The presenter of this award ceremony was none other than Inspector Gordon, who had recently transferred to the Supervisory Court.
He put his helmet back on and slung the Sword of Honor across his back. His silver-white armor made him look holy and solemn.
"—May the Silver-Crowned Dragon protect our noble Queen, long may she reign."
Old Knight Gordon stood at the center of the stage and proclaimed loudly.
His voice boomed, clear even without a sound system, echoing throughout the entire club and even outside: "In the name of Queen Sophia Du Lac, I hereby follow the ancient tradition and bestow upon the warrior Aiwass Moriarty the Mark of the Holy Sword."
He personally attached the silver-white Holy Sword badge to the right chest of Aiwass. Then, he gave him a military salute.
Afterward, he drew the shining silver blade from its scabbard and gently placed it on Aiwass's shoulder.
"I swear to be worthy of this honor, I will fight for Her Majesty the Queen."
Aiwass declared, "God save the Queen—ever victorious, basked in glory."
His voice became clear and powerful, a stark difference from his usual gentle and amiable temperament, revealing a mature and reliable side.
As he maintained this posture, applause erupted below the stage. Photographers began rapidly taking pictures from all angles.
Brilliant flashes lit up the stage, momentarily turning the two figures completely white.
Beyond the two on stage, the clapping crowd below also needed to be photographed.
Thus, as photographers took rapid shots from every angle, the audience also smiled cooperatively and began a sustained applause. The applause in the club venue thundered on and on.
Because recipients of the Holy Sword Medal usually earned their honors on the battlefield, the presenter also had to be a military person.
According to the original etiquette, the presenter should kneel and perform the knightly ritual during the awarding, carried out by the direct superior of the recipient's unit.
However, Aiwass was in a wheelchair, appearing weak and unable to use his legs; and he wasn't a military person, lacking a superior.
Therefore, after the Supervisory Bureau specifically consulted the Minister of Ceremonies, the minister tactfully expressed that Gordon could present the award—this was also an effective way to negate the negative reputation of the Supervisory Bureau.
—This scene was captured. After people saw it in the newspapers, they would think that the Supervisory Bureau had a good attitude about the matter.
Although it was unknown whether the claim that "Director Gordon ultimately didn't catch the assassin" was true, this scene made it clear that it was likely false. Otherwise, how could Gordon be the one to present the award to the meritorious?
Since Gordon was promoted and presenting an award, that person must certainly have been caught! It's just because it involved secret intelligence, so it wasn't publicized!
But just then, a photographer suddenly exclaimed.
Although the ceremony had been completed smoothly and what remained was just tying up loose ends, his exclamation still caused many dissatisfied people to turn their heads and glance at him.
However, they quickly understood why the photographer had exclaimed.
In the direction he was photographing—at the very back of the seats on the left side, behind a man who was continuously clapping with a vacant look—a tall and slender white shadow emerged.
It was like a butterfly struggling out of a cocoon. It shook its limbs, raising its four mismatched and uneven arms.
Its upper body resembled that of a hunchbacked, emaciated man. Its ribs were completely protruding outward, looking sharp and ferocious.
And both its abdomen and back were covered in taut white skin, and a giant head, twice the size of an average person's, was erratically covered with the features of several people. Unlike a human face that points in one direction, these features were evenly distributed on all four sides of the skull.
Its two legs, not yet fully emerged from the man's back, were thin and tall, and its joints were inverted, more like those of a goat than a human.
Was that... some kind of demon?
Just by looking at its form, the journalist felt his breath stop abruptly.
A cold and damp feeling of fear surged over him, causing his teeth to chatter uncontrollably. He, paralyzed and unable to speak as if electrocuted, continued to press the shutter with twitching fingers.
The demon was even larger than the man who served as its vessel! No one knew how it managed to get inside him.
The very next moment, the Legal Mages noticed it.
But their decrees, without exception, all failed. Only the man who had become the vessel deflated and collapsed to the ground, breathless.
As for the white demon, it moved at an extremely fast pace, like a bolt of lightning—
It wasn't walking on two legs, but rapidly crawling with six arms. It even left afterimages, unnatural like a sped-up video, as if frames were missing from its movements.
"—It's an Aberrant Limb Demon! Keep your distance!"
Gordon noticed it immediately and, with a roar, raised the sword he had used to award Aiwass.
As his status rose, the silver flames bursting from his sword's blade were even more intense than the days before.
The weapon he held in his hand seemed not a sword, but a torch. The entire stage was illuminated by his light, and the demons hissed with the smoke of burning flesh.
Gordon's movements were swift, and with one thrust, he aimed for the demon's chest.
But the Aberrant Limb Demon moved with uncanny agility.
It left behind an afterimage, easily evading the fatal thrust. Its six arms suddenly stretched out, two of them reaching up to grab the chandelier. Swinging like an ape, it elongated its goat-like hooves into sharp spears, impaling the two inspectors who charged in first.
After swinging for a moment, the chandelier fell directly down, hurled straight at Aiwass. Gordon pushed Aiwass aside—his wheelchair sliding out like a drift, while Gordon himself was engulfed in the dust and smoke.
Of course, he wouldn't be injured for such a reason.
Within the smoke, the Aberrant Limb Demon wrought havoc without the need for sight.
It constantly extended its exceedingly long arms or goat feet, piercing through the chests of those who approached, breaking necks, or gouging out eyes.
Gordon's battle cry resounded intermittently in the smoke, exchanging blows with several of the demon's limbs. Sharp, dazzling silver light, like crescent moons, sliced the stage to pieces. However, the limbs of the Aberrant Limb Demon were so sturdy that Gordon's attacks barely scratched the surface, and the demon healed almost instantly.
The inspectors immediately protected Isabel, trying to get her to leave first.
While the crowd upstairs was fleeing in panic, an ordinary-looking middle-aged man calmly mixed in among them, muttering something under his breath.
Amidst the screams, the walls on the first floor suddenly turned into crimson flesh and blood.
Tentacles, the color of internal organs, lashed out, briefly entangling the inspectors who had been at the edge of the walls.
On the other side, a glass jar filled with eyeballs was suddenly thrown down from the second floor.
Edward immediately looked up and scanned the second floor, noticing this right away. Just as the jar took flight, he stretched out his right hand toward it and shouted, "[Return to Owner]!"
The glass jar immediately stopped falling and instead began to flow backward, heading towards the astonished brunette girl.
She watched in horror as the jar flew towards her, reaching out her hands in an attempt to catch it.
Inside was the "Eyes of Fear," capable of throwing the entire first floor into a state of panic. And if she failed to catch it...
Just then, a fireball flew over with a roar, shattering the jar.
It was a flame summoned by Miss Maya—golden-red flames burned fiercely, incinerating the smoky eyeballs to ashes.
Maya's right hand slowly gathered another, even larger fireball, glaring malevolently at the person.
"I invoke the Amber, the divine nine, the peak of excellence, the god of perfect eternity—grant me the Amber Flame."
Bishop Maya chanted softly, and the fireball in her hand gradually turned a yellowish color. The leaping flames seemed to freeze in place.
The brunette girl was about to escape when suddenly she found herself stiffened, unable to move. It turned out a Legal Mage had noticed the commotion and, despite struggling against the tentacles, had managed to cast a [Still] decree.
The golden flames engulfed her, hitting her precisely without affecting anyone nearby.
Her piercing scream lasted only a moment before the fire faded away, and she turned into a hideously featured stone statue.
Glancing at her indifferently, Maya once again gathered flames in her hands.
"I invoke the Lord of Scalefeather, the divine six..."
This time she did not offer a limited instant prayer but instead stood amid the crowd, hands joined, commencing a full incantation.
"—Be careful, Aiwass!"
But Gordon's cry of alarm interrupted her prayer.
She looked up in astonishment, her gaze turning to the corner where Aiwass sat.
Just as the Aberrant Limb Demon launched a sudden attack on Aiwass...
Aiwass, seated in the wheelchair, had somehow produced an ancient-looking Holy Sword—
It had a crimson red hilt. The blade burned with intense flames, shining with dazzling holy light. Pure attributes of light and fire pulsated, visibly rippling through the air.
It was the Holy Sword, the Red-Handled Sword, conjured from the Holy Sword Skill spell stored in [The Key to the St. Genevieve Chapel] after being infused with light and fire attributes.
That was a golden "Sacred Weapon," accorded with the holy attributes of warding off evil, sharpness, toughness, and lightness—a whole four attributes.
The most important of these were "lightness" and "warding off evil."
The former allowed Aiwass, with his limited strength and confined to a wheelchair, to swing it with ease, and the latter was most vital...
The moment the Holy Sword appeared, a silent and holy atmosphere spread out, as if the place had been transformed into the Holy Temple. The fear in people's hearts was also soothed somewhat.
And the movements of the Aberrant Limb Demon slowed under the radiance of this light; its strength began to wane.
Seizing the moment when its movements slowed, Aiwass swung the Red-Handled Sword.
Like a hot knife through butter, he easily severed the arm that the Aberrant Limb Demon had extended!