I fucking knew it was going to happen in the middle of the night. Good thing I was well rested when the bell started ringing. I’m sure Lily had already heard the commotions before then. The three of us grabbed our bags and out the door within seconds.

  “East gate. Their favourite attack location due to its mountainous terrain. This is the first time they are attacking through a gate. We must hurry,” explained Lily.

  Lily's hearing had always been sharp, probably sharper than any other elves that I knew. She must have heard it from the person announcing from the bell tower. Sounds like this round of attack is more serious than before.

  We followed after Lily while ensuring that we were prepared for combat in a moment’s notice. I instinctively moved my hand towards my back to ensure that my trusty dagger was with me, not that I really needed to, but it gave me a peace of mind. Lily had already summoned her legendary gauntlets, which glowed with a hint of blue in the dark.

  “Rose, be ready to cast Holy Light,” I told her.

  “You don’t need to tell me twice,” she nodded.

  As we approached the gate, there were two soldiers with torches and swords fighting off a monster. Oh, that’s not too bad. But... where are the other soldiers? I doubt Peter would station so few soldiers guarding here if this location is known to be attacked by them. Rose cast Holy Light, which brightened our surroundings and a horror scene emerged from the darkness.

  Oh shit! There are so many monsters around us, hidden in the darkness. These beasts were even larger than the ones the soldiers are fighting now, or even those back in the West. Damn it, are they planning an all-out assault on the city with these? We started hearing bells ringing even louder and more people shouting in the distance. They probably saw what we were seeing and decided to call more backup for us.

  I nudged Rose with my elbow, and she understood what I was asking for. She immediately casted a brief moment of Mind Wall on herself.

  “Zen… these are real. It’s not an illusion,” she whispered.

  Several of the beasts were hanging from the walls of the cliff, munching on soldiers’ bodies. All of them were wearing chain armour, but they were chewing on them as though it were paper. Lily shouted to those two soldiers to rush over to where we were, as they had managed to slain the monster they were fighting earlier.

  “Rose, support us like you always do and cover our backs. Lily, we’re going to need a lot of AOE attacks. Don’t stray too far from each other and keep your eyes open,” I said as I summoned my gauntlets and weapons with a flick of my wrists.

  “Yes, boss,” both of them responded simultaneously.

  I thought I could get away without using my gauntlet's charges, but I guess I won't be that lucky. The remaining two soldiers were shivering to their knees at the sight of so many giant four-legged beasts glaring at us. I won't blame them; even I’m concerned that we might not make it. Fighting one strong opponent doesn't give you the fear of being overwhelmed. When you have this many quantities with unknown strengths, it's just human nature to fear something that we’re not familiar with.

  "Soldiers, hang back and protect the White Angel. Lily and I will take the front. You've done well thus far. We will live to see another day," I assured them.

  "So much for wanting to track them, Zen. Let’s see how many we can kill first," spoke Lily with a terrified tone.

  "Are you ready?" I asked and she nodded.

  Both of us raised our gauntlets, and two lightnings struck from the sky where we stood. A blue and a white lightning powered both of our gauntlets, but Lily had some cool-looking armour after she was done. I guess that's why she didn't need to protect her stomach area when this ice lightning armour of hers covered all her vital points.

  As though on cue, the monsters started attacking us. Many of them leaped at us from all directions, but the good thing is they weren’t too fast for us to take on. Fighting them is one thing; maintaining our speed to chase them is another. I leaped at those within my vision and sliced through all of them with Inazuma and Tengu-kaze. No reason to use Lightning Strike now when I can still face them head-on.

  After eliminating them, I leapt back to where our group was to ensure that I always have someone protecting my back. Legions of beasts landed where I stood upon earlier. I guess they were not happy that I had slain their brethren. I made a quick glance behind me to make sure that everything was okay. To my surprise, Lily was using ranged attacks to fight. She was forming some sort of lightning that turned into ice spikes over her gauntlets, and she tossed them at the monsters. I had no idea she could do that. But she went berserk when some monsters got too close to her. I can safely say she was holding her punches back when she was sparring with me or Rose. Such was the speed of her punches, yet it decimated those giant monsters with ease.

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  Things were going relatively well. Rose was buffing us with her spells and attacking any stray monsters that were foolish enough to attack alone. The two soldiers were sticking close to her, which I do not blame them for. Rose is an icon for the people, and they trust her. It’s a wonder how her reputation is on par or even more widely known than the Four Great Powers in the first place.

  More and more monsters were rushing towards us now. It was getting harder to dodge and attack with the sheer number of them charging at me. I would need to do more, or I’ll be overwhelmed. I released Lightning Strike, which struck a couple of them that were foolish enough to be in close proximity. But many more were still leaping in my direction. I swung a strong wind pressure after charging Tengu-kaze, slicing cleanly through numerous monsters. Several monsters were starting to hesitate upon seeing so many of their brethren fall from just one swing of Tengu-kaze’s wind pressure. I used Fear spell to scurry them towards the gate out of the city.

  I thought I had a moment of peace, but I was ambushed from behind, which triggered me to instinctively swing my blade. The monster was sliced cleanly in half due to the wind pressure that I had gathered previously. Hang on, I shouldn’t have done that! The wind pressure is heading towards Lily. I shouted to her to dodge my attack, but she diverted the wind with a casual swing of her gauntlets.

  “Watch where you’re swinging, Zen!” she shouted.

  I was stumped. Not by how easily she diverted my attack, but by what happened after. A few monsters that were caught in the deflected wind pressure were all… frozen. What’s going on? Was it supercharged by Lily’s gauntlet or something? Lily was confused as well when she noticed what I was looking at. She even inspected her gauntlets to be sure.

  “Guys?! A little help here!” shouted Rose.

  Lily and I answered the call and approached where Rose was. I was extremely shocked when both Kirin and Byakko shouted telepathically at me to MOVE!

  Things went into slow motion. My hands moved on instinct as though someone had taken over my body. My left hand swung Tengu-kaze, which blew a massive wind towards Rose and the two soldiers. They were swept off their feet and flew to some other location. My right hand reached out to grab Lily’s hip, and my legs leapt as far away as possible.

  BBBBOOOOMMMMM!!!!

  Something massive landed where we were, which destroyed most of the surrounding buildings. What the fuck just happened? Did a meteor land inside the city or something? As I regained my bearings, Lily, who I was still hugging by her hips, was staring directly into my eyes.

  “Zen, your eyes,” she pondered.

  “Hm? What about them?” I asked.

  “Oh, they’re back to normal now. Both your pupils and eye colour were different from one another. I swear I wasn’t seeing things,” she said.

  “I think we should focus on what has just happened first, shall we? We can talk about my pupils later,” I advised her.

  We were on top of one of the buildings. Dust and debris were everywhere, but a huge, giant silhouette was all I needed to know as to what had just happened. Some very tall monster was shrieking in the distance. Oh my Lord, how are we even going to fight that thing? I hope Rose was blown far enough to not get hurt by the impact of this beast. What in the world is this giant monster doing here? Is this the main mastermind that’s controlling all these monsters? If that’s true, we need to bring it down once and for all.

  “Is that— a Bokushi no Kemono? But why? And how?” asked Lily without expecting an answer.

  “Bokushi no Kemono? Chaplain Beast? Tell me more, Lily,” I asked her.

  “I’ve only read about them in folklore from the elven library. It was said that a Chaplain Beast is a cursed being, doomed to roam the world alone, forever in pain from the sins it had committed. When sighted, avoid it at all costs as it is extremely aggressive due to the constant pain it is suffering. But… why is it here? It’s supposed to belong to another realm. Not here,” she explained.

  “If what you say is true, then this beast is not the one pulling the strings for these monster attacks. Perhaps it was guided here by the mastermind himself. And that means we have to kill it to prevent more damage to the city. Damn it, we were supposed to be on a tracking mission but here we are protecting the city instead,” I scratched my head.

  “One step at a time, Zen. Let us focus on what’s in front of us. I’m sure Peter and his soldiers are already on their way to help us. We just need to hold until reinforcements arrive,” she reached into her pouch and released a flare into the sky.

  Another giant being to fight right after Baku. Sheesh, is there no end to giant enemies? Good thing it’s much smaller than Baku, so it should be sort of doable, I suppose. Will need to fight seriously if I don’t wish to get squished by it.

  “Zen, I’m sure this is not a good time, but I don’t wish to regret not telling you my current feelings. I still love you, and forever will,” she smiled brightly at me.

  I approached and hugged her. It might not be appropriate, but I wanted her to have a reason to live for. Even if we’re not together. I don’t want her to feel alone just because she is not by my side.

  “Me too, Lily. So don’t you die on me,” I whispered to her.

  “Okay,” she replied softly.

  Something was flying at a distance. Oh no, please don’t tell me they fly now? Oh good, it’s just Rose using sacred wings flying towards our direction. You should slow down now, honey. Slow down… why aren't you slowing down? Hey hey… wait!

  I fell backwards as she flew towards me, attempting to hug me. What a reckless waifu I have.

  “Superb thinking and reflex, Onii-chan! You saved all of us in the nick of time!” she shouted while hugging me.

  “What can I say? I told you that I’ll do my best to keep you alive. I take it that the other two soldiers are alive as well?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I’ve brought them to safety. Guess they won’t be defending the city anytime soon as their morale is extremely low right now. Probably due to the fact that they had seen their colleagues or friends eaten alive,” she sighed.

  The three of us turned our gaze towards the Chaplain Beast, who started shrieking loudly again but had not moved an inch from where it fell. Here’s hoping that it might have broken its legs from the impact earlier.

  “Are we… really going to fight that thing? It seems to be in pain,” asked Rose.

  “Doubt we have much of a choice if we wish to prevent further destruction to the city. Did you happen to see what happened to the other monsters when you were flying around?” I asked.

  “A lot of them had died from the impact, while some had exited the city or are running rampant inside. The soldiers and adventurers are coming to help out. I couldn’t see Peter anywhere though,” she answered.

  “I hope the monster I caught is still alive. But looking at the destruction, it might have been smashed to bits by the impact or from all the rubble,” sighed Lily.

  “As you said, let us focus on the task at hand. We’ll figure something out after this. Let’s move out; our furry friend is finally on the move,” I told them as the Chaplain Beast started walking.

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