Meanwhile, Henry was running as fast as he could. Unfortunately, the army base was at the east part of the city outskirts, while the area where Mirna and Ella were in was at the southern outskirts, so there was a distance of 30km or so. Despite emitting his 7 star aura to the maximum, his limit was still 50km/h.

"Dammit! They've stopped moving, which can only mean one of two things. Either they're fighting or...." Henry shook his head to get these thoughts out of it. The mere idea of his wife and daughter getting hurt, leaving him alone once again, made the war orphan's blood boil.

"Never.....Not again. Not even in your dreams, whoever the fuck you are who are trying to hurt my family. Overdrive!" Henry's aura turned from blue to a slightly red shade, a sign that he had started burning his lifeforce and converting it into highly concentrated aura. This caused him to experience a great boost in speed. However, every second he stayed like this reduced his lifespan by ten days.

"Fuck....Still not enough. Come on, remember what you felt when Commander Burlam gave you some of his aura!"

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[15th of March, 1544 PS, In the battle of Minos Island]

In this battle, the centaur tribes of the island of Minos, a small island that is outside the jurisdiction of all nations, had attacked a coastal city of the Severin Empire and plundered it, causing the empire to send some troops to dethrone the current centaur elder and replace him with his more pacifistic son. Commander Burlam and his troops were chosen specially, as he had experience with fighting centaurs before.

"Severin Empire Military Swordsmanship, Fourth Form: Cyclic Slash" Henry rotated 360 degrees rapidly with his sword, slashing some centaurs who were surrounding him. However, there were simply too many of them. That's when Burlam dropped in. Burlam was a 10 star aura master, so he easily beheaded all the centaurs within seconds.

"Hellwalker, you're almost out of aura. Here, have some of mine."

"But, commander, what about you?"

"Hoho, don't worry young man. I may be old, but an old lion can still hunt rabbits."

Burlam put his hands on Henry's back, and Henry felt the commander's ten star aura flow into him. This was a common method of helping aura masters break through, but unfortunately, Henry was too busy now to meditate and remember the feeling.

"Severin Empire Military Swordsmanship, Third Form: Titanfall!" Henry jumped into the air and smashed onto the ground with the force of three elephants, smashing all the nearby centaurs into a mix of blood and crushed organs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [27th of May, 1547 PS]

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Recalling the feeling from back then, Henry could feel his aura increase and flare up, a sign of a breakthrough. His adrenaline, rage and previous experience gathered together, pushing him towards the breakthrough. He had felt this feeling seven times before, but none as intense as this time. Eventually, his aura stabilized, and he was now officially an 8 star aura master. This greatly boost his speed.

"Mirna, please hold on. I'll be here in a second."

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Mirna had been fighting Richard for 20 minutes now, all while retaining the fourth circle shield spell around Ella, who was very scared, but decided to be quite and not burden her mother more.

"Why are you doing this, Richard? I know you hate me and consider me a disgrace, but you never struck me as brave enough to actually commit fratricide."

"Shut up, bitch! What do you know? All you had to do was sit there and look pretty, so that some horny prince would come marry you. Meanwhile, I was cursed with a genius brother who I only have one advantage over, being the older sibling. Thus, I had to resort to desperate measures. Do you even know what using demonic energy as a human feels like? It feels like my soul is melting bit by bit, burned by the demonic energy!" While saying this, a small red marking appeared on Richard's hand. Mirna recognized it, this was a Stigma of Darkness, a sign of those who had contracted with higher demons.

"A Stigma of Darkness? You would sell your soul to a- No... you're too much of a selfish coward to sell your own soul. You've been offering sacrifices, haven't you?"

"Hehehe, yes. Now, enough blabbering. Fuck off and die already." Richard slashed at Mirna, who was now almost out of mana. She couldn't dodge in time, which caused Richard's sword to injure her shoulder. The demonic energy in the aura also started burning away at her wound.

"Haha, yes, finally. Now go to hell." Richard thrust his sword downwards at his sister, who was now lying on the floor. His sword went right through her heart.

"NO, MOMMY! AAAAAAAH" Ella screamed with all her might.

"Don't worry, Ella. cough. Mommy's just gonna go to sleep for a while." Mirna's eyes closed.

........

Mirna then saw a bright light. "Is this the light at the end of the tunnel?"

She then heard a majestic deep male voice come from the light. "No, child. Your end has yet to come. Those filthy demons dare to try to seal the brilliance of light? Hah, in their dreams. Child, I hereby reawaken your Stigma of Light, and declare you a saintess of I, Lord of Light Lurius. Now go and save your child!"

.......

Mirna's wounds healed in real time as she opened her eyes once again. She looked up to see Henry fighting her brother, overwhelming him. After all, her husband was now an 8 star aura master while her brother was still just an exceptionally strong 5 star aura master. She also saw Ella lying down next to her, knocked out. She guessed her husband must have knocked out Ella to keep her from interfering with the fight. She had heard that the priests of light could buff someone by praying for their safety, so she decided to do the same.

"Oh Lord Lurius, please assist my husband and keep him safe" Her stigma, a small diamond symbol on her shoulder, started glowing a bright white light.

Meanwhile, Henry was fighting Richard when he felt all his wounds get healed, and holy energy fill his aura, which was also refilled. This caused him to look towards where Mirna was. Once he saw her standing, he almost lost his concentration, which caused Richard to inflict a small cut on him, but it healed quickly with the blessing of Lurius.

"Darling, I'd go and hug you now, but I have a fight to fight. Keep the buffs up." Henry said, using his newfound strength to attack Richard.