Chapter 16
At some point, the sky had darkened.
Clouds rolled in from the horizon, and a fine drizzle dampened the trees along the shore.
Across the glittering surface of Whitemere Lake, the clawbill devil advanced toward land. Its wings and talons looked unnaturally elongated, and the blades hidden beneath its feathers gleamed cold.
Holmes was forty-eight years old, a Prime Second-tier Grand Knight who had spent his entire life in service to the Church of Light's Hall of Discipline.
A veteran like Holmes had watched more brothers and sisters in faith die before his eyes than he could count.
He did not fear death.
In some corner of his heart, he even longed to prove his faith through martyrdom.
But he would rather die than lose the Church's young Awakened.
Elise most of all.
Almus, what were you thinking?
Whenever Holmes remembered that Elise was among the eleven Awakened assigned to this mission, he half wanted to storm back and chew out Bishop Almus all over again.
She was a genius who had climbed from commoner to Prime Cleric in barely three months.
A believer who might genuinely be blessed by God.
Why bring Elise here?
Did Bishop Almus think this place was safer than anywhere else?
If so, the man had far too much faith in Holmes.
Holmes tightened his grip on his warhammer and steadied his breathing.
The full armor encasing his body didn't feel cold. It felt stifling and hot.
He knew Second-tier combat inside and out, and he understood exactly what the First-tier Awakened traveling with him were meant to do.
Our duty is to create a better battlefield for Grand Knight Holmes.
Standing behind the line of knights, Elise repeated her assignment in her mind.
This was her first mission with a team of more than ten.
It was also her first time facing a monster possessed by a creature from hell.
The way Aurelia's Awakened fought as a team was an education in itself.
There was no such thing as "ganging up" on an enemy here.
There was only the Second tier crushing the First, and the Third tier suppressing the Second.
Holmes was a Prime Second-tier Grand Knight.
Their target was likewise a Prime Second-tier monster.
The two were evenly matched.
Once they engaged, the Prime First-tier knights and Clerics could only provide support.
Even Helena, a Senior Second-tier High Cleric, could only assist from the sidelines.
If the clawbill devil tried to snatch a chance to kill the knights or Clerics, Holmes would gain a perfect opening to strike.
If it chose to kill Holmes first before clearing out the rest, it would have to weather constant attacks from the "weaker" Awakened around him.
For a Prime First-tier Cleric to injure a high-level Second-tier monster, they had to cast with everything they had.
Which was why Helena had drilled the key point into Elise on the road.
She would get one chance to cast.
Clang!
The clawbill devil and Holmes finally collided.
One was a monster. The other was a martial Awakened.
Their battle was brutally direct.
Elise watched Holmes's warhammer slam into the monster's wing.
Metal rang against metal.
Feathers scattered.
Beneath the monster's wing, razor-edged claws flashed into view.
A curtain of light snapped into place.
Helena had cast [Lightshield].
Drawing on his wealth of battle experience, Holmes used the [Lightshield] to his advantage at once. He abandoned defense entirely and threw himself into a furious assault.
The devil from Hell clearly had a mind of its own. It kicked off with both feet, leaped skyward, and hung there for a heartbeat on a single flap of its wings.
Then it dove.
Its red eyes flashed again, and a wave of blood-red magic ate into the shield of light around Holmes.
"Holy Light!"
The Prime First-tier knights and Clerics threw themselves into the fight.
The knights' job was to shield the Clerics.
The Clerics began to cast.
Battles in Aurelia rarely dragged into long exchanges.
Holmes and this monster will decide it fast.
Elise understood the shape of the battle.
The moment Holmes and the infernal monster engaged, she had already chosen her spell.
[Holy Light Arrow].
And she didn't spare a thought for the rule against overdrawing her spiritual energy.
First, she called softly, Tymis.
Mew.
Tymis, invisible as always, answered.
At once, Elise felt her spiritual energy quicken. The amount of mana and ambient magic under her control swelled.
Warmth stirred in her chest.
Thank you.
Most of the time, Tymis's help was a constant, gentle enhancement.
But when its contractor truly needed everything, Tymis—bound only by an equal contract—decided how much to give based on the depth of their bond.
The help Elise received now was the kind reserved for someone cherished.
The [Holy Light Arrow] she shaped was visibly larger and brighter than the other Clerics' spells.
At that moment, the clawbill devil faced a choice.
Several spells were about to land at once.
Dodging all of them was impossible.
So the question became: which spell should it endure?
Soul...
First tier...
Second tier...
The monster from Hell judged its enemies by their souls.
Naturally, it could pick out the three strongest people present.
Holmes was first.
Helena second.
Elise third.
Even as it lashed back at Holmes, it sensed the spells taking form.
"Holy Light!"
After casting [Lightshield], Helena had been waiting for the First-tier Clerics' spells to finish forming.
The instant she sensed Elise was ready, she loosed her own [Holy Light Bolt].
Whoosh!
[Holy Light Arrow skill experience +1,397.]
Elise's [Holy Light Arrow] and Helena's [Holy Light Bolt] streaked toward the clawbill devil almost at the exact same moment.
Lifeforms from hell existed as energy. Their bodies were woven from warped, aberrant spirituality, and they instinctively recoiled from sacred light-attribute spells.
[Holy Light Bolt] was, at its root, a spell for altering the mana environment. Its raw attack power was nothing special.
But to the clawbill devil, it was a lump of filth hurled straight at its soul.
Senior Second-tier filth, at that.
And Elise's [Holy Light Arrow]?
It came in from one flank while Helena's [Holy Light Bolt] came from the other, cutting off the devil's room to dodge. The other Clerics worked in concert, hemming in its movement with their own spells.
Grand Knight Holmes watched like a predator, waiting to seize any opening and deliver a full-force blow.
The clawbill devil had to choose: take the [Holy Light Bolt], or take the [Holy Light Arrow].
In the heat of battle, it instinctively concluded that the aura of Divine Power on the [Holy Light Arrow] was mere contamination bleeding over from the nearby [Holy Light Bolt].
Just a First-tier spell.
Bigger only because its caster had piled on First-tier mana to inflate its strength.
It shouldn't do much damage.
In that split second, the clawbill devil shifted right.
Pffft.
Crack.
The [Holy Light Arrow] struck first.
Then the air rang like breaking glass as the spell shattered.
"Quaaaaack!"
The clawbill devil shrieked in pain.
Something was very wrong with that First-tier spell.
The clawbill devil smelled death.
It was wounded.
The injury wasn't severe—but in a battle at the Prime Second-tier level, the smallest gap could decide everything.
Worse, Holmes had an entire team at his back.
"Beautifully done!" Holmes grasped Elise's value in an instant.
This was no mere Prime First-tier Cleric.
This was someone with a First-tier soul aura who could unleash a spell capable of wounding a Second-tier monster.
With the monster before him injured, Holmes was confident he could finish it here.
"Well done, Elise!"
"God watches over us!"
The knights fronting the Cleric line surged with new vigor.
They were only Prime First-tier Awakened. It would have been a lie to claim they felt no pressure standing in a battle at the level of a Prime Grand Knight.
Fortunately, Elise had been hiding her depths.
A Prime Cleric by rank, she could still release a spell beyond the First tier and wound a monster from hell.
That made everything easier.
Grand Knight Holmes was no ordinary fighter.
He would be able to kill the clawbill devil.
"Quack..."
Intelligent monsters were always trouble.
The clawbill devil understood its situation just as well.
It made that grating sound one more time—then charged straight at Holmes.
Even at the cost of a mortal wound, it forced its way to within a few yards of the knight line.
Bang!
Threads of red light suddenly blazed across its body.
Then it exploded.
A mass of blood-red radiance shot toward the knights and Clerics.
"Dodge!" Holmes roared, his voice cracking with alarm.
Especially when he saw the blood-red light streaking toward Elise.
It chose to possess me?
Elise's stomach dropped.
Before coming here, she had learned about hell's lifeforms from her teacher.
When such a thing died, it could abandon its material body and use its core spirituality to possess another living being.
Against an Awakened of equal tier, this secondary possession was mostly futile—it would be purified in short order.
But if a Second-tier infernal lifeform possessed a First-tier Awakened, it could force a kind of symbiosis.
To escape it, the Awakened had to scour the thing out slowly with their own spiritual energy.
Elise didn't believe she would be corrupted into a creature of Hell.
But she absolutely did not want that thing inside her.
It would drag down her progression.
"Not a chance!"
Just as she moved on instinct to cast at the blood-red light, a figure flashed across her vision.
Someone stepped in and took the possession in her place.
"Harkian..."
Elise's feelings turned complicated.