'Such a powerful hostility.'
Noah could feel anger from the golden humanoid. Its soul was filled with rage.
"That anger... you want to kill me?"
He murmured softly while watching the being before him, something that was no longer Hans, yet had inherited that man's fury.
"Because I hurt someone important to you, you want to tear me to pieces?"
The golden humanoid's movements changed.
Noah added fuel to the fire and urged it on.
"Then what are you waiting for?"
For once, Noah took the initiative to provoke his opponent.
Under his direct gaze, Power of Oath rippled.
In that instant, the golden humanoid vanished from where it stood.
Its figure stretched into a straight line, moving so fast that its upper body had already reached Noah while the afterimage of its lower body was still left in place.
At a glance, it looked almost like a rubber band being stretched.
Fortunately, Weaver's perception was far sharper and more efficient than the five senses such as sight.
The instant the golden humanoid stepped into Weaver's domain, Noah immediately reacted in time.
His eyes widened, his five fingers spread open, and his palm aimed at the golden humanoid.
Abruptly, the golden humanoid seemed to freeze in place. It stopped moving in midair, suspended there while trembling faintly.
The golden blade was only a few centimeters away from Noah's pupil.
It stopped before his eyes.
"As expected..."
Noah's gaze sharpened slightly, and the movement of his hand changed from raising to pressing downward.
At the same time, the golden humanoid seemed to be dragged by some force. Its entire body was lifted from the ground, then slammed down.
Boom!
A crater was smashed into the ground, and the golden humanoid was pinned tightly against the surface.
Weaver could directly manipulate mana.
And mana had different forms of expression depending on the situation.
Power of Oath was not a mass of condensed mana, but because it had absorbed too many of Noah's attacks, a large amount of Noah's own mana was mixed into the energy that formed its body.
For Noah, manipulating a body filled with his own mana was not difficult.
He clenched his fist and, on top of mana control, manipulated gravity to suppress the golden humanoid's movements.
The downward gravity forced the golden humanoid flat against the ground, and its energy even annihilated the surface beneath it.
"Gurgle..."
The suppressed golden humanoid tried to break free from Noah's control, but it failed.
As a result, this seemed to stimulate it.
It suddenly went berserk, its shape rapidly changing, looking almost like a soft mass of water.
The water-like mass kept writhing.
It changed into a golden ball of light, opened a small slit at the top, and squeezed out a small black sphere.
Noah looked at that black sphere, and the confusion in his eyes lasted less than 0.1 seconds before turning completely into shock.
[Rain of Light]
・Can instantly unleash over a hundred beams of light between 850 and 1500 degrees Celsius, indiscriminately attacking the surrounding area.
There was no time to stop it.
In Noah's eyes, the black sphere shot into the sky in an instant, then bloomed like fireworks high above.
Specks of light glittered in the air.
More than a hundred spears of light fell from the sky.
At the same time, Power of Oath changed back into a golden humanoid, and its two arms once again transformed into blades as it attacked.
Noah had to pay attention to the spears of light descending from the sky while dodging the humanoid's attacks.
For a time, he fell into a disadvantage.
Because Ravenfeather was equipped on his hand, Noah used it to block whenever he truly could not dodge.
But this was not the real Ravenfeather.
It was his Device.
If it continued taking intense attacks, it would soon break.
He had to counterattack.
But he could not use ordinary methods.
Elemental attacks like fire and ice would not work. The opponent was an energy body, and it had the property of absorbing energy.
Attacking it was the same as charging it.
"Hoo."
Noah released a little cold air and froze the ground.
The golden humanoid stepped onto it.
Rather than slipping as Noah had predicted, it directly evaporated the surface beneath its feet.
In that case, even creating a swamp would probably be useless.
Not mana attacks, not physical attacks, and it could not generate kinetic energy...
At first glance, these seemed like impossible conditions to fulfill, and Noah was somewhat surprised that he could actually do it.
That's right.
He only needed to attack the soul.
Every Blazer possessed a special ability: they could manifest their Device in phantasmal form.
In that state, the Device looked no different from the real thing, but it would not cause physical damage to the human body. It would only cut away at the soul.
Power of Oath was a phenomenon, but among the components that formed its body, the soul was absolutely the most important.
Now, he needed a weapon.
'A sword would do.'
He recalled the shapes and structures of the blades in his memories.
Noah divided his focus across multiple tasks, causing his body's reaction speed to slow by half a beat. As a result, the golden humanoid cut across his cheek.
Blood flowed from the wound, only for the small cut to be scorched shut.
But Noah, whose attention was divided elsewhere, "ignored" the pain.
He was fully focused on something else.
Among the many weapons he had seen, there was one sword that had left a deep impression on him.
There it was...
'I'll borrow your sword, Kurogane.'
"Manifest, Intetsu!"
After leaning back to avoid a sweeping golden blade of light, Noah turned without the slightest hesitation, drawing his hand to his waist while taking a sword-drawing stance.
The radiance of his soul shone in his hand, and a streak of black seemed to flicker within that light.
With the motion of drawing a blade from its sheath, he pulled a plain, elegant sword from the void.
He did not waste that sword-drawing motion.
An anti-gravity formula unfolded beneath Noah's feet and propelled him forward, sending him past the golden humanoid as Intetsu slashed into its body.
During the instant they passed each other, the blade completely pierced through its body.
If it were mana flowing within a human body, then cutting it with mana would be enough. But against an entire energy body, that method would not work.
"——!"
A cry that could not be described in words spread from the golden humanoid's mouth.
It was strange.
Its mouth was clearly nothing more than decoration.
Aside from its outline, it had no tongue, no teeth, and certainly no organs like vocal cords.
Yet it made a sound.
And it was a chilling wail, extremely piercing, spreading through almost the entire forest.
Noah did not turn back.
He observed the golden humanoid's every movement through Intetsu's blade.
Its whole body trembled violently as its blade arms changed back into hands. Then its knees shook, and it clutched its abdomen before kneeling on the ground.
"It looks painful."
Noah had seen this kind of situation several times already.
Whether it was Hekatonkheires or Murasame, these unruly Teigu immediately submitted to him after receiving damage on the soul level.
In other words, soul-level attacks inflicted enormous damage on them.
Noah's eyes lit with a faint blue glow.
In his eyes, the golden humanoid's soul was curled into a ball, and the fear it emitted allowed Noah to clearly feel just how terrified it was right now.
Noah felt no mercy.
He calmly walked in front of the golden humanoid and raised Intetsu in one hand, holding it perfectly straight.
Aiming at that shrinking, frightened soul, Noah slashed down and split the weak soul in two.
The soul was torn apart, and the golden humanoid immediately froze.
Then, after a single breath, it violently burst apart.
With its restraint gone, mana fled in every direction, and the mental energy of Hans and Najenda quickly scattered as well.
A medal-like disc fell to the ground. Noah picked it up and "examined" it in his hand.
[Chapter of Oath]
・The shield-type Teigu Oath Disc has been completely destroyed. This medal, symbolizing a thousand years of honor, is proof that it once existed, and also its only remaining remnant.
・As an alchemy material, this item no longer has any value.
Noah shook his head and casually crushed the useless remnant into powder.
After dealing with the trouble, Noah looked around.
Merraid, her maids, Akame, and the others had all disappeared. Najenda had also vanished from where she had been at some point.
Power of Oath had been a powerful enemy, leaving him unable to pay attention to other movements around him.
Noah was very dissatisfied with this result.
No.
Not only the result.
Being inexplicably treated as a massive threat and forced into a life-or-death battle with several strangers was what he found even harder to let go of.
Merraid Oarburgh.
That woman had really brought him a considerable amount of trouble.
Adding in the strength he had exposed this time, he would most likely become a priority assassination target for the Revolutionary Army in the future and receive special attention from them.
"Tch."
Although the battle on Noah's side had already ended, Gozuki and the others were not finished.
They had entered combat with the army Najenda had brought.
And naturally, they were at a disadvantage.
The castle that had originally been their target for assault had instead become a fortress they relied on to hold their ground.
The number of people in the Assassination Unit was not even one-twentieth of the army under Najenda's command.
A difference of more than twenty times in manpower left this battle with no suspense.
The two sides remained deadlocked for a long time.
Long enough that they began questioning what exactly the opposing commander was doing.
"Has the general still not returned?"
"Yes..."
"Damn it. If even one of the officers were here, that would be enough. Why did all of them run off?"
As a centurion, he did not have the authority to command the entire army.
...
At this moment, Merraid and the others were moving toward the army's direction.
That was only natural.
Compared to fleeing blindly, as long as they rejoined the army, it basically meant they would be safe.
In Merraid's view, although Noah was as strong as a monster, he was still human no matter what. It was not as though he could fight an entire army alone.
That said, this general really was a beautiful woman.
Merraid looked at the unconscious Najenda, a slight blush appearing on her face. She stroked Najenda's cheek, leaned down, and slowly moved closer.
Just then, Najenda suddenly opened both eyes.
She grabbed Merraid's chin and questioned her in an icy tone, "What were you planning to do?"
Najenda could not have guessed that the leader of the assassin group before her had a special hobby and was trying to take advantage of the situation to do something to her.
"Oh my, you're awake."
Seeing her awaken, Merraid felt helpless, but she could only temporarily give up on her plan.
She straightened her body and took a few steps back, allowing Najenda to clearly see the current situation.
She said nothing, giving her time to recall everything that had happened earlier.
"You people... no, that's not right. Where are my subordinates?"
Images of her companions' tragic deaths flashed through her mind.
Najenda stood up in agitation and shouted, "Huey! Losser! Jeffman! Hans! My subordinates..."
'Huh.'
'Wait.'
'What was going on with these memories?'
Amid a ringing in her ears, Najenda gradually regained a clear mind.
Scene after scene from earlier was awakened in her memory.
'I... I'm still alive?'
Najenda's memories ended with herself being sent flying by Bombard.
She clearly remembered being hit by Noah's attack, most of her body blasted apart. She should not have been able to survive.
Seeing that she had remembered enough, Merraid began explaining.
"Yes. Normally, wounds like that would definitely be fatal. But that subordinate of yours named Hans was quite capable."
Hans?
"I was shocked too. So far, I've killed quite a few Teigu users, but this was the first time I had ever seen a Teigu do something like that."
What a pity.
In the end, it still failed to defeat that monster.
"I see. So you saved me. I'm sorry."
After learning the cruel truth, Najenda's entire body fell silent.
She gritted her teeth and said, "Thank you for bringing me back to the troops."
She had thought rescuing their comrades would be a simple mission, and that was why they had set out together.
But who could have expected that this trip would come at the heavy price of four deaths out of five?
Even more terrifying was that if she had died as well, the army under her command would have been left without a leader.
In the end, the brave soldiers who had willingly followed her would have met only the fate of complete annihilation.
They had been only one step away from that worst possible ending.
And the cause was actually her misjudging one man's strength?
Just how cruel a joke had fate played on her?
Akame.
There was one other person who shared that feeling with her.
Even now, she still could not stop trembling.
Up to this point, she had experienced quite a few battlefields and had wandered between life and death several times, but compared to the battle just now, all of those experiences felt so distant.
That battle had been like something from another dimension.
If she also had power like that, then perhaps making the world happy would actually become much simpler.
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