“Everyone! Duck low to the ground!”

  That scream from Alexa’s lungs quickly gained the attention of the soldiers ahead of her. She herself dashed to Phoebe, pulling her down to the ground to make sure she was safe, as fireball artillery spells rained down all around them.

  Damn it! Do they have no idea that there are friendly soldiers here? Why do they have to drop all of this firepower so dangerously close to us?

  Those questions remained unanswered as the barrage ended. Once it did, Alexa and the soldiers began to raise their heads to see the carnage left on the street in front of them.

  Certainly, many demons fell from that attack, but at least thirty or forty of them still swarmed the area, many injured, but still capable of fighting back.

  On the other side, the shieldguards stood like a steel fortress, unmoving, ominous, and uniform. Then, someone from their ranks pointed his baton in the direction of the demonic wolves and goblins, and they advanced.

  Alexa had seen this thing on Earth once back then. She remembered seeing it on television, but she didn't really care about it much. They looked like…what was that called?

  Oh…riot police?

  As the shieldguards advanced, crossbow bolts began flying from the rear of their lines with an arc, sending tiny explosion magic spells that scattered the advancing demons. The spells themselves left a lot of smoke, causing what appeared to be mild confusion as the demons became disoriented and blinded.

  Then, the shieldguards charged in. They were fast! Ridiculously fast even with such heavy armor. Alexa was astounded by it. The demons they crashed into practically melted from their attacks, as they either slammed their shields on them or their swords.

  Some demonic, caster goblins—she wasn’t entirely sure what to call them, began firing pulses of light at the shieldguards. But whenever it struck the shieldguards' shields, the crystal on them glowed, summoning a warding spell that blocked such attacks.

  Only one of the demons managed to fire something that pierced one of their shields, and the shieldguard that was hit was simply enraged by it. He then went berserk, slicing two demons before driving his longsword at the offending goblin demon.

  By the time it was done, both Alexa and the Imperial Soldiers around her could only watch as the shieldguards mopped the rest. Behind their ranks, much more lightly armored crossbowmen and swordsmen emerged, walking with purposeful steps as they linked up with the previously besieged Imperial Soldiers.

  One of them had a coat similar to the one that Wilhelm and Henry sometimes wore. He walked straight at Alexa and Phoebe, who stood in front of the shocked Imperial Soldiers.

  “The Crown Princess and the saintess, huh?” The man gave them a lazy smile, before saluting the two stiffly for a second. “I would like to introduce myself. I am Captain Richard Erhart, acting commandant of the 101st Rapid Reaction Brigade. Glad to see you, Your Highness and Your Holiness.”

  “Your Holiness?” Phoebe stammered behind Alexa. “But that style of address is only for the pope—”

  “It’s simple, Ms. Saintess. It’s either you truly become ‘Your Holiness’ this week, or mankind will be wiped out by next month that everything I say won’t matter,” even after saying that grim revelation, the officer grinned. “We’ll be taking the two of you to a designated safe area. But, none of you shall leave the Imperial Capital, not until every demon in this area is liquidated.”

  “Please,” Alexa haughtily crossed her arms. “As if I intend to flee my people. I will stay and fight here. Until the better end.”

  This time, it was the cocky officer’s turn to be slightly agape. A good few seconds passed before he gave a little laugh.

  “I see. Based on the previous rumours about you, I can tell that Major von Eisen’s investment is starting to pay off then.”

  Alexa raised an eyebrow.

  “What in the goddess’ name are you saying, peasant?”

  +++

  Alexa eyed Wilhelm on the other side of the table suspiciously.

  He seemed to be calmly analyzing a set of papers inside the meeting room. They were in a cathedral on the east side of the Imperial Capital, far enough away for now from the frontlines and the demon attack that they could finally convene about the situation safely.

  Most people in the room were members of the Defense Forces. The Regency Council, the nobility, the Imperial Army, and even the Royal Guard have completely fled the area to be present in this war council. As it stands, the government of the Lotharingian Empire, in full panic, fled like cowards from their center of power.

  Originally in the novel, the demon horde assumed full control of the city. Only when Phoebe’s ability awakened after she was knocked unconscious while desperately healing hundreds of injured civilians did they manage to push back the demon horde.

  That was also incidentally the brief time when Wilhelm made contact with her, before dying while battling Sloth again.

  Now that Alexa remembered it…Phoebe was outside too with the rest of the healers who volunteered to help the sick and injured. She narrowed her eyes on Wilhelm. So that must be it. He’s going to do something to her while she’s passed out. The only question was what.

  What was Wilhelm going to do to her to awaken her powers as the saintess?

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Sirs!” An aide suddenly appeared outside the door, saluting stiffly after he handed a bundle of papers to one of the staff members inside. “Report from the field! The following units have arrived at the outskirts of Perlenstadt: the 103rd Rapid Reaction Brigade ‘Zerbst’, the 104th Rapid Reaction Brigade ‘Holstein’, the 67th Defense Brigade ‘Fern’, the 8th Castellan Detachment ‘Alpini’, the 12th Castellan Detachment ‘Vicenza’, and the 2nd Imperial Brigade ‘Princess Anastasia’.”

  “Tsk,” one of the officers at the brigade scoffed. “Unbelievable. Why is one of our vassal kingdoms sending more troops here to reinforce us, but not our own nation?”

  “To be fair, those detachments from Castella were on transit up north and were close by to reinforce us quickly—”

  “Regardless! Our nation should do more than send a single Imperial infantry brigade!”

  “Settle down, everyone,” Wilhelm said, turning to the aide. “Please continue.”

  “The Defense Ministry also declared that all formations in the Schengen Region will now be organized under the I Coastal Corps. Major von Eisen, you’ve been given command of this formation for the next two weeks.”

  “I see…”

  “Sir!” The aide saluted Wilhelm one last time, before closing, stepping back out of the room and closing the door.

  It’s strange…

  Alexa observed the level of discipline and professionalism exhibited by the Defense Forces. It was unlike that of the Imperial Army and the Royal Guard. It was as if they belonged in one of those movies her father watched.

  Then again, Wilhelm told me that the Defense Forces had to adapt constantly to hold the line against the demons. Considering their powers…not being this professional and efficient would mean mankind would have been long wiped out…

  At this point, she was starting to consider the idea of just straight up dissolving the Imperial Army and the Royal Guard, and integrating them all into the Defense Forces. As it stands, they should be the official military of the Empire by this point.

  For now, though, the Defense Forces were more like a continental magic or adventurers guild after all. While the Defense Ministry was indeed headquartered in Lotharingia, the Defense Forces were formed both by the Special Wartime Decree and the Continental Defense Treaty back when the demons first appeared.

  It was an organization that all nations (by now, vassal nations of the Empire) participated in.

  It was partly why the Empire didn’t consider it as its official military even if it had to supply the lion’s share of its war chest and manpower. They only did it because they didn’t want to bother fighting demons themselves out of fear, but needed someone else to do it.

  But then, as a result, they’re now the most well-oiled and capable martial organization out there, enough that if 99% of them weren’t tied up fighting and dying up north, they could just easily take over the Empire…

  This must be why Alexa Theresa was partly removed. Even if she managed to reform the Empire, a lot of the revolutionaries were former members of the Defense Forces, who joined because they were all disgruntled and armed enough to act on that resentment.

  I need to rein them in eventually…so I need to observe and learn as much as I can.

  “Gentlemen,” Wilhelm stood up after reading one of the papers handed to him by the aide earlier. “It’s confirmed. I’ll be the acting commander of this region’s defense for two weeks.”

  The officers around him all nodded and grinned. They were a part of the 101st, so of course, they must be used to him leading them.

  “We do not have enough time. Right now, we have reason to believe that while the portal below the Great Dungeon is incapable of transporting another Archdemon for now, it is likely that in two weeks, it will be.”

  The officers all nodded along again.

  “You know how it is when there’s more than one of them in a given area. As such, our window of opportunity is gravely limited. Our objectives therefore are simple. We have to kill the Sin Archdemon of Sloth and destroy the portal.”

  “And how shall we do that?” Alexa barged in.

  “By placing pressure on the demons. We’re going to continuously assault them to tie up their numbers. Then, we’ll attempt to bait Sloth into one of our prepared defenses. Once we drive her back into a retreat, we’ll send a special team to close the portal. Once that’s done, we’ll finish Sloth.”

  “And how will we do this, when we cannot kill Sloth without the saintess’ magic?” Alexa asked again, her tone fully turning suspicious.

  In response, Wilhelm smiled wryly.

  “You ask a lot of good questions, Your Highness.”

  +++

  It was already dead at night. Phoebe felt herself turning lightheaded after she healed another badly injured soldier.

  But duty called. There were just so many hurt people that she couldn’t accept lying down. The clerics and healers around her allowed her to participate in this limited church activity to support the warriors defending them, but it was a hard job.

  She could feel her 3rd Magic Circle running out of its mana reserves, then the 2nd…then, she felt her 1st Magic Circle slowly dwindling too.

  Light Magic indeed was supremely good at helping the injured. It was like a blessing that could regrow tissues, body parts, and fight disease. But her mastery of it was a bit lacking, so every single man she healed cost her more mana than she could muster.

  No. She had to soldier on as well like these men. Every little bit of her healing magic had to be expended if it meant she could save another soul. And that was exactly what she did. She moved on to another batch of injured soldiers in one of the church’s rooms.

  Then, she got to work on the first one. He was a young man…sixteen years of age. He seemed to be a rookie in the Defense Forces, not exhibiting any symptoms of demonic corruption.

  One of his arms was amputated earlier, and he was barely conscious by now from the pain and blood loss. Phoebe kneeled beside the man, then, she pointed her glowing hands to his cut arm.

  A golden magic circle appeared, and slowly, his tissues began to stitch themselves, closing the wound. Her dizziness worsened, and her mana was running out, so the best she could really do was this.

  The first few people she managed to help with restoring their limbs earlier were lucky, but everyone after that including this poor boy was going to only receive this.

  “I’m sorry,” Phoebe muttered to him as the wound fully healed. “I wish I could do more, but…”

  “He can’t hear you,” one of the clerics said, the woman frowning at Phoebe. “Move on to the next patient."

  “Okay…”

  Phoebe gloomily stood up, her steps shaky, until she tripped.

  She could swear she heard someone shouting that everyone should evacuate, because ‘Sloth is headed our way’, but it didn’t matter.

  Everything was black to her in the next second.