In the thick of the clash between Snow Lionheart and Geppetto’s champion, every eye witnessed that breathtaking pillar of light that pierced the heavens and bathed the barren Ultrass lands in radiance.
From within it, the one who stepped out was no longer Snow Lionheart; he had become something else entirely.
"Pure Vessel: The Anointed War State."
In a form utterly different, Snow appeared bearing a round golden shield. His clothes had vanished, replaced by a Roman-esque panoply that covered only select parts of his body, and a resplendent golden helm through which his golden eyes blazed—lamps of searing brilliance.
The instant he entered this form, the very air around him changed. His presence alone grew vastly heavier.
"Baharat Knight, I’m sorry for what you’ve been reduced to ..but your suffering ends here."
Gripping the great sword Vermithor .. its blade now far longer than before ..Snow drove forward, and the raging Baharat Knight did the same. Both were armored like true knights, making the collision all the more spectacular.
The Baharat Knight’s sword was a towering thing, over three meters long, each sweep erasing swathes of terrain. But this time, that frost-wreathed colossus halted dead against Snow’s golden shield.
Planting his feet, Snow seized the opening and rammed Vermithor straight into the knight’s chest. The thrust was so fierce that a terrifying lance of light blew out the Baharat Knight’s back, leaving a yawning crater through him.
Riding the momentum, Snow followed with several lightning-quick cuts that ripped into his foe. Vermithor had grown so potent that tearing through the knight’s iron hide had become almost simple.
Sensing danger, the knight recoiled at maximum speed, trying to reset. The instant he did, Snow hurled Vermithor like a spear instead of a sword ..
and in the blink of an eye the blade skewered the Baharat Knight with brutal precision.
The knight toppled backward ..only for Snow to appear above him out of nowhere, hand already on the hilt.
"If that’s all you’ve got, this will be over quickly."
Snow prepared to finish it .. but at that very moment, his words seemed to trip some hidden alarm within the knight.
The armored giant began to scream, blasting out a surging wave of aura that hurled Snow away. Snow righted himself at once, bracing against the pressure and fixing his gaze on the frenzied foe.
The knight’s body swelled monstrously. From roughly three meters tall he surged past five ..and threatened to grow even more ..changing from armored knight to armored beast.
Strange fluids seeped from the cracked mask of the knight’s helm, erupting at the mouth. With that, he loosed his fiercest howl yet and opened his jaws, spewing a roaring beam of killing frost ..
frost that froze the very air and carved a path straight for Snow.
Snow slipped behind his golden shield at once as the beam detonated across it. The aura pressure was immense; he could feel his opponent’s power spiking, desperate to keep pace.
Icy ether crept through Snow’s body, threatening to freeze him solid and strip away his life. But the Light Soul countered instantly, dispelling the frost and flooding him with warmth.
Seeing the breath had failed, the Baharat Knight shut his maw and seized his sword, charging to drag Snow into a pure contest of strength.
Snow did not refuse. He met him head-on.
The swollen Baharat Knight swung with wild, brutal force; every blow unleashed shockwaves that shattered mountains and cleaved the earth into trenches. Yet none of those attacks touched Snow—every one was caught on the golden shield.
Vermithor’s answers were lethal now, devastation sharpened by the Light soul’s blessing.
Sensing true peril, the knight warped his aura, sending wave after wave of frost. Around the battlefield, dozens of ice spears, forged of a chill hard as steel, burst forth to skewer Snow from every angle. At the same time the aura around the knight’s blade thickened, each impact heavier and more savage than the last.
Snow’s sword-work flowed with ruthless precision, the light around him a beacon that flooded the arena. Arcs of radiance devoured the ice spears in torrents of speed, and the Baharat Knight’s sword—no matter how dense the aura upon it .. was turned aside time and again.
Snow’s body, reinforced by the Light Soul and the golden, sacred aura, was terrifyingly resilient—neither to be pierced nor broken.
Enduring everything the Baharat Knight hurled at him, Snow drove through and unleashed a dazzling cut that opened the giant’s armor wide.
"It’s useless, Baharat Knight. You won’t break through me with attacks like these."
BOOOOM!!
With a swift sweep of Vermithor, Snow sent the massive knight hurtling away—then chased him into the sky, colliding with him once more. The crash of Vermithor against that colossal blade blasted a tide of annihilating force across the land, and the two slammed back to earth, gouging it open.
The Baharat Knight kept vomiting out more and more aura, his flurries so relentless that the entire field was turning into a coliseum of frost.
Snow, by contrast, seemed dimmer—like a lone star adrift in a cosmos of ice.
Even so, with every passing second the Baharat Knight was the one racking up damage, while Snow hadn’t been struck once.
From afar, Geppetto watched, his eyes widening bit by bit.
"He’s overwhelming him... Snow Lionheart holds the clear advantage over the Baharat Knight."
However he looked at it, it was obvious Snow was controlling the flow despite everything the knight hurled his way.
"The Baharat Knight’s in the first tier of SSS. Not the very top, but still a colossal force—especially here on Earth. If Snow Lionheart can beat him... does that mean this human has already broken through?!"
Geppetto balked at his own thought.
"Impossible..."
He forced himself to recall what he’d sensed at the start of the fight. In raw terms, Snow Lionheart was SS at best; with his abilities and that war-king form that made him resemble the Light-bearers, his power climbed to match the peak of SS+. That should have been his ceiling.
Yet the moment he entered the Anointed War State, everything changed.
Snow’s aura output surged past SS+ and stepped into the realm of SSS ..
as if he had become someone else entirely. And that light of his... it was so potent it no longer felt like a mere imitation.
"No doubt about it .. that’s the Light Soul."
Realizing this, Geppetto knew he’d badly underestimated Snow. Frye Starlight wasn’t the only human packed with secrets; Snow Lionheart no longer felt human at all, but a true Light-bearer—his power no joke.
First Frye Starlight, and now Snow Lionheart.
"What is happening on this cursed planet?"
He dragged his gaze back to the battle. Snow still dictated the pace and had inflicted massive damage on the Baharat Knight.
The answer Geppetto sought had already been spoken by Snow himself ..Geppetto simply hadn’t grasped it. The human hero had said it plainly: from this point on, he wasn’t fighting as Snow Lionheart. He was fighting as Pure Vessel, the great warrior who once ranked No. 1 among the Seven Great Powers ..a warrior who, in the distant past, slew beings within the upper Ten Seats.
His current might was but a pale echo; the road to reclaiming his prime was still long. But merely invoking the Anointed War State had given him a tremendous boost—especially with the Light Soul dwelling within.
The Baharat Knight could do nothing and was thoroughly cornered.
Even so, Geppetto hadn’t given up on him.
"This Baharat Knight is one of the finest champions I’ve ever acquired .. and recovering his body was no simple feat..."
To add the knight to his vast army of the dead, Geppetto had been forced to kill him himself and preserve the corpse. It had nearly cost Geppetto his life.
"It wasn’t his brute strength or flashy strikes ..back then I still controlled the fight..."
But when the Baharat Knight was truly on death’s door, he used something ..
a bizarre ability that almost blindsided Geppetto into the grave.
"Snow Lionheart... you’re strong, but the real test hasn’t started yet."
Not until the Baharat Knight was pushed to the absolute limit, with no hope of survival.
With each second, that moment drew nearer ..inevitable.
Slash!!
Tearing the knight’s helm, Snow drove his sword straight into his foe’s head.
He ripped it free and instantly slipped past a sudden surge of frost that crawled across ground and air alike.
"There’s no point dragging this out."
Clasping Vermithor in both hands, Snow gathered the Light Soul within him, ready to end it in a single, final stroke.
"Burn in light ..and find your rest, ancient knight."
With one sweeping cut, Snow unleashed a colossal arc of radiance. It chewed the land to rubble and streaked toward the broken knight at terrifying speed.
"Judgement of Light."