Chapter 11

The group continued their journey toward the city of Hilmesh, discussing their plan to infiltrate the church and rescue the priestess. They knew it wouldn't be easy, but they were determined to succeed. As they approached the city gates, they noticed the heavy presence of the church's guards. They knew they had to be careful.

Elijah: "We need to gather as much information as we can before we make our move. Let's go to the Moon Light branch and see if we can find some allies."

The group made their way to the designated Moon Light branch, where they were greeted by a man named Marcus.

Harry: "Welcome to the Moon Light branch, how may I assist you?"

Stephen: "We're here to gather information about the church. We're planning to infiltrate it and rescue the priestess."

Harry: “Can you show your identity cards, please.”

Stephen: “Guys show your identity cards to this gentleman here.”

After hearing what Stephen said the group took out their identity cards and showed them to him.

Harry: "New members I see. It's been a while since we had new members. Well, you're in the right place. We have several members who have infiltrated the church and can provide you with a layout of the building and information about the guards."

He introduced the group to two members of Moon Light, named David and Rachel.

Rachel: "So, you're planning to rescue the saintess? That won't be an easy task. The church is heavily guarded, and they have several traps and alarms set up."

David: "But we can provide you with a map of the church and tell you where the guards are stationed. We've been gathering information for months now."

Rachel: "And we can also provide you with some equipment that might come in handy. We have some weapons and equipment that can help you get past the guards."

The group was grateful for their help and eagerly accepted their offer. They spent the next few hours discussing their plan and going over the map of the church.

As they were discussing their plan, Lilly noticed something strange about the map.

Lilly: "Guys, look at this. There's a secret passage here that leads directly to the priestess's chamber."

Jackson: "How did you figure that out?"

Lilly: "This is like one of the puzzle maps my teacher made me, so I am quite familiar with these types of maps ."

The group was amazed by her abilities and decided to use the secret passage to their advantage.

They spent the next day preparing for their mission. They gathered their weapons and equipment and made their way to the church. Stephen, John, and Joseph remained in the moonlight branch in case someone from the church finds out about them They split up into their two teams and waited for the signal to start. They plan to use the invisible spell from Jackson but one team consisting of Lilly, Ria, and Sarah goes into the church while being invisible to check if there are any traps or some magic circles made of runes to disable spells or invisibility. After searching for some time they found some traps in the direction of the saintess’s chambers and Ria who specializes in traps disabled them and after going forward some while they found some Paladins and some magic circles which blocks magic in a certain given area.

Lilly: “I think this magic circle disables magic for at least ten meters radius. So we need to be careful.”

Sarah: “I can disable the magic circle but it will be risky, but I have an idea to avoid risk can you help me?”

Lilly: “Sure but what is it?”

Sarah: “Can you send Luke to borrow the Cape of Darkness from Jackson because it does not use magic to keep the user invisible”

Lilly: “Sure. --By the power of summoning art answer our pact and heed my call, I summon you, Luke–” That is when Luke emerges out of the shadows and waits for the command from Lilly.

Lilly: “Luke can you bring the cape of shadows from Jackson.”

Luke nods his head and goes into the shadow.

After waiting for some time Luke comes back and gives Lilly the cape and he passes it to Sarah.

After taking the cape Lilly wears it and silently sneaks into the magic circle and starts to slowly disable the magic circle so as to not alert the Paladins. After a while, Sarah successfully disabled the magic circle and so they silently sneak out of the church to meet up with the remaining group. After regrouping with the remaining group outside the church they began to speak.

Sarah: “Well the work is done and we all disabled the traps and everything inside.”

Elijah: “Good work guys. Let’s go inside now.”

Jackson: --casts an invisibility spell on the group once again.--

As they approached the chamber, they heard the sound of footsteps. They quickly hid behind a wall and waited for the guard to pass. Once the guard was out of sight, they continued towards the chamber.

When they reached the chamber, they found the priestess tied up and guarded by two men. Marcus and Rian silently went behind two Paladins and knocked them out by hitting them with the hilt of their sword.

Ken and Sarah: “--By the authority of the wind knock out my enemies with your power ‘Sleeping gas’--.” By using this spell both Ken and Sarah put all the Paladins present in the corridor.

After knocking out the Paladins the group continued to move toward the chamber of the priestess and upon reaching the room they saw the priestess tied up so they immediately cut off the ropes binding her. Then the priestess began to speak—

Priestess: "Thank you for rescuing me. Who are you?"

Elijah: "We're a mercenary group formed from the Apostils and followers of the goddess of darkness ‘Lady Ravena and we came here to rescue you on the request of the goddess of Light to our goddess and we aim to go against the church's tyranny. and get rid of the currouption in the world."

Priestess: "I see. Well, I'm grateful for your help, but we need to leave quickly. The Paladins will be after us soon."

The group quickly made their way out of the church, using the secret passage to avoid the guards. They met up with Stephen, John, and Joseph and they all began to leave the city.

As they were leaving, they heard the sound of church bells ringing. They knew they had to hurry before the Paladins caught up to them.

They made their way through the forest, hiding behind trees and bushes. They could hear the sound of horses and soldiers approaching. They knew they had to act fast.

Elijah: "All right, everyone. We need to split up. Take different routes and meet up at the next town. We can't let them catch us."

The group split up and made their way through the forest, dodging soldiers and horses, but after some time a large number of Paladins surrounded them and cornered them to each other.

The group cursed their luck as fighting them normally would be nothing even for one of them to take on all these Paladins but now they have to fight with a large number of them while protecting three people who can’t fight because they don’t have any experience. As the group were cursing their luck the Apostils suddenly remembered the words of Diore.

At the end of training with Diore.

Diore: “This is the end of the training and you all have surpassed my expectations and have grown exponentially, but let me tell you one last thing before I conclude your training.”

After hearing these words the group waited patiently to listen to the words of Diore and by seeing the concentrated looks on the group Diore began to speak once again.

Diore: “I know I haven’t taught you how to fight while protecting something but know this I have complete confidence you can figure this out but it is always good to know your strengths and weakness. As we know Jackson here has the best talent for barrier magic than any of you else but the problem is that you Jackson do not realize how great you are. So remember this and use this well.

Present time.

As the Apostles remembered what Diore they immediately knew what to do so as always Elijah took the command and began to speak—

Elijah: “Jackson you cover Stephen, Jon, Joseph, and Ria in a barrier and we will take care of the rest. Ken and Marcus will attack the group of Paladins that are in the north direction, Sarah and Jackson will attack the group in the south, I and Lilly will attack the group in the west, and Rian and Mika attack the group in the east. Ria you defend the remaining three and Lilly you summon some undead to support Ria while dealing with the leftover Paladins who manage to escape our assault.

After hearing the words of Elijah the group became excited and determined to do this and they all prepared as they were told and Marcus erupted an earth wall immediately with the power of Gaia to protect the group for extra measure.

In the north direction.

Ken and Marcus got ready to fight as the Paladins charged toward them. They looked at each other and nodded then Marcus charged at the Paladins at a very fast speed which made the Paladins not able to follow the moments of Marcus. As for Marcus, he went through his enemies cutting, stabbing, piercing, and in some cases he even beheaded them. As for Ken he stretched out his arm toward a large portion of the group of Paladins and said “Deject” which is a spell that sends the target into a dark abyss-like space that has an overwhelming pressure which causes the target to be crushed to death. Ken then turned toward the remaining Paladins on his side and began chanting “--Oh Holy mother of fire heed my pleas and burn my enemies ‘Azure Blaze’.”

That is when a huge wall of fire of height at least five meters went towards the remaining Paladins and burned them completely only leaving their ashes behind.

In the south direction.

Jackson put on his cloak and went invisible and he took off sneaking around people and killing them by attacking their vitals like a true assassin, the number of Paladins on their side is reducing quickly and Sarah quickly started chanting “--Oh the bearer of all creatures heed my words and sink my enemies and bring them to your embrace ‘Land Break’--” which caused the earth under the Paladins to crack and they fell into the abyss like hole that opened up and after all the Paladins have fallen to their deaths the hole closed itself. As for Jackson he completed killing the last of the Paladins left on his side and he burned them with a simple fire called ‘Burn’.

In the east direction.

Rian and Mika were preparing to fight as their was to have Rian fight as he was a very great swordsman who use magic well while imbuing mana onto the weapon and can use different attributes with it and as for Mika, she is a mage who specializes in wind magic and can use all varieties of wind magic. After their preparation, Rian charged toward the Paladins while imbuing the sword with lightning element and he started electrocuting and cutting the enemies who came near him as for Mika she started chanting a spell while turning away from Rian so as to not harm him “--Oh traveler of the world the sustainer of all life heed my call and cut up my enemies ‘Blade Hurricane’-- the spell caused a hurricane of wind blades to go toward the Paladins and cut up all the enemies killing them and none of the Paladins could escape.

In the west direction

Lilly and Elijah prepared to fight as both formed a plan even though Elijah has the shield of darkness, he is also very adept at using a sword, and also with the power of his contracted spirit Perun he can even bring storms to this battlefield. Elijah charged towards the Paladins with a lightning attribute imbued into his sword and fire attribute imbued into his shield of darkness, he burned and electrocuted anyone daring to come in his way, and to support him Lilly sent some undead creatures towards him and then she called out to Elijah and said “Elijah I am pouring water on ice.” which is a secret code to tell him that she was going to use a water spell and he should stop fire attribute and come back. Elijah, understanding her intentions, Elijah stopped imbuing his shield with fire attribute and came back to Lilly. Lilly then started to chant a water spell with the help of her contracted spirit Leviathan “--Oh water that sustains and gives to all heed my call and drown my enemies ‘Great wave’.--” which caused a huge wave of water but not big enough to flood the forest erupted and went toward the Paladins and it all made them drown and fill some area with water for which low-level barriers were used as walls which were made by Elijah. After filling that area with water, Elijah then imbued his sword with the lightning attribute, kept it in the water, and electrocuted all the Paladins in their area and killed them.

Suddenly the fighting group sensed someone strong but not enough to give them a threat approaching the barrier made by Jackson so they started to go toward the barrier and they saw a man wearing church robes and he began to speak as the group arrived “So you are the people who rescued the priestess and killed all my Paladins.”

Elijah: “Who are you ?”

The unknown man: “You are quite daring to ask me after what you did, quite daring I see, Hohoho, but I will tell you. I am the father of this church ‘ Father Isacc’.”

Elijah: “So you are also a target to eliminate for us. Guys kill him.”

Issac: “--Oh mother of all who illuminates heed my call and blind, my enemies ‘Blinding Light’-- which caused a bright light blinding the group, but before Issac took advantage he was stabbed from behind when turned to check who it was he saw a black creature emerging out of his shadow, it was Luke.

Issac was about to chant another spell but before that Lilly chanted “-- ‘Ice bullet’--” which struck the spine of Issac and he fell down to his knees coughing up blood

Elijah: “You shouldn’t have tried to kill the saintess You reap what you sow”

Issac: “You fools, you are the one who is interfering in the matters of the church of Light.”

Elijah: “We were requested by the goddess of Light Meera to rescue her saintess who was being executed unjustly.”

Issac: “What do you mean Lady Meera requested you, the bishop of this country ‘Sir Michel’ said that he got an order from Lady Meera to execute the saintess ‘Lady Raphtalia’ as she was corrupted by demons and is planning to go against Lady Meera.”

Elijah: “There is something wrong happening here I think you were lied to because the one who gave us the order is the goddess of darkness.”

Issac: “Why would the goddess order you and who are you?”

Ken: “Goddess of Light Lady Meera requested us because we are the Apostles of the goddess Darkness. We are on a mission to end the corruption and chaos caused by the church of Light.”

Elijah: “Guys I think this bishop he speaks about is also corrupted.”

Issac: “I see I had my doubts but it was my mistake not investigating it. Forgive me, saintess.”

Raphtalia: “I forgive you Father But please let me heal you first --Oh kind goddess listen to my pleas and heal this man ‘Restore’--” as spell caused the wound on him to close but the ice bullet remained but without hesitation, the father took it out and the spell took effect once more and closed the hole perfectly.

Elijah: “I see this all due to the misunderstanding caused by the Bishop, but still forgive me Father for killing these many people.”

Issac: “Even though it is regretful I don’t resent you, after all, you were just performing your duties.”

Elijah: “I see thank you, but can we take the saintess with us as it will be easy to protect her.”

Issac: “It is not my decision to make you should ask the saintess yourselves.”

After hearing these words they turned towards the saintess but they saw her fall to her knees and a golden light was coming out of her eyes and then she began to speak.

Raphtalia: She began to speak in a faint and beautiful voice but it did not belong to her “Thank you young ones for saving this child.”

Ken: “Who are you and why did you possess her body?”

???: From the saintess’s body “I am …….”