Gideon's chest heaved at the provocation.
He soon made up his mind. Tarnished would not leave the Roundtable Hold alive.
Tarnished saw the killing intent in Gideon's eyes and silently tightened his grip on his shield.
Just as Bernahl had said, Gideon was immensely powerful. After taking three Comets head-on, Tarnished had only a sliver of health left despite his 83 vigor-and that was with the [Magic Dragoncrest Talisman] equipped. Had Gideon fired a fourth Comet without hesitating, Tarnished would probably have been reincarnated by now.
But reality was not a game. Gideon could not see Tarnished's health bar and had no idea he was in a "Lewis" state. In the end, Tarnished's ferocity had made him hesitate.
This was a common failing among clever people. Always thinking ahead, they sought the greatest results at the smallest cost. That was certainly the ideal outcome, but when did reality ever go so smoothly? Historical examples of winning big with little and defeating many with few had endured through the ages precisely because they were so rare that generation after generation delighted in recounting them.
Only a fine line separated careful planning from excessive hesitation. That was why a scholar could spend ten years plotting a rebellion and never get anywhere.
Gideon was no scholar, but he had the same rotten habits. Even now, having decided to eliminate Tarnished, he still had no intention of fighting him outright. Instead, he continued showing off his petty cleverness.
Their earlier battle had made a tremendous racket, drawing over even those deep inside the Roundtable Hold.
D arrived first, followed by a woman with a graceful figure dressed in sheer black fabric, then a blindfolded prophet, and finally a young knight in ornate armor and his retainer. They approached one after another, all startled at the sight of Ensha pinned to the wall.
"Master Ensha!" The young knight was astonished. "What happened?"
Gideon pointed at Tarnished. "This wicked Tarnished killed Ensha."
Shocked, the young knight immediately drew the whip at his waist. His retainer drew a longsword as well.
"Wait." D stepped forward to stop them from going any further and asked Tarnished, "Did you really kill Ensha?"
"Yes." Tarnished had no intention of hiding it.
D frowned. "Why?"
"He attacked me."
"Liar!" Gideon immediately shouted. "Violence is forbidden in the Roundtable Hold. I established that rule myself! Why would my own attendant knowingly break it?"
It was a textbook example of twisting the truth. Tarnished could see that Gideon intended to get someone else to do his dirty work. A little old-fashioned.
But old-fashioned also meant time-tested. Right now, for instance, the blindfolded prophet, the young knight, and his retainer immediately looked at Tarnished with disgust.
"How dare you kill someone in the Roundtable Hold! This is outrageous. Master D, step aside at once. I shall punish this villain myself! The flower of justice shall bloom in my hands, the hands of Diallos-Hoslow speaks in blood!"
The young knight radiated righteous indignation, and his retainer was eager to act as well. D, however, still refused to move.
He said to Tarnished, "Violence is forbidden in the Roundtable Hold, but since you've only just arrived, you might not have known. We'll let it go this time. Leave the Roundtable Hold immediately. You aren't welcome here!"
Gideon raised his eyebrows. The knight named Diallos was also greatly surprised. "He killed Master Ensha! How can we just let him leave?"
D did not even look at Diallos. He was just an incompetent privileged brat who could do nothing to affect the overall situation. He was not the person D needed to persuade. That person was...
"Gideon, you have no objections, do you?" D said to him. "There must be no more bloodshed in the Roundtable Hold, or we would be showing grave disrespect to the divine. Let this Tarnished leave. Banish him forever and forbid him from ever setting foot in the Roundtable Hold again!"
"Of course I do!" Gideon answered coldly, rejecting D's proposal.
The atmosphere froze once more. Everyone in the Roundtable Hold knew that Gideon and D did not get along.
Gideon claimed to enjoy the Two Fingers' "favor" and often acted in the name of the divine. Though D also held a devout faith, he had his own interpretation of it. He was willing to obey divine arrangements but refused to obey human orders. More than once, he had mocked Gideon, and he especially scorned that supposed "favor." Gideon, in turn, loathed this troublemaker and often singled him out.
The last time D had been killed by Fia, the Roundtable Hold had turned a blind eye. It was hard to say whether Gideon had had a hand in that. After all, what a leader feared most was someone questioning his authority. And no one knew better than Gideon himself whether he truly enjoyed the Two Fingers' "favor."
Their conflict had never been brought into the open. Now, thanks to Tarnished's arrival, it was on the table for the first time.
Gideon said coldly, "D, violence is forbidden in the Roundtable Hold out of respect for the divine. If someone can kill here and simply walk away, that respect means nothing. You have always claimed to be a faithful believer in the Golden Order. Why are you shielding a criminal? Are you his accomplice? Did you bring him to the Roundtable Hold to kill my attendant? Oh, I understand. You must be trying to seize my leadership. Everyone has ambitions, and I don't blame you, but you should have told me directly instead of bringing an assassin into the Roundtable Hold and disturbing its peace and quiet. Remember, this is a place to rest body and mind, a refuge shared by all Tarnished!"
That speech defended and attacked in one stroke. Not only did he reject D's decision with an eminently righteous justification from the moral high ground of faith, he also dumped a filthy accusation on D's head.
D was good at snide remarks, but when it came to eloquence, he was no match for the calculating Gideon. His face immediately flushed under the barrage, and he snapped in humiliation, "Don't slander me!"
"Then prove yourself!" That was exactly what Gideon had been waiting for, and he immediately pressed his advantage. "Kill this intruder at once, or you are his accomplice!"
With a single sentence, he linked two entirely unrelated matters. Like claiming anyone who refused to buy a Huawei phone was unpatriotic, it was a masterclass in calling black white.
D was furious but could not find a way to hit back. As he stood caught in a dilemma, Tarnished spoke.
"He isn't my accomplice."
Diallos instinctively asked, "Then who is your accomplice?"
The moment Gideon heard that question, he knew trouble was coming.
Sure enough, Tarnished glanced at him and said, "My accomplice is Sir Gideon Ofnir."
"What?!"
Everyone was shocked. Diallos was utterly bewildered. "That doesn't make sense. Isn't Master Ensha Sir Gideon's man? Why would he conspire with you to kill his own attendant?"
"Oh, that? Well, it's nearly the end of the year. Gideon didn't want to pay Ensha his year-end bonus, so he had me kill him instead."
Everyone: "..."
Tarnished asked with a smile, "What, you don't believe me?"
Of course none of them believed such an absurd explanation.
"All right, looks like you've seen through my lie." Tarnished shrugged. "Then I'll tell you the truth. Nobody is my accomplice. Not D, not Gideon. I came alone, didn't like the look of Ensha, and killed him. That's all."
Such a frank answer surprised everyone. Diallos, the young knight overflowing with a sense of justice, was especially indignant. "How could you commit such an evil deed! Violence is forbidden in the Roundtable Hold. You are offending the divine!"
"Violence is forbidden in the Roundtable Hold?" Tarnished asked. "Who decided that?"
Gideon lifted his head proudly. "I did!"
"I hate you, so I don't intend to follow that rule," Tarnished said bluntly.
The blindfolded prophet spoke. "It isn't merely a rule set by Sir Gideon. Isn't it also a matter of respect for the divine?"
"I'm sorry, but I don't intend to respect Sir Gideon. As for the divine..." Tarnished remained just as blunt. "I don't intend to respect that either."
Everyone was shocked by those words, but Gideon was delighted. He immediately declared, "Blasphemer! Kill him!"
They all drew their weapons. Seeing D still hesitate, Gideon immediately shouted, "D, is your faith nothing but empty words?"
With no other choice, D gritted his teeth and drew his weapon too.
"Wait," Tarnished said.
"It's too late to beg for mercy!"
"If you wish to repent, we can give you time."
"I'm neither begging for mercy nor repenting. I have a question." Tarnished asked them, "If I'm a blasphemer, what does that have to do with you mortals? Shouldn't the divine be the one to punish me?"
"A lowly wretch like you doesn't deserve personal punishment from the divine!"
"So a lowly wretch like me has to be executed by you? Ha! Doesn't that mean you're all lowly wretches just like me?"
The blindfolded prophet shut his mouth.
Gideon said, "We are not lowly. The divine simply has countless duties and cannot attend to every trivial matter in the mortal world. That is why we shoulder those concerns on its behalf."
Tarnished scoffed. "If it's just a trivial matter, that means the divine doesn't care whether I respect it at all. Why are you so eager to kill me, then? Overstepping your bounds like this-are you really that desperate to prove your loyalty to your master? Or is it not the divine that wants me dead, but a person?"
Everyone paused and looked at Gideon. He immediately said, "Don't listen to his nonsense! This is a test of our faith. The divine is omnipotent and watches us at every moment!"
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Tarnished laughed theatrically. "You just said the divine has countless duties and can't attend to trivial matters like me. Now you say it's omnipotent and watches us at every moment. Isn't that a contradiction? If it truly were omnipotent, it should have struck me dead with lightning the instant I said I didn't respect it! If it forbade me from fighting in the Roundtable Hold, it should have vaporized me with a fireball the moment I attacked! If it didn't want Ensha to die by my hand, it should have killed me before I killed him! But it did nothing. It allowed all of this to happen. What does that tell us? It tells us I'm the one acting in accordance with divine will! The less I respect the divine, the more I respect it. I, the blasphemer, am its most devout believer, while you most devout believers are the true blasphemers!"
The speech hit them like thunder, leaving everyone rooted to the spot.
Gideon slammed his scepter against the floor and shouted sternly, "Don't let him bewitch you! Kill him at once!"
D was still hesitating, but Diallos had already charged. He swung his whip, only for Tarnished to catch its tip and yank hard. Diallos immediately lost his balance and pitched forward, taking a punch to the stomach that sent him crumpling painfully to the floor. His retainer cried out and rushed to help with his sword, but Tarnished knocked him away with a shield charge. Then the blindfolded prophet hurled a large, blazing fireball. It exploded at Tarnished's feet with a boom, forcing him back. Diallos and his retainer took the opportunity to recover, and the two sides returned to a standoff.
"Violence is forbidden in the Roundtable Hold," Tarnished said mockingly. "You used violence too. Doesn't that offend the divine?"
Everyone froze.
Gideon said coldly, "We fight for the divine. We're different from you! Attack! Do not hesitate!"
"So the same act is right and permissible with divine approval, but wrong and forbidden without it?" Tarnished continued mockingly. "Those Demigods were just like you fools. And what happened? They followed divine guidance and fought tooth and nail over the Elden Ring. The Shattering reduced the Lands Between to ruins, with corpses everywhere and people living in misery. With that lesson right before your eyes, you still think the divine must be right? You want to do it all over again?"
Gideon dared not let Tarnished keep talking. He shouted with all his strength, "Quickly! Kill this blasphemer at once!"
Diallos instinctively charged, his retainer following close behind. The blindfolded prophet hesitated, but ultimately recited a prayer and conjured a blazing ball of fire in his hand.
The three attacked Tarnished together.
Gideon glanced at D and barked, "Why aren't you attacking? Are you really this blasphemer's accomplice?"
D let out a long sigh and finally moved.
His golden longsword left its sheath, but he swung it not at Tarnished, but at Diallos.
The young knight immediately scrambled to defend himself. His retainer hurried to assist, and only together did they manage to hold off D's attack.
Gideon flew into a rage. "D, will you defy the divine as well?"
"I have never defied the divine. From beginning to end, all I've seen is one man prattling away." D slowly walked over to Tarnished and stood beside him, holding his longsword level as he said coldly, "Tarnished has an important role to play in destroying Those Who Live in Death and upholding the Golden Order. Gideon, I won't let you hurt him!"
"You would betray the Roundtable Hold?"
"So what if I would? The Roundtable Hold is nothing special."
"It was established by the Two Fingers! It is proof of divine power!"
"I don't deny that. But in all these years, divine power has built only this one house. The divine hasn't eradicated Those Who Live in Death, yet Tarnished has brought me hope." D said earnestly, "I won't keep wasting my life. If you want to keep playing house, go ahead. But I'm done!"
Gideon gritted his teeth. "You'll regret this."
"I won't."
"Kill these two blasphemers!"
Just as Diallos and the others were about to attack, the woman in sheer black stepped lightly forward and stood beside Tarnished as well.
"Miss Fia, surely you aren't..."
"Thank you all very much for looking after me over the years." The woman named Fia bowed gently. "But I have found my true path, and it is time for me to leave. I sincerely wish you all success in your endeavors. Please take care of yourselves."
"An ungrateful, lowborn woman after all!" Gideon's voice dripped venom. "I should never have taken you in!"
Fia glanced at him and said calmly, "The Roundtable Hold took me in. The revered Two Fingers did, not you. You're a guest, just like me."
Those words struck him where it hurt, stripping him of his last shred of dignity and making it clear that the Roundtable Hold had never belonged to him, nor had he ever been its leader.
For all his grand title of Sir Gideon Ofnir, he was merely an ordinary Tarnished summoned here, no different from anyone else.
Gideon swayed, probably close to suffering a brain hemorrhage from sheer anger. Why would a man pick an argument with a woman for no good reason? That was her home turf.
"Kill all three of them at once, for the Golden Order!" Gideon lived up to his reputation, instantly making the best choice-if he couldn't win the argument, he would fight!
Diallos and the other two immediately attacked.
Realizing the situation was gradually slipping out of control, Gideon decided to join the fight himself.
While D and Diallos were locked in combat, Gideon fired a Comet at them. Since the two were so close together, Diallos was also within its line of fire.
"Diallos!" his retainer cried out. He tried to warn him, but it was already too late. Just as Diallos was about to be hit, Tarnished suddenly appeared, raising the Manor Towershield to block the attack and sheltering both D and Diallos behind him.
"You?!" Diallos was astonished. He could understand protecting D, but why protect him too? This man was the villain who had killed Master Ensha. How could he possibly be so kind?
Before he could figure it out, Gideon's attacks came one after another. Comet after Comet kept Tarnished pinned in place. The magic struck with tremendous force. To keep his balance, Tarnished could not move freely. If he forced himself to move, he would lose his balance and be blasted to the ground, making the situation even worse.
Seeing that Tarnished could no longer "read his inputs," Gideon naturally refused to waste the opportunity. This was no longer a matter of seizing a Great Rune. He had to kill these three to preserve his authority over the Roundtable Hold.
"Sir Gideon, stop! If you keep this up, even Diallos will..."
The blindfolded prophet tried to dissuade him, but all he received was a cold "Shut up."
Diallos's retainer was frantic. Just as Tarnished reached the end of his strength, with only another Comet or two needed to blast his shield aside, a black gravity orb suddenly flew into the fray. A powerful gravitational pull bent the Comets' trajectory and sent everyone staggering.
Gideon's casting was interrupted, and Tarnished gained a moment to catch his breath. Diallos scrambled back to his own side, while Gideon and Tarnished both looked toward the source of the gravity orb.
"Old Knight?"
"Brother Istvan?"
Both spoke at once.
Indeed, the newcomer was Istvan. As one of the founders of the Roundtable Hold, he naturally had the right to return. And that gravity magic, woven into his swordsmanship, was his sole talent.
"Gideon, for the sake of my being one of the original members of the Roundtable Hold, would you do me a favor and let Tarnished leave?" Istvan asked.
"Do you a favor?" Gideon snorted. "Why should I do a favor for a weak, degenerate wretch who abandoned his own mission?"
Istvan scratched his head awkwardly. "I know you look down on me, but hearing you say it so bluntly still hurts. All right, I'm not worthy of asking you for a favor. Then..."
The Old Knight stepped aside. Clad in the Beast Champion Armor and holding the Devourer's Scepter, Bernahl slowly emerged from behind him.
"How about doing him a favor?"
Gideon shuddered and retreated three steps, his back already soaked in cold sweat.
"L-leave the Roundtable Hold, and never come back! You aren't welcome here!"