The bright sun descended slowly while spreading its austere.
The sky looked quite beautiful, filled with a tint of pink and a hint of orange. As the sun finally went down below the Horizon, the sky turned to a dusky purple haze littered with tiny silver dots twinkling around.
Under the peaceful sky filled with serenity that calms down the inner turmoil inside one heart, a couple strolled over the wide pathway.
"Rose, I think there is a misunderstanding," Frederick muttered with pleading eyes.
"Hmph!" snorting, Rose walked ahead without looking at Frederick.
"You are wrong Rose, I am just good at reading others' facial expressions."
Hearing his sincere tone of apology, Rose halted her steps and glared back at Frederick.
"Then, tell me what I am thinking?"
Beads of sweat formed over Frederick's head as he stared at the icy cold gaze of Rose.
"It seems you are angry."
An uncomfortable silence lingered for a moment as both of them stood motionless staring at each other's eyes.
Pfffft!
"I am not that childish. It was just a joke."Rose giggled softly.
"What! You can even joke."Frederick exclaimed in shock.
Rose's smile cracked upon hearing his words.
'Dummy.' Rose snorted and turned away.
"Hey, sorry it was also a joke," Frederick mumbled with a puppy look.
Glancing around, he saw plump pink roses growing over a lush green garden. Taking a moment, he walked inside the garden to pluck a few strands of rose.
Frederick bent down to pick a rose and as he got up, his eyes widened seeing a familiar figure.
"Humphrey!"
"Who?"
Startled, Humphrey stood up straight and hid the flowers that he plucked behind him.
Both of them stared at each other blankly without replying.
The awkward atmosphere was broken by a shrill cry.
"Rose."Frederick, screaming in horror, ran back. Humphrey was also taken by surprise and decided to follow them.
Hurrying his way, Frederick frowned seeing Rose's eyes scanning around holding her bow
"What happened, Rose?"
"Someone is here? I sensed a faint presence."
"Weird, I don't feel anything," Humphrey mumbled in a stupor. The surroundings were as calm as the ocean waves.
Frederick's expression turned grave, walking closer to Rose, he held her hand and whispered.
"Pull down your bow and lessen your guard for a moment."
Rose gave Frederick a weird look but followed his words. Putting down her bow, Rose gasped heavily and stood motionless.
Frederick closed his eyes. His senses became sharper, even though his body looked relaxed, he was on alert.
Frederick's eyebrows fluttered and when he opened his eyes, his spear was lodged in a dark beast's neck.
Dark blood dripped down from the place the spear was stabbed and a thick liquid soaked the earth with a fishy smell.
The outstretched arm of the beast was long and threatening and was just a few inches away from Frederick's neck but despite that, there wasn't a single shred of fear in Frederick's eyes.
It was a threatening situation so how many people could remain impassive in the face of fear but Frederick stood unfazed.
? , ? ? ? ? ? ?.
While in Rose and Humphrey's eyes, it may look like a deadly situation but this was just a child's play in Frederick's eyes.
"What is that?"Rose asked.
"Witchbeast?"Humphrey questioned.
"You can say so. Specifically undead summons," Frederick mumbled, kicking the corpse frozen like a statue.
"An undead? How did an undead appear here? What the hell?"
Humphrey exclaimed in shock and horror, pulling out his rapier. He almost had a heart attack after witnessing such a scene.
The moment he saw the undead monster, he thought that someone would die but in an instant, Frederick's hands moved like lightning invisible to his eyes. A spear appeared and the tip pierced straight through the throat.
Frederick tugged and bent down to swing his spear around him.
A force of magic blast spread around the place.
After a moment of silence, loud cries echoed. Many dark figures appeared one after another.
"Ghouls!"
Rose mumbled.
"It seems we are under attack!"Frederick muttered, taking his stance. It was then a message appeared on his smartwatch asking him to group up.
Swish!Swish!
Frederick and Humphrey's bodies darted toward the group of jumping ghouls.
Lines of various colours were drawn in the air.
The ghouls tried to surround the two but brilliant clusters of light whizzed, striking them down. Blood gushed out and dripped on the ground
"It feels amazing," Humphrey mumbled. There was a perfect synergy between the two as if they had fought alongside countless.
"Frederick, look there, a fire is spreading from the meadows," Humphrey spoke with a frown.
Frederick, keeping his guard, looked ahead.
Beyond the garden, dark smoke rose into the sky but instead of the pungent smell of soot and ash, it smelled like a flowery perfume.
Frederick's heart stirred a bit.I think you should take a look at
"Let's not waste time. I will clear away through the encirclement. Either way, we need to group up with others instead of taking unnecessary risks or move to the parking stand."
.....
On stepping out into the hallway, the first thing Lucas heard was the sound of battle cries echoing one after another.
Going ahead a little further, he felt a nefarious energy up ahead. Dark fumes covered his vision and through faint blurry sight, Lucas saw dark morbid creatures that look like decayed human bodies. It wasn't a skeleton figure of an undead but rather a flesh of a decayed human that looks worse when compared to a zombie.
Lucas's heart thumped seeing them. Without sparing them a glance, he ran back while trying to match their description with the knowledge he had.
"It's a ghoul. Damn, a church was attacked by a ghoul. This is pathetic."
Feeling annoyed by the incompetence of the Church, he wanted to curse these white robe bastards.
Ghouls are evil demonic spirits that eat dead and decayed bodies. While a corpse became an undead, the soul and resentment in them when summoned became ghouls who are very much interested in unpleasant things.
Similar to spirits, ghoul levels were categorized into low, intermediate, or high. Fortunately, the ghouls coming at him were low-level ones.
"Since there are ghouls there ought to be black magicians, that means, their target is either Saintess or Princess."
As Lucas ran back, a loud screech echoed from behind. Without looking back, Lucas drew his sword and spun his body.
Swish!
The head of the ghoul that jumped on him rolled on the ground and collapsed onto the ground.
Generally, until a ghoul is purified it's gonna be on your trail and can even join the cut part. But all of Lucas's weapons had been blessed so the ghouls can't recover their lost part once sliced.
Lucas kicked the ghoul sending it flying back. The headless ghoul slammed against the other and four ghouls fell onto the ground.
Lucas's current sword was of C rank that could store mana and create a small blast however this will damage the blade. Lucas poured mana onto it while pulling out another sword.
Stomping the ground, Lucas pressed forward.
Multiple sword lines were drawn at once that cleared up the monsters rushing at him once.
Five ghouls coming at him were shredded into pieces. Lucas cut all of their limbs and sliced them into pieces.
SCREECH!
"kheumm!"
"Khukkk!"
"Kierkk!"
Emitting weird noise akin to the scratching of metals, another horde moved toward him.
"I can't go like this. Like a zombie swarm, they're gonna swarm in endlessly unless someone purifies them."
It was at that time, a pair of hands searched through the floor as if they were trying to grab onto something.
Lucas stomped the hands, flattening them to the ground.
"At least give me experience. Why are these pieces of shit, not dropping any experience?"Lucas complained.
A golden glow encased his sword.
Nudging his shoulder, he threw his swords toward the incoming horde.
[Destructo]
The sword spun in the air like the blades of a fan and as it struck the ghoul, it exploded.
A large amount of magical energy poured out creating a loud shockwave.
The ghouls were blasted away by the force of the explosion. The pillar at the side burst and the ground sank creating a wide space. The pillar at the side falls.
Seeing this scene, Lucas immediately waved his hand and used telekinesis. The sword whirling in the air flew towards it.
As soon as Lucas turned around, his heart froze seeing another wave coming from the other side.
"Should I just blow up the whole building with bombs?"
Lucas, who was amidst the thought felt a strong vibration.
BANG!
A huge earthen erupted wall in the middle of the hallway blocking them.
From the stairs leading to the upper floor that was a few meters away, Charles hurried down and blocked the entrance.
Behind her Tiffany and Monica came down with a pale face.
Monica was a mage so her physical attribute was quite bad meanwhile Tiffany was horrified after seeing such a disgusting thing.
"Lucas, are you alright?'
"I am alright? But where are the others? And why are all the rooms empty?"
"Our rooms are scattered for some reason. I only found Tiffany and Monica with me. Others are out."Charles answered.
"Ha..Ha...The rooms are used by Church personnel who are usually busy during this time so that's why they are empty.''Tiffany muttered catching her breath.
"We should first get off here?"Monica spoke worriedly.
"The ghouls are everywhere. Fortunately, we didn't encounter a black mage otherwise things would be troublesome."Charles murmured.
"We can make our way through the hall and clear through the group of ghouls but we will have trouble encountering stronger ones and I don't know where the Church personnel went, "Tiffany suggested.
"No, we can't take the hallway. We don't know what we will face. The direction of the window faces the garden. Let's break through the window. With Charles's help, we can build a slope or use a rope to get down. Then Charles can use his ability to extinguish fire or Monica can shoot a water spell. After that, we will get to the carriage. It has a barrier function that can take strikes up to 6-Star."
"That's a good plan."
"Let's do that."
"Yeah!"
Planning a bit, they moved quickly. Lucas messaged about the change of plan and changed the meeting location to the parking stand.
At that moment, Princess's subtle meaning behind the instructions rang in his mind.
'Just how much of this did you expect?'