Chapter 74 – Salvation

As soon as Arin saw the letters on the forehead of the crossel hiding inside the mountain of dead bodies, she remembered something. It was a fragmentary memory.

The appearance of herself and her brother surrounded by those letters.

And the terrible rituals they had to go through.

A pond created by blood. And something wriggling in it.

Then a bear appeared.

A 4-meter-long bear appeared and swept them away and saved her and her brother. And the bear turned into a person and hugged them tightly. Arin felt a fit of indescribable anger boiling deep in her heart when she remembered her past.

Arin threw her hammer as if she was proving that she was no longer that same girl, but the corpses blocked her attack.

Those crossel’s regard people’s lives as insignificant as those of flies.

The anger against them woke up her memories a little more, and she remembered that not only her parents but also all the villagers dying in her hands. Her dad tried to protect her and her brother, and her mom tried to hide them.

The monsters strangely wove the two siblings together. And blood was pouring from the two.

Something was rising from the pool of blood.

Remembering all that, Arin swung her weapon frantically. The memories became clearer as the bodies were broken. They were terrible memories. Her brother held her hand tightly.

And the man who changed from a bear to a person.

His warm arms hugged them.

The anger that was infested while the memories came to mind grew stronger. She attacked the corpses, but all of them suddenly froze.

As the cold air was delivered, her mind returned a little, but she couldn’t stop breaking what was in front of her. At that time, there was a hug from behind.

Only then did she hear someone’s voice.

“Arin! Calm down!”

The voice was getting clearer. She didn’t know whose voice that belonged to, but it lifted her from the terrible memory that was encroaching on her like a swamp.

“Whew. Whew.”

Only then did her mind come back. And she felt the warm body temperature surrounding her shoulders.

“Arin, don’t worry. I’ll let you kill that thing.”

Arin came to her senses. Arin’s breathing subsided quickly, and Ed loosened her arm and said, stepping back.

“It’s just hiding inside. It’s going to come out soon.”

The power of the frozen arrow was raised to the limit, and the entire ragged golem was frozen. That alone will damage a large number of bodies, but there were still more than 200 bodies.

Ed asked as he saw a crack in the ice cube.

“Can you feel where it is?”

“It’s in the middle.”

“Then I’ll open the way.”

Arin looked back at Ed. He has always been in charge of fatal attacks, but Ed was already preparing his arrow.

“You’ll get a chance.”

Arin’s gaze headed back to the crossel. The crack in the ice cube grew and exploded in all directions.

Ed, who was looking at it, prepared another arrow. As the ice bow was strengthened, an interesting function was created. Being able to determine the direction of cold air.

Rather than freezing it as a whole, freezing it in one direction is easier to reach the center.

Ed’s arrow was stuck in the heart of a crossel who was breaking out of a chunk of ice.

Freeeeeez!

The arrow, which erupted cold air in one direction toward the center, froze only about a meter in radius.

Arin already threw her hammer. As the sacred hammer flew, Ed smashed exactly the frozen parts. Ed fired two additional arrows.

No matter how many bodies were piled up, if they dig into the center from one direction, they didn’t have to damage a lot of the bodies.

As the frozen bodies were broken, the center came into their eyes at once. When Ed’s arrow flew in again, he noticed the bodies moving to prevent it.

When the crossel saw an arrow flying, it urgently used the bodies to block it, but as soon as the two arrows were inserted, all the bodies tried to block the open hole.

At that time, Arin was already running. She picked up her shield that fell on the ground and rushed in.

The bodies froze and Arin rushed into the open hole. The crossel hurriedly turned the corpses into spears and blew them towards Arin.

However, the flying bone spears crashed into her sacred shield and shattered. Arin’s sword rushed in and went straight for the crossel’s heart.

“Gasp!”

The crossel was stabbed by a holy sword full of sacred power. The bodies poured down. Arin and the crossel stood facing each other on the mountains of the bodies with a sword between them.

Arin stared at the crossel and asked.

“Weren’t all the crossel’s extinct?”

The crossel was smiling even though a sword was stuck in its heart.

“Khhhh. We survived, and we’ve become stronger.”

The crossel was acting as if it didn’t feel pain. The crossel said with a smile.

“That’s too bad. If I had prepared properly and fought, I could have killed you.”

“Did you know we were coming?”

“Of course. I was around here, so I tried to kill you both, but you guys are stronger than I thought.”

The crossel giggled and looked at Arin and spoke as if it were cursing them.

“Arin, the holy knight. You’ll never be able to get away from us.”

Arin said, pulling out the sword that she had stuck in the crossel’s heart.

“I’ll be waiting with joy. Crossel.”

Arin cut off the crossel’s neck after saying that. While its neck rolled on the ground, the crossel burst into laughter.

“In the end, you will lead us!”

Arin put a holy sword in the head of the crossel and created divine power. When its head burned in the sacred power, Arin could only hear the screams she wanted.

“Aaaaargh!”

Arin burned the crossel’s head with divine power, knelt down, and began to pray. A wave of blue light began to appear around her and the mountains of corpses.

Ed slowly lowered his bow. Arin, who had been praying for a long time, walked down the mountain of the corpse and stood in front of Ed.

“I think it’ll be hard to bury all of them, so I’d like to cremate them at least. Could you help me?”

“Of course.”

Ed and Arin took out all the bodies in the church and piled them in front of the church. They cremated the bodies. While they could smell the disgusting odor of human flesh burning, Arin looked at the fire silently.

Next to her, Ed looked at the crossel that died. It had nothing on its body. Not even a common ring. All that came out was a hand mirror.

Ed was grumbling inside, but Arin opened her mouth.

“Do you know anything about crossel’s?”

“I heard that one of Druid Dread’s achievements was destroying the crossel. I know they are a coalition of demon subordinates and followers.”

Arin nodded heavily.

“Yes. I used to think I had nothing to do with them.”

It looked like she had a long story to tell. When Ed looked back with the mirror in his arms, Arin continued without making eye contact with Ed.

“My brother and I forgot about our childhood. Because our first memory belongs to Archbishop Benedict. So I didn’t even remember my parents’ faces.”

Arin raised her hand and covered her face.

“But the moment I saw the letters on the crossel’s forehead, my memory came back. The crossel’s killed all the villagers and made ponds using their blood. At that time, my father and mother, who were trying to protect me and my brother, were caught by them, and offered as sacrifices.”

Arin’s voice was shaking. When Ed approached her and put his hand on her shoulder, her trembling subsided little by little.

“Whoo. A bear that saved us then. I remember the bear tearing up the crossel with its solid arms and saving us.”

Huh?”Ed knows this story. While playing as Druid Dread, there was a quest that prevented a crossel from offering the entire village as a sacrifice.

Ed also remembered saving a pair of siblings at that time.

“He was one of the three heroes, Druid Dread.”

One of the crossel’s that was dying at the hands of Druid Dread at the time, said the siblings would be their leaders. But Ed didn’t know that the siblings would be Aron and Arin.

Arin put down her hand and looked back at Ed.

“The crossel’s have resurrected, and they’re after me.”

“If they want both of you siblings, isn’t Aron in danger?”

Arin seemed to have come to her senses at the words.

“Let’s get in touch with the church as soon as we arrive at the next village. You don’t have to worry too much. It’s unusual that the crossel’s planned all of this, but the church would have noticed by now.”

“Come to think of it, I’ve never heard of crossel’s planning things. Why did they start moving all of a sudden?”

“It’s important to find out why they’re aiming us.”

Arin’s expression hardened at the words.

“They might be aiming for me.”

Considering what the crossel said before it died, it is possible enough.

However, it was difficult to say that it was aiming for only Arin.

What is most surprising is its ability. It was too strong to be an ancient crossel.

Even if the ragged Golem needed numerous offerings, its power was considerable. No matter how angry Arin was, it would have been dangerous if she had been alone.

It was stronger than an intermediate demon. Arin would have had trouble if she was fighting it on her own.

Arin muttered as if she were lost in thought for a moment.

“I’ll have to get the support of the other holy knights.”

Ed gently grabbed her. When Arin raised her head, Ed calmly said.

“The holy knight won’t like our group. Arin, you accepted us. But would want to kill us.”

Arin came to her senses at the words.

“Then I’ll take care of this…”

“Arin, I don’t want you to take care of this on your own.”

Even before Arin could finish her sentence, Ed looked into her eyes and said.

“Arin, you remained with me even though you knew that I had become an enemy with the great demon Nafthael. I don’t want to let you go just because of a crossel.”

Arin looked at Ed’s words quietly. When she fell into the swamp of memory, he rescued her. Ed was a man who saved her.

This man stayed by her side until now.

And this man was talking.

“So don’t leave me, Arin.”

Arin remembered all her terrible memories while burning the bodies. She was reliving every memory and burning her revenge. But the moment she heard Ed’s voice, she felt as if she was saved from the darkness.

Arin replied with a smile.

“I’m not leaving.”

Arin approached Ed and hugged his waist. When Ed’s body was stiff with tension, Arin said with her head leaning against his chest.

“Let’s fight together.”

Ed hugged her because he knew how hard this was for her. Arin whispered quietly.

“Thank you.”