An Irreversible Mistake
The knight's sword came crashing down onto the shield. It was a blow that might have conjured the image of a blue skeleton in one's mind. Yet Dain's shield, remembering the touch of Ceres's hand from earlier, no longer wavered. He knocked the blade aside and swung his own sword, but it failed to even scratch the knight's solid armor.
Dain regained his stance and widened the distance before glancing behind him. This battle followed the same pattern as before. Dain defended while Ceres and Zarco attacked. When the Hero and Saintess looked his way and nodded, Dain steadied his breath and turned back to face the enemy.
The Hero's Sword in Zarco's grip began to glow. But the light gathering around the blade was nothing like what they had seen inside the testing grounds. The flickering radiance refused to coalesce, simply spreading outward instead. Both Ceres and Zarco, who held the sword, stared at it in confusion.
“Why… why is it doing this…?”
Zarco gave no answer to Ceres's worried question. After a moment of deep thought, the Hero launched a noticeably weaker attack, sending the sword qi flying toward Marus.
“Now! Dain!”
At the Hero's shout, Dain gripped his shield. The black knights moved in perfect unison, their gazes and actions mirroring one another. Without looking back, Dain shoved his opponent aside in sync with their movements, allowing the sword qi to slip between the knight's dual blades.
“Hahaha!”
Marus merely laughed heartily at the sight of the sword qi. Just before it could reach him, a violet magical barrier formed in an instant and snuffed the attack out.
“What is this? So this is the Hero's sword qi?”
Marus slumped back into his chair with a disappointed expression.
“How disappointing, Hero. As expected…”
The demon's cold gaze shifted to Dain.
“This side looks far more entertaining.”
Confusion clouded Dain's face as well. The sword qi was nothing like the one that had cleaved through Rufeus. If it lacked any real threat, their entire battle strategy would collapse. Standing before the two knights now felt like being stripped bare.
“I… I'll try.”
Ceres pulled away from Zarco and stepped forward. She closed her eyes, focused, and began to pray. Her voice trembled at times, but she knew she had to do something. She clutched her staff tightly to keep her hands from shaking.
When Ceres's prayer reached his ears, strength returned to Dain's eyes. Zarco and Ceres would handle the rest. His role was to hold out until her prayer ended and Zarco's sword qi recovered. His duty, his goal, was to endure until he could return to Hero's Village with Ceres.
“Uwaaaah!”
Dain charged straight at the knights. He blocked, dodged, and pressed attacks that refused to be ignored. Whether it was the new equipment Gram had forged or his own resolve, his body moved with renewed agility. His razor-sharp focus sought out every gap in the knights' armor. When a knight's armpit was exposed by a wide swing, Dain drove his blade in. The knight staggered backward before collapsing with a heavy thud.
“Whoa!”
Cheers erupted from the soldiers behind them. The fallen knight struggled to rise, but the fact that his blade had worked reignited hope in the fight.
“Hah.”
Marus pointed a finger at Zarco, and a violet blade shot from his hand. Dain reflexively raised his shield at the sound of it slicing through the air, but the impact was tremendous.
Dain was sent flying and crashed to the ground. He quickly regained his senses and lifted his head. Right behind him stood Ceres, still praying, with Zarco beside her. The attack had been impossibly fast and powerful. As the two knights approached Marus, who wore a mocking, unpleasant smile, Dain sprang to his feet and rushed forward again.
“What's wrong, warrior? Can you truly protect the Hero at this rate?”
Marus sneered and pointed again. Dain's mind raced. He couldn't take it head-on. Would it work? Despite his unease, Dain used the parrying technique he knew and knocked the blade aside.
Crack!
The deflected blade embedded itself in a pillar and vanished. It worked. Dain reset his stance.
“A spear to pierce the enemy!”
Ceres slammed her staff down, and a massive spear of light pierced through the black knight and flew toward Marus. When the light faded, the knight with a gaping hole in his chest slowly collapsed. Yet behind him, Marus remained inside his violet barrier, still smiling.
“Th-this…”
“Haha, your prayers are quite useful after all.”
Marus rose once more. He raised both hands, pointing at the Saintess and the Hero, then looked at Dain.
“From now on, I'll keep shooting until those two are dead. Think you can stop me?”
Behind his sly smile, countless blades erupted from Marus's fingers.
Ceres hated how powerless she was. Dain stood in front, deflecting every single blade flying toward her without fail. When she saw him drop his sword and use both hands to swing the shield, tears welled in her eyes.
“Z-Zarco… what do we do…! Dain is…!”
Zarco, who had been deep in thought, suddenly turned his head and looked at her. It was a face she had never seen before. The intensity in his eyes as he stared at her made Ceres draw in a sharp breath without realizing it.
“Zarco…?”
Zarco's hand slowly rose. Thinking he might wipe away her tears, Ceres closed her eyes and lifted her face. But the Hero's hand did not reach for her eyes.
Pop!
Zarco roughly tore open the Saintess's top. Buttons flew off, exposing Ceres's white breasts wrapped in her undergarments. Before she could even cover herself, Zarco yanked her underwear away as well. The hook snapped, and her bra flew through the air before landing at a nearby soldier's feet.
“Kyaaah!”
Ceres frantically tried to cover her chest. Her ample breasts spilled out between her hands and arms. Zarco, as if forgetting they were in the middle of battle, pulled her close and began kneading her chest. She could feel her Authority stirring back to life, flowing through her blood once more.
The Hero's Sword began to radiate light again. Though the flickering had lessened slightly, the sword qi was still far smaller than it had been against Rufeus. With an unchanging expression, Zarco peeled her hands away and pinched the Saintess's nipples. Ignoring Ceres's face twisted in shame and pain, he squeezed her breasts as if trying to milk them. The sword qi grew a little stronger.
“Stop! Zarco! This isn't the time for—!”
Ceres could now see the noticeably larger sword qi as well. Did this act make it stronger? Zarco, still expressionlessly groping her chest, turned his head to the side. A soldier nearby was staring at the bra that had fallen in front of him, unable to hide his shock even amid the chaos of blades. A faint smile formed on Zarco's lips.
“Kyaa!”
Zarco yanked Ceres's arm. Right in front of the soldiers, her massive breasts swayed softly. He forced her arms up so she couldn't cover herself, exposing her plump armpits and the breasts that jiggled on either side of her desperate hands.
“Hup.”
The soldiers held their breath. They had seen countless women's bodies—first loves, wives, village whores—but none could tear their eyes from the Saintess's breasts, which seemed almost artistic. It didn't matter that this was a battlefield. Blood rushed to their lower bodies at the sight of her breasts, which stirred every male desire, and the soft folds of skin along her sides. The same happened to the soldier beside them. Whether they wanted it or not, the Saintess's body was now burned vividly into their minds.
“Haha.”
Zarco laughed as he looked at the soldiers' faces. Whether it was because he was displaying the Saintess to them like his own possession or because the sword qi had grown larger than it had in the testing grounds, he couldn't tell. He turned back around and raised the massive sword qi toward Marus.
“Dain!”
At Zarco's shout, Dain flinched. To Ceres, it felt as though he turned his head in slow motion. No. He absolutely couldn't see this. But the Hero's arm showed no sign of releasing her breasts. When Dain's eyes finally met hers, Ceres could only turn her head away.
“They're coming soon! Hold on!”
Dain's eyes snapped back to Marus, but his mind kept replaying the scene he had just witnessed. The enlarged sword qi. Ceres's upper body stripped bare, held by Zarco as her breasts swayed. Even the soldier beside them blankly clutching the massive bra. Every detail burned into his vision.
Unfortunately, Dain was no fool. He understood that Zarco's sword qi had grown larger—far larger—because of what he had done. He could already picture Marus being felled in a single strike by that power. Yet Dain's stomach twisted in a way he had never felt before.
His hands moved on their own, deflecting the blades Marus fired in a frenzy while he stared blankly at the sword qi. He no longer felt the fatigue in his hands. Why? Why? Blood trickled from his bitten lip. Was that what passed for a Hero? Was that the Hero's power? The edges of his vision blurred, whether from the light of the sword qi or from tears. And in that moment, the words he had desperately suppressed finally slipped out.
I want to kill him.
Dain snapped back to his senses. It had lasted only an instant—so brief that even the soldiers clutching the bra and trying to steal glances at Ceres's sideboob wouldn't have noticed. But in that fleeting moment of jealousy and rage, he failed to block one of Marus's blades. He twisted his body in a hurry, but the escaping blade crossed paths with the Hero's sword qi.
“No!”
The light of the sword qi filled the vast interior of the abandoned cathedral.