Chapter 235 - 235 Survive the mana season, please! part 2

235 Survive the mana season, please! part “Something’s wrong father Stefan!”

Most of the townsmen were cowering in fear inside the chapel as the lights in the sky turned brighter and brighter. Stefan was in a tough spot as Helena’s warnings turned out to be true and people started to look at him with distrust in their eyes. He couldn’t believe how stupid he had been, It wasn’t for nothing that arch priestess were the highest ranked among the third class in the sacred empire. Although he too was considered a third class adventurer, paladins were really common while arch priestess were among the rarest classes.

“Don’t worry child, everything will be fine. Let’s pray for the gods’ protection, they wouldn’t abandon us in this time of need. Everyone remain silent and close your eyes in silent prayer while I go pray in my chambers. This must be a test of our faith the gods sent to us, but fear not, as soon as I finish my prayers everything will go back to normal.”

The paladin replied to one of the townsmen that had been rude towards Helena previously.

There was no chance Stefan was going to remain in this crappy town for two whole weeks, as a paladin he wasn’t scared of a few thunders in the distance and the eventual lightning that may or may not fall.

There was still some time for him to leave the town and find shelter in the city up north. as long as he managed to find a beast to ride there would be no trouble and how could he not find one in one of the most prolific beast hunting towns.

He went outside completely certain that no one among the whole congregation would dare lift their eyes until he came back from his alleged prayer. There was no wind, no cold, no rain, no sign of an incoming thunderstorm at all, in fact, it was almost too calm for comfort.

“What a bunch of cowards.” He said after spitting the ground.

Streets and homes were completely deserted which he took as his chance to steal a pseudo dragon, a horse, or any beast that could get him out of town. Unfortunately for him, after the beast outbreak the stables were empty, he expected something like that, but much to his dismay there weren’t any beasts in the parking posts either. What he didn’t know was the beast hunting camp didn’t fare too well in recapturing them.

.....

Without any direction in mind, Stefan roamed the streets of Bet-el hoping to stumble onto an abandoned beast he could steal, until an idea came to his mind. What if he broke into the wealthiest houses and took his ‘donations’ directly from their chests instead of their pockets? he could always blame bandits and there was no way he could ever get caught for this.

With enough money, he was more than certain the beast hunters would gladly hand him a couple tamed pseudo dragons, and perhaps one or two slaves to keep him company along his trip back to the capital. They wouldn’t even ask him where did he get his money from because, technically, beast hunters didn’t belong to the sacred empire or the kingdom, they were more like freelancer mercenaries.

Taking full advantage of his position, the righteous paladin Stefan broke into three shops and before long he had already collected his weight in gold. Took him less than two hours, which was a reasonable time for people to keep praying fervently.

Just as he exited a building with a suspicious chest on his hands, he crossed paths with Helena who was carrying a wounded kid towards the church. A few steps behind her, a crowd was following her carrying either wounded people or provisions.

She looked at him with reproachful eyes, but didn’t spare a second to scold him or accuse him of anything. There was no time to lose, the hospital was filled with people who couldn’t move by themselves and the weather was slowly but surely becoming more hostile.

As people passed by the paladin, he felt several stares on him, but the wounded townsmen were too hurt and tired to care about his wrongdoings. Still, if he let them live they would tell all the other townsmen and he couldn’t afford to be charged as a criminal.

“Arch priestess Helena, I finished the task you asked of me. What should I do now?”

Stefan acting lacked conviction, but he was accustomed to faking innocence in front of his congregation. Any third class related to the clergy had the right to perform mass anywhere and everywhere, keeping donations for himself. For most, it was nothing but spare change enough to cover their travel expenses, but Stefan actually enjoyed controlling people through the ‘holy word’ of the gods.

He didn’t just get gold, he also took advantage of several women and used his high position to extort money or lands from his congregation.

“I gave you no such orders Stefan, if you really want to help, stop ransacking people’s houses and help some of the injured. Aren’t you capable of casting heal too?”

Helena’s quick reply didn’t go unnoticed, it made everyone notice Stefan’s attempt to hide his felony. What she didn’t know was how Stefan had already made up his mind that if he couldn’t convince everyone that she was the one who ordered him to rob the citizens, he would simply kill everyone present.

More than eighty people, all of them wounded some of them lightly while others were unable to walk by themselves and had to be carried, were following her. Of course Stefan was outnumbered, but he was in top shape, armed and he was a combat oriented third class.

His attack damage was not impressive in the slightest, but his high health and defensive skills gave him the confidence to kill regular people by the hundreds.

Stefan did as he was commanded and dropped the chest on the ground, revealing its content. He slowly walked towards the group pretending that his intentions were to carry one of the wounded soldiers and, just when he was about to unsheathe his sword, Helena detected his killing intent.

“Stay back!” She yelled.

Stefan didn’t have a reason to hide his intent anymore and kicked the ground, quickly reducing the distance between him and the arch priestess. He knew that even though she was blindfolded she was still able to ‘sense’ her surroundings, but he also knew that arch priestess were worthless in hand to hand combat.

A quick movement of his hand and his sword slashed at Helena, then a clanging sound betrayed his failure. He was fast, but she was faster, he was strong but Helena was stronger.

If it was only about technique, Helena’s sloppy training couldn’t be compared to all the years of swordsmanship he had along his career. Perhaps if it was the old Helena she would have been helpless, but not after spending so long lost in the forest with only Anne by her side and especially, not now that she was already determined to save as many people as she could.

The wounded soldiers that were still able to fight, attempted to surround Stefan to arrest him, but it was pointless, he was too fast for them. Helena did her best to keep him at bay, but both of them were focused mainly on defense, making it a battle of endurance that neither could afford.

The paladin attempted many different tactics and feints, but Helena proved to be way stronger than he believed.

“I can’t waste my time with you, take your gold and get lost, just let me save this people.” Helena begged.

“That’s impossible, not after what you’ve seen. I planned to blame it on the bandits, but if word gets to the church that I stole people’s properties I’m as good as excommunicated.” Stefan Shrugged.

“Then why did you do it? People offer you donations, there’s no need to steal from them.” Helena tried to buy as much time as she could to let the refugees head to the church. Even if the paladin was stronger than them and, in theory, was able to kill them, it didn’t matter as long as Helena stood her ground.

“Why do you even care? most third class kill entire villages just to cover their traces, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a god given right.” Stefan slashed at Helena, this time instead of clashing against her scepter it was as if the sword had been stopped mid air. Stefan knew well what had happened but he had no clue on how did Helena managed to raise a barrier so strong.

“Are you for real!? and the sacred empire does nothing!?” Helena’s hair was lifted in the air, completely straight looking like a crown of sorts.

“They can’t do anything if there’s no witnesses, so...”

Then, something completely unexpected happened right in front of everyone’s eyes. Stefan’s words were cut short by a lightning bold that fell from the sky.

What Stefan mistook as the use of mana, was actually static building up.

The mana season had started.