Other than a chance at survival, there was only one other thing that could make fleeing humans turn back.
A greater crisis.
“Man-thing, die!
Die!” Right in front, people heard the shrill battle cries of the Skaven, and the screams of human victims before they died.
The Skaven had already appeared in front of the path the humans were fleeing along.
Blocking the road to the Palace District, those humans who had slammed head-first into the Skaven army had never seen monsters like these before.
Skaven—ugly, evil, and spreading plague everywhere; they possessed no noble or righteous qualities.
The humans of the Empire knew of their existence; they existed in dusty, ancient history books, in the legends of the human Empire, and in the stories of the heroes who had once saved the Empire—but the one place they would not exist was in the sewers of a city.
Who would believe that a group of talking giant rats lived beneath their feet?
That was just a story, no different from legends about pixies or slimes.
But Skaven truly did exist.
No matter how the rulers of the Empire tried to hide it, human lies could not mask the reality of the Skaven’s existence.
When the Skaven decided to invade this city, it was the most miserable and suffering people in the slums who first met their deaths.
The humans wailed and screamed, which to the Skaven was quite a great pleasure; the monsters enjoyed the thrill of slaughtering others.
The fleeing group that had run into the Skaven retreated for their lives, while those in the back who could see nothing were also desperately pushing forward.
The woman whom Wilden had helped was also in the retreating crowd, and she saw Mia and Wilden again, who had not gone very far.
The moment she saw the two of them again, the woman threw herself to the ground, wailing and crying, shouting as she wept: “Good knight, please save us!” It would have been fine if she hadn’t cried or shouted, but once she started, there was no stopping it.
It was unclear how her shouting had spread through the chaotic fleeing crowd, but in an instant, Wilden became the straw of hope that everyone tried to grasp.
Now, everyone around knew that there was a burly knight from ‘Bretonia’ here.
“This is fucked up…” Mia cursed under her breath, feeling a headache over the current situation.
It wasn’t that she felt these citizens were a hindrance; the young girl was always happy to help others, but only within the limits of ‘helping the world when successful’ and ‘taking care of oneself when in need.’ She only helped within the scope of her own abilities.
By now, the flow of people had almost stopped; those running back and those running forward were all squeezed together.
There were Skaven in front, and there were also some behind.
Those pitch-black Skaven rushed out from the alleys like drops of black fuel into clear water, quickly covering the street.
The civilians stuck in the middle were like mosquitoes stuffed into a syringe.
Sooner or later, they would be crushed by their unstoppable force.
Mia reached out and grabbed the woman’s arm: “What year is this?” “What?” The woman was somewhat bewildered by Mia’s question.
Mia repeated the question very seriously, and the woman swallowed nervously and said: “2499 I.C….” “Phew…” Mia let out a sigh of relief and let go of the woman.
After a moment of hesitation, she had made up her mind.
It was just killing Skaven; it shouldn’t be that difficult.
They had to break out, not just to help the strangers surrounded by Skaven, but also so that she and Wilden could return to The Lands Between as quickly as possible.
People gathered around Wilden, begging and hoping to receive his protection.
Mia suddenly had an inspiration; she felt she had to say something.
Her brain was running at high speed, because every second of delay meant someone would die.
The understanding of this world accumulated from her past life allowed her to successfully think of what she should say within a few seconds.
“Citizens of Nuln!” She jumped onto the overturned stall, which was the only prop she could see that would let her stand higher than the average height of the people of Nuln: “We must carve a bloody path out!
We cannot let those monsters born from hell kill our loved ones just like that.
Pick up any weapon around you, and let me see how much you are willing to sacrifice for yourselves and those you love!” In that instant, no one would know that Mia had only arrived in this world twenty minutes ago.
Wilden looked at Mia with some surprise, as if he were only truly meeting her today.
In this place where even he felt lost and in danger, Mia was simply like a born leader.
And what Mia knew was that her voice had not carried very far; almost no one had ignited their fighting spirit because of her words.
She had to make herself more conspicuous and deeply touch their hearts.
The young girl clenched her left hand, injecting an unprecedentedly vast amount of energy into her sacred seal.
This was a method she had never tried before.
She wanted to break through the upper limit of the original effect of the Prayer.
Mia had long since had an inspiration; from the time she had reduced the power of Ignite to light firewood, she had discovered that the effect of the Prayer could, to a certain extent, obey her will.
Since Ignite could, then perhaps the Erdtree’s Prayer could as well.
A moment later, Mia could feel that the energy she had poured into the sacred seal had reached the limit of what she could currently achieve, so she decisively released that vast energy that had been tightly constrained.
Golden Vow!
The most brilliant golden radiance Mia had ever seen—even the most brilliant golden radiance Wilden had ever seen in his remaining memories—covered almost the entire main road.
Streets, shops, stone pillars, alleys…
as long as it was a place Mia could see, all the darkness was dispelled by the holy radiance emitted by that ‘magnificent’ phantom of the Erdtree above her head.
The Skaven, having looked directly at this golden holy radiance, squeaked and covered their eyes; their eyes, born only to crawl in the darkness, could not bear to look directly at the radiance of the Erdtree.
The entire chaotic street stagnated in that instant; everyone or non-human, whether fighting, killing, running, or crying, was stunned by the light of the Erdtree.
Grace of the Erdtree!
Immediately following was another golden radiance similar to the previous one.
A huge magic circle appeared on the ground, and countless dazzling light particles rose up.
The citizens who had thought they were about to die under the blades of the Skaven opened their eyes under the light, only to find those Skaven covering their eyes and shrieking in pain, while their own wounds were healing rapidly