Knight: from Apprentice to the Almighty

Chapter 350: Chapter 337: Severed Arm

"Look, even the Darkness cannot help but make way for this dance of dawn, my dear child..."

Before the voice had even faded, giving Roland no time to think, a power as warm and vibrant as the rising sun surged through his body without warning.

This was not the Giant Dragon Power he had summoned himself, but a power originating from that peculiar Blessing.

Lodestar’s Morning Delight.

This warm current was lively and pure, like molten gold, flowing swiftly yet gently through his every limb.

Finally, it followed the pathways of his arm, joyfully rushing toward the Secret Silver Longsword clutched in his hand.

"HUMMM!"

The blade trembled violently!

The soft, steady luminescence that had previously coated it, as if infused with infinite Life Energy, suddenly became too blinding to look at directly.

But that was far from the end.

The blazing golden light grew thicker, flowing and coalescing like liquid gold. It no longer merely clung to the blade but used it as a core, frantically building and extending upward.

The brilliant radiance materialized, outlining the form of a massive, almost translucent blade. A holy and majestic aura spread outward like a tide.

In the blink of an eye, the finely crafted Secret Silver Longsword in Roland’s hand had vanished, replaced by a Giant Sword forged from pure dawn light—so brilliant and immense that one had to look up to see it all.

The light-forged Giant Sword stood taller than two men, its edges flowing with a flickering corona like the morning sun, bathing Roland in light as bright as day.

It also enveloped Anno’s twisted figure and his shocked, uncertain face, bathing them in its holy radiance.

Gloria gazed up at the brilliant radiance that had nearly dispelled the valley’s night, and at the massive Light Saber at its center, which looked as if it were forged from dawn itself.

The Holy Mark Power that had already been activated within her began to stir as never before. It was not a feeling of resistance, but a resonance and excitement, as if it had encountered its very source.

She couldn’t help but whisper, her voice trembling with disbelief.

"This radiance... It’s a gift from the Lord of Billions of Radiance, from Lodestar..."

In that instant, Roland’s upright figure within the light seemed to overlap in her vision with the image of a certain deity—one cloaked in dawn, with a gentle yet powerful smile, making her heart race.

"A hero! That’s what the true hero of my story should look like!"

At the edge of the battlefield, unable to get closer due to the aftershocks, Galvis’s voice trembled with excitement.

His eyes shone as he quickly pulled parchment and a charcoal pencil from his hip pouch, as if afraid of missing a single detail.

"A hero arrives from the long night, wielding the dawn and cleaving the Darkness with a single strike! A Legend is born this very moment! The epic I write will be immortalized because of you, Roland!"

Teresa, standing beside him, also stared at the scene, which was like the descent of a god, a complex, fleeting glint in her eyes.

She quietly watched the familiar yet strange figure at the center of the light. The slight purse of her lips slowly relaxed, forming a very faint, relieved smile.

It was as if some kind of silent farewell had settled in her heart.

The surrounding soldiers were even more stunned, and shocked whispers and heartfelt praise spread through the crowd.

"God of Light above..."

"Are we... Are we saved?"

"That man... He’s like a hero of legend, reborn!"

But at this moment, Roland, the focus of all the astonishment and gazes, was having a very peculiar experience.

The Giant Sword in his hand, formed from condensed radiance, had no physical weight, yet it conveyed a sense of immense, warm, and vibrant power, as if he were holding a living piece of the dawn.

The power was vast but not searing. It gently filled his limbs, even sweeping away the slight fatigue from his continuous battles.

He could clearly feel everyone’s eyes on him.

Shock, awe, fervor, Hope.

However, enveloped in this Holy Power from Lodestar, which had a slightly mischievous trait, his mind was unusually calm.

It was as if he were basking in the first rays of morning sun, his thoughts clear and his Concentration sharp.

Before Roland could fully comprehend the profound power contained within the Bright Giant Sword in his hand, Anno launched another assault.

He could clearly perceive the vast Positive Energy within the Light Saber—enough to make any creature of Darkness tremble. But Anno, his mind utterly twisted by Abyssal Power, let his infinitely magnified arrogance overcome his instinctual Fear.

He let out a roar mixed with fury and maniacal pride. The dark energy roiling around him surged once more. His twisted, fleshy wings beat powerfully, and turning his body into an arrow, he charged recklessly toward the brilliant light.

Facing this suicidal Charge, Roland’s gaze remained calm, showing no intention of retreating.

With both arms, he swung the Giant Sword constructed of pure radiance.

The motion seemed slow, but it contained an irresistible Holy Power as he brought it down majestically to meet the charging Darkness.

"BOOM!"

Light and Darkness, two ultimate, opposing, and mutually countering powers, collided violently in the most primal and savage way.

A deafening explosion echoed through the valley. The shockwave spread out madly in a ring, stripping away a layer of the ground.

The brilliant golden light and the viscous Darkness madly corroded and annihilated one another, letting out a grating, sizzling sound.

This time, the ever-effective corrosive Trait of the Abyssal Power failed for the first time.

It tried to entwine and corrupt the massive Light Saber as it had devoured the Holy Light before.

But Lodestar’s Dawn Power was so immense and pure that the Darkness melted away upon touching its edge, like snow under the sun.

The light pressed down resolutely, and the Darkness retreated step by step.

As time went on, the stalemate was broken.

With unstoppable momentum, the Light Saber pressed down slowly but surely toward Anno.

The vast, holy Energy burned his Abyssal body, producing a foul, scorching black smoke.

As the Light Saber drew closer, the arrogance on Anno’s twisted, haughty face was finally replaced by incredulous terror.

He could feel his own Power being rapidly purified, evaporated.

"No... Impossible!"

He let out a hoarse, desperate roar, his voice cracking with Fear.

"The Abyss... Its great Power... How could it lose to someone like you..."

But defeat was already sealed.

Roland pushed again, the radiance flaring even brighter.

Just as the distance between them closed to almost nothing as the Light Saber pressed down, Roland suddenly noticed something.

Next to Anno’s face, a blurry, spectral visage had appeared without any warning.

The specter was shrouded in a faint black mist, through which one could just barely make out the jagged outline of Demon horns and a pair of eyes burning with dark red, unholy fire.

In stark contrast to Anno’s expression of terror and indignation, this demonic visage appeared composed, even...

...the corners of its mouth curled into a strange smile, full of amusement and scrutiny.

Its double-pupiled, fiery gaze pierced through the brilliant radiance, locking precisely onto Roland.

A whisper filled with endless mockery and a hint of curiosity echoed directly in Roland’s mind.

"An interesting human..."

Seeing this strange development, alarms blared in Roland’s mind.

But his attack didn’t falter. He held his breath, focused, and poured all his strength into his arms, bringing the Light Saber down with even greater ferocity.

"ARGHHHH!"

Anno let out a dying scream, desperately squeezing out every last bit of Abyssal Power in his body to resist.

But it was clearly futile.

"SZZZZT!"

It was accompanied by a terrifying, heart-stopping sound, like a red-hot branding iron plunging into flesh.

The brilliant Bright Giant Sword, with irresistible sharpness, sliced straight through his arm—the one covered in dark red Magma-like cracks and branded with the strange Abyssal Holy Mark.

The arm, severed at the shoulder, flew into the air, trailing a spray of instantly cauterized black blood.

The suffocating demonic features on Anno’s body began to recede at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The dark red Magma cracks on his skin faded and vanished as quickly as stains washed away by water.

His twisted, fleshy wings twitched in agony before dissipating into wisps of black smoke.

His pure, black eyes returned to their original color, now filled only with incredible pain and weakness.

In just an instant, his terrifying half-demon form completely disintegrated, revealing Anno’s original appearance as a human Duke.

Now, however, his face was as pale as paper, blood gushed from the stump of his right shoulder, and his aura was incredibly feeble.

However, there was not a trace of pity or hesitation in Roland’s eyes.

At the same moment the Bright Giant Sword’s energy surged from hitting its target and then suddenly dissipated,

the real Secret Silver Longsword in his hand continued its momentum, becoming a cold silver glint as it stabbed toward Anno’s undefended heart.

But just a fraction of a second before the sword’s tip could touch his chest...

Roland’s pupils contracted. A premonition of extreme danger pierced his mind like an icy needle.

Without a second thought, he abruptly halted his forward momentum, pushed off the ground with his toes, and shot backward.

Almost at the same time he retreated, a blurry black shadow shot past his temple at an incredible speed, missing him by a hair’s breadth. The cold gust of wind it created sent a shiver down his spine.

The black shadow’s target, however, was not Roland. It shot straight for Anno, who was collapsed on the ground, his life hanging by a thread.

Roland focused his gaze, and his heart sank.

The object hurtling through the air was none other than the very arm he had just severed from Anno.

Now, the arm that should have been lifeless was emitting a thick, ominous black light, as if it had a life of its own.

It didn’t reattach to Anno’s body. Instead, the moment it touched him, it burst apart, transforming into a huge, writhing black shadow as thick as ink.

Like a living Shadow cocoon, it instantly engulfed the dying Anno.

Roland didn’t hesitate, channeling his Power again to slice through the strange black cocoon.

But before he could act, in less than an instant, the black shadow enveloping Anno vanished like a smudge wiped away by an invisible hand.

There was no sound, no fluctuation of Energy. Right before his eyes, it suddenly contracted, faded, and then vanished completely without a trace.

All that remained was a pool of glaringly red blood rapidly soaking into the dry earth.

And a faint, nauseating scent of the Abyss lingering in the air.

It was as if nothing had happened, and yet, as if a deeper, stranger Darkness had silently slipped away into some unknown Shadow.