Chapter 162
*Crack, crumble!*
As the ground crumbled beneath one foot, the Imperial Princess swallowed hard while watching the falling fragments of rock.
"Did I come up here for nothing?"
Deep regret overwhelmed her.
The cliff was much steeper than expected.
But she thought that much wouldn't matter. Because she had her spear.
She thought if she just stabbed the wall and climbed up by stabbing, it wouldn't be a problem.
However, that was a miscalculation.
"It's too high."
It was so high that the end was nowhere in sight.
Initially, Callias and his group had flown on Beati.
But originally, this was a sheer cliff that was not easy to climb.
The Imperial Princess's lament was a natural consequence.
A day passed.
She was hungry. She relied on the dried meat she had brought along to endure the night on the cliff.
A week passed.
The dried meat ran out. The drinking water was the same.
The Imperial Princess barely held on with the moisture from the fruits and stems blooming on the cliff.
Like that, two weeks, then three weeks passed.
The cliff was still distant, and without eating properly, her entire body lacked strength.
And this eventually led to—
"Waaaaaaaah!"
A fall.
She falls. She falls endlessly.
She had climbed all that way, only to fall.
Will she die like this?
A myriad of emotions crossed the Imperial Princess's mind.
Memories of her life up until now surfaced.
When she was young, the first time she held a spear.
Seeing her Father's smile.
Receiving her brother's praise.
Her happy childhood.
But this gradually changed as she grew older.
Her Father's gaze looking at her.
The sycophancy of treacherous officials.
The alienation caused by the gossiping tongues in the Imperial Palace.
The Emperor's cold treatment. The Princes' vigilance.
The Elders who looked down on her for being a woman and arbitrarily set her limits. Even her own potential that had been thus belittled.
*Crrrrack-!*
‘I haven't accomplished a single thing.’
But she lost hold of her spear.
She fell from the wall.
Powerlessness. That was omnipresent.
But in an instant, the Imperial Princess's eyes changed.
"I cannot die!"
*Crrrack-!*
She is the Imperial Princess.
The one who will become the woman to inherit the Empire.
Even if everyone calls it nonsense, she had decided so herself.
She will do so.
Because she is the Imperial Princess?
‘No.’
It is not such a childish thought.
She wanted to see it with her own eyes.
She wanted to create it with her own hands.
Things achieved solely by her own power, not by her father or older brothers.
Therefore, she could not die in vain here of all places.
Think.
A way to survive falling from a cliff.
‘Think! Think! Think!!’
Her thoughts expanded. For a moment, as if her body had stopped, the world flowed slowly.
Blood flows from her nose. Her brain burns.
She flinches as if struck by lightning.
Her heart repeats contraction and relaxation with a *thump-thump, thump-thump*, as if it were in her head.
But conversely, her thoughts accelerated.
The Imperial Princess's hand flashed.
Scarlet divine power repeatedly formed the shape of a spear at her fingertips, only to scatter.
"Hurry!"
The capillaries in both eyes burst, turning them bloodshot, and blood streams from both nostrils.
Blood vessels violently protruded on her face, and her complexion instantly began to grow pale.
But driven to the absolute limit, she did not know how to stop trying to form her Aura.
Just as her mind was about to turn completely white, her fingertips succeeded in forming something resembling the shape of a spear.
"Pleeeease!"
*Kwagagagagagagagagak-!!*
Stabbing the wall during her fall, her hand shattered the cliff entirely as it went down.
A loud noise and flying stone fragments fell along with the smoke.
"Please!!"
But contrary to the Imperial Princess's wish, the falling speed only decreased slightly; it did not change. And then...
*Crash!*
The Aura-like something she had created with all her might shattered along with her hope.
"Ah."
Along with her shattered hope.
"Kyaaaaaaaah!"
The fierce fall resumed once again.
A fall that anyone would have sensed death from.
"Please!"
Please, let anyone save her.
If only they would do that, she would grant whatever they desired!
If they told her to lick their feet, she would lick them; if they told her to die, she would at least feign death!
So please!
"Anyone... please save me!!"
*Whoooooosh!!*
It was then.
A fierce wind blew.
Something hard caught the body of the Imperial Princess, who had been screaming incessantly.
*Thud!*
"Keuk!"
Grabbing her waist, the Imperial Princess's eyes and mind struggled to figure out what was going on.
"Heok!"
Then she realized it.
She was flying.
Riding on the back of something.
"……?"
A massive body made of black iron armor.
Between its gaps, a gray aura was flowing out.
The face turning to look back at her was like that of a dragon, and its eyes were dyed red.
"A dragon?"
Of all things, a dragon was what saved her.
"Ha, haha……."
The Imperial Princess's eyes rolled back.
She then foamed at the mouth and fainted.
*-Growl.*
A being that appeared in Ablifax.
*Whoosh-!* The Ironclad Dragon casually tossed the Imperial Princess aside.
Beati began to patrol around Ablifax again.
‘There might be guys falling down, so keep an eye out.’
There was no other reason.
Just to carry out its master's command more perfectly.
Having tossed the Imperial Princess onto a tree growing on the cliff, Beati leisurely flew between the valleys of Ablifax.
* * *
Same time.
"Didn't you hear a sound just now?"
"A sound? Well. I didn't hear anything……."
"It sounded like the Imperial Princess's voice……."
"If it's Her Highness the Imperial Princess, she would have detoured with the knights. It's still a long time before she comes this way, so perhaps you confused it with the sound of some wild beast……."
"That might be possible."
Leaving her body to the wind atop the cliff, softly swaying pink hair.
Looking at that figure, the Empire's Spears, Vuneren and Zollet, felt their hearts swell with grandeur.
Merely accompanying a Saintess whose strength was comparable to the Emperor's was the utmost honor for them.
*Tap tap tap!*
Soon, the Saintess, who had leaped up onto the cliff and landed in an instant, looked around.
The summit of one of Ablifax's peaks.
But strangely, there was nothing at all caught by her senses.
"It might be true that the Beastmen possess a sacred artifact that hides their Qi."
"Or it could be a phenomenon of Ablifax itself. Even the Empire's Elders said this is a bizarre place where incomprehensible things happen."
At Zollet's words, the Saintess nodded.
Ablifax.
It was originally a place where Giants and Fairies clashed.
Although over a thousand years have passed, this place is still affected by it.
They couldn't rule out that it was a phenomenon caused by that, so they had to move further for now.
"Let's go for now. We also need to consider joining up with the main force, so leave marks in appropriate places and follow me."
"Understood!"
*Stop.*
However, the Saintess's steps did not last very long.
"There are definitely visitors here."
"Footprints."
"Yes, footprints different from the Beastmen's. Wide, narrow……. This one is light."
Multiple footprints.
But they were not all the same.
It looked as if footprints of various races were gathered in one place.
"The thick, large foot definitely resembles a Dwarf's characteristics."
"This one has a shape very similar to those lizard bastards' feet."
While Vuneren and Zollet paid attention to the similarities with other races' footprints, the Saintess closely observed the human footprints.
"The remaining two are normal human footprints."
Both have a wide stride in their footprints.
Seeing such a wide stride and no hesitation in depth here in Ablifax, there was a high probability they were outstanding individuals confident in their own skills.
Ablifax. Beastmen. Shield. Demihumans.
And the Demon.
What was the correlation between these?
Various doubts arose in the Saintess's mind and were eliminated one by one.
"Is the Demon's location still within Ablifax?"
"Pardon? Ah, yes! That is correct."
"You said a dragon fell once."
"Yes, in Voltan……."
"But the one who fought the dragon disappeared without a trace."
"That is true, but why suddenly……."
The Saintess's eyes narrowed.
‘It was a simple story.’
The dragon disappeared, and the adversary disappeared.
But only the Demon remained in that place.
An alliance between the dragon and the Demon? It wasn't something like that.
"The dragon must already be dead."
"What? No way……. The fact that Quilrod guy was defeated by the dragon is a truth known to all citizens of Voltan."
"No. There is no dragon. It seems the Saintess of the Shield played a trick."
"Junius of the Shield? But I heard she was executed by you directly, so how……."
Most people didn't know this well.
A story known only to those closely related to the Empire.
The Spear that cast away the Shield decided to dispose of the Saintess who would become their center.
Aily, also a Saintess, was given the mission, and she reduced the Shield God's Saintess to dirt.
She was the Saintess of the Shield God, no less.
The purpose of the shield is protection.
This is for oneself and one's surroundings.
A Saintess who reached the pinnacle of that could stock up on her own life.
It was in the realm of divine power that wouldn't be insufficient to call the Shield God's Protection.
That is exactly—
"The Shield God's Saintess has one extra life."
A spare life.
Of course, living wouldn't be the same as living a proper life, but the Shield Saintess had clearly said it to her.
‘The penalty is severe, but she mocked me, saying she had a spare life.’
Aily, who had pierced Junius's heart, learned it from her mockery-laden cry as she fell from the cliff.
Junius is alive.
‘The Shield God is different from other gods.’
A peculiar god who only has a lot of interest in his own followers.
That too was probably due to the nature of the shield.
The one who killed the dragon while being pursued by the Demon.
The Dragon Slayer must have reached this place by answering the Shield Saintess's call.
‘The Saintess must be trying to use him for her perfect resurrection.’
There is no definitive proof.
But the circumstances indicate so.
The Shield Saintess's resurrection.
Dragon Slayer.
Demihumans.
Demon.
All of them were unwelcome matters.
Especially the Shield Saintess.
Already in a relationship of enmity with her.
No, it wasn't enough to say they became enemies; it was natural.
Whatever it was, the need to act quickly remained unchanged.
If she fully resurrects, it would be a headache. The Shield Saintess's power was quite burdensome even for Aily.
Aily ran.
Pushing through bushes, leaping over rocks, and running atop the cliffs as if they were flat ground, the full view of Ablifax entered her eyes.
"……."
And what she soon saw was—
Beings climbing a strange rock formation that shot high into the sky like a pillar.
Its peak was hidden by clouds, but Aily could tell at once that the summit there was their destination.
"Saintess!"
"I will go ahead!"
*Crack!*
A single push off the ground.
Just with that, the ground cracked and split, a scarlet light erupted, and the Saintess's figure vanished in an instant.
*Boom!!*
At the faint trembling vibration of the strange rock formation, a few beings climbing the cliff fell.
But the Saintess didn't care.
Those wearing black armor and leaking a gray aura. She had recognized long ago that they were not human.
The Saintess's figure, which had been on a cliff hundreds of meters away, was now located at the strange rock formation.
A feat achieved with a single leap.
But the Saintess did not rejoice.
As if it were a natural result, she began to prioritize her next action.
*Burst!*
Pulling out the spear she had stuck in the cliff, she climbed the cliff in an instant, utilizing physical abilities and senses that would make one gasp.
As she bounced off the heads of the gray knights clinging to the wall like locusts, her climbing speed grew faster and faster.
There were knights in the middle who tried to threaten the Saintess, but it was useless.
Their skills were, at best, elite level.
It was a question why those who were no different from summoned beasts were climbing the cliff, but now was the time to suppress her rising curiosity for a moment.
And a short while later.
*Tap-.*
"Phew."
She reached the summit in an instant.
And what she immediately encountered was—
"There are so many of them."
Over seven hundred gray knights.
And behind them, the demihumans and the Thunder Wolf Dragon biting a sword.
A Master holding a staff, and so on.
But only one person captured the Saintess's eyes.
"As expected……."
A small existence draped in a robe, who revealed killing intent the moment she saw her and radiated the pressure of her mind.
She, whose red and purple irises looked like blazing flames.
Junius Ul Romatvi.
The Saintess of the Shield God.