(Alice)
"Shit! They keep coming!"(Alice)
I don't know for how long we have been fighting, ever since the assault started the salon was filled over and over with numerous prophets, to the point that the ground is now entirely covered with mountains of corpses without an end on sight.
It would be fine if the corpses were only from the prophet's side, but sadly I knew that real life isn't as beautiful as in the fairy tales. You only need to take a quick look on the ground to see the corpses of some nobles.
When the fight started the situation didn't look as grim as now even though the queen and king went out to help the witch. In the beginning, the nobles on our side were able to defend themselves properly. To be honest, I wasn't expecting a lot from them as there were lots of kids around the same age as me at this party, so I was genuinely amazed by their coordination with their parents against the prophets, as I was expecting them to be dead weight.
I know I sound harsh, but I have been at death's door more times than I want to admit. There is also the fact that the witch and the masked instructor made me experience the sensation of taking a human life. Being the last fact alone enough psychological burden to freeze any inexperienced person, no matter if they were a child or an adult.
It was regrettable that this dreamy equilibrium was shattered no long after one noble from our side was killed. The panic acter like an infection as it spread all across our side, sending the children into disarray and creating huge openings on our defense. At this point, it was completely impossible to stop the spreading and before I was aware of there were less than a half of people from our side still alive, one of them being the stupid narcissist from the church.
Amidst this pandemonium, I kept fighting with the cooperation of Talia. Thanks to her being their primary target we were able to minimize the loss on our side even though our surroundings were filled with countless corpses. Every prophet that approached us was sliced by me and every prophet attacking us from afar was shot down by Talia.
At this point, I was doubting if we would be able to endure the continuous assault with me not going at full force. My current strength and arsenal were currently limited only to the use of my holy attribute, as using my devil attribute was a no-go.
"Alice... Why do you keep fighting the endless amount of shadows instead of aiming for the caster?"(Azazel)
Shadows!? The unexpected commentary from Azazel caught me off guard so hard that I didn't notice a prophet swinging his sword at me from a blind spot. Blaming Azazel from this mishap I parried the sword and with the same momentum, I broke his equilibrium while kicking him in his solar plexus.
My kick had considerable power behind so the prophet was sent flying, this made him collide with another prophet that tried to sneak past me using him as a decoy.
"What do you mean!?"(Alice)
"Alice... Don't tell me you didn't notice that you have been fighting shadows all this time?"(Azazel)
"This isn't time for joking Azazel, I can recognize a human being when I see one, and even though they don't deserve to be called human I know they are at least one."(Alice)
"A-Azazel... M-My dark past is rising again... In fact, I want to know how you know that name... A-Anyway, release a small portion of the unknown power and shroud your eyes with it. "(Azazel?)
"There isn't another way besides relying on that power? You know... like actually telling me how to solve this?"(Alice)
"What I'm able to see right now is limited by your abilities, I can identify the shadows but not the source."(Azazel?)
I was hesitant to use this power, not only because this would expose my identity as a devil spiritualist, but there is also a chance for me to be taken over by that power and, as consequence, killing everyone.
"Si- Alice! you have an idea right!?"(Talia)
"Kind of, but you could say it's a special one-way ticket to hell. Once taken everything will change for me, especially if I use it in front of so many people."(Alice)
I said those words lightly but the meaning behind them was heavy. Noticing this sister Talia looked at me like a big sister supporting her troublesome little sister.
"I don't know what is holding you back, but you don't need to worry about it, I'll help you with the aftermath. And besides, I'm not that weak to lose my life because of a little rant from my little sister."(Talia)
"Who is the little sister?"(Alice)
This silly interaction gave me a small spark of joy, that's right, I'm not alone. With the reassurance of sister Talia, my hesitation was gone. Thanks to my training I was more or less able to manipulate that power, so while hoping I won't go out of control I unleashed a small portion of the unknown power.
As expected this created a huge commotion with both our side and the prophets looking at me in shock. Unexpectedly, I was the most shocked of all, after all, before today even a small portion of this power was enough to make me feel crazy and thirsty for blood, but now, for some reason, I wasn't affected at all.
"Focus Alice! Look for the source!"(Azazel?)
The words of Azazel woke me up from my stupor, taking advantage of everyone's confusion I scanned the whole area, searching for anything suspicious, and as Azazel said, the corpses weren't corpses at all. It didn't take long to find the source of this incident as one of the nobles was emitting a strange power from his chest.
Knowing who my target was I rushed towards that noble while creating a light sword that I aimed at his chest. My sword was just a hair breath to perforate the source when a shadow interfered.
"Talia! He is the source!"(Alice)
Realizing this was our chance sister Talia immediately aimed at the same noble without hesitation, sadly this was obstructed by the narcissistic boy.
"Our beautiful saint! Don't be swayed by the wicked words of this traitor! You saw it with your own beautiful eyes, she is the same as the prophets!"(???)
This idiot not only stopped our chance to end this fight, but it also made the shadows stop their attacks towards me and focus their attention on everyone else. Sensing the hostility of the shadows focusing on sister Talia I tried to support her but before I was able to reach her I was blocked by a huge wave of incoming attacks, as the nobles took me too as a member of the prophets.
"You wench!"(???)
"Traitor!"(???)
"Treacherous bitch!"(???)
One by one the curses from the nobles landed on my ears, although I was fighting to save them as well they selfishly categorized me as an enemy. I couldn't help to remember that day at the foot of the mountain, my cold body barely able to move, my mom on the verge of death, and the curses from the villagers.
I kept struggling to reach sis Talia, but the constant harassment made me unable to help her at all, I couldn't understand why they kept attacking me instead of helping her when she was completely surrounded.
"We have to defeat that wench! She is the one leading them!"(????)
Taking advantage of the situation the noble who was colliding with the prophets pushed all the blame to me, making the remaining nobles who were hesitant to attack me lose their hesitation.
These idiots didn't notice that the shadows stopped aiming at them and instead all of them were focused on sis. Overwhelmed by the amount of shadows sister Talia deployed a light barrier around her, but I knew it wouldn't last long.
"You are wrong! Sis-"(Talia)
"Help the prin-"(Alice)
"Shut up! If we kill you everything will be over"(???)
The noble didn't let me take the lead by adding more fuel to the fire. I and sis were at our limit and the fact that we weren't able to regain the lead created enough room for one of the shadow's attacks to pierce through sister Talia's barrier.
As I witnessed it all in slow motion I could see the face of sis Talia smiling at me.
Her smile was the last straw for my restraining reasoning. I don't care if I'm hated by the world anymore, I'll save her.
Without hesitation, I unleashed at full power both of my attributes along with the unknown power. I could feel my body releasing an insane amount of power and how my hair acquired an energy-like appearance, the change didn't stop there as I was enveloped with a white silvery cloak while on my hands was a huge dark-purpled scythe.
This was the most amount of power I'm able to unleash when I'm going all out and with the resolve of losing myself on the power, but contrary to past instances I didn't lose myself.
All this process took an instant and taking advantage of it I rushed towards sister Talia while aiming at the shadow, successfully blocking his attack and blowing away the remaining ones who surrounded us.
"A-Another Sa-Saint!?!?!"(???)
Listening to the shout of the noble who was colliding with the prophets made me realize that my mask broke as it was unable to withstand my strength.
"Alice! Now!"(Azazel)
"I know"(Alice)
Now without anything to restrain me, I rushed towards the noble while slicing the remaining shadows and absorbing their powers. The noble tried to summon more shadows while trying to escape in a panic, but my current power was enough to overwhelm him, and by the time he realized my scythe was piercing his heart.
With his death, the remaining shadow disappeared and the salon fell in silence, as the exposal of my multiple secrets were enough to shock and paralyze anyone.
"I know you are curious about miss Alice, but we don't have time to discuss it, we have to evacuate first as lady Fayna and lady Athena are still fighting with the leader of the prophets. We are going to be an obstacle if we remain here."(Talia)
The nobles acknowledged the words of sis Talia and followed reluctantly her commands while sending at me curious gazes. It was only one ignorant who wasn't satisfied by the lack of information and demanded the full story, the narcissistic boy.
"Ou dearest saint! What is your relationship with this heretic!?"(???)
"Priest apprentice Richard we don't have time for-"(Talia)
As sis Talia tried to calm him down the ceiling was blown off by a huge force. Now without a ceiling, everyone was shocked by a huge revelation as the sky was black with a huge black dot descending on us.
I didn't care about the sky nor the dot as my eyes were glued on the horrific and unbelievable scene of the witch with her chest pierced by... the queen Aiya Hol.
