Chương 68: Chapter : 68

Instantly, the hallway was blinded by a sudden, intense flash of pure white light. Ken had to cover his eyes with his arm. A bizarre, glowing weapon sprang to life from the hilt. It was not made of steel. It was a blade made entirely of shifting, humming, unstable radiant energy. It looked like a sword made out of a captured star. The holy energy coming off the weapon was so intense that the concrete walls around Francis actually began to crack and scorch just from being near it.

The air in the hallway instantly became heavy and difficult to breathe. The humming sound of the blade vibrated right into their teeth.

"Behold," Francis said, his voice rising with manic pride.

"I call it the Holy Sword Gospel. It converts raw, artificial holy mana into pure destruction. It is the future of warfare." Sayma took a step back, her face turning pale.

"That energy... it is incredibly unstable! If he swings that, the sheer output will destroy this entire floor!"

"Let him try!" Naomi shouted, completely fearless. Francis laughed again. He raised the glowing, humming blade high above his head. The light was so bright it cast deep, harsh shadows behind the team.

"Let us begin the experiment," Francis declared. With a swift, elegant motion, Francis swung the Holy Sword Gospel directly at the 13th Unit. He didn't even step forward. He just swung the blade through the air. A massive, terrifying wave of pure, blinding holy energy detached from the sword and rushed down the hallway. It was like a tsunami of white light. It tore up the floorboards, melted the ceiling lights, and threatened to instantly vaporize everything in its path.

"Absolute Hexagon!" Sayma screamed at the top of her lungs. She threw both of her hands forward. A massive, thick wall of glowing golden honeycomb barriers snapped into existence, covering the entire width of the hallway right in front of the team. The wave of holy energy slammed into Sayma's barrier. The impact was deafening. The entire fiftieth floor shook violently. Sayma gritted her teeth, her boots sliding backward across the floor as she struggled to hold the shield. CRACK.

A loud, terrifying sound echoed through the hallway. For the first time ever, Sayma's unbreakable Absolute Hexagon barrier actually began to splinter. Tiny, jagged cracks spread across the golden light. The Holy Sword Gospel was simply too powerful. The heat and the pressure were overwhelming. Naomi couldn't find an opening to dash through, and Princess Iris was forced to shield her face from the blinding light.

And right behind them, Ken Eliot was watching the whole thing, realizing that his peaceful morning was officially over. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Hold on, Sayma!" Princess Iris shouted over the roaring noise of the holy energy. She stepped up right behind her Vice-Captain, placing a supportive hand on Sayma's back to keep her from sliding any further. Sayma was sweating profusely. Her thick glasses were slipping down her nose, but she didn't have a free hand to push them back up. She poured every single ounce of her mana into the golden honeycomb shield, but the cracks were getting bigger.

"The pressure is too high!" Sayma yelled, her voice straining.

"The holy energy is eating right through my magic! If I drop the barrier, we will be vaporized!" Naomi gripped her daggers so hard her knuckles turned white. She was bouncing lightly on her toes, her green wind magic flaring up, desperately looking for a way around the massive wave of light.

"I can't see an opening! The hallway is too narrow! If I try to run past the shield, that light will melt my skin right off my bones!" Francis stood at the other end of the hallway, watching them struggle. He let out a loud, arrogant laugh. He slowly raised the Holy Sword Gospel again, preparing to swing a second time.

"Fascinating!" Francis called out, acting like a scientist taking notes on a clipboard.

"The barrier is holding up slightly longer than my calculations predicted! But it doesn't matter. One more strike will completely shatter your defenses. Prepare to become ashes for the sake of progress!" Behind the struggling girls, Ken Eliot was putting on a masterclass of fake panic.

"Oh my gosh! My eyes! It is like staring directly into the sun!" Ken screamed at the top of his lungs, waving his hands frantically in front of his face. He started running in tiny, panicked circles, completely ignoring the deadly battle.

"Who brings a laser beam to a sword fight?! This is totally unfair! Turn it off! Turn it off! I forgot my sunglasses at home!" He looked absolutely ridiculous. He was flailing his arms and stomping his feet like a terrified child. But underneath the loud screaming and the goofy, scared faces, Ken's mind was completely calm. He evaluated the glowing weapon in Francis's hand with total boredom.

"Man, that sword is way too bright," Ken thought to himself casually.

"It is actually giving me a headache. Sayma is doing a great job, but that shiny toy is just pumping out raw, unfiltered energy. If he swings it again, the hallway is going to collapse, and I really don't want to fall fifty floors down to the lobby. I guess I better break his new toy so we can move on." Ken didn't need to use a massive, flashy attack. He didn't need to summon his own sword or reveal his dark Sovereign magic. He just needed to create a tiny, invisible accident.

As Ken ran around in his fake panic, he made sure to run right toward a perfectly obvious, broken piece of concrete rubble sitting on the floor.

"Ahhhh! Help me!" Ken yelled. He intentionally stepped right onto the piece of rubble. He let out a loud, comical yelp.

"Whoops!" Ken threw his arms wildly into the air and tripped, falling forward in a totally clumsy, uncontrolled dive. He looked like a complete idiot falling face-first toward the dirty floor. But as he was falling, hidden perfectly behind the chaotic movements of his wildly flailing arms, Ken secretly flicked his right wrist. He gathered a microscopic, hyper-dense drop of gravity magic into his fingertip. It was so small that not even Sayma's highly trained magical senses could detect it.

He fired the invisible gravity pulse directly across the hallway, aiming with absolute, pinpoint precision. The invisible pulse shot through the air and hit the exact center of the Holy Sword Gospel's glowing metal hilt. Ken hit the floor with a loud, totally fake thud.

"Ow! My nose!" he complained loudly, rubbing his face into the dirt. At the exact same moment, the gravity pulse did its job. It didn't break the sword in half. It just violently scrambled the highly sensitive, unstable runes inside the weapon's core. Francis was just about to swing the sword for a second time when the weapon suddenly let out a terrible, screeching, mechanical whine. The blinding white light of the blade flickered wildly, turning from pure white to a sickly, sputtering yellow.

"What?" Francis gasped, his arrogant smile vanishing instantly.

"No, no, no! The core output is destabilizing! Why is the energy flow reversing?!"