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With a sweep of her flag, the Flames of Judgment carpeting the ground melted into a flowing tide of fire, surging back toward Jeanne. In moments, every trace of the inferno had vanished into the flag's folds, leaving behind nothing but a scorched and shattered landscape.
Isabella couldn't help staring at Jeanne's flag.
So that's her wand? What a strange design.
Then again, the girl herself was even stranger. She was clearly an exceptionally powerful witch, yet she looked more like a religious zealot.
"Madame, how should we address you?"
Isabella asked cautiously in French. After all, the language Jeanne had used for her spells was French as well.
(You couldn't exactly imagine a saint famous for fighting the English speaking flawless English. That just wouldn't fit the image.)
Jeanne's voice was clear and bright. "Jeanne d'Arc."
The professors from Castelobruxo were hardly ignorant, but they weren't particularly knowledgeable about French history. The name didn't trigger any special reaction. They simply nodded and committed it to memory.
They could look her up later and find out where such a strong witch had suddenly come from. The terrifying flames from earlier still haunted them.
Fortunately, they had formed a temporary alliance, so there was no danger of turning their wands on each other. Even so, the rewards from this expedition would likely be far smaller than they had hoped.
Jeanne paid little attention to the professors' concerns. After recalling the holy fire, her gaze settled on the temple gates.
Every drop of blood on the ground had been absorbed.
The temple now radiated a crimson glow. But the gates had remained half-open for quite some time.
Jeanne worried that the vampires' blood might not have been potent enough. Even after absorbing it all, the temple might still fail to open completely.
If that happened, she would have no choice but to hunt down more creatures and offer their blood as sacrifice.
As for killing these professors just to open the altar... that was something she couldn't bring herself to do.
Her objective was simply to complete Tom's mission. There was no reason to slaughter innocent people.
Thankfully, her worries proved unnecessary.
The crimson light began to withdraw inward, and the gates slowly opened wider and wider.
"We need to move quickly," Isabella suggested. "That vampire, Ternier, may have been captured, but some escaped. If he still has accomplices out there, we'll have another problem on our hands."
Jeanne nodded in agreement. "Then let's go in. But first, understand this: you must tell me the origin and function of every treasure we find. If you try to deceive me, I'll know whether you're telling the truth."
"Don't worry." Isabella nodded solemnly. "I would never do anything that damages the school's reputation."
Trusting her instincts, Jeanne judged that Isabella was telling the truth.
Then the group headed toward the temple.
But when they were halfway there, staring at the fully opened gates, a powerful sense of danger suddenly rose in Jeanne's heart.
"Stop!"
Whoosh!
The flag swept across the path, blocking the professors and startling them.
"Something's wrong inside..." Jeanne frowned deeply, "...Something is coming out... something evil."
"I don't see anything." One of the professors scratched his head in confusion.
Through the wide-open gates, all he could see was darkness stretching deep into the temple's interior. There wasn't a single useful clue to be found.
The others felt the same. None of them understood what Jeanne was reacting to.
Then, a second later, they did.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Heavy footsteps echoed from deep within the temple. A towering figure emerged from the darkness. Reaching out with both hands, it shoved against the massive doors and forced them fully open.
When the figure stepped completely into the sunlight, everyone present sucked in a sharp breath. Jeanne included.
It was a female warrior over seven meters tall, even taller than Hagrid. She wore leather battle gear in the style of the Amazons.
Yet it wasn't her size that shocked everyone. It was her body.
Rotting flesh clung to her frame. Her limbs were grotesquely twisted, and her face was so horrifying that several professors instinctively recoiled.
Black magical energy flowed through her decaying flesh, carrying a foul stench with it.
Her eye sockets were empty. Only eerie green flames burned within them.
This was a zombie, a giant one.
"ROOOAAAR!"
The giantess zombie let out a thunderous howl.
The spear in her hand shot forward like a missile, and she immediately broke into a charge, her massive strides shaking the ground.
"Begone, foul evil!"
Jeanne drove her flag into the earth.
A golden defensive barrier surged upward from below. The shield deflected the incoming spear, sending it spinning away.
But the giant warrior's fist arrived an instant later.
It slammed into the barrier with explosive force.
Crack! Crack!
Fractures spread across the golden shield.
"Fall back!"
Before the barrier could completely collapse, Jeanne shouted for Isabella and the others to retreat.
Then she raised the flag. Gripping it with both hands, she pulled hard.
The flag split cleanly in two.
The pieces immediately shifted and transformed, reshaping themselves into a blazing longsword wreathed in holy fire.
Facing the giant zombie warrior, Jeanne charged forward without hesitation. She intended to fight her head-on.
The sight left Isabella and the others utterly stunned.
And what happened next was even harder for them to understand.
The giantess's attacks crashed down with the force of a natural disaster, yet Jeanne weaved and dodged through them with astonishing agility. Occasionally, she even met those devastating blows directly.
Not only did she remain uninjured, but the holy flames coating her sword left charred black wounds across the giant warrior's body.
The professors could only stare.
Was she a witch? Or a warrior?
What they didn't know was that during her lifetime, Jeanne had rarely relied on magic while charging into battle. She had never formally learned swordsmanship either. She'd simply been extraordinarily strong and, through countless battles, developed a close-combat style that suited her.
The reason she had chosen melee combat now was simple.
The giantess wasn't a living creature.
To destroy her, Jeanne needed to identify and strike at her weakness.
But after exchanging blows for a while, she noticed something strange.
Her incredible durability alone would have been troublesome enough. Yet she also possessed absurd regenerative abilities.
Burns left behind by Jeanne's sacred flames healed completely within seconds.
And there was something else. The giantess's physical strength was terrifying.
A single punch had nearly shattered Jeanne's Protection barrier. It had broken apart like paper.
That made no sense.
The giantess was clearly weaker than Jeanne overall. Then why was her raw strength so monstrous?
Jeanne's gaze dropped to the giant warrior's waist.
Around it hung a rust-covered metal belt.
Most of the belt had been corroded by time, but the gemstone embedded in it still shone brilliantly, hinting at its extraordinary nature.
Far away, Tom had been observing everything through the Study Space.
He noticed the belt as well.
A certain legend from Greek mythology surfaced in his mind, and a possibility immediately occurred to him.
Ares's belt! The belt of the God of War Ares
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