After appearing out of nowhere, the mysterious black knight drew a sword black as the void and cut down the incoming bullets while the curtain blocked the lightning bolts. Ansem swung his fist, but the black knight managed to block it with his blade, sending sparks in all directions accompanied by a high-pitched metallic ring.
The pillars of the layered barrier magic circle continued to darken, cracks forming on their surfaces. It might have been powerful and cutting-edge, but it still had its limits.
Hexen power was the term used to describe a curse’s strength. The layered barrier magic circle had been built with the intention that it would be more than enough to handle Marin’s hexen power and keep her sealed off. But you could also view that as its upper limit. The church said they built the barrier to be somewhere between one hundred fifty to one hundred eighty percent of Marin’s highest estimated hexen power. Therefore, if the barrier wasn’t holding, then this black knight must have been, at minimum, about as strong as Marin.
But what in the world is that? Is that also a curse? Ahhh, goddamnit, Sitri!
The situation had been instantly turned on its head. The priests directing a spell from outside the barrier were showing signs of fatigue.
“Increase the power! We can’t let them escape!” Edgar shouted. “At the very least, we have to eliminate one—”
“Kill ’em! They’re the disaster from the prophecy!”
Edgar was keeping a calm air, but his expression was grave. But that was nothing compared to Franz, who was yelling savage orders with bloodshot eyes.
He glanced at me just now. What for?
The black knight’s defenses were impenetrable. Holy light, bullets, he blocked it all with his body, not letting anything get past him to Marin, who had changed considerably since his arrival.
Previously, she had looked about thirty percent human, now it was closer to seventy. The umbral flames had transformed into a jet-black dress, and her vague and decrepit face now had a clear visage, with eyes, nose, and a mouth. She no longer resembled a candle’s final flickers. She had clearly gotten stronger. But if she was a curse that killed anything and everything, wasn’t it strange that she wasn’t going after the black knight?
Then, the onyx flames emanating from Marin’s Lament wrapped around the knight. His wretched form underwent another change. His armor glowed purple, and his left hand now held an immense black shield that looked like it could block anything that came his way. As if it had been nourished, his sword had grown in length and was now veiled in stygian flames. These two were synergizing.
Kris stamped her foot on the ground and shouted at me, “Human weakling! There’s nothing interesting about this! Sir!”
“C-Calm down! Uh, I know! This is where it starts getting interesting!”
“Brother, would you please quit playing around?”
“Cut the games, Thousand Tricks! What is that thing?!”
Kris, Lucia, and Franz all yelled at me, but I thought they were better off focusing on the purification. Did they really have to pin everything on me? Well, this one time, I actually was sort of at fault.
Shit, I should’ve worn Perfect Vacation.
I was afraid that if I stood up, I might fall and hurt myself, so I stayed seated as I cheered them on.
“C’mon, Ansem! You can do it!”
A roar that would give a dragon a run for its money echoed throughout the ritual grounds. In rapid succession, Ansem swung his fists at the beautiful but disturbing sword and shield. It seemed his preceding punch had just been a way of testing the waters.
His swings were rash, but they were enough to quite literally shake the ground. Everything trembled from the force of Ansem’s iron fists. He was a big man, which made him naturally durable, but he was also powerful. Mana material enhanced a person as their heart desired, so they could remain slender while being freakishly strong, like Liz. But as we also saw with the former Supreme Warrior, muscular fortitude and strength were still intertwined.
Mana material had made Ansem grow large while also giving him the strength of a mythological hero. Grieving Souls fought regularly, but never did arm wrestling because when it came to pure strength, Ansem was simply unbeatable. With his superhuman build and might, his attacks didn’t need holy power to be overwhelmingly destructive. Ansem could flatten a normal person, even if they were clad in armor.
Faced with Ansem’s fists, the black knight took evasive maneuvers for the first time. He ditched the shield Marin had granted him and fell back. A fist rammed into the abandoned shield, bending it like a twig and sending it skyward. Marin’s Lament shot flames at Ansem’s feet, but they failed to hinder him.
The magic circle was supposed to have been on the wider side, but it became quite cramped with an unrestrained Ansem Smart inside. He didn’t carry a sword or shield today, but his arms had better reach than most weapons.
The knight swung his sword as he fell back. While the sword traveled in a vertical arc, Ansem swung his fist. Though it had been bolstered, the knight’s sword was still dwarfed by Ansem. Taking a hit to the flank, the knight lost his grip on the weapon, the blade stabbing into the ground. He stopped for a second, as if in a daze.
Ansem seemed less like a Paladin and more like some sort of beast. If anything here looked like a curse, it was him. Given how fond they were of my friend, I assumed the priests knew all about him, but their expressions were stiff as ice.
“C’mon, Ansem! You can super do it!”
He followed up with another roar.
His violent rampaging left no room for the knights or other hunters to lend a hand. It would be too easy to accidentally hit him. However, the one person accustomed to cooperating with Ansem, Lucia, wasn’t afraid to go on the offensive.
“Hailstorm!”
From her hands emerged an ice-laden tornado, which grew in the blink of an eye and swallowed up the magic circle and Ansem with it. This sort of magic, advanced spells with wide areas of effect, was Lucia’s specialty. They also excelled in visual appeal. I could recall excitedly telling her how cool this spell was when she first showed it to me. Doing things like flying on a broom had led to her being treated like a gimmick Magus, but she was a proper spellcaster through and through.