Chapter 455: The Firmament and Self-Detonation

The unleashed Dragon-Slaying Greatsword was a bit brutally powerful.

This sword smashed down on Virgil's thick, heavy shoulder, and the grotesque biological sawteeth seemed to sense an enemy and began spinning wildly, their speed noticeably faster than when idle.

Zzzzzzz—

The small chunks dragged and torn off by the interlocking biological sawteeth sprayed onto the ground like mad, as if they had no regard for their own life.

This formed a violently gushing fountain of flesh and blood.

Rod was inevitably spattered with blood and flesh all over his pants.

Fortunately, he adjusted the greatsword's grip angle, otherwise this fountain of flesh and blood would have flown skyward.

That stuff carried diseased blood and plague—if a strong wind blew and scattered it all over the faces of the onlookers, that wouldn't be fun at all.

Virgil's screams didn't last long.

When the greatsword rapidly sawed from his left shoulder down to around his abdomen, the biological sawteeth's speed visibly slowed,

and he seized the chance, his face savage, and slammed a fist into Rod's face, who was still staring at the greatsword in a daze.

He was sent flying backward once again.

This time Rod crashed into a building resembling a watchtower, bricks shattering and rumbling down onto him.

Crash—

Then he nonchalantly brushed off the rubble and stood back up.

"What's going on? That's it already? Not even a minute."

He looked at the greatsword in displeasure.

【Insufficient energy. Continue charging.】

"What the hell kind of thing is this, hack—ptui!"

He cursed it a couple of times, but honestly Rod was quite satisfied with its power.

When his conventional methods couldn't break through the defenses of mid-eighth-tier Virgil, the Dragon-Slaying Sword only needed to brush past to shear off a huge swath of flesh, blood, and bone.

Combined with the 【Dragon-Slaying】 trait, Rod didn't even dare imagine what kind of bloody scene it would make against an actual dragon.

The need for charging was a bit of a hassle.

But the charging materials were an inexhaustible supply—he could be entirely self-sufficient.

"Since I've got a feel for its performance, I won't play with you anymore."

Rod tossed the greatsword aside, stomped on it for good measure, then pulled the Sacrificial Body Sword from his spell pouch while quickly applying the slime's 【Black Gold Coating】.

A gorgeous cross-shaped sword, primarily black-mystic in tone with gold trim outlining floral patterns along the blade, was held in his hand.

【Black Gold Coating】 could originally pull a weapon's sharpness to 80, plus a skill enhancement of +2.

The Sacrificial Body Sword had already reached 69 points of sharpness thanks to 【Advanced Sharpness】, and now with +2, each enhancement point adding roughly 10%, the Sacrificial Body Sword's current sharpness was 83.

Not bad at all.

I'm gonna cry—the shopkeeper's been rehired.

He looked back at Virgil.

By now his entire left shoulder was hanging limp, leaning against his flank, with a large gap formed by the torn-away flesh and blood, making his upper body look like it had shrunk by more than half.

But the power within his body was still at work, and this gap had instead grown new fangs, sprouting yet another abyssal maw.

The few Tarin personnel and militia who couldn't read the situation and had just tried to approach him were instantly wrapped up by the long tongue extending from that maw, rapidly retracted back into the mouth, and crunched up with a series of snaps.

This immediately scared off the others, who began fleeing in all directions.

"Pretty hard to kill, huh."

Rod slowly rose into the air, raising the black-gold cross sword high.

Spiritual particles rapidly gathered on the blade, then extended and widened, converging into a massive energy greatsword five meters long.

【Giant-Scale Slash】.

Then came 【Blessing of the Firmament Ancient Tree】.

【Blessing of the Firmament Ancient Tree: Grow bigger, and then grow bigger still—this is the Firmament Ancient Tree's sole reason for existence, and she projects it upon those who receive her blessing. This effect can be applied to flesh, spirituality, and objects.】

The light pillar of 【Giant-Scale Slash】 suddenly surged, stabbing straight up into the clouds!

The onlookers present couldn't help but be stunned.

Gazing at this enormous light pillar, it seemed as if even the sun could not compete with it.

Wildly surging spirituality rotated around him as its center, forming a faint spiritual tornado.

The pressure of the spirituality constantly compressed the surrounding environment.

Even the ground produced a strong tremor.

"Compared to before, after seventh-tier it's even more effortless."

At the very least, his spirituality wouldn't be drained all at once.

【Water-Attribute Spirituality】 deserved great credit here—this passive had boosted Rod's spiritual capacity by a full 245% when he advanced to seventh-tier, and by 80% at mid-seventh-tier.

Enough to let him elegantly unleash this supercharged enhancement.

But the half-mad Virgil paid no attention at all to this sky-piercing energy greatsword, and with a savage roar, charged straight at it.

"Excalibur, haha—"

BOOM!!!!

Split in two.

Everything the light pillar passed through.

Whether clouds, flesh, diseased blood, land, walls, or water surfaces.

Everything was sliced by the immense sharp spirituality—cut, and cut again, until it was broken down to the size of molecules.

The kicked-up dust instantly blocked everyone's line of sight.

"Legendary spell?!"

The militia commander watching from afar had eyes bulging with rage, staring at the evaporated magic-reinforced city walls, and at the Derlinbil River split in two by a single sword.

He had once witnessed the prowess of a legendary mage.

As an attack-specialized individual, only a legendary mage of the Aethelorn Kingdom could unleash a spell of such power!

Could it be, could it be someone sent down from Aethelorn?

The sky.

The light extinguished.

Rod stood with his back to the massive wounds on the ground and city walls, his black, worn cloak flapping wildly.

The disguise domain made his face appear blurred to everyone.

Suddenly.

Rod, struck by a sudden impulse, spread his arms in a melodramatic and arrogant gesture toward the crowd below, looking down upon all beings.

"I am Gorgon.

Not a servant of the gods, nor a minister of royal power, but an existence beyond the rules.

Today, we, in the guise of light, expose lies and challenge hypocrisy. We seek not conquest, but enlightenment, to awaken souls lost to blind obedience and decadence.

We are the 【Order of the Light Knights】."

Among the crowd on the ground, many wore expressions of confusion.

But more showed disdain and incomprehension; they all believed Rod was merely a powerful yet attention-seeking clown.

Rod did not care.

Having finished his act and just about to slip away, his sharp eyes spotted Bogo Torres looking guilty, quietly backing away.

He raised an eyebrow.

He raised a hand, sending out a wave of Purple Weight magic.

【Gravitational Wave】 pulled, sucking the portly puppet lord through the air and yanking him violently into the sky.

"Lord Bogo!"

"Let him go!"

The militia members instinctively drew their swords, watching Rod tensely.

Yet Rod had not even spoken.

The puppet lord, terrified out of his wits, blurted out without hesitation: "It wasn't me, it wasn't me! It was the Zhentarim! They disguised themselves as a private militia, holding me hostage and forcing me! They also conspired with Virgil and demons to use Infernal spells, fabricating the illusion that Miss Miss Puwei colluded with lizardmen to kill her father! Their aim was to completely control Axe Beach!"

The militia members froze.

Glancing at the private militia beside them, seeing that many of them actually looked shocked and guilty, they became wary.

Rod himself was also somewhat stunned.

I haven't even started asking yet.

But looking closely, he noticed a hint of cunning in Bogo Torres's small eyes.

He then knew this person had done this intentionally.

(End of this chapter)