It’s not the same as back then, but I can feel it… I’ve gotten stronger.
As shadows continued to erupt and rise from behind Lawkey, stretching higher and higher within the golden cathedral, he lowered his knees slightly and got into a fighting stance.
For now, at the very least, it should be enough for this guy…
To drive them out of this island, out of this clan.
To make things easier for Riana.
To save Sana.
“Goddess… What did you do?!” Seeing the divide splitting his cathedral into dark and light halves, Zoran was still in the process of figuring out how such a thing was even possible.
He had never seen, or even heard of an emblem completely changing colors before…
Not unless…
“Are you a damned Hyking?!” He blurted out as his eyebrows twisted into a frown, “First the Coin Masters take a Hyking in with the Shadow Sign, and now you show up here too?”
“...”
It was obvious to Lawkey who Zoran was referring to, but he had no time to think about such things now.
His power was still new, he had no idea how long it would hold with this kind of output.
“Enough talk, priest.” Finally getting ready, Lawkey tightened the grip on his sword and began to gather shadows to engulf it from all around him. “If you won’t leave this island peacefully, then I’ll simply make you.”
“Hahaha! Fine! Try it then, you cursed monster!” Wasting no time, Zoran raised his left arm in the air and called upon all the light around him to come to his aid. “Oh Goddess of Light! Oh Goddess of the Sun! Bestow upon me your blessing so I may judge this miserable-”
WHOOOSH!
Having had enough of the priest’s ramblings, Lawkey rushed forward in the midst of the prayer, swinging his sword forward with all his might.
One Shadow Sword Style - Second Stance!
Evening Autumn Moonbow!
Although he was using the simple technique he had learned from his mentor, the wave of black and purple shadows that followed was far greater than any he had unleashed on his own before.
With its sheer size threatening to touch both sides of the cathedral, the shadow wave flew towards the priest, devouring whatever blinding lights that had been in its way prior.
“?!”
Seeing it coming at him, Zoran quickly stopped praying and raised both his hands up.
In an instant, the glowing orb hovering midair where an altar should have been, released countless blinding pillars of light that converged and connected in front of Zoran, immediately forming a holy shield of light.
Sun’s Blessing, Light’s bestowment!
Sacred Shield!
To make matters worse, more light beams continued to repeatedly bounce off the multiple stained glass murals around the entire cathedral, creating an unpredictable pattern of light pillars crossing all over the surroundings. Their speed and velocity began to devour the shadows in order to gain momentum; to gain their turf back.
CLASH!!
It was at this instant that the encompassing shadow wave, having been affected by the rush of light pillars as well, finally clashed with the newly formed sacred shield of light.
In the end, it couldn’t even reach the priest it was aiming for.
“Hah!”
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That made Zoran snicker for a moment, but only for a moment.
“?!”
As the priest of light looked back to check on his opponent’s whereabouts, all he saw were his holy pillars of light crossing each other all over the inside of the cathedral, fighting a constant raging battle with the rising shadows. They had long since destroyed any benches or objects that had been carefully placed within.
Zoran couldn’t worry about that at the moment, because the instant he looked up, he saw a figure emerging from a cloud of shadows engulfing them entirely.
And without delay, the figure swung its blade.
One Shadow Sword Style - Third Stance!
Sudden Winter Rainfall!
Downward swing after downward swing, Lawkey released a continuous barrage of successive shadow waves heading directly at the opponent.
Just like with the Second Stance, he felt the difference in the output of those shadows, all thanks to his newly evolved Pathbreak emblem.
As it glowed emerald in front of his forehead, he continued the onslaught of the Third Stance.
“Freaking monster… stop hiding behind your shadows and embrace the light of the Everlight Goddess!”
Despite everything coming his way, Zoran held his arms in front of him and repositioned the sacred shield of light to block the incoming shadow slashes. At the same time, he ordered all the bouncing pillars of light to continuously reflect over the stained glass murals once more and aim directly at the swordsman standing on shadows close to the top of the cathedral.
WHOOSHH!!
CLASHH!!
Seeing the first of his shadow waves get blocked by the sacred shield of light again, Lawkey quickly turned the shadows beneath him intangible, forcing him to immediately plummet towards the ground.
Fortunately, that action made the rising pillars of lights miss him by a hair, but it wasn’t all fortunate. All that did was have them converge together at the bigger stained glass mural at the top of the cathedral.
“?!”
As he fell down through the raging battle between light and darkness, he glimpsed the converging lights at the top and had an idea.
Why didn’t I think of this from the start?! He reprimanded himself inwardly as he called upon some of the surrounding shadows to engulf his blade once more.
He readjusted his grip on the handle of Eclipsed Dawn, and held his blade backwards.
One Shadow Sword Style - Sixth Stance!
Early Spring Moonrise!
He concentrated as much of his power as he could into a thinner layer of shadows, then swung his blade upwards, releasing the fastest wave of shadows he had ever seen.
Just as the lights from the stained glass mural at the top had finished gathering together, they shot down towards their natural enemy and his shadows.
“What…?! How?!”
Zoran’s eyes constricted in an instant.
It was as if he had been witnessing a miracle in front of him.
Or as he would put it…
“The sacrilege…” He mumbled, then quickly snapped, “How dare you defile the holy light of the Everlight Goddess?! Her love!! You accursed creature!”
Anyone in Zoran’s position would have reacted the same way.
Firstly, it wasn’t every day that one could see what he had seen.
A wave of shadows so thin and fast that it cut through a pillar of light formed by countless reflections. It completely split it in half.
However, what was driving the priest close to insanity was the other thing he was witnessing.
And that was the complete destruction of the second biggest goddess mural in the cathedral. The one that looked over everything from the top.
At this moment, it was simply falling down from grace in smaller glass pieces, continuously changing their reflections from light and dark as they turned and fluttered in the air.
Seeing his chance, Lawkey finally landed on the ground and immediately crouched his knees into position while holding his sword to his left side.
This was the moment he had been waiting for, the perfect distraction.
One Shadow Sword Style - Seventh Stance!
Ceaseless Crescent Moon Slash!
Having gathered his shadows around him and Eclipsed Dawn, he swung the blade forward in a practiced manner, releasing a violent wave of shadows many times its usual size.
It quickly made its way through the cathedral, aiming directly at the priest and his sacred shield.
However, instead of being distracted, Zoran’s rage had manifested in full alertness instead.
“You dare?! You accursed worm! Forsaken miscreant!”
The priest bellowed as he held up his arms in front of him again, calling on the glowing orb behind him to bestow him with more light beams.
“Oh Goddess of Light! Oh Goddess of the Sun! Watch as I deliver holy judgment in your name!”
“?!”
At a speed Lawkey could barely follow, countless light beams emerged from the floating orb behind Zoran. While he knew Sana was chained not far to the side of it, he still couldn’t see her from the blinding light crossing all over the cathedral.
Not only that, but now the countless new light beams quickly dispersed, some of them converging to create a second sacred shield in front of their master, preparing to block the resulting shadow wave of the Seventh Stance. While the other light beams traversed through the air to connect with the shattered pieces of glass still falling through the sky.
What?! Are you kidding me?!
In the end, the action he took to cause a distraction, was now being used against him.
And in a far worse way than he could have ever thought.
For the light beams that reflected countless times between the smaller pieces of stained glass were much thinner and faster that Lawkey began to lose sight of them.
“?!”
CLASH!
CLASH!
And just then, before he could blink, both his shadow slash and the new light beams reached their destination.
With only one of the two achieving the purpose they were sent for.
As the two sacred shields successfully blocked the violent shadow wave, and were managing to hold back all the emerging shadow slashes sprouting from it, Zoran was still standing safely behind.
On the other hand, Lawkey had been hit head on by the light beams and thrown all the way back to the entrance where he first came in from.
“Dammit, that was close…”
“?!”
From the rising dust, Lawkey emerged standing with barely a scratch on him.
He had somehow managed to block and redirect most of the light beams with the reflection of his blade at the last second. And the ones he missed, he minimized the damage of those by covering himself in shadows. He simply couldn’t stop them from sending him crashing back.
The two fighters quickly realized their situation for what it was.
No matter what they tried, they were just a perfect match for each other’s Signs.
That meant the winner of this battle would simply be the one who’s Sign would hold out longer.
However, while Lawkey had been constantly exhausting his Sign by now, Zoran had been mostly using the lights emitted from the glowing orb instead.
What a pain…
Naturally, Lawkey realized this too.
He found himself in another dilemma.
He just hoped that behind all the blinding lights, Riana had managed to rescue Sana and the two were far away by now, safe.
That’s all he wanted for them.
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image [https://i.imgur.com/F6h7vmX.png]