Phase Two
Benika Arendia. The moment I appeared, Cardinal Dominic fixed me with a puzzled stare.
“Levia, how in the world did you get here?”
“How else? That clown bastard dragged me here. Sorry I’m a little late.”
Corpses and collapsed holy knights littered the ground. The clown had really gone all out with his little scheme. What did he call it again? A performance? The word made me want to laugh for all the wrong reasons.
Luckily none of the holy knights were dead, but every single one had suffered critical wounds. If we didn’t treat them immediately, they would cross a river there was no coming back from. From the looks of it, he had left them alive on purpose. Exactly the kind of twisted mercy the clown would show.
“Ryolk was the clown?”
“You can only sense the faint aura of the seed, huh. You couldn’t even recognize the real thing.”
A holy knight who looked like a slick host was radiating the exact same stench as the clown, yet no one had noticed. Was I seriously the only one who could smell it?
The culprit behind the odor that had clung to Benika was standing right there.
I glanced down at the shattered fragments of the bracelet still in my hand. So this is how you do it. Using objects as your medium.
“Ah… aah… What have I… what have I done…?”
Just like Cheska had once done, Benika’s eyes had been completely unfocused. Now a spark of awareness returned to them. Tears spilled down her cheeks as her hands shook violently; she had finally realized what she had almost done.
“I… I almost… toward Father…”
Right on cue, the clown kept up his disgusting charade. “Lady Benika! Are you all right?”
I stepped forward and cut off his approach before he could get any closer.
“Your acting is honestly garbage, you know that? How is it possible to show zero improvement?”
“…Kk… Puhahahahaha!!! Oh dear! So you didn’t just guess—you actually saw through it? What a shame. I practiced so much. No, you’re the weird one here! Those idiots lying over there! That bald guy! That little wench! None of them noticed! Ten whole years!”
“Uncle Dominic. Take Benika and fall back. This bastard is my opponent.”
“I cannot do that. A Formation of Judgment is currently deployed in this place.”
“Formation of Judgment?”
What the hell was that?
“That’s right! The Formation of Judgment! A favorite technique of inquisitors! No matter how special you are, Levia, if you cannot use holy power here, you’re completely helpless! What could that tiny, childish body of yours possibly do? Kihihit!”
Thanks for the helpful explanation. But seriously—did your brain regress in the last month?
“Can’t use holy power? How fascinating. Then how did I stop Benika earlier?”
“…Huh?”
I deliberately formed a sphere of holy power and held it up for both the clown and Cardinal Dominic to see.
“What is that? Magi?”
“Th-this can’t be…?”
The clown had referred to everything he’d done so far as a “performance.” In that case, I was the uninvited guest crashing his show. An intruder doesn’t care about the hard work of the cast and crew. They just throw a tantrum to express their displeasure.
I’ve never seen such a pathetic script in my life! A five-year-old could write better than you.
I would throw my tantrum in the exact way the clown would hate most. If the carefully built stage collapsed, nothing could be a bigger insult. To drive him into an even deeper rage, I would play the role of the uninvited guest to perfection.
For the sake of the performance, I recited a prayer that didn’t exist and activated the holy law. No—correction. This wasn’t a prayer.
It was a declaration.
“I declare in the name of Levia Leviathan.”
“Within my domain, no one shall be permitted death.”
I compressed the showy holy-power sphere and stacked another on top of it. Holy power changes according to the user’s will. It purifies corruption, strengthens the body, and heals wounds. The will I poured into this sphere now was pure healing.
I detonated the compressed, layered sphere.
The moment it burst, holy power exploded outward. Golden light drove away the darkness and flooded the clearing. The radiance soaked into the fallen holy knights, Cardinal Dominic, and Jacob. Every wound on their bodies began to close.
One by one, the holy knights started to rise.
With that, the clown’s stage had been utterly demolished by me—the uninvited guest.
All that remained was to deliver judgment to the clown for staging an illegal performance without permission.
“You… Just what exactly are you? Not only using holy power in that manner, but using it inside the Formation of Judgment!”
How would I know? I don’t even have the memories for it. Benedict or that goddess Lumentis or Lumentis or whatever would probably know.
“Hey. Let me ask you one thing.”
I raised my hand and pointed toward a corner of the clearing. There stood Slay—the man I’d met before arriving here—supporting Grandpa Carlo with Cheska’s help.
“Was it you who did that to Grandpa Carlo?”
Thankfully Cheska had healed him with holy power before it was too late, but the sight of Grandpa Carlo when we first found him had been nothing short of horrific.
“Ha! And what if it was? This toy is different from the one you destroyed last time!”
Yeah. It really was you. The moment I destroyed the puppet you were controlling, you’d probably just flee into another body without a scratch. Sorry, but today’s going to be different.
“Everyone, stay back. This bastard is my opponent.”
I warned everyone in the clearing, stacked physical reinforcement on my body several times over, and charged straight at the clown.
Clang!
The clown blocked it effortlessly. Having stopped my fist, he twisted his sword into a counterattack. A clumsy retreat would only get me hit. Just like last time, my body was far smaller than his, so closing the distance was the smarter move.
I dug in deeper, using his counterattacking arm as a fulcrum to slam a kick into the clown’s head. But he blocked even that with the arm not holding the sword. Unlike before, his arms weren’t grotesquely elongated, so his reaction was faster. Too bad. I kicked again to create distance.
The clown refused to miss the opening. Blue energy erupted from his blade as he swung. The aura kept its shape and hurtled toward me.
So that’s sword aura.
If he was attacking from range, I had my own countermeasures. I wrapped holy power around my fist, stacked it two or three times, and punched.
Divine Punch
The clown’s sword aura collided with the holy power that shot from my fist.
BOOM!
They exploded with a roar, as though neither would acknowledge the other’s existence.
“Ha! Did you learn that from the Divine Fist? Something like that won’t work on this toy!”
“I didn’t learn it. I just copied what I saw.”
“Then try blocking these!”
With a shout, the clown fired sword auras in rapid succession. I answered with a barrage of Divine Punches. In the deathly silent forest, the continuous thunder born from the collision of the clown’s mana and my holy power echoed without end.
I was honestly impressed. His claim that “this time is different” hadn’t been an empty boast. Even though I was moving with the same power and speed as the day I first fought him, the clown was parrying and blocking every strike. The moment any opening appeared, his cunning, lightning-fast swordplay would exploit it.
My wounds healed instantly, but my clothes were steadily turning into rags. I hadn’t liked wearing the outfit, but Grandpa had given it to me, so it stung a little. I actually liked the design.
“You’ve ruined the stage and destroyed the plan, but with your full strength you cannot defeat this toy!”
Yeah, I’ll admit it. He really was stronger than last time. But still…
“A toy that has reached the Master rank—you can never win against it!”
“Full strength? Me?”
Wow. The clown actually made me say that line. I couldn’t let that slide. Was this one of the perks of reincarnating into a fantasy world?
I flashed the clown a grin.
“Hey, clown. Since when did you get the delusional idea that I was going all out?”
“What?”
I ripped off the tattered outer garment the clown had shredded and tossed it aside. My body—now in shorts and a sleeveless top—was revealed. But I wasn’t wearing only that.
Three training artifacts were equipped on each arm, each leg, both shoulders, and my waist.
“Khat! Khahat!! I knew it! Khahahaha!”
From a distance came Grandpa Carlo’s booming laughter; he had already noticed.
Without canceling the active gravity and weight magic, I removed the training artifacts one by one and dropped them to the ground.
THUD!
The artifacts slammed into the earth with heavy sounds.
“What are those…?”
“You’ve been fighting while wearing all of that…?”
Sorry, Cardinal Dominic, but the reason the mana engine of the autocarriage kept overheating was entirely my fault. I had canceled the gravity magic while moving, but I’d left the weight magic active the whole time.
Wait. How had Cheska endured it?
The question flashed through my mind, but it wasn’t important right now. I’d think about it later.
After removing every last training artifact and lightly stretching my limbs, I looked at the clown with a provocative smile.
“What are you waiting for? Come at me. It’s phase two from now on.”