And speaking of the God of Death...

He’an felt a twinge of regret.

’If we’d had a Necromancer or even a Lich on the team this time, this mission would have been a lot easier, wouldn’t it?’

And so, after the three of them had finished their discussion, they immediately went to arrange the evacuation of core personnel from Brighton City.

This evacuation had to be swift.

No one was to bring anything. Everyone needed to be out of the city by the afternoon.

As He’an and the others were leaving the battlefield at the Giant Wall, the seven Blood Hunter Captains atop the wall had already gathered once more.

——————

Atop the Giant Wall, the seven Blood Hunter Captains stared at each other in an unusual silence.

"So, who’s going to start? You guys or me?"

one of the Blood Hunter Captains asked hesitantly.

"It doesn’t matter who goes first," another said. "After all these years fighting the Blood Race, this is the first time I’ve ever run into something so damn strange."

A complex expression crossed the face of Blood Hunter Captain Leman.

"In that second wave, there were at least ten Baron Level members of the Blood Race—not six like we thought, but over ten!"

"Honestly, I was starting to despair."

"But then—get this—not long after they opened their Blood Mist Domains, they just dropped dead on their way to charge me. No warning whatsoever."

"All I saw was a flash of light, and then, guess what? Its heart was pierced by some unknown Power. Even the Blood Core was destroyed."

Leman’s heart still pounded as he recalled the scene.

Most of the other captains felt the same way.

"Tell me about it."

"My situation wasn’t much different from yours."

"The two Baron Level Blood Race members cornering me didn’t die right away, but just as I was about to burn my blood to make a last stand, they burst into flames! It didn’t even take three breaths before they were nothing but ash."

"Their screams... Just thinking about them sends a shiver down my spine!"

The captain shivered involuntarily, clearly shaken by the memory.

"Weird! It’s just too weird!"

"Who do you think is helping us? And why be so secretive about it?"

one captain asked hesitantly.

As soon as he finished, Abi was about to speak, but a female Blood Hunter Captain at his side cut in first.

"If... and this is just a guess..."

"...if we’re talking about someone in Brighton City who could help us, well... have any of you heard of the Dragon God Church?"

"The Dragon God Church? What’s that? Some kind of organization that swindles commoners?"

"Never heard of it. We don’t have time to pay attention to the affairs of commoners."

"Hmm... I think I’ve heard something about it."

"I think that Dragon God Church has a pretty good reputation among the commoners across the city."

Four of the seven Blood Hunter Captains had never heard of it.

But three had, and of those, Abi naturally knew the most.

So, Abi spoke last, a bitter smile on his face.

"That Dragon God Church... its reputation among the commoners is more than just ’good.’"

"If you guys took a walk through the commoners’ district, you’d understand what ’strange’ really means."

The moment Abi said this, the other six captains all turned to look at him.

And so, Abi told them everything he knew.

After hearing it all, the other six Blood Hunter Captains fell silent.

"The City Lord’s people? You mean that fat pig?"

"But if we’re talking about the ’lord’ behind that fat pig, then I might reluctantly believe it."

"The chances are slim, though. After all, that particular lord has been marginalized in the Imperial Capital."

"Which means there must be something else going on here!"

Suddenly, the female Blood Hunter Captain, Alana Calvin, spoke up.

"And another thing... have you all noticed? There’s something very wrong with this sudden attack from the Blood Race."

"...?"

The others looked either confused or thoughtful.

Alana cut straight to the point. "The Blood Race clearly had enough strength left to launch a third wave."

"But as you all saw, the Viscount Level Blood Race member, along with all the Blood Beasts and other members that followed, completely withdrew."

One of the Blood Hunter Captains looked confused.

"What’s wrong with that?"

"Weren’t there reports of large-scale Blood Race gatherings near border cities in other sectors?"

"Besides, they attacked us twice and got nothing for it. In fact, they were routed. It’s not hard to understand why they’d retreat, is it? If I ran into something this strange, I’d retreat too."

"On top of that, reinforcements from the main team are less than an hour out. The Blood Race definitely has ways of knowing that."

"So with all those factors, their retreat shouldn’t be that hard to understand, right?"

As the captain finished, the others couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

But Alana shook her head.

"Those might be factors, yes."

"But haven’t any of you considered why our insignificant little city was the first to be attacked?"

"And what about those reports of Blood Race gatherings in other sectors? Are they just reports? Have any actual battles broken out in those places yet?"

"If they haven’t—or even worse, if the Blood Race in those other sectors have also retreated—then we have a real problem."

Very few fools ever made it to the rank of Blood Hunter Captain.

As Alana laid it out, understanding began to dawn on the others.

Abi asked bluntly, "So, Alana, you think the Blood Race might have come for the people of the Dragon God Church? Or no, more accurately, did they hear our Empire made a breakthrough in researching Power to use against them, and came rushing over to test it?"

Alana’s expression turned serious, and she nodded at Abi.

"Captain Abi, you’re right. That’s exactly my theory."

"After all, you’ve all felt how strong this Power is."

"We never even saw how they did it, but the results speak for themselves—the outcome was almost frighteningly successful."

"Even if our commander were here leading the elite Blood Hunters, holding off this attack would have been easy, but there’s no way we would have come out of it without any casualties!"

When Alana said "no casualties," she was of course referring to the Blood Hunters. Not a single one of them had died.

As for the ordinary soldiers of the garrison, about a hundred were lost, but even that was an incredibly low number for a battle of this scale.

"If that’s true, then this is huge!"

"Good thing reinforcements from the main team are almost here. We can ask them about it."

"At this point, I don’t see why the Empire Research Institute would need to keep it a secret anymore!"

"..."

The captains all started talking at once.

But what they didn’t know was that while they were busy discussing theories and arranging personnel to handle the aftermath of the battle...

...He’an and his two companions were already leading thirty-seven Apprentice Knights and Warlock Apprentices toward Sutton, a major border city of the Adams Empire.

The forty Transcendents carried no supplies. They didn’t even take a carriage or train.

Instead, they traveled on foot, moving with incredible speed.

The other core members, who were commoners, were also heading toward the great city of Sutton in an orderly fashion, just as He’an had arranged.

However, after further consideration, the three leaders decided that Sutton was still too close to the border.

To be safe, they ultimately decided to head deeper into the heartland.

That’s right—they planned to bypass Sutton entirely and head straight for Damian, one of the three great cities in the heartland of the Adams Empire.

Before long, a sudden downpour began to fall.

「Inside the Brighton City Lord’s Mansion.」

The deputy leader of the Hummingbird Team stared angrily at the now-empty office of the City Lord.

"So, your City Lord left for the Imperial Capital three hours ago?"

"Y-yes, my lord."

Sian Ramsey, the deputy leader of the Hummingbird Team, looked at the City Lord’s office receptionist and snorted.

"Hmph. He certainly ran away fast enough."

"We may not have the authority to question that lord, but this is a huge mess. The military will be sure to have questions for him."

"And from the looks of it, this situation is a complete disaster."

"I’ll bet that fat bastard was hiding something, and his father probably doesn’t even know about it."

"But since there’s a Church involved, he couldn’t have just abandoned them too, could he?"

one of his team members standing beside him analyzed.

"Hmm. Let’s wait for now. We’ll see what Abi and the others report." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

However, at that very moment...

"Report!"

"Lord Sian! The people from the Dragon God Church... they’re gone too!"

"What?!"