Gabriella brought Elsa with her as they headed toward the front lines—the square where the knights were currently assembling.
The castle could only be described as a complete mess. Black pillars of light shot into the sky, while pitch-black tentacles resembling vines clung to the stone walls, as if a monster was gradually devouring the entire castle.
Almost the entire main structure of the castle was shrouded in shadow. The outer area where they were was isolated from the innermost walls by a semi-transparent dark barrier.
Shining Saint Morphis had been the first to erect a barrier sealing off the final wall, cutting off the spread of shadow and temporarily suppressing the danger.
Come on, these were the humans at their peak strength—the perfect human legion created by the Holy Queen. Wasn’t the silly Demon King being a bit too confident?
For a moment, Gabriella actually felt a little worried. These humans were like ants to her, yet she hadn’t expected the idiot to directly choose to “airdrop” straight into the castle!
Gabriella suddenly felt somewhat guilty.
If it weren’t for so many humans rebelling, the Evil God wouldn’t have become this rampant!
However, she still couldn’t figure out how she was supposed to help the humans. What was more, the current Holy Queen had already grown silver-white horns—she was now the Silver-White Sword Empress!
Gabriella’s appearance caused the knights to burst into an uproar. But the good times didn’t last long.
From the shadow-polluted stone walls, twisted and grotesque dark creatures began to crawl out.
They looked like intertwined vines forcing themselves into human-like postures as they slowly walked down the walls. At a glance, there were already over a hundred of them.
Creak, creak—
The shadow creations moved at the speed of a speeding train, rapidly crawling forward with several tentacles and emitting ear-piercing noises. These seemed to be the so-called “shadow creations”—products unconsciously created by the Evil God’s power.
Gabriella actually thought these little guys were quite cute…
However, the knights, including the Heavenly Oracle Envoys with Philina, all turned pale the moment they saw these things, as if recalling something terrifying.
“Elsa, go support the knights. Shining Saint Morphis, Philina, you two deal with the monsters on the walls and keep them contained.”
Gabriella looked at them and gave the orders skillfully.
The upper three floors of the fortress ahead were the most heavily eroded areas. To pass through, they first needed to clear the monsters at the middle layer entrance.
Elsa was the strongest human fighter in the knight order and would lead the knights to break through the lower area. Morphis and Philina were both more oriented toward spell control. They flew into the air and unleashed magic to bombard the monsters on the walls.
Gabriella followed after them.
Boom—
These dark vine-like monsters were roughly only at the Marquis level in strength, but they were quite dangerous.
The shadow creations were like wriggling loaches. Everywhere they passed, they left behind corrosive shadow.
Morphis summoned her 【Prayers】. Scorching golden rays scattered like flowers from heaven, completely incinerating the creations on the front wall.
However, just as they had expected, the moment the shadow creations fell, they immediately crawled back up.
Even dealing with a single monster was already quite difficult for the knight squads.
Moreover, the entire castle was enormous, with shadow covering a vast area. Waves of enemies poured in endlessly like a tide. The slightest carelessness would result in being pierced through the body.
However,
As Heavenly Oracle Envoys, they already had plenty of experience dealing with these creations.
Shining Saint Morphis repeated her tactic. After her rays pierced through the shadow monsters, she immediately followed up with purifying light magic, forcibly breaking apart the shadow and dispersing it. The walls were revealed once more, clean and white as the tide receded. Elsa swung her sword with swift, decisive strikes, her silver-white afterimages flashing across the battlefield.
Gabriella followed behind, cleaning up the shadow creations that Elsa missed. For a time, the shadow receded, revealing a door leading into the interior of the castle.
Before the shadow creations could pounce again, Morphis’s magic activated once more, burning away all the creatures attempting to obstruct Gabriella.
Cheers erupted from behind them.
Suddenly, as if the master of the shadows had realized the opponents’ strength could not be underestimated, all the shadow creatures seemed to receive an order. They rushed together at triple their previous speed, twisting and merging into one.
After an unpleasant creaking sound, the shadow creations combined into a single, much larger monster.
“Philina, careful!”
Elsa’s voice rang out. The Heavenly Oracle Envoys quickly became alert.
After merging, the monsters formed a large black sphere. A fissure opened on its front, revealing a scarlet core inside.
It was like a giant eye slowly opening, glaring ferociously at the Heavenly Oracle Envoys.
It seemed the previous monsters had been too weak, causing everyone to let down their guard. For a moment, neither Philina nor Morphis reacted in time.
Swoosh—!
Gabriella instantly appeared in front of the two women. With a chop of her hand, she severed the tentacles shooting toward them. Then, silver light gathered in Gabriella’s hand, forming the shape of a sword—an unremarkable, simple iron sword in appearance.
With a soft sching, she sliced the black mass of flesh in front of her cleanly in two. The stone wall and the miasma-filled black clouds behind it were also cut apart as easily as tofu.
She quickly sent the two women down to the ground, avoiding a second tentacle attack. Elsa caught the still-airborne Miss Philina, and the group narrowly escaped danger.
“Long live the Silver-White Sword Empress!!”
“We’re saved! As expected of the Goddess’s chosen!”
The knights erupted in excitement. To them, this was a successful first battle.
“Thank goodness Miss Gabriella arrived in time!”
At this moment, Shining Saint Morphis quickly put some distance between herself and the threat. Recalling how the shadow creations had seemingly “held back” earlier, a few drops of cold sweat rolled down her face.
The group steadied themselves and looked once more at the black fleshy sphere, no longer daring to underestimate these shadows.
“The Evil God is controlling it.”
Gabriella said. Philina and Elsa behind her immediately understood.
At this time, Philina’s gaze drifted toward Elsa, who had just protected her.
The silver-haired little demon she had met in the residential palace had now transformed back into a powerful female knight—a Heavenly Oracle Envoy on the same level as Lady Liya.
Morphis and Philina were better suited for providing magical support to the combat team, while Lady Elsa was a true combat-oriented Heavenly Oracle Envoy, serving as the Goddess’s right-hand woman.
“Lady Elsa…”
Philina looked worried.
“Miss Philina, you must stay alert. On the battlefield, you need to keep your mind sharp at all times.”
“I… Mm, thank you.”
Philina nodded.
After meeting Elsa’s eyes, it seemed as though they understood each other’s intentions. There wasn’t much time for conversation on the battlefield.
Gabriella’s words pulled them back to reality:
“I can sense the Holy Queen’s presence weakening. We should get going.”
With that, she walked into the path that had been cleared by the scorching rays. Elsa and Philina exchanged a glance and quickly followed after her. By now, the knight order had finished assembling, and reinforcements from the Flame Lock Knight Order had arrived.
Morphis followed closely behind. The shadow monsters were temporarily left to the humans to handle.
“Sorry, Master… I’m so sorry…”
Gabriella gently stroked the shadow creation on the wall, her eyes full of apology and affection.