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Chapter 62
Kieran's eyes narrowed slowly.
With his gaze sharpened to a thin line, he stared intently at Hailon.
It was a far gentler reaction than I had anticipated.
'That can't be right.'
Selea thought to herself, setting down the teacup she'd been gripping so tightly her knuckles had turned white.
The moment the cup touched the saucer with a soft clink, Kieran opened his mouth.
"Perhaps...."
He tilted his head slightly.
His lustrous black hair cascaded ‌‌‌smoothly across his shoulders.
His lips moved with deliberate slowness, each word emerging with crisp, measured precision.
"Have you lost your mind?"
It was a question asked with genuine bewilderment.
'Now that's my true disciple.'
Selea laughed—though it was hardly a laugh at all—shaking her head.
She slowly began contemplating which spell to ‌‌cast, turning incantations over in her mind.
Hailon was a formidable opponent in an entirely different sense than Kieran.
"I am perfectly composed."
He answered coldly, then immediately struck back.
"Count Basilian, on the other ‌‌‌hand, appears to be the one who has lost his senses."
His lips, which had ‌‌‌‌only ever drawn straight lines, curved into a faint sneer.
Kieran's eyebrows twitched.
Hailon spoke in a quiet voice.
"That's why you're being abandoned, Count."
Selea could bear to watch no longer and squeezed her eyes shut. ‌‌‌
'It's over....'
She heaved a long ‌‌‌internal sigh and pressed her palm to her forehead.
As Kieran ‌‌‌slowly rose from his seat, she too scrambled to her feet.
Kieran was smiling.
Selea swallowed a curse and seized her disciple's wrist firmly.
Then he called to her in a gentle voice.
"Master."
Though his tone carried ‌‌not a trace of anger, Selea felt as though she'd received a death sentence, her silent ‍‌‌scream echoing within.
Kieran tapped her hand lightly and grinned widely.
"Let go. I absolutely must kill that bastard today."
"You will ‌‌‌restrain yourself."
Selea pulled Kieran backward ‌‌‌with all her strength. ‌‌
Then Kieran drooped his eyebrows and spoke as though aggrieved.
"But Master, you saw it yourself. That fool is acting like he's desperate to die."
From his tone and expression alone, ‌‌‌it seemed almost like an adorable pout.
But the moment I let my guard down here, today would be the day the Capital's Holy Temple came crashing ‌‌down.
"Count Basilian."
I deliberately called out his title to snap Kieran's attention back to focus.
A blinding radiance flashed, illuminating everything around us.
Like lightning striking, white brilliance swept across the space.
Gradually, the light began to fade.
And what emerged was Hailon, wielding a holy sword.
Holy swords were forged from sacred minerals produced only in the Holy Empire, blessed and consecrated—granted only to those who had received the ordination of a Holy Knight.
It was said that a ‌‌holy sword's power and form varied depending ‌on its wielder's divine strength.
'But this much radiance...'
Selea's eyes narrowed as her instincts sent out warnings.
It was a force so overwhelming that her hair stood on end.
Hailon was pouring his divine strength without restraint, amplifying the holy sword's power to its peak.
The Holy Knight holding the pristine white blade looked like a ‌‌‌sacred instrument of divine punishment itself.
It was a sight that could ‌‌‌make even the innocent—those who had ‌‌committed no sin—submit to fear and overwhelming pressure.
Yet Kieran burst out laughing aloud.
His eyes curved with a sly smile as he extended a finger straight forward.
"Is that truly all you have? Why aren't you using what's on your wrist? You've been drooling over it so greedily since earlier."
His crimson eyes gleamed with sinister intensity.
"Because you want to capture me."
Hailon slowly aimed the holy sword forward.
He stared intently at Kieran, who stood ‌‌‌behind Selea, his gaze a provocation. ‌‌‌
"If you wish to be properly condemned, ‌‌then give ‌‌‌it your all, Count."
The pupils of his blue eyes, brimming with holy radiance, contracted sharply.
"Don't hold back. Unleash everything you have."
The ‌‌moment Hailon swung the holy sword, Selea detonated the magic she had prepared in advance.
Boom!
Pure white divine power and violet magical force collided, creating a deafening roar.
A shockwave so ‌‌massive erupted that it shook the entire Holy Temple structure.
One wall crumbled, and the temple's ceiling was blown clean away.
Breathing in the night air rushing in from outside, Selea shouted desperately.
"I'm sorry, Sir Hailon!"
She chanted dozens of minor spells simultaneously, blocking the holy sword that came rushing toward her.
Each time the holy sword swung, fragments of shattered magic scattered through the air.
"I also need to ‌find the Holy Maiden! Absolutely! This isn't about defying God's name or doubting the divine or anything like that! I just want to take the Holy Maiden with me!"
At her ‌‌‌desperate, ringing words, Hailon's brow furrowed slightly.
Though it sounded ‌‌‌like nonsense, Selea—absolutely unwilling to be dragged to the Heresy Interrogation Chamber—screamed with desperation in her voice.
"I make donations to the Holy Temple! Regularly! And substantial ones at that! Keep that in mind!"
From behind, Kieran, who had been watching Selea's desperate defense, offered a single comment.
"So you were short on funds."
"Silence, my disciple. You're mistaken."
Selea traced ‌‌‌a ‌‌spell circle rapidly through the air.
A massive magic circle blazed with light, unleashing a meteor shower of luminescence.
The Holy Sword shattered the magic with deafening cracks, each impact exploding like gunpowder.
In the ‌‌chaos of battle, Kieran dodged the cascading magical fragments and called out to me.
"Master, whose side are you on—mine or his?"
"My goddaughter's side, so be quiet."
Selea swept her hand in a broad arc.
Her body shot forward with tremendous force.
Clang!
The spell circle and Holy Sword collided mere inches ‌‌‌from her face.
Had she failed to ‌block, her body would have been cleaved in ‌‌two.
Witnessing such merciless technique, Selea swallowed hard.
And she regarded the "self-proclaimed ‌‌Holy Knight" before her.
Selea suppressed thoughts ‌‌‌too profane to voice aloud.
'If he's a Holy Knight, ‌‌then I'm the Holy King.'
Restraining the urge to curse, she spoke with measured courtesy.
"Perhaps it would be wise for Lord Hailon to withdraw this time." ‌‌‌‌
"Stand aside, Your Excellency." ‌‌‌‌
"Count Basilian holds that child dear. Without her, he cannot sleep ‌at night...."
I completed the next spell circle while speaking whatever came to mind.
Annoyed by Selea's persistent obstruction, Hailon widened the distance and wielded his Holy Sword with fluid grace.
Yet Selea pursued relentlessly, her magic clinging ‌to ‌his blade.
"I wish you would grant the Count an opportunity to speak with the child alone. I ‌‌ask this as Chesa Basilian's godmother."
"I told you to stand aside." ‌‌‌‌‌
A strange resonance began emanating from the ‌‌Holy Sword.
It was the sound of Hailon channeling his holy power ‌‌‌to its absolute limit.
He spoke to Selea with an expressionless face.
"There ‌‌‌will be no further warnings."
"Tch, how rigid."
Despite her sullen tone, ‍unmistakable tension crystallized in Selea's eyes.
"Kyaaaah!"
A child plummeted from the sky.
At the sight of the small form descending at tremendous speed, all three of them snapped their heads upward.
And they moved in ‌‌‌unison.
Selea chanted a spell, while Hailon and Kieran both lunged toward the point where Chesa was falling.
By the narrowest margin, Kieran caught the falling ‌Chesa in his arms.
Even accounting for her small size, the impact force of the fall would have been considerable.
Yet Kieran's expression remained unchanged as he ‌‌‌cradled Chesa gently.
"Ah, Chesa...."
He pulled Chesa tightly into his embrace and called her name in a trembling voice.
After nuzzling his face against her soft cheek, he slowly lifted his head.
"...."
The entire Holy Temple was engulfed in pristine ‌‌‌‌‌white chains.
Intertwined with ‌‌‌the suffocating darkness.
The writhing shadows and pure white chains encircled Chesa ‌‌completely, binding her in their grip.
Like a sturdy net, ensuring the child would ‌‌‌‌‌never plummet to the ground below.
The Holy Knights and Holy Priests who arrived belatedly stared with vacant expressions at the intermingling of black and white.
A sight ‌‌born from the Dark Mage ‌‌and the Heretic Inquisitor.

---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support ‌‌‌‌‌our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------