Before he had finished speaking, someone suddenly appeared several dozen yards behind Loa.
Useno, the chief inquisitor of the Radiant Church. Heidens had sent word to Useno just moments ago. He had summoned the Church's sharpest blade.
Useno struck without a sound. His weapon was a narrow, pure-black saber. As he swung it down, the air tore apart, and a gray blade of energy slashed toward the back of Loa's head.
The angle was treacherous, the timing precise, without the slightest warning.
The corners of Heidens's mouth lifted. He thought Loa would dodge, evade, or turn to block-whatever he did, Useno's second strike was already prepared.
Loa did not dodge. He did not even turn around.
He raised his right hand and casually waved it behind him.
As though swatting a fly.
A gray-white Sword Ray shot from his palm. It was not blue-violet, but gray-white, like smoke, like mist, utterly silent.
Useno's gray energy blade collided with that Sword Ray like a scrap of paper striking red-hot iron-it simply vanished. It was not shattered. It vanished completely, leaving not even a speck behind.
The gray-white Sword Ray passed through the energy blade and continued forward, striking Useno's saber. The saber snapped outright. A hole appeared in Useno's chest.
It had not been pierced through; it had vanished. The edges of the hole were as smooth as if they had been sanded down. There was no blood, no shredded flesh, nothing at all. Useno lowered his head to look at the hole in his chest. His expression shifted from ferocity to confusion, from confusion to fear, and finally froze in fear.
His body fell from the sky and slammed into the snow in the courtyard, throwing up a white cloud of snow.
His gray robe lay spread across the snow,