Premonition of the Beast Tide

The temporary failure did not shake the populace’s faith in the Church.

After all, the Church had existed for as long as the continent had recorded history.

The people held the utmost reverence for the Church and the might of the divine.

They would never entertain the thought of overstepping against the Church.

At most, the citizens of Laita City now only had doubts about the abilities of their Holy Maiden and the knights.

Never mind the common folk; even the knights who had awoken within the magic array also harbored doubts about their own abilities.

‘Why is the other party’s power so terrifying?’

They had encountered Sequence Six witches before during their service in the knight orders.

Putting aside the special task forces, just considering this batch of knights who served as the Holy Maiden’s personal guards…

They were all elites from various knight orders and had participated in operations against Sequence Six witches in their respective orders.

But it seemed that none of those encounters were like this time with the purple witch, who had shattered all the Holy Stone chains in a single confrontation.

For the longest time, the knights, with the help of the Holy Stone’s power, had been almost invincible when facing witches.

Never had a witch dared to directly withstand an attack from the Holy Stone chains.

Let alone under the enhancement of a Holy Stone magic array, where in the blink of an eye, the condensed Holy Stone chains were shattered, dealing a heavy blow to all the knights present.

These knights were all doubting: was the witch they faced truly a Sequence Six?

This time, all the Church knights in Laita City had participated in the plan to lure and capture the witch.

There were more than forty of them, which was a considerable force for a small city.

Fortunately, after the Holy Stone magic array was destroyed, these knights were all able to wake up in time, their lives saved.

It was a stroke of luck amidst the misfortune.

For Yuffie, there was another piece of good news: due to her presence, the knights’ sense of duty drove them to pull themselves together and complete the upcoming escort mission.

Even so, the morale of the entire team was still affected by the purple witch.

Facing Kold, who was questioning her from outside the carriage, Yuffie sighed lightly and replied, “Thank you for your trouble, Captain Kold. Let’s set off!”

As the team set out, Yuffie’s thoughts also began to drift far away.

The loss of the soul vessel and the rescue of the captured witch—these two incidents were enough to spur the Church into action.

For the former, perhaps the Church was still unclear who had taken the escorted soul vessel.

But for the latter, the Church had been slapped in the face twice by a witch in public.

With a clear target, it was impossible not to retaliate.

Besides, with witches as a substitute for the soul vessel, the Church also needed a justifiable reason to act.

On this continent, there were not only the Papal States led by the Church, but also numerous kingdoms and empires.

At the crossroads between nations, there was also a chaotic zone where a union of a large number of mercenaries was located.

Yuffie had received reliable information that the Papal States were preparing to make a move on the Witch’s Society headquarters located in the Mercenary Union.

Normally, the Papal States’ hands might not be able to extend so far.

Other kingdoms had strong control over the Church, only allowing them to set up churches with a small number of knight guards, and not allowing a large number of knights, who represented military force, to appear on their soil.

But now, the appearance of a Sequence Six witch challenging the authority of the Papal States had given them the best reason to send troops to encircle and suppress the Witch’s Society.

If it was just for passage, these small countries could still turn a blind eye and let the Papal States pass through.

They still had to give some face to the Church’s long history.

Undoubtedly, as the Holy Maiden, Yuffie would definitely participate in the encirclement of the Witch’s Society after returning to headquarters.

This was the Church’s opportunity for her to wash away her shame.

Before Yuffie could have more thoughts, she noticed the carriage had stopped.

The knights of the procession would not stop without orders.

It was clear that there was an unexpected situation on the road ahead.

“Lady Holy Maiden!”

“What happened up ahead? Why did the procession suddenly stop?”

Kold’s nervous voice came from outside the window.

Yuffie had a good impression of him.

Now that the entire team of knights was under his responsibility, this panicked style of doing things should not be his.

On this trip, Yuffie had only brought a few guards and not her personal retinue.

Otherwise, the role of captain would definitely have been held by her own personal guard.

It was precisely because she was clear about Kold’s way of doing things that Yuffie gave him enough time to explain his order to stop the procession.

“The vanguard team ahead has discovered traces of a large number of magical beasts, suspected to be a precursor to a beast tide.”

The reason Kold gave made Yuffie feel it was too absurd.

She had not seen any magical beasts during her days in Laita City.

A beast tide was going to happen just as she was about to leave?

This reason was a bit too perfunctory.

Perhaps noticing Yuffie’s incredulous gaze, Kold added, “Before Your Highness arrived, there were rumors in Laita City that a beast tide was going to happen. But after a period of not discovering any traces of magical beasts, people just thought the mercenaries’ judgment was wrong.”

A knight standing near Kold in the procession also nodded, affirming Kold’s statement.

“A beast tide?”

Seeing someone confirm Kold’s statement, Yuffie had to cautiously consider how to act next.

With all the Church knights in Laita City having perished, and now that she had taken all the remaining Church knights away, the defensive forces Laita City could rely on were only the mercenaries and the city lord’s soldiers.

Relying on these forces alone, Yuffie had to question whether Laita City could be defended.

“Let’s return the way we came first. Since a beast tide has appeared, we can’t leave while facing it. Let’s go back and help Laita City fend off the beast tide.”

In less than a moment, Yuffie had made a decision.

If her team were to be accidentally surrounded by the beast tide, unexpected situations could easily occur.

It was better to rely on the sturdy walls of Laita City and defend against the beast tide first before talking about other things.

Just as Kold was passing down the Holy Maiden’s order, endless roars came from the horizon, as if the magical beasts were suppressing a painful sound.

“Move faster, there are Sequence Four magical beasts involved, and more than one!”

Yuffie keenly sensed the aura of Sequence Four from among them.

She herself was not worried about facing these magical beasts, but if the knights encountered them, there would be some casualties, which was a bottom line Yuffie could not tolerate.

The group of people stayed alert of their surroundings and quickly retreated in the direction of Laita City.

Not long before Yuffie encountered the magical beasts, in the central region of Noda Forest…

For the past few days, Maimai had been trying to lure out magical beasts and provoke conflicts between them, but these magical beasts were basically all around Sequence Three in strength.

“Forget it, gathering these is barely enough.”

Shadow looked at the magical beasts she had controlled with her soul vessel in front of her.

One by one, she made them open their mouths and fed them small clumps of flesh that she took out from who knows where.

In less than half a day, the auras of the Sequence Three magical beasts present all surged to the stage of Sequence Four.