Chapter 46
Night.
Forest.
Screams.
A terrifying scene unfolded before Elise.
Had the opponent been any normal Second-tier transcendent creature—even a lich—it wouldn't have mattered.
But this was the Death Sovereign, a figure who had once stood at the Sacred tier.
Even if he couldn't recover all his memories after revival, at equal rank he would command countless ways to kill.
Elise looked at Adair beside her.
"What is Anarias's current strength?"
"Senior Second-tier," Mona answered first. "There's no way he's Prime Second-tier. If he were, I never would have escaped."
Elise gave her a long look but left the real question unasked.
Why did you provoke Anarias?
Rapid footsteps approached.
The Rosefire mercenaries who'd held the front arrived alongside Harkian's team from the right flank.
Because Mona had fled in panic and drawn Anarias into the sector guarded by Ember Shield Mercenary Company on the left, the other three teams technically retained the right to withdraw.
Firelight played across Lofnar's face.
And the dwarf Elise already distrusted managed to disappoint everyone yet again.
He edged closer and dropped his voice.
"Elise, Anarias only hunts the guilty."
Fear soaked his tone.
He was trying to talk her out of fighting.
The moment the words left him, every gaze swung to Elise.
Adair tensed at once—then someone tugged his arm.
He turned to find his wife, Mona.
By this point, even Mona was willing to admit she might have misjudged things.
Because the pressure bearing down on everyone was enormous.
Even if Anarias was only Senior Second-tier, defeating him would cost dearly.
The front line would fall to Lofnar, a Prime Second-tier Silver Dwarf, and Chalmers, an ordinary Second-tier Grand Knight. Adair and Mona would support from the flanks, and Elise herself would have to join the offense.
The First-tier Awakened of all four teams would have to plug the lich's escape routes with their own bodies.
Perhaps half of them would end up dead or maimed.
Or perhaps Anarias, in dying, would drag one of the Second-tier Awakened down with him.
The Death Sovereign could close his eyes, wait a few months, and likely be "alive" again.
Run the numbers any way you liked—it was a losing trade.
But Elise could not retreat.
She was a High Cleric of the Church of Light.
If she chose self-deception now, outsiders would see her cowardice plainly. They would see, too, that her faith did not hold firm.
More importantly: purifying Anarias meant Church Merits—and his revived body almost certainly kept progression resources cached somewhere nearby.
Merits and money.
An enormous reward.
I have no choice. And I will not lose.
Elise decided on the spot.
Her grip tightened on her staff, its cool shaft lending her a measure of confidence.
She looked around and delivered her answer with calm certainty.
"I am a Cleric. Purifying liches is my duty."
Her eyes locked onto Lofnar, Adair, and Mona in turn.
"Even if he is Anarias, I have no reason to step back."
Then she raised her staff slightly, turned to Harkian and the other Church members, and declared, "Light above!"
"Our god is above!"
"The Light will drive back the darkness!"
"Destroying evil is our duty!"
The members of the Church of Light, in clerical robes and knightly armor, bowed as one. Their coiled tension transmuted into zeal.
That was the power of faith.
That was the cohesion of a religion whose god was real.
For the clergy, death was not the most frightening thing.
The collapse of faith was.
Spiritual disgrace was.
Anarias?
The Death Sovereign?
As if the Church of Light had never killed him before.
Every time he had revived since Light Calendar 1201—had the Church not purified him?
This was merely his eighth revival.
"Lofnar, here is your chance to prove the courage of the dwarves," Elise said, laying out the formation. "For the Light, for the Earth Mother, and for dwarven honor, you will fight at the very front."
"High Cleric Elise..."
Lofnar's mouth went dry.
"Or do you intend to refuse the Light?"
Elise pushed him to the wall.
She needed Prime Second-tier Lofnar on the front line.
"Dwarves never retreat," Lofnar ground out through his teeth.
"Good. Chalmers, support Lofnar."
"As you command."
"Adair, Mona, help me box in Anarias's movement."
"Your will is the direction of our battle."
"Move. The Church of Light will purify every lich—even if he is Anarias."
Once the decision was made, Elise's resolve turned to iron.
Leading the Awakened toward Ember Shield's camp, Elise arrived to a scene of carnage.
The campfires had been scattered, stray flames catching on tents. The Ember Shield mercenaries had fallen back into the distance, and at the center of it all stood a lich slick with fresh blood.
The moment Elise laid eyes on him, she understood why the Church insisted on purifying these things.
No deeper reason required.
He looked evil.
The dark red veins, nearly black, faintly aglow.
The corpse-pale skin.
The wicked flames guttering deep in his eyes.
"Lofnar!"
Elise had no interest in opening speeches. She would strike first.
"Wait... guilty ones... no battle..."
Anarias's lich body couldn't yet manage proper speech, but he could transmit through spirit energy—faster and more direct.
He was signaling a willingness to coexist.
It was enough to make Lofnar hesitate and check his charge.
He truly did not want to face the Death Sovereign head-on.
Whoosh. An arrow of light streaked toward Anarias.
[Holy Light Arrow Skill Experience +1,067.]
Elise had instant-cast the strongest [Holy Light Arrow] she could produce.
Talk?
What was there to talk about?
She would never negotiate.
That [Holy Light Arrow] was also meant to put courage into her teammates.
And reality proved her right.
As the instant-cast arrow flew at its target, the morale of the Second-tier Awakened—Lofnar, Mona, and the rest—surged.
Beyond morale, that single [Holy Light Arrow] reminded everyone, once more, of who Elise was.
A supreme prodigy of the Church of Light.
A woman still holding Third-tier activation-type spell scrolls, courtesy of the Church, as trump cards.
So the question in this battle was not victory or defeat.
The only question was the price of winning.
"Cleric... you deserve death..."
Even while blocking the [Holy Light Arrow], Anarias had strength to spare for transmitting his contempt across the spiritual level.
"You are a creature that should not exist in Aurelia."
Elise had no intention of letting this body of his escape.