Battle in the Church

Valentina, Cadell, Ouida and Odis had come rushing into the church and when they saw Edana, they quickly explained the situation of the high-level to her without even stopping for a breath. Learning about this, Edana ran towards the Sacred Order grounds and brought Thorn and his group back with her.

"No, you guys stay here and defend the people taking refuge in the church. There were more cadets inside the church, why don't you call them out and defend the church with them?" When the four cadets had expressed their willingness to come together with them to fight the giants, Edana had told them this. When she told them this, she never imagined them actually getting hurt by anything as the monsters were already killed, and the giants were going to be taken care of by them in the academy grounds. So she was certain the giants would never reach here.

But now she was clenching her teeth and holding back tears as she held the unconscious Valentina in her arms with injuries all over her body. It was like she and the other cadets were struck by lightning. As Thorn and Vine were also checking if the cadets were only unconscious, they heard screams coming from inside the church.

They had checked the cadets and were relieved that none were dead, they were only heavily injured and unconscious. The three looked at each other and nodded. Setting Valentina down gently on the ground, Edana stood up and followed Thorn and Vine quietly. 'I'll be back Val, rest for now.'

The three slowly approached the church. The screams were getting louder and louder, and the windows of the church occasionally glowed with white light, like flickering lightbulbs.

Staying in formation, the three swiftly entered the church and they were shocked once again.

Right inside the gate of the church, the burnt corpses of four knights were on the ground. The knights were left behind to protect the church, but it seemed they had died in one attack. On the both sides of the nave of the church, the corpses of people were piled up.

When they moved their eyes towards the transept of the church, they saw a man wearing a grey robe killing innocent people while laughing. The man with grayish blue hair moved his hand down, and bolts of lightning struck down towards the people, who screamed before they died. He was holding an innocent man on his right hand.

Hearing people enter the church, he turned his head towards the entrance and looked at the three with his one functioning eye. Smiling widely, he spoke to them in a coarse voice. "Ohh.. Thorn, Vine and the lass from before... You're finally here..." He snapped the neck of the man and opened his hand, letting the body fall down on the floor. "Vine... I'm surprised to see you still alive. Hahaha!" His coarse laughter sounded like rough stones rubbing against each other.

"Avery... Gray!" Vine and Thorn shouted out with clenched teeth. They were doing everything in their power to hold their anger down. "Why are you here? Killing the innocent people of Arcturus?" Thorn barked.

"Is this the declaration of war from the Storm Legion? From the country of Procella!?" Vine also shouted out, his forehead bulging with veins.

"Hahaha! War!?" Avery looked at them, amused. "Sadly that is not the case.." He shook his head and shrugged his arms. "What I'm doing... uhh... yes... what I'm doing is on my own." He looked at them and burst into laughter. "I'm doing this independently!"

"Well... I've chatted with you guys long enough right?" Avery looked at them and smiled. Then he flicked his finger down, which caused a lightning to strike down at them. It was only one lightning, which forked into three, that struck down at them.

Widening their eyes, the three dodged to the left and the right, barely dodging the strike in the nick of time. But though they dodged the lightning at the last moment, they were slightly grazed by it and got a little injured.

"Move!" Thorn cried out and the three of them moved towards Avery while dodging the constant lightning that struck down at them. Enchanting his lance with the Shooting Stars <Arcane >, Thorn slid down on the ground to dodge a lightning aimed at him and threw the glowing lance at an angle.

Moving his head to the side quickly, Avery barely dodged the lance, which slightly grazed his cheeks. He sent down three lightning towards Thorn to stop him from throwing the lance again. Wiping the blood that trickled down from his cheek's wound he smiled at Thorn.

While he was busy dealing with Thorn's attack, Vine and Edana reached Avery and attacked him with their relic weapons. Edana enchanted her weapon with Azure Gaze and attacked in the revealed path. Vine enchanted his weapon with Night Cloak and attacked Avery with fake attacks mixed in.

Avery dodged the attacks skillfully, but some attacks still went through and struck him. But to their amazement, the attacks slipped right of his robe. The robe fluttered and Vine and Edana could see copies of the robe while it fluttered.

"You're not the only ones who have relic weapons. Hahaha!" Avery laughed and moved his hands, which caused lightning to strike down at Edana and Vine. While Vine dodged the lightning and moved at a favorable position to attacked Avery, Edana could only block the lightning with her sword. After blocking for an instant, Edana was sent flying backwards because of the impact of the lightning.

Steam coming off her body, Edana fell down on the ground. Thorn helped Edana up, and both of them rushed towards Avery, who was dodging Vine's attack. Joining Vine in his attack, Thorn and Edana started attacking Avery with their weapons once again.

The three were left bewildered by Avery for quite some time. He dodged each of their attacks or his robe slipped the attack off by fluttering. Then he continued to put pressure on them by summoning lighting at them. This went on for quite a while and they had to admit Avery Gray was quite skilled, taking on the three at once while laughing. "Hahaha, is this the limit of commoner's skills? Come on show me something more!" He mocked them.

Not letting themselves fall into his provocation, the three cornered him slowly. After a while, Vine's attack finally landed. He faked the fluttering robe with an attack and struck his dagger on Avery's stomach, which made him stagger.

Using the opportunity, Edana struck Avery on the legs with the blunt side of Severance and made him fall. Then Thorn used Shooting Stars to keep Avery down on the ground. "Don't resist Avery. You're done here!" Vine took out a set of Veilirion Manacles and shacked Avery Gray with his arms behind.