Chapter 52

After all, the body of the sixteenth patriarch was still hanging on the mountaintop.

However, in the mere ten seconds it took for the arrogant Cardinal to turn away with a smile, a dramatic change occurred below.

In the eyes of the Church's knights and Executor, this man was like a legendary Warrior from the Age of Gods.

In just one second, the silver-haired man swiftly and terrifyingly slaughtered dozens of Church members, cutting through enemy lines as if the battle itself were overwhelming for him.

And within that overwhelming Od was a golden brilliance, even surpassing the radiance of the Church itself.

In just ten seconds, all one hundred Church members who were trying to stop them were mercilessly killed.

When the Cardinal realized this, he hurriedly used his Od to protect himself, stopping the blood-stained gun in the hand of the unknown youth who was coming like a storm, and then violently swung it towards his neck—

Boom!

The massive collision of Od even enveloped the entire church for a moment.

Avia leaped backward, staring expressionlessly at the purple-haired Dead Apostle who was protecting the Cardinal with the Black Keys.

"You seem to have some misunderstanding about us. I can explain on behalf of the Church. Please stop this senseless killing."

"Oh? You have this Black Keys... You killed that Raven, right?"

Avia suddenly asked.

"That's right, I killed him. I wonder if you would be so kind as to hear me out—"

"You've disappointed me greatly, Sword Monk Beze."

101: This is the gold that pierces through the stars.

Bei Ze had no time to consider the reason behind the silver-haired man's disappointed tone.

As the gun and sword he was holding grazed Dead Apostle body as he spoke, he dodged and then used the Black Keys to counterattack.

They clashed several times, until finally the sword couldn't withstand the weight of the Black Keys and broke, leaving only the spear. However, after being struck by Od, it delivered an even more powerful blow, taking the opportunity to dodge the sharpness of the Black Keys. In an instant, it grabbed the spear with its free hand and leaped in that direction to close the distance.

As the Saber and priest of the Church who designed the Black Keys, Conceptual Weapon of "mass production, easy portability, fast service, and minimizing losses" in the year 300 AD, and was praised as the pinnacle of the era, Be Ze had to admit that this seemingly young man's combat ability was overwhelming, almost completely dominating the battlefield with unexpected Violence.

To be honest, Bay Ze didn't want to fight him, because there was no reason to fight to the death; after all, this man was human, not Dead Apostle.

Born into the Narubareck lineage of the Burial Agency, a subordinate institution of the Holy Church, Be Ze had unparalleled reverence for his Faith. Therefore, even though he had already achieved so much at that time, he still obeyed the Church's request and became Dead Apostle, who is now the twenty-fifth patriarch who possesses the principle of the "sword".

He personally killed the Blackmore in Wales one-on-one decades ago, making him arguably one of the Church's most effective weapons against the Dead Apostle, but he was only willing to target the Dead Apostle.

"Bey Ze! What's wrong with you! Hurry up and use your Principle Blood Ring!"

During Avia's battle with Be Ze, the Cardinal who had miraculously survived, leaning on his cane, roared angrily at the purple-haired Dead Apostle.

His previously kind and solemn expression was now distorted, probably because he couldn't accept the fear of almost being killed someone of his status.

"..."

Be Ze remained silent, stepping back while keeping his gaze fixed on Avia, who was not using this opportunity to pursue.

Once you become Dead Apostle, you possess the principle, which is the result of continuing to cultivate what you had when you were human. This is the proposition held by the Dead Apostle: the purpose of living, the curse of immortality.

The only path to true immortality is through the Principle Blood Ring.

The so-called Principle Blood Ring is the Primordial precept engraved on the soul by the blood of the Ancestor, which is why the Ancestor is capable of fulfilling the nature of the Ancestor's blood. The Singularity that can rewrite the laws of Planet physics simply by having this blood flowing in one's body is that it is the true red pollution that fell from the moon to the ground, and it possesses a potent poison that is absolutely incompatible with other worlds.

The difference between the two is that the Principle Blood Ring can be inherited, and there is a generational relationship between ancestors, while the Blood Ring of Principle is unique to each Dead Apostle.

Avia now only had a gun in his hands; his sword had been shattered. He glanced at the silent Be Ze and then spoke arrogantly:

"Sword Monk, what are you hesitating for? Why not use it? Your Principle Blood Ring."

Avia could roughly guess the effect of the Principle Blood Ring. After all, Be Ze later became the Teacher of Ciel and the new nineteenth patriarch, and ultimately died at the hands of his disciple Ciel. Ciel developed the great Magecraft "Calvaria's Star" through his sword principle.

Presumably, its form and effect will be similar, probably unfolding in the stratosphere, a fiercely burning Angel wheel focused on sunlight, and the light, fifty kilometers long and ten kilometers wide, shone onto the earth's surface through a Magecraft made reflector. The power of this light can be described as having mass, like an aurora, a guillotine of light.

Only in this way could Blackmore be killed one-on-one, because Blackmore's Reality Marble is called Never-Return, which is a deathly wing canopy covering the sky, devouring even the moonlight and stars, an absolute "world of death" without a trace of light... It can be said that it is completely restrained.

But Avia didn't care. After all, he had experienced the indiscriminate dragon breath of Dragon Kind and was already used to such wide-range attacks.

"... I cannot use it, nor will I use it; it should not be used on people."

B. Ze shook his head, ignoring the Cardinal beside him who was gritting his teeth at him, and said this.

"Fool! You piece of trash! No, even if he's Phantasmal Species, this guy is clearly a Heresy! How could Lord Marub let someone like him live!"

The Cardinal struck Bey Ze several times with his cane, then shouted at the assembled Executor, priests, and knights:

"Connect everyone! Activate the church's defenses!"

In that instant, the gentle breeze intensified, blowing downwards with a whooshing sound, and the entire church seemed to sway.

From an aerial view, a spiral extending outwards from the Cardinal appears, as if the Magic Circuits of everyone in the Church present are interconnected.

The Od that permeates the entire city drives the Magic Circuits of all Church personnel in this area. In order to absorb the Church's mysteries, everyone has become a simple cog in the machine, making it a truly large-scale collective Magecraft.

The armed conflict that erupted this time was--

The Wales Great Cathedral, built over two centuries ago, is a sacred place imbued with many mysterious bloodstains.

That moment was very bright.

It's hard to believe the Sun is about to set; this isn't just a simple matter of light intensity.

To human perception, something bright and shining is rising.

So vast, so heavy, yet so sacred, a massive Od beam of light hurtled toward Avia.

But he just stood there, motionless, and smiled softly.

"Hear my words, O peoples, and destroy that Evil thing."

The Church members were all making this call, and countless voices echoed in the dazzling light.

At the same time, Avia's body shone with a golden light.

The golden hue of Desire shone through the holy light, gathering around him as if to protect him.

Avia naturally noticed the light emanating from the Rhine Gold on him. He never expected that the cursed gold would actually protect someone; it was truly unbelievable.

"We've gathered enough power for one use."

He said softly that at this moment, under the collision of the Church's immense Faith power and the Rhine Gold, he had incredibly made a 100% connection with the remaining machine outside the Planet, meaning it was fully charged. However, since it was incomplete, its power should be somewhat reduced.

"--This is gold that pierces through the stars."

Then, Perfection targeting the overflowing radiance of Faith emanating from this Cathedral, golden rays of light, like arrows, emanated from beyond the Planet.

102: Black Princess: I want to eat people.

"Gransurg, you've had a tough time too."

Earlier, at the foot of the Blackmore Village, a Black-Haired Girl drove away the knights guarding the village and gazed at the sixteenth ancestor hanging on the mountaintop.

Her face showed neither sorrow nor joy; one could not sense any human emotion in this young girl, nor her unblemished black hair.

Like the Blackmore's jet-black attire, this girl's entire outfit was also a dark, black color. Presumably, even if sunlight or moonlight shone on her, her radiance would become even dimmer, as if everything foreign about her would be slowly erased.

Her name is Altrouge Brunestud Brunestud, the ninth of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors, a hybrid of True Ancestor and Dead Apostle, and she is revered as a princess.

After Crimson Moon's death, ignoring the demands of the severely weakened True Ancestor and refusing to serve as tools for resisting the Church and dealing with the restless Dead Apostle and the Fallen True Ancestor 'Demon King,' he led his loyal guard knights, the Black-and-White Knights, a royal guard sworn to serve to the death, away, taking his beloved dog with him.

"Fu."

"What's wrong, Kathy?"

Hearing her pet bark, Altrouge Brunestud glanced at it with her cold eyes, then bent down, her body about 145 centimeters long, and reached out to let it sit comfortably on her shoulder.

"F, Fou."

Although the White Demon Hound's bark sounded no different from a dog's, the princess, as its master, could understand its meaning.

It means that a church nearby was burned down, and there was a human corpse inside. Judging from the remaining Od, it was a priest of the Church.

"Is that so? It's unbelievable that someone would dare to kill a priest and burn down Church in this day and age."

The princess spoke calmly, while Kathy Palug waved her claws a few times as she spoke, as if to say that she could also Church everyone with her fists for her master.

"But it doesn't matter anyway. I wonder where the person Kishua sent me here to find is."

After speaking, Altrouge Brunestud turned her gaze back to the corpse of the Blackmore.

As a pet, Fou knew that her owner's statement was tantamount to saying that the topic was irrelevant and pointless.

The princess who had originally left should now be hiding in Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. However, not long ago, the Grand Sorcerer was seriously injured by the Church after killing Crimson Moon appeared before her after a hundred years of absence from the world, hoping that she would immediately go to Wales in Britain to find someone who could defeat the Church.

However, if Avia knew that the Church was able to severely injure and successfully kill the Crimson Moon Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg who possessed True Magic, she would certainly be very surprised.

After all, that's the Second Magic, True Magic that allows one to observe countless Parallel World and travel freely between them. Its most basic requirement is unlimited energy, and it possesses many other abilities...

How did the Church manage to inflict such severe damage in 300 AD? Only the Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg himself and the Church members who participated in the war at that time probably know the answer.

Although the Grand Sorcerer was theoretically one of his enemies, Ji Jun understood that if they were to fight the Church, he and the Magecraft were potential allies... But was there really a possibility of defeating the Church, which was currently at its peak?

She had her doubts about this. In the years since she left, she had witnessed the merciless slaughter of many of her Dead Apostle. To be honest, although she wasn't really interested in what had become of these people, the Answer of them gradually heading towards extinction still evoked a sense of desolation in her.

I'm not interested in that.

"That's true, you're really hard to persuade, so there's nothing we can do about it."

The Grand Sorcerer nodded slowly, while Altrouge Brunestud seemed completely unaffected.

"Blackmore has been dead for so long, I must properly dispose of his body; he was very loyal."

At that moment, after a brief conversation, the Black-Haired Girl, who appeared to be about fourteen years old, left Constantinople, where she had been hiding, without any guards, heading to Britain alone with her dog.

"..."

As time went on, Altrouge Brunestud muttered an unknown incantation, and the air seemed to instantly change. The Demon Hound on her shoulder began to frolic in response to her words.

At the same time, the Black Keys that firmly held the Blackmore's corpse in place was dissolving in an incomprehensible way, accompanied by a black chill that rose out of nowhere.

It felt as if winter had suddenly arrived; the cold air cut like knives into the skin, and ice seemed to be struggling to climb up the ground.

The black, chilling current, like the breath of the dead, devoured the Sun, obscuring the corpse of the Blackmore and the village centered on Ji Jun. The only sounds were the faint whisper of the wind and the flow of the stream; the endless darkness was imperceptible, as if all life had vanished.

Then, just a few seconds later, the darkness disappeared.

When Ji Jun reappeared, the Blackmore's body had vanished, and the people of Blackmore Village were all in a coma.

"Since you are the ones who have received his kindness, you may accept his things."

As Altrouge Brunestud spoke, her face slightly pale, a golden beam of light, like a spear, descended from the sky in western Wales, leaving her momentarily stunned. Even the White Demon Hound beside her opened its mouth in confusion.

What is that?

The body's instinctive reaction is far faster than the brain's thought. As soon as Ji Jun had this question, her body sped toward the location of the pillar of light.

Finally, she saw the branch of the Holy Church in Britain, Brecknockshire, in a city where the central Wales Great Cathedral seemed to have been removed by a giant hand, leaving only the original land and a deep pit.

The strong smell of blood still lingered in the air, not yet dissipated. The long-lost, rich smell of human blood made Ji Jun, who had been hiding and drinking only animal blood for many years, swallow hard.

As she walked further forward, she saw the distraught swordsman Beze, with a Black Keys stuck in his heart. Ji Jun could understand; he was probably treating her like this to suppress his bloodlust.

And then there was the silver-haired human sitting in front of him, holding a gun and panting heavily.

"Who are you..."

Altrouge Brunestud, quite curious, leaned closer.

"You must be Dead Apostle, right? Could you please take me to rest for a bit? Thank you."

Without answering the question, the silver-haired human collapsed forward, utterly exhausted, after uttering those words.

I don't know why, but she still reached out and helped him up.

And what comes with it—

Why does this smell make me want to eat it just by smelling it...?

This was the first time since Ji Jun's birth that she had entertained the idea of eating people.