Chapter 256: 135. Resolution -1 (Part Two)
Translated by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
“It’s a lich…” Alice’s jaw dropped to the floor while staring at Nasus.
The lich, an object of terror to all living humans, referred to as a magician closest to Death, was standing right in front of her eyes.
“Alice!”
She flinched in surprise and quickly turned her head.
That’s when she discovered the Seventh Imperial Prince riding up on a skeleton horse. His face emitted the unmistakable golden glow of the Aztal Rune, while his hand was holding a musket.
He looked down at her from his mount and spoke firmly, “I request you start the Resonance.”
Her brows shot up high at his command.
“We shall purify every single undead that has shown up here tonight,” he spoke in a resolute voice, and she nodded at his command.
She then brought her hands together and began singing the sacred hymn. The Spirit Speech laden with divinity quickly spread into their surroundings.
The convicts were surprised by the sudden singing and focused their hearing on Alice’s singing voice.
Hearts painted with terror began to calm down. It didn’t stop there, either; the small amount of divinity within their bodies reacted to her singing and began trembling strongly.
“What a beautiful voice…”
Just as the convicts were staring at her in a trance…
“Offer your prayers, now!”
They quickly shifted their gazes and discovered Count Jenald rushing over to them while riding on a horse.
He yanked his sword out and took command. “Offer your prayers, and let’s teach these abominable undead the greatness of our Theocratic Empire!”
The convicts exchanged glances before nodding in agreement.
The lycans were still trying to flee from here. The divinity snow falling from the skies was oppressing the undead, even as they stood around like this.
Now would be their only opportunity!
The convicts put their weapons down and began offering their prayers.
Allen, still atop the skeleton horse, shifted his gaze over to Nasus. “Follow me, Nasus.”
-We shall obey our master’s command!-
Nasus took a step forward as bones rapidly coalesced beneath its feet to become a Summoned skeleton horse. Other skeleton mages wielding their muskets also rose up on skeleton horses to follow their master’s lead.
In the meantime, the convicts finished their prayers and began picking up their weapons.
Even though cold sweat still trickled down their faces, their expressions were firm and resolute. However, their eyes still trembled a little when staring at the massive giants beyond the outer walls, the Jötnar.
“Do not fear.” Allen spoke up while breathing into his musket. He could see the Jötnar in the distance closing in steadily. “A Saint and a Saintess are fighting together with you all.”
When he said that, the convicts all jumped up in surprise, their eyes threatening to pop out of their sockets.
They hurriedly alternated their gazes between Allen and Alice as powerful astonishment swept over them.
“Gaia’s grace is now with you all, so…” Allen whispered quietly, yet every convict present could hear him clearly.
Their divinity was getting a mighty boost after receiving Alice’s Resonance. Bright light remained within the convicts, and the terror staining the deepest part of their hearts was washed away.
Their passionate emotions morphed into a body-shuddering thrill and excitement, and they began gripping their weapons even harder.
The convicts all stared at Allen as if they were waiting for his command.
He looked back at them, and loudly shouted out, “Go and wipe out the undead!”
Allen spurred the skeleton horse and charged ahead, springing over the debris of the fallen outer wall. Nasus and the skeleton mages accompanied him closely.
Their Lord Saint had stepped into the frontline!
Count Jenald loudly cried out at that sight, “Lord Saint and Lady Saintess are with us-!”
The convicts reacted to his shout. They roared out in unison as excitement took a hold of their senses, “Gaia’s glory be with us-!”
They all rushed past the wrecked remnants of the outer walls.
Alice interlocked her fingers and pressed her forehead to her hands, singing the hymn continuously.
Harman followed after Jenald, and dashed past the outer wall as well.
A large group emanating pure-white light drove away the persistent darkness and began hunting down the undead.
‘Insane! They have all gone insane!’ the leader of the lycans, Warbell, panted breathlessly as it ran away, but it still looked behind itself, just in case.
Humans were flooding out from the broken-down sections of the outer walls. Divinity gushed out from them, and not a hint of hesitation could be seen on their face. It was as if they were a part of a tsunami wave!
‘What the hell?! How can this be! Most of them are using divinity!’
Could those humans be from one of the main forces of the Theocratic Empire that the undead often heard about, the Heavenly Army?
No, wait; compared to the ones in the rumours, those humans were definitely far shoddier!
Even then…
-They are not scared at all!-
Warbell continued to flee as cold sweat streamed down its face. If it could, it would’ve liked to scream out loudly at this horrifying nightmare, too.
Their human opponents no longer harboured any fear. They were instead taken over by madness and filled to the brim with fighting spirit.
‘We need to run away! I, I need to report this!’
Warbell had to report this truth back to Count Timong and let the vampire know about the situation in this place.
If not, the ice castle would fall into dang-!
Right at that moment, something punched completely through Warbell’s shoulder. The holy bullet went through the lycan’s flesh and bones to completely blow away its shoulder and the arm attached there.
-Euh, euh…!- It didn’t even have enough time to scream.
A barrage of holy bullets struck it soon after. The projectiles ripped the lycan completely into pieces, and the torn flesh burned to ashes mid-flight.
As the lycan’s corpse crashed to the snowy ground beneath it, a skeleton horse ruthlessly trampled it right into the ground.
Allen was riding on the undead horse, and raised his gaze. A Jötunn was roaring out monstrously. The giant, at least eight metres tall, bent down before taking a swipe with its large arm.
The giant’s large palm swept across the ground, causing dozens of convicts to be flung into the air.
“We shall deal with the Jötnar!”
Allen shouted out and lifted up his musket, then offered his prayer.
“Oh, dear Gaia…”
-Oh, dear Gaia…- Following him closely, Nasus mirrored him and prayed at the same time.
“Through your blessing…”
-Through your blessing…-
Divinity began to rumble and writhe ominously. The holy bullets, after getting even more precise through their prayers, spun viciously within the chambers of the muskets.
“Grant us the strength to…”
-Grant us the strength to…-
Allen and Nasus, plus the dozens of skeleton mages, all raised their weapons and took aim at the Jötunn.
“…Judge those who deny their own deaths.”
The triggers were pulled.
With Allen in the lead, dozens of holy bullets exploded forth from the muskets of Nasus and the skeleton mages, flying toward the Jötunn.
The arms and legs of the giant undead, and even its torso, began exploding into large chunks.
Many spiralling explosions punctured holes in the gigantic body, causing the frozen flesh to shatter and crack apart.
The first of the huge Jötnar crashed to the ground after its body was wrecked from a single volley.
“That takes care of one.” Allen muttered before shifting his gaze over to the remaining twenty-nine Jötnar. He tutted unhappily, “Still a long way to go, eh. Still…”
He then took aim with his musket, a smirk floating up on his lips.
“…We ain’t gonna lose this game, anyway.”
He made sure to line up the target perfectly, then pulled the trigger once more.
**
Charlotte was steering her mount Unira, a descendant of the legendary unicorns.
She unsheathed her sword and injected divinity into it. A beautiful aura danced around the edges of her blade.
Every place she dashed past and in every place she swung her sword purified undead were cleanly cloven by her gorgeous strikes.
Fluent and confident as always, any undead trying to stop her would end up purified with a single, clean strike.
“As expected of Lady Charlotte!”
“Let’s go! Lady Charlotte is fighting by our side now, too!”
The convicts cheered loudly and proceeded to hunt down the undead. To them, the Marquise Charlotte freely and fearlessly roaming through the battlefield was like a legendary heroine.
However… the more she undead she felled, the greater the sense of inadequacy inside her became.
‘Still too weak…’
Charlotte glanced at the top of the outer wall. Alice was up there, still diligently praying with her hands held together.
‘She wasn’t a simple lady-in-waiting.’
Charlotte naturally knew that Alice was the granddaughter of Cardinal Raphael. Not only that, the girl was an excellent healer, who had also exhibited her outstanding close-quarter combat ability during Kasim’s invasion of the Imperial Palace.
Her outstanding skills, martial prowess that verged on being the work of art, and then, even her genius-level talent…
And finally, she was even a Saintess, as well.
‘Just like His Highness…’
Charlotte gripped her weapon even harder.
Alice was currently sustaining the Resonance. The soldiers of Ronia were all reacting to the power she had deployed. Their divinity was amplified, giving them the necessary courage and at the same time, their fighting spirit soared even higher.
That power, that miracle, was not something Charlotte could imitate nor even activate.
Just Alice alone was more than sufficient enough to protect the Seventh Imperial Prince and aid him whenever necessary. Charlotte was no longer needed here.
Alice’s status, even her abilities… they were all so much better than Charlotte’s.
She bit down on her lower lip. ‘Why was I so pleased about earlier?’
She had felt so happy about besting the Imperial Prince during their sparring.
‘I’m still hopelessly inadequate.’
However, if His Highness had fought seriously, then she wouldn’t have gotten anywhere close to him.
‘Egotistical…’
The worst part of her instincts acted up and she began feeling jealousy just then. Her personal feelings went on to disrupt her thoughts and made her head chaotic.
She shifted her gaze back to what was before her.
Allen, seated atop that skeleton horse, was still commanding the musket regiment over yonder. He was hunting the Jötnar down one by one, bringing them down systematically.
He seemed to be at a distance well beyond her reach.
A Jötunn swung its large hand and crushed a portion of the musket regiment, extinguishing them from existence. Allen gritted his teeth and did something quite reckless next, weaving past the Jötunn’s unguarded legs.
That looked incredibly dangerous. He was being reckless, putting himself in danger like that.
Charlotte sobered herself up at that sight.
‘…I won’t give up.’
She’d protect him. That’s what she swore to do. That was her goal.
No matter what, she’d achieve her goal in the end. And in order to reach her goal, she had to make another resolution, as well.
Charlotte stared at her own sword.
‘…If I wish to achieve something, then I must know how to give up on something else, too.’
She bit her lower lip again and spoke up, “Unira, run forward. Run hard!”
Her horse, Unira, pounded hard on the ground with its hooves and dashed forward. It continued to accelerate faster and faster.
She lowered her posture and secured her grip on the sword. When they reached a Jötunn’s location, she took a mighty swing with her weapon.
The sword permeated with divinity sliced apart the giant undead’s leg, causing its huge upper body to topple in an ungainly manner.
She and her mount leapt over the collapsing giant and chased after the Imperial Prince’s back.
“Your Highness!” Allen looked behind at her call. She continued on, “Allow me to escort you!”
He smiled back at her. “Thanks. I’ll be in your care!”
Charlotte made her mind up the moment she heard his reply.
‘I’ll discard my swordsmanship.’
What she swore to do was to protect His Highness. As such…
‘I shall become his shield!’
Charlotte reaffirmed her resolution for the last time, and took a swing with her sword at another Jötunn.
< 135. Resolution (Part One and Two) -1 > Fin.
