The air around them sank into a heavy stillness at Salesin’s appearance.
Gulp.
Someone swallowed hard; the sound was so clear that everyone heard it.
Just one man.
Only a single man with no attendants had arrived, yet he completely seized control of the atmosphere.
The pressure that came with the title of Holy Sovereign was anything but light.
Above all, his entrance alone was dazzling enough to put everyone on edge.
After all—he had just shot down the Elemental Lord of Wind.
One man had reduced the incarnation of the wind—an existence unmatched in the sky—into that pathetic state.
That alone proved how overwhelming Salesin’s power was.
“The Cardinals I sent ahead all collapsed, so I had no choice but to come myself.”
While everyone remained tense and bristling with caution, Salesin spoke as if the situation were perfectly leisurely.
“I thought it’d be nice to make a slow, grand entrance in front of the crowd, but seeing the situation... it seemed I had to step in right away.”
If circumstances had allowed, Salesin would surely have arrived slowly with the Royal Guard in tow.
He would have swept away the cryptid horde under the awe of thousands, basking in admiration and praise as he marched forward in splendor.
The only reason he failed to do so was because Ludger had moved faster than he expected.
“My little brother did a real number on me. I was planning to show up in style, but thanks to this, I’ll have to throw out everything I prepared.”
Of course, there was not a trace of disappointment in Salesin’s voice.
If anything, he seemed amused—delighted that Ludger had once again exceeded his predictions.
A welcome seasoning tossed into his long-stagnant, boring life.
Even that emotion carried the natural arrogance of someone who instinctively placed every other person beneath himself.
“So since I’m here anyway, I thought I might show up a little impressively. And wouldn’t you know—it helped me out at just the right moment.”
Wearing a gentle smile, Salesin gestured toward the fallen Elemental Lord of Wind.
“I was flying in, minding my own business, when that thing blocked my way. I remembered it, of course. The Elemental Lord of Wind who once served Saintess Arkenis, then went dormant after losing its contractor. The moment it saw me, it bared its fangs.”
So I shot it down.
The casual way he said it—like he’d swatted an insect—sent a chill through Rine and everyone else.
Salesin’s face resembled Ludger’s.
Naturally so—they shared the same bloodline.
But everything from hair color, to demeanor, to tone of voice, to expression... was the opposite of Ludger.
Despite his benevolent appearance, he felt like a monstrous creature wearing a mask.
“Urk!”
Rine let out an involuntary gasp of pain.
Salesin’s red eyes had turned toward her.
That alone made her feel as though countless sharp needles were stabbing into her skin.
Like swarms of ants racing beneath her flesh.
“Hoh.”
The moment Salesin looked at Rine, he understood instantly.
That woman possessed the Judgement Eye the Church had lost.
“I didn’t expect to meet the wielder of the Judgement Eye here. Should I call this fate? The Judgement Eye the Church searched so long for but never found has walked straight to me.”
Greed flickered openly in Salesin’s gaze.
He didn’t even bother to hide the fact that he’d finally found the owner of the Judgement Eye.
“How fortunate. Should I say the heavens aid me? Ah, no—that’s wrong. I intend to place the heavens beneath me as well.”
Arrogance beyond imagination.
The meaning was simple.
Salesin intended to make Rine his.
Salesin’s fingers pointed toward her.
No one knew what he intended to do—no, precisely because it was so clear, predicting the result was impossible.
Just as Ludger was about to move—
Someone else moved first.
The Elemental Lord of Wind, whose pride Salesin had thoroughly crushed.
The Elemental Lord spread all six pairs—twelve wings—wide, surging into the air.
Those gathered gasped.
Its enormous mass moved without the slightest hint of air resistance.
A feat only possible because the Elemental Lord commanded the atmosphere itself.
The spreading of its wings and its rocket-like ascent were nearly simultaneous.
Wind resistance meant nothing. Even inertia seemed irrelevant.
It felt like watching the laws of physics themselves break.
As it closed in on Salesin, the Elemental Lord summoned a violent storm.
The winds it produced became a massive vortex visible to the naked eye as it hurled Salesin’s body backward.
Enveloped in white radiance, Salesin made no attempt to evade.
His body soared back up into the heavens.
The atmosphere gathered, and the once-clear sky was instantly blanketed by a colossal anvil-shaped thunderhead.
Naturally, Salesin—caught by the wind—was pulled into the heart of the cloud.
The brilliant white thunderhead churned, writhing.
Inside, winds tore violently, like a beast digesting prey that had fallen into its stomach.
Yet no shockwave, no disturbance, reached the surroundings.
That was an Elemental Lord.
A being perched at the apex of all spirits.
But even more astonishing was what happened next.
The light inside the thunderhead grew stronger. The dark cloud turned completely white.
Beams of light began to leak through the cloud’s surface.
“He’s still fine in that environment?”
Alex muttered in disbelief.
Salesin wasn’t dead.
He even used light to taunt the Elemental Lord—as if asking how much more it could do.
The Elemental Lord gladly accepted the provocation.
Its wings unfurled as it moved.
With impossible speed for its massive frame, it circled the thunderhead, surpassing the speed of sound without air resistance.
Each pass compressed the thunderhead inward. The escaping light became trapped inside small spheres of condensed vapor.
And it didn’t stop there.
Huuuuuuuum—
The density of the air inside the cloud spiked sharply.
Normally, creating such a thunderhead required low pressure, but basic meteorology meant nothing to an Elemental Lord.
The pressure soared beyond what any barometer could measure.
A space compressed by overwhelming atmospheric force.
A living hell.
People never realized how heavy the weight of air pressing down on them truly was.
One atmosphere on °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° a given surface area was ten tons.
Humans lived without knowing only because their bodies were built to withstand that pressure.
What if the pressure doubled? Tripled?
Only then would they understand—
That they carried something massive and heavy on their backs at all times, even if unseen.
Then what—
If the pressure increased to one hundred times, one thousand times—
Ten thousand times.
Or far more.
Condensed vapor compressed until it froze. Yet the temperature inside soared higher.
At temperatures far beyond boiling point, water did not evaporate—not under such pressure.
It froze instead.
Hot ice.
A cube of hot ice nearly a hundred meters tall engulfed Salesin completely.
Anything inside would not just die—it would cease to exist, leaving no trace.
And yet—
FLASH!
A single cross-shaped burst of light cleaved the hot ice cleanly into a perfect cross.
The massive ice cube shattered into eight fragments.
Inside, Salesin stretched his arms wide as if savoring the moment, eyes closed.
He bore no wounds. His clothing wasn’t singed.
The Elemental Lord moved again.
Its white wings hardened, becoming smooth and rigid.
The Elemental Lord ignored wind resistance and dove straight at Salesin.
Its wings had become blades. The surface quivered with ultra-fine vibrations.
A supersonic vibro-blade—over a hundred meters long—hurtling faster than sound.
No human eye could follow that.
Yet Salesin remained calm.
The reason soon appeared.
Slice!
With a clean, smooth sound, one proud wing of the Elemental Lord was severed.
It looked less like the wing was cut by force and more like it shattered along its own hardened grain from excessive rigidity.
Salesin, meanwhile, stood unharmed.
All he had done was extend a single finger slightly before the wing reached him.
That alone severed the wing.
The Elemental Lord immediately banked and accelerated.
Its speed entered the hypersonic realm.
Its form vanished—only a white flash remained.
Mach 20.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles re-enter the atmosphere at Mach 20.
The Elemental Lord was at least that fast.
Even it couldn’t fully control the surrounding air at that speed; the disturbance trailed clearly behind it.
The sky itself split open.
Clouds parted, and Salesin’s radiance poured out like a waterfall through the gap.
From afar, it looked like a god descending upon the world.
“Oooooh...”
“Oh, Lord...”
“Please watch over us...”
Even soldiers with no religious faith fell to their knees, praying at the sight.
The Elemental Lord’s blade touched Salesin’s neck.
“Touched” was the only possible word.
At Mach 20, even distance meant nothing; the blade would cut its target in an instant.
But that was all it did—touch.
Because Salesin’s neck was unscathed.
The colossal being came to a dead stop.
A closer look showed it: holy power shimmered at the point of contact, pushing the wing away.
“He blocked it with divine power?”
Alex—whose perceptiveness exceeded everyone present—said it aloud.
An attack that could slice diamond like tofu failed to penetrate the thin veil of divine power on Salesin’s skin.
One couldn’t even imagine its density.
“Mm. That was a fairly entertaining little trick.”
Salesin offered his honest impression.
“Not bad—but that’s it.”
His finger pointed at the Elemental Lord’s torso—the ring-layered core of its wings.
FLASH!
A pure white beam pierced through the Elemental Lord’s body.
Its torso melted; wings and all plummeted downward.
As it fell, the whole form dissolved into mist and vanished into the atmosphere.
Spirits were bound to nature.
When they suffered damage beyond their limit, they did not die—they were forced to reverse-summon.
That was all that happened.
Even so, the defeat of the Elemental Lord was shocking.
Its full-force assault had failed to make Salesin move an inch.
An attack that seemed to split the sky itself.
The title of Holy Sovereign was not undeserved—his power was absurd.
Even if Salesin possessed the greatest talent in history, this was far beyond acceptable limits.
Rine couldn’t tear her eyes away from him.
“W-who... who are you?”
Rine had seen it—
While everyone else stared only at Salesin’s radiant light, her Judgement Eye showed her something else:
Pitch-black darkness.
A grotesque mass that chilled her skin, churned her stomach, and made her want to vomit just by looking at it.
Not even the cryptids Hans summoned gave her that feeling.
But Salesin did.
He was like a thousand years of malice and greed lumped together.
“Oh dear. As expected of the Judgement Eye.”
Salesin smiled in mild distress.