Chapter 64: A Big Mess

The power-type goblins barely put up any resistance against the Royal Capital Guard and the Church’s elite forces.

Astraea’s magic beam wiped out a massive number of their fighting force.

Those hobgoblins were nowhere near as powerful as the Goblin Chieftain Maximus had encountered—they were nothing more than a single sword stroke to him.

In the rear, Luo En carried Astraea in his arms, joining the battlefield surrounded by a host of paladins.

This was a complete steamroll against these goblins.

Astraea sat in Luo En’s embrace, unleashing all sorts of magic at full tilt, and with the divine light’s blessing, these spells were uniformly a full tier stronger.

But the goblins daring to emerge from underground naturally meant they had their own trump cards.

Having been steeped in Black Qi for so long, many goblins had remarkably clever eyes.

Their brains had been greatly complicated by the Black Qi’s transformation, and they had already developed intelligence on par with normal races.

Seeing the humans’ offensive was so ferocious, these goblins didn’t rush forward to die.

Instead, they huddled at the back of their ranks, as if someone were commanding them.

Maximus, who had been fighting on the front lines the whole time, also sensed something was off.

He felt these goblins weren’t as simple as they appeared on the surface.

This wasn’t some vague intuition this time—years of experience plainly told him these goblins were stalling their advance.

Sure enough, upon closer observation, Maximus noticed it wasn’t just their group charging the goblins.

A squad of knights on a distant avenue was also fighting their way toward them.

Those knights’ armor bore the sun emblem representing the royal family—they were sent by the King!

Whether that knight squad came to reinforce or to request aid, Maximus couldn’t tell in all the chaos.

After looking around, Maximus made his decision.

With a powerful sword stroke that slew all the goblins before him, Maximus shouted toward Luo En’s direction: “Boy! Take your people and go support His Majesty’s men!”

Luo En, not far away, heard Maximus’s voice and immediately noticed the knight squad struggling to reach them.

The knights’ condition wasn’t good.

Among the goblins assaulting Church Plaza, most of the hobgoblins were intercepting that knight squad.

Worse still, the goblin mages who had previously ambushed Astraea—that knight squad had to face four of them!

It looked like they wouldn’t hold out much longer.

Luo En tilted his head toward Astraea, who had climbed up to sit on his left shoulder, and spoke softly: “My Lady Saint, could you provide me some cover?”

Astraea’s face flushed slightly when she heard Luo En’s address.

“Mmm… That form of address is so embarrassing. Can’t you just call me Aya?”

He called her “Aya” and “Little Ya” at night all the time—why suddenly use such a formal title now?

“Because this is a formal occasion, Aya.”

Luo En wore a serious expression, but he still changed to his usual address, following the little elf’s wishes.

He could tell Astraea wasn’t used to such formal titles from him.

“Ahem, well, you don’t even need to ask—I’d help anyway!”

Astraea brushed past the small matter, then turned to survey the distance between Luo En and the knight squad.

The endlessly surging goblins were the biggest obstacle on that path, but honestly, if it were only those ordinary goblins and hobgoblins, they couldn’t stop Luo En’s advance at all.

So Astraea didn’t bother helping Luo En clear out the mooks.

Instead, she focused her attention on potential threats—like goblin mages and goblin assassins lurking in dark corners for sneak attacks.

Luo En began to move.

He greeted the paladins and priests clustered around him, then took the lead, charging toward the direction of the knight squad sent by the King.

Even without a mount, his charge in heavy armor wasn’t something these goblins could stop.

His weight of over a hundred kilograms turned Luo En into a battering ram.

Ordinary goblins were injured just by being grazed and killed on contact.

Add in Luo En’s own immense strength—even hobgoblins couldn’t halt his charge!

“Repulse!”

Astraea casually cast a spell.

The air current, strengthened by the divine light’s blessing, blasted all the goblins around them flying, including several goblin assassins hiding in the shadows, ready to strike.

Having dealt with the nearby threats, Astraea didn’t stop.

She rapidly constructed a brand-new magic circuit.

As the circuit connected, a half-arc blue barrier enveloped the two of them.

Several black magic beams struck it but could only produce ripples.

Elemental Shield—a very simple defensive spell.

It formed a barrier by drawing on ambient elements.

Any magical attack striking it would have its corresponding elemental particles react with and cancel out against it.

Unless the magic used wasn’t from this world, even divine power would obediently react with the elemental barrier.

And the ceiling of that reaction naturally depended on how many elements the caster could draw.

With Astraea now blessed by divine light, those goblin mages trying to break her defense were delusional!

However, the drawback was obvious: this spell could only defend against magical attacks; it wouldn’t react to physical ones.

Meanwhile, during its duration, Astraea couldn’t use other magic to fight either.

It was equivalent to giving herself a magic immunity buff, and having lost her magical means, Astraea was now just a soft, defenseless little elf.

But that was enough.

It didn’t matter that she had no combat ability—as long as Luo En had his.

Luo En swung his longsword with abandon.

Now that Astraea was perched on his neck, gripping his head with both hands, Luo En could free up his other hand to fully unleash his swordsmanship.

“All-Father above!”

Golden flames ignited on his longsword.

The flames instantly consumed the Black Qi staining the surrounding goblins.

Two hobgoblins roared as they tried to block Luo En, only to have their weapons severed by his reverse swing.

Through the gap in the barrier Astraea had deliberately left open, Luo En’s longsword continuously reaped the lives of goblins blocking his path.

“Praise the All-Father—we finally made contact with you.”

Seeing the Church’s forces break through to their side, the royal knights let out sighs of relief.

A banneret knight at their lead immediately stated his purpose to Luo En: “Lady Saint, and this sir, we’ve come on His Majesty’s behalf to request aid.”

Luo En planted his still-flaming longsword into the ground, then wiggled his ears, signaling Astraea.

Feeling Luo En’s ear rubbing against her thigh, Astraea understood what he meant.

“What’s the current situation at the Royal Palace?”

Astraea asked directly.

She was the Saint now, representing the Church’s dignity.

Such an occasion was more fitting for her to handle.

The priests lined up on both sides, clearly bolstering the little elf’s presence.

The paladins had spread out, as they still needed to suppress more goblins.

“Dire, Lady Saint.” The banneret knight removed his helmet, revealing a head of golden hair—he appeared to have royal blood.

“Those monsters have surrounded the Royal Palace. If not for the palace’s independent sewer system, I fear the Royal Palace would have fallen by now.”

Several royal knights were now covered in black blood; their ornate armor was nearly unrecognizable in its original color.

Clearly, their journey fighting through to this point hadn’t been easy.

“Among those monsters is an incredibly powerful mage—it’s holding off His Majesty’s Court Mage Corps. And countless shapeshifting monsters are assaulting the Royal Palace.”

As he spoke, the golden-haired banneret knight’s eyes were filled with worry and exhaustion.

Recalling those horrific monsters, his body couldn’t stop trembling.

Who had ever seen a goblin slap away an imperial guard with a single swipe?

If he had been any slower breaking through, he might have been done for there!

“I beg the Lady Saint to rescue the Royal Palace at once!”

The golden-haired knight knelt directly on one knee, making it clear he wouldn’t get up unless the Church saved them.

He could tell the goblins’ main thrust was the Royal Palace—they hadn’t even been putting real effort into the Church!

So the Church definitely had the spare capacity to rescue the Royal Palace, especially since Maximus and Lucius were both here.

If they could get the Grand Knight to act, the Royal Palace would surely be saved.

Astraea hesitated.

She wasn’t certain she truly had the authority to order the Church’s forces to reinforce the Royal Palace.

She wasn’t a genius, but she wasn’t stupid either.

Astraea knew exactly where her standing came from.

At the end of the day, she was just a vase the Pope had pushed forward to maintain the Church’s authority.

She wasn’t familiar with how the Church’s system operated.

If she rashly gave orders, she might throw the Church’s operational machinery into chaos.

And the Pope, who had originally been willing to keep her as a decorative vase, would come to resent her for fear of her seizing Church authority.

So she couldn’t just agree on her own.

She needed to find someone within the Church’s hierarchy to handle this matter.

Fortunately, there were plenty of people here who could speak for the Church.

“Sir Lucius, what do you think?” Astraea turned and tossed the question to the Chief Paladin Lucius, who was effectively commanding the paladins in battle.

“The Church will rescue the royal family.”

Lucius agreed to the royal knights’ plea without much deliberation.

They were all humans.

Though the Church and the royal family didn’t have the best relationship, everyone understood the logic that when the lips are gone, the teeth feel the cold.

If the royal family were destroyed, would the Church fare any better?

Facing these unknown and imminent threats, the royal family and the Church needed to unite.

“Excellent!”

The golden-haired banneret knight was overjoyed.

The Royal Capital had descended into chaos, and the sooner they brought reinforcements back, the fewer losses there would be.

He could already imagine how disordered the Kingdom would become in the coming period.

Whether or not the Royal Capital could hold, separatist factions across the Kingdom would surely seize the opportunity to rebel!