The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 701: It’s better to arrive on time than late, right?

All kinds of things happened while the screen showing fake Valmeier was playing in the church’s room.

First, there was a call from Neel stating she had a message from Stan. Apparently, Stan was in the middle of memory recovery, and one of them was about the location of the place pointed by the medallion in my hand.

Remember that? The Medallion said to point at a certain place after all the beads were collected. Turned out, the medallion was made by Stan--or rather, using his tech. Since he was the one making it, of course, there was a memory of its content in his...uhh...sealed cache or something.

Anyway! It seemed like the Goddess sealed his memory after that, placing him in that ruin--well, I guessed it wasn’t a ruin at that time--to guard the key to Her, umm...fragment? Or something. It was her emergency measure in case something happened to her--you know, because she wasn’t exactly in a buddy-buddy relationship with the other deities. Plus, she was scared that she would disappear someday like the Primordial One.

Understandable, but geez--I thought she was supposed to be the Goddess of virtue or something? Well, maybe caution was a virtue.

I’d like to know more, like why was there a need to erase Stan’s memories and whatnot, but I didn’t think Stan would know about it either. Besides, the situation in the church had become worse, and I had no time to chat more.

[In the plaza of the current Grand Church] Neel told me. [There should be the Goddess statue there]

That was it; the location the medallion would point at. I did hear that the huge statue had been there since the dawn of time. Rather than building a statue in front of the church, it was more like the grand church--which was the first church--was built around the statue.

It made sense that the designated place should be there.

So, in the end, we were indeed fated to go there to finish the mission after all.

Anyway, I told Ignis that we didn’t have to play pretend anymore, and called the agents in the Human Realm.

"Still no words from Natha?" I asked Lesta, whom I already called when the Pope started to use threats.

"No, Young Master. Caba did say he heard loud noises from the keep--like fighting--so at least the Lord of Sloth had woken up."

I sighed and groaned--a luxury I let myself have for three seconds. But I had no more leeway, and there was a decision to make.

"Send everyone to the border," I ordered. It would take time even for that, so we better move early. "Once you do, wait for my signal to enter, although..." I sighed and turned my head toward the south. "I expected Natha would already be there."

Lesta, who had always been pragmatic, gave me a reassuring smile. "I’m sure he will, Young Master."

I smiled wryly. Well, that was why I sent Eruha over. It would be good if Natha could come before I had to move the legion, but if he couldn’t...

At least he should be there for the Old Covenant to take effect.

At any rate, I shifted the control of the mobilization to Lesta, and checked in on Sore once more before waking up my children.

Ignis’s flame flickered and scattered as the Salamander had to concentrate on protecting the Hero. A majestic multi-color bird was on my shoulder, and a monochrome mole was on my arm as I faced my unusually calm son.

"See you soon, baby," I whispered and kissed his forehead. "Papa will end this quickly, okay?"

"Awaah!"

As if knowing it was an important moment, Shwa did not make a fuss, and merely smacked my cheek once. His clear, brilliant green eyes were the last thing I saw before the space folded around me.

Now, I expected chaos and attacks to some extent when I arrived, but a big blob of deadly cluster of lightning was...a bit much, don’t you think?

Thankfully, I came ready to act. I waved my hand, and enveloped the rushing sphere in my mana, absorbing it.

Damn. This sphere wouldn’t just hurt Jin if landed. It would strike the ground and create shockwaves across the whole plaza. Straying missiles, much like shrapnel, would fly in every direction and hurt anyone in their path.

In this plaza, full of people running around in panic, it was nothing but an attempt at mass homicide.

This old man Pope was truly senile.

But let’s focus on the old man later.

"Who are--"

"Not yet," I waved my hands and called the help from my surroundings.

Wasn’t it great that the plaza was surrounded by parks and gardens? Roots and vines burst from the gaps and cracks in the ground and crept from the windows, attacking only the members of the church. The rest of them were rushing toward the Pope, who widened his eyes and was busy swatting the incoming attack of plants.

That should be enough to keep them busy for a while.

I turned toward the Hero and threw my box of relics to him, as well as the medallion. "Go to the statue and combine them! The medallion will tell you what to do!"

Jin grabbed the box perfectly, and after two seconds of being in a daze, he gritted his teeth and nodded, immediately bolting toward the statue.

"Jade, put out the fire back there," I raised my hand and set the juvenile elemental bird to the sky.

[Okay, Papa!]

"Shiny, what I said earlier, okay?"

Chii!

Hurriedly, the mole jumped off my hand and buried itself to the ground, disappearing from the plaza. Next...

"Ignis, I need you to protect him again," I patted the Salamander, handing over an especially large fire elemental stone I had been asking Arta to get.

Ignis flicked its tail in dissatisfaction, and I had to stroke its flaming head to appease the Salamander. "It’s the last time, okay?" I chuckled, before adding in a whisper. "I can’t send two children for a bodyguard job, don’t you think?"

The Salamander sighed and, after swallowing the bribe, wrapped its tail around my wrist for a second before jumping away toward the running Hero.

"I’ll take you to a volcano later, okay? I promise!"

"Hmph!"

Oh, it was nice to see them again.

"You can laugh at this state?!"

A holy knight with elaborate armor, perhaps containing a lot of mithril, rushed past the plant’s bombardment. From the look of it, he probably had a high status within the order, but...

Clang!

His sword swing was met with the white timber of a spear, perfectly parrying his attack.

"What?!"

The spear, not attached to anyone’s arm, swung his sword away and fiercely attacked him back. The surprised holy knight staggered back, losing his rhythm. Physical fights were not really my forte, but I did hear that in a duel, maintaining the flow and rhythm of one’s attack was important.

Or something like that.

"Anyway, are you people surprised?" I flicked my hand and Alveitya rushed toward the staggering holy knights, striking the chest plate and sending the man back. "Well, I don’t want to sully your fight, so I won’t use any magic. Just keep sending him back to his ’father’, okay?"

Alveitya replied not with a mere vibration, but with a blinding glow of light befitting of its moniker; the Sacred Spear. Oh, what a diva.

But I guessed it was enough distraction. As the holy knight got thrown to the foot of the big staircase, I called back the plants, returning them to their natural state. It was honestly funny, seeing them moving their staff and swords around their head to prevent a bunch of hard seeds from hitting their head. They continued to do that even after I recalled the plants back.

The Pope, who was protecting himself with a barrier--so excessive--was the one reacting first, finishing what he was about to say to me earlier.

"Who are you?!"

I was about to answer his question when someone already answered it for me. "Valen!" a familiar shout came from the alley beside the Grand Church’s main building. Zarfa and the others appeared with a little magic bird guiding them.

"The civilians!" I pointed toward the Plaza. "Get them away and keep them safe!"

"Aight!"

Immediately, they swerved and focused on the running civilians. Some of them were injured, and everyone was confused. We wouldn’t be able to act freely while they were within attack range, but the Pope and his gangsters didn’t seem to have any qualms about hurting everybody.

They must have thought they could just say it was unavoidable or even say it was the enemy who threw the attack. If that old man said it with his friendly facade and topped it off with consolation money and a teary apology, the devotees would eat it up without question.

Well, it wasn’t a bad strategy. But that was also why I decided not to use elemental magic any further. Let’s confuse them even more, shall we?

"Vale? Who the fuck is Valen?"

I could hear the nearest holy knight grumble. Tsk, tsk--why would the soldier of the Goddess use such uncouth speech? Unlike before, however, they did not rush in. The plant attack seemed to deter them from coming closer, maybe thinking it would come back suddenly. Instead, they made a stance with their weapons or barriers in front of them.

I put on a smile and patted my cloak--gotta look good, you know--before stepping forward. My mana, always in peak condition thanks to the green gem hidden in my necklace, raging out around me. I didn’t really like doing something like this, but there was an exception to anything.

"How weird," I walked toward the staircase where the Pope was--not to attract aggro, but because shouting was tiring--and the holy knights stepping back in reflex. "Weren’t you the one looking for me?"

The Pope was frowning. I had no idea if it was due to curiosity, but he was listening without saying anything.

"I thought you wanted to send me to the grand auction, Anarim," I curled my lips for the Pope’s deepening frown as I used his real name. "And now you ask me who I am?"

Raising my hand, Alveitya obediently returned to my hand. The sharp tip was glistening under the sunset, glowing brightly from the light mana I channeled to the spear. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

I had to look for it deeply inside my mana core, but I still had it; the light of the Goddess.

After all, I was once a priest. And the old man finally realized it.

"You..." the Pope opened his lips, shaking in anger. "You’re Valmeier?!"

"No," I gripped Alveitya and pointed at the nasty old man. "But I am Vashakin’s son."

That name, more than Valmeier’s name, triggered something vile inside the Pope’s eyes. His cold face turned even more vicious than before, and his roar was filled with even more hatred and poison than the time he unleashed the lightning sphere.

"That bastard!"

Struck a nerve there, old man?