Chapter 455

Chapter 78: Overwhelming Power – Part 2

Heavy rain poured down, dousing the ground ablaze with inferno, hissing and sizzling loudly.

The collapsed earthen and stone wall ahead was a deep red, melting stones turning into scorching liquid. Steam rose like mist, rapidly spreading around, followed by a loud splash as a burning hand emerged from the liquid, half out, resembling a demon’s withered claw.

“…So strong…”

That withered claw groped and waved, grabbing a partially dissolved stone nearby and yanking with all its might, pulling out a still-growing head and a small portion of a shoulder from the intense lava. Its distorted mouth opened and closed, speaking in an extremely hoarse and eerie voice.

“You…are not an ordinary…Pope’s Knight. You’re so strong…ah…pain, pain…”

The heretic lowered his head. Rainwater poured into his still unhealed skull, evaporating instantly under the flames. The flesh on his bloodied face grew rapidly. He pulled half his body out of the burning liquid, his twisted chest moving like countless worms crawling beneath. Underneath his exposed ribs, dark red flames flowed like blood.

“Who are you? Are you…from the First Order of Knights… Ah, yes, definitely the First Order of Knights…”

The heretic lifted his head, an eyeball regrowing in the flames, rolling around before locking onto Isaac, grinning madly: “Terrible, I’m getting excited…”

But Isaac ignored him, turning to me and asking, “That’s a Stage Three, can you handle it?”

I glanced at him.

Feels like I’m being underestimated…

“Judgment Fist, form up on the flank!”

“Prepare the Sinful Spear—”

“Sir Knight Leader, Sir Isaac… seems like he has already won?”

In the distance, amidst the rain, the sound of rushing hooves approached. The knights seemed to be closing in. I heard their distant calls and looked up at Isaac, saying, “Take them away, far from here.”

But Baldy shook his head, refusing: “No, little one, let me handle this. Just watch from the side.”

He raised his hand, cracking his neck, the sound of bones popping clearly audible.

“To be honest, that fight wasn’t satisfying either; I didn’t even get to draw my sword…” His silly grin turned into a wicked smile as he prepared to step forward, “I’ve been cooped up in the Holy City too long… and there’s something I need to ask him. Little one, stay here—”

Ah, no time for chitchat…

Isaac hadn’t finished speaking when he took a step forward, ready for battle, golden light shining around him once more. But in the next moment, I lifted my foot.

My black leather boot, polished by the rain, lifted higher than my head, first gently and tenderly touching the giant’s side.

Then, with force, I pushed off.

“Move aside!”

“Wait—”

Unprepared and unable to react, the giant’s massive body bent nearly forty-five degrees from the waist, letting out a muffled groan as he flew towards the knights, just as he had leaped earlier.

I held back, but still sent him flying far enough…

At the same time, in the corner of my vision, the heretic covered in inferno stood up from the flowing crimson liquid. His flesh was still writhing, but his head had reformed, new skin rapidly growing over the dark red flesh.

“Heh heh…”

In the raging flames, the demon twisted his body, repairing broken and misaligned bones, laughing grotesquely.

How disgusting…

“Phew—”

I looked at the demon reborn in the inferno, exhaling deeply.

I had seen similar scenes in the catacombs of Cata Loma.

Unconsciously, I thought of Teresa’s face, and the children she had killed, Lucas, Abel…

I thought of them again.

Those children who had suffered through disasters and hardships, much like these villagers who were ravaged by floods and eventually perished, faced the same fate.

Their lives were full of suffering. Despite struggling to survive, they died at the hands of such demons before seeing much hope.

“You…”

And that demon, wrapped in flames, stepped out of the lava.

“A little girl, heh heh… Pope’s Knight?”

Rumble—

Amidst the storm, lightning flashed, the demon’s gray-white hair danced wildly in the rain and fire. His sinister face, lit by the sky, appeared ghastly pale.

“On closer inspection, you look quite pretty… little girl, you’re so beautiful… yet why aren’t you afraid of dying?”

“Huh.”

I chuckled lightly.

Clang—

I tightened my grip on the scythe.

Using the words of the Ice World…

It would be a bit exaggerated?

“No matter… no matter. Mr. J likes girls like you, so I won’t kill you. I’ll break your legs instead… after I kill the Pope’s Knight, you’ll come with me to see Mr. J. He’ll like you, ahahaha—”

Boom!

Inferno raged from the demon’s body, igniting large swathes of grass and the houses behind him.

“He’ll reward me—”

Laughing maniacally, he charged toward me.

The temperature turned cold, ice crystals and frost mist swirling from beneath my feet, spreading out like a whirlwind.

Crack!

With a void grasp of my left hand, an intricate ice scythe materialized before me.

Compress, compress, compress…

The vast sea of order force within me rapidly condensed, flowing entirely to the blade of the scythe. The terrifying wind pressure caused my skirt to flutter violently. In the nearby swamp, the burning karma fire was instantly extinguished, white frost spreading swiftly from my feet, covering a large expanse of land with a layer of silver frost.

The steps of the heretic in front of me slowed abruptly.

The flames on his body flickered and howled in the frigid gale, his originally sneering face turning to one of shock: “You…”

In the next moment, I raised the scythe and slashed forward.

Boom!

A thunderous sound, no longer crisp and dull as before, but like the collapse of a mountain, shaking the heavens and earth.

At this instant, a terrifying ice explosion and unprecedented frost surged forth from me, ice and frost spreading like an apocalyptic ice tornado, overwhelming and instantly dispersing the burning karma fire ahead, extinguishing the lava, and shattering the half-melted earthen wall that the heretic had burned through.

The demon attacking me had no resistance whatsoever against such a fierce cold current, like a light, fluttering piece of paper, “whoosh,” he was swept away. The impact continued to spread, disintegrating row after row of houses, countless dust particles, wooden stakes, and stones flying into the sky.

In my field of vision, this shocking scene unfolded slowly.

The terrifying destructive power continued to spread outward like a trumpet, freezing everything in sight—grass, puddles, swamps on the ground. The continuous rumbling sound echoed in my ears, fading away. The rain stopped, but the broken stones and wood were covered in frost, falling like raindrops.

In the next instant, massive ice spears rose from the ground, covering the sky. Countless sharp spikes shot up within less than a second, piercing to heights of twenty or thirty meters, even forty meters, rooted firmly in the ground. Roughly estimated, they were nearly ten meters in diameter, resembling sharp little mountains causing further devastating destruction, forming an icy terrain akin to a “blade mountain,” extending hundreds of meters away, beyond my sight.

The ground beneath my feet still trembled.

The ice scythe in my hand shattered into pieces.

I brushed off the ice fragments from my palms, tore at my stiff skirt, shook off the frost, and gently touched my chest, tiptoeing to scan the gaps between the blades… well, there was nothing to see.

It seemed I might have gone a bit too far…

Shouldn’t I have killed him immediately?

Pitter-patter, pitter-patter…

Raindrops turned into hail, pelting down on me.

This time, it was almost a full-power attack.

To be honest…

I was scared by myself.

Previously, during practice in the forest outside the royal city, I never dared to let go like this, but I never imagined that my full-power attack now… would reach such a level, and this was just the power of frost order…

What about the other two?

This thought flashed through my mind and was then temporarily set aside. My left hand emitted a blue glow again, and an ice pillar rose beneath my feet, propelling my body into the air. Looking down, I saw below a hazy expanse of ice mist. Countless huge and sharp ice blades extended from beneath my feet to the village outskirts, nearly destroying half of the village. Through the ice mist, I could vaguely see the remains of houses among the blades.

“God above…”

“Miss Silvija… such power…”

The knights in the distance seemed to be shouting.

In the cold wind, I couldn’t hear them clearly, only feeling the noise.

Where was that heretic…

Suddenly, I saw that flickering starlight amidst the frost, dozens of meters away in the blades, a faint red flickering, like a candle in the wind exposed in the ice and snow.

Over there…

He wasn’t dead yet.

I leaped from the ice pillar, stepping on the ice platforms underfoot, rushing towards that faint light, and heard the heretic’s animal-like roar as I approached.

“Ugh… Ughahhh—”

“Religion! Sect! Knight—!”

His chest was pierced by a giant blade, his entire body skewered like meat on a skewer, blood dripping along the ice, emitting steam. His body was tormented by alternating high temperatures and extreme cold, ice forming and melting, then reforming again.

I threw Captain Gray out, “crack,” impaling the nearest ice spear, and leaped onto the black blade with my arms outstretched, swaying slightly, then steadying myself.

“Who are you! Who are you!”

A few meters away, the heretic skewered like meat faced me.

“Who are you—”

He struggled desperately, shouting hoarsely.

But it was useless. The cold air made his body rigid, unable to exert any force, making even his struggle slow and futile, unable to pull free from the massive ice spear piercing his chest.

The heretic seemed to realize this quickly, calming down soon after.

I kept watching him, staring into his bloodshot eyes, and when he finally stopped shouting, I asked softly, “Did you kill the people in this village?”