Manasvir Empire, the outskirts of the capital, Macnadix City, Cromwell Village. In a brilliant flash of blue, the large scale teleportation array deposited several thousand girls from Olsylvia Academy on the ground. Even the dimensional magic specialized Supreme Magic Mentor Catalina, with the help of President Angelia, would have trouble using such a powerful spell.
As soon as Catalina caught her balance, she looked back at the twin tailed loli behind her with a shocked expression. Dimensional Demon Noesha’s dimensional magic was too scary; she had shouldered the majority of the burden for the large scale teleportation magic. What was even scarier was the fact that she still looked relaxed, as if she had just completed a simple chore.
“Noesha, your ability… Even the Dimensional Holy Magic Mentor…”
“Big Sis Catalina, I’m just a simple maid of Bella’s, nothing else… You don’t have to think too hard about this!”
Noesha skipped away, leaving Catalina with a helpless expression, her thoughts filled with chaos. She thought about Bella, and why that bad student had so many powerful loli maids around her. She couldn’t see through any of them!”
“There’s something wrong with this village! Knight students, Level 1 alert. The rest of the combatants stand ready behind the knights, magic students, group in the middle!”
The Knight Instructor, Dragon Knight Ingrid, reacted quickly. She instantly discovered that something was wrong with the village; it was too quiet. Cromwell village was on the outskirts of the capital, there should have been a large number of villagers. However, there was no sign of people.
Bella stood with the other knights, forming a perimeter around the group. On her right was Lisha and on her left was the chief of the disciplinary committee, Dragon Knight Natasha. Not far behind her was the Swordsman, Princess Kriss. Bishop Stanley, the only male teacher present, was in the center of the group, leading the girls of the Radiant Church, leaving Ingrid in charge of the overall group.
Cromwell Village looked as if it had been attacked by zombies, with human shaped blood splatters littering the ground. Due to the terrain, the knights couldn’t summon their mounts and were forced to act as heavy infantry instead.
Bella also didn’t trust all of the girls present. She didn’t have full faith in any of the girls that weren’t members of the Rose Society, especially those from the Golden Legend Society and the Mask of Darkness Society. Carlos had always been at odds with her and she couldn’t bring herself to trust the girls that were his underlings.
“Don’t get near the houses. Everyone, advance toward the city, avoid disturbing the village.”
Dragon Knight Ingrid was experienced. At a glance, she had discovered that there was something wrong with the village and prevented the girls from investigating the village. She just wanted to quickly bring everyone to Macnadix City. If they could get there, then things would be much safer. Then they could figure out what to do with the male students from Olsylvia Academy that had disappeared.
It should have been daytime but the skies above Cromwell Village were covered in gray clouds. There was a constant crying sound emanating from the village as well, filled with the voices of all genders and ages. As Bella listened closer, she realized that it was impossible to pinpoint where the crying was coming from; it seemed to come from all directions.
Several girls were so terrified that they could barely move. After all they were girls, and they weren’t all that brave. Accompanying the waves of crying, the road ahead was suddenly engulfed in a black fog. Clearly, the black fog wasn’t about to let its new prey go without a fight.
Luckily, this group had several members of the Radiant Church. Under the direction of President Maria, countless rays of holy light gathered together to illuminate the entirety of Cromwell Village. It was one of the supreme magics of the Radiant Church, “God’s Blessing”. With the cooperation of all of the Priestesses, an enormous pillar of light lit up the ground. It was extremely deadly to beings of darkness.
Under the light of “God’s Blessing”, the crying stopped, and the road ahead also became much more clear. Bella relaxed her hold on her sword, yet right as she was about to let her guard down, a black shadow pounced out from one of the villager’s houses, directly at Natasha.
This sneak was too fast, to the point where Natasha couldn’t even react before she was tackled to the ground. The others couldn’t believe that there was a demon that could attack under so much holy light and were stunned. Natasha was a dragon knight, and physically much superior to regular holy knights. The fact that she was so easily knocked down showed that the demon was extremely strong, stronger even than a junior grade dragon knight.
The demon appeared human on the outside. It looked like a corpse, but it was clearly modified. It had six demonic hands, three on each side of its body. After tackling Natasha to the ground, it raised its six hands to tear apart her body. In this critical moment, several strands of puppet silk shot from afar, binding the demonic corpse.
Kriss reacted swiftly, sending out a flash of sword light which decapitated the demon. Bella used the opportunity to bash with her shield, sending the headless demonic corpse flying far into the wall. The entire encounter happened in a very short amount of time; most of the girls had still yet to react.
The demon exploded into pieces, filling the air with a sudden wave of noxious black blood, which possessed a powerful acidic property. The girls that attempted to block the spray of fluid with their shields were shocked to discover that their shields were swiftly dissolved.
“Everyone retreat, focus on defense. Professor Catalina, can you use another large scale teleportation array? I want to teleport everyone directly to Macnadix City; it’s too dangerous here.”
Ingrid furrowed her brows at the sight of the demonic corpse. She hadn’t fought this type of demon before. Chaos Supreme Magic Mentor Melvira was also at a loss. Melvira was well versed in dark magic and demonic summoning magic, yet she had never seen this kind of demonic corpse before.
“This… I’ve exhausted too much of my magic, Angelia is also out. You should know that there aren’t many who study dimensional magic at our school. That last teleportation array took too much out of us, if we were to try to use it again, then I’m afraid that…”
Catalina wore a troubled expression. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help, but she was temporarily out of magic. Ingrid could only shoot a pleading look at Bella. She thought that Bella would definitely have a solution in this kind of circumstance. If they kept advancing, then it was possible that they would be attacked by more demonic corpses like this, and not everyone here was like Bella and her Rose Society, able to fearlessly advance.
Bella didn’t waste any words, and took out an exquisite lollipop, handing it to Dimensional Demon Noesha. Noesha’s dimensional magic was limitless, she had merely been concealing her true power and also looking out for Catalina’s pride.
“Noesha, help us pick a location. Big Sis Catalina is a bit tired, so it’s all on you!”
“Understood, Lady Bella. You should’ve done this from the start, just leave it to me!”
Noesha prepared her magic, yet right as she was about to start, a surprised expression appeared on her face. The entirety of Cromwell Village had been inundated with the black fog. It’s powerful aura snuffed out the “God’s Blessing” in an instant.
“Uh oh, I can’t feel the flow of space anymore. Lady Bella, if I were to open a teleportation array… it would take several hours, I need to open a new dimensional passage.”
Noesha admitted this with embarrassment. She felt a little guilty at being unable to help at this critical juncture. Demon God Angel and Great Evil God Mia both gave Bella apologetic looks. There were too many witnesses present, the two couldn’t expose their Demon God and Evil God powers. The current situation could only be solved if they used far more power than normal humans in this world could possibly have.
Bella didn’t blame them either. She gave them each a box of crackers as reassurance. Along with the dissipation of the “God’s Blessing”, all of the priestesses vomited blood and fell to their knees. Even the four holy maidens, including Maria, were down. The girls around them hurried forward to help up.
“This darkness… we can’t banish it… it has the aura of a divine artifact…”
Maria stood with the help of Holy Swordsman Cynthia. She wore an expression of shock and confusion. Clearly, it was her first time encountering a dark divine artifact like this. Even the Darkness Church didn’t possess a strange artifact like this.
Now, only Bishop Stanley was left, bitterly maintaining the remaining bit of light magic. If this last bit of light were to be destroyed, then all of Olsylvia Academy’s female students would be swallowed by the darkness.
Following the descent of the aura of darkness, the magicians among the girls were suppressed as well. The elements in the air had all been supplanted by the darkness element, and besides the “Third Chapter of Taboo” Effie, who specialized in darkness magic, the others’ magics were unusable.
Suddenly, a pair of brilliant lights rose from behind Bishop Stanley. With their pure force, the lights were able to forcibly stop the descending aura of darkness. Two white-clad priestesses stood behind Stanley, helping him defend against the darkness.
They had accompanied Bella and were the first generation Radiant Pope, “Origin of Light” Goldsmith, as well as the fifth generation Radiant Pope, “Adjudicator of Light” Roxanne. The two female popes’ lights restored the light of “God’s Blessing” at the last second.
Goldsmith and Roxanne were both wearing masks. Besides the few, like Maria, who knew their true identities, the rest of the priestesses, as well as Stanley, stared at the two in shock. To them, the two were Bella’s hired private priestesses.
The fact that an entire group of Radiant Church priests had to be bailed out by two outsiders was too much of an embarrassment. Fortunately, the strangeness that happened next overshadowed this event.
Sounds of tragic crying came from the darkness surrounding Cromwell Village, like a dirge of departed spirits. Many girls covered their ears to avoid listening to the haunting melody. Outside the barrier provided by “God’s Blessing” large numbers of black shadows floated restlessly, seeking to penetrate the light.
Bella was unaffected. She merely thought that the singers were a bit offkey, as if they were newbies. The two sides entered a stalemate. If the girls didn’t leave the boundary of “God’s Blessing”, then the enemy couldn’t enter. However the enemy was clearly trying to exhaust the group. Goldsmith and Roxanne didn’t have unlimited magic, and when they ran out, then the darkness would strike.
“Angel, Mia, do you two have any ideas? Do you know what we’re facing?”
“I know. They are Dark Chanters, they’re not from this dimension. They should be the underlings of the Darkness Creator God. The Dimension of Darkness doesn’t have a God Race, so the Darkness Demon Race took their place. That’s why their divine artifacts have an aura of darkness.”
Before Angel or Mia could answer, an eager Noesha replied. Dark Divine Artifacts were like Divine Artifacts, the only difference was that they possessed an aura of darkness. The only way to destroy a dark divine artifact, one would have to use a dark divine artifact as well, using evil to break evil.
“You… What are you doing? Bella, we’re in public, don’t do anything crazy! Wait, you can’t do anything crazy in private either.”
“Don’t worry, President Isaman. Could you please give us a hand? You should be able to solve this tricky problem.”
After hearing Noesha speak, Bella finally realized the crux of the problem. Her roommate and Isaman’s dark transformations should be to resolve their situation. Even if they didn’t fully transform, a brief show of power should suffice. When Bella went to find Isaman, Isaman thought that she was going to harass her, and wrapped her arms tightly across her chest.
“Please, Lady President Isaman, I’m begging for your help, not *that*. You don’t have to be nervous. You always go straight to imagining inappropriate things.”
“Who… Who’s thinking inappropriate thoughts! I can’t help, I’m just a private priest. Look, even Maria and the four Holy Maidens were helpless, what can I do! I’m not as good as them!”
“No, you can do it, as long as you use this…”
Bella secretly slipped Isaman a book. The two were in the center of the formation, and due to the rest of the girls’ fear, the two’s actions went unnoticed by the rest.
The book that Bella gave Isaman had been borrowed from Demon God Angel. It was titled <<Requiem Chapter Three>>. Originally, it was meant to be sung by Demon God Angel. However, if she were to sing it, then the humans here would die. They wouldn’t be able to bear the burden of a requiem meant to send souls to their eternal rest.
Thus the only option left was to give it to President Isaman. Actually, Kriss and the others could have sung this too, but Bella wanted to hear Isaman’s singing voice. Kriss and the others were her roommates, she could hear them sing whenever she wanted.
“Bella, this music… I don’t understand… Even if I could read it, couldn’t Kriss just sing it to the same effect?”
“Isaman, I want to hear your singing voice, is that too much? If it is, then I’ll just keep asking until you agree. If you don’t respond, then I might not be able to control my hand.”
“Wait, I’ll sing it! Bella, you’re too shameless! Who begs someone like this!”
Before Bella could “lose control” of her hands, Isaman admitted defeat. She obediently picked up the <<Requiem>> score, and began singing. Recently, Isaman had “lost” every encounter she had with Bella. If this continued, then soon she would become one of Bella’s roommates too.
The “Requiem” was different from what the Dark Chanters were singing. They were singing the “Voice of Death”, which would eventually result in the listeners’ deaths. “Requiem” had a multitude of effects, one of which was to soothe restless souls. The two songs were very different.
Under the effects of the calming “Requiem”, the girls who were tightly clutching their ears slowly lowered their hands. The music was able to temporarily soothe their fears. Before long, the effects of the “Requiem” had spread to encompass all of the girls, defeating the influence of the “Voice of Death”.
After the “Voice of Death” was suppressed, the shadows of the Dark Chanters in the black fog became blurry and weak. Bella decided to form a kill squad and take care of the root of the problem. They could only get rid of the darkness of Cromwell Village by eliminating the Dark Chanters. That way, they could finally head to the capital of the Manasvir Empire, Macnadix City.
