Chapter 321
Chapter 321: Woah, Now I've Got 2 Wives!
A holy and ethereal voice gradually spilled down from high above.
Golden sword-light accompanied that voice, materializing from both sides of the gorge.
The enormous golden blade seemed to have passed judgment upon the entire world.
A single "unforgivable" was enough to make all the fanatical Devotees display a terror they had never shown before.
They froze in place, watching helplessly as Gwen dragged her blazing orange-flamed sword down toward them in a slow, descending arc.
In that moment.
The flames upon the longsword seemed to have caught on something—becoming extraordinarily frantic.
They fluttered and swayed, as though desperate to break free from the world.
The surrounding space began to warp from the intense heat, and even flesh and blood could not escape it.
The moment the flame blade made contact with those Devotees who had no time to dodge, it detonated in a sudden burst of fire.
The Devotees could not evade in time and endured the full force of that blazing strike.
Their entire bodies began to scorch and sear, pain and distortion spreading outward from the point of contact to their limbs.
The golden holy light upon their bodies dimmed as wounds appeared.
Wherever the flame blade swept, black scabs were left behind.
Flesh and blood mingled together, the high-temperature-damaged sections being pushed out continuously, falling toward the bottom of the gorge.
Those clumps of black flesh looked utterly filthy and profane, their bodies convulsing wildly as though they would never stop.
Yet the rising flames seemed to carry some kind of sacred power that made it impossible for them to regenerate.
The fire licked endlessly at the flesh, breaking off chunk after chunk, which fell with thud after thud into the depths of the gorge.
The onlookers watching this filthy scene playing out before them were no longer shocked.
After all, they had already witnessed what these Devotees truly looked like beneath the surface.
Never mind how holy these Devotees appeared on the outside.
In truth, that holiness was nothing more than a facade concealing the chaos and filth within.
They were utterly unworthy of being called righteous or sacred.
At that moment, a dull thunderous boom rang out from high above.
A stunning explosion came from overhead, the very air shaking in its wake, churned by the pressure wave into utter chaos.
Everyone looked up—and saw Gwen in the sky above, relentlessly bombarding downward.
The flame blade in Gwen's hands had transformed into something like a flamethrower of raging fire.
One scorching burst after another erupted from the sword, detonating suddenly in midair.
Firelight blazed skyward. Sound waves rolled across the earth.
Countless diplomatic ministers watching the scene one by one covered their ears.
The violent trembling of the air made these ordinary people with no real power feel utterly helpless.
All they wanted was to block out as much of the noise as possible.
What was wrong with this married couple? How was it that each of them loved explosions more than the other?
They really were perfectly matched, husband and wife!
And in the eyes of the Knights, admiration flickered as well.
Grand Knight Gwen's righteous bearing truly left them shaken.
Whether in their eyes, or in the hearts that longed to uphold justice.
Gwen attacked relentlessly, golden light wrapped in scorching heat surging across the Devotees' bodies, leaving wounds of varying severity.
Those angelic figures twisted by corruption bore wound after wound of filthy scarring.
Some had even had an entire arm severed.
At the cross-section, black and filthy flesh writhed constantly, exposed to the open air.
Blood sprayed in torrents, accompanied by thick, heavy gasps that echoed throughout the entire space.
Reeking blood gushed without end; countless writhing tentacles clumped together at those wounds, thrashing wildly.
In that moment, the Devotees, collectively injured, fell into a daze.
As though sinking into prolonged madness, obscure words spilled from their mouths.
Thick and labored, they forced out a few syllables:
"God…dess?"
"No… that's not the Goddess."
That was right.
In the consciousness of the Devotees.
How could the true Goddess ever attack them, her faithful followers?
They had never once believed they had done anything wrong.
And when Gwen attacked them, it meant Gwen was absolutely not the true Goddess.
At least, not the Gwen standing before them.
The true Goddess should harbor no emotions whatsoever.
She should treat the world with absolute fairness and impartiality, suppressing all strife and evil without exception.
And so—
They were willing to correct Gwen's twisted thinking, to reshape her back into the image of the Goddess they so dearly loved.
In that moment, the Devotees beat their golden flesh-wings, assembled from writhing tentacles.
10 angels, all simultaneously locked their dangerous gazes upon Gwen.
Waves of light erupted endlessly from between the swaying tentacles of the followers, gathering together.
Tremendous power seemed to tear fissures into the surrounding space.
And in that instant, an endless rain of golden light waves bore down relentlessly upon Gwen.
Faced with such a dense barrage, Gwen felt the strain keenly.
She was not Viktor, after all. She could not maintain that elegant, effortless composure the way Viktor did.
Even if each wave was weak in power, the sheer overwhelming quantity was enough to trigger a qualitative shift.
It was not long before Gwen's body bore several wounds.
But Gwen was not without her counterattack.
She seized her moments, the enormous flame sword in her hand spinning at speed—carrying towering flames—cutting through the incoming waves with a clean sweep.
Yet the attacks were simply too relentless.
Under the ferocious onslaught, exhaustion crept unbidden onto her body.
But she still blazed with golden radiance, and had not suffered much damage.
Seeing this, the Devotees realized something was wrong.
They would need to grow even stronger if they were to correct the Goddess's distorted thinking.
So in the next instant, from around their ankles, they once again released row upon row of golden chains.
This time, however, the chains did not bind anyone.
They simply interlocked the chains into each other's bodies.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
The moment the 10 dual-winged angels linked their chains together.
Their bodies gradually dissolved into luminescence, flickering brilliantly within a golden orb of light as an enormous new form took shape.
Boom!
Golden light burst outward in a sweeping cascade, making countless onlookers involuntarily shut their eyes.
And when they opened them again.
The 10 angels had vanished without a trace.
In their place, looming in the sky above, was a far more colossal existence.
Its flesh had grown even more chaotic, and impossibly vast.
Countless tentacles wove and interlocked with one another; innumerable densely packed eyes opened all at once, fixing their gaze unblinkingly upon Gwen before them.
Holy light enveloped its filthy body, which had grown even larger—as though it could reach the depths of the sky.
The flesh-wings at its back had completely broken free of all restraint.
From amid the profane flesh and blood, 4 additional pairs had suddenly erupted.
A single twisted Devotee angel was the collective consciousness of 10,000 Devotees.
And now, this form assembled into something resembling a six-winged seraph.
It was as though 100,000 worshippers had appeared simultaneously.
It towered in the sky as though it could smother the entire heavens.
Carrying absolute authority and holy light, it radiated an unstoppable aura down upon the world below.
In that moment, countless people stared at it with vacant eyes.
No one had managed to say another word when the six-winged seraph had already settled into its stance.
Its body lurched, and it launched an absolutely terrifying assault upon Gwen.
Light gathered from within the angel's body, as though on the verge of explosion.
Then, slowly, it spilled over.
Space seemed to transform into a vast golden ocean, even the shattered void rifts swallowed up by that towering silhouette and resplendent radiance.
The power released by the angel completely enveloped the entire space, bearing down upon Gwen with brilliant, inescapable light.
She could only swing her sword helplessly, doing everything she could to resist the attacks surging toward her like a tide.
Everyone's heart leapt into their throats, as though it were themselves enduring everything beneath that terrifying assault.
Then, without warning, several stunning pillars of fire shot up before Gwen, each churning with magma.
Wave upon wave of scorching heat warped even space itself; flame and ash coiled together, whipping wildly around the pillars.
The air scorched. The black clouds that had hung above seemed to catch alight, a streak of crimson appearing amid them.
【Blazing Severance—Wrath of Extinction】
The instant everyone present recognized that attack, they were almost simultaneously stunned into bewilderment.
Auréliane included.
Magic of this staggering magnitude.
Among those present, only one person was capable of it.
People looked toward where the attack had come from—behind Gwen.
And so they all saw it.
At some point, Viktor had risen back into the air, his coat whipping wildly in the blazing gust.
In one hand he held a glass bottle he had just drained dry; in the other, a staff.
The magic that had just been unleashed had come from his hand.
"Seems you've forgotten something."
Viktor gave a casual toss, and the glass bottle was flung into the gorge's fissure below.
The fissure ran so deep that even after a long silence, no sound of shattering reached them from the bottom.
But that was of no matter. Viktor simply raised his staff with one hand.
His tone utterly impassive, he spoke with complete confidence:
"This battle is between you and me."
"The Goddess you worship has long since given her faith to me."
His words fell one by one, each like a steel nail driving into the angel's heart.
The angel bathed in holy light gazed upon the eternally burning pillars of fire.
Hearing Viktor's words, its flesh suddenly clenched tight in agony.
As though its conviction had shattered.
And in that moment, upon Viktor's staff.
A phantom set of scales began to sway once more.
When the angel had appeared before the world, it had seemed like the descent of the divine.
They had transformed into the form they now wore.
【Righteous Stance】
But only Viktor knew what filth lurked behind their false sanctity.
The justice of the Devotees was hollow. It was fanatical.
It was a justice no true justice would ever recognize.
In the centuries since the Goddess's departure.
These fanatical Devotees had abandoned their flesh, leaving only thought and soul.
Their minds had achieved a supreme unity, all in preparation for the Goddess's return.
Yet the Goddess could never accept such sins.
In the future where the divine descend, the Goddess, in atonement for her own transgressions, slaughtered every last one of these Devotees who had devoted themselves to her.
And so, laughably enough.
To carry out the justice they held in their hearts, they scattered their wicked intent across the world.
It was precisely because of this that they had gone so catastrophically wrong in distorting the Goddess's teachings.
The scales swayed without cease, measuring the so-called sacred things before Viktor.
And yet……
【Justice Value ＜80—Assessment failed】
【Justice Value ＜50—Assessment failed】
【Justice Value ＜20—Assessment failed】
【Justice Value ＜0—Assessment failed】
The Goddess's church of absolute justice required a Justice Value of 100 to join.
Yet these Devotees within that church of justice—who schemed to resurrect the Goddess and spread her righteousness across the land.
Could not even meet the most basic requirement of justice.
They were no longer just.
They were merely malevolent impulses wearing the hollow shell of justice, willing to stop at nothing.
And an evil existence such as this would allow the power of 【Astraea's Divine Judgment】 to reach its absolute maximum.
And so.
When Viktor raised high the pitch-black staff in his hand, and the countless intricate Formations behind him began to spin at high speed—
A mocking smile crossed his face, and a voice tinged with faint derision gradually rang out:
"I rather like the look of you all merged together."
"That way, I can—"
"Cut you all down in a single strike."
As his words fell, an enormous figure slowly materialized above the gorge.
The immense form took shape rapidly. It was a true deity.
Wearing a mask that covered half her face, clad head to toe in pitch-black armor—one hand gripping a sacred sword, the other holding the scales of justice.
She floated in the high air, the vast black feathered wings at her back gently stirring.
Her colossal form seemed already capable of touching the deep sky; even the entire gorge gradually filled with her presence.
Though her eyes were unseen, an absolute sense of authority entered the hearts of all.
The six-winged seraph felt that familiar power—and this time, it could not make a single move.
True judgment's will, bearing an icy majesty, locked down its sacred yet filthy body completely.
And in that instant.
Countless eyes noticed it.
The Goddess of Justice, entirely black, had appeared behind Gwen, hovering with quiet dignity.
Even the armor she wore was almost identical to Gwen's own.
As that sacred power made its presence felt once more.
Divine radiance enveloped the world, scattering its brilliance into every corner.
Gwen gripped the enormous flame sword and raised it high above her head.
That immense black Goddess, mirroring Gwen's motion, gripped the black sacred blade's hilt with both hands and raised it high as well.
The pure white wings at Gwen's back and the pitch-black wings of the Goddess of Justice seemed to collide with one another.
Like a sliver of daylight amid the darkness—a single glance was enough to make everyone feel an extraordinary sense of awe.
The Goddess of Justice raised the black sacred sword above her head; Gwen likewise lifted the enormous blade blazing with orange flame.
In an instant, that towering orange fire erupted in a sudden gust, and the golden radiance was absorbed by Gwen's longsword.
The enormous orange inferno had become the sacred sword, its towering body of flame seeming to fill nearly half the gorge.
Two blades of contrasting colors merged as one, blanketing the sky—as though an ocean had swallowed the entire valley.
And at that moment.
Viktor too turned toward the six-winged seraph, and swept his staff forward.
The air exploded open instantly, sending out a dull, heavy tremor.
As though announcing the beginning of the assault.
The Goddess of Justice swung her sword, using its mysterious power to cleave apart space—as though carving a colossal rift through the void.
In the instant of that swing, time seemed to freeze, all things suspended in that single fraction of a second.
At almost the same moment, Gwen brought her orange inferno down without hesitation.
That scorching flame carved a dazzling trail through space, as though burning space itself into warping distortion.
An incomparably intense radiance burst from the cleaved space, manifesting as a beam of brilliant white light that stretched on endlessly.
That light seemed to be the most pure and luminous brightness the world had ever known, radiating an incomparably scorching aura.
Beneath the illumination of that white light, everything around became indistinct and blurred.
People instinctively shielded their eyes. They could no longer look directly at this terrifying radiance.
Sound was completely torn apart, leaving only boundless silence, drifting through the brilliance of that white day.
The entire valley was swallowed by that light, becoming a world of absolute silence.
And in that silent world, only Viktor's calm voice continued to echo.
Like a mysterious melody, drifting slowly through the air:
"【Sacred Judgment: The Chaotic Trial of Light and Dark】"