260 – Apostle of Grace -5-

“Clear your mind… Clarisma!!”

As Yuria’s divine power spread, the fear that had been crushing her body began to dissipate. Freed from the suffocating oppression that seemed to forbid even breathing, the student council members, without exception, prepared for battle.

Their opponent was the nun before them.

The apostle of the heretics, Elysia.

Feeling as if she were staring down a vast cliff, Chartia slapped her own cheek, turning her head to regain her composure.

-Snap..!

“Snap out of it..!”

There was no time.

They had to use the artifact to call for reinforcements quickly to escape this situation.

A piercing instinct screamed that there would be no second chance.

“The artifact…!”

-Crash!!

“Mikhail!”

“I’m fine. More importantly, Rohan…!”

Before Chartia’s eyes, blades were flashing.

Rohan’s sword, swung with tears streaming down his face. Mikhail’s sword, parrying it, danced right before Chartia’s nose.

Chartia thought.

Don’t hesitate, just break the ring.

With a ‘crack,’ Chartia clenched her fist and began to channel magic into the gem of the ring.

“Please break.”

And at that moment.

“Princess.”

-Clink.

With Elysia’s voice, Chartia’s body stiffened like a block of ice. She felt something inside her shatter.

A ringing in her ears, the flow of magic cut off, and she could not move.

“Uh…?”

With a small question, Chartia’s legs gave out. She collapsed, utterly defeated.

Elysia’s smile flitted before her falling gaze. A gentle smile, as if witnessing something inevitable, pressed down on Chartia’s heart as she fell.

‘I mustn’t fall….’

Elysia approached Chartia, who had knelt down, and opened her mouth with a kind voice.

“Our princess seems to harbor much pain in her heart.”

‘Move… Please move…!’

“Kin scorn me as a b*stard. And the man called father only cares for my older brother.”

‘Come to your senses! Shartia… Don’t be swayed by that woman’s words!!!’

“To think your dream is to live happily with your mother… Oh my, such a humble wish for the great empire’s princess, isn’t it?”

‘Clap.’ Elysia clapped her hands, looking at Shartia with a pitiful gaze. She comforted her, saying how unfair the world could be, while gently stroking Shartia’s head.

“How can it be so heartbreaking?”

As Elysia’s touch reached her forehead, a sense of peace washed over her. Even as swords swung and her name was called from beside her, her heart remained strangely calm, like a serene lake.

-Clang!

-President!!!!!

-Crash!!!

-Damn it!

She didn’t want to move.

People were seen walking out from the open doors of the church.

Dressed in white vestments, familiar faces with weapons at their waists marched out one by one, moving in unison like valiant warriors with a ‘click-clack’ sound.

Shartia smiled at them.

“Ah…”

For reasons unknown, her heart felt at ease at the sight of them.

They were the missing students.

The ones we were supposed to take back.

Her heart felt at ease at the sight of them, running towards her with swords in their unfocused eyes.

Shartia looked at Elysia with trembling eyes.

What had she done to her?

“What have you done to me…!”

“It’s just that I’ve redirected your feelings of anxiety elsewhere.”

“…Huh?”

“Just like this.”

Elysia made a gesture as if grabbing something from the air, then pretended to throw it towards Yuria, who was wielding divine power.

And then.

-aaahhh!!!!

A scream escaped from Yuria’s lips.

Yuria clutched her head and knelt on the floor, her hands trembling with fear.

-Ahhh… aaack!!! I want to run away…! I want to escape from here…!

-Yuria!!

-Haa… Haa… Ricardo! I want to see Ricardo…!

Elysia looked at the terrified Yuria and smiled faintly.

“Isn’t it interesting?”

“What.. what is this…?”

“It’s just a portion of your anxiety transferred onto the shoulders of a frightened girl.”

“What have you done…!”

Elysia roughly grabbed Chartia’s chin and said,

“How does it feel? Peaceful, isn’t it?”

“Shut… up…!”

“Your mind is at ease, and your worries have vanished, right?”

“Shut up, you crazy b****!”

Elysia exhaled softly and looked around the blood-splattered battlefield. She gazed fondly at the bloody conflict involving the students and the officers, her eyes unfocused.

“There are so many interesting emotions here.”

She grinned at Yuria.

“That pink-haired friend harbors a deep grudge in her heart for a mistake she couldn’t erase, made to someone she loves.”

She smiled at Ruin.

“The vain magician still believes he can change the world if he just sets his mind to it. Ah~ I can see it. The unyielding pride that doesn’t falter even in broken moments.”

And she gave an intrigued smile at Mikhail.

“That friend looks… very sad.”

The brainwashed students were being pushed back. Whether there was a limit to drawing power through mental manipulation, the officers were slowly gaining the upper hand.

Elysia smiled and lightly stretched her hand towards the sky.

And then.

“Shall we take a look at the mirror inside? After all, self-reflection is the essence of faith.”

Before each of their eyes stood a figure identical to themselves, tinged with darkness.

In front of the headache-stricken Yuria stood a girl holding a pink dagger, crying.

And in front of Mikhail, who was about to defeat Rohan and join the others, stood a girl with long silver hair, glaring with a gloomy expression.

Everyone’s nightmare stood before their eyes.

Elysia said with a smile,

“Love the Lord.”

While preaching fanatical love, she began to move the avatar created from emotions.

Everyone was petrified.

All who saw each other’s nightmares were frozen, unable to move.

Yes.

“aaah!!!”

Everyone fled in terror.

The student council members, upon seeing their inner emotions, started running into the forest as if escaping. It was fear that instinct warned about.

The fear of running from a past they wished to hide, not wanting to show others, afraid to face it again.

As one by one they disappeared into the woods, Chartia shouted at them with panicked eyes,

“We need to stick together!!!”

-I can’t do it!!

-I just can’t!

Elysia explained kindly, with a sly smile, the reason they were running away.

“You all have such weak hearts. Just amplifying the emotion of fear a little, and you’re this scared. Imagine how painful it would be if you fell to that emotion…!”

Elysia, with eyes drenched in pleasure, looked up to the sky and caressed her face.

“How delighted the Lord must be!!!”

Chills ran down their spine.

The sweat glands all over their body seemed to scream, drying up every bit of moisture.

Elysia looked at Chartia and smiled.

“Now, let’s have a talk, just the two of us. There’s so much I wanted to discuss with you.

And in that moment.

“You crazy witch!!”

With a flash of shimmering brown light, Elysia’s body was flung into the forest.

Effortlessly, hopelessly.

Hanna was swept away by the sword she unleashed, vanishing from the battlefield.

“Heave… Heave…!”

A wave of emptiness washed over her entire body.

Once out of Elysia’s sight, she could finally move.

Chartia barely clung to her spinning mind and gasped for breath, relief flooding her at the realization she was alive.

“Heave… Heave… Hah…!”

“Senior! Are you okay?”

“No… I’m not okay.”

“For now…”

Hanna bit her lip, watching the dust clouds rise in the forest, and clicked her tongue.

“Use the artifact first.”

-Nod.

Without a second thought, Chartia shattered the artifact. It felt like this chance would never come again.

With a ‘pop’, the gem broke, and a sphere of red light soared high into the sky.

Chartia, catching her breath, asked Hanna.

“How did you get here…? What about your doppelganger!”

Hanna shrugged nonchalantly and replied.

“It was nothing special?”

“The others…?”

“They’re fighting hard. Some have fallen.”

“How did you do it?”

“Me?”

Hanna smiled faintly, thinking of the red-haired butler somewhere out there.

“I’m not afraid of anything except the butler. Unless he appeared as my doppelganger. Hehe.”

“You are…”

-Zzzzzzzt…!

“Come here, senior.”

“Mm…”

“First, I’ll cover for you, so catch your breath.”

“Got it.”

No sooner had the words ended than a slender tree branch, like a spear, stretched out long from the dust cloud. The branch, moving too fast to be seen with the eye, grazed Hanna’s cheek and was now quivering in the ground as if breathing.

Thorns began to sprout.

-Creak…!

From the extended branch, small thorns writhed like veins, amplifying the unease.

Hanna quickly turned around, holding Chartia in her arms, and moved out of the spot. And at that moment. With a ‘crackling’ sound, new branches began to stretch out from the tree branch.

As if intending to turn her into a skewer, Hanna clicked her tongue and drew her sword at the web-like spread of branches.

“Damn…!”

-Swish…!

Hanna clenched her teeth and swung her sword.