Aelia, who was just about to charge out, froze on the spot.

Pascal stood within the golden flames. She spread her arms wide without holding anything back, blocking the way in front of everyone.

To outsiders, what she did was no different from suicide. Even griffins would be reduced to ash on contact with those flames. She looked far frailer than a griffin, by more than one degree. She should've died in an instant.

But the raging golden flames didn't burn Pascal away. Instead, like children finally finding the road home, they eagerly burrowed into her body.

The scorching heat also cooled the moment it touched Pascal. It turned into snow-white smoke and drifted around her.

At the same time, the gem on her chest shone brilliantly, storing the Holy Light that had gone beyond Pascal's control limit.

A few dozen seconds later.

The flames died down.

Pascal staggered. She swayed for a while, then lost her balance and fell backward.

Noah happened to be right behind her. He casually caught her in his arms, becoming her human cushion, while checking on the guild nun's condition.

Her face was flushed. Her breathing was heavy. Her blonde hair hung loose in disarray. Sweat had soaked the cloth over her chest, faintly revealing a tempting patch of snowy skin. Her eyes were full of haze and daze.

Anyone who didn't know what was going on might've thought Noah had done something improper to the nun.

But Pascal's mind wasn't on herself at all. In a weak voice, she asked Noah, "Guildmaster... are you alright?"

Noah had just been about to answer when he caught a glimpse of pale gold crawling up his thigh.

A surviving wisp of golden flame had latched onto Noah. It burned a hole through his pants, then, as if it had a will of its own, began trying to corrode his flesh and blood.

Noah was startled. Why was there still a bit of flame left?

His first instinct was to put out the sacred golden flame. But he quickly realized its essence was Holy Light, the Sacred Flame born from Kale the God of Holy Light's source.

A simple gust of wind or a few slaps wouldn't extinguish it.

Just as Noah was about to have Pascal suck it away for him again, he saw a mass of bizarre chaos appear out of nowhere.

It was extremely tiny, only about palm-sized. It looked blurry and indistinct, like some failed dark cuisine. No one knew where it had come from. It suddenly swallowed the golden flame in one bite.

"..."

Too many weird things had happened today.

Noah found it bizarre, but he didn't have much time to be shocked.

"I'm fine." He answered Pascal first, then reached out and touched her burning-hot face. "You look like the one in bad shape..."

"I'm fine too."

Pascal shook her head. "The essence of these flames is blazing Holy Light. You know my constitution is special."

Even without further explanation, Noah understood.

Pascal herself was basically a high-purity Holy Light bomb. Her body could already contain a huge amount of Holy Light.

Absorbing this blazing Sacred Flame wasn't easy for her... but it wasn't impossible either.

And because she knew that, she stepped forward.

"Shirley," Noah called the bird girl's name.

"Ah... huh?"

Shirley snapped out of her stunned daze and blurted out belatedly, "Holy crap, the fire's out?!"

Noah had no time to explain much to the bird girl. He grabbed a sword that someone had dropped on the ground, then gave Shirley a tactical order.

"Stay here and watch Pascal. Remember, be careful. Don't let her get bumped around. If she blows up later, we're all done for."

Shirley had probably only understood the words all done for. She immediately perked up.

"Yes, Guildmaster!"

"Aelia."

Noah called out the NPC's name again.

The silver-haired girl who had betrayed humanity was already gripping her sword, staring uneasily into the distance.

When she heard Noah's voice, her expression gradually turned solemn and heavy.

"I understand what you mean... This all came too suddenly, but I have to stop them."

Noah thought this NPC got into character pretty fast.

He weighed the heavy sword in his hand, a little envious of Aelia's adaptability. Then he looked around, walked over to a strange skeleton, and nudged its head with his foot.

"Holy shit, who kicked my head?"

The skeleton's teeth clacked together, producing a very familiar voice.

Aelia was startled. On instinct, she thought it was some necromancer's trick and almost raised her sword to chop it down.

Luckily, Noah pointed out the skeleton's identity in time.

"Quit playing dead and get up."

"I'm not playing dead. I really am dead."

The skeleton said that, then slowly raised its upper body and sat up from the ground.

In just those few short seconds, flesh appeared out of thin air and wrapped around the skeleton, rapidly shaping the form of a red-haired girl.

Noah skillfully tossed his coat to Anna. She skillfully put it on too, so there wouldn't be some bizarre scene of someone running naked across the battlefield later.

"So what's going on now?"

Anna pulled on the coat, braced both hands on the ground, and slowly stood up.

During that time, the lower half of her body gradually restored itself as well. Her shapely, snowy thighs were exposed, and her small, delicate bare feet stepped on the ground. Irritated, she kicked a chunk of rubble away.

She'd been dying nonstop ever since entering the ancient battlefield. There was no way she'd be in a good mood.

Noah gave a rough summary of what had happened. After hearing it, Anna frowned and denied it.

"I've heard of the Sacred Flame Church. They're the craziest bunch in the Holy Order. But I've never heard of them showing up here..."

"The problem is, they really did show up."

Aelia picked up where Anna left off, her tone low.

"I'm afraid the Grand Duchy colluded with the Sacred Flame Church in secret to ensure victory. The Mage Tower wasn't there to cast high-tier magic at all. It was a sacrifice... fuelwood for the descent of the Sacred Flame."

"Fuelwood?" Noah said.

He felt like he'd just heard something huge.

Anna explained from the side, "The Sacred Flame is different from Holy Light. It can't be summoned directly. Only by offering enough sacrifices can the Sacred Flame descend... at least, that's what I've heard."

So the magic scholars in the Mage Tower had been sold out.

They clearly hadn't known the Grand Duchy's methods. Maybe only when they died did they realize that "dying for the country" was meant literally.

Everything, all of it, had been for summoning the Sacred Flame and cleansing the entire battlefield.

That ruthless? They even killed their own people?

While Noah was still shocked by the Grand Duchy's cruelty, Aelia suddenly stepped forward and stood in front of him like a guard. Sword and shield in hand, she stared ahead with bright, focused eyes.

A bleak, ruined wind swept across the battlefield, rolling up thick smoke.

Four white-robed priests walked side by side, heading toward Noah and the others step by step.

"Heretic! Heretic!"

"Purge the heretics! Purge the heretics!"

Brilliant flames blazed around all four of them, wrapping their bodies like coats of fire. Everywhere was filled with sacred radiance. At the same time, that scorching heat, enough to burn even the air away, drew closer with every step.

Each step they took sent another wave of heat rolling under their feet, as if the Sacred Flame from Kale was now under their control alone.

A great battle was unavoidable.

The Sacred Flame that purified all things was getting closer and closer.

"Lord Aiser, please withdraw first."

Aelia became Noah's most loyal shield and blocked the way in front of him.

"To the Rockrat Clan, you are an indispensable existence. Please leave this place at once. I will hold them back."

Noah gave no reply.

He had read rumors about Aelia in the book. He knew she was also an extremely special individual.

Running away now was indeed an option. But that would mean abandoning Shirley and Pascal. Unlike Anna, they didn't have infinite chances to revive.

And before Noah could think of another plan, Anna had already stopped caring about anything and charged straight in.

She'd been holding that frustration in for a while.

Wearing Noah's coat, she sprinted forward. Her red hair streamed behind her. She stepped directly into one white-robed priest's domain of golden flame. Her frail body ignited instantly and turned into a skeleton.

That white-robed priest glanced at Anna with contempt and mocked in a low voice, "Ignorant—"

Before he could finish.

He saw that skeleton still running at full speed, and shouting at the top of its lungs.

"Eat my Ritual Magic!"

The next second, a skeletal heavy punch smashed into the white-robed priest's face.

The sound of bones cracking rang out. Anna's hand bones and the priest's face bones perished together.

Blood spurted from the priest's mouth, only to be burned into bloody smoke by the golden flames at once.

He crashed heavily to the ground. Before he could react, skeletal Anna rushed up and kicked him in the chest. The flaming coat around him flickered and dimmed from the impact, turning much blurrier.

Then strange shouts started ringing out across the battlefield one after another.

"Frost Shock!"

"Ice Arrow!"

"Lightning Fivefold Whip!"

"O raging wind, heed my command!"

Pascal was lying quietly on the ground at that moment. Turning her head, she saw skeletal Anna punching and kicking that priest, and thought to herself that she really hadn't misjudged her.

She'd said it before—dead Anna was way more reliable than living Anna.

The remaining three white-robed priests looked at each other. They clearly hadn't expected things to develop like this.

One of them reacted quickly. He raised the staff in his hand high and shouted in fury, "Despicable Undying One! Since you wish to oppose the Sacred Flame, then taste what it feels like when even your bones are burned to nothing!"

In that hazy instant, a phantom appeared behind the white-robed priest.

The blazing Sacred Flame grew even more intense, forging a massive and majestic golden idol.

Noah had seen this divine statue before in the church of a small town. Draped in white feathered robes, holding a spear, it stood above the clouds. It was the true god worshipped by all believers of the Holy Order.

The spear in Kale's phantom hand ignited with flame. A blinding light flashed at its tip. Savage holy power swept across the battlefield. Even Noah, an atheist, could feel the vast divine might gathering at the spear's point.

The white-robed priest gave a cold snort.

"Undying One, suffer within the Sacred Flame!"

"A bunch of thieves, and you still dare dress it up so grandly?"

A sharp voice rode the fierce wind into the white-robed priest's ears.

He whipped his head around, sensing danger. The hand that had been aimed at Anna suddenly shifted direction.

Kale's phantom adjusted at once and hurled the spear toward the other side.

Whoosh—

The spear that tore through the air brushed past Aelia.

It was as if she had predicted its path in advance. While dodging with perfect precision, she burst forward and stepped into the white-robed priest's Sacred Flame domain as well.

The flames ignited at once, melting away her armor, flesh, and skin.

The white-robed priest's face lit up with delight. He thought that crazy woman earlier had only dared enter the Sacred Flame domain because she was an Undying One.

So where had Aelia gotten the nerve to come over and throw her life away like that?

But what the white-robed priest hadn't expected was this—

After turning into a skeleton, Aelia still didn't die. Her hand bones kept gripping the sword as she charged forward, swinging with terrifying force and unleashing a sword-light of dreadful power.

The white-robed priest couldn't dodge in time. His entire head was crushed by the sword-light. He immediately collapsed as a headless corpse, and the flames around him went out as well.

The blood on the blade was quickly devoured by fire.

Burning fiercely, skeletal Aelia stood on the battlefield. Sacred golden flames crawled into her eye sockets, lighting a bright gleam in her once-hollow eyes.

"Another Undying One!"

The two remaining white-robed priests cried out at the same time.

They clearly had never imagined that Undying Ones, rare in the whole world, would appear in the same place at once.

And that they would even stand on the same side.

...

"Don't panic!"

One of the white-robed priests shouted, "She's... not quite the same as that Undying One from before!"

That part was true.

Skeletal Aelia was trembling all over now. Every single bone in her body was shaking.

Even though she was doing everything she could to stand straight, her spine was still slightly bent. Her steps were slow and heavy, and her whole body looked twisted out of shape.

It was as if she were enduring immense pain.

The two white-robed priests saw hope. Stepping on wave-like flames, they quickly split apart.

Skeleton Aelia’s gaze moved between the two of them. At a certain moment, she made her choice and chased after one of the white-robed priests.

She was clearly nowhere near as agile as Anna. The way she moved was strange and twisted. Catching up to even one white-robed priest was already difficult, let alone sparing any attention for the other.

The other white-robed priest had clearly noticed something, and his gaze immediately fell on Noah.

He still didn’t know Noah’s background.

With Anna and Aelia as examples, the priest who had set his sights on Noah decided to test him first. He raised his staff high, drove the Sacred Flame around his body, and swiftly cast a mental-type Holy Light spell.

A dazzling beam of light shone at the tip of the staff, condensing into a massive eye.

The eye stared at Noah. Its gaze turned into a holy shockwave and shot toward the seemingly defenseless Noah.