“Demon King Heathcliff. I’ll stop you here.”
“Then stop playing around and come at me seriously, Saintess Catherine.”
Catherine charged forward.
Behind her, a brilliant white magic circle unfolded, and golden chains shot out from every direction toward Ludger.
From behind Ludger, shadows rose sharply and spread in every direction like tentacles.
Black tendrils like thorned vines clashed with the golden chains, tangling violently in midair.
It was as if two serpents were biting into each other’s necks, locked in a fierce struggle.
The two powers intertwined until they could no longer withstand each other and vanished as if annihilating one another, and through that fleeting gap, Ludger and Catherine met in close combat.
“Do you really think you can beat me in close quarters?”
Ludger recalled their first meeting.
He remembered her recklessness—how, when he’d merely told her to step aside (though perhaps a bit harshly), she had immediately charged in.
That hadn’t changed even now that she was a Saintess.
Though she had been taught and had learned the posture and demeanor of the benevolent Saintess the Church showed to the world, at her core she was still the same blunt, straightforward woman who couldn’t hide her true nature.
Her golden-tinged fists struck with a speed and precision that were anything but ordinary.
It was clear she’d learned techniques from the monks within the Church who specialized in close combat.
Her body might have been slender, but her power was anything but.
Even Sir Huiron himself might have struggled to overpower her in raw strength.
Ludger chose evasion over direct confrontation.
As Catherine stepped in closer, Ludger lightly swept at her ankle—the pivot point of her stance.
Thrown off balance mid-charge, Catherine’s body lifted into the air, but instead of panicking, she twisted her waist midair and unleashed a spinning kick.
Ludger tilted his head back, narrowly avoiding her kick.
Catherine planted her arms on the ground and spun, her legs whipping through the air again and again.
The divine power imbued in each kick carried the force of a raging storm.
As Ludger ducked his head, a golden flash ripped through the space behind him.
The long, sturdy corridor of the fortress was split apart.
Ludger swung his swordstick in response.
The mana condensed at its edge burst forth in the shape of a crescent moon, slicing through everything before it.
Even Catherine, who could block most attacks with her overwhelming divine power, must have sensed the danger—she quickly dodged aside.
“Your close combat has improved a lot!”
“You get better when you fight enough.”
“Had a good teacher?”
“I learned it in a dream.”
“What’s that supposed to mean!”
Even as she spoke, Catherine didn’t slow her assault for a second.
It was as if she meant to prove that attacking first, rather than defending or evading, was the key to victory. Her relentless barrage left no room to breathe.
Even Helia herself would have been hard-pressed to endure this torrent of divine power—but Ludger, calm and collected, continued to dodge, block, and occasionally counterattack between her strikes.
The sheer intensity of their clash tore apart everything around them.
The shockwaves reverberated throughout the entire Galahad Fortress.
“What in the—!”
“The fortress is collapsing! Everyone, fall back!”
The battle between Ludger and Catherine was so overwhelming that, for a moment, all other combat within the fortress ceased entirely—like how smaller fish flee in terror when two giant whales clash.
Behind Catherine appeared the upper half of a massive giant clad in golden armor.
In one hand it held a massive shield; in the other, a great spear. Through its helmet slit, its glowing eyes locked onto Ludger.
With a flash of light, the giant hurled its spear.
The sight was like a meteor crashing down. Ludger’s shadow stretched long across the ground, and from within it, a raven-like beast rose.
The monster with the beak of a crow seized the spear in its grotesque hand, then drove its remaining fist into the giant’s face.
It was Ater Nocturnus, the shadow beast brimming with Ludger’s mana, unleashed at full power.
The giant staggered back from the blow, and Ater Nocturnus immediately lunged forward.
But the giant wasn’t weak either.
It raised its shield to shove Ater Nocturnus away, then thrust its spear at the creature’s neck.
As the two summoned beings clashed, the Celestial Frostbreaker glided across the floor, aiming straight for Catherine.
“You think such petty magic can stop me?!”
Catherine shattered the Frostbreaker with a single punch as if it were glass.
“You think you can bring me down!”
The scattered ice crystals glittered as they filled the air around her.
Whirrr—!
The spinning crystals surrounded Catherine, grinding against her like a storm of blades.
She snorted and stomped her foot.
Golden flames burst out in a radial wave, melting the crystals and tearing through the storm itself.
An overwhelming display of sheer power that allowed no attack to land.
But Ludger had never expected such a simple spell to defeat Catherine.
Behind him, a massive tree emerged.
Catherine narrowed her eyes.
That was no ordinary magic. It was similar—but different—and it radiated an intense, destructive force.
“Let’s see you block this.”
GEBURA.
The power of destruction—one of the Sephirot—responsible for judging and eradicating all unnecessary existence.
Now that Ludger had ascended to the Seventh Circle, his spell was beyond compare.
Blinding flames engulfed Catherine.
Ludger had faced countless opponents and could always be confident of victory—but not against Catherine.
And the reason for that was right before his eyes.
She advanced slowly toward him, her entire body clad in golden armor, her arms crossed—walking straight through Gebura’s raging inferno.
Catherine leaped high and shot toward Ludger like a falling star.
Ludger cloaked himself in shadow and donned his raven mask.
Catherine collided with him, and their bodies smashed through the floor, crashing downward.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
They broke through layer after layer, crashing down and down again.
Finally, Ludger kicked Catherine back, forcing her off him.
Behind him, a field of blue mana spread as metallic cubes materialized in midair.
The fragments assembled into massive serpents—three of them.
The steel serpents roared silently as they lunged at Catherine from all sides, jaws wide open.
Catherine stretched out her hand, conjuring a pure white barrier.
The serpents crashed against it and were pushed back, but they quickly regrouped and rammed the barrier again with crushing force.
The divine wall cracked and shattered, and the serpents raised their razor-sharp scales, coiling around Catherine to bind her.
Catherine grabbed the nearest serpent by its jaws and tore it in half.
She then swung the bisected halves, slamming them into the other two serpents attacking from either side.
In the instant the serpents fell silent, their cube-formed bodies changed shape.
The fragments gathered around Catherine, rising like sharp spires piercing upward toward the ceiling.
Then, in an instant, lightning struck.
Instead of scattering, the bolts followed the cube spires like lightning rods, converging into one massive current.
At the center stood Catherine—kneeling on one knee under the immense electrical surge.
The roots of the World Tree used by Sedina, the dragon illusion conjured by Helia—none of them had been able to harm Catherine. But Ludger was different.
Catherine clenched her teeth and released divine light from her body.
A circular halo appeared behind her, its edges sprouting sharp spikes that took the form of countless spears.
Spears of light shot out from the halo, breaking through the lightning and aiming straight at Ludger.
Ludger unfolded his shadow cloak behind him like wings.
From within the shadows, the muzzles of countless guns emerged—hundreds of them.
“Magic bullets. Volley fire.”
Tututututututu—!
The barrels within the cloak flared, unleashing rapid bursts of compressed mana instead of ordinary bullets.
The barrage collided with Catherine’s spears of light in midair, neutralizing them.
While the magic bullets intercepted her assault, Catherine smashed apart the lightning rods and leapt out of range.
White steam rose from cracks in her golden armor, but she paid it no mind.
The shattered cube fragments reassembled above her into a massive block of metal, which fell toward her head.
“Hmph!”
Catherine scoffed and smashed the falling mass with her fist.
The enormous block split cleanly in two and crashed down beside her.
She flicked her fist lightly, then spread her golden wings wide behind her.
Ludger retracted his firearms back into the shadow cloak, reshaping it into raven wings as he ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ rose into the air.
Catherine flapped her wings and darted toward him.
Ludger spun midair, scattering black feathers.
The feathers transformed into shadowy spirits, circling Catherine and trying to bite at her.
“Annoying pests!”
Even Solomon’s familiars were nothing but flies to Catherine.
Ignoring them, she charged straight for Ludger—going for the caster himself was the obvious move.
“All things are vanity.”
But just as her fierce hand reached to seize Ludger by the collar, her golden armor passed through him completely, piercing straight through to the space behind.
“What—!”
Catherine flared her wings to brake midair, shocked at the impossible sight—but that brief moment of confusion was fatal.
The metallic cubes gathered on the ground had already assembled into stationary cannons, which locked on with magnetic precision and fired.
Five railguns aimed directly at her.
Catherine conjured a shield in one hand to block the shots. Taking those head-on with her armor would have been suicidal.
Meanwhile, Ludger recited an incantation and drew a massive magic formula in the air.
Blue mana scattered around him, expanding like a Milky Way of light.
The formula was far larger and more complex than anything required for Sixth-Circle magic—more like a work of art.
Catherine sensed the danger immediately.
Even her imperfect foresight warned her urgently to flee.
Beyond her vision of the future, she saw darkness swallowing her whole.
She clenched her teeth.
‘I want to stop him too!’
Her foresight was not perfect—but even so, it couldn’t help her against Ludger.
He was skilled in close combat, even better at long-range magic, proficient with both swordsmanship and martial arts, and wielded spells far beyond the realm of ordinary magic.
‘I have to stop him!’
Catherine decided to interrupt his casting before he could complete the formula.
She broke her shield into particles of light and charged straight at him.
She didn’t care if the railgun shots struck her armor.
‘Ignore the minor attacks!’
And though the railguns were far from minor, compared to what Ludger was preparing, they were child’s play.
Her shoulder armor shattered, one of her wings was pierced and torn off.
Yet Catherine smiled in triumph.
She believed she could stop him before the spell was completed.
Until she saw, through the mask, Ludger’s sapphire-blue eyes turn crimson.
‘What—’
Ludger’s eyes glowed red.
An invisible, overwhelming force gripped Catherine’s body.
‘This... is divine power?’
She could feel it. The unprecedented power Ludger had just invoked—it was divine.
It only stopped her movement for an instant. But in a battle like this, one instant was enough.
The formula was complete.
Ludger’s spell was unleashed.
The blue array turned pitch-black, as if ink had spilled across it, swallowing the entire space as it descended slowly.
It looked like a great black tablecloth fluttering down from above.
Even seeing it, Catherine couldn’t think to block or resist.
The moment the darkness touched her, all her power scattered and dissolved.
The darkness broke down, absorbed, and devoured her divine energy itself.
‘Impossible...’
The darkness crushed her completely.
Catherine fell to the ground, swallowed by the blackness.
She struggled within it, but the darkness clung to her like thick tar, refusing to let her go.
Even when she tried to rise, its heavy viscosity pinned her in place.
Seventh-Circle Dark-Attribute Magic — [Black Repose].