I Reject the villain’s ending.

Episode 87.

At High Priest Diego’s command, the Rovians soon charged, and the attack began.
I shouted for Diane.
‘Dian!’
‘Yes!’
As if he knew what to do at my call, Dian instantly formed a shield of holy power and deflected the half-man-half-horse.
With a crackle and the sound of burning flesh, the demi-humans screamed as they fell to the ground.
They were also incompatible with divine power, so they couldn’t overcome Dian Dian’s shield.
But what worries me is…….
‘High Priest Diego would not have come without knowing about this.’
That disturbed me. He would bring such a large force without knowing.
‘He must have found a way to disable the shield, and even if it is a shield that can stop everything in Middle-earth, we must all be on our guard.’
‘Yes.’
Before I could finish my warning, High Priest Diego raised his hand and began to channel holy power.
I watched nervously, wondering what he was up to, but the holy power was compressed into a thin thread, straight up from the ground at right angles.
High Priest Diego spoke up.
‘It’s a tenacious creature,’ he said, ’you can curse it to kill it, but all it does is make you hysterical, and when you stack curses on top of each other, it comes back to life.’
‘Wait. I was kind of expecting the curse to be the reason I died, but the curse was also the reason my personality was tainted?’
Wasn’t I just this personality, wasn’t I always good?
I tilted my head in question, but Iros gave me a serious look, then spoke to himself.
‘I can’t believe you’ve gone from being a cranky, nervous saint to being so twisted that you’re capable of harming people. I think it was after she met High Priest Diego.’
‘…She wasn’t always a very nice person.’
I thought it was because I was offended after having tea with the High Priest, and I became more and more vicious.
I had no idea it was a curse.
I was nervous, with goosebumps running up and down my spine, thinking about the curse I had unwittingly placed on myself when Diego said.
‘I was about to kill you, but your shield began to protect you as well as your sword.’
‘So?’
‘It was the shield of the Lord of the Rings that bothered me the most. For nothing of Middle Earth can cross its shield.’
High Priest Diego recited the facts we already knew in a dull voice. It made it all the more unsettling to hear.
‘Do you know, holy woman, that half-elf halflings belong nowhere, not in Middle-earth, not in the demon realm, and therefore their divine power belongs nowhere.’
‘……!’
High Priest Diego’s head snapped up as he realized what he was saying, and he shot a thread of divine power toward Dian’s shield.
Common sense dictated that nothing could pierce Diane’s shield, but his instincts told him this was dangerous.
Chewing on his lip, he shouted at Diane and Leo and shoved them aside.
‘Get out of the way!’
‘What?’
‘Avoid!’
They didn’t have time to panic because they were thrown from their horses by me. He didn’t have time to panic, for they were thrown from their horses by me. At the same time, High Priest Diego’s holy power sliced the shield in half.
‘Aaah!’
‘The shield is……!’
The shield that had been eternal and immaculate under the sky of the gods was shattered.
I watched the shield split in half and shattered, but I was not surprised. Two of our horses were instantly cut down by the unrelenting attack of High Priest Diego.
We stood frozen in time, our mouths agape in shock.
After a long time, I spoke up, filled with disbelief.
‘Diane’s shield cracked……. Is this possible?’
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Dian was beyond shocked, like a man whose soul had been sucked out of his body. No wonder, he was more proud of his shield than anyone else.
Thrown from his horse and rolling on the ground, the crown prince forced Dian to his feet and raised his sword.
‘Wake up! What are you all admiring? Riding in front of the enemy will get your head blown off. I refuse to die twice.’
The crown prince’s shout brought him back to his senses, and he drew his bowstring to keep a wary eye on the High Priest, or rather, on Diego.
‘I don’t know what kind of harmony this is, but everyone focus on what’s in front of you. Diane’s shield could be shattered by Diego, so be careful.’
‘…Yes.’
‘Don’t worry too much, our job is the same as before.’
Everyone nodded at my words. Each took a deep breath as they raised their weapons, their eyes shining.
‘Kill as many as you can, and hurt enough not to die. I’ll take care of the healing.’
‘Haha, that sounds reassuring.’
‘I won’t die, and I won’t be hurt, for the saint is sad, but I’ll kill as many as I can to protect you.’
The crown prince shook his head in annoyance at Iros’s answer, and the others rushed forward as I fired an arrow full of holy power at Diego.
‘Kill him!’
‘Die!’
The demi-humans and halflings also charged frantically as Diego parried my arrow with his sword.
Their robes fluttered like black waves, and their hats were thrown back, revealing glowing red eyes.
Iros and Leo fought at the front, thinning the halfling’s headcount, while Diane fought around me, her shield ready to deploy at any moment.
The crown prince was the weakest of the bunch in terms of firepower (pardon the comparison between a guardian and a knight), so he flanked me and dealt with the half-man horses that came over the back.
I kept my eyes on the front, reading the flow of the battle and supporting with fire where I felt it was advantageous.
Amid the bloodshed, Diego stood tall in the same spot as at the beginning, staring at me.
His mouth closed in silence. His mouth had closed, moved slowly, and he spoke an unexpected farewell.
‘Goodbye, saint.’
‘What?’
As soon as I read the shape of his mouth, a cold sweat ran down my back.
Goodbye? Suddenly? Where?
‘Does he mean attack? Are there any enemies around? No, they’re all in front of us, so what the hell are you going to do-
My brain spun rapidly, running through the different scenarios, and I was staring at Diego when he slowly took two steps to the side, his face impassive.
And there, dwarfed by Diego’s massive bulk, stood a Moringa-blonde boy.
‘Jess, are you ready?’
‘Of course, old man!’
‘Spoil the horse. Then go.’
Moringa, who had been bickering with the boy, turned to me, her eyes twinkling.
‘Farewell, saint. Don’t come back to life this time.’
‘……!’
‘Saint!’
Sensing something was amiss, the crown prince slashed at the half-man-half-horse he was fighting and moved closer to me.
At that moment, magic circles glowing with ominous light appeared at my feet, overlapping one, two, three, four, countless times.
‘I must dodge……!’
‘Ew!’
As I panicked and tried to move away, a chain shot out from one of the magic circles, binding the crown prince tightly together.
Iros, who had heard my voice and turned around, came running at a fast pace, his eyes wide.
‘Saint!’
‘Pink!’
Iros’s outstretched hand gently touched mine, and my hand began to crumble and fade away.
‘No, Sierra. No-!’
‘Your Highness?!’
Iros’s desperate cry and Leo’s panicked voice cut through the air, and the scene before me changed.
I blinked and shivered against the bone-chilling cold and the north wind that froze my cheeks.
Everywhere was pure white snow.
‘Where the hell am I……?’
With the despair in my voice, my pristine breath dispersed like a cloud, turning to frost and dripping onto the snow.
I felt a warmth on my back, and a dazed voice replied.
‘I see. I wonder where we are, Saint.’
Myself and the Prince of Wales had fallen into a strange place in chains.
Somewhere completely unexpected and unfamiliar.
Missing]
During the battle, Diego walked away, and behind him, Moringa and the half-man-half-horse boy were preparing their magic.
Seeing this, Iros heard Moringa’s voice.
‘Goodbye, Saint. Don’t come back to life this time.’
‘What are you going to do to the saint……!’
From behind her, she heard the Crown Prince call out to Sierra, urgently.
‘Saint, you must avoid……!’
‘Ugh!’
I turned around, even though the blades of my enemies still surrounded me.
My heart pounded wildly. I feared she was in danger. I would lose her again.
In the distance, chains shot out of the ground and air, binding Sierra.
As soon as he saw the sight, Iros ignored the swords swung at him and ran frantically to rescue her from the circle of colorful, ominous light.
‘Saintess!’
‘Pink!’
I stretched out my hand, and just before my fingertips touched her white hand rather, just as my fingertips touched hers-they shattered like a mirage.
Sierra’s body faded away, and air took its place. Iros opened his hand and clenched it tightly, trying to catch her.
But there was nothing in his grasp.
His feet stopped running, and he stood still as if rooted to the ground: no Crown Prince Sierra, no glowing circle of magic.
…There was none of that.
There was only Iros.
‘Xie… La?’
Diego turned around to see the dazed, motherless back of Iros calling out his name.
‘We’re withdrawing.’
‘Yes.’
Moringa looked back at Iros, who was staring blankly at the air, unable to respond, and pursed her lips as if to say something, then turned and disappeared.
Leo and Diane watched the demi-humans vanish in an instant and rushed over to Iros.
‘What the hell is going on?! Where the hell did the crown prince and the saint go!’
‘Are they dead…….’
‘Probably not, because the last thing I saw was a teleportation circle that took them somewhere. Damn it! But the problem is, I couldn’t see the most important coordinates, because they were obscured by the overlapping circles.’
Leo cursed, ruffling his hair and kicking the ground.
Diane pressed her hand to her throbbing head and started to speak to Iros, but shut up when she saw his condition.
Iros muttered in a shaky voice, almost like a madman.
‘No, she can’t be dead, she can’t be gone like this, leaving me, leaving me alone.’
‘Iros…….’
‘She said she loved me, she said she loved me, she said she would stay by my side forever, she said she would-’
And then she was gone from my grasp.
Once again I had lost Sierra, lost my woman.
Iros contorted his face as if to cry, clenched his fist, and held it to his heart.
‘Sierra……!’
The morning that had peeked through his long, night disappeared without a trace.