Whoosh!
Heading towards the entrance of the cathedral, Seth and Clare's figures flashed on top of the roofs of the houses.
"Are you picking up on anything.."
They halted their movements, the two crouched so as to not alert the guards and began surveying the entrance of the building.
Clare nodded as she fiddled with her robe.
"It's not too far inside."
Seth nodded. Although he could use the yoki energy inside him to its full potential, sensing is the one area he fell short.(for the plot)
She steadied her claymore on her back and looked around, pausing slightly on a specific area before saying: "let's go."
Both then charged towards the large doors.
The three guards only heard a slight 'creak' of the door, making them turn towards it and saw it was slightly open.
"Hm, h-hey… Was the lock like this before?"
One guard shakily pointed at the large lock—now just a hunk of metal—hanging from the door crushed to bits. Clearly, whatever that had done it was extremely powerful.
"!!!"
…
"You put too much force into it, and the door did not even close fully. A poor job I must say…"
Inside the cathedral, now that they were out of anyone's line sight, Clare and Seth took their time walking.
She gave her evaluation on his quick work of the lock.
With their superior speed, they had blitzed past the guards stationed out front and entered the building without their knowledge.
In the blink of an eye, they had managed to not only crushed the lock, but also push the door and closed it, leaving no traces of themselves.
"Hey, it was easier to just destroy it altogether than to spend time picking it. And besides, no one's gonna trace it back to us anytime soon."
Seth shrugged, when all of a sudden, someone screamed out.
"AAAGH!!"
The sound of it was extremely loud and desperate coming from in front of them.
"What was that?!"
"It's coming from inside!"
It seems the noise had alerted the guards. Footsteps could be heard charging their way.
"It seems our extra care ended up useless," Seth commented, his face twitching slightly.
Clare didn't waste anymore time responding and just blasted off with him quickly following.
Soon, they came upon the scene of a soldier getting his guts eaten by a yoma.
"…Guess we dawdled too much."
Seth narrowed his eyes at the yoma. It was much larger than the ones they've encountered before, likely resulting from the large number of people it has eaten.
Voracious eater…
The name Clare gave it after some consideration.
Too preoccupied with eating its dinner, it hadn't noticed their arrival and it attributed to its speedy demise.
Because Clare didn't wait. Within one swift, explosive move, she appeared behind the monster and swung her sword, decapitating it smoothly.
The yoma's head rolled across the stone floor with a thud as its torso fell sideways slowly.
With a casual flick of her claymore, the blood from the monster spread across the floor in an arc before sheathing it on her back.
"…Done."
Seth walked up beside her and swiped some of the yoma's blood.
"I guess I wasn't needed." The amount of build up it had for it to end so fast is a let down.
Clare turned.
"You were slow."
"I was right behind you."
"Not fast enough."
"…I ain't gonna argue with you."
He glanced back to the soldier's corpse, his expression unchanging. He scratched his head and turned away.
"…Unlucky guy, I say."
Hurried footsteps sounded.
"Over there!"
The group of guards finally caught up.
"And here comes the clean up group."
A rowdy bunch of soldiers, including the ones from earlier burst in, their weapons raised and ready for war.
"You better stay where you are!"
At the forefront of the lot, was someone Clare and Seth were already familiar with.
"I remember you."
"I finally caught you!"
Sid remembered that voice from the other night. He reached for a blade strapped to his back as he gritted his teeth.
"D-do you know those two, Sid?" One soldier asked nervously.
"Yea… they were the ones who did us in the other night."
He answered. At the same time he also pulled out his blade, preparing to initiate a rematch.
Seeing this, Seth simply pointed downwards for them to look.
Everyone followed his hand, their eyes moving downwards towards his feet only to freeze.
The yoma's corpse was still there along with the soldier's. They hadn't moved.
"…Huh?"
"You're welcome, by the way." Seth said lazily.
Silence.
"…that's…"
"A yoma…"
"And it's dead…"
Their grips tightened on their weapons as their earlier hostility shifted to confusion.
Sid's brows furrowed as he looked between Seth and the corpses. "…you did this?"
Seth shrugged. "Yea—well technically, she did, but yea. We handled your problem."
He then addressed the soldiers. "One of you go inform the priest, Father Vincent. The rest of you come clean this up."
"Uh, yes!" They replied instinctively, one parted from the group.
Normally they wouldn't take orders from anyone but with the things laid out before them and the priest's name mentioned, they had to swallow their complaints.
"Wait!" The soldier turned.
"Be discreet about it. Don't let people get any ideas about what's happening." Seth told him.
"Yes."
Sid clicked his tongue as he put away his weapons and walked up to Seth and Clare.
"This isn't over," he said, glaring at Seth. "You're still suspicious."
Seth waved him off.
"Yea, yea."
They'll be gone in the morning anyway.
The group soon cleaned up the floor while Seth and Clare went to meet with the priest.
The talk went smoothly.
Clare simply informed him of the things that happened down there that compromised their secret dealings and asked him to relay the necessary information onto the soldiers so that they could stay off their backs till morning.
Although the priest felt troubled that his secret dealings with the supernatural were exposed, he did not hold a grudge.
In the end, they had done exactly what he asked of them.
The threat was dealt with.
The cathedral was now safe from the monster attacks.
And he was still alive and kicking.
So, rather than dwell on the risks, Father Vincent chose to accept the consequences that came with his decision.
If questions were to arise, if suspicion were to fall—then he would bear the responsibilities.
It was, after all, his request that brought them here.
With that understanding reached, there was no longer any reason to linger.
The conversation ended as simply as it began.
And just like before, they were gone.
Whoosh—
Two shadows slipped out through the window of the priest's quarters, vanishing into the night without a sound.
The rooftops of Rabona welcomed them once more, their figures darting across tiles and beams with practiced ease.
The city beneath them remained completely unaware of the incident.
Within minutes, the familiar shape of the inn came into view.
Without slowing, Seth and Clare leaped down silently by the window they had left open when they left.
And they were back inside.
The room was quiet.
There was no sound coming from the next room.
Seth stretched lazily, his ninja outfit changing into boxers as he dropped onto the bed with a soft exhale, hands behind his head.
Clare said nothing, simply derobed as she set her claymore aside and climbed onto the bed beside him.
"Now that this arc is over, we'll officially begin our claymore saving arc tomorrow."
To no one in particular, Seth said, fist bumped the air as he smiled.
He had done more over the past few days, than what he used to do in months—maybe even years.
And he enjoyed every second of it.
"Oh," he suddenly remembered to ask the most important question.
Turning to face Clare beside him, he asked: "By the way, how do we find the other claymores?"
To which, she simply answered, "I have no clue."
Chapter 23 end.
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This chapter had to be rewritten a few times as I didnt like how it was before. This one kinda suffered from my impatience to get it over with and move.