Now that he knew the captain of the Temple Knights had a special skill to force weapons to break, Shirou could no longer use magic swords against him. He quickly put the damaged Wind Break back in its sheath, planning to use projection magic to create swords to use up.
This was clearly the right idea. Even if the opponent's skill was strange, he could keep projecting new weapons and fight a long battle.
"Humph."
But seeing Shirou put away his weapon, the captain of the Temple Knights looked very proud. He thought Shirou giving up his weapon was like admitting defeat.
So he said loudly, "You low-level heretic, don't even think about leaving here alive today!"
"..."
Shirou didn't care about the Temple Knight captain's reaction.
He just watched the other man's movements, confirming that his sword skills were just those of an upper-level Water God Style user, not even at the Saint level.
However, the Temple Knights of the Milis Church seemed to have special skills, like the holy shields they used and the Holy Sword skill that broke opponents' weapons.
Facing an enemy like this, even a Saint-level swordsman from the usual top three styles would be in trouble.
No matter how strong a swordsman was, if their weapon was broken, they couldn't keep fighting.
Also, even the super-fast strikes of Sword God Style couldn't quickly break through this strange shield, making it hard for Sword God Style to use its amazing speed.
For one-on-one fights, the Temple Knights of the Milis Holy Kingdom were truly special.
No wonder the Milis Church was the biggest church in the world.
"Heretic, die!"
While Shirou was thinking, the captain of the Temple Knights swung his weapon and charged at him very quickly.
His speed wasn't that fast, but it was still very sharp.
And Shirou now had no weapon in his hand, so continuing to fight him head-on would surely lead to defeat.
This was very exciting news for the Temple Knights around them.
But Therese and the Holy Child looked nervous. They didn't want their savior to end up like this.
However, they couldn't change things and could only watch as the sharp blade came down toward Shirou.
It looked like a bloody tragedy was about to happen.
"Cling,"
A clear sound of blades meeting suddenly rang out.
To everyone's surprise, Shirou's empty hands now held two sharp longswords.
The longswords seemed newly forged, with a hot temperature and even sparks coming off them.
"Projection, done!"
"Reconstruction, start!"
The moment Shirou's swords hit the Temple Knight's weapon, they broke apart.
Compared to Wind Break, which was an imitation of a magic sword, these weapons that Shirou created using sword magic were much weaker.
Even Wind Break had been damaged by that attack.
These weapons made of sword magic shattered the moment they touched the other weapon, without resisting at all.
But Shirou didn't hesitate and immediately used sword magic to project more weapons.
Hot flames burned the air.
Sword magic made of both earth and fire magic quickly appeared again, turning into two longswords that were back in Shirou's hands.
"What kind of magic is this?"
Everyone there was shocked.
The captain of the Temple Knights also looked confused. He had never seen anyone create weapons from nothing, so he hesitated and slowed down a bit.
Shirou took this chance and used sword skills from the North God Style.
Sword God Style sword skills focus on extremely fast attacks and often ignore frontal attacks.
But North God Style sword skills make up for this well.
The strongest sword in North God Style is the deadly North God Style cut, which almost beat Shirou even when he had the Holy Sword. This shows how scary its power is.
Of course, Shirou wouldn't use that deadly cut, which even the Undead Demon Lord hadn't fully mastered.
But he had copied many North God Style skills from the Undead Demon Lord, including the super-fast drawing slash of Twenty Cuts!
"North God Style, Basic Form Two, Circle Heaven Flower!"
Shirou used the copied moves to launch a deadly attack.
Even though it was obviously sword skill he had learned at the last minute , he managed to cut through the Temple Knight captain's shield because it had more attacking power than the Longsword of Light. The sword went right into the other man's shoulder.
"Ahhh!!!"
The captain of the Temple Knights looked confused and in pain because Shirou had broken his holy shield. He tried to back away, struggling.
Shirou seized the chance and kept attacking.
He was not only using North God Style, but also Sword God Style sword skills.
This might have been because of his fight with Paul, who had used Sword God Style, North God Style, and Water God Style at the same time, which gave Shirou a great idea.
He realized that the three sword styles looked different and had their own strengths and weaknesses, but they weren't completely separate.
If he studied them closely and kept changing them in battle, he might be able to create a new skill that combined all three sword styles.
"..."
Shirou thought this as he kept his sword moving.
Facing the captain of the Temple Knights, whose shield was broken and defenses down, he easily shattered his weak defense using North God Style skills, and used Sword God Style's fast sword to stab the other man right in the chest, almost killing him—
"Wait!"
But just as Shirou was about to beat the captain of the Temple Knights, an old voice suddenly came from inside the church.
Shirou stopped what he was doing.
Even though he was just one step away from cutting off the Temple Knight captain's head, he managed to stop himself.
This was not only because of the voice, but also because of the Holy Child's look, which was full of worry, not fear.
She wasn't worried about the Temple Knight captain who was about to die, but about him.
Shirou then realized he was doing something very crazy.
If he killed someone in the street here, the entire Milis Holy Kingdom would hunt him down, and not only Eris and Ruijerd, but even Paul and the others would be dragged into it.
Shirou felt his mind was strangely confused.
At some point, he had stopped being afraid of killing and had become very calm about it, even eager.
When did this start?
He couldn't remember.
Shirou shook his head, trying to slowly calm down and stopped his crazy plan to kill the captain of the Temple Knights in public.
"Hah..."
Everyone there sighed with relief when they saw Shirou stop.
The captain of the Temple Knights, who was lying on the ground with a sword through his chest, looked lost. He felt like he had just barely escaped death.
It gave him an unspeakable feeling of fear.
It was a feeling worse than death.
He couldn't say anything arrogant now.
Meanwhile, after Shirou stopped killing the captain of the Temple Knights, an old man with a grand air walked slowly out of the church headquarters.
He had a long white beard and wore a priest's robe embroidered with gold.
The old man was a kind grandfather. He didn't have the strong presence of an expert like Sauros, or the sharp edge of Water God Reida, but he had a unique wisdom that only special wise people have. It made you feel like he could accept everything, with a grandness that made you agree with him.
Faced with this old man, Shirou's anger lessened a bit, and his mind became clearer.
Shirou guessed that this must be the current Pope of the Milis Church.
If not, he must be a very important person in the Milis Church.
As expected, the old man immediately said, "Hello, child. I am the current Pope of the Milis Church. It seems the knights have caused you some trouble. I apologize for that."
The Pope was actually apologizing to him. Shirou couldn't tell if the man was sincere or just being fake polite.
However, judging by the surprised looks on the faces of the Temple Knights around him, it was very rare for the Pope to apologize to an outsider.
So he also said seriously, "It's not you who needs to apologize, Pope, but these knights who attacked me for no reason."
Shirou always paid back those who helped him or hurt him. Since the Temple Knights had attacked him, he would only target them and wouldn't spread his anger to the entire church.
The Pope seemed to appreciate his attitude and said with a smile, "My subordinates' mistakes are also my mistakes. They foolishly treated a benefactor as an enemy. This kind of mistake needs to be punished, and I am to blame for not watching them closely enough."
"Oh? You know what happened?"
"As the Pope, I naturally have my ways of finding out."
The Pope spoke gently, but when he mentioned the Temple Knights, a hint of strict anger flashed in his eyes, showing that he wasn't just a kind old man.
In fact, many of the Temple Knights had already lowered their heads in fear, not saying a word.
In any case, with the Pope's appearance, the situation quickly calmed down.
The Temple Knights were all given different levels of confinement and punishment for threatening Shirou. The captain of the knights who had been injured by Shirou wasn't healed, but was ordered to leave Millishion and work on the border.
Everything went so smoothly that Shirou felt unreal. He didn't think anyone could be so strong-willed in getting rid of their organization's people.
Even the most powerful leader would have trouble doing that.
Therese later explained to Shirou, "The Temple Knights and the Pope aren't from the same group. Inside the Milis Holy Kingdom now, the Temple Knights follow the current Cardinal, while the current Cardinal and the Pope are enemies. So getting rid of the Temple Knights is like weakening the Cardinal's power, and the Pope's side would want to do it as soon as possible."
"I see."
Shirou then remembered the internal conflicts of the Milis Holy Kingdom.
Thinking about it, he had previously killed assassins sent by the Pope's faction to kill the Holy Child, and now he had defeated all the Temple Knights of the Cardinal's faction.
Normally, he would have offended both groups and wouldn't be able to stay in the Milis Holy Kingdom any longer.
But this didn't happen.
Because the Pope had taken care of all the trouble for him and even invited Shirou to meet him, saying he would repay Shirou for his weapons.
At first, Shirou didn't understand why the old man was being so kind to him.
But after thinking about it, he understood.
The assassins the Pope had sent to kill the Holy Child were a group of radicals that the Pope couldn't control at all. The Pope himself definitely didn't want to kill the Holy Child, and might have been planning to get rid of the bad people under him for a long time. As for the Temple Knights, they were the main force of the Cardinal's faction, and destroying them would effectively hurt the Cardinal's power.
So everything Shirou had done was completely to the Pope's liking, and he had even done many things for him that he wanted to do but couldn't.
Now the Pope's friendly attitude towards him was only natural.
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