Chapter Second Coming Of Goddess And Child Of Hope (1/79) 30.2
★ Kruvan Holy Kingdom ★
「What the hell! Aren’t there any decent knights left!?」
The two-handed ax swung by Border Earl Mule blew away the knights who were equipped with kite shields.
The central boulevard of the Holy City had been in turmoil since early in the morning. There was not a single passerby due to the tense atmosphere.
People were watching the situation outside through the gaps in their windows.
The knights and soldiers of the Holy Kingdom were fighting each other. Ordinary citizens could not understand what exactly was happening.
「In the first place, there is almost nobody who can fight you on par.」
Duke Luciel, who was on horseback, said with a wry smile.
「Heh. If old man Augustin was my enemy, I’m sure I could have some fun.」the Border Earl said.
「Hohoho.」
In response to the Border Earl’s joke, the old man next to Duke Luciel gave a small laugh.
Augustin, who wields the 5-star skill【Dragon Swordsmanship】, is considered to be the kingdom’s most powerful military force. He is a member of Duke Luciel’s House.
「The next ones are here, Border Earl Mule.」
A fully equipped knight unit approached from the front.
The 3 of the 5 Great Dukes — Rozier, Rise, and Lamer were on the defensive side.
Duke Ebene was in charge of protecting the Holy Queen.
「They have about three times more people. What do you think, Augustin?」
「Ho-ho-ho. It’s the perfect place to die for an old man.」
「No, no. Her Majesty the Holy Queen said, “Don’t die”.」
「Hmm, that’s more difficult, but I’ll try.」
Carrying a long sword, Augustin stood beside Border Earl Mule.
「Her Majesty doesn’t want too many casualties. Buy as much time as possible.」
Duke Luciel called out from behind.
「I know. More importantly, the detached force over there will be fine, right?」the Border Earl asked.
「We’re causing so much commotion here, the destruction of the goddess temple shouldn’t be a big deal.」
「Okay. Which means I can go on a rampage without hesitation.」
Border Earl Mule’s eyes gleamed.
「Let’s goooooooooo! Kill them all!!!!」
Following him, the Border Earl’s soldiers also let out a roar.
「Hohoho.」
Augustin also started running lightly.
「…I told you to keep casualties as low as possible.」
Duke Luciel let out a sigh.
At the same time, a shadow was secretly moving in a small city within the Holy Kingdom.
「Knock, is the sorcery disrupted with this?」
「Maybe… is all I can say.」
「But there is no more we can do.」
This building was once a church and was quickly converted into a goddess temple by the order of Duke Grenjido. It was in a terrible state.
The walls, the altar, the chairs, the desk, and even the pulpit was destroyed.
「W-W-Who…」
The soldiers, who heard the commotion, and the priest of the church were surprised to see the state of the temple.
「W-Who are you guys…」
There were five dark elves, a rare race even in the diverse Holy Kingdom.
All of them were tall, muscular, and holding sledgehammers in their hands, not even trying to hide the fact that they were the culprits.
「Do you feel like the fog in your mind has cleared up, humans?」
「Huh……?」
This time, the priest was dumbfounded by Knock’s words.
「…S-Somehow, my thoughts are strangely clear right now…」
「In other words, it worked.」
「What worked!?」
「Goodbye.」
The dark elves turned around and rushed out of the hole in the destroyed wall.
「Hey!? P-Pursue them! You will incur divine punishment for this!」
When the priest said this, the soldiers rushed after them, but they suddenly heard a voice coming from the hole in the wall.
——If it’s a divine punishment, then Reiji has already gone to bring it down.
★ Ligra Kingdom ★
A bell announcing a state of emergency was ringing in the royal capital of the Ligra Kingdom within the Keith Gran Federation.
「——That’s absurd. There must be something wrong with your eyes.」
The garrison captain was puzzled by the report.
「No, sir. There is no doubt. A number of guards saw it too. It was a dragon.」
An emerald dragon flew in.
As soon as it landed in the royal capital, it destroyed a building and flew away.
Without knowing when the dragon would return, the capital was on high alert.
「Until now, there has never been a case of a dragon flying into the royal capital.」
「Perhaps it just came here on a whim.」
「Are you saying it came here on a whim just to destroy one building and then flew back home? Don’t be a fool— The building which was destroyed was…」
「The goddess temple.」the soldier answered.
After this, they received reports of the same dragon destroying temples in various places and flying away – but it was only the day after everything was over.
★ Capital of Windle Republic ★
Soon after dawn. It was still dark in the back alleys of the capital, but the five people standing there were illuminated by light.
They were shorter than humans and wore clothes dyed in bright colors such as orange, yellow, and red.
「…Isn’t this overkill, Janja?」
「…I-I wonder. The elder said that if we’re going to do it, do it thoroughly.」
The elder hobbit Janja was sweating coldly.
The goddess temple was in front of them.
However, it was swallowed up by a raging fire.
「—— Fire!」
「—— Call the firefighters! We have to stop it from spreading!」
「—— Evacuate!」
The residents nearby were woken up and fell into panic.
This fire was of course the handiwork of the elder hobbits.
They sneaked into the capital the day before the operation, and set it on fire today.
Everything was as arranged with Reiji.
The dragons helped them move around, but the elder didn’t want to fly on the back of a dragon, so he gave orders to the young ones.
To burn the temple.
Now was the time for them to clear their long-standing grudge.
「Alright, time to escape!」
「Yeah!」
「Osu!」
The five Elder Hobbits escaped.
Originally, they planned to chant “The evil deeds of the goddess will not be forgiven!!”, but they forgot about it.
Fortunately, the fire only burned the goddess temple.
★ Uverminds, the capital of Achenbach Dukedom ★
All over the continent, the goddess temples were being destroyed at the same time. The sorcery effect of the temples was being nullified.
Naturally, the dragons, who could fly around directly, contributed greatly, but dragons alone weren’t capable of destroying the temples all over the continent.
In the Elven Kingdom, Asha’s older brother, Matvey, acted in secret to scrape off part of the sorcery, leading to the weakening of the effect, though not nullified.
The dragonewt Kimidori Gorn and the underground human Sumeria sneaked into the village where the beastmen lived.
The Marshal of the underground human sneaked into the gnome village.
King Geffert of Valhalla and General Friedrich of Saint Knight Kingdom dispatched elites to each country belonging to the Keith Gran Federation to carry out the destruction campaign — they knew doing it publicly would cause big problems, but they still decided to do it.
「I didn’t think I would come back here.」
Early in the morning, a girl with a hood over her eyes was looking up at the brand new temple.
More than four years ago, a dragon flew in here and caused a rampage.
Many buildings were destroyed, and the land was once vacant.
What was built there was a church, now a goddess temple.
The back door of the temple was locked, but a small, black slash emanating from the girl’s hand broke the lock and opened the door.
She proceeded down the dark corridor. A guard who seemed to be on duty was dozing off in his chair.
As the girl walked through, she eventually entered a hall.
The ceiling was high, but it was too dark to see well.
The amount of light coming through the stained glass was faint.
In the faint light, there was a figure of a woman standing upright—a stone statue of the goddess.
It seemed that this was the core of the sorcery of this temple.
——Nee-san, I have a favor to ask of you. Help me destroy the Goddess Temple.
It was a request from her younger brother, Reiji.
To her, no request is too big if it’s from Reiji.
「If it’s for my brother’s sake, I’ll tear down a temple or two easily.」
A black vortex rose from Lark’s body.
It was【Shadow King】. Lark was able to master it through repeated training.
It was Lark’s own power, non-reliant on a skill orb.
The sound of air being cut echoed. It felt like even the space itself was being cut.
At the tip of Lark’s hand, which she swung, was a gigantic black blade about 5 meters long.
The banner that was on the wall was cut in half, falling to the ground.
A little while later, a cut appeared right at the center of the goddess statue.
Before long, the upper body completely separated from the lower half and fell to the floor, causing a sudden loud noise.
The magic catalyst embedded in the goddess’ body suddenly emitted light, but it quickly subsided.
「W-What’s going on!?」
After noticing the noise, the guard who woke up from his sleep rushed into the hall, but there was no one there.
At the entrance of the hall, the bolts on the large door had been removed, leaving it wide open.
Outside, the morning light illuminated part of the temple.
Lark, who was outside, turned around and looked up at the temple.
(That day… the day my little brother and I escaped from the mine, the dawn was just like this, wasn’t it?)
A lot of time had passed since then.
「The rest is up to you, little brother.」
★
A large number of people came together to destroy the goddess temples.
To destroy the core sorcery.
「…No…」
The woman stumbled back.
「This is the end.」
I thrust my palm towards the woman and activated my magic.