Lexus watched over the crowded field, waiting for the person he was looking for to appear. He didn’t know when it started but it was only a few moments ago that the field was almost empty. Now, one after another, people were appearing from out of nowhere. These were the foreigners that were killed during the earlier attack.

Although the defence army had lost two thirds of their original force, about half of the force lost should have been comprised of the freedmen sent by the Holy Seer.

Thus, about half of them should have had the ability to respawn after dying.

However, it was only now, 4 days after the day of the attack that these foreigners could reappear.

The next movements of this newly revived army of about 1000 fighters would be to reinforce the towns which were currently under siege. From what Lexus could discern, it seemed like the army wanted to spilt up to defend both of the towns at once.

Personally, Lexus didn’t approve of this idea because while attacking the monster raid force from behind with an army of 500 would cause considerable damage, it would not change the tide of the battle as effectively as an army twice that side. Thus, such reckless actions would only lead to temporarily satisfaction before the fighters met their deaths again. However, while Lexus had already spoken to the leading foreigners about his deduction, it was not his responsibility to worry about those issues.

He hadn’t been told to do anything about it either and Lexus was here on a different errand after all. Speaking of which, the nature of his errand was something completely unrelated to the church. Rather than coming from the high priest, it had come from a high ranking Kallamore noble he was on close terms with.

Lexus scanned the crowd looking for the person he was assigned to pass the message, no rather, give a quest onto. By sheer coincidence, that person was also someone he was well acquainted with. After a while, he found her and called her over.

She was teenaged girl wearing light body armour complimented with a loose grey scarf and a skull shaped mask. Although her current appearance looked like a monster that would haunt the depths of a shadowy dungeon, Lexus knew that she was a master of disguise and infiltration.

The only problem was…

“Hey Lexus~ What brings you here? Hmm it’s been a while since I’ve seen you by yourself… Normally you’re with Vin or Mark or some other church official… Oh I get it! Taking your first steps for independence huh? Or a you giving those two some alone time? I do not approve of this shipping!”

… she had an eccentric personality and said things that were sometimes completely incomprehensible even to him. Her name was Reta.

Lexus ignored Reta’s friendly nudging and went straight to the point of his errand. If he let Reta take the pace then who knows where the conversation would go.

“Hello Reta, I am here to because I have a request for you to do.”

“Damn you’re no fun at all~”

As they were having this conversation, the noises made by the people around then quietened and vanished. This was a result of the soundproofing barrier that Lexus had just set up around them.

“No more accurately, this is a request from a friend of mine which I think will interest you. To put it simply, the body of Kallamore Knight Koldeurium has been located after almost 30 years of absence.”

“Koldeurium… wasn’t that the Kallamore Knight Commander in the last Kallamore Haven war? Well, what does a corpse have to do with that request?”

As if some hidden button had been pressed, Reta’s eccentric demeanour vanished. It was these moments that made Lexus really want to question whether Reta was actually like that or whether it was just an act.

“The thing is, it wasn’t a corpse. Koldeurium seemed to be in a coma like state and cannot be awakened no matter what we do. His body can be found in a secret room in the deepest parts of a dungeon in the kingdom of Haven. We don’t know how he got there but we have our suspicions. Regardless of that fact, and regardless of whether the Haven Kingdom is privy to knowledge of Koldeurium’s location, it still remains that Kallamore has found a crucial player in their military. If the kingdom of Haven finds out that Kallamore knows this, they may send out people to move the body somewhere else or worse, destroy it. Thus, your job is to, along with a few other people, guard the body until a specialised team can to be mobilised and arrive to move the body back to Kallamore territory.”

Having said this much, Lexus knew that a quest notification would have appeared before Reta. Ignoring this, Reta questioned:

“Hang on. Aren’t religious orders supposed to remain neutral on the issues of conflicts between kingdoms? Why are you the one to give out the quest?”

This, time, it was Lexus’s turn to smile mysteriously, intending to end the topic there.

“Well, let’s just say that I have my connections.”

“You know, I heard some interesting things from a saint named Ferrex last time I was here. Stuff about independent units within a church which only serve the high priest.”

“Really? I’ve never heard of anything like that”

Did he just imagine that suspicious glint in Reta’s eyes as she said that? Or was it just a special effects function on the mask she was wearing. It seemed that Reta’s instincts were as sharp as ever. Needless to say, Lexus decided to take the less messy option of playing dumb and ending the topic there.

“So, will you accept the quest? By the way, you are only allowed to bring one other person to help you on this quest and you not allowed to disclose this information to anyone else.”

“…”

There was a brief silence as Reta read the quest information. Then suddenly she exclaimed:

“Hey this is a B ranked quest you know! Are you asking me to do this with just 2 people? Meanie! Slave driver! Mole people conspirator!”

As if nothing happened, Reta’s calculative demeanour reverted back once again. Ignoring this, Lexus steered the conversation to more pressing matters.

“Don’t worry about that. 3 other people have been given the same quest as you so there will be about 8 people doing this quest. Anyway, Tellap and Naidiriv are currently under siege at the moment. Tellap is still holding out but apparently the situation is really bad in Naidiriv. Would you like to get a free trip to Naidiriv? I’m going to have to fix the teleport gate there anyway.”

As Lexus said that he pulled out some magical reagents from his bag and started to draw out something on the ground.

“Err sure… But wouldn’t it be too late to do anything by the time we arrive?”

“Nope we’re teleporting there directly.”

As he said that the magic circle that Lexus had just drawn on the ground glowed and flashed. Then, the surrounding of the two changed from an empty field to a chaotic battlefield full of people running, screaming and fighting monsters. Lexus immediately became aware of a strange but very powerful presence in the town.

“H Hey! Did you just make a teleport gate by yourself? What were you going to do if we were moved to some random location?”

“If we did go somewhere random then I don’t know what we would do. I only had enough reagents for one teleportation. But don’t worry, I gave Vin an anchor to place in Naidiriv so that I could teleport there safety once I was done with my errand.”

Looking around them, Lexus saw that the situation in Naidiriv really was bad. The monsters seemed to have been able to push back the defenders to the keep. To one side he saw a several members of the church of Freya fighting what appeared to be the leader of the monster army.

The battle between the two sides appeared to be more or less a stalemate but due to the fact that the other combatants, apart from the few Kallamore Knights that had stayed in town, were significantly weaker than the paladins of Freya, the defending side was being pushed back.

Still concerned about the strange presence he felt, Lexus decided to take advantage of Reta’s confusion and make a getaway.

“Reta go assist the paladins of Freya, I have another errand to run. We will talk about the other details later.”

“R Roger.”

Without another word, Lexus walked into a nearby alleyway. Taking advantage of the commotion caused by the battle between the Paladins of Freya and the boss monsters, Lexus cast an invisibility barrier around himself.

Then he activated flight magic and made a beeline towards the location of the presence.

He noticed that this was a more secluded side of the battlefield. The density of defenders in this area was significantly less than on the fight fighting the boss monster. In other words, Lexus concluded, it was a perfect place to launch an ambush on the defenders of Naidiriv who were preoccupied with fighting.

However, Lexus was unable to pinpoint the exact location of the presence. Just like Ferrex who excelled in purification, buffing and debuffing, Lexus’s ability to sense presences was only stronger than the average priest but weaker than a seer. Not that it really mattered in this situation.

Conversely, Lexus’s fortes lay in barrier and summoning magic. Using his talent in casting barriers, Lexus landed in the street the presence appeared to be in and erected a powerful barrier around them, carefully making sure that no one else ended up trapped in it as well. This barrier contained the added attributes of damage reflection, soundproofing and invisibility so from the outside, no one who see what was happening inside.

Without further ado, Lexus spoke.

“Isn’t it time you revealed yourself?”

Although he couldn’t see anyone inside the barrier Lexus was certain that he had managed to trap the culprit.

“I could say the same thing about you…”

A voice came from directly in front of him.

Immediately, Lexus cast spells of dispelling and binding at that location and with the sound of shattering glass, a robed figure appeared dressed in white.

At the same time, the figure fired several concentrated beams of light which rushed directly at Lexus’s body.

The beams smashed though his invisibility barrier but were deflected from their original course, barely missing him.

“Oh interesting, it’s been a while since anyone’s managed to break past my defensive barriers. Who are you?”

“…”

Appearing amused by this brief exchange, Lexus continued to speak, throwing out his hypothesises and observations in an attempt to gain information.

“The aura of light I feel from you is intense that I would have almost mistaken you for a powerful member of the church of Lou. However, because your presence is always so intense that cannot be the case.”

There was a limit to how powerful an aura can become by being a supporter of a powerful being. Divine Saints and Divine Saint Knights could only temporally transcend this limit but during the moment they cast their Heaven’s Calling spells or use Divine Possession.

The white figure in front of Lexus had an intensely powerful aura of light. However, it was because his aura was so intense all the time that Lexus was certain that he was not a Divine Saint or a Divine Saint Knight.

Although there were many other powerful beings with attributes of light, there only seemed to be one option Lexus could classify the person in front of him. Unfazed by the wary glare the figure was giving him, Lexus asked the question:

“Are you perhaps, the Elemental Lord of Light?”

“…”

“No, I guess the intensity of an Elemental Lord’s aura should be stronger than yours. That leaves two options, you are an Elemental Knight or an Elemental Lord candidate… and the reason for you being here… would it have anything to do with the destruction of the Lost Temple of Lou? The god of light and the elemental lord of light should have good ties with each other after all.”

“Such frightening deductive ability… Who are you?”

“I am but a simple priest serving the Goddess Freya. Am I right? Your expression tells it all.”

There was a brief silence. During this time, Lexus reviewed his current situation. He had been pretty sure that his binding spell had been deflected at the last moment so his opponent should still be able to move. But why hasn’t he? Why is he still pretending to be caught? Is he stalling for time to cast a spell of some sort?

Lexus allowed none of this internal conflict to appear on his face but warily readied his defences.

With a look of disdain, the figure finally spoke.

“It is as you say. I am one of the Elemental Lord candidates of the Elemental Lord of Light. The God of Light, Lou, requested that something were to be done in revenge for the destruction of his holy temple. However, since the one who destroyed it had the protection of Athene, Lou was unable to curse him. And since Lou was one of the Gods who swore to obey the Divine Decree, he is also unable to directly affect the world. Thus, Lou came to the Elemental Lou of Light and requested a favour.”

“Hoho, what a vengeful god.”

“Hence the Elemental Lord of Light proposed this mission on his two candidates.”

“Oh so you decided to come to the towns closest to the temple ruins to search for the culprit there? But then you found them under siege and decided to help out the monsters? Or were you planning on destroying the towns and killing both sides indiscriminately?”

“…”

“…”

There was another silent break in the conversation. Lexus could feel the fighting spirit and pressure of the figure in front of him suddenly swell. It’s coming!

“Enough talk. Die!”

The figure, no the Elemental Lord candidate’s aura suddenly swelled up and an explosion of light erupted from his body.

At the last moment, Lexus was able to teleport out of the way of most of the damage and also tried to reflect part of the attack back with a rebound barrier.

As the smoke cleared, both combatants confirmed that their adversary was still alive and well. Without further ado, they started another fierce exchange of attacks.

Thus, a second decisive battle began in the town of Naidiriv.

--------------

Word Count: 2469 words

Just posting this up before I forget.

About the question on whether or not I'm going on haitus or taking a long time to make releases, I'm not really sure. But I guess its better to treat this as a haitus rather than to get your hopes up (I do intend to continue this fanfic if that makes you any happier).

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