The opponent, distracted by the death of his comrade, let his guard down. The bandit leader, a hardened criminal with a scarred face, couldn't help but smirk sinisterly. His wind-attribute battle power erupted suddenly, and his narrow rapier, like a venomous snake, lunged toward the guard captain's heart.
He was originally an assassin, trained specifically for murder. Unfortunately, during an attempt to assassinate a noble, he was exposed prematurely due to a partner's mistake. According to the assassin guild's rules, he had to die to prevent the leak of his employer's information. But he wasn't ready to die just yet. In a split second, he killed his own partner and began his life on the run.
Three years of exile took him from the western edge of the continent to the east. The scar on his face was a souvenir from his escape from the guild's reapers.
His battle power wasn't strong, but his explosive power was among the top in the mid-tier assassin ranks. This was due to his innate, rare wind-attribute battle power, and a special technique he developed for unleashing it. It allowed him to strike with speed beyond human sight. As he thrust his sword, the smooth motion made him certain this strike would pierce his opponent's heart.
As he imagined the sword being withdrawn, blood would spurt out, meters high. He relished this scene, believing that a true assassin should appreciate the final moments of their target's life.
Time seemed to freeze. The bandit leader with the scarred face's thrusting hand suddenly halted, rigid as a statue, the whole figure frozen in motion.
The sudden stillness left everyone dumbfounded. An eerie silence fell upon the battlefield. A chilling sensation, as if from the soul itself, erupted from the sky, draining everyone's strength, leaving them powerless even to raise their hands.
It was the face of a youth, pale and handsome, with a hint of immaturity. His slender figure was cloaked in a large, grey mantle that trailed on the ground, nearly covering his whole body. His long, crystalline hair, white as snow, shimmered brilliantly under the sunlight. The youth's snow-white hair was casually tied at the back with a ribbon, a color unnatural for humans.
His long, fair fingers, sculpted like white jade, gently pinched the rapier the scarred leader thrust with full force. The youth with the long white hair gazed down at the bandit leader before him. With a flick of his finger on the steel blade, the rapier shattered inch by inch.
The youth looked down at the bandit leader, whose will was already frozen by the chill. His pale grey eyes suddenly burst into dazzling white light. He looked at the terrified bandit leader and declared, word by word:
"The Lord says you are guilty."
Felix's body suddenly burst into radiant white light, the rich aura of holy light enveloping the entire battlefield, forcing everyone to halt their fight, as they were immobilized.
"The Lord says, the guilty must face judgment," Felix, with the Eye of Judgment activated, exuded a divine aura. He surveyed his surroundings, capturing the soul's light of everyone present in his mind.
"The Lord says, those of grave sin must receive a verdict." Felix, opening the Eye of Judgment, brought everyone's souls under his control.
"I saw burning villages, I heard the desperate cries of women and children, I heard the last groans of the elderly, I felt the furious roars of those souls." Memories flooded Felix's mind like scenes from a movie. His face turned pale, his hands clenched in furious rage, veins bulging.
It was Felix's first time using Saint Elouan's verdict. He didn't expect to feel so vividly the cries and groans of the weak. The futile struggle of women and children against the bandits, the village guards being beheaded one by one, the elderly and children being herded into houses ablaze with raging flames.
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The scenes of memory ignited a fierce killing intent in Felix against these merciless bandits.
The power of Saint Elouan comes from judgment, and the ritual of judgment is divided into two parts: the trial and the final verdict.
"I have witnessed your sins. In the name of Saint Elouan, I sentence you to death."
Felix slowly raised his right hand, clenched it, and among the bandits around him
, those whose souls glowed with a blood-red light let out screams of agony. Clutching their throats and struggling in vain, their breaths faded quickly, and their souls, now stained with blood-red light, drifted out, agonizingly drawn into Felix's palm.
Thirty-two bandits in total. Apart from two recent unwilling recruits, all were obliterated by Felix. Their blood-red glowing souls were absorbed into the Sacred Flame in Felix's palm, then converted into pure energy. As Felix channeled through Saint Elouan's unique meditation technique, they became part of the Sacred Flame.
This was the source of Saint Elouan's power.
The souls of thirty bandits, their cries echoing, were soon digested by the Sacred Flame into pure energy. Within a few breaths, they transformed into a wisp of Sacred Flame, merging into Felix's being.
Such is the origin of Saint Elouan's power.
"Indeed, the souls of demons are mightier," Felix mused, comparing the energy harvested from judging these thirty bandits with that from a single lowly imp, based on the memories left by Lady Ireland.
Ignoring the astounded gazes of the surviving guards behind him, Felix approached the two farmers forced into the bandit gang, now too terrified to move.
"Do you wish to repent to My Lord for the sins you have committed?" The judgment of Saint Elouan isn't merely about slaughter. Killing those whose souls do not bear a red hue not only fails to augment energy but also diminishes My Lord's grace towards the potential Saint Elouan.
The two were already scared senseless by the bizarre deaths of the bandits around them, exceeding their wildest imaginations. They could only think that they had encountered a deity, or a demon.
"Yes, yes!" Driven by a strong will to survive, the two coerced farmers knelt before Felix, incessantly bowing their heads, saying, "We wish to repent for our sins, we are willing."
When blood began to seep from the heads of the two farmers, Felix finally spoke again, "I sense the resolve in your repentance."
"Are you willing to pray to the holy light every day until your sins are cleansed?" While judging these two farmers, a peculiar thought crossed Felix's mind. He subtly replaced 'My Lord' with 'the holy light' and continued the judgment ritual.
"Yes, yes! We are willing to pray to the holy light every day until our sins are washed away," the two farmers continued bowing their heads, their eyes now glimmering with a hint of madness, repeatedly echoing Felix's words.
Such domineering power.
Truly befitting the Arbiter from the shadows, the Night Watchman of God.
Felix noticed that under the cover of the Eye of Judgment, his words imprinted on the two farmers' minds like spiritual brands, forcefully embedded—a form of spiritual branding from the soul that even powerful professionals would struggle to resist.
Such a terrifying power.
Felix had no doubt that once these two farmers completed the prayers inscribed in the spiritual brands to cleanse their sins, they would become one of My Lord's devout followers.
It's fortunate that the number of Saint Elouan is strictly limited. Otherwise, with such means of creating followers, the faith in the holy light could spread across countless planes in no time.
As a Gamma disciple who signed a pact with the Shadow Queen Christie, Felix didn't exactly reject the legendary My Lord but merely maintained a sense of reverence. However, when Lady Ireland planted the seed of Saint Elouan in him, Felix's ambition began to swell rapidly, and his reverence for My Lord also waned due to his slumber.
This was why Felix replaced 'My Lord' with 'the holy light' during the judgment.
He needed to test the limits of Heaven.
The Ritual of Judgment of Saint Elouan.
Opening the Eye of Judgment, it reveals the sins committed by the wicked through the soul-inspecting light. For the weaker souls, the Eye of Judgment can extract fragments of their memories and inject them into Saint Elouan's mind. After confirming the sins committed by the wicked, the Eye of Judgment brands those of grave sin.
When Felix kills them, completing the Ritual of Judgment, their souls are absorbed by the Eye of Judgment, transformed into pure energy. After Felix's meditation, this energy is converted into the Flame of Judgment from Hell.
For those whose sins do not warrant death, Saint Elouan must personally conduct the judgment and verdict.