"How dare you call out my name! You brat!"

Garik breathed deeper. He held up his sword. And his eyes fiercely penetrated the demon with his authority.

"By the Authority of a Paladin, Marquis Antras! Reveal yourself before me!"

The demon fell on the ground, its black tentacle arms swirled on the dust, and its back bent like a stretching cat.

The demon had possessed the body of Sir Alaver Amarasil for two years now.

And the original owner was long dead.

The demon's head grew larger and larger. And the human flesh that it had been wearing all that time had been shed. A slithery black demon with a giant owl head appears before them.

Garik remains unfazed by the horrifying demon in front of him.

"You scummy paladin! How did you come to know my name!"

"As I have told you. I have been tracking you for years. It was easy for me to find you, thanks to an Oracle friend of mine. But I had one single purpose left in life after Duke Fandor died. That is to capture the demon that had possessed him and lock it away forever."

Garik had been a genius Holy Paladin. At 7 years old, he had already been assigned by the Errant Knighthood to serve the Sunfire Duke Fandor of the Sunfire Duchy of Solara.

But only a year after his loyal service as Holy Paladin to the Duke, unknown to the palace, the Duke had been possessed. Hundreds of thousands of lives were gone, because of the demon's tyranny and oppression. And no one was able to stop the Duke, except for Garik who killed his friend for the sake of the kingdom.

Garik with his Scripture open, while raising his greatsword, began to pray.

The demon crawled forward trying to defy Garik's Authority, and attack him from the distance.

The black tentacles stretched even longer, striking heavy blows against the Holy Paladin.

"By the divine will of the Holy System, I beseech your protection. Manifest an ethereal shield, a bastion of divinity, to shield us from powerful attacks. May your shield block and repel the forces of darkness, reflecting their harm upon them."

Garik's Scriptures glowed with text.

[Aegis of Divinity]

The Aegis of Divinity is a Greater Censer-Tier Invocation that summons an ethereal shield that blocks powerful attacks and reflects a portion of the damage back to the attacker.

"Aaargh!"

The demon screamed in pain against its self-inflicted injuries, yet it persisted in attacking Garik with heavier and heavier blows.

"Aaaargh! Hahahahaha!"

The demon Antras laughed while screaming in pain.

"So what if I can't harm you, Little Paladin? I only need to buy more time. Anytime soon, the High Archdruid will kill himself to rescue his precious daughter. By that time, the Grove Guardian will also die. And all of Sylvanalia will fall into ruin. Zehahaha!"

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Garik kept on praying to maintain the strong barrier he had invoked.

"What is it, brat? Got nothing to say? You didn't expect things to go your way, now did you?"

The demon kept on attacking Garik with its long tentacles.

Garik looked at Dante with his peripheral vision. And Dante signaled to him that he was ready.

The young Holy Paladin smiled and said. "You don't know anything do you?"

"What!"

Dante avoided eye contact with the demon and instead looked at Garik's smiling face. Giving him the courage to face their demonic foe, despite his weakness.

"The Grove Guardian is safe and from now on will always be safe. And the High Archdruid's life is no longer in danger. We have asked the spirits to tell him this. Someone as powerful as the High Archdruid would probably understand and is already headed this way."

"What is the meaning of this!" the demon Antras clamored.

Dante smiled and said, "Because the Grove Guardian is here with us. And she is safe."

The High Archdruid's daughter awakened. She was beautiful and she had noticed how the trio had been protecting her.

She said, "The curse... You have removed the curse from me. Thank you."

The demon Antras using Sir Alaver as a disguise had once entered the Temple where the High Archdruid's daughter was staying. And he had put a curse on her. But the demon did not know the ancient secret of the High Archdruid's bloodline.

The demon was surprised.

"The Grove Guardian and the High Archdruid's daughter are the same. So this is their ancient secret. Of why the High Archdruid's life and power are connected to the Grove Guardian. They are shapeshifters. And they transform into the Grove Guardian to keep the forest's monsters in check. Zehahaha! No matter!"

The demon retorted.

"Even if my plan fails, I will escape. And every demon in Tartaria shall hear of this ancient secret. There will be no rest for you!"

The demon Antras planned to escape instead. His name had been exposed and this left him vulnerable to the Authority of the Paladin.

Garik then shouted. "You are not leaving here, Marquis Antras!"

"Tsk!"

Garik raised his greatsword and diverted some of the Holy Energy into it. His Greatsword glowed and emanated divine energy.

"Your sword!" the demon gasped. "Why is it vaguely familiar?"

Garik answered, "Because this is the Greatsword of Fandor the Champion. And it was forged in the flames of his corpse, that you have defiled with your demon possession! You had cursed his body with your death magic to never rot. But the dwarves of the city of Emberhold have helped me, forge this Greatsword, and Fandor's new form shall be your final resting place, demon!"

The demon struggled and wiggled. But the [Aegis of Divinity]'s barrier had kept growing and it became an invisible cage that prevented the demon from slithering away.

"No! You cannot do this!"

Dante prayed with Garik, and his prayer assistance amplified the power of Garik's invocation.

Garik swung the Greatsword of Fandor against the demon, and he proclaimed, "By the Authority given to me as Holy Paladin of the Church of the Holy System, Demon Spawn of Tartaria whose name is Marquis Antras, the Gray Knight, I order you to enter this Greatsword of Fandor the Champion, that you may be trapped in it for the rest of eternity!"

"No! Noooooo! This can't be! Everything was going perfectly as planned! The chaos I could have brought to the world! You will pay for this! Your descendants will pay for this! Curse you, Garik Drekthar!"

The demon's tentacles struggled and clung to the nearby trees but in vanity, the power of the Holy Paladin's words rung through the Demon's inherent nature, forcing it to possess the Greatsword.

The demon Antras had been sucked forcibly into the Greatsword and there was nothing left of it. The remaining flesh of Sir Alaver lay crushed and rotting on the ground. And the light from Garik's Scriptures disappeared as he closed them, signifying the battle to be over.

Garik sheathed the Greatsword and put it on his back. And the sigil of the Demon Antras had appeared on the sword's blade.

The Holy Paladin fell on the ground, and crouched, looking down with his hair covering his eyes.

"Garik!" Dante shouted with concern.

"Don't worry, Lord Monfort."

Garik lifted his face and a glorious smile of victory was revealed in the young Holy Paladin's face.

Sister Silmara tended to Garik's wounds, and the High Archdruid's daughter who was the Grove Guardian all along, had fully regained her consciousness. Sister Silmara had begun healing her, as the demon's defeat signified the completion of Dante's Trial of Illumination.

The elf Silmara lifted the 2-year-old Dante in the air and said, "You've done it, Lord Dante! You've done it! The Trial of Illumination is complete!"

Dante celebrated with them, and he turned around. And Garik was nowhere to be found.

"Sister Silmara, where did he go?"

Silmara replied, "He has made peace with his past. He is moving forward to finally bury his King."