A massive explosion erupted within the darkened chapel. The violent detonation ignited from within the bone shield wall, sending a powerful shockwave that shattered the shields, scattering fragments across the entire chapel.
The chapel pews were overturned in rapid succession, objects on the altar were blown away, and bone shards and stone debris shot out like bullets in every direction. The already battered and broken main door was instantly blown apart by the blast wave, allowing the chapel to once again be bathed in pure moonlight.
After the explosion, the chapel interior was engulfed in a cloud of pale gray dust. Once the dust settled slightly, Dorothy and Vania emerged from the secret passage behind the altar.
" Cough, cough... "
Coughing as she waved away the dust before her, Vania stepped out of the passage, her feet landing on the debris-covered floor of the chapel. Under the moonlight, she took in the devastation before her, unable to suppress her astonishment.
"This... this is..."
"It’s mining explosives from the mountains. Since they’re meant for blasting rock, they’re perfect for dealing with these two Stones. After all, they’re both made to blow up rocks."
Behind Vania, Dorothy had already removed her mask. Leaning on her cane, she emerged with a white cloth wrapped around her nose and mouth as an improvised mask.
"Explosives... You used explosives in a Beyonder battle? Miss Dorothy?"
"Yes, and you see, the results are quite good, aren’t they?" Dorothy said with a grin, swinging her arm as she gestured toward the wreckage of the chapel.Vania, however, as a member of the clergy, couldn’t help but feel guilty at the sight before her.
"Miss Dorothy, we blew up the Radiance Church like this... Won’t it displease the Saints?"
"Don’t worry, don’t worry. We did this to deal with dangerous and evil Beyonders, didn’t we? The Saints will surely understand, so stop worrying too much." Dorothy waved dismissively.
Even so, Vania remained uneasy. She stepped toward the altar, clasped her hands together, and began silently praying.
"Lord... Please forgive us for defiling the holy altar... We only did so because..."
Hearing the nun’s prayer beside her, Dorothy pursed her lips and shook her head, deciding to ignore it. Instead, she turned toward the epicenter of the explosion inside the chapel.
The ground there had been completely obliterated. Not far from the explosion’s core lay a figure, their body covered in gray dust, bloodied and mangled, with one arm blown off. This was one of the two Black-rank enemies. Dorothy tested the body with her Corpse Marionette Ring, confirming that he was dead.
"Heh... Not bad. Even though I only used half the explosives, he still couldn’t withstand it. Beyonder or not, he’s still human. Hardened skin won’t protect him from such a close-range explosion."
Looking at the ruined corpse on the ground, Dorothy recalled that the whole reason she lured them into the chapel was to break through their defenses with explosives.
While explosives could shatter a Bonesmith’s hardened skin, their effectiveness depended on proximity. The challenge was delivering the bomb close enough to the target. She initially considered using a corpse marionette to carry the bomb in, but if it got intercepted by the enemy’s bone weapons, the plan would fail. A detonation outside the bone shield wall would be far less effective.
Dorothy’s corpse marionette birds were small species with limited carrying capacity, unlike hawks or other large raptors. Aerial bombing wasn’t an option.
Thus, delivering the bomb inside the enemy’s defenses required a more intricate approach, and this chapel was the perfect setup for her plan.
By using herself as bait, she lured the enemies into the enclosed chapel, extinguishing the lights to create darkness. With their vision obscured, they couldn’t see where the corpse marionettes were coming from. The marionettes, with Silent Sigil, bypassed their vibration-based senses and delivered the explosives undetected.
To be safe, Dorothy had only used half the explosives for Plan A, keeping the other half as a backup in case the first attempt failed.
But judging by the results, a second attempt wasn’t necessary.
"But… why is there only one body here? Where’s the other one?"
Scanning the area, Dorothy soon spotted another figure lying in the distance.
This figure was on the ground, some distance from the explosion’s center. Unlike the first, he had all his limbs intact, and aside from being covered in dust, he had no obvious external injuries. A large fragment of a bone shield lay atop his body.
Seeing him, Dorothy tested with her Corpse Marionette Ring again but found she couldn’t control him—meaning he was still alive.
"He’s alive?! Is he faking his death to ambush me?"
Suspicious, Dorothy immediately controlled a barely functional corpse marionette to stagger over and inspect the fallen man.
After a careful check, she concluded that he had lost consciousness. His body was covered in fine, crack-like fractures, but there were no major injuries. He must have been knocked out by the blast.
"This guy… he was the one controlling the bone blades, right? And earlier, he was also the one using tremor-sensing. He must have noticed the vibrations when the bomb landed and realized something was wrong, so he ran. Looks like he got outside the shield wall before the bomb went off. The wall absorbed most of the shockwave, and his hardened skin saved him from death, but he still got knocked out."
Dorothy analyzed the situation while using her corpse marionette to check the man’s condition. She initially considered finishing him off but then had another thought.
"Maybe… he could be useful for something else."
With that in mind, Dorothy immediately had her marionette find some rope and tightly bound the unconscious man, tying him up securely before tossing him into the secret passage behind the altar—far away from any bone-based objects.
After handling everything, Dorothy scanned her surroundings, ignoring Vania, who was still sincerely repenting before the ruined altar. She then slowly walked out of the chapel, gazing at the silent school grounds ahead.
"I wonder… how’s that old man doing in his battle?"
Just as Dorothy was thinking this, a tremor suddenly ran through the ground. The scattered rubble inside the chapel rattled as if an earthquake had struck. Vania, still deep in prayer, jumped in fright, fearing divine retribution.
"This is...?"
Steadying herself, Dorothy looked ahead.
In the wide-open space before her, the ground split apart, forming a massive fissure. From within the crack, a colossal figure struggled to emerge.
A towering skeletal beast, nearly twenty meters tall, rose from the earth. Its massive skull resembled that of a deer, its antlers branching out like twisted tree limbs. Beneath the majestic deer skull, however, was a humanoid body—complete with arms, legs, and a torso—composed not of a single skeleton but an amalgamation of countless human bones, numbering in the thousands.
The combination of a massive, intact deer skull and a torso made of thousands of human remains formed the grotesque creature. The moment she laid eyes on it, Dorothy felt an agonizing stab of pain in her head, her thoughts becoming sluggish. At the same time, an overwhelming wave of sorrow surged through her, forcing her to clutch her head in distress.
Then, a voice echoed in her mind.
"Detected sighting of a divine creature: Partial Remains of the Abyssal Ancient Deer. Some relevant data has been collected. Please avoid further cognitive damage beyond informational limits."
Just as Dorothy struggled with the unsettling effect on her mind, the monstrous deer skull let out a deafening roar before soaring into the sky. However, before it could escape, three enormous stone spears suddenly erupted from the ground, impaling it mid-air. The creature shrieked in agony.
From the fissure, a massive stone-clad knight, over ten meters tall, stepped forward. Wielding a colossal stone sword, the armored giant slashed downward, cleaving the skeletal beast apart. Its body exploded into scattered fragments, human bones raining down while the deer skull warped and vanished into the night sky.