Return of the Unrivaled Spear Knight

Side Story Chapter 243

Kireua didn’t have much time. The longer he lingered here, the more soldiers and knights would come from the Palace. Besides, he had no idea how the war would turn out if he didn’t return to Avalon as soon as possible. Kireua trusted Selim, of course, but one man couldn’t win a war on his own.

‘Give me strength, Coal.’ Kireua tightened his grip on his sword, summoning more demonic power from within him.

It was time to use the power of Greed’s other ability. Each of the Seven Evil Sins had different abilities. Greed’s was the ability to claim all energy in creation, including from objects.

Weirman didn’t take Kireua lightly. The moment he realized that Kireua had the power of Greed, he didn’t hesitate to bring others into this fight.

“Everyone, draw up your divine power!” he shouted.

“Yes, sir!”

Following their captain’s command, the paladins unleashed their divine power, covering the area in a pool of blindingly bright light.

“Aren’t you ashamed to attack a greenhorn all together?”

“Hmph. The Demon Kings have always been the enemy of all of Igrant. I thought you seemed awfully defensive of the Witch, but I didn’t know you were on the same side!” Weirman shouted, hiding a sly smile. From his perspective, Kireua had made a grave mistake. He’d practically handed Weirman the high ground; the involvement of a Demon King gave him the grounds for almost everything.

“Demonic power and divine power are the polar opposites of each other! Even if he’s using the power of a Demon King, we’re the Great Temple’s most elite paladins. He can’t defeat us! Be confident and use your divine power in full!”

“Yes, sir!”

Black and white power clashed with each other in the air, vying to gain dominance.

Suddenly, Kireua turned his black demonic power into fire. Immediately, the ebon flames began to swallow the divine power.

“…What?” Weirman gaped, startled by the sudden turn of events. “Wh-What in the world…?”

“The power of Greed is avarice itself. The concept of opposites means nothing before this infinite desire.”

The power of Greed neutralized its target through sheer avarice. It seemed similar to the power of Gluttony at first glance, but those two powers had one big difference: in contrast to the power of Gluttony, which incorporated what it swallowed into itself, the power of Greed simply took possession of it rather than merging with it.

The difference was clear. Although some people regarded the power of Greed as lesser than Gluttony because of Greed’s tendency to simply hold on to what it swallowed. Its victims had to be subdued to use the power of Gluttony’s ability, like how a beast had to hunt its prey to consume it. However, that wasn’t necessary for the power of Greed because it could neutralize its target upon activation, just as it did right now.

The divine power that had once matched Kireua’s demonic power vanished with a pathetic wheeze, like a balloon deflating.

“That was…” Anna gaped, awed by the incredible display of might.

Even though Issac remained silent, she observed the battle intently. If what she had just seen was really what she thought it was, anyone who fought Kireua would be forced to do so without mana or aura.

“You were so confident earlier, but your divine power is gone now. How are you going to fight me now?” Kireua smirked as he lightly swished his sword, gathering his demonic power back into him and calming it.

The air around Kireua was unearthly quiet. Weirman, standing right in front of him, could tell that it was merely the calm before the storm.

“The hell…” Weirman gnashed his teeth. “You rely on unholy machinations to compensate for your lack of ability…!”

Weirman’s appearance changed again. Thanks to the authority of Sariel the Angelus, Weirman hadn’t lost all of his divine power like the other paladins—but still, most of his power was undeniably gone. His billowing wings had shrunk to half their original size, and the eyes which used to unleash rays of light had closed long ago.

“Are you talking about yourself?” Kireua taunted.

Weirman raised his sword, unable to hold back his anger. “Get into a formation! I’ll take the lead. We’ll subdue this demon worshipper!”

“S-Sir!”

The paladins quickly moved to surround Kireua despite their bewilderment—but before they could surround him, Kireua disappeared.

“Ugh!”

“Gah!”

“H-He’s over here. The heretic is—!”

The paladins collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Weirman couldn’t do a thing. Knights without the ability to use their mana were merely healthy, ordinary people who happened to be good with a sword. Paladins without divine power were no different.

“I did hear that the power of Greed is the best in the Demon Realm, but…” Weirman clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

Now wasn’t the time for him to give up. Besides, Weirman hadn’t reached his limit yet.

“Sariel!” Weirman roared. The closed eyes on the wings were opened wide. Their lethargy vanished. Before long, those eyes dropped from the wings and clung to every part of Weirman’s body.

“I never wanted to take this form…but now that it’s come to this, I’ll kill you no matter what it takes,“ Weirman declared.

He looked truly gruesome. Ten eyes blinked on his arms, thighs, and forehead. Anyone who saw him would have declared him a demon on the spot.

Kireua only stopped after incapacitating half of the paladins on the site.

“I wish I had a mirror to give you or something. And you said I was consorting with demons…”

“I’ll tear your tongue out.”

Weirman leaped forth like a lightning bolt. Kireua flinched, startled by the paladin’s sudden turn of speed, but quickly raised his sword.

Their swords violently clashed. However, Kireua knew that there was more to come, having already witnessed what Weirman’s eyes could do.

‘Don’t tell me he’s going to fire light rays again,’ Kireua thought with an uneasy frown. Exactly as he had imagined, the eyes began to shine.

Kireua instantly went into a roll—but somehow, although he was sure that he had seen the light rays coming and dodged the attacks, he felt a pain in his shoulder. He looked down and saw a bloody wound.

“What in the world…?” he mumbled, frowning.

“Hehehe. Sariel the Death Angelus has twelve eyes, brat.”

Kireua ignored Weirman. His own eyes traced the rays of light to their sources—behind Weirman. As expected, two eyes floated in the air, glaring at Kireua.

“…You’re a monster.” Kireua shook his head in disbelief.

“You’re introducing yourself, you foul seed of a Demon King!”

Kireua stood up and replied by immediately thrusting his sword into his enemy’s heart.

“…What?” Kireua blinked, confused. It wasn’t because his attack failed. That wouldn’t have surprised him this much. Instead, the moment he’d decided to attack, Weirman disappeared before his very eyes.

“Don’t tell me you thought that all these eyes’ only ability is shooting rays of light,” Weirman scoffed.

Kireua was certain that Weirman could see Kireua’s future moves. Even though he wasn’t sure how exactly that was possible…

“…If those eyes are going to cause me problems, I can just close them,” Kireua casually replied.

“What?”

Kireua released a great amount of black smoke, blocking the eyes’ view in no time.

‘Fool!’ Weirman sneered once again. ‘Does he think such a cheap trick will work?’

Through Sariel’s eyes, Weirman could see the true nature of the world, so this kind of smoke was no problem for him when he used his full power. However, the moment Weirman activated his power in full, Kireua disappeared.

“Where! Where are you?” Weirman quickly swept Sariel’s twelve eyes over his surroundings.

Nevertheless, Kireua was nowhere to be seen.

“Down here.”

To Weirman’s surprise, Kireua’s voice came from under his feet. Weirman looked down just in time to see Kireua leaped out of the ground and cut Weirman in half.

“My teacher’s technique is outstanding indeed,” Kireua exclaimed in admiration. What he used just now was Aisha Sestropi’s shadow mobilization technique. By enhancing it with demonic power, the most secretive power in the world, Kireua could utilize the technique several levels higher than before. In fact, Weirman never sensed Kireua’s location even as he died.

Kireua dissipated the black smoke shrouding the entire battlefield.

“Wh-Wha—!”

“C-Captain?”

When the battlefield was revealed, the paladins were struck by a storm of shock and dismay.

Kireua turned to look at them. “Now you have to choose between continuing to fight me or surrendering.”

If he could do as he pleased, Kireua would have eliminated the remaining paladins as well, but he couldn’t. Dealing with them was for someone else to handle.

“V-Bice captain, your orders please…”

The vice-captain of the paladins, Weirman’s second-in-command, bit his lip. If they were going by the rules, they had to fight until the very end. On top of that, there was no guarantee that they were going to be spared when they surrendered, even if the chances of victory were low.

“We’ll fight until the e—”

“Stoooop!”

“There they are.” Kireua broke into a wide smile. A group of people was approaching in the distance. He’d been expecting them.

The paladins, on the other hand, were in even more of a shock than ever. They outright dropped their swords because the one-armed man leading the new group was someone that the paladins of the Great Temple could never forget.

“N-No way…”

The man looked like a haggard shadow of his former self, but he was undoubtedly Christian the White Lion. The man who was once hailed as the strongest person in Hubalt stepped into the light with his paladins.