They are all characters I control.

Claire looked towards the cell door, where three figures emerged from the darkness.

They wore the silver-white armor of church knights, but not the previous guards. Their helmets were pulled low, covering most of their faces, with only their eyes gleaming coldly in the darkness.

He had a long sword hanging at his waist, and a short knife and an axe in his hand.

This isn't a trip to take someone away; it's a trip to kill someone.

Claire's heart sank.

"Is it her?" the knight at the front asked in a low voice, pointing at Claire.

"Mm," the person behind him responded.

After confirming the target, the first knight took a bunch of keys from his waist and skillfully opened the iron lock on the prison door.

The iron fence creaked and groaned as it was pushed open a crack.

The three people filed in.

Grace looked at the three church knights and shouted, "Hey, you guys..."

"Shut up." A knight tapped the iron fence with the back of his sword, making a crisp sound.

Grace's voice trailed off; she didn't shout any further.

Meanwhile, the three church knights who had entered Claire's cell had already surrounded her.

“Eleanor Redgrave.” The lead knight drew his longsword: “You will now be executed ahead of schedule.”

"Heh, Karl, so eager? Are you apostates too?"

Claire looked at the three of them and sneered.

"Let's do it."

Without a word, the first apostate knight raised his sword and slashed down.

Claire dodged to the side, the blade grazing her shoulder and striking the wall, sending sparks flying. He seized the opportunity to grab her wrist and slammed his knee into her stomach.

Although the attack was fast enough, the apostate knight was wearing armor and would not be knocked down by an attack like a knee strike.

The other two apostate knights had already rushed forward.

Claire didn't have time to block and could only lean back. The axe blade grazed his nose, shaving off a few strands of red hair.

Three people, three weapons, working in perfect harmony.

Claire was forced to retreat repeatedly, inflicting new wounds on her body until her heels slammed against the wall, leaving her with nowhere to go.

"Die!" The lead knight thrust his sword toward Claire's chest.

At that very moment—

A pair of hands grabbed the knight's neck from behind.

It wasn't Claire's hand, it was Grace's.

The madwoman had been waiting for her chance, and when a heretical knight approached, she gripped his throat tightly with her arms and wrapped her legs around his waist.

She hung on the back of the apostate knight like a crazed monkey.

"Damn it! You lackeys all deserve to die! You all look down on me! I'll teach you to look down on me! You dared to tell me to shut up just now! I'll tell you to shut up now!"

Grace shouted, her voice hoarse from the effort.

Although her stance looked intimidating, she could actually inflict limited damage on the apostate knight.

The other two apostate knights did not come to help, but Claire took advantage of their momentary distraction and instead of retreating, she rushed into their arms.

Claire drew a short sword from the waist of a traitorous knight, and the blade in her hand sliced ​​across the knight's wrist.

Then, as the third apostate knight reacted, Claire used all her strength to kick him through the air, sending him flying several meters away and crashing into the cell door.

"Damn it!" The apostate knight, whose wrist had been slashed, reacted and swung his axe at Claire.

The wind pressure from the axe swept over Claire's head and flew into the other cell of Claire's.

With a "thud," the axe landed at the feet of the silent woman.

The woman, who had neither spoken nor moved, raised her head, revealing a pale and thin face, and the object she was holding slipped to the ground.

That was a cat.

The cat had been dead for a long time and was so shriveled that only its fur and bones remained.

Chapter 19 A Divine Artifact Descends from the Sky

Claire (Eleanor) has two cellmates, one of whom is Grace, who is brainless but a woman of action.

The other was a gloomy woman who remained silent throughout, sitting in the corner holding the dried-up corpse of a dead cat.

The axe thrown by the apostate knight had hit her. She turned around, glaring resentfully at the apostate knights, and slowly held the dead cat's corpse in her arms.

Then, she opened her mouth.

At that moment, everyone in the prison, including Claire, heard a scream.

It wasn't a sound a human could make; it was a shriek squeezed from the deepest part of the throat, as if it came from another world.

The sound pierced through eardrums, through skull, and through the soul. The oil lamps in the cell went out simultaneously, the temperature in the air plummeted, and a thin layer of frost appeared on the ground.

The three knights froze simultaneously.

It wasn't fear, but rather that my body wouldn't obey me. It felt like something was gripping my spine, from my tailbone to the back of my head, my entire nervous system was spasming.

Swords slipped from their hands, axes fell to the ground, knees buckled, and one after another they knelt down.

Grace's teeth were chattering, but she didn't loosen her grip on the apostate knight's chokehold. It wasn't that she didn't want to loosen it; her muscles were simply stiff.

Claire also felt the impact.

For a moment, he lost his hearing, and his vision became somewhat blurry.

Fortunately, this situation did not last long, and Claire returned to normal after three seconds.

Looking again at the woman holding the cat's corpse with a gloomy expression, he was completely impressed by this female cellmate; there was nothing he could do about it.

To be able to use such an attack in a realm where magical elements are forbidden is truly the mark of a genius.

This attack didn't seem like ordinary magic; at least Collier had never seen magic like this before, nor was it runes.

In short, such a method of attack is unheard of, and it seems that without much questioning, we already know why this female inmate was imprisoned here.

But now is not the time to gossip and speculate about others.

With a loud "bang!", Claire delivered a whip kick to the apostate knight's helmet in the face.

Fortunately, this body doesn't belong to Leah, but to Eleanor.

As a female knight, Eleanor's physical strength was obvious. With just one blow, she kicked the apostate knight in front of her to the ground, unable to get up for a while.

Just as Claire was preparing to take advantage of Grace engaging one of the apostate knights while she dealt with the last one, whose wrist was injured, footsteps came from outside the cell.

Five or six church knights emerged from the darkness.

They weren't wearing guards' armor, and their eyes were filled with murderous intent as they looked at Claire; needless to say, they were also apostate knights.

Fortunately, these apostate knights all appeared to be newly joined novice knights.

This can be seen from their behavior of not knowing how to arrange things, but instead swarming into Claire's cell.

"Oh ho? It seems Karl really went all out, arranging everything so meticulously? Are you determined to kill me? But are you really that confident? Aren't you afraid I have the 'Philosopher's Stone'?"

Although Claire could tell that these apostate knights were novices, their numbers and armor still posed a threat.

In the cell where magic was unusable, he was indeed facing a great crisis.

At this point, bluffing is not a bad choice.

“You must die. You have blasphemed the Goddess of Life. You are not worthy to be a chosen one of the gods.” A heretical knight gripped his weapon and stared coldly at Claire.

The other apostate knights were the same; they looked at Claire with a mixture of jealousy and envy.

This is the perfect opportunity for them to kill 'Eleanor'.

It should be understood that the Church of Life would never allow a church knight who was unwilling to betray the Church of Goddess to exist, yet was still able to use the Church of Life's Philosopher's Stone.

Isn't this like taking your precious treasure, using it without any side effects or restrictions, and then turning around and beating you up?

"Fine, then I choose to betray the Church of the Goddess and join you heretics... How about the 'Church of Life'? What position can you offer me?"

Claire's attitude changed quickly; he spread his hands to indicate that he had no intention of fighting.

Claire looked at the apostate knights before her and expressed her willingness to surrender: "If I join you, will I govern a heretical village like old Grey, or become a high priest like the Scarlet Witch Dorothy? I'm fine with either."

Hearing Claire (Eleanor)'s expression of wanting to surrender, the apostate knights remained silent.

They simply stared at Claire, gripping their knight's swords tightly as they approached her.

Looking at the unwavering, clearly ruthless apostate knights who simply wanted to kill her, Claire gradually lost her smile.

"Ugh, that bastard Carl will get his hands on me sooner or later," Claire muttered a curse.

He gripped his sword tightly and charged toward the apostate knights.

He parried the frontal attack with his sword, dodged the knife on his left, and kicked the person on his right away.

But he was alone, and two fists could not fight four hands.

Grace continued to strangle the apostate knight without making a sound, silently constricting him to avoid drawing the attention of the other apostate knights.

It was already a great help that she could control one apostate knight; Claire couldn't expect her to use her incredibly strong hands to control two or even four apostate knights.

As for the gloomy woman who could let out a banshee-like howl, she was also silently holding the cat corpse and staring in this direction. Either that was her personality, or her skills had a cooldown.

Of course, Claire didn't really expect this gloomy woman to howl again; the woman's banshee scream was an indiscriminate area attack.

Faced with these apostate knights, Claire had no choice but to fight with all her might.

Even though he tried his best, he was still left with a bloody gash on his side by a sword. The pain from the injury slowed Claire's movements down a few seconds.

Soon, another knight's sword came slashing down from the side, and Claire had no time to parry.

"clang--!!!"

A loud bang.

It wasn't the sound of swords clashing, but the roar of metal piercing stone.

Something pierced through the roof above our heads.

Amidst flying debris and billowing dust, Claire only saw a silvery-white light pouring down from the hole, so dazzling that it was impossible to open her eyes.

The five knights were thrown back by an invisible shockwave, and two of them fell to the ground.

Claire lowered her hand that was blocking her eyes and saw only a sword stuck in the ground in front of her.

Chapter 20 Trial Card Expired

A sword fell from the sky.

The sword has a narrow and long blade, is entirely silver-white, has a cross-shaped guard, and is wrapped in dark blue leather on the hilt.

The sword was engraved with intricate patterns and emitted a faint blue-white light, which was particularly dazzling in the dimly lit cell. The light emanating from the sword seemed to be alive, spreading outwards and washing over the entire cell.

The oppressive feeling in the air vanished instantly.

It was a magic-suppressing domain, and it shattered.

Claire stared at the sword and remained silent for a moment.

Although we don't know who lost the sword, it was a great help nonetheless.

Because in Claire's system, the name of this sword is [Origin - Light of Faith].

[Light of Faith (Cross Sword) - A fundamental weapon with growth potential. Its initial form is a broken half-blade, which can be triggered under special conditions.]

The radiant light before my eyes is undoubtedly the result of the [Light of Faith] being triggered.

Claire chose Eleanor because she wanted a suitable weapon to compensate for the lack of combat power she had gained after achieving the "Demon King" title, which prevented her from using magic.

Now, this weapon has actually been delivered to our doorstep?

"Is this really a case of finding something without even looking for it, and getting something for nothing while going to jail?"