If Elliot's guess was right, these monsters had been deliberately created by the Royal Family in the first place.
They created these monsters, then sacrificed them through some means to obtain power.
Then could sacrificing these monsters' corpses also yield power?
Thud!
Vanessa pushed the monster corpses she had dragged over onto a patch of open ground nearby.
Looking at the mountain of corpses, she sighed inwardly.
These hideous, terrifying monsters had most likely once been humans just like her. For nothing more than the nobles' selfish desires, they had been turned into monsters and met their deaths this way.
Perhaps they, too, had looked forward to the Theresia Festival and longed for this grand celebration. Sadly...
Vanessa pressed her lips together, her heart growing heavier.
But heavyhearted as she was, it did not stop her from swiftly drawing the magic circle for the sacrificial Ritual on the ground.
These people had already died when they became monsters. If she did not sacrifice them now, the Royal Family would use them as Sacrifice Offerings anyway.
The thought of snatching some Sacrifice Offerings back from their hands lifted Vanessa's spirits a little.
"Vanessa!"
A sudden call came from beside her. Vanessa turned to see Dorothea approaching with several people.
Dorothea had stayed off the battlefield all night, remaining in the rear. Only now, with the situation settling down, had she appeared.
This was partly because her abilities were not particularly suited to combat, and partly because she possessed exceptional medical skills.
There were people whose medical skills surpassed Dorothea's, but they would not be willing to come to a factory to treat ordinary people. Being a doctor was a highly respectable profession, far removed from these people at the bottom of society.
Dorothea, who would work as an illicit doctor, was