Chapter 123
Wild Instinct (Lv 4) warns! You’ve been targeted by a powerful throwing technique!
A red light marked the impact range.
I hurriedly grabbed Adela and Luri, throwing them far to either side, then barely leaped to dodge.
It happened so fast they didn’t even have ti to scream.
‘Tch!’
I should’ve at least explained how to use them…!
[Found… you…!]
From my high vantage point, I saw Brahmus, towering over tens of ters.
His body was scarred by Hectia’s sword strikes and ablaze with the holy flas left by the Diamond Bullet, yet he still looked formidable.
[You… I won’t eat!]
I saw soone suspended by chains, bound in midair.
Hectia.
She was resisting the demonic corruption trying to invade her while restrained.
[You… I’ll make you submit. A perfect… opportunity…!]
‘Hah, he’s got an eye for talent.’
“Princess' Gift.”
A golden magic circle floated above the Black Knight’s armor.
At the sa ti, I circulated stellar force through my body.
My body began to push back the demonic energy, regaining so vitality.
‘Shall I buy so ti?’
***
“Tch, Martin! You impudent fool! Throwing like that!”
As she was flung, Adela witnessed it with her own eyes.
A massive axe, exuding ominous green demonic energy, slamd into where she had been.
“Ugh.”
Adela, thrown to the ground, slowly rose.
She propped herself up with both hands, then her knees, but her trembling form was pitiful.
“Wasn’t there an option to carry to safety…?”
But soon, a deafening roar began.
Axes, hamrs, and chains chaotically tore through the air.
Amid them, a Black Knight moved like a nimble hound.
“Well, I guess not.”
Adela’s lips twisted as she looked up.
‘I’m seething.’
Not long ago, Luri had co to Adela for advice.
‘I’m completely useless.’
She wanted to stand by Martin’s side, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t help.
Even dedicating her entire life to training didn’t work.
‘What did I tell her then…? Oh, right. I said…’
That I’d never thought such things.
Did I?
The golden authority and the Shadow Knights were powerful, after all.
‘Ha, haha, how laughable.’
But Luri’s desperate expression lingered, and I told her if she kept trying, one opportunity would co.
Such a foolish thing to say.
‘Who’s the useless one?’
Now, Adela understood Luri’s feelings.
‘It’s .’
Power.
She needed power.
‘Truly deplorable.’
She had to train.
The magical talent bestowed upon her was far from trivial.
If she had honed it, she could’ve at least matched Mary or Shuga of Deminiyan.
With the golden authority added, she wouldn’t have been weak.
Adela tightly shut her eyes, then opened them.
‘What use is regretting the past?’
She needed to assess her current situation and act.
[Krrrrk!]
Turning, her eyes t a lesser demon wandering the Academy.
It roared and charged.
“How dare you… die!”
Adela pointed her finger, and a golden beam shot from its tip, piercing the demon’s head.
The demon collapsed, but Adela fell to her knees.
“Haah!”
She was exhausted.
Her body had no strength left.
‘The hierophant.’
Her hand felt heavy—she was clutching the hierophant Martin had given her.
She felt like a fool in her dazed state.
‘How do I use this?’
He said it was the Desert Hierophant.
An artifact in the form of a hierophant.
Then, wearing it on her head should activate it.
But there was a problem.
It was entirely blackened, as if cloaked in death.
“But.”
Still, Martin gave this to , no one else.
Why did he give it to ?
“Why?”
If it’s sothing powerful enough to turn this situation around, why didn’t he use it himself?
As if it was ant for specifically…
[Kiiii?]
[Kiririk.]
Startled, she snapped back to reality and saw dark red eyes staring from the shadows.
‘They sensed their kin’s death.’
That number was dangerous.
With her stamina and mana depleted, even three lives wouldn’t be enough to survive.
‘Then there’s only one option.’
Princess Adela raised her hand.
The hierophant, a symbol of a fallen ruler, slowly rose.
“Insolent creatures, wait.”
Even before the charging lesser demons, Adela never groveled.
“Until I master this artifact.”
“Then I’ll sweep you all away.”
It was laughable.
Sweep them away?
She had no strength left.
If this artifact didn’t work… or even if it did, unless it was sothing extraordinary to overco this crisis, she was as good as dead.
Contrary to her worries, the Desert Hierophant fit her head perfectly, like fate.
And then.
“…!”
Her golden eyes widened as if her soul had been pierced.
‘This.’
She understood.
What she could do.
What powers this held.
This hierophant was alive.
‘It dares to see through .’
A re hierophant, with a will of its own, was observing Adela’s thoughts and even her deep subconscious.
“Tch! Impudent!”
Sothing was prying in.
A dead king, exuding dark, ominous energy, was trying to invade her mind as an illusion.
‘You dare try to control ?!’
Golden authority exploded from Adela’s entire body.
‘Guh!’
But it was futile.
External force couldn’t subdue the obsession of the dead king that had long slumbered within the Desert Hierophant.
‘Oh, very well.’
A head-on battle of willpower.
‘I quite like that.’
The fallen ruler, breaching her ntal defenses, was taken aback.
This woman’s mind, newly wearing the hierophant, was bizarre.
Adela smiled.
No stamina, no mana.
But willpower?
She had that in abundance.
‘If you like my twisted, dark mind, let’s fight.’
The fallen ruler wore a dazed expression.
This mind had no corruption, no fall.
It was already dark.
How could you corrupt soone already fallen?
Soon, Adela’s mad ego overwheld the fallen ruler.
The ruler was swept away, dumbfounded.
It was the essence of madness cultivated by the princess who had confined herself to a separate palace.
Yet, this was rely two decades of madness.
The reason Adela was so strong was singular.
She was thinking solely of one person.
The man still fighting.
Martin.
For him, she didn’t care what happened to the world or herself.
That was the true madness that crushed corruption.
“…Ah.”
Her mind cleared.
‘Ha, good.’
Not bad.
I’ll forgive it.
It seems I’ve beco the new master.
What the Desert Hierophant was, its origins, its history, its powers—all began to flood her mind.
‘Now I know what I can do.’
The Desert Hierophant was, literally, the seat of a leader.
A leader who reigned supre and commanded.
It held dominion over not just desert sands but most rocks and gems, and could command followers.
Those who had sworn loyalty to her, even in death.
‘I.’
Adela’s golden eyes saw a sight she had never seen before.
The cosmos.
A star-studded cosmos.
Each star was soone who had pledged loyalty to Princess Adela and fallen.
‘…The numbers are few.’
Well, that couldn’t be helped, she thought.
Most were Shadow Knights, but one was different.
That star shone the brightest, highest in the cosmic expanse.
‘Nanny, Sir Harris.’
The two had beco one star, looking at Adela.
There was so much to say.
But she instinctively knew communication was impossible.
‘Yet both of you.’
Despite their unjust and bitter deaths, they still wanted to help Adela.
‘You’re trying to help .’
For the first ti in a long while… it felt like being a child again.
But she couldn’t stay imrsed in that feeling forever.
There was soone to save now.
“Help , Nanny. And Sir Harris.”
As Adela reached upward, her nanny and the old knight Harris reached down toward her.
The mont their hands t.
[Kiiieeeek!]
[Kyaaa!]
The demons nearing Adela hesitated, unable to advance.
Golden light flashed from her entire body.
The black Desert Hierophant, symbol of a fallen ruler, turned the color of golden desert sand.
It suited her perfectly, as if it were its original form.
“Listen.”
Adela raised her hand.
“Even death cannot dim your loyalty.”
The golden Desert Hierophant began to shine brightly.
“Though your bodies are gone, your souls still follow .”
She extended her raised arms to either side.
“Rise.”
Golden desert sand began to gather from nowhere.
It amassed, soon forming shapes.
“Cut down the vile things that stand in my way.”
Knights in golden armor, wielding swords and shields, stood around Adela.
Adela looked around.
She saw lesser demons trembling in fear at the astonishing golden authority.
Their numbers reached hundreds, thousands.
But she wasn’t afraid at all.
“Slaughter them all.”
At her command, the golden knight corps charged at the cowardly demons.
Based on the Shadow Knights, they were already formidable, but clad in golden authority and desert power, they transcended their limits, growing stronger.
And Sir Harris, the old knight, was their leader.
Embodying Adela’s greatest wish, he manifested as the largest, most stalwart knight, cutting down enemies faster and stronger than anyone.
“Good… now I can hold my head high.”
At the center of the golden knight corps stood Adela, wearing the golden hierophant.
Her flowing golden hair, her shining golden eyes.
The Golden Princess herself.
“Let’s go. We must save Martin.”
Following the princess' steps, the knight corps began to move.
***
“Martin.”
In the end, I’m no help at all, am I?
“Martin…”
Luri was heartbroken.
“I guess I’m completely useless.”
She sobbed, sprawled on the ground.
In her right hand, the ‘Traces of the Fla that Illuminated the Primordial’ given by Martin ward her hand, unextinguished.
‘Oh, Martin…’
This ti, too.
This ti, Luri was a burden.
No matter what she did, Luri was a useless weight.
Present, but utterly unhelpful!
‘I tried so hard.’
She wanted to stand side by side with Martin.
That was her only wish, so she sacrificed sleep, ate elixirs instead of als, and trained like mad, but it didn’t work.
It was so hard.
‘I guess I’m not enough.’
With that thought, Luri collapsed onto her back.
Lying on the ground, she could see the night sky clearly.
It wasn’t black.
It was red.
It wasn’t quiet.
It was chaotic.
Seeing the Black Knight flying above, stalling Brahmus alone, she felt sad that he was so alone.
No one would recognize him.
No one would protect him.
‘So.’
How could I just stay broken and idle?
Luri slowly began to stand.
‘I have to do it.’
She wanted to share joy, sorrow, love, and pain with that lonely hound.
‘Because I know Martin.’
Martin was soone who never showed annoyance, even when I clung to him.
He accepted the ways I expressed my feelings.
He seed cold but was soft-hearted.
He couldn’t stand by and watch evil.
He just… had too many wounds, so he disliked standing out or stepping forward.
‘Only I know Martin.’
Only Luri knew that Martin was both the princess' Black Knight and a mber of the Peacemaker.
She now understood how heavy the burden on his shoulders was.
‘Because I was saved.’
My life, and my friend Helaine’s life, were saved by Martin.
“So, I…!”
At that mont, a fierce fla roared to life.
Startled, Luri turned to see it starting from the spark Martin had given her.
“W-What, what, what?!”
[Splendid. Your resolve. Such pure love and yearning for strength are rare sights indeed.]
A vast amount of fla enveloped the surroundings, then wrapped around Luri.
It wasn’t hot.
It was warm.
A comforting warmth.
Co to think of it, what was this?
Why did Martin give it to ?
“Who… are you?”
[I am the fla that illuminated the world at the dawn of ti.]
Fire, fire, fire!
In a place filled with flas, the fire gathered to form a shape.
It looked like a giant bird.
“A phoenix…?!”
[A splendid spirit, but even that was rely a creation born in my likeness, empowered by my authority.]
To call a mighty spirit that freely wielded fire and defied death a re creation!
[Oh, I am fire.]
“No way.”
Luri recalled one entity.
She had heard that ancient people made pacts with it and fought alongside it.
But arrogant, ungrateful humans destroyed nature… and soon lost their connection with them.
In the modern era, they remained only as legends…
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