"Can your Holy Church ever do anything reliably? The spatial rift was like this last time, and now this ambush plan is the same!"
"Your Excellency, I don't know why the plan was discovered either. But now isn't the time to investigate the cause. The Onyx Principality's soldiers are almost done retreating. If this continues, all our efforts will come to nothing. Do you have any way to stop this?"
"Stop it? How am I supposed to stop it? I'm only an earl's heir!" The young noble said indignantly. After a pause, perhaps realizing that now truly was not the time for complaints, he continued, "But... it's not as though there's no way at all. At the very least, the Onyx Principality's extraordinary knights and all those earls haven't crossed the river yet. As long as we wipe them out, then destroying the Onyx Principality will only be a matter of time..."
"Your Excellency, you mean?" the guard-like man immediately pressed.
"Send a signal to the bishops at once... But whoever sends the signal will probably..."
"For the Holy Church, we do not fear sacrifice. The death I meet now will grant me eternal life after the Dark Abyss descends."
With that, the guard-like man showed no hesitation, directly pulling a wooden staff from his robes.
If Nalant had been here, he would certainly have shouted at once, "Not good, a magic staff..."
Unfortunately, Nalant was not here. After the young noble who had just spoken with him and the other guards left, the guard holding the staff began to chant.
Whoosh!
With a piercing shriek, a fiery red fireball the size of a bowl shot straight into the sky.
"Hm?" Nalant was extremely familiar with the fluctuations of magic. With his powerful spiritual force, he noticed something was wrong