City Rescue

The instant Ian turned into a black shadow and rushed toward the temple, a black-robed figure quietly emerged from the shadow of a collapsed bell tower in the city's northern district.

She was the mysterious woman in black. When the Ghost Bride first appeared, she had quietly withdrawn, neither hiding with the other Twilight Hermit Society members nor becoming caught up in the initial massacre. Now, standing at the edge of the ruins and watching Ian's retreating back, a complicated emotion flashed through her eyes.

There was amazement, concern, and a faint glimmer of something almost like relief.

"Priestess Karina, the number of wounded in the northern district has exceeded two hundred." A young priest hurried over, his linen robe stained with blood and dust. "We're almost out of holy oil."

Priestess Karina's veil fluttered gently in the morning breeze as she watched Ian vanish into the smoke and dust in the direction of the temple. She stood still for a moment, only withdrawing her gaze when a child's sobbing sounded behind her.

Karina did not answer immediately. She crouched down and gently stroked the hair of a crying little girl. The child's mother lay beside her, a wound on her leg so deep that bone was visible.

"Use this." Karina took an exquisite blue glass bottle from her robes, silver liquid rippling within. "One drop mixed with ten bowls of water will be enough for five hundred people."

The young priest's eyes widened. "This is... the temple's last holy—"

"Now it is the people's sacred treasure." Karina cut him off, her voice calm yet beyond dispute. She turned toward the twelve white-robed priests lined up behind her—followers she had secretly protected, every one of them looking exhausted yet resolute.

"Amon will handle the wounded in the western district. Take