Release That Witch

Someone walked to the female warrior and lowered her sword handle.     

"Step back," he spoke in a soft and clear voice. Alicia noticed that the other party was one of the soldiers who remained in formation. On his arm, he wore the band of Regimental Commander. "The God's Punishment Army has come."     

She turned her head and saw a platoon of tall warriors, one after another, all clad in shiny armor from head to toe which reflected a silvery tone in rain walking through the North Gate. They all wore crimson cloaks on their backs and carried various weapons in their hands. Some held swords and shields in their hands, and others held halberds, spears or iron axes. They did not resume formation after crossing the drawbridge but joined the fight against the attacking demonic beasts directly.     

[What kind of strategy is that! It's child's play! When faced with demonic hybrids whose strength and speed far surpassed humans, the only way to beat them is to keep the formation and fight them collaboratively. Do they want to fight the demonic hybrids individually in this way? Should I just wait aside and do nothing while the God's Punishment Army fights the monsters?] Alicia thought.     

"We have to give them a hand!"     

"It would be no use." That man shook his head. He looked gloomy. "We should just watch. If we step in too rashly, we can only make things worse."     

"Make things worse?" Alicia stared at the man, exasperated. "Did I make a mistake about the man? Is he only a coward?" She held her sword handle tight and walked past him, ready to join the fight. However uncertain she felt about the future of New Holy City, all she could do was fight the enemy until the end of her life.     

Before she took another step, the female warrior saw an incredible scene.     

A flying demonic hybrid was swooping down from the sky. With its gigantic gray wings that stretched nearly 4 meters wide, it seemed to have come directly out of hell. It had the head of a bird with ram's horns on it and two claws with barbs that could penetrate the cuirass of any warrior.     

They were used to attacking by vertical fall, which was covert and made defense extremely difficult. The heavy shield was defenseless in face of the pouncing force. The strong force of impact would crash the arm as well as chest bones of the one who held the shield. There would be no way to survive under that condition. The only way to deal with the fatal attack was to dodge it by rolling aside before the hybrid landed.     

But no one from the God's Punishment Army ever dodged. A warrior in silvery armor reached out both his hands the minute before the hybrid pounced on him, he hit the hybrids claws with his own hands. The pouncing force was so great that it sounded like firecrackers. Mist rose from him and the monster. His armor also groaned under the force.     

He lowered his body by bending his right leg and kept his back straight. The hybrid was unable to crash him at that moment. Another warrior soon aimed his javelin at this flying hybrid and a silver light darted before Alice's eyes—she saw the shattered head of the monster.     

The former warrior tossed the dead body of the hybrid to the ground. His arm was in a crooked unnatural position. It seemed he had taken damage from the previous attack. Despite the broken arm, he took out an axe from his belt and threw himself toward the other demonic beasts.     

Alicia could not believe her eyes when she saw how humans had been successfully resisting these monsters. Hundreds of God's Punishment Army warriors had sprung to the herd of demonic beasts. Their crimson cloaks looked like a river of blood that prevented the enemies from taking one more step. She now understood what the regimental commander meant by "making things worse". Every one of these warriors had the power to fight ten demonic beasts, for their strength, agility and speed could be compared to those of demonic hybrids—No, even better than them. Common demonic beasts would mean nothing in front of them.     

"They're just wonderful!" Alicia beamed with happiness. With these powerful warriors, Hermes Cathedral could not be lost to the enemies. "Ah. I haven't known your name yet. I'm Alicia Quinn, a Captain in the Judgement Army. You seem to have known about the power of the God's Punishment Army?"     

The other party looked at her with his eyes that were as cold as the icy rain. He did not tell her his name but said, "My brother is a warrior in the God's Punishment Army."     

*******************     

"We seem to have won," at the dome of the cathedral, Archbishop Mayne said with a telescope in his hands. Here was the pivotal point of New Holy City. One can easily overlook more than a half of the battlefield from here with the spyglass of fjords merchants. "Make the mangonel stop. The God's Punishment Army will soon arrive at the top of the city wall."     

"Isn't the victory a sure thing?" the other answered. He wore the same golden archbishop's robe as Mayne. Yet his voice sounded hoary. "The most important thing is the armies of the four kingdoms are all crashed."     

"Right. In this way, their defensive force on the border would be weakened so much," the last one among them said. She was the youngest among them, no more than 30 years old, and the only female among the three archbishops. "A standing army of 5,000 well-equipped and well-trained men plus nearly 1,000 knights. Even if one set off replenishing the force immediately from now, that would still take four to five years. Um..." She exclaimed, "What a wonderful and malicious scheme!"     

"But to reach this end, we've lost many men of the Judgement Army. They're all core forces of the church." Mayne sighed. "If any other plan could have worked as quickly as this, I wouldn't have tossed them into this hell."     

The old man touched his beard and said, "We have no other choice. Just like our Holy Book has told us, Wilderness Beasts have emerged. There's little time left. If we can't unite the whole continent and integrate all the forces, only doom awaits us."     

"Doom isn't bad at all." The woman smiled provocatively. "Humans are greedy, malicious, and short-sighted. They do things which are more horrible than what demonic beasts have done. The devil in hell may be kinder than us."     

"Heather!" The old man bristled with anger. "What you've said was heresy! Are you trying to disobey God's command?"     

"You don't have to worry about that, Lord Tayfun." Heather shrugged her shoulders disapprovingly. "I'm the one who's in charge of the Tribunal, not you! Besides, does God command that we should survive? How do you know whether or not he would care more for the devil?"     

"You…!"     

"That's enough! Tayfun! Heather!" Mayne said scathingly, "That's enough for today. Later on, I'll report the whole situation to the pope. Now you should both finish your own business."     

...     

When the two had left, Mayne stood before the French window and looked toward the north. Behind the fracture of the Impassable Mountain Range lay the snow-covered Land of Everwinter and to the west of it was the Barbarian Region, where everything began.     

He knew that Archbishop Tayfun was right. God's Punishment Warriors were too rare. They were only chosen and trained from the ones who were most faithful to the church and had the strongest will. With almost 100 years' of efforts by the church, there were still no more than 1,000 people in this army, whose number was far from enough to fight against the demons.     

But those were all that the north could provide. If they wanted more forces, there was no alternative to uniting the continent.     

Of course, what Archbishop Heather said was also right. She had brought ten thousands of criminals and witches to trial. But all the trials that the criminals and witches had gone through were not half as cruel as the deliberate Pyrrhic victory of today.     

The higher one's status was in the church, the more one could feel that God was neither good nor evil.     

"How do you know if he would care more for the demons?" Thinking of Heather's words, Mayne could not help but laugh out loud. Only she could make Lord Tayfun sore and speechless. "It was only that", he thought to himself, "God didn't care for the people on earth, as he didn't care for the devil."     

"He only cares for the one who wins."