Episode 66: The Betrayer (Part 1)
“Brother Gamal!”
Dionysio shouted urgently.
“Sir Sanus! What on earth are you doing?”
“Calm down, Dionysio~,” Sanus replied in his usual laid-back tone.
“Gamal attacked me first~. I was just resting with our order’s paladins when he ambushed us~.”
“That’s absurd! Why would Brother Gamal do such a thing?”
“How should I know? Only Gamal would know that.”
Dionysio looked at Gamal with trembling eyes. Gamal shouted at Sanus.
“Dionysio! Don’t believe him. Sanus is… ugh!”
Sanus tightened his grip around Gamal’s neck, causing him to cough up blood.
“Brother!”
Dionysio tried to rush forward, but the paladins of the Radiant Agony blocked his path.
“Don’t come any closer. You might be in league with Gamal.”
“There must be some misunderstanding. Why would Brother Gamal ambush Sir Sanus?”
“Misunderstanding? Our order’s paladins almost died. Can we just call that a misunderstanding?”
Sanus’s words made Dionysio bite his lip.
“Then arrest both me and Brother Gamal. Let us stand trial before the main order!”
“That’s not possible~. We’re in a dangerous place right now~. We can’t leave any threats behind~.”
Sanus raised his axe, still holding Gamal. Dionysio was about to leap forward in shock when a voice interrupted.
“Did you say Sir Gamal ambushed you?”
It was Damian, who had been quietly observing the situation.
“Yes~.”
“And you subdued him?”
“That’s right~.”
“Then why do you look completely unharmed?”
An ambush usually favors the attacker. Moreover, Gamal was a second-class paladin, just like Sanus. If Gamal had truly attacked, Sanus should have suffered some damage, and the surroundings should have been in chaos.
“Isn’t it the other way around?”
Sanus smiled slyly at Damian’s question.
“Oh my, you saw right through it~.”
“Sir Sanus, what are you saying?” Dionysio asked, his voice trembling. Sanus replied nonchalantly.
“What do you think? I ambushed Sir Gamal first~. I planned to catch you both off guard, but it didn’t work~.”
Dionysio’s eyes hardened.
“Why would you do such a thing…?”
“Oh, it’s not personal against Gamal~. It’s all to fulfill the will of the divine~.”
Dionysio frowned at the cryptic words.
“Our main order has grown too soft. Just look at the recent jousting incident. They merely interrogated the nobles involved and let them go. It’s disgraceful.”
“Well, they were released after the interrogation, so that’s only natural…”
“That’s exactly what’s disgraceful.”
Sanus sighed, shaking his head.
“In the old days, the order would have started by cutting off a finger from each participant. Anyone even slightly suspicious would have been burned at the stake. People only reveal the truth through suffering.”
Despite being known for fanaticism, the order had surprisingly become more lenient. There was a time when they burned an entire village for failing to root out hidden heretics.
“Our Radiant Agony has always lamented that. We plan to return to the ways of the old order.”
“And what does that have to do with attacking Brother Gamal?”
“It has everything to do with it. To achieve our plan, our Radiant Agony must become the core of the main order. We need to rise above the other sects.”
The best way to weaken a sect is to eliminate promising paladins who could lead it into the future. Conveniently, this expedition included not only the paladins of the Blended Blizzard but also Gamal and Dionysio, disciples of the Black Snow.
“You’re trying to kill Brother Gamal for such a petty reason?”
“Can’t you understand? It doesn’t matter. I can’t understand you either.”
Sanus released Gamal, who fell to the ground, lifeless.
“So this is how it is. When we can’t understand each other, all that’s left is bloodshed, right?”
Sanus raised his axe high.
“Brother Gamal!”
Unable to contain his emotions, Dionysio charged at Sanus.
The paladins of the Radiant Agony blocked his path.
“Get out of my way!”
Dionysio swung his spear, but a paladin blocked it with a shield.
At that moment, a burst of light erupted from the shield.
“Ugh!”
Dionysio was thrown back, coughing up blood as he hit the ground.
“Don’t resist. For today, our Radiant Agony has opened the armory.”
What had just sent Dionysio flying wasn’t a paladin’s skill. The shield itself had emitted a shockwave.
“Damian Haxen… run…”
Dionysio coughed up blood as he spoke.
“They’re armed with high-grade relics…! Even you can’t win…!”
Using his spear as support, Dionysio struggled to stand.
“I’ll hold them off! You go and join the Immolators… ugh!”
Damian lightly tapped Dionysio’s leg, causing him to lose balance and fall.
“What are you doing?”
“You can’t even stand. Just sit there and tend to your wounds.”
Damian stepped forward. Sanus looked at him in surprise.
“Are you really going to fight us?”
“You weren’t planning to let me go anyway. If I escape and alert the other paladins about your betrayal, it would be troublesome for you.”
Damian replied curtly. Sanus laughed.
“What a waste. Sir Damian, why not join our Radiant Agony? I’ll spare your life.”
Instead of answering, Damian drew his holy sword.
Sanus sighed, disappointed by the clear refusal.
“Kill him. He’s quite skilled, so don’t underestimate him.”
The paladin who had sent Dionysio flying charged at Damian.
Damian swung his sword at the paladin, who smirked and raised his shield.
The holy sword and shield clashed. In the next moment, the sword sliced through the shield effortlessly, as if it were cutting through cheese.
The paladin holding the shield was also split in two, blood spilling onto the ground.
”…”
”…”
Everyone present wore expressions of disbelief.
A knight using aura could easily cut through steel, but this was no ordinary shield. It was a relic, impervious even to an ogre’s blows.
“You were too complacent. Never underestimate aura.”
Complacent?
Could anyone have predicted a relic shield would be cleaved in two?
Could failing to anticipate that be called complacency?
“Are you just going to stand there and watch?”
Damian asked the remaining two paladins. They gritted their teeth and shouted.
“O divine one! We dedicate this battle to you!”
“We are the executors of divine wrath!”
The two paladins of the Radiant Agony swung their weapons at Damian.
Just before their weapons struck, Damian vanished from sight. In an instant, he was behind them.
“Wha…?”
“Huh…?”
A thin line of blood appeared on their necks.
Their heads fell to the ground, and their bodies collapsed, lifeless.
The third-class paladins of the sect had been felled in a single stroke, seemingly unaware they had even been attacked.
“You…”
Witnessing this unbelievable scene, Sanus reached a conclusion.
“You weren’t a low-class knight, were you?”
“As you can see, no.”
Damian replied nonchalantly to Sanus’s question.
“You said you betrayed us to fulfill the divine will?”
“It’s not betrayal, it’s merely…”
“Call it what you want, but it’s still betrayal.”
Damian cut off Sanus’s words.
“Either way, I must thank the divine. Thanks to you, I discovered a traitor quickly.”
In his past life, the Radiant Agony must have betrayed them too. They likely thought they could handle the aftermath themselves, having sent a second-class paladin and armed with high-grade relics from the sect’s armory.
But as the outcome showed, that was a grave miscalculation.
“It’s unpleasant. Don’t belittle our decision with words like betrayal.”
“If you can’t accept it, don’t. I have no intention of convincing you.”
Damian summoned his power, aura enveloping his holy sword.
“Are you really going to fight me?”
“I’m a bit of a coward. Leaving a traitor alive would make my back itch.”
Sanus chuckled in response.
“I agree.”
A massive surge of divine power emanated from Sanus.
“How much do you know about the Radiant Agony?”
The divine power radiating from Sanus was like the sun—so bright and hot that standing nearby was unbearable.
“The power of Blinding Pain can enhance anything. On a basic level, it can boost physical abilities like strength, agility, and endurance… but delve deeper, and it can even fortify armor or sharpen weapons.”
There was no way to forget.
Demian recalled his days as a Death Knight, battling the great saint Gwangmyeong.
Gwangmyeong had once ‘enhanced’ gravity to crush tens of thousands of undead—a truly insane feat.
“The power of Blinding Pain can be stacked. The higher your level, the more times you can stack it.”
Sanus lightly rested the blade of his axe on the ground. With a thunderous crack, the earth split open.
Just by ‘enhancing’ the sharpness and weight of his weapon, he unleashed such destructive power.
“How many times do you think I can stack it?”
“Ten times, maybe?”
“Thirty times.”
Sanus vanished. The air exploded, and in an instant, he was right in front of Demian.
Sanus swung his axe down. Demian leaped back.
The moment the axe struck the ground, thousands of cracks appeared, shattering the earth and the surrounding walls.
Demian clicked his tongue at the sheer, brute force.
‘There’s no way I can deflect that with my Insight of All Things.’
The Insight of All Things was a swordmaster’s skill that could twist the trajectory of an attack.
But the stronger the attack, the more mana it consumed. Demian didn’t have enough mana to deflect Sanus’s assault.
“Oh? You’re reacting~?”
Sanus said with a look of surprise, all the while swinging his axe at Demian.
Demian didn’t block the axe; he dodged. Blocking such an attack would be suicidal.
“You’re not just a newcomer to the middle class, are you~?”
Sanus had stacked his physical abilities dozens of times.
That’s why every attack was terrifyingly fast and powerful.
If Demian were at the entry level of the middle class, he wouldn’t have survived even a single blow.
“Impressive! Truly remarkable! Let me ask again, would you consider joining the Blinding Pain…?”
Demian’s hand moved. He swung his holy sword, slashing at Sanus’s body.
Sanus’s attacks were fast and strong, but his movements were large and left many openings.
Moreover, unlike other paladins, he wore white cloth, making it easy to target his vital points.
Yet, despite several slashes, Sanus’s body remained unscathed. Only his clothes were cut.
“Oh my~ It’s a bit rude to interrupt while I’m talking~.”
Sanus said with an unbothered expression. Demian clicked his tongue inwardly.
“You’re annoyingly tough.”
Sanus had ‘enhanced’ his skin to withstand Demian’s attacks. Even with aura, it was impenetrable.
“If you won’t become a paladin… I suppose I’ll just have to kill you!”
Sanus swung his axe again, focusing solely on offense, neglecting defense.
‘He’s overconfident. He relies too much on the power of Blinding Pain.’
Despite such a formidable power, Gwangmyeong wasn’t the strongest among the great saints.
There was a reason for that. While the power of Blinding Pain was versatile, it had its flaws.
The powers of the Incinerator and the Blizzard of Chaos could be used in countless creative ways.
But the power of Blinding Pain merely enhanced existing things, making it predictable.
Sanus was a prime example.
He enhanced his physical abilities and defense, launching attacks, but not a single one landed effectively on Demian.
While Demian’s skill was exceptional, Sanus’s attacks were ultimately just axe swings.
‘Moreover, enhancement consumes a lot of divine power. The more you stack, the greater the consumption.’
Enhancement wasn’t a one-time use. It continuously drained divine power.
Sanus wasn’t trying to end the fight quickly for no reason.
If this dragged on, Demian would win. But Demian had no intention of spending much time on Sanus.
‘I have other matters to attend to. I can’t be tied down by someone like this.’
Demian’s movements changed. He dodged the axe and closed in.
At the same time, he thrust his sword. The long blade grazed Sanus’s neck.
“Useless…”
The blade sliced through Sanus’s neck. Blood spurted like a fountain, severing an artery.
Sanus staggered back, quickly using divine power to heal the wound.
“How…?”
Sanus looked at Demian in shock.
Among the masters Demian had fought, there was one known as the Killing Ghost.
The Killing Ghost had reached mastery through the art of killing.
He studied where to cut to easily sever muscles, how to slice through bones entirely.
After mastering such gruesome techniques, the Killing Ghost achieved the realm of the ‘Calamity Sword’ and became a master.
After mastering the ‘Calamity Sword,’ the Killing Ghost could cut through a human body with just a twig.
No matter how much Sanus stacked his defensive power, it was useless. The Calamity Sword could ignore ‘enhancements’ and cut flesh.
“I don’t know what trick you pulled, but one thing’s clear. You’re too dangerous to be left alive.”
Sanus gathered his divine power. It all converged on his axe.
“So I’ll end this now.”
Demian immediately recognized the technique Sanus was preparing.
It was a favorite move among the paladins of Blinding Pain.
Simply put, it was a straightforward downward strike.
But Blinding Pain enhanced every aspect of this simple move, resulting in tremendous destructive power.
Lifting the axe, stepping forward, channeling strength into both arms, and swinging the axe—all were ‘enhanced.’
As the axe fell, its weight, strength, and cutting power were ‘enhanced.’
Finally, the destructive and explosive power of the compressed divine energy was ‘enhanced.’
A simple, brute-force attack, but one with no easy counter.
Even if you dodged, the aftermath would cause significant damage.
Dodging was a last resort. You had to counter with a technique of equal power.
“I’ll end it with this attack too.”
Demian gripped his holy sword with both hands. He bent his arms, bringing them beside his head, and aimed the sword’s tip at Sanus.
A simple thrusting stance.
Sanus couldn’t help but sneer at the sight.
“Arrogant, aren’t you? Thinking you can stop me with that.”
“The truly arrogant one is you. You almost got your head cut off just now, remember?”
Demian’s taunt twisted Sanus’s expression.
“Let’s see who the real arrogant one is… shall we?”
Sanus launched himself forward, leaving a long afterimage trailing to where Demian stood.
The axe, with divine power compressed to its limit, descended from above.
Demian thrust his holy sword toward the axe.
The holy sword and axe collided. In the next moment, the divine power in the axe scattered completely.
It wasn’t just the divine power. The axe’s blade shattered into pieces, turning to dust.
“What…?”
Sanus’s face was a mask of disbelief.
With her knowledge, she couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.
‘Annihilation Strike’
A realm achieved by Cheongyeom, one of the great saints of the order.
It focused all power into a single point, completely dismantling the structure.
Not just objects, but aura, magic circles, even divine power were no exceptions.
“Im-impossible…”
Sanus stammered in shock.
But before she could finish her sentence, Demian closed the distance.
The holy sword pierced through Sanus’s chest.