42. War (4)
42. War (4)
With Gwen in the lead, knights and adventurers formed a formation on both sides and behind, and with me and the children inside, we left the orphanage.
Since the orphanage was located deep within the slums, and the slums were basically right next to the public cemetery, the screams echoing from all directions were vivid.
The children were terrified by the screams and started crying, while the slightly older children led them along.
It didn't matter, since I was there, the Ners wouldn't attack, so they didn't need to be this terrified, but I couldn't exactly say that, so I just did my best to calm the children down.
"Spider monster in front! Maintain formation!"
But if the Ners didn't attack at all, that would be suspicious, so I let some Ners of a moderate size—not ones like Heriis or Dagos—attack us.
Before we could leave the slums, three Ners spotted us and started rushing over, so Gwen coated her body in mana and stepped forward.
'Is that the body reinforcement magic Yui told me about?'
Gwen killed the three Ners with ease. The acidic blood that sprayed out during the process was blocked by a shield-like barrier made of blue mana that protected Gwen.
"Moving out!"
Kwaaaaaang!Bang!Kwagang!
In a situation where we had to run as fast as possible, our movement speed was inevitably slow because there were so many children.
The screams and sounds of battle from the surroundings grew louder, and the frequency of Ners coming at us increased accordingly.
At first, Gwen handled the approaching Ners by herself, but it was becoming difficult for her to block all the Ners coming toward us alone.
==
"Eek!"
"Above us!"
As a Ners larger than an average adult male appeared from above a building, intending to crush us, Gwen ignored the Ners in front and ran toward where Lea and the children were.
But there was some distance, and time was running out.
The problem was that the Ners' body started to swell up.
Gwen, the knights, and the adventurers realized it was already too late, as they knew what it meant for a Ners' body to swell up.
Just as everyone was about to give up, Lea stretched both her hands upward.
"Hraaaaaaaah!"
Holy light erupted from Lea's hands, creating a large barrier that covered everyone.
Poof!
It blocked the acidic blood that sprayed out as the Ners exploded.
'Ugh!? W-wait, the acid is this strong?'
Lea regretted not calling for a smaller Ners, as the Ners' acidic blood required far more holy power than she had anticipated, and she squeezed out her holy power to the limit.
As soon as the barrier made of holy power protected everyone and the acidic blood was completely dissolved by the barrier, the barrier shattered.
Thud.
Lea collapsed on the spot, her whole body dominated by an unpleasant sensation as she exhausted all the holy power she had stolen from Erina.
"Lady Lea!!!"
"Saintess!!!"
Lea, who hadn't known she would use this much holy power, couldn't regain her senses.
Just as she was about to come to her senses and open her eyes, she felt a thirst as if she wanted to devour whatever was in front of her.
Normally, using holy power or mana requires energy.
Lea had been supplementing that energy with tobacco, but she couldn't smoke in a situation where so many eyes were on her.
Eventually.
'I should just pretend to faint.'
Lea simply closed her eyes and lay down.
==
Lady Lea's barrier really looked like something a Saintess would do.
A barrier made of mana or holy power is a significantly difficult technique.
What's even harder is separating the barrier from one's own body.
Even Gwen's mana barrier limit was about 10cm from her body.
The moment it went beyond that, the mana consumption increased exponentially.
In other words, it was extremely inefficient.
For example, if you just wanted to extend it another 5cm from 10cm, the mana consumed would almost double.
Usually, once skilled, one creates a barrier momentarily only where it's truly needed to protect one's body.
But Lea had deployed a barrier that protected all 30 people, about 1m away from her body.
That sight was truly the Saintess herself.
Lea collapsed right after deploying the barrier.
It was only natural.
The barrier Lea had just shown was at a level that would have required 10? No, 20 times the mana I currently have if I were to try it.
It made no sense that she would be fine after using that much holy power.
No matter how much holy power is said to be a power given directly by the Goddess, it is a power with quite a lot of restrictions when it comes to using it.
If it were just a power you could use whenever you wanted, this world would have been conquered by people using holy power.
"Mason!"
"Yes!"
"Carry the Saintess!"
"Understood!"
I want to check on Lady Lea's condition, but there's no time for that here.
Right now, I don't know when, where, or how many spider monsters will appear. If a spider monster were to perform a suicide attack like just now, no one here would survive except for me.
Still, fortunately, the Ners' attacks weren't significant after leaving the slums.
We arrived at the Lord's castle without a single casualty.
==
"Lady Gwen!"
A knight guarding the Lord's castle shouted as soon as he saw Gwen.
"Are you safe!?"
"Yes. First, Mason!"
"Yes!"
"Protect the Saintess safely! The Lord will also recognize the Saintess."
"Understood."
Gwen quickly sent Lea and the children into the castle and immediately asked her subordinate.
"How is the current situation?"
"Spider monsters are pouring out of the public cemetery inside the eastern outskirts of the city walls. Vice-Commander Drake is leading the defense in the eastern inner sector, but they are unable to block them all."
"Then does that mean they are leaking into the town?"
"...Yes. The spider monsters are climbing over the walls, and the range is too wide to cover all the walls."
"Damn it... What about the Padix Knights!"
"The Padix Knights are currently dealing with special Ners entities."
"Special entities?"
Gwen thought of the two monsters.
The Gluttony that ate everything in sight and blocked her at first, and the Mimic Creature that parasitized and controlled humans.
"They say it's a monster that looks like a fusion of two, with a human upper body and a spider monster lower body. The danger level is said to be city-destruction class, and while the Padix Kingdom Knights are dealing with it, the situation is not good...!"
"There are more monsters like that...?"
The two monsters she had seen hadn't even appeared in this city, yet there was another monster similar to them?
It was the worst.
On top of that, one was parasitizing a human and operating without anyone knowing.
The only silver lining was that she had already collected that monster's mana, so she could track its location if it were nearby, but that wasn't the problem.
A city-destruction class monster was here, in this city, and another one could appear.
Gwen decided to move to the eastern district immediately, as staying here wouldn't change anything.
==
Screams and cries could be heard from all directions through the Hive Mind.
Naturally, the screams and cries weren't coming from my children, but from the humans being eaten by my children.
In the orphanage, I didn't use such a good bed because there were too many eyes watching, but the bed in the castle where the Lord lived was a very good bed.
It wasn't as good as the bed the children made for me in the colony, but it was still quite comfortable, enough for me to feel good.
Right now, I'm lying on a bed in a room I don't even know where it is in the castle, pretending to faint, and watching Medherun City through the Hive Mind.
Although I am attacking Medherun City, I didn't summon all the Ners because my goal isn't to destroy Medherun City.
Since they haven't been able to eat humans to their satisfaction for a long time, and only high-level entities like Gluttony or Dagos have been eating humans, the children who are very hungry for humans are eating them like crazy.
The knights, adventurers, and guards are risking their lives to stop the Ners, but except for a few small parties, they haven't been able to deal with the Ners.
The humans who couldn't deal with them all became food for the Ners, and the citizens who were left defenseless by those humans who became food also became food for the Ners.
You might worry, "What if you only feed the Ners!"
If a war breaks out in a city, and a war caused by monsters at that, what choice would the citizens make?
Usually, most citizens go to shelters or leave the city the moment they think the city is hopeless.
The moment they leave the city, those humans are already our prey.
The Ardenia Continent, where the Padix Kingdom and Medherun City are located, is already in my hands.
In the sky and the forest, my children are acting like ordinary animals or monsters, becoming eyes for me.
In such a situation, it's easier to catch ordinary citizens who are just running away in a panic than any other human.
Those humans are perfect to give as food to our small, cute ones who don't have combat abilities but have other good abilities.
While I was passing through the kids with the Hive Mind to see if there was anything else fun, Heriis caught my eye.
Heriis fighting the Padix Kingdom Knights.
Unlike the knight unit whose ankles were blown off by the Ners' area-of-effect attack last time, the Padix Kingdom Knights were fighting steadily and targeting Heriis.
However, there were pieces of corpses scattered around, so it wasn't like there were no casualties in the process.
I had seen how adventurer parties fight, but this was my first time seeing knights fight in such a prepared formation, so I watched the fight between Heriis and the knights from Heriis's perspective.
==
"Who is it?"
"Hah! Greetings! I am Mason of the 1st Unit of the Knights Order!"
"I see. Is this where the Saintess is?"
"Yes!"
"I've come under orders from the Lord to look after the Saintess."
"Ah!"
Mason naturally opened the door to the room where Lea was lying, with a middle-aged man dressed in priestly attire.
As soon as the middle-aged man entered the room, he grinned as he watched the chest of Lea, who was lying on the bed, slowly rising and falling.