Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Chapter 77

The bonds of darkness imprisoned his chest tightly, causing the “Book of the Black Goat” to shake violently, taking on a gruesome vitality.

«…!»

Breaking free completely from Dale’s reins, the artifact went out of control, absorbing with voracious hunger the dark energy that sprouted from that well of shadows. With that renewed vigor…

— Damned spawn of Sistina, I will never forgive you…!

The servant of Sistina.

«……!»

Loaded with unimaginable resentment, Shub exclaimed the moniker of the “goddess.”

The twin deities of Sistina. Until that moment, he had assumed that those figures were nothing more than legends invented by the inhabitants of this plane.

«Were they not just a myth…?»

As he cried out the divine name, Shub lifted the lower part of his attire.

Flash!

From the depths of his robes, twisted dark appendages emerged. Dale did not hesitate. Looking away from the core and the magic ring that gave the impression of being about to explode at any moment, he increased his speed by resorting to overclocking.

The spectral warriors of the dark blade launched a joint attack.

They headed straight for the “Holy Maiden,” who remained protected by six winged limbs of pure clarity.

The golden seraph.

The authentic manifestation of the projection of the Holy Maiden Aurelia.

The mental environment built by a sorcerer was nothing more than a mirror of his own psyche, and the concepts that Aurelia embodied in her blade, her bodily protection, and her own being reflected the essence of her spirit.

The executor of divinity. The herald of radical mysticism.

«It is extremely dangerous.»

Dale sensed it by pure intuition. The scenario was becoming completely adverse.

It represented the true first “insurmountable obstacle” in Dale’s trajectory.

It bore no resemblance to that occasion when he glimpsed the gifts of the shadow sphere. That belonged to his progenitor, and reaching it corresponded to a highly distant and diffuse horizon.

However, the vibration that the Holy Maiden was emitting at that moment was real. Despite supposedly being a “training combat,” any wrong blink would mean the end of his days.

What’s more, the death instinct she projected in response to Dale’s challenge far exceeded the limits of a simple practice.

«Would it be prudent to give in and end this confrontation now?»

Dale weighed the alternative for a moment. His “primary goal” was never to defeat the Holy Maiden in this arena. Although victory represented the ideal scenario, he had structured a contingency plan for defeat. That had been the initial design from the beginning.

«… By no means.»

However, what truly ignited Dale’s soul in the midst of the siege was his competitive pride.

This did not correspond to a pre-established script in a farce. The rival standing before him was not a sacrificial piece destined solely to enhance Dale’s talents.

It was the perfect opportunity to test his capabilities against such “overwhelming force.”

At this precise moment, Dale was walking on the thin line that separates existence from death. A miscalculated step would cast him into the absolute void, stripping him of everything.

«Exactly, that is how it must be.»

Holding on to that tightrope, Dale wore a stern grimace.

While his garment of shadows floated in the air, he distanced himself from Shub, who manifested his hostility without restraint, at the head of the army of “spectral warriors of the dark blade” that crowded the confines of the void.

The Holy Maiden launched an attack, deploying her six winged limbs. Dale imitated the movement, shielded by the folds of his garment, shaping “blades of shadow.”

Clang!

A single collision erupted in the space.

Aurelia’s golden blade impacted against Dale’s shadowy edge. He barely managed to deflect the attack using the coordinated action of twelve “shadow blades.”

He was not capable of more. From the perspective of a regular combatant, attempting a direct clash was madness.

However, evoking the teachings of Sir Helmut, the instructor who guided him in the arts of the sword… it was enough to contain a single blow.

Just enough time for a mystic who had lost position to a warrior to be able to reorder his defenses.

Immediately after, the dark blades of the spectral warriors fell from every flank. In parallel, Shub’s appendages and the darkness that lurked threw themselves upon the position.

The Holy Maiden did not have room to deliver a second strike either. She performed an agile turn, emulating the flight of a swallow thanks to her six wings, taking distance. The endless appendages of darkness fell like a storm upon the Holy Maiden as she retreated.

Beneath Shub’s vestments, lashes of darkness sprouted without interruption, shaking and hitting the air.

At every moment, the torment resembled a painful pressure on his myocardium, causing his energy reserves to collapse. To produce the mystical flow indispensable for resisting, he forced his three rings to spin again and again.

The clarity of his mind began to falter due to the torment. Despite this, he understood it clearly. The “Book of the Black Goat” did not operate erratically. It simply functioned as a rigorous punishment.

Its end was to propel Dale’s core, girded by three rings, toward the immediate next step.

The fourth ring.

The bonds of shadow tightened with greater severity around the three circular structures that increased their revolution.

Dale’s three rings were never comparable to those of an average sorcerer of the same level. If the “net volume of energy” produced was evaluated, they rivaled the capabilities of a six-ring mystic perfectly.

Even so, despite having an energy flow of such concentration, Dale’s structures showed themselves incapable of channeling the fullness of the power of the “Book of the Black Goat.”

— It is insufficient, it is insufficient, it is totally insufficient, it is not enough at all!

Not even the immense amount of energy produced by the magnificent Dale could appease Shub’s demands. For that reason, he forced him to break the barrier to the “next level” by resorting to any available method.

«All right, let us see what all this culminates in.»

For Dale’s aspirations, this scenario represented the most ideal outcome.

The fourth ring. A threshold that placed a mystic far above the standard of an “average individual.” Upon accessing that stratum, Dale envisioned the profound mysteries of the art he would manage to master.

Considering his current nature, his evolution would never stagnate within the limits of a “conventional fourth ring.”

Therefore, Dale did not hesitate.

With the firm purpose of tearing down the two fences that obstructed his advance: the Holy Maiden Aurelia and the barrier of the fourth ring.

«Focal Point of Radiance.»

It happened suddenly. Aurelia deployed her six wings.

The limbs of light increased their brightness exponentially, emulating the power of the king star. Even the icy cold and the shadows that seethed in Dale’s surroundings gave the impression of being extinguished before that clarity.

Just as the first light of dawn dissipates the gloom before the new day.

He deciphered the nature of that phenomenon with a single glance.

«Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.»

— An emitter beam.

«…!»

Instantly, Dale gathered momentum firmly and charged forward.

From the six wings, emitter beams were projected in all directions, emulating a burst of projectiles.

Flash of death. Concentrated fire.

The columns of clarity, evoking scenes from a science fiction work, crumbled Dale’s surroundings.

It was impossible for him to even smile. Such a display of force reduced Dale’s spectral warriors, bearers of heroic vigor, to mere combat pawns. What use did combat schemes or maneuvers have before such magnitude of destruction?

None at all.

Neither the dark appendages that attempted to intercept it, nor the dark fluids that sprouted when said members were destroyed, managed to approach the Holy Maiden in the midst of the storm of clarity that she herself generated.

This constituted the true manifestation of an exceptional force.

A colossal destructive power capable of reversing the course of a war through the intervention of a single individual. The primary basis of the “chivalric epics” that even the inhabitants of this plane would classify as impossible myths.

That was how it presented itself. That was the reality of the formidable rivals he had defeated and with whom he had to measure himself in his previous trajectory.

«I still have a long way to go.»

Consequently, with his current capabilities, it was impossible to reach a being of that caliber.

The concentrated rays of clarity descended from all flanks implacably. It was equivalent to measuring oneself against futuristic technology using only a metal blade.

He had to find a way to reach her position.

In an extreme effort, while Shub’s defenses served as provisional containment against the destructive clarity, safeguarding Dale’s integrity, and while the latter’s rings, evidencing his latent flaws, gave signs of imminent collapse.

«In what way?»

Emitter beams constitute light waves, and polished surfaces have the quality of deflecting said energy.

Deflection of the light wave. However, a simple reflective crystal would collapse before flows of such intensity.

At that precise moment, a notion crossed Dale’s thoughts.

«LDAL.»

Atmospheric thermal lens mechanism structured by light emission.

A device designed to counter high-intensity beams did not correspond solely to an abstract theory. An optical-based tool that generated a section of high-temperature air to cause the deflection of clarity in the face of emitter weaponry.

«It is an executable option.»

A piece of knowledge that Dale possessed and that the Holy Maiden was completely unaware of. Science from another reality.

For Dale’s faculties, concentrated on dark and celestial arts, producing fire in the style of the scholars of the crimson needle was an impossible task.

However, it was not required to originate a visible fire. The high thermal state, after all, only represented a manifestation of “velocity in the agitation of molecular components.”

In the same way that low temperature reflected the “cessation of said molecular agitation,” heat and cold were, in essence, opposite manifestations of the same phenomenon.

Dale interrupted his advance. The clarity projected by the Holy Maiden’s limbs focused directly on the static opponent.

The destructive energy aimed in the direction of Dale, who proceeded to unify his mind while remaining motionless.

He calculated the dynamics of the surrounding space, projecting his mystical energy while fixing his attention on the Holy Maiden’s luminous wings.

In this plane, no element exceeded the speed of clarity itself. Despite this, it was feasible to anticipate the trajectory before the shot was released.

The wings of clarity increased their imposing brilliance once again…

«At this instant.»

Dale recreated the scientific principle based on his profound knowledge from his previous existence.

«—Clarity, deviate.»

With the purpose of consolidating the mental projection, he resorted to a formula foreign to this plane. Said process increased the molecular agitation in his environment, raising the air temperature and structuring a “barrier of clarity” capable of deflecting the high-intensity beams.

And it was precisely against this barrier of clarity that the destructive flow collided.

«…!»

The clash between the ultimate attack and the absolute defense.

The concentrated destructive beam experienced a deflection, returning with violence toward the holy maiden’s wings.

It happened immediately.

Crack!

The creak of a structure breaking spread throughout the environment.

The magic ring that was increasing its speed around his chest interrupted its movement. His vital organ, which had been experiencing a torment as if it were going to fragment at any moment, regained calm suddenly.

Shub’s image dissolved in the air, and the environment of frozen gloom that enveloped them vanished completely.

Without noticing the change, Dale found himself standing on the access structure of Reims.

The ring that encircled his chest had suffered a massive overload, interrupting its functions.

«It is incredible that my advance is interrupted here…»

At the limit of an extreme situation, his energies had dissipated completely. He did not even manage to access the fourth ring, the obstacle that stood before him. It represented a highly ironic outcome. Wearing a grimace of disappointment, Dale looked up.

At that point remained the six-winged celestial being.

«…!»

Those limbs were battered and covered in perforations. The golden protection lay in pieces, leaving exposed the unprotected skin that was sheltered beneath. A truly deteriorated and defeated image.

The holy maiden collapsed to her knees in front of Dale.

— The return impact devised by Dale had achieved its purpose.

«……!»

Despite everything, the holy maiden, even with her wounds, managed to stand with difficulty, gathering the remnant of her energies.

She avoided falling completely.

Under the attention of those present, Aurelia shortened the distance toward Dale, who, after exhausting the potential of his ring, no longer had the means to oppose. The edge of a common combatant’s blade pointed directly toward his person.

«This dispute lacks purpose from now on,» stated the holy maiden. Dale showed a slight ironic grimace at such a particular conclusion.

«I give up.»

«That does not conform to reality.»

The holy maiden, keeping the blade in attack position, moved her head in disagreement with total serenity. Immediately after, she adopted a posture of submission before Dale.

She inserted her blade vertically into the surface of the ground.

«This confrontation concludes in a condition of equality,» she ruled. A draw.

«That lacks logic…»

Dale had invested such a quantity of vitality that he found himself incapacitated to make the slightest movement. In contrast, even having assimilated a severe return impact, the holy maiden’s mystical projection had not been extinguished. She retained the capacity to prolong the dispute.

With total certainty, Aurelia was aware of that reality.

«I remain highly impressed by your conditions, knight.»

Despite the circumstances, the holy maiden prostrated herself before Dale, expressing the honors proper to a knight of honor.

«The chronicles of the reporters did not lack truth.»

«The stories of the reporters did not lack truth.»

Simultaneously, identical expressions emerged from their mouths.

Dale showed a slight gesture of pleasure in total reserve. The holy maiden returned the gesture in the same way.

«I, Dale of Saxon.»

Immediately after, Dale raised the power of his voice.

«Complying with the word pledged, I ratify the surrender of this square, Reims, the main city of the Kingdom of Britannia.»

Dale’s declaration, projected thanks to the last vestiges of his mystical energy, expanded with great intensity.

With the volume indispensable for the residents of the city and the forces of the independent army who were contemplating the challenge to manage to catch every term.

«I ratify its surrender before the twin deities of Sistina and the holy maiden Aurelia.»

Not under the authority of Charles VII, the legitimate successor of the Kingdom of Britannia, but under the investiture of the “holy maiden Aurelia.”

Chapter 77