Chapter 65: The True Sacred Slash

Ambrose had never truly intended to assassinate the paladins. In his judgment, the odds of success were poor, and failure would only expose his own hand too early.

His assessment of Starfall's strength had been precise. Even against a single paladin, Ambrose could not be certain that he would win. Furthermore, Starfall's equipment alone multiplied his combat power severalfold. Killing him outright would be extraordinarily difficult.

With ten paladins acting together, if Ambrose had left his castle and struck first, he would basically have been committing suicide.

Not to mention those wretches in Alkhemia, who offered no help whatsoever and merely watched from the sidelines. Ambrose had no idea what schemes they were harboring.

Making use of the castle's terrain and fighting defensively had always been his plan.

A spellcaster should not leave his tower. That was only reasonable.

But a few days ago, Black Rose had sent him a message informing him of Starfall's efforts to recruit mortals and warning him that the Lyon Empire had methods to draw upon their strength.

Ambrose didn't much care about the paladins training the commoners. Whatever power they gathered would ultimately be brought to bear against the castle's defenses. If it worked, it worked; if it failed, it failed. That was that.

But how had Black Rose known what the paladins were doing?

After a private exchange, Ambrose discovered that Black Rose had a way to monitor the paladins' every move. Alarmed, he immediately inquired about their recent activities.

What he learned surprised him. Starfall had actually gone drinking alone, and not just once.

The young really were inexperienced.

Alkhemia was a city teeming with non-humans. How did he dare go to a tavern by himself?

Did they truly believe that Ambrose couldn't enter the city just because he had built his castle outside its grounds?

Starfall had been far too careless. He assumed that the Alchemists' Council would implicitly protect the paladins within the city.

In his eyes, the city's rulers surely stood on the same side as its inhabitants. This assumption had caused Starfall to drop his guard.

But perhaps his confidence was well deserved. If Ambrose were alone, this assassination attempt would have been meaningless.

But with Gareth in the fray, things were different.

He was a four-meter-tall giant, clad in equipment even more lavish than Starfall's. His martial skill had been honed over centuries to the absolute peak.

Gareth' very first strike forced Starfall to his knees, the ground fracturing beneath him into a spiderweb of cracks.

The power of a legendary Dullahan was not something Starfall could withstand. A single blow shattered most of the protective spells on his body, and even his sword was left riddled with cracks.

Gareth's serrated greatblade featured a chained hilt. He yanked it back with brutal force. Sparks showered from the blade as it scraped across Starfall's weapon, nearly dragging him bodily along with it.

Starfall had no choice but to roll across the ground. While Gareth retrieved his weapon, he downed two potions in quick succession: a healing draught, and a Strength of the Hill Giant.

That strike had nearly pulverized his organs. Only after drinking the healing potion did he feel some relief. As for the Strength of the Hill Giant, it was a high-grade brew that significantly enhanced his power, perhaps just enough to withstand the next attack.

Starfall felt little confidence.

What if that earlier blow had just been a probe?

He had no idea just how much strength this monstrous giant truly possessed.

Gareth reeled in his blade. In his hands, the two-meter-long weapon looked almost diminutive, making him appear more like an agile fighter than a brute.

But when he swung the chain, the blade's rotation produced a deafening roar, shattering any glass along both sides of the street. Where the edge scraped the ground, it carved deep grooves in a spray of sparks, as effortlessly as if it were slicing through paper.

Seeing this, Starfall hurriedly cast Bear's Strength upon himself. His enemy was terrifying—no hill giant could possibly match its raw power.

A violet gleam flashed within Gareth's pitch-black helm as the blade swung again, this time wreathed in purple lightning.

The lightning gave it overwhelming force. As the blade tore through the air, it produced sonic booms, leaving behind a visible torrent of displaced air.

This was the power of a legend. On a battlefield, an ordinary man would be torn to shreds merely by the shockwave alone.

The pressure on Starfall intensified. This strike was aimed directly at him.

At that moment, he finally understood what it meant to face a true legend. He had no other choice but to defend himself with a Sacred Slash.

Holy light and flame coiled around his sword, erupting in a resplendent brilliance as it surged to meet the purple lightning.

The violent shockwave of the explosion shattered the surrounding buildings.

Watching from the side, Ambrose could not help but sigh inwardly. He was utterly outclassed compared to Gareth. If that lightning blade were brought down upon his castle, even with all its defenses, it would not last long.

No wonder this brute had become a living pillar of shame for the Lyon Empire. His absolute strength was genuinely terrifying.

Starfall could not withstand such an assault. After the second blow, his sword had disintegrated and his body had been driven deep into the ground. If not for his exceptional armor, that strike alone would have split him in two.

Even so, Starfall was gravely injured. His sword was gone, his armor twisted and deformed. Who knew how many of his bones were broken?

Gareth withdrew his blade and muttered with displeasure, "I wasn't even using my full strength."

Ambrose shook his head. Gareth was crushing his opponent in both mind and body alike. After all, Starfall was still a hostage, someone who could be ransomed for gold. Gold deserved a modicum of respect.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Floating over, Ambrose was about to seize Starfall when a blinding radiance erupted from the crater.

Ambrose hurriedly retreated in shock. He narrowly avoided being caught in the holy light.

Starfall's battered body slowly rose from the pit. Bathed in radiance, his warped armor repaired itself. New patterns blossomed across it, more ornate and complex than before. Shattered enchantment arrays flared back to life, growing even stronger under the blessing of holy light.

Starfall's body healed at astonishing speed, fully restoring itself in the blink of an eye. His eyes had turned platinum white, as though he had become a different person altogether.

Ambrose frowned. He spoke with a note of pity. "You're burning your life to briefly ascend to the realm of legend, but how long can you last? One minute? Thirty seconds?"

Laughing, Starfall replied, "I told my followers that, to defeat evil, one must be willing to offer up one's life. As a paladin, how could I fear what even ordinary commoners are willing to do?"

Raising both hands, Starfall formed a longsword forged entirely of holy light.

"Holy Light, grant me the power to purge evil!"

With that declaration, he swung the blade at Gareth. An arc of rainbow light trailed his blade.

This was what it meant to be a paladin. This was the true strength of Sacred Slash!

The blazing radiance illuminated half of Alkhemia. It was as if the sun had risen early.

Doors and windows flew open as people beheld the colossal sword crashing down with world-splitting might.

Holy light completely engulfed Gareth's body.

The violent collision of light and darkness triggered a chain of explosions. Smoke and dust billowed forth and blanketed the long street.

The young paladin, barely in his twenties, now stood with his hair entirely white, his face deeply lined with wrinkles.

Starfall spat out a mouthful of blood. The holy light around him rapidly dimmed as he collapsed weakly to the ground.

That single strike had nearly burned away his entire life, but the power it unleashed had transcended mortality. Even if the giant had been a legend, that blow should have killed him.

Unfortunately, the lich had fled too swiftly. Starfall could not fully control this legendary power, and neither could he lock onto a foe as elusive as the lich.

As the dust slowly settled, the giant's figure still stood. But his neck was gone.

Starfall's all-out strike had finally severed this formidable enemy's head. The intense holy light should have utterly destroyed his body and purified his soul.

...Wait. Why was the giant still moving?!