"Sir, our fortress is just ahead," one of the soldiers said after a while.
However, when they saw the state of the fortress, everyone's expression soured.
Crumbling walls, corpses and wounded soldiers scattered everywhere, and the lingering smell of smoke. The entire fortress of Orléans looked like a bombed-out ruin.
"It's completely dilapidated. You can't even call this a fortress," Romani commented as soon as his connection was established.
"This is just... horrible. How did this happen?" Mash and Shirou-Morgan, still young women, averted their eyes from the gruesome scene. Even Archer, Cu Chulainn, and Charlemagne frowned at the sight.
The only one who seemed unfazed was Mo Wang. It wasn't that he was cold-blooded; he had simply seen too much of this. The battlefields in the world of Nikke, for instance, were literal meat grinders.
Hundreds of humans and Nikkes were torn apart by Raptures every day, their bodies mangled beyond recognition. And that wasn't even mentioning the Luofu. In terms of both population and scale, what the Abundance had done was far more terrifying than this.
"Why... why is it like this? Who did this?" Shirou-Morgan asked, approaching a soldier whose limbs had been torn off and was bleeding profusely. She was about to use her magecraft to heal him, but he convulsed and then went still.
"Who else? The Dragon Witch, of course," Mo Wang said.
By this time, in 1431, Charles VII of France should have signed a truce with Philip III of Burgundy, who had sided with the English. The war should have been over. But then Jeanne Alter had appeared out of nowhere and burned Charles VII to death.
For these ordinary soldiers, just surviving one wave of wyvern attacks was a miracle.
"We fought with all our might to hold back the witch. Even our lord was gravely wounded in the last attack," the squad leader explained. "If you hadn't arrived, sir, we wouldn't have known what to do."
There was no hope left in the fortress. If Mo Wang and the others hadn't shown up, the soldiers probably would have succumbed to despair and taken their own lives within a week or two.
The Servants felt a pang of shame. In truth, there was very little they could do for these people. Orléans was suffering from a shortage of not just soldiers, but also medical supplies, provisions, and everything else.
In this era, all these wounded soldiers would die from infection within a few days.
As the Servants pondered what they could do, Mo Wang once again put on his expression of profound compassion.
"O, lost lambs, I have seen your bravery and unwavering faith in the face of the witch," his voice echoed through the fortress, imbued with a sacred power that made the hopeless soldiers instinctively look up.
"Fear not the suffering of the flesh, for under the Lord's glory, all wounds will be healed."
His figure stood out clearly against the smoky air, like an angel descended to the mortal realm. "The Lord's light will shelter you, heal your wounds, and grant you new hope."
His voice was low and gentle, yet held an undeniable authority. He slowly raised his hands, palms up, as if receiving some invisible power.
The next moment, a dazzling green light erupted from his body, like the first rays of dawn piercing through a thick blanket of clouds. The warm, gentle light, pulsing with the rhythm of life, slowly enveloped the entire fortress.
The soldiers stared in disbelief. The wounded, who had been moaning in agony, found their pain fading away, replaced by a sense of peace and serenity.
Their wounds began to heal at a visible rate. Broken bones mended, bleeding stopped, and even those on the brink of death were revitalized by the light.
"This... this is a miracle!" the squad leader stammered, his voice trembling with awe and gratitude. He and the other soldiers fell to their knees, bowing their heads in Mo Wang's direction.
Mash and Shirou-Morgan were speechless. They knew Mo Wang wasn't a real angel, but at this moment, he was like a god, bestowing new hope upon these people.
Archer, Cu Chulainn, and Charlemagne, though they remained composed, had a flicker of surprise in their eyes.
"What... what is this power?" Romani asked from Chaldea, his voice filled with disbelief.
Nearly everyone in the fortress was being rapidly healed by the green light. A healing spell of this scale would require a top-tier magus hours of preparation and complex rituals.
Yet Mo Wang had unleashed it with just a few words. His worldview was taking another serious hit.
Mo Wang didn't answer. He just stood there, letting the green light continue to wash over the area. His expression was calm, as if this were the most natural thing in the world.
"O, lost lambs, your suffering is over," he said, his voice still gentle and firm. "But the battle is not. The witch's threat still remains. We must stand united to end this disaster."
The soldiers looked up, their eyes burning with renewed fighting spirit. They had lost their courage, but Mo Wang's words had given them a new sense of purpose.
"For Orléans! For France!" the squad leader shouted, raising his sword. The other soldiers echoed his cry, their voices ringing through the fortress.
Mo Wang smiled. He had successfully reignited their will to fight and, more importantly, earned their complete trust. At least he wouldn't have to worry about them holding him back later.
But when he turned around, he found everyone staring at him with strange expressions.
"Uh, I know what I just did was cool, but can you not look at me like that? It's a little embarrassing," he said, taking a step back. It felt like they wanted to eat him alive.
"Senpai, what did you just do? Those people..." Mash was the first to approach him, at a loss for words.
"Oh, that? Just a simple healing spell. I'm just too soft-hearted, you know? I couldn't help it," Mo Wang said with a casual shrug, as if he were talking about making a bowl of instant noodles.
"Just a simple healing spell? Do you have any idea how insane that was?" Romani exclaimed. It wasn't the first time Mo Wang had done something outrageous, but what he had just done was no different from a divine miracle.
"If he told me he was a real angel, I think I'd have nightmares," Cu Chulainn muttered to Archer. If he didn't know Mo Wang's true nature, he would have believed it.
"You and me both," Archer replied, completely understanding. The situation was so absurd that he didn't even know where to begin to complain.
"It's nothing, really. I learned this trick from another one of my bosses," Mo Wang said. "If she were here, she could not only heal everyone in this fortress but also grant them eternal life."
He was, after all, a follower of the Abundance. He had to admit, he wasn't exactly the Aeon's favorite—he only had Bailu as a healer in the game, and the Abundance probably made up less than one percent of his power. But still, he had the heart of a healer!
Archer and the others gave him a strange look. Mo Wang, a healer? What kind of healer? A battle healer? Could you really call someone a healer when their damage output was higher than their healing?
Mo Wang: Who says a healer's DPS can't be higher than a carry's? I'll tell you what, if the healer can kill the enemy before the carry gets hurt, then you don't need to heal.
"I thought your boss was a giant black ball? When did you get a new one?" Romani asked. Did Mo Wang have a lot of bosses?
"Uh, not that many. Just a few dozen, I guess?" Mo Wang replied vaguely. For all he knew, the next newcomer to the group chat could be his new boss. Or maybe he'd be the boss next time.
"Mr. Mo Wang, you really are a good person."
"Someone with such a warm light must be a good person."
Charlemagne and Shirou-Morgan, however, were completely taken in by Mo Wang's compassionate act. They were so impressed by the fact that he had healed everyone in the fortress that their eyes were filled with admiration.
Shirou-Morgan decided that even though her Master was unreliable at times, he was a good person at heart. And Charlemagne saw Mo Wang as a saint, willing to expend his own power to help the wounded soldiers. He felt that his initial judgment had been too hasty. Mo Wang was truly worthy of being the Master who would save humanity.
If Romani and the others knew what they were thinking, they would have scoffed. Mo Wang would save people, yes, but he was also undeniably unreliable and a complete goofball.
To strangers, he might seem like a good person. But to those close to him... well, the less said, the better.
"Senpai, shouldn't we connect to the leyline now? We should establish a base as soon as possible," Mash said, trying to get Mo Wang to focus on the mission before he could come up with any more crazy ideas.
"Not so fast, Mash," Mo Wang said with a wave of his hand. "Before we do that, I think we should sample some of the local cuisine."
"Hey, Archer, see if you can find a place that sells fried chicken. Let's get something to eat."
"Senpai, I told you, they don't have fried chicken in Orléans!" Mash cried, exasperated.
"Who says they don't?! Even if they don't, I'm going to have authentic fried chicken here today!"
"I told you, New Orleans fried chicken is from America!" Mash said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Why was he so obsessed with fried chicken? Besides, they probably didn't even have the ingredients here. She wasn't even sure if these people still had any food left.
"Don't worry, we'll have ingredients soon enough," Mo Wang said, pointing to the sky. "See? Fresh ingredients, right over there."
"Ingredients?" Mash looked up and saw a few small black dots in the distance. "W-wait! Senpai, you don't mean... those things, do you?!"
With her Servant's enhanced vision, she could see that the black dots were the wyverns the soldiers had been talking about.
Was he planning to use wyverns as an ingredient?! Mash was horrified. She had never heard of anyone making fried chicken out of a wyvern before.
Could you even eat that stuff?