Chapter 326: Nature of Light
[Timeline: One Month Earlier – The Surface World]
[Location: The Grand Cathedral, Deepest Subterranean Levels]
The Heavyweight had arrived, and the very laws of physics in the Deep Vault began to weep.
It was absolute, unyielding Authority. The Pope of the Kingdom of Light seemed to glide, his immaculate white and gold papal vestments untouched by the dust of the shattered Holy Golems or the groans of the crippled Crusade Paladins.
To Alaric, Lukas, and Elena, the ambient Holy Mana in the room suddenly turned into wet concrete.
"Heretics," the Pope’s voice echoed. He didn’t shout. He spoke with the quiet, terrifying absolute certainty of a man who believed he spoke for the heavens.
"Thieves in the night. Scavenging rats born from the shadow of the Anti-Christ."
Lukas gritted his teeth, raising his Magitech Gauntlets.
*Click. Hiss.*
He tried to ignite his plasma, but the dense, crystallized Holy Mana in the air physically snuffed the spark. The blue runes on his forearms flickered and died.
"My gauntlets..." Lukas wheezed, falling to one knee as the 7th-Order aura crushed the oxygen from his lungs. "The ambient mana... it’s too thick. I can’t draw in air for combustion."
"Get behind me," Alaric commanded, his voice a low, strained rumble.