CHAPTER 139
The Archbishop of the Radiance Faith, Bloody Crown.
His body, blown to smithereens, lay scattered across the ground.
I stared at the brutally shattered pieces of his corpse and forced myself to my feet.
I was healing one arm with Divine Power, but the process was slow.
That was how abnormal my body’s condition was.
“Sir Harua.”
Aigis walked over to my side.
She, too, was a mess after such a fierce battle.
“Holy Magic isn't omnipotent. If you use it to the point where it eats away at your own life force, this is what happens.”
She noticed the state of my arm.
As she said, this was something that now needed time.
“You really fired without holding anything back.”
“I felt it would be a shame to leave even a single shot unfired.”
When I first created this technique, even Aigis had shown a bewildered expression.
Even in the eyes of the Commander of the Holy Knights, it must have seemed like a bizarre method of attack.
Still, its power was undeniable, and it created an opportunity for us.
I had finally solved my shortcomings in long-range support.
“It seems the Saintess managed to escape safely.”
Aigis said, sensing Lua’s presence.
In that case, she must have carried out my request as well.
Now, it was time for us to leave.
With Bloody Crown’s death, the thorn vines had begun to crumble.
Just as we were about to take a step to get outside…
“Ha.”
A dumbfounded sigh escaped my lips.
Right, I knew it would come to this from the moment I heard Lua’s story.
A red light enveloped our entire bodies.
It seemed Aigis couldn’t perceive the light, but her face showed she had noticed the pressure weighing down on her body.
“Sir Harua!”
Aigis called out to me urgently.
But instead of moving, I was looking up at the sky.
Above the ceiling that the thorn vines had pierced.
The red light shining down from the sky was pouring in much more fiercely than before.
Despite Bloody Crown’s death, the red light did not cease.
It was only natural.
Bloody Crown was merely a medium to call upon the Transcendent in the sky.
His death held no particular meaning for the Transcendent.
The moment Bloody Crown had summoned the Owner of the Lazy Throne, the outcome had been decided.
In other words, a new hole had finally opened in the sky.
A hole through which the Transferees could be driven out.
It was Bloody Crown’s goal, his destination.
My eyes fell on his horribly shattered form.
In that instant, I could see thin red threads sprouting from between his muscles.
The power I felt from them was unmistakably Divine Power.
“Lady Aigis.”
I spoke to Aigis, who stood beside me with a bewildered expression.
“Run.”
Leaving her with the order to escape first, I ran towards Bloody Crown.
“Sir Harua!”
I heard Aigis’s voice from behind but paid it no mind.
Because red threads were extending from all over his body, stitching him back together.
I knew what I was seeing the moment I saw it.
The true Apostilization that Lua had spoken of.
The authority of a Transcendent, effortlessly nullifying something like Bloody Crown’s death.
However, because Aigis had attacked with her full strength, it was taking time for his body to be put back together.
So, in that gap…
I poured every last bit of Divine Power from my remaining left arm and thrust it forcefully into his chest.
Thwack!
My hand plunged into the space between his chest muscles as the threads were reattaching them.
At the same time, his body convulsed violently.
For a moment, light returned to Bloody Crown's eyes, and a rough cough burst out.
“Are… you… insane?”
Now that he seemed to have regained consciousness, he looked at my fist buried in his chest with an expression of disbelief.
Judging by his reaction, Bloody Crown knew from the start that he would be revived.
That was why, even in Aigis’s final attack, he might have sensed defeat, but he never gave up.
And I was the same.
I had experienced countless resurrections.
I instinctively felt that Bloody Crown would surely come back to life.
Therefore, it was inevitable that this moment would come.
A red light began to flicker around Bloody Crown’s body.
The red crown above his head spun violently, revealing an overflowing amount of Divine Power.
Even in this short moment, a red hue was spreading throughout his entire body.
It meant that Bloody Crown’s flesh was gradually undergoing Apostilization.
“You seem to think you can stop me. Do you really believe something like this will work?”
Accordingly, the hand I had plunged into his chest was gradually being crushed by the regenerating muscles.

At this rate, it felt like my hand would be shattered at any moment.
“It doesn’t matter. Now, you can’t stop me even with Divine Power.”
Above, in the sky, the red light grew even stronger.
As if to encourage his Apostilization, the authority descending from the Owner of the Lazy Throne intensified.
Before the roar of that overwhelming power, even Aigis, who had been trying to approach, fell to her knees.
Unable to follow my command to flee, she could only tremble, her sword stabbed into the ground for support.
“Sir… Harua!”
I felt a pang of guilt for her, who was fulfilling her duty to protect me until the very end.
I hadn't been able to give her a heads-up about this reckless move.
It was then.
A transparent barrier began to fill the sky, layer by layer.
A massive holy barrier, on a scale that seemed impossible for a single person to achieve.
Noticing it, Bloody Crown belatedly raised his head, and Aigis also wore a surprised expression.
I knew at once who had cast that holy barrier.
The Saintess, Lua.
She had carried out the plan I told her in her own way.
Judging by the scale of the barrier, she hadn't cast it alone.
She must have somehow scraped together personnel from the Holy Church to create it.
That was something I could trust.
“A pointless gesture.”
Of course, from Bloody Crown's perspective, it didn't matter.
No matter how strong the holy barrier was, it couldn't block the power bestowed by the Owner of the Lazy Throne.
But that wasn't the barrier's purpose.
Because at this very moment, the same power was flowing into my body as it was into Bloody Crown’s.
The reason I was still standing perfectly fine while Aigis was on her knees.
Crr-unch.
At that moment, the arm I had thrust into Bloody Crown's chest swelled.
Despite the pressure from his muscles, my own power was being infused more strongly.
Bloody Crown, guessing the situation, belatedly looked up.
He had noticed the massive amount of Divine Power being bestowed upon me as well.
“I made one vow.”
“What are you doing? Even if you receive the same Divine Power as me, a human body cannot withstand it!”
“That I would personally smash my fist into your face.”
Sorry, but Lua and I already discussed that.
I was being bestowed with a total of three types of Divine Power.
And that Divine Power was not something my body could fully endure.
Like Lua or Bloody Crown, one was likely the maximum.
What good is immense power if the vessel cannot contain it?
It will simply break and spill over.
That was why Bloody Crown never considered me a rival from the start.
He wasn't even worried about Lua, confident that his own raw power was superior.
From his perspective, it was a plan for a perfect victory with nothing to worry about.
But I was about to pour a bucket of ice-cold water on that plan.
“Just as you said, there’s no way I can handle three types of Divine Power.”
Piercing through the red light, a pure white, warm light and a pitch-black, deep darkness poured down.
Finally, a clear energy of an unknown color welled up from the ground and filled my body.
A mighty power I had never felt before.
A transcendent power that made me feel I wouldn't even fear the Sword Lord.
But my body, unable to handle that power, was slowly beginning to swell.
However, that power wasn't being transmitted only to me.
Inside Bloody Crown’s body.
Through my hand plunged deep inside him, the same Divine Power was being poured into his body.
“What…”
Belatedly, Bloody Crown realized the situation, and his eyes shot wide open.
His once-composed face turned deathly pale as he began to grasp the situation.
I told you.
This was the desperate gambit to kill you.
My plan from the beginning was to crush Bloody Crown once before he could become a true Apostle.
I am a conduit for Divine Power.
Bloody Crown's body was indiscriminately absorbing all the Divine Power, including what was coming through me.
But what would happen if he cut off that absorption?
His body was in the process of becoming an Apostle through Divine Power.
Since his body was not yet perfected, it would eventually collapse and crumble.
Bloody Crown had no choice; he could neither refuse the Divine Power nor accept it all.
“Stop, stop!”
He began to struggle.
He swung his not-yet-fully-formed fists at me wildly.
But his incomplete fists either crumbled or disintegrated with each swing.
He struggled desperately to push me away, but it was meaningless.
My two legs were already firmly planted on the ground, refusing to budge.

A stone statue would have been easier to move.

The fierce grace descending from the sky…
To others, it might be a blessing, but to the two of us right now, it was the beckoning hand of the Grim Reaper.
For the first time, I could feel the presence of the Transcendents in the far distance.
Their giant eyes, looking down on us silently, felt as distant as the stars in the sky.
But their overwhelming power felt much closer than starlight.
“You inferior insect bastard!”

Finally, a vulgar curse erupted from Bloody Crown's lips.
He was a man who had lived his life acting all high and mighty, maintaining an air of composure.
But now, in this moment, his ugly personality that looked down on others was laid bare for all to see.
He knew it, too.
That true death was now looming over him.
Even when he was struck by Aigis's attack, defeat was not in his mind.
For him, there was only victory.
There was only the elation of having achieved his goal.
Look at him now.
His ugly true self has been revealed so thoroughly it's hard to even look at.
If the followers of the Radiance Faith saw him now, they would all turn their backs on him. Of course, those followers are all probably locked up in prison by now.
For some reason, I couldn't stop smiling.
It felt like I had finally shattered the first button that had been so horribly misplaced by him.
A hollow, bright smile.
Facing that smile, Bloody Crown's face twisted endlessly.
“I should have killed you for certain back then.”
Ha.
“Yeah, you really should have.”
I surged with all the power in my arm, driving my fist up from his neck bone and into his face.
“You uncivilized bastard.”

The Divine Power, having reached its maximum, finally overturned everything.
An overwhelming blast that swallowed sound, light, and space itself.
It was the moment an explosion of the most primordial power swept through the Holy Ground.