The battle erupted once more.
Facing the Enemy’s reckless last-ditch struggle, Victor calmly commanded the Judgement Court Armed Forces composed of several War Parties and met them head-on.
Under the suppressing Seal Field deployed by several Combat Nuns, the air seemed to ripple with an invisible layer.
The Crestbearers had violent power but could not freely use their abilities, like giants with bound hands and feet.
That greatsword wielder roared, abandoned intricate sword techniques, swung up his greatsword, and brought it down with the most primal, terrifying brute force.
The Heavy Shield Knight facing him glared with wide eyes, poured all his strength into his arms, and braced his shield to withstand it.
Clang—!
A deafening roar exploded in the alley, and that sturdy fine steel great shield was forcibly split with a bone-deep crack!
The massive recoil instantly numbed the Heavy Shield Knight’s arms, split the web of his hands, and sent blood streaming down.
The greatsword wielder’s weapon also reached its limit in that extreme collision, and with a sharp crack, the blade shattered into countless iron shards.
“Die!”
The blood-crazed greatsword wielder paid no heed to his broken weapon and completely ignored the spear thrusting from the side and the crossbow bolts shooting from the front.
With a backhanded heavy punch wrapped in violent force, he slammed it directly onto the already cracked fine steel great shield.
Bang!
The thick shield was smashed inward and deformed, and the massive impact made the Knight behind it spew blood and fall unconscious on the spot.
Just as the greatsword wielder, with several crossbow bolts stuck in his body but seemingly unaware of them, prepared to step forward and deliver a fatal blow, a petite red figure suddenly darted out from the crowd without warning.
It was Anna!
Her tensed leg muscles erupted with astonishing power, striking first despite moving later.
A fierce, unmatched whip kick lashed viciously into the greatsword wielder’s side like a steel whip!
Crack!
A crisp sound of bone breaking rang through the alley.
That burly body over two meters tall was actually kicked into the air by that seemingly slender leg, slammed heavily into the wall on one side, and brought down a large stretch of bricks and stones.
Before he could slide down, Anna’s figure had already followed like a shadow, and with another plain straight punch, she drove it into the chest of another Crestbearer trying to sneak-attack from the side.
The sinister grin on that man’s face froze instantly.
He felt an irresistible immense force, his chest caved in at a visible speed, and his whole body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, spewing a large mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.
“Well done, little Anna!”
Sophia the Nun seized the moment, praising her, but her hands did not hesitate at all as she swung the spike-covered Wolf-Tooth Club and smashed it hard onto the head of the severely wounded Crestbearer on the ground.
With a muffled “splat,” it was like smashing a ripe watermelon.
Even so, that Crestbearer still twitched and did not die immediately.
Seeing this, the other War Party members immediately swarmed forward, stabbing madly with long swords and short blades.
The first unlucky bastard who had taken the drug died such a stifled death in the pile of people.
On the other side, the two Crestbearers entangled with Allen saw their companion become one dead and one gravely wounded in an instant, and their minds were violently shaken.
Now’s the time!
Allen seized that fleeting opportunity, his footwork shifted, his whole body became an elusive afterimage, and the Black Sword in his hand traced an arc of Death through the air, instantly piercing one man’s heart.
However, that Outsider-like vitality kept him from dying immediately.
Instead, it aroused his final ferocity, and with a roar he was about to counterattack.
Allen’s eyes turned cold. His left hand pressed on the end of the sword hilt, and the Divine Power within his body poured in without reservation!
“Boom—”
Golden flames surged out along the pitch-black blade, exploded from that man’s heart, and instantly burned his internal organs to ash.
A piercing golden light shone from within the corpse, which then collapsed softly like a pile of mud.
Seeing his companions die one after another, the other Enemy’s eyes turned blood-red, and he fell completely into madness.
He abandoned all blocking and dodging, poured his entire strength into the blade, and with the momentum of mutual destruction, slashed down at Allen’s head.
At that moment, Allen’s Black Sword was still stuck in the chest of the Enemy he had just killed, and there was no time to pull it back for defense.
In that flash of lightning, there was not a trace of panic on Allen’s face.
His empty left hand moved like lightning, reaching to his waist and drawing the already-loaded revolver.
Bang!
A report utterly different from the clash of cold weapons exploded through the narrow alley.
The sound was violent and unfamiliar, shaking everyone’s eardrums and making their hearts jump.
The Crestbearer’s forward charge stopped abruptly.
His head looked as if it had been struck head-on by an invisible hammer of immense weight.
His brow exploded, and red and white instantly sprayed into a cloud of bloody mist across the sky.
The headless corpse staggered two more steps forward from inertia, then fell straight to the ground, twitched twice, and went silent.
In the alley, for a moment, it was terrifyingly quiet.
Even the Judgement Court Armed Forces members who had seen life and death were stunned in place by this unheard-of method of killing.
Allen himself was also stunned for a moment.
He looked down at the Firearm still smoking in his hand, never expecting that the bullets ground from the Judgement Court’s “Saint’s Relic” would be so terrifyingly powerful.
However, as a Villain, he had to play the part to the fullest.
He unhurriedly blew the gun smoke from the muzzle and lightly said one sentence to the headless corpse.
“My Lord, the times have changed.”
The remaining two Enemies watched their companion’s head explode before their eyes.
That visual impact made purely of power and speed was a hundred times more terrifying than a blade piercing the heart.
Looking at the “divine artifact” in Allen’s hand that spewed flames, they instantly realized that this thing would completely overturn the battlefield of the future.
Unfortunately, they no longer had the chance to bring this intelligence out.
The greatsword wielder kicked flying by Anna struggled to rise from the rubble, still wanting to make a final last-ditch struggle, but Victor had already arrived before him.
The long sword in his hand traced a cold, sharp arc and cleanly cut off his head.
The effects of the Secret Medicine were almost over. These people would not live until interrogation, so they all had to be silenced.
In the alley, only the last Enemy remained.
That Crestbearer responsible for healing was covered in crossbow bolts like a hedgehog.
He was never good at fighting.
Now, seeing his companions die more miserably one after another, especially those two headless corpses, completely shattered his final psychological defense.
Rather than have his head blown apart by that terrifying weapon, he might as well… die with dignity.
“What is that weapon of yours called?” He gave up resisting and instead asked like a curious child.
Allen swayed the Firearm in his hand, seeming to become interested:
“I call it a ‘Firearm.’ I invented it. After simple training, an ordinary person can use it to kill Crestbearers like you. How about it? Isn’t it impressive?”
“You are indeed impressive.”
The Healing Crestbearer’s eyes dimmed, and his tone was full of self-mockery.
“I am just a Noble’s bastard. It was the Cult that gave me the method of Bloodline Purification, and only then was I accepted by my Family like a dog… But you… Young Master Laval, where did your Engraved Mark come from? Who… are you really?”
The smile on Allen’s face was as warm as a spring breeze, but the hand holding his Sword remained steady as a rock.
The Healing Crestbearer noticed this detail, and the last shred of hope in his heart to drag someone down with him was completely extinguished.
Allen’s golden pupils, in the dim environment, emitted a sacred and dignified light.
He tilted his head and explained in a tone that was not entirely certain: “If I had to say who I am… probably God’s Messenger?”
The drug’s effect was rapidly fading.
Excruciating pain and weakness swept through his whole body like a tide, and the Healing Crestbearer’s life was already like a flickering candle in the wind.
But upon hearing the words “God’s Messenger,” he was struck as if by lightning. His unfocused pupils suddenly contracted and lit up again.
God’s Messenger…
No wonder! No wonder whether it was the Crimson Oath or those lofty Sword-Bearing Nobles, they all saw him as a thorn in their side and a spike in their flesh!
No wonder he could produce something as unheard-of as a Firearm!
“So that’s it… so that’s how it is…” he murmured to himself, then burst into a mad laugh.
“Those fools, they never realized… the times really have changed! Hahaha!”
He laughed so hard that he coughed violently, coughing up a large mouthful of blood.
When he raised his head to look at Allen again, there was actually a trace of piety in his eyes.
“Great God’s Messenger… can a person as deeply sinful as me, after death… receive The Lord’s Salvation?”
“You’ll have to ask Him in person.” Allen shrugged. “My task is only to send you to meet Him.”
The Healing Crestbearer remembered the scriptures in , and his eyes grew even more fervent: “As expected, you are the true God’s Messenger… Your existence does not bring peace on earth, but a sword.”
He seemed to see a future of rivers of blood, yet a look of great enlightenment and release appeared on his face.
A muffled thunder rolled across the sky, cold raindrops began to fall, and soon they linked into lines.
The moment the rain hit his body, the Healing Crestbearer’s body jerked violently and went completely silent.
The pouring rain came down in torrents, washing over Allen’s face and carrying away all expression from it.
He silently looked at the five corpses on the ground, his gaze appearing especially deep in the curtain of rain.
Victor walked to his side, rain sliding down his resolute cheeks. He checked the corpses and found the hidden mark of the Crimson Oath on them.
“Comrade Allen, your arrangement was flawless. They are indeed Heresy.”
“The connection between the Cult and the Sword-Bearing Nobles is deeper than I imagined.” Allen’s voice sounded somewhat cold amid the rain.
Victor also fell silent.
“Bloodline Purification… the Cult actually mastered such forbidden technology. No wonder they could lure those fools blinded by power.” Victor said in a low voice.
The Sword-Bearing Nobles, the pillar class of the Kingdom, were actually colluding with a heretical Cult to carry out so-called “Bloodline Purification.”
As an Inquisitor, Victor knew very well that the Bloodline of the Sigil originated from the Evil God.
This kind of “purification” could only be a road of no return to deeper Corruption.
No wonder the “Observer” reached the conclusion that Humanity must be destroyed.
If even the upper levels of human Society had begun to rot from the foundations, then that great ship called civilization was indeed not far from sinking.
Allen shivered, not because of the cool rain of the summer night, but from a bone-chilling cold toward this world’s future.
His Revolution might truly be the only way to save this world.
If the Sword-Bearing Nobles as a class were not uprooted completely, they would sooner or later become the Evil God’s claws and fangs, and the whole of human civilization would, under their rule, enter an eternal night of utter ruin.
“Comrade Victor, now you understand why I created ‘Dawn’s Children,’ don’t you?”
Victor glanced not far away.
Sophia the Nun was gently stroking Anna’s head. The girl who had just been so murderous was now as obedient as a cute drenched puppy.
This warm scene formed a sharp contrast with that despairing future, making the disgust and killing intent in his eyes even stronger.
“Comrade Allen, we must save Humanity, even if…” Victor tightened his grip on the sword hilt, his voice firm as iron in the rain. “The whole world turns into an abyss of a sea of blood.”
Under the black canopy of sky, rainwater gathered in the cracks between the alley’s stone slabs and pooled into patches of pitch-black puddles.
The water surface reflected the gloomy sky, but it was impossible to tell whether that dark color came from the dark clouds or from blood not yet washed clean.