In the direction where the ice ship collided, there were only a few dozen priests and no bishops. Facing that huge magical creation, the only thing that could protect them was the holy light that had just gathered.
They even went blank at that moment.
"You want to run away now?"
However, Grant's voice came quickly. Immediately afterwards, the spiritual power belonging only to the Pope swept past them, controlling the holy light they gathered, and instantly formed a large shield as high as a fortress.
The large shield blocked the ice ship, like a chasm, trying to force Benjamin and the ship to stop.
However, Benjamin also seemed to anticipate that Grant would intervene.
The ice ship rushed forward, and a huge ball of water suddenly condensed on the bow of the ship. The water ball rotated rapidly, and coupled with the friction with the air during high-speed flight, it quickly turned into a swirling water-shaped drill. The ice ship held the drill bit and crashed into the giant shield of Holy Light!
There was a loud bang.
The sudden burst of strong wind cleared the thick smoke in the sky. The surrounding priests were protected by the Holy Light, but they couldn't help but subconsciously take a step back. The bishop looked up at the place where the two collided, his eyes widening nervously.
I saw that under the impact of the ice ship and the water drill, several cracks instantly appeared on the giant shield. In about two seconds, the cracks grew rapidly, and in the blink of an eye they were covered with the shield shining with holy light.
Immediately afterwards, the entire giant shield collapsed!
The ice ship rushed directly over, and the dozens of priests in the original direction... at least from the bishop's position, they could no longer be seen.
A dissatisfied snort came from Grant's mouth.
"Chase me!"
With the blessing of divine magic, this command sounded like a bell, spreading throughout the sky across Pearl Lake. After being stunned for a short time, the priests immediately turned their heads and looked at the ice ship that had not had time to fly away, and quickly chased after it.
"Your Majesty the Pope..." the bishop shouted from behind while trying to keep up with Grant's speed.
"What are you afraid of? Chase him!" Grant said without looking back. "We have an absolute numerical advantage. He can only run away, but he doesn't dare to fight us head-on."
When the bishop heard this, he could only take a deep breath, suppress the fear of seeing the big shield being easily broken, and continue to pursue him.
An astonishing scene appeared in the sky.
An ice ship flies in the sky, and the sunlight refracts from every corner of it, as if the entire ship is shining. Following closely behind the ice ship was a mass of dark figures. The flying speed of the priests varied, and the team quickly divided into a narrow triangle. At the tip of the pyramid was Grant, followed by a sparse number of bishops. As for the remaining priests, they were like a huge, bloated dark cloud, casting a large shadow on the ground.
As for the paladins on the ground, they came to their senses after being stunned for a while. But apart from being anxious, they seemed unable to do anything.
But... the paladins still chased after them, even though their speed could not keep up with even the slowest priest.
Soon, the bustling Pearl Lake area gradually cooled down again. Only the scorched earth and pitted landslides were left, proving how tragic a tragedy had happened here.
However, about fifteen minutes later…
"Okay, it seems it's over."
About 500 meters north of Pearl Lake, the rocky ground suddenly moved. There seemed to be something underground. The rocks piled there were pushed away little by little, revealing a dark hole. Then, one after another people began to crawl out of it.
This group of people all looked a little embarrassed, and their clothes were in tatters. The refugees who had appeared in the country a few days ago were still miserable, and some of them were obviously injured. But... there were also people who were unscathed and flew out of the hole lightly.
After they crawled out of the hole, they quickly looked for cover around them and carefully hid themselves.
"...I don't know what happened to the others."
One of the young men stopped in the cave, gasping for air. He suddenly raised his head, looked at the brilliant sky that he had not seen for a long time, and said in a daze.
—On the broken armor on his chest, the mark of the Black Nightmare Army can be vaguely discerned.
"There are only a few emergency secret escape routes. If you don't have time to hide in, it will definitely be difficult to survive." A mage fell next to him, sighed and said with reluctance.
The young man turned his head: "What happened? The tunnel cannot collapse for no reason."
The mage lowered his head and was silent for a while, then said: "It can only be the church... You should have heard the loud noise before the collapse. I may have never seen so much gunpowder in my life for an explosion of that magnitude."
When the young man heard this, he couldn't help but punched the black soil with his fist.
"hateful!"
He recalled what happened more than an hour ago in his mind.
At that time, the entire Black Nightmare Army was busy moving. Coster has been captured, and they finally no longer need to stay in the dark underground. They have already formed a team and left from the tunnel exit in order. However, not long after their transfer began, there was an astonishing loud noise. And when everyone's ears were ringing, the whole land began to tremble, and the originally stable tunnel... also began to collapse.
At that moment, the whole underground was in chaos. He was following the team and couldn't even remember what happened. He only remembered that he was following the crowd and kept running... running... The falling rock hit his left shoulder, but he didn't seem to feel any pain and just kept moving forward. run.
He heard someone shouting for help, he heard extremely sad screams, and he also heard someone shouting words like "secret passage" and "escape"... His mind went blank until he followed the crowd and fled into a tunnel. After discovering that there was no sign of collapse in the narrow corridor, he gradually calmed down.
And it was only then that he realized that Master Benjamin had suddenly ordered people to dig several secret escape routes a few days ago.
The secret passage has been reinforced many times with earth magic, so it will not collapse under the vibration. As for why there is a secret escape tunnel, according to other escape wizards, it seems that it was because Master Benjamin felt that things were "too smooth" and "wrong", so he was asked to dig it.
After that, after waiting for the shaking to subside, they crawled out little by little along the secret passage. He also saw many people in the secret passage, and many familiar faces, but he knew that compared with the entire Black Nightmare Army, this result... could be called tragic.
Because of this, few people even spoke during their escape. Depressed and heavy emotions permeated everyone's heart.
"I... I should have dragged Karl and ran away... I'm so useless..." Thinking of his embarrassed appearance when escaping, and thinking of his comrades who were standing beside him before the collapse, the young man lowered his head and covered his head in pain. own face.
"This is not something we can change." The mage sighed again and patted his shoulder, "You saved your life and saved a piece of power against the church. You have done what you should do. "
The young man's body trembled, but in the end, he stood up on his own.
"… That's right, the church."
Under the sun, the remaining Black Nightmare Army crawled out bit by bit from several secret escape passages. They looked at the devastated land, their eyes flashing with grief and anger.