Ch.246Chapter 246 – Offer Your Screams (2)

After discussing with Eve, about two hours had passed.

We decided to move directly to the village Eve had seen in the future through Lirina’s warp.

The participants would be me, Eve, Lirina, and Mask.

We decided to leave Sera, Beatrice, and Asam, who were in the middle of their research, along with the hatchlings except for Lirina, and Eina in the village as a precaution.

“Are too many of us going?”

“The other dwarves will join forces, so there won’t be any problem even if we leave the village.”

“If necessary, Miss Beatrice has agreed to join the front lines, so it should be fine.”

“Shouldn’t you be more worried about us? I’m the only one who can use magic, you know?”

I was concerned about whether the remaining members could protect the village well, but Mask, Eve, and Lirina each reassured me in their own way.

Come to think of it, considering that all of Lirina’s sisters can use magic and are asymmetric forces, the village defense might actually be excessive.

“Then Lorona, take good care of the house with Windina and Lightina.”

“Yes, yes, sister. Have a safe trip. I’ll open the warp now.”

Lorona gave Lirina a slight smile and opened the warp.

Then she said playfully:

“I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

“…We’re just going to see if we can get food supplies, that sounds a bit grand. I think we could just walk there.”

Lirina responded to Lorona’s joke with a bitter smile.

Mask quietly spoke to Lirina:

“Well, the faster the better. Warping shouldn’t be a problem for you folks anyway.”

“That’s true.”

Lirina stepped back with a light laugh at Mask’s words.

“Then let’s depart.”

Mask said this and was the first to enter the warp.

We followed one after another and…

As soon as we passed through the warp, the sounds of weapons clashing reached our ears.

“What…?”

Lirina’s eyes widened in surprise.

Mask immediately placed his hand on his sword and began surveying the surroundings.

Eve looked at me with a serious expression.

“Kei, is this…?”

“…I didn’t expect it to be happening at this very moment.”

I knew from Eve that something would happen to this village tomorrow, especially.

Still, I never thought that trouble would be brewing right after we warped.

‘Talk about bad timing.’

I thought this was too much of a coincidence, even for a coincidence.

Then Lirina quietly said to me:

“…I don’t sense any monsters nearby. But the sound of weapons means…”

“A band of thieves?”

Mask’s expression hardened as he turned to me.

“Should we retreat? Or advance?”

At Mask’s question, I quietly looked at Eve.

The answer was already decided.

After all, if it weren’t for the future Eve had seen, we wouldn’t have had a reason to come here.

“Let’s proceed carefully…”

Just as I was about to say “let’s go,”

“Offer screams to Him!!!!”

For some reason, those familiar words reached my ears, followed by:

“AAAAARGH!!”

A scream echoed from the distance.

The burned half of my face began to burn as if on fire.

The command to offer screams and the burn.

I immediately knew who was behind this.

“Those crazy cult bastards!!!”

“Kei?! Wait, calm down…!”

Ignoring Eve’s attempt to stop me,

I kicked off the ground and started running.

Red sparks emanated from my body as I ran at full speed.

The broken houses around me disappeared behind me in an instant.

In the distance, I saw a man in ornate armor grabbing someone by the collar and pulling back his fist.

Without hesitation, I raised my halberd behind me.

As I stepped forward, I threw it with all my might.

-CRASH!!!

The sound of metal colliding rang out, and the man in ornate armor was struck by the halberd and sent flying just as he was about to do something.

The man he had been holding fell to the ground, and the halberd stuck into the ground with a dull thud.

Everyone froze at the sudden turn of events, and by the time the fallen man barely managed to lift his head,

I had arrived on the battlefield.

“……”

Feeling all eyes on me, I quietly surveyed my surroundings.

Dwarves and paladins of the Jeolei Order who had been assaulted.

And paladins of the Emiris Order who had been doing the assaulting.

The horrific scene entered my vision.

“My face… my face…”

Turning my head slowly toward the agonized voice, I saw a paladin rolling on the ground, clutching his face.

Not just him, several other paladins and dwarves were also clutching their faces.

The old wound that had burned like fire earlier now began to ache coldly, as if ice had been applied to it.

“You lot.”

Feeling my head become surprisingly clear, I spoke again with force:

“You lot, what exactly were you doing?”

The paladins of the Emiris Order hesitated.

But only for a moment, soon one of them shouted loudly:

“It’s that heretic!”

“Attack! Kill him!”

I hadn’t really expected an answer to my question, but it seemed they had no intention of answering anyway.

The paladin closest to me raised his sword high and shouted, then swung the mace he held in his other hand at me.

“Die!”

The mace cut through the air with a terrifying sound.

It seemed he was trying to cave in my head, helmet and all.

Quietly watching the mace, I timed it and immediately reached out to grab his arm.

“What?!”

The mace stopped in mid-air.

The opponent seemed shocked that I had stopped his mace with one hand, and he tried desperately to free his arm.

But his arm didn’t move at all, and a look of dismay began to appear on the paladin’s face.

“L-let go!”

“Sure.”

I rotated my body, roughly twisting his arm to break his stance and making him drop the mace.

Then, using the momentum of my rotating body, I delivered a kick.

Naturally, the paladin whose stance had been broken couldn’t respond and was sent flying by my leg.

“Now’s our chance, attack!”

“You won’t call us cowards for this!”

Two paladins charged at me simultaneously, swinging their swords as if they had calculated their comrade’s defeat.

“Die right here!”

The paladins swung their swords from different directions, determined to kill me.

At a glance, they seemed to think they could win if they attacked together, since I didn’t have my halberd and wasn’t holding any notable weapon at the moment.

Looking at them, I muttered lightly:

“You’re focusing too much on just me.”

I stepped back slightly and kicked up the mace that was lying on the ground.

The mace that suddenly flew into the air struck one paladin’s chin, disrupting the trajectory of his sword.

Then I caught the falling mace and blocked the other opponent’s sword.

-CLANG!!

Metal scraped against metal as the sword slid along the side of the mace.

A momentary look of confusion flashed across the paladin’s face, as if he hadn’t expected this kind of resistance.

“I won’t lose…!”

As if determined not to be defeated easily, the opponent gripped his sword with both hands, trying to push back my mace with sheer force.

As the mace was gradually pushed toward me, the man began to grin more fiercely.

And I could feel in his arms that he was concentrating even more force for the finishing blow.

“Got you.”

I immediately twisted my hand slightly to deflect his sword in the direction I wanted.

“What…!”

The deflected sword went past me and pierced into a paladin standing behind.

Perhaps because he had put so much force into it, the sword stabbed right through the abdomen.

“AAAAARGH!!!!”

The paladin who had been stabbed by his ally’s sword screamed and fell backward.

Looking at my opponent who was stunned by what had happened so quickly, I quietly said:

“Did you enjoy that brief moment of happiness?”

“You…!”

Realizing he had been toyed with, the opponent tried to swing his fist with an enraged face.

I lightly caught his fist and twisted it, then swung the mace into his abdomen. His eyes widened in shock.

Then I grabbed him and slammed him into the screaming paladin.

“How… so easily…!”

As three paladins were taken down in an instant, the paladins of the Emiris Order visibly hesitated and stepped back slightly.

One of them shouted in disbelief:

“He definitely struggled against the Saint…!”

“That’s because the Saint was a cheat.”

“Impossible, this can’t be… we, the apostles of God, so easily…”

“I’d like you to start seeing reality properly.”

I quietly said to them:

“There’s no Saint here to protect you now.”

I pointed the mace at the terrified paladins of the Emiris Order and quietly asked:

“Who’s next?”

As I took a step toward them, the paladins retreated slightly.

And just as I was about to charge at them, someone shouted:

“Why are you retreating!”

Harkan, who had been sent flying after blocking my halberd earlier, was shouting while holding a greatsword.

“The enemy is just one! Surround him! Show this heretic justice!!”

“But…!”

“Don’t be afraid! God is always with us!”

Harkan shouted at the top of his lungs.

That seemed to have instilled some courage in them.

The enemies took another step toward me.

“For Lady Emiris!!”

Three paladins who had barely regained their courage charged at me, swinging their weapons.

As I was about to block their attacks, a confident voice came from behind:

“My, you went ahead and started quite the entertaining show.”

Mask immediately moved in front of me and half-drew his greatsword from its scabbard.

Then, he pushed the sword into the enemies’ weapons.

-CLANG!!

The tip of the scabbard, the blade of the greatsword, and the hilt of the greatsword precisely blocked the trajectories of the enemies’ weapons.

While the three paladins’ expressions quickly changed from confusion to fear, Mask slid into their midst with a rotating movement.

Then, fully drawing the half-drawn greatsword, he cut down all three opponents in one motion.

“This is too easy! Who’s next!”

Mask pointed his greatsword and shouted boldly after taking down three men with a single weapon.

The paladins who had just mustered their courage began to retreat again.

And to provoke them, Mask shouted:

“What’s this? Are all you Emiris or Eviris or whatever cult members cowards? Are you all scared of even a single beautiful maiden?”

Perhaps they were still believers of their god after all.

The men stopped their retreat.

And another voice came from behind:

“…I think I’m a bit too old to be called a maiden…”

“Let’s just say you have the heart of a maiden. No, you definitely have the heart of a maiden.”

Lirina, who had exchanged light banter with Mask, readied her ice weapon and took a combat stance.

“So this is why the village was empty tomorrow.”

Eve quietly approached my side and pointed her sword at the paladins with a cold expression.

Meanwhile, the paladins of the Emiris Order were focusing their attention on Mask.

And the next moment:

“Damn it, she’s insulting our god!!!”

The paladins roared in unison and began charging at us.

Mask and I leaped toward the enemy without hesitation.

I swung the mace, bashing an opponent’s head, then vaulted over his body to kick another in the abdomen.

I kicked up a fallen sword, caught it in reverse grip, and thrust it into an enemy approaching from behind, then swung the mace to strike another.

Meanwhile, I picked up another mace from the ground, wielding one in each hand, and pounded an enemy’s armor like beating a drum. I then threw one mace, taking down paladins who were targeting us with bows from a distance.

Having made my way to my halberd, I immediately swung it, sending nearby enemies flying.

“This can’t be, we’re enhanced by blessings…”

“Don’t panic! The enemy can’t have infinite stamina!”

I saw one paladin muttering in dismay and another trying to rally his comrades.

The one with slightly more ornate armor seemed to be of higher rank than the regular paladins.

‘The commander?’

I immediately changed my target to that paladin and swung my halberd.

The opponent tried to gather his comrades to face me, but before long, they were all cut down by my halberd.

“Such a monster…!”

I knocked out the paladin in ornate armor with a punch to the face.

As I was looking for my next opponent, a strange sound reached my ears.

-CLANG!!

“Damn it, just surrender quietly!”

“Who would do that for you?!”

Realizing that Eve was fighting behind me, I quickly turned to see Harkan swinging his greatsword at her.

Eve was fighting back with her beloved sword.

“Damn it!”

As Eve easily dodged the greatsword and continued to counterattack, Harkan shouted in frustration.

Despite his strikes being significantly faster and stronger than the surrounding paladins, he couldn’t even graze Eve’s clothing.

Soon, he seemed to grow desperate and shouted quickly:

“Help me! Capture this woman as a hostage!”

At Harkan’s command, two of the paladins who had been keeping Lirina at bay rushed to help him.

Soon, Eve was surrounded by three opponents.

“Why don’t you just surrender quietly now?”

“I’ll have to decline.”

Eve lightly brushed off Harkan’s sneer.

Soon, the three paladins began their attack on Eve.

“Damn it, just, surrender!”

One paladin shouted desperately, but Eve dodged their attacks with minimal movement and counterattacked.

Given that she was facing three opponents, Eve’s counterattacks noticeably decreased, but none of her opponents managed to land a hit on her either.

Growing impatient, one paladin opened his mouth and shouted:

“Hurry and capture her, at this rate…!”

“At this rate, what?”

The paladin couldn’t finish his sentence.

In an instant, his body crumbled, and Harkan’s eyes widened.

“Damn it! When did you…!!”

“In battle, you should maintain a broader field of vision.”

I swung my halberd at the wide-eyed Harkan and said:

“Remember, if you try anything foolish, your head will fly off.”

“You damn bastard!!”

The moment I noticed Eve being attacked, I had been eliminating enemies around me and approaching him, but he had been so focused on Eve that he failed to properly track my position.

Soon, Harkan’s greatsword and my halberd clashed several times in the air, creating shockwaves.

With each exchange, Harkan’s expression grew darker.

“Damn… you!”

Shouting with difficulty, Harkan managed to withstand my attacks, but his speed was noticeably slowing.

Seeing an opening, I used my arm to deflect Harkan’s greatsword.

Then I brought down my halberd.

“AAAAAAAARGH!!!!!”

With Harkan’s scream, his right hand fell to the ground.

Blood began to stain the ground, and Harkan quickly grabbed his right wrist with his left hand.

“Damn it… my hand!! My haaaand!!!!”

Harkan rolled on the ground, screaming desperately.

And his state finally seemed to bring the paladins of the Emiris Order back to their senses.

Soon, the paladins shouted with pale faces:

“Lord Harkan!!”

“Retreat, retreat!!”

“My haaaand!!!!!”

The paladins began to retreat, practically dragging Harkan away.

“You think I’ll let you escape!”

I threw my halberd at the retreating paladins, hitting one and knocking him down. Then Harkan desperately shouted:

“Now, use the scroll now! Now!!”

Harkan shouted desperately, and one paladin finally managed to tear a scroll from his pocket.

Then Harkan and the paladins were enveloped in light and disappeared from my sight.

“They escaped.”

I quietly said, looking at the spot where the paladins of the Emiris Order had been.

Turning my gaze, I saw dwarves and paladins of the Jeolei Order lying on the ground, looking at me and my companions.

Their bodies covered in wounds, they seemed to be pleading for something.

“Kei.”

Eve quietly took my hand, as if to calm me down.

Not rejecting her hand, I looked at the spot where Harkan had been and said:

“Damn it.”

A corner of my heart began to ache at the thought that I had let him escape.

The faint remnants of the burn scar began to throb quietly, as if reproaching me.