Reborn as a Useless Noble with my SSS-Class Innate Talent-Chapter 229: Ch : The Price of Power- Part 3

Golden light splintered across the battlefield like shards of divine wrath, so bright and heavy that the very air trembled under its weight.

Kyle halted mid-step, sword still drawn, as the searing presence of divine mana descended from the heavens, converging onto the crumpled form of the Saintess.

His eyes narrowed.

’Not good.’

The Saintess’s body, previously collapsing under the weight of their clash, arched upward as if seized by unseen threads.

Her wounds mended not with healing but with transmutation; her limbs shimmered like molten gold, her skin glowing with radiant light. Her once-human frame now teetered into the realm of something divine—no longer mortal, not yet god.

The golden aura pulsed violently. Cracks splintered through the earth beneath her.

Kyle took a slow breath as the pressure increased.

"She’s burning herself alive."

The Saintess opened her eyes—now white with no iris, only divine fury. A strained, almost hysterical laugh escaped her lips as she swayed upright.

"You... you’ve lost, Kyle. My goddess—our goddess—has blessed me. You have no chance now."

Kyle tilted his head, unimpressed.

"Blessing? That looks more like a curse to me."

She didn’t hear him. Or maybe she did, but no longer cared.

Mana crackled around her like a living storm, wild and unrestrained.

It howled as she summoned it, pushed it beyond reason.

Her staff had long since turned to dust, but her hands glowed with runes burned directly into her skin—temporary conduits for borrowed divinity.

Kyle tightened his grip on his sword, but didn’t lift it.

’She’s unstable. I don’t even need to kill her. Just wait.’

The Saintess hurled her first attack—a beam of divine light so condensed it sliced the trees clean in half and scorched the field.

Kyle didn’t dodge. He raised his hand and let it hit him square on.

Nothing.

The light dispersed on contact, unraveling like mist against a wall of black steel.

The Saintess’s eyes widened in disbelief.

"What—? That was divine retribution!"

Kyle stepped forward, letting the residual glow fade off his shoulder.

"You think I haven’t faced divinity before?"

She gritted her teeth and launched again. Blasts of sanctified magic, chains of holy judgment, spears made of light—none of it touched him.

None of it mattered. Her attacks, meant to purge evil, had no effect.

And she knew it.

"You’re just stalling!"

She shrieked, voice cracking as blood spilled from her lips. Her steps wobbled, the radiant flesh of her legs already tearing at the seams.

Kyle didn’t deny it.

"You’ll burn out soon. Divine mana’s too much for a mortal shell. Even a chosen one."

But her desperation had other plans.

Staggering back, she raised her hand to the sky and let out a call—not a prayer, but a command.

"Come to me... my blessed kin! Experiments of the Goddess, awaken!"

The air trembled again.

In the forest nearby, glowing lights blinked into existence—one, then two, then several more.

Figures in priestly garb began to emerge, each emanating a twisted version of the Saintess’s mana. Like reflections of her power, diluted and imperfect, yet still dangerous.

Kyle’s expression darkened.

"So that’s what she meant by experiments."

The Saintess let out another strained laugh, her body swaying dangerously.

"They were created to share the burden... pieces of me, forged by divinity... and now they’re here to finish you."

Kyle glanced around as the newly arrived warriors circled him. Each one bore a fragment of divine power, barely held together by the Saintess’s will.

Queen, sensing the tension from afar, let out a low, rumbling cry from her nest, wings twitching in its sleep. Kyle smiled faintly.

’Not yet. But soon.’

He thought.

Turning back to the Saintess, he said.

"I see now. You’re no longer a saint. Just a vessel. One about to break."

She glared at him with bloodshot eyes, divine energy still crackling across her arms.

"Even if I die, you’ll die with me."

"Maybe. But I’ve lived through death once. Your goddess will have to do better than this."

Kyle replied coolly, lifting his sword again.

And as the divine experiments began their charge, Kyle took a single step forward, ready to meet them all.

Golden light flared across the sky, blinding and unnatural, as the Saintess floated shakily above the scorched battlefield.

Her body trembled with every movement, bones creaking under the unbearable strain of divinity.

Veins of pure light snaked across her skin, pulsing erratically like cracks in fragile porcelain.

She was dying—and she knew it.

But her lips curled into a tired smile as she lifted her trembling hands one last time, mana surging toward her core. This would be her final act.

If she couldn’t kill Kyle Armstrong directly, she would leave nothing behind for him to protect.

Kyle watched her calmly, sword resting across his shoulder.

"Still trying?"

The Saintess grinned, her teeth stained red with blood.

"If I can’t kill you... then I’ll make sure your people don’t survive you. Let’s see how your village thrives when nothing will grow. No soil. No crops. No future."

A pulse of divine mana cracked from her palms and spread across the battlefield like wildfire.

The golden light fell from the sky like rain, seeping into the earth with a sizzle that turned fertile ground into brittle dust. Trees withered in an instant. The air became suffocating.

Kyle sighed.

"You’re not just stubborn—you’re dumb, too."

She didn’t answer. Her body was breaking apart, her form flickering as her life reached its end.

But she smiled—because even if she lost, she would leave behind a wasteland.

Or so she thought.

Just as the divine magic soaked into the land, something shifted. Kyle took a single step forward and raised his hand.

The air rippled.

The divine mana, meant to desecrate everything, hesitated mid-fall. Then, like leaves drawn into a vortex, the golden rain began reversing direction—pulled toward Kyle.

The Saintess’s eyes widened as she watched the impossible unfold.

"You don’t get to ruin what I’ve built. Especially not with power that doesn’t even belong to you."

Kyle muttered, eyes glowing faintly as tendrils of mana wrapped around his body.

One by one, the golden beams condensed around him, shrinking from destructive lances to glimmering streams absorbed into his body.

Divine mana twisted into his aura, then vanished—converted, purified, claimed.

He wasn’t just neutralizing it.

He was making it his own.

The Saintess collapsed to her knees, blood dripping from her lips. She barely had the strength to speak.

Her vision blurred, but she could still see the figure in the distance, absorbing the power that had been meant to destroy him.

"That’s... not fair...That power... it’s not..."

She whispered weakly, voice cracking under strain.

But her words trailed off. Her eyes fluttered once, then closed, and her body finally went still—burnt out, broken, defeated.

The last thing she saw was Kyle standing calmly amidst the ruined forest, golden light swirling around him like a crown. And then—darkness.

The Saintess’s breath hitched one last time as her consciousness faded.

In her final moments, she felt nothing but despair—not from pain, but from the terrifying realization that Kyle was no longer human.

’He’s something else... something that even the heavens should fear.’

She thought—before her body gave out completely.