Henry’s Test (1)

When they arrived at the Chapel which was actually pretty close to the Castle, Illyan turned towards Cecilia and gave her a disgusted look before saying, "You stay outside. I don't want a devilspawn tainting the sanctity of my Goddess's Chapel."

Even though she was insulted, it was like Cecilia didn't even register what Illyan said and just continued to stare intently at Neo.

Neo didn't know what Cecilia wanted from him and what she did to receive such horrible treatment from the High Priest, but he guessed that it had something to do with the repulsive demonic energy that he was feeling coming from inside of her.

He had been so immersed in his conversation with Merlina earlier that he had completely forgotten about the demonic presence that was inside of the hall and was now following him.

Normally, Neo would've struck down anyone who had demonic energy because it was a sign that they were an agent of the Demon King, but in this lifetime, the Demon King had already been sealed away and Cecilia was someone close to Merlina.

Neo didn't believe that Merlina was oblivious to the demonic energy that Cecilia was carrying around so he thought that perhaps there was something more to the girl than what he suspected.

However, since they were going inside of the Luminance Faith's chapel, he thought that it was best if Cecilia stayed outside, especially since the High Priest showed so much hostility towards her.

"Please stay outside. I will be back shortly."

"..."

Cecilia nodded at Neo's words before walking towards a nearby bench and sat down on it.

Illyan scoffed before saying, "Champion, please don't associate yourself with that devilspawn. I don't know what the Queen is thinking of having a Shade of all things around her. They should've been dealt with just like any other demon!"

"A Shade? What is that?"

"Ah! I-It's nothing. It's just another type of devilspawn! Exterminated is what needs to be done to the likes of them! Please, wait near the altar while I go get your relics, Uria's Champion!"

Neo frowned when he saw that the High Priest was trying to dodge his question. He felt a little unsatisfied being kept in the dark like this but he was more intrigued by the fact that this was also something new that wasn't there in his previous life.

'A Shade…that's what that girl is? I've never seen her before in my previous lives nor was there any information regarding what a Shade is, but she looks like any ordinary human...except that she possesses demonic energy which normally should've killed her…'

Demonic energy was like a poison to any creature that wasn't a demon. It was impossible for anyone, even a Chosen and Neo himself, to possess and house demonic energy in their body as it would erode their life away.

The demonic energy would eat a person's life force so unless it was expelled, the person who was contaminated by it would surely die.

Neo was certain that Cecilia was actually living with demonic energy inside of her body which was quite unbelievable to him. He didn't know her exact circumstances and he thought that asking her about it might seem rude, but he had other ways to acquire the information he needed about Cecilia and what Shades really were.

'I'll have to ask Merlina or Henry about it later since Illyan seems to not want to answer my question.'

Neo prayed at the altar to Goddess Uria, trying to connect with her, but unfortunately, she was unresponsive. Usually she would answer him almost immediately, whether he prayed to her at the altar or not.

This time, however, she was completely silent and Neo felt that it was a bit unnerving not being able to hear her voice.

It didn't take very long for Illyan to come back with Neo's belongings so after a brief word with him, Neo left the Chapel fully equipped with the gear he had in his previous lives.

Strapped to his waist was the Diadhachd, and his set of armor which didn't have a name though the Luminance Faith called it the Goddess's Bulwark because of its special ability.

Neo felt secure now that his equipment was with him, but there was something bothering him. On top of obtaining his sword and armor set, he also obtained something else and it was strapped to his back.

The item was something that he didn't have in his previous life and it was in the form of a short rod about the size of his forearm. Apparently, it was on him the moment he descended, but unfortunately, Neo didn't even know what it was.

It seemed to be a weapon, but since he never had it in his previous lives, he didn't know how to use it. The only thing he knew about it was the name which was engraved on it.

'Surtsauger…it sounds pretty ominous.'

Even the name was rather ominous and the fact that the weapon that came with him didn't possess an ounce of holy energy though the testimonies of the old priests that witnessed his descent said otherwise.

The weapon did have holy energy but it was only laying dormant now. Neo did try injecting the holy energy inside of him into the weapon to see if he could activate it earlier but unfortunately, nothing happened.

He wanted to try a few other things out, but he remembered that Henry asked to see him later in the castle's training hall and he had to meet Merlina to find some answers for the more pressing matters that were troubling him.

'There's so much to do in this life…'

While Neo was lost in his thoughts, Cecilia had walked up to him and was waiting for him but seeing as he was deeply thinking about something, the girl didn't know what to do and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

Neo let out a shocked sound as he turned to look at Cecilia, "Huh?"

"We should return to the castle…" The girl said with a deadpan look on her face.

"Eh? Oh yeah, I guess we should," Neo replied awkwardly as he had totally forgotten that Cecilia had been waiting for him outside of the chapel.

It was quite rude of him to be so forgetful, but thankfully, Cecilia didn't seem to notice that she had been forgotten and just led Neo back to the castle.

When they arrived at the castle, Neo told Cecilia that he wanted to go to the training hall so Cecilia led him towards the place which was situated at the right wing of the castle grounds.

"Here is the training area…the soldiers of the Queen's army regularly train here and…"

Thinking that Neo wanted a tour around the castle, Cecilia began explaining to Neo about what went down in the training hall and the training regiments the soldier went through on a daily basis.

"Cecilia, while all of that certainly is interesting, I believe that Master Neo has come here for something else," The voice of an old man echoed across the training field and interrupted Cecilia's explanation midway.

"Master Henry, so you were here," Cecilia replied as she looked towards the source of the loud voice that called out to her.

Henry was on the training field with a smile on his face as he waved towards them, motioning for them to come over so Neo and Cecilia walked towards the old guildmaster.

"Cecilia, I thought I told you to just call me Henry? Only Merlina calls me Master Henry nowadays!"

"..."

"Haah, still stiff as ever. You should express yourself more, Cecilia. It's not healthy for you if you keep bottling everything up inside of you. One day, you'll explode and that wouldn't be good!" Henry said with a good-natured laugh.

"I'll keep the Master's words in mind," Cecilia replied with a serious look in her eyes.

Henry patted Cecilia's head before turning to Neo and sizing him up and down before smiling.

"Now you look more like Uria's Champion. Come on brat, have a spar with me."

"Huh?"

"Come on. You knew this was coming. Why else would I call you to the training field if not to test you?"

"..."

This certainly was a new development. In his previous lives, the adventurer guild's guildmaster, Henry, would normally be his first martial instructor, but this time around, he was acting in place of Merlina and testing his abilities instead.

This was completely different from what Neo considered normal since Henry's personality was more level-headed than the reckless yet wise Archmage, Merlina, so he never expected that Henry would offer to fight him.

However, seeing that Henry was quite serious about this, Neo said no more and pulled out Diadhachd. From its appearance, the Diadhachd was just an ordinary broadsword with a palm-wide blade that was 2.5 centimeters thick which curved a bit towards the middle before curving back out near the edge.

It seemed rather heavy to wield and it definitely was, but when Neo held it, the blade resonated with his holy energy and became lighter for him to hold as runes began to appear on the blade which began to light up in a faint golden color.

Seeing that he was ready to fight, Henry similarly pulled out his weapon which was also a sword, except that it was a greatsword unlike Neo's broadsword. Due to the similarities of their weapons, Henry had become Neo's first mentor in his previous lives and he learned the basics of swordsmanship through him.

Now, instead of a mentor, Neo was going to face him as his first true adversary in his 9th life. It wasn't a real battle but just a spar, however, Neo treated it like a live battle out of respect for the old man.

He honestly didn't need a mentor in the first place anyways since the memories of his past lives where he learned and honed his skills through live combat was still there. All he needed to do was get his body adjusted to them again so this battle with Henry was quite good for him.

"I like that look on your face, Uria's Champion. I did wonder how you closed a demon gate all by yourself, but it seems it wasn't a fluke after all!"

"..."

"I have high expectations of you, Uria's Champion. I hope you can fulfill them!"

Cecilia cleared the training field while a few of the training knights, squires, and soldiers that were training nearby came over to spectate the battle. They didn't know who Master Henry was fighting, but since it was a fight against him, it was sure to be interesting even if it only lasted a few exchanges.

"Here I come!" Henry yelled as he made the first move against Neo and dashed towards him with his greatsword trailing behind him.