Following the route she had scouted earlier, Nightingale passed through three layers of ceiling and landed directly in the dungeon where the Marchioness was held.
Speer. Pasi heard the noise, looked up, and couldn't help but widen her eyes. "You... how did you get in here?"
She made a shushing gesture, limped out of the iron gate. Two guards stood in the corridor, dressed as followers of the church. She used Mist to step behind them, drew her bishou, and quickly cut their throats – these two would never have expected an attack from inside the prison, and they didn't even look back before they died.
Back in the cell, Nightingale had a chance to check her injuries.
She saw that the specially made windproof pants from Soroya had a tear, and blood was flowing from her calf. The wound was about as deep as a fingernail. The enemy's magic whip probably pierced through the bottom of her pants from the side, taking a piece of flesh with it. Fortunately, the coated pants were tough enough, or this strike might have injured her even worse.
"You're injured," Speer frowned.
"It's not a big deal. We have to leave here, or you'll become a corpse," Nightingale didn't tell the Marchioness that the Holy Envoy planned to take her to Hermes. In her opinion, that was no different from death, or perhaps even worse. "They didn't know you were a witch before they caught you. This is all a conspiracy led by the church, aimed only at the Lordship of the Dragonfall Ridge."
"What about my brother..."
"He's most likely become a puppet of the church. Time is running out, I'll explain to you on the way," Nightingale tightly tied the gauze she carried with her above the wound. "Where is the God's Punishment Lock?"
The Marchioness pointed to her neck. "It started as chains tied to my feet, but later they replaced it with this."
Damn it, Nightingale's heart sank. She saw a metal ring as thick as a thumb around her neck – this God's Punishment Lock had several God Stones inserted into the iron ring, and then closed together with special tools, making it extremely difficult to unlock with personal strength alone.
"Do you remember which room the locking tool is in?"
"In the prison at the entrance. They took me to that place to put on the lock."
Obviously, after the Holy Envoy discovered her true identity, he switched to the most secure lock, which could trap almost all witches except for transcendents.
If she wanted to leave with Speer, she had to take off this thing first, otherwise, she wouldn't be able to pull her into the Mist state at all.
"We're going to the first prison," Nightingale decided. "Come with me."
Enduring the stabbing pain in her leg, she returned to the fallen guard, took the key, and opened the prison door.
At that moment, a clear bell rang at the top of the tower. The rapid bell echoed in the silent building, as if striking her heart.
"This is the church's alarm," Speer's face changed.
"They'll come sooner or later," Nightingale said in a deep voice. "Only by moving faster than the enemy can we have a chance to survive."
The alarm that rang at this time, in a sense, helped her. The followers stationed in the basement heard the bell and all gathered at the only exit of the prison, which undoubtedly gave Nightingale a chance to wipe them out in one fell swoop.
She descended from the Mist, and pulled the trigger at these people. Several bullets penetrated the body after hitting the first target, and went straight into the body of the second person, splashing a large amount of blood. The God's Punishment Stones they wore were the most conspicuous targets in the black and white world. Facing the elusive Nightingale, these people held long swords and shields, but didn't know where to strike. After two rounds of shooting, there were no living guards in the prison.
But she knew that these were just the lowest-ranking followers of the church, and soon the fully armed Judgement Army would arrive. If she couldn't remove the God's Punishment Stone by then, it would be difficult to escape.
"Come here!" She quickly found the locking device – it was an iron device standing on the side of the wall, with two rusty calipers extending forward, looking like a terrifying torture device.
Speer put her neck on the calipers, Nightingale pulled on the iron bolt, and then shook the handle. Under the action of the belt, the calipers separated to both sides, breaking open a gap in the God's Punishment Lock.
At the same time, the sound of the Judgement Army's armor shaking appeared at the dungeon door.
"They're there!" someone shouted.
"Aim – fire!"
"Go!" Nightingale pulled Speer into the Mist, but a group of lightless black holes shot straight at her, tearing the Mist to pieces in an instant.
The crossbow bolts actually carried God's Punishment Stones! Nightingale felt a cold sweat on her forehead. After leaving the shelter, the two figures were completely exposed to the Judgement Warriors – it had to be said that the training these people received was very different from ordinary followers. In the first round of shooting, they only roughly shot the crossbow bolts in the direction of the passage, front, back, left, and right, so that the magic-suppressing effect of the God Stones could block the road, and only half of the people participated in the first attack.
And the other half were waiting for the moment when the witch appeared.
With a clear target, the second wave of volleys arrived in an instant.
Hearing the buzzing of the bowstring loosening behind her, Nightingale pulled the Marchioness in front of her and shouted, "Duck!"
A piercing pain came from behind. She didn't know how many arrows she had been shot with. The pain spread like flames, but her footsteps didn't stop for a moment.
Rounding the corner of the prison, Nightingale felt a salty taste in her mouth. The pain had probably made her bite her lip. "Are you alright?"
"I... I'm fine," the Marchioness said somewhat falèng. "You, you blocked the crossbow bolts for me just now?"
"If you were hit, you'd be dead, but if I'm hit, I might be alright." Nightingale reached behind her and felt around. Sure enough, no arrowheads had pierced Soroya's windproof clothing – although her back felt like it was on fire, as long as it didn't penetrate her body, it would at most be a bruise. More importantly, it wouldn't allow the powder of the God Stone to seep into her body.
The Judgement Warriors hurriedly chased after them. They probably didn't expect that the two could block the second wave of crossbow bolts without shields. The stop-and-shoot attack had already created a distance between the two sides.
Freed from the restraints of the God's Punishment Stone, Nightingale grabbed Speer, unfolded the Mist, and rushed straight up along the ever-changing lines, passing through the floors and soil layers to the outside of the tower. Then she took out a bamboo tube from her waist bag and pulled the fuse.
A dazzling red light burst out from the bamboo tube, shooting straight into the sky, and then exploded into a circle of dense spots of light, as if countless stars had been added to the sky.
She remembered that when His Highness gave her this, he kept babbling about a shooting star, and thousands of troops would come to meet her. Now she didn't need thousands of troops, she only hoped that Maisie could see this signal.
Soon, a huge shadow descended from the sky. Maisie landed next to the tower with the force of ten thousand pounds. The burly body directly crushed the wall, and the airflow from the flapping wings dispersed the surrounding Mist.
"What... what is this?" Speer. Pasi couldn't help but widen her eyes.
"My companion," Nightingale asked Lightning to help secure the Marchioness on Maisie's body, and used the last of her strength to climb onto her back, patting her rough body. "Take off."
"Awoo—————— Awoo——————" Maisie let out a terrifying roar at the Judgement Army that was chasing out, and then waved her wings, took off into the air, carrying the two of them quickly, and soon disappeared into the night sky.
.(。)