74 The Necromancer and the Priestess 8 (1/2)

El was grading tests on his desk at school when the little bird that had been joyfully eating sunflower seeds from a small bowl he had placed at the windowsill perked up. It glanced out the window, and a moment later, flapped its wings and flew away.

El's first thought was if something had happened to Celes for it to leave so quickly. He paused. It shouldn't be the case? Celes was a powerful mage, and protected by the most elite members of the church. But, he still couldn't dispel the nagging feeling he had in his heart, so decided to pay a visit to the church later today.

When he arrived, the church was bustling with activity as knights and priests rushed too and fro. The inner sanctum's entrance was guarded more heavily than before, and El could feel his heart sinking. The guards, though some were familiar with Kiel, would not let him in as this was an emergency situation. Around this time, a priestess from the inner sanctum walked by, immediately recognizing the beautiful professor.

”Sir Kiel!” She exclaimed, and hurried over. She looked around as she grabbed him and pulled him to the side. ”This isn't really a good time to be here. You should go back the academy.”

”What happened?” El asked, his voice stiff.

The priestess, Naenia, noticed something was wrong and saw the tense worry on Sir Kiel's face. This was the first time that she had seen him lose composure, but thinking about it, it made sense. After all, he was probably worried sick about the high priestess's situation, with no idea what was going on. ”The high priestess was testing out a new form of magic. She just accidentally used up all her mana and is currently unconscious, but the Bishop is attending to her and she's not in any danger.” Naenia answered, comforting the man.

”Naenia! What're you doing? Hurry up!” A priestess spotted Naenia and called out to her, and the young priestess looked back to say that she'd be there in a moment.

She looked at Sir Kiel with a sorry expression. ”I have to go. You can try coming back a few days later, though I don't know if the high priestess will be awake by then.” With those words, she rushed away, meeting up with the priestess who had called her as they hurried to the high priestess's room.

El was silent, his expression unreadable as his head was bowed, his eyes covered in shadow.

In a blink of an eye, he was gone, as if he had never been there.

In the Gloom Forest, a little white bird flew a few times around Rosella before landing on her shoulder. Rosella recognized this little bird, as she had seen it with the high priestess before. She cuddled it to her cheek, feeling comforted inside. Her body grew warmer, as a shimmering veil of light fell over her. She knew that this must be the high priestess who had sent the bird, knowing that she was in this predicament. She felt even more determination.

Even though things weren't going as planned, she wouldn't let this stop her from completing her mission.

With the light spirit familiar by her side, no ordinary monster in Gloom Forest could pose her any trouble, and they all steered clear of Rosella. This sort of strong light aura immediately gave them a sense of danger - they knew that if they came into contact with it, they would most certainly die. Even the air around them seemed to be slowly purified by just this one protection barrier, making the air lighter and easier to breath.

Rosella spent the next several days looking for the black flower. She didn't know where she would find it, or even what it looked like exactly. Yin Mei's description hadn't been very specific - she had said it was a flower with black petals and leaves, and that Rosella would know when she saw it. Although Yin Mei had told the girl not to stress too much about finding it, Rosella was filled with energy as she searched high and low, leaving no inch of ground uncovered.

Back at the church, the Bishop was sitting on a chair by Celestina's bed, where Yin Mei lay unconscious, only looking as if she was sleeping peacefully. He was reading several papers, doing work as he watched over the high priestess. At this time, there was a knock on the door as Leon entered. The man had already reported in detail what had happened earlier, and this time, the matter he was here for was for something else.

”How is the high priestess?” He asked, walking over and looking down at Celestina's beautiful face - she almost looked like she had been frozen in time, able to awaken at any moment.

”She's fine. She'll be able to wake up in a week,” the Bishop replied, his voice slightly cold.

Leon smiled bitterly, but didn't say anything about the cold reaction the man had. After all, it could be said that it was partially his fault they were in this situation in the first place.

But, the Bishop knew that he was also partially at fault. They all were. This could have been completely preventable, but he had been too lax with things. His eyes darkened slightly, and Leon shivered. So the man who represented the church of the gentle goddess of light could actually show such a terrifying expression...

Leon didn't say much, just wanting to check on how Yin Mei was doing. Afterwards, he left to go to Yu Na's place in order to test her holy affinity.

It was really easy to test for a person's affinity - they used a classic magic crystal, that would react to their affinity and display it in colors and intensity of the light it gave off. For someone at Celestina's level, she had broken the magic crystal ball and they had to use a much larger and stronger version that they had stored away to actually properly measure her affinity.