Chapter 222 Tarnished Holy Spear
'Do I really have to use this?' The Sacred Knights Leader asked himself.
The moment he made use of his secret trump, he would expose that he was not a normal Original.
Even other humans, who hadn't managed to attract the interest of a Divine being, or had past memories of their Innate ability wouldn't find it difficult to find out that he was unique and different from the others.
'Not yet. It is not time for that yet.' He added inwardly while gritting his teeth. 'I can just take a different route!'
Slashing the longsword at the Mutant Minotaur, the Sacred Knights Leader's aura tightly engulfed his weapon.
The aura had been compressed in an instant to increase the weapon's lethality.
At the same time, the Sacred Knights leader used his remaining three abilities to launch a fierce and lethal attack.
A huge holy spear manifested roughly a meter behind the Sacred Knights leader in the air. This Spear had been created out of his second ability [Holy Spear], which had been augmented by the Sacred Knights Leader's third ability [Holy Blessing].
The name [Holy Blessing] might sound as if the Sacred Knights leader was blessed but this was not the case. He could merely bless his attack, light and holy attacks to be precise, further increasing their purity, and holiness.
The holier an ability was in its essence, the stronger the augmenting effect ought to be.
However, that was not where the Sacred Knights leader stopped. He activated his fourth ability [Tarnished Saint].
By advancing to the Prometheus rank, the average human was able to bind their fourth ability to their mana core.
[Tarnished Saint] turned every blessed attack into the vilest possible attacks. The purer and stronger an ability, or an attack, the viler the resulting attack.
Initially, the Sacred Knights leader didn't intend to use this attack because his white shining Holy Spear turned into a black, somewhat greenish bubbling mass.
Its presence was terrifying and everyone around the Tarnished Holy Spear could tell that approaching the spear was comparable to throwing away their precious lives.
It was only obvious that nobody was looking forward to embracing death. That was why the remaining four Originals instinctively pushed backward.
Their bodies moved back from the Minotaur, who had yet to finish the strike it had initiated against the Sacred Knights leader.
However, the Sacred Knight Leader's sword strike hadn't been something the Minotaur could face that easily.
Engulfed with his compressed holy aura, the Sacred Knights leader's longsword was not something one could face lightly.
The Minotaur's huge broadsword was already showing signs of cracking. They were minor but contrary to the Mutant Minotaur, the weapon couldn't get repaired while fighting.
This made things much more difficult for the Minotaur, especially because the beast knew that it couldn't face the Sacred Knights leader's longsword head-on.
But the Tarnished Holy Spear was even more dangerous. Thus, the Mutant Minotaur didn't hesitate to retreat a bit as well.
It moved rapidly while trying to keep blocking the longsword's razor-sharp blade.
Yet, even if the Minotaur wanted to block the attack, it cut through his abdomen the moment the Minotaur moved back.
Simultaneously, while the Minotaur tried to keep pushing backward, and increase the distance to the Tarnished Holy Spear, the Sacred Knights Leader fired the Tarnished Holy Spear.
It whizzed through the air, blasted forward, and reached its designated target not even a full second later.
For most Originals, it felt like a black flash had cut through the air, but it had actually been the Tarnished Holy Spear.
It had cut through the skin, flesh, and bones of the Mutant Minotaur, hitting its target, exactly as planned by the Sacred Knights Leader.
However, the Sacred Knights leader was far from happy. A deep frown appeared on his face and he began to curse inwardly.
'Even that was not enough? Its reflexes are lightning-fast…'
His attack might have hit the Mutant Minotaur, but the beast had twisted its body at the last moment to evade the biggest damage.
The Tarnished Holy Spear pierced into its shoulder, penetrating it easily while cutting off a part of the Minotaur's left shoulder and his entire left arm!
When the others saw this, they regained their confidence and advanced once again.
Using various abilities at once, the remaining four Originals at the Prometheus rank went all-in. They used all of their amplifications and executed their strongest attack with it, so as to inflict lethal damage and make use of the crippled state of the Mutant Minotaur to their advantage.
While the four Prometheus Originals were now focused on pressuring the Mutant Minotaur, who looked almost as if it was bleeding to death, the Sacred Knights leader had retreated a few steps.
His weapon showed signs of breaking and he had used the vast majority of his mana in the last attack.
'That's the most I can do…for now, at least.' He could only think.
The Sacred Knights leader was not fully satisfied with his attack but the fact that he hit and pierced the Mutant Minotaur was already more than enough to kill it.
Even if it had high regeneration capabilities, the Tarnished Holy Spear would infiltrate his opponent's blood system and kill him slowly as long as the target was hit.
Without an [Immunity] ability to gain immunity against poison, curses, or some sort of instant disinfection that would work against flesh-eating bacteria or lethal viruses, one was bound to die in the attack of his Tarnished Holy Spear.
Thus, the Sacred Knights leader could step back and enjoy the show until the very end.
The three members of the Heaven's Gates had finally found back to their game and were fighting will all their might.
However, the Sacred Knights leader felt that they were a little bit laughable.
'To think that this is the strongest organization of mankind. It didn't even take me 30 years to pass them…well, it is not like we had the same start either way. Our goal is different as well.'
In the end, he could only shrug his shoulder and forget the Heaven's Gates members in front of him.
They were insignificant and not even worth being added to the calculation of variables.
However, there was someone else who might be worthy of being added to his plans as some sort of variable.
'The blind boy is already standing on his feet and observing the fight. He is definitely different from the others. I shouldn't disregard him, not yet. Maybe my first impression of him was correct, and the second one blurred my senses.'
The Sacred Knights leader had wanted to see Nial again since the moment he had witnessed how the blind youth fought the Dryx back at the Teradan military camp.
That was also why he had forced the government and the military to draft Nial, and also Mathias, to join the conquest of Juna.
Mathias was just dragged along to avoid attracting too much suspicion but he was certainly not important to the Sacred Knights leader.
He turned his head to the back and looked into the lifeless eyes of the young Original he was most interested in.
There were quite a few young Originals, the Sacred Knights leader was curious about simply because they had unique Innate abilities that made him recall a few Divine existences he knew of, but Nial was definitely one of the weirdest.
He even perceived the gaze of the Sacred Knights leader, despite him flicking his head back to the fight just a moment later.
'Did he try to see my reaction after he used this weird holy spear attack that turned extremely vile all of a sudden? Had he planned this all along?' Nial could only ask himself.
At first, he thought that the Heaven's Gates organization were not only the strongest but also that they had forced him to join the conquest.
The Heaven's Gates might still be the strongest organization because their leader might as well be stronger than the Sacred Knights leader.
However, that was currently not of importance to Nial because he understood that it had been the Sacred Knights leader, who had been responsible for him and Mathias being drafted into the military.
'So he guessed who I am, and he is now trying to figure out if I am actually him.' Nial concluded, smiling faintly because he could say for sure that he was not the person the Sacred Knights leader was looking for in him.
This reassured Nial that he would not face a problem in this conquest as long as he didn't reveal the dark energy to him.
The others were fine seeing and perceiving his energy, but the Sacred Knights leader would make a wrong presumption the moment he was to sense the dark energy Nial could create with the help of the Odyssey seed.
Nial was perfectly fine with keeping it a secret, and he averted his focus to the fight once again.
After the Mutant Minotaur had been severely injured, there was no way for it to escape from the battlefield alive.
It was impossible for the beast to survive the battle. However, that was something the beast had figured as well.
Thus, it became determined to use all its might to drag others to doom as well.
Hence, it released its entire mana at once as a result of which, the huge broadsword was shrouded in a bright red light. It began to crack and would break soon enough.
But that was of no concern to the Mutant Minotaur, whose muscles bulged. They were clearly visible through its thick hide.
Wrath overflowed within the beast, its eyes were entirely bloodshot and the bloodthirsty and heavy aura it released increased the pressure on the others all of a sudden.
The Mutant Minotaur had pushed past its limits and prepared to accept the inevitable death.
There was no reason for it to hold back anymore, which was exactly what it did, and a moment later, executed one last but terrifying attack.
A blood-red layer shrouded the already glowing broadsword. One could hear the sound of metal breaking apart, and it was quite obvious what was going on.
The huge broadsword was not able to handle the highly potent energy that had circulated through it.
However, even if numerous cracks had appeared on the sword, the blood-red layer still outlined the weapon.
The Mutant Minotaur felt a sudden sting in its abdomen and found three deep gashes on its body the moment it looked down.
But that did little to distract it.
Instead, every ounce of strength was used in the last attack as the blood-red blade intent was released at once. It crackled through the air, inflicting terror and death.