Chapter 172 - The Battle Begins
As Joel attacked the array around the Radiant Church, a blood-red colored array was now visible around the Radiant Church.
Joel's Ardor was slowly destroying the blood-red colored array's lines.
"Break!"
He flared up his energy to quickly break the array.
Meanwhile, the five 3 Star Warriors had increased their pace of attacking the barrier. The cracks on the barrier were widening.
However, just as they were ready to smash the barrier, the barrier blazed up its energy. This was so sudden that all the warriors around the barrier felt a shockwave and flew far back.
At this moment, the priests ordered his deacons to immediately attack the enemies. Currently, their enemies were startled, and there was no perfect opportunity to attack them than this.
These attacks from the priests and the deacons dealt more damage than they expected.
With each attack, they were killing enemies.
However, these warriors defended the attacks for their fallen 3 Star Warriors and prevented them from being killed or injured.
Among these 5 Star Warriors, a specific person grew extremely angry as he saw his comrades sacrificing their lives for him.
'I was planning to keep it a secret the fight against the head priest. But it seems, I have no choice but to use it.'
The barrier had flared up with a lot of energy. This meant that the blood-red array had been destroyed, and the Holy Ardor of the Barrier had been restored.
However, even though the barrier had recovered its defensive prowess, fortunately, it would take some time for it to heal the damage caused by them.
An Axe appeared in the 3 Star Warrior's hand as he prepared to launch himself towards the Barrier.
Their resonant striking palms had already damaged the barrier significantly. Now, he was sure that he could destroy this barrier with his strongest attack.
The Axe was completely filled with Flame Ardor.
"Vortex Hurl."
The man held his Axe with both his hands and then rotated his body by 360 degrees and tossed his Axe at the barrier. His rotation allowed his attack to gain greater momentum and gave him more time to infuse his Flame Ardor in his Axe.
Currently, the Axe charged the barrier like a meteor. The flames completely concealed the Axe.
The deacons and the priests saw the attack and immediately used their Ardor to enforce the barrier so that it could endure that attack.
Axe soon struck the barrier. The power within it was much greater than they expected. One of the cracks on the barrier widened and began to crack.
"Release!"
The Axe then unleashed an unreal amount of flame energy. The Flames surrounding the Axe appeared trivial compared to the dense flames infused within it.
The Barrier flashed with blue light before it suddenly lost all its energy.
Once the barrier was down, the 3 Star Warrior who had attacked with his Axe immediately shouted, "Charge now! Kill them all and leave no survivors!"
The warriors on his side immediately chorused in return.
Joel, who was in the special room within the Radiant Church, just spat a mouthful of blood as the array sphere in his hands broke.
Joel couldn't control his Array Sphere because the attack was too intense. At the very least, his Array Sphere would not have broken apart if he was a bit faster in overcoming the attack's impact.
However, there was no point in dwelling on it.
An Array Sphere was very rare in Kresa Town, but it was still available within Rashire City. He had to survive today and make a trip over to Rashire City.
He had gathered a lot of wealth while assisting the Radiant Church. It wouldn't be an issue for him to buy 3 more array spheres.
He had been saving it for more complex array plans, but he could only postpone them now. Anyway, he needed to survive today to accomplish his dreams.
Joel wasn't very anxious about his survival. There were two reasons.
Firstly, he trusted the head priest to be able to deal with these intruders. He didn't know why these people were attacking them.
Secondly, he knew that the array masters were treated well everywhere. Few warriors would kill array masters. They would rather try to recruit them.
Only if the array masters refused would the warriors kill them.
Meanwhile, the head priest was getting ready to meet these warriors in battle.
Even the five 3 Star Warriors were now heading towards the Radiant Church's building. They were conserving their energy while ordering their subordinates to deal with these deacons and low-ranked priests.
The five 3 Star Warriors soon met with each other before heading inside the Radiant Church's building. One of them spoke, "Antto, you were rather impatient. Another round of Resonant Palms would have destroyed the barrier. You have revealed your identity too soon. That priest Evan should have realized it by now."
"I know. But my men died while protecting me from the attacks of these deacons and priests. More of my men would have died if we had waited long enough for another round of the Resonant Palms. I would rather show my trump card and deal with that troublesome barrier once and for all than allow my men to die needlessly. Besides, it's not like we could have kept it concealed for long. It makes little difference to reveal it sooner rather than later." The man named Antto immediately replied with an annoyed look.
He had expected his comrades to have some complaints regarding his attack. All he could do now was ignore them.
"Let's head inside and kill him quickly." The one who appeared to be their leader spoke calmly.
"Alright."
All five-headed inside the church.
As soon as they stepped inside, they saw the head priest standing ahead of them. He had his back turned towards them and was speaking in an unknown language.
Antto was quite impatient, and he didn't wait for the priest to turn and immediately attacked him.
He tossed his Axe at the priest.
Before the Axe could strike him, the Axe was struck by golden energy. Immediately, the Axe stopped in mid-air for a second.
"Such impatience. Atleast wait for me to face you. But I guess I can't expect Blazing Cleaver Antto to be patient."
The Axe suddenly moved and charged towards Antto at twice the speed.
Antto grabbed the handle on his Axe and was surprised when he felt Axe's momentum. The Axe's momentum was so great it dragged him near the entrance of the church.
Every warrior facing Evan became quite serious. They saw an elegant stick within Evan's right hand.
Even though they weren't sensors, they could feel Holy Ardor leaking from it.
"I have already informed your identities to the main branch in Rashire City. You should give up while I am feeling benevolent. You will be able to live a couple of days more. Even your master won't remain unscathed after trying something like this." Evan calmly warned them.
"We have our orders. And those were to extinguish the Radiant Church. So what if you possess a 4 Star Holy Weapon? There are five of us here. We can defeat you!" One of them shouted out before he pulled out his sword.
Evan couldn't help but let out a sigh as he thought, "I was hoping to resolve this without spilling blood. It seems I was too naïve."
His voice had turned cold as he faced these warriors.
Both parties glared at each other, and the head priest finally moved.
Thus, the battle between them finally commenced.
~~
"Are you sure it will be alright? They really won't find that it was us who attacked the Radiant Church Branch in Kresa Town?" This was Siluca's voice from the Voice Transmission Array Stone.
In response, Edwin spoke with complete confidence, "I am sure. After all, they are all sleeping peacefully in the dream I am showing them."
Currently, Edwin was sitting in the Radiant Church's branch in Kresa Town.
All the deacons and the priests were unconscious.
The entire Radiant Church was surrounded by a dense greenish array. This was Edwin's Illusionary Dream Array!