Chapter 557: Chapter 67: Preparing to Flee

Several days passed, and The Azure Longsword continued to go out for training, only to find that the Temple Knights who were originally guarding the entrance to the Lysine Building had all disappeared.

Not only that, but creatures attracted to the nearby Spiritual Essence Polluters whenever people lingered outside for a moment…were now nowhere to be seen.

It was as if the Temple Knights and the Polluters had collectively taken a leave of absence.

“Nora,” Vesta turned and asked, “what’s going on outside? Have all the Polluters been cleared?”

“Miss Nora,” Vesta’s voice came from the hall, “the Church Court has issued a temporary ‘Extraordinary Exemption Treaty’, hiring Transcendents to cleanse the Polluters from the city area. The Temple Knights have already gone to help maintain order.”

Aske: ……….

What? In this world without players, how could there still be quarrels over prey?!

“Since that’s the case, let’s just go find Polluters to fight ourselves,” Aske told the girls.

After walking through a few blocks, everyone saw a group of Temple Knights + Transcendents surrounding several Spiritual Essence Polluters and beating them up.

Their fighting method was bizarre: since the Spiritual Essence Polluters wouldn’t attack humans devoid of Spirituality, the Temple Knights formed a human wall and collectively restricted the Polluters’ movement—some hugged their legs, some the waist, and even some clung around their neck like koalas, entangling the Polluters as if they were carrying weights.

The Spiritual Essence Polluters ignored the heavy bindings on their bodies and just forcefully charged toward the Transcendents at a distance despite being bogged down with full-sized men.

The Transcendents’ tactics were even more despicable: hit-and-run kite fighting. They would strike and then pull away to continue the attack at a distance, quickly exhausting the Polluters to death.

The girls: ……….

“Should we…still fight?” they hesitantly asked their Squad Leader.

“Fight!” Aske said through clenched teeth.

About half an hour later, the group finally found a solitary Spiritual Essence Polluter on an empty street and were about to make their move when suddenly, from afar, several clumps of sticky liquid shot over and ‘splat’—the Polluter was stuck to the wall.

This was… Aske focused his eyes and saw it was the Temple Knights’ Spider Web Gun.

This device could shoot a super-molecular adhesive fluid which would oxidize into a sticky liquid upon contact with the air, quickly entangling and binding the target’s body, rendering them immobile—quite handy for capturing monsters.

While the target was restrained, Sigrdrifa threw the North Wind Axe at it, but suddenly, a ball of Flames hit the Polluter’s Spiritual Body first, killing it on the spot.

“Hey!” Enraged, she turned around, confronted the Transcendent responsible, grabbed him by the neck, and hoisted him up, “That Polluter was ours first, how dare you steal our prey?”

The Transcendent being choked turned purple and gasped for air, managing only to slap his Flames against her.

But a Cold air quickly rose around Sigrdrifa, instantly suppressing and extinguishing the Flames. Then electric current surged from her arm, paralyzing the Transcendent with shocks, making him tremble uncontrollably, his hair standing on end.

“What are you doing!” The cries of the Transcendent’s companions came from a distance.

In Italy, Transcendents were popular for various Magic Swordsman Bloodlines, a combination of the Physical Department and Arcane System. Some of the Transcendents drew their Great Sword, which blazed with roaring Flames; others held a Thrust sword with streaming Thunder.

Seeing their comrade being used as a hostage by Sigrdrifa, these Transcendents rushed at her recklessly, launching a fierce attack.

And then, they flew into the sky.

In a state of weightlessness, these Transcendents could hardly find any leverage in the air and desperately flailed their limbs. Someone saw that it was a masked girl below casting the spell, so they hurled a Thunder strike at her.

However, Thira calmly stepped to the side, avoiding the Thunder strike, and once again activated her Storm Ability.

The Transcendents suspended in the air began to spin uncontrollably, as if caught in a Tornado, almost disoriented by the intense rotation.

“Wait, wait, it’s a misunderstanding! All of this is a misunderstanding!” The accompanying Temple Knights also hurried over, recognizing that these people were Transcendents of the Lixini Family, and quickly stepped forward to offer an apologetic smile and mediate the conflict.

Thira took a look and realized that they were the same Transcendents from a few days ago who had helped lure away monsters, so she released them—after being spun around in the air, these fellows’ legs had gone weak upon landing, collapsed on the ground, unable to get up.

“What’s the matter with all of you? Attacking us out of nowhere while we were cleaning up Polluters, I thought you were trying to ambush us!” Not waiting for the others to speak, Thira immediately and discontentedly began to accuse.

“Sorry, sorry, we didn’t see you were there earlier,” the Temple Knight said in a strained defense, having been preempted and put on the defensive.

In truth, it was these Temple Knights who had fired the Spider Web Gun, so their claim of not seeing Thira and the others was ludicrous. However, Thira had no interest in further entanglement with these crude fighters and irritably waved them off, telling them to get lost.

“Forget it.” Aske watched as the people helped each other away and fell silent for a moment, “Let’s call off today’s training plan and head back.”

“Go back?” Sigrdrifa seemed a bit disappointed.

“Yes, the situation has changed now. There are more people than monsters; it’s unnecessary to compete over scarce resources,” Aske explained.

Back at the Lysine Building, the girls all seemed a bit downcast, as if a much-anticipated trip had suddenly been canceled, creating a sense of irritation.

Nora summoned Vesta and made contact with her brother, Valian Bishop, to inquire about the situation with the Transcendents on the streets.

Although there was no detectable change in her tone, the Valian Bishop, who knew his sister well, could sense her current displeasure and began to explain with a bitter smile.

In short, the recent efficiency of The Azure Longsword in clearing Polluters had caught the Cardinals’ attention, so someone had proposed replicating this model by mobilizing all the city’s Transcendents to clean up the monsters, resulting in the current situation.

Nora listened and felt somewhat gloomy too. How come the Church Court, the core of the Technology Camp, was copying our Transcendents’ homework?

But still, it was a decision of the Church Court, and she had neither the position nor the ability to oppose it, so she could only follow Aske and the others silently back to the elevator.

Once upstairs, everyone just found places to sit.

Mia and Miel had changed into swimsuits and started playing around in the indoor swimming pool. Sigrdrifa and Eleanor sat at the bar drinking and watching the two girls splash each other.

Nora brought back some books and videos, distributing them to Thira and Medea.

She gave Thira documentaries about natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, storms, cold fronts, earthquakes, or tsunamis, and she gave Medea books on psychology and criminology. She herself took a copy of Evolution Theory and found a quiet corner in the room to read.

Occasionally, sporadic gunfire was still heard in the distance, but it was much less frequent compared to the past few days.

After all, gunpowder weapons were not very effective against Polluters, while Transcendents could deploy their abilities more conveniently, without the need for ammunition or fuel—only consuming a bit of spontaneously regenerating Spirituality.

Thus, throughout the day, the Temple Knights worked in coordination with the Transcendent squads to efficiently clear the monsters from the city districts, to the point where even the expansion of the mutants had been suppressed.

The ground floor of the Lysine Building, which used to be harassed by at least a dozen Polluters each day, was now deserted—monsters had no reason to focus on this place when the entire city was filled with Transcendents.

Yawning, Nora slowly closed the book and saw that it had gotten dark outside, with occasional flashes of Flames and Thunder cutting through the night sky.

“Aske,” she approached the rocking chair and asked, “What are we going to do tomorrow?”

“If there are fewer and fewer Spiritual Essence Polluters, do we need to cancel our training plan for good?”

“We might as well cancel,” Aske responded languidly, “Pack up your things, we’re going to stash everything on Fire Island. We need to prepare for a strategic retreat.”

“A strategic retreat?” Nora asked in surprise.

“The Polluters are all clones of the Spiritual Tree,” Aske explained, “like lice on a rat.”

“You don’t think that by exterminating the lice, the rat will be scared off, do you? When the Spiritual Tree itself emerges, all these Transcendents will just be handing over their experience points.”

“The Church Court is probably planning something similar in an attempt to force the Spiritual Tree itself to appear soon. But I reckon they won’t be able to handle it either when it does, and will have to retreat… Anyway, let’s also get ready.”