“Stop, sister Sairi!” Margaret’s delicate voice rang out loudly, pleading for mercy, “Besides, there are ways to heal Hilvia’s wounds.”
“Shut up! You saint, how dare you talk back here! Who gave you permission to call me sister!”
Enraged, Sairi didn’t listen to Margaret at all.
Even though she understood Margaret was a holy temple nun, and it was normal for her to be overly kind, and what she said wasn’t wrong—this fight would only hurt innocents, and those soldiers still had to battle monsters and beasts.
But the words had already escaped her lips and couldn’t be taken back. If it hurt Margaret’s feelings, then so be it.
Despite everything, Sairi still had a certain fondness for Margaret—after all, she was the only one who took actual action upon seeing Hilvia wounded.
However, Sairi held no such goodwill toward the others, especially that old immortal scoundrel, Barrios.
“What are you still talking about! Leon, Vidal, Margaret, you’re knights of the Knights Squad, yet here you are chatting instead of fighting. Watch out or the Gray King will report to His Highness the Prince!”
Barrios angrily raised the emblem above his head, issuing orders to the three.
Finally unable to bear the pressure, Vidal dragged his greatsword and dashed toward Sairi.
At that moment, Sairi had just swung a strike, scattering the nearby soldiers.
She didn’t know what state she was in—only that she was furious.
This anger was different from the mindless rage she felt facing Karimsed. This was purposeful, conscious fury.
They had deeply hurt Hilvia and yet remained stubbornly unrepentant. Sairi swore they would pay and answer for it!
“Hilvia is my dearest! No one is allowed to hurt her!”
That thought magnified endlessly in Sairi’s heart, like flames consuming her entire being.
It was as if a switch inside her had been flipped. An infinite power bloomed forth—greater than when she faced Karimsed.
Vidal gripped the Golden Greatsword tightly with both hands, swinging it in a 45-degree arc downward toward Sairi’s face, leaving a golden afterimage.
Seeing this, Sairi shifted her body and crossed her Rainbow Sword in front of her. Just as Vidal’s greatsword approached, she pressed down hard, the blade of her sword pressing against his.
At the same time, Sairi lifted her right leg, thrusting it against Vidal’s greatsword.
Clang.
A roar.
Sairi firmly trapped Vidal’s greatsword against her body, stepped back, and swung her left leg in a sidekick at his knee.
Meanwhile, the Rainbow Sword she pressed on Vidal’s greatsword began sliding toward his hands.
Sensing danger, Vidal released his grip on the hilt and leapt backward.
Sairi had just disarmed Vidal.
Pushing Vidal back, Sairi unleashed her strength again, staring at the Golden Greatsword in her hands. It was so impressively imposing, yet the one wielding it was utterly foolish.
Frustrated, Sairi gripped the hilt with one hand and pressed the other on the blade. She used her thigh to push under the blade’s edge and then applied force.
Though small and delicate in appearance, when Sairi unleashed her power, it was no joke.
Vidal and the others watched in shock as the Golden Greatsword, infused with holy temple power, bent under her pressure.
Then, with an angry shout from Sairi, “Bang!” the greatsword was broken in half and thrown at her feet.
“What… what kind of power is this?”
Vidal, usually taciturn, stared in disbelief at the weapon that had accompanied him for so long, now shattered by this furious beast before him.
At the same time, Sairi recalled something.
System!
The system’s presence in Sairi’s life had always been faint, but sometimes it proved useful.
Sairi summoned the system in her mind and cross-checked the information about Leon and the others, finding it matched what they had revealed—they truly were Hilvia’s friends.
However, the system’s evaluation of that old man Barrios was the same as Sairi’s: a sycophantic, pedantic old immortal.
From the system’s analysis, Sairi learned that Barrios’s Skull Talisman was his primary means of attack.
Determined, Sairi resolved to destroy that old man’s weapon.
She searched through the knowledge and skills the Goddess had implanted in her mind when she was reincarnated, looking for a few useful techniques.
“Got it!”
After searching for a while, Sairi took a deep breath and stopped her movements.
Though small, she stood upright and proud, facing Leon and the others. Vidal, now disarmed, could only support from the rear.
Suddenly, Sairi’s eyes began to glow. Her star-like marks flickered and the frequency rapidly increased.
“Leon, watch out!”
Margaret sensed something big was coming. After all, a woman’s sixth sense was very strong!
Sure enough, the next moment, Sairi’s Rainbow Sword vanished into thin air, and she clapped her hands together.
“Pay the price!”
The crowd tensed.
Sairi slowly opened her hands, and a glowing orb appeared between them. It was small but bright.
Then, with a sudden strike, she launched it flying toward Leon and the others.
Leon’s eyes flashed as he swiftly raised his spear, pointing the tip at the orb as he charged.
The spear’s angled tip deflected the orb’s trajectory, sending it into a group of soldiers.
“Watch out!”
Margaret barely got the warning out before the orb instantly brightened and expanded within the crowd, like a black hole generating a massive gravitational pull, attempting to swallow everything.
Some timid soldiers dropped their weapons and armor, fleeing in panic, while all the gear was consumed by the glowing orb.
The orb’s brightness intensified and flickered faster and faster. Margaret felt something was terribly wrong.
She immediately unleashed all her power, casting a Protective Barrier to shield everyone on the plains.
Sure enough, before Margaret could complete the barrier, the orb suddenly exploded, sprouting countless thin, sharp spikes like a hedgehog, covering its entire surface.
The sharp spines elongated and grew, nearly blotting out the sky and engulfing everyone.
Leon, Vidal, and Margaret, due to their strength and Margaret’s barrier, were relatively unharmed.
But the ordinary soldiers weren’t so lucky. Margaret’s heart ached seeing so many pierced through the barrier and impaled, their agonized cries echoing.
Worse still was Barrios. Without a shred of humanity, he spun the Skull Talisman in his hand, unleashing dark magic that moved many innocent soldiers in front of him, hoping they’d absorb the damage.
But Barrios underestimated the spikes’ sharpness. They pierced through the bodies, reaching Barrios himself.
Then the spikes dissipated, and the orb flew back into Sairi’s hand. She released her grip, but the orb had vanished.
“Ah! You monster!”
Barrios cursed furiously at Sairi, looking down at his thigh pierced through the waist. His fury boiled over, vowing to make this reckless girl pay.
“Stop her! Don’t let this monster keep slaughtering the kingdom’s soldiers! This is the kingdom’s will!”
Barrios shouted as he began channeling Forbidden Tome Magic to heal himself and his men.
Of course, this wasn’t out of care for the soldiers, but a show to maintain appearances—portraying himself as someone who bore immense losses and released the power of forbidden magic to protect the kingdom’s warriors.
Sairi and Leon saw right through it. “Hypocrite” was perhaps the best word to describe Barrios.
“No, Leon! You have to stop her! We can’t afford more casualties!”
Margaret shouted urgently to Leon.
Finally unable to bear it, Leon made up his mind and stomped hard on the ground.
***
The dirt and grass sunk deeply.
A tremendous pressure gathered as he radiated the power of a holy knight.
Leon’s blond hair fluttered in the wind. His cloak billowed behind him. The Holy Temple spear gleamed blindingly as an invisible armor of power enveloped him, pushing him forward relentlessly.
Sairi knew this was serious now.
Before she could react, Leon had already reached her in a flash.
A flurry of spear thrusts! The spear darted like a dragon!
Sairi leaned back to dodge, then grabbed the spear to wrest control, but the momentum crushed her arm in pain, forcing her to release it and switch to defending with the Rainbow Sword.
“Stop this, Miss Sairi! Let’s discuss everything back at the capital.”
“I won’t!”
“Hilvia can be saved! Besides, we’re friends. We can help Hilvia!”
“Shut up, you blond fool! You’re the reason Hilvia got hurt. You’re all sinners!!!”
Sairi screamed at Leon with genuine fury, her eyes blazing.
She pressed down on the Rainbow Sword and kicked the butt of Leon’s spear, twisting its direction and planting it firmly in the earth.
Then she slid her Rainbow Sword toward Leon’s neck but was struck upward by his armored fist.
But Sairi’s goal wasn’t just to attack Leon.
She jumped, placing a foot on his shoulder and swiftly kicked his body, using him as a natural springboard.
In a daze, Sairi appeared before Barrios.
Without giving him a moment to react, she punched him squarely in the face.
The old man was already weak. Sairi’s blow nearly shattered his skull, sending an old tooth flying.
But her aim wasn’t to vent anger at Barrios, but to destroy his weapon.
Taking advantage of Barrios’s dazed moment, Sairi snatched the Skull Talisman from his hand, smashed it onto the ground, then stomped down hard.
“No!”
In midair, Barrios screamed as the Skull Talisman shattered beneath her foot, releasing a disgusting surge of dark power that quickly dissipated.
“You— you worthless scum! Do you know how precious that talisman is?”
Before he could finish, Leon rushed over and swung his spear horizontally at Sairi.
She raised the Rainbow Sword to block, preventing a direct hit but was still knocked flying.
Sairi landed steadily, took a deep breath, and stood up.
Looking at Barrios, whose prized item was broken and who had lost his mind, she felt much more at peace.
Barrios, furious, ranted incoherently, completely losing his elderly composure.
“Please stop, Miss Sairi. It’s really not good for either side to continue fighting!”
Leon, always righteous, earnestly urged Sairi to comply and stop resisting.
Sairi was exhausted, too. Her body was overly sensitive, and even slight contact could strongly stimulate her brain’s perception.
Leon’s last blow was heavy. Though Sairi blocked it with the Rainbow Sword, the impact left her hand numb.
Lacking much battle experience, facing so many opponents and a healer constantly supporting them was overwhelming.
However, her hatred had mostly eased. Now she was thinking about how to get out safely.
Suddenly, she remembered the item Otlands gave her yesterday—maybe it could help.
Thinking this, Sairi sighed deeply.
“So you knew all along…”
“What?”
Leon looked puzzled by her words, but Sairi gave no answer.
Instead, she conjured another spherical object from thin air.
Leon immediately sensed danger and shouted to Margaret behind him.
“She’s using that move again! Hurry!”
“Ah, right!”
Margaret immediately raised the Blessed Staff, channeling Blessing Power and doing her utmost to cast a Protective Barrier for everyone.
This was exactly what Sairi wanted.
She held the sphere, concentrated her energy to wrap around it, then hurled Otlands’s gift like a cricket ball.
“Here it comes!”
Sairi threw with great force. The sphere flew rapidly toward Leon and began to glow.
Leon and the others braced for battle, but what happened next was unexpected.
After flashing twice, the sphere exploded into a massive black smoke that enveloped everyone.
It was magical.
Those surrounded felt their magic senses vanish, unable to discern directions.
Now was the moment!
Sairi seized the opportunity, turned, and sprinted toward the Blood Spirit Empire’s direction.
With her enhanced abilities and magic, no one could catch her.
The others didn’t even realize when she had escaped.