[Heaven’s Tremor, Solar Judgment]

A pure white sun blotted out the entire sky, so intense that even the real sun hanging high in the heavens could no longer be seen. Scorching heatwaves swept through the town.

Weeds between the stone tiles quickly withered and drooped, then ignited under the hot wind, as a destructive flood of light elements descended upon the earth like a falling celestial sun.

Charlotte instantly understood Hebrew’s intent. She summoned a violent gust rising from the ground, using its counterforce to hinder the "Radiant Sun" from advancing.

However, Charlotte was merely a middle tier Arcanist mage, while the Pope of Light, Hebrew, stood at the peak of Arcanist, further empowered by a sacred light artifact of the same rank as the [Sword of Light] serving as spellcasting material. Thus, this wind magic had barely any effect, only granting Lyra half a second more to think.

Within elemental vision, violent fire and abundant light entwined, forming a devastating outward manifestation. All other elemental particles paled under such an arrangement.

An intense suffocation overwhelmed Lyra. Even with her high light-element resistance, she struggled to withstand the bombardment of such a high-tier light spell, the so-called elemental resistance being the natural scattering of elemental properties upon impact due to affinity variance.

For a top-tier expert like the Pope of Light, control over light-element particles had reached its pinnacle. Very few light particles can be resisted by affinity. Unless Lyra reached his level, her high Magnus-tier mental strength simply couldn’t fully nullify the spell.

Let alone, this was not merely a pure light spell. Countless fire-element particles were densely interwoven within, serving as a secondary guarantee for Lyra’s annihilation.

Even if she bore stolen glory upon her, there was no way she could withstand this strike.

Cherry-pink hair fluttered in the wind. Holy white armor reflects the searing flames. Light illuminated Lyra’s face, rendering her flawless, porcelain-smooth skin even paler.

Before such a surging cluster of light and fire elements, even shadows had nowhere to hide.

Feeling her life threatened, Lyra’s wrist trembled involuntarily. Her survival instinct urged her to flee immediately, not to stand and block.

She had barely endured the earlier blast waves. Now facing an entire Arcanist-tier spell, how could she possibly resist?

Scorching heat blew against her armor. Her body temperature skyrocketed. Behind her, the city defense troops staggered in retreat, fleeing toward the protective bunker meant for their survival.

Amalia had clearly defined the bunker’s purpose during its construction: to protect withdrawing soldiers from the residual effects of Arcanist mage battles. In other words, it could only shield against blast waves, not withstand a direct point-blank strike from an Arcanist mage.

With current human empire magical technology, building a fortress capable of completely resisting Arcanist magic bombardment was simply impossible.

If she fled now, everyone here would die. And the very bunker meant to protect them will become their agonizing prison. The soldiers outside would be slowly roasted by the external firestorm, feeling their skin blister and dehydrate, their blood baked dry, limbs burned beyond use, nerves transmitting every inch of pain accurately, instead of a clean, instant carbonization.

"..."

At this moment, every extra second of hesitation reduced Lyra’s chance of safe retreat. Moreover, Hebrew’s original intention had been to kill her, sealing all escape routes the moment he began casting.

This brief hesitation seems to leave Lyra with only one choice. In truth, from the very beginning, she had only one path forward.

To withstand head-on this blazing solar inferno, whose casting scale spanned half the size of White Maple Town.

A translucent Sword of Light hovered before the girl’s chest. Her back’s luminous wings are fully unfurled. The silver-white holy armor blazed with radiation.

[Lightfall] operated at full speed. The once-brilliant spring of light now paled before the sun. Most light-element particles had already been seized by Hebrew. What Lyra could control amounted to mere firefly glimmers.

Then, the wind carried a ring into the holy light, and a chaotic, disordered spatial surge detonated [Heaven’s Tremor, Solar Judgment].

Charlotte had thrown into the heart of the Radiant Sun the spatial ring that had accompanied her for years. The turbulence from spatial collapse absorbed a massive amount of light-element particles and simultaneously ruptured a small section of the barrier.

Outside White Maple Town, Arcanist mages rushed to the scene keenly sensed this disturbance and immediately reported to the silver-haired regent still in flight.

"Your Highness the Regent, there is significant spatial fluctuation ahead."

"It appears... a spatial artifact has been detonated."

A spatial artifact?

Hearing her companion’s words, Astrid prepared and tightened the ruby pendant at her chest, realizing what might be happening within White Maple Town.

Previously, outside Post City, Crown Prince Lucas had once detonated his spatial ring, severely damaging Second Prince Alistair and the carefully constructed breath-blocking barrier he had labored over.

Now, with Kingdom of Velys sealing off White Maple Town, the only possible one to detonate a spatial artifact would be someone from their side.

Could it be... Charlotte...

The image of that mature, elegant dark silhouette flashed through her mind. Astrid accelerated her flight.

At the battlefield’s center, sensing a breach in the barrier, Hebrew’s attention instantly snapped back to the barrier itself. The light waves rippling from his artifact repaired the spatial fissure sacred within half a second.

Seeing this, Charlotte narrowed her beautiful eyes, inwardly confirming her suspicion, growing even more anxious for Lyra’s plight.

As long as that light remained inside the spatial structure, the internal spatial turbulence could only cause limited impact, utterly insufficient to allow more people to escape.

Fortunately, although the spatial fissure was sealed in an instant, the escaped light-element particles received no replenishment. From that single blow, the might of [Heaven’s Tremor, Solar Judgment] diminished by forty percent.

Yet even so, the energy contained within remains beyond anyone’s ability to confront directly.

The Radiant Sun roared downward, like a space-based weapon deployed in Earth’s orbit. Crushed beneath its immense weight, Lyra resembled an ant, instantly swallowed by light in everyone’s view.

The sound of shattering glass echoed in Lyra’s ears, nearby watchtowers destroyed by light and heat. Scorching waves shattered every glass container, overturning flower pots and dinner plates.

Her palms stung from the shock. The ground beneath her boots cracked in layers. Her vision filled entirely with blinding white light, nothing else remaining.

Her sea of consciousness felt like an opened floodgate, rapidly draining away in the light. Contrasting the searing heat waves, a cold, dark death enveloped Lyra’s spirit.

Everything was ending.

All dreams, futures, hopes, everything will turn to ash in this beam of light.

Father, mother... they must be heartbroken...

Winter was approaching. Were they still waiting at home for her return? Coarse yellow ale poured into large oak mugs. Knitted woolen sweaters placed in the wardrobe of her bedroom.

And Astrid... they had traveled so far together...

Apparently, she wasn’t the extraordinary person the others claimed her to be. She had merely survived until now due to luck.

Perhaps it was the flash before death, but Lyra’s thoughts raced at incredible speed. Countless memories surged into her mind, flickering past like a slideshow.

From the first time as a child, reading knight tales under moonlight on her small bed, deducing the next plot from the tattered book’s edge, even dreaming of what came next.

Her first time planting flowers, first time giving her mother a gift, first time receiving a small puppy in a wooden crate from a neighbor.

Her first visit to Kost Town, first time seeing a bustling marketplace, first time igniting a speck of light at her fingertip with mental energy.

Then the first time drenched in red wine, first time dining at the same table as Princess Astrid, first time giving her a massage, first time sitting with the one she liked on a hay bale, gazing at the stars.

The Sword of Light in her hand trembled constantly, seemingly on the verge of losing its physical form. Scorching air seeped through the Lightfall, her light breathing burning her lungs.

The searing pain snapped Lyra’s spirit back to reality. After a brief daze, she experienced the moment closest to death.

Everything slowed down to an extreme. The entanglement of light and fire decelerated and magnified before her eyes. Thanks to her extremely high affinity with light elements, Lyra didn’t find it blinding. Instead, she could see even more clearly.

Clusters of light-element particles formed wave after wave of wavelength. Chaotic fire elements gathered at the edges of the light waves. Their junctions share similar photothermal properties, locking together firmly like two naturally interlocking hooks.

Then, light waves transformed into light particles, reassembling in the void. Fire elements first adhered, infiltrating the reformed light waves, blending into a single entity, multiplying destructive traits previously nonexistent.

Shifting perspective upward, this was merely one tiny recurring loop within the vast sun. Simultaneously, millions of light and fire elements undergo similar arrangements, with magic providing the initial driving force.

A few sparks landed on Lyra’s wrist, surprisingly not scorching as expected.

Perhaps half a day had passed, or merely a second. Gazing at the [Sword of Light] bathed in radiance, Lyra suddenly recalled that night when, driven purely by instinct, she swung her wrist. Along the line separating dawn and dusk, light and darkness were clearly divided, that sword strike which had seemingly severed day from night.

Planting her legs firmly upright, the heroic Holy Knight stood with her back to the magically sheltered crowd. Her other hand, previously used to maintain an elemental shield, now gripped the sword hilt together. Within the slowed time flow, Lyra’s blue eyes shimmered as if flowing with light particles. She faced the all-encompassing Radiant Sun before her, the blade’s light igniting as she aimed it at the sky.

At that moment, the nearly exhausted ocean of her mental energy surged with fresh water. The invisible shackles that had been struck countless times crumbled into sand and decay, disintegrating within her mind.

Just when everyone believed Lyra had perished and the protective bunker behind her would be destroyed by [Heaven’s Tremor, Solar Judgment], even more chaotic elemental activity erupted within the Radiant Sun.

The grand curtain had not yet fallen.

Not only Charlotte, but both warring sides halted their actions in unity. Every gaze on the battlefield focused here, ready to witness the final judgment of divine punishment.

Scorching steam filled the air. All buildings in White Maple Town were destroyed by the blast waves. Intense explosions echoed within the light sphere. Then...

A sword beam, carrying a massive light surge, erupted from the center, instantly slicing through the entirety of [Heaven’s Tremor, Solar Judgment]. Two beams of light from the same source illuminate the entire battlefield. Everyone’s vision turned crimson, as if their retinas had suffered light damage. Only elemental vision can capture the rolling light surges erupting from the ground, like a volcanic explosion.

The powerful sword beam, undiminished after cleaving the Radiant Sun, shot straight into the sky, its overwhelming might seeming capable of piercing even the real sun high in the heavens.

"Crack..."

The next second, a crisp cracking sound echoed. This magnificent sword strike actually carved a fissure into the spatial barrier.

The Radiant Sun severed. The Judgment halted. Radiating shockwaves blew sand and dust into the air, fine particles drifting over the gleaming silver-white knight’s boots.

Lyra stood firm, her six luminous wings supporting her body. Her unharmed holy white armor glowed, radiating light and heat, making her appear like an incarnation of the sun.

In her hand, the surface of that Sword of Light still flickered with flame, retaining the momentum of that previous strike.

The invisible shackles that had once bound Lyra were now completely shattered. The girl’s mental energy broke free from stagnation, ascending to a higher level, transitioning from high-tier Magnus to Arcanist mage, becoming a true force capable of swaying the war between two nations.

Lyra had now reached the peak humanity could ascend to.

Feeling the abundant mental energy filling her body, the previously aching wrist bones were wrapped in a warm current, healing rapidly. Lyra lifted her head, gazing at the Pope of Light Hebrew, standing at top light bricks in midair.

Her long sword trembled slightly, mirroring Lyra’s current emotions. Having just returned from the gates of death, the desire to live intertwined with the joy of growth, enveloping her heart.

She had survived... and finally broken through the Magnus barrier...

High above, the spatial barrier’s cracks were quickly repaired. Hebrew also looked at Lyra. Their gazes collided in midair, a faint scent of gunpowdering between them.

If she hadn’t broken through just now, not only herself, but all those behind her would have turned to vapor.

She had been that close... to losing everything...

Under the celestial dome, the sun’s light shone as it always had, equally covering everyone’s heads. Light particles surged in Lyra’s pupils. The aura of the [Sword of Light] surged.

Her wings are fully unfurled. The supersonic speed granted by the Six Wings rapidly lifted Lyra into the high sky, confronting the Pope of Light from afar.

Although there was still a gap of over two minor ranks between beginner and peak high-tier, at least in this moment, the disparity in their power had qualitatively narrowed.

Raising her sword, the sharp edge of holy steel gathered radiance. Between the dense light particles, Lyra swung her sword once more, aiming directly at Pope of Light Hebrew.