"——Shut up," Edward responded with icy coldness.
He had no intention of listening to what the person beside him wanted to say; he did not even consider glancing back.
"The law grants me the right to execute by shooting."
Edward murmured softly, then pulled the trigger.
A beam of silver brilliance shot out from the muzzle, instantly engulfing the middle-aged man's head!
There was no blood spray, no bone shards or flesh. When the light dissipated, the man's head appeared completely intact, except for a thumb-sized black dot right in the center of his forehead.
Because it was his soul that was shattered, ensuring he had no means of emergency escape or reincarnation.
As the man was killed, large swirling black runes suddenly emerged on the ghostly pale skin of the Aberrant Limb Demon.
They flowed from the chest of the Aberrant Limb Demon towards its limbs, and the gathered black runes turned into nothingness. Thus, the Aberrant Limb Demon began to dissolve from its extremities, vanishing. The arm that had been embedded in Aiwass' chest also abruptly disintegrated into nothingness. Aiwass, constantly using the Rite of the Sacred Fire, immediately used a great deal of mana to heal his wound.
The Aberrant Limb Demon stared furiously at Aiwass, emitting incomprehensible roars of rage.
It suddenly burst forth with immense strength—despite already having been weakened by Aiwass in two rounds, its crazed, life-risking attacks still placed the aged Gordon in immediate crisis.
—For some reason, it seemed determined to reach Aiwass at all costs.
Gordon's armor, once shimmering with brilliant silver light, was now battered and dull, full of dents. But he still stood firmly in front of Aiwass, resolutely restraining the Aberrant Limb Demon's attacks.
The enraged Aberrant Limb Demon, realizing it couldn't break through, attacked Gordon with all its might. Its limbs had already turned into nothingness, and as it whipped its arms, now transformed into long tendrils, at Gordon in a frenzied fashion, Gordon's helmet had been knocked off long ago.
"Gordon, step aside!"
Just as Gordon was about to fall into a crisis, Aiwass' voice suddenly rang out from behind him.
Gordon turned his back to Aiwass; he couldn't see anything. His vision was completely obscured by blood, his mind buzzing from repeated blows, and the world was spinning around him. It was only by the strength enhancements from the Path that his skull hadn't been shattered.
But he still instinctively chose to obey Aiwass' command.
Perhaps it was because Aiwass didn't address him as "Chief" or "Sir," which made the already blurred consciousness of Gordon recall memories of being ordered by his superiors during his time in the military...
With great effort, he parried the attacks, lifting his blood-soaked, damaged blade in front of him, maintaining a posture of watching the Aberrant Limb Demon, and sidestepped backward.
It was only for an instant—a searing flame whooshed past him from behind.
Though wearing armor, Gordon's sweat from his neck, due to the intense fighting, was nearly instantaneously dried up. His right ear was scorched by the blazing wave, and the hot air painfully baked the inside of his ear canal.
It was a golden sword qi, shaped like a new moon, emitting an arc.
It gleamed with intense brilliance, with the air around it twisting. Only at the tail was there a faint red flame.
—That was the mana infused into the Holy Sword, unleashed in a decisive strike.
In normal circumstances, it would not have hit the Aberrant Limb Demon. But at that moment, with most of the demon's limbs already vanished, it could no longer deform its body, nor could it dodge... It was completely penetrated in the middle, and instead of blood, a large number of sparks burst out.
The remaining arms of the Aberrant Limb Demon were finally completely burned away by the holy fire just before being expelled.
Meanwhile, the remaining half of the moon-shaped flame, which had already lost its shape, struck the tentacled Demon Wall.
Still, the [Warding Off Evil] trait of the Sacred Weapon inflicted tremendous damage on the Demon Wall. The moment the holy fire touched it, it spread like flames burning a spiderweb, and with a whoosh, the grotesque fleshly tentacles that covered the entire club were burned to ash from that point on, providing a visually striking impact.
Under everyone's gaze, in the light of the evening glow outside the window, the Red-Handled Sword in Aiwass' hands, with its flames extinguished, gradually became translucent, dissolving into a large deep red key.
Aiwass, whose chest was completely pierced by the Demon and whose priest's robe was soaked in blood, had most of his wounds healed by the Fire Rite Skill.
The brand-new Holy Sword badge on Aiwass' chest was dyed red with his own blood. His priest's robe on the front was also stained red in a large patch, with a visible circular hole through which his skin, freshly restored by the Fire Rite Skill and clean and white, could be seen.
But not a single person laughed at Aiwass. Everyone looked at the eighteen-year-old boy in the wheelchair with respect.
Even the voice of Aiwass at this moment seemed so commanding:
"The demon has been expelled! There's no need for panic anymore, please everyone continue to stay put and do not jostle!
"Let the priests heal the injured first—they can still be saved!"
The crowd, just recently in chaos, subconsciously chose to obey Aiwass's commands.
Lily, still unsteady on her feet, staggered over and said in a low voice, "I'm sorry, Aiwass... I couldn't be of any help to you..."
In the sudden assault, she had felt her own weakness for the first time.
Before this, she hadn't cared much for transcendent powers. In her view, they were just "strength used for fighting," and she didn't like to quarrel. But now, for the first time, Lily craved strength with such intensity—so the next time Aiwass faced an attack, she wouldn't be helpless again.
"It's alright, Lily."
Aiwass looked at the glasses on Lily's face and gently said, "There will always be a chance... Do you need healing?"
"Let it go to those who need it more. I just got knocked a bit, but there are many who were pierced through by the demon..."
Lily shook her head and covered her abdomen, giving out a soft hiss of pain.
And at that moment, Aiwass finally received the belated notification:
[By expelling the Aberrant Limb Demon, you have gained 210 free experience points]
——A massive amount of experience more than ten times what Veronica got!
He roughly estimated that the free experience was enough to level up a profession from level 10 straight to level 19!
Pleased with successfully claiming the kill, the corners of Aiwass's mouth slightly turned up in a satisfied smile.
It was worth getting stabbed by it after all, Aiwass thought.
Speaking of the Phantom Demon...
At that moment, Aiwass suddenly remembered that there was still an audience beneath him.
Why so quiet? Stunned?
"How about it, Shadow Demon?"
Thus, Aiwass took the initiative and asked in his mind, "Are you satisfied?"
[...Fervently obedient, my respected master]
After a long silence, the Shadow Demon finally spoke up with a calm female voice.
Its reply was brief, but the change in attitude was conspicuous.
The voice, once raspy with a sandpaper-like texture, lightened a bit, reflecting its increasingly evident fawning attitude towards Aiwass. It was like how a cat may add a lot of trills to its meow when it is trying to please its owner.
Aiwass smiled contentedly, lifting his head to look out at the sunset, and exhaled a sigh of relief.
By sheer coincidence, Aiwass, Lily, and Gordon had stopped in the exact spot where the knighting ceremony had taken place, to the letter.
Gordon's knight armor was battered and tattered, his helmet gone who knows where, and his Sword of Honor had noticeable nicks; Aiwass too bore signs of being pierced through at the chest, and the bloodstained badge of the Holy Sword on his chest shined in the sunset's glow. Lily wasn't in great shape either, but still loyally stood behind Aiwass, resting a hand on his now somewhat misshapen wheelchair.
The photographer who had first spotted the demon and obsessively snapped pictures as if possessed, upon seeing this scene, joyfully realized he still had some film left.
——Thus, the photographer snapped another picture of Aiwass, recording this moment as well, and immortalizing it.