Chapter 453

Withstanding the dragon’s ascent with my body, I broke through and unleashed a slash.

It was an ambush no one could have anticipated.

The problem was… that Rübitz had an evasion magic that could ignore most slashes.

“Tch…! Dīvus gressus (Divine Steps)!”

Durandal, which was about to split him in half, only grazed his skin and cut through the air.

A short-distance spatial transfer activated in desperation.

In a flash, Rübitz disappeared, his presence instantly moving several meters below!

“You cowardly brat! Let’s see how long you can keep dodging—!”

I shouted furiously and charged forward, only to be swallowed back into the whirlwind.

– Kwaoooooo!

And then, the familiar noise and the comforting boulders welcomed me again.

…Damn it.

—

After that, it was a repetition of a transcendent game of tag.

A deadly race to see whether my strength would reach its limit first or Rübitz’s mana would run out.

“Just die already, Ai-shan Gi-or! Aren’t you tired?!”

“That’s my line! What kind of endless mana are you pouring out?! Did you eat a dragon’s heart or something?!”

I kept spinning in the dragon’s ascent, repeatedly lunging out to attack Rübitz, while he kept using transfer magic to dodge every time I emerged.

Damn it. If he had deployed a barrier, I could have just cut through it. If it were an attack spell, I could have blocked or endured it and then slashed.

But with him constantly transferring, I couldn’t land a decisive blow. What a cowardly brat.

Still, seeing him show signs of impatience meant that even his seemingly infinite mana had its limits.

That was my only hope.

The problem was whether I could last until then…

…Unfortunately, it seemed more likely that I would reach my limit before him.

After about ten minutes…

The Power of Feats, which had been enduring the storm’s pressure, began to run out.

My legs, which had been enduring the terrible shocks, were almost numb.

Unlike me, who was starting to tire, the damn dragon’s ascent showed no signs of stopping, continuing to wreak havoc around us.

I looked up at the sky, feeling a sense of despair, at the heavenly authority spinning madly, shrouded in dark clouds.

And then.

– Sssssk!

Like a crack in an ice sheet, a long fissure appeared in the sky.

– Crack! Crash! Shatter!

The dark sky split like glass, and the uncontrolled whirlwind began to scatter.

The seemingly infinite power of that guy was suddenly breaking apart!

“What…?!”

Rübitz looked up in shock, like a child who had just heard news of their mother’s death.

“This can’t be! The ‘Eternal Spring’ has been cut off?! What did you do?!”

Why are you asking me?

I don’t even know what the Eternal Spring is, you brat.

“Ask your god or something!”

I leaped toward him again, swinging Durandal with my cracked arm.

Rübitz rapidly ascended, dodging the blade aimed at his legs, and then glared toward the back of the prayer room, his eyes glowing with divine light.

“Is this… that half-elf wench?! How dare a half-elf…!!”

Rübitz roared in fury.

I didn’t know what was going on, but from his words, it seemed Hersh had done something.

…Who knew she’d be of help like this?

I thought she had run away or hidden herself.

—

=======[ Hersh ]=======

Immediately after Ha-shal-leur’s order, Hersh focused all her consciousness on escaping, determined to get out of this ominous place as quickly as possible.

‘This is insane, insane. Fighting those guys here? Do I have two lives or something?’

Hersh trusted her instincts quite a bit.

They weren’t always right, but she had never regretted following them.

To her, fighting those guys was nothing short of madness.

The ominous feeling in that basement was even worse than facing Ha-shal-leur as an enemy.

‘Whatever. They’ll handle it themselves!’

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Hersh dashed through the underground passage and into the cathedral’s first-floor corridor, pulling out the daggers she had hidden in her clothes.

If this was all a trap, the first floor was likely on high alert now.

The guards and priests were probably waiting calmly, pretending not to notice, for her and Ha-shal-leur to enter the underground trap.

“Here! The target has appeared!”

Of course.

As soon as she turned the corner, guards with drawn swords greeted her as if they had been waiting.

“Tch…!”

Hersh clicked her tongue and sped up, putting more strength into her legs.

‘Three. Not paladins, two soldiers and one priest. Good.’

With speed rivaling that of a master-level knight, she ran along the walls.

Her light body, a trait of her fairy bloodline, made this technique possible.

– Whoosh!

Before the soldiers could even raise their weapons, she was already in front of them.

Hersh threw two daggers at the soldiers’ faces and leaped onto the priest, wrapping her legs around his head.

She gripped another dagger in her reverse hand.

“Guh…?!”

The priest, his face buried between her legs, let out a muffled scream.

Unless they were high-level, most magic or miracles could be blocked by sealing their mouths.

It was one of the lessons she had learned during her time with the Five Blades.

“Die.”

Hersh grabbed the priest’s head with her left hand, leaned forward, and stabbed the dagger into his exposed neck without hesitation.

“Guh…!”

The priest’s spine snapped instantly, and his body convulsed. He was undoubtedly dead.

‘Easy.’

As Hersh twisted the dagger and pulled it out, the soldiers with hilts sticking out of their foreheads also fell to the ground, lifeless.

Her current master, Ha-shal-leur, had ordered her not to kill church members recklessly, but…

‘These are exceptions, right? They’re enemies.’

At least, that’s what Hersh thought.

She paid no attention to the fallen corpses and, after confirming the priest’s death, kicked his body aside and continued running.

From then on, Hersh slaughtered any enemies she encountered, running along walls and ceilings.

She would drop from the ceiling like lightning to pierce their skulls or use wires from her sleeves to strangle them.

Even if they were priests who used magic, as long as they weren’t in a formation, they had no defense against sudden ambushes.

It would have been harder if they were armored paladins or groups of three or more priests, though.

—

As she ran down the corridor, Hersh spotted a window leading outside and shattered it, leaping out.

“That, that’s her!”

“Capture her! She’s the assassin targeting the Cardinal!”

The priests on guard outside shouted in surprise.

‘Assassin? What nonsense… Oh, I guess they didn’t tell the lower ranks anything.’

Hersh tilted her head at the sudden accusation, but her confusion didn’t last long.

Her former organization also didn’t reveal the full plan to disposable underlings.

‘Well, it’s not like it’s a good thing anyway.’

Kidnapping the poor or setting traps to kill the Saint Candidate’s close aides—none of it was anything to be proud of.

She ignored the priests’ shouts and sprinted through the garden.

In an open area like this, if she started getting hit by magic, she’d be roasted alive.

Indeed, with every step she took, lightning and flames tore up the ground behind her.

Compared to Ha-shal-leur, who was facing nearly two hundred mages, this was nothing.

Fortunately, the skilled priests were all stationed underground, so Hersh managed to escape the cathedral by jumping over the wall.

“Don’t let her get away! Chase her!”

The guards and priests pursued her, but tracking a half-black, half-fairy through the city’s complex alleys was nearly impossible.

—

‘Now, what do I do…?’

After shaking off the priests, Hersh hid in the shadows of an alley, pondering her next move.

She was out of Ha-shal-leur’s sight and had shaken off the priests’ pursuit. Nothing was stopping her now.

Complete freedom was within her grasp.

Ha-shal-leur had threatened to kill her if she ran away, but in Hersh’s eyes, Ha-shal-leur was as good as dead without help.

Unless divine punishment fell from the sky and wiped out the priests, that is.

So, running away now posed no real danger.

The problem was…

‘Where would I even go?’

Hersh asked herself.

She was neither human nor fully fairy, an outsider who no longer belonged anywhere.

The Dream Paradise Society, where she had once belonged, had been annihilated.

Eljure and Kist might still be alive, but…

‘I can’t find them, and even if I did, they wouldn’t welcome me.’

Considering that the Dream Paradise Society’s base had been destroyed shortly after her capture, she might even be suspected as a spy and tortured to death.

‘…It wasn’t exactly a comfortable place to begin with.’

She had only stayed there because she had nowhere else to go, but Hersh had no real attachment to the Dream Paradise Society.

If anything, she felt a slight disgust toward it.

They called themselves comrades in the Five Blades, but aside from Radeli, they were all murderers and rapists.

If she had been even slightly weaker, there were plenty who would have attacked her in her sleep.

‘Radeli was at least a bit better…’

Radeli had treated her somewhat better.

Though it was a bit awkward when she came into her bed late at night.

‘She’s dead now.’

Hersh let out a hollow laugh.

Radeli’s death was unfortunate, but… she had no intention of seeking revenge or anything so naive.

For a girl raised by slave traders, passed around like a prostitute, and trained as an assassin, the concept of avenging a comrade was beyond her understanding.

‘What can I do about the dead? Let’s not think about it.’

Hersh erased the word “Dream Paradise Society” from her mind and began to think about her future.

‘Wandering around outside the city… wouldn’t lead to anything good.’

The Archbishop of the Menes Church had even said it himself.

Half-elf slaves were rare and valuable, worth a fortune.

Unless she had powerful backing, if her identity were discovered while wandering alone, every human in the world would try to capture and sell her.

‘Still, this place is probably the best.’

Even though there were three people here who openly despised her, there was no better environment for her anywhere else.

Her current master, Ai-shan Gi-or Ha-shal-leur, was rough, cruel, and ferocious… but she was surprisingly merciful to her allies.

In fact, it was a stroke of luck for a slave like her to have such a master.

At least she wasn’t raped or tortured for fun.