Louise Merdin, Recapturing the City (1)

“Oh, my goodness…”

The girl mumbled while letting out a deep sigh as she stood in front of an entrance to the city where she had run away from four years ago.

“Really, everything has…”

The city wall that surrounded the vast city, as if that served as a starting point where the barrier of tremendous had been formed. Merdin was encased in it for the past 4 years. That was a prison of time and space. Louise recalled those who sacrificed themselves for her to escape, shivering. A dark and void emotion that was pulling her into it began to arise within her mind.

‘No. I can’t lose myself to my emotions when I didn’t even start doing anything. For now…I’ll have to focus on breaking into that barrier.’

She barely oppressed the anger that bloomed within her and turned her head away. And she saw the twins, who were blankly looking at the barrier.

“Lin, Lan. Can you two do it?”

“Of course.”

“But it will take some time. I’ll have to ask the Commander Oppa to help us out secretly.”

After receiving a bunch of buffs, Lin and Lan started praying while holding each other’s hands. Their prayers were perfectly in coordination, and as their words were resonating, their holy powers were being amplified.

“Whoa…”

And, in a moment, a crack suddenly appeared in the middle of the firm barrier. People would be mistaken that it was due to the spells of Lin and Lan, but their spells weren’t even activated. In other words, it was done by Evan.

“It’s ready.”

“Fully charged.”

The twins’ eyes were glowing as if they were waiting for that moment. Although it took a lot of power in destroying an undamaged barrier, it wasn’t that hard to destroy a cracked one.

“In the presence of the void god, shatter all shackles chained to space.”

“In the name of the void god, may the door be opened.”

Their clear voices echoed and created light. The light that glowed at the center of the crack suddenly expanded and enveloped the entire barrier. Crack, clatter, the creepy sound of the mana breaking resonated throughout the area. The barrier was breaking apart.

“Get ready.”

Louise spoke briefly and held her sword tightly. Save nodded calmly and held his halberd while Renail prepared the widest magic she could ever cast. Enoch mumbled the spell for the holy shield, and as for Lucid…he was unseen.

‘As for Master…’

Louise, who was looking for Evan, last saw him on top of the dragon flying up in the air. Since the dragon’s size was far too big, she wouldn’t have been able to see Evan if she weren’t thorough in her search.

‘So, he intends to help us out while being unseen there.’

Evan intended to hide so the attention would be drawn to Louise while staying in a place where he could protect everyone.

‘Haah, he is protecting me. For this very moment, he is acting out just for my sake…!’

And just with that thought, she felt all the energy flowing throughout her body. The fear that had been chasing her for the last four years completely disappeared. Now she wasn’t afraid of anything.

“Unleash the punishment for those who challenged the authority of the void god.”

“Open the latches on the barrier that falls under the authority of the void god.”

[Only those permitted by the void god shall freely enter the place.]

The voices of the twin fully merged with one another and struck the space hard. At that moment, the barrier disappeared without a trace. No, in fact, it didn’t get completely destroyed. It would be a hassle if the enemies escaped from it. So, the twins controlled the barrier and put a condition on entering it. The members could freely enter the barrier, but the enemies within couldn’t escape from it without permission.

“Let’s go.”

Louise, who felt relieved by Evan’s presence, led the way courageously. The rest of the members, including Save, walked next to her, and the Astray members followed.

“I feel immense energy.”

Enoch bit his lips and mumbled. Well, he was a priest, after all.

“Such horrible aura has been sealed quite well. Was it trying to make the entire continent into the land of undead?”

“Is it possible to cleanse it, Enoch?”

“It’s impossible for now. I’ll have to go to every corner of this place and cleanse the aura after defeating them all. Everyone, be careful not to be killed. You’ll turn up undead once you die in this land.”

As Merdin had a dungeon where undead appeared, Louise, a noble of Merdin, was familiar with them more than any other members. But that counted within the dungeon, and she didn’t expect the undead that came above the ground to seize the entire city.

“Survivors…are there any?”

“…Chances are too slim.”

Louise felt a sharp pain pierce her chest after hearing Enoch’s short reply. Did everyone that lived on this vast land die? Could such nonsense actually exist? Could such a horrible event be allowed to happen?

“If so…what we are doing right now is utterly meaningless.”

“Nobody’s sure. The city is large, and there might be some people who are in hiding. Hey, it was you who wanted to recapture this city.”

“…”

Louise took a step forward silently. A rotting stench came off from the ground.

“I did. I wanted to reclaim this land.”

While remembering what happened 4 years ago, she took another step forward. Then, she entered the fallen city through its gate. The city, once filled with fear and screams of millions of people, only had gloomy silence. There was no presence of enemies yet.

“Okay. Let’s focus on recapturing for now.”

As she parted from the dragon that entered Merdin through the sky, she courageously advanced forward and murmured silently.

“Filling the city can be done afterward.”

* * *

As the aura was so intense that it could even make a living become undead, a battle soon happened. A large number of undead started to show up, unlike the quiet atmosphere until now. It wasn’t a little number like ten or twenty thousand. A horde of humans, animals, insects, and monsters that amount to over ten thousand started running as they smelled the scent of the live humans. The entire ground was trembling.

“It’s funny how they were trying to help us in subduing those things.”

Save sneered and swung his halberd. The purple mana wave that came out from the edge of the halberd destroyed the undead Cyclops that stood in front of him, and the wave split, which annihilated the nearby undead.

“They are weak as hell; perhaps they weren’t able to understand their own strength?”

“It has been four years since the dungeon was sealed.”

Meanwhile, Renail was putting up a spectacle as well. This battleground was the best place for her to shine as a caster of earth magic! Moreover, she reached the Max level after completing the dungeon, so with just lightly swinging her hand, she created thousands of thick stone pillars that pierced the enemies to death. The entire magicians of Beifeka wouldn’t be able to put up with her show even if they gathered together.

“Enoch, please cleanse this place too!”

“Wait a bit!”

But there was a person who played an even more remarkable role for this moment when compared to Save and Renail, and it was the independent priest Enoch.

He used the holy power of the nameless god to purify the undead. He cleansed the area by covering it with the holy power, like fish in the water.

“Finally, I can get attention worthy of the nameless god’s priest.”

Enoch was so enthusiastic about rising to fame and building a temple for the nameless god. Although he coldly reprimanded Louise, perhaps he has forgotten that there was no survivor on this land.

“Attention for the nameless god that is not well known among the people—weird.”

“Lan, hush. He will try to tell you the doctrine wholeheartedly.”

“I can hear you, girls. Now, it’s your turn to shine, fight!”

“Yes!”

Lin and Lan joined the battle after resting a while from fixing the barrier.

Lan, who got the full support from Lin, sliced through monsters that were ten times bigger than her with a great sword, and it just looked like a scene from a horror movie.

Her strength amplified within the barrier that she turned into the ground for the void god. Her power multiplies against undead with an overwhelming holy power that dwelled inside her tiny body!

On this ground, she can be referred to as the strongest among all.

“Whew…….”

Surely, they were doing a good job that suited their names as the conquerors of the dungeon. Still, they were not able to destroy that many undead by themselves. But there were others who came along with them …….

“Crystal Field!”

“Lady Arisha, I’ll take care of this place!”

“O Wind…”

“Don’t back down! We’ll handle those coming from that side!”

The Astray Senior group members, whose strengths were above their leagues, created another slaughter zone and cleaned up the area. The same applied to the Junior group members who had a similar level of strength.

―Kyaaaaaaa!

―Grrrrrrgh!

Each one of them, capable of destroying a country, was unleashing their powers, so the amount of the undead was just a mere number after all. And Evan wasn’t even using his powers yet! By now, one would know how harshly he trained the members of Astray with the reason for defeating the Demon King.

“We will…go straight for the lord’s castle with this pace. Estimated time of arrival will be five hours if we maintain our current speed.”

Louise gave an order to the Astray members who were annihilating the army of undead that kept on appearing.

“After reclaiming the lord’s castle, we will recapture the dungeon.”

“Sure thing.”

“Enoch, I’ll leave you with checking on the survivors.”

“Of course.”

Although as she continued her battle, she gradually thought that there couldn’t be anyone that survived this hellish place for four years…but she still couldn’t give up on looking for them. That was the best Louise can do after abandoning her mother and her family.

“Merdin is quite large. It seems to be more than twice the size of Sherden.”

“It was a city of trade with its trading scale larger than the Kingdom of Beifeka. So, there were more people…”

One step, and another step forward, they moved. There was no need for a shield. She continued slicing up the enemies with her one-handed sword. High-level undead that appeared on the 70th to 80th floors showed up, but they posed no threat to the members.

‘Light. Too weak.’

Actually, Louise was thinking about whether the real army of the enemies was hiding. Weren’t the monsters that block their path the remnants from the past disaster? And the proper Demon tribe hadn’t even shown up yet.

“Found them.”

Enoch suddenly spoke as Louise was lost in her thoughts.

“There are survivors. Although they are not many in number…I believe they are in the underground of the lord’s castle.”

“The underground.”

Louise’s eyes sparkled. Perhaps she knew about that place. There was a secret path that led to the outside and another that led to an emergency shelter. Amid a crisis, she could escape from the lord’s castle through the secret path with the help of her maids and the guards. But if those who failed to escape had to hide within the lord’s castle, to stay in hiding for the past four years…

‘Aah.’

If there were such survivors, they must be her family. Marquis Merdin and his eldest son Silan. How would they react if Louise saved them…?

“Heh.”

Louise let out a laugh unconsciously, and Save was surprised by her expression. So, Louise spoke while waving her hand as if there was no problem.

“So, let’s get in. I think the enemies are inside too.”