The armor began to change, taking on the appearance of absolute metallic darkness. It seemed to become lighter and more compact, yet its strength continued to increase without end. The sword descended with even greater power, creating cracks across the floor until its blade became enveloped in a dark crimson aura.
"Red Destruction."
At last, the sword managed to pierce through the flail with overwhelming force, and immediately afterward, it pierced João's heart. The ground beneath them shattered as the crimson light illuminated the entire room they were in, as well as the one below. Knigrave had managed to destroy every piece of furniture in the room and break through the floor with his magic.
"You're still alive?"
João was still impaled on the sword, but in a desperate attempt to escape from beneath Knigrave, he pointed his hand to the left. A crimson explosion propelled him to the right. Since the sword was still embedded in his chest, the movement caused his torso and bones to be torn apart by the blade.
"Huff... Heal... Huff..."
A crimson glow appeared on his chest, regenerating the wound. João breathed irregularly as he tried to understand what kind of ability that knight's title granted. Knigrave tightened his grip on the sword's hilt, causing it to erupt with mana. The Black Knight raised the sword and swung it toward him.
"Dark Destruction."
Suddenly, a powerful wave of darkness surged toward him. Leaping to the side, João managed to avoid the attack. The strike hit the wall, completely destroying it before continuing onward. He had managed to dodge, but not entirely, as one of his feet was severed.
'Tsk, all I can do is run away and heal.'
Activating his magic once again, his foot regenerated. Then he pointed his arm toward his shattered weapon. Every fragment gathered in the palm of his hand, completely reconstructing it.
'This knight is difficult to fight. I need to find a way to defeat him before he figures it out...'
"From what I can see, the symbols you're using have gone dark, while the one on your forehead is even redder than usual."
João's eyes widened when he heard Knigrave's words. Sweat ran down his forehead. It seemed the Black Knight had discovered the secret behind his "immortality," and that was a major problem.
That ability had been granted to him by Solene. She had developed it through the symbols that all of her subordinates were required to wear. Every mage and knight had a limit to how many symbols they could use in a single day. João's limit was three, and by that point in the battle, two had already been consumed. That meant he only had one left.
"I don't know how many of those you have, but all I need to do is kill you until they're all gone, right?"
Knigrave pointed his sword at him, and with several crimson blasts erupting from the blade, João was forced to jump down into the room below, which had previously been opened by the Black Knight's absurd power. Thanks to that, he managed to avoid the attack.
"Lumina Division."
Several crimson lines shot out from the flail and surrounded the entire room. When Knigrave appeared at the center of them after jumping down from the room above, the lines lit up with crimson electricity that paralyzed the knight's body.
Besides immortality, the symbols also granted the ability to use a unique element developed by Solene. That element could be bestowed through the symbols after the user sacrificed their own element. This power was called Red Lumina, and that was why Knigrave had been somewhat confused when he first heard its name, since such an element had never existed before.
Snapping his fingers, all of the lines gathered around the knight's body, binding him as the electricity intensified. Bringing his hands together, João pointed them forward as if he were praying. His eyes remained fixed on his opponent.
"Grant me your blessing, my lady."
His body gradually took on a dark crimson hue. Steam began pouring endlessly from his mouth. Soon after, the same steam started escaping from his ears and nose.
When Knigrave began resisting the electricity, several crimson points emerged from João's body and flew toward him. Destroying the lines restraining his hand with an explosion of mana, Knigrave crossed his arm in front of his body. Every attack struck him, causing a massive explosion throughout the room. The entire area was engulfed by the impact, but João had already abandoned that place and returned to the room above.
Even while standing in what appeared to be a safe location, João moved into the adjacent room, whose wall had already been destroyed. As soon as he arrived, he turned around and focused all of his attention on the hole in the floor, waiting for Knigrave to appear.
'The moment he comes out, I'll use all of my magic to unleash a devastating attack.'
In the palm of his hand, Red Lumina magic continued concentrating without pause, forming a crimson sphere. João waited for twenty seconds, and even then Knigrave did not appear. Suspicion filled his eyes as they focused even more intensely.
'I don't think he died... Then why is he taking so long?'
Feeling a tremor beneath him, his eyes shifted downward in terror as he saw a hand piercing through the floor beneath his feet. Unable to escape, his neck was seized by Knigrave's hand. Without wasting a second, the Black Knight raised his sword with his other hand. The strike sliced through João's neck, severing his head from his body.
"So now the symbol on your forehead has gone dark..."
Knigrave watched as the nearly extinguished light in the symbol on João's forehead finally faded away. The body he was holding vanished into crimson light, and where the head had once been, another body appeared. João quickly got to his feet and punched the knight in the chin. Immediately afterward, he struck his head with the flail.
Without interrupting his chain of attacks, João unleashed the strike he had been charging earlier. It was weaker now, but it was still useful. A crimson blast pierced through Knigrave's shoulder, inflicting a serious wound.
'I did it.'
Before he could launch another attack, Knigrave's leg slammed into his face, sending him flying upward. The kick was so powerful that it cracked his skull, and João could barely move.
'Damn...'
"Congratulations. You managed to seriously wound me once."
Knigrave lowered into a stance as his blade became enveloped by the magic of the Crimson Calamity. With a simple movement of his hand, several parts of João's body were sliced into pieces. At the same time, the entire room was also divided into countless fragments.
"So? What surprise do you have for me now?"
Knigrave was about to assume another stance to launch a second attack when he realized that, this time, João had not regenerated. Moreover, every sign of life had disappeared. With a sigh, he rested the sword on his wounded shoulder.
"So he only had three extra lives... What a shame."
The wound in his shoulder did not seem to bother him much despite being severe. Scratching his head, he began making his way toward the next rooms. He could no longer sense the maids' magic, nor Jirena's, nor the magic of those two spoiled women.
"I need to find them quickly. They might be in trouble."