Chapter 186: Chapter 184: The Saintess Arrives, the Divine Hall Is Destroyed

Hilia discovered that the Pollution Purification Spell Rose had taught her was indeed much handier than the Purification Skill taught by the Holy Court.

Although both belonged to the divine magic branch, the former’s divine affinity requirement for the mage was much lower than that of the Holy Court’s.

Not only that, this Purification Spell was at least twice as effective as the Holy Court’s Purification Skill—even though Hilia felt she hadn’t fully mastered it yet.

Rose had once explained this to her.

"At the very beginning, Purification Skill was from the same source, the same spell. But to counter the Abyss’s invasion, I dove deep into my research, splitting off from the original Purification Skill to create a Pollution Purification Spell specialized for abyssal demonic qi contamination."

"This Purification Spell is tailored for abyssal demonic qi. Against other pollutions, like toxins or miasma, its effectiveness drops sharply—it can’t compare to the Holy Court’s Purification Skill in those cases."

The Holy Court’s Purification Skill was like a comprehensive approach, able to purify anything, whereas Rose’s teaching was especially tailored for pollution.

Back at the Lost Lighthouse, when she had teamed up with the other saint candidate girls, Hilia had worried they’d notice the difference, so she’d never used it—except at the end, when Rose took over her body and used it for everyone to resist the storm of pollution.

At that moment, no one cared about the differences between Purification Skills. After all, when light bursts from your body, everyone looks different.

But now, facing these heretics, with nobody else around, the Purification Spell was perfect.

As holy radiance surged from her body, the pollution swirling around Sardine-head melted away like snow meeting flame.

This turn of events made Sardine-head’s face change. "Such a powerful Purification Spell! I have to stop her from using it!"

As Sardine-head of the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association—a Tier Three Mage by now—he was already hopelessly dependent on the strengthening from demonic qi pollution.

Without the boost from demonic qi pollution, his strength would be cut in half—he’d be lucky to manage fifty or sixty percent of his full power.

At that level, he clearly didn’t have the confidence to crush Hilia.

So he stopped hesitating and immediately summoned his magic puppet, charging at Hilia together.

Hilia’s magic puppet was already geared up; seeing him rushing in, it charged to meet Sardine-head’s puppet on Hilia’s command.

Mage’s Hand followed up instantly, but didn’t attack the puppet—instead, it locked firmly onto Sardine-head and his puppet, giving Hilia the fastest possible reaction time.

It was as if time had slowed—but the Tier Three Mage was still faster than she was.

Sardine-head drew a longsword, brimming with dense pollution, and with a fierce thrust, stabbed it fiercely at Hilia!

"Ice Wall!"

Hilia raised her magic staff and quickly cast three ice walls to block Sardine-head’s sword.

Hilia’s magic staff still hadn’t gotten an upgraded magic crystal; her original advanced crystal even still had some shards of glass sticking to the ring around the staff.

But it was fine—the Eye of the Sea Siren was still usable, and could substitute for an advanced magic crystal as a magic power vessel, boosting Hilia’s spells. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"Might as well practice danger sense, too."

Hilia thought to herself.

Sardine-head’s longsword pierced into the ice wall, shattering the barrier and continuing its charge toward Hilia.

A violent sense of danger exploded in Hilia’s mind. Instantly, she dodged to the side, summoning Water of Stagnation around her, then following up with Frost Condensation.

Feeling the temperature plummet, Sardine-head sneered coldly. "This trick again?"

He was just about to transform his magic power into a shield when a flash of lightning ripped through the sky above.

The thunderbolt came roaring down, slamming into his body in an instant.

Flash Thunder Fury!

A spell Hilia rarely used.

Originally it was an auxiliary spell for shattering ice—she rarely needed it before.

Now, though, lightning spells naturally came with a paralysis effect—a great way to hinder an enemy’s advance.

And also scatter their protective magic power.

"Shatter!"

Ice Shattering Skill once again—as Flash Thunder Fury broke part of his defenses and forced the frost into Sardine-head’s body, Ice Shattering Skill activated, letting him feel the tearing pain all over again.

"This ends now!"

Sardine-head’s eyes snapped wide, burning red. He drew his longsword in an arc, releasing a slash of Sword Qi.

But suddenly, he saw Hilia give a sly smile; then, the figure that Sword Qi tore apart vanished.

Immediately after, he heard a voice behind him: "Over here!"

He turned, just in time to see Hilia ripping apart two scrolls.

An ice and a fire spell immediately engulfed him.

"Tier Three scrolls?!"

Sardine-head’s eyes bulged.

Only then did he realize he should have let the magic puppets fight instead.

He hurriedly checked on his puppet—then froze.

He saw his own magic puppet collapse to the ground before he did.

And the puppet in the little Assistant Priest’s hands was frantically ripping Tier Three scrolls as if they cost nothing, the unleashed magics chaining together to pin his puppet down, leaving it badly damaged and totally unable to fight.

"Why..."

Disbelief filled his eyes—then the ice and fire swallowed him up.

Of course, he wasn’t going to die that easily.

And Hilia wasn’t about to let him off easy either.

Just like the puppet battle, Hilia pulled out five more scrolls in quick succession, tearing them one by one and unleashing a brutal bombardment on Sardine-head.

Only when he was truly down for the count did she stop, still not entirely satisfied.

"Spirit Magic really is handy. Even a Tier One spell can confuse him and make him flail at empty air."

Rose smiled faintly. "Besides demons, hardly any mages these days know Spirit Magic, and there’s even less defense against it—only spiritual power training really helps. He underestimated you to the very end, never thinking you’d use a Spirit Magic spell to mislead him."

"The wealth of my scrolls is scarier than my actual strength..." Hilia sighed. "With magic puppets and scrolls, I can just leapfrog past ranks."

"But scroll fighting burns money. You should try to calculate how much this battle cost you."

Hilia blinked and did the math in her head for how much those scrolls would have fetched on the market.

By the end, her face wore the same pained expression as those lying around her on the ground.

The girl clutched her heart. "I should really work on boosting my strength!"

She made her puppet march over and give Sardine-head a vicious kick, causing a low groan from the dying man, though there was little response left in him.

He wasn’t dead, but without immediate help, he probably wouldn’t live more than a few days.

Meanwhile, the few lazy, completely uninterested-in-fighting sickly heretics around had been shocked silly by Hilia’s display of force.

When Hilia glanced their way, they started yelling even louder.

Hilia gave her puppet an order to fetch some ropes and tie them up, then glanced toward the inside of the divine hall.

"I wonder how Mom Vanessa is doing against that Tier Four heretic..."

Her battle with these few heretics hadn’t taken long—barely a minute or two.

After thinking it over, her curiosity got the better of her and she prepared to head inside for a look.

Just as she made to move, a terrifying shockwave blasted out from inside the divine hall.

The intense danger made Hilia instantly throw up five ice walls in front of her to block the shockwave.

As for those few heretics beside the divine hall—already screaming or unconscious—they weren’t so lucky.

The battered old divine hall collapsed with a roar, burying them under tons of rubble.

From the ruined debris, two figures burst into the air, facing off high above.

On Vanessa’s face was palpable fury, and the holy radiance blazing from her seemed even brighter than the sun itself!

"My divine hall, you bastard!"