Before the two locked in each other's arms could say a word, the meteors came hurtling down like an aurora.
Messmer was covered in blood. The wounds had been cut open by Gurranq's dagger, but under the scorching flames, they were healing at an astonishing speed.
Yet as the wounds closed, a powerful wave of exhaustion surged through him.
This was not the first time today he had used the Fire of Life to heal himself.
Before coming here, he had used that same flame to burn Gurranq and his hunters to ashes.
It was a power he had gained through his faith in his father, but he had paid the corresponding price for it: his faith, or rather, his mental power.
Spiritual exhaustion also required time to recover from, but after rushing from one battlefield to the next, he had not had even the slightest chance to catch his breath.
Like an anxious child, he sprinted to Rellana's side, gathered her tightly into his arms without hesitation, and turned to run back.
But the meteors were far too fast, and far too close. There was no way they could escape.
Seeing that the meteors were about to smash into them, Messmer had no choice but to raise the spear in his hand, ready to face this world-shattering legendary magic head-on.
He had already braced himself to be crushed into pulp by the Magical Power meteors when a different light suddenly shimmered across the sky.
They were layers of azure rings, like ripples spreading across the surface of the sea, sending Magical Power outward in expanding circles.
There were eight rings of Magical Power in all, perfectly matching the eight remaining meteors.
Like light striking a polished mirror, the moment the meteors touched the rings of Magical Power, they were reflected away, bouncing off like marbles.
The meteors shot toward the master mage, who had already turned into a monster, and finally buried him in a blinding radiance.
What followed was an extraordinarily long silence. Messmer stared at the sky, while everyone else stared at Messmer.
At last, in the middle of that silence, a golden firework suddenly burst open in the spot Messmer had been looking at.
That firework released countless streams of golden light, raining down like a Star Shower.
The vast forest all around was swallowed by the dense Star Shower.
Only when those stars pierced through the insectoids did Moonrithyll finally see clearly that every streak of golden light was actually a long spear twisted like lightning.
With unstoppable speed and force, those spears pierced through the insectoids' bodies and reduced them to lumps of charcoal.
All at once, she remembered. The dazzling flash she had once witnessed kept flickering through her mind, that bolt of lightning capable of turning night into day in an instant.
Such overwhelming power, and such mastery of lightning. There was probably only one person who could wield it to this extreme.
She realized that the Lord who was perfectly compatible with her, usually not all that reliable but always dependable when it mattered, had personally descended upon this remote battlefield.
He came bearing the sturdiest shield and the sharpest spear, descending like a god.
The bell of judgment had long since tolled. Whether they were those mad Sorcerers or those revolting insects, all were bathed in that dazzling light and cleansed by it.
Messmer suddenly lowered his head and watched as countless beams of light converged, gradually condensing into a great golden gate.
And the instant that gate slowly opened, a figure walked out from within.
"Father," Messmer called out before he could stop himself.
He was just about to loosen his tight hold on Rellana, but with a champion's keen senses, Rellana immediately noticed that the arms wrapped around her were gradually relaxing.
Soon, a voice that put her at ease reached them.
"Don't move around when you're injured!" Nolan looked at this son of his and sighed helplessly.
"But... Knight Rellana..." Messmer's gaze flicked quickly to Rellana in his arms, showing a trace of hesitation.
"Hold tight. You can take care of her."
Nolan cut Messmer off without mercy, at the same time assuming the stern bearing unique to both a father and a Lord, leaving no room for anyone to question his decision.
"After all, she is your knight. A knight must protect their lord, but a lord also has a duty to shelter their knight."
Messmer opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Nolan had already surged forward. Rellana looked at him, her eyes shining.
This was the first time she had ever found her lord's lord so pleasing to the eye. Even if someone asked her to call him Father alongside Messmer right now, she would do it willingly.
Messmer himself did not particularly care. When he had rushed over just now, he had not thought about anything. He had simply wanted to protect Rellana on instinct.
Now that he had the reassurance of his father's protection, however, he instead felt the urge to pull away and flee.
It was the same feeling he had once had in the Land of Shadow. The difference was that now, he could no longer escape.
Nolan's voice sounded softly.
"Is the Starry Sky truly so beautiful? Is the Origin what you wished for?"
His tone was calm and gentle, without the slightest impatient thirst for knowledge. It sounded more as if he were asking on someone else's behalf.
The arc light from the Magical Power explosion gradually faded, and Lusat slowly raised his head. His gem-like eyes fixed firmly on Nolan, as though he were considering how to answer that question.
"The starry sky..."
A hoarse, grating sound came from Lusat's throat, like two rough pebbles grinding together. It was unpleasant enough to make one's ears ache.
The reflected meteors had already cracked his body apart. He slowly raised the right hand holding his staff, as if that hand weighed ten thousand jin.
His fingers trembled slightly. Semi-transparent fragments of stone fell from his body, and the Magical Power radiance on his staff had already begun to shine, like the brightest star in the night sky.
The light was so dazzling that it drowned out everything around it, leaving only endless Darkness and Lusat's twisted silhouette.
Messmer tried his best to help his father, but with a battered woman in his arms whom he could not put down, he was powerless to act no matter how much he wanted to.
Nolan stood before Lusat without the slightest trace of panic or fear on his face.
On the contrary, his gaze was exceptionally calm. It could even be called indifferent.
He quietly watched Lusat and listened as the old man repeated the same words again and again.
Nolan knew that the voice did not belong to some monster. It was the soul of a Seeker within that Glintstone body.
That soul was trapped inside the enormous stone, unable to find release, able only to repeat those few words endlessly.
"Sorry. My starry sky might be a little different from this world's," Nolan said. "But I suppose you can't give me an answer anymore."
A second round of Stars of Ruin tore through the air. After leaving Lusat, they came within less than half a meter of Nolan before being deflected by blue ripples.
That was the Thops Field Nolan had cast. He had used this Sorcery just now to protect his son and daughter-in-law, and now he released it right in Lusat's face.
Lusat tried to retreat, but he could not. Nolan's hand reached out from within the purple Magical Power and slammed hard into Lusat's chest.
The next moment, a dull impact rang out, and Lusat's body shuddered violently.
Immediately after, sharp cracking explosions erupted all across his body, as if countless bombs had gone off inside him at the same time.
Amid that chain of explosions, Lusat's body seemed to be torn apart by a force from within. Countless cracks glowing with purple light spread rapidly across him.
The cracks grew wider and wider, until finally, Lusat's body shattered with a thunderous crash.
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