Relying on the powerful physique of the "Cup" Extraordinary, Bill and Feich quickly flipped onto the railing corridor on the third floor, not even taking the stairs. Following Luer's command, they were to go up and clear the sniper located at a high position, which was Vanya.
Facing the enemies rapidly scaling up using pillars and railings, Vanya's heart was in a panic, but her actions didn't stop. She chambered the next bullet, raised her gun to aim, and pulled the trigger again. With another gunshot, Feich, who was leaning against a pillar, was hit in the right hand, blood splattering out. Then, due to imbalance, he fell to the floor below with a scream, hitting the ground tiles headfirst and lying motionless for a while.
Although Sister Vanya, a civilian, hadn't seen much combat, relying on the focus brought by the "Light" Spirituality, she managed to overcome her panic, avoiding fumbling at the critical moment.
She shot one down, but this meant the other was unattended. Using Feich as a stepping stone, Bill successfully climbed onto the third-floor corridor, landing about five meters away from Vanya. Seeing this, Vanya, who was about to chamber a new round, finally couldn't hide the panic on her face.
'He, he came up!'
Looking at the panicked Vanya, Bill was delighted. He knew the characteristics of the "Light" Extraordinary in the Church. If he engaged her in a ranged gunfight from below, he would never win, but now that he had closed the distance, the situation was different. The "Cup" Extraordinary was much stronger than the "Light" in close combat.
"You're finished, you Church lackey..."
Saying this, Bill drew a short sword from his waist and rushed towards Vanya. Seeing this, Vanya, in her haste, directly threw the rifle that hadn't been reloaded yet forward. Bill parried the thrown rifle with his sword, while Vanya took this opportunity to take out a piece of parchment and slap it onto her forehead.
'Lord, please forgive me for activating this heretical evil power...'
After the parchment quickly burned away, what appeared on Vanya's forehead was a faint "Cup" mark. This was the Raw Consumption Symbol!
Dorothy had given this to Vanya not long ago. After Dorothy helped her extract the Spirit Sight from the "Lamb Song" and convert it into Spirituality, Vanya's physical strength had accumulated the power of the "Cup", so she could use the Raw Consumption Symbol.
After knocking away the rifle, Bill swung his blade towards Vanya. Vanya, whose physical strength had been enhanced, took two steps back to dodge Bill's swing, then kicked open a long case next to her and turned to draw out a light sword from it. This was a weapon Vanya had prepared long ago, just like the rifle.
Picking up the blade, Vanya's expression became focused. Taking advantage of Bill's moment of resetting his stance, she took a swift step forward and swung her sword to cut. Bill was startled by this and immediately held up his sword to parry, barely blocking Vanya's counterattack.
'Such a fast sword! This... aren't most Shining Light Church people good with guns? What's with this sword!'
Barely blocking Vanya's sword strike, Bill thought in surprise. However, Vanya's offensive continued to unfold. After her first strike was blocked, she immediately changed angles and thrust out another sword strike. This time, Bill narrowly dodged at the cost of being cut. But this wasn't the end; Vanya's sword style came like a storm, Bill was completely unable to parry, his defense and evasion constantly failing.
At this moment, the strength of both Vanya and Bill were similar, but in terms of swordsmanship skill, Vanya was far superior to Bill's amateurish skills, so her advantage was clear.
For a time, the crisp sound of steel clashing echoed throughout the corridor. Bill was cut and pierced by swords coming from various tricky directions, his body covered in countless wounds, completely drenched in blood. Under Vanya's offensive, Bill not only had no strength to fight back, but could only barely protect his vital points. If he wasn't a "Cup" Extraordinary, he would have already fallen.
However, under this suffocating offensive, even such a meager defense wouldn't last long.
Just as Vanya was gaining the upper hand in this one-on-one duel with her superb swordsmanship, a sudden change occurred. All the surrounding lights disappeared almost instantly, and the surroundings were immediately plunged into darkness.
...
Rewinding time slightly, a short while ago, in the chapel, the beast-like Luer and the numerous Corpse Puppets controlled by Dorothy were entangled in a fierce battle.
The Corpse Puppets had the bonus of Life Devour, but they were still no match for Luer. The power of the "Cup" combined with the attack sharpening of the "Shadow" allowed Luer to easily tear apart a Corpse Puppet with one claw. Although the attacks of the Corpse Puppets could also leave wounds on Luer's beast body, they were only superficial flesh wounds. As a Black Rank "Cup", Luer's vitality was even stronger by another level, completely capable of ignoring these minor injuries.
In just two or three minutes, Dorothy had already lost half of her Corpse Puppets. For a time, the entire chapel was filled with incomplete remains, blood completely covering the ground.
'Is this guy... that abnormal?'
Hiding behind the curtains in a third-floor room, Dorothy couldn't help but complain when she saw how quickly Luer was dealing with the Corpse Puppets. And just as she was estimating how long the remaining Corpse Puppets would last, a new change suddenly occurred on the battlefield.
After tearing apart another Corpse Puppet, the beast-like Luer suddenly leaped back two steps, temporarily withdrawing from the battle. Then, with his blood-stained claws, he picked out a small item from his tattered clothes. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a black candle.
Through the passive of her Appraisal skill, Dorothy recognized that this candle was an Extraordinary item, an Extraordinary item with the Shadow attribute.
'Extraordinary item? What's the use of this thing?' Dorothy thought with confusion, but her actions in her hands didn't stop. She replenished five Corpse Puppets and sent them rushing towards Luer.
'At this point, there's no need to be too stingy with Spirituality... let's end this quickly with this.'
Thinking this, Luer began to inject his "Shadow" into the candle in his hand, and then a strange silver flame actually ignited on the black candle.
Afterward, Luer brought the "burning" candle to his mouth and blew it out with a puff.
The candle in Luer's hand was extinguished, and along with it, all the lights in the entire villa were extinguished.
Relying on this strange candle in his hand, Luer extinguished all the lights in a large area around him. For a time, all light disappeared, and darkness enveloped the entire large Field villa, with only faint moonlight faintly visible.
Then, Luer's body disappeared into the darkness. All of Dorothy's Corpse Puppets rushed forward to attack but only struck empty air. Dorothy now found that her Corpse Puppets' senses could no longer detect Luer's presence.
'Is this... hiding in the darkness using the power of'Shadow'? I can't see anything at all!'
Dorothy thought with a solemn expression. She primarily relied on the Corpse Puppets' vision to perceive battlefield information, and now it was pitch black, she couldn't see anything at all.
If she couldn't see the enemy, she couldn't attack, and the enemy was in the darkness and could see their side...
"Swish..."
In the darkness, a slight unusual sound was heard, followed by the sound of something falling to the ground. Dorothy felt that one of her Corpse Puppets was incapacitated.
"Swish swish swish..."
Unusual sounds came continuously. Under the attacks from unknown directions in the darkness, all of Dorothy's controlled Corpse Puppets were torn apart in an instant. Using the darkness as cover to launch a surprise attack, Luer finished off all the Corpse Puppets Dorothy was controlling in one go.
In the darkness, the hidden Luer licked the blood on his claws and then looked up towards the third floor.
"Puppets have been cleared. Next... it's time to hunt the main body..."