◈29. The Reason Why He Must See the Letter
Bliss dismissed my actions in keeping the letter protected as nothing more than a childish tantrum.
But he was wrong.
I was more sincere now than ever before.
I wanted to teach this bastard a lesson.
Not only had he attacked me, but he had also shoved Thomas aside and injured him.
I wasn’t about to let that slide.
‘Stay calm. Losing my temper and charging head-on recklessly would be a dumb move.’
After making that judgment, I took a step back.
Then, I grabbed a decorative vase from nearby and hurled it straight in his direction.
SMASH!
Bliss swung his arm, shattering the vase mid-air.
The vase didn’t hit him, but that didn’t matter.
I had thrown it expecting him to smash it.
The broken shards scattered everywhere, momentarily obscuring his vision—
WHOOSH!
‘NOW!’
Seizing the moment, I swiftly closed the distance and swung my weapon horizontally.
Aimed at Bliss’s neck, fully prepared to break his spine.
“Commander-nim, take a look at this.”
While overseeing the training of the holy knights at the training grounds, her deputy suddenly approached Luciana and carefully handed her a sword.
At first glance, it looks like an ordinary sword.
But upon closer inspection—
“…Frost? In this weather?”
A thin layer of ice had formed along the sword’s surface.
And in this warm weather, no less.
“Could it be due to High Priest Bliss’s influence?”
“It is possible. It doesn’t seem like a natural phenomenon… and the only person nearby capable of producing such cold energy would be Bliss-nim.”
It wasn’t common for an Awakened to create such a phenomenon.
Even Luciana, who is an A-class, had caused a similar phenomenon once in the past, but—
She had never generated something on such a large scale.
Only an exceptionally powerful Awakener, one whose emotions had completely spiraled out of control, could unleash something like this.
‘This is dangerous.’
There were rumors painted Bliss as a madman, but in all the times Luciana had encountered him, he had always been collected and even somewhat playful.
For him to be this emotionally unstable meant something serious was happening.
And if he lost control completely—
‘There aren’t many people in the Holy Order strong enough to stop him… Should I go and calm him down right now?”
As Luciana was weighing her options,
A commotion spread among the training knights.
“A light?! What is happening?”
“Where’s it coming from?”
“Isn’t that… the direction of His Holiness’ office?”
The Pope’s Office.
Upon hearing that, Luciana immediately snapped her head around to look.
And there it was—
From the window of Nikellus’s office―
“Light…….”
A radiant golden light was spreading, shining brightly even in broad daylight.
So brilliantly, as someone had plucked the sun from the sky and placed it there.
This was another phenomenon caused by one of the two S-rank Awakened in the Order…
Nikellus.
The other S-rank Awakener besides Bliss.
The moment I swung my weapon, light flowed out uncontrollably.
From my body, and from my weapons.
Thanks to that, I realized just how emotionally charged I was, as much as Bliss.
His freezing cold and my radiant light clashed violently,
Filling the room with chaos.
But even as the temperature plummeted, even as the room turned blindingly bright,
I did not stop swinging my weapon.
CLANG!
The deafening sound of metal colliding rang out loudly.
Bliss barely managed to raise his blade to protect his neck from my mace.
It’s true that I had swung with intent to kill him, but I didn’t expect him to be able to stop me.
Even so I didn’t hesitate and just pushed him back.
“……!”
Bliss stiffened, visibly startled.
The buff effects had significantly boosted my strength, making me far stronger than he anticipated.
He braced himself, trying to withstand the force, but it was pointless.
Nevertheless, there was a limit to how long he could hold out without any buffs of his own.
Within seconds, his back slammed against the wall.
With him pinned down, I leaned in and spoke in a low voice.
“You just handed me the perfect excuse.”
“…….”
“I mean, thanks to you pulling a damn weapon on me, I now have a solid justification to kill you.”
Up until now, the church had been turning a blind eye to his suspicious activities solely because of his royal lineage.
There was no justification for laying a hand on a member of the royal family without a solid reason.
But now?
If I killed him right here and now, no one would be able to argue against it.
He barged in, weapon drawn, and attacked the Pope.
I could simply claim self-defense.
“If you don’t stop here, you’ll die whether you win or lose. If you lose, I’ll kill you. If you win, the knights who’ll come after you will finish the job.”
“…….”
“The only difference is how and when you die. So—”
In that state, I applied more force and forcefully slammed my mace into his weapons.
“Put your weapon down and take your beating like a good boy!”
CLANG!
A sharp metallic screech rang through the room—
And one of his scythe-like blades snapped in half before crashing to the ground.
His weapon had two overlapping blades, which allowed him to use them like scissors to defend against my attacks.
But with one of them destroyed, his defense was crippled.
I figured he’d surrender at this point, but—
—Grrrrr…
Something pale and eerie began to gather around him, emitting a strange noise.
The bizarre substance swirling around Bliss gradually seeped into the remaining blade he held.
It wasn’t hard to figure out what was happening.
‘He’s activating his skill?!’
Bliss was done holding back.
Even after pulling a weapon on me, now he was going all-in and using a skill.
Realizing the danger, I immediately stepped back to assess the situation.
The air around him froze over—
A deadly, bone-chilling cold seeped from his blade.
That familiar frost…
‘The Blue Nails of Frozen Corpses… that’s what this is, isn’t it?’
「The Blue Nails of Frozen Corpses」
An A-rank attack skill that imbued a weapon with the vengeance and icy grip of the dead.
Anyone cut by that blade wouldn’t just suffer physical wounds—
They’d be cursed by the resentment of the frozen dead.
Up until now, I’d only used buff skills to boost my own strength.
That meant I could adjust my attacks to avoid killing him.
But if I got hit by that―
“……!”
I didn’t have time to finish the thought.
Bliss lunged forward, swinging his blade straight at me.
Several holy knights rushed toward the Pope’s office at a brisk pace to quell the situation.
Leading them at the front, Luciana turned to Rubin with urgency.
“Are you absolutely sure he was armed? High Priest Bliss?”
“Yes! I saw it clearly! We need to hurry!”
Luciana gritted her teeth in frustration.
Bliss.
Not only had he incapacitated the Pope’s personal guards, but he had also attacked his aide, Thomas.
Moreover, the fact that he was so emotionally charged that he was spreading frost meant he was now attacking His Holiness himself.
Bliss had always been an unpredictable wild card—
But this?
This was insanity.
Luciana couldn’t stand it.
Not just because Bliss had lost control—
But because she was furious at herself.
She should have been more careful.
She should have prioritized His Holiness’ safety sooner.
“Commander-nim!”
Luciana’s second-in-command shout made her stop in her tracks.
They were just about to ascend the stairs leading to the office.
Once they ascended these stairs, they would reach the office in no time, but there was a slight problem preventing further movement.
“……What should we do?”
The vice-captain asked, poking the air with his fingertip.
An invisible pressure prickled against their skin, sharp and unrelenting.
The overwhelming auras of two S-rank Awakeners were saturating the air.
For someone of Luciana’s rank (A-rank) or higher, enduring this wasn’t impossible.
But the ordinary knights following her were at risk from the overwhelming aura of the high-ranking Awakened.
As a result, no one dared to approach the Pope’s office.
The knights lingered nearby, restless but unable to move forward.
The surrounding priests had also backed away, casting anxious glances at one another.
Luciana took it all in and issued a firm command.
“Step back. I’ll handle this.”
At her words, the deputy-commander swiftly ordered the knights to retreat.
The priests, following suit, also pulled away to a safer distance.
Once everyone was at a safe distance, she activated one of her skills.
SAAAAA―
A gentle breeze stirred through the air.
It was soft.
Like the whisper of wind brushing through grass.
Then, starting from Luciana’s feet—
A lush, green light spread outward.
Someone who was watching the scene muttered quietly.
“……A forest.”
In the beginning, before birds or insects existed, the forest was silent.
A primordial forest, vast enough to cover the earth, yet infinitely serene…
Luciana’s skill, 「The Silent Primordial Forest」, recreated a fragment of that forest within a five-meter radius.
It was an L-rank area skill.
Anything that entered this domain would be overwhelmed by its solemn tranquility and settle into calmness.
It did not matter if it was a person, a monster—
Or even the violent killing intent that had seeped into the air.
The moment they entered this space—
All things were suppressed.
A calm, earthy scent filled the surrounding air as the deputy-commander spoke up.
“Commander-nim, the air feels much lighter now. The oppressive aura has been partially dispersed.”
“We don’t have much time. My skill won’t last long, Move. NOW.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The knights responded resolutely and began to move through the recreated forest.
The Pope’s office, where the battle was likely taking place, was gradually coming into view.
Under normal circumstances, Bliss’s blade wouldn’t have come anywhere near me.
It was a close-range attack, meant to strike only those who got too close.
But with his skill activated, the situation changed entirely.
WHOOSH―
A sharp cold air generated by the power of the skill spread out from the arc of his swing.
It fanned out widely and far.
The frost quickly closed in on where I stood—
Damn it!
CRACKLE!
The wall behind me froze over in a long line following the path of his blade.
If I hadn’t quickly ducked my head to dodge, my upper body would have suffered the same fate.
The ice that formed even without the blade directly touching the wall…
A blade imbued with such cold energy was dangerous even with a glancing blow.
WHEEK!
Another wave of freezing air rushed toward me.
Fortunately, since he was projecting the frost from a distance, the speed was slower.
Even so, constantly dodging as far as possible was draining my stamina. And then—
“……!!”
Bliss suddenly hurled his blade straight at me.
The blade grazed me before I could fully dodge, and my forearm froze instantly, without even a moment to feel the pain.
Damn!
The muscles, blood vessels, and bones in my forearms were freezing.
If it had been a monster attack, it would have been purified automatically with the power of the Holy Inviolable Pact skill.
But this was only a human skill.
Which meant—
My divine defenses were useless.
Since it wasn’t a power of ‘evil attribute’ like a curse or a monster attack, it couldn’t be blocked even with the Holy Inviolable skill.
And if I didn’t take care of it quickly, my arm might not recover, but there was no opening to act.
At some point, Bliss had already retracted his blade by pulling on the chain attached to it.
—Grrrr… Grrrrrr….
The spirit-infused chains slithered through the air like living serpents, coiling protectively around Bliss.
This was the same skill he had used back when he captured the succubus—
「Aid of the Departed」.
Due to the power of the spirits embedded in the chains, the blade he threw attacked me from all directions, changing its trajectory at will.
It twisted midair, constantly shifting its path—
Striking from unexpected angles with inhuman precision.
A ranged attack was already annoying.
But a ranged attack that moved unpredictably?
That was downright obnoxious.
‘I need to deal with this damn chain first.’
Ideally, I had to sever it completely.
If that wasn’t an option, I at least needed to restrain it somehow.
But no matter how hard I looked, there was nowhere to secure the chain.
Well, there was one place.
There was an object nearby capable of restraining that chain.
It was just…
A little closer than I would have liked.
After much deliberation, I waited for Bliss’ chain to come towards me, then held the mace upside down.
CRUNCH-!!
I slammed the mace down onto the chain with all my strength.
The handle of the mace had a sharp, conical decoration, and when I drove it into the ground, it sank deep, pinning the chain firmly in place.
Tight enough that no matter how much Bliss pulls, it wouldn’t budge.
‘Gotcha!’
With the chain secured, I rushed at him—
THUD!
My fist struck his abdomen.
Of course, with the buff from my skill multiplying my strength several times over, I didn’t use my full power.
That would’ve killed him.
Still, his golden eyes shook violently, his body tensing from the sheer pain.
He nearly collapsed, but I wasn’t done.
I grabbed him by the collar as he staggered and slammed him against the wall.
“Talk.”
Miraculously, he didn’t pass out and instead glared at me with open eyes.
I looked straight into his golden eyes, which were blurry from the pain, and shouted again.
“Why are you going berserk over a single letter? Spit it out!”
