Book 1: Chapter 40: Saving the Holy Maidens
Outside of the military town of Sakerid, within the defensive positions of the Gabriel Empireâs(Swordsmen) royal guard, a giant ant-shaped evil being had crawled out of the ground and was attacking the royal guards. This giant ant came with the giant flower that was currently wreaking havoc within the Church of Lightâs ranks. The giant ant was 8 meters in length with a 2 meter wide pincer.
The ant bore strong resemblance in look to Earthâs army ants and although it wasnât venomous, it had quite the number of subordinates that covered every square inch of land, the ants of various sizes swarmed the royal guardsâ positions. These ants didnât attack those who were infected by the virus, only those who were uninfected, leaving behind nothing more than piles of bleached bone as the wave of ants travelled through the royal guardsâ ranks.
Most of the Gabriel Empireâs fighting force was comprised of swordsmen that lacked the ability to attack at a distance, those elites among them who able to use ăJian Qiă and attack from a range were rare and few. Swordsmen also lacked the mobility of knights due to the lack of mounts and were unable to flee the scene and could only fall victim to the ants, with screams piercing the air everytime a new victim fell to the swarm.
The royal guardâs commander, Klemans, ordered a general retreat, knowing that it was the only way for them to survive. The Church of Lightâs templars had already retreated in another direction and the only one left was the 1st holy maiden, Sophia, who was still locked in combat with the giant flower. Kremans wanted to help the Churchâs holy maidens, as it was a great opportunity to make the Church of Light owe them.
It was a shame that the swarm of ants had already caught up to the royal guardsâ stragglers, leaving behind piles of bones. This dangerous situation didnât allow for any hesitation, there was a small river not far from Sakerid, maybe if they forced a crossing the river the ants wouldnât be able to continue their pursuit of the royal guards.
In the skies above Sakerid, a black dot was circling. The airspace above Sakerid was filled with countless invisible malicious spirits, but they all chose to give a wide berth to the flying girl. The girl had the conflicting scent of the demon world and aura that only god-tier equipment had.
The girl flying above Sakerid was the pricess of the demon world, Hadias, she was currently wearing the god-tier armour âCelestial Protectionâ that Lisha had given her. She felt a little strange, wearing armour that had been blessed by a god of the celestial world in public, her demon lord father would definitely have grounded her if he had seen her like this.
Even she, the princess of the demon world was shocked by the gruesome scene beneath her, she hadnât ever seen anything as terrifying as these two giant evil beings back in the demon world, she estimated that they were at least around the power level of Bellaâs void monarchs.
Somewhere in the distance, Bellaâs party was looking through a crystal ball at what was happening in and around Sakerid. This crystal ball was part of Lishaâs collection, âVision Crystalâ was a treasure that was made up of two such crystal balls, that could share images with each other, even over long distances. The other crystal ball was currently in Hadiasâ possession, she had brought it with her in her aerial reconnaissance.
It would be hard not to mention Lishaâs collection here, Bella had learned while in Lishaâs memory world, the ăDemon Dragon Empressă Alisha could be considered filthy rich. All dragons had a habit of collecting and hoarding large amounts of treasure, and as the blood of dragons also ran through her veins, Lisha might have picked up this habit through osmosis. Even Alisha herself didnât know how much gold and silver she had.
The thing that shocked Bella most was that Alisha had once prepared a giant mausoleum for herself, named âThe land of Eternal Restâ. Around the Land of Eternal Rest were smaller mausoleums in which rested every one of Alishaâs challengers who had failed, along with all of their wealth that did not enter Lishaâs eyes, countless god-tier equipment included.
In her four lifetimes of terror, none of her challengers had been able to kill Alisha, so the Land of Eternal Rest remained empty while the mausoleums surrounding it kept on increasing it in number. The âVision Crystalâ that they were looking through right now was something that Lisha hadnât even bothered to take back to the Land of Eternal Rest. If it was taken to an auction within the human empire its value would be unimaginable, yet to Lisha it was only something that she had completely forgotten she had, it wasnât hard to see that Lishaâs wealth had already exceeded a certain level.
It was a shame that the Land of Eternal Rest required Lisha to completely reawaken the power of the ăDemon Dragon Empressă to open, which had not yet happened yet. The complete ăDemon Dragon Empressă had a terrifying dragon mount that Bella saw in Lishaâs memory. It seemed that Lisha still had quite a few secrets awaiting Bellaâs discovery.
âăUnderworld Black Ant Kingă Malthus and ăDeath Flower EmpressăHeklis, both of them are void monarchs, Heklis is a World Destroyer class too. Thatâs strange, the dimension invaded by their master ăTenebrous Demon Godă, Bloomfield Elise shouldnât be this one, why has her subordinates appeared here?â
Noesha quietly whispered into Bellaâs ear, after some explanation Bella found out that this ăTenebrous Demon Godă was the younger sister of the ăSanctified Demon GodăBellastier Samantha, and could be often seen together with her, the impression Elise gave off was a little sister that enjoyed clinging to her older sister.
Elise took pride in being Samanthaâs true little sister, and was rather hostile towards the two sworn little sisters of Samantha, ăDarkened Evil GodăMystre Lydia, and ăUnderworld Demon GodăSalisbury Sherrill, but was kept under check by Samantha.
âNoesha, I donât know any of the demon gods that you just mentioned!â
âEr, you⊠youâll know in the future!â
Noesha looked at Bella who had an innocent expression on her face, then looked towards Mia and Angel who were playing in the distance, and didnât know what to say. She had almost let slip that Bellaâs true form was Samantha herself. Back when she was the ăSanctified Demon Godă, Samantha was very kind and gentle to everyone she knew, making it so that Samantha had many good friends within the ranks of both the Worldbreakers and the Troublemakers, Noesha being one of them.
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The Gabriel Empireâs royal guards had already began retreating in the direction of the small river. ăUnderworld Black Ant Kingă Malthus sensed an aura in the distance that made him uneasy. Not too far away in the distance, Bella had taken out three items for summoning void monarchs, she threw âGrisbaneâs Featherâ, âGreshamâs Stingerâ, and âYulyssesâ Fangâ into the distance and three gates to the void opened up where the items landed.
Soon after, Bellaâs three void monarchs and their minions appeared out of the gate and quickly began an encirclement of Malthus and Heklis. Normally in the void, it wasnât uncommon void monarchs to fight among themselves, but were mostly 1 on 1 fights, fights between multiple void monarchs on different sides were a rare sight even in the void.
Seeing three âpeersâ preparing to surround it, Malthus quickly fell back towards the giant flower, giving up on its chase of the Gabriel Empireâs royal guards. However, its route had been cut off by the ăBlack-Widow Empressă Yulysses. A little while ago Yulysses and Grisbane had just completed their first cooperative mission. Grisbane had carried Yulysses and âair droppedâ her behind Malthus, this surprise tactic had foiled the Malthusâ plan of converging with its companion.
Even though the retreating royal guards also saw these three newcomer void monarchs, but they hadnât seen that Bella was the one who had summoned them. Bella didnât interfere with their retreat, she turned her attention to the zombies that now cut off the path through which Bellaâs party had came from.
The rate at which the virus had spread was much faster than Noesha had estimated, it had only taken a day and the virus had already spread to many nearby towns and villages. Bella didnât know how the five great empires and the Church of Light planned to deal with this, as there was no way that they could keep this hidden from the public any longer. Bella didnât really care about that however, as this virus would have 0 effect on her Dark Sanctuary, even if the entire Coristel continent fell to the virus, the Dark Sanctuary would remain unscathed.
ăDeath Flower EmpressăHeklis was furiously using its vines to attack Sophia, who was living up to her title of the Church of Lightâs 1st holy maiden. A magic field around Sophia kept Heklisâ veins from being able to enravel themselves around Sophia.
Apart from the magic field, Sophia relentlessly attacked Heklis with light type magic. Although she looked calm and collected on the surface, but Sophiaâs heart was restless. Even though she knew that this evil being was strong, once they entered combat Sophia discovered that Heklisâ power had far exceeded her expectations, remaining unscathed through sophiaâs attacks.
Sophia began to regret not teaming up with Hayley and Daisy because of the tensions between their factions. If the three holy maidens had teamed up from the beginning, they might have had a chance at escaping, Sophia had the chance to save Daisy and Hayley when they had just been caught, but it was too alte now. Hayley and Daisy had both been swallowed by two giant flower buds and Sophia could no longer see them.
Sophia wasnât the only one restless, Heklis was as well. Heklis had already seen the three void monarchs that had encircled ăUnderworld Black Ant Kingă Malthus. Malthus had no anti-air capabilities leaving Grisbane free to dominate the skies, the ant kingâs minions were locked in a losing battle against ăBlack-Widow Empressă Yulyssesâ spider army as well as the scorpion army of ăEmperor Scorpionă Gresham, it was only a matter of time before Malthus was defeated.
Heklis wanted to go to Malthusâ aid and then find a way for both of them to escape. They instinctively felt that other void monarchs had set their eyes on them, Heklis could also tell that there was another World-destroyer level void monarch among them. If the other void monarchs were to join in on the other side, Malthus and Heklis would probably be unable to escape.
Sophia who was struggling to maintain the magic field saw Heklis suddenly swell up and instinctive felt uneasy, she knew that this was probably the evil being preparing to use its ultimate. However, Sophia was unable to run, if she turned away now the magic field that she had set would break without Heklis even needing to do anything, which would mean that nothing would be stopping Heklisâ vines any longer, and she would probably share the same fate as Hayley and Daisy.
After expanding to a certain degree, Heklis exploded, a strong shockwave travelled quickly following the giant explosion, breaking Sophiaâs magic field with the slightest contact.
Sophiaâs vision blacked out as she was tossed into the air by the force of the explosion. Just as she thought that she was going to die, she felt herself falling into someoneâs embrace. Even through a layer of armour, Sophia could tell from the figure that whoever had caught her was a girl. After finding out that she had been caught by a girl, Sophia calmed down a bit and didnât struggle.
Bella was a little surprised at the beauty that had fallen from the skies. Her party had just arrived here and was preparing to save the Church of Lightâs 2nd holy maiden, Hayley, who had a bit of relations with ăBlood Kingă Eleanor. Only after she had arrived did Bella find out that it wasnât only the 2nd holy maiden that had been caught. The beauty in her embrace was the 1st holy maiden, Sophia.
Sophiaâs hair was a light purple which was something out of Bellaâs expectation, because in her impression of this world, purple hair was effectively a trademark of the demon race. The Church of Lightâs holy maidens should be 100% human, which meant that such âun-humanâ hair colour shouldnât appear within their ranks, especially on the highest ranked 1st holy maiden.
Heklisâ explosion ability came along with the effect of shredding all clothes, and also had a large area-of-effect. It was fortunate that everyone in Bellaâs party was in god-tier equipment, or else they would be in the awkward situation of being nude in public again. It was even more fortunate that the Gabriel Empireâs royal guards and the Church of Lightâs templars had already withdrawn. Sophia who was still in Bellaâs embrace didnât avoid the fate of losing all of her clothes and Bella look advantage of this to size up Sophiaâs body.
âWho are you? Hurry up and let me downâŠâ
âIs this how you should talk to the person that just saved your life, Sophia?â
âYou know who I am! Then hurry andâŠâ
âSorry, Iâm not affiliated with the Church of Light. Sophia-dono, Iâm just an adventurer who passed by at the right time. I havenât had any business lately and have been unable to fill my stomach. A couple days ago a noble in Paknir had made a request for a good female slave, offering a large amount of wealth to whoever brings him the best one⊠youâll definitely be the one he would want if he saw you!â
âWhat! Youâre going to⊠do you know whatâŠâ
âYou canât move right now, right? Sophia-dono, that giant flowerâs special attack should have paralyzed every living thing around it temporarily. Youâll definitely fetch a high price! I heard that noble enjoyed tying up his female slaves and bring them to his dungeonâŠâ
âStop talking, I beg of you, tell just me what you want, donât sell me to that perverted noble!â
Sophia opened her orange eyes wide, anger in her heart. It was true that she was unable to move right now, or else she wouldnât have let Bella embrace her. Sophia enjoyed her cleanliness and didnât like making physical contact with people, even if the other side was also a girl.
Right now however, Sophia had not only fallen into Bellaâs embrace, but Bella had also seen her nude body. Even though there was nothing really to be lost by having another girl see her nude body, but Sophia still didnât enjoy the feeling. This golden-blonde knight gave off the appearance of a holy knight, but it seemed that she was just a shameless adventurer that was also a human trafficker.
âWhy donât I auction you off at the underground slave market? Youâll probably fetch an even higher price thereâŠâ
âDonât do that please! If you need anything from me just tell me, I believe that Iâm worth more to you than the gold that you can get after selling me.â
Of course Bella wasnât going to sell Sophia off as a slave, such a pretty girl would be better off serving Bella than any buyer. According to Feliaâs memories, the Church of Lightâs 1st holy maiden Sophia was a cold beauty, a classic kuudere. If Bella didnât act indecent enough, Sophia probably wouldnât even talk to her.
Bella had to admit that all of the Church of Lightâs holy maidens were quite beautiful, Hayley and Susan who she had already met before were also outstanding beauties. Sophia however, wasnât just beautiful, she also had a slight aura that Mia and Angel told Bella belonged to this dimensionâs celestial world. Even though Sophia hid it well, but in the second that Bella had came into contact with Sophia, Sophiaâs celestial aura resonated with the god-tier armour that Bella was currently wearing.
The demon worldâs princess, Hadias, had told Bella that the celestial world had been destroyed by the 12 demon kings during the great war 10,000 years ago. Even if the celestial world had any survivors they would be unable to reach the surface world because the only pathway connecting the two worlds had already been destroyed. That left the question of why Sophia, one of the Church of Lightâs holy maidens, gave off the aura of the celestial world, was she one of the survivors from the war?
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