Ch.454The Fountain of the Poor

‘Two Masters and two Saint candidates. With that kind of reinforcement, we should be able to win somehow, right?’

Having made her decision, Hush leaped up onto the alley wall and looked toward the hideout where Haschal’s group was waiting.

And she saw it.

‘…Huh?’

A sight she never expected.

Hush’s eyes trembled in shock.

– Whoosh!

Their hideout was engulfed in flames.

—-

‘Oh no, they’ve been discovered there too…!’

Hush drew in a sharp breath as she watched the hideout.

Beams of pure white light and purple holy light flashed and crossed, and something like a whirlwind roared as it flew somewhere.

Paladins and priests, presumably sent by Lübitz, were surrounding them and fighting.

Though difficult to see clearly because of the holy light, the young man with the greatsword was also jumping around swinging his blade.

‘So that’s where all the paladins went.’

Hush’s expression twisted in dismay.

From what she could see of the battle, they weren’t losing, but with paladins and priests deliberately engaging them, they seemed unable to break through.

Seeing the Church of Grimnir members surrounding the hideout, it was clear she couldn’t even approach the battle, let alone join it.

‘This is bad…?’

She could sense it instinctively.

By the time her companions defeated all those church members, Haschal would already be a corpse.

‘Ah… damn it. What should I do? At this rate, the only option left is…!’

Biting her fingernails and watching the battle with an anxious face, Hush finally gave up on delivering the message and turned, running toward Haschal’s battlefield—the very place she had been trying to get away from.

Since she couldn’t expect support from them, the only option left was to somehow help Haschal herself.

‘Right. Think positively, Hush. Think about it—if that woman survives thanks to me, wouldn’t she treat me well out of gratitude? …Right?’

Suppressing her urge to flee toward the city walls, the black half-elf sprinted through the dawn streets.

—-

‘I must be crazy….’

Returning to the cathedral, Hush sighed as she crouched low and surveyed her surroundings.

Sneaking back in by climbing over the cathedral wall was all too easy.

Most priests had apparently rushed to the burning building, leaving only a few behind.

The problem came after getting in.

Hush’s upper body was drenched in cold sweat. Her spine ached and her fingertips tingled.

The ominous feeling from the basement had intensified tenfold since earlier. Enough to make her regret entering within ten seconds.

‘Calm down… calm down, Hush. At least you haven’t been discovered.’

Hush clutched her trembling chest and took a deep breath to steady herself.

‘Right, it’ll be fine. I’m not going in there anyway.’

From the beginning, she had no intention of returning to the basement entrance she had escaped from.

Going that way would only make her another target to be struck down.

In about five seconds, she’d go from half-elf to half-elf barbecue.

Her goal wasn’t mutual suicide, but to create an opportunity for victory by causing confusion through a surprise attack.

She had a plan of sorts.

‘The poor must have been taken underground. If they weren’t killed and buried. The prayer room was a trap, but… behind it. There seemed to be space behind it, so they’re probably piled up there.’

Hiding in shadows and moving like a cat, Hush crawled around the cathedral, suppressing even her breathing.

‘The number of poor people taken must be at least several hundred. But that entrance was too narrow and long. They could force them in if necessary, but… with the entrance on the first floor, they could only transport them at night to avoid outsiders’ eyes, which would be too inconvenient for moving hundreds of poor people who can barely stand. So… there’s likely another entrance. An entrance for quickly pushing in the poor.’

The Council of Dream Utopia had been the same.

Narrow entrances were suitable as secret passages, but inconvenient when hiding large numbers of people.

With conviction based on experience and intuition, Hush persistently searched the cathedral for places where the ominous feeling was strongest.

And she found it.

‘No doubt. This is it…!’

A food storehouse attached to one side of the cathedral.

An eerie, ominous feeling was seeping out from there.

After checking through the window to see if anyone was guarding inside, Hush carefully snuck into the storehouse.

‘Only two priests? Lucky. They must have deployed all important forces to the battle.’

Crawling along the rafters toward the priests, Hush dropped down on them like black lightning when she reached above their heads.

– Squelch!

A familiar sound of flesh being pierced.

Savoring the sensation of her blade piercing through one priest’s crown, Hush shot her dagger toward the other.

“Huk…?! Ul, Ultoris præsídĭum!”

The priest, shocked by the sudden attack, desperately activated a reflection spell.

But that was a misjudgment.

He should have cast a barrier spell instead.

Hush, rushing toward the priest, tilted her head to avoid the reflected dagger and pulled out the wire from her sleeve.

Killing a panicked mage wasn’t difficult.

Before the priest could cast his next spell, the sharp silver wire wrapped around his throat.

“Kuhk…!”

That was the end.

As Hush pulled her arms in opposite directions, the priest’s head was cleanly severed.

“Phew….”

After killing the two priests, Hush exhaled the breath she’d been holding and retrieved her dagger and silver wire from the priest’s corpse.

‘This must be the place.’

Her conviction grew stronger.

There was no reason for church priests to be guarding a simple food storehouse.

Hush searched the storehouse with sharp eyes, looking for a secret entrance.

– Rumble.

Clearly connected to the underground, continuous subtle vibrations shook the ground as she moved around the storehouse.

‘…What on earth is happening down there?’

Hush frowned as she swallowed dryly.

If vibrations were reaching this far, the underground must be shaking as if hit by an earthquake.

She had no desire to be in the middle of that, dead or alive.

It didn’t take her long to find the entrance.

Though disguised as food sacks, it was a wide entrance that could accommodate about seven people at once.

She took another deep breath, gripped her dagger, and crossed the threshold.

And she saw.

—-

Walking down the corridor leading underground, the first thing Hush noticed was the terrible stench.

The smell of the dying and the dead.

Mixed with the scent of the poor, it created an unbearably putrid odor.

A familiar smell, but one that remained horrific no matter how many times she encountered it.

Hush unconsciously pulled up her mask slightly.

Not that it made the smell any less intense.

The next thing she noticed was the sound.

“Uuuugh…”

“Graaah…”

Weak moans tickled her ears.

Hush continued down the corridor, certain that the poor were already in a state worse than death, and finally reached a vast plaza.

“Ha….”

What unfolded before her made her gasp involuntarily.

On an altar emitting a strange light.

Hundreds, perhaps over a thousand poor people were stacked neatly.

Unfocused eyes and gaping mouths.

They were literally living corpses, without even fragments of consciousness remaining.

Some were already dead, having expired while moaning in this state.

‘Ugh. They were truly doing something insane.’

Hush couldn’t understand why they had gathered the poor like this.

She wasn’t a mage, after all.

But even to someone like her, this scene was excessively evil and inhumane.

‘I shouldn’t be the one to say this… but is this really what a church protecting the Holy State should be doing?’

Enduring the stench, Hush approached the poor and examined them closely.

All were emaciated, with strange tattoos on their foreheads.

‘What is this?’

A pattern of three overlapping triangles.

It was the Valknut, a symbol representing half-soul magic, but to her it was just an incomprehensible tattoo.

She could only guess it was something magical.

‘These half-corpses can probably be left alone for now….’

Hush put down the poor person she had been observing and looked toward the corridor on the opposite side of the plaza.

‘If I keep walking that way, I’ll probably reach that prayer room from earlier…’

She couldn’t bring herself to take a step.

Originally, she had planned to approach from behind to cause confusion, but this clearly wasn’t the situation for that.

– BOOM!

Tremendous roaring sounds were flowing from beyond.

It was noise and vibration as if a storm had been brought into the middle of the underground.

‘…I’d die immediately if I went there.’

What she had imagined was joining a battle between several mages and one swordsman, not jumping into the middle of a natural disaster.

Though her destination was right before her, Hush couldn’t proceed any further.

It wasn’t a matter of resolve, but that there was no point in going forward.

Even if she entered that place, nothing would change.

It was right after that when she witnessed something strange.

“Kuuuuugh!”

Amidst the poor who had only been emitting weak moans, a desperate scream rang out.

“Huh…?”

Reflexively looking in that direction, Hush witnessed a phenomenon she couldn’t understand with her knowledge.

One of the lying poor was convulsing and screaming.

The mark on their forehead was emitting an ominous purple light.

“Guuuh….”

The scream didn’t last long.

As if having poured out all remaining life, the poor person who had been screaming soon went limp.

Hush ran to that poor person and checked their condition.

‘Dead. And even more withered than before….’

It was as if their vitality had been completely extracted.

Hush sensed it. The corpses of the poor that looked like they had starved to death had actually all died in this manner.

Then what was the reason? Why had they gathered a thousand poor, marked them with strange tattoos, and killed them in this bizarre way?

‘Sacrifices… or something like magical stones? So people can be used this way too.’

Even with limited magical knowledge, anyone seeing this scene could guess.

They were extracting some kind of vitality or energy from these people and using it for their own power.

‘This means…!’

A smile appeared on Hush’s lips.

Though she didn’t dare enter the prayer room, she had found a decisive way to help Haschal without going in.

‘If they’re extracting power from living poor people….’

The dagger in her right hand flashed with a sharp gleam.

‘Then I just need to kill them all before that happens, right?’

It was a very simple solution.

Having reached her conclusion, Hush began throwing all her daggers repeatedly, granting peace to the poor on the altar.

There was no hesitation.

She believed that instant death by dagger was a better end for them than having all their vitality extracted.

When the number of breathing poor had decreased to less than thirty:

– CRASH!

The magical power of the Eternal Spring, which had been extracting their souls and converting them into magical power, reached its limit and shattered.

The magical light illuminating the altar scattered like water spray and faded.

It was right after that when Lübitz let out a cry of shock.

=========[ Haschal ]=========

The tornado gradually slowed and began to dissipate.

I smiled as I felt the wind pressure that had been lifting and swinging my body gradually weakening.

Without Lübitz’s clairvoyance, I couldn’t know what Hush had done. I could only guess.

The weather manipulation power that had been consuming enormous mana began to break, and just now, instead of avoiding my attack with teleportation magic, Lübitz responded by increasing his flight altitude.

What could be the reason?

It meant he could no longer use mana so lavishly!

“Kugh…! Impossible. The celestial, the celestial authority is dissipating…!”

Indeed, Lübitz seemed to be struggling just to maintain his power, his face drained of all composure as he expressed his shock.

“That’s right. It’s disappearing quite cleanly. Just like your remaining lifespan!”

I felt unparalleled joy as I made my final leap toward him.

The rock that served as my foothold shattered into pieces, and my body soared toward him without any resistance.

“This can’t be…! This cannot be! Sapientiális claustra (Barrier of Wisdom)-!”

Lübitz screamed as he manifested a barrier spell.

Yes. A simple mana barrier, not that accursed spatial teleportation.

It meant he could no longer afford the mana consumption of teleportation magic!

“As if that would work-!”

Like a meteor shooting upward, a blue flash soared toward the sky.

A purple sphere mixed with mana and holy light.

Durandal, colliding with his barrier, scattered brilliant radiance.

– CRASH!

The true blade breaks the flow of mana.

The hero’s deed crushes the wall of holy light.

The Barrier of Wisdom shattered like glass.

“AAAAARGH!”

A scream echoed. Blood splattered. A severed leg fell along with him.

Durandal’s blade not only penetrated his leg but also perfectly destroyed the flight spell cast on his body.

– Rumble…!

Like a bird that lost its wings, Lübitz fell, and the tornado that had been gradually weakening faded like a gentle breeze.

Shattered rock fragments rained down, making the ground tremble.

—-

After that, it was a typical battle between a swordsman and a priest.

Both were seriously injured, but the swordsman had an overwhelming advantage.

His strength had stemmed entirely from the endlessly flowing mana.

With that source gone, Lübitz was just a slightly strong high priest and a moderately talented mage.

He struggled to endure his injuries with healing miracles and desperately unleashed attack spells using all the mana remaining in his body, but that was his limit.

Unless it was a bombardment from about two hundred mages, avoiding attacks from just one person wasn’t difficult.

I blocked lightning with Rurik’s leather, ran to avoid the rain of ice spikes.

I kicked and shattered waves of rocks, broke beams of light with my blade, and finally—

“Finally caught you, you dog—!”

Reaching before him, I swung my sword with my exhausted body and cut off Lübitz’s limbs in one strike.

Screaming like a pig, Lübitz, with only his head and torso remaining, crashed onto the ruins.