A Stand Against the Tide

‘How could they have arrived so swiftly? Was my own speed simply too slow?’

As The Elder pondered this, the other cultists controlling the living corpses also cried out in alarm:

“My living corpses have been annihilated! It’s the Chant Church!”

“They’re on Kingdom Boulevard too; they’ve sealed off the entire main thoroughfare!”

“Here too! A dozen or so Chant Church monks are blocking the road.”

Around Leicester University, there were a total of six main thoroughfares. Including their own, four of them had actually been sealed by the Chant Church?

However, The Elder did not despair. He noted that only the Chant Church was offering organized resistance; the National Church, the police, and the army had not yet reacted.

Thus, it was certainly not the Eternal Life Society being slow; rather, the Chant Church had arrived with astonishing speed, as if possessing prescience.

Yet, at this moment, the number of living corpses had reached a formidable level, and the power of a single church was ultimately limited. If he could only chew through this tough bone, the revival of the Eternal Life Society would be within reach.

“Launch a full assault on the two unblocked main thoroughfares, break through the encirclement, then attack the Chant Church’s flank. Conserve strength in other directions, and charge then.”

“Understood!”

****

On Red Rose Avenue and White Rose Avenue, which had not yet been sealed, tragedy continued to unfold. The scattered monks and police arriving on the scene were utterly incapable of halting the advance of the living dead army.

On Red Rose Avenue, situated to the northeast, Police Officer Franklin was sprinting with all his might, feeling as though he had never run so fast in his entire life.

Periodically, he would glance back, raise his gun, and fire at the living corpses pressing in like a wall, but a few bullets were utterly useless against a horde numbering in the thousands.

Just moments ago, his colleague had stayed behind alone to cover his retreat, and now Franklin didn’t know if they had been devoured by the corpses or transformed into one of them.

A wave of pessimism washed over Franklin as he considered his colleague’s fate, feeling it highly probable that he would soon follow suit.

After all, no matter how much adrenaline surged through him, a living person’s stamina was finite, whereas the army of living corpses never tired; he was essentially fated to be overtaken.

Suddenly, a series of ‘bang, bang, bang’ gunshots made Franklin freeze.

‘Had reinforcements arrived?’

‘But why were the gunshots coming from the corpse tide behind him?’

Franklin twisted his head, searching for the source of the gunfire.

He found it.

The colleague who had just covered his retreat was now amidst the horde, screaming wildly while aiming a gun directly at him.

Then, the shot rang out, and Franklin felt a sledgehammer blow to his leg, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Watching his colleague—now a living corpse—draw closer and closer, Franklin closed his eyes.

Without warning, silence descended all around him, the previously raucous howls of the living corpses abruptly falling still.

‘Had he died?’

No, he hadn’t. Franklin opened his eyes to see an Elder standing before him, wearing a bishop’s mitre, with temples flecked with grey, yet possessing a remarkably upright posture.

Holy light enveloped The Elder for dozens of meters around, and any living corpse daring to approach was instantly reduced to dust under its radiance.

Archbishop Sasha struck the ground heavily with his staff, cracking the flagstone pavement, and surging holy light erupted from the fissures.

“In the name of the Holy Light, enact purification!”

****

On White Rose Avenue, Principal Abbas Heliq hovered in mid-air.

“Why? How could such a calamity unfold after I was gone for merely an hour? This is my dereliction of duty.”

Gazing at the living corpses rushing past beneath him, then at the distant, lifeless school, the old principal sighed:

“As a principal, I should return to the school to save my students.”

His aged, slender fingers traced several runes in the air, and the atmospheric magic was instantly stirred by the Grand Mage’s spiritual essence, causing the air within a hundred-meter radius to become intensely hot in an instant.

“But… as the strongest Chief Mage of this nation, I must protect more people.”

“I’m sorry, my children.”

“Ascending Ring: Wall of Fire.”

Several fiery dragons poured down from the sky, transforming the entirety of White Rose Avenue into an inferno. Living corpses caught by the searing flames were incinerated to ash, and the raging conflagration completely sealed off the street.

****

On the other side of the city, along the main thoroughfare closest to the Chant Church.

“Bishop Cooper, the living corpses have ceased their assault!”

Yelica replied urgently, “I see it. What about White Rose Avenue and Red Rose Avenue? Did our people make it in time?”

Monk: “They didn’t make it in time, but the living corpses didn’t break through either.”

Yelica: “?”

“Archbishop Sasha returned to Landon City just in time, single-handedly holding back the living corpses across an entire avenue. The other avenue was sealed by the Principal of Leicester University, the former Chief Mage of the Kingdom, Abbas Heliq.”

“Phew~ If they didn’t break through, then that’s good.”

After hours of arduous battle, she finally breathed a sigh of relief for the first time.

However, she quickly tensed up again: “Do not let down your guard. We’ve only sealed the main thoroughfares; living corpses will undoubtedly slip away through smaller paths. Reinforce our defenses!”

“Your Grace, in fact, almost no living corpses have escaped through the smaller paths.”

“How can that be?”

“From our observations, these living corpses appear to be artificially controlled; someone is commanding them to concentrate their attacks on the main thoroughfares.

As he spoke, the monk puffed out his chest, admiration clearly evident in his expression:

“The mastermind behind this used such a strategy likely to rapidly expand the infection’s reach, but they never anticipated Your Grace’s swift response, preemptive planning, and direct thwarting of their wicked scheme!”

Yelica’s ears turned red, and she thought:

‘It’s like this again. Yodel was the one who discovered the situation in time, and he was the one who issued the orders, yet the final credit always falls solely upon me.’

‘Once or twice is fine, but every single time? I don’t even know how I’m going to repay these favors.’

As she was pondering, footsteps echoed from behind her. Yelica instinctively assumed they were living corpses trying to flank them, but a closer look revealed otherwise.

The footsteps belonged to a contingent of clergy clad in blue monastic robes, their garments emblazoned with the lightning holy emblem, clearly denoting their affiliation.

They were from the National Church of the Three Isles Kingdom—the Church of Storm and Ocean.

The leading cleric quickly spotted the Chant Church’s defensive line and noticed Yelica, whose attire stood out.

“Is that Bishop Cooper? We are monks from the National Church, here to provide support!”

The blue-robed monks ran towards the defensive line, their faces streaked with sweat and bearing expressions of bewilderment, indicating they too had been hastily mobilized.

“Thankfully, it seems you’ve held the line.”

The National Church cleric bowed humbly to Yelica, then stood at attention and saluted:

“On behalf of the entire Kingdom, I extend our most sincere gratitude to the Chant Church! Were it not for you, the consequences would likely have been unimaginable.”

“Let us set aside formalities for now. We urgently require personnel to reinforce our defenses. If possible, please dispatch patrols to the vicinity to prevent living corpses from slipping past the line.”

“Understood, we will follow your command.”

Although the National Church monks were theoretically not under the jurisdiction of the Chant Church, at this moment, such concerns were secondary. Unleashing those monsters would likely turn not just Landon City, but the entire Kingdom into a hellscape.

As the two parties exchanged duties, another contingent of people arrived from afar.