Volume 9, Chapter 62 – The Girl of Redemption (Part 1)

As the distant horizon turned fish-belly white and the dark night sky transformed into a beautiful violet, the Duchy of Chloe welcomed the third day of its defensive siege. Due to an unusually fierce offensive launched by the Empire last night—not only felling trees from the surrounding forests to construct simple siege engines and scaling ladders, but also deploying two hero-domain individuals at once—although Pope Atwood himself joined the fray, he ultimately couldn’t fight one against two. If not for the drastic change in the weather at dawn, with an iridescent vortex appearing above the Ducal Capital, so turbulent that no elements could be used, frightening off the Imperial assault, the capital would have been breached even without the Empire’s powerhouse beyond the hero’s domain taking action.

Whether in the combat strength of basic soldiers or the number of top-tier fighters, the Duchy of Chloe was simply too weak.

Take soldier quality for example. The Duchy of Chloe had less than five thousand standing soldiers; the majority were militia conscripted temporarily during wartime. In contrast, all of the Norta Empire’s soldiers were regulars. Adding to that their superior physique and armor mixing metal and leather, even without counting the Empire’s magic caster legions, on average, one Imperial soldier often required two to three Duchy soldiers to hold off. If this were a battle on the plains instead of a siege defense, the ratio would likely rise to one to ten.

Sitting on a slightly elevated hill on the outskirts of the Duchy of Chloe, Lin, fully prepared, took a deep breath. The air, nearing winter, carried hints of the night’s fragrance. The bone-chilling cold, seeming to seep into her marrow, invigorated her.

Although an abnormal elemental force had appeared above the capital not long ago, that wasn’t an excuse for her to stop. Even though she desperately wanted to know what had happened inside the city, the defenders within could no longer withstand another attack. Even without being on the city walls, Lin could guess the scene inside from the corpse-strewn battlefield, tinged with the faint smell of blood.

The surviving soldiers, faces downcast, clutch dented weapons, guarding a fortress destined to fall. The feeling of watching comrades fall one by one, helpless to do anything… it was almost despairing. The moment the Empire launched another charge, the Duchy soldiers would likely think of words like surrender or escape. When morale dropped to that level, the capital would fall without a fight.

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Glancing at the sun already peeking over the horizon, Lin rose from the stone block and began her final checks. Opening her storage magic, she rummaged inside for a moment. Confirming there was nothing left, she let out a long sigh.

“Hah, nothing left behind.”

Although storage magic functioned like a pocket, it didn’t mean the items inside actually moved with the owner. Storage magic belonged to the category of spatial magic; all items were stored in another dimension. Only the user could open the passage connecting to this space. Therefore, even after the owner’s death, the items stored within wouldn’t be ejected; they would simply vanish forever from the world along with the owner’s demise.

Lin shook her head with a wry smile.

“It would be terrible if something was forgotten on me.”

She was destined to die. Perhaps her living self couldn’t defeat that magic caster, but her Calamity-transformed self after death could surely make the entire Imperial army accompany her. Therefore, she needed neither weapons nor magic items. Otherwise, after her death, they would just become scavengers’ property. Better to leave her weapons with the Divine Religion, where they could at least make some contribution.

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Just like those followers who voluntarily let her turn them into undead in the past. Except now, the one sacrificing for the Divine Religion was herself.

Straightening her black gauze dress, Lin, before resolving to walk towards the Imperial camp, looked back one last time at the gray Ducal Capital of Chloe behind her.

I wonder which things Yisi will take from my room.

If possible, she hoped Yisi would take her scythe and those fox-ear ornaments. Those were her symbols. As long as Yisi saw them, she would remember there was once someone named Lin. She hadn’t left a letter in her room explaining her feelings to Yisi. Just as she thought last night, as someone already dead, leaving such words would only burden the living. Her feelings for Yisi were one-sided. Rather than speaking to them, it was better to take them to the grave.

As her thoughts reached this point, Lin couldn’t help but reveal a gentle smile, touching the single bottle of magic potion tucked at her waist. Unlike the other potions she left behind, this wasn’t given to her by the Divine Religion, but the remaining one of the two bottles Yisi had given her during the raid on the Imperial camp.

When clearing her storage magic, she had hesitated over this bottle for a long time, ultimately deciding to bring it with her. Although high-grade magic potions were extremely scarce in the Divine Religion, she had already left all her worldly possessions behind. As someone about to die, this level of selfishness should be permissible—even if not permitted, she absolutely had to bring it. This was something Yisi gave her; leaving it for others would be too wasteful.

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After hesitating for a moment, Lin drew the magic potion from her waist, uncorked it, tilted her head back, and swallowed the entire liquid. Feeling the warm magic power slide down her throat, into her esophagus, and finally flow into her stomach, making her whole body feel warm, a faint smile appeared on Lin’s lips. Although the correct way to use a magic potion was when magic power was nearly depleted, and drinking it now with her strength intact was just a waste, she couldn’t guarantee she’d have the chance to drink it in the upcoming battle. Since the final outcome was transformation into the Calamity anyway, better to savor this thought sooner rather than later.

“Let’s go.”

Exhaling a puff of white mist, with the sound of fabric tearing behind her, Lin flew towards the Imperial camp below.

Less than half a minute passed before a Griffin Knight circling above the camp spotted Lin. However, in this soldier’s eyes, just one enemy approaching wasn’t enough to warrant sounding the alarm. Randomly sounding the horn would not only lead to punishment from superiors but also earn him the labels of ‘alarmist’ and ‘coward’ from his comrades—titles that might follow him throughout his entire military career. Just thinking about it made his stomach ache. Therefore, he simply drew the long spear hanging from the griffin’s neck, controlled the beast to lower altitude, and approached Lin alone.

“Starting with the Griffin Knights?”

Taking the scythe off her back—unlike her usual one, this scythe was just a slightly more expensive magic weapon, not high-grade, so losing it didn’t matter—Lin adjusted her breathing mid-flight, waiting for the Griffin Knight to approach.

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“Not Blood Clan? Who are you!”

“Ask me in hell.”

“You—!”

Without even using magic, while the Griffin Knight was still stunned, Lin rapidly beat her dragon wings, closing the distance at a speed the knight couldn’t react to. Arriving before him, she swung her scythe upwards, piercing the griffin’s underbelly, then cleanly severed the knight’s thigh, splitting beast and rider in two.

A warm mist of blood instantly rained down from the sky.

Due to the griffin’s shriek, the other Griffin Knights circling nearby immediately noticed Lin’s presence. Immediately after, the sound of horns echoed one after another.