Don’t Be Holy! - Chapter 38

As he said this, he stepped forward with his sword to block the approaching Slaum. The tree-shaped monster instantly extended its branches, trying to entangle the man’s feet and throw him far away.

His ankles got caught and his body lifted into the air. The man waited for the pain of his body being shattered as it hit the ground. But at that moment, he felt someone grab his shoulder, followed by a chilling slicing sound, and through his vision, he saw someone leap into the air.

The branch snapped off and the man fell to the ground, but fortunately, he was able to minimize the damage by rolling several times. When he hurriedly lifted his upper body to look at the monster that had attacked him, Rubel had already mounted its neck and struck down its core.

‘Is he human or a monster?’

The man couldn’t help but marvel that it took someone of this caliber to receive God’s blessing.

Rubel slid down naturally from the falling Slaum’s shoulder without losing his balance, landing smoothly on the ground. His appearance seemed so divine that people found themselves focusing more on him than on the monsters constantly threatening their lives.

‘They’ll all die soon.’

Meanwhile, Rubel thought as he lightly stepped off the ground, leaping to pierce through the head of a monster targeting the people, before moving on to deal with the next one.

The monsters were gathering in increasing numbers.

Even for Rubel, it wasn’t easy to handle the incoming monsters while protecting all these foolish people.

Since the help he had requested beforehand seemed to be taking longer than expected, he prepared himself to lose people one by one.

Though he had seen countless corpses and experienced the deaths of even close companions numerous times, the moments just before someone’s death were always tense. It felt like countless glass bottles were falling from the sky, and he had the duty to catch them all.

Each time someone died, those bottles shattered more and more, covering the ground with sharp fragments, and Rubel had no choice but to keep moving as he’d been trained, stepping on the increasingly narrowing ground.

Some fragments cut deep wounds, but he couldn’t flinch or stay still even for a moment. If he did, more glass bottles would shatter.

Biting the inside of his cheek, he continued slaughtering monsters at an increasingly rapid pace. Stabbing, withdrawing, tearing apart, avoiding attacks.

But as with all creatures of darkness, without purification, they would endlessly crawl up from the shadows, and as time passed, only Rubel was growing weary. Even if he was an exceptional holy knight blessed by God, there was no way to handle endless numbers.

“Ugh!”

As proof, more and more people were getting injured. It was at this moment when Rubel was unconsciously reciting a prayer while biting his lip.

Suddenly, a white light shot up from far away. It was divine power so strong that it made the monsters stop at once, making Rubel wonder if someone this remarkable was among those he had asked for help.

Did they have such abundant manpower?

“W-what is that?”

“Perhaps the reinforcements have arrived now.”

“Reinforcements? Already?”

Everyone couldn’t help but wonder, since it usually took at least three or four days even at the fastest. But instead of saying that they came quickly because he called them, Rubel narrowed his eyebrows trying to remember what was in that direction.

“That place.”

“Yes?”

“It feels familiar. What’s over there?”

“Well, let’s see. Ah, isn’t that around where the old lady’s grave is?”

Hecate’s grave? Rubel remembered how that woman had risked her life to protect that grave.

Could this outrageously powerful divine energy bursting from there be unrelated? Rubel instinctively realized that the reason he came here might be at that grave.

***

To be honest, I won’t deny it was impulsive.

Even from a distance, it was clearly visible that monsters were gathering there, and though the thick forest obscured what was happening, occasionally, painfully familiar groans echoed through the sky.

Those agonized groans, the sound of swords clashing as people gritted their teeth and squeezed out their life force to fight.

But there was no confidence or sign of victory in those sounds.

Eir, who was near the old lady’s grave, could tell that everyone was barely swinging their swords just to avoid death.

‘Everyone will die.’