Prologue: The Church’s Ambush (Part 3)

Astine left to head towards another beast that was more dangerous than the one with long pointy ears. She could tell it through how that tiger-like beast was acting violently. The priests were constantly being wounded, but were only kept alive by Tina.

Tina on the other hand, already looked pretty exhausted; one would wonder how many times she had been casting spells. The fact that she was always running away from the enemy whenever it got near only contributed more to her exhaustion. The beast appeared to be targeting her specifically, but good thing the other priests were getting in its way.

I won't let them hurt Tina.

While the violent beast was distracted after it hit away the priests attacking it, Astine saw an opening and conjured a giant spear that was three times the size of a normal one, made up entirely of ice. With a jump, she kicked the spear while it was still in the air, sending it towards her intended target.

The beast realized it and leaped back, but he was a bit too late and it severed one of its legs.

"Gaaaaah! Damn you!"

The beast glared at Astine.

"Sister!"

Tina called out to Astine, and the latter nodded her head towards her.

The beast tried to stand up, but of course, it struggled to stand on one leg. It was then that a storm of wind engulfed and blasted everyone away. But Astine managed to hold on by stabbing her spear of light into the ground, gripping it firmly.

She immediately searched for Tina, and relief came when she saw her just fine a distance away after she was blown away.

When she returned her sights to the enemy, Astine saw the one with pointy tears now standing before the beast. Seeing that he came there, she instantly turned her eyes towards the direction where the other priests facing it should be.

Her eyes went wide. The priests were bleeding and were wrapped in thorny vines as they lay unmoving on the ground. There were even slashes on their body.

"Tina! Heal them!"

Astine shouted and pointed at the priests. It shocked Tina to see how bad they looked. They were just doing well last time she saw them. With a determined face, she rushed to their side.

Astine shifted her gaze back to the pair of enemies. The pointy eared one seemed to cast a spell, and thorny vines grew out of the ground and launched towards the priests. Astine easily cut away several coming her way, and so she moved closer to her enemies. The enemy saw that and a tempest covered the area around him mixed with slashing winds.

Astine was surprised as she suddenly suffered cuts, and thus she did her best to block all attacks coming her way.

As it happened, she heard the two opponents speak.

"This is a failure, and now here we are."

"Dammit, I thought we'll finally get Oryn out after more than a decade."

"Yes, this could mean our friend is gone."

"Or captured, he could still be alive out there."

"Eluer!" the captured elf shouted all of a sudden, and everyone turned to look at him. "Is everything lost here!?"

The elf, Eluer, nodded his head. With that simple gesture, the captured elf understood what had to be done.

"I see. Very well."

For some reason, the elf held out his hand towards himself. Too late did everyone realize what he was about to do, and a wind slashed through his neck before blood spewed up into the air then onto the soil.

The priest guarding him was left dumbfounded. Everyone who witnessed it felt the same, even Astine.

He just took his own life, just like that, with no hesitation. It was such a hard thing to process.

"Muriyo! What the fuck!?" The beast was equally surprised as the priests.

However, the other remaining elf seemed to be unfazed.

"Eleur! Lift me up. Let's get out of here already. That damn idiot... Why did he kill himself? We could have just gotten away!"

"No. Forgive me, but I cannot carry you with all the enemies around us, and we cannot escape. That woman right there is glaring our way, and that old man can catch us easily after he dealt with Hundo, and he appears to be winning already."

"Fool, we can still get out of here."

"It is hopeless, Refel…."

The pointy eared one's sword glowed softly as though it was engulfed in magic.

"What are you planning, Eluer?"

"The ambassador instructed us to not let anyone fall into enemy hands. That also applies to you."

"Is that why Muriyo killed himself? Damn you Eluer, are you…?" realization dawned on his face. "No… I thought we were friends!"

"Yes, and I am doing this for you, and for our people."

"You damn elf—"

A blade cleaved through his neck.

"Know, my friend, that my resolve goes this far."

The beast stared with wide eyes as they gradually lost any signs of life.

Astine was in shock as she bore witness to this unbelievable scene. How could someone kill their comrade that easily?

Astine couldn't even imagine herself doing something like that.

"No! No no no!"

She heard a familiar voice.

Astine saw her sister, Tina, trying to heal the two priests that she was ordered to treat. However, despair was all over her face as her eyes brimmed with tears. The way she was, anyone could easily tell what was going on.

The two priests died.

To be honest, the group had never experienced a situation like this. A situation that enemies could fight back with all they got, enemies that could overwhelm them without the proper number.

All that they had fought were criminals — humans — and those people didn't even stand a chance before their might. No one here had experiences that made their lives intensely in danger. One would wonder how they would do if they battled with demons that they heard a lot about.

Astine glared at the "elf" that killed the two priests. How foolish it was to think that no one would perish here. But it still pained her heart, only hiding it in her stoic face.

Then the storm calmed down.

Astine felt a hand on her shoulder. It was the high bishop's hand. He had that almost blank face, perhaps saddened by the death of the priests.

"They are a handful more than expected, huh."

He said solemnly. Astine looked behind and saw the beast she fought previously severely injured and had his left leg severed and both hands gone with a priest watching over him.

"High bishop…" Astine muttered with a rough voice.

"Toughen up. You will inevitably encounter plenty of death in the course of your job. But do not let it distract you in times of duty. Only grieve when everything is peaceful and silent."

"... Understood."

Astine returned to glare at the elf.

"Everyone, surround him!"

Astine shouted an order, and everyone sprang into action. Even Tina separated from the dead allies and took position.

"I am outnumbered. The church order truly is troublesome. There is no escape for me."

He moved his hands behind him as he said so.

"Apparently. Now, will you be so kind as to surrender?"

The high bishop said as a pair of spears appeared and floated on both his sides.

"Hmm. May I ask a question?"

"Go ahead."

"A friend, we were supposed to extract him. But seeing that you have set up a trap, something must have happened to him."

"Mm, yes. I did hear someone mention what you might be looking for. Yes, well, he is dead, I heard."

"Dead… That's good."

"Good? You are quite a callous one, aren't you? Then it's my turn to ask a question."

"Oh? What is it?"

"You definitely are not human, so I'm not going to ask that. What I want to learn is… why are you targeting her?"

Astine looked curiously at the high bishop. He had never mentioned anything, including the person they were talking about that was already dead, and who this "her" they were talking about. That being said, even though he didn't specifically say who that was, Astine had an idea. The high bishop singled someone after all during the first assembly.

"Odd. You know?"

"Of course."

"Hm, who told you I wonder. Did my dead friend tell you?"

"If I'm right, no."

"I see."

"So, are you answering my question?"

The elf chuckled. "No… I am not answering you."

"I see. What a shame, then I'll just make you speak."

"Regretfully, I have no intention of telling you, nor will my allies here."

"We won't let you kill them."

"It doesn't matter if you let me, or not, I will win, in the end."

Thorny vines instantly grew out of the ground and violently lashed out at everyone. Astine and the other priests protected themselves. While everyone was occupied, wind engulfed the elf and propelled himself forward.

He encountered the high bishop, and they clashed blades. The elf would also use his wind blades to deal with the other weapons. But he was only using his one hand while the other was grasping a ball of wind.

With a powerful kick, he hit the bishop, sending him backwards. Even the bishop was having difficulties dealing with him since their speeds were a match. But the bishop immediately counterattacked, and a beam of light shot out of his hand.

But at the same time, the elf already had his hand extended forward as compressed air shot out like a projectile. It moved so fast that no one was able to stop it amidst the storm of thorns and wind.

The wind hit then shattered the wolf's face. But the ray of light hit the elf's shoulder and severed the extended hand.

But it didn't seem to slow down the elf and proceeded to move on to his next target.

Unfortunately for him, the priestess had already cast a barrier to the firstly immobilized beast. Even so, he didn't stop and the wind from his feet launched him forward again despite bleeding badly.

As he moved, the bishop caught up with him and swung a sword, but the elf blocked it. It was an admirable effort, but the bishop used his other sword and thrust the blade through his chest.

"Ggh!"

He stopped in place.

"You failed."

"Don't… don't underestimate our race, human."

"Am I underestimating you?"

The elf glared at the bishop. Burning all his mana, he gathered wind at a tremendous amount and speed. The bishop was about to end him there, but the elf was faster and he blasted him away.

"Cikeus! Make your choice! Yourself or our people?!"

The elf shouted as he made his way to the final beast.

The beast stared at the elf — his ally — and lowered his head. With resolve, he stiffened his body and suddenly leaped up using the limb he had left. He opened his mouth, flashing his sharp teeth.

"No!"

The nearby priest was about to stop him. But how exactly? Nobody knew, but everyone knew he had to be stopped. He was about to reach out for his mouth. However, the barrier kept his hands away.

Then the beast bit one of his arms — or what was left of it — with great strength, shattering the barrier.

At the same moment, a slash of wind came passing by, cutting through the beast's body. At the same time, it also cut down the nearest priest in half with it, sending both halves of his body tumbling away.

"I… I win."

With a grin, the elf collapsed to the ground.

The storm dwindled, then vanished, and the vines died down.

All enemies died. The church suffered three losses.

The high bishop glanced at the aftermath with a displeased expression.

The night fell into utter silence.

Tina and Astine approached each other.

"How could they just kill each other like that…?" Tina asked meekly.

"I don't know."

The both of them couldn't understand how their enemies were capable of such actions.

"So, we failed."

"Somewhat, I suppose."

Astine walked towards the bishop and Tina followed behind her. The bishop crouched down and was staring closely at the corpses of their enemies.

"High bishop…"

"They are creatures that were not in the record of demons. But this one, an elf? They were only myths. I don't know about this one though," he pointed at the beast.

"We also suffered losses. All we learned was that our enemies definitely aren't humans. Furthermore, they are strong, stronger than our standards… but I never got the answer. Why do they want the young — the young princess?" he added.

"So, they are targeting the princess. But I cannot understand why."

"That's because you must not understand it."

"But high bishop, our allies — our friends died for this," Astine said sternly.

"This is a significant matter, Astine. Too significant for the common folk, even for the members of our order."

"..." Astine glared at the bishop, feeling irritated.

"I want you to understand, all of you, there will certainly be times when you will not learn the truth. Some secrets just have to remain secrets, so there will come a time where you will fight for an unclear reason, but even so, you have to carry out your duty. Do you understand, children?"

Everyone hesitantly responded that they understood.

"Good. Send a request for reinforcements to take the bodies. Then, we'll have a prayer for our departed allies."

Tina took a deep breath. She had never expected it would feel this terrible to lose her friends and allies. And this situation was utterly bitter, they didn't get what they wanted. No prisoners to interrogate. Nothing except for the fact that the enemies were not humans.

They didn't even learn where they were, and why they were here.

She turned to look at her sister. Her cold demeanor was now more intense than before. It would seem she was feeling the same as her and merely trying her best to suppress and hide it.