ALL NOVEL Chapter 7 - The Execution
The bursting swarm of nightingales was practically a calamity. The black wings blotting out the sky. The flapping sounds and nightingale cries incongruous with the time of day disoriented one’s sense of direction amidst their midst.
Facing the nightingale swarm gushing forth like a waterfall, Sophia gave a fearless smile. In an instant, her chest expanded as her astral muscles cultivated through reverse muscle cultivation assisted. The inner qi welled up from her dantians, coursing through the eight extraordinary vessels and twelve meridians. The kundalini and prana from her chakras resonated, intersecting throughout her body.
The “Mark of the Anointed One,” the “Geass,” and the traces of “Knighthood” and “Tribulation” moved to aid in the invocation of the “Sound that Shakes Heaven and Earth.” The sound amplification spell pre-loaded into the spell socket of her astral brain cultivated through reverse brain cultivation activated.
Thus manifested her optimized civilian massacre technique – the Roar of the Stalwart Lion.
[Behold—me—!!!!]
Wooroong, wooroong, wooroong. With just that shout, heaven and earth shook violently as an appalling roar resonated, shattering all manner of illusions and nefarious energies like broken pottery. The nightingales diving at Sophia as if to crush her were utterly obliterated, coughing up blood from that single roar.
Nonchalantly surveying the falling nightingale swarm, Sophia spun her longsword and planted its tip on the ground before her like a walking staff.
“Hey, vile whore of a demon wench? If you truly have any pride, don’t just keep sending useless spy demons and face me directly.”
{Such an appallingly rude wench… Do you even know that boorish women like you are unpopular with men?}
“Oh~? A mere slut who only knows how to manipulate men through temptation, only capable of flashing her ass and tits with demons and followers – I can’t hear a word from such pathetic trash~”
{You insane bitch… I’ll make you lament that mouth as you die!}
With another puff, the tent entrances burst open as more nightingale swarms emerged.
“It’s use-” [less, I said—!!!]
Again erupting with a violent, thunderous roar, Sophia instantly killed countless more nightingales.
Of course, her opponent wasn’t outright foolish either, so she didn’t try the same tactic twice. The nightingale swarms were merely a smokescreen to obscure Sophia’s vision. The moment Sophia unleashed her roar, crimson beams of light pierced through the shadows of the nightingales, seizing that instant of opportunity to strike her blind spot.
“Not bad?”
The seven blood-light beams were deflected away like a windmill by the arcing trajectory of Sophia’s spinning longsword. More nightingales emerged from the tents, which Sophia fended off by crouching and emanating luminous power while continuously stepping to create an exit path, thinking:
‘At this rate, it will only become a battle of attrition. I need to force her true form to reveal itself.’
In an instant, Sophia’s eyes scanned the surroundings. Her gaze locked onto the colorful tents from which the nightingales were spewing forth.
‘Hmm. I should clear those away.’
Her lips curled into a sinister smile for a moment.
“Let’s see if you can stay hidden obediently after I burn them all down and strip you bare!”
With two of her five spell sockets already used from earlier, Sophia released her third spell socket.
“I had a feeling something like this might happen!”
In her third spell socket was a combustion spell. In an instant, the spell body stored there volatilized, scattering ember-like heat concentrations outward. The scattered embers instantly adhered to the colorful tents.
But that wasn’t all – Sophia took out spell stones densely engraved with runes and ogham from a pouch at her waist and flung them around haphazardly. Every one of these spell stones bore sigils imbued with the concept of combustion. Aided by the spell stones, the combustion spells faithfully activated, quite literally setting the surrounding tents ablaze.
The demon’s nefarious energies frantically moved to extinguish the flames, but it was already too late to respond. With holy fortitude and luminous power enveloping her body, Sophia plowed through the flames like artillery shells, severing each demonic energy attempting to douse the blaze.
{Damn arsonist bitch! And you still call yourself a knight of the Order?!}
“Fuhahaha, why bring that up now? Isn’t this usually what happens when we meet your kind?”
Amidst the raging inferno, Sophia smiled maniacally as she dashed about like a madwoman – to that tent, then the next, manually transferring flames from burning tents to any untouched ones.
She moved through the flames without the slightest hindrance. Her armor consecrated with luminous power and the engravings of the Four Sublimes did not even permit the flames to make contact. Even the threat of carbon monoxide poisoning from her past life’s knowledge posed no danger to her current self, such was the extraordinary protective lineage shielding her body.
Sophia’s rampage like a scalded wild boar only ceased when nearly 70% of the tents had been burnt down.
Chalarak! With a sudden ringing sound, Sophia sensed crimson beams of blood-light aiming for the back of her head.
“Kukuk, so you finally move?”
As Sophia reflexively extended her longsword like a clock’s hand and pivoted with a stepping technique, the blood-light beams and her sword’s radiance intersected. The blood-light nimbly curved like a snake, trying to hide its trail in the blazing light.
“Hah, fat chance!”
Sophia did not lose track of the blood-light. Her two eyes unleashed azure radiance. Her flashing gaze did not miss the blood-light’s trajectory as it tried to conceal its tail. In an instant, Sophia’s form vanished, only to reappear a short distance away. Her left hand, not holding the longsword, moved deftly to hook the blood-light.
Upon capturing it, the blood-light’s true form was none other than a whip. At its end was a crimson, razor-sharp lash, and its body was covered in jagged protrusions designed to tear flesh into shreds with the slightest graze.
{You foolish wench! To grip the Whip of Indecency with your bare hands? Once it touches your skin, you’ll roll your eyes back and degenerate into a rutting bitch!}
The demon mocked as Sophia grasped the whip’s body. It expected Sophia to immediately collapse, roll her eyes back, drool uncontrollably and thrash about in lust. However, for some reason, Sophia showed no such signs at all. Rather, she simply gave an incredulous look and said:
“The whip’s name is… the Whip of Indecency? So in other words, you’re serious?”
{Why are you still unaffected?!}
“Well, you did say it yourself, didn’t you? This whip only works when it touches bare skin. Now does it look to you like I’m gripping it with my bare hands right now?”
With a truly incredulous expression, Sophia shook her gloved hand to show it. She retorted that logically, would a longsword fencer who might even half-sword with a blade gripped in hand really go around barehanded? Let alone a fully-plated knight…barehanded?
{But there’s no way my power could be nullified by a mere glove! It should have had some indirect influence at the very least!}
“Well, if I was affected by such a simple trick, I wouldn’t have passed the Paladin entry exams from the start, would I…?”
Sophia sighed, wondering why she was so underestimated in the first place.
‘I’d have rather failed if that were the case. Then I wouldn’t be in this situation, running around unpaid like a dog.’
Thinking that, Sophia suddenly felt a surge of anger rising within her.
‘Come to think of it, isn’t this all because of those damned demons?’
Yeah, that’s right. It seemed that way.
“So I have to kill demons, don’t I?”
Sophia tightened her grip on the whip, pulling it taught. Her gloved hand, imbued with luminous power, shone brilliantly.
Remarkably, as she gripped the whip’s end and pulled, its demonic owner could not resist, getting reeled in like a fish on a line. The human Sophia exceeded the demon Erzsebet in sheer physical strength, explosive power, and endurance.
{You monstrous bitch!}
“Not words I want to hear from a people-devouring demon whore?”
What was revealed was a voluptuous woman with bluish-pale skin, pointed ears, and horns – but marred by numerous fanged, split tongues lolling from mouths across her body and bloodshot eyes.
As the nun knight pulled the whip, the demon could not resist that force, getting dragged out against her will. Without losing sight of the demon’s form, Sophia expelled her power to fix her in place midair.
“I shall now begin your execution.”
{No! You cannot kill me!}
As the demon Erzsebet shouted defiantly and exerted her power, her body transformed into nightingales carrying a lewd fragrance, attempting to flee.
“Useless.”
However, the demon’s attempt was in vain. The “Mark of the Anointed One” on Sophia’s forehead shone. The “Geass” engravings across her body lit up, and the traces of “Knighthood” and “Tribulation” along her meridians blazed.
Through the simultaneous realization of the “Legacy of the Consecrated” from the Hebrews, the “Legacy of Oaths” from Celtic warriors, the “Chivalric Legacy” of knightly literature, and the “Heroic Legacy” of Greek myth – the demon rendered a monster to be destroyed could not escape, fixed in place for execution.
Sophia’s hand imbued with luminous power reached above the demon’s head. Facing inevitable death, the demon could not resist.