Chapter 31

According to their plan, Nephis will play the crucial role . Her Radiant lights are required to disolve the True Darkness and strip the Fallen Devil of its Darkness related powers, including self-regeneration. The important thung to note is the fact that Black Knight is fully covered in inprenatatble armor, with only its visor open .

Hearing the plan Kai spoke with unceirtanty.

"So the only way to kill him is to hit the crack of the visor? I am... I am not sure that this is possible. On a fixed target, sure. But on a moving one, especially one that fast and deadly... I can't promise that I'll manage that."

The others nodded, expressing their agreement.

Sunny smiled.

"Ah, yes. That would indeed be tough. Luckily, we don't have to."

He paused for a moment, and then revealed the secret that had taken him a long, long time to uncover:

"The truth is, the visor is a trap. It seems like a weak spot, but it's not. The real weakness of the Black Knight is not even protected by the armor."

A dark expression appeared on his face.

"It's his sword."

Indeed, after observing the devil for months, Sunny had come to the conclusion that the secret to destroying the damned thing hid not in finding a way to pierce the bastard's armor, but in destroying his terrifying greatsword.

The black Knight seemed to ignore the attacks at its visor , but was protecting its word deerly .

Kiyotaka intejected .

"Do you plan to destroy its sword?"

Sunny grinned.

"Yes, thats precisely it"

Nephis tilted her head slightly and echoes his words:

"...His sword?"

Sunny nodded.

"Yes. If we want to kill the Black Knight, we will have to destroy his greatsword. That is the only way."

Effie blinked a couple of times, then glared at him in outrage.

"Is that what you call not being protected by the armor? Of course it's not protected by the armor! Because it's even tougher than the armor, you doofus!"

She shook her head.

"How are we supposed to break a sword fit to be wielded by a Fallen Devil? Huh?"

Sunny grinned and then summoned his newfound Echo , The Stone Saint.

"Amoung us there is only 3 people who can potebtially damage the sword. First is ofcourse Nephis , but she will be preocupied with disolving the Darkness with her radiant Lights . Second one is Kiyotaka, his sheer speed and strength , ibcluding his ability to inteleggently evade the attacks will make him able to damage the sword. But it will take too much time and will alert the Knight, who will probably start being defensive of his sword. We need to catch the Knight off guard. The last one is me, or to be exact my Echo. The Sword Saint has already battled the Fallen Devil in the past, when there were still people in the Dream Realm . Based on the describtion in her runes i can confidentelly say she will be able to damage and break the sword"

Everyone remained silent for a moment and absorbed the information given to them by Sunny. After some moments, Kiyotaka spoke.

"Do you plan to make a fake?"

Sunny grinned at his pinpoint question.

Nephis also seemed to understand the plan but others still had doubts about what the Fake meant. Sunny cleared his throat and spoke.

"Exactly, we will make it look like we are attacking its Visor, this will make the Fallen Devil to drop his guard on his sword . Seizing the moment we will deleiver the blow at its weak spot ."

After a bit more discussion they agreed on their respective roles. All that was left to do is action.

---

Inside the tenebrous grand hall of the majestic cathedral, darkness reigned unopposed. It drowned the vast hall, clinging to its walls and tall columns. The rare beams of light falling through the narrow windows only served to make it seem deeper.

Six humans and one Shadow entered the temple, the light of their lantern Memories failing to pierce the veil of darkness even slightly.

For a moment, there was utter silence. And then, a sudden yell broke it apart:

"Now!"

A tall young woman with silver hair and calm, striking grey eyes raised her sword. Then, a wave of brilliant white light shone from it, reaching far and wide. The darkness was instantly torn apart and obliterated, vanishing into the deepest, darkest corners of the cathedral.

...And there, right in front of them, a giant clad in black steel armor was revealed, his sword already on its way to reap the lives of unfortunate fools who had dared to desecrate the silence of the ancient temple.

The greatsword he wielded seemed as heavy as the stone pillars that supported the roof of the temple. Falling from above, it looked like a vertical tear in reality that revealed the impenetrable darkness hiding beneath.

As the Sword was about to connect a humonoid figure of Sword Saint coupled with the help of Kiyotaka who activated his Innate ability deflected the blow. Surely, these two mosnters had the best reaction speed in all cohort .

Momentarily disorientied because of unexpected deflection Black Knight didnt move . Using his opportunity Saint with her burning ruby eyes attacked the The Knight.

The Stone Saint walked toward the Black Knight with stalwart indifference. Her body shone with dark radiance, and there were wisps of ghostly grey fog dancing on her elegant armor. The ruby eyes of the taciturn monster burned with menacing crimson flames.

The darkness that served the devil had been vanquished by Changing Star's incandescent light, but the shadows populating the ancient temple only grew deeper because of it. Now, they were shifting, as if reaching toward the Saint to fall upon her shoulders like a mantle.

Without slowing down, the Shadow raised her shield and hit its rim twice with the edge of her sword, as though challenging the Black Knight to a battle.

With the two creatures finally facing each other, it became even more chaotic . Effie and Kiyotaka tanked and deflected the occasional attacks that slipped away from Saints notice , both of their augmentation abilities activated to the fullest .

Kiyotaka manipulated it so that his Durability and Speed would be priorotized during augmentation . By this factors alone coupled with his new phisique after unlocking a Legacy , he was at the level of Awakened .

Whenever he failed to deflect he would tank, sometimes bringing injuries upon himself . Fortunately, his blood manipulation allowed him to seal the wounds effectively . From time to time Nephis would act as a healer and help the members of cohort including him. However, due to the fact she had to maimtain the Light , and the fact that she was mlre or less primaty target in the eyes of Forsaken Knight, the heal she provided didnt make full help.

Stone Saint...or Shadow Saint fought with extremely effective and adapdable swordsmanship, purely outwitting its opponent in pure skill.

But still, the gap between the two of them was just too vast. Even with the help of the shadow, the Stone Saint was clearly not a match for the Black Knight in terms of sheer power.

Luckily, she was not alone.

As the two creatures collided and turned into a whirlwind of steel, the humans joined the fight to support their monster.

Kai supported from the distance with his arrows that annoyed the Knight quite a lot . Kiyotaka would occasionaly dash at terryfuing speed and deleiver blows, that made no damage due to the armor, but did create openings for Saint and Nephis.

Light was nemesis od Darkness. The prettu simple concept that was very crucial for their victory . During one of the moments , Nephis plunged her blade with White Flimes raging to the armour of Knight .

Needless to say, The Knight resolved itself to kill the Changing Star the first. Unfortunately , it didnt knew that it was a plan of cohort to make Nephis a bait. It lunged at her without much thought.

The black blade fell down, missing Nephis only by a hair's breadth. She rolled back and performed an impossible handspring, launching herself into the air from the ground. Landing on the marble floor with an effortless grace of a trained acrobat, Changing Star slid back a few meters and came to a stop some distance away from the devil.

But he was just as fast... no, much faster. The giant was already lunging forward to skewer her on the tip of his terrible greatsword. She shifted slightly, dodging the deadly attack, a dashed forward along the vast length of the black blade. Her sword flashed through the air and impacted against the vambrace of the menacing armor, leaving a deep scratch on its dark surface.

...Everything was happening so fast that other members of the cohort except for Kiyotaka were having trouble joining the fight.

Appearing right beside Black Knight he slashed at its back , also leaving a scratch and averting its attention away from Nephis.

The high speed battle continued as Kiyotaka and Nephis danced around the towering creature, helping eachother out in crucial moments. It was harder for Nephis as she was still prime target fpr the Fallen Devil, but with time other members of cohort adapted to the speed .

Kais arrows rained and found their mark at important moments with 100% accuracy, making it so that the Forsaken Knight had no choice but to divide its attention, making it a bit less fearsome. Effie's shield was already damaged but it held one as she continued to tank occasional attacks directed at Kai.

Suddenly , Kai knocked a black arrow . An arrow with the most damage but with the most baclkash if it didnt hit .

A black arrow streaked through the air... and plunged right into the crack of the devil's visor.

Other members noticed a startled expression on the charming archer's face. They themselves were stunned, too: no one had expected Kai to actually hit the bastard right in the only chink in his armor, least of all Kai himself.

The head of the Black Knight was violently jerked backward.

...But in the next moment, Kai staggered and groaned.

There was no flesh, meaning Kai missed.

The Black Knight suddenly struck at him, intending to return the blow severalfold.

Effie hurriedly ran over to Kai and placed her shield in front of him. The next moment, both of them were sent flying through the grand hall.

They were alive but battered. Kai and Effie were out of the battle. This heavily affected the fight as Kiyotaka found himself unable to provide much help to Nephis. The Black Knight totally ignored their attacks and concentrated on killing the annoying source of light, Changing Star.

As the heavy sword descended, Nephis was forced to block it with her sword. As a result, her sword was flung away, and she herself was forced to be flung open. Feeling an incredible chill, she rolled away, managing to dodge the strike and then ran. Augmenting herself with the Light, she ran through the grand hall.

No matter how fast she was, though, the Fallen Devil was faster. At this point, it would take around five seconds for her to dissolve the memory and summon it again. In such a high-speed battle, five seconds were like an eternity. The Devil was closing in on Nephis. Reaching a certain point, Nephis stopped and looked back at the Forsaken Knight. She was still in the process of summoning, so she had to dodge and dance around the Knight at this position. At this point, Sunny and Kiyotaka came and provided her much-needed help to stall the Knight at this place.

In all the commotion, the Stone Saint had strangely disappeared. After Sunny had confirmed that the Fallen Devil was targeting Nephis above everyone else, their strongest combatant could not be seen. His Shadow was nowhere to be found.

That, of course, was on purpose. She was laying the groundwork for the plan to work while the rest of them kept the Black Knight distracted.

The plan, however, could only happen in a certain spot in the grand hall. That was where Changing Star had to lure the Black Knight in case he fixated on her. Following the descriptions provided to her by Sunny, she led the Devil deeper into the cathedral and stopped just in the right place.

And then she engaged the Knight in a Dance of Death. Kiyotaka and Sunny came to her help soon, and they stalled the Knight in that certain place for one brief moment.

As Nephis fought relentlessly, Kiyotaka and Sunny both struck the pillar next to the Knight with all their might.

This pillar, in particular, was damaged at the base, making it uniquely unstable. Sunny knew every corner of the ruined temple like the palm of his hand, so he knew about this flaw of the pillar as well.

That had been what the whole plan was based on.

As Sunny and Kiyotaka ran, they could see everything that followed in all its majestic brutality.

The breaking of stone resounded in the vast hall of the ancient temple. A net of cracks appeared on the massive, incredibly tall column and quickly spread to a deep gash in its base. Shards of stone flew in every direction, and the column began to topple.

It seemed slow at first. But in fact, it wasn't.

In the center of the hall, the Black Knight paused his relentless onslaught for a moment and turned his head, following the sound of cracking stone.

...He was a second too late.

As Nephis dashed away, the pillar fell on the Devil, crushing him under countless tons of hard stone.

The massive pillar plummeted down and fell right on the Black Knight. The Devil turned slightly at the last moment, lowering his sword to the ground. His crimson eyes flashed with unassailable menace.

The Devil was heavily damaged and didn't look good at all. Its armor was quite shredded. It didn't die from the crush though, which was expected.

Without even catching their breath, Kiyotaka, Nephis, Sunny, and Saint, who emerged from behind the Dark Knight, lunged at its sword with the intention to break it apart.

The Fallen Devil was still a force to be reckoned with as it flung away Kiyotaka, who took a blow in order to let the other three close down on it.

The three of them attacked the Black Knight simultaneously, perfectly coordinating their assault. Changing Star threw her longsword forward, aiming to sever the broken arm of the Devil entirely.

Sunny also lunged forward attempting to deal damage.

At this moment, when the Knight was being surrounded by Shadow and Light, the Stone Saint attacked the greatsword with all her might. As the Knight was about to react, a blood-red sword was thrown and plunged into its visor, making it stagger from his balance.

In the distance, Kiyotaka, who was flung away, stood stretched as if throwing a javelin, despite his bloodied figure.

The Saint didn't miss that opportunity.

And then the Shadow brought the shield down, delivering a devastating blow to the weakest point of the greatsword.

The rim of the stone shield hit against the black steel...

And with a deafening ringing, the greatsword shattered.