Chapter 58 The Gauntlet Battle As long as they could enter the gates of the Papacy, their…
When they arrived at the Vatican, Catherine was shocked by the cruel scene before her.
She suspected that the Vatican had summoned all the controlled magical beasts from the Devil's Forest. The hordes of beasts were two or three times larger than the ones they had encountered when they first left the Devil's Forest.
The frenzied monsters trampled and attacked the crowd indiscriminately. In the short hour since they arrived, the ground was piled high with mangled human corpses and pools of dark blood. For these ordinary humans, whose attack power was completely disproportionate to that of the monsters, this war could only be described as a one-sided massacre.
Seeing that the number of ordinary humans had increased several times over, Catherine knew that Lucas and the others must have had the same idea as her on their way to the capital.
The crowd fighting alongside the knights and monsters included those who remained in the original camp, those who had fled into the Devil's Forest from other towns, and many other unfamiliar faces dressed in tattered clothes.
Among them, those dressed in tattered clothes were refugees afflicted by the plague. Most of them had not received systematic combat training, let alone experience fighting wild beasts in the Devil's Forest. Yet, even under the knights' longswords and the claws of the controlled beasts, they remained fearless in the face of death.
Catherine knew that Lucas and his group were not, as she had previously thought, tempted to follow her with benefits—pure benefits could not overcome people's fear of death.
Before Catherine and her group arrived, the tide of the war was turning in favor of the Papacy.
No matter how many ordinary humans there were, the Holy See knew they were coming and had made preparations in advance. Just the sheer number of magical beasts alone was enough to hold off several people, not to mention the well-trained knights, who were simply putting up a futile resistance.
In the midst of the monster horde, ordinary humans are like fine grains of sand scattered among them, easily crushed or vanished.
The rhinoceros, its head bowed, rampaged through the crowd, and anyone who bumped into it would be either killed or maimed. Small Tibetan scorpions hid in undetectable corners; they were incredibly fast and tiny, easily carrying out their ambush missions, injecting lethal venom into the human bodies… and so on. This place had practically become a carnival for magical beasts.
The humans they fought against were not only adults, but also many children who had been forced to join the war in search of medicine due to the plague. They knew only that without the Holy See's holy medicine, death was their only fate... However, when they saw the stinger of the Tibetan scorpion appear in their pupils, the children still showed fear of death.
None of the people around him could help him, because they weren't fast enough. All they could do was watch her die.
The little girl's eyes widened in terror, so intense that she couldn't even shed a tear. She watched as the scorpion raised its venomous stinger, but her reaction speed, several times slower than the scorpion's, only allowed her to slowly and tightly close her eyes...
The next second she felt a gust of wind.
There was no pain as she had imagined, but a few drops of an unknown liquid splashed onto her cheek.
She seemed to still be conscious and could still hear the commotion of the surrounding battlefield. The little girl tentatively opened one eye a crack and peeked around.
Her first thought was that she had suddenly become incredibly tall! This height gave her a wide field of vision, allowing her to see a large area of the battle around her. The little girl realized that she was being held in someone's arms, and that person was still relentlessly killing monsters.
As for the small Tibetan scorpion, about the size of an adult's palm, it had been torn in two by something, but it didn't seem to be completely dead yet, still twitching on the ground in front of her.
The little girl swallowed hard before daring to turn her head inch by inch to look at the person holding her in his arms—before coming to the Vatican, a very pretty aunt in the group had given them a science lesson. At such close range, an ordinary human simply couldn't outrun a Tibetan scorpion like the one they had just encountered.
Sure enough, the first thing that came into view was a blackish-gray spider body that could never be possessed by a human.
Alien... Alien spider!!!
The scream was suppressed in her throat. The little girl's eyes widened, and fear, horror, apprehension, and doubt instantly appeared on her face... a bunch of expressions merged together, forming a look of wanting to cry but having no tears.
Although she didn't seem to have any ill intentions towards her for the time being, and had just saved her, the little girl couldn't control her trembling heart when she suddenly saw such a huge monster.
And this alien spider was none other than Catherine.
Now, Catherine no longer needs to waste her blood and force her body to mutate due to intense pain. She can easily transform into any form she desires, according to her own mood.
Tarasco and Xavier instantly joined the fray, relentlessly attacking the surrounding monsters. They had spent several days recuperating in the inn and were itching to get back into action; this was a perfect opportunity to stretch their muscles.
Once the three joined the battle, and with the witch giving each of them a large bag of potions before she left, the battle, which was slowly tilting in the direction of the Holy See, was somehow held up and slowly and laboriously pushed in the other direction.
On a high building within the Vatican, several people observing the battle through binoculars frowned.
"What's with those three magical beasts? They seem to be helping those humans."
No one can answer this question.
At first, they didn't take it seriously. Even if there were three more magical beasts, they still had so many controlled magical beasts on their side! But as time slowly passed and they dragged the battle on, the leader, worried that something might go wrong, quickly gave instructions to the people behind him.
"Go and inform the bishop immediately! We absolutely cannot let those three magical beasts rescue those people."
Once the people around him had left, the attendant raised his binoculars again to look at the battle below. Under the dim light, the central lens precisely captured the giant alien spider in the battle—she was probably a female spider, much larger than the average alien spider. At that moment, she was holding a child in one arm and raising the other to cleave it down, easily separating the head and body of a beast in front of her.
She took a slight breath, raised her eyelids, and her sharp gaze met his in that instant.
The attendant jerked violently, nearly dropping the binoculars from the platform.
Catherine, who was on the ground, seemed to have noticed his reaction. She chuckled and turned away to deal with the annoying guys in front of her again.
This time, the Vatican showed no mercy, summoning all the magical beasts of the Devil's Forest. One batch was defeated, but another kept coming, as if the enemy was constantly replenishing its ranks.
Xavier scoffed, "Looks like they're trying to wear us down with a war of attrition."
Hearing this, Joan, who was standing next to him, could only smile bitterly: "If you hadn't come, this wouldn't have been a war of attrition."
A single wave of magical beasts would have been enough to kill them all, let alone the second and third waves. It was only because of the addition of Catherine and the other two that they were given a little chance to catch their breath.
As Catherine and her companions slashed at the surrounding magical beasts, they consciously and slowly moved towards the Holy See. Their three corners formed an invisible sack, trapping the human group in the center and drawing them towards the Holy See.
Their original intention was to enter the Papacy and seize the sacred medicine.
Then there's no need to confront so many magical beasts head-on; as long as they can enter the gates of the Holy See, they've already achieved half of their goal.
The servants on the high-rise building were unaware of their plans, but seeing that the humans, who had been scattered by the monster horde, were gradually gathering together and heading towards the gates of the Holy See, they were so anxious that they jumped up and down behind the window.
If they really manage to break in, only the lowly servants will suffer.
He shouted anxiously to the people behind him, "Where are the people who went to inform the bishops? It's been so long, why is there still no word?"
Those attendants who ran out earlier were naturally on their way to inform the bishops.
He had only run halfway when Allen suddenly appeared out of nowhere and blocked his path.
"Get out of the way!" the servants shouted anxiously, then, without even looking at Allen, prepared to walk around him from the side.
"Hey! Wait a minute, why are you all in such a hurry? Where are you going?"
Unsurprisingly, no one responded to his question.
"Hmph! I know even if you don't tell me. The situation outside is definitely not optimistic, so you're going to try and get the bishops out, right? ...Tsk, don't leave so quickly! You've come at the wrong time. The bishops were just summoned by the cardinal, and they probably don't have time to see anyone right now."
"Of course, even if you had the time, your status wouldn't allow you to enter those places that are only for bishops."
These words successfully stopped the servants in their tracks. At the same time, the anxiety on their faces was almost palpable; none of them dared to imagine that if things went wrong, one of them would be publicly executed—or perhaps all of them.
Do you want me to give you some advice?
Upon hearing this, the servants immediately looked at Allen in a panic, hoping that he could really save them from their predicament.
"Go find Field. He's not a bishop, so he should still be in his bedroom if nothing unexpected happens."
A simple sentence instantly brightened everyone's expression. They laughed and, unusually, looked at Allen directly: "Thank you for your guidance." It was clear that they were genuinely grateful.
After saying that, they didn't pay much attention to Allen's reaction and hurriedly ran to ask Lord Field for help.
After they all left, Allen's smile vanished. He glanced worriedly in the direction outside the Vatican, sighed softly, and thought that this was one of the few things he could do for Catherine and the others. It was better for Field to go out first than for all the bishops to go out; at least it would buy them some time.
Hopefully, they will be able to realize their wishes.
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