‘Alive.’
Or so Osian thought as he looked at Ena Grunt.
She had unintentionally helped him.
Then Ena's gaze met Osian's.
"You owe me your life for this, so you must win!"
Osian chuckled at her bravado.
"Gladly."
The Judge frowned, as if offended by the sight.
"You dare."
The divine power emanating from his body grew stronger."How dare a heretic mock the will of God!"
"Kaaak!"
Ena screamed.
The flames of the match burning at her fingertips grew stronger, and before she knew it, it had consumed the entire match.
Ena reflexively let go of the match, and the sealed flame was reinserted into the Judge's body but that brief moment was enough for Osian to close the distance.
The Judge ignored Osian and reached for Ena.
His purpose was to kill the witch in the first place so he didn't need to waste time playing games with Osian.
Ena hurriedly pulled a fresh match from her matchbox, but the Judge's flames were faster.
The golden flames spewed out in a radial motion, rushing toward her like wildfire but it was instantly sliced in half by the starlight sword.
Seeing the hot golden light scattering to the left and right, Ena stared at Osian's back with a trembling gaze.
Osian ignored her reaction and continued to stare at the Judge.
This guy was strong, and not just strong, he was a monster.
Even he, with most of his stats maxed out, was no match for that monster.
He'd be outmatched by sheer strength so it was only right to give up and retreat from this fight.
Osian may call himself a knight, but at his core, he's just a small-time office worker who loves to play games.
It was natural for him to prioritize the calculations in his head over the courage of his body but he didn't run away because his body was screaming at the top of his lungs.
‘Fight like a knight. Don't run away.’
The gap between body and mind that had existed up until this point was nonexistent in this moment.
Not when he was fighting the Blood Brotherhood, and not now.
Osian laughed self-deprecatingly.
‘Perhaps I was meant to be a knight.’
That's why Osian never ran away no matter how hopeless the situation, no matter the endless darkness in front of him.
The darker the world the more brilliant the stars burn.
"......what."
The Judge noticed the subtle change in Osian's mindset and he maximized his divine power.
The golden field churned like a stormy sea, bending to his will.
That incandescent sword is definitely dangerous.
Its cutting power could easily slice through his divine gold, splitting even the flames of purification and judgment.
In terms of sheer power density and sharpness, any Prayer he could use would be no match for that sword.
But it is a double-edged sword.
As a sword, it could only cut what came from one direction.
"Father in heaven, let them all burn with the fire of perfect mercy."
As the Judge recited his prayer, flames spread across the field.
The flames rose from all sides, writhing at the Judge's will, and rushed toward Osian and Ena like a giant tidal wave.
Back, forth, left, right, there was no room to dodge and the simultaneous rush of flames could not be stopped by a single sword.
"It is finished."
The flames engulfed Osian and Ena at the same time as the Judge's declaration.
They were reduced to golden ashes, purified.
As the Judge thought this, he looked up to see a glimmer of light in the golden flames.
‘The flames are pushed back?’
The all-consuming golden flames seemed to be held back by something.
The flames, exhausted, slowly subsided and quieted, revealing the power that sustained it.
It was a pure white sphere.
It looked like what it would look like if you took a twinkling star in the sky and brought it to earth.
At that moment, the white sphere split from the crown and unfolded like a flower petal.
Like a magnolia bud opening into full bloom for spring, the light spread out in all directions, and then took on the form of a man's body.
It was a cloak.
The cloak, which seemed to be made of fabric cut from brilliant starlight, fluttered without wind.
Around its neck and shoulders, the pure white feathers glistened.
[Nebula Silk], one of the skills of the Wandering Knight, was a self-buff skill that envelops the user in a cloak of starlight power, increasing all resistance, defense, and movement speed.
Wrapped in the cloak of starlight, Osian stared at the Judge with a more subdued gaze.
"Now."
The starlight sword still burned hot in the slit in his cloak.
"We're even."
"......!"
The Judge impatiently stoked the flames.
He didn't understand why he was so nervous. It was an instinctive reaction, outside the realm of cognition.
The flames spread across the field once more, threatening to engulf Osian and Ena from all sides.
At that moment, Osian's cloak moved.
It expanded and fluttered, turning into a cocoon around Osian and Ena's bodies.
The holy fire rained down on them, but failed to do any damage.
Osian returned the nebula to its cloak form.
It was a beautiful sight to see the cocoon unfurl like a flower in full bloom, then transform into a cloak and attach itself to Osian.
Ena watched in disbelief.
It was one thing for the sword to emit light, but what about the cloak that warded off the golden flames?
‘It's like a myth.’
She couldn't believe what she was seeing but Ena hadn't forgotten what she was supposed to do.
Pulling a spare match from her matchbox, Ena nodded to Osian.
"I'm fine now, so you can go."
"Sure."
Osian lowered his stance.
It was the stance one would take to run.
-Chaaaah!
Immediately afterward, the cloak shot out a huge blast of energy from both shoulders.
A spray of starlight dust scattered in all directions, and Osian used the recoil as a springboard to charge at the Judge.
The golden field between Osian and the Judge split in half, as if the world was splitting apart.
The Judge instinctively formed three shields of divine power.
This was the first time he had ever made so many shields.
-Aaaah!
With a single blow, the three divine power shields were split in half and the right arm of the Judge beyond them was also severed.
"......!"
The severed arm was immediately repaired, along with his clothing, but the Judge couldn't hide his shock.
It was so fast that he can't even compare it to before.
Was it the effect of that cloak?
The sword, which was already a great cutter, became even sharper with the synergy of the cloak's added speed.
In the meantime, Osian turned as he passed the Judge.
Instead of stopping in place, the acceleration of his cloak sent his body spinning wildly to the side.
A pure white flash lingered in the air along its trajectory.
It was like watching the aurora borealis from a comet passing by.
Then the comet raced across the ground, rushing toward the Judge once more.
The star power did not seem heretical at all.
‘Not of heresy?’
The Judge gritted his teeth at his instinctive thought.
It was hard for him to accept that his devout faith had been broken, if only for a moment.
As if to deny his own weakness, golden flames flared in his hands.
The flames took the form of a weapon. It was a polearm that contained most of his divine power.
Layers of shields were useless against that sword so there was no choice but to return the favor.
"Father in heaven, have mercy on this lowly lamb."
The Judge prayed fervently and sincerely.
His faithful conviction gave him courage and strength as he ran full speed ahead.
His hands glowed with gold as he gripped the great polearm, more than five meters long.
And that wasn't all as a ring of gold formed on the top of his head, creating a halo.
The halo's shape resembled a crown of thorns jutting outward.
"I believe," he said, "that in my hands is glorious victory."
Emotion flashed across the Judge's otherwise expressionless face.
It was more than frustration, more than anger at the current situation, it was a refusal to lose to Osian.
"And so, I will give it to my father."
Osian could see his expression clearly as he charged toward the Judge.
"A good look."
The mutterings were inaudible to his opponent, but he must have gotten the hint, for the animosity burned stronger in his direction.
The Judge took a stance.
He was about to swing his golden polearm, channeling all of his divine power, when Osian approached.
His body had been buffed to the max, and his weapon, which contained the maximum amount of divine power, was ready.
He was going all out but Osian did not shy away from the confrontation.
The stardust from the cloak on his back became clearer and more intense.
Osian became a blur of light, closing in on the Judge.
The Judge swung his polearm as if waiting.
The starlight sword and the golden polearm clashed.
The clash of forces caused a great flash of light.
The light condensed into a point, then slowly expanded in size.
The golden field touched by the golden light scattered like powder.
Even Ena, who had been watching anxiously from a distance, could only shield her eyes with her hands.
‘What, what's going on?’
When she realized that the light had slowly subsided, she lowered her shielded arms.
She stared wide-eyed at the center of the explosion.
A large crater had formed where the golden field had disappeared.
"Yi, did you win?"
It was Osian who stood upright, and it was the Judge who fell.
In the end, Osian had won.
On the ground, the Judge looked up at the sky in a daze.
The sky was clear and pristine, incongruous with the tumult on the ground.
It was as if it was completely disconnected from the rest of the world.
‘How long has it been since I've looked up at the sky like this?’
Although his father was said to be up there, he always put his hands together and bowed his head to pray.
He looked down, not up, and swung his bloody mace at the heretics and wicked.
He believed it was right but for the first time, he was defeated.
-Chuck.
Osian's blade pointed under the Judge's chin.
The eternal starlight was no longer there but given his current condition, even without that starlight, it would be over the moment he slit his throat.
‘The end.’
Just as the Judge was thinking that, Osian opened his mouth.
"You, what is your name?"
"......?"
‘Why do you ask that out of the blue?’
Was he going to insult him right before he killed him?
But the Judge quickly dismissed the idea.
From what he'd seen of Osian during the fight, he would never insult someone.
‘He asked because he really wanted to know my name.’
"......Martinez."
The Judge didn't understand why he answered with a name.
Osian mulled over the name a few times, as if it were quite a curiosity, before sheathing his sword.
"Osian."
"You mean......you won’t kill?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Osian said nonchalantly.
"Because you have shown me mercy once and it is only right that I do the same."
It wasn't a lie.
In fact, Osian was quite pleased with the way things were going.
Not only had he won the fight, but he was now able to use a new skill.
‘It felt like I was PVPing with a paladin again, and it brought back memories.’
The fight with Martinez was nostalgic enough so he tried to be merciful.
"The Order......will not tolerate your presence."
"Well, then you can come back as many times as you want."
Osian was rather pleased with the news.
Fighting such a powerhouse would surely allow him to use new traits.
Martinez was speechless at Osian's delight.
"And you look so young, don't tell me you've seen the world already."
With that, Osian retrieved his sword and put it back in its scabbard.
Martinez looked at him with an unreadable gaze and opened his mouth.
"I'm......."
-Bang!
A jeep slammed into Martinez as he was about to speak.
Martinez was sent flying and landed in the dirt and Osian stared at him, dumbfounded.
Just then, the driver's side window of the vehicle opened and Ena spoke up, her face beaming.
"Come on, let's go!"
"......."