Vol. 4 Chapter 21: Distraught (Part 1) (Patreon)

The enemy forces at the Wisterian palace were mostly decimated. Even their army’s commander had fallen amidst the chaos. Witnessing their losing situation, the few elves that still remained at the palace quickly fled the place. There was no point in continuing to fight now. And Alruwin was nowhere to be found to give them orders on what to do in this unexpected situation. Thus, with the overwhelming monster making it impossible to achieve victory, the best thing to do was retreat and disappear before they themselves die pointlessly or get captured. Best to fight another day than die today with no result to give for it.

Once the Wisterians had retaken control of their own palace, the king, the mind of the hive, decided to push on. He immediately ordered the monsters to go to the city. They quickly ran up the palace wall and jumped down with agile legs. With loud growls, they began running towards the city. They traversed the green fields with speed that even the most powerful of knights would be hard-pressed to do.

In the monsters’ steps, the sheer strength and speed of their legs left small craters on the ground. They indeed appeared to be unstoppable monsters. It only took them less than a minute to reach the city. Truth be told, the king had made them move faster, for he himself was running out of time. Leodoule could feel his body breaking apart, his mind being stretched to the very edge, where it could snap at any given moment.

He had to reduce the enemy’s number as much as possible. Thus, to achieve that, he had to hold on for a few more minutes.

The monsters quickly searched for enemies to eliminate, moving quicker in the ticking clock. They spread out and scattered, covering as much of the city as they could. The adventurers that were helping fight off the invaders were flabbergasted to see monsters suddenly popping out of nowhere.

Being as used to hunting monsters, they were all wary of them. Many of them even pointed their weapons at the strange creatures, ready to fight. However, they were utterly surprised and confused upon seeing the monsters attack the imperial forces and them alone. It was so bizarre and strange.

They watched as the monsters easily ravaged the powerful knights. Tearing them limb from limb without a hint of mercy and relent. Among these confused adventurers was the party who was trying their best to find and save as many people as they could.

“What the hell are they?” the swordsman, Dune, asked with a wince as he held out his sword forward.

“I have never seen monsters like them before,” the ax wielder, Iruyu, said.

“Neither do I,” Anita added. “At least they’re friendly.”

Dune lowered his sword. “Yeah? And how do they differentiate?”

Monsters were typically unlike humans, they were not as intelligent. They couldn’t differentiate other species so they regard them as foes, except their own — at least for most of the time. Monsters of the same kind also often fight with each other. But that was beside the point, it was too strange that the monsters here were only attacking the imperials, which meant they could tell what they were. They also didn’t appear to be intelligent beings, as they do not speak or anything.

Anita hesitantly turned towards Tina. “Any idea, Tina?”

Tina had a depressed look in her eyes, like all life has been drained out of her.

“Who knows.”

That was all she said before she raised her bow of golden light again and aimed it at an enemy knight making a run for it. She drew back the golden string as a magical holy arrow appeared. After ensuring her aim, she let the arrow loose and hit the enemy knight on the side of his body. He tumbled to the ground, and it was then that a monster jumped at him.

“Doesn’t matter what they are,” Tina continued. “I’m still killing the enemy.”

Tina watched the imperial knight being mauled by the strange monster, she neither looked away nor winced at the sight. It was like she only wanted to make sure he was dead, and nothing more. Seeing her this way disturbed her friends a little, and they all looked at her with eyes of concern. But for the meantime, they couldn’t do anything about it, nor did they even know exactly how to.

“R-Right.” Dune heaved a quiet sigh.

“I’m going hunting,” she said in a grim tone. “You coming? Right now, it’s best to just eliminate all enemies that we can.”

With the monsters seemingly to be on their side, at this rate, pretty soon Wisteria will have the advantage. Thus, instead of searching for more potential survivors, she thought it would be best to just hunt the remaining enemies all over the city. Although her friends were quite hesitant about it, they looked at each other, thinking if they should proceed with this. For all they knew, this could only be Tina’s way of coping with her grief, or her desire to get revenge. It may not be healthy.

Anita stepped closer to her. “Tina, don’t you think we should take it a little slower?”

Tina narrowed her eyes at her for a moment as Dune also spoke.

“She’s right. We should take a breather, we’re tired.”

“We can afford to have a moment of rest, Tina,” Iruyu added.

“Tina, I’ve been through the same. And I learned that we shouldn’t get dragged around by our emotions. We need to slow down and process things. So, please…?”

Tina closed her eyes before facing away, and she gripped her golden bow tightly, her hands shaking.

“If, if you don’t want to, then I’ll go alone.”

“W-Wait Tina—”

They tried to make her stop, but she had already run away, jumping to a rooftop. Her eyes were sharp, looking, searching for anyone to hunt. For anyone to kill. Perhaps to sate the rage boiling in her heart, or to settle the hatred burning in her soul. She found an imperial knight. She shot an arrow with no hesitation, killing him. But nothing changed within her. And thus she hunted even more.

While the grieving young priestess sought to process her grief, in another part of the city was the high bishop of the church. He rapidly moved around the streets, buildings, roofs, as he swung the golden spears in each of his hands, fending off the attacks coming from the two elves. The other used swords, while the other hurled magic at him. They have been doing this for some time now, but despite the two elves working together, they only managed to make a cut on the old man’s cheek.

That being said, even Xenous was becoming tired over this lengthy fight. A fight where he had not even a second to rest. One mistake would spell his death. The swords wielding elf swung his one sword, while the other he thrust towards the old man’s face. The latter blocked the first sword, and he parried off the second.

At the next building, the magic casting elf was waiting, and conjured a strike of lightning at the high bishop. The old man pointed his spear at the lightning, shooting out a powerful beam of light to intercept it. He was hoping for it to get through towards the elf, but considering how powerful the elf’s magic was, it would seem that was only wishful thinking.

Xenous threw himself back and swung his spears in a cross shape, sending a similarly shaped golden slash towards the sword wielder. The elf quickly blocked it with his blades, gritting his teeth at the strength it emitted, and he forcefully deflected it. The elf sighed as he glared at the human with a grin.

“You’re tough, human,” the elf said as he watched the human evade another magic spell. “It’s so rare to find someone like you. But that makes you all the more dangerous.”

The elf charged at him again, their weapons collided.

“You’ll be called a hero. Petty.”

They swung their weapons at each other, releasing a blast of wind at every contact.

“Humans loooove looking up to a powerful figure!” He strongly kicked Xenous in the stomach, throwing him off.

Xenous grunted as he instantly returned to his proper footing. He cast several beams of light towards the caster in the distance, they crashed against the buildings as the elf dodged and switched to another roof.

“But you know,” the elf dual wielder continued as Xenous returned to glare at him. “It’s always so exhilarating to see their faces as they watch their heroes die.”

“I have no idea what you're babbling about.”

“Of course you don’t. But pretty soon, you might.”

“Evil forces like you cannot win. Humanity perseveres even in our darkest days. With the will of the gods, goodness prevails.”

“The gods do not favor you.”

“We’ll see.”

It was then at that moment that they heard loud shrieks nearby, and by the second, they increased in number. All of them paused for a moment in confusion, seeing the strange monsters moving around the area attacking the imperial knights.

“What, what are they?” the elf muttered.

There was a loud rumble, both Xenous and the elf turned to see the elf magic caster being attacked by one of the monsters. He conjured a powerful lightning, heavily damaging it, and it was barely moving after that.

One of the monsters came to suddenly jump at the swords wielding elf. The latter quickly evaded and swung down a blade on it. He jerked briefly when he realized that after slashing its torso, it was still moving like it was nothing. And thus, he gave more effort into it, and cut off all the monster’s limbs.

“Never saw these kinds of monsters before, where did they come from?”

Another pair of monsters came and attacked him. The high bishop of Wisteria, however, was completely ignored.

So he did it.

But Xenous was quite concerned at how long the king had been using the divine spell. He hoped he better not have himself die because of maintaining it for too long. Xenous was aware that these monsters were strong, evident from how the imperial knights were losing. However, it would seem that even they struggled to kill these elves.

After killing off the monsters going after them, the magic caster joined up with the swordsman.

“They are all over the city.”

“What?! We never knew anything about this. Where did they even come from?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“They’re from the palace,” Xenous chimed in, and the elves glared at him as he continued. “If they’re here, it means they have cleaned up the enemies at the palace.”

“What are they?” the magic caster warily asked.

“I don’t see the point of telling you.”

“Hm,” the elf grunted in irritation.

“With the monsters, it will be only a matter of time before we finish cleaning up the city as well. They can’t defeat you, but they will exterminate your army.”

The two elves looked at each other.

“What are we going to do now?” the dual wielder asked.

“... If the army is wiped out, then there’s no point.”

“We don’t even know if we have accomplished our main mission.”

“... Indeed.”

“But you’re right, there’s no point. I don’t want to get captured. I say we flee.”

“...”

Xenous frowned. “Flee? You’re not going to at least sacrifice yourselves? Not attempt to kill me with your life?”

The dual wielder glared at the high bishop. “We die with purpose. There is no point wasting our lives for someone as puny as you.”

“Really now? And I thought you found me strong.”

“You’re strong, but you are no one too special. Do not get too arrogant.”

“You surprise me. Looks like I misjudged you a little. You do value your own lives.”

The two elves looked at the increasing presence of the monsters. After considering it finally, they began to flee while fighting off the monsters coming at them. Xenous only watched them as they went, he had no intention of chasing them down. Not only was he tired, but he couldn't manage to kill one of them either way. Best to let them be and get them next time.

But then, he was surprised to see a golden arrow of light flying towards the elves. Or to be specific, to the sword wielder. The elf sensed the arrow, and he easily deflected it. He glanced at the source of that arrow for a moment. Xenous turned towards it as well.

“I found you!”

That angered shout came from one of the church’s priestesses, standing on top of a roof.

“Tina?”

Her eyes were full of rage and hate.

“I’ll kill you!”

She was about to draw the string, but Xenous immediately rushed towards her and grabbed her hand. Her eyes widened, looking up at him in confusion.

“High Bishop! What are you doing?! They’re getting away!”

“Tina…” He looked at her with pained eyes.

“L-Look, they’re running! We can’t let them escape!”

“Stop it,” he said softly.

He was saddened to see her like this. So full of wrath and hate.

“No! I must kill him! I’ll kill him!”

To shout such words, it didn’t fit her.

“It’s over, Tina.”

She vigorously shook her head and tried to pull herself away, but the high bishop’s hand wouldn’t budge.

“No! No no no! He killed her! T-The e-elf…” Her words began to falter as tears gradually started coming out of her eyes.

“... I see…”

“I-I must a-avenge my sister!”

“No, you can’t.”

“Why?!” She glared at him with irritation and frustration.

“Tina… Stop. Your elder sister… would not be happy throwing your life away like this.”

“But…!”

“Let’s rest, okay?”

“N-No… I… But… my sister… my sister… is gone. How can I rest…?”

Xenous gently pulled her into his arms and gave her a comforting embrace. She trembled as he felt her tears touch his chest. Xenous tenderly patted her back as she sobbed uncontrollably.

“There, there… It is truly a sad thing to lose her...”

It was like losing a daughter. Hitting upon that realization, he too, shed a tear.