Summoning the Holy Sword

The brilliance was so dazzling that the moment the meteor flew past, it was as if a giant searchlight flashing through the sky and enveloping everyone. At the next moment, the meteor flew toward the beacon tower that shone like a pillar of light. An overwhelmingly bright radiance enfolded the entire world and soon after, the figure of a battle angel emerged from it.

“Miss Celia!”

Canary widened her eyes and stared at Celia in some astonishment. Of course, she had met Rhode’s holy sword spirits and was familiar with Celia. And now, upon seeing Celia standing there so casually, Canary felt rather surprised. Not only that, but Canary also noticed that Celia’s outfit seemed different than usual.

Her armor of the battle angels was gone, only to be replaced by a pure-white, shiny, and high-grade-looking set of armor. Furthermore, the sword in her hand was no longer what it used to be; it looked more like a lightsaber coalesced from light now. Upon hearing Canary’s voice, Celia lowered her head and nodded to her and Lydia. Shortly after, she gripped the hilt of her sword with both hands and gazed forward calmly and sternly.

Something isn’t right!

At that moment, Canary sensed the problem. Previously, due to her over-consumption of power, her perception had weakened. And now, upon witnessing Celia’s odd reaction, Canary discovered the source of the problem. She turned around and looked ahead hurriedly, only to witness from the far side of the horizon, a cloudy fog was spreading at a rapid pace.

Where the fog was coalescing, one could clearly see the scorched earth turning muddy as if it were washed away by a rainstorm. Not only that, but layers of filthy green also emerged from the burnt soil as if a pigment had fallen into the water and spread throughout. Soon after, large tracts of land turned green. But the green wasn’t that of the vibrant plants. Instead, they were full of distortion as if some kind of disgusting, sticky existence. Just looking at them made Canary nauseous.

“Chaos Lord.”

“It is about time for them to show up as well. Seems like everything is as His Majesty Rhode predicted.”

Despite that, Lydia seemed unaffected about the emergence of the Chaos Lords. In fact, this was something that Rhode had already reminded everyone of earlier. In the previous attack on the Country of Darkness, there had been several Chaos Lords attacking them at once, so it was expected that they would do it again here. Besides, this time was different.

Back then, it was the fool, Ion, who commanded the attack. On the other hand, with the nature of Chaos, they objected to this type of battle the most. That was why as soon as something went wrong, the Chaos Lords fled the battle immediately. But it was different now. Chaos launched an all-encompassing and spontaneous attack on the Dragon Soul Continent. Thus, the Chaos Lords surely wouldn’t escape like before.

“There’s two of them—companion-type Chaos Lords.”

In terms of strength, Canary might not be as strong as Lydia. But in terms of knowledge of Chaos, she was no less than Rhode. In the blink of an eye, Canary was certain that two Chaos Lords appeared in front of her. One in the form of a fog, while the other was a green lump over the ground. Although she didn’t know their attributes, she was able to recognize them at a glance, which showed that her fundamentals were strong.

“I never expected two Chaos Lords to be here.”

Lydia didn’t have any doubts about Canary’s judgment. She also knew very well that in this regard, Canary and Mini Bubble Gum were considered experienced fighters with hundreds of battles under their belts and definitely knew much better than herself. Hence, Lydia didn’t comment much, but held down her hands instead. In the blink of an eye, two beautifully decorated swords like art pieces appeared in her hands. The archangel looked at Canary and smiled.

“Well then, leave the rest to me, Miss Canary. As the owner, it’s not always a good idea to watch from the sidelines, is it?”

Lydia said and winked at Canary playfully. The latter witnessed a flash and at the next moment, Lydia disappeared before her eyes. When Canary turned around, all she saw were two blade rays that almost split the sky apart.

The archangel flapped her wings and soared into the azure sky. The brilliant sunlight shrouded her body and she emanated an incomparably holy light. And under this dazzling radiance, the expanded dense fog let out a high-pitched scream that was enough to make one faint, before tumbling backward to retreat hurriedly and allowing the green earth to be exposed to the sun. And just as the fog retreated, the big, green lump like a muddy ground suddenly rose up in a violent rage. In an instant, Canary witnessed the land stretching like dough, turning into huge, thick tentacles that struck at Lydia.

But the archangel was clearly not one who could be killed so easily. The instant the green land moved, Lydia chuckled, fluttered her wings, and darted to the side. At the same time, she swung down the sword in her left hand.

Canary didn’t witness any rippling blade airwaves. The only thing she saw was that the instant Lydia attacked, the land split apart. Without any warning, the huge, pitch-black gorge extended across the land like a spiderweb. The tentacle that leaped up to entangle Lydia was also sliced in two at that moment. Lydia held the sword in her right hand and swung it horizontally. Soon after, the thick, massive tentacle was chopped in midair, before shrieking and crashing to the ground.

“———!”

As the ear-deafening screech echoed, scarlet eyeballs appeared over the green ruptured land one after another. They were eyeballs of bugs, humans, and animals emerging like bubbles and glaring at Lydia evilly. Under the ferocious gaze, Canary couldn’t help but shiver. However, Lydia didn’t seem to sense their ill-intention at all. On the contrary, the moment the eyeballs showed up, Lydia raised her arms and criss-crossed the two exquisite swords in her hands before her. Soon after, sunlight blasted from above.

Even though Canary witnessed this attack once on the moon base, she still couldn’t help but be astounded after seeing it again. The instant Lydia lay out her swords, the harmless sunlight that enveloped the land suddenly became ‘substantial’. Under her control, the innocuous brilliance transformed into bullets.

It was imaginable just how even the toughest creatures would fall in this constant barrage of bullets. At that moment, the Chaos Lord suffered the same. After Lydia summoned the power of the sun, its gigantic and incomparably strong body covering the land became its most lethal weakness. Sunlight penetrated into the ground and shattered the green, muddy surface into bits.

It was apparent that the Chaos Lord was completely unaware that Lydia possessed such strength. At that moment, it was like a soldier facing heavy German artillery fire during the invasion of Normandy¹ with no possibility of escape. Although it waved its tentacles repeatedly and emanated Chaos beams in its eyes in an attempt to fight Lydia, the sky was entirely Lydia’s home turf under the enveloping sunlight.

The tentacles that just coalesced were immediately torn apart before they struck. The Chaos beams that emanated vanished before they even reached Lydia. The earth crumbled like a sandpit and amidst the roaring and shattering explosions, the size of the sandpit also expanded. The Chaos Lord tried to use the power of the earth to consume Lydia’s attack. But it didn’t expect her strength to exceed the limit of what it could take. And now, it was apparent that it was too late for it to retreat.

At that moment, upon seeing his ‘comrade’ insulted, the other Chaos Lord, who was the fog, let out an odd shriek and made a comeback. The pitch-black fog gathered to form thick layers of cloud in the instant they covered the sky. Although no one knew what the clouds were made of, it was apparent that they weren’t substantial. Because under the cloud cover, the dazzling sunlight grew faint. And along with the emergence of the cloud cover, the power of the sun weakened. Soon after, the endless, powerful strikes became ineffective, while the land that was bombarded with huge holes coalesced and refilled themselves as if it was planning to start over again.

“This looks like trouble.”

Lydia raised an eyebrow and looked at the thick clouds above her. The clouds spread so fast that in just a few moments, they covered almost two-thirds of the sky. If it weren’t for the fact that Canary’s line of defense was blessed with the protection of the Holy Maiden Statue, perhaps the entire world would have already plunged into darkness by now.

The situation was disadvantageous for Lydia.

Canary also frowned. Of course, she knew how strong Lydia was. But no matter how powerful her skills were, she still needed to rely on sunlight to unleash them. Not only that, but she would also consume a lot of power by doing so. In the game, the reason why Lydia died in battle was that she lost the power of sunlight and expended too much of her strength. And now, even though she could still defeat the two Chaos Lords before her at full strength, there were still more Chaos Lords at the back. What if they were waiting at the rear and preparing to strike?

Do I have to do it myself?

The moment Canary clenched her fists and about to summon the power of wind and fire to spar against the enemies again, she stole a glance at Celia, who stood beside her, out of the corner of her eye. The battle angel stood firmly at the top of the beacon tower, not moving an inch. Canary and Lydia knew very well that the main goal of Rhode’s holy sword spirits was to protect the beacon tower from being destroyed—at least for now. However, facing the battle before her, Celia couldn’t stand idly by any longer.

Celia gripped the hilt with both hands and raised the sword high above her head. Along with this movement, her elegant wings trembled constantly and soft rays of light emanated from the gaps of the feathers, glowing in all directions.

Does she have a way?

This scene piqued Canary’s curiosity. She didn’t understand the strength of Rhode’s holy sword spirits. But according to her projected self and Mini Bubble Gum, the holy sword spirits seemed to be slightly weaker than players. Of course, after learning about their mental worlds, Canary also knew that the abilities the holy sword spirits displayed perhaps wasn’t their true strength. But even so, Canary still wasn’t certain of Celia’s abilities. Lydia was already struggling against the two Chaos Lords, so how could Celia be able to take them on at once?

Soon after, Celia proved it to Canary with her actions.

Celia lifted the sword in her hand slowly. Her movement was so steady that it seemed to Canary that it wasn’t a lightsaber in Celia’s hands, but some kind of terrifying existence that weighed more than Mount Tai¹ Not only that, but Canary also observed that the higher Celia lifted the lightsaber, the brighter the brilliance in the gaps of her feathers, so much so that the moment she raised the sword over her head, her wings turned completely into two wings of light without physical presence!

Immediately after, Celia gripped the sword of light in her hand and swung down with all her might!

The world turned white at that moment.

There was no other color. Shadows vanished and everything was devoured by whiteness, leaving behind silhouettes accentuated by dark outlines. At a glance, everything was like a simple stroke that brushed the outline. Pure white light shrouded and swallowed everything in sight as if it were the instant the sun rose from the horizon. Nothing could stop a brilliance of such extent.

The blinding glow lasted for only a moment. But to Canary, it was as if a long time had passed. She didn’t know when the light disappeared, but the moment she came back to her senses, the two Chaos Lords were no longer in sight. Lydia was the only one hovering silently in midair, gazing at the clear sky and earth.

It’s over.

Looking at this scene, Canary let out a long breath and shifted her gaze to Celia with complicated emotions.

Is this the true power of the holy sword spirit? The true power of light that not even Lydia can match?

Although Canary witnessed Celia’s power with her own eyes, the former didn’t put her mind at ease. But instead, she grew worried. After all, with such amazing powers like Celia’s, just how strong was Chaos the that caused Rhode and his younger sister to be worried about not being able to guard the beacon power?

At that moment, as if responding to Canary’s doubts, a thunderous roar echoed in the sky.

Upon hearing the loud rumble, Canary was bewildered. She turned hurriedly to the area where the sound came from and soon, her expression changed dramatically. Right before her eyes, the sky was obscured.

But this time, it wasn’t the thick fog earlier, but an even more massive and terrifying existence that covered one-third of the sky. A Chaos Lord like a gigantic whale peeked out from the clouds and fog. His scarlet eyes were filled with death and madness overflowing with killing intent as he stared at his enemies.

Not only that, but the moment the whale appeared, Canary also saw millions of Chaos creatures resurfaced behind it as if responding to the calls of its lord. Even after suffering defeat from two waves, the Chaos creatures didn’t seem to be afraid at all. On the contrary, they crowded ahead wildly, letting out ear-piercing screeches and devouring everything ahead of them. Countless creatures twisted their bodies, revealed their snowy and razor-sharp teeth and advanced frantically.

At that moment, Lydia had returned to the floating magical warship, watching the scene in front of her solemnly. Shortly after, she raised her hand and snapped her fingers. Along with this action, battle angels appeared from the floating warship one after another. They gripped their weapons tightly and their faces turned serious as they stared at the enemies ahead.

Even though the presence of Chaos was massive, so much so that it could crumble one’s mind into despair, there wasn’t a single hint of abandonment in the eyes of the battle angels. There was only perseverance in them. They would use their bodies to build a wall to hold back Chaos’ assault on Order. The air froze and the atmosphere from the pre-war filled the battlefield to the point where it left one breathless.

And at that moment, Canary clearly understood that the war between Order and Chaos had just begun.