73 The Necromancer and the Priestess 7 (1/2)

Rosella was panting, smeared with mud as she hid in a ditch, tucking herself in a shadowy place behind the roots of a tree. She clutched a bag to her chest, making herself as still as possible. She covered her mouth with her hand, stopping her breathing as she closed her eyes. Her heart was pounding loudly in her chest.

There was a rustling in the dark and gloomy blue-black leaves of the forest, as something seemed to stop, sniffing loudly.

Rosella was just reaching her limits when the thing finally moved away. She released her hand, letting out a sharp gasp as she drunk in the damp and heavy air.

Why was she here in this situation again? Rosella tried to recall, but thinking about it, her body started to shiver and her face turned pale.

That's right. The squad had been completely wiped out by something. She didn't know what it was, but it had killed everyone. No, perhaps not everyone, but Rosella had been too concentrated on surviving herself that she didn't know if anyone other than her was still alive.

That bloody image still made her feel nauseous.

And now she was alone in this forest, with no idea how to get out, or even survive.

Each moment was a battle - she constantly had to run and hide from the monsters. And she still didn't know if that something that had taken out the squad was still there. Although the forest was dangerous, the squad should have been experienced. Something that powerful shouldn't have appeared. What in the world was happening?

She closed her eyes, getting sleepy.

No, she couldn't fall unconscious here. She had to find a safer place...

Back in the capital, Yin Mei had on a dark expression as she looked at the system's surveillance screen. She had been checking in on Rosella daily, but she had just looked away once, and something major like this had happened?

She rewound the video, watching what had actually happened from start to finish. What in the world was that? If she recalled, there hadn't been anything like that in the information.

It was a dark, shadowy thing that appeared like some sort of beast with glowing red eyes.

The closest thing that she could reference it too from Celestina's memories was... an evil creature, perhaps? But...

Yin Mei glanced away, in deep thought.

An evil creature was a being of pure concentrated miasma. It didn't have a corporeal body, and could only be defeated through strong holy magic. The problem was that an evil creature shouldn't have appeared. Or rather, one hadn't appeared since the early years after the demon bridge had disappeared. This was because the church consistently went on expeditions in order to purify the miasma! In doing so, there was no way it could reach a concentration high enough to give birth to such a thing. Especially considering that the time in between this expedition and the last one was even less than usual!

So why is it that it had appeared anyways?

Could it be the prelude to the opening of the demon bridge? No, that shouldn't be the case. The demon bridge had never opened during the time period covered by the information. Unless her appearance had resulted in a strong butterfly effect??

No, she would first need to quickly report this to the Bishop. Rosella still hadn't gotten the black flower for her, so how could she let her just die off like this right now?

That day, the church when into a frenzy as the high priestess sensed the birth of an evil creature in Gloom Forest. Actually, Celestina didn't have this sort of ability, but there was no way that anyone knew this, as it had been far too long since the last appearance of an evil creature. Because of Celestina's personality and ability though, there wasn't anyone who doubted her. The Bishop immediately gathered up a squad of highly skilled and experienced priests and knights, and was even considering to personally go himself when thinking of the dangers that an evil creature would pose.

But upon further thought, he couldn't leave the church with all the work that he had to deal with.

In the end, Yin Mei and the Bishop had a serious conversation for the first time in order to choose a person with the suitable ability to go. They didn't know how much holy power was needed in order to defeat an evil creature, but it was better to be safe than sorry. The problem was that aside from Yin Mei and the Bishop, all the other members of the church simply didn't meet the cut for them. There was just too large of a difference in affinity.

Yin Mei already knew that it had taken out almost the entire squad that they had sent on this expedition, and that squad already contained some fairly experienced and talented members of the church. To be killed off despite this, Yin Mei knew that it would be difficult to find someone who would be able to take care of this among the church members.

The only person she could think of off the top of her head would be Kai - she thought that with his protagonist aura, even if he wasn't fully equipped to kill off the evil creature now, he should probably still be able to do survive and then power up and do so later?

But her experience with male lead's made her confidence waver. She thought that there was a very delicate balance with what a protagonist could handle - although it was implied that they could overcome any obstacle, her experience made it clear that there were in fact obstacles too powerful for them to overcome sometimes. The obstacle had to be at just the right strength for them at that moment to be able to survive and then power up.

She blinked. Perhaps this was the perfect chance to try out her summoning project? They were almost done, and Yin Mei had predicted they would only need a few more meetings and some small experiments to work out the minor details - it would be possible to push things up a bit if they needed to.

But this would still take some time. Would Rosella be able to hang on until then? Oh! She could always send her little familiar to aid her.

Thinking of things this way, Yin Mei made her decision.

”Are you sure about doing this?” Leon said with an anxious decision, as he tried to keep up with the quick paced Yin Mei.

”Of course I am. There's no one else who can do it. I can't leave the church, and even if the Bishop could, we can't afford to lose him.” Yin Mei said. Saying it like this was pretty cruel. Leon blinked, feeling shocked at what she was implying. In other words, because they couldn't risk losing the Bishop... they would summon someone who was more disposable?

He paused. No, she probably didn't realize the implications of her words. After all, Celestina was not that type of person. He was just thinking too deeply into things.