The Siege of Semek (4)
The paths of a boy and a girl who awaken holy power diverge sharply. Girls mostly become Healers or priests. Some boys do take those roads as well, but it is rare; the overwhelming majority become Paladin Knights.
Upon becoming a Paladin Knight, a boy receives training against the enemies of the Heavenly God — undead chief among them — and once that training is complete, his results determine which cathedral he is dispatched to and which knightly order he serves.
And the place reserved for those knights with truly outstanding records, exceptional martial skill, upright character, and devout faith is the Crusade Knights.
Directly under the Infula Holy See, existing in no other cathedral — officially, that is. That order is the Crusade Knights.
Though the Infula Holy See was, in the end, nothing more than a single city, the reason it was recognized as a pillar of military power for the vast empire known as the Carpathia Empire of All Humanity lay in the existence of the Crusade Knights.
Hooooooh…
With a strange, resonant hum, the crest of the Heavenly God began flashing wildly all around Scarlet. It was the blessing unique to the Crusade Knights — holy power given physical form, drawing sacred patterns in the air. Every single pattern carried the blessing of the Heavenly God within it.
With each flash, her physical abilities leaped upward: enhanced regeneration, hardened physical defense, continuous strikes against hostile beings nearby, fortified mental defenses, heightened agility, sharpened technique… Power that could never be granted to another, usable only upon oneself. It blazed and flickered madly, illuminating Scarlet from every side.
"O Heavenly God, we bring before You word that enemies stand in this place."
Scarlet strode forward. With a heavy thud, her swinging morningstar became a golden flash that hammered down upon the dead, while her shield became a second siege ram, carving a ragged wound through the enemy line.
"The Heavenly God looks down upon the earth and commands: purge what is wicked."
With the crack of splintering bone, skeletons and zombies were swept away like autumn leaves.
Grooooooh…
With an inhuman bellow, the Corpse Giant lumbered closer, its footfalls shaking the ground. Its meaty club heaved high, as if to point at the very sky — then came whistling down.
"The Heavenly God protects me, therefore I know no fear."
Accompanying Scarlet's prayer, the club came crashing down with a thunderous impact. But it failed to find its mark, slamming once against the protective barrier encircling Scarlet before being flung away.
"The Heavenly God declares it foul, therefore it shall rot away."
Every time the morningstar fell, chunks of the Corpse Giant's flesh burst apart like some cruel joke. The dead charging in from all sides were batted aside with the shield, and Scarlet's morningstar kept bursting the giant's flesh open, blow after blow. And within that relentless force, the Corpse Giant finally swayed and lost its balance.
"To those who stand against the Heavenly God — a sleep like hell itself."
Scarlet's morningstar burst the Corpse Giant's head in a single strike. The scattering brains, shreds of flesh, and gobs of blood never came anywhere near her armor.
Ludwig had been quietly watching the whole display, and before long the corners of his mouth curled upward into a smile.
"Good. I don't know who that is, but they're clearly no enemy!"
Bathed in the Saintess's blessing pouring down from above, his Light Spear blazed with radiance once more. Gripping the shaft in both hands, Ludwig leapt again.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Why are there so many of them?!"
"There were always this many!"
Gritting his teeth, Alec batted away the onrushing dead with his shield while swinging his hammer again and again. If it had been a sword, the edge might have chipped off long ago. There were simply that many.
"At least they're thinning out!"
Yona screamed until her throat burned, but Alec couldn't hear her properly at all.
"Kayak! Are you all right?!"
At James's bellow, Yona whirled toward the sound. A zombie had clamped itself onto Kayak's shoulder, its teeth sunk deep, and another had latched onto his side, jaws inching closer. Even so, Kayak kept swatting down the dead pouring in from the front — then, as he raised his twin axes, he suddenly staggered.
"Kayak!"
The moment James threw a dagger to pin the zombies and tore them free, Kayak let out a low groan and dropped to one knee. Propping himself on his axe hafts kept him from collapsing outright, but his strength was all but spent — he was in no condition to keep fighting.
"Alec, help me!"
They couldn't leave him here. The dead writhed all around, and though Vigrind had been steadily maintaining her protective veil, keeping direct attacks at bay, that protection extended only to Yona herself.
"Yona… Yona… are you hurt anywhere?"
Kayak's eyes — always so bright and quick — turned toward her. Those vertically slit, reptilian pupils that she'd always teased him about, calling him a lizard; and yet whenever they looked at her, there had always been warmth in them. But now that light had faded, dim and far away.
"I'll heal you — I'm going to heal you, so hold on!"
Yona strained with all her might to drag Kayak's body. But with nothing else to work with, hauling a grown Lizardman on her own was practically impossible, and James was too occupied beating back the charging dead to help her.
"Alec, Alec…! Help me…!"
Tears had crept into Yona's voice. She couldn't do it alone. She couldn't. No matter how desperately she pulled at Kayak, no matter how she tried to drag him even a little closer to safety, he didn't budge an inch.
"What are you crying about this time?"
"Move, you damn lizard… move, even a little, just get back—"
Even as she spoke, Yona kept pushing holy power into Kayak's wounds, over and over.
They weren't mortal wounds, not exactly — but the cause of Kayak's terrible weakness was beyond doubt: corpse poison. Every wound he took let it seep in, and it wreaked havoc on the living. It was only because Kayak was a Lizardman, with a body born rugged and strong, that he had held out this long.
"Alec, help, help me…!"
Kayak might die.
Just thinking it made Yona's throat close up tight.
Adventurers always lived alongside death. Yona knew that as well as anyone. It had been true when Alephri died, true when Carlson died — this was a world where the comrade who'd shared a campsite with you only yesterday might lose his head today, and no one would find it strange.
So Kayak dying shouldn't have been such an unthinkable thing. And yet Yona couldn't make herself feel that way. Kayak, dead? No — that couldn't be right. Some part of her kept insisting on it, her chest refusing to settle, her throat clenching again and again with a suffocating, tightening dread.
"Yona! Are you okay?!"
Alec finally came running. Clinging to his shield were shreds of undead flesh and splinters of bone.
"Help me move Kayak — please!"
Yona hauled at him with everything she had. Limp as he was, Kayak was still breathing, but his consciousness seemed to be slipping away. The corpse poison was spreading, and if it consumed him any further, things would become truly dire.
"Yona, calm down. Breathe. Calm down."
Under Alec's steadying hand, Yona panted for breath. Together they took one of Kayak's arms each and dragged him back, James covering their retreat, until at last they pulled him clear. Only when they had him behind a sizable boulder — a spot, at least, where nothing could strike them from behind — could Yona finally examine Kayak properly.
A deep wound on his shoulder. Another at his side. Countless smaller gashes beyond that. Places where red blood had flowed and stanched — and places where the blood had been tainted by corpse poison and turned a sickly violet.
"Kayak, Kayak…! You can't die…!"
Yona unwrapped the Holy Shroud entirely.
Efficiency-wise, keeping the shroud on was far better — but this was no time to be weighing efficiency.
Drawing a long, audible breath, Yona focused her attention on her lower abdomen. She didn't have much holy power left, but it would be enough.
We finish here, then call James and fall back.
Yes. That's the plan.
With her bare hand, Yona took hold of the wound on Kayak's shoulder. It was deep enough for her fingers to sink straight in.
He'd fought on with a wound like this.
If I were hurt this badly, I'd have collapsed on the spot and bawled my eyes out, no question.
With that thought, Yona kept purifying the corpse poison from Kayak's shoulder, again and again and again.
"You little—!"
All the while, Alec battered the dead aside with his shield and crushed their skulls with his hammer. With comrades at his back, retreat was something he simply could not do. Kayak, a companion who had shared a long stretch of road with them. And Yona, who had shared far longer still. He would not let anything disturb those two.
At last even James was driven back, and all four of them were gathered in this spot behind the boulder. Kayak, lying flat as he received treatment, barely clinging to a faint thread of breath. Yona, scraped hollow, every last dreg of her holy power spent. Alec, his shield bent and crumpled all over yet still gripped fast, hammer held firm in his fist. And James, clutching a bowstave half-shattered, his eyes alone burning fierce as he scanned their surroundings.
But the dead surrounding them numbered ten times that, and more.
…Ha.
Yona looked up at the sky.
So this is how it ends, huh.
I knew I never should have taken a request like this.
Turns out life really is worth more than money after all.
And then Yona saw something strange. Above the edge of her view, half-blocked by the boulder, something was flying through the air in wild, spinning arcs.
"To those who defy the Heavenly God — a rest that shall know no peace—!"
With a booming cry, sounds of shattering and splintering and breaking rang out in every direction. Looking closer, the things sailing through the air were zombies' limbs, fragments of skeleton bone, ghoul claws, and the severed heads of Corpse Giants.
"To those who defile the Heavenly God — a sleep like hell itself—!"
The thunderous voice was drawing closer.
The moment it seemed to arrive just beside them, someone leapt down from atop the boulder and planted themselves before the group. Gleaming silver armor and shield, and a morningstar raised in the right hand. Even from behind, it was unmistakable: holy power streaming from that figure's face like a pale mist, dispersing into the air.
"The road the Heavenly God walks is none other than the road of glory—!"
The morningstar flared with light. And each time it did, the dead were mowed down in droves, as though some colossal mass of iron had come swinging through them.
Yona could only stare at the sight, dazed and wordless.