pain didn’t cease entirely, but she had already experienced this numerous times during her combat training.

It was painful, but she could endure.

“S-Seira-sama!?”

Her focus was not on herself and the pain, but on the person that she should have protected.

The holy knights’ mission was to protect the saint at all cost, even if that meant they had to sacrifice themselves. The safety of the saint took precedence above all else.

The room was dark, but she could still see her hands and feet, albeit barely and with great effort. She looked around her, but for some reason, she couldn’t focus on any single point at a distance. She was wide awake, and her mind was clear, but her vision and hearing were not working normally.

Did they give her poison?

Then in that case, when and how did they do it?

She tried to recall what happened before she fainted.

“Let me see...Seira-sama and I went with Ysha to the priests to greet them —”

Elmia, Seira and Ysha, the maiden who was chosen to be the next saint, were scheduled to go to the Sanctuary, which was a short distance away from the Holy City.

Ysha was the most excellent saint candidate for this batch. She needed to be baptized by Seira in the waters of the spring located at the Sanctuary, the current saint, in order for her to truly become a saint.

After her baptism, if the Creator God acknowledged her to be the next saint on her sixteenth birthday, then a new saint would be born.

Elmia’s last memory was their trip to the priests to let them know that they would depart.

At that time, the priests told them that they should drink the sacred wine that they prepared to bless the trio on their journey to the Sanctuary, and her memory stopped there.

‘Don’t tell me, those priests poisoned us?’

That thought crossed her mind.

However, Elmia and the girls had gone to the priests that had devoted 50 years of service to Seira and the Holy City.

Elmia couldn’t imagine that they would betray Seira.

‘In that case, then why…’

She tried to organize her thoughts, and at the same time her vision returned to normal.

It was still dark, but she finally could see the situation around her. The scene that greeted her eyes was —

“Seira-sama!!”

She was lying down on top of a stone platform that looked like a rectangular sacrificial altar, and the height was around Elmia’s waist. There weren't obvious injuries on her body.

Wooden shackles bound Seira’s hands and legs.

“Seira-sama! Are you alright! Please wake up, Seira-sama!!”

She called her name repeatedly, but Seira never opened her eyes. There was another similar stone platform beside her, and Ysha, the saint candidate, was lying on it.

Ysha’s hands and feet were also bound just like Seira.

“Ysha!! Hey, are you okay!? Wake up, wake up!!!”

The two girls didn’t open their eyes no matter how many times she called them. However, their chests were moving, so they were still breathing. They were still alive.

Elmia was relieved that Seira was safe.

She looked around her, trying to grasp their situation. The 5 square meter room was built in stone, without a single window.

Somebody threw Elmia’s holy armor away in one corner of the room.

There was a door directly facing her, and light spilled from the gaps, so she could still see the interior of the room.

Suddenly, that door opened.

“So noisy!! You’re already awake, huh.”

Elmia had been desperately trying to see in the dark, so the sudden brightness blinded her.

Despite that, she already knew the speaker based on the voice.

“Duke Ifel...do you know what happened to us?”

Duke Ifel was the person who governed the Holy City.

“What happened? Of course I know what happened. I’m holding the Saint captive.”

The duke then reached out to Seira’s body after saying that.

“Stop it!!!”

The duke retracted his hand.

It was not because he was scared of Elmia, but because his hand was repelled by something the moment he tried to touch her.

“Tsk, what an infuriating barrier.”

Saints were usually protected with the Holy Barrier.

It had repelled Duke Ifel’s hand.

Strange.

Holy Barriers wouldn’t react towards humans, in essence.

No matter how evil that person was.

“Duke, don’t tell me you’re —”

Part of the duke’s body transformed after he touched the barrier that covered Seira’s body.

The human transformation spell on his right hand was broken, and horns grew on his right forehead;his right eye turned pitch black completely.

He was not a human.

“Ahh, this barrier unraveled the human transformation spell… Well, good timing. I’ll just introduce myself, then. I’m Guzion, one of the demons serving the Evil God.”