Volume 6, Chapter 31 – Ambush

“What’s going on?” Not reacting in time, Evelyn was stunned for a moment. “What happened to him?”

But some things are not that a person doesn’t see them, but that reality is so different from imagination that the brain refuses to believe it. For the paladins beside Evelyn, they had witnessed with their own eyes that Evelyn had failed to activate her divine power.

One of the paladins, who was struggling to hold down the man, kindly reminded her.

“Lady Evelyn, quickly use the power given to you by the Goddess!”

“But…”

But she had already used it, and that power would automatically take effect the moment she touched the other person. There was no question of using it or not. Fortunately, Evelyn was not the type to panic easily. She squatted down and prepared to extend her hand to the man again, trying to trigger her ability a second time.

Before that, Yisi stopped her.

If the paladins and the surrounding crowd were to witness Evelyn’s inability to use her power one more time, her future would be extremely dangerous. A child of God who had lost their divine power was equivalent to a worthless ordinary person, and would even incur the wrath of the believers who admired her. Why would a child of God suddenly lose their divine power? The cause of the problem would only be attributed to Evelyn herself—neglecting her prayers to the Goddess, or giving herself over to a demon.

At that time, not only would her status as a child of God be stripped by the church, but she would also very likely be branded as ‘tempted by a demon’ to explain to the believers why she had suddenly become unable to use her power. These risks were already beyond Evelyn’s control.

“What are you doing? Get out of the way.”

Evelyn frowned and waved her hand to push away Yisi’s arm, but Yisi grabbed her hand in return.

“He’s just addicted to drugs. Instead of using divine power to eliminate his negative emotions, it’s better to use another spell to calm him down and make him fall unconscious now.”

“Lady Evelyn, I happen to know such a spell. Shall I do it?”

A paladin called out. Evelyn waved her hand.

“I’ll do it.”

As she spoke, Evelyn placed her hand on the head of the man, whose eyes were rolled back.

“□□——[Mind Shock]”

With an invisible shockwave of pressure, the man’s whole body trembled. Like a doll whose battery was about to run out, he slowly closed his eyes, his head tilted to the side, and he passed out.

With a demeanor befitting a Pope, Evelyn stood up, her voice becoming extremely majestic.

“Send him to the temple. Lord Potter is a faithful believer of the Goddess. Even though he has disowned Vibis, he is still the eldest son of their family. Tell Lord Potter to take his family member back. In addition, follow Vibis’s lead and investigate the source of the drugs. To dare to sell drugs in Mitters Bayer, they must be severely punished.”

“Yes!”

“Lady Evelyn, are you returning to the temple with us?”

“I have other matters to investigate.”

Extremely serious, Evelyn had the paladins leave. The paladins then carried the man and walked towards the central temple. The crowd of onlookers gradually dispersed. No one said anything about her divine power disappearing because of Evelyn’s abnormality. On the contrary, they cast looks of admiration and reverence at her for quickly quelling the chaos. Some people even knelt on the ground and excitedly offered prayers in the direction of the central temple.

After walking out of the crowd and into a narrow, deserted street, Evelyn thanked her in a low voice.

“Thanks.”

“It’s nothing. Instead of thanking me, you should have noticed the problem too, right?”

“Mm.” Evelyn lowered her head and looked at her left hand hesitantly. “Can you let me try once? I’ll just touch Mary.”

“If it can help Lady Evelyn… It’s no problem.”

With a comforting smile on her cute face, Mary took the initiative to extend her hand to Evelyn. Evelyn slowly reached out her hand. As if lacking confidence, there was much more hesitation in Evelyn’s movements.

Their hands soon touched. Just like when she had touched the man before, no eye-catching golden light appeared in Evelyn’s hand. But even so, Evelyn still asked a little anxiously.

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“How is it? Do you feel anything special, Mary? Like your heart being filled with light, and your spirit feeling much lighter.”

“Mmm…” Mumbling, Mary’s gaze shifted to the ground, which still had some snow on it. “Th-There’s a little bit…”

Mary was lying.

It wasn’t because Yisi knew Mary well, but because Mary was so bad at lying that anyone could see through her lie. Evelyn was of course no exception. She clenched her hands, her deep green eyes filled with uncertainty.

“…How is that possible? Why?”

Yisi patted Evelyn’s shoulder forcefully, pulling her back to reality from her personal world.

“Did you bring a weapon, Evelyn?”

“A weapon? Why do you ask? I don’t know storage magic, nor do I have a storage item. The Staff of Divine Retribution cannot be put into any storage space.”

“So you can still use the divine scepter, right?”

“Yes.”

“Take this.”

Yisi handed Evelyn a white divine staff. This was originally a weapon Yisi had made for Tiffany, but because Tiffany didn’t like the little bear-shaped sculpture on the top of the staff, it had been stored away by Yisi in her inventory. She had given Tiffany a plain staff instead. According to Tiffany, this divine staff was something for children, too childish—even though the effect of the staff itself was the same as a normal divine staff, and its performance was only better.

And here I thought Tiffany might like the little bear pattern, which is why I deliberately made it that way.

Glancing at the rather well-carved little bear divine staff, Yisi grumbled to herself.

“A divine staff? Why are you giving it to me?”

“You’ll know soon enough. Mary, take this.” Taking out Mary’s all-metal shield from her inventory, Yisi gestured for Evelyn to look at the sky ahead. “They’re here.”

One after another, things dragging long trails of light drew perfect parabolas in the sky, shooting straight towards Yisi’s group. And when Evelyn looked behind her, batches of people in black, holding bows and crossbows, appeared on the roofs of the surrounding residential buildings.

An ambush.

“Master, what are those?”

“The upper-level magic of [Fireball], [Fire Shell]. Its power is a bit smaller than [Fireball], but it can be launched from a great distance.”

“Now is not the time to be talking about this! To dare to launch an ambush in the city, they must be a premeditated group. Let’s get out of here quickly!”

Evelyn urged impatiently, raising the little bear divine staff and beginning to chant a spell. Due to the sudden turn of events, the normal pedestrians were in a state of chaos. The streets were filled with screams and shouts. But unfortunately, probably to prevent Evelyn from escaping in the chaos, the black-clothed people who appeared later quickly sealed off both ends of the road. After seeing the weapons in their hands, the pedestrians directly gave up the idea of breaking through the blockade and instead looked for shelter to hide in on the street.

The number of black-clothed people was about 40, all of them Fallen, with levels ranging from 5 to 30. Undoubtedly, they were after the lone Evelyn. It was precisely because Yisi had discovered the gathering trend of this group of Fallen on the Omniscient Map early on that she had handed the weapon to Evelyn.

Soon, one after another, fist-sized [Fire Shells] cut through the sky and were launched in the direction of the three of them. Although many [Fire Shells] missed their target due to poor accuracy and hit the empty center of the street, and some even fell into the camp of the black-clothed people, there were still two or three that flew towards the three of them.

Evelyn, who had already finished chanting her spell, forcefully slammed the divine staff on the ground.

“□□□—[Light Curtain].”

A faint golden stream of light blocked the way in front of the three of them. Every time a [Fire Shell] exploded on it, the golden stream of light would ripple like water. But the number of [Fire Shells] was too small to break through the defense. Instead, the flames that hit the ground and spread out like incendiary bombs caused them a lot of trouble. The smoke that obscured their vision and the spreading high temperature made them very uncomfortable.

“Eeaah!! S-Save me!”

“How can there be such people in the Holy City!”

“Get me out of here!”

The continuous explosions made the passersby cowering in the corners cry out. Yisi patted the tense Mary. Perhaps because there were children in the crowd, although Mary had been holding her large shield, defending against the arrows that could be shot down from the roofs on both sides at any time, her eyes still couldn’t help but look at the crying children.

“Can I ask you to take those people away, Mary?”

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“But Master’s safety…”

“Don’t worry about me. Camilla and Edith are on their way.”

This street was where the inn they were staying at was located. Having seen the firelight cutting through the sky, the people in the inn were already on the move.

“In that case… I’m going!”

“Mm, be careful not to get hurt.”

Patting Mary’s shoulder, Yisi added a defensive spell hidden under her clothes for her.

And because they saw the shield-wielding Mary suddenly charge towards the side of the street, the black-clothed people standing on the roof, holding crossbows, immediately pulled the trigger at Mary.

It would be a big mistake to think you could succeed.

Using the smoke as cover, Yisi secretly made a strong wind blow on the street, then under the cover of the strong wind, used an even more concealed strong airflow to stop the arrows in mid-air, making all the arrows fly back in the opposite direction, one by one hitting the chests of the archers.

As if hit hard by a wooden stake, the archers on the roof all lost their balance and fell down. Although they were only hit by the fletching part of the arrows, the impact from the strong airflow was enough to make them lose their ability to fight.

On the other side, Evelyn’s battle had just begun. Since the black-clothed people’s target was Evelyn, most of the Fallen who had blocked both ends of the street rushed straight for her. Fortunately, Evelyn was not a pure magic caster like Andrea. Besides magic, Evelyn’s close combat skills were also passable.

She used the divine staff as a long-handled hammer to force back the enemies who were too close, and used magic to bombard those who attacked from blind spots, avoiding the use of spells that required a long chanting time, and instead choosing skills that could be cast in a short time and saved mana. [Fireball], [Light Bullet], and [Ice Wall] flashed around her one after another. Taking advantage of the relatively narrow street, which prevented all the black-clothed people from rushing up at once, Evelyn mercilessly disabled her opponents one after another.

She must have judged that she couldn’t break through, so she was buying time for the church’s paladins who were on their way. It could also be to create an opportunity for her and Mary to break out with the innocent passersby.

If these black-clothed people were ordinary people, this tactic would indeed be the optimal solution. But Evelyn was facing a group of Fallen. As long as those Fallen activated their abilities, or if the level 30 Fallen hidden on the roof joined the battle, Evelyn would immediately be at a disadvantage.

“Hyaaaaaa!!!”

Just as Yisi was about to rush into the crowd to help Evelyn, Mary’s cry from the other side caught her attention.

Using some method, Mary had persuaded the dozen or so passersby hiding in the corner to break out with her. The black-clothed people who had been sent to deal with Mary naturally blocked her way. Ten Fallen either summoned flames in their palms or had their familiars block the road. One of them even had the ability to summon a familiar, ordering a giant bear that occupied half the street to block the way.

And when Yisi looked at Mary, a dazzling golden light was shining from her chest. Holding the all-metal shield in front of her, like a high-speed truck, no matter who stood in her way, or what kind of magic was used to attack the shield, they would be instantly sent flying or knocked aside. Even though there was a distance of more than twenty meters between Yisi and Mary, Yisi could still hear the sound of their bones breaking.

Although she knew Mary was very strong, this level of strength was a bit too exaggerated.

Mary’s charge only stopped when she hit the giant bear. But as if hit head-on by a siege ram, the giant bear, whose leg was hit, immediately lost its balance, squatted down, and let out a roar of pain. Mary also took several steps back due to the huge recoil.

“Awooooo!!”

Letting out a sound that didn’t sound like a bear, the giant bear, covered in black fur, suddenly swiped at Mary. Mary, on the other hand, used her small size to jump to the side, used her shield as a shield axe, spun around in a large circle, and after accumulating enough power, swung it horizontally at the giant bear’s wrist. With a splash of blood, the shield sank deep into the giant bear’s wrist. At the same time, the force of the giant bear’s paw hitting the ground made the pavement crack and fly apart in a series of explosions. Because the shield was embedded in the giant bear’s wrist, Mary did not have time to dodge the impact of the fragments.

“Dangerous!”

The people’s worries were obviously unnecessary. Although the flying gravel hit Mary, it was as if it had hit a steel plate, making a series of clanging sounds—Yisi had added a defensive spell under Mary’s clothes. Otherwise, Yisi would not have dared to let Mary get too far away from her.

“Watch out above!”

The giant bear swiped at the still-unresponsive Mary with its other hand.

“□□—[Ice Lance]”

A cold voice sounded, and immediately after, a cyan-colored long spear, as thick as an adult’s arm, pierced into the back of the giant bear’s head. After that, another red long spear pierced through the opening created by the cyan-colored long spear, and along with it was a sadistic voice with a hint of provocation.

“[Blood Burst].”

Boom.

Like a rapidly expanding balloon, the giant bear’s head quickly swelled, and then its skin could not withstand the expansion and directly exploded. An extremely bloody scene unfolded before people’s eyes, with brain matter and blood splashing all over the ground.

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The former was Camilla’s support, the latter was Edith’s game.

The out-of-control giant bear’s arm could only rely on inertia and gravity to smash down on Mary. Mary also finally pulled out her metal shield, raised it to block above her head, and as if just blocking a falling tile, Mary easily made the powerless giant bear’s arm slide to the ground.

Then, panting, she beckoned to the people behind her.

“Everyone, get out of here quickly!”

“O-Okay.”

Although they were startled by Mary’s blood-soaked appearance, the people still nodded repeatedly, one after another crossing the rubble and the giant bear’s corpse to escape the street. As they left, Yisi heard them say things like “how is this little child so strong,” and “she must be at the level of a paladin captain.”

Swish, swish.

The sound of sharp objects cutting through the air.

Confirming that Mary was out of danger, Yisi turned her attention to the besieged Evelyn. The latter was panting heavily, her gorgeous priestess’s habit tattered, and her movements had become much slower. Although she noticed the sound of arrows coming from the roof, she had no strength left to block them. She could only bend over as much as possible, not exposing her vital spots to the arrows.

I won’t let you succeed.

Leaping up, using the force that shattered the pavement, Yisi jumped between the arrows and Evelyn, then swung Gungnir, knocking the arrows to the side. So that they would not shoot again, Yisi used [Light Arrow] on the side. Of course, this time Yisi did not use the light arrows to outline them and pin them to the ground like she had with the bandits, but controlled the light arrows to enter the black-clothed people’s knees, making them lose their ability to fight.

Landing in the crowd beside Evelyn, Yisi first sent two people flying with Gungnir, then helped up Evelyn, whose silver pigtails had come loose.

“Are you okay?”

“Hmph, I won’t lose to these Fallen.”

“Then let’s continue fighting. The paladins are already on their way.”

“Haaah!!”

A man whose fist was covered in black liquid swung at Yisi. The Fallen had already seen that if they did not defeat Yisi, they could not continue to besiege Evelyn.

Evelyn’s face quickly paled, and she shouted in a hurry.

“Be careful! Don’t touch the black stuff, it will devour magic power!”

Unfortunately, Evelyn’s words were a step too late. Yisi’s Gungnir had already come into contact with the black liquid covering the man. As if bitten hard by something, Yisi found her Gungnir stuck to the man, while the man grinned, revealing a cruel smile.

The reason Evelyn was in such a sorry state was because of this man’s ability. When magic hit the man, it would instantly be annihilated, then be devoured by the black liquid and turned into the man’s magic power. And when using a weapon for close combat, the weapon would directly stick to the man, and its magic power would be forcibly taken by him.

Yisi tilted her head.

Just like when she had passed the identification stele at the city gate, the identification stele would draw magic power from a person’s body. Yisi felt something pulling at the magic power in her body. Although this pulling force was stronger than that of the identification stele, compared to her own magic power, which was as solid as steel, it was like trying to scoop up a block of iron with a wooden spoon. It had no effect at all.

Hmm… I’ll give him a surprise.

The corners of Yisi’s mouth lifted.

Like a dam during a flood, Yisi poured her own magic power into Gungnir. But because the magic circuit in the man’s body was too narrow, the speed at which the magic power flowed from Gungnir into the man’s body was frighteningly slow. Most of it was stored in Gungnir. As if it would explode at any moment, the overloaded Gungnir emitted a piercing hum, its shaft trembling uncontrollably.

The man’s mouth was wide open in terror.

“This level of magic power, w-what are you trying to do! Who on earth are you!?”

“The person who’s sending you to meet God.”

Forcibly pressurizing the magic power accumulated in Gungnir, the massive amount of magic power, with nowhere to be released, instantly ignored the man’s narrow magic circuit and rushed madly into his body. As if a piece of wood had been stuffed into his muscles, the man’s facial features were instantly distorted. The raging magic power, like a tsunami inside him, made him open his mouth in pain, but he couldn’t make a sound. He could only retreat desperately, trying to break free from Gungnir.

It was at this moment that Evelyn, from the side, repelled the other Fallen who had come to help, then used the little bear sculpture on the tip of the little bear divine staff to smash hard on the head of the man who was trying to break free from Gungnir.

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Thump.

The man’s eyes rolled back, and he fell to the ground.

“B-Boss!”

“[Fireball].”

Without hesitation, Evelyn released a spell at the few Fallen who were in a panic because their leader had fainted. A head-sized fireball instantly engulfed them.

Hiss.

The sound of a short sword piercing the air came from behind, but Evelyn just bent down and fell to the ground in a seemingly clumsy manner. When the assassin launched a follow-up attack from above, she picked up a short sword that had fallen on the ground, tilted her head, dodged the assassin’s top-down stab, and then swung the hand holding the short sword back, plunging the blade into the assassin’s neck.

The assassin’s whole body trembled, and warm blood immediately gushed out. He collapsed to the ground, twitching.

Hey, hey… She’s a Pope, but her methods are the same as Pepe’s.

“Protect Lady Evelyn!”

“Don’t let these rats escape!”

One after another, shouts came from both sides of the street. The paladins had finally arrived.

The black-clothed Fallen began to waver.

“The paladins are here.”

“Go.”

“But what about the plan?”

“The plan has already failed. The top priority now is not to leave them any leverage. Kill everyone who can’t be taken away, so they can’t sell us out.”

“But the boss is among them!”

“Don’t worry about that. The paladins are already here!”

“Tsk, retreat!”

Amidst a low-voiced argument, dozens of black-clothed people threw oil and torches at their fallen comrades on the ground, then quickly disappeared down the street.

Taking this opportunity, Yisi shook her head at Camilla and Edith in the distance, signaling them, especially Edith, to leave. After receiving a nod in reply, she turned around and extended her hand to Evelyn, who was still on the ground.

Without hesitation, Evelyn, covered in blood and sweat, grabbed Yisi’s hand and got up from the ground with her help.

“Thanks a lot.”

“I only helped you at the end. It’s you who kept yourself alive until now.”

“No need for kind words,” halfway through her sentence, Evelyn, who had just stood up, suddenly widened her eyes. “Damn it!”

Then she grabbed Yisi’s shoulder forcefully, trying to push her aside. Although Yisi’s body only swayed a little, it was enough. The dagger that came from behind Yisi failed to hit her, only leaving a scratch on Evelyn’s arm—it was a black-clothed person who had been playing dead.

Clicking her tongue, Yisi threw a [Light Bullet] at the black-clothed person, then grabbed Evelyn’s arm to check her injury.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“As you can see, I’m standing here just fine. It’s just… a little tired.”

The moment her voice fell, Evelyn’s body went limp, and she lost consciousness.