Chapter 109 | The Vampire Princess Later Drew the Holy Sword

Esper tightened her grip on her Holy Sword.

“Noelle.”

“Leave it to me. This is one of my responsibilities, after all.”

『Authority: Hope』

『Authority Manifestation: Where Destiny Points』

Three lights burst from the Holy Sword at the same time.

Azure, crimson, and green.

『Storm』, 『Blood』, and 『Gluttony』.

The circuits of the three Authorities lit up at the exact same moment.

Normally, Esper wouldn't be able to activate three Authorities at once. Her mana capacity couldn't withstand that level of consumption.

But she wasn't fighting alone.

She still had Noelle.

Noelle linked her mana with Esper's, allowing her to be used as an external power source.

Thus, the three Authorities were unleashed.

『Authority Manifestation: Forbidden Fruit』

The three runes of 「Momentum」, 「Rigidity」, and 「Compression」 surfaced on Esper's arms and the face of the Holy Sword, weaving together and merging. Power condensed within her muscles and bones, casting a faint golden luster over the blade of the Holy Sword.

Then, she began to charge her attack.

Wind surged toward the tip of her sword from all directions.

There were originally no clouds in the sky, but at this moment, the air above the Black Tide began to rotate, compress, and tear apart. Lightning crackled, born within the swirling vortex of wind.

『Authority Manifestation: Terminal Spiral』

A vortex of wind and lightning that swallowed and destroyed everything began to take shape.

At the same time, crimson light gushed from Esper's wrists.

The moment her blood left her body, it materialized into a physical form, condensing beneath her feet and lifting her up.

『Authority Manifestation: Beast of Blood』

The blood spread across the surface of the Black Tide, solidifying beneath Esper into a massive warhorse.

The Beast of Blood galloped across the surface of the Black Tide, charging toward the temple.

The solar disk rotated.

Its golden pupil locked onto the moving Esper, and a new pillar of light shot out from the solar disk.

The warhorse leaped violently to the left. The pillar of light grazed its right side, vaporizing a trench dozens of meters long into the Black Tide.

A miss.

“Oh? So fast?”

Atop the temple, Beatrice raised an eyebrow.

The solar disk charged once more, with an even shorter interval this time.

The next pillar of light fell.

The Beast of Blood dodged to the right. The pillar of light swept past its left side. The searing heat scorched the beast's left forelimb, but new blood immediately gushed from Esper's body, repairing the damage.

Fifty meters left to the temple.

The fifth pillar.

The Beast of Blood leaped into the air. The pillar of light pierced directly beneath it, blasting a ten-meter-deep crater where it had stood just a moment ago.

Thirty meters.

“Hmm~ Nice moves.”

Beatrice rested her Holy Sword on her shoulder, tilting her head as she watched Esper draw closer.

“But...”

She raised her left hand, her fingers poised to flick.

“This is Beya's world, you know.”

She flicked her fingers.

The Black Tide moved.

Starting from beneath her feet.

The black liquid climbed up the limbs of the Beast of Blood like a living thing, spreading upward.

“Get out of there!”

Wings suddenly sprouted from the back of the Beast of Blood, violently hoisting it into midair.

But the Black Tide had already touched it.

In that instant, something changed.

The air grew heavy.

It wasn't an increase in gravity in a physical sense, but rather a suppression on the level of rules.

Esper's body grew sluggish.

Her speed was reduced, her reactions suppressed, as if an invisible hand were pressing down on her shoulders, slowing her every movement.

“What is the effect?”

“I don't know... This is my first time seeing the actual Pride as well. I only have a rough concept of its activation conditions and effects...”

Noelle's tone carried a hint of irritation and a headache.

“For now, the only certainty is that your physical state isn't as good as it was a moment ago.”

Indeed, her speed had noticeably slowed, as if she had gone from a hundred-meter sprint to a leisurely stroll.

Beatrice stood in the temple, spinning the Holy Sword in her hand.

“Hey, is it really going to end like this? That's a bit boring~ If you have other trump cards, hurry up and use them~”

She yawned.

“If you don't want to use them, then Beya will just have to turn up the difficulty for Esper~”

Then, she raised her right hand high.

And clenched her fist.

The solar disk overhead stopped firing.

It began to tremble.

The entire space within a hundred-meter radius vibrated. Ripples spread across the surface of the Black Tide, and the temple's pillars of flesh creaked loudly.

Beatrice dragged her hand downward.

The solar disk began to descend.

The artificial sun compressed from holy light, the sphere of light staring with its single golden eye, was dragged down from the sky.

Slowly, heavily, and irreversibly.

It plunged toward Esper.

『The Maiden Who Plucks the Blazing Sun』

Thousands of years ago, in her battle against the Ancestor of Demons, Lilith, she had torn the sun from the sky and hurled it at her enemy.

That was a lie. What she had torn down wasn't the real sun at all, but merely a massive orb of holy light.

Yet, everyone believed it.

Everyone believed she had plucked the blazing sun.

And so, it became fact.

『Authority: Faith』

『Authority Manifestation: Divine Comedy』

The Vow Power of the believers, the weight of history, the inertia of legends.

All converged into this single strike.

This wasn't the sun; this was the 『Dawn Sun』 manifested from 『Light』.

But because Beatrice was here, this was the sun.

Boundless power and heat were instantly bestowed upon it.

“At dusk, let us part here,” Beatrice whispered.

The sun fell.

And the Terminal Spiral was fully charged.

From the moment Esper began her charge, the storm had been gathering continuously.

All moving air was swept into it. Lightning intertwined and coiled within the spiral, the pressure so immense that even the surface of the Black Tide was indented by the wind pressure.

The vortex of wind and lightning centered around the Holy Sword had now expanded to its absolute limit.

“But we can't destroy it,” Noelle's voice was calm.

“Never mind everything else, we can't even match its raw power. That sun...”

“I know.”

Noelle paused for a moment.

“Then what do you plan to do?”

“Just block it for a moment. Have you forgotten? Our target was never that sun.”

“...Pfft.”

Noelle chuckled.

“True. I panicked.”

And Esper had already raised her Holy Sword.

Then, she swung it forward.

At the exact same time, Noelle completed her next chant.

Countless magic missiles, swept along by the Terminal Spiral, blasted upward to meet the falling sun.

The azure storm collided with the golden solar disk.

The world turned white.

The shockwave of the explosion expanded in all directions, kicking up walls of waves dozens of meters high from the Black Tide. Atop the temple, Beatrice's long hair fluttered wildly in the gales, but her smile did not fade.

“Not bad, actually managing to block it for a moment~”

But it was only for a moment. After neutralizing most of the solar disk's kinetic energy, the Terminal Spiral and the magic missiles were completely spent. The blazing sun continued its downward plunge.