She was burned away and then remade, and within the blaze she saw something far greater. It was a sun slowly falling, sending out light and heat without pause. Beneath that light all shadows vanished, and in a single moment she saw not only the sun's glow, but her old self being burned down and reforged from ash.
Elvin offered Prayer and humbly asked where she might be of use, even if she were to become fuel. That being did not respond, doing nothing but burn itself, asking nothing from the outside. In the radiance, the great existence noticed one of the countless crawling shadows and passed on its will, and Elvin felt the world spin as she was about to return.
Before leaving, she reached out on instinct and caught a tiny thread of the sun's light. In the next moment, her thoughts returned to reality. Her body had already turned to ash, but the old self she had burned away wrapped around that light and became an ever-burning Flame Sword.
The ashes rose again and wound around her body with the wind, forming a mantle of armor shaped by her will. Wings that followed that will appeared behind her back. After receiving the oracle, Elvin led those who had just won their resurrection match and rushed to Cathedral to aid Alba, only to find the outer perimeter locked in battle with a ring of figures in White Tier robes and other monsters.
There were only about a hundred qualified people, far too few. They had not yet grown used to their power and let two monsters slip inside. She explained calmly, saying it was hard to explain, but for now Cathedral had become an important place due to certain factors.
She went on to say that creatures lurking in the dark had noticed Alba's intent to ring the bell and sent their minions to attack. Outside, Raina was leading the Guard Corps in resistance. She promised that everyone, including herself, would protect Alba and not allow any interruption to the bell ringing.
"Wait, stop. Why are you using honorifics on me?" Alba said, flustered. "We know each other, and this is giving me chills. I am not some My Lord being, just a lucky ordinary person, so can you call me normally?"
"Alright," Elvin replied.
Like staring at the sun and leaving an afterimage, witnessing something equal to the sun burned and remade Elvin's eyes. A faint trace of the sun remained within them. Because of that, she could dimly see light that was usually invisible, with the brightest still being the sun in the sky.
The second brightest was the figure before her, a shape made of countless layers of Holy Light. From her current view, that person looked like a mass of White Tier glow with no visible face at all. An ordinary person, she thought.
"Then I will keep calling you that," she said, nodding. If that being had said so, then it must be right, and she only needed to obey. Alba nodded as well, still feeling something was off, and then glanced at the hammer in her hand as a sudden idea struck her.
"Since you have wings and can fly, why not just go up and ring the bell yourself?" Alba said, holding out the hammer. "Here, take it."
"I am sorry," Elvin said as she stepped back. She sheathed her sword and refused with both hands, careful not to let the hammer fall. "Ringing the bell only works if a certain ritual condition is met, and the one-time choice must be you. No one else can replace you."
"Then how about you carry me up there?" Alba asked.
"That also will not work," she replied, shaking her head. This would be a trial belonging only to Alba, and her duty was to guard everything in between.
Alba looked up at the Cathedral, which rose dozens of floors high, with spiral stairs winding upward to show off the dome. Her legs already felt weak just looking at it. She gripped the hammer, stomped her foot, and made up her mind.
"Fine, it is just climbing stairs. I will go," she said. "You really can hold the monsters back, right?"
"Absolutely. I can swear it with my life," Elvin answered.
"Then I will leave it to you," Alba said, turning to climb. She felt a bit helpless that there was no easy shortcut, but thinking about Elvin facing a swarm of monsters outside made her burden feel much lighter. Compared to that, climbing stairs felt almost easy.
After Alba went up several floors, Elvin knelt on one knee and offered a brief Prayer. As she turned and stepped out the door, the cloak on her back transformed into wings of flame. She burst through the Barrier surrounding the Cathedral, eyes sharp, fire swirling around her, and a faint solar halo forming behind her head.
Outside was nothing like what Alba imagined. The Barrier barrier had cut off all sound, making it seem calm inside, but beyond it was a scene like Hell. Monsters ran rampant everywhere.
Dense figures in White Tier robes crawled like ants, surging forward and merging into twisted forms, along with other flesh creations whose original shapes were unrecognizable. They slammed into the Cathedral without pause. These monsters had poured out of spatial tunnels not long ago, and some could even use Holy Light, able to attack, endure, and heal, making them troublesome.
Standing against them were only about a hundred people, not ordinary soldiers but towering figures that felt like high My Lord shadows. Their bodies looked coated in black and red obsidian, with lava and flame flowing within. What remained on the surface was a charred skeletal shape, red light glowing in hollow eye sockets, each breath carrying a sulfurous air.
They wielded many kinds of weapons, all burning with fierce fire. Their armor had been reforged by flames into thicker and sharper shapes, with outlines that hinted at roaring beasts. As said before, there were few who qualified, and the power of decay had burned away their former bodies in an instant, squeezing future strength into the present to form these shapes.
Every one of them had terrifying combat strength. Their weapons killed monsters on contact, wounded them with a touch, and even injuries healed quickly before bursting into brief surges of greater power. All of these resurrected fighters were devout, fighting without rest for the sacred path behind them.
"You are back just in time. The defense at Sector Three has a gap again," Raina said, raising a flaming banner as she ordered Elvin flying overhead. She waved and released waves of scorching Light Cannon, meteors, and magma spikes while giving commands. The hundred Warrior drew their power from the Shard on Raina, different from Elvin's overwhelming individual strength.
"Understood," Elvin replied.
The flame-clad figure cut through the beasts in the sky like a valkyrie, leaving only burning ash behind. She then dove toward the ground at an impossible angle, a storm of fire following her. Monsters swallowed by the flames died as their own bodies ignited.
It was hard to judge Elvin's current tier, but her raw strength and reaction speed far surpassed before. The power she wielded also seemed unrelated to the amount of Magic. Each swing of her weapon burned away dozens of monsters, though stronger individuals began to appear as time passed.
The more she killed, the colder her heart felt. She could clearly tell that these monsters had all once been human, with not only filth under their skin but also traces of Holy Light. Through her new eyes, she could even see faint resentment and wailing souls wrapped around each one, fueling her anger with every strike.
"Cathedral City fell so easily, and Abyss Church made such a large investigation without any response," she muttered. "The protective Barrier was broken at once, checkpoints fell quickly, and reinforcements still have not arrived. Is this the reinforcement, and who is it meant to reinforce?"
There were traitors within the Church of Holy Light, something already known, but Elvin had not expected their rank to be so high. This had to involve someone at the level of the Lord, likely more than one, to cause such a disaster. A ritual sacrificing an entire Diocese could summon something she did not dare imagine, and without that being descending as Ethan Stone, they would already be lost.
Under the power of decay, the monsters could not break through the defense. Aside from the few that slipped in earlier, none could step into the battlefield of fire. The number of fallen monsters had already passed four digits, and more were still being sent through Teleportation tunnels.
Some of them, after sensing the purifying power of the flames that could cleanse even resentment and souls, chose to hide nearby instead. They sent the situation through Teleportation to someone in a hall. Seeing this, Elfido raised an eyebrow, a dark expression spreading across his face.
"Haah… haah, I am really exhausted. No, I cannot do it. I have to rest for a bit."
Even though she knew the situation was urgent, her physical stamina simply did not allow Alba to rush straight to the top of the Clock Tower in one breath. Forced to stop, she panted heavily and rolled without grace on the cold marble floor mixed with bits of Shard stone, then looked at the thickening black stains around her and the golden light and Lightning Magic clashing in the distance.