Chapter 28: First Real Confrontation

When I touched the wall of light energy that was blocking our way, a book about it was immediately compiled which states that it requires the power of a Rank-7 Demi-human to exploit its weak points and break through it. With my current strength, there is no way for me to break it open. I then looked at the man in full plate armor with my eyes of wisdom and saw that he is a Rank-6 Pinnacle Mortal, just a single step away from the 7th rank. I asked him, “What do you want to do with my niece?” With the gruff voice of an old man, the knight replied, "The people who are against us tag this as the 'ritual of sacrifice' because from how they see it, the soul being offered ascends to our lord and savior, The Sovereign of Light. But, the more appropriate term to call it is 'ritual of ascendance.' It is her privilege to be offered to our Sovereign because her soul is too powerful. In exchange for this offering, our God will give us additional boons." As he said those words, the light that was trying to absorb Stephanie's soul earlier shot at the knight. I suddenly could not recognize him anymore using my eyes of wisdom. This could only mean one thing; he broke through the barrier of the 6th rank and entered the 7th rank.

He disappeared from my sight and the next thing I know is that he is right in front of me taking a swing with his long sword. This took me by surprise, but luckily, I was able to dodge it and at the same time, compile a book on him. The book shows that he is now a Rank-7 Middle Stage Warrior with the ability to generate up to 200 megagrams of strength. Upon reading more information about him, I also found out that he has already received two boons from the light. The first one he received was to completely increase his rank from 5th to 6th rank Pinnacle which I would assume was how he beat up the wisp rather easily. And as for the second boon, it forcibly increased his strength temporarily to that of a Rank-7 Middle Stage Warrior which is slowly burning up his life force. This is good news for me. I met his longsword with my transformed weapon mixed with saber intent, and I was blown away and slammed on the door. It hurt, it truly hurt. I am not used to this, but I must fight; this is the way the world works now. I will do anything to protect my closest friends.

We further exchanged blows after the initial clash. After some time, I was able to gauge his full strength. While he may be of a higher rank, me having strength measuring up to 90 megagrams augmented with my superior Heavenly Arts techniques, we are evenly matched. The only problem is, while my mana reserves are greater than that of other people of my rank, it would still be no match for a person who is using his life energy. With that in mind, I have to end this quickly. I attacked him using my Movement arts mixed in with continuously changing and alternating strikes of the Fist, Sword, Leg, Spear, and Saber Arts. As he was about to break his stance, he started using his own awakened power together with the power granted to him by his boons. This is not good. And as I was thinking that he could not get any stronger than he is now, he started using another skill, The Wings of Vengeance, that further powered up his strikes by 20%. Angel wings popped out from his back and his body turned into light. On his sword hand, a red sigil popped out which activated his blood seal with a strike of light mana that further strengthened every attack that he threw at me. With his other hand, he threw his shield which was blocking most of my attacks. The shield came flying towards me which I thankfully dodged, then he summoned it back to him.

With his current strength, my only chance now to win would be to abuse his flaws. I won’t strike to kill anymore but rather to make my own openings. Because his increase in strength didn’t include an increase in speed, I am still faster than him due to the Heavenly Movement Arts. I threw out air slices of mana-infused saber intent to pressure him which unfortunately, he was able to dodge. He threw his shield again and tried to hit me, but I was waiting for it. As soon as his shield was thrown out, I immediately used my movement art to get close to his extended arm. I hit a pain acupoint in his arm by pumping mana into it. To make sure it goes through his armor, I expended 10% of my total mana, which worked as he screamed out in pain. This made it easy for me to use my saber and slice his arm off cleanly like butter using my dominant left hand. His cries of pain grew louder, but this is a do or die fight; I cannot manage to waste any more time. I was ready to hit him again this time with my spear, but he still tried to hit me with his sword using his other hand. I blocked his sword strike with my saber which made me fly out and landed around 10 feet from him. The pain from being hit is no joke. With blood spraying from his hand, he finally lost his thought processes and just straight-up tried to ram me with his sheer will of fighting. It was as good as over, and using the Heavenly Spear Arts, I hit him right in his chest. The spear pierced through his golden armor then right through his heart which ultimately killed him. With this long fight with the knight finally done, it's now time for me to face the light.

I turned to face the light and shouted, "Dissipate now! Or I'll make you." The persona behind the light just snorted and hit me with a golden strike. Before it could do me harm, I used what was remaining of my mana to dodge it, jump up, then gather and absorb the light energy infused in the golden strike. While this may have increased my energy, it was way more than I can handle. The only way to handle this amount of energy is to upgrade to the 4th rank which is impossible because I do not have with me the Heavenly Manual regarding this rank. Pushing myself to upgrade without it might ruin my foundations which could then ruin everything else. I then employed a different fighting technique that I have been wanting to practice ever since I learned how to fight when I assimilated the Sword Art of the Heavens. This technique is called Mind Fighting, fighting mental images in your head to get used to applying different techniques in a real fight. While the Library helped me in practicing the heavenly skills that I gained, I still consider myself as someone who doesn't know how to fight. I then employed Mind Fighting. I closed my eyes and practiced hundreds of combat scenarios in my head while moving my body to expend my mana. I practiced various ways to react to different scenarios using my heavenly skills. After some time mastering my combat instincts, I opened my eyes and was shocked to see that the room was in ruins, nearly to the point of collapsing.