Chapter 194

Chapter 192 – Mutation – 3

A pillar of light struck the enemy directly. The golden armor pinned beneath it crashed to the corridor floor. KWAANG! The whole floor shook with the sound.

I carefully glanced at the ceiling. It was intact. There weren’t any huge holes like last time, nor was the sunlight shining through. It seemed this was coming from the sword rather than the sky.

‘…Was it indeed a one-time thing?’

This meant that the powers lent by the sun or moon to not have activated like when facing the Behemoth. It was likely a one-time usage, making it impossible to use at the desired moment.

“You’re weaker than I expected.”

The golden armor that had been pinned to the floor slowly rose. Still, it wasn’t completely unaffected, as I heard a CRACK as the knees buckled, causing the helmet to split.

A hand, gloved in golden gauntlets, tossed the helmet aside. The enemy’s bare face was revealed. It was expressionless. Though its gaze was fixed on me, there was not the slightest change in its expression. It resembled a corpse.

“Someone like you shouldn’t stand next to His Majesty. You would only tarnish his honor.”

Words flowed from its mouth with no inflection whatsoever.

“Sure, that would be the case.”

I half-listened. After all, it was a demon who had lost its sanity. Paying attention would only do me harm.

‘Haven’t confirmed the effectiveness yet.’

I still wanted to endure until Minerva brought support from the Holy Kingdom.

I retraced the enemy’s patterns. As long as I was careful of a few area attacks, I could stall for some time here. I just needed to avoid being pushed against the wall.

“The strongest should be next to His Majesty.”

The enemy continued to spout its words while drawing its weapon.

As expected of the Knight Commander of the Golden Dusk Knights, it was a golden sword decorated from the tip of the handle to the cross guard.

Its overall appearance resembled Iris’s longsword, but unlike Iris’s plain sword with no decorations, this sword was far more ornate. Plus, it was much larger.

It felt somewhere in between Iris’s longsword and Claudia’s greatsword. Defeating this would allow the player to wield it directly.

‘The performance isn’t great though.’

Even being classified as a greatsword, its reach was shorter than that of the one-handed Wingless Nightmare.

The golden armor bent its knees slightly. It pulled back the arm holding the sword a bit, bending the elbow while keeping the other arm horizontally in front of its chest to brace its sword shoulder.

This was the charge pattern marking the start of the 1st Phase.

BAM! The sound echoed, and it kicked off the ground, charging at me. How I responded here would change the following patterns. This was a feature added in the Darkest Light Mod.

After pondering the consequences for a moment, I rolled to the center of the corridor. That was to the left of the golden armor.

As I rolled to the left, the enemy canceled its upward attack and quickly turned its gaze towards me, twisting its sword horizontally at the ground.

If I rolled clumsily again, I would get caught in the roll. It didn’t swing immediately but paused before taking its swing.

After a brief moment, I swung my sword in time with its attack. The golden greatsword clashed against the Wingless Nightmare, producing a sharp CLANG! sound.

Next came a follow-up attack. It struck diagonally opposite from the direction I had just parried and followed up with a quick thrust, finishing with an X-patterned two-hit combo.

I parried the final two hits. My body was pushed back, and my heel hit the corridor wall. I moved back to the center while looking at the golden armor.

‘Having the rune definitely makes things much easier. I should’ve gotten it sooner.’

I lightly relaxed my shoulders. The combo just now should have filled my combat fatigue entirely, yet I didn’t feel the slightest heaviness in my body. The rune certainly made a difference.

“Someone like you cannot protect His Majesty.”

The golden armor said that as it charged at me again. This was one of the random lines from the 1st Phase.

It’s ironic that Kaiquilia’s aide would think like this after being possessed by a demon; if only its personality was more stable, it wouldn’t have ended up like this.

Yet, it was ironic that Kaiquilia didn’t care what happened to its underlings. That’s why the Silver Dawn Knights fell apart due to mere branch relatives.

The distance closed rapidly. Its right arm was pulled back, and the greatsword held in its hand began to swing, scraping the ground at the tip.

As always with combo patterns, I had to parry while counting rhythmically in my head like a rhythm game.

It spun its arm half a rotation, lifting the greatsword high above its head, then slammed it down. The swords clashed. My shoulder wobbled, and a jolt of pain hit my arm.

Three more downward strikes followed precisely. The golden dawn knight swung the greatsword as if it was handling a whip with one hand effortlessly.

This time, its right arm shot out horizontally. As I defended, this time I felt an impact much greater than before on my arm. The sword sank into the corridor floor, and I was pushed back a considerable distance before I finally stopped.

I drew the Wingless Nightmare. I saw a long scar etched on the floor. The red carpet spread out on the corridor was all messed up. The stone fragments and debris lying on top were just extra.

“……”

The golden armor, which had been looking at me expressionlessly, lowered its head and looked down at its sword. Then it threw the sword away carelessly and knelt down, collapsing to one knee.

‘…It’s already entering the 2nd Phase?’

I felt like no more than five minutes had passed. Surely it wasn’t that its health dropped below 75% from just a few attacks. If it did, the pillar of light would have been much larger.

“KRAAAAK!”

A horrendous scream erupted, completely different from earlier. It was as if a throat created from iron was producing the sound.

It was a clear announcement of the beginning of the 2nd Phase. Whatever it was, one thing was certain: the phase had transitioned.

“Khhrrr… Ugh… KRAAAAK!”

The armored body twitched. A grotesque shout echoed, and at the same time, its right arm burst open from within, giving way to a bizarre arm.

The protruding arm was nearly as large as a human torso. Its skin was dark red, bulging muscles stood out, and sharp claws adorned its fingertips.

It seemed to be suffering considerably; even though its expression remained unchanged, its breathing became quite ragged. Well, for the demon inside, it probably didn’t care about its physical body.

It stood up. The greatsword that it had just discarded was grabbed once more by the demon-formed hand.

With the arm’s size absurdly enlarged, despite being a considerable size, it felt oddly reduced to the level of a common one-handed sword.

‘Entering the 2nd Phase so quickly is going to be bothersome.’

I grumbled to myself.

In the 1st Phase, it fought with just swordplay like a regular knight, but in the 2nd Phase, it would start mixing in demonic powers as the mutation was halfway complete, and in the 3rd Phase, the demonic powers would become the main focus.

Of course, the more demonic powers were blended in, the more troublesome things became. That meant parries wouldn’t work. Hence, I wanted to endure as much as possible.

‘I hope it doesn’t leap straight into the 3rd Phase.’

Due to the bulkiness of its arm, it seemed off-balance, and it charged at me with a distinctly staggering gait.

The fact it was mixing in demonic power meant its main attacks would still be with the greatsword. As long as parries could still work, I had the same task ahead of me.

The speed of its greatsword swings was much faster than earlier. As I brought the Wingless Nightmare to intercept the trajectory, TCHING! the weight pushed away in the direction of the parry.

I dodged the next attack by rolling, escaping toward the wall. In a game, the character would navigate well even when pinned against a wall, but not here.

CRACK!

The waist of the golden armor twisted 180 degrees toward me. This was a pattern that appeared fairly often if the player was behind. It twisted its waist and jabbed forward with the greatsword, which I parried again.

My body was automatically pushed back, creating distance. As the distance slightly widened, it kicked off the ground with its grotesquely twisted right arm, taking off into the air to strike down at me.

I intercepted that. The trajectory of the greatsword twisted sharply. With a sound considerably larger than before, its greatsword slammed into the corridor floor.

Despite the trajectory twisting mid-swing and slowing down slightly, it shattered the floor, creating a sizable hole. Fragments tumbled down to the floor below.

The golden armor pulled out its greatsword without worry and aimed the blade back at me.

“Is the Pope around?”

In the blink of an eye, Minerva teleported to the Holy Kingdom and immediately entered the Sun Cathedral in search of the Pope. The tip of her staff and high heels thudded against the red carpet with a THUMP! sound.

The Pope of the Sun, with long, wave-shaped blonde hair flowing beneath the bright sunlight stained glass, was in a low stance, gazing towards the sky.

Though obscured by her hair, it was likely that she was kneeling in prayer.

“Eternal Magician, what brings you to this distant place?”

Floretta opened her mouth in her usual soft tone. Even for Minerva, barging into the Sun Cathedral was certainly a breach of etiquette, so she replied in the gentlest voice possible.

“I’m sorry for barging in so suddenly. But there’s no choice; something has come up.”

“Something came up… What is it?”

“There’s said to be a demon appearing in the Imperial Palace, which should be a sufficient reason, right?”

“…Did you say a demon?”

Her voice grew slightly colder.

Floretta slowly rose from her spot. Her long, wave-like blonde hair swayed with her movement. Her bright green eyes now focused on Minerva.

“In that case, we should certainly assist. It is our duty to eradicate evil, isn’t it? Inquisitor?”

“You called?”

As a whisper echoed through the air, Stella entered through the cathedral doors, as if she had been waiting.

“It’s reported that a demon has appeared in the Empire’s Imperial Palace. I will send the Inquisitor and Battle Nuns directly to assist the Pope of the Moon. Could you please go ahead and stop it?”

“Yes, Your Holiness.”

Stella, who bowed her head, exited the cathedral. After concluding a brief exchange, Floretta looked at Minerva with a bright smile.

“It is now settled, Eternal Magician. With the Inquisitor and the Battle Nuns, we will surely be able to vanquish the demon.”

“Oh, do help fast. If the Inquisitor joins in, the child can rest easy.”

In an instant, Floretta’s gaze changed slightly.

“Is someone fighting the demon that has appeared in the Imperial Palace?”

“That’s right. The Popes should know their identity, so I don’t need to explain. After all, I gave that child a brooch.”

At the mention of the brooch, Floretta’s expression shifted. The corners of her mouth slowly rose, and her eyes sparkled with brilliance.

“I see.”

Contrary to Floretta, Minerva’s expression became slightly ambiguous. Nonetheless, paying no mind to that reaction, Floretta spoke, her voice lightened with excitement.

“A distinguished guest is fighting a demon, then.”

Another broad smile spread across her face.

“The plan has changed.”

“What do you mean by a change in plan?”

“I shall take matters into my own hands.”