Those hollow eyes, burning with ghostly blue Soul Fire, swept indifferently over the two tiny humans before Agnos—one nervous young man shielding a blond girl behind him, looking just like a mother hen protecting her chicks.
What foolish sacrifice. What pointless protection. After thousands of years, these idiots' emotional patterns had not changed in the slightest. It was revolting.
Her attention—or rather, the attention of her fragmented soul bound within that cold stone shell—was drawn more to the line of inscription on the statue's base, eroded by time yet still legible: "...Orlando's eternal guardian...Agnos..."
"Heh..." A dry, strange sound, like stone scraping against stone, escaped through the statue's cracked lips.
If she still possessed flesh, Agnos would surely have burst out laughing. "The great... guardian?" she repeated, her voice filled with endless mockery and deeply buried sorrow. "Hahaha... So this is how... later generations judged me?"
The hard lines of the stone statue's face seemed to pull upward, forming a stiff and terrifying smile.
Within that smile was contempt for humanity's ignorance, self-mockery at fate's merciless tricks, and, deeper still, a silent accusation against that history buried beneath the dust.
She turned her cold gaze, still burning with ghostly blue Soul Fire, back toward Baroque and Freya. That gaze was like a blade piercing through time, carrying the disdain and condescension of an ancient being.
"Thousands of years have passed, and you... are still just as foolish." Agnos's hoarse voice echoed through the cemetery, every word carrying bone-chilling cold.
She slowly raised one ancient stone arm, her fingertip pointing toward the blond girl Baroque was desperately protecting.
The girl's body trembled faintly, yet she still forced herself not to scream.
"Not a bad vessel... at least it's much better than this cold stone." Agnos murmured, sounding more as if she were talking to herself. "My new body can't be this cumbersome again. It can't even run away..."
As her voice fell, an invisible magical fluctuation suddenly spread toward Freya.
The air itself seemed to freeze for an instant.
[Human Stasis Spell]
Freya felt a chill shoot from the soles of her feet straight to the crown of her head. Her body instantly stiffened, bound by invisible chains. She could not move even a finger.
Terror filled her blue eyes, yet she could not make a sound.
"Don't even think about it! You damned stone monster!" Baroque roared in fury, like a trapped beast.
He knew that this awakened ancient being before him was far beyond their ability to fight.
As a former Silver Rank adventurer and a high-ranking Inquisitor of the kingdom, he had encountered many powerful beings. Yet the aura radiating from this statue far surpassed that of any enemy he had ever faced.
Without the slightest hesitation, the loyal guard suddenly stepped forward, his hard leather boot crushing the stone slab beneath him.
Holy energy erupted within him. A visible golden halo emerged around his body and began to whirl!
"In my name, I proclaim your guilt! Judgment: Enemy Breaker!" Baroque's voice rang out like a bell.
Holy energy poured into the battle-axe in his hand. Blinding light flashed across its Axe Blade, empowering it with additional damage against evil creatures.
He shot forward like an arrow loosed from its bow, charging fiercely at Agnos's stone body with unstoppable resolve!
The battle-axe tore through the air with a dull roar, aimed straight at the statue's chest. He would smash this evil creature that had profaned the dead's peace to pieces!
However, just before Baroque's battle-axe touched Agnos's cold stone body, a distorted rift radiating Spatial Fluctuation energy opened without warning before Agnos, forming an irregular [Dimensional Gate].
The Axe Blade, carrying all of Baroque's strength, hacked viciously into the Dimensional Gate, yet it was like a mud ox plunging into the sea. It caused not the slightest ripple, and all its force was swallowed by the distorted space.
"[Trigger Spell]?!" Baroque's expression changed dramatically.
He recognized this technique! This was no instantaneous spell, but some kind of prearranged magical trap—a [Trigger Spell] that activated automatically upon detecting a specific attack or intent!
That old monster had actually laid down such a sinister contingency even while asleep!
"Too slow, insect." Agnos's mocking voice rang out abruptly behind Baroque, like a deadly incantation calling for his life.
Baroque felt a chill surge from his spine to the top of his head. He hurriedly tried to turn around, but the heavy stone arm of the statue had already settled onto his shoulder, cold and hard, immovable as a mountain.
Agnos's figure had somehow already passed through the Dimensional Gate and appeared silently behind him.
Ghostly blue Soul Fire danced playfully within her hollow eye sockets. Her other stone hand slowly rose, its index finger pointing at the back of Baroque's heart.
A force entirely different from Arcane Energy yet likewise originating on the level of rules gathered at her fingertip, carrying the majesty of a divine edict.
This was not arcana that mortals could wield by studying and understanding the Magic Net. It was more like the manifestation of an "authority" directly derived from some higher will—a part of what made up the world's reality. Mortals could only obey it. They could not resist.
"Commandment: Death!"
That irresistible "Divine Art" instantly pierced through Baroque's armor and flesh, directly corroding the core of his life.
It was not a direct declaration of death, but a deeper and more thorough deprivation—depriving him of his will to fight and his ability to resist, plunging him into a state of decay where his vitality rapidly ebbed away!
This was precisely what made "Commandment"-type spells so terrifying. They often bypassed ordinary magical resistance and physical defense, acting directly upon the target's will and Life Origin.
Baroque felt an irresistible weakness sweep through his entire body. The holy halo bestowed by Judgment trembled violently like a candle flickering in the wind, its radiance rapidly dimming.
His muscles shriveled as though all their moisture had been drained away. The battle-axe in his hand clanged to the ground, and even his strength to stand rapidly deserted him.
"No... impossible..." He struggled to turn his head toward Freya, who was restrained by the Human Stasis Spell. His eyes were filled with unwillingness and despair.
His knees buckled. His burly body crashed heavily to the ground, collapsing into a silent heap.
"Heh." Agnos withdrew her stone finger and looked at the Inquisitor beneath her feet, now stripped of all ability to resist. Her hoarse voice held a trace of remembrance, along with a hint of twisted satisfaction. "This is a little trick my 'master' bestowed upon me."