The sharp sound of iron whistles pierced every corner of the Ant Nest like sharp needles.
The iron boots of the Heresy Inquisition Bureau’s main force stepped into this strange building.
The originally noisy underground plaza fell into panic and chaos within just a few short minutes.
The crowd fled in every direction like frenzied ants, just like ants in a nest about to be flooded with water.
They did not know which way to run, yet they could not stop their feet.
Enormous fear enveloped every person.
The poor people here feared the Heresy Inquisition Bureau and all upper-class figures the way moles fear sunlight.
They knew full well their own lowliness, and they also understood that they had committed crimes.
They worked for the black market and casinos, took in heretics, and forged coins.
Yet they did not clearly understand the true nature of those gatherings they participated in, nor did they know how heavy a sentence their actions would receive under the law.
This was merely their livelihood.
They had no other choice.
When they were caught in the war between the Heresy Inquisition Bureau and the Dragon Worship Cult, they could not find even a single place of refuge.
Both sides chose to abandon them simply because they were insignificant.
“Go through the sewers!”
People suddenly realized there was still one direction of escape, and the crowd surged toward the passage leading to the waterways.
At that moment, three figures in white robes walked out from the entrance of the waterways.
The White Wizard held a girl in his arms.
The girl’s eyes were covered with white coarse cloth.
The White Wizard gently hummed a tune.
The girl rested her head against his neck, sleeping like an injured lamb.
“Do not go into the waterways. The underground river is rising. That way is a dead end!” A woman under a white robe shouted toward the crowd.
Yet no one heeded her warning.
In their panic the crowd tore off the hood on her head, revealing the pointed horns that symbolized the mixed blood of human and demon.
“There are demons… There are demons here!” someone cried out.
The already panicked crowd fell into even more severe chaos.
People pushed and shoved as they poured into the entrance of the waterways.
“Save your strength. The vision of you coexistence faction will never be realized,” the Orc carrying a supply crate said coldly.
“This is humanity. Whether people of the Northern Continent or the Southern Continent, whether rich or poor, in their eyes we are all evil demonkin. Even if their own kin are about to take their lives, these fools will still refuse to trust us.”
“Enough. Stop arguing. The Dragon Worship Cult calculated against us. They knew from the beginning that the water route was blocked. From the very start they planned to use the conflict between the Heresy Inquisition Bureau and us to withdraw,” the White Wizard’s tone was icy.
“That hypocritical masked bitch… Lord White Wizard, what should we do?” The Orc looked toward the White Wizard.
Before his words could finish, the piercing sound of iron whistles rang out once more in the underground plaza.
The executors of the cross-sword had already arrived.
“Do not resist, demonkin. If you do not resist, you will not die.” Richard held a command saber and cast an extremely cold gaze toward the White Wizard.
“Is that a threat, or is it mercy?” The White Wizard met Richard’s eyes.
“It does not matter,” Richard said. “What I mean is that resistance is no different from death.”
“We merely wish for a concession.”
“God never yields.” Richard took a step forward.
“You do not represent God. Is there truly not even one step of room for concession in this meaningless slaughter between two races?” the White Wizard asked softly.
Richard fell silent for a few short seconds. “For that single sentence alone, you ought to be hanged on the gallows.”
“Very well, then… Sing for their deaths! Queen of Banshees!” The White Wizard suddenly tore away the cloth covering the face of the girl in his arms.
Immediately afterward, the girl opened her eyes.
Those were a pair of sorrowful eyes.
She parted her lips lightly.
That voice seemed to come from the abyss, drifting faintly through the air.
An ancient and mournful ballad slowly flowed forth, as if the most fragile string had been plucked.
The beauty of that song lay in the fact that it might shatter at any moment.
***
Gunfire shook through the casino hall.
Bullets ricocheted continuously between the walls.
The city defense army advanced in large strides while firing.
The moment their rounds were spent they immediately dropped into a half-crouch to reload, and the knights behind them immediately stepped forward to take their place, firing without any gap.
Extra powder drove the high-speed bullets, together constructing a line of fire.
“Kill them!” The Stranger roared in fury, drawing a thrusting sword from his waist and stabbing fiercely toward Anne on the opposite side of the gambling table.
A swaying wall of flame blazed up on the gambling table.
The flying playing cards transformed into dancing butterfly shadows within the light of the flames.
Although the Stranger was a swindler or an actor, the skill with which he wielded that slender sword had clearly reached an extreme realm.
The wind brought by the thrusting sword was faster than the tip of the blade itself.
It scattered the wall of fire, and the sword light stabbed toward Anne’s face like a twisting snake.
“If you still do not make a move I am going to die, exchange-student classmate,” Anne said softly, a barely detectable tremor in her voice.
The tip of the sword stopped just before it could strike Anne’s pretty bridge of the nose.
The Stranger suddenly discovered that the hand gripping the sword had lost control and stiffened in midair, unable to thrust out its edge.
In the next moment, Liz kicked the table leg with great force.
The burning gambling table was entirely flipped over and smashed toward the Stranger.
Anne took Flora’s hand and rose from the chair.
She gently stroked the princess’s head and led her back toward the ranks of the city defense army.
Liz looked toward the princess. “Did you already know that Miss Anne would come tonight?”
“Who knows? Perhaps it was only a coincidence,” Flora replied with a soft laugh.
Liz let out a light sigh.
Anne’s arrival had not been mentioned at all in the plan.
This once again stirred up an awkward feeling of having been kept in the dark.
The dance this princess had shared with Claire at the welcome party was still engraved in her heart.
Clearly the two of them had known each other long ago, yet she who had accompanied Claire for three years knew nothing of it.
Yet there was no longer time for her to dwell on this.
Liz kicked over a black-clad man coming straight at her.
Another black-clad man swung a hunting knife toward Anne.
Liz took a single arrow-like step, slipped nimbly past the edge of the blade, flung open the hem of her coat, tightly wrapped the black-clad man’s head, and then smashed it hard against her own knee.
This was the knee-strike technique of Barton Arts.
Liz used the bone of her knee to shatter the opponent’s brain tissue through the skull, killing him with a single blow.
Anne and the princess had already retreated behind the defensive line of the city defense army.
The city defense army no longer had any reservations.
Bullets accompanied by thunderous sounds drove the black-clad men who charged forward into continuous retreat, blood gushing from their bodies.
At present the Dragon Worship Cult was in a state of being unilaterally suppressed by the city defense army.
Those black-clad men were at best only slightly stronger ordinary humans.
Even the Stranger, who held the position of Dragon Priest, was nothing more than a master of the thrusting sword.
An organization of this level could be easily wiped out by Liz even if she called Claire.
It clearly did not match the Dragon Worship Cult’s reputation as the foremost heresy.
They must still be hiding a final move.
The Stranger stood up from the flames, allowing the fire to lick at his red robes.
Malicious golden pupils were revealed beneath the bronze mask.
He pressed the handle on the wall.
In the next moment the tiles beside him shattered with a sound, and a pitch-black cavity appeared in the floor of the hall.
The Stranger roared toward the cavity in a passionate and vigorous tone.
Although Liz could not understand what it meant, she had once heard Miriel in Kent speak of this language.
It was the language of dragons!
A hissing response came from within the cavity.
A great crowd of black shadows slowly crawled out from inside.
They rose one by one beside the Stranger, their numbers as many as a swarm of bees pouring from a hive.
Without exception they wore tattered black cloth cloaks, and sharp claws grew from their withered, slender arms.
In the blink of an eye a black army had gathered beside the Stranger.
Golden pupils lit up one after another within the hoods, the light of the pupils like drifting flames.
It was an army composed of sub-dragonkin.
At Anne’s gesture, a dazzling wall of fire rapidly unfolded across the casino hall.
The sub-dragonkin with their hard bones were swallowed by the firelight.
Yet only a few seconds later the zombie-like black shadows charged through the raging wall of fire.
The black cloaks on their bodies had been burned away by the great fire, revealing bodies covered in ferocious scales.
Amid continuous thunderous sounds, the volleys of the city defense army poured onto the bodies of the sub-dragonkin.
Unlike those black-clad men who fell at the first shot, the large-caliber bullets of the bolt-action rifles only forced the sub-dragonkin to retreat step by step.
Black ink-like blood sprayed from the bullet holes, yet not one of them fell.
The distance grew closer and closer.
The city defense army was forced to draw their sabers and slash at the zombie-like sub-dragonkin.
The defensive line collapsed in an instant, and everyone was in danger for their own lives.
Only when a crouching sub-dragonkin advanced to within two meters of Flora did Liz pick up a rifle from the ground and shoot through the back of its skull.
The Stranger carried his slender sword and moved nimbly across the chaotic battlefield.
Whenever the edge of the blade stabbed out, a knight fell into a pool of blood.
At this moment the situation had once again returned to the Stranger’s control.
Beneath that bronze mask was a twisted smiling face.
The sanctuary of Parisie possessed a long history of more than a thousand years.
The city and dynasties above the sanctuary had undergone countless changes, yet only those sacred murals endured eternally.
This sanctuary had been a place for blood-exchange rituals since ancient times.
Those deformed dragon-blood kin were the products of failed rituals.
In a single instant they had changed the course of the battle.
Yet the Stranger heard a certain sound.
The walls of the casino were actually shaking.
It was a roaring boom like a great bell, the sound of the bell ringing again and again.
He suddenly understood what was happening.
Where was there any great bell?
Clearly someone was smashing the wall from the other side!
In the next moment a black-armored arm stretched out from the crack.
That arm punched through the wall again and again.
The wall built of limestone collapsed with a roaring boom amid the great noise.
Three figures appeared within the spreading smoke.
Liz looked toward that familiar figure. “You two are too slow.”
Before Liz’s words could finish, a graceful figure spun through the air and plunged downward.
Before even landing she pulled the trigger of the Can Opener and blew apart the head of a sub-dragonkin.