Chapter 172
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 172
Chapter Title: Eclipse Fist
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“One!”
Kaang!!
Rehelon’s sword, swift as a flash of lightning, struck Leon’s blade aside.
The blow sent Leon’s sword tip rocketing toward the sky. At the same instant, the other Sword Masters surged forward in unison, coiling around him like serpents to completely seal his movements.
Aura blades then shattered the magic circles blooming around Leon.
In one coordinated strike, they had sealed every restraining spell and weapon.
“No matter how experienced you are or how much unknown magic you wield, familiarity breeds openings.”
His weapon was sealed.
What could he possibly do now?
As if posing that very question, Rehelon’s sword tip once more locked onto Leon’s heart.
“No personal grudge, but heretics deserve no mercy.”
Leon didn’t hesitate. He simply released the Black Night Sword from his grip.
There were only two reasons a swordsman would abandon his blade: dire peril or catastrophic error.
This opponent was seasoned, prodigiously talented.
He wielded unidentified magic and had briefly withstood a joint assault from five Sword Masters.
Even among Sword Masters, that was no small feat.
That’s when it happened.
“Stalling without tipping your hand is tougher than it looks.”
With those words, Leon clenched his fist.
Rehelon sensed something was wrong. He desperately tried to alter his sword path.
Pressing the attack now felt like courting disaster.
Though his masked face was hidden, the atmosphere around Leon had shifted entirely. What had been mere probing now radiated unbridled intent.
“Block it or dodge—your call.”
Rehelon’s eyes widened.
His instincts screamed: don’t block that!
At the same moment, the surrounding barrier darkened, blotting out all external sight.
Leon, now unarmed, erupted with an entirely new aura that surged into his fist.
Heaven-Rending Strike
Solar Eclipse
Immense suction devours light and pulls in foes
It swallowed light like a black hole, an enormous suction force yanking Rehelon’s body forward against his will.
Rehelon instinctively discarded whatever he could afford to lose and chose evasion.
Kwaaaaaang!!!!!
Leon’s fist grazed his vital point, slamming into the space beside him.
An attack with no killing intent.
Kwadududuk!!
Space warped for an instant as the earth quaked violently.
The massive shockwave ravaged the ground repeatedly, carving a colossal scar.
A gigantic circular crater, like a meteor impact.
The dual shockwaves etched an eclipse-like pattern across the terrain.
Though the epicenter was the floor, the resultant aura waves rippled outward, hurling everyone nearby into the barrier walls.
“Kuhuk!”
“Kuluk!”
Rehelon, flung back by the unforeseen strike, stared at Leon with trembling eyes.
His voice sounded so young.
How could someone wield such absurd power?
His swordsmanship was already Sword Master caliber.
His magic was unfathomable but clearly no amateur’s trick—otherwise, it couldn’t affect Sword Masters.
And now bare-handed combat?
For a swordsman to master martial arts alongside was extraordinarily rare.
Swordsmen often learned basic hand-to-hand as a supplement.
But power like this? Impossible by any common sense.
What was this man’s true nature?
He excelled in every domain, balanced to perfection.
As if he’d lived multiple lives down divergent paths.
Rehelon had initially planned a swift takedown. Now he recognized the truth: a lethal strike would have ended him already, and even non-lethal suppression was no easy task.
“You… what are you…?”
Rehelon repeated the question he’d asked before—and been denied.
He needed answers to sort the chaos in his mind.
“Do you truly believe Saintess Nadia is a heretic?”
“We ignore the sweet lies of heretics.”
“Then Vice High Priest Dible must be one too?”
“Th… that’s…”
Dible’s name evidently carried immense weight.
“Calling someone with stigmata a heretic means they’re the real heretics.”
“What do you know of divine will? How can the one who unleashed that monster for a massacre call herself a saintess?”
“Ah, that.”
Leon shrugged at Rehelon’s fury.
“Keep believing only what you want to hear and see. Whether that’s truly what Saintess Nadia did—or what really happened there.”
The Forbidden King hadn’t emerged because the saintess used a holy relic. It was Phinas Archipelago’s war preparations against the central continent that stirred it.
Had the Forbidden King not been replaced, it would still haunt that place, turning it into hell and devouring the populace.
Unlike the octopus whale, that tentacled horror in the darkness was a predator driven by pure instinct.
“Let’s keep our mouths straight, even if our jaws are crooked.”
Leon gestured toward the fallen Black Night Sword.
It trembled on the ground, then flew to his hand like metal to a magnet.
“Without Saintess Nadia using the holy relic, Phinas Archipelago—and neighboring islands—would’ve been wiped out by now, not just Remilisy.”
“……”
Rehelon’s eyes narrowed.
“Believe it or not, someone of your rank could investigate why the damage stopped there.”
Leon’s sword tip now targeted Rehelon.
“Saintess Nadia is a heretic. Proof: as an unstable saintess, she can’t perform mass miracles.”
The sole blemish on current saintess Nadia Ten Lilibel.
But Leon saw it differently.
“Even a saintess isn’t even twenty yet.”
“……”
“If she wasn’t born a saintess, she had a life before.”
“What’s your point?”
“Expecting someone who remembers their past life to master everything upon becoming a saintess by force? That’s supreme arrogance. And not just from a few elders—on a national scale.”
Kaaang!!
Leon swung, forcing Rehelon to barely deflect the incoming formless sword qi.
This was utterly different.
No mere Sword Master level.
Strength, speed, aura volume, density, handling—everything screamed elite.
A powerhouse from beyond the wall.
“Bury one person, and God will embrace you?”
“Blasphemy!!”
Rehelon charged in rage.
“Even without theology, doesn’t this feel off? Blind eyes, deaf ears, blindly obeying from above—that’s not faith.”
In a pristine white office, a man savored his tea.
“Lord Baril, what shall we do?”
His robes suggested a lowly priest—below even high priests—yet the high priests before him bowed deeply.
“Hm… the ugly duckling’s finally caused real trouble.”
“How should we proceed?”
“What of the vice high priests?”
“They await your swift decision.”
“Heh. Leaders of the holy theocracy, so inept…”
He chuckled, setting down his cup.
“And Dible’s involved?”
“Yes.”
“Heh. A man with zero interest in politics, who despised that duckling most—how did he decide this?”
After pondering, he asked:
“By the way, someone’s holding off five Sword Masters—including Sir Rehelon—single-handedly?”
“Yes. Masked, so identity’s unclear… but it’s been six hours already.”
“Assuming his strength was bluff seems a miscalculation.”
“Pardon? You know him?”
“No, just a hunch. Let’s table it. Should’ve noticed when the saintess contacted him… How’s that plan progressing?”
“Nearly complete. Ready on your order.”
“Good. Proceed. Whatever happens now is divine punishment from an angered God, provoked by the unstable saintess’s prayers. The theocracy’s people will suffer it.”
He chuckled again.
“But if she actually performs a miracle…”
“No worries. Humans see and hear only what they desire.”
“Still…”
“Relax. No miracle short of a transcendent being’s will resolve this. She’ll be branded a full heretic.”
“Many might die.”
“The theocracy needs a perfect saintess more.”
The man nodded and departed.
A trailing priest cautiously asked:
“Bishop… why treat him with such deference? What is he?”
“Hm, you don’t know? He looks like an ordinary priest.”
“Yet even vice high priests show respect…”
“Once you grasp his essence, you’d have no choice.”
“Essence?”
“Don’t pry further. If you value your life.”
The priest followed with a uneasy expression.
“What’s happening in Rafel?”
“No harm in knowing. When do you think priests hold the most value?”
The priest tilted his head.
“Healing or purification magic, perhaps?”
“Right. But the theocracy’s prestige has waned lately.”
Many reasons: few high-level priests, the unstable saintess, and more.