Witnessing it all from such close range was an indescribably shocking experience. It was as though a crouching hill were slowly rising, as though the earth itself were swelling before their eyes—both Gawain and Bercetia stared wide-eyed in astonishment, forgetting even to speak. They instinctively stepped back two paces, trying to see more clearly. Yet the giant deer merely raised its head, and its upper body had already reached a height where even looking up, they could barely make out its neck and back.
As the giant deer rose, the ancient alloy wreckage that had pierced through its body and nailed it to the earth let out teeth-grating creaks and groans. The metal and crystal that had once possessed absolute suppressive power over Divine Power lost their special properties in that instant. The lingering energy within them seemed to be neutralized and canceled by some invisible force. As the radiance moving across their surfaces rapidly dimmed, they began to snap and fall away, gradually breaking free from or being forced out of Amun's wounds. The sounds of writhing flesh and scraping metal continued without pause, while tiny motes of light kept drifting down from the air—
No one could imagine the pain this would bring. Throughout the entire process, Amun maintained an awe-inspiring silence. Only after he had completely risen, only after those enormous metal fragments had crashed to the ground like boulders rolling down a mountain, did he stand tall in the dark Defiance Courtyard and release a deep sigh, filled with countless emotions that could neither be named nor explained.
It was a human sigh.
His wounds finally began to heal, at an unprecedented speed, closing rapidly before Gawain and Bercetia's eyes. Only then did Gawain recover from the astonishing sight. He seemed to have realized something, then