A crosssword with a wide blade and a long guard is a weapon suited for defense. It is ideal for blocking an opponent's sword strikes with the blade and catching them on the guard. It is truly both a sword and a shield. If one uses battle prescience and Qi specialized in defense, they can even withstand the attacks of a master who has reached the Dao.
...That was what they believed. Until now, that is.
"Heh."
Dokjine looked at the cross-shaped sword and nonchalantly shifted her stance.
The crosssword, forged solely for defense, was sturdy. Even after receiving Dokjine's blow, it only dented.
But the crosses folded, broke, and were crushed, sending the paladins' bodies flying in all directions. Bones broke and flesh tore. The paladins groaned and bled, but those groans turned into singing voices, and the flowing blood fluttered as it became butterflies.
"Kya-haha. Ah! The world is beautiful!"
A master who has reached the Dao cannot be measured by common sense. The paladins panted and struggled to their feet.
The difference in skill was clear. The only reason the paladins weren't killed as much was because Dokjine, lost in hallucinations, did not actively finish them off. It was ironic: the hallucinations had neutralized their battle prescience, but because of that very reason, her lethality had dropped.
But it didn't matter. Dokjine's strikes were sharp and keen, and being slashed even once left them nearly crippled.
Dokjine's movements were like a solo dance. Her attacks stretched out softly, sometimes vigorously, crushing the crossswords. Rather than the paladins' lives, she more blatantly attacked the crossswords.
"Butterflies! They're butterflies!"
It seemed that in her hallucination, the crosses looked like butterflies. Since the paladins couldn't abandon their crosses, they were blown away while clutching the crossswords to their chests.
"Cough!"
"That heretic bitch is aiming for the crosses!"
"Heavenly God..."
Blood splattered and limbs were snapped. A master who had reached the Dao truly could not be measured by common sense. The paladins wiped the blood from their mouths and struggled to their feet.
They stood up again. The slashed and fallen paladins, as if they had never been down.
Kuram looked at the continuously rising paladins and muttered.
"As expected, they don't stay down."
The wall of paladins. Behind them stood Cardinal Elton. And there was a group of priests with their hands clasped together in prayer. With halos glowing behind their heads, they recited the prayer.
"Oh, First Saint who blessed us."
"You raise the one who has fallen, and allow them to deliver your word."
"One hundred sick and afflicted came to the Saint to receive healing."
"You stopped the bleeding, healed the wounds, erased the scars, and invigorated them."
"May that grace spread like waves and care for all people."
The priests ceaselessly recited the prayer, healing the paladins' wounds and invigorating their spirits. Endless vitality swirled around the paladins' bodies, raising them to their feet.
This was the power of an organized order of paladins. They saved their lives with battle prescience, and restored their bodies with prayers of healing and purification. If one threw themselves into faith and became a paladin, even a Qi artist who had merely attained Qiankun could fight on par with a higher-level Qi artist. Overcoming skill with faith. This was the true power of the paladins.
"Our will is firm."
"Even death shall not bend us!"
The priests' efforts even restored the cross-swords. The paladins grabbed their swords once more and swung them.
Cardinal Elton saw the hallucinations eroding reality and clapped his hands together, shouting.
"All creation flows according to the natural order! Begone, wickedness!"
Holy light flashed, and the Principle eroding reality vanished. The paladins' blood that had turned into butterflies reverted to ordinary liquid. The power of divine force, which normalized magic, returned the world twisted by Dokjine's Dao back to its original state.
Cardinal Elton was a monk. Though old now, he was once a monk who embarked on a pilgrimage with his bare body. The fact that he survived such a long pilgrimage alone with his bare body meant he possessed Qi that was equally powerful and outstanding.
As years passed, his Qi declined, but faith filled that emptiness.
Cardinal Elton, who had driven out the hallucinations to some extent, immediately targeted Kuram behind him.
"It's a holy war!"
'Leave the woman who learned demonic arts to the paladins! Compared to her who is high on drugs, that man is much more dangerous!'
Cardinal Elton didn't miss the calm yet deadly killing intent emanating from Kuram. Cardinal Elton immediately charged at Kuram, who was preparing something. A large fist thickly wrapped in divine force struck Kuram.
Kuram, who was taking out a poison, took the blow to his face defenselessly. His neck twisted 180 degrees, snapping backward and dangling. It was a strike close to instant death.
"Tch."
Kuram, who had pickled his own body in medicine and poison, had even his bones altered. Kuram's neck returned to its original position as if it had never been twisted.
"As expected, he doesn't die from this!"
"Unfortunately, death does not love me."
"Life and death are the will of the Heavenly God! You will be executed in the name of light today! White Heaven Divine Fist!"
Cardinal Elton threw a fist wrapped in divine force. Without even checking whether it hit or was dodged, he pulled back his fist and thrust it out again.
The divine force created dozens of afterimages. The fists of divine force he created continuously struck Kuram's body. Like a tree branch facing a storm, Kuram's gaunt body was mercilessly shaken by the fists.
Thwack. Kuram, hit in the abdomen, muttered.
"Fists won't do. You can't kill me with that."
Kuram blocked Cardinal Elton's divine fist with his dry, gaunt arm. Compared to the robust Cardinal Elton, his arm looked like it would break at any moment.
The moment Kuram and Cardinal Elton's arms met. Kuram's arm bent bizarrely and absorbed the force.
The pharmacist Kuram knew no pain. Because his body responded so well to medicine and poison, he used that very constitution to test poisons. After repeating intoxication and detoxification over and over, his body entered a bizarre state.
An arm as soft as a reed leaf withstood the storm of fists. It dug diagonally into the inside of Elton's fist, and using the elasticity of his long arm, bounced it off greatly.
"Your body! You've tampered with forbidden arts!"
Elton was also a monk. His level of physical arts was higher than Kuram's. However, Elton's physical arts were strictly meant for humans.
Kuram was far removed from a human.
Kuram's bones stretched like a mollusk's. Having absorbed most of the impact, Kuram's arm bent eerily and shot out like a snake. His sharply grown nails tore off a chunk of Elton's arm.
The cardinal stepped back. A wound as if bitten by a beast appeared on his arm. But only for a moment. When the cardinal softly recited a prayer, the wound vanished as if it had never been there.
"To arbitrarily modify the body given by God! Aren't you afraid your soul will fall into hell!"
"Not really."
Having gained distance, Kuram finished his remaining preparations. Taking a deep breath, Kuram blew his breath into the air.
"Huu."
Kuram blew his breath. A purplish smoke that anyone could tell was mixed with poison spread instantly. The toxic mist covered Cardinal Elton's face.
But only for a moment, when Cardinal Elton emitted a flash from his eyes and shouted, the purplish mist scattered instantly.
"Don't even think about it! This flesh is watched over by the Heavenly God. Wickedness shall never harm it!"
Purification and recovery. The holy light instantly returned Cardinal Elton, who had inhaled poison and bled, to a perfect state.
Battle prescience. Healing. Purification. Protection.
The paladin order was a combat group specialized in defense. They would not easily lose against anyone.
The problem was it was also hard to win. Groups weaker than the paladins wouldn't bother fighting them, and unless they were outright heretics, the paladins wouldn't wield force either.
Because of that, the paladin order always fought strong opponents, held out for a long time, and then lost. Despite their imposing might, this was why the paladin order became a symbol of defeat.
If they didn't use their trump card, the paladins were bound to lose eventually.
Even knowing that, there was no time to spare to intervene in that fight.
Right after the battle broke out, when everyone was panicked by the sudden turn of events. The mages of the lower world who had silently finished their preparations chanted spells all at once.
"Low Fahrenheit, Thermal. Fire Storm!"
"Grand Pascal!"
The targets were the mages of the Floating Castle. Recognizing them as rivals, the mages of the lower world shattered the peace and launched a surprise attack, taking advantage of the gap while the paladins were being attacked.
Avangard was no exception. Avangard urgently chanted a spell.
"Kyaa! Crystal Block. Over the Wall!"
A hastily constructed crystal barrier severed the space. Fire and wind magic clashed with the crystal barrier, and the red-hot crystals soon shattered into pieces. Avangard screamed and clutched her head.
In magic, the side that prepares first has the advantage. The very fact that she blocked the attack with a hastily assembled crystal wall was a testament to Avangard's level.
However, magical ability and combat capability were separate things.
"W-why? Why are you suddenly attacking?"
Flustered, Avangard attempted to talk. But the opponent didn't answer obediently.
"We weren't aiming for you! We were aiming for that mercenary!"
"I-is that so? But that trajectory was definitely aiming for me..."
"You believe that, you idiot!"
Instead, after distracting her by talking, they released the magic power they had fully gathered. The simplest level of attack magic. However, Avangard couldn't even respond to the surprise attack that dug into her psychology.
"Eh, ehh?"
"Why are you just standing there!"
Heavenly Sword Qi, Blade Dragon Slash.
A technique that extends the Heavenly String long to sever power. Shei raised a storm-like slash, protecting Avangard from the shower of magic.
'...Yeah. Shei. You're lacking, but you have a good heart. Thanks. Thanks to you, I can still hide my identity.'
Since the Blue Tower Lord was standing behind her, it wasn't dangerous, but anyway, it had its own meaning. Shei glared at the mage of the lower world and shouted.
"Are you attacking as if you made a promise all of a sudden? What are you guys?"
Then, the mage of the lower world got angry at Shei, acting like the guilty party.
"Ugh. Why are you!"
"Move! We don't want to attack you!"
"Even though you've already gone up to the Floating Castle, we're only eliminating those who are trying to steal this opportunity!"
"Don't you think it's unfair too?"
"...W-what? Why are you asking me that?"
To climb the Dragon Gate. From the moment they decided this, the mages had risked the danger of death. The mages of the lower world naturally came to this Dragon Gate anticipating even combat.
Though suppressed by the restraining force of the paladin order, to them, each other were rivals. Especially the mages who had already risen to the Floating Castle were nothing but obstacles.
Of course, they still had some rationality left.
'Those three over there. Hughes, Rankart, and Shei. It's better not to mess with them.'
'Given the attitude they've shown so far, they will mediate but won't stop us by force.'
'I'd rather not mind Hughes climbing up. If it's him, he could even share his knowledge.'
'In the first place, he and his comrades are simply too powerful and outstanding.'
Instead of pointlessly picking a fight with Shei, they appealed to her with words for justification. So Shei couldn't use excessive force in her attacks either.
"Mere commoners...! How dare you attack us?"
"I will show you magic you can never handle!"
Meanwhile, the attacked mage of the Floating Castle prepared a counterattack. Moisture rose from the damp earth, turning into ice spears aimed at the mage of the lower world. A high-level technique that saves magic power by utilizing the surrounding environment as much as possible.
"Die!"
Sporadic battles broke out in various places. No one could properly respond to the sudden chaos. People screamed, burned and fell, sobbed, and died.
The once peaceful and beautiful grassland was dyed red with fire and blood. Amidst the chaos, a voice reached my ears.
[So it finally came to this! Hmm. It was a fully predictable outcome.]
That's right. I expected it to some extent.
[This is what happens when different humans form a group! There are humans who cannot form a group... no, humans who destroy the groups they form. If they belong to a group without proper handling—punishment, surveillance, restraint, education—they are bound to reveal their true colors eventually!]
Here, it was Kuram and Dokjine. Villains locked in Tartarus, and a chaos that didn't know where it would bounce. They merely yielded to the greater power of Rankart, and would have stabbed us in the back if given a chance. Friction with the paladin order, which revered order and good, was inevitable.
[Even humans of the same kind cannot coexist. When the class difference is clear, the inferior group feels an inferiority complex toward the superior group. Eventually, unable to overcome that inferiority complex, they justify their actions as a struggle and destroy the order!]
The mages of the lower world and the mages of the Floating Castle were firing magic at each other. Even Shei had given up on stopping them now. Because I wasn't nosy enough to stop a fight between two groups.
Order collapses. However, even in the midst of that, they couldn't fully concentrate on the fight.
[But, did you see? Even while doing that, they are relying on you, Hughes.]
Secret glances were directed my way. Even in the middle of the fight, they were mindful of me, Rankart, and Shei. They were hoping I would take their side and end this situation.
[Humans want someone to protect them. To care for them. To rule them. They want you, the leader, to take their side.]
I kept my neutrality, took on the role of a mediator, and possessed the combat power of Shei and Rankart. To anyone, the leader right now was me.
The Saint of Light, Luel, whispered to me with light.
[Order is necessary. Because humans desire it! This is the conclusion I've reached!]