The setting sun quickly closed its last rays, raising the pitch-black canopy, and Jude was in the middle of the battle when he came back to his senses.

Their task tonight was to hold the slope, to strengthen the left flank, and to buy as much time as possible for the archbishop's purification ceremony.

At this moment, the young man was standing on the edge of the cliff, looking at it with the blessing of the eagle eye. In the darkness of night in the north, before Mordras's army of the undead appeared, Jude turned to observe his own defenses.

The snow falls at the flatter southern foot of the range, while the northern trail is rough and steep, with two roads leading to the summit, often with narrow slopes along the way.

This provided a natural terrain advantage for defence, and the tactic advocated by Archbishop Alphonsos Tao was to fortify at every slope to limit the effectiveness of the enemy's attack, thus blocking the endless sea of the undead with a small defensive force.

These less than 3,000 defenders alone were obviously not enough to hold off the onslaught of tens of thousands of necromantic creatures, but they only had to fight and retreat to buy as much time as possible. Archbishop Alfonsos is performing a purification ritual in the camp at the top of the mountain, which will take about two hours, after which a divine purification wave will wipe out all undead creatures in the entire area.

Jude reflects on the archbishop's actions, as Nossa puts it, sacrificing a few to keep more alive?

Moreover, now that Leia is the saint, the boy will never allow this to happen.

Jude turned his head to look south at the top of the hill: the Marquis of Vorensis, Lord of Snowfall, and Archbishop Alphonsos Theo were standing in the camp, at the rear of the entire defensive position, in charge of command.

After the Eagle Eye, the boy's vision was as sharp as an eagle even in the dark, and he soon found Leia on the other side of the camp, who was being protected by a large number of members of the Church, and Kirekanon was standing beside her.

Some of the members of the Church dressed as assistant priests were arranging a large circle on the ground, presumably for the purification ceremony.

So in a moment, they plan to take Leia to that circle and release all the huge divine energy stored in her body?

How is this different from sacrifice?

As he retracted his gaze, Jude reminded himself once again that he should pay attention to conserving mana during the battle for a while, and then there would inevitably be a fierce battle between him and the people in the church.

The boy clenched his fists, cheered himself on, and secretly vowed to defeat those people.

-

"Excuse me, what's your name?"

Jude looked up to see a young girl in a priest's robe standing in front of her, staring at her with large, emerald green eyes.

Why did a pastor of the church come at this time, the young man was unhappy for a while, and simply responded: "Jude." Mage's apprentice. ”

"Wow, you're a, Mr. Mage?" the girl looked surprised.

Jude couldn't help but regret confessing that he had seen this expression too many times, and that mages were indeed rare and noble in the eyes of the world.

The girl's eyes were full of disbelief, she looked at herself happily, and hurriedly tried to perform a non-standard priestly salute: "Hello Mr. Mage, I am Cynthia, a trainee priest of the Holy Light Sect. It's such a pleasure to see you here!"

"Oh. Jude seemed distracted, he didn't want to pay attention to the church members at the moment, and he didn't want to disturb the concentration. The boy said casually, "You're pretty good, come on." ”

The girl's face was suddenly filled with a happy smile: "Really, Mr. Mage, do you really think so?"

Oh, what an easy person to satisfy. Secretly lamenting how dull and stupid the cultists were, Jude nodded.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Mage, you were the first person to praise me this month!" the young priest-in-command excitedly grabbed the young man's hand and took out an ornament from his waist bag and put it in his hand, "This is an ancestral amulet of our family, if you carry it with you, the Holy Light will definitely bless you." But you're so powerful, you probably won't need it...... It's great to have you here, and we're going to win. May the Light be with you!"

Cynthia looked very happy, and she ran away with a smile on her face, as if to give her amulet to the next defender.

Somehow, Jude looked at the piece in his hand that could not be considered a delicate talisman.

-

Finally, the sound of the trumpet tore through the silence of the night. The sound came from the northeast direction, and then the same sound sounded one after another from the forward positions at the northern foothills.

Jude followed the sound and looked north: a myriad of dense monsters appeared in the distant night—it was Mordras's army of the undead.

"They're coming!" the paladin, presumably Kane, reminded the defenders of the bevel position not far away.

Then came the voices of weapons drawn, praying for protection, and shouting and cheering.

The young man pursed his lips, as far as he could see, it would take a long time for the undead army to break through the forward position from approaching, so why be so nervous now.

Thinking so, Jude tried to take a step only to find something stuck in his right foot, and looked down: Vidia was on top, and a pale bony hand was grabbing his ankle!

What the hell is this?!, Jude was startled, and quickly cast a phase jump to the distance, turning to look back at where he had stood: a white humanoid skeleton crawling out of the dirt, holding a sword and shield from nowhere.

Looking around, others are in a similar situation. Jude suddenly realized that this mountain range might be a mass grave for the ancestors of the Northlands.

The archbishop probably didn't expect this situation, so it seems that Jude quickly analyzed the situation, and I am afraid that the entire defensive position is now full of undead.

"What kind of evil witchcraft is this?"

As the defenders reacted, cries of terror began to ring in Jude's ears.

"Don't panic, the land has been desecrated by the necromancer, and the corpses of the dead are gradually coming back from the earth. Kane's shout came from not far away, "Stay calm, quickly clear the enemy around you, and hold your ground!"

Well, solve the immediate troubles first and then think about more things.

After taking a few deep breaths, Jude calmed down, stared at the skeleton that was walking slowly towards him not far away, and slowly pulled the black sword Cyrence from the scabbard behind his back.

He hadn't done a good job since he had recently continued to learn swordsmanship from Nosa, and now was his chance.

With two waves of his hand, the young man calmly took a fighting stance, took a half step back and then rushed forward.

The long sword pulled up from the right side and hit the oncoming blade, kicked at the opponent's shield, and took advantage of the impact to prevent it from being able to return to defense, followed by a continuous diagonal slash.

After a series of fluid movements, the skeleton had broken in two and fell to the ground, no longer moving.