Chapter 171: Kresa Town

The Kresa Town, Walsh Dukedom's territory, the Sinyalian Kingdom.

This was a remotely ordinary town. People respected the rules and executed them. It could be said that Kresa was a modal town in some aspects.

Within this town, the strongest expert in this city was a 3 Star Warrior. And that man was a priest of the Radiant Church. There were other priests in the Radiant Church, but they were only 2 Star Cleric.

The people within this town were quite religious and would often go to the church to pray passionately.

Their faith in God was well-founded. Whenever they were confronted with a calamity that was beyond their ability to handle, the Radiant Church would step in to help.

The Radiant Church had never asked anything from the common people. They hadn't enforced their beliefs over the people. Thus, their reputation among the citizens was quite good.

Not just in Kresa Town, but there were many cities in which the Mayors had to keep the interests of the Radiant Church in mind while taking any decision.

If the Radiant Church was ever dissatisfied with the Sinyalian Kingdom, they could effortlessly instigate a civil war.

It was easy to predict who would win the civil war. To stop the civil war, the King would have to pay a huge price. Furthermore, even if he were to prevail and bring the civil war to an end, it would simply sow the seeds for another civil war in the upcoming years.

Thus, even the King didn't dare to rashly annoy the Radiant Church.

Because of their prestige and power, the deacons were getting careless. They would rarely check their surroundings and just remain within the church. After all, they didn't need to check it since no one in the Sinyalian Kingdom would dare to take any action against them.

However, today, something strange had occurred.

Just as the priests returned back from their morning praying schedule, they felt a strange power in the air.

It was strong, suppressive, overpowering…

The deacons immediately went to inform the priests.

In reality, they didn't need to rush towards the priests' chambers. The priests could sense this aura as well.

They frowned as they understood that someone was targeting them.

A man within the Radiant Church placed his hands over the formation sphere. He was the formation master who set up a sensing and barrier formation around the Church.

By using the sensing formation, he could sense hundreds of aura within the church's range.

He immediately went and informed the other priests, "A large army has come. They are definitely here to fight us."

"What? Someone has sent his army to the Radiant Church?!" The other priests were shocked to hear this.

"That's correct. This suppressive aura is due to an array. Someone constructed it while we weren't looking."

This shocked them quite a bit as well. They thought that this suppressive feeling was due to bloodline suppression by a beast, or maybe it was an oppressive aura released by a warrior.

But to think that someone had drawn an array around them.

"How strong is this array? Can you break it?" A priest asked their formation master.

"This is a 3 Star or maybe 4 Star Array. I can break it, but I need some time to understand it perfectly. Until then, I will deploy the barrier. Your attacks will pass through the barrier, but the enemy's attacks will be obstructed." The formation master spoke with a serious tone.

This formation was his own creation, and he was quite proud of it. It allowed the defending side to launch a counter-attack without risking their lives.

The other priests were quite relieved to hear these words of their formation master.

A priest, who was the strongest expert in Kresa Town, spoke seriously, "We have stayed low-key for quite some time. It seems that a few fools think they can trouble us by sending a few hundred men."

He then turned towards the formation master and spoke, "Joel, activate the barrier formation immediately."

Joel, the formation master, immediately nodded his head and spoke, "Yes, priest."

The priest then turned towards his aides, "As for the rest of you, gather the deacons and assign them to specific posts. Also, remember to get your holy weapons. We need to show these fools that we are no pushovers."

The priests agreed with the words of their leader. They immediately ran in different directions.

Only Joel and the leader of these priests remained at their spots.

Joel was activating the formation and hence wasn't moving from his spot. Meanwhile, the priest next to him indifferently asked, "What's the strongest rank of the warrior within this group that's attacking us?"

Joel immediately replied, "The strongest among them is 3 Star Warrior. Also, it appears they have five 3 Star Warriors."

He paused for a moment before adding, "These warriors aren't strong enough to break my barrier formation. However, if the man who set up this array around us does help them, then they might be able to break past the barrier."

The priest nodded his head as he heard this, "In fact, since they have attacked us, they should have known about the barrier. Maybe they have prepared a countermeasure for it. Just deal with this oppressive aura until then. I will handle them."

"I am relieved to hear this, priest."

Joel honestly felt as if the pressure on him had significantly lightened.

The priest soon went to his chambers. He knew that to defeat five warriors at the same rank as himself, he had to be at the peak of his power.

Thus, he had to equip himself with his best weapon.

During this time, a transparent blue-colored barrier had been deployed around the Radiant Church.

This barrier completely covered the Radiant Church.

The priests immediately gave different positions to the deacons and ordered them to launch their attacks at the enemies that appeared before their eyes.

Even though the deacons had joined the Radiant Church, they still couldn't use the Holy Ardor.

Their Ardor possessed just a trace of Holiness. However, their attacks were still boosted by it.

With each attack, they killed the soldiers that charged towards their barriers.

Naturally, the priests didn't lag behind much. The holy ardor their attacks possessed was nearly thrice as dense as that of the deacons.

It wasn't just because of their rank as priests but also because they utilized their holy weapons.

The five 3 Star Warriors blocked the attacks by the deacons. Even the attacks from the priests couldn't hurt them much.

They had taken different positions all around the barrier.

And in perfect rhythm, they attacked the barrier.

Joel, the formation expert, was utterly shocked when he felt his formation orb shaking. The entire barrier was trembling.

The Holy Ardor that was used to create it seemed to have been suppressed by some unknown energy.

'What is going on? Are they trying to break the barrier through brute force? But how can they coordinate their timings so perfectly? Even if they were all sensors, it would be impossible for them to be so perfectly coordinated.'

'No. I can't waste my time contemplating this. I need to disperse that oppressive array that's suppressing our Holy Ardor.'

Currently, Joel was using his Sensing Array and covered this oppressive array with his Ardor. He slowly understood the mechanism of this Array.

After a couple of minutes, the vibrations were growing stronger as cracks appeared in that transparent blue barrier.

The possibility of the collapse of the barrier frightened the deacons and even the priests.

Within the Radiant Church's special chamber, Joel had a small smile on his face though.

'Finally done. Now, it's time to remove it.'

Immediately, he used all his Ardor to break the array drawn around the Radiant Church.