Chapter 93

Chinook, the Mountain City.

Not only was its name obscure, but even its location was scarcely known. Even those who had visited found it difficult to retrace their steps as the village was nestled deep in a mountain basin.

One of the unique points of this place was the fact that it had no lord. The treacherous terrain already made travel difficult, and the land produced little in the way of specialty goods. As a result, not a single noble found it worth the effort to travel all the way here to assert their authority.

At first, this unusual situation worked to the citizens’ advantage. With no lord, it was easy to deceive tax collectors. And while the mountains were rough, they weren’t so inhospitable as to prevent slash-and-burn farmers from settling.

The city also became a resting spot for merchants crossing the mountain range. Life here wasn’t prosperous, but it wasn’t impoverished either.

However, some eyes began to covet that very isolation. Naturally, it was the wicked.

To them, Chinook was the perfect place to establish a base of operations. The most significant appeal? No lord. Even a lowly baron, so long as he held noble status, was dangerous to offend. Disturbing the dignity of any noble gave knights—the kingdom’s symbol of might—ample reason to act.

This small city without a single resident noble might as well have had a sign saying, “Criminals welcome.”

“

Hehehe

, what a pretty little thing!”

In less than ten years, Chinook had devolved into a pit of corruption. Bandits, fugitives, and black-market dealers from across the kingdom made it their refuge. Things only worsened with each passing day.

Armed thugs roamed the streets even in broad daylight, extorting tolls from travelers or simply robbing them of their goods. Sometimes, they even threatened lives.

What happened inside the village was even worse. Anyone who looked weak would be jumped on sight, and anyone attractive would be dragged off to the alleys.

Their fates were unspeakable. Some were sold as slaves through black market dealers; others were worked to death inside criminal organizations.

A gang of thugs surrounded a young girl, snickering with twisted smiles.

“

Hehehe

, don’t be scared now. It’s not like we’re gonna

eat

you.”

“Well... maybe not literally, but there are other ways to

eat

you,

eh

?”

“

Hah

! Didn't expect you to say something smart for once.”

“

Huh

? What the hell's that supposed to mean?”

“Shut it and draw your blades, you idiots. What if the bitch casts a spell or something?”

“Then one of us dies, and the rest take her down. Our turns will come faster that way, anyway.”

One had a knife scar across his forehead. Another had a snake tattoo coiled around his bulging arm. A third had buck teeth sticking out beneath a scarf wrapped around his lower face. Even their vulgar banter reeked of blood.

The girl who had been silently watching them finally spoke up.

“Let me ask you one thing,” she said in a clear and bright voice.

Just hearing it seemed to cleanse the mind. For those steeped in sin, it was uncomfortably pure—an aura that made even the wicked feel uneasy.

Her silver hair shimmered as her golden eyes gleamed.

“Would any of you like to repent?”

The bandits fell silent, momentarily stunned. They were entranced by the girl's doll-like beauty, and even more so by the sacred atmosphere she radiated. However, although her presence alone made them feel that acting indecently before her would be a grave offense, not one of them looked back on their way of life.

“Repentance? What the hell is this crazy bitch talking about?”

“Must’ve lost her damn mind. Not that it matters. Who needs a brain if the body’s in good shape?”

“Y-yeah. Let’s just grab her already.”

At their response, Elahan closed her eyes, then opened them again with a deep sigh. Why do these kinds of people never listen the first time?

She had encountered situations like this countless times. There seemed to be no salvation for the wicked.

Perhaps it was her delicate appearance. Perhaps she looked too delicate and fragile to assert any authority, though she never complained about her beauty. The blood spill that followed such encounters, however, was never easy on the eye.

With hands clasped politely, she called down judgment.

“Deus, Lo, Vult.”

At her three-word prayer, the armor hidden beneath her loose robe stirred. From breastplate to pauldrons, gauntlets to greaves, a radiant light surged through the metal.

Divine power flooded her form, enhancing her armor until it was like a fortress on legs. It was overkill for dealing with a few thugs, but to punish an entire city swiftly, this much was necessary. Some of them might try to escape, after all.

Finally, as a finishing touch, a helmet sprang forth, encasing her head. From behind a transparent visor, golden light flickered in her eyes.

That wasn’t all. As divine might erupted with her full armament, the thugs collapsed to their knees in a puddle of their own urine. They didn’t think. They didn’t resist. Their instincts simply screamed—

you cannot fight this.

One of them tried to plead.

“P-p-p-ple...”

His jaw clattered too much to form words, but it was impressive that he managed even a syllable.

Elahan shook her head and replied, “The time for repentance has passed,” as a massive iron maul had appeared in her hand.

The Holy Iron Breaker, a holy weapon forged from the shattered fragments of the armament of Holy King Rodrick—unknown to these common thugs. It weighed over thirty kilograms. Far too deadly to be used against humans.

“Judgment is at hand.”

Without the slightest hesitation, Elahan brought the maul down on one thug’s crown. The impact drove his head down into his chest, crumpling his spine and knees. He was planted into the earth like a tree, with only his crushed skull above ground to mark the spot.

She had

planted

a human into the earth.

The other thugs thrashed in terror at the unbelievable sight, but frozen by her overwhelming presence, they could not move.

Elahan swung her maul again, planting them all into the dirt.

“That’s 3 down. That leaves 624.”

With the Holy Iron Breaker in hand and fully armed in her armor, her senses reached across several kilometers. The entire City of Chinook was laid bare to her sight.

No one else yet seemed aware of the reckoning at hand, but just in case, she raised her hands once more. A golden light radiated from her armor, spreading outward like a curtain until it wrapped around the whole city.

She had repurposed the armor’s defensive barrier into a containment field. Unless someone wielded an attack of Aura Blade-level force, they wouldn’t escape. No criminal would slip through now.

“Well then. Time to clean up the rest,” she muttered as she stepped into the city with the Holy Iron Breaker slung over her shoulder.

The thugs spotted her immediately. An armored intruder appearing alongside a mysterious barrier—only a fool would fail to make the connection. Ten, twenty, thirty—the number of enemies swelled like a pack of rabid dogs.

Elahan raised her iron maul and began to pray.

“O Goddess, your staff humbly beseeches you...” Then, eyes gleaming, she marched forward with her final words, “Open your eyes.”

To the sinner, punishment. To the wicked, judgment. The Saintess, begging the Goddess for mercy no more, raised her maul high.

***

Two hours later.

The battle that had begun so abruptly with three thugs was finally drawing to a close. It was the Saintess Elahan versus 627 criminals. Among them were mercenaries hired by black market dealers—a force far beyond the ragtag bandits and cutthroats in terms of strength.

There were even over a dozen wanted fugitives. A former ranger who had shot his superior in the head, a runaway knight expelled for breaching protocol, a gang boss who had ruled an entire slum in a large city, against a group that included several A-rank threats, she stood her ground and struck them all down without breaking a sweat.

“That makes 626.”

The fugitive knight was driven headfirst into the ground by the Holy Iron Breaker, buried like a bonsai tree with only his head visible. His Aura Sword, once ablaze with a blue flame, had been snapped clean in two.

He had blocked Elahan’s attack properly, and yet the might of the Iron Breaker could not be fully deflected. Not only had his weapon broken—he had been felled in a single blow. The raw difference in power was just that overwhelming.

This was what it meant to have stepped into the realm of legends. This was the strength of one who had proven herself worthy of the title “Saintess.”

“Well, now, looks like you’re the last one,” Elahan said.

Her breath completely steady, she adjusted her grip on the Iron Breaker and turned her eyes in one direction.

There was no sign of presence. Not even a shift in the air—this was concealment at its highest level. Unfortunately for the last remaining thug, Elahan’s sensory perception was sharp enough to trace the contours of the space itself.

“If you surrender now, I’ll make it painless. But if you ignore my mercy...”

The golden glow surrounding the Holy Iron Breaker intensified. The density of her holy power warped the very space around her.

Elahan’s offensive power was on par with her defense. One full-powered strike could alter the terrain. Crushing the area where her enemy was hiding—along with the enemy—was a trivial matter.

“W-wait just a moment!”

A man suddenly popped out of thin air, speaking in a frantic tone. There was such genuine desperation in his voice that Elahan hesitated, lowering the hammer she had been about to swing.

She tilted her head, puzzled, and asked, “Why? Are you saying you’re innocent?”

“Yes! I am! This is all a misunderstanding!”

“My goodness, how shameless...”

As the maul began to rise again, the man threw up both hands and shouted, “This is only my second day in this city!”

And honestly, he had a right to feel wronged. He’d heard about Chinook and came out of curiosity, only to get caught up in Saintess Elahan’s divine judgment less than a day later.

Of course, Elahan didn’t care about his circumstances in the slightest.

“One day or a hundred, if you came to this village, you must be a criminal or a wanted man. I don’t see why I should show you mercy.”

“Y-you’re from the Holy Church, aren’t you?” the man asked.

“That’s correct.”

At that, the man sighed with relief and added, “It’s true that I’ve done some bad things, but I was pardoned by the Church because of my service in Blaine. Do you know about the Evil raid about a year ago? I played a big role in that.”

“...”

“If you don’t believe me, just ask Bishop Caesare of Blaine. Sure, I fled town with a guilty conscience, but I haven’t done anything since!”

“

Ah

...!”

At that moment, Elahan’s eyes lit up with realization, his rambling finally jogging her memory.

“You must be Khan! The one who strutted around as the boss of the slums.”

“You know who I am...?”

“Well, I know Caesare quite well. He was actually the one who taught me scripture when I was young.”

Khan’s eyes widened at the unexpected connection. This monster of a woman knew that bishop personally? He’d only said all that to try and talk his way out, but now it felt like he’d accidentally dug his own grave.

“

Hmmm

.”

Elahan stared at him through her helmet, then withdrew her weapon. She then raised the Holy Iron Breaker toward the sky, resting the handle on the ground, and brought her hands together in prayer in preparation for Revelation, one of the Saintess’ divine gifts.

“O Goddess, whisper the truth into my ears.”

After a brief prayer, the upright maul tipped and fell toward Khan. It was proof that he had spoken the truth. A primitive method, perhaps, but none more effective at separating truth from falsehood.

Only then did Elahan open her helmet and lower the maul.

“So it was true. Fine, I’ll let you off this time. If you helped stop the City Swallowing, I suppose sparing you a single blow is fair enough.”

“

One

blow...?”

“Would you like to take it anyway?”

Khan frantically shook his head and backed away. Getting hit by that massive weapon would split his skull like a watermelon.

In fact, he was amazed that the others were planted into the ground instead of being turned into pulp. It had to be the skills of someone at—or beyond—the Master level.

Then, Khan’s eyes widened as a horrifying thought hit him.

“W-wait a second...! They’re

alive

?! All of them?!”

“How dare you raise your voice like that! That is so rude of you!” Elahan scowled at him, clearly offended. “Even for criminals, only heretics can be executed on the spot. My duty is to incapacitate them and hand them over to a proper judicial body.”

“But... how are they still alive...?”

He wasn’t joking. It made no sense. He had seen it with his own eyes. That iron maul had moved fast enough to leave afterimages.

When it connected, it broke necks and crushed spines. Even if they hadn’t died instantly, they should have been dead within minutes.

Yet those buried in the ground still had color in their faces and were breathing fine. It defied reason.

Only Elahan knew the answer.

“It’s nothing, really. I cast a maximum-level healing sacred spell at the moment of impact. I also dispersed the shock throughout their entire bodies to prevent instant death. So really, all they’ve suffered are shattered bones throughout their entire body that were immediately reattached. Nothing crazy. Probably.”

“...”

“They’ll feel like they died and came back, so they won’t be moving for a while. During that time, the soldiers can restrain them. Simple and effective, right?”

Now understanding what had happened, Khan swallowed hard. Not only had she crushed people like an A-rank fugitive knight in one blow—she’d healed a fatal injury instantly as well?

Khan had known the Holy Iron Inquisitors were powerful, but not

this

powerful. Among members of the Holy Church, there was only one person who matched this profile.

Without realizing it, he whispered the title, “The Saintess...?”

“

Oh

my.” Elahan blinked and gently touched her cheek, muttering, “You weren’t supposed to find out.

Oh

dear.”

Khan dropped flat to the ground, a shiver running down his spine.

“I won’t tell a soul! I swear to the Goddess, I’ll take this to my grave! Please believe me!”

“

Oh

, you don’t have to go that far...”

“Please believe me, Saintess!”

Apparently interpreting her words as a threat, Khan lowered his head even further and begged for mercy.

Fighting back? He’d die in one hit. Fleeing? The barrier wouldn’t let him escape. His only chance was to grovel and hope for mercy.

“

Hmmm...

”

Elahan pondered the situation... then suddenly brightened.

“Lift your head, please.”

“A-are you sparing me?”

“Something like that. Since it’s come to this, I’ll give you a chance to serve the Goddess again.”

As Khan blinked in confusion, Saintess Elahan smiled and continued, “You used to be a slum boss, right? I’m sure you have some valuable intel network.”

“

Huh

?

Oh

... yeah, I guess I do...”

“And since you were part of the raid of Evil in Blaine, I assume you remember the adventurers who were there? Especially one named ‘Leon,’ a B-rank adventurer.”

“

Ah

!” Khan’s eyes lit up in recognition. “You want me to find him?”

“No need. I’ll be going myself. But I’d like you to investigate where he went and where he passed through. Also, I’ll need you to guide me to Blaine.”

“U-understood.”

He didn’t like being forced into unpaid labor, but a fist at his nose was a better motivator than the law. And besides, the law would undoubtedly side with the Saintess.

What a mess my life’s become...

With slumped shoulders, Khan took the lead. Elahan, once again robed, followed after him. From the outside, they looked like Beauty and the Beast, except the one truly leashed was the beast, after thoroughly learning the insurmountable gap in their abilities.

And just like that, the Saintess and a former slum boss—a bizarre duo—set off toward Blaine.