The alarm bell continued to echo off the port’s stone walls, but on the deck of The Creator’s Judgment, time seemed to slow down for Haruto and Aoi.
Six Inquisition knights charged down the stern stairs with shields raised and broadswords coated in holy fire.
Behind them, four snipers lined their crossbows along the upper walkway, aiming straight at the duo’s chests.
“Fire!” Sub-Commander Vane bellowed from the upper deck.
Four blessed silver bolts shot out at supersonic speeds, slicing through the night air with a sharp hiss.
“Vector Inversion: Static Deflection,” Haruto murmured.
Instead of dodging, Haruto stepped forward and swiped his hand through the air.
An invisible wall of ultra-dense azure mana deployed before them.
The instant the bolts slammed into the barrier, their kinetic energy inverted entirely.
The projectiles snapped backward, shattering the snipers’ crossbows and knocking them off the catwalk before they could even reload.
“What kind of magic is that?!” one of the knights shouted, grinding his advance to a halt.
“It’s not System magic!
They are the heretics!” Vane warned, unsheathing a two-meter halberd enveloped in an oppressive golden aura.
“Surround them!
Use the Holy Sealing Formation!” The six knights formed a tight ring around them, driving their shields into the deck’s timber.
From their weapon hilts, chains of golden light sprouted and intertwined, forging an energy cage designed to paralyze any reincarnate’s mana channels.
“Aoi, the sealing pattern is a low-frequency heptagonal prism,” Haruto transmitted within a millisecond.
“The central beam under their feet is holding all the enchantment’s tension.” “Got it.” Aoi didn’t wait for the golden chains to snap shut around them.
She bent her knees, channeling her soul’s crimson aura into her thighs and the heavy blade of her greatsword.
The burlap wrapping around her weapon tore away completely, revealing dark metal etched with the ancient runes of the Ancient Way.
BOOM!
Aoi launched herself forward with such raw force that the oak deck planks cracked beneath her boots.
In an instant, she was standing right in front of the formation’s lead knight.
The soldier tried to raise his reinforced shield to block the blow, but it was useless.
Aoi’s downward slash didn’t just slice through the blessed steel like paper—the spiritual shockwave traveled directly into the floorboards, shattering the support beam holding the trap’s circuit together.
The golden chains shattered like glass.
The knight was blown off his feet, tumbling over the railing and splashing heavily into the river waters below.
“One!” Aoi called out, spinning on her heel with terrifying grace.
The other five knights attempted to strike simultaneously from the flanks, but Haruto was already moving.
Crossing the space between them like a flash of blue lightning, his shortsword struck the unarmored joints of their gear—elbows, knees, and necks.
Every thrust was executed with mathematical precision, neutralizing the soldiers’ combat capacity without taking their lives.
In under thirty seconds, the Inquisition’s six elite knights lay helpless on the wooden deck, brought down by the seamless pairing of Aoi’s devastating power and Haruto’s flawless tactics.
Sub-Commander Vane stood alone on the upper deck.
His face, once filled with imperial arrogance, was now pale and slick with sweat.
He gripped his halberd so hard his knuckles turned white.
“You…
monsters,” Vane spat, descending the steps one by one.
“You cast aside the Creator’s blessing…
you’ve become true demons.” “This world’s Creator only built a slaughterhouse,” Haruto said, stepping forward as Aoi fell into place beside him, resting her broadsword over her shoulder.
“And we simply broke down the gate.” Vane roared in fury, channeling every drop of his remaining holy mana into his halberd’s blade.
A three-meter pillar of golden flame erupted from the weapon.
“Burn in the fires of purification!” he screamed, lunging in a desperate charge toward the two youths.