Wendelina was shocked by the girl's reckless, life-forfeiting fighting style, but for the first time, a trace of anger also welled up from the depths of her heart.
“If you don't even care for your own body, how can you protect anyone else?”
Facing Amore's practically self-destructive style, Wendelina stopped holding back. She felt she had to teach her a harsh lesson regardless of the cost; otherwise, the girl would surely die of her own recklessness and negligence one day in the future.
Wendelina raised her hand and thrust her longsword of condensed flame forward. In the blink of an eye, it pierced right through Amore's chest.
“Cough—”
The girl's eyes went wide. She coughed up a mouthful of crimson blood and stared at her chest in disbelief.
Was the gap between them actually this massive?
Her opponent hadn't been taking her seriously from the very beginning!
Intense pain flared from her chest, yet Amore's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
“Cough, cough... As expected of a Sacred Knight. If I had power like this... I wouldn't lose anything ever again, would I?”
As she spoke, she raised her head, looking at Wendelina with eyes that shone brilliantly.
At that moment, a sudden, ominous premonition surged in Wendelina's heart. Without giving it a second thought, she violently beat her wings of flame and lunged at the girl before her.
“Sa—”
Just as Amore opened her mouth, about to utter that name once more, the crimson figure appeared right before her and planted a heavy fist squarely on her face.
“Shut up!”
In an unorthodox and extremely violent manner, Wendelina cut short the girl's attempt to release her True Name again.
Staring at Amore, who was wobbling while clutching her cheek, she roared angrily, “Are you trying to kill yourself?!”
“Bah.” Amore turned her head to spit out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, her gaze fixed on Wendelina with sheer ferocity. “Heretic! I will make sure to drag you to hell before I die!”
The girl's piety and resolve caught Wendelina by surprise. If they had met twenty or thirty years earlier, they might have even become friends.
But now, they were enemies.
“Heh.”
Wendelina laughed with a hint of mockery. “And how do you plan to do that? By recklessly releasing your True Name over and over?”
“Or do you think you're the only one who can release their True Name again?”
“You're welcome to try!” Amore gritted her teeth.
Wendelina didn't rise to the provocation. Instead, she shifted her gaze back to the boy on the ground.
“The body belongs to you, so of course you can ruin it as recklessly as you please. But why don't you guess whether the Holy See is worried about your safety?”
She already had the answer in her heart as she asked this. Without a doubt, he would.
If that boy didn't care about her life and death at all, why would he have personally saved her from the trial?
“Shut up! Heretic, you are not worthy of mentioning the Holy See!”
Fury flared in Amore's eyes. How could she not know of the Holy See's worry? His gaze had been on her the entire time!
But she had no choice. She was too weak—so weak that she wasn't even capable of protecting that boy.
That was why she had to give everything she had, even if it meant betting her life.
Amore gripped her greatsword tightly. While Wendelina stared at the boy she was risking her life to protect, Amore herself didn't dare to look down.
She was afraid—afraid that the moment she looked at him, her courage would crumble away like a coward's.
He was her weakness.
She was not brave and fearless like she appeared at all; she was actually incredibly cowardly, so easily frightened that even a rat suddenly darting out could scare her out of her wits.
Yet she had never once thought about running away with him. She feared that once the thought of fleeing took root, she would never have the courage to grasp her weapon again.
Those who could not fight would only end up as useless trash, and trash had no right to stand by his side.
“I was executing heretics with my own hands before you were even born!” Wendelina shook her head, sounding somewhat helpless. “Do you not want to hear why I am here today?”
“Hmph! A heretic is a heretic. Even if you were once a Sacred Knight, there is no denying the fact that you have fallen!”
Although Amore spoke harshly, she ultimately did not strike again.
She understood that the enemy before her was not someone she could easily defeat in her current state. If she wanted to triumph, she had to find a weakness.
Wendelina smiled, seemingly no longer caring about being called a “heretic.”
“When I was young, I grew up listening to stories of the Holy City. Everyone said Vipris was a true Heaven on Earth, a place full of sunshine, flowers, and happiness, where everyone loved the Lord and the Lord blessed the people.”
“So when I grew up, I came here with deep piety toward the Lord, arriving in this ‘Heaven on Earth’ called Vipris. However, I discovered that everything here wasn't quite like the Heaven I had imagined.”
“The sunlight here wasn't any brighter than in my hometown, nor did the flowers bloom all year round. As for happiness... those who had it kept it, while those who didn't could never obtain it.”
“I was truly disappointed back then. The nobles lived luxurious lives, yet no one cared about the children wandering the streets; the priests prayed for all living things in their bright churches, yet they never stopped for souls on the verge of death.”
Her voice was soft, as if she were telling a story that had nothing to do with her:
“Later, I understood that everything the Lord arranged had its own profound meaning. My inability to understand was simply because my heart wasn't pious enough.”
“And so, from that day on, I became a knight.”
“My luck seemed quite good. Perhaps the Lord's gaze had even briefly fallen upon me.”
Wendelina smiled and continued:
“I was found to have the aptitude to use a Holy Relic armament, and then I became a proud Holy Relic Knight.”
“Not long after I became a Holy Relic Knight, the War of Heaven broke out.”
The War of Heaven!
Amore's eyelids twitched. When the War of Heaven broke out, she hadn't even been born yet.
“Countless demons descended from hell. To protect the mortal world, the Holy State organized an expeditionary force composed entirely of Holy Relic Knights, and I happened to be among them.”
“The War of Heaven lasted for an entire decade, and the expeditionary force's crusade against the demons also lasted for an entire decade. It was during that time that I became a Sacred Knight.”
Wendelina spoke of it casually, but Amore's heart raced as she listened.
She knew Wendelina had participated in that expedition, but she had never expected her to be part of that army from the very beginning.
In that expedition back then, the young knights were practically treated as expendable fodder. Only a mere handful of the knights who initially joined the ranks survived to the end.
“Even if you made such a contribution, that is still no excuse for you to betray our doctrines,” Amore said coldly.
Wendelina offered no explanation, only speaking softly:
“Actually, from that moment on, a question took root in my heart.”
“Is God... truly all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good?”
As she finished speaking, Amore's eyes suddenly narrowed. Yet, Wendelina's next words sent a violent tremor through Amore's entire body.
“Not long ago, my daughter died. She died on the battlefields of Northland.”
“Yet the murderer who killed her received salvation through authority granted by the Lord.”
“And so, the question from years ago surfaced in my mind once again. I racked my brains, yet I could not think of any answer.”
“Thus, I decided to put it to the test, to see if the all-knowing and all-powerful God indeed knows whether the Pope He chose will die here today.”
Rate on N.U.
