CHAPTER 138
“Lua, run.”
Through the gap Aigis had torn in the thorn vines, Lua began to run.
As I watched her go, I aimed my finger at Bloody Crown and fired another bullet.
The projectile, launched with a flash of white light, flew toward him.
The thorn vines moved to protect Bloody Crown, blocking it.
Kagagagagak!
But what I fired was no ordinary bullet.
It was a projectile enhanced with the high-speed rotation of Divine Power.
A true bullet, incorporating knowledge from the modern world.
The rotational force ground the thorn vines to dust, and the bullet was only barely stopped just before it reached Bloody Crown.
Even he seemed to recognize its unusual power and turned his gaze toward me.
It was a technique where I charged Divine Power using the application I learned from Noir Nox, then fired it.
I had gone through a lot of secret hardship to master this skill.
“Do you know why guns are so scary?”
I loaded another round as Mi Myeongnyeong spread its wings.
Sorry, but I’m a guy who’s overflowing with both Divine Power and Holy Magic.
“Because they can kill someone even in the hands of the weak, like an old man.”
Mi Myeongnyeong transformed, wrapping around my right hand as I braced it like a rifle.
A mad torrent of flashes erupted from my fingertips.
The barrage of bullets rained down on Bloody Crown, forcing his thorn vines to tangle together to block them.
Full-auto, you son of a bitch.
The tip of my finger trembled violently.
Unfortunately, my arm, which was serving as the gun, was now in tatters.
It was the natural consequence of ejecting Divine Power from my fingertips.
But that was nothing that a little Holy Magic couldn't fix.
All hail Paladins.
In that time, Aigis had closed in even further on Bloody Crown.
Because he had to allocate thorn vines to deal with me, he didn't have enough to hold Aigis in check.
The moment Aigis finally reached him, he must have realized he could no longer rely on his vines alone, as the crown on his head began to glow fiercely.
A wolf of red light burst from Bloody Crown's grasp and lunged at Aigis.
Aigis cleaved it in two with her holy sword and tried to leap forward again, but a mass of thorn vines shot up from the floor, forcing her to retreat.
Falling back to my position, Aigis steadied herself and asked.
“Sir Harua, it seems you’ve finished speaking with the Saintess.”
“Yes, Lady Aigis. We’ll have to put our lives on the line. Are you alright with that?”
Aigis gave a light laugh and tightened her grip on her sword.
“It’s hardly a difficult task.”
The white wings unfurling behind her back pulsed with even greater power.
On Bloody Crown’s side, the light from his red crown intensified.
This was an all-out war.
“I will break through the thorn vines.”
“Will your body hold up?”
“If it breaks, I’ll die and come back to life.”
“Hahahaha!”
All this grueling training wasn't for nothing. If there was one thing I had relentlessly forged, it was my mental fortitude.
As long as I have Resurrection magic, I can endure anything with willpower alone. Because I had learned that, I raised my hand and gathered my Holy Magic.
“Let’s make sure we take him down.”
With those final words, Aigis kicked off the ground and charged forward.
Following her, I unleashed another barrage of bullets.
My top priority was to eliminate the thorn vines so Aigis could advance.
I fired relentlessly with that goal in mind.
Thanks to my covering fire, Aigis was able to close in on Bloody Crown more frequently.
Bloody Crown was an exceptional dark magician.
He was a formidable opponent, but in close-quarters combat, he was no match for Aigis, the Commander of the Holy Knights.
Clang! Kang! Shhhk!
The number of wounds Aigis carved into Bloody Crown’s body increased.
Divine Power can be offset by Divine Power.
Thus, Aigis’s sword even diminished Bloody Crown’s own healing factor.
The fact that they both wielded Divine Power was, in a way, a weakness for them both.
“How truly bothersome. Don’t you see how meaningless this is?”
The余裕 on Bloody Crown’s face began to fade.
It seemed he, too, had judged that our combined assault was becoming dangerous.
To be precise, my growth was accelerating faster than expected, changing the flow of the battlefield.
This was the first time I had used the Light Gun in a real battle.
As a result, I was rapidly learning how to use it by adapting to the combat situation, and my skills were improving at an explosive rate.
I assessed how to attack my opponent from a distance and fired.
From that alone, I was learning a great deal.
‘I don't know if it's talent or if I was just so pathetic before that any improvement seems rapid, but…!’
In any case, it was true that it was helping to corner Bloody Crown.

In that moment, my intuition screamed at me to look down.
An instinct honed by crossing the line of death countless times, even by dying myself.
The Instinct of Death.
The instant I reflexively pulled my arm back and threw my body backward…
Slice!
A thorn vine shot up and sliced off the tips of my fingers.
It was honed to such a sharpness that my severed fingertips tumbled pathetically to the ground.
Blood dripped from my severed fingers.
But I ignored it, slammed myself with Holy Magic, and snapped my head up.
He attacked me while facing Aigis at point-blank range?
He might be lacking in other areas, but his combat prowess was monstrous.
The surrounding thorn vines began to squirm and writhe.
It was as if they were showing me they could strike at me at any moment.
But this was an opportunity.
It meant that Bloody Crown was now paying enough attention to me that he had to split his focus.
If I had faced Bloody Crown one-on-one, I would have been insignificant.
But with Aigis, the ultimate spear, at my side, I was a force he could no longer ignore.
“That’s right, it’s really getting on your nerves, isn’t it?”
Worry more.
Far more than you are now.
And make a mistake.
I aimed my healed fingers once again.
This was a bullet meant to kill Bloody Crown.
How could he not pay attention?

“Go ahead, try to kill me all day long.”
My eyes gleamed with madness.
“I’ll just come back to life.”
You’ll pay a high price for messing with an immortal.

Bullets of light rained down.
I healed my mangled hand once more with Holy Magic and rolled across the floor to dodge the incoming thorn vines.
Even in the midst of it all, I fired bullet after bullet, relentlessly pursuing him.
Aigis broke through the shredded vines and pierced Bloody Crown once again.
Bloody Crown already had several wounds from Aigis’s attacks. He had somehow avoided fatal injuries, but the number of cuts was steadily increasing.
“Didn’t I tell you this was meaningless!”
Bloody Crown shouted as if vomiting blood, forging thorns from the blood itself.
The thorns shot out in all directions, swarming Aigis, but she toughly broke through them with her armor of Divine Power.
Aigis, too, was covered in wounds from breaking through to him.
But the fighting spirit in her eyes would never be extinguished.
Give the flesh to take the bone.
With that grim resolve, she clung to Bloody Crown tenaciously.
Swoosh!
A bullet of light that shot through a gap grazed the tip of Bloody Crown’s nose.
He tilted his head back and ground his teeth.
Seeing that reaction, I knew.
He was also reaching his limit, both in concentration and stamina.
The intensity of the power pouring down from above was growing stronger.
I could feel his desire to stall for time, no matter what.
The time was approaching.
A precarious situation.
The tension born from desperation.
No matter how steely one's mind is, as long as they are human, an opening will appear.
The same was true for Bloody Crown, and he had just proven it.
His concentration was at its breaking point.
I raise my hand.
Despite having been healed, my fingertips trembled from the countless barrages I had fired, but I raised it.
And then, I began to focus the most powerful concentration of Divine Power and Holy Magic I had ever mustered.
A single burst of destructive power to break through one point.
Bloody Crown’s mind was focused on the fiercely attacking Aigis and the hole in the sky.
His concentration was on the verge of snapping, which was why he had allowed my attack to land just now.
So it had to be now.
This was the moment to end Bloody Crown.
The space around me distorted from the intense concentration of power.
The flow of the atmosphere shifted, and the light gathered in my palm surpassed its limit, unleashing its energy.
When the power, which had swallowed even its own radiance, was focused, Bloody Crown finally realized the situation and looked this way.
“Myeongnyeong-ah.”
Mi Myeongnyeong’s wide-spread wings shone fiercely.
“Let’s get a good long rest when we get back.”
I spoke to the hard-working Mi Myeongnyeong and my eyes flew open.
Mi Myeongnyeong’s wings unfurled spectacularly.
In response, I fired the power gathered at my fingertips.

My entire arm was blown off. The shockwave and recoil sent me flying.
In its wake, a torrent of light flew forward, swallowing all the surrounding thorn vines.
Overwhelming firepower.
This was the maximum output that even Anastasia had acknowledged in its early stages.
And with my repeated growth, the power of this single shot could rival that of a Lord.
Amidst the brutally torn thorn vines, I could see Bloody Crown hastily putting up a defense.
Even he knew that this level of firepower was not something he could simply ignore.

The hemispherical red barrier Bloody Crown deployed clashed with my attack. My blast violently surged, unhesitatingly grinding away his barrier.
Bloody Crown had already expended a great deal of stamina from our joint assault. No matter who he was, it was impossible for him to take this attack unscathed.
An irrepressible groan escaped his lips.
He held on, and on, and on, enduring with all his might, and at that moment…
Chiiiiik—
The light of the bullet I fired finally faded and disappeared.
Its power may have rivaled a Lord’s, but he, too, was a monster on par with a Lord.
That was why, even in that situation, he had managed to withstand my attack.
A bitter smile formed on my lips as I sat slumped on the ground, having been pushed far away by the shockwave.
I had lost the exchange of firepower.
But it didn't matter.
Because my defeat didn't mean our defeat in this battle.
THUD—
Behind Bloody Crown.
Aigis, who had taken position there, stomped down with enough force to make the entire floor tremble.
A look of horror crossed Bloody Crown’s face.
He had already over-expended his energy taking my attack.
He no longer had the strength to block Aigis’s sword.
Therefore, Aigis also gave it her all.
A holy sword of radiant heat, forged with every ounce of her strength.
A holy sword that looked as if it could split the sun itself surged toward Bloody Crown.
His eyes shot open.
To withstand this attack as well, he squeezed out his remaining power and fully deployed his barrier.
But Aigis’s full power far surpassed it.
“This fighting spirit is a gift from Sir Harua!”
CRACK!
Bloody Crown’s barrier buckled the moment it touched Aigis’s holy sword.
As a cry of shock escaped him, the buckled barrier and his body were bisected as one.
“Go to sleep.”
KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAK!
The master of the red crown amidst the thorn vines.
This was the moment Bloody Crown met his end.