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Back when Jeanne was alive, she had spent most of her life leading armies into battle. So when it came to judging heretics, she was no amateur.
Wellβ¦ she herself had ended up being burned at the stake. But it wasn't that her view had changedβher beliefs had simply been replaced. She still thought that the only good heretic was a dead heretic.
At that moment, however, Jalter was shouting inside her head, "Leave some alive! Leave a few alive!"
"Don't forget, these vampires can use magic. The group that attacked Old Nicolas could be connected to them. If you manage to get information out of them, Tom will definitely reward you."
Jalter's calculations were simple enough.
She called it a reward for Jeanne, but in the end, wouldn't she be the one enjoying the benefits too? If there wasn't something in it for herself, she wouldn't be offering Jeanne advice in the first place.
Hearing that, Jeanne's flag paused for a brief moment before resuming its sweep.
"Then I'll just keep Ternier alive. He's the leader. Whatever the others know, he definitely knows more. Besides, opening the ruins requires a large amount of blood. If we keep too many of them alive, how are we supposed to open the ruins and find the treasures?"
She merely adjusted the direction of her flag.
As it swung through the air, blazing white sacred flames ignited from nothingness.
They rapidly expanded into a roaring torrent and surged toward the vampires who had been watching from the sidelines.
One unfortunate vampire at the front barely brushed against the edge of the Flames of Judgment. A scream had only just left his mouth when it was abruptly cut short.
He had already been reduced to a pile of ashes.
Among all the teachers currently inside the study space, Morgan unquestionably ranked first in pure talent. Whether in potential or upper limits, nobody could dispute that. The fact that Morgan was already a Witch Queen didn't mean she had reached her ceiling.
Without Merlin's interference and the heartbreak that followed, she might have become a god by now.
As for second place? It wasn't Ravenclaw. It wasn't Andros.
It was Jeanne.
In Morgan's evaluation, Jeanne's talent and potential were every bit as frightening as her own. In certain circumstances, they might even surpass hers.
In a world where willpower shaped reality, the firmness of one's heart directly determined one's ultimate limits.
And Jeanne was a fanatic in the truest sense of the word. Once she found something to devote herself to, once the one she worshipped answered her prayers, the unwavering faith she poured into her magic became a level of concentration that bordered on the absurd.
The Flames of Judgment were a perfect example.
This was a high-level spell Jeanne had created herself. Its destructive power rivaled Fiendfyre. And with Jeanne's will fused into the spell, anyone she deemed a heretic suffered additional damage from the flames.
In a sense, these vampires were incredibly fortunate. Very few people ever got the chance to be roasted alive by a fire like this.
The sea of white holy fire spread across the battlefield, flowing wherever Jeanne directed it. The flames deftly curved around Isabella and the others, transforming into countless shapes as they lunged at the vampires.
"Don't burn them all to ash!" Jalter cried anxiously. "If they're completely incinerated, where are we supposed to get the blood for the ritual?"
Oh. Right.
Jeanne suddenly snapped back to her senses.
That was the problem with fanatics. Reason tended to take a back seat in most cases.
And so in that short span of time, more than a dozen vampires had already been turned into ash. Forget blood. There wasn't even enough left to fill an urn.
Realizing her mistake, Jeanne hurriedly adjusted her control over the flames.
She deliberately lowered their temperature, transforming them from instant execution into a sustained punishment.
Although the vampires were now dying much more slowly, the pain they suffered increased countless times over. Their screams were so shrill and miserable that even the professors of Castelobruxo felt their scalps tingle.
It was genuinely terrifying.
"Run! Hurry, run!"
At first, Ternier tried to organize the spell-casting vampires into a counterattack.
Their spells were able to pass through the sea of flames, but when they struck Jeanne's barrier, they failed to create even the slightest ripple.
God is Here With Me was Jeanne's unique magic.
As long as her faith remained unshaken, magical attacks from opponents of the same level or lower simply could not break through her defenses.
It was a spell that belonged to Jeanne alone. Even Tom couldn't learn it.
The prerequisite was having an object of absolute faith. How exactly was he supposed to learn that?
...
At last, the vampires broke.
"Run! Get out of here!"
Ternier didn't even need to give the order.
The surviving vampires had already lost all courage. They scattered in panic and fled in every direction.
Naturally, Jeanne wasn't about to let the mastermind escape.
With a sweep of her flag, a strip of white cloth shot outward.
It caught up to Ternier more than a hundred meters away, wrapped around him like a cocoon, and dragged him all the way back to Jeanne's side.
However, the brief distraction of pursuing him allowed some of the surviving vampires to escape beyond the reach of the flames.
Meanwhile, the blood covering the ground continued to flow toward the temple. Endless streams of crimson converged at its base.
The once-pure white temple was now shrouded in a blood-red glow.
A creaking sound echoed through the ruins as the massive doors slowly began to open.
From Jeanne's arrival to the complete rout of the vampires, less than two minutes had passed. The whole thing had happened so quickly that Isabella and the others still hadn't fully processed what they had witnessed.
...
..
After putting away her flag and stuffing the bound Ternier into an empty storage pouch, Jeanne turned toward Isabella and the others.
"Hiss..."
The moment Isabella met the girl's crystal-clear eyes, her first reaction wasn't relief.
It was fear.
Instinctively, she took two steps back.
There was no question about it. This mysterious girl who had appeared out of nowhere was an extremely devout believer.
The vampires were heretics. But weren't wizards heretics too, from a medieval church's perspective?
Far more witches and wizards had been burned at the stake than vampires.
"There's no need to be afraid. I have no intention of killing you."
Jeanne had already guessed what they were worried about and calmly explained herself. "If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't have gone through the trouble of saving you first."
"That said, my help does come with a condition. I want to explore the ruins with you."
Her strength far exceeded that of the professors present. Even if they all attacked together, they wouldn't be a match for her.
However, Jeanne lacked their depth of knowledge and academic expertise. She still needed these professors to continue doing the technical work. Otherwise, she might have already been considering clearing out everyone else as well.
Hearing her proposal, Isabella exchanged glances with the other professors.
Each of them could see the same hesitation in the others' eyes.
But considering the overwhelming gap in strength between the two sides, they ultimately had little choice.
After a moment, they nodded.
"This... my lady," Isabella said carefully, "we're willing to share the Amazon ruins with you."
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