"So you finally dared to show your face, Butcher Zuka."
Although everything was going according to plan, the current situation was still incredibly dangerous.
"Hahaha! Saintess of the Moon, I must admit your strength is impressive to be able to project the human race's strongest knight. But now... it is about time, is it not?"
Zuka smiled as he looked at the young girl on the white horse. At this moment, he was like a hunter watching prey that had already fallen into his hands without even realizing it.
"Your Highness, the time has come."
Julius's voice reached my ears. I did not turn back to look at him; after all, this was all part of the calculation.
"Do not worry, everything is under control,"
I replied in a whisper, then looked up at that massive and hideous figure.
"What? Looking at me with those eyes at a time like this... are you planning to beg for mercy? Heh... Hahaha!"
Zuka's arrogant laughter echoed across the plains. Suddenly, he stopped, abruptly lowering his head to glare at the Saintess.
"However, if you are willing to strip naked right here, kneel on the ground, and beg for my forgiveness, I might consider letting your people go."
Zuka spoke with a playful smirk, glancing at the two thousand exhausted knights behind the Saintess.
"What? Do they not say the human Saintesses have mercy for all the world? Are these two thousand people behind you not included in your mercy?"
His voice began to sound somewhat ethereal, and his gaze toward the girl turned strange.
The Saintess below seemed to have fallen into a peculiar state.
Her eyes were slightly glazed, and her breathing grew labored.
But at that moment, a furious shout snapped the girl out of her burgeoning hallucinations!
"Your Highness! Do not fall for his illusions!"
I snapped back to my senses with a start. My body felt feverish, and a strange sensation lingered throughout my limbs.
An illusion?
Or was it hypnosis?
Even while wearing the Saintess's robe, I had actually fallen for it?
As expected, the gap between the level 60 Zuka and my current level 6 was simply too large. I had unknowingly walked right into his trap!
I shook my head and took a deep breath, calming my heart which was racing uncontrollably.
However, this time, I did not look back at Zuka. Instead, I looked toward the sky!
"Ligeia! The time is now!!"
"I heed the Divine Oracle, my Princess."
Hearing this, Zuka was stunned for a moment. He instinctively looked up at the sky, his massive eyes scanning the clouds.
Suddenly!
His pupils constricted violently!
High above, thousands of meters up, a black dot was faintly visible through the cloud layer. Even with his superior vision, he could only see a mere shadow.
Yet that voice had clearly echoed down to the ground.
"A mage?!"
The moment that word crossed his mind, Zuka's heart sank.
It was common knowledge that mages were the most difficult group of people in this world to deal with.
Even the demon army, in their initial strategies, tried their best to avoid provoking these recluses.
Because they were powerful, elusive, and possessed countless tricks, mages were considered a massive headache by any faction.
Once provoked, they became like an unshakeable plague that would tear a piece of flesh from you before they were done!
But they hadn't provoked any mages, and... judging by her response just now, this mage had actually sworn loyalty to this human Saintess?
"Martha!! What is the meaning of this?! Didn't you say this Saintess didn't know anything?! How could she have recruited a mage!!"
Zuka roared as he turned to the witch, Martha, behind him. But Martha was also looking on in bewilderment.
After all... the 'Luo Li Saint Sariel' that Martha knew was no longer the innocent girl she had been the day she left.
"M-My Lord, I do not know either!"
Seeing that the panic on Martha's face did not seem faked, Zuka had no time to blame her.
Because at that moment, the clouds in the sky were rapidly converging toward a single point.
The originally snow-white clouds gathered together, transforming in an instant into a churning mass of dark storm clouds that expanded outward at a frantic pace.
At the same time, the sensation of low atmospheric pressure made Zuka both understand and remain confused.
This sensation meant rain; there was no other possibility.
But... on a battlefield like this, what use would mere rainwater be?
He looked up, staring at the roiling black clouds in the sky.
A single drop of rain suddenly fell, landing right in his eye.
Zuka instinctively raised his hand to wipe it away, but before his hand could even touch his face, a sound like a hot frying pan crackling echoed in his ears.
Sizzle!
The moment that drop of rain entered his eye, the fragile organ could not withstand the baptism of Holy Water. With a 'pop,' it burst apart.
From a distance, Zuka's figure floating in mid-air jerked backward. From the position of his eye, a fountain of black blood erupted.
His body arched back as he let out a piercing, agonizing scream!
"Argh—! Holy Water... Is this Holy Water!?"
Zuka realized it instantly, but by then... the dark clouds had already covered this small section of the plains. Immediately after, the rain began to pour down like a deluge.
Splash—
Within the demon army, screams of agony began to rise one after another.
The sound of sizzling echoed incessantly through the demon ranks.
It sounded like cold water being dropped into a vat of boiling oil!
It was hair-raising!!
The higher-ranking demons might have been able to resist for a moment or two, but the lower-ranking demons were in agony the instant they touched the Holy Water. Their skin looked as if it were being scorched by boiling oil.
Skin was peeled away, exposing raw muscle, and black blood splashed everywhere.
The tide of the entire battlefield shifted in an instant.
The once-menacing demon army now looked like cornered rats, scurrying in a frenzy to find anything to shield themselves!
Zuka waved his hand, and a transparent, dome-like protective barrier appeared over his head.
However, as the rain mixed with Holy Water struck it, it still made a corrosive sizzling sound.
It was obvious that Zuka was now shaking with rage.
"Luo—Li!!"
His voice had become hoarse from screaming, a testament to the level of fury Zuka was currently experiencing!
But I wasn't about to waste my breath on him now!
Although the Temple had preserved a large amount of Holy Water, most of it was frozen using ice spells from the Water Element branch and stored in the vaults.
This time, in order to wipe out this portion of the demon army that had invaded the Kingdom of the Moon's interior, I had essentially emptied out our entire reserves.
All the Holy Water stored over the years, including the stock from several previous terms, had been taken out and given to Camilla to be refined into a powdered form.
All for this very moment!
"Your Highness, this is a great opportunity. We should charge!"
A relaxed smile appeared on Cain's face. To him, this certainly seemed like a perfect time, but I knew... that Holy Water wouldn't last very long.
Even if the amount of Holy Water was enough to let two thousand cavalrymen crush thirty thousand elite demons...
There was one person they could not crush.
Butcher Zuka!
A level 60 Demon Marshal!
Furthermore, the demon army still had demon generals whose levels were equal to those of Guardian Knights.
Trying to use this chance to wipe out the main demon force would be like throwing eggs against a stone!
"Retreat!"
"Huh?? Your Highness... with such a perfect opportunity, why not charge just once? At least to cause the enemy some..."
"Cain, look behind you. Do the knights still have the strength to charge again?"
Cain's brow furrowed, and he snapped his head back to look. Behind us... the two thousand knights were already exhausted. Although they had routed twenty thousand demon elites, they hadn't suffered much damage.
However, under Julius's skill, they had consumed the vast majority of their stamina.
"Follow my command. Retreat!"
I didn't have time to explain further to Cain and Hilda as I looked up at the heavy clouds in the sky.
Ligeia... I'm leaving the rest to you.
Suppressing my thoughts, I turned my horse around.
I don't know if it was just natural talent, but despite this being my first time riding a horse at full speed, the white horse beneath me moved like an extension of my own arm.
Or perhaps... it was simply because the Temple's horses were more attuned to human intent?
I couldn't think about that now. I turned the horse, and Hilda and Cain immediately followed. The two thousand knights, despite their exhaustion, turned with the main unit and began to withdraw into the distance.
Meanwhile, Zuka, high in the sky, quickly realized what was happening and let out a roar.
"All units, ignore the Holy Water! They do not have that much! Charge! Even if you die, you must capture that damned woman for me!!"
As soon as he spoke, Zuka's figure surged forward, but halfway there, he suddenly stopped in mid-air.
As if remembering something, a trace of wariness appeared in his eyes.
He hadn't forgotten that back then on the battlefield, he had been frozen in place by a single glance and ended up heavily wounded.
The Authorities of the Saintess of the Moon might not have much direct combat power, but they were incredibly insidious.
If he charged in alone and was frozen by that Saintess again, he would likely be met with the full, vengeful strike of over two thousand knights!
For a moment, Zuka was torn between wanting to attack and being afraid to move. He kept urging the army below to advance, but the Holy Water falling from the sky had already thrown the main demon force into utter chaos.
Even as some high-ranking demons whipped their companions, they still couldn't stop the erosion of the Holy Water!
The pain threshold of demons had been lowered to an abnormal degree for intelligent beings; they rarely felt pain.
The only exception was Holy Water... for demons, it was like a natural bane.
Even a Demon Marshal like Zuka could feel an intense burning sensation. Even now... the eye that had burst inside his skull due to the Holy Water had not recovered. Black blood slid down his eye socket, and the pain persisted.
Unable to advance and unwilling to retreat, Zuka could only watch helplessly as that damned woman led two thousand knights away into the distance, jumping up and down in frustration!
Riding on my horse, I looked back at those screaming demons and felt a wave of satisfaction!
You scum, go ahead and drink my bathwater!!
Rate on N.U.
