Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

"That's not necessary, Miss Paladin. Just hold the sword."

"But this is..."

"Do you think this is unfair? As a duel?" Galezo chuckled and shook his head. "The greatsword in your hand is indeed not an ordinary one. The same is true for the 'White Jaw' in my hand."

He shook the scimitar in his hand, making a crackling sound.

"This scimitar was made by an ancestor of our family. He sneaked into the legendary white dragon's tomb, broke through the traps, killed the evil spirits, and finally took out the ribs of the ancient dragon. He used the ribs to make this scimitar. Even if it can't be called a divine weapon, it is not comparable to ordinary swords. If you insist on emphasizing the superior quality of the weapon in your hand, it would be an insult to this heirloom in my hand."

Having said that, Lunicia didn't have anything to say anymore.

Galezo's thoughts were not limited to this. When he was in the office, he was able to get a rough idea of ​​Lunicia's strength from the holy healing she showed: from a professional's perspective, she was slightly weaker than him. In addition, Lunicia's half-body plate armor looked damaged, and she had no other magic items except the sword in her hand. These were Lunicia's weaknesses compared to Galezo. Galezo allowed - even begged - her to continue using the huge sword that made people unable to take their eyes off, no doubt hoping to close the gap between the two sides.

Taking out a pair of white gloves from his pocket, Galezo cast a questioning look at Lunicia, who simply nodded slightly: Whether it was white gloves or coin tossing, the duel format was similar across the continent.

Snowflakes fell on my shoulders and stepped on my nose, leaving a slightly cool touch, and then turned into a pool of slightly acidic water. The white silk cloth was thrown into the sky, thrown into the whistling cold wind, swaying with the snowflakes. I drew out my scimitar, raised my round shield, and held the hilt of the white blade with both hands. There were no words, and no unnecessary movements. There was nothing in my sight except the blade. It seemed that a small corner of the world had been cut off. When I walked out of the grassland, all I could see was nothingness. The whimpering of the north wind seemed to be everything. All stories began in the wind and ended in the wind.

Just like this falling white cloth.

Ding--!

No one saw the trajectory of the first strike, and no one heard the sound of the other party's first step. Before consciousness could react, instinct had taken over and completed the first collision between the swords.

The power of the greatsword was about to run out, but before that, Galezo de Barbacro had already retreated quickly - was he going to run away? Just before Lunicia twisted the blade and tried to chase him, his pace had changed and he suddenly disappeared from Lunicia's sight. This made her instinctively feel uneasy, and she immediately twisted her wrist and put the greatsword horizontally.

when!

A heavy blow came from the side. If she had been a step slower, the blow would have directly cut her upper arm, making it difficult for her to continue holding the sword.

This time, Lunicia did not try to chase, but swung the sword and lightly poked it diagonally to the side.

Ding!

The vibration of the sword blades touching each other came from the wrist. Compared with the huge white blade, the vibration was too subtle. If it were not for a swordsman like Lunicia who was with it day and night, she might even ignore it and have the illusion that she did not hit anything at all. Only Lunicia knew that even though it seemed that nothing happened just now, she had actually blocked the attacking blade again - the blade called "White Jaw".

In the field of vision, the initiator of the attack, Galezo de Barbacro, was retreating quickly from Lunicia as if he had only launched a single blow, increasing the distance between them.

In the almost instantaneous first round, both sides had roughly understood each other's situation: in terms of the most basic physical strength, there was no difference between Galezo and Lunicia, but if the divine energy flowing through her body was taken into account, Lunicia might have the advantage in a head-on confrontation. In addition, Lunicia's weapon was a two-handed giant sword, while Galezo's weapon was a flexible scimitar, so the advantages and disadvantages of each other were clear at a glance.

For Lunicia, the most reliable way to win is to hold on, use the tactic of waiting for the opponent to tire out to wear down Galezo's physical strength, or use his own regeneration speed that is far superior to that of ordinary people and pay a certain price in exchange for a winning advantage; for Galezo it is another matter, he must take the initiative to let Lunicia reveal her flaws, throw everything behind him the moment he seizes the opportunity, and burst out with the greatest combat power in the shortest time, instead of slowly dealing with Lunicia's iron wall defense.

At least - that's what it seemed like.

A page of paper with scriptures written on it floated into the air, and under the cover of the temperatureless white flame, it turned into a bunch of white embers that drifted in the wind, mixed with the snowflakes, and it was difficult to distinguish one from the other. In addition to the scattered embers, the gods also gave Lunicea what she wanted, the holy white light surrounding her body.

"Shield of Faith" - It seems that she really intends to take it slow as expected and wear down Galazzo's strength.

In response, Galeazzo did not make any comment. His brows did not wrinkle, the corners of his mouth did not turn up, and there was almost no expression on his face. In a one-on-one duel, any slight movement and expression would betray his thoughts. In a real battle, there would be no aristocratic etiquette or ladies first in his mind, only the winning strategy, which made him choose to show the best solution no matter the movements of his hands or the expressions on his face.

Now, for example, he tapped his heels.

--coming!

The movement was not obvious, but it could not escape Lunicia's sight. She almost subconsciously twisted the white blade, rotating it with a tiny amplitude, along with the hazy light curtain. The holy light condensed and intertwined with each other, accompanied by a light "ding!" sound, and the sword blades collided with each other, but this did not mean the end of a round. With a light "puff" sound, the dragon ribs of the ancient white dragon tore open the curtain of light and the white cloth wrapped around the arm, but because of the obstruction of the curtain, it deviated from the expected angle. Compared with the optimal solution of "cutting off tendons and bones", the actual effect was just to cut off a piece of skin on the forearm.

The crimson liquid that overflowed from the tiny blood vessels ultimately failed to stain the thin and pale curved blade. It could only splash out due to inertia, blending with the floating cold white liquid, melting into indistinguishable blood and water.

The previous attack was almost full of strength, but it still failed to break through Lunicia's defense - at least that's what it seemed like.

The paladin was in the warrior's field of vision, but the warrior was not in the paladin's field of vision. After activating the "Boots of Speed", it was already difficult to catch the high-speed Lunicia, let alone catch his shadow. With the end of that attack, time seemed to stop, at least for the two people in the battle - the speed of the flesh was fast enough, and the speed of thinking was even faster than the speed of physical action. One had his back to the other, one's giant sword was still spinning, and the other once again raised the scimitar in his hand. They were all thinking about what to do next.

The north wind blew through the withered branches, making a whispering sound. It also blew up the drifting snowflakes, coating the ground of the city on the top of the mountain with a light layer of pure white.

Galezo's small round shield was tied to his wrist. Now he held the hilt of the scimitar with both hands at the same time. The explosive power unique to a warrior compressed the strength of his whole body to the extreme, and then suddenly broke through, breaking through the limits of the flesh, bringing an almost unbelievable reaction speed, and strength that was no less than usual - the previous attack was just an ordinary attack, and this attack was a full-strength attack. The surging fighting spirit like the tide wrapped around his flesh and the blade, and slashed rapidly towards the defenseless back of the holy knight.

One sword - no, it was three swords slashed at the same time!

Just as the blade passed through the curtain of the "Faithful Shield" and slashed at Lunicia's back, Galezo, who was sure of victory, suddenly froze in his breath.

when!when!when!

The giant sword that was originally rotating at a slow speed turned into a long sword and a shield in the girl's hands. The long sword was held by the girl, but the shield bounced towards Galezo due to inertia, just blocking the gap between the two of them. The three determined attacks of "White Jaw" all hit the white shield, but failed to turn into injuries, and only the crisp sound of metal collision echoed.

If you can't lock on with your eyes, then put your confidence in your intuition - the intuition that the opponent will attack you from your blind spot.

This gave Lunicia time to react, and she turned around again to face the enemy head-on. As for Galezo, his movement was so fast that it was difficult to catch up, and he had to make a decision: continue running in the same direction, maintain his speed, and look for an opportunity to attack again, or slow down temporarily, and have to speed up again to regroup and fight Lunicia head-on.

Almost without hesitation, facing Lunicia who seemed to be accumulating strength, Galezo chose the former.

"--Varied--"

As he did so, his face, which had remained expressionless in order not to reveal any flaws, finally cracked open due to shock.

The young holy warrior swung her sword in silence. However, the semicircular arc with the holy warrior as the center and the sword as the radius seemed to be a vacuum zone without any power. In contrast, in front of the sword tip, a wave of light surged, like a pure crescent moon blooming on the earth.

Galezo had no choice but to raise his shield instinctively. With a sharp pain in his wrist, the "arrow-absorbing shield" drew an arc and was thrown high to the other side of the grassland.

"Moon Ring"

This sword technique that leaves a gap within the arm span and allows the power of the "Supreme Slash" to extend outward has such a nice name.

Now, he was truly empty-handed, with only the tip of the white dragon's rib remaining. This was fine, as he dissipated the impact force transmitted from his wrist to his entire body, while turning around and trying to continue sprinting. This was fine, as both sides' full-strength attacks did not cause any substantial damage, and one side had to turn the giant sword into a long sword and shield, consuming spell slots, while the other side also consumed the number of times the action tide could be used, and the shield also needed to be picked up again, so this way, neither side owed the other.

That’s fine, the duel must continue - just as he was thinking this, Galezo once again saw an incredible scene.

The white shield that was transformed from the blade of the giant sword, accompanied by the sound of tearing air, grew bigger and bigger in his eyes, until his eyes went black and the world was spinning.

……

"..."

Galeazzo de Barbaquero, lying on the ground, was speechless for a long time. He even forgot to wipe the blood from his nose which had frozen on his face. Of course, he even forgot to get up temporarily, so how could he think of such a trivial matter? He just lay on his back, staring at the gray sky as if thinking about life, letting the snowflakes fall on his face and melt into drops of water stains.

"I surrender."

"You have already lost, there is no need to admit defeat..."

Lunicia didn't know how to comment on this shameless statement. As for Ella, in her eyes, there was no such person as Galezo at all. She was holding up Lunicia's injured arm and wrapping bandages on it one after another, even though Lunicia's wound had already healed under the effect of holy healing.

"How is it, Lady Luna? Are you feeling unwell?"

"No, thank you, Ella."

"Now I can recognize you. Not only do I want to thank you for the valuable information you brought, but I also want to thank you for your willingness to get involved in the internal affairs of Muirand as an outsider..."

As he got up from the ground, Galezo pinched his nose and spit out the blood and ice that had accumulated inside.

"In fact, we wanted to get involved, so we told you the information..."

Lunicia always felt that after a fight, communicating with the other party became particularly tiring, more tiring than the long-winded conversations they had before when they didn't know each other at all.

"It's not that I'm unconvinced." Galezo paused, then continued, "That sword skill is really amazing."

What he was referring to was naturally the sword that extended the Holy Slash to the tip, leaving a blank space around it and releasing energy outwards. Compared to the trick of using the weapon's transformation ability to block attacks, he was more impressed by the sword skills that Lunicia had demonstrated in the battle just now.

"that……"

As if recalling something, Lunicia's gaze became distant, as if she was looking at a figure from the past.

"That's my teacher's sword technique."

The sword skill called "Death Sword" originated from "Black Silence".

Chapter 58 Day 1: Poison Nest

"Speaking of which, what's going on here now?"

"It's a long story. I'm planning to go back and strengthen the defenses—"

Galezo de Barbacro paused for a moment. Seeing that Lunicia and her group had no intention of leaving, he could only ask, "--Are you planning to help?"

He had indeed never seen a paladin, but that didn't mean he hadn't heard of the legends about paladins, such as that the White Knight never lied, and that the White Knight always seemed to be nosy. He felt that the other party really seemed to be intending to "meddle in other people's business" and had to confirm it.

"Well, yes." Lunicia nodded, while Ella remained noncommittal, as if she would do whatever Lunicia said. "Does this cause you any trouble?"

"...No, no, absolutely not. How could that be possible?"

Galezo felt that he was really out of options. After all, he had just pretended to challenge the opponent, saying that he wanted to confirm the opponent's ability, but in the end he was beaten up with superior combat power. It would be inappropriate to refuse now, so he could only agree to the other party's request with a sad heart.

That's still a request, not a demand.

"Rather, it's great to have a few strong people like this willing to help."

This is completely against my will.

He completely agreed with the result of the duel, and had no reason to object. He had the advantage of equipment, and as a professional, he had probably trained longer than his opponent, and he also had combat experience gained on the battlefield. If he had to point out any shortcomings, it would probably be that he was not as good at studying adventurer courses as his opponent, was not as good at coming up with sudden ideas in battle, and most importantly, was far inferior to his opponent in swordsmanship.

It looked like the advantage and disadvantage of both sides were evenly matched. In the actual competition, it was also a dangerous situation where one move would lead to defeat. In the end, it was me who was lying down, not the paladin who did not take advantage of the ladies first. This was enough to explain the problem. "It's just a competition", "I should be restrained", "I can't use the tricks in life-and-death battles" were all incredibly bad excuses. Even if Galezo was willing to be hacked to death by the opponent on the spot, he would not use such excuses - I have experience in life-and-death battles, doesn't the opponent have it? I have a trick that I have kept in my heart, doesn't the opponent have it?

As for a duel, failure is failure, and since it has failed, the original agreement must be fulfilled. This can be regarded as a kind of etiquette.

Of course, what Lunicia didn't know was that the reason why Galezo recognized the situation so quickly and decisively was that she did not choose to stick to the tactics, nor did she choose to exchange minor injuries for major injuries.

Lunisia only made this judgment based on experience - she judged that doing so would lead to defeat - Galezo's offensive was more durable than her defensive endurance. On the contrary, if she really did this, Galezo, who didn't want them to get involved in the first place, would have sufficient reasons to reject their kindness.

Crossing the lawn of the training ground and passing the door of the office building where only a few people were now, the group once again returned to the front line inside the isolation wall of the northeast area - for Galezo it was "coming back", and for Lunicia and Ella, it was their first arrival.

The sight almost stunned Lunicia.

If what she felt outside the isolation wall and outside the cordon was a "thick fog" that made her feel uncomfortable, then here, when facing the area that seemed to have torn a hole in the world, what she felt was an almost suffocating "tide". Both the degree of disgust and the chill emanating from her spine were almost incomparable.

The third isolation wall is located at the outermost part of the northeastern district, and is also the highest of the three isolation walls. This is only relative. Generally speaking, there is not much difference between the three isolation walls. Only from the top of the observation tower on the isolation wall can one effectively see the situation in the central area of ​​the northeastern district. Now, Lunisia did not climb the isolation wall, but just stood in the square under the wall, at the same altitude as the still noisy communicators. As long as she raised her head, she could see the "something" floating like black smoke.

"what is that?"

"I don't know." Galezo answered simply, "This is the first time I've seen it, too. I don't know how to explain it to the two ladies. But one thing is certain, there shouldn't be a single living person in the area covered by 'that thing'. It looks like there's light there, but in fact it can be considered a lightless area."

Contrary to his usual unreliable speech, once he talked about things related to the Northeast District, Galeazzo gave people the impression of being almost knowledgeable. Even if he didn't know something, he could always say something useful from other perspectives.

Although it is called "black smoke", it is neither black nor smoky. Black smoke is just a description of its appearance that is like smoke. If you must find a more appropriate description, it is like a "sense of disharmony" covering an area. The naked eye cannot immediately see anything, but you can feel that there is something there, it should not be like this, there is something invisible and colorless occupying the original space, even if you can't see it, you can feel its strong presence.

"That's 'pollution'."

"'pollute'?"

Hearing Ella's words, Galezzo couldn't help but turn his head and look at the pink-haired woman with whom he had hardly communicated: "You seem to know something, can you tell me in detail?"

Ella did not answer immediately, but looked at Lunicia first. The latter did not deny it, but was concentrating on staring at the sky that made her feel uncomfortable. Then she continued, "Similar to the 'contaminated area' caused by the 'Divine Disaster'... Do you know about the Divine Disaster?"

"I don't quite understand. If it's just a matter of 'the divine disaster is caused by the advent of the evil god', that's another matter. Are you saying that the Northeastern District is related to the divine disaster?"

Galezzo was very frank. During his time in the army at 301 Heights, he had dealt with the followers of the evil god many times. The military academy also emphasized the importance of stopping the rituals that the evil god's followers might use. Naturally, this included content about divine disasters, but most of that knowledge was practical, that is, "stopping similar divine disasters from happening," rather than real theories about divine disasters. Therefore, he did not have a deeper understanding of it. If Ella Hepper had not mentioned it, he would not have linked the Northeast District with the divine disaster.

"It's just similar." Ella didn't nod to confirm. "The divine disaster is a secondary effect caused by the evil god's direct arrival, or too much power descending at once... If the world is compared to a piece of paper, the bottom of the paper is the world where humans live, and the top of the paper is the relative 'other world'. The divine disaster is equivalent to opening a hole in the paper. In this way, the things on the top of the paper will leak through the hole to the bottom of the paper, causing pollution."

Lunicia tilted her head and asked, "So, the Northeast District is the 'hole'?"

"Maybe so. At least it is indeed full of pollution now."

The three continued talking as they continued walking inside and towards the front line.

"You compare this phenomenon to pollution flowing from the top of the paper to the bottom... How do you explain what happens in the dark? In my experience, the phenomenon called 'pollution' is the same as the phenomenon in the dark."

"Continuing with the previous analogy, you can think of the world as a waterproof cloth." Ella did not show any annoyance and continued to explain, "This cloth can normally isolate the water above and prevent it from seeping into the bottom. Light will strengthen this effect, which is equivalent to thickening the waterproof coating in that area. The dark environment is equivalent to the part of the cloth with a thinner coating. Water can penetrate from there in small amounts, so a situation similar to pollution will occur."

“Your explanation is very detailed.”

This is indeed easy to understand, and it can explain a lot of things - not only for Galezo, but also for Lunicia. Ever since she realized that the result of the ritual was related to the Dark Lords and that the Northeastern Region had changed over time, she had been thinking about the connection between the two, and the term "divine disaster" seemed to give her some clues.

This progress did not make her feel much better - instead, she felt even more depressed. Just by seeing the pollution floating in the air and feeling the chill emanating from that area, Lunicia was almost certain that the people who originally lived there would definitely not survive. Even high-level professionals could die in a lightless environment, not to mention those who were at most low-level wanderers. Perhaps for Lunicia, it was a deep sea full of dangers, but for ordinary people, it was more like magma that would melt at the touch of a button.

"Your Mightiness!--"

Jian came running over from nearby. When he saw Lunicia and Ella, he slowed down and gave Galezo a questioning look. Galezo shook his head and said, "They are reinforcements."

"I understand."

Gian Batista did not ask any further questions, even though he knew that Galeazzo did not like others interfering in the affairs of the Northeast Region. Since that was what his superior said, he had no reason to refute it. Besides, the arrival of strong reinforcements was a good thing.

"Where are Leopold and Regia? They're not here?"

"Mr. Leopold is now at the front line, and Ms. Regia is commanding the reconnaissance troops at the second isolation wall. Do you need to contact them?"

"No, um... not for now. Next, I will take these two reinforcements to the front line to take a look and introduce the situation. You continue to stay here. If there is any emergency, contact me immediately using the communicator. If I can't contact you, I will directly contact Leopold or Regia. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

"Stay alert! ...By the way, I'll give you a day off tomorrow."

Jian asked in surprise: "At this time?"

Galeazzo replied, "It's just times like these. I'll need your cooperation the day after tomorrow. Get yourself in shape tomorrow and bring your best equipment with you. Don't let me down the day after tomorrow. Do you understand?"

"Understood!"

Gian did not question the issue of command. In his opinion, since Galeazzo was confident enough to give him a day off under such circumstances, he must have been fully prepared and naturally had nothing to worry about, so he agreed without any pressure.