The courtyard held its breath.
Holy fire flickered across the knights' armor. Blood-red mana coiled around Aldric like a living storm. The air between them was a razor's edge—waiting, trembling, starving for the next collision.
The lead knight—helmet caved in, visor shattered—rose to his feet. His breaths were steady. Blood trickled from beneath the ruined helm, but the flame on his sword surged brighter, as if fed by the last shreds of his faith.
> "You… are an abomination,"
he snarled, voice broken but fervor fierce.
"Your existence is a sin. And those children—demon spawn—must be purged!"
Aldric's poleaxe lowered an inch.
His pupils slit.
Something deep inside him—snapped.
The knights behind the leader raised their weapons again, chanting in unison, their voices shaking the rain-soaked air:
> "By the Radiant Mother—purify all demons of darkness!"
Lyriana stiffened, teeth clenched. Lucifer whimpered in her arms, still asleep, untouched by the chaos.
Aldric stepped forward.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Predatory.
The ground cracked beneath each step, blood mana pulsing outward in visible ripples.
> "…say it again."
His voice was low.
Soft.
Terrifying.
The front rank of knights did not hesitate.
They raised their swords, mana roaring.
> "EVERY DEMON MUST BE EXTERMINATED!
EVEN IF THEY ARE CHILDREN—
DEMON SPAWN MUST DIE! FOR THE LIGHT!"
Aldric vanished.
One heartbeat he stood before them—
the next, he was in their midst.
A roar tore from his throat: not human, not beast—something forged from pure anger.
The poleaxe fell like a guillotine.
The nearest knight didn't even scream. He simply split, steel and bone cleaving beneath the crimson blade. Blood sprayed in a wide arc, sizzling where it met remnants of radiant magic.
The formation shattered.
Blood erupted.
Lyriana spun, Lucifer held tight in one arm, the other unleashing crescent waves of dark-red mana that hurled knights aside like broken dolls.
> "I told you!" she shouted, voice sharp with fury.
"Touch the child and YOU DIE!"
But Aldric was beyond words.
Blood magic erupted from his back like wings—gory, spectral shapes beating with the force of a storm. His poleaxe spun in a brutal arc, slicing through shields, armor, bodies. Every swing painted the courtyard red, holy mana extinguished on contact with his own.
Three knights lunged at once—
he cut through all three in a single motion.
Another tried to impale him from behind—
Aldric didn't turn; tendrils of blood surged outward, piercing the knight's throat and flinging the corpse away like refuse.
Holy fire blazed brighter around the lead knight as he staggered toward Aldric, fury overtaking agony.
> "Demon… I order you to stop… I won't let this continue!"
Aldric's laugh was a serrated whisper.
> "You tried to kill the child."
He appeared before the knight, movement a blur of murderous intent.
> "I'll make nor of you leave here alive I'll kill every last one of you."
The poleaxe crashed downward.
The flaming sword rose in a final, desperate block.
Light and blood exploded outward.
The courtyard detonated with radiance.
White-gold flame surged up the knight's blade, swallowing the poleaxe's impact in a violent torrent. Crimson mana clashed with divine fire—screaming, consuming, devouring.
For a moment, Aldric pushed.
For a moment, he held the advantage.
Then—
His eyes snapped open.
His mana hissed.
It buckled.
It burned.
The holy fire clinging to the knight's weapon didn't merely resist—
it consumed, eating at his blood mana, peeling it back in thin glowing strips that evaporated like ash.
Aldric's expression twitched—just a flicker—before sharpening again into a razor-edged snarl.
> "…you're burning away at my mana."
The knight laughed—a broken, fevered sound, half-mad with pain and zeal.
> "The Radiant Mother purifies all filth… even your cursed blood!"
The flame surged brighter, crawling up the poleaxe's shaft, cracking the crimson glow like glass.
Aldric felt it—
the sting,
the slow creeping erosion,
holy fire chewing into the edge of his power.
For the first time since the battle began—
Aldric's grip tightened in genuine effort.
The knight roared, driving forward with everything he had left, flame spiraling around his arms in a vortex of searing white.
> "DIE, DEMON!"
Aldric's foot slid half an inch across the stone—
not from fear,
not from weakness—
but calculation.
His voice dropped into a cold, murderous whisper.
> "Damn bastard."
He shifted.
Blood mana roared through his legs—
exploding downward, cracking the courtyard stone.
His body surged upward with the recoil—
And Aldric launched the strike.
Not a push.
Not a swing.
A shockwave.
He tore the poleaxe free, reversing the momentum with brutal speed. Crimson mana erupted from the blade as he pivoted, unleashing a vicious, full-force horizontal arc.
The air itself bent.
The holy fire sputtered—
then tore apart like thin paper.
The poleaxe struck the knight's midsection.
A thunderous crack split the air.
The knight flew—
his armored body shooting backward like a fired cannonball, slamming into the courtyard wall with enough force to split stone and burst mortar. The crater swallowed him, cracks spiderwebbing outward like black veins across the castle façade.
His sword slipped from his hand.
The flames flickered.
Guttered.
Died.
Aldric stood still, chest heaving, blood mana rolling off him in thick, furious waves—burned in patches where holy fire had eaten too deep.
He lifted the poleaxe again, eyes narrowing, voice a low promise of annihilation:
> "You've been eating away at my mana since the first clash…
Piece by piece…
Do it one more time—
and I'll show you the kind of demon you're praying against."