The Saintess's Command
Epnel Sky Island.
The Left Wing Cathedral.
Of all the places on the Sky Island, the Left Wing Cathedral received the most sunlight, and for the longest hours of the day. The moment sunlight passed through its glass windows, it shattered into brilliance, glittering like a festival of art.
The cathedral's pulpit stood empty, as no one dared ascend it. Below that pulpit, in a row of straight-backed chairs, sat three elderly priests, hands clasped and eyes closed, deep in prayer.
Click.
Just then, the chapel door opened with careful hesitation, and a young officer slipped inside, her footsteps hushed. She approached behind the priest seated in the middle and whispered softly.
"My apologies for interrupting the service, Your Grace. There is an urgent matter I must report..."
The kindly-faced old woman in the center paused her prayer and lifted her head. As she smiled, the wrinkles around her mouth and brow curved gently, lending her a warm and graceful air.
"Speak."
"A small engagement has broken out on the southwestern front. The Dark Alliance necromancers are believed to have come to rescue prisoners."
"Prisoners, in that region? All prisoners captured at the front should have been transferred to the Sky Island."
At that remark, the young officer stiffened, leaned close to the Archbishop's ear, and murmured in a hushed voice. The Archbishop let out a short sigh.
"Continue."
"Yes, Your Grace! At the end of the engagement, the necromancers extracted the prisoners and took them away. And..."
"And?"
"A massive explosion occurred not far from the site. It was at that location—the Sheily Museum, of all places."
The elders flanking her clicked their tongues.
"So that grotesque facility still stands?"
"It has been years since we ordered it shut down."
The Archbishop in the middle spoke again. "Was the explosion intended to destroy the museum?"
"It appears to be a result of the engagement itself," the young officer replied, head bowed, voice steady. "Tracing the point of detonation, we found it was a wide-area explosion that occurred some distance from the museum. The analysis indicates the building itself was not directly targeted."
"The combatants?"
"Well, as it happens..."
"The Chief Inquisitor."
Bang!
The chapel door burst open, and a woman strode into view. In a place that demanded solemnity and silence, she advanced with the heavy thud of military boots. Clad in the sacred armor worn not by priests but by paladins, she was none other than the infamous Saintess of Judgment—Dana.
All three Archbishops rose to their feet.
"Gratula Mi Kibilis. We are blessed to behold the Goddess's closest daughter."
The kindly-faced Archbishop in the center offered the greeting with a smile. "We were already hoping to inquire about the prisoner affair, and we are honored you have graced us with your presence."
Dana gave a light smile and flicked a finger toward the back. The young officer who had come to report bowed so deeply her forehead nearly touched the floor, then scurried out of the chapel.
Once the door closed behind her, the elder on the right spoke. "Might this humble servant ask why the Chief Inquisitor is at the front, Holy Saintess?"
"Save the interrogations for later, you crafty old foxes," Dana replied, her expression utterly unchanged. "About that shabby little museum that was just destroyed—according to rumor, the remains of that woman lie beneath it."
She had said nothing more than that, yet the eyes of all three Archbishops flew wide open.
"Is such a thing true?!"
"Why would the body of one such as she rest in a place so profane—!"
"Shh."
Dana raised a finger to her lips. Then she frowned and glanced over her shoulder.
"That sly alley cat has a nose for trouble like a bloodhound."
"Pardon?"
Tap. Tap.
The sound of heeled shoes approaching the chapel was drawing nearer. Dana looked at the Archbishops.
"Everything that happened here must be buried. No one is to hear of it."
The last chimera carrying Simon's party and the rest of the students had crossed the border barrier without incident. When the chimera's maw opened and bright sunlight poured in, the students finally spilled out with cries of relief.
Lorraine steadied Simon as she asked, "Can you stand?"
"Yeah."
Simon's group made their way out of the chimera as well. Looking back once he was outside, Simon could see the border barrier shimmering in the far distance.
"Hey, everyone!"
"What took you all so long?"
The students who had arrived ahead on the other chimeras greeted them warmly. Eshu burst into tears and threw her arms around Simon, Lorraine, and Toto all at once.
Grelion and the teaching assistants were helped out by those around them, and Grelion seemed to have come to his senses some time ago.
"Guess I'll have to start rebuilding my muscles."
The fact that he could still joke meant he had fared better than expected after Rate's torture. Typical monstrous stamina for a necromancer who handled chimeras for a living. Still, he needed a proper medical examination, so Grelion and the two assistants were carried off on stretchers.
Small mercies: every one of the students was safe, and all of them had successfully secured their Death Knight materials.
The Head Assistant of the Materials Studies class nodded along as reports came through her communication crystal orb.
"Professor Aaron and the agents who entered the border territory on their mission are all reported safe. They say the mission was a success as well."
The students erupted into cheers and applause.
"We made it!"
"I honestly thought we were done for."
Just as the tension finally eased and everyone was letting out their relief—
"Huh?"
Someone raised a hand and pointed at the sky.
"What is that?"
Hanging in the blue sky was a cross. At its center, an eyeball embedded in the wood was sweeping its gaze across the surroundings.
"It's disgusting," Eshu muttered. The other students reacted much the same way, but Lorraine and Simon, who recognized what it was, had gone deathly pale. The Head Assistant beside them was no different.
"Oh dear."
Serne crossed her arms and studied it.
"Looks like a catastrophe is about to begin, doesn't it?"
The Head Assistant spoke, her hands trembling as she clutched an amplification crystal. "We're outside the border, on Dark Alliance territory. Even if Rate has lost his mind, there's no way he'd shatter the barrier and chase us all the way out here—"
KUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUNG!
The ground convulsed so violently it felt as though the world were flipping over.
"Hurk!"
"Kyaaaaah!"
The students staggered, collapsing or sinking to their knees. The shaking grew fiercer still, and then light flashed down from the heavens.
Lorraine thrust out her arm in alarm. "Everyone, get back! Fall back!"
WHAAAAAAAAM!
The light descending from the sky threw up a blinding cloud of dust. The students scrambled to their feet and retreated, and within moments, a pair of icy blue eyes gleamed through the dust cloud.
"Found you."
Vwoooom—
Three sharp cracks rang out, like a blade shearing through paper. Then every chimera the students had ridden was shredded to pieces, scattering as bloody gobbets of flesh.
Thud. Thud.
Through the raining blood, Chief Inquisitor Rate emerged with the Cross Blade slung across his back and a skin-crawling smile on his lips.
"There's nowhere left to run."
Lorraine quickly shoved Simon aside, and Serne slammed down an illusion barrier to cloak Simon's body. For once, the two of them were working together as if their bickering had never existed.
"Wait—!"
Simon tried to shout, but no voice came out. Serne's feathers had latched onto him and were hurling him far away. He couldn't resist at all.
"Your opponent is me."
Lorraine stepped forward, unsealing the ability-suppressing collar she had just locked back into place moments before. Rate answered as if it hardly mattered.
"The witch's daughter. I've just found myself far more interesting prey. Keep your turn, and I'll see you hanging soon enough."
She silently pulled on her gauntlets and drew up her abilities and jet-black energy. Rate studied Lorraine for a moment—then his eyes shifted to a point behind her.
"There you are!"
Rate launched forward with blinding speed. Lorraine hastily unleashed her crimson flash, punching holes through his thigh and hip, but Rate did not slow. Just as he tore through Serne's illusions and was about to reach Simon—
"!"
A man clad in scarlet Bone Armor appeared directly before Rate's eyes.
CLAAAAAANG!
Their weapons collided, and Rate was thrown backward, landing hard on the ground.
"So it's your turn to make an entrance, is it?"
Rate grinned up at the sky. In the high heavens, a man in Bone Armor commanding a massive skeletal warship was looking down at him.
"Plenty of elders in the Federation want your head, Aaron Deia."
Aaron descended to the ground and faced off against Rate. Still, he looked far from fresh—his mission had ended only moments ago, and the crimson Bone Armor was half-shattered, blood streaming freely down Aaron's forehead beneath it. He had clearly been through a brutal fight.
"P-Professor Aaron...!"
"Everyone, get back!"
Aaron roared at the students, sweeping his arm wide.
<Grave Creation>
CRACK! CRACK!
Tombstones erupted from the earth all around Aaron and Rate. Darkness closed in as black clouds swallowed the sky overhead.
"You look badly wounded. You truly mean to fight me in that state?"
Rate stomped his foot hard where he stood. From that single motion, light flashed, and the dark clouds of the graveyard vanished in an instant. Then Rate swung his cross-shaped sword in a savage arc, and the tombstones split apart as the barrier was destroyed. Aaron calmly clenched his fist and thrust it back behind him.
The remaining storm clouds converged, and from within them, a colossal dragon's head burst forth.
TKWAAAAAAAAAH!
The Bone Dragon's black breath fired in a straight line, and Rate was forced to halt every movement and leap into the air to evade it.
Beep-beep—
Beep—
Rate lowered his head. A strange sound was coming from his own body. And from beyond the sky, someone new arrived with a great shout.
"TKWAANG!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
An explosion of green and crimson burst over Rate's body, sending him tumbling across the ground.
Watching him sprawl, the students cried out in disbelief.
"Professor Leen! Professor Roon!"
None other than Leen and Roon—former Kizen professors and Ancient Undead. The twins descended back to back, arms linked in a mirrored pose.
"We're on leave from our professorships, Roon—so why are we babysitting brats again?"
"Seems that way, Leen."
Aaron bowed his head between ragged breaths.
"I'm grateful for the assistance."
"Professor Aaron~ You look about ready to die."
"I think so too, Leen."
The reinforcements weren't just Roon and Leen, either.
Zzip! Zip! Zip!
The necromancers dispatched on this mission—and even the border guard patrol came pouring in. In the blink of an eye, the necromancers who had arrived on the scene leveled their prepared dark magic at the heart of the crater, glaring into it.
"So many heavyweights I'd struggle to see even once on a battlefield, all swarming in one place."
Even surrounded by an overwhelming force, Rate let out a delighted laugh.
"How can I not thank the Goddess for this!"
QUWAQUWAQUWAQUWAQUWAQUWA!
Divinity poured from his body in mountains. The necromancers muttered uneasily, faces twisting.
"That's what makes no sense about Rate," Aaron murmured.
Rate's divinity was infinite. The hotter his fighting spirit burned, the more it rose. He recovered from any blow and hunted down any foe, no matter who they were, until they died. This was the monster among monsters who had once fought a hundred days and nights without food or rest.
Rate reached back. His weapon, the Cross Blade, responded, swelling larger and larger. It grew past the size of its wielder to the bulk of a house, and then to something like a man shouldering an entire island. Half of the cross sank deep into the ground.
"I'll slaughter every last one of you to the man—then I'll savor the Main Dish."
Aaron readied his next dark spell, Roon and Leen extended their linked arms, and the other necromancers braced themselves with tense faces.
The atmosphere had grown so charged that no one could tell which side would strike first. In the very instant battle was about to erupt—
"Stand down, Chief Inquisitor."
Divinity flashed, and a woman in clerical robes burst onto the scene.
"By order of the Efnel Holy See."
Rate's expression froze solid.
"That damned Israfil again? Not this time—I won't back down!"
"Not her this time."
She lifted her chin.
"By command of Saintess Dana. Withdraw."