Chapter 320: Holy Power Is Cheating (Patreon)

Twin swords erupted with golden light. The Holy Scripture, chained at his waist, swayed in the wind, its pages turned ceaselessly by the surging currents of air. Even his white robes were stained with a golden halo.

Haston's hair stood on end. A ring of gold had appeared in his pupils, and his whole body gave off an aura both sacred and overbearing.

Even the mist that had blanketed the field and blocked everyone's sight was pushed back a little.

Nanoda was speechless.

This Holy Power was a bit unfair, wasn't it?

Why did she keep running into people who could use Goddess's Magic? Anhadi III had managed it with a counterfeit Sword of the Hero, and now this man was wielding the Goddess's Magic straight out of the Holy Scripture.

A priest could also be a Hero?

Weren't priests supposed to be support? Standing at the very back with a scripture and a short rod, buffing allies, healing them, dispelling every sort of affliction, casting barriers to protect the party, and now and then throwing a ranged attack as a distraction?

Well, fine. The people of the Church of the New God weren't normal either, so it wasn't strange for someone in the Goddess's Order to do this.

Under the violent shock of Holy Power, Nanoda's Paradox Magic was being disrupted.

As always, Holy Power was extremely effective against monsters and the Demon Race.

Her skin ached faintly, stung by the Holy Power without pause.

Haston, who should have been unable to move under the Motion-and-Stillness Paradox, swung the sword in his hand. He was only a little slower than usual.

Stillness had been turned into slow motion.

She supposed that was only to be expected of the Goddess's magic…

Her broken horn was stopped by a longsword. When she swung the other broken horn, his second sword arrived to meet it. The weapons locked in a stalemate, and the clash turned into a contest of strength.

It wasn't that she wasn't fast enough. She was being suppressed by the vast Holy Power spilling out of him.

"You'll be the first Greater Demon I kill in the Northern lands. I never expected to meet such a tough opponent right off the bat. You've forced me to use everything I have!"

When Haston first became a Hero, he hadn't known he possessed Holy Power. After he was wounded and healed by a priest of the Goddess's Order, he was told that he carried an immensely powerful Holy Power within him. It was enough to make him a priest in the Hero's Party, a disciple of Heiter, and the successor to the next Bishop of the Goddess's Order.

But Haston gave up that chance. He chose to become the White-Robed Hero of vengeance, with the eradication of the Demon Race as the sole purpose of his life.

"At the end of vengeance, all you get is emptiness."

Nanoda was still trying to talk him down.

"I only need the satisfaction of this moment. As long as the Demon Race vanishes from this world, my life will have been worth it!"

Haston's blades grew heavier, and the golden radiance was dazzling.

He was someone who didn't know how to cherish his own life.

Then again, Nanoda didn't think she was in any position to lecture him.

Peace was a warm bed. After lying in it for so long, this beast that had burst into her room brought back a little of the feeling of walking through a torrential downpour.

"I just want to live. That's all."

Nanoda let go and released her force.

The sudden slack threw Haston, who had been locked in the contest of strength, off balance, and the paths of his two swords went astray.

As she drew her arms back, Nanoda poured her maximum Mana output into the Motion-and-Stillness Paradox Magic.

Haston's movements slowed down considerably once more.

The counterattack still fell just short.

Her broken horn wasn't long enough, and she could only leave a single scratch on Haston's face.

Because she had put everything into the Paradox Magic, she hadn't been able to cast Severance Magic.

"Haaaaaaaah!"

Wounded, Haston was like a beast whose tail had been stepped on. As he roared, his Holy Power swelled rapidly again, and a golden curtain of light spread out around him.

The moment the expanding curtain touched Nanoda, it flung her back about two feet.

"Killing Magic!"

In the instant she was knocked back, Nanoda swept out her hand and fired three bolts of Killing Magic.

The moment they touched the golden barrier, they weren't deflected. The Holy Power cancelled them out bit by bit until they finally dissipated.

Nanoda then tried a few ordinary and miniature Severance Magic attacks. They only left a few cracks in the barrier, which the Holy Power quickly repaired.

A priest's turtle shell was as hard as ever.

And this one was a Hero with both a shield and a sword.

"Lord Hero! Please let us support you!"

The commotion from Haston and Nanoda had been so great that some knights had already come running at the sound.

Now Nanoda had to deal not only with the White-Robed Hero but also with the troops arriving one after another.

Some time ago, against that powerful monster in the Holy City of the Church of the New God, Nanoda had already used her body's full strength once. The damage to her spirit, or rather her soul, from that time had not yet healed.

Irreversible damage…

"Deneb! Fall back for now!"

Nanoda paid no more attention to Haston inside his barrier. She leaped backward into the mist and vanished from everyone's sight.

Judging by the current state of the front, there was no need to stake everything yet.

She still had other trump cards.

"Damn it, you coward, don't run!"

Haston dropped the Holy Power barrier at once, and his slightly ragged breathing had already settled. He never imagined that this Demon Race member could run so fast.

*

Behind the southern front.

Just like Nanoda and Deneb on the front line, there were only two people here.

"Why did you send everyone off to the west?"

Jane stood barefoot, her white hair loose and untidy, her crimson eyes glinting faintly. She gazed out across the flat open plain, and she could just make out battle cries from somewhere far away.

"Everyone over there needs them more. With a Greater Demon like you here, Jane, we'll be fine."

It was a decision Yuna had made herself. Stabilizing the western and eastern battlefields mattered just as much, and since the enemy in the south was made up entirely of elites, these conscripted logistics soldiers would only be moths flying into a flame.

All that was left to do now was to trust Lady Nanoda, and Jane, and herself.

Yuna instinctively reached out to pat Jane on the head, but in the end she stopped her hand. Jane was like the sweet children at the orphanage, yet she was in fact older than Yuna by who knew how many years.

Her Mana capacity was several times greater than Yuna's, not to mention that undying magic, the kind that only appeared in legends.

"Mm! Jane is a Greater Demon. Very strong!"

The small, slight girl raised a pale finger to her mouth and bit down hard with her little fangs.

In an instant the blood transformed into a twisting, long serpent that burst out and took shape in Jane's hand as a giant scythe, nearly half again as tall as she was.

Jane held the scythe steadily, then let it rest slowly against her body.

Seeing this, Yuna tightened her grip on the staff in her hand, its spearhead a bright crimson.

"Please stay safe, Lady Nanoda."