I, the Holy Maiden of Light, tear apart the Outer Gods.

Anjie smiled awkwardly, unsure of what to say next.

She was just saying something nice as usual, but she didn't expect the other party to admit it directly.

The guard who witnessed this slapped himself in the face, inwardly roaring—

"Your Highness, do you even know how to flirt with girls?!"

But Noah's thoughts were far different from those of others.

Her mind was filled with thoughts like, "Anjie praised me; she cares about me!"

Chapter 8, Section 111: The Magic War

At that moment, a soldier entered the church and whispered something in the ear of a royal guard, whose expression quickly turned serious.

After dismissing the soldiers, the guard quickly approached Noah. "Your Highness, news has come from the front lines that a horde of snow beasts is charging towards us. We expect to be the first battlefield of the beast tide in half an hour."

This news instantly dispelled Noah's teenage fantasies.

His gaze sharpened again. "Take the rest of the guards and make contact with the general of the fortress. Join the soldiers here to fight the beast tide. I will also join the front lines later."

The guard hesitated for a moment. "His Majesty said that our purpose in coming here is only to comfort the soldiers. It's really not right for you, as a prince, to be fighting on the front lines. Besides... our mission is to protect you, so it's a bit unreasonable for us to include you in the soldiers' ranks."

Noah coldly glanced at his guards. "With Father absent, my words are the first order. I now command you to fight. Moreover, I don't think I'm much weaker than you, and I don't need your protection."

Under the prince's gaze, the guard's sweat poured down his face. In the end, he could only nod in agreement and turn to leave the church.

Ange blinked.

In that instant, Ange felt that this prince seemed to have some ambition after all.

“It happened so suddenly, it seems I can’t stay with you.” Noah turned his gaze back to Ange. “Don’t worry, I’ll come find you after we’ve fought off the beast tide.”

"..."

No, no, no, I don't need you to be with me.

Ange was internally vehemently opposed to it, but outwardly she still put on a show, "That's such a pity. Beast tides are very dangerous, Your Highness, please don't get hurt."

"With the Holy Maiden's words, I will definitely protect myself."

Noah smiled gratefully.

With her cloak billowing behind her, she turned and walked out of the church.

Cthulhu, who had been watching the show upstairs for ages, came down and looked at Ange with a smile: "I didn't expect you to be so popular~"

Anjie rolled her eyes. "I don't want this kind of welcome. I don't like men."

“A man?” Cthulhu smiled meaningfully, but when Ange looked at him with a questioning gaze, she shrugged and did not intend to explain.

With thousands of years of experience, one can naturally discern Noah's identity as a woman.

But Ange clearly still couldn't tell.

After seeing Noah off, Ange originally planned to go back to her room to rest, but unexpectedly she ran into the priest from the church on the way.

At this moment, the priest tied his loose monastic robe around his waist, revealing his muscular physique, and held two magic wands, one large and one small, in his hands.

Behind him followed several priests carrying wands, and even several nuns and nuns were carrying Bibles.

A large group of people walked towards the door.

"Where are you all going?" Angie called out to the priest, asking curiously.

The priest scratched his head. "I heard there's a beast tide. The Holy Maiden doesn't come to the border often, so she's not too sure. Every year, the snow beast tide is a major battle for the fortress. If we rely solely on the soldiers guarding the city, the casualties will undoubtedly be heavy."

So at this time, we in the church should also help in any way we can. We are not like the Goddess of Light who can hear every believer's prayers and bestow divine power to fulfill their wishes. But we also have our own things to do, such as protecting this city.

"..."

Ange opened her mouth.

For a moment, I didn't know what to say.

After a long while, Anjie finally burst into laughter.

She then realized that her impression of the Church of Light seemed to be too one-sided.

“Let’s go, I’ll go with you.” Ange smiled at the believers.

The believers exchanged glances, responding to Ange with disapproving looks. "Even though we might only be healing the wounded or setting up defensive magic arrays from the rear, it's still a battlefield. You are the Holy Maiden; if anything were to happen to you..."

The believers' words reminded Ange of what the guards had said to Prince Noah earlier.

However, Ange did not intend to respond to the believers with Noah's words.

“I don’t know how you interpret the title ‘Saintess’. But I think… a Saintess should shoulder the prayers and safety of every believer, only then can she live up to the name of Saintess.”

Ange's gentle smile brought tears to the eyes of all the believers present.

If we ignore the two machine guns the girl pulled out from under her skirt, this scene is undoubtedly one of the most moving in religious history.

Cthulhu, on the other hand, curled his lip, unimpressed by the scene before him.

However, she still decided to follow them to see what was going on.

It wasn't that she was moved by Anjie, but rather that she wanted to see Anjie being humiliated and beaten to the ground by the snow beast tide.

Ideally, he would be killed by the snow beast horde, which would break the seal on his body.

Her long life allowed her to witness many things and many legends.

Ange's encouragement was less motivating for Cthulhu than the food she received.

...

When Ange and her followers arrived at the fortress walls, they found them already filled with soldiers, and the mages and crossbowmen on the walls were also neatly positioned at their attack points.

A dozen or so followers of the Church of Nature surrounded the magic circle and summoned two tall and robust elemental giants. The giants walked step by step to the city gate, roared, and slammed their massive bodies against it to prevent the snow beasts from breaking through the defenses.

The members of the Dark Church were casting curses on a basket of arrows and longswords, and words like "bleeding," "exhaustion," "binding," and "slowness" could be faintly heard. Although the enchantment's effects were short-lived, it would be enough to fend off a horde of snow beasts. In battle, these weapons would become their greatest weapon of choice.

Many church members were doing what they could, and magic circles of various colors flickered and charged on the city walls.

It is believed that as soon as a command is given, a dense stream of magic will erupt from the magic circle, carpet-bombing the terrifying beast tide.

Anjie was somewhat stunned as she looked at everything before her.

It was only then that she truly realized this was a magical world.

The effects of the bizarre and wonderful magic are no less than those of the various firearms of the previous life, and in some aspects even surpass them.

"Your Holiness, that's the area we're in charge of." The priest led everyone to a corner where a white linen blanket was laid on the ground, and there were some holy water and first-aid herbs on the side.

The priest pointed to several priests and nuns, finally fixing his gaze on Ange. "Your Holiness, you and the others should take charge of treating the wounded. As for going to the front lines, leave that to me. You are a holy person and should not be tainted by unclean blood."

The priest spoke with a very serious expression, clearly not intending to give Ange any room to refuse.

However, Anjie wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

Should I tell him that your great saintess... doesn't actually possess healing magic?

Chapter 9, Section 112: Snow Beast Tide

Out of consideration for her pride, Anjie ultimately couldn't bring herself to tell anyone about it.

Moreover, Anjie was certain that even if she told anyone, no one would believe her.

The Holy Maiden of the Church of Light doesn't even know how to use a healing spell.

“Sending me to the front lines would be far better than keeping me here,” Ange smiled slightly. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of myself. After all, I still need to live well to fulfill your wishes.”

"Your Holiness..."

The believers around them all had tears in their eyes.

In their eyes, Anjie was now enveloped in a holy light, which warmed and nourished their hearts.

What a responsible and kind saint she was...

Looking at Ange's gentle smile, the priest could only swallow the words of advice that were about to come out of his throat.

At the same time, he made a decision in his heart—

We absolutely cannot let the Holy Maiden get hurt!

If such a kind saint were to suffer even the slightest harm, it would be a dereliction of my duty as a priest!

Ange had no idea what the priest was thinking.

As Ange followed the priest and others to the city wall, she happened to see Noah standing on the wall, gazing into the distance.

Following Noah's gaze, all that could be seen was white sky and earth, with wind and snow sweeping across the land, and howling avalanches crashing down on the border.

Upon closer inspection, Anjie realized that it wasn't an avalanche at all, but rather a series of ferocious, pure white snow beasts. They were running across the land in dense numbers, kicking up snow chunks that filled the sky, making it look like a massive avalanche from afar.

Faced with a terrifying horde of beasts, the border fortress, which should have been indestructible, proved as fragile as a sheet of paper.

When Ange saw the snow beast tide, she truly understood why the priest had said that the beast tide was the most severe war on the border.

At this point, Anjie even began to doubt whether the border region could withstand the onslaught of the snow beast tide.

Noah also spotted Ange, and after a moment of surprise, he rushed over, asking, "Why are you here?"

"Since we're on the frontier, we naturally have to make some effort." Ange smiled slightly, then looked worriedly at the beast tide. "Those...are they snow beasts?"

Noah naturally noticed Ange's concerns. "That's right, the creatures of the permafrost—the snow beasts. Basically, every year this place experiences a snow beast tide, but... for some reason, this year's tide came a little too early."

"Who knows what's going on in the mind of a wild beast?"

"Don't worry, this isn't the first time a beast tide has occurred. The soldiers here are much more experienced than us. There won't be any problems."

"I hope so..."

Anjie nodded and said no more.

The royal guards approached, first glancing at Ange with surprise, before reporting to Noah in a deep voice, "The beast tide will arrive in ten minutes."

“...Hmm.” Noah responded, turning his serious gaze back to the vast and mighty beast tide.