After the missionary leader took out the vial containing the green liquid, his sluggish expression finally vanished. His eyes burned with madness, and his face twisted into a fanatical grin. Carefully, he uncorked the vial and, extending his thin tongue, slowly licked the mouth of the bottle. With red eyes, he finally spoke:
"Poor sinner, the Goddess Tishachar has already punished the ignorant heretics. Their bones will shatter like fragile glass, and they will scream and cry in the agonies of hell. Only those who believe in the great Goddess Tishachar can be saved."
As he spoke, the missionary grew more and more agitated, his whole body trembling. At last, with a blank expression returning to his face, he raised the bottle carefully and uttered in a monotonous voice:
"Come, poor sinner, the merciful Goddess Tishachar offers you the last chance to drink the sacred spring. You can not only relieve the curse of your sins, but also find the only salvation."
The missionary leader and his "comrades" stepped closer, vial in hand, seemingly intent on forcing the green liquid into Bilan and Dickido.
"Are you insane? There's a child who needs help here! We have to—"
"Enough, Dickido, it's useless…" Bilan interrupted, realizing that reasoning with these brainwashed fanatics was pointless. She glanced at the bottle of green liquid with a rising sense of dread. An ominous premonition took hold of her heart, as though a voice within her warned: Do not drink the holy water—if you do, the consequences will be dire…
"Dickido, hurry and pick up the child. I'll prepare the magic," Bilan urged.
Without another thought, Dickido scooped up the unconscious child, and Bilan began to recite a spell with focused determination. She desperately wished she had paid more attention to the parchments Punk had given her, but in that moment she recalled one of the simpler apprentice-level spells she had learned.
"...We must get out of here."
Realizing that staying and arguing would only waste time, Dickido hurriedly nodded and clutched the child tighter as Bilan continued her incantation.
"Quick, don't let them escape!" shouted the missionary leader, breaking into a sprint toward Bilan, who was still chanting the spell.
"Watch out, Bilan!" Dickido shouted in alarm.
Bilan felt the enemy closing in. Her heart raced as she remembered too late that she could not afford to chant freely during an active confrontation. But her magic was almost complete, and giving up now would be disastrous.
With the missionary leader charging toward her, his dull, lifeless gaze fixed upon her, Bilan closed her eyes in fear…
Boom!!
The sound of a fist hitting flesh echoed in the alley.
Bilan, who had not felt any pain, opened her eyes in confusion, only to find a small figure standing protectively in front of her—a young boy in a white robe, carrying the child.
"Cough…" Dickido spat out a bit of blood. In that critical moment, he had successfully blocked the missionary's strike. As an ordinary person with no extraordinary powers, Dickido had been brutally punched in the stomach by the missionary. The force of the blow made him feel as if his internal organs had been crushed. Blood flooded his mouth, but he still gritted his teeth and endured the pain, one hand clutching the child, the other tightly gripping the missionary's arm.
"Bilan… finish the spell quickly…" Dickido gasped.
Before he could finish, the missionary leader swung his fist, the green vial still in hand, and roared:
"How dare you stand in the way of the great Tishachar Church!"
The heavy fist crashed toward Dickido's head.
Boom!!
The punch landed squarely on Dickido's cheek, causing his head to jerk back violently. The pain was intense, and he staggered, but somehow managed to remain standing. Blood streamed from his mouth as he gasped for air, yet he held his ground.
"Bilan…" Dickido's voice trembled with pain as he called out her name.
Seeing the state Dickido was in, Bilan's heart sank, but she knew she could not afford to waste the precious opportunity he had created. She focused all her energy on completing the spell.
With desperate concentration, she broke through the final magical nodes in her mind, and a spell model formed within her soul.
Apprentice-level Energy Manipulation Spell: Earthquake — Control earth elements to make the ground tremble, causing enemies to lose their balance for fifteen seconds.
A khaki rune sank into the ground, and immediately the alley began to shake like an earthquake. The missionary leader, thrown off balance, staggered as his fist missed Dickido by a hair.
"Go!" Bilan shouted, seizing the moment.
She grabbed Dickido's hand and pulled him toward the alley's exit.
"Go! Stop those heretics!" the missionary leader roared to his subordinates, quickly regaining his balance.
But the tremor had given Bilan and Dickido just enough time to escape. The missionary leader and his followers recovered quickly and began to chase after them, their faces contorted with rage.
Once they emerged from the alley, Bilan and Dickido looked around in desperation, hoping for help from the townspeople. But the street was eerily silent, the once-bustling town now deserted, with only a few missionaries wandering like ghosts in the distance.
The realization struck them both: the people of Niailan Town had been intimidated by the increasingly reckless actions of the Tishachar Church. No one dared intervene.
"Hurry! Where are they?" a missionary yelled, spotting Bilan and Dickido in the street.
"Not good…" Bilan muttered, her heart sinking. The missionaries were closing in on them from all sides. Even the few wandering missionaries on the street now turned their attention toward them.
Bilan's resolve hardened as she pulled Dickido along, ignoring the exhaustion threatening to slow her down.
"Where do we go now?" Dickido gasped.
Bilan paused to catch her breath, but the town remained unnervingly quiet. It felt as though they had entered a ghostly realm, with no one coming to their aid.
"To the White Tower," Bilan finally said, her voice trembling.
The only place she could think of for safety was the White Tower—the last sanctuary in a town overrun by the madness of the Tishachar Church.