Steps Towards Destruction (3)

“Alec—! Ale-e-e-e-ec—!!! Kaiyak, put me down, I said put me down—!!!”

In Kaiyak’s arms, Yona struggled and begged to be let down.

Tears that had filled her eyes at some point flowed down, turning into droplets as they passed,

And even her pleading cries scattered and disappeared.

Kaiyak didn’t stop.

Open an escape route, take care of Yona, definitely escape— that hand signal from Alec.

That was Alec’s will,

And even to Kaiyak, that seemed like the best option.

As soon as Alec shouted, Kaiyak grabbed Yona into his arms and ran.

With a larger build than Alec, he naturally had a wider stride than Alec, so he could run faster.

The dark red demonic energy rising from Yona left a long trail.

Intense demonic energy rising with a force that seemed to overshadow even the light from the chandeliers inlaid with colorful, brilliant light stones.

Yona, cradled in Kaiyak’s arms, was clearly seeing the scene unfolding in the hall right now.

She felt powerless, unable to do anything.

She was grief-stricken, unable to do anything but shout.

The brilliant radiance surging from Alec.

And the back view of Alec charging towards the cathedral knights instead.

Cathedral knights bouncing and flying everywhere with each of his movements.

The back view of Alec moving while scattering radiance.

That back view of Alec getting farther and farther away.

“Ale-e-e-ec—!!”

Yona’s grief-stricken voice echoed.

“Let go, Kaiya-a-ak—!! Alec, Alec is fighting alone—! I, I need to be there with him, I—!”

Yona’s nails clawed at Kaiyak’s shoulder blades.

Yona cried bitterly, shouting to let her go, that Alec was fighting alone.

Kaiyak was too busy running to give any answer.

Even so, Kaiyak firmly pressed the back of Yona’s neck.

After a short while, Yona’s grief-stricken voice gradually subsided.

Kaiyak continued running while holding Yona, who had probably lost consciousness.

Soon, a glass window would be in front of them.

The glass window engraved with the Celestial God, who is said to be like a mother to humans.

‘Why, do you— inflict such pain on your daughter?’

Is it natural that he, as a Lizardman, doesn’t understand because it’s the god of humans?

Kaiyak rushed towards that glass window that was approaching moment by moment.

“—Ugh!”

Kaiyak let out a pain-filled groan.

Arrows flying from somewhere pierced his side, back, and thigh.

He clenched his mouth shut tightly.

Despite requesting a chance for explanation, the Celestine Church thrust spears instead of responding.

The meaning of that reaction was all too clear, if they couldn’t escape from here, what followed was obvious.

Yona’s death.

It would come as an inevitability, and the Celestine Church would take Yona’s life under the pretext of punishing a fallen cleric.

Kaiyak couldn’t allow that.

Even if she had a demon, Yona hadn’t fallen.

He wasn’t unaware of the reasons why Yona had accepted a demon.

He couldn’t let Yona die in a place like this.

Enduring the pain crushing his whole body, Kaiyak leaped high.

While holding Yona—

As soon as he jumped, he turned his body so that the broken glass window wouldn’t fall on Yona.

So that he could take it all with his body, like that.

Crash———!!!

The cold night air enveloped his entire body.

The thought that they had finally made it outside lasted only a moment, as Kaiyak prepared for the impact as they started to fall.

As soon as his back hit the ground, Kaiyak rolled over and over.

Even while doing so, he held Yona tightly, as tightly as possible, to prevent any shock from reaching her.

After rolling on the ground, Kaiyak barely stood up and checked on Yona first.

With a face covered in tears, Yona had her eyes closed.

She seemed to have lost consciousness, but at least there were no wounds on her face, which was fortunate.

Kaiyak looked around.

It was deep into the night with darkness settled all around, but even so, Kaiyak’s eyes could survey the surroundings with this faint moonlight.

Having fallen into the undergrowth, he started running again, tracing his memories.

Now that they had escaped, pursuers trying to catch them would catch up again,

And it would be impossible to shake off the pursuit in this state.

Fleeing as fast as possible was the only best option.

There could be no other choice.

The problem was, while it was good that they had escaped from the banquet hall, they didn’t know the way out from here.

He remembered the side door where they had parted with James, but he didn’t know the way there.

‘This is bad.’

Kaiyak decided to move anyway.

It was fortunate that they had fallen into the undergrowth, but staying still would surely lead to being caught up by the pursuit.

The side door isn’t that way. To the right.

At that moment, Kaiyak heard an unknown woman’s voice in his ear.

Though he might have hesitated for a moment, Kaiyak moved without hesitation following that voice.

Though he didn’t know who it was, a voice guiding him without revealing itself was unlikely to be a member of the Celestine Church. If it were a Celestine Church pursuer using trickery, they wouldn’t mention the side door.

Before asking who it was, Kaiyak moved following the path the voice was guiding him on.

As fast as he could, while holding Yona in his arms.

He continued moving as the unknown voice directed, cutting through the undergrowth for quite some time.

During that time, Kaiyak heard voices searching for him and Yona, shining light stone lamps here and there.

Each time, he hid his body in the undergrowth or climbed up trees to wait for the search to pass.

It took a long time moving like this, but the unknown voice patiently waited for his movements and guided him on the path.

It’s right in front now.

Kaiyak breathed a sigh of relief seeing the relatively small iron door that appeared before his eyes.

Though fatigue and pain seemed to rush in all at once because he had been moving intensely without stopping, escape was now within reach.

He couldn’t let his guard down until the very end.

Kaiyak pushed the iron door forcefully while holding Yona.

As if it hadn’t been locked in the first place, the iron door slid open smoothly, and as Kaiyak stepped out, a blonde elf was standing in front of him.

“Mmm…”

When Yona, suffering from a terrible headache, opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the bright white moon.

As if to prove it was deep into the night, the moon was high in the sky, and around it, clouds dyed pitch black as if ink had been sprinkled floated sparsely.

“Yona, are you conscious?”

Yona’s gaze turned towards where the voice came from.

She thought the owner of the voice was probably Kaiyak, but as soon as her gaze reached Kaiyak, Yona jumped up from her spot as if burned.

It would be fair to say he was covered in blood.

Kaiyak’s entire body was full of large and small wounds, and moreover, he was sitting leaning against a tree with an arrow still stuck in his thigh.

“Ka-Kaiyak?!”

“Shh. Lower your voice, Yona.”

Kaiyak instead extended his finger to silence Yona.

Yona also closed her mouth at his words and, wrapping her hand with holy silk, started healing the wounds on Kaiyak’s body.

“…I’ll pull out the arrow.”

Kaiyak didn’t answer.

As if to say ‘go ahead’, he instead closed his eyes and turned his head away.

Seeing Kaiyak like this, Yona took a small breath and gripped the arrow tightly.

Most arrows in use now were bodkin arrowheads, which were pointed, hard, and made like angled awls.

They were often used because they were appropriately heavy and could be shot quickly without getting caught when pulled out and shot immediately, and they were good for piercing armor against projectiles like chain mail or cloaks, but anyway, it’s over once you pull it out.

“——!”

Kaiyak let out a silent scream.

His body twitched greatly, showing that the pain was no small matter.

After pulling out the arrowhead and throwing it far away, Yona quickly covered the wound with her hand.

The holy power that still moves well.

The holy power that moves well as Yona wants it to.

And yet, why, why—

And then, Yona realized something important.

She realized a fact she could never forget.

Her hand placed on Kaiyak’s thigh now, the place it should really be touching.

That very place that had always given her peace.

“—Alec!”

Yona jumped up.

For a moment, dizziness came over her, but she blinked her eyes and looked around.

And she saw.

A blonde elf standing like a ghost on the opposite side of Kaiyak.

“…Alebiang?”

“Yona, our pretty one. It’s been a while. Have you been well— but that wouldn’t be the case, would it.”

Alebiang had no expression.

While her expressionlessness was always expected, at least the look in Alebiang’s eyes as she looked at Yona now seemed to show a strange sympathy.

“—Alebiang, why are you here?”

As soon as she wondered why Alebiang was here, Kaiyak answered as if to solve her question.

“Thanks to Alebiang, we were able to escape safely.”

“Escape…? Then, Alec, what about Alec?!”

Yona’s voice became increasingly urgent.

In her memory, the last image of Alec was him charging towards the cathedral knights.

Yona stamped her feet and looked back and forth between Kaiyak and Alebiang.

However, no one gave a proper answer.

Kaiyak wouldn’t know, and Alebiang just remained silent with her mouth closed.

“Doesn’t anyone know? Why aren’t you saying anything? Huh?”

Desperation seeped into Yona’s voice.

Alec had been left behind alone to allow her to escape, and now Yona was out here.

No, this couldn’t be. Yona’s heart raced.

Her breathing quickened and her heart pounded, causing Yona’s mind to become a jumble.

Alec’s back view and his voice saying he would protect her kept echoing in Yona’s head.

How could this be? Just as you protect me, I should protect you too. How could I alone be outside while Alec is thrown alone into enemy territory? No, this can’t be. This absolutely can’t be.

I, I have to go and save Alec—

“I, I’m going back. I have to go back and save Alec. I must save Alec.”

As if to show that these words weren’t empty, Yona turned around.

Down the hill, in the visible church territory, light stone lamps were still moving around searching for them, but Yona looked ready to jump down regardless of those.

And then, Kaiyak, who had stood up at some point, grabbed her wrist.

“Yona, calm down.”

“Ca-calm down? How can I calm down? Alec is trapped in there right now. You know the Cele- Celestine Church bastards don’t even bother with interrogation when it comes to demons…! Alec might die, no, he will die. The Celestine Church bastards will kill him thinking he’s a demon—!”

“Even so, there’s nothing we can do on our own.”

“So we should just sit still—?!”

Yona shouted loudly.

As Kaiyak glanced at Alebiang, Alebiang sighed softly and nodded.

The silence barrier spread around them blocks sounds coming from inside.

Thanks to Alebiang’s nod indicating it was okay, Kaiyak also felt relieved inside.

“Wait, Yona. I don’t intend to let Alec die meaninglessly in there either.”

“Th-Then. What are you going to do? Is there, is there a way?”

Kaiyak stared at Yona blankly.

Yona, who had been stamping her feet, was now even jumping up and down on the spot, not knowing what to do.

Her voice was full of desperation, and it really seemed like Yona might run off for Alec at any moment.

“Really, this requires a lot of effort.”

A voice came from the darkness.

When Alebiang, Yona, and Kaiyak all turned their gaze to where the voice came from,

A shadow slowly revealed itself from the darkness.

“Anyway, it looks like I’ll have to step in again.”

A woman smiling brightly.

Ceres, Ceres Alkamain.

It was her.