𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒𝟕: 𝐒𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 (3)
“This is the first time we’ve seen each other face to face, Sir Oswald. Or should I call you. . . Oswald, my fellow cadet?”
“Call me whatever you’re comfortable with, Saintess.”
“Okay, then I can call you Oswald, right? We’re the same age and both students at the academy anyway.”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
“And let’s not be so formal with each other. It’s suffocating. . . . . .”
“. . . .”
Saintess Estell, who seems to have a brighter personality than I expected (?).
“You don’t like it?”
Oswald paused for a moment as he watched the Saintess who had already started talking, but soon lowered his mask and responded.
“Alright. Please take care of me, Estell.”
Estell reached out her hand and Oswald shook it.
“It feels refreshing. Now I feel like I can live a little. . . I thought I was going to die doing this ridiculous Saintess cosplay.”
“. . . . . .”
“Why are you looking at me like that? Ah. . . right. . . You don’t know much about my original personality, do you?”
For Oswald, who had only seen her acting cautious and elegant, the current Saintess was nothing short of shocking.
“Furthermore, those incompetent fools who call themselves knights were acting so arrogantly. . . It really got on my nerves. I was thinking about giving them a good beating myself. . . Thanks to you, I feel much better now.”
“Uh. . . um. . . Just. . . give me a moment. . . I need some time to adjust. . .”
“Heeheehee, well. . . how did you end up joining the Order of the Holy Knights?”
“I was born with a curse of magic that prevented me from using any magic at all. . . So I had to choose.”
“Hmm. . . come to think of it, everyone who joins the Order of the Holy Knights has a peculiar fate. Chief Oleg was originally weak of heart, you know. That’s why he wanted to become a knight. . . but he couldn’t train his body, so he gave up and ended up applying to the Order of the Holy Knights.”
“Are you close to Chief Oleg?”
“Chief Oleg was the one who escorted me when I was chosen as the Saintess.”
“Hmm. . . .”
“And I received a lot of help from Chief Oleg after that. Now that I think about it, I requested the strongest warrior in the Order of the Holy Knights as my escort. . . and you came?”
“. . . .”
“Well, considering you’re able to subdue even the Order of Knights of Order members despite having no magic, you must have some skills, right?”
“Well. . . to some extent?”
“What, are you saying you don’t have much confidence in yourself?”
“I’m just not being overconfident.”
“Tch.”
“But don’t worry, I’ll risk everything to save you if you’re in danger.”
At those words, Estell’s face flushed instantly and she quickly looked away, mumbling something else.
🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸
The next day. . . Saintess Estell began her healing service with the priests. With the advancement of medicine, many doctors appeared, and priests with holy power began to be pushed aside. The church realized this and started teaching medical skills to the priests.
Thanks to this, priests became better than ordinary doctors, possessing not only holy power but also medical skills. Especially in the field of surgery, surgery performed by priests had a higher survival rate. The only problem was. . .
‘𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯?’
The trainee knights of the Silver level, who were not even able to handle swords. Well, they were stronger than ordinary soldiers because they could use body strengthening. . . but in terms of coping ability, the Vatican Guard would have been more helpful.
‘𝘈𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦-𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯.’
Captain John Oscar and Vice-Captain Lefangs Lionel of the Order of Knights of Order were on close protection duty. They would be the last line of defense to protect the Saintess in case of emergency.
‘𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸. . .’
One of the tallest buildings in the vicinity caught his eye, the clock tower.
As soon as Oswald entered the clock tower, he saw a Kale guard guarding it. Identifying himself as a member of the Order of the Holy Knights, Oswald immediately headed for the observation deck on the roof of the clock tower.
Below the observation deck, there was a bell that rang every hour, and various mechanical devices were installed.
Oswald looked around from the observation deck, his senses spread to the maximum, detecting any hostile forces or foreign objects.
He had been doing this for about two hours when he detected demonic power from a place about 500m away. It was such a weak demonic power that no one would have noticed it unless they had heightened senses.
Oswald immediately looked at that place, and thanks to his high vision level, he saw a clear image of it.
It was a normal human form, but Oswald confirmed that it was a woman. He had already roughly identified the target, so he realized that the woman was a member of the Witch Society of Zion.
Soon, demonic power was detected from another location. One after another. . . a total of five. . . The problem was. . .
‘𝘍𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘴? 𝘈 𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮!!’
Oswald hurriedly jumped over the railing of the observation deck and fell to the ground. He landed on the ground, avoiding anyone.
Kuwung!
The sound of him falling attracted the attention of the people around him. Oswald then rushed to where the Saintess was, pushing through the Order of Knights of Order members and reaching the Saintess.
Captain and Vice-Captain, who quickly noticed Oswald’s hurried appearance, also approached the Saintess’ side.
“You need to evacuate immediately.”
“Let’s do that.”
At Oswald’s words, the captain and vice-captain followed his words without objection. As they were about to leave their seats!
BOOM! BOOM!
An explosion occurred at the city hall, and the area was instantly thrown into chaos. Immediately afterwards, a green flag rose from the direction of the city hall.
A flag with no pattern, simply green, it was the symbol of the liberal revolutionaries.
Thanks to them, all countries in Western Titan except the Democratic Republic were not allowed to wear green.
“Let’s go to the harbor!”
Everyone nodded at Vice-Captain Lefangs’s words. Currently, a royal ship prepared by the British royal family was waiting at the harbor. If they headed straight there, they would be able to escape this place.
But that was only for a while. . . Soon, black pillars of light rose from the five directions, and a pentagonal barrier was created, connecting the five directions.
In an instant, demonic power began to fill the pentagonal barrier.
“A large-scale curse!”
It was a wide-area curse magic that mobilized all the witches of the Witch Society of Zion.
Then, as if the curse magic had worked, the eyes of the ordinary people who had gathered around turned red, and they began to attack those who had not changed. Oswald, who knew what kind of curse this was, shouted urgently.
“It’s the Curse of Frenzy!”
Once infected, it turned people into berserkers who fought until they died unless they were cured with a cure curse. It was similar to a berserker ability, but. . . unlike a berserker, it didn’t make them stronger.
Oswald immediately poured holy power into one of the magic circles inscribed on his body and cast a cure curse. With Oswald’s holy power, he could only cast it on a single target.
As expected, the citizens soon fell under the Curse of Frenzy again. . .
‘𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦.’
Fortunately, the Vatican Guard had strong faith, so they possessed a small amount of holy power, which prevented them from being affected by the Curse of Frenzy.
On the other hand, among the Order of Knights, there were those who were shamefully below standard and did not have faith, so they did not possess holy power and many of them were affected by the Curse of Frenzy.
At least Saintess Estell was able to cast a wide-area cure curse, but the citizens who did not possess holy power or did not have strong mental power fell under the Curse of Frenzy again.
“Battalion Commander Lorenzo, I’m going to attack the origin. Battalion commander, stay here and protect the Saintess!”
“Yes. Understood, Sir Oswald.”
Then Oswald quickly started running towards the vertex of the pentagon. The problem was that the citizens who filled the streets were attacking him in a frenzy.
It would take too much time to subdue those citizens and advance, so he jumped up from the ground and landed on the roof of a building.
Fortunately, there was no one on the roof of the building, and Oswald jumped over the roofs of those buildings, heading towards the vertex.
Tatatatatang!
At that moment, gunfire aimed at Oswald. They were liberal revolutionaries hiding in the middle of the buildings. They had witnessed Oswald running towards the witches and decided to intercept him.
‘𝘐𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘵.’
The bullets flew at his body. . . but thanks to the Drake Skin, he suffered no damage. Oswald confirmed this and simply ignored the gunfire, continuing to advance.
Then, this time, they attached something to the muzzles of their guns and tried to attack Oswald once again.
Taaang! Shuaak. Kwaaang!
“Grenades?”
Grenades were military weapons that existed only in the Empire, and they were strictly controlled and not allowed to be sold. The liberal revolutionaries were using those grenades without any hesitation.
‘𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵?’
Eastern Titan, which had more advanced firearm technology than Western Titan. With tanks and armored cars using dieselpunk, the East was ahead of the West in terms of pure military power.
Since the grenade technology was also imported from the East, the liberal revolutionaries could have obtained grenades if they wanted to.
The power of the explosion was at the level of fireball magic, and the power was as strong as an explosion magic bullet. It seemed that small iron beads were filled inside the grenade, maximizing its lethality.
In any case, the power of the grenade was not something that even Oswald could ignore. He could withstand a few, but if he continued to be exposed to them, even the Drake Skin would eventually be worn down and pierced.
Of course, one of the magic circles inscribed on his body had the function of repairing the Drake Skin, but it took more than a day to repair it.
In the end, Oswald took out his Winchester V11 and returned fire.
Tang! Clank. Tang! Clank.
It was made for hunting large monsters, so the large-caliber bullets instantly shattered the heads of the liberal revolutionaries.
Oswald ran at high speed, firing accurately with every shot. He defeated all the revolutionaries who tried to intercept him and finally reached one of the vertices.
Oswald hid his body and observed the place.
“There are so many of them. . . . . .”
As if they had prepared for this situation. . . In addition to the six witches who were maintaining the pentagram, dozens of other witches were waiting around them.
Without needing to see more, Oswald, who had loaded an explosion magic bullet, aimed at the witches who were drawing the pentagram, focusing on one of them. Since black pillars of light were emanating from them, he only needed to hit them.
He aimed at the witches under the pillars while still hiding his body, and soon pulled the trigger repeatedly.
Tang! Clank. Tang! Clank. Tang! Clank. Tang!
Four explosion magic bullets tore through the air and hit the witches under the pillars.
Kwakwakwang!
But that wasn’t enough to take them down. Perhaps they had prepared for long-range attacks as well, because a black barrier formed at the moment of the explosion, protecting the six witches who were the source of the pillars.
‘𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵? 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩, 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵?’
Furthermore, as his position was revealed, the witches were seen flying into the sky.
Oswald had no choice but to throw himself into an alley to avoid them. At least, he needed to face them without any interference, so he went down and hid his body.
After that, he tried to move to the other side and climb onto the roof, but. . . the witches were already watching the roofs from the sky, one by one.
Oswald entered a suitable building and hid in a room on the 3rd floor, peering out the window.
‘𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺, 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧𝘴. . .’
He immediately changed his Blood Demon to a large-caliber sniper railgun. Oswald, who had loaded a high-explosive armor-piercing bullet, tried to snipe again. Since it was a railgun, the penetration power would probably be enough to pierce through the black barrier and hit them inside.
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