Chapter 548

Perrien fought for over ten minutes, repeatedly injured and recovering, but eventually, he was tightly bound by tree roots and subdued.

Although he could somehow handle the forest’s attacks, dealing with two Guardians charging at him simultaneously was beyond his capability.

“That was close. If this weren’t the forest, Carbios might have died.”

Pailandria, wiping the blood dripping down her forehead, looked at Perrien, who was gritting his teeth while bound by the roots.

The enemy was tougher than expected, leaving both her and Carbios covered in wounds. They felt the burden of continuing the fight.

“…With this commotion, we’ll have to abandon our original plan. We should return to Alvheim.”

The entire forest shook as if a landslide had occurred, so it was clear that human forces would arrive soon.

She had no desire to face them. No matter how many they killed, more would keep coming, as humans always do.

“Haa… Haa… What should we do with this short-lived one, senior?”

“Hmm, what should we do? If possible, I’d like to take him with us. If we return with Olivier’s successor holding Oathclere, the Elders would be satisfied.”

Taking Perrien back would likely make up for the failure to assassinate Ha-shar-leur. In fact, they might even receive a reward. To the old fairies, Olivier was a figure as hated as Carolus.

“Kuuuugh…!”

Perrien struggled to break free, but the more he twisted, the tighter the roots bound him. With his limbs tightly tied, there was no way to shake off the roots.

“Stop wasting your energy. Do you think you can escape like that? You’re going to be dragged to Alvheim and die there. You’ll be recorded as the foolish short-lived one who tried to fight us in the forest.”

“…What a pity.”

Perrien muttered softly, bowing his head slightly. Pailandria smirked and mocked him.

“More than just a pity. You’re a male, so it might be slightly better, but you won’t die easily.”

After enduring every imaginable humiliation and pain, he would finally meet his death. Even his soul and corpse would become nutrients for the World Tree, suffering eternally. That was the meaning behind her mockery.

“Right. It won’t be an easy death… for you.”

Perrien nodded in agreement, clicking his tongue as if regretting the situation.

“…What?”

The moment confusion spread across Pailandria’s face—

“Sun Sword, Dawn.”

A small sun rose.

—

The Sun Sword.

A divine power granted to Perrien by Shaulite, the goddess of the sun and life.

It was an ultra-high-temperature flame that burned everything indiscriminately.

– Whoosh!

It ignited.

The forest, bright as day. A pseudo-sun descended upon the earth, distorting the air with its immense heat.

A sphere of crimson flames burning everything within a dozen meters. The tree roots binding Perrien turned to ash the moment the Sun Sword manifested.

“The power of fire!?”

Pailandria, horrified, leaped back to avoid the flames, tearing off her burning cloak. The intense heat scorched her skin.

“Not ordinary fire…! The crimson flames of Shaulite, the goddess of life…! The sun’s flames that annihilate everything…!”

Perrien gritted his teeth and stood up, answering.

His entire body burned and regenerated in agony, his face contorted in pain. The sun burns itself to emit light and heat. His power, mimicking the sun, was no different.

The flames of the Sun Sword burned even its master, while the divine light within the flames endlessly regenerated the burned body.

A cycle of burning and regeneration. That was the first reason Perrien hesitated to use the Sun Sword. Though he wouldn’t die from his own flames, the heat and pain were fully transmitted.

However, the power was overwhelmingly worth enduring the pain.

It completely neutralized the Blessing of the World Tree, which the two Guardians had used as their trump card to control the trees.

What good was controlling the forest as a weapon? Everything it touched turned to ash.

Pailandria was drenched in cold sweat. She thought she had completely subdued him, but this was a fatal miscalculation. She never expected him to hide such power even when cornered.

‘This short-lived one is far more dangerous than Olivier…!’

To her, Perrien was a greater threat to the fairies than Olivier of the Twelve Knights. At least Olivier didn’t fight wreathed in flames.

With Oathclere and Shaulite’s power combined, he was practically a being created to kill fairies.

“Damn short-lived one…! Hiding such power!”

Carbios, who was a step too late and suffered burns on his left arm, fired arrows at Perrien, but they turned to dust upon touching the flaming sun.

Perrien, engulfed in flames, began advancing toward the fairies.

The ground boiled, and trees and bushes ignited. The flames spread through the forest, carried by the wind.

He was literally a walking wildfire.

‘I wanted to preserve their bodies as evidence that the fairies attacked humans… but there’s no choice. Without the Sun Sword, I can’t defeat them, so I’ll have to give up on that.’

That was the second reason Perrien hesitated to use the Sun Sword. If he had used it earlier, he could have won without such a struggle, but the sun’s flames were impossible to control perfectly, leaving no bodies behind.

“Turn to ash and disappear…!”

Perrien, now a fiery incarnation of the sun, roared and charged at the fairies, spewing flames.

“Carbios! Retreat! He’s too dangerous!”

“Do you think I’ll let you escape!”

Pailandria gritted her teeth, ready to abandon the fight, but Perrien used the flames as propulsion to accelerate and chase the fairies.

The entire forest began to burn.

—

When the Holy Kingdom’s army arrived, startled by the loud noise and massive fire in the middle of the night, the western border forest was already reduced to smoldering embers and ashes.

“What in the world…?”

“Did a fire-breathing monster appear?”

The paladins and soldiers stared in disbelief at the barren wasteland that had once been a forest.

Everything had turned to ash, as if a firestorm had swept through. Even though the flames had subsided, the lingering heat made it difficult to approach.

‘…I let one escape.’

On the scorched earth, where heat waves shimmered like waterfalls, Perrien regenerated his severed left arm and pierced thigh with the sun’s divine light, glaring at the charred remains of the corpse.

Carbios, was it? The body had turned to black powder, with no trace of its original form left. Claiming it was a fairy’s corpse would be meaningless.

‘I thought I could catch both… Who would’ve thought they’d use their own kin as a shield. Those old fairies are as cunning as they say.’

Perrien had focused on Pailandria, but he never expected her to cut off Carbios’s limbs and use him as a shield—no, a fairy shield—allowing her to escape.

Though he turned the flailing Carbios into kindling, Pailandria left deep wounds on Perrien’s limbs before retreating with all her might.

It was truly a regrettable outcome for Perrien.

—

After hearing about the Holy Grail, Lacey searched through all the Elpinel Church Order’s confidential texts and found one piece of information about it.

That there was no record of the Holy Grail in any of the church’s documents.

As if someone had erased all related information.

“Could there be hidden confidential documents you haven’t found?”

“Unlikely. Even the Divine Extinction of Alhebron, which is of the highest importance, is fully recorded in the Cardinal’s secret archives.”

…Divine Extinction?

What’s with that ominous name?

“What’s Divine Extinction?”

“Hmm… Sir Median, why do you think the Holy City of Alhebron can always maintain its pure white cleanliness?”

Lacey dodged the question with an unrelated one.

Is it a top-secret she can’t tell me? No, it doesn’t seem like she’d hide it now… Anyway.

“Because of the divine protection, right? Since it’s a city dedicated to Elpinel, it receives such blessings. You explained it like that before, didn’t you?”

“Not exactly. Even if a god’s radiance descends upon the earth, human effort is needed to manifest it visibly. Alhebron’s purity is maintained by divine artifacts stored in the underground passages and the priests who tirelessly emit divine light to keep the city clean.”

…Wait, it’s maintained by manpower?

That’s ridiculous. It’s not something one or two priests could do. Using so many priests to keep the entire city white is such a waste of manpower.

“Why waste divine light like that…?”

“To make people accept the fact that Elpinel’s divine light envelops the entire city as a natural, everyday occurrence. You know, Sir Median, divine light can always be used with the intent to attack.”

…What?

“Think about it. If we unleashed an attack miracle using the vast divine light constantly purifying Alhebron, how powerful do you think it would be?”

Lacey smiled faintly and lightly tapped the teacup on the table.

“A bombardment spell that concentrates the divine light illuminating the entire city into a single point, annihilating enemies within Alhebron along with their bases. That’s our church’s secret weapon, the Divine Extinction. I only recently found out.”

…I was speechless. I immediately understood why such a spell was created.

The reason Alhebron, the Elpinel Church Order’s city during the Holy Kingdom’s founding, was offered as the capital and allowed other churches to establish their headquarters… was for this.

If they ever turned against the Elpinel Church Order, they could erase their headquarters with the Divine Extinction.

Good heavens.