The Inquisitors’ torches cast not light, but warped shadows against the damp stone walls of the underground aqueduct.
The air reeked of ozone, dried blood, and mildew.
“You are cornered, heretics,” Captain Vane’s voice echoed with a metallic ring, muffled by his helmet of blessed steel.
“Hand over the relic and accept purification.
The Creator may still show mercy on your souls.” Ten paces away, in the gloom of the tunnel, two teenagers stood back to back.
Haruto adjusted his grip on the hilt of his short sword.
He was seventeen, but his dark eyes held a tactical coldness unbefitting a Tokyo high school student.
With his free hand, he maintained a steady flow of mana to his eyes, analyzing the magic circuits of the enemy armor.
“Eight Inquisition knights in the vanguard,” Haruto whispered calmly in his native tongue.
“Three priests in the back maintaining a Tier 3 containment barrier.
Zero margin for error.” Behind him, Aoi let out a heavy sigh.
She adjusted the strap of her greatsword—a heavy blade most grown men couldn’t lift with one hand.
Her black hair was tied back in a messy ponytail, and her blue eyes shone with a dangerous intensity.
“I hate underground tunnels,” she replied in Japanese, without turning her head.
“They stink of humidity, and this armor is digging into my shoulders.
What’s the plan, analyst?” “Quick simulation: if we charge head-on, the divine barrier repels us and they turn us into pincushions.
If we try to fall back, they collapse the tunnel.
So we go with Option C.” “Option C?” “Speedrun,” Haruto said with a faint smile.
“You break their formation, I disrupt the priests’ magic.
We’re out in fifteen seconds.” “Deal.
Don’t die, Haruto.” “Likewise, Aoi.” Before the Inquisitors could order the attack, Haruto stepped forward and drew his blade.
The motion was not sudden, but absurdly fluid.
With a precise arc of his sword, he slashed the air.
He launched no physical attack, but rather a burst of inverted mana aimed directly at the focal point of the barrier spell the priests were trying to close around them.
CRACK!
The sound of shattering glass echoed through the subterranean tunnel.
The three priests stumbled back, spitting blood as the magical feedback shredded their channeling circuits.
“Impossible!” one screamed.
“He dismantled a Divine Spell without an incantation!” “Aoi, now!” Haruto commanded.
Aoi didn’t hesitate.
She slammed her foot into the stone floor, shattering it with the sheer force of her momentum.
She launched herself like a human projectile toward the Inquisitors’ front line.
Her greatsword glowed not with holy magic, but with a dense, compressed aura of pure spiritual energy—the manifestation of her unyielding soul.
“Block!” Captain Vane shouted, raising his blessed shield.
It was useless.
The impact of Aoi’s sword against the shield line generated a shockwave that blew out the torches and sent three knights flying into the stone walls.
The force of the strike wasn’t just physical; it shattered the enemy’s resolve.
As Aoi sowed chaos through the vanguard, Haruto moved like a shadow.
Weaving surgical thrusts between the gaps in the enemy armor, he deflected spears with the flat of his blade and released small blasts of compressed wind to disorient the survivors.
In less than ten seconds, the Inquisition’s defensive line had completely collapsed.
“You…
are not human,” Captain Vane stammered, kneeling in a puddle of stagnant water and clutching his fractured arm as he watched the two youths approach.
“The Church took you in…
gave you a home…” Haruto stopped before him, wiping the blood from his blade with a cloth before sheathing it.
“You took us in because you wanted to use us as catalysts for your ‘God,'” Haruto said, his voice ice-cold.
“We saw the records in the Cathedral basement, Captain.
We know what happens to summoned heroes once they fulfill their purpose.
We aren’t your sacrifices.” “You are anomalies…
faith will destroy you…” the man whispered.
Aoi walked past the Captain without a glance, resting her massive sword over her shoulder.
“Let them try,” she said, looking toward the aqueduct exit where moonlight was beginning to filter through.
“If this world wants to kill us for wanting to live, then we’ll destroy this world.” Haruto walked beside Aoi.
Stepping out into the cool night air, enveloped by the silence of the forest surrounding the Sacred Capital, they both looked toward the horizon.
Behind them, the cathedral bells began to toll, sounding the continental alarm.
The hunt had begun.
But as long as they had each other, the entire world could become their enemy.