Chapter 231
“Yes. Understood.”
Flap! Flap!
Black wings flapped powerfully before my eyes.
“Indeed, there’s no one in this world who understands me.”
Nazril lowered the hands that covered his face and straightened his posture.
It seemed he had given up on his act of feigning pity. From the one with his chin raised, only arrogance and stubbornness overflowed.
“Now, I desire nothing from this heartless world.”
Agnes and I shared the same sentiment.
“What a show.”
Nazril flapped his wings and soared high into the air. His eyes, full of madness, gleamed like wicked starlight.
“I don’t need anything, so I’ll slaughter you all. Starting with you, Holy Saint!”
At that moment, an immense gust of wind swept over me from the front.
<Aillet!>
Piercing through the sharp tearing sound, Agnes’s call warned of danger.
The insane fallen angel’s body was rapidly approaching me.
“Divine Inviolability.”
The transcendent barrier transformed into an incomparable divine artifact and enveloped my body. I did not evade but received Nazril’s impact.
CRASH!
“……!”
A heavy impact seized my entire body. My body, pushed by Nazril, flew mercilessly through the air.
CRUNCH!
A deafening roar echoed the moment my back slammed into the building’s exterior wall. The ground in the surrounding area must have trembled.
“Aillet!”
“Ai!”
“Your, Your Holiness!”
Worried calls echoed from afar. But there was no time to reassure them.
CRACKLE! THUMP!
The place where Nazril and I crashed was the third floor of a building.
It pierced through the exterior wall, created a long furrow in the floorboards, and only stopped after my back hit the opposite wall.
“……What a perfect spot.”
Murmuring to myself, I quickly got up and took a stance.
Divine Inviolability had completely protected my physical functions.
Even amidst the dust cloud, I extended Serpens without a hint of hesitation.
Nazril instinctively twisted his head to dodge, then exclaimed in surprise.
“To withstand that! Indeed, you live up to the name Holy Saint. You’re very sturdy.”
He talked too much, as always. Instead of answering, I twisted the sword’s trajectory and unleashed a flurry of consecutive attacks.
Ever since he stripped off his upper clothes, Nazril had discarded the gentleman’s cane that didn’t suit him.
His new weapon was his half-gloved fists.
THWACK!
Fists infused with demonic energy alternately targeted the left and right sides of my face.
I countered by reading their trajectories with my senses raised to their limit.
The afterimages of light and demonic energy scattered by our attacks constantly disrupted my vision.
CRASH!
After dozens of exchanges, Nazril’s punch futilely missed me and slammed directly into an innocent wall.
The stone and wooden wall crumbled, and debris covered Nazril.
He looked pathetic, covered in dust, and wrinkled his nose.
“What a filthy place. It seems to smell awful too.”
This time, I immediately retorted.
“Good nose, aren’t you?”
Nazril narrowed his eyes, as if feeling something amiss. But I didn’t give him time to think.
‘Now!’
With my will, I concentrated all the power of my aura onto a single coordinate.
“……!”
Then, as if sensing something, he agilely kicked off the ground.
The moment his body, with wings folded downwards, burst through the ceiling, my Aura Blades flew through the walls into the building.
CRASHING BOOM!
Seven Aura Blades struck the spot where he had just been, causing an explosion. I, too, emerged onto the roof.
Nazril, who had positioned himself some distance away, bared his sharp fangs and laughed.
“Too bad, Holy Saint. That must have been a desperate sneak attack.”
“No, not at all. Everything’s going exactly as planned.”
“What?”
Nazril, who had worn a foolish expression for a while, flinched.
Only then did he see the silver threads haphazardly tangled on his body and wings.
“These are…?”
I kindly explained to the bewildered demon.
“Birds are caught with nets, aren’t they? I’d set them up on the roof.”
“What… Cough!”
When I pulled my left hand, the Spirit King’s Harp String instantly tightened.
“Ugh!”
Nazril’s body was helplessly dragged away and slammed into a pillar adorning the edge of the roof.
And in that state, he was tightly wrapped by the wires and immobilized.
“Hah! Do you think something like this will work?!”
Nazril erupted in fury, trying to break free from the wires.
He had wings made of muscles stronger than any other body part.
Normally, if he spread them, he should be able to tear mere wires apart instantly.
However, the result defied expectations.
“Wh-Why?”
Even pouring all his might until every tendon grotesquely wriggled, he couldn’t break the binding.
Only then did he turn his only movable part, his neck, to check behind him.
Nazril’s face was stained with horror when he saw the shape of the pillar he was bound to.
“A cr-cross?!”
Indeed. The place where I had hung Nazril was not just an ordinary roof decoration.
It was the cross of Saint Agnes Church.
“Didn’t I tell you earlier? What a perfect spot.”
Of course, Nazril, who was solely focused on crashing into me without a second thought, wouldn’t have paid attention to the location.
Naturally, I had lured him here.
Saint Agnes Church holds the same status as the Pontifical Palace for the Incantation Cult.
It was practically a holy ground, so it had the effect of suppressing demonic power.
‘With my home ground nearby, of course, I should utilize it.’
Furthermore, I had meticulously prepared beforehand.
“You said it smelled awful earlier, right?”
“Co-Could it be…?”
“Oh, you figured it out?”
The tip of my index finger produced a small flame of Blue Holy Flame, like a lighter.
I flicked it towards Nazril.
“Yep. That’s the smell of holy oil.”
WHOOSH!
The flame that touched the oil instantly expanded.
“AAAAAAAH!”
The Blue Holy Flame engulfed the weakened fallen angel.
It was the beginning of his immolation.
All of this was a plan prepared to easily subjugate Nazril.
-I was late because I had to make a quick stop somewhere. My apologies.
I didn’t immediately reveal myself upon arriving in Peronsa.
Instead, I went to the top of the church and doused the cross with holy oil that I had personally consecrated.
Thanks to the ‘Inexhaustible Holy Oil Vessel’, a sponsored item from the Overseer, there was no need to conserve fuel.
[‘Heavens’ Secret Overseer’ mutters that they didn’t give it to be used for this.]
[‘Eye that Oversees All Chaos’ laments the burning of the cross where she used to hang lily garlands.]
I was incinerating trash as promised, but Agnes didn’t seem very pleased.
<Ah, the church named after me…>
It breaks my heart to see it so broken and burned.
[‘Creative Economy Manager’ urges them to raise architectural donations.]
[‘Architect of the Skyscraper of Trials’ suggests that since they’re repairing it anyway, they should raise it higher.]
“Don’t be upset, Agnes. I’ll have it repaired soon.”
<Promise… Promise…>
I turned my gaze back to Nazril.
“Urghhhh.”
He suffered in the flames, not even dreaming of resistance.
However, perhaps because he was a demon ranked 175th, traditional methods wouldn’t kill him easily.
It seemed he’d need to be burned for three days and nights like this, so fire support appeared necessary.
I looked down at the ground, where the minor demons had been cleanly dealt with, and shouted to the people.
“Everyone! Let’s all attack together now!”
An SS-rank boss in an unresisting state. Everyone’s eyes gleamed.
“Yes! Your Holiness!”
“Let’s go!”
“Die, you demon bastard!”
CRASHING BOOM! BANG! CRACKLE!
Aura flew from all directions, mercilessly pummeling Nazril.
“What a good punching bag!”
Even grandfather lent a powerful fist.
When Nazril was almost on the verge of death, it was finally my turn to step forward.
While I usually prefer to use ‘Bane of Evil’, the skill for eliminating evil, to finish things, today was different.
“I should try out a newly learned skill this time.”
<Oh, yes.>
I raised my divine power throughout my entire body.
It had been a long time since my rank rose and ‘Transcendent skillbook’ purchases were unlocked in the cash shop, but until now, I hadn’t dared to buy anything except ‘Divine Inviolability’ due to the issue of saving up for the genre change ticket.
But thanks to Tesillid looting the Demon Realm’s storehouse, I had enough cash to buy all the Transcendent skills recently.
The one I chose now was a transcendent skill, superior to ‘Pure Light of Chain Flame’ and capable of punishing targets with unblockable attacks, just like ‘Bane of Evil’.
“Hoo…”
My hair fluttered wildly in the storm of divine power. I felt holy light pouring onto my head.
After a long preparation for casting, I finally uttered the activation phrase.
“Gate of the Pantheon, open.”
Shhhhing.
A colossal white marble triumphal arch formed in the air.
The Gate of Heaven, which served as the motif for the Pontifical Palace’s main gate, opened.
Not the Gate of Pandemonium, but the Gate of the Pantheon.
From within it, a pure light poured forth, capable of making one repent their sins spontaneously.
Nothing but light was visible inside. For it is forbidden for a human retina to gaze upon a god.
“N-No!”
However, something seemed to reflect in Nazril’s eyes.
“AAAAAAAH!”
The fear brought by the light before his eyes seemed greater than the pain of the holy flame burning his body, as Nazril struggled desperately.
But it was futile. Eventually, as all his energy waned, the fallen angel’s body dissolved into light.
“I chose the wrong… city…”
That became Nazril’s last words.
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The three moons vanished one by one, and the darkness slowly diluted.
Finally, sunlight streamed overhead, signaling the retreat of the demonic night.
One city was saved.
Privilege for the Possessor