Chapter 716: Contact

At the heart of the battlefield, enormous waves of fire and light, stirred into motion by dense clusters of light-element particles, completely obscured everyone’s view. Even the Arcanist mages, Anthony included, were unable to see through the blinding chaos. Yet amid the overwhelming heat and radiance, the laurel crown on Hebrew’s head released delicate, shimmering particles of light as soon as Lyra reached out and touched it.

These tiny particles were unaffected by the intense air pressure or the violent shockwaves created by the countless elemental particles colliding around them. Instead, they seemed to follow a strange, unseen law. Drifting outward, they formed narrow beams of light marked by patterns resembling the concentric rings of a tree stump. The beams curled like threads around Lyra’s extended fingers before gradually winding their way upward.

In just a few seconds, a softly luminous halo wrapped around the girl’s slender arm, her holy light armor had been shattered by light-arrows, leaving only fair skin exposed, and cast an even brighter sheen over the knight’s delicate cheeks and azure eyes.

Through their resonant souls, Astrid could feel the searing temperature staining Lyra’s spirit: at first it was pure like the warm sun of winter, but as she continued to taste it, it carried an intensely sharp, scorching prick.

As though, at this very moment, Lyra’s entire body was burning with holy fire, every inch of skin engulfed by the ultimate heat.

The next second, the hand that had locked the pink-haired knight’s throat released. With Moserria’s sudden force, Lyra was flung backward like a kite with its string cut.

Lyra’s vision whirled as she struggled to regain her balance. She abruptly flared the light-wings along her ribs, using them to slow herself in midair and narrowly pull free from the heart of the sacred flames.

Once she had escaped the blazing center, the other mages were finally able to see their opponent clearly. They could now make out the challenger who had dared to confront "Hebrew" in close combat, relying on nothing but cold steel to prove which of them was superior.

The sacred white-metal armor remained firmly wrapped around Lyra’s body. Her pristine white greaves, which had been pierced in several places by light magic earlier, had already restored themselves completely. Only around the edges of the wing-like knee guards was there a faint glimpse of the delicate white silk encasing her slender, pale legs beneath.

Above the greaves, a single-piece set of lightweight armor shielded her chest and lower abdomen. The sleeves of her arms had been burned away, leaving them protected instead by ornate bracers decorated with intricate gold and silver patterns that shimmered brilliantly beneath the artificial sun.

This was the light-armor form of the Valeria Empire’s Bulwark. Many imperial mages had seen her appear in church-knight ranks wearing this very set, under the name of being watched by the Lord, exhorting believers to embrace the new doctrine.

But compared to back then, Lyra was now somewhat different.

She loosely clenched her palm. The Sword of Light that had fallen onto the frost turned into a streak and returned to her hand in an instant. Raising her head, she revealed a crown woven of laurel leaves filled with flowing radiance, resting quietly amid her pink hair, brimming with the vitality of living branches, yet also bearing the crisp luster unique to metal. On closer inspection, it was merely a manifested laurel crown formed from drifting points of light.

On the other side of the battlefield, "Hebrew" wore an identical crown. Only compared to the scene when he first appeared, the crown’s glow was distinctly dimmer.

The soul-resonance wavered faintly, as though disturbed by some unknown power. On the snowfield below, Astrid, leaning on the head maid to barely stand, called softly to Lyra.

"Lyr... Lyra?"

The silver-haired Regent’s voice held an unusual tremor, transmitted truthfully to Lyra on the mental level through their unobstructed souls.

After a brief pause, the familiar female voice answered.

"I’m here, Astrid."

At the same time, high in the air, Lyra slowly raised her weapon. Points of light scattered from the holy sword, flowing into the silver-white laurel crown.

Immediately after, the crown above "Hebrew’s" head began to flicker, its brightness dimming little by little like fireflies losing their vitality.

"His presence is weakening." Lyra looked toward Moserria in the distance, tightened her fingers around the hilt, and quietly felt the changes in the light element in the air. "Astrid, I think I understand. For Moserria to be born here, he’s mainly relying on that holy relic of light."

Threadlike light overflowed from the crown and began to merge into Lyra’s body.

"As long as we strip away the relic, he shouldn’t be able to maintain his current state. The original owner of the body, Hebrew’s consciousness, will awaken on its own."

She could feel it: another presence had appeared inside that body.

The Pope of Light Hebrew.

Not giving Astrid and Lyra more time to speak, Moserria, having had his crown touched, realized it as well. The medium that allowed him to descend was dispersing; his scant remaining power was leaking away.

At present, the only thing that could still support his consciousness is the faith of those believers who once pointed toward the Light God Moserria, faith collected through Brennild’s series of operations.

He raised a hand. A blinding radius blanketed the land. Moserria no longer held back, pouring all of his current power towards Lyra.

Several streaming blades condensed from extreme brilliance bombarded the pink-haired girl in the air. Above the mages’ heads, a burning greatsword of light, taller than the Dreadnought’s bulk, fell from the heavens.

[Divine Judgment Descends, Radiance Advances Without Halt.]

Lyra silently recited the incantation of origin magic in her heart. Her mental power synchronized with Astrid’s, and a rolling scalding wave of light spilled from the surface of her armor, forming an elemental field that blocked massive light-element assaults.

With the added reinforcement of an extra portion of divinity, Lyra’s control over the light element reached a height she had never known in her life. At this moment, she could even clearly sense the activity of every light-element particle, the external manifestation of every wave.

As a result, all light-aspect magic became absurdly simple.

Her blade swept through the gigantic sword of light, finding its weakest point; the [Sword of Light] cut it apart as if slicing tofu, cleanly breaking [Divine Judgment Descends, Radiance Advances Without Halt]. Feather-like fragments of light fell and sparked against her holy armor, then were pushed away by the heat-wave, never scorching even a trace of Lyra’s skin.

The distance between them shrank rapidly. In the blink of an eye, the crown above Moserria’s head had already dulled to gray, while the light ornament amid Lyra’s pink hair burned with manifest holy radiance.

Beneath that dazzling brightness, the black woven ribbon tied in Lyra’s hair fluttered in the wind, swaying as it hooked her silky pink strands, growing ever more inconspicuous.

This time, she will not fail.

Lyra did not believe Moserria could release that mysterious spell again to slow the flow of time, if he still could, then no matter what, they would never defeat the ancient existence before them.

Astrid’s thoughts coincided. By Lyra’s deduction, Moserria’s descent relies on the relic; Once Lyra had touched the crown, his connection to the real world must have weakened, and the strength of the magic he could cast would drop.

The tottering [Holy Light Manifestation Torrent of Light], and the clusters of light-element particles in the air that were no longer under Moserria’s control, drifting free, were the most effective proof.

The only problem was... Could Lyra, in her current state, truly touch that relic again...?

With a faint thread of unease, Astrid forcibly suppressed her chaotic thoughts and focused on casting. Behind her, ink-like darkness quietly gathered, lurking like a venomous snake.

Elise, keen-minded, instantly sensed the killing intent in the air. Without bothering to ask Astrid’s opinion, she lightly kicked off the ground in her maid shoes, wrapped an arm around the imperial princess’s waist, and leapt aside, dodging the dark-element blast as thick as black ink.

Brennild had suffered a heavy blow earlier and had already slipped into the shadows. If they spent some effort searching, perhaps they could drag her out.

But given that the aerial battle situation was far from optimism, whether out of personal feeling or long-term consideration of the entire battle, Astrid had to find a way to assist Lyra in defeating Moserria to secure final victory.

Strategically, killing Brennild was an extremely important goal. Yet in this war, if they fail to deal with Moserria and instead allow him to defeat, or even kill, the Empire’s most promising mage, Lyra, then all humankind will be even more powerless to face, besides Brennild, another ancient existence holding half a divinity, let alone whether they could truly kill Brennild at all, which for now seems an unknown.

Thus Astrid decisively abandoned the strategy of pursuing Brennild. Instead she had the head maid keep watch from the side to prevent an ambush, while she herself used their mental resonance to provide long-distance origin-magic support to Lyra.

Seeing her strike miss, Brennild cast again. Within the ink-dark shadow, pale bones emerge grimly, rapidly assembling into a human skeleton.

Elise leaned close to Astrid’s ear, her voice stern.

"Miss, things may get a little bumpy next."

Once she was certain Astrid had heard her, the head maid changed her grip, shifting from supporting her to carrying her securely. Her pale, lotus-like arms, adorned with maid bracelets, moved downward and gently wrapped around Astrid’s smooth, dark-jade-like legs.

Her manifested mental energy then carefully straightened and smoothed the edge of Astrid’s skirt. Immediately afterward, it spread outward and formed a dense field of blades around them, generating a violent gale powerful enough to strip flesh and fracture bone.

At the same time, with the assistance of origin magic, Lyra’s sword pierced through the defensive field Moserria had erected around him. Dense arcane factors were driven apart by the holy light blade’s overwhelming exclusivity, leaving a vacuum where defenses were weakest.

This time, the flow of time was normal. The holy fire burning along the outside of Moserria’s robe surged past Lyra’s wrist, bringing the girl excruciating burning pain. Yet likewise, her sharp blade easily invaded the flames, and in the next instant would strike Hebrew’s chest.

In that instant, the laurel crown on Hebrew’s head completely lost its brilliance. Fine points of light poured down along the line of his cheek, over his neck, and halted at his chest, clinging to the holy sword.

The accumulated impact momentum on the blade was intercepted by the newly born light; then that light merged into the [Sword of Light], becoming connected to it, and fused into one with Lyra’s soul.

Two portions of divinity entered the same person’s body in that single moment.

High above, Hebrew’s eyes lost their light and returned to the human aura of the beginning. The mental depletion caused by the divine descent leaves him unable even to maintain flight; he plummeted toward the ground. At the same time, Astrid felt a scalding heat surge through the soul resonance between herself and Lyra.

The barrier of [Holy Light Manifestation Torrent of Light] dissolved. The light between heaven and earth began to extinguish. The pink-haired, blue-eyed knight of light stood high in the sky, the six wings of radiation behind her fully unfurled, like a newborn blazing sun.

Monica Angelis, the Saintess of Light, arrived late after spending the battle praying outside the barrier. She immediately quickened her pace and entered the snow-covered battlefield, which had already been subjected to countless devastating magical attacks.

Lyra still maintained the motion of raising her sword to cleave, eyes closed. The light-element particles around her flowed quietly, like fresh flowers clustered about a newborn deity.

After a moment, the pink-haired girl slowly lowered the [Sword of Light] in her hand and opened her eyes. The sky-blue pupils were calm as an ancient well, silently surveying the earth beneath her.

If the former holy light knight had been a resilient, kind human presence, then perhaps she still retained that part, but now there was more indifference and coldness, like a judge sitting high above.

"So this is the end of the sinners...?"

From within the dark clouds, Brennild’s voice reached Astrid’s ears, carrying mockery and schadenfreude.

"How could divinity be something a mortal may touch? Being able to contain half before was already the usurper’s limit."

"Now she is far too weak. She can only be dominated by divinity."

It was no exaggeration to say that the current Lyra was a corpse.

A crisp sound of ice cracking echoed close at hand. A slender heel the color of night stepped upon fragile frost.

Astrid lightly brushed the silver hair fallen before her chest. She did not speak to Brennild in the distance; instead, she forced down the sluggishness on the mental level and maintained her soul resonance with Lyra Beckett.

Deep in her mind, she could feel that warm wind that kept blowing across the soul, little by little staining one’s will, luring it to sink.

The Pope had fallen from the sky and avoided taking the impact with his flesh only thanks to a bishop’s rescue. The Kingdom’s strongest Arcanist mage had already lost the ability to fight, announcing the conclusion of this battle.

The Valeria Empire had won this round.

A handful of Arcanist mages who remained fiercely devoted to the Pope were still present on the battlefield. However, most of the royal family’s powerful figures were rapidly losing their strength and had begun withdrawing their attention, no longer paying much heed to the events unfolding before them.

"Elise, keep your eyes on Brennild."

After speaking, Astrid did not hesitate. Wings of wind quickly took shape behind her, carrying her away from the shattered land.

Scalding light seared the air, heating the surroundings. The closer Astrid drew to Lyra’s position, the more she could feel the oppressive heat in space.

Faced with the sudden arrival, the "Lyra" suspended in midair gave no reaction, until that soft, delicate body carrying the cool fragrance of flowers and grass hugged her from behind.

The contact of body to body deepened the stability of their soul resonance, and also allowed the two to achieve a true connection on the mental level. Astrid gently caught the pink-haired girl’s other hand, the one not holding the Sword of Light, and intertwined their fingers.

"Lyra... it’s over..."

Along with the cool, clear female voice, a thread of chill that reached straight to the soul poured into her spirit.

Lyra lowered her head and saw the hand clasped with her silver-white metal gauntlet, her lover’s fingers, pale and jade-smooth.