Ch.473Pouring Sacred Light

As the sky suddenly brightened, I immediately sensed their strategy.

Binding a powerful enemy within a certain range, then bombarding them with attacks until their last breath, sacrificing allies in the process—a drowning man’s tactic.

Indeed, it was a surprisingly rational strategy.

When the Church of Astraea faces powerful enemies, they’re usually mighty magical beasts or mages. The light of judgment would inflict fatal damage on such creatures.

The paladins caught in the bombardment simply needed to endure until the enemy’s breath was cut off.

“Damn it…!”

There was no escape.

The overlapping light of judgment completely surrounded the area within the paladins’ encirclement, and breaking through their formation was problematic due to the high-ranking paladins who clung to me tenaciously.

To break through the holy barrier deployed by these paladins, I’d need to concentrate my power there, but if Perlman and the other high-ranking paladins targeted my back at that moment, even I couldn’t avoid serious injury.

Besides… it was already too late to escape that way.

A perfect trap. I gritted my teeth as I looked up at the golden waterfall pouring down.

It was a magnificent and overwhelming sight, like a giant of light bringing down its fist.

“Light of Astraea!”

“Receive the judgment of order!”

I couldn’t focus solely on the sky.

The high-ranking paladins were charging at me with gritted teeth, seemingly unconcerned about the light above.

“Grrrr….”

Even the man whose groin had been completely blown away was struggling to rise with all his might.

To get up in that state—the tenacity of these fanatics was truly unbelievable.

Still, thanks to that, a countermeasure came to mind.

…If I can’t avoid it, I must block it.

“You call that judgment!”

I shook the ground with my stance, twisted my waist in a large rotation, and swung Durandal in a sweeping motion.

An extreme attack wielded with pure strength rather than skillful swordsmanship. The paladins who met the blue arc couldn’t withstand it and were thrown backward.

After shaking off those two, I rushed toward the man with the shattered groin who was struggling to stand.

The man desperately swung his sword, but a blade wielded from a collapsed stance was worse than a child’s play.

Frosting’s hilt deflected his longsword like lightning, then continued forward to firmly grip his shoulder covered by pauldrons.

“Kuk…?!”

Perhaps recalling how I had torn off the arms of other paladins, the eunuch’s eyes trembled slightly as I gripped his shoulder.

I had no intention of tearing anything off. I’m not cruel enough to take more from a man who has already lost his most precious part. If anything, I might offer him a gift of consolation.

Like this.

“Fly away-!”

I firmly gripped him with both hands and threw him toward the sky.

Since a high-ranking paladin means one positioned higher than other paladins.

At this moment, he had become a high-ranking paladin in the truest sense.

“Hueeeogh!”

The scream faded into the sky.

As the castrated paladin soared into the air, flailing his limbs, his gift struck him fiercely.

“Kugeogeogeogek!”

The eunuch danced in the sky. Countless beams of light struck his entire body, shaking him.

Perhaps because it was his own church’s miracle, he wasn’t reduced to pieces of meat raining down.

Yes. The gift I prepared for him was the waterfall of holy light.

As someone who loves Astraea’s light, he should gladly accept it.

“Lord Voles!”

“How could you commit such a cruel act…!”

The high-ranking paladins looked up at the scene in shock.

Cruel act? Was his attempt to pierce my groin some kind of sacred penetration ceremony?

With a sneer at the corner of my mouth, I fixed my gaze on the four remaining high-ranking paladins.

The pillar of judgment light pouring toward the ground landed on their shoulders, dispersing with a roaring sound.

Perhaps because it was their own miracle, despite the ear-splitting collision sound, there seemed to be little actual damage.

It wasn’t completely ineffective, but it couldn’t penetrate the “Protector’s Armor,” merely scraping off the holy light before dissipating. At this rate, they could easily withstand it for several minutes.

Of course, the same was true for me regarding the lack of impact.

It wasn’t that being hit didn’t hurt, but Voles, the eunuch, was blocking the light of judgment pouring toward me with his entire body.

No matter how dense it was, the light of judgment was ultimately a beam of light stabbing vertically downward.

If you cover your head like an umbrella, you can block it for a while.

It would be very brief, but that was enough.

Slightly bending my waist, I added will to the power of Karma spreading throughout my body.

Like blue flames rising from my toes and enveloping my entire body.

Entrusting my soul to the heat burning my body, I distorted the flow of the world.

—-

【 Defying Fate 】

What happens when you manifest the Tale of Heroes that compresses the time of a slash with your entire body?

The phenomenon unfolding before me was more alien than I had imagined.

With a strange “wheeeng” sound, the world lost its color and turned monochrome.

No, the world wasn’t changing.

It felt as if I had been thrown out of the world’s flow and fallen into a colorless world.

Where I stood now was not the world I had been standing in just a moment ago.

It was in the same position, with the same appearance, but fundamentally a different world with a different axis.

No color, no sound, not even smell or taste could be perceived.

A gray world of compressed time that only I could see, only I could enter.

This world was what one who had escaped the flow of time would see.

A world where everything moved slowly as if frozen.

Even the golden rain pouring down had changed to gray, flowing down slowly like thick honey.

In the world of Defying Fate, I took a step.

In this infinitely stretched world, only I moved at a normal pace.

Not superhuman speed, but the utterly ordinary speed of a person.

Yet that alone was enough to approach the enemies while avoiding the judgment light descending leisurely.

I walked five steps to reach them and swung Durandal twice.

The sword I wielded felt five times heavier than usual.

The true blade cut into their legs and severed them.

One at a time. A black line appeared in the middle of two pairs of thighs and slowly widened.

Their pupils began to dilate very slowly.

The next moment, the gray world that had reached its limit collapsed as if shattering.

The colorless world scattered like glass fragments. The original world, shining in full color, grabbed my soul and pulled it sharply.

The smell of blood, the roaring sound. The screams of the paladins.

In a state of exhaustion as if half my spirit had been pulled out, I saw the enemies before me gaping in shock.

“Hueogh!”

“What kind of movement…!”

To them, it must have seemed as if I had appeared and thrust my face at them in the blink of an eye.

The end result was much the same anyway.

– Chwaaak!

And then, their legs, which had been barely holding on, split open and spurted blood.

“Kuaaaak!”

“My legs, my legs!”

Only then did the paladins realize their condition and screamed with their mouths wide open.

Did they just now realize their legs were gone? Their reaction was incredibly slow.

“When did you…!”

Eyes trembling with fear, characteristic of those who had witnessed an incomprehensible phenomenon.

“You’re slow.”

I looked down at the paladins losing balance and sinking, leaving a brief comment about them.

“Even in falling.”

They hit the ground right after my evaluation ended.

—-

…What did I just say?

I blushed with a mixture of shame and regret as soon as I finished speaking.

It seemed that spending time with Hersella had rubbed off on me. I should reflect on that.

– Kwaaaaa!

But first, I need to escape this situation!

Dodging the golden downpour, I threw myself toward the shade created by the eunuch while quickly scanning my surroundings.

Voles was gradually losing his function as an umbrella as he fell, and two high-ranking paladins had become cripples, helplessly being pummeled by the pouring light beams.

The remaining two were staring at me with expressions as if their hearts had stopped.

Yes. That’s a natural reaction. Even I was surprised at myself.

My first attempt at a full-body manifestation of the Tale of Heroes. Its performance truly exceeded imagination.

Although the principle was quite different, the result was essentially the same as moving alone in a stopped world.

In exchange, seven-tenths of my heroic deed had been consumed after just five steps and two swings.

It was only a few days ago that I had commented on the extreme power consumption of Hersella’s Field of Mortality, but it turned out my Defying Fate was at a similar level.

“Kuuuu…! Astraea! Grant me endless courage!”

A high-ranking paladin gritted his teeth, firmly gripped his longsword with both hands, and charged toward me.

So he wants to finish this? Good. I appreciate him coming to me.

To face all of them with my remaining strength, I would have to refrain from using Defying Fate.

I raised Durandal toward the approaching paladin while watching the movement of the remaining one—Perlman.

Unlike his comrade, he wasn’t approaching me. He was just sweating with a face full of shock.

Had his fighting spirit been broken, preventing him from approaching? That would be nice… but it didn’t seem likely for a paladin of Astraea.

Even the high-ranking paladin whose legs had been cut off was crawling toward me with his arms, so it was unlikely that Perlman alone had given up the fight.

Then why?

He wasn’t stopping his comrade, nor was he joining to attack me, so why was he just watching…?

The next moment, Perlman pulled his sword back behind his shoulder in reverse grip and stretched his left arm forward. A typical javelin stance. Or in this case, a throwing sword stance.

So he was planning to throw his sword? But that wouldn’t work on me…

Ah.

With a sudden realization, I looked up for a moment.

At Voles, who was shading me from above and blocking the light of judgment.

And Perlman threw his sword.

Uneasy intuitions always prove correct. The golden sword shot like lightning was aimed not at me, but at Voles.

“Oh no…!”

“Where are you looking!”

There was no time to react.

The other paladin had approached right in front of me and was swinging his sword.

“The time of judgment has come!”

Whether trying to imitate Perlman’s technique or not, he used the same series of short slashes.

“I’ve already seen that!”

I caught his blade with the base of my sword, and as our blades intertwined, I pressed Durandal down and thrust my flat left hand like a bullet.

– Kwadeudeuk!

Frosting’s claws tore through the golden holy light and dug into his shoulder.

The resistance was stronger than expected, but not enough to prevent penetration.

“Kuhek…! Kheuk, kuuuaak!”

As the paladin whose shoulder I had pierced screamed, Voles’ body, struck by the longsword, flew sideways.

The shadow covering me disappeared without a trace.

The light of judgment began to pour down again.

Yes, this is how it goes…!

Good idea, but aren’t you forgetting something?

I reached out my right hand toward the man in front of me.

You knocked Voles away? Then I’ll just block with this guy in front of me!

“Now, Veron! Retreat!”

However, Perlman’s shout was a step faster than my grabbing the paladin.

Simultaneously with his shout, the paladin in front of me swung his light sword once more.

Not at me, but at his own shoulder.

– Seogek!

They say a lizard in danger cuts off its tail and escapes. That’s exactly what happened.

I could only stare in disbelief at the paladin who had cut off his own arm and rolled backward.

“Perlman-!”

As I called out the name of the paladin who had troubled me to the end, Perlman smiled with the corner of his mouth raised from a distance.

The golden torrent approached right before my eyes.

I raised my left arm to protect my head, gritted my teeth, and prepared for the coming impact.

– Kwagwagwagwang!

Finally, the light of judgment poured down, pounding and crushing everything around.

—-

The beams of light embedded in the ground shook and pulverized the earth.

All I could see was golden holy light. The ground beneath my feet shook violently, and all I could hear was the roaring sound.

The high-level miracle I had been wary of among their attacks.

The holy light of the goddess who hates sin struck me.

But… it didn’t hurt much.

“What is this…?”

I looked up at the golden torrent pounding me with a dumbfounded expression.

It doesn’t hurt as much as I expected…? At most, it felt like hundreds of needles stabbing into bare skin.

It was annoyingly painful, but not at the level I had worried about—breaking through armor and tearing flesh and bone to inflict fatal wounds.

…It seems the weight of my sins was much lighter than I thought.

I was cautious for nothing.

If it was just this level, I could have fought while enduring it.