Chapter 173: Battle for Defending the Holy City (1)

The lookout sentinels were in a flurry on top of the Holy City’s walls.

They had been doing their usual nightly rounds, when the Holy Barrier disappeared all of a sudden without any warning.

All of them hurriedly set up their defenses following the emergency manual. However, those guidelines were written on the premise that the Holy Barrier was on maintenance.

There was no record or manual available in the event that the Holy Barrier would disappear. It had never happened before, after all.

Without the Holy Barrier, the defense of the Holy City was almost nonexistent.

Although the city’s walls were solid and strong, the number of soldiers protecting them were few.

Even the entry of warlocks was prevented by the Holy Barrier. Moreover, this Holy City of Sanctum was the seat of the Creator God’s Great Shrine.

They had been incredibly laxed since they thought that anything evil would not be able to take a step inside this Holy City.

Actually, there were several times when the saintess was attacked by the warlocks, but they never told the residents nor the ordinary soldiers about this because of the possibility that it would shake their trust towards their deities.

That was why all the soldiers were agitated the moment they confirmed there were several shadows crawling in the distance.

Something sinister was drawing nearer to the Holy City.

The defense chief in charge of the west area of the Holy City — the side overlooking the great prairie — summoned magicians to shoot some light bombs.

The entire sky above the prairie lit up because of those light bombs.

It illuminated the vast swarm of monsters.

“No, no way.”

“Why so many monsters!?”

“They are… heading towards the Holy City?”

“The Holy Barrier had just disappeared. This is the end, there’s no way we can prevent —”

“Calm down! The Saintess will definitely fix the Holy Barrier. We only have to protect the City Walls with all our might so that the monsters won’t be able to invade the Holy City!”

The defense chief somehow managed to position the soldiers who were shrinking back. However, with the number of the soldiers presently here, it was very obvious that even the task of buying time would be such a distress.

Because of that, he ordered his subordinate to call for reinforcements, but —

There was no more time.

“— Hgghh!”

Sharp claws ripped the neck of the magician who shot the light bombs.

Several flying monsters came and attacked them. The magician who invoked the spell caught the monster’s attention and he became its first victim

“The enemies attacked! Everyone, confront them and attack with all your might!!”

Pandemonium broke out.

The soldiers involved in the defense of the Holy City were naturally trained to fight the demons. In fact, they were capable of defeating D-ranked monsters individually.

However, the monsters that charged towards them were all C-ranked and above.

“Ugh, these Elecrows…”

Crows clad in lightning flew like high-speed bullets towards them. Even if they didn’t touch those monsters, their bodies would turn numb, and they would be rooted to the spot when they passed by.

The frozen soldiers would then be attacked by Harpies, the bird monsters with faces of women.

Harpies were C-ranked monsters, but they were not weak at all. They could use weapons and cast magic, so their danger level was relatively high.

And because the soldiers’ movements had been hampered and slowed down by the electricity wrapped around the Elecrows, the Harpy posed a much bigger threat as it flew freely through the sky while swinging the sword it clenched on its talons.

One of the soldiers tried to deal with the troublesome Elecrow first, and he managed to hit the monster as it circled over his head, but he was electrocuted with enough force to almost burn him black.

Elecrows were monsters that should be defeated by casting magic and shooting arrows from a distance. However, these ones were so fast that arrows and spells didn’t reach them.

Moreover, there were dozens of them here.

The number of soldiers who could still move above the protective walls rapidly declined.

“Tsk— y-you! You have to release magic as flashily as you can into the sky!! Let the entire city know that we’re in a state of emergency!!”

The defense chief barked the order at the remaining magicians.

There was a siren that would signal the emergency situation, however, it was already destroyed by the monsters.

Just plainly saying that those monsters were intelligent was already an understatement. There was no way the C-ranked and B-ranked monsters would think of destroying the siren first and foremost.

There was somebody controlling these monsters, that was for sure.

The defense chief’s guess hit the bull's eye, and it was proven right in the worst way possible.

“That’s a no-no. Give us some more time.”

The magician was about to cast his magic into the sky, when suddenly, a hand pierced his abdomen, and he collapsed on the ground when it was pulled out.

A man had appeared right behind the magician and the defense chief without them noticing, and he was the one who killed that magician.

“If our goal is to cause horror and despair, then it would be better to let all the people here see our march… but this time around, Master ordered us to invade the Holy City and trample it down. It’ll be worrying if you were to make a racket about it.”

Even if the siren didn’t go off, there was still a fierce battle ongoing on top of the city walls. However, the chaos didn’t reach the residential area that was located just a short distance away from them.

Actually, this guy — Guzion the demon’s subordinate warlock — had casted an awareness-blocking barrier around the city walls. Because of that, the people in the nearby residential area only saw the walls as how it normally was.

The night deepened, and almost all of the citizens were already fast asleep, so no one noticed that the Holy Barrier was already gone.

Moreover, the soldiers who had been sent to spread the word that the city was currently in a state of emergency, as well as a few soldiers who tried to escape out of fear didn’t make it to the residential area.

There was somebody who hunted them.

Another warlock appeared behind the defense chief.

“I already killed all the people who left this place.”

“Yeah, thanks for the hard work. So that leaves...only you.”

The defense chief realized that he was the only man standing there now.

“Tsk, @$%@^*#!!”

The defense chief swung his word towards the guy who appeared first. This chief was a powerful person who could take on a B-ranked monster on his own.

However — the warlock stopped his sword with a single finger.

Afterward, he easily broke the sword that had been bestowed to the defense chief when he had been promoted.

“T-that’s…”

“You got some skills. You little bastard is probably a B-ranked person based on human’s standards, I guess? But, you’re nothing against me.”

The defense chief’s heart was broken.

He could hear the footsteps of the hundreds — no, thousands of monsters marching towards the Holy City now.

Two monsters were standing before him, and even if he were to multiply himself into dozens, he didn’t stand a chance against them.

Moreover, the entire city was oblivious of what was happening here, and he couldn’t even manage to let them know.

If this was not a desperate situation, then he did not know how else to describe it.

The defense chief’s sword fell to the ground as he dropped to his knees.

“Saintess… I’m sorry.”

“It’s still too early to give up, you know.”

“—!?”

The defense chief thought he was the only one alive remaining on top of the city walls, so he was shocked when he heard someone call out to him.

He spun around, and there was a woman standing there.

She was a gorgeous one, her beauty unsuited to the scene of the corpses lying around.

She was gripping an unfamiliar curved sword in her hand.

“You, tell me, how did you break past my barrier?”

“Barrier?... Ahh, I thought there was a flimsy film there, so that’s a barrier, huh. I already tore it, if that’s what you’re referring to.”

“Tore, you said?”

“Also, you might not notice it, but… you’re already cut, too.”

“Wha—”

The warlock who first arrived here had been minced into pieces. He tried to regenerate, but because the pieces were too many, he reached the limit soon enough.

That warlock turned into black smoke before disappearing.

“B-bastard, who are you!? What did you do to my brother!?”

“I am Tina Ernol. Well, I’m formerly known as Tina Harivell. If you’re a warlock, then I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with it, no?”

“Tina Harivell, huh.”

Bloodlust overflowed from the warlock.

All of the warlocks harbored a deep hatred for Tina.

“As for your question of what I did to him… I cut him. Just like this —”

Tina’s hand that had been clutching the sword vanished in thin air.

Well, it moved so fast that it almost seemed to disappear as she slashed it all around, and slashing attacks flew from the sword

This was the woman who taught Halt his swordsmanship — and the strongest knight in the entire world. She used the weapon that had been bestowed by the Creator God to unleash the ultimate sword skill [Savage Aerial Slash].

Countless vacuum blades slashed the warlock's body like butter, a feat that was impossible for ordinary knights who couldn’t even give him a single wound.

The second warlock disappeared along with his grudge just like the other warlock before him — unable to utter a single word.