City of Sin

Holy Book(2)

This time the divine glow filled the sky, slowly forming a portal for three angels to walk out of. ALl three were classically beautiful, but their radiant armour and enormous swords showed that they were true warriors and not just petitioners.

Richard immediately activated Insight, finding that each of the three angels was only a tiny bit weaker than a saint. However, their wings made them faster and more agile than an actual mortal saint, making them difficult to fight. He cursed under his breath as he pulled Angel’s Demise from his sword case, preparing to fight himself. Mountainsea now had a steel rod in her hand, clearly looking at them warily.

The three angels charged straight into the sky, shrugging off the spells Richard threw at them with no issue. Grunting in annoyance, Richard and Mountainsea flew up themselves to engage in battle.

Back at the entrance to the cathedral, Martin smiled at Rizal, “Look, they do not have much of an advantage anymore.”

“This… is unbelievable,” the bishop stammered, his eyes darting to the holy book in the cardinal’s hands. Three pages of the book had burnt to ash as Martin spoke, but that was what had summoned the knights, warriors, and angels. He was certain that this was some kind of summoning, but the idea of burning the holy scriptures was unfathomable to him. He did not know whether this was blasphemy or service to the Lord.

Richard would normally be able to deal with all three angels in under a minute, but unfortunately he was also busy commanding the rest of his soldiers. The unease in his heart was growing stronger as he tried his best to recall whether he had read about such a thing, but nothing sparked in his mind.

Originally, fighting under the cathedral was no problem at all. Every worshipper of the Radiant Lord was effectively a level higher here, but that meant nothing against only two hundred opponents. Now, that count had more than doubled; it was starting to become a real threat. He needed to end this quickly.

Getting a signal in his mind, he quickly looked down at the first silver knight that had been downed. The warrior burst into radiant white flames, but after a moment all that was left behind was a black mark on the ground. Motes of light vanished into thin air. This confirmed that this was a summoning instead of a teleportation, but that was only more shocking and not less. Just how did this one enemy summon so many powerful warriors? This was on par with his own shadow summons!

His gaze shifted to the cardinal and his book; were there more summons to come? Looking at the youth’s scheming face, he was certain that these angels were not the end of it. A dozen different approaches flashed across his mind, but they boiled down to the same two ideas. He either had to wipe out the summons as quickly as possible, or kill the summoner himself. It was difficult to judge which was better, but it was well-known that priests were far more difficult to kill than most others at higher levels.

After some thought, he decided he would just have to deal with the summoned beings. He laid down a thousand orders in the blink of an eye, having the Thinker fine-tune them and prompt the shadowspears to erupt with reckless might. A dozen of the drones fell, but in exchange a good half of the silver knights were wiped out in moments.

The smile on Martin’s face froze up, but he quickly flipped through his book and spoke once more, repeating what he had said the first time, “… And the Lord thus gave them more warriors…”

Another group of silver knights appeared, but this time the shadowspears were prepared. The messy formation reorganised in the blink of an eye as they continued tearing into the enemies, but Richard still shivered at the realisation that the trouble had not passed. As expected, another set of soldiers and angels appeared as well, leaving him and Mountainsea fighting three each.

He roared in anger and struck out with Angel’s Demise, a crescent of sword light passing through the bodies of two of the angels. The sky was filled with golden blood that burnt in contact with the sunlight, and the angels started burning up as well. However, his face paled in the aftermath; such attacks required a great deal of energy, and he would only be able to use three in total before he needed rest.

Mountainsea swung her steel rod as well. The attack wasn’t swift, but it seemed to contain boundless energy as it followed behind the angel who tried to flee. The rod itself seemed to change shape to reach the enemy, and after realising that she wouldn’t be able to escape the angel turned around to try and block.

*BOOM!* Sword met rod, and the angel was immediately blown away. One could see the body burning apart as it shot towards the ground, not even reaching the battlefield before it was all gone. However, Mountainsea paled as well, starting to sway a little. This strike was her most powerful skill, and its use consumed more than half of her internal energy. Without her totems, she didn’t have the ability to sustain such attacks.

Another ten shadowspears fell, but the first platoon of silver knights was completely annihilated. Richard looked at Martin and felt his heart sink at the sight of a dazzling smile, silently gathering five wisps of thunderclouds in his fingertips and shooting them into the sky.

These thunderclouds were extremely powerful, but they took a long time to reach full potential. Richard hadn’t cast them before expecting the battle to be short, but now he realised that this would not be the case. His followers immediately reacted as well, slowing down their offence and starting to draw out their battles to wait for the attack to reach full power. Even Tiramisu reduced the energy he was putting into his attacks, although every one still sent at least one knight flying away.

Bishop Rizal felt like his lungs were on fire as he drew on the last dregs of his energy, praying to the Lord when he could to desperately cast even the smallest of healing spells. He knew every spell he cast was another ten seconds bought for someone, which could be enormous in the current situation. It was already a miracle that he had managed to last so long, but he completely ignored the stress on his body as he continued casting.

The remaining defenders of Tobia had gathered together as well, closing in on the battlefield, but they had been stopped right outside the cathedral. The general was hesitating to attack, scared witless by the sheer power displayed by both sides.

Richard patiently continued his fight with the angels, making sure not to sacrifice any more shadowspears unless it was absolutely worth it. Another angel succumbed to heavy injuries after a few minutes of intense fighting, leaving only two alive, but this was only the beginning of his problems.

“… And the Lord thus gave them more warriors…”

More silver knights, more soldiers, and three more angels. It was at this point that Richard realised he should have prioritised killing the cardinal, but he immediately shelved the thought. There were only two guards there, which was a trap he was all too used to employing himself. Thinking back to the divine glow that blocked his vision, he couldn’t find it in himself to try an all-out attack.

“… And the Lord thus gave them more warriors…”

He calmed himself down. All these silver knights, warriors, and angels combined were equivalent to a dragon summon, capable of defeating an adult black dragon. Such a powerful spell had to have a price; a page was being burnt from the book with every summon, which meant this weapon would run out eventually.

“… And the Lord thus gave them more warriors…”

He felt his heart drop every time he heard that sentence, and his followers felt even worse, but he continued to fight. The flames of war burnt in the courtyard, but the explosions and screams of death could not suppress Martin’s soothing voice.

“… And the Lord thus gave them more warriors…”

“… And the Lord thus gave them more warriors…”

…

“… The Lord thus found them even more warriors…” 

At this point, Martin’s voice sounded like a demon’s chants. It seemed like the battle would never end.