Chapter 142
The group charged in head-on.
Fwoosh!
Blood splattered.
“Gaaah!!”
“What is this?! Stop them!!”
Even if they had attained the power of a 3-star, at the core, they were still just ordinary soldiers.
To compare, it was like their raw striking power had increased, but nothing more.
Naturally, they were no match for the group.
The problem was the numbers.
Even if their strength had merely increased, there were nearly 200 of them—it couldn’t be ignored.
As time passed, they’d eventually become overwhelmed.
“I’ll clear a path.”
Evan stepped forward.
Flash!
A brilliant aura blade radiated light, and the formation of soldiers blocking the way collapsed.
The group seized the opening and stormed inside, quickly reaching the entrance to the garden.
“It’s a barrier. Think you can break through?”
“Of course.”
Chris reached out his hand to the barrier.
The barrier’s purpose was to isolate the garden from the outside and gather the energy of the constellations within—its security technique itself wasn’t particularly advanced.
Chris instantly dismantled the barrier’s security and opened a path.
“Stop them!!”
Soldiers came rushing in, too late.
Chris glanced at Jupien.
Jupien was the one designated to hold them off.
“Can you handle it?”
“Yeah.”
Jupien replied briefly.
Her voice carried the determination to get it done.
“Here, take this too. It’s a summoning stone containing a 4-star rank beast—Shell Turtle.”
Just like the name implied, the Shell Turtle moved slowly but possessed immense physical defense.
It was perfect for supporting Jupien.
“Marie, you go around too and make some noise.”
[Ohoho, leave it to me.]
Of course, Marie wouldn’t directly join the battle.
But just by the banshee flitting around, the soldiers would lose their wits.
Chris handed her something else as well.
“Take this too.”
It was a gem filled with a strange, hazy energy.
Jupien’s eyes widened when she recognized it.
“The Phantasmal Core? How did you get your hands on this artifact?”
It was an artifact that enhanced illusion magic.
“It was just lying in a corner of the family treasure vault. I swiped it.”
“…Well done. I’ll give you some praise.”
Jupien nodded approvingly, as if she were proud.
For highly accomplished knights or mages, illusion magic holds relatively little effect.
But those soldiers had only gained brute strength, making them inevitably vulnerable to illusions.
The Shell Turtle to act as a shield, the Phantasmal Core, and Mari’s banshee wail that could sap their souls—
With all that, she would be able to hold out just fine.
Jupien held the magic stone in one hand and a sword in the other as she looked straight ahead and said,
“Go quickly. Don’t die.”
Chris grinned.
“Is that concern I hear?”
“Shut up and get lost. If you die, I’ll kick your ass.”
“Alright. You be careful too.”
Chris leapt into the inner part of the garden.
Fwoosh!
Once he entered inside the barrier, the entire scenery changed.
It was a lavish garden, like a vision of paradise made real.
And the energy of moonlight, materialized and floating in the air.
It was beautiful to the point of being dreamlike—but at the same time, a bizarre, ominous aura could be felt.
A chilling killing intent flowed from the small manor at the center of the garden.
“So the Emerald Tablet must be inside there.”
“Most likely.”
The Hierophant would be in there, too.
The moment Chris thought about facing his “father,” his chest sank with a heavy weight.
He was the one who had dragged Chris’s childhood in his previous life into the depths of ruin.
Chris had never lived obsessed with revenge, but it would be a lie to say his heart wasn’t trembling.
And then—
“Stop.”
“!!”
A group blocked his path.
They were knights.
And there were many.
Twenty of them.
Their level was high.
The weakest among them was at the 3-star level, and nearly half were 4-star and above.
But above all, the one at the front—
It was a familiar face.
“I was about to come find you, and you came walking right to me. How thoughtful. I’ll tear you to shreds and kill you.”
It was Mieck, the 5-star Elder Knight who had previously lost to Chris!
Back then, Mieck’s legs had been severed, but whether healed by the Emerald Tablet’s power or some other means, they were now fully restored.
And that wasn’t all.
‘An overwhelming aura.’
All of the knights radiated a storm-like energy.
Their power seemed amplified by several levels compared to what it had originally been.
The worst part was that they weren’t just mindlessly empowered like the soldiers outside.
These were already highly skilled knights who could wield mana as easily as their own limbs, so they would be far more adept at handling their amplified power.
From each and every knight radiated a powerful sense of pressure.
The most overwhelming was Mieck, who had originally been a 5-star knight.
A chilling aura flickered from Mieck’s hand.
It was a whirlwind of power far beyond what he had shown in his previous duel with Chris.
In terms of sheer aura, it wasn’t lacking even when compared to a 6-star master class.
“It is the blessing His Holiness the Hierophant has granted us. Prepare yourself. I’ll give you the most horrifying death you could ever experience.”
Mieck’s eyes glinted with cruelty.
Behind him, Olivia grit her teeth and stepped forward.
“Stop! Don’t you realize how terrifying that power really is?”
Mieck glanced at Olivia.
“I do. But what does it matter?”
“!!”
“For the sake of the great cause, the sacrifice of others is inevitable. Your Highness, you’re far too naive. That will be your downfall.”
As Olivia clenched her teeth at the ridiculous nonsense being spouted—
“There’s no need for pointless chatter. You’re all going to die anyway.”
“What?”
At Chris’s words, Mieck and the other knights stared at him in disbelief.
No matter how anyone looked at it, Chris was the one at a disadvantage.
The difference in power was beyond comparison—a hopeless situation.
Yet Chris didn’t show the slightest hint of fear.
“Evan, you take Mieck, that mutt. You don’t need to finish him off, just bind him. You can handle that, right?”
“I can, but what about the rest?”
Even with Evan taking Mieck, nearly twenty knights would remain.
All of them radiating a terrifying aura enhanced by the blessing of the Emerald Tablet.
“I’ll take care of the rest. It won’t take long. Just hold out until then.”
Everyone stared in disbelief at that insane claim.
“There’s nothing more to talk about. All of you, strike! Ah, don’t kill him. We’ll torture him slowly and make him pay for his insolence.”
Mieck’s eyes gleamed viciously.
Three knights slowly approached Chris.
Their confident eyes showed not even the slightest doubt that they would crush him with their enhanced power.
At that moment, Chris spoke to Olivia.
“Princess Olivia, the thing I mentioned.”
“…Are you sure this is going to work?”
“Yes. Trust me and do it.”
Olivia hesitated briefly, then released her power.
Wings of light unfurled from her back, and brilliant flames of holy light flared up.
It was the power of her authority, Sacred Flame.
The flames headed straight toward Chris.
In an instant, Chris’s body was engulfed in the holy fire.
Everyone wore an expression that said they couldn’t comprehend what they were seeing.
“…What kind of insane stunt is that? Was he trying to kill himself?”
Sacred Flame was a blessing-type authority similar to the one the Hierophant had used through the Emerald Tablet, but its effects were entirely different.
It amplified the subject’s holy energy.
Only Holy Knights and Holy Mages could benefit from the effects of the Sacred Flame authority.
‘For someone with demonic energy, it should be no different from poison, right?’
Mieck let out a dry laugh and gave an order.
“He shouldn’t be dead. Bring him here! He needs to pay for daring to act out of line!”
But then—
Shuk.
A chilling sound rang out.
The three knights who had been approaching Chris froze in place.
No one understood what had just happened.
Then, with a spray of blood, the knights’ bodies collapsed.
And a radiant light was revealed.
“Ah, this was supposed to be a secret.”
From the broken holy sword, a pillar of light shot upward.
A pillar of light far more intense than anything Mieck had shown before.
It was none other than a mid-tier 5-star.
An Aura Blade of the Elder Middle Class.
“I’m actually pretty good at handling light energy too.”
Chris said with a wide grin.
* * *
A deathly silence fell over the hall.
Everyone stared at Chris with eyes wide open.
“W-what kind of nonsense is this? How could a demon wield mana infused with light?”
And it wasn’t just ordinary mana.
The mana was shining brilliantly.
It was Radiant Mana, said to be granted only to Heroes.
Even more exalted than the White Mana of Holy Knights.
Both Olivia and Evan wore expressions of disbelief.
‘Well, I guess it’s fine if those two find out.’
Evan was a contracted follower. Olivia was bound by a pact, so neither could reveal the secret.
“Ah, it’s because I’m a genius. I got bored of just using demonic energy, so I picked this up too. It wasn’t that hard.”
It wasn’t a lie.
“W-what kind of nonsense are you spouting…?!”
“But it looks like you’ve got time to chatter.”
Chris spoke in a low voice.
“Because I’m planning to kill every last one of you.”
“!!”
The moment he finished speaking—
Fwish!
Blood spurted as another knight dropped.
Mieck, startled by the speed too fast to track with the eye, shouted in alarm.
“E-Everyone, attack!!”
But they were no match for him.
Chris's Sacred Radiance attainment was a full 5-star — and even at the Middle level among them.
From the Elder Class upward, the difference between Upper, Middle, and Lower was significant, and these knights were no match for Chris.
Of course, they had enhanced their power using the authority of the Emerald Tablet, so their strength was far beyond that of regular knights, but Chris had also amplified his power.
“J-Just hold on a little longer! The Sacred Flame authority consumes stamina rapidly, so it won’t last long! Their situation is different from ours!”
That was absolutely correct.
The Emerald Tablet’s nearly semi-permanent power amplification was an exceptional case; in general, these kinds of blessing-type authorities couldn’t last very long.
Especially with the Sacred Flame, the burst of power it granted caused it to burn out that much quicker.
“Ah, but I planned for that. Just because I can handle Light Mana doesn’t mean I forgot I’m a demon, right?”
This time, Chris drew the demonic sword, Devourer.
Then, he stabbed the neck of a knight writhing on the ground after being slashed.
With a sickening sound, the demonic sword absorbed the knight’s life force.
The absorbed life force was converted into demonic energy and flowed into Chris’s Outer Core, and Chris, through the Vampiric Ring, reconverted that demonic energy into Light Mana.
“With so many energy tanks to absorb from, there’s no reason for me to collapse from exhaustion, right?”
The grotesque sight made the knights flinch, and Mieck clenched his teeth.
“Grr…!”
Among all the knights present, the only one who could possibly stand against Chris was the 5-star knight Mieck.
He stepped up to stop Chris, but Evan blocked his way.
“Grr, move aside!! How dare you!!”
But Evan wasn’t someone Mieck had any right to say “how dare” to.
The future Hero.
Even now, he was considered the strongest among the next generation of swordsmanship houses.
Even though both were at the Lower tier of 5-star, the gap in their swordsmanship proficiency was overwhelming.
Mieck seemed superior in raw strength due to the authority of the Emerald Tablet, but he couldn’t easily push Evan aside.
And in that time, Chris’s sword mercilessly cut down the knights.
Paaah!!