All paths are blocked

"Take us away!"

Sarah shouted from the bottom of her lungs while tightening her grasp over the kid in her arms.

Her voice had to be strong enough to cut through all the screams and noise of battle, letting her shadows know to retreat inwards and group up around her.

Sarah didn't just wait to be rescued by her men, though.

Using the opportunity caused by their relentless slaughter, she rushed back several steps, ignoring the sights of ongoing carnage all around in her bid to grow some distance between herself and the actual battle.

The princess gritted her teeth and attempted to slam a corner of a building with her shoulder, pressing herself against the wall to make the job of securing the perimeter all the easier for her shadows.

'Whether Mera likes him or not, I can't risk the safety of an infant god over a mere man!' Sarah coldly decided, ignoring the young man and his plight… that started all because he wrongly assumed she was in danger.

Sarah gritted her teeth and put aside the sense of guilt and shame, embracing the feeling of safety that comforted her soul when her shadows started to gather around.

And without even a second thought, Mera turned tail and ran, protected from the harm by her shadows.

'This kid is too important!' She continued to stress out in her thoughts in an attempt at convincing herself she made the right choice.

'Mera, I'm sorry, I really am,' Sarah pressed her lips together, trying not to imagine the disappointed look on her friend's face. 'I will pray for this stranger not to be the man we are looking for!'

The aftertaste in the princess's mouth was awful.

Mera… This was the very first time in the years that they knew each other for the saintess to express an interest in something or someone. For the first time, she lowered her guard to the point of revealing a livid curiosity in something out of her reach…

And despite all the favors Sarah owed her friend, she now had no other choice but to give up on advancing the saintess agenda.

The kid in her arms was just that important.

Sarah's guilty conscience have all but vanished when the leader of her shadows suddenly materialized in front of her, barring the passage ahead while striking out with the crystallite knife at some threat only he perceived.

Clang!

Sarah struck the shadow's hand with her stomach, nearly breaking in half when her sprint came to a sudden and unexpected spot.

But the sight of a silvery blade flying past her face, mere inches off her skin, was good enough of a reason to justify this kind of manhandling.

Rebounding from her shadow's hand, Sarah took two steps to the back while simultaneously raising her eyes at the new opponent.

And this time, it was no mercenary.

It was the very leader of the local inquisition that she and Mera have clashed with just a few hours ago!

The high inquisitor sat atop a mighty horse, both of them clad in thick chainmail and covered in white drapes.

Mounted on its mighty horse, bearing down in his full, ceremonial outfit and holding the sacred silver lance in his hand, the princeps inquisitor clearly meant business.

"GET BACK!" the leader of the shadows cried out as he stumbled to the back under the force of the strike he countered and redirected away from the princess's head.

The shadow took a few steps to the back, his left hand hanging loose by his side after bearing the brunt of the weighty attack.

'Wha…?!'

Sarah freaked out on the spot.

Her first shadow was among the fiercest and strongest warriors in the entire empire, boasting a whooping eighteenth rank! With just one more promotion, he would be forever freed, only to be instantly promoted to the ranks of high nobility serving directly under the imperial crown!

And yet, when standing against the high inquisitor, her loyal shadow struggled.

'I knew the difference in tiers can be overwhelming for shadows…' Sarah pursed her lips.

In theory, the tier of her rank was higher than the one of the high inquisitor.

But unlike this white-clad knight, Sarah wasn't a battle-born maniac. Her rank, even with its royal tier, was just an effect of training and the god-emperor's bloodline!

The knight raised his lance and kicked the sides of his horse, only to advance with the momentum of not only his own body but also the dropping motion of his horse.

And once again, the leader of Sarah's shadows could only ward the attack away, sacrificing most of the strength in his other arm by doing so.

Noticing the effects of his strikes, the inquisitor raised his lance up, pointing its blade towards the sky, before looking down at the princess.

'No, he's not looking at me,' Sarah soon realized. Against the opponent of this level, her disguise would work perfectly… but would also be insanely easy to notice.

In other words, while the inquisitor couldn't see through Sarah's disguise, just by judging the rank of the spell and eliminating those below, he could pretty much guess Sarah's identity anyway.

"Surrender the kid!" the inquisitor requested coldly, the tip of his lance glistering to the side of his face.

'Even though he clearly has a lower rank than my shadow…' Sarah gritted her teeth in mute frustration.

But then, Sarah's face twitched.

Because she realized that despite using a low and relatively calm voice, the inquisitor actually infused it with mana dust!

'What is he, a novice?!' Sarah's eyes turned wide, baffled by such a basic mistake. 'Or maybe he didn't… No, he can't be that stupid!'

The princess's mind heated up, speeding to analyze all the possibilities.

And then, it struck her.

'He is acting in a way that will give him an excuse!'

The basic rule of using mana dust was how magic initiative belonged to the one of a higher rank. They were simply better tuned to use it, forcing those on the weaker end of the fight to use any means to prevent their opponent from simplifying the fight to just the use of mana dust.

And right now, the inquisitor was infusing his voice with mana dust, trying to suppress Sarah's and enforce obedience on her!

'This just bought me a second,' Sarah realized, gritting her teeth as she acted as if she was about to relax her grasp on the infant deity.

And in every passing frame of instance, she kept looking around in search of a way out.

'There is no way I will surrender an infant deity to the damn inquisition!'

Despite being of Hvelism faith, Sarah knew better than to let the military arm of the church get their filthy hands on a being as important as the one in her arms!

'I just had to stumble into a damn princeps inquisitor!' Sarah cursed for the last time before taking a step back.

"Fall back!"

As reluctant as Sarah was to go back to where she came from, there was no way for her to advance past the white knight in front of her.

And in all honesty, between some mere mercenaries and a host of inquisitors, the princess didn't need to think twice about who would she prefer to face in combat!

It was in this instant when Sarah's shadows showcased their situational superiority over the white knights in shiny armor and mounting massive warhorses. In the narrow streets of the town, Sarah's men managed to pull her back into the alley before the princeps inquisitor could ever hurry his horse up!

Yet, the very second Sarah stepped back into the alley…

A host of inquisitors swarmed the place, cutting down the mercenaries just because they stood in the path. And before long, the lower-rank inquisitors blocked every way out of the alley, while the princeps now with the assistance of his bodyguards blocked Sarah's way back into the open.

'Fuck!' Sarah cursed, looking around in search of anything that she could use to escape the church's military arm…

But save for the stranger that she abandoned and who was now struggling to remain conscious, there were only inquisitors, inquisitors, and even more inquisitors.