"Just what the hell do you think you were doing?"
Zesshi, who was lying on the table and having her injuries treated looked the other way in order to avoid eye-contact with the person scolding her.
As the fifth legacy of the six great gods there really weren't any men that were allowed to criticize her as she technically qualified as an object of worship. Archon as the supervisor of the Black Scripture was the exception.
"But Ar-chan, I'm already feeling very sad about what happened so can't you forget about it?"
Zesshi turned her head once more and looked at Archon with pleading eyes that would remind one of a student asking her teacher to stop scolding her.
It was a good thing that healing magic was so effective as the damage done to her face by Yuri would have required an extensive surgery and healing period to recover without it and would be quite unpleasant to look at.
"Who are you calling Ar-chan right now? No before that, if you knew that such a beast was in the capital you should have notified the rest immediately. What would have happened if you died at the hands of that beast? You are the last guard of humanity, our final hope that was left to us by the gods. Your value is worth more than this entire blasted capital and you still went alone, risking your life and for what?"
"Now, Now Tado-san. There's no way that 'certain death' would lose right, at least not due to injuries like these? Having treated this child for so long I can vouch for at least that."
The one who was trying to calm down the archbishop was an old man in clerical clothing. He looked like he was in his late eighties as the wrinkles on his face were staring to hide his eyes. His hair had mostly disappeared only leaving a few white strands. This was the head priest of the temple.
His hands radiated a bright holy light as he was in the middle of using a 5th tier healing spell to heal Zesshi's wounds. He was one of the only ones in the Theocracy capable of doing that. And the only one capable of doing so without the assistance of a holy item left by the six great gods. If it wasn't for his age he would a man that any country would pay a fortune for to enlist.
Archon calmed down as he didn't want to speak rudely to the person that was so respected amongst the priests.
"Egyl-sama, it's not about the wounds, she is our greatest weapon. What is she thinking? Although speaking of which, how is her condition?"
Egyl remained silent for a bit as he summarized what he was about to say in his head.
"Several deep cuts and bruises to the face, a hole in her pivot leg with a diameter of 1.5 centimeters, a punctured long and as far as I can tell a spinal trauma. So all in all nothing serious."
What the old priest did not say was that if it wasn't for his ability to use 5th tier healing magic than fully curing the girl's wounds in such a short amount of time would have been impossible.
"You see Ar-chan there's no need to be angry it's all good. And who are you calling child you old fossil? Just how many years have we known each other? Despite looking like this I'm hardly a child you know."
Egyl displayed a warm elderly smile towards her. Even if he had no teeth anymore he would still come off as warm and earnest.
Confronted with this display of caring affection, Zesshi could not say anything anymore. Egyl was the one person she couldn't win against no matter how strong she got. All of her aggression and mockery was always answered with a warm smile and it made her lose all spirit.
Archon sighed as the conversation had gone off topic. He had to start questioning her again while she was getting healed and wouldn't run away from here.
"So. Back to the main topic, what exactly did you face? It should take a dragon lord or god-kin to be able to wound you? Was this monster one of those?"
An eerie silence came from Zesshi. For her failure was unacceptable, even though her foe ran, the fact that she was not able to capture him was already a great blemish.
Swallowing the words she really wanted to say she replied.
"That monster I fought was a werewolf. But don't be mistaken I didn't have trouble beating 'just' a werewolf. That thing called itself a werewolf emperor. It should be the strongest of its kind, a phreak of nature. Before I could finish it off it was saved by some little pest and it got away."
Archon pondered about what to make of this situation. A beast strong enough to pick a fight with 'certain death' was a serious matter. But the answer as to why it had appeared in the capital, Archon could come up with only one explanation after wrecking his brain.
"Did this monster ever say anything about Ainz Ooal Gown?"
That's right only one being that Archon could think of could have orchestrated this catastrophe. The mysterious magic caster whose power exceeded all imagination. The one who according to reports had an entire army of inhuman monsters serving under him. The chance of him being involved was very high indeed.
"He didn't mention serving under that guy specifically but he did mention he was here under someone's orders who seemed to be very dangerous so it's possible."
Archon sighed deeply after hearing those words.
The amount of people that could command a being that could match Zesshi physically were few and scarce. And amongst them he could think of only one of them who would have any reason to send such a being to the Slane Theocracy.
As I thought he's started targeting us. Ainz Ooal gown has laid his eyes on our sacred nation. Depending on how things play out from here it will mean full blown war. But to fight such an opponent in the field is out of the question… what a headache.
Archon almost wanted to begin scolding Zesshi again. Because of her rash actions she might have ignited a huge conflict between the Theocracy and the Sorcerer King. Then he suddenly realized that her attacking this monster might have disrupted the plans of the magic caster. God knows what such a monster was doing late at night in the streets of the city.
Was it preparing a ritual or just out hunting for prey? It's no good I can't formulate a hypothesis with only this much information. Damn why did it get away.
This reminded Archon that there were still other questions that needed to be answered.
"Ah, now that I think about it you said the beast got saved before you could capture it, but what kind of opponents could create that kind of opening?"
Zesshi turned away her head again as she did not want Archon to see the expression on her face while answering.
"There were at least two of them. One of them used long range magic to hit me from what I'm pretty sure was one of the towers of the cathedral of life. The other one was a female warrior with a level of strength comparable to Bahmeth. On top of that she used a weird skill to knock me back all the way through the wall of one of the houses. By the time I got back out they were gone without a trace."
Archon could not help but slightly drop his jaw in amazement at what she said. A female warrior with a level of physical prowess that compared to Bahmeth was one thing. But to be able to cast magic from one of the towers of the cathedrals and hit someone with it at the marketplace went against everything that he knew about long range magic.
Such a spell should not exist. And even so for Zesshi not to be able to dodge it. Unbelievable.
He already had issued an order to all soldiers to comb through the entire capital. Even if the city needed to be turned upside down, he needed to find those individuals as soon as possible. With a magic attack like that at their disposal even the lives of the Archbishops could no longer be guaranteed.
Archon knew full well. The chance that they would be successful in finding these monsters was low. And even if they did. The odds of them being able to do anything against them without the assistance of the Black Scripture was extremely low.