The Duel Ends

After using the Breathing Technique, the Church Warrior immediately invoked the Goddess of Ocean Currents and used the divine magic [Power of Ocean Currents].

A substance resembling Water Element, yet not quite Water Element, wrapped around the Church Warrior's body, and even his weapon was covered in a transparent, flowing film.

He was still secretly surprised by Fran's attack; Fran was definitely the most troublesome opponent he had ever encountered.

His sheer power was overwhelming, forcing him to resort to the Deity arts bestowed upon him by the gods.

"But why didn't she use a spell? If she had used even one attack spell, I might have been knocked down in an instant."

While he was surprised, he was also very puzzled by Fran's actions just now. In his opinion, this was not like a true mage of the Sword Chant School.

He might not recognize the Fran used that could enhance physical strength, but he had fought against several mages from the Sword Chant School.

He knew that the mages were carrying swords not because they were all skilled in close combat, but because their spellcasting weapons were those swords.

Their swords have undergone special treatment, allowing them to Channeling Spell during intense combat.

He had experienced it before; just when he had finally gained the upper hand in the fight, a beam of light shot out from the mage's longsword.

If he hadn't dodged in time, the beam of light would likely have given him more than just a large, semi-circular hole in his waist.

Fortunately, he was saved by the goddess, and he was pulled back from the brink of death. To this day, he is still traumatized by that experience.

Not only did the Church Warrior who were fighting Fran notice it, but even Bishop Julian was watching from the high platform, noticed it.

"Could it be a spell she obtained from the Spirit Realm, or perhaps it's Talent she acquired during her advancement?"

Gillian guessed.

Her expression relaxed a little, because she knew that a true mage of the Sword Chant School would never fight like this, let alone Battle Mage known for his fighting prowess.

She encountered quite a few Battle Mage, who would often suddenly unleash a spell from somewhere you weren't looking, slapping it right in the face.

Even now, Fran has not used any spells other than Sword Dance, which makes one wonder if she only knows Sword Dance.

Fran couldn't hear what the others were thinking; she was focused on observing the Church Warrior's attack.

"The way this divine spell is cast is similar to the one I received from the Lord of Radiance, but there are some differences."

Similarly, she recognized that the divine magic used by the other party had very similar fluctuations to the divine magic she used.

The difference was that she could sense that when the other party used their Arts, it seemed as if there was no consumption involved, as if this consumption was offset by something.

Even in the Spirit Realm, after the Lord of Radiance obtained the Divine Statue, she could feel that casting divine spells would consume her Mental Power.

This fatigue decreased during her last few days in Monsa, leading her to a bold guess.

She now strongly suspects that the faith of those believers may have offset the energy consumption of this divine spell to some extent, allowing it to be cast without consuming any energy from the user.

However, she also guessed that this was limited, perhaps a day or a month. The number of times they could unleash this divine spell was limited because the number of believers was limited, and its energy naturally wouldn't allow them to release it recklessly.

Otherwise, back in the Spirit Realm, with the faith of the entire city's inhabitants, she could have unleashed countless divine spells and even fought that dragon; there would have been no need for the Lord of Radiance to specifically grant her power.

Perhaps emboldened by the divine magic that empowered them, the Church Warrior launched a direct attack on Fran.

As if the waves were propelling the Church Warrior forward, his pace quickened.

Fran instinctively raised her longsword to block, but then she felt an incredible force weakening her.

Fran managed to block the attack steadily without retreating at all; she merely bent her knees slightly to absorb some of the force.

However, this also secretly surprised Fran, who was astonished that such divine magic could possess such miraculous power.

If you were to use a different spell, it would be very difficult to achieve a similar effect at the First Order, because it is simply too complex.

This sparked her curiosity about the Lord of Radiance: what exactly was the power of these Deity? Could there be other ways to utilize it?

At this moment, for the first time, Fran had the idea of helping the Lord of Radiance find believers, who would then grant her power so she could conduct research.

She could sense that the energy released from these divine spells was unlike any other spell or Combat Technique, and perhaps possessed many wondrous effects.

The battle didn't put any pressure on her, which allowed her to think about so many things during the fight.

The Church Warrior knew he couldn't defeat Fran at this rate, so he used another divine spell, [Torrent Slash].

Strictly speaking, this should be considered a Combat Technique, but the use of this move by Church Warrior is still restricted by the Deity, so within the church, this Arts is almost always referred to as divine magic.

Fran was also drawn to another strange fluctuation. She knew that her longsword alone might not be enough to stop this divine spell.

So she expended her Mental Power and used Shield Spell.

A thin shield appeared in front of Fran, just as the greatsword arrived, carrying the power of the waves.

The Shield Spell is, after all, an apprentice-level spell. Even if Fran casts it instantly, it cannot withstand the slash of a First Order Profession.

This is determined by the Shield Spell's structure; its upper limit is fixed.

However, the Shield Spell Fran is currently using employs a technique common to Battle Mage of the Sword Chant School: [Counter Shield].

That is, to instantly inject a large number of shields that make it difficult for the Shield Spell to maintain, and to let the Mental Power explode within the Shield Spell. When the enemy's weapon breaks the shield, the explosion of the shield and the powerful Mental Power will create a strong impact, directly knocking the opponent away.

Since this is a technique for using Shield Spell, which many mages from other School use, Fran learned about it by spending some Gold Coin in the Battle Mage Corps.

However, Fran overlooked one point: her Mental Power far exceeded that of a normal First Order Mage, so the impact released by her shield after it exploded was far greater than that of a normal Counter Shield.

The Church Warrior realized in an instant that he had made a mistake; he shouldn't have gotten so close.

The feeling of that shield bursting was very familiar to him, and this familiarity convinced him that Fran was definitely an the Alliance Battle Mage.

Mages who ascend from the Spirit Realm cannot use such techniques; they only know how to cast spells and do not understand such magical tricks.