Chapter 195
Chapter 195
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 195
Chapter Title: Mutation - 3
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A pillar of light struck the bastard directly. The golden armor, crushed by the pillar, slammed straight into the corridor floor. With a boom, the entire floor shook.
I cautiously examined the ceiling. It was intact. Unlike last time, no massive hole had been punched through, and no sunlight streamed in from above. It seemed to have originated from the sword rather than the sky.
‘……So it really was a one-time thing?’
It meant it hadn’t repeated like when facing Behemoth. In other words, the power borrowed from the sun or moon was likely single-use. At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to use it at the timing I wanted.
“Pathetic.”
The golden armor embedded in the corridor floor slowly rose. Even so, the impact hadn’t been nothing—its knee buckled the moment it tried to support its weight, and with a crack, the helmet split.
The hand clad in a golden gauntlet tossed the helmet aside. Its bare face was revealed. Expressionless. Its gaze was fixed on me, but its face showed not the slightest change. It was like a corpse.
“You don’t belong at His Majesty’s side. You’d only tarnish his honor.”
A sentence flowed from its mouth, devoid of any inflection.
“Yeah, sure.”
I let it go in one ear and out the other. It was possessed by a demon and out of its mind anyway. Paying attention to every word would just hurt me.
‘I’ve confirmed it has no effect.’
As expected, I’d have to go with enduring. The deadline was until Minerva returned from the Holy Kingdom with reinforcements.
I reviewed its patterns. If I just watched out for a few AoE attacks, I could buy time here too. So all I had to do was avoid getting cornered against the wall.
“His Majesty’s side requires the strongest.”
Spouting its lines nonstop, it drew its weapon.
As expected of the Golden Twilight Knights’ Captain, it was a golden sword adorned from pommel to crossguard in gold.
Its overall shape resembled Iris’s longsword, but unlike hers—which was plain and unadorned without extra decorations—this one was far more ornate. And much larger too.
Somewhere between Iris’s longsword and Claudia’s oversized greatsword. If I defeated it, the player could wield it themselves.
‘Though its performance is mediocre.’
For a greatsword classification, its reach was even shorter than Wingless Nightmare, a one-handed sword.
The golden armor bent its knees slightly. It pulled back the shoulder of its sword arm, bent its elbow, and brought its other arm horizontally across its chest to grip the sword shoulder.
This signaled the start of phase 1’s charge pattern.
Boom! It kicked off the floor and charged at me. How I reacted here would change the next pattern too. A feature added in hardcore mode.
After a moment thinking about what came next, I rolled out to the center of the corridor. To the left from the golden armor’s perspective.
The instant I rolled left, it canceled the overhead swing and twisted its sword horizontally toward me while facing that direction.
Rolling sloppily again here would get me caught in a roll punish. It didn’t swing right away but paused a beat before doing so.
I waited a moment, then swung in sync with its swing. The golden greatsword and Wingless Nightmare clashed in midair, producing a sharp metallic ring.
The next attack followed. It came down diagonally from the opposite direction of the initial parry, followed by a light thrust, then an X-slash combo to finish.
I parried up to the final combo. My body slid back, my heel hitting the corridor wall. I eyed the golden armor and shifted back to the center.
‘Having the rune really makes it so much easier. Should’ve gotten it sooner.’
I rolled my shoulders lightly. Combat fatigue should’ve maxed out from that combo just now, but there was no heaviness at all. The rune definitely made things comfortable.
“You cannot protect His Majesty.”
The golden armor said that as it charged again. One of the random lines from phase 1.
Even possessed by a demon, all it thought about was serving Cecilia. If only its personality and character had been decent, it wouldn’t have ended up like this.
Ironically, Cecilia herself didn’t care much about what happened to her underlings. That’s why the Silver Dawn Knights got torn apart over some collateral relative.
The distance closed in an instant. Its right arm pulled back, and the greatsword in its hand scraped the floor at its tip, preparing to swing.
As always with combos, I counted the rhythm in my head like a rhythm game and parried.
It swung its arm halfway around, raising the greatsword overhead before slamming it down. Our blades clashed. My shoulder jolted, and a numbing shock surged through my arm.
The overhead smash continued exactly three more times. The Golden Twilight Knights’ Captain wielded the greatsword one-handed like a switch, effortlessly.
This time, its right arm shot out horizontally. Blocking it sent a far greater shock through my arm than before. I drove Wingless Nightmare into the corridor floor and slid back a good distance before stopping.
I pulled Wingless Nightmare free. A long scar was gouged into the floor. The red carpet laid there was a mess. Scattered stone fragments and debris covered it.
“…….”
The golden armor, which had stared at me expressionlessly, looked down at its own sword. Then it tossed the sword aside carelessly and dropped to one knee with a thud.
‘……Already entering phase 2?’
It hadn’t even been five minutes. No way a few attacks dropped its HP below 75%. If so, the light pillar should’ve been much bigger.
“Graaaaaah!”
A hideous scream, utterly unlike before, erupted. It sounded like grinding metal into a holy chalice.
This marked the start of phase 2. Whatever the case, it had definitely transitioned phases.
“Grraaaaa…….”
It clutched its right shoulder, head bowed low, then slowly raised it.
Its right eye was completely black. The mutation was progressing further. This was the Golden Twilight Knights’ Captain boss fight phase 2.
“Grrraaa…… ugh…… graaaaaah!”
The golden armor writhed. A tearing roar echoed, and simultaneously, its right arm burst open from within, sprouting a grotesque limb.
The new arm was as thick as a person’s torso. Its skin was dark red, muscles bulged unevenly, and sharp claws tipped its fingers.
The pain must’ve been intense—its breathing was ragged despite the unchanging expression. Well, from the demon’s perspective inside, it wasn’t its own body anyway, so it could abuse it freely.
It rose to its feet. The greatsword it had tossed aside was gripped again in its demon-mutated hand.
The arm had grown absurdly huge, creating the illusion that the sword—larger than most—was now just a normal one-hander.
‘Entering phase 2 this fast is a pain.’
I grumbled inwardly.
In phase 1, it fought like a normal knight with swordsmanship alone, but in phase 2, with the mutation half-complete, it mixed in demonic power. Phase 3 would be dominated by demonic power.
Naturally, the more demonic power mixed in, the more annoying it got. Parries wouldn’t work anymore. That’s why I’d planned to just stall.
‘No way it skips straight to phase 3.’
Its center of gravity must’ve shifted awkwardly from the enlarged arm—it charged with a noticeably unsteady gait.
Mixing demonic power meant its main attacks were still greatsword swings. Since parries still worked, my job remained the same.
The swing speed was much faster than before. I met the trajectory with Wingless Nightmare—ziiing! Its balance lurched toward the parry direction.
I rolled past the next attack to escape the wall. In the game, the character auto-adjusted if pushed to the wall, but not now.
Crack!
The golden armor’s waist twisted 180 degrees toward me. A pattern that appeared often if the player was behind it. As its waist bent back, it thrust with the greatsword—I parried again.
My body auto-slid back, creating distance. As the gap opened slightly, it slammed its grotesquely twisted right arm into the ground and launched into the air, smashing down with its arm.
I blocked it. The greatsword’s trajectory warped sharply. An enormous crash incomparable to before rang out as it smashed into the corridor floor, creating a massive hole. Debris rained down to the floor below.
The golden armor casually yanked its greatsword free and pointed the tip at me again.
“…….”
“Is the Pope here?”
Minerva, who had teleported to the Holy Kingdom in the blink of an eye, headed straight for the Grand Cathedral of the Sun to find her. The tip of her staff and her high heels thudded against the red carpet.
The Solar Pope knelt beneath the stained glass bathed in sunlight, her long, wavy golden hair cascading down as she gazed at the heavens.
Her hair obscured the view, but she appeared to be kneeling in prayer.
“Eternal Sorceress, what brings you to this distant place?”
Floretta opened her mouth in her usual gentle voice. Even for Minerva, barging into the Grand Cathedral of the Sun was rude, so she responded as softly as possible.
“I’m sorry for sticking my head in unannounced. But something urgent came up that left me no choice.”
“Something urgent……? What is it?”
“If I said a demon has appeared in the Imperial Palace, would that suffice as reason?”
“……A demon, you say.”
Her voice cooled slightly.
Floretta slowly rose. Her wavy golden hair swayed with the movement. Her verdant green eyes turned to Minerva.
“Then of course we must help. Extinguishing evil is our duty. Inquisitor General?”
“You called?”
At the whisper echoing into the air, Stella opened the cathedral’s inner doors as if she’d been waiting.
“A demon has appeared in the Imperial Palace. I’ll inform the Lunar Pope and send Inquisitors and Battle Nuns shortly—go ahead and hold it off first.”
“Yes, Your Holiness.”
Stella bowed her head briefly and left the cathedral. Finishing the short exchange, Floretta smiled warmly at Minerva.
“There, Eternal Sorceress. The Inquisitor General and Inquisitors should suffice to slay the demon.”
“Good. The sooner the help, the better. With the Inquisitor General joining, that child can breathe easier too.”
For a moment, Floretta’s eyes flickered.
“Someone is facing the demon in the palace?”
“Yes. As Popes, you know who, so no need for explanations? You even gave her the brooch.”
At the word “brooch,” Floretta’s expression changed. Her lips curved up slowly, intelligence gleaming in her eyes.
“I see.”
Unlike Floretta, Minerva’s expression turned subtly odd. Undeterred, Floretta spoke in a voice that seemed slightly excited.
“Our esteemed guest is facing the demon.”
A beaming smile lit her face again.
“Plans have changed.”
“Plans changed? What do you mean?”
“I’ll handle it personally.”