Everything is washed away in pristine white within the intense flash of light. In the bleached world, Osian gazed at Zaxilos.
The explosion caused by the collision of two suns. Perhaps swept up in the aftermath, his helmet was cracked and nearly half of it had flown away.
The fully revealed expression of Zaxilos was filled with shock. The gaze staring at him as if unable to believe was strangely amusing.
Then what kind of expression was he himself making? If nothing else, he was probably smiling with joy.
-Throb.
A pain as if his entire body would be torn apart washed over him. How long had it been since he felt this level of agony while fighting? It felt like his body was being torn and burning, with his brain boiling over.
The feeling that his very existence was being sublimated. However, if this was the process to seize victory in battle, he could gladly accept it.
Osian's sword moved. In the pure white world, he moved solely for one purpose: to defeat the enemy before his eyes.
The same was true for Zaxilos.
KWAGWAGWAGWANG!
The two suns collided endlessly in the void.
The actual fighting time was less than five minutes, but to both of them, that time felt as long as eternity.
The battle between the two suns falling with debris finally ended when they reached the bottom of a deep, dark pit.
Only one sun blazed brightly.
"My victory."
Osian trampled on Zaxilos who had fallen to the ground and pointed his Sun Ring sword at him.
Zaxilos coughed up blood and looked up at Osian. Flares erupted from both sides of the blazing solar disc, reminiscent of wings.
"I acknowledge it. You are indeed strong. Strong enough that I cannot defeat you even with my full power."
Osian's physical condition wasn't exactly normal either, but compared to him, it was embarrassing to even call them wounds. His limbs were intact and he had no permanent disabilities anywhere.
This made it the second time. The first time he had been mercilessly defeated, but this time he thought it would be different.
He had prepared as thoroughly as possible, to the point where he thought he couldn't do any better. But even so, he had been defeated.
What had been lacking? Zaxilos decided not to dwell on it. He knew it would be useless anyway.
Simply put, that guy was a stronger knight than himself.
"It was enjoyable. It's been a really long time since I've had such a heart-pounding fight."
Osian paid the highest praise to Zaxilos as his opponent. It was neither a lie nor sarcasm. This was sincere. Zaxilos knew this too, so he chuckled.
"To receive praise from the greatest enemy of my life. It's not a bad feeling."
"Anything more to say?"
"Nothing. My fight ends here."
Zaxilos closed his eyes. Osian swung his Sun Ring sword horizontally.
-Swoosh.
Zaxilos' head was severed. His expression remained as it was with eyes closed. There would have been no pain.
Cardinal Zaxilos, who had absorbed the power of the Sun Ring, died like this.
However, Trinity Building, which had transformed into another dimension, was still maintained.
When the space that should have been automatically released upon Zaxilos' death remained, Osian sensed that something was wrong.
'There's no change in the space. At least if Zaxilos had died, there should have been some minimal reaction.'
Then fallen beings began to appear one by one around him. Osian pointed his Sun Ring sword at them as he saw them. Were there still some remaining?
Even though he was quite exhausted from fighting Zaxilos, he wasn't at the level where he'd be defeated by such creatures.
However, the fallen beings that should have rushed at him immediately upon seeing him were strangely docile. Rather, they showed unexpected behavior before Osian's eyes.
-Thud.
They all knelt down in unison and began to pray with their hands clasped together. At first, he thought they might be acting out of fear toward him who had killed Zaxilos, but that wasn't it.
Osian turned around.
Only then did this dark space that he had reached through endless falling come into view. He had been so focused on fighting Zaxilos that he had failed to perceive it in time.
'Stone statues?'
Like looking at an endlessly extending canyon, there were high, steep cliffs on both sides. And on those walls, bizarre skull-shaped stone statues with clasped hands in prayer were lined up in three and four tiers. Each one was easily over 20 meters in size.
The sight of all the stone statues simultaneously gazing in one direction with their hands clasped was both reverent and eerily bizarre.
At the place where the stone statues' prayers were directed, in the center of the canyon, there was a massive heart connected by all sorts of flesh tentacles.
-Thump! Thump! Thump!
That was similar to the heart that had been hanging from the ceiling of the arena. But it was fundamentally different.
'The magnitude of power it essentially contains is different. The heart I saw above was an imitation of this one.'
Even the aura emanating from it was different. The heart, receiving injections of something through tentacle tubes connected from all directions, continued to pulsate. It was puzzling why he had only just noticed such a large creature.
The heart's beating that had been continuing suddenly stopped.
And then.
-CREEEEEEAK.
The center of the heart split open, revealing pitch-black void from within.
The red angels shot yellow beams at the Blood Brotherhood. The heat rays that would melt anything they touched with high temperature made it impossible to even think of confronting them.
-TSSSSSSSS!
Massive ice spikes rose to form a wall. The spikes were so large that they could be mistaken for part of an iceberg. On top of the iceberg created by Senaka, Basilio added additional magic.
WHOOOOOOO!
A frigid frost wind blew, making the ice barrier even colder and more solid. Heat rays struck it, producing fierce steam.
In the process of repeatedly melting and freezing, the red angels holding solar swords moved.
The bright yellow swords appeared to be ordinary longswords in appearance, but they too possessed the power to turn even steel into molten metal with just a touch.
Martinez, who stood at the front, held a massive shield made of sacred alchemy and thought.
'That power is the same as what my brother wields. Although the number of times it can be used is limited, the power itself must never be underestimated.'
Though it lacked cutting power, considering its viciousness in melting whatever it touched with high heat, it was more dangerous than holy light. Martinez held his shield forward and stomped his foot hard.
WHOOOOSH!
A golden field spread out. Golden wheat ears scattered, scattering particles of light. Delford, who was touched by it, narrowed his eyes.
"Ho. This gives me energy."
His body, which was already overflowing with strength, felt even lighter than before. The same was true for Kudan, Krollakia, and Malina.
"This is the holy power of the Petra Holy Kingdom."
Malina felt the holy power dwelling in her body. It was a completely different power from the shadows she wielded. However, the holy power that permeated her body infused her with vitality.
"You won't see much of an effect. The holy power that paladins wield is usually limited to themselves."
To properly project holy power to others, one had to be at least a priest class. This field that Martinez used only provided a very slight help. Of course, that alone was more than enough.
KWANG!
The Sun RIng swords thrust by the approaching red angels collided with Martinez's shield. A chunk of holy power was scraped away and the shield was carved out.
Martinez instinctively knew that it would be difficult to compete head-on with that.
However, approaching only with evasion and technique was not his way.
If this wasn't enough, he just needed to use more holy power.
WHOOSH!
Golden sparks arose around Martinez. They were flames similar to Sun Ring flames but brighter and more sacred in feeling.
It was purifying fire, the nightmare of all heretics that purified all corrupt things.
"Burn."
A wave of holy power swallowed the red angels like a tsunami. The red angels made the halos above their heads burn even more brilliantly to resist the purifying flames.
The red angels swept up in the golden wave only staggered backward, but were not neutralized. The purifying flames remaining on their red skin burned their flesh, but for the mindless angels, they were meaningless wounds.
However, the people who followed up were different.
THWACK!
Kudan's fist sent a red angel's head flying while Krollakia’s sharp tail stabbed into the solar plexus of the red angel.
Krollakia, who had pierced the angel with her tail, shook it greatly and threw it at another angel. As they became tangled and fell, pitch-black daggers rained down on them.
Delford also used his wolf fang slash to cut down all the charging angels.
The angels at a distance extended their arms to shoot heat rays.
TSSSSSSS! CRACK!
Then octopus tentacles with sucker cups full of thorns appeared and coiled around the angels' bodies. The angels used the power of the sung ring to burn the octopus tentacles in resistance, but they were overwhelmingly outnumbered.
The angels swept up by the overwhelming quantity of tentacle clusters were devoured with horrible sounds of bones and muscles being decomposed.
"Hyah!"
Krua leaped high and landed in the center of the red angels. Upon landing on the ground, she threw a jab before the red angel could react. A light green aura formed in her hands, transforming into a shark's head.
CRUNCH!
The red angel's flesh bitten by the shark's teeth was torn away in chunks. The shark that chewed and swallowed the flesh transmitted power to Krua, and Krua converted it entirely into combat.
"I'll devour you all!"
When Krua stomped her foot, the floor around her rippled like water. The red angels floundered and sank below the surface.
It was the same as when defeating the Dead Dagger assassins. Below the surface, countless schools of piranhas were lurking to bite the red angels.
They weren't ordinary piranhas. The piranhas made with Cthulatlap’s power were creatures created by the power of an outer god, just like the red angels.
The puddle was dyed red. However, their resistance was also considerable. A yellow light flashed from inside the puddle, and heat rays shot out mercilessly. The piranhas caught in it turned to ash and disappeared.
"Damn it! They're annoyingly hard to eat!"
Originally, she should have devoured at least ten, but she had only managed to kill five. The red angels tried to surround Krua. Then a translucent swallow flew over and snatched Krua by the nape of her neck.
The swallow flew quickly and safely delivered Krua to where her companions were.
"Don't go wild on your own. If even one person breaks through our battle line, we'll be the ones in danger."
Maia spoke curtly to Krua. Even though her words were curt, the fact that she had helped couldn't be denied.
Krua snorted but didn't get angry.
Pitch-black hair rippled like waves, slaughtering the red angels. It was Grace Seeker's doing. The red angels also swung their sun ring swords, burning or cutting off such hair.
The red angels died one by one, but just as many new ones appeared to replenish them. In that endlessly continuing war of attrition, naturally those at a disadvantage were Basilio and his party.
"Damn! There's no end!"
Basilio avoided the sword of a red angel that had approached closely and placed his palm on the creature's torso. CRACK! The red angel's body condensed directly into a fist-sized sphere in Basilio's palm.
Basilio tried to modify it into a formula to use, but it wasn't easy. The sun ring energy dwelling within the creature's body raged wildly.
Basilio hastily dropped the flesh and retreated. Immediately after, an explosion filled with sun ring energy occurred. If he had tried to use these guys, his own hand would have been blown off instead.
Then one red angel charged toward Basilio with quick steps. Unlike the other creatures, its movements were precise and agile.
'Oh no!'
Not all red angels were at the same level. Some possessed superior characteristics compared to other individuals. The one charging now was one of them.
Basilio missed the timing to check the creature.
-BANG!
The head of the charging red angel jerked back greatly. Plimene, who had been watching the battle situation, had provided covering fire with her pistol. She couldn't kill a red angel with just a pistol, but restraining its movement was enough.
Diamond-shaped red formulas appeared and tore the shot red angel to pieces.
"Thanks."
When Basilio expressed his gratitude, Plimene, instead of answering, aimed her gun barrel elsewhere to check the red angels. It seemed like he was being ignored, but Basilio didn't think so.
'More than that, these guys really are endless. Only the war of attrition continues. At this rate, we'll collapse from exhaustion first.'
How the fight between Osian and Zaxilos inside was going was also important. No matter how strong Osian was, facing Zaxilos alone would be dangerous. Nothing was more irritating than being held up here when they needed to quickly go help.
Then the heat ray attacks that had been pressing them began to become sparse. The movements of the red angels, who had been moving like machines carrying out given orders without stopping, all came to a halt at once.
"What's this?"
It was then, when everyone was puzzled by that sight.
GRRRRRRR!
Along with a massive vibration that consumed the entire space, an indescribable enormous presence was felt from below.
It felt like his heart thumped once.
"Gasp!"
Krollakia gasped. The scales all over her crouched body were trembling madly. The trembling was so intense that even Krollakia herself couldn't handle it.
While everyone was flustered by the sudden situation, only Basilio felt a familiar sense of déjà vu.
'This is exactly the same as that time.'
Basilio recalled the ritual to summon Red Eternity that day. There might be differences in scale, but this fishy smell of blood wafting over was definitely the same as that time.
'Red Eternity.'
That creature had appeared.