Chapter 105
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: The Halo's Judgment
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Direct attack? Or a magic attack? Either way, he could block them all.
The moment that thought crossed his mind.
The artifact fell powerlessly to the floor.
This time, it didn't even activate.
He'd frantically shifted power distribution back and forth in an instant, leading to massive consumption. Forcing even more power out of it had made control impossible.
"Having trouble controlling it?"
At Leon's question, he gritted his teeth.
How... how did he know? Almost no one knew about this Halo, and even if someone did, it made no sense for a boy from another country like Leon to be aware of it.
Dorn, irked by Leon's attitude, decided to provoke him.
To draw out his impatience.
"This isn't the time to dawdle, is it? Aren't you worried about the one trapped in that space?"
Luna was currently confined within the sphere he'd created. Truthfully, once trapped inside, she might as well be dead, but he kept that part to himself.
But Leon merely shrugged.
"I've confirmed she's unharmed. And with you right in front of me, I can't afford to just worry."
Leon showed no sign of letting his guard down, no matter how great Dorn's power might be.
"What nonsense. No being can survive trapped in that sphere. It completely shatters their very existence."
"That might hold for an ordinary human."
But if it wasn't an ordinary human, the story changed.
"I have no idea what you're babbling about."
Leon's composure remained unshaken.
Does he know something? Just as that thought struck him.
Leon's sword slipped in smoothly, wedging into a gap in his defenses.
He'd definitely focused his power on defense. There was no way it should pierce so easily...
Puk...
"You're pretty good at provocation, I'll give you that. But you know wrong provocation just makes your opponent more dangerous, right?"
"Kruk?!"
Leon's sword plunged into his abdomen.
And in an instant—
Shaaak!!
—it slashed sideways, tearing open his flank.
It wasn't the sword's quality. That red ghost sword was merely a tool; it had almost no impact on Leon's strikes.
Leon Cascadia, that monster, treated even such an extraordinary blade as little more than "Sword Number One." His confidence overflowed from his own skill alone.
Now, there was no denying it.
If he didn't escape here, Leon's hand would surely claim his life.
He possessed immense power, but Leon held the overwhelming advantage in every other aspect.
Dorn realized he had to get out of here, even if it meant abandoning his consciousness.
But for some reason, even spatial jumps using the Halo's power were blocked.
"Why? Can't escape?"
"How?!"
"I've seen something similar to that Halo before."
If he'd seen it and fought it for a long time, then he knew its penalties—or weaknesses.
The Halo's power should easily pierce any barrier.
Necromancy would even give it a favorable matchup.
But interference had started from the very activation stage.
"The tremendous power belongs to the Halo. Not you."
The difference between who held the reins—controller or controlled—sharply divided what was possible from what wasn't.
Leon's sword swung indifferently once more, carving a deep gash across Dorn's chest.
Dorn Ru Pascalia spat blood and momentarily lost his balance.
A chill ran through him, as if everything had been laid bare after so long. He staggered back one step, then two.
In the darkness, Luna slowly raised her head.
The bizarre sphere of power unleashed by Prince Dorn.
Trapped within it, she felt a familiar yet overwhelming force bearing down on her.
What filled her vision was a massive, sacred structure that evoked the image of a celestial temple.
"...".
Tap... tap...
Without a word, she simply wandered through the temple.
A familiar space.
Yet it felt slightly different.
There was a stark contrast from what she'd seen before her sealing.
How long had she walked?
She arrived in a space where statues depicting angels clad in enormous armor stood in neat rows on either side. Light orbs gathered before her eyes.
"Definitely different from the phenomenon that man Dorn triggered."
For starters, it was clear this space her consciousness had been thrust into wasn't something Dorn had induced.
The sphere he'd deployed merely condensed a portion of the energy flowing from this place to affect its target. It wasn't enough to hurl her consciousness all the way here.
Of course, the Halo was an artifact brimming with that level of power.
She silently reached up and touched the Halo floating above her head.
The Halo—symbol of an angel's existence and power—was resonating with some force.
Not the heavens themselves, but undoubtedly linking her to the celestial realm with immense might.
She'd known it the moment she laid eyes on it.
The Halo in Dorn's possession was an angel's Halo, just like hers.
And she had a rough idea of whose it was.
The Halo most feared by angels in general.
The Crown of Chastisement.
A Halo that lent power to the chastisement angels, passed down through the legends of the Great Archangel Raguel.
Honestly, there were more peculiarities than she could count.
Why could a human contract with the Crown of Chastisement? And why did it exist here in the mortal realm, not the heavens?
She had plenty of questions, but she could leave those to Leon.
What mattered now were the beings encircling her like a noose.
The Chastisement Wardens.
"Sinner, bow your head."
Angels emerged from the light orbs, leveling spears modeled after holy flames in unison at her.
Was this truly the heavens? Were they truly Chastisement Wardens?
No way to inspect the flesh beneath their armor, but it seemed plausible enough.
Regardless, these were upper-tier angels among the common ranks—rare elites.
So-called Power Angels with two pairs of wings, born superior.
Wings were practically synonymous with angels. Ordinary heavenly angels possessed one pair or two.
The power gap between one and two pairs was evident from birth.
Not quite legion commander class, but mighty angels who had contracted with the Crown of Chastisement to borrow the power of the Great Archangel of Chastisement, Raguel.
Luna eyed the sudden revelation of her concealed wings and Halo with a peculiar gaze.
"One-pair Common Angel, state your name."
She fell silent as they spoke like judges pronouncing sentence.
Then, gazing at them, she slowly parted her lips.
"Luna Basilyn Raphaelia."
"Has the sinner committed a sin forbidden by the Lord?"
"I deny it."
Sin or not, Luna harbored no regrets over her actions.
At her defiant stance, the Chastisement Wardens swooped in like flashes of light, binding her limbs with chains of radiance.
"Then open your eyes and prove your truth."
Eyes.
The notion of opening her eyes was far from welcome for Luna.
For angels, eyes served as a kind of indicator.
The frequent mentions of eyes in continental scriptures describing angels stemmed from that very concept.
Of course, if it were merely an indicator, she would have opened them long ago.
It held little meaning outside specific circumstances.
But for Luna, it was different.
"For an angel, the eyes are the manifestation of authority itself. I refuse."
"No angel is born without unlocking their authority. You too must have manifested yours at birth."
"No. My authority remains sealed."
At those words, the Chastisement Wardens erupted in shocked murmurs.
Had even they not anticipated such a response?
They seemed less seasoned veterans and more impulsive young angels.
As the Power Angels of the Chastisement Wardens whispered in confusion, they fixed their hidden gazes—through the slits in their plate armor—upon her.
"That is a grave sin against the Lord's will. We, the Chastisement Wardens, demand you open your eyes at once."
Their tone was rigid, devoid of emotion, but to Luna, they seemed no different from ordinary angels.
"I refuse. I do not care for the origin or authority within me."
Originally, she had unlocked and manifested her authority like any other angel.
But after the series of events she endured, she had resealed it once more, closed her eyes, and never revealed it again.
A blessing received from the Lord since primordial times, as was the way with all angels—yet she rejected her very existence.
"Then we shall enforce it by force."
Charrararak!!!
The chains binding her began to constrict tighter around her body.
"Ugh..."
For all her immense power, her current physical strength and regenerative abilities fell short against two pairs of Power Angels—elite Chastisement Wardens at that—unleashing the Chains of Judgment in this domain.
"Sinner, open your eyes and clarify your existence."
The Chastisement Wardens merely repeated themselves.
Even as the agony of her limbs being crushed intensified, Luna remained silent. If she endured here, Leon would neutralize the sphere that had engulfed her after subduing Dorn.
The mortal realm and the heavens couldn't connect without special conditions.
Thus, destroying the sphere would free her and return her to her original space.
She never abandoned her faith that Leon would come for her, no matter the circumstances.
"I already said it. I refuse."
Luna's resolve was ironclad.
She was the type who had even rejected a rare request from Leon himself.
Bound by the chains, the mounting pressure drew a brief, pained groan from her lips.
Opening her eyes even once would render resealing pointless.
Her authority—the one she despised most, the one she'd barely escaped during her fall—felt like a denial of her very being the moment she unveiled it.
Amid the searing pain, she endured without so much as a twitch in her expression.
"Impossible. How can an angel remain unscathed within the Chains of Judgment?"
She wasn't unscathed. She was simply holding out.
The silver lining was her unique nature, allowing her to withstand this judgment process far longer than most.
To be precise, it was because she wasn't just any one-pair Common Angel.
"I state it clearly. I will not open my eyes."
By now, even the Chastisement Wardens struggling to mask their emotions sensed something uncanny.
"What should we do?"
"She's just a Common Angel, isn't she? This is the first time we've encountered something like this..."
"It wasn't even a scheduled judgment. This is an impromptu one after a divine revelation. And a trial that forbids annihilation as punishment... What kind of case is this...?"