Ch.253Chapter 253 – Silver Wings (1)

Kara was descending from the sky, her silver wings spread wide.

Her eyes, filled with coldness, were fixed on me, and the holy power surrounding her was gradually spreading outward.

Then Kara slightly turned her gaze to look at Phobia.

“…I received no notification that you would be here.”

“Ah~ah. The boring Saint has arrived.”

Phobia spoke while looking at Kara mockingly.

Then she tilted her head curiously.

“Why are you here?”

“I’ve come to eliminate that heretic. Don’t interfere, Phobia.”

Seemingly unwilling to say more, Kara answered and turned her gaze back to me.

And I quietly aimed my halberd at her while asking.

“…Weren’t you supposed to be defending the capital?”

From what I’d heard, Kara was a core military asset for the defense of Ferarius Capital.

News had already spread widely that it was thanks to her that they could protect the walls from monsters attacking the capital.

Moreover, with the Dwarf Kingdom’s knights moving to exterminate monsters across various regions, she shouldn’t be able to leave until the situation was resolved.

Yet here she is now.

“…The Red Knights remain, so it should be fine if I’m absent for a while.”

So she made the maximum preparations she could before leaving?

I thought that the experimental subjects, who only follow their commander’s orders and can’t use weapons like bows, wouldn’t be much help in defending the city.

“You’re saying your mission matters more than the dwarves’ lives?”

“…Capturing you was my original mission to begin with.”

Kara answered as if making an excuse.

Then she soon looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked.

“For a heretic, you care about the dwarves’ casualties?”

“I just think it would be better if there weren’t many sacrifices in this calamity.”

While there wasn’t a particularly close relationship between me and the dwarves, I did at least hope for minimal casualties.

Kara sighed deeply and said.

“…For a heretic, you speak decent words.”

Kara’s expression seemed too dark somehow.

But soon she composed herself and looked at me.

“…I’m sorry, but I cannot grant you mercy.”

“Why, did someone order you to bring my head?”

I meant it as a slight mockery with no particular intention.

However, Kara looked slightly surprised after hearing my words.

“…So someone did order you.”

I quietly pondered.

Someone who could give orders to Kara.

Someone who could interfere with the most powerful saint of the church.

“Is it Somnus?”

Excluding Phobia and Hakan, he seemed to be the most powerful figure I knew in the Emiris Order.

However, Kara smirked for some reason and said.

“…Indeed. I tend to respect and follow his words, but it’s not him.”

“Then who?”

“Someone who stands higher than anyone else in this world.”

Kara spoke quietly.

“Our Divine King, Lord Emiris, commanded me directly.”

Kara told me with a solemn expression.

“He said he desires the heads of the heretical white dragon and the newly born goddess.”

Kara looked at me and spoke.

“…Did this so-called god promise something in return for bringing my head?”

“He revealed that he would save this place.”

Kara spoke quietly.

“I am Lord Emiris’s saint. I must follow his will. And I must work for him, live for him, and do good in his name.”

Kara muttered rapidly as if speaking to herself.

Then, after taking a slight breath, she opened her mouth again.

“…Therefore, I cannot grant you mercy.”

Has she made up her mind now?

Kara spoke with a resolute voice.

“If you surrender and willingly offer your head, I will guarantee the safety of your companions.”

Kara extended her hand to me.

“Will you surrender?”

Her words offering surrender echoed.

And naturally, the answer was already decided.

“I refuse.”

I answered quietly but firmly.

Kara glared at me and said.

“…Is your life so precious to you?”

“Of course not.”

I’m prepared to give my life anytime to protect my companions.

In fact, wearing the dragon armor itself was already a life-risking act.

“If I could save others with just my life, I’d consider it a bargain.”

However, I couldn’t comply with Kara’s words right now.

“But I can’t trust you people.”

It was simply because I couldn’t trust the Emiris Order.

Setting aside Kara’s own character, it’s questionable whether the other members of the Emiris Order would act according to her wishes.

At the very least, Somnus would easily dismiss her intentions.

‘Besides, they’re suspicious characters.’

Summoning people from another world and turning them into experimental subjects without free will.

Causing a large-scale undead outbreak in the kingdom’s ossuary.

Suddenly interfering in the subjugation of the black dragon Yuto, helping summon the Demon King in Albheim, and attempting mass kidnappings in Ferarius, and though she destroyed it herself, Phobia was guarding a soul-absorbing formation.

They weren’t trustworthy enough for me to just believe their words and comply.

And I didn’t want to simply offer my neck to such people.

“How I use my life is for me to decide.”

I looked straight at Kara and said.

“If you want my head, go ahead and try.”

I said while aiming my halberd directly at her.

And Kara sighed.

“I have no choice.”

Her own final negotiation was now over.

Soon Kara looked at me with icy eyes and said.

“In the name of the great Lord Emiris, I shall eliminate the heretic.”

Kara’s silver wings spread wide again.

“‘Grant me the power to protect myself.'”

Silver energy began to envelop Kara.

Before battle, Kara was strengthening her body.

As I prepared my weapon with the intuition that this wouldn’t be easy, Kara moved.

“Here I come, heretic.”

As soon as Kara finished speaking, a giant silver hand appeared, trying to crush me.

As I quickly retreated and regained my stance, silver weapons launched by Kara came at me.

Dodging swords and blocking spears, I looked at Kara and saw her flying toward me with her stone staff pulled back forcefully.

“So those wings aren’t just for show.”

I jumped into the sky immediately to avoid the stone staff.

Then Kara began to fly up in pursuit, and soon our weapons clashed in mid-air.

-Clang!!

Metal sounds spread as our weapons collided.

The impact caused both our weapons to be pushed back greatly, and Kara immediately regained her stance and swung her stone staff like a spear.

In response, I moved my halberd to block the stone staff, and when a slight opening appeared, I tried to strike her with the blade of my halberd, but Kara moved her wings to block it.

-Thud!

Like a weapon hitting a thick shield, the impact began to cover my arm.

“That’s tough.”

“Don’t underestimate wings made of divine blessing.”

Kara said as she swung her wings.

The tip of the silver wing approached my helmet like a sword, and I quickly turned my head to avoid it.

-Screech

And at that moment, the sound of metal being scratched began to be heard.

“So the wings themselves are weapons too?”

“Something like that.”

Kara answered quietly while swinging her wings and stone staff.

Her wings and stone staff blocked my swinging halberd, and after blocking or deflecting an attack, her stone staff and wings counterattacked.

Her strength and speed were also enhanced by blessings, making her sufficiently threatening.

‘It’s like fighting an opponent with four arms.’

Wings that serve both as sword and shield, and a stone staff that strikes at openings.

Additionally, Kara was creating silver weapons with holy power to attack me.

However, Kara wasn’t gaining the upper hand.

‘Close combat seems to favor me.’

While Kara herself was skilled in martial arts, my close combat aptitude and experience seemed to be superior.

Despite the situation being equivalent to wielding multiple weapons from multiple directions thanks to her silver wings, Kara was increasingly unable to launch effective attacks.

Looking at just the current situation, there was no reason for me to lose to Kara in close combat.

Except for one factor.

“‘Take freedom from the heretic…'”

As soon as I heard the incantation echoing, I quickly used the magic power gathered in my arms to escape from Kara’s sight.

The nature of that incantation was a technique that crushes heretics with holy power.

Even wearing the dragon armor, it was very difficult to move under that pressure.

Naturally, in such a situation, I would be the one to lose.

‘I’ve prepared countermeasures, but… one is incomplete.’

Countermeasures created after analyzing Kara’s attack characteristics and discussing with my companions.

Among them, the ones I could execute myself right now, excluding one incomplete countermeasure.

I was implementing the most basic one, the fundamental principle.

‘Escape from her line of sight.’

Rapidly changing direction in mid-air when Kara showed signs of incantation was part of that.

It was the easiest method I could employ, but also one that could be easily countered.

“‘Chain the feet of the faithless.'”

Silver chains flew at me.

I tried to dodge quickly, but the chains came at quite complex angles.

Barely escaping by moving my wings, I saw Kara’s eyes looking at me as she began to move her lips.

As I prepared to make another big move, something wrapped around my arm.

“You’re mine!!”

“Damn it!”

Phobia’s threads were wrapped around my arm.

I immediately punched the approaching Phobia to knock her away, but that momentary gap was fatal.

“‘Take freedom from the heretic.'”

Kara’s completed incantation.

My body suddenly began to feel heavy, and soon I started falling from the sky.

As I thought I couldn’t move a finger, light began to gather in Kara’s stone staff.

“…I’ll burn you.”

Hot light with mass began to fly toward me.

‘No choice, I guess.’

My vision turned white, and soon I could no longer see Kara.

+

‘Is it over?’

It took more effort than expected, but it was finished.

Due to the sudden direction changes in mid-air that kept the target out of sight, they had continuously escaped the effect of the technique, but thanks to Phobia’s sudden attack, I finally succeeded in landing the spell.

And to end it quickly before the opponent could do anything more, I shot light created with holy power and burned them.

“No, my…!!! That boring saint, what… what…”

Phobia cried out in a voice of despair.

However, Kara had no time to pay attention to her voice.

‘I wanted to send them off peacefully, but it wasn’t easy.’

The opponent’s skill was too excellent for her to subdue.

‘They didn’t seem like a bad person at heart.’

Judging by their concern for the dwarves, they weren’t someone with a twisted nature.

Thinking this, Kara felt a slight bitterness in her mouth.

‘…It’s for Lord Emiris.’

Everything was for the god she believed in.

From the moment she was born, she was born to pray for that god.

So she just had to follow.

Comforting herself this way, Kara was thinking about what to do next.

“The newly born goddess.”

Among the tasks left by her god, Emiris, what remained was the newly born goddess.

Though there were no clues yet, someone among the opponent’s companions might know something.

“May you meet your punishment and then meet me in paradise.”

It was among the teachings of the order.

If you live according to God’s will, you arrive in paradise.

If you have sinned, you pay for your sins and then come to paradise.

In paradise, the followers can enjoy happiness.

Under their Divine King, Emiris, that is.

While praying for the opponent’s peace, Kara’s ears caught a strange sound.

-Crack, crack, crack…

Something was moving within the light.

As if under tremendous pressure, and though it seemed difficult due to the waterfall of light, something was happening inside.

‘Could it be?’

Kara was startled by the identity of the sound.

And Phobia burst into laughter.

“Hehe, hehehehe!!!”

She laughed for a while.

Soon, a joyful sound echoed from her mouth.

“This is the first time I’ve seen this form!”

Soon, what slowly walked out of the waterfall of light was a white armor without a scratch.

There were no wings.

Instead, gauntlets that were more massive, thicker, rugged, and larger caught the eye.

Looking at the heretic who had transformed into a different form than before, Kara lightly bit her lip.

“Heretic…”

Whether this feeling was relief or anxiety.

While Kara herself couldn’t discern her own emotions, the heretic spoke somewhat laboriously.

“…This is heavier than I thought.”

Still, he muttered quietly that it was fortunate he could move.

Indeed, despite being under the spell and receiving tremendous pressure, the heretic was moving relatively normally.

Soon he raised his two thick arms and said.

“This will be different from before.”

His face wasn’t visible because of the helmet.

But Kara thought he seemed to be smiling.

“Round two begins.”

Seeing the glowing eyes inside the armor, Kara gripped her stone staff tightly again.