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  Vol 2 Chapter 31: Ten-Star Holy Knight

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  Arymm couldn’t help but ch her fists as she regarded the armored man standing before her, his head the only part exposed.

  “Well, well, I hought I’d see the so-called ‘Fallen Saintess’ alive,” he sneered.

  “The Knight of the Holy Light Church, Jade...” she muttered.

  The knights of the Holy Light Church were broadly divided into two fas. One was the Tribunal Knights, a secretive order uhe Inquisition, tasked with rooting out heretid apostates. The other was the Holy Knights, charged with the prote of the Churd its most esteemed figures. Though the Tribunal Knights, funing as an underground force, were generally more formidable, the Holy Knights were no less powerful, owing to their direct faith in the Goddess of Light. The Tribunal Knights, by trast, revered the God of Judgement, a subordinate of the Goddess. Thus, their strength was roughly equivalent, each side bang the other.

  “But why, pray tell, would a Holy Knight like yourself be in a pce such as this?” Arymm questioned, her eyes narrowing.

  “That’s quite the inquiry,” Jade shot back, a smirk tugging at his lips. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that, ‘former’ Saintess?”

  Indeed, if Jade was truly a Holy Knight, his role was to guard the Churd its key figures. And giveuation, there was little doubt as to which figure might him.

  “The former Saintess has been branded a heretic,” Jade tinued, his voice eg with a touockery, “and with no new Saintess chose, you’ve bee a scapegoat fligence, left without a task or purpose. That’s why you’ve wound up in a pce like this, isn’t it?”

  “Impressive,” Arymm replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. “If only you’d been this perceptive in the past.”

  Jade was no ordinary knight. As one of the Ten-Star Holy Knights, he stood just below the Pope and the Saintess in rank. His duty was to protect the Saintess, though one could reasonably assume that meant keeping an eye on her as well.

  “But you shouldn’t be here,” he decred, voice hardening. Slowly, he raised his sword.

  Arymm didn’t hesitate. Seeing his preparation, she slid into a bat stance.

  g!

  With inhuman speed, Jade’s sword cleaved through the air, a blow that would have felled any ordinary warrior in a heartbeat. Arymm, however, met it head-on, her fist cloaked in magic, defleg the strike with a csh that rang like collidial.

  “Caught that one, did you?” Jade remarked, leaping back. The attack had been a mere probe; he hadn’t even begun to fight in ear.

  “Of course,” Arymm scoffed. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

  “Fair point.”

  This time, Jade adopted a perfect stance, his sword raised ibook precision. An aura of trated energy began to emanate from him, far more potent than before, dwarfing the strength Arymm had felt when she explored the hidden chamber. The pressure was overwhelming, leagues beyond the formidable mage she’d faced earlier.

  “Then, here I e,” Jade announced.

  In a blink, he vanished, reappearing with a fsh of silver as his sword carved a glowing arc toward Arymm. Unlike his initial strike, this blow was on different level. Arymm chose not to risk blog a aside. Yet Jade was relentless; one ssh flowed into another, and aill, until a barrage of sword strikes coalesced into a dazzliagram in the air.

  “...To think you’ve reached this level,” Jade remarked, geonishment breaking through his stoic exterior. “It’s only bee years.”

  For a seasoned knight like Jade, who had endured tless trials, Arymm’s growth defied belief. Her progress surpassed all he had imagined.

  “Eight years,” Arymm repeated, a shadow crossing her face. “Perhaps for you, those years were ordinary, but for her, they were anything but a blink.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jade asked, puzzled.

  “It’s not something you o uand.”

  With that, the magic c through Arymm intensified. The grouh her cracked and buckled uhe pressure. She raised her hand, fingers unfurling from a ched fist into a cw-like shape.

  A deep uwisted in Jade’s gut.

  Crack, crack.

  Arymm swiped the air, and five jagged fissures appeared, as if reality itself had shattered into floating shards of gss. The fabric of space around these rifts distorted grotesquely, bending light and form.

  “Broken space...” Jade whispered, his face paling. As a Holy Knight, sed only to the Pope and Saintess, he had entered spatial magic before. Yet those powerful magis could barely manage a half-human-sized distortion with all their strength, and even grazing it was enough to gouge flesh. But here Arymm had casually sshed space itself into numerous deadly fractures.

  This was no longer a question of minor injuries; it was a matter of whether any remains would even be left to bury.

  “What’s the matter, Ten-Star Holy Knight?” Arymm taunted. “Afraid of a girl who betrayed your precious faith?”

  Jade’s grip on his sword tightened. He couldn’t afford to hesitate.

  “No,” he finally said. He straightened, adopting a ance.

  “Let’s end this in a single blow.”

  Jade knew Arymm had surpassed him. His ces of victory were slim. But if he were to fall, he would at least strike with everything he had. Drawing upon every reserve of strength, he poured his energy into his final strike. And then, he invoked a blessing:

  “Light, heed me!”

  The room was bathed in brilliance as the Goddess of Light’s blessing answered his call. Those who proved themselves worthy, either through trials or divine favor, could receive such blessings. His swleamed, suffused with divine energy, lighting up the entire chamber.

  All his power and faith bined iimate ssh. The energy surge obliterated everything in its path, disiing walls and floors in a blinding fsh. The strike was enough to sidered in the realm of tenth tier, a feat few could rival.

  Boom!

  The ground quaked, shockwaves rippling far and wide. The light faded, leaviru in its wake. Jade stood there, sword trembling in his grip, a gaping hole in his chest where his heart should have been. Across from him, Arymm remained unscathed, save for a patch of scorched cloth revealing newly regeed skih.

  “That was mildly eaining,” Arymm remarked, approag him with calm deliberation. “Any st words?”

  “...May I... know your name?” Jade’s voice was weak, but his question was clear.

  “...Her name is Aris now,” Arymm replied. “The name ‘Arymm’... I have ied.”

  “I see...” Jade murmured, a flicker of uanding passing through his fading gaze.

  He had known, somewhere deep ihat the woman before him wasn’t the Saintess he onew. No matter how diluted, the essence of ink never vanishes, even when mixed with endless water. For ten years, he had guarded Aris, and he could sehe difference.

  “Please... tell her... I’m sorry... I failed to protect her...” His voice dwindled, vanishing into silence as he fell. Even ih, he remained upright, like a true knight.