"Oh."
Martinez was surprised by the words he had spat out.
A bit of playfulness mixed into a retort to the other party's provocation. It was something he would never have done in the past.
Of course, being playful didn't mean it was a lie.
The fact that he was stronger than the Pope was something the Pope himself had acknowledged.
From the beginning, the position of Pope was not something one could sit in simply by being strong.
More than immense sacred power, it required insight and inclusiveness to understand the other's heart, and innate political skills.
So when Jechiel made the arrogant claim of being stronger than the Pope, Martinez felt no particular emotion.
Instead, he thought Jechiel didn't know much about the Pope.
If someone truly understood and contemplated the church, they wouldn't have said such words, even if intoxicated by power."You must take responsibility for your actions."
"Responsibility? Who would even ask me about that? You, the 13th Judge?"
"I am not part of the Order. I am neither a saint nor a paladin. I'm just a novice with nothing but power."
Martinez, facing a new world and experiencing various events, realized how insignificant he was within his own well.
Brilliant golden flames. Vast sacred power. Innate talent.
What use were they? He was just a novice who liked to run wild using his power, claiming to punish evil.
This was not who he truly wanted to be.
More than the brilliantly burning flame, he hoped to be the ash that appears after the flame burns and then disappears.
Wanting someone to pay attention to and care about such ash.
Like the Father in heaven who loved everyone.
Acknowledging this made him feel at peace.
It was strange. He had always thought he maintained a calm mind during his heretic-hunting days.
But now, truly feeling calmness, he realized he was not calm back then.
His past self was always moving as if chased by something: killing heretics, proving faith, maintaining his position in the Order.
He disguised this as a path of devotion.
It was shameful.
"Come at me. You will die by the hands of a nobody."
"How arrogant, young man."
Jechiel, the bishop, frowned. His face, already wrinkled, was now completely filled with wrinkles.
It seemed the ugliness within him was completely seeping out.
Martinez charged towards Jechiel, creating a cross-shaped spear in his right hand and a massive shield in his left.
Jechiel let out a sneer and extended his hand.
Following his hand movement, massive sacred power surged and shot directly towards Martinez.
Martinez raised a shield made of sacred alchemy to protect himself.
-Boom!
With a massive explosion, the sacred alchemy shield shattered. The hastily created shield behind it also cracked.
Martinez was pushed back.
'Strong.'
Jechiel's attack wasn't even truly serious. If anything, it was just a level of pushing back someone trying to approach.
Yet this much power. It was the first time he had been defeated in a pure sacred power battle, where he had never been pushed back before.
His past self would not have accepted this. Instead, he would have made excuses about insufficient training and mindset.
Martinez now accepted his own shortcomings and acknowledged Jechiel's strength.
Thinking about it, it was only natural. Jechiel was also a clergy member who had lived for a considerable time.
Originally possessing powerful sacred power, which allowed him to become a regional bishop, he had accumulated sacred power for a long time through the power of the sacred choir.
His claim of being stronger than the Pope was not empty words.
Martinez cleanly acknowledged this and therefore did not feel despair.
"Is that all?"
Jechiel extended his hand towards Martinez again.
Golden sacred power rose and shot out long towards him.
Martinez gave up blocking with a shield and quickly moved his legs. The moment his body shifted, the sacred power wave swept past where he had just been standing.
The marble floor didn't just crack but crumbled into powder.
Not even a sacred law, just a simple sacred power release was this powerful.
Martinez pondered. He had always burned opponents with overwhelming power, but now he had to fight someone with even stronger sacred power.
Though Martinez had faced numerous heretics, he had never experienced such a fight.
It was unfamiliar and disadvantageous.
'My experience fighting heretics is meaningless.'
Evil black magicians, magicians conducting secret experiments, pagans about to offer sacrifices, witches using unique witchcraft.
His experience of winning through compatibility and power would not help him here.
'I need to fight in a new way.'
Martinez's expression changed.
Jechiel's eyebrows shot up when he saw this. Unlike expecting him to despair from the power difference, Martinez seemed more determined to fight.
This irritated Jechiel. He had disliked him from the first meeting.
The memory of his unilateral attitude, forcing an apology from a priest who had assaulted a mere nun, surfaced.
"Fine. I'll kill you as you wish."
Jechiel raised his sacred power. This time, he did not wastefully release power.
Instead, Jechiel activated a sacred law. An attack a holy priest could use to defeat an enemy.
As Jechiel raised his hand, the marble ceiling was dyed with a sparkling light.
Immediately after, a pillar of light fell like lightning, targeting Martinez.
Martinez charged forward, his gray robe fluttering. His body, enhanced by sacred power, wove through the gaps of the falling light streams.
Though he tried to protect himself with sacred alchemy, the light pillars were not so easy to penetrate.
The sacred alchemy crumbled, and the skin touched by light began to burn, muscles melting to reveal bone.
The momentary pain whitened his vision but Martinez did not stop moving.
Grabbing onto his consciousness as it was about to fade, he injected sacred power into his body.
His wounds quickly healed like reversing time, the burned skin returned to normal, and the melted muscles were restored.
A paladin could restore their limbs even when torn apart.
Knowing this made Jechiel feel bitter. No matter how he tried to definitively destroy his heart or head, Martinez persistently protected those parts while approaching.
The distance was now just over 10 meters.
'Getting close will be disadvantageous.'
Jechiel extended his arm towards Martinez. Spears made of light formed around him and shot towards Martinez like a shower.
The legion of countless spears was reminiscent of a bullet rain.
Martinez swung weapons made of sacred alchemy in both hands, striking down the spears one by one while advancing.
When a weapon's durability was exhausted and broke, he immediately created a new weapon to fill the gap.
Even while swinging and striking, the number of spears was so great that some began to graze his body.
Though merely grazing, the strong sacred power made each wound feel like it would necrotize.
But he had no room to care about the pain. The moment he was distracted, one of these countless spears would pierce his heart or head.
Martinez had to raise all his concentration. At this moment, he was using all the capabilities he possessed.
It wasn't easy as he had never done this before, but with his life at stake, his brain spun quickly.
The light spears obscuring his vision seemed to be approaching slowly. Thrusting weapons at them, restoring broken weapons, creating shields to block.
Repeating this, he slowly took one step at a time.
A sense of urgency appeared on Jechiel's face.
While he could strike with sacred laws from a distance, as the distance closed, his sacred laws would not be as effective.
No priest could defeat a paladin in close combat.
Jechiel knew this and tried to push Martinez back.
But no matter how persistently he pushed, Martinez was gradually, albeit slowly, getting closer.
"Retreat! I said retreat!"
Sacred power gathered in Jechiel's hands. Collecting sacred power as if clapping, Jechiel extended both hands forward and shot towards Martinez.
A golden wave was emitted but Martinez created shields in both hands.
Not the cross-patterned shields he often made, but a unique design with sharp spikes on the shield's lower section.
Martinez directly planted the shield into the ground.
Immediately after, high-density sacred power engulfed Martinez and the shield.
-Crash.
His two hands holding the planted shield trembled. Martinez gritted his teeth. He felt an instinct that the moment he relaxed even slightly, the distance he had narrowed would infinitely widen.
The moment he couldn't endure here, it would be the end.
But realistically, he had no viable method.
What could he do?
Experiences of victory were unnecessary.
Instead, Martinez recalled his first experience of defeat.
That moment when he first lost.
The battle with the knight surrounded by starlight from the sky.
He was clearly stronger. He didn't think he was at a disadvantage in compatibility.
But he had lost. It was a defeat with no room for excuses.
'Recall the memory of that day.'
It wasn't that long ago, and the defeat was so vivid that it still remained in Martinez's memory.
How Ossian moved, how he swung his sword, and how he handled his strength.
Yes. He had always charged forward stubbornly.
Martinez raised sacred alchemy. It wasn't his usual method of creating a massive spear with vast sacred power and breaking the opponent head-on.
Golden wings sprouted behind him. It was the first time Martinez had created wings.
It was implemented with sacred alchemy the way Osian had used the cloak when he first brought out the nebula silk.
As the wings fluttered, Martinez's body soared high. Immediately after, the place where he had planted his shield collapsed, unable to withstand the impact.
Martinez, who had risen after fluttering the golden wings once, looked down at Jechiel.
The improvised wings had exhausted their effect with this single wing beat.
Martinez, who had narrowly succeeded in avoiding the attack, landed on the ground.
And with all his might. He bent his body and shot towards Jechiel like an arrow.
Jechiel opened his eyes wide. His already impatient heart became even more urgent.
Jechiel raised sacred power throughout his entire body. Countless light pillars rose to blow Martinez away.
Martinez, seeing the sacred law flying towards him, raised his sacred alchemy.
'Recall the scene of that day.'
The sacred alchemy he raised this time was different from how he usually used it.
The power that had embodied massive and heavy strength was now surprisingly small.
The form created by the compressed sacred power was a two-handed sword, a golden sword made of sacred alchemy.
A scene appeared before Martinez's eyes.
The back of a knight advancing boldly in pure white armor.
The figure that broke through enemies while fluttering a cloak like the night sky, holding a sword mixed with pure white and golden light.
At this very moment he implemented it in the most optimal form he could.
He didn't think with his head. He moved only by instinct to realize the scene he had seen.
───!!!
Martinez swung the sword.
Despite having no proper practice, the movement was surprisingly natural and smooth.
Jechiel's sacred law was cut helplessly beneath the sword.
He deflected the light pillars flying after cutting by tilting the sword.
His body narrowly slipped past the light pillars.
Martinez's body dropped low. The light pillars crossed the empty space above his head.
Keep moving your legs.
Swing the sword.
Don't pause for a moment.
─If you saw the scene drawn in your head, move to catch up with it.
Finally, Martinez caught up with Osian's back that he had been imagining and reached precisely beside him.
At that moment, the world that had been pitch black became bright, and a reality beyond phenomenon appeared.
Jechiel's eyes, staring at him, were so close that even a single wrinkle was visible.
What needed to be done here was simple.
"Didn't I tell you?"
At the moment Jechiel opened his mouth to say something, the golden sword line split his waist.
"That I'm stronger."