Erika slumped to the floor, his mind a numb void, still reeling from the shock and vertigo of his all-out attack failing to even touch its target. The gap… was too vast. Vast enough to breed despair.

  Hong Bo took in his shattered state, a cold, unconcealed sneer curling his lip.

  "As for the 'power' you mentioned earlier…?" He toyed with his golden staff, his tone dismissive, as if discussing a child's silly toy.

  Then, his expression hardened. A thunderous roar exploded through the hall!

  An indescribably vast pressure erupted from him! Beneath Hong Bo's ornate robes, seven golden Marks blazed to life like miniature suns!

  The terrifying pressure swept out like a tsunami!

  Weaker brothers grunted, faces pale, staggering back. The white-robed Clerics also paled, instinctively bending slightly, summoning their own energy to resist the heart-stopping force. Even Wolfgang frowned deeply, the energy of his Mind-Blade swirling autonomously to shield him from the oppression.

  And Erika, bearing the brunt at ground zero, felt an invisible mountain crush down upon him. He collapsed limply to his hands and knees. His breath was forced from his lungs, and his vision spotted with blackness. The roar of his own blood and the groan of his overstressed bones filled his ears. Before this absolute, god-like might, he felt smaller and more insignificant than dust!

  Hong Bo looked down at the violently shuddering boy, his voice like millennia-old ice. "Now, do you still cling to your laughable, pitiable notions? Before true power, your defiance is more futile than an insect's twitch."

  He slowly withdrew a fraction of the pressure.

  Erika, as if all his bones had been removed, collapsed limply to a seated position, head hanging deeply. Sweat and blood streamed from his hair, dripping onto the floor and spreading into dark patches. His fists were clenched, knuckles white, but his shoulders trembled faintly. To anyone watching, it was the picture of a spirit utterly broken, yielding to this irresistible force.

  "Hah… Hahaha…" Hong Bo, seeing this apparent "surrender," finally burst into loud laughter, the sound brimming with a victor's glee and contempt for the insignificant.

  It was at the peak of his laughter, his gaze momentarily leaving Erika in his triumph—

  The change was sudden and violent!

  The figure that had moments before been a limp rag on the floor, seemingly stripped of all will to resist, shot upward like a spring compressed to its limit! This time, there was no roar, no warning—only a primal, silent, and utterly desperate resolve! More horrifyingly, he seemed completely unaffected by Hong Bo's terrifying pressure, his movements even faster and more precise than the first time!

  A dull sound of impact echoed clearly in the abruptly silent hall.

  Erika's fist connected solidly with Hong Bo's chest!

  A hit! A true, physical hit this time!

  But the sensation wasn't of flesh and bone. It was like striking tempered divine steel! The recoil sent a sickening crunch through the bones of Erika's hand, agony instantly shooting up his arm!

  In the violent collision, his shattered right arm hung uselessly. But his left hand, hidden perfectly in the blind spot of the Grand Cleric's sweeping robes, unclenched slightly.

  Hong Bo's body didn't even sway. He merely looked down with a sort of weary disappointment at the barely noticeable imprint on his robes, then raised his eyes to Erika, whose arm trembled from the recoil but who still stared fixedly at him. He shook his head, his tone almost tired.

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  "Impossible to teach. Incorrigibly stubborn."

  His gaze flicked to the unconscious Loren nearby, his words laden with meaning. "Just like this one... truly."

  Then, all patience spent, he waved a dismissive hand at the Clerics, momentarily stunned by this new development. "You there. Teach him a lesson. Make sure he remembers... the rules."

  "Yes, Your Eminence!"

  The Clerics, recovering, grinned cruelly and swarmed him. Erika's two acts of defiance had already bred resentment.

  He was dragged roughly to the ground. Then, a rain of blows—fists, heavy boots—fell on his back, his ribs, his legs! He didn't beg, didn't even cry out much, just curled tightly, arms shielding his head and face, enduring the one-sided brutality.

  Wolfgang stood not far away, fists clenched, knuckles white. He couldn't intervene. Hong Bo's gaze was an invisible chain. He could only watch the stubborn boy tremble under the violence.

  But at one moment, as a Cleric's boot slammed hard into Erika's ribs, forcing a pained curl, Wolfgang's pupils constricted sharply.

  He saw it.

  Through the gap in the bodies, in that instant, he saw Erika's face, smeared with dirt and blood. The corner of his mouth was twisted upward, with immense difficulty.

  It wasn't a spasm of pain. It was a smile.

  A broken, delirious, and chillingly disjointed smile.

  The blows continued to fall like a storm. Erika's curled form shuddered violently, as if on the verge of coming apart. The Clerics wore expressions of cruel satisfaction, seeing only the useless death throes of a disobedient insect. He was hanging on by a thread.

  Just as one Cleric raised his foot high, aiming to deliver a final, crushing blow to Erika's spine—

  A sickening pulse rippled through the polished stone!

  No one had noticed the short, dark, dried root lying perfectly still on the polished floor, mere inches from Hong Bo's immaculate white boots.

  It hadn't been thrown during the beating.

  The fragment from the 'Deathbirds' system ruin, holding an energy alien to the Golden Circuit, finally reached its activation threshold, triggered by the residual energy of Erika's indomitable will.

  It didn't explode or flash. Instead, like ink dropped into still water, it released a wave of ancient, decayed energy, reeking of potent death and rot!

  Lying on the cold floor, feeling the ground tremble and the air thicken with impending destruction, Erika's delirious smile finally settled into a faint, icy curve.

  He had done it. He had used a relic of the past, to ignite the present and detonate… the future.

  The composure and coldness on Hong Bo's face solidified, replaced by genuine astonishment and disbelief! He glanced down instinctively at the insignificant-looking root by his feet.

  His thoughts were brutally cut short by a far more terrifying development.

  

  The entire 'Angel's Descent' hall shook violently, without warning! Not the hum of energy flow, but a deep, structural groan, as if the very foundations had been pried loose!

  Then, in the very next second, before anyone—including Hong Bo—could react—

  The 'Angels' stationed around the hall's periphery, which had stood like silent, gilded statues in radiant white and gold, their faces obscured by light… moved!

  Their motion was no longer slow and stiff. They moved like war machines triggered by their highest-priority command—swift, precise, and synchronized to a horrifying degree!

  The intricate, ornate patterns on their bodies lit up instantly, like veins filled with magma! Colossal energy was frantically drawn from the central shaft and surrounding conduits, completing their charge in an instant.

  Then, under Hong Bo's abruptly raised, furious and shocked gaze, every available 'Angel' simultaneously raised its arm or energy-formed weapon, locking onto a single target—the absolute epicenter of the heretical aura.

  Hong Bo himself!

  Over a dozen crimson-gold beams of pure destructive energy, like lances of divine punishment, tore through the air. Bearing the aura of total annihilation, they converged from different angles, all aimed at the Grand Cleric standing at the hall's center!

  Time seemed to stretch.

  Outside the Sanctum priory, the children who had been playing at being Clerics hadn't yet dispersed. They were crouched on the ground, drawing circles with sticks and discussing the awe-inspiring golden pillar from before.

  Suddenly, the youngest girl looked up, her small finger pointing towards the 'Angel's Descent' hall. "Look! It's bright again! So many... so many golden stars are falling!"

  The other children followed her pointing finger, their mouths agape in shock.

  It wasn't another massive, sky-piercing column of light. Instead, from within the grand, mysterious structure, over a dozen slightly thinner but still blindingly bright crimson-gold streams of light erupted simultaneously! They were like out-of-control, ferocious meteors, or like deadly metallic flowers blooming with destructive fury inside the temple itself!

  They pierced through the hall's barriers, briefly scarring the night sky with their searing paths. Their combined light made a full quarter of the Sanctum's sky flicker between light and dark! While lacking the world-connecting majesty of the first pillar, the sight of these dozen-plus beams of destruction erupting at once wove a scene of utter chaos, dazzling brilliance, and sheer terror!

  "Whoa...!" a boy breathed, awestruck. "Is... is the God fighting?" another asked timidly, his eyes full of awe and fear.

  They had never seen anything like it. This was nothing like the solemn prayers or solemn ceremonies they knew. This looked more like... the stuff of legends.

  A battle of gods.