Immortal Paladin

179 Insecure Much?

179 Insecure Much?

The Summit Hall looked like it had been gutted by the wrath of the heavens themselves. Half the dome was gone, torn open to the sky like some god had reached down and peeled it back to see how we squirmed. What remained of the walls were splintered marble and scorched stone, bleeding gold and white light from the divine battle that refused to end. Floating above it all was my Judgment Severance, now a jagged rupture of light in the shape of a golden cross, greedily devouring energy from everything nearby: mana, qi, even the ambient air seemed thinner in its presence.

I adjusted my grip and angled my sword upward. Then I swung. The blow hit Aixin mid-dodge, sending her tumbling into the rupture. She didn't scream… her mouth opened, but all that came out was silence. Her agony, however, painted her face as clearly as ink on paper. Judgment Severance clung to her, siphoning her energy, disrupting her spiritual channels, and silencing her ability to cast or even channel Quintessence.

I wasn’t about to waste the opportunity. I jumped, blade trailing behind me in a silver arc, aiming for her face. Judgment Severance would last a few seconds more… I poured mana into the spell to extend its life, even if just for an extra heartbeat.

Up close, Aixin's movements were frantic but precise. Despite being in midair and under the relentless pull of my empowered spell, she parried every strike I threw at her with her staff, matching my tempo as she drifted into the air, her wings flapping desperately as I chased her in the air. She blocked a slice aimed for her throat, using the counterforce to launch herself upward, higher into the air.

I used the momentum of my next swing to leap after her, kicking off with sheer brute strength and sending myself flying like a missile. My overhead strike came down with punishing weight. She raised her staff again, and our weapons clashed. But this time, the sword didn’t stop. I fed mana directly into Silver Steel. Heavenly Punishment still radiated from it, and Holy Sword humming beneath the surface. Judgment Severance might nullify active spells in its radius, but it didn’t erase lingering divine effects embedded with Quintessence into physical weapons.

Aixin hit the ground hard. I followed, but before I could land a finishing blow, an unseen force wrapped around me and hurled me down with unnatural speed. My Divine Sense screamed in warning, recognizing it for what it was… Quintessence, raw and pure, manipulated into a telekinetic grip that smashed me into the stone with mountain-flattening force. Judgment Severance shouldn’t have allowed that kind of manipulation through. Somehow, she forced it.

I spat out blood, rolled to my feet, and drank down a trio of potions from my Item Box. One for healing, one for mana, one for raw resistance. The burn of them in my throat reminded me I was still alive. I slammed my foot down and charged again, my sword carving lines into the stone floor. Each strike caused shockwaves, and the cracked earth beneath us spread wider with every impact. Aixin was bleeding now… thin trails from her nose and eyes, the cost of resisting too much power too fast.

I lobbed three bottles from my Item Box at her as I pushed through… red, green, and one the color of blood mixed with obsidian. I punched the red one mid-flight, and it shattered on my fist and her face. Scalding black-red flame erupted, catching her skin and crawling into the seams of my gauntlet. It hurt, but I didn’t care. She screamed, finally giving sound to her agony. I stomped her foot down and cracked the green bottle across her other ankle. Its sticky contents expanded instantly, hardening to stone-like glue and anchoring her to the ground.

The final bottle I struck with my forehead was heavier, denser, and older. It was Dragon’s Blood. Not the diluted type sold by smugglers or alchemists in floating markets, but real, potent, searing power. My body screamed as the buff coursed through me, my blood boiling with the essence of a creature long dead and more divine than most deities I’d met. Before she could break free, I drove my sword through her chest. Her eyes widened, her mouth gaping open… but no words came. I followed with my other arm, forcing my hand into the wound and prying it open.

"I will rip you apart now," I growled, and with a roar, I did. Her body split with wet sounds. I threw the pieces aside like broken parts of a toy. "I know you won't die just from that, so come at me..."

Judgment Severance flickered and vanished. My mana reserves were dry, and there were barely sparks left to gather. I fumbled in my Item Box and tore open a Teleportation Scroll. It activated, but… I might’ve escaped if not for the sudden hammer of divine light that slammed into me from above, too quick for me to see, canceling teleportation while at it.

The blow shattered the rest of the Summit Hall. I activated Zealot’s Stride, leaping into the sky just as rubble exploded beneath me. I spun midair, wind howling around me, and saw Aixin as she resurrected herself. Her wounds were gone. Her wings, newly formed, glowed with golden light too pure to be comforting. She looked divine again, like a statue of vengeance given breath.

"Destroy him," she commanded coldly, pointing her staff at me. "Leave nothing but his ash and soul."

Low-tier angels, malformed and barely humanoid, floated around me in orbit. Their limbs twisted unnaturally as they conjured weapons of light from nothing. On the tip of Aixin’s staff, a new sphere of power began to gather… light compressed into a single bead, humming with contained annihilation.

She tilted her head, voice icy with contempt. “Stop making this so difficult for me, or I will taxidermize you.”

I smiled at her, cracked lips and blood-stained teeth. My voice rasped, but it didn’t waver. “You’ll need to do better than that.” I didn’t wait. The low-level angels closed in fast, halos spinning and wings blurring as their weapons of light formed in a flash. I knew what was coming, and I welcomed it.

“Come closer,” I whispered, and drove Silver Steel into my own chest.

The blade cracked through my armor and plunged into flesh. Pain shot down my spine. As blood poured from my wound, my Reflect Damage began to stack, glowing faintly on the edge of my aura. I activated Blessed Regeneration, watching as healing light pushed back against the bleeding hole in my chest. It wasn’t enough to stabilize me… that wasn’t the point.

Sacrificial Zeal ignited next. The lower my health, the stronger my strikes, and my recovery only fed into the last piece of my combo: Retributive Restoration. A full combo made for moments like this… a suicidal chain of martyrdom and rebirth, tailored for killing swarms.

The first angel reached me.

Its blade kissed my armor and exploded.

So did the second. Then the third. Their holy bodies ruptured from the divine retribution, sending bits of feathered gore through the ruined air above the Summit Hall. Aixin, on the other hand, had just finished her spell.

A halo formed around a bead of light floating at the tip of her staff. Around her, a mirage of angels shimmered into being, faces too beautiful to trust. The moment she let go of the bead, they shrieked, their features twisting into mad raving mouths and fangs. They chased the bead, forming a comet of divine torment.

I Flash Stepped left. The bead curved midair and followed.

“Seriously?” I muttered.

It caught me square in the chest. My armor didn’t just crack, it dissolved, rupturing from the inside as the mirage-angels dove through my skin. I screamed, gritting my teeth, feeling them merge with me, dig into my nerves, chew through bone.

And then the infants came.

No… not real infants, but baby-like angels, winged and smiling, crawling from the very pores of my flesh.

I choked.

They made goo-goo sounds. Charm spells flickered in the air, hammering against my mind. I saw one of them bat its eyes at me and blow a kiss. Another nibbled on my earlobe before biting deep and tearing cartilage.

“I hate this spell already,” I snarled.

Reflect Damage didn’t even trigger. They weren’t attacking. They were infesting. The Punishment of the Wicked Who Pretends to Be Good restarted its efforts in rewriting me, turning my skin to jagged, cursed obsidian. And I couldn’t stop it.

Then I felt the wind shift behind me.

Aixin was already there, hiding among the massive numbers of low-level angels swarming around her.

Her staff had become a radiant spear. She slammed it into my chest, ramming us both down through a shattered building, cracking earth and concrete beneath. I stared at the spear embedded in my chest just beside my sword. Her body glowed with divine restoration, the wound that should’ve mirrored mine disappearing like it had never happened. Her robes pulsed, shifting backwards in time, color restoring with an almost casual rewind.

I couldn’t breathe.

"Divine Word: Rest," I cast in desperation, slamming the spell onto her. "Nap time..."

Her eyes fluttered, but not for long.

I gritted my teeth, grabbed her spear to pull myself closer, then reached for her neck. With a roar, I tore her skull free, dragging her spine with it in a single, brutal rip. But her body twitched, and regrew, the bones knitting and muscles reforming from her own dismembered head.

She laughed as more baby-angels bloomed from my stomach.

“You’re going to lose,” she said, conjuring a sword of pure light.

She sliced my arm clean off, the one still clutching her head. I collapsed to one knee, panting.

I was barely standing. She waved her hand, and radiant vestments wove themselves over her naked body, covering her once again in holy garb layered with numerous protections. With another wave, I felt something pull.

Not me, but the spear still jammed inside me. It began flying back to her.

“No,” I growled. I reached for Silver Steel, still embedded in my heart, and twisted both weapons at once.

“Divine Smite!”

My mana surged. My heart and brain were crushed. I exploded into viscera, a blast of gore that caught Aixin mid-reach. Her spear flew into her hand, but I saw her in my Divine Sense wipe red from her face, utterly disgusted.

I was dead. I floated outside my body, my soul detached and vulnerable. She looked up, eyes narrowing, sensing me… and lunged, hand outstretched to grab my spirit.

But Spell Resonance activated.

“Divine Word: Raise.”

I directed it to the severed arm that still gripped Silver Steel.

I resurrected beside her.

Naked... Bleeding... Alive!!

She turned, startled, just as I whispered:

“Boo.”

Then I swung Silver Steel as hard as I could.

The buildings were not made to withstand angels or gods.

When Aixin hit the houses, they didn’t splinter. Instead, they vaporized. Her body left a perfect trench, like a comet had struck the district. Holy barriers burst apart like glass; every enchantment on her robe, every protective prayer, all undone by the raw force of my blow. My own arms ached from the recoil. Sparks danced up my naked forearm where Silver Steel hummed in anticipation. It was time.

I had reached the cap.

Every drop of EXP was gone and burned for Exalted Renewal. The stat gains were immense. My health no longer ticked… it surged. Mana replenished like a roaring spring. I could cast Divine Word in chains, and Sacrificial Zeal converted every dip in my health into more wrath.

Finally, she was within my weight class, at least in Joan's body.

The low-level angels hurled themselves toward me again, all pale light and artificial purity. I didn’t even blink. One swing of Silver Steel, coated in Thunderous Smite, and their halos shattered. A second swing cleaved through them in a sonic wave, dissolving them like fragile illusions. The few that still bore the twisted madness from that earlier spell clung to the air in agony before fading into dust.

I took a breath. It felt strange, feeling the wind on bare skin. I looked down at myself and shook my head. The Wandering Adjudicator armor was supposed to be legendary… an indestructible set I’d earned back in LLO after that god-awful quest chain. Now it was scrap. I’d been punched out of it like a peeled fruit. Naked, but not unarmed.

I wasn't putting the cosmetic robe back on. Not after it nerfed my stats. Not now. And as for other spares in the Item Box? I think they would be just a nuisance at this point.

From the rubble, Aixin erupted.

Her wings left a mirage trail of starlight, too fast for the eyes of normal mortals. She streaked toward me, spear-first, fury unbound. I let her come. Waited. Then…

“Divine Word: Rest.”

Her eyes fluttered.

I moved faster.

Silver Steel screamed through the air, glowing with Divine Smite. The blade cut through her center in a clean arc. But her flesh didn’t fall. No. The left half of her body bloomed like regenerating coral, sprouting back into a new Aixin, already casting.

Another bead of light formed in her hand. That damn spell again. The one with the angels that clawed and whispered and burrowed into bone. I didn’t let her finish.

“Divine Word: Rest.”

Her fingers slackened.

“Divine Smite.”

She split again.

This was how I used to play back in LLO, especially during the harsh PvP season. Exalted Renewal, Divine Word: Rest, and Divine Smite… a triangle of inevitability. Back when I just started in this world, I was afraid to test if the EXP system still worked in this world. I didn’t want to lose my levels, my power, and my progress. I was too scared.

But not anymore.

I caught her as she reformed again. This time in the raw, the spellwork still knitting flesh to bone, her figure still blurry with divine haze. I grabbed her by the throat, lifting her effortlessly. Her legs dangled.

“You’re strong,” I muttered. “But I’m going to handle you like a little girl now.”

And I did.

I tossed her into the air gently, like a feather. Then I smacked her from the side with the flat of my sword hard enough to ring like a bell. Her body flew, spinning through the air, crashing into another building not too far off. She didn’t bounce this time. The rubble just folded around her like a coffin.

She rose anyway, shaky and furious. She waved her hand, conjuring her holy robes again. The same silver and white ensemble that tried so hard to make her look inviolable. As if pretending meant power.

I didn’t let her have the illusion.

“Give me Joan back,” I said. My voice was plain. “Leave her body. You don’t have to suffer anymore.”

The wind curled around me as I lifted my hand and closed it into a fist. “Sanctified Resurgence.” 

My body surged again as the Ultimate Skill took effect. The health I’d regained this whole time… every scrape healed, every wound closed… turned into raw damage waiting to be unchained. My skin cracked slightly with pressure as divine power threaded into my limbs. Only two spell slots left. Not much. But enough.

Enough to end this.

She looked at me, eyes flickering with something. Maybe it was rage, confusion, or desperation. And maybe something else, something buried under the persona she was wearing like a mask. But I didn’t care.

She had one last chance. Or none.

"You can't kill me," she said, brushing the dust off her shoulder. Her voice was calm, even amused.

"I know," I said. I let the words sit between us like a broken seal.

Even if I used Final Adjudication… and gods know how many spell slots I’d be flushing down the toilet… it wouldn’t work. There was no binding authority in my soul that could pass a verdict on something like her. In a karma battle, she’d walk away laughing while I turned to salt. She had existed too long, carried too many lifetimes on her back, and probably had her 'karma' stacked against mine.

At least, my Divine Sense was telling me I'd lose in a karma battle.

And still… here I was, swinging a big sword at her like I meant something.

She narrowed her eyes, tapping the butt of her staff against the ground with deliberate force. A dull thump echoed through the ruined streets, and the clouds above split open. From the gaping rift, a choir of low-level angels poured in… some bearing flaming blades, others simply screaming as they fell like meteorites with wings. They were different from the usual creepy angels.

"You can't hurt me either," she continued, voice rising over the storm. "Someone of my stature has experienced pain across countless epochs. Lifetimes of torment beyond your comprehension."

The head of her staff glowed. What had once been a spear was now something else entirely… a brutal cross of divine steel, somewhere between a halberd and a ceremonial scythe. It radiated holiness, yes, but also judgment. I imagined it had executed countless beings in the name of righteousness. And yet here she was, using it on me.

I reached back and slung Silver Steel onto my shoulder, feeling its weight as if anchoring me in place. The blade shimmered faintly, not with divinity, but with my stubborn will. Then, using the smallest fraction of control I had over Quintessence, I bent reality and conjured… a loincloth.

A loincloth! That was it.

It was barely enough to cover me, and it wasn’t even armored… just a sad strip of cloth fluttering in the wind. More barbarian than paladin. Still, it preserved some dignity, which was more than I could say for the rags of my old Wandering Adjudicator set. Even legendary armor from LLO didn’t hold up well in this world. I guess game myth means less when you're no longer in a game.

"Sad," I muttered aloud. "I thought I’d feel more. But honestly… my emotions are just so ‘meh’ right now."

I stared at her, not with hate, but with a strange kind of detachment.

“Listen here, Aixin,” I said, “I just hit Level Zero, by the way.”

She blinked.

"To put it in terms you’ll understand better," I continued, “my Divine Soul’s been extinguished. I’ve burned every ounce of EXP I had, squeezed it all into Exalted Renewal. What you’re looking at right now isn’t me… It’s a husk. The only reason I’m moving, breathing, and talking is because of the spell. Once its effect ends, I’m gone. Like capital G… Gone gone.”

I stepped forward, sauntering on the road. “The point is, you’ll never get what you came for. Not my soul. Not the Paladin’s Legacy. And definitely not Earth’s location. Even if I had that info locked in my soul, tough luck. You’ll be interrogating a corpse. Huh? Wait, you might not even get my corpse after this, wouldn’t you?”

Her mouth twitched, just barely.

I smiled. “So yeah, you’ve already lost the war.”

Ultimately, she’d win this battle, but not the war… It wouldn’t be satisfying to her, and I’d take that as a win, I guessed. I shrugged, walking slowly toward her. “Right now, I’m just being an annoying gnat, a ticking corpse with a to-do list. Side quest’s not done yet. Got some threads to wrap up. Come on, cooperate or you might just regret it.”

She lifted her staff again, thumping it once more. The sky rift widened further, and the angelic tide swelled. They screamed in holy tongues, bodies ablaze with ethereal fire.

"And regret what?" she asked, as though genuinely curious.

I looked past her to the sky full of wings and steel. I remembered LLO. Back then, it was bad… but this was worse. The sheer number of enemies, the density of divine pressure… it was like trying to solo a raid at level one.

I pointed my sword at her. “Ever heard of the fairy tale about Sleeping Beauty?”

She tilted her head, confused.

“Of course you wouldn’t.”

I focused. No gimmicks. No clever tricks. Just raw, weaponized faith. The last dregs of my soul, burning like a spark in a dying lamp.

Divine Word: Rest.

She blinked.

Divine Word: Rest.

Her knees buckled slightly.

Divine Word: Rest.

A flurry of wings beat around her, chaotic and disoriented. Her spear-turned-cross vibrated, pulsing in resistance. But the command was layered now, chanted with soul and spellcraft, amplified by Sacrificial Zeal, by my zero-level broken state, by every inch of divine weight I could press into the incantation.

She tried to summon a counterspell, but her hands shook.

"Stop this…" she murmured.

"Nap time," I said, and for once, I felt a flicker of satisfaction as I reached her in the blink of an eye. She slumped forward, and I caught her, not with gentleness, but not with cruelty either. Just firmly, like you would a sparring partner who finally tapped out. “Hey now, don’t fall for me too easily, you are not my type…”

“You,” said Aixin with trembling lips as she tried to resist, but it was futile. “You think I’ll fall for your tricks? That I’ll just collapse like a puppet every time you speak some clever line or wave that bastardized sword of yours? I’ve seen mortals like you in every age… arrogant, defiant, and puffed up on fleeting power, thinking pain and sacrifice make you righteous. But you’re just a shadow. A screaming, flickering spark pretending to shine like the stars. Do you think just because you’ve peeled back the veil a little, because you’ve burned your lifeforce and existence to keep fighting, that it makes you different? It doesn’t. You’re just a pitiful soul waiting to be erased just to make yourself believe you are in control. Let me tell you then, mortal, you are not in control.”

“Wow, insecure much?”

“...”