It turned out that Atris' speculation was correct. Soon after the artillery was set up, Aya heard scattered but dense footsteps coming from all directions of the town, sending shivers down her spine.

After hesitating for a moment, Aya held Angeloica tightly in her arms and retreated to the artillery set up by Atris.

"Wow, so many of them!"

From within the metal protective wall of the artillery, Atris exclaimed in a low voice. Aya leaned over and took a glance, only to see a large number of red dots densely packed on the screen of the magic radar, rapidly converging towards the center.

"I thought it was something else, like skeleton soldiers, just more of them."

Aya breathed a sigh of relief after releasing her mental tentacles. If it were something like undead knights, they could undoubtedly be troublesome. But mere skeleton soldiers? If she transformed back into her dragon form, their swords couldn't even pierce her scales.

"That makes sense, so why don't you handle it?" Atris rolled her eyes, feeling more at ease. Now that she thought about it, Aya had indeed fought against insane-level magical puppets in the underground dungeon. Compared to that, these skeleton soldiers were nothing.

The skeleton soldiers moved quickly. In just a minute, large groups of bone soldiers were rapidly approaching from both ends of the street, equipped with armor and swords of varying degrees of damage. Some of them even wore robes, with eerie green undead flames flickering deep within their hollow, dark eye sockets.

"Heh, now you see where the residents of the town who didn't have time to evacuate and the adventurers who died here ended up." Atris sighed. Those skeleton soldiers had a mixed array of equipment, most likely converted into undead after adventurers died here.

Then, the magitech artillery started firing.

Almost ten magitech guns fired simultaneously, creating an instant dense barrage that covered the approaching army of skeleton soldiers from the front side of the street. These undead creatures had enough courage to put any human army to shame. They charged toward the artillery fire as if it was a suicide mission, only to be turned into bone debris in a matter of seconds.

"Wow, the density of this firepower, it's more like a war fortress." Aya clicked her tongue as she saw the numerous skeleton soldiers being held back by the barrage, unable to advance past the hundred meters mark. Although she could achieve similar effects using magic, she felt that guns were more satisfying.

"Can you stop spectating and lend a hand here? Show us what you can really do."

As a gunner, Ino excelled in one-on-one combat, even surpassing orthodox sword knights. However, she lacked long-range firepower coverage, and combined with her high attack but low HP, she faced much more pressure than Atris in guarding the other end of the street.

"I can't take care of this child properly if I go all out, so give it your best shot." Aya lazily leaned on the war fortress behind her, which was trembling slightly. She gestured for Ino to do her best.

"Hey, do I really deserve to be scorned so much?" Ino was shocked. Was she really being sold out like this?

"Well, this child is an important clue, and my responsibility is pretty heavy... Oh, oh, be careful, it's almost here! Come on, future S-rank hero, give it your all." Aya forced down her laughter and said, teasing her.

"You!" Ino glared, but the skeleton soldiers were already within reach, so she had no choice but to charge ahead with gritted teeth.

Although her personality was a bit eccentric, as an A-rank adventurer, Ino was almost on par with a great knight. In the first clash, she swept her spear horizontally, and the crimson brilliance of her spear swept across nearly ten meters, sending the front line of charging skeleton soldiers flying.

However, starting off with a big move also slowed down his actions slightly. The second wave that rushed up afterwards didn't have enough time to gather Chi again, so they could only fight head-on with their long spears. After unleashing a crimson Chi, the entire spear became like a huge torch, sweeping away anyone who tried to block.

Skeleton soldiers were quite fragile, and basically, one hit from Ino would cause their bodies to fall apart. Even if there were dozens or hundreds of them, they would be crushed within a few minutes. But the number of Yuan Yuans charging over was more than just a few hundred.

Different from his sister who relied on magitech equipment, Ino, who only had a spear, couldn't maintain full power output for too long. Once his movements slowed even slightly, skeleton soldiers immediately broke through his defense circle, forcing Ino to retreat with simultaneous strikes of their blades.

Just as Ino caught his breath and swept out another beam of light, he could already feel his arms trembling slightly. He was a burst-type warrior, and enduring such a disadvantage was too much for him.

Chi was still being consumed, and the following swipe, which wasn't fully powered, wasn't able to push the skeleton soldiers back far enough. Within the blink of an eye, they rushed forward in groups again. Faced with this relentless pressure, even Ino, who was confident in his own strength, started to panic.

At this moment, Ino suddenly felt waves of heat behind him. Then, several spheres of fire with a diameter of nearly one meter flew past his head and continuously bombarded the skeleton army, causing a series of explosions. Some of the skeleton soldiers with thick armor tried to raise their shields to resist, but they also shattered under the continuous shockwaves.

Ino looked at his hands in surprise. Along with the explosive fireballs, there were several similar power-enhancing auras, which had the added effect of a life aura. The speed of Chi recovery instantly doubled, strength multiplied, stamina recovered faster, and a faint golden light covered his body.

"This... is damage reduction?"

"Don't say I didn't help. Even ordinary priests can't produce this kind of effect." Aya, with one hand holding Anjelica, proudly said while in the palm of her other hand was a residual magical light.

"Haha, as expected of my teammate. Now it's my turn to shine!"

With a roar, the intensity of Ino's crimson Chi increased by more than double. The long spear spun like a flaming cartwheel, and the energized Ino was extremely fierce. He unexpectedly started to push back the charging skeleton army, fighting them off while laughing wildly:

"Chaotic! Twin! Dance!"

Unlike the three-second man from before, this time it was a true scene of devastation.

"That's so chuuni..."

"So chuuni..."

At the same time, Aya and Anjelica in her arms turned away in embarrassment.

The aura effect could last for at least fifteen minutes, so there's no problem here. As for the other side, with an S-rank presence, there shouldn't be any issues either. So, what's next...

"The interrogation phase."

Aya extended her hands under the girl's armpits and propped her against the side of the street. Aya tried to maintain a stern face as she looked at Anjelica, and the domineering presence in her blood-red eyes made the girl tremble slightly.

"Aya, big sister?"

"Don't be nervous, I just want you to answer a few questions seriously."

"Um..."

Stop being so pitiful in every JPG! Can't you? I'm telling you, my daughter pulls this on me every day, so I've already built up a strong resistance to this move!

However, when faced with those big watery eyes, Aya still felt discouraged. Desperately pounding the ground with her head, she couldn't do it. No, she couldn't do it. Is saying cold words to a cute girl really something a person does?

Although I'm not human, at least.

"Since that's the case, I have no choice but to resort to this." Aya instantly cast a low-level mind-controlling spell and threw it at Angelica before she could react.

It wasn't a destructive magic, but rather a minimal-level effect that only intimidated the mind, allowing Aya to question more effectively... Well, it seemed quite inhumane, but it was still better than forcing Aya to interrogate a young girl aggressively, right?

At such a close range, it was almost impossible to defend against an instantaneous magic attack, and the beam of magical power directly hit Angelica's shoulder.

"So, now... what the heck?"

Suddenly, from Angelica's chest to her neck, runes made of white light emerged, dispelling the mind-controlling spell she had cast before it could take effect.

"A light spell? You're definitely not an ordinary person. You're related to the Temple Church, aren't you?"

The light spell was a high-level spell of the Temple Church, capable of imprinting itself onto a person in the form of a spell, possessing a powerful dispelling and purifying effect on demons. No wonder this child could wander through the darkness of The Realm without any trouble.

"Guh, I guess I've been exposed..." Angelica's expression seemed to be quite conflicted, but in the end, she stuck out her tongue and admitted it openly.

"Now that I'm exposed, let's just say everything. About the situation here, including the connection between you and the skeleton soldiers. Why did you harm the adventurers who came in here?"

The previous adventurers' deaths had nothing to do with Aya, but the entire swamp gave Aya a sense of mystery. Considering what had happened recently, with Heinrich summoning an angel to chase them across the continent, Aya had to take it seriously.

"The skeleton soldiers have nothing to do with the Church, um, that's not entirely accurate. In any case, the undead creatures here were not created by the Church."

"What's that supposed to mean? So, how do you explain the fact that you led us to this place and we were attacked by those bone puppets? Was that not intentional? Don't tell me you didn't know there were undead creatures here." Aya's tone became hostile.

"Well... explaining this is a bit complicated."

"It's okay, take your time." Aya crossed her arms and sat down with her legs crossed, seemingly intending to wait it out. "Those adventurers who died here not long ago, were they also tricked here by you? Or was the guild's mission itself issued by the Church?"

"The mission has nothing to do with the Church, I went and issued it myself."

"You?" This answer surprised Aya. She thought there was some conspiracy from the Church, but it turned out to be the work of the girl in front of her?

"Yes... The deaths of those adventurers were not my intention either. I just wanted to find someone capable of helping me." The girl sighed and wore a disgusted expression as she spread her hands. "I didn't expect those adventurers to be so useless that they couldn't deal with even a few undead creatures."

Wow, your attitude has become quite aggressive, girl.

Looking at Aya's face, full of expressions ready to scold someone, Angelica suddenly burst into laughter.

"Anyway," the girl stood up from the ground, brushing off the dust from her body. "Right now, I can't tell you too much, but after we eliminate the undead creatures here, I'll tell you everything."

"What? If we eliminate them, aren't these two enough?" Aya pointed to the siblings, who were becoming more addicted to fighting on both sides.

"It's not that simple. Skeletons are merely the lowest-level undead creatures. There are other things sleeping nearby. If we can't handle even these, we won't be able to deal with what's coming next." The girl shook her head.

"Anything else?" Aya was taken aback, and then heard a deep and fierce roar.

In the next moment, a giant hand crawled onto the rooftop of the building across from where Aya was, the immense force causing the already corroded structure to crumble and collapse, accompanied by the sound of shattering. A massive head slowly emerged from behind, with flickering souls in its eye sockets.

There's something I must say today!

What the f*ck?

...On that day, humanity once again remembered the fear of being dominated by giants.