Dawn Architect

Chapter 70: Failure

Pov: ???'

The battle in the catacombs was over, or so it seemed, but the blood of the dead and some beast cores, which no one noticed when they were put on the ground, began to glow. These cores were a precious commodity in the realm and resonated with some runes in the ground, feeding and activating them.

"Hahahahahahaha!" The priestess, now on the ground with blood on her body, laughed maniacally as the light from the runes intensified.

"Idiot, I wasn't fighting with the intention of defeating you. Now that the runes have been activated, they will become the sacrifices for the new order that the gods from beyond the rift will bring." Slowly, the priestess' wounds began to close as she controlled the runes that formed the spell.

"Once this ritual is activated, it will trigger a great spell that will drain the life from the entire capital and will be used to expand the rift, allowing beings blessed by the gods to cross over."

The priestess was in a euphoric state as the soldiers, the Shogun Hayato, and even the priests themselves, were losing strength. In her moment of euphoria, she tried to extend some tentacles of darkness to bring all the hostages she had previously accumulated, but before she could reach them, a beam of light cut them off.

Not understanding the situation, the priestess tried to do it again, only to get the same result. Because he lost her attention, Hayato tried to advance towards the priestess with what little strength he had left, but he couldn't reach her as she seemed to be protected by a barrier.

"Damn, what's going on, who's in there?" said the priestess, looking towards the room where only bound hostages could be seen. Every time she approached, a beam of light cut through everything that came through the door.

Giving up on the hostages and seeing that the ritual had begun, she could not stop it; it only remained for her to be satisfied with those inside the room.

"Aaaaaaaahhh!" At that moment, Hayato, who was trying to get closer to the priestess, shouted with all his might, putting his best, but still couldn't break through the defenses that were being fed by many cores and lives.

"Give up, you idiot. You failed the moment you allowed me to activate the runes," the priestess laughed as she watched Hayato's failed attempts to get close to her.

"Damn, damn, ahhh!" Hayato was desperately attacking the barrier as he began to feel weaker due to fatigue and the runes that seemed to suck out his vitality.

'No, I can't fail here. I can't let them succeed,' he kept repeating to himself to keep his will and not give up. He continued to attack even with his hands full of blood, but inevitably he ran out of strength. Slowly, his movements lost strength and speed until he stopped moving.

'I have lost, I have failed. Because of my failure, thousands will die.' At that moment, only the result of his failure kept him from losing consciousness, searching for a solution. His position, as well as his duty, prevented him from giving up. As an authority figure, he had a duty to fulfill.

Unfortunately, sometimes the will is not enough, but still he moved, and with a fuzzy mind that had no more thoughts to attack, he pushed forward, looking only at his target, slowly approaching.

At that moment, the red-eyed mercenary had an irritated face, as if he was annoyed by the situation.

"¡! It's just that I have to do it all myself!...I thought I got the easy part," he was the only one conscious besides the priestess and the staggering Hayato-sama.

At that moment, darkness began to surround his body. A lightning bolt that was even darker than the priestess's formed in his body as he chanted a spell. Slowly, a giant scythe materialized in her hands. Surprisingly, he threw the great scythe which flew towards the priestess' defense.

The priestess, it seemed, always had part of her attention on him and created more barriers that, though only momentary, stopped the scythe.

But that was short-lived, and the swing of the scythe slowly broke through the barriers until it got rid of them all and damaged the runes that formed the ritual spell, causing a violent reaction in the priestess and making her vulnerable.

At that moment, the staggering Hayato, who had escaped the attention of the two, stabbed the vulnerable priestess with his sword and fainted in the next instant.

Thus, the spell was stopped. Even the red-eyed mercenary, who seemed to start casting spells to finish off the priestess, stopped at Hayato's intervention.

"..."

"..... Lux won't have any complaints since he told me to intervene if things got out of hand," he whispered to himself as he saw the soldiers and the Shogun lying on the ground passed out.

"In fact, if you didn't do anything, I was going to," at that moment an identical figure could be seen coming out of the hostage room. Seeing this, the mercenary began to complain.

"Well, why do you always give me the most annoying job?" he snorted.

"Come on, don't be over the top. It's just that things went beyond our expectations. Your job was just to guide them." Said the second mercenary and continued.

"Well, that's good. I see you've gotten better at handling skills and fusions. You were even able to fuse a light element trait to lightning with no problem, not to mention that handling lightning and darkness at the same time is difficult, plus putting the light element trait on it."

"...Your compliments don't make me happy," even saying that, he could be seen blushing. Something the second figure didn't seem to like.

"Hey, stop blushing at my face, it feels weird," the second mercenary complained to the first, but seeing that the blush was starting to be replaced by anger, he changed the subject.

"Well, you just have to practice more. And now that I have balance, it's a lot easier to do the fusion operations. You don't know the hell I went through to use light and dark at the same time, plus lightning."

The strange conversation between these two completely identical beings continued for a few minutes until the Shogun and the rest regained consciousness, and suddenly one of the two figures disappeared, leaving only a red-eyed mercenary.

"What... what happened?" said Hayato-sama as he looked around blankly.

At that moment, the red-eyed mercenary approached and generally explained the situation to him. Thus, the battle in the catacombs ended.

Once that happened, quickly Hayato-sama's surviving subordinates subdued the rest of the priests.

The hostages, who were missing persons, foreign mercenaries and homeless people, were saved and taken outside. On the way, the priestess who did not die, and who had been given first aid, woke up and began to scream:

"You don't understand! This was the only way to survive. Now we will be exterminated when the rift expands - it will be the end of us!"

"That's why we must stop that from happening, you idiot. Do you really want to be in the service of those demons? Besides, tell me, who else is involved in this plan? Is it the leading priest and the whole church as well?"

The priestess kept silent, not revealing who else was involved. But it was only a matter of time before she began to speak.