Battle
Before Soraya lay a huge, brightly lit textile factory, with a row of people covered in wounds leaning against the factory gate.
"They...are the knights of the branch?" Sorea's voice choked as she looked at the knights' miserable state.
Edward nodded solemnly. He and Lilith watched as the knights, who were still alive, tried several times to rush in and save them, but every time they got close to the gate of the textile factory, they would attract the siege of all the workers inside.
Edward and Lilith knew that the civilians in front of them were only blinded by the inscribed items, and they could not harm them, so they could only retreat from the textile factory gate and wait for Solaya to arrive.
Fearing the wounded knights would be moved, they told Vivian and Euan to find a place to hide. They stood guard at the door to watch over the wounded.
"Sorea, can you treat them first? I'm afraid they won't make it until we've dealt with the situation here," Lilith said anxiously, taking Sorea's hand.
Sorea nodded and took a few steps forward to the entrance of the textile factory, with Edward and Lilith on either side of her.
As the three approached, the civilians patrolling the gate stopped and stared intently at them as they drew closer. Solaya ignored the stares of those in front of her and carefully examined the injuries of the branch knights.
“I can only treat their physical wounds first. They still have nails in their limbs, and treating them now will only push those nails deeper into their bodies.” Solaya’s eyes burned with a fierce fire.
A massive magic circle unfolded before Soraya, and blue light continuously flowed from the circle into the knights' wounds, finally stopping the continuous flow of blood. However, the nails embedded in their joints still caused them excruciating pain.
"Honorable Lord of Nightmares,"
Guardian of dreams
Great God of Dreams!
Please let these suffering people drift into sweet dreams.
Vivian appeared from her hiding place at some unknown time, and her prayers began. All the guild knights who were suffering from their injuries fell into a deep sleep as she prayed.
Seeing that the knights were no longer feeling pain, Soria breathed a sigh of relief and retreated with Edward and the others to Louis and Euan's hiding place. Then, her eyes locked onto Vivian: "You worship an evil god?"
Solaya knew that now was not the time to fight the evil god, but she did not want any crisis to ruin their rescue plan.
“No, no, no, sister, Vivian doesn’t have a god she believes in, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to join the Knights!” Louise popped up from behind Euan and said.
From Euan and Louis, Solaya learned that Vivian had a particular fondness for collecting information about vanished gods, whether they were righteous gods who disappeared over time or evil gods who were destroyed. As long as she was absolutely certain that a god had completely disappeared and had no followers, she would study that god's prayers.
Through extensive practice, Vivian discovered that even if the authority of the gods disappeared or was taken away, a portion of their power would still appear as long as she prayed, and she would not be corrupted by the delirium of evil gods.
"A blasphemous act!" Soraya had never imagined that there was a way to gain power while avoiding contamination.
Louis was displeased by Sorea's words: "To be honest, our father is the biggest blasphemer!"
Sorea thought about it and it seemed to be true, and besides, she wasn't someone who particularly respected gods.
After discussing it, Sorea and Edward, as captains, decided to wait until it was completely dark before rushing in to rescue the person.
With such a commotion, the people in the city will surely come to the textile factory to provide reinforcements. Taking this opportunity, Lilith and Edward should immediately lead the three children who have not yet reached the level of demigods and the wounded to break through the city gate barrier and go outside the city.
"No way, don't even think about it!" Yu'an immediately retorted, "What if something happens to the two of you with so many people around?"
Seeing everyone's disapproving looks, Sorea could only helplessly persuade them, "The two of us can hold on. Once you leave the city, launch the signal fireworks. Second Brother and the others will see the signal and come over at full speed in just two days."
“How can you possibly last two days without sleep? The knights of the branch are heroes, but your life is far more important than theirs.” Lilith disagreed with the plan without even thinking.
Yu'an was the calmest among them: "Sister, are you so sure because you have some kind of backing?"
Sorea couldn't reveal why Veldrian's distraction might be nearby, so she could only sigh and say, "Ann, Louis, others may not know, but you should know that unless it's a god descending from the heavens, no one can take my life."
No matter what Solia said, the other four just wouldn't agree. Finally, they decided to find a secluded and safe place first. Lilith would escort the wounded and the weak fighter, Euan, there, while Louis and Vivian would help Solia and Edward fight off the swarming civilians. After Lilith returned and they broke through, Lilith and Solia would guard the wounded, while Edward would leave the city to send a signal.
Sorea still felt it was best for her to stay alone, but no one listened to her.
In the end, they had no choice but to go with Lilith to find the perfect hiding place. The safer the hiding place, the less they would have to worry about taking action from the front.
But after searching, they found no safe place; their every move seemed to be under someone's watchful eye.
"Lilith, you're saying that if all these people are at work, then there's no one left in the residential houses?"
Lilith's thoughts were suddenly opened by Soleria's words, and she pulled her to the garden of a townhouse she had passed earlier.
"I suddenly remembered that I am an Earth Inscription Mage!" Lilith's eyes lit up when she saw the garden.
All the earth-elemental inscriptions belong to the Goddess of Abundance. Lilith wasn't very good at earth-elemental magic, so she could only pray to the Goddess of Abundance while casting spells.
Before long, a rectangular pit large enough to hold twenty people appeared on the ground in the garden. Lilith then reinforced the pit with stones and made a cover for it, and finally found some flowers and plants to cover it up.
As Solaya watched Lilith's fluid movements and saw a perfect hiding place being created, her furrowed brow, which had been furrowed with worry, finally relaxed a little.
"Lilith, how come I never realized you were so smart!" Sorea changed the subject before Lilith could start cursing. "I think it's getting dark, let's hurry back and proceed with the plan."
After speaking, the two tried to avoid the dense crowd and ran towards the textile factory.
"You're back. We've made some discoveries here as well," Edward told Sorea and Lilith upon their return.
Edward noticed a half-minute gap between the patrol teams inside and outside the textile factory where no one was around. It would take civilians from the nearest other places twenty-five seconds to get there, meaning their rescue operation would only have twenty-five seconds.
“Then we first need to find a way to pull the nails pinning the wounded to the ground out of their limbs, otherwise twenty-five seconds will definitely not be enough.” Sorea stroked her chin thoughtfully.
Edward smiled and said, "I'm a metal elementalist, so I can pull the nails out of their bodies. I was afraid they would bleed a lot before, so I didn't dare to do it. But with you here and Vivian already putting them to sleep, the two of us will go and pull out the nails in a bit. After we're done, Lilith, you can take the others and leave."
Lilith glanced at the wounded and refined their plan: "Well, there are six wounded here. Vivian isn't very useful here. Come with me. If we add Yuan, it will be safer for each of us to take two people. If our hiding place is discovered, Vivian can hold out for a while."
When the moon was obscured by clouds, Edward first pulled the nail out of the wounded man's body. Just as the nail was removed, Sorea's healing arrived in time, and with their combined efforts, the wounded man did not bleed a single drop.
Sorea timed it perfectly and made the signal to act immediately when the patrol changed shifts.
Lilith, along with Vivian and Ewan, immediately rushed out, carrying one wounded soldier on her back and another on her shoulder, and then ran quickly into the distance.
"What are you doing! Someone come quick!"
An unexpected event occurred. The civilians in the distance didn't have twenty-five seconds to rush over; in just ten seconds, they closed in on Lilith.
Solia reacted the fastest, immediately flipping behind Lilith and conjuring a long icicle in her hand. She desperately pushed aside the approaching pursuers, shouting in Lilith's direction while fighting them off: "Don't look back, run for your life!"
Hearing the sounds of battle behind her, Lilith resisted the urge to turn around and ran forward as fast as she could. She stayed behind Vivian and Louis, channeling her energy into them whenever they thought they were slowing down due to exhaustion.
While Sorea blocked the pursuing civilians, Edward desperately prevented the textile factory workers from leaving the factory.
Both of them were caught in a dilemma. Louis looked at the chaotic scene and didn't know who to help first.
"Louis, I have a way to help Edward! We can't let those workers out!" Sorea shouted when she saw Louis coming to her side to help.
Louis immediately changed direction and went to help Edward.
While trying to stop the residents, Sorea discovered that the closer the residents were to the textile factory, the stronger they were. She then remembered that the textile factory was the place where things first started to go wrong.
The textile factory workers' attack power was hampered by the blocked gate. Edward could deal with them one by one as he came out. If the rest of the workers came out, they would be in greater danger facing more and stronger workers. Therefore, the textile factory workers absolutely could not be allowed to come out.
"Freeze!" Soraya continued to resist while drawing totems. When her inscribed totem array appeared, all the civilians around her were frozen in place, unable to move.
Seeing that Edward was about to fail, Sorea left to help, but she couldn't use her ice spell a second time for the time being. Soon, more and more workers rushed out of the gate and launched an even fiercer attack on them.
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