Unforgivable

Aliciel and the Death Knight burst from the rubble almost simultaneously.

Before Aliciel could even find her footing, the Death Knight charged once more.

Its massive frame exploded with terrifying speed as it swung its greatsword in a heavy arc.

Aliciel scrambled to evade, and though she managed to keep her distance from the physical blade, a razor-sharp glint suddenly flared from its edge.

It was like an invisible blade, and it struck her in an instant.

“Squelch—!”

With a sickening tear, her once pristine maid uniform was sliced open.

Crimson blood sprayed forth, blooming like a gruesome flower in the air.

“Aliciel—!”

Ren Dao-zhen’s pupils contracted as he watched her take the grievous blow, and he couldn’t stop himself from crying out her name.

The Death Knight, however, showed no hint of mercy.

It seized her by the head and slammed her into the earth, kicking up a great cloud of dust.

As it prepared to strike the finishing blow, a spark of starlight shot toward it, only to be effortlessly swatted aside.

The Death Knight lifted its head, its gaze seeking the source of the attack, and locked eyes with Ren Dao-zhen.

An unavoidable shiver ran down Ren Dao-zhen’s spine as he felt the killing intent and deathly aura radiating from the knight.

Fear gripped his heart.

To him, the creature seemed like a primordial beast, exuding an overwhelming, insurmountable pressure.

Confronting a Death Knight directly was, indeed, too much to ask of a novice adventurer.

“Boom—!”

Just then, a fierce gust of wind scattered the lingering dust, revealing Aliciel, who had already risen to her feet.

She was a wretched sight.

Her once exquisite maid uniform was now tattered and filthy, and a massive gash stretched from her right shoulder all the way to her left leg.

The gushing crimson blood had stained her entire body.

“Head Maid! Huh?”

Ren Dao-zhen grew worried at the sight of Aliciel’s pitiable state, but he quickly sensed that something was amiss.

“You bastard… how dare you… how dare you…”

She gently caressed the wound on her abdomen, her eyes fixed on her blood-soaked hand.

Her expression held not a trace of pain, but rather a strange mix of pleasure and fury.

The source of these two contradictory emotions was a fascinating puzzle.

“No… it can’t be…”

A sense of foreboding rose in Ren Dao-zhen’s heart.

“You ruined my maid uniform!”

Aliciel glared at the Death Knight and let out a hysterical roar.

In the next instant, a brilliant, star-purple torrent of light erupted from within her, shooting skyward as a massive beam.

The pillar of light pierced the heavens, a beacon connecting the earth and sky, so brilliant it could be seen from thousands of kilometers away.

The stars in the night sky seemed to answer its call, shining with intensified brilliance.

Aliciel was drawing upon the very power of the cosmos, finally unleashing her true strength.

A dazzling light pulsed from her right breast, beating like a second heart.

With each rhythmic throb, the star-purple radiance spread across the right half of her body.

Fine dragon scales emerged on her fair, delicate skin, covering her right arm, her right leg, her neck, and half her face.

Her slender hands sharpened into deadly talons, her delicate feet twisting into draconic claws.

The fine scales on her face formed a living mask, and a single horn sprouted from her head.

A translucent dragon tail even unfurled from the base of her spine.

Aliciel had now taken on a half-human, half-dragon form.

For someone who relied on a potion to control the power of the Star Dragon, this half-dragon form was her absolute limit.

She was still a far cry from her sister, but against this Death Knight, it would be more than enough.

“Hoh! So this is the legendary Star Dragon Secret Art?”

The Death Knight regarded Aliciel’s new form with keen interest.

The aura radiating from her had intensified severalfold.

This potent aura was palpable to every being in the Sunset Mountains, including the Holy Adjudicator Knights.

Even the six-winged angel gazed into the distance, a flicker of astonishment in her eyes.

“Roar—!”

The next moment, Aliciel threw back her head and roared, the cry of a dragon echoing through the land.

A star-purple barrier materialized, enveloping them both like a gladiatorial arena as it rapidly expanded outward.

“Waaah—!”

Before Ren Dao-zhen could even react, the expanding barrier pushed him far from the scene.

This was clearly meant to be a duel between Aliciel and the Death Knight.

She wanted no interruptions and had erected the barrier to isolate them from the outside world.

With that done, Aliciel bent her knees and launched herself forward like an arrow released from a taut bow, rocketing straight toward the Death Knight.

She raised her sharp right claw and brought it down ferociously upon its head.

The Death Knight instantly raised its sword in a horizontal slash to intercept.

Claw met blade with a sharp, ringing clang of metal on metal.

Aliciel seized the blade and, with a sudden surge of strength, hoisted the Death Knight’s massive body into the air.

Her seemingly petite frame unleashed terrifying power as she slammed the knight into the ground.

Apparently unsatisfied, she proceeded to smash it into the earth again and again, leaving a series of massive craters in her wake.

“You bastard… you dared to ruin my precious maid uniform! And you… you made me look this pathetic!”

Aliciel roared in fury.

‘That senior from back then defeated a Death Knight in a single blow, yet here I am, getting thrashed so miserably.

I’m furious… so furious… so utterly furious…

If I can’t end this battle with grace, what kind of perfect maid am I?!

Unforgivable!

Absolutely unforgivable!

This, I cannot forgive!’

Roaring, Aliciel raised her right claw and smashed it into the Death Knight’s chest.

The terrifying force drove the knight deep into the earth, its breastplate cracking on impact as the ground behind it buckled and collapsed.

“Vwoom—!”

Naturally, the Death Knight wasn’t about to stand idly by and take the abuse.

A terrifying deathly aura erupted from its body, blasting Aliciel away.

A wisp of the deathly aura flowed into the cracks of the chest plate, repairing it in the blink of an eye.

The Death Knight’s true strength lay in its incredible regenerative abilities.

It could repair itself even if shattered to pieces.

As long as its deathly aura remained, it could revive indefinitely.

It also possessed extremely high physical and magical resistance, rendering ordinary attacks utterly useless.

With its high offense and defense, it was a true monster of stats.

Thus, the best way to defeat a Death Knight was to first purify its deathly aura, stripping it of its ability to regenerate.

Someone like the six-winged angel, for instance, was a Death Knight’s natural bane.

Aliciel might not know purification magic, but her starlight flames possessed a sacred quality of their own.

They were the fires of the cosmos, capable of incinerating anything and everything!