For Sale. Fallen Lady. Never Used.

Chapter 269: On My Way To Meet You (6)

Chapter 269: On My Way To Meet You (6)

“What? You want me to buy you some time? How long?”

“As long as possible.”

“Hmm.”

Iona narrowed her eyes, as if gauging the situation, staring at the approaching monsters.

One of the paladins gave a bitter smile and spoke.

“If things get too dangerous, please just take Yandel and retreat. After all, this is technically our church’s matter. And... if someone has to survive, shouldn’t it be someone more important than us?”

The other paladins nodded in agreement, calm and composed.

“...If you’re going to say it like that, alright. I’ll do my best to help, so Yandel, go ahead and give it a try!”

“Thank you, everyone. Oh, Professor Iona, do you want some blood to replenish your strength?”

“Yep! If I can recover, that’s definitely better!”

With a familiar motion, Iona sank her fangs into my neck. The paladins, who couldn’t rely on their holy power anymore, soothed their tired bodies with the potions I had given them just in case.

After the short blood-draining session, I handed out more potions from my inventory and looked toward the red curtain.

The task was simple: I had to make a hole in that thing. No need for some grand holy technique—just pure holy power would suffice.

The problem was, we didn’t have any holy power. With the ritual of descent in effect, we couldn’t recover it. But who said only clerics could possess holy power? That wasn’t necessarily true.

I closed my eyes lightly and focused inward.

Reproducing the Lintblum Breathing Technique as closely as possible to its original form, my body became a magic engine.

What would happen when I combined my affinity for mana with the system’s enhancements?

The answer was simple. It would allow me to perceive everything within my own body if I put my mind to it.

Even my bone marrow, working hard to produce blood to replace what Iona took, wasn’t exempt.

...Honestly, I thought this would only be possible in theory, but it was easier than I expected.

Of course. My heart became the core, my blood vessels became mana channels, and soon the mana dissolved naturally into my blood.

Since there was nowhere in my body that blood didn’t reach, that meant mana had spread throughout every corner of my body, and thanks to my affinity and system enhancements, I could perceive it all.

Now, the next step was what was important.

Merely concentrating on internal changes wouldn’t mean much.

Normally, humans don’t have this rapid recovery speed. So, what’s stimulating and activating my body?

I’d found a small thread. Now, I needed to dig deeper and perceive the blessing of the Sun God, which would allow me to complete the first stage...

“Ah.”

Iona’s blood-draining had already finished, as it wasn’t that much blood to begin with.

The faint sense of something just within reach had vanished.

To retrace the path of recovery, the recovery process needed to be ongoing, but if it stopped, tracking it became impossible.

It couldn’t be helped.

I drew the shining lion dagger and, after a moment’s hesitation, deeply slashed my wrist.

Slash.

“Ughh....”

The sensation of cold steel cutting into my flesh. The delayed pain and the surge of blood gushing out.

Did I cut too deep?

But what does that matter? I gritted my teeth and pulled the mana again.

Squeeze.

Holy power and mana don’t clash, but they don’t blend harmoniously either.

Thanks to that, the white “sun” was slowly being pried from its rooted position, as if being pushed out by the mana.

The problem was that the mana I had used to coat it was starting to break apart from the violent reaction of the blessing.

But the solution was simple.

Swallowing down the blood welling up from my throat, I poured in more mana, replacing what was scattered.

The density of the blessing of the Sun God was incredible—it was A+ rank after all—so the rate of consumption was insane.

Without my affinity for mana, no matter how much mana I had, forcibly extracting it like this would’ve been impossible.

The mana coating would have unraveled long before I could finish.

If someone were watching me now, it would probably look like I was carelessly expelling enormous amounts of mana.

Crack.

Maybe the blessing didn’t like the fact that I had let my mind wander for a moment.

The holy power that had been rising smoothly now caused my nose to bleed as it acted up.

But I was almost there. I didn’t need to dig any deeper into my core—the massive presence of holy power was now clearly discernible.

I slowly opened my eyes and raised my staff—no, the shining lion dagger—toward the curtain that still blocked external intrusion.

If I was going to unleash holy power, using this would be far more efficient than the staff.

At this point, not only mana but holy power also began to leak from me. The strain on my body doubled, and I started trembling all over.

But that didn’t matter. There was only one thing left to do now.

I guided the massive, roiling cluster of holy power toward the dagger.

And then, I swung it toward the curtain.

“Ugh, aaaaagh!!!”

Fwoosh!

A brilliant light surged explosively. The massive chunk of holy power, sharp like the fang of a giant beast, slammed into the red curtain.

The two forces wrestled for a moment, but soon enough, the fang pierced through the curtain, driving halfway in.

And then, it exploded.

Boom!

The explosion was so bright it could’ve blinded me, and the sound was so deafening it made my ears ring.

But unlike before, I wasn’t caught in the explosion. The holy power I’d unleashed only shot forward.

As I opened my eyes, which I had instinctively shut, my blurred vision slowly cleared.

The curtain was disintegrating, collapsing back into the mud from which it had risen. The shattered fragments of holy power fell like snow from above.

And beyond the crumbled wall of the church, there stood Helena—no, it was clearly Righteous Radiance, with glowing lion ears and tail.

Her eyes were wide in shock, and she hiccupped repeatedly, clearly startled.

I smiled weakly at her.

“You were so late, I came to greet you.”