Chapter 5
Night settled over Megalith City, washing away the noise of the day.
Walking along the main road, Elise felt the curfew's effect firsthand.
In the past, Awakened would have packed the taverns the moment darkness fell. Now the city was quiet. Instead of going out to drink, they bought their liquor and stayed inside, laughing and carousing behind closed doors.
By the time Elise reached the target location, she could faintly hear drunken voices and bursts of laughter drifting from nearby houses.
"Reverend Sister Elise. Sir Roland. Good evening."
A priest in his thirties came forward to greet them.
"Father Kilian, may the Light God watch over you," Elise replied.
Roland, at her side, returned the greeting as well.
Glenrius and Telynia had already concealed themselves nearby.
This was Blackwood Lane, a commercial street in Megalith City's southwestern quarter, not far from the central roads.
Everyone in the city knew the layout. The northern district belonged to nobles, wealthy merchants, and Awakened. The southern district housed commoners and the many foreign Awakened who'd come seeking work, shelter, or opportunity.
Blackwood Lane sat between those two worlds.
Its northern end opened onto a main road lined with tall taverns and shops. Farther down stood smaller storefronts, and beyond those, inns and private homes rented out to Awakened.
Elise's mission was to arrest two Awakened known as the Fisk brothers.
They lived in a small courtyard house on Blackwood Lane.
"Reverend Sister Elise, please follow me," Father Kilian said, leading the way. "We discovered the Fisk brothers through a spiritual trace detector..."
As he walked, he confirmed the details with her.
When the Hall of Discipline assigned the mission, Elise had also received an extraordinary item shaped like a pendant. Its function was to record and detect the spiritual energy of intelligent life.
The Fisk brothers, for instance, had once fought inside the city and killed several civilians. The spiritual energy they'd unleashed during that fight had lingered at the scene.
Whenever the Church judged a crime serious enough to warrant a spiritual trace investigation, it collected and stored the culprit's spiritual signature.
Since every person's spiritual energy was unique, Church personnel could gather traces from any suspect and run a comparison.
Once the Hall of Discipline matched those traces to a wanted criminal, a disciplinary mission went out at once.
Elise and her teammates were here to complete the final step.
Confirm the targets.
Then arrest them.
Or kill them.
Before long, Elise, her teammates, and Father Kilian arrived outside a small house of wood and stone.
None of them had bothered masking their mana fluctuations. The faint noise inside the house cut off almost instantly.
Father Kilian stepped back, leaving the scene to Elise's team.
Under normal procedure, they would knock, question the occupants, collect their spiritual traces, confirm their identities, then make the arrest—or fight.
But there was a reason Elise hadn't wanted Harkian on her team.
She had come here to train, not to speedrun missions.
Her real goal was skill experience, which meant her approach to enforcement would look a little different.
Her teammates understood, and they were willing to play along.
The moment Roland raised his hand to knock, Elise cast the most basic version of [Lightshield] on him.
[Lightshield skill experience +11.]
The system notification appeared at once.
Knock, knock, knock.
"We are an enforcement team from the Church of Light," Roland called, his voice carrying across the surrounding buildings. "Open the door and cooperate with our investigation."
Awakened living nearby immediately began watching from the shadows.
"It's the Church."
"The Fisk brothers' place? Are they fugitives?"
"This should be good."
"The Church means business. They cast a spell before the door even opened."
Several Awakened who'd formed adventuring teams whispered among themselves.
Elise had learned most of the relevant details when she accepted the mission.
But her team's method of enforcement still opened their eyes.
Normally, nobody cast a spell while knocking on a door.
The reason was simple.
Mana conservation.
If a spellcaster burned magic on preventive measures before the fight even started, they'd likely need a Spirit Potion once the real battle began.
An ordinary Spirit Potion cost ten gold coins. A rare-grade one could run as high as thirty.
For most spellcasters, conserving spirit energy and mana mattered. A few well-timed spells could decide a fight, and every potion saved was money kept.
Elise was different.
Conservation wasn't an option.
Even if she didn't spend her reserves on preventive casting now, she'd spend them on spell practice later.
There was no real way to save on Spirit Potions either. Whenever she farmed spell skill experience, she drank one anyway.
Since the potion was getting used regardless, she might as well use it to make the operation safer.
Besides...
This was live combat casting.
Elise was very pleased with the experience that spell had earned.
She didn't just intend to cast preventive spells. She intended to do all kinds of "wasteful" things.
"To the Awakened inside," Roland called again when no answer came. "We are about to cast [Holy Light]. Do not be alarmed."
The hidden watchers fell silent.
Elise cast [Holy Light].
A cluster of radiance dropped into the courtyard. As the light scattered, it shaped the ambient mana into an environment favoring light-attribute Awakened.
[Holy Light skill experience +97.]
This spell granted far more experience. Elise couldn't help smiling.
Live combat really did pay better.
The earlier [Lightshield] had taught her what it felt like to cast under pressure.
This [Holy Light] had given her the experience of precisely placing an instant spell through a wall and into a space she couldn't see.
The system clearly recognized that value. The spell's strength and the experience gained were nearly one-to-one.
Elise cast twice.
Roland warned them twice.
Still no answer.
Just as Roland signaled to break down the door and Telynia moved quickly to Elise's side, the people inside finally reacted.
Two figures vaulted onto the courtyard wall, their martial Awakened auras flaring into view.
"They're running!" Father Kilian shouted.
Glenrius, already drawn and waiting, loosed an arrow.
In the same instant, Elise instant-cast [Holy Light Arrow].
Telynia locked onto Elise's target as well.
Roland, in his leather armor, raised his short-hafted warhammer and smashed the front gate open.
"Damn it!"
"We just want to leave!"
The Fisk brothers bolted in opposite directions, one north, one south, their curses thick with panic.
But escape wouldn't come easy.
Elise's [Holy Light Arrow] and Glenrius's [Gale Arrow] struck home almost instantly.
The only reason the Fisk brothers could still curse after being hit was that both were Senior First-tier Awakened.
Even so, no Awakened could hold full speed or a stable stance after taking a hit.
Their shouted curses doubled as a warning.
They only wanted to run.
If the Church team kept pressing, they'd stop holding back.
Elise ignored the warning.
The moment her first [Holy Light Arrow] flew, she was already preparing the next spell.
Less than a second later, a second instant-cast [Holy Light Arrow] streaked out.
Her target no longer had room to dodge—Telynia's coordination was flawless.
Just as the man tried to leap down from the wall, a [Fireball] slammed into the stones beneath his foot, nearly costing him his footing.
Then Elise's [Holy Light Arrow] took him.
He tumbled over the far side of the wall.
Glenrius's target fared no better.
He was up against a Prime First-tier elven archer.
Given even a moment to prepare, Glenrius's [Gale Arrow] carried attack power approaching the Prime First-tier level.
By the time Elise loosed her second spell, Glenrius had already fired his second arrow.
Both Fisk brothers, wounded, dropped from the wall almost simultaneously.
Elise and the others didn't hesitate. Holding formation, they rushed the wall.
As she ran, Elise cast [Holy Light Bolt] without a second thought.
Compared to the gentler nature of [Holy Light], [Holy Light Bolt] hit far harder.
The spell struck the wall, and a section of it collapsed on the spot.
Then Elise cast [Holy Light] again.
This time, she wasn't shaping the battlefield.
She wanted the targets stained with more of her mana signature.
When Elise pulled out a Spirit Potion and downed it in one go, the Awakened watching from the shadows went silent all over again.
This extravagant style of combat was a nightmare for rogue Awakened.