PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

This was a tragedy and a monumental catastrophe; now, the church was a fat sheep waiting for the wolves to tear it apart and share its riches. Many church members who witnessed the incident thought about it, their faces turning pale as they imagined the consequences. Those outside the church, such as spies from other forces or members of the nobility. They were all characters looking for matters related to Cecilia’s arrest and subsequent execution; their faces were flushed with excitement as they saw an opportunity.

Within seconds, new chaos began to brew in the city, with church members terrified and desperate. At the same time, spies and other forces were mobilized to slaughter the sheep.

Such was the nature of society in this and other worlds. None of this had anything to do with Desmond looking down on the chaos. Desmond knew he didn’t have much time; getting out of town was necessary to be safe. Kyuru flapped the gigantic wind wings behind her back, propelling Desmond out of the city.

Flying this way was a new experience for Desmond, a rather liberating and invigorating one. The wind caressing his face and ruffling his hair felt incredibly cool, something that relaxed both Desmond and Cecilia; too bad none of the three could really afford to enjoy the ride.

!BOOM!

In the ruins of Cecilia’s tower, pieces of rock and debris flew into the air with a bang, revealing a prismatic cocoon of golden light. The cocoon looked like a broken mirror, full of fissures; a bloodied figure rose from inside it as it crumbled into specks of light.

“!DEEEESMOOOOOOND!”

A scream filled with maddened rage reverberated far and wide in the sky; the almost palpable bloodlust would make anyone tremble, but what most attracted Desmond’s attention was that he recognized the voice’s owner.

.....

“You got to be kidding. Is that bastard still alive?

Although unable to establish the optimal state of mind, Desmond still took advantage of the caresses of the wind on his cheeks to connect with the mana of the wind around. Pouring tremendous amounts of mana into the wings behind him, a greenish flash and shockwave were emitted from the wind wings before Desmond’s flight speed increased significantly.

Desmond wasn’t stupid or arrogant; on the contrary, so he wouldn’t stay to fight Xavier. Desmond couldn’t wait to fly out of this damn town. Even from a distance, Desmond could feel how terrifying the mana fluctuations Xavier was letting out were.

As keen as Desmond’s senses were, he had been able to pick out something about Xavier that had him worried about facing the man. If Desmond wasn’t wrong, Xavier had some kind of bloodline or unique lineage. Although, at a distance, it was a bit difficult to see the details to any great extent. Desmond could still discern some physical changes in Xavier that were accompanied by a burst of power.

Sasha, Mei Fei Long, and even Cecilia all had unique lineages or origins. Regardless of their human appearance, these three girls were not really human beings in the strict sense. Sasha was an elf, Mei Fei Long had draconic blood in her veins, and Cecilia was in the process of becoming a celestial. However, all these people shared something in common; their true power was only shown when they entered a special state of liberation.

Though he didn’t have a unique bloodline or lineage, Desmond interacted with these powers on more than one occasion, and Xavier gave him a very similar vibe. Desmond knew firsthand how strong these individuals could become when they unleashed their full potential; he had no intention of clashing with a character like that.

One had to ignore how prone Desmond was to get involved in dangerous situations; he was not suicidal. Because of that, Desmond cooperated with Kyuru to fly out of the city. Being too focused on escaping and Xavier’s burst of power, Desmond was careless. Having a terrifying affinity for mana, Kyuru was the first to notice.

“Desmond, watch out.”

Like a jet, a figure streaked through the sky, catching up with Desmond’s group instantly. Instincts were terrifying; Desmond didn’t know what was going on, but his body reacted by turning immediately and placing his one free hand in front of him. As metallic mana gathered in his outstretched hand to defend against him, Desmond heard the shockwaves as he watched the man in front of him.

A full-body black armor with gold details and a red cape, the figure also carried a longsword made of some kind of dark red metal. Because the figure was wearing a helmet, Desmond couldn’t see his face; but that detail was not his concern at that moment. What concerned Desmond was the man’s speed and identity.

To arrive in front of Desmond, at the same time as the shock waves left behind by his rapid advance through the sky reverberated, meant that the man was moving faster than the speed of sound. That wasn’t a speed Desmond could deal with.

To Desmond’s relief, the armored man slowed down significantly; it seemed like he could only use that speed to move in a hurry. Still, he wasn’t capable of engaging at that speed. Even then, Desmond was concerned by the man’s mere presence.

“I didn’t think the royal family would intervene.”

“Don’t take this personally, Mr. Desmond. I’m just following orders.”

“Son of.”

Before ending his curse, Desmond is struck by a sword. Having prepared himself beforehand, Desmond managed to block the blow but still suffered from the built-up momentum. Like a kite whose string was cut, Kyuru lost control of the flight path due to the heavy impact they had just received; the ground soon began to expand in the trio’s field of vision.

Desmond couldn’t even offer any resistance to the fall and had to rely on Kyuru for it. Since he had bothered to chase them through the sky, the royal knight was not going to stop after a single blow; so Desmond had to keep blocking his offense even as they fell.

Like a furious and relentless gale, the royal knight’s sword kept harassing Desmond. He could only be thankful that the royal knight would lack offensive power. What the flying knight lacked in strength, he made up for in speed, which led to Desmond suffering greatly under his attack. Sparks of friction flew every time Desmond’s armor was struck by the flying knight’s sword. Due to the speed of the attacks, Desmond was forced to cover other parts of his body with metallic mana and continue to endure the harassment.

Although Desmond was taking all the power of the blizzard surrounding his enemy, it was none other than Kyuru who was having the worst time. Each hit Desmond received was a new force that changed her flight path; soon, the trio became a rubber ball that kept bouncing from one place to another in the air.

Both Desmond and Kyuru could only curse their bad luck at running into an enemy like this. Neither of them had any experience in aerial combat, and the royal knight’s speed gave them no room for maneuver.

Desmond even noted that the royal knight had no intention of seeing them land; the man was apparently trying to harass them to death in the air that was his favored hunting ground.

The only person in the trio with room to maneuver was Cecilia. Their eyes were dizzy from all the hubbub and spiraling air. In fact, the royal knight’s mission was to capture Cecilia, not murder her, as Desmond had speculated. That’s why the royal knight was careful not to hurt her by accident; that was the only reason Desmond had lasted so long against an enemy who had him at his mercy.

Unbeknownst to Desmond, the royal family had plans to use Cecilia long ago and even to rescue her from the church’s execution. They could use her as a pawn and victim against the church. The church had been too naive to believe that the royal family would let their betrayal go just because they invested some money and sacrificed Cecilia.

The church had become a cancerous tumor, a dangerous beast that dared to show its fangs to its kingdom. Getting rid of the church was an absolute necessity. Since destroying the church could have too intense repercussions due to all the believers of its religion within the kingdom, the royal family planned to use Cecilia to fill the void of faith in the masses.

The narrative of a saint betrayed by her own church only to be rescued by the noble royal family was something many people would believe. Especially when Cecilia’s reputation hadn’t been too bad for so long; the royal family thought she was still a valuable pawn. They decided to seize her when they learned about the tower incident and the possible death of all the holy knights.

The appearance of the flying royal knight harassing Desmond wasn’t a coincidence either. This was one of the royal knights sent on the mission to rescue Cecilia from the church, although his mission now was a little different.