Chapter 36: Chapter 35: Helpless
"Evangelion Blessing: Midnight Hourglass!"
Yurian, Marianne and Sylvester turned their heads around. A giant monster plant was engulfed by a dark light before peacefully turning into dust. A figure stood in front of the giant; its sword held vertically above its head.
The giant monster plant vanished into ashes, but the figure quickly collapsed.
"Alistair!" Marianne cried.
They ran up to their leader and supported him.
"Ha, ha…I am fine," Alistair reassured them weakly.
"What happened?" Yurian asked.
Alistair frowned in worry. "The giant monsters are trickier than I anticipated. They are steeped in magic and even my bloodline attack is only enough to defeat one. I do not think I am able to eradicate all the giant monster plants in a short period of time, even if they stand motionlessly in place. I've never seen defence stats like this before…"
Alistair coughed and Marianne caressed his back comfortingly.
"We won't need to eradicate everything if Sir Quille sends his reinforcement in time," Yurian said. "Sylvester, did you receive any news?"
Sylvester shook his head. "I…he hasn't sent any messages."
"Damn it!" cried Yurian.
"Yurian, calm down!" Marianne exclaimed softly.
"How can I calm down?" Yurian grasped his hair in frustration. "When we left with the express gateway tickets, he promised us that he would be right behind us with the troops and supplies. Yet, when we finally exited the gateway, no one appeared!
"With just the four of us, how are we going to evacuate a hundred townspeople out of this damned town? For all we know, he has betrayed us."
"The reinforcements may still be coming," Sylvester muttered. "Maybe they just had an issue with the gateway or some other problem—"
"It's been two days, Sylvester, nothing's coming," Yurian argued.
Alistair sighed.
"We will clear the small fry before thinking of a plan," he finally decided. "But we need to move fast. According to Crystal, the plants seem to gain energy from being under moonlight. I don't know if there is a connection, but there's a full moon in two days' time."
"You mean…" Marianne gasped.
"Yes," Alistair groaned. "It may get more dangerous as we approach full moon."
The quartet continued to work under the hot sun. They even managed to remove the stargazer lily right outside the chapel's fence by attacking the lily at one spot on its stem. By the time evening came again, the knights were exhausted, and they trudged back to the chapel slowly.
The door opened before they could knock, and they were welcomed into the chapel. The townspeople warmly offered them some food and asked if they were hurt and needed any medicine. Marianne smiled and gently reminded them that she was a healer, and the last person to need medication was her.
As they were eating, a little boy walked up to the quartet and grabbed the corner of Sylvester's coat. The young man swallowed his mouthful of stale bread and looked down at the little boy and his bulbous eyes.
"Are you the ones who are going to save us?" the little one asked innocently.
Sylvester looked at the dirt smudged on the little boy's face and for a moment, he found that he was speechless. Were they going to save these people? They were only a measly group of four knights-in-training. Yurian was right. They had at least a hundred people to protect, and over ten blocks of building to protect them for.
Did they even possess the lowest tier of ability to achieve that goal?
Lightly, he reached out his clean hand and patted the little boy's head with a forced smile.
"Maybe."
Yurian looked at the little boy for a while, before turning away.
'I wasn't even able to protect my friend. Am I qualified to say yes to any of them?'
The weight of the pink crystal bracelet felt heavy in his pocket.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Mushroom_n_TeaLeaf
Mushroom_n_TeaLeaf Thank you for reading!
Yurian and Sylvester are suddenly struck by the burden of a hero.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone