Chapter 017: Saint Against Saint

Imperial Capital.
At Duke Green’s residence, in the basement of the courtyard where Du Fan lived.
Chenchen held a magic scroll in her hands, gently drawing on it. After a while, she finished drawing and tossed the scroll aside.
In front of her, a stack of magic scrolls was already neatly arranged, and with this last one added, they formed a small pile.
Chenchen stretched lazily, shook her head tiredly, and murmured, “My little master… One really doesn’t realize how precious things are until they’re needed. I should teach him alchemy soon; otherwise, he’ll think I can just make magic scrolls whenever I want… I guess he’s getting impatient too. But what on earth was he doing today? Why isn’t he back yet?”
Suddenly, the smile vanished from Chenchen’s face. Her relaxed expression froze, and she quickly rushed out of the basement, heading to the courtyard and looking toward the south. After a moment, she closed her eyes.
A look of disbelief appeared on her face, and after a while, she murmured, “This… how is this possible? This is the human world—how can this be?”
Magician’s Guild Headquarters, Mage Tower.
Edward sat in his study, engrossed in a magic tome in his hands. Beside him, Kristy stood respectfully, whispering, “Teacher, this magic tome was sent from the Lanxi Empire. It’s said to be the research manuscript of a great mage there, quite valuable… The local branch president hopes you’ll like it.”
Edward nodded and said, “I see. It’s quite good, but…”
As he spoke, Edward’s expression suddenly changed. His hand trembled, and the magic tome in his grasp turned to dust.
Kristy was stunned and said, “Teacher…”
But Edward seemed not to hear her. His expression shifted rapidly as he stood up quickly, staring south and whispering, “This aura… it’s…”
Holy See, Imperial Capital Cathedral.
Unlike the hustle and bustle during the day, the cathedral at night was filled with tranquility and peace. The central sanctuary inside was holy and serene.
The statue of the God of Light stood tall deep within the sanctuary. Like all the statues on the continent, it was too majestic to look directly at.

Beneath the statue stood a rather magnificent seat. Anthony, the Supreme Leader of the Holy Church in the Gavin Empire, the archbishop who ranked above all others, sat on the chair. His brows were slightly furrowed, and his age-lined face exuded a sense of solemnity.

“Have you all… felt it?” Anthony asked softly, rubbing his brows gently. He was wearing a rare deep red robe, adorned with a large holy cross emblem that symbolized his status. His gaze fell on the people seated below him. The first among them was Joshua, the Grand Knight of the Temple Knights, while the rest were archbishops in red robes.

“Yes… Lord Anthony, it seems we have all felt it… It’s the aura of a sacred realm…” Anthony smiled slightly before sighing lightly. “Over the past thousand years in the Roland Continent, how many sacred realms have there been? Who would have thought that two would already appear outside the southern gates of the imperial capital today… Yet one of them has an aura that seems eerily familiar… Have you noticed that?”

One of the archbishops below frowned, stood up, and whispered, “Lord Anthony, there’s an aura that seems to be that of a Holy Angel’s protection. Could it be that His Holiness the Pope…?”

Anthony glanced at the archbishop and said calmly, “Aaron, I had forgotten… You served by His Holiness’s side when you were young. It’s remarkable that you could detect the aura of a Holy Angel’s protection so quickly… But with His Holiness’s status, how could he possibly engage in a fight outside the city gates?”

The other archbishops fell silent.

Anthony shook his head and looked southward. “Joshua, do you know what’s going on?”

Joshua hesitated for a moment before quickly responding, “Lord Anthony, if I’m not mistaken, we’ve just received news that Prince Fischer, along with Du Fan, is heading southward. It was only a short while ago…”

The faces of the archbishops changed dramatically. Aaron quickly said, “Lord Anthony, if His Highness Fischer…”

“I understand…” Anthony nodded. “You all… come with me to take a look. Whoever they are, since they’ve acted right under our noses, we can’t just stand by.”

The cardinals exchanged glances, stood up together, and bowed, saying, “In the name of the God of Light, we shall obey Lord Anthony’s orders without hesitation.”
Anthony nodded and glanced at Joshua again, saying, “Deploy the Temple Knights. Leave the defense to the people of Divine Might Prison. Move all the Temple Knights outside the city… If anyone in the capital dares to lay a hand on Prince Fischer, it will be none other than the crown prince… If the two sides really clash, this will be war, not… a child’s game…”
As he spoke, Anthony gave Joshua a deep look.
Joshua instinctively bowed and said, “I understand. I’ll go handle it right away…”
With that, Joshua vanished in a flash, heading out the door.
Anthony turned to look at the statue of the God of Light behind him. It seemed he ignored the holy light as he murmured, “Is this fate? The winds are stirring in all directions…”
“The young people these days…”
Sighing, the archcardinal, who held supreme power over all, waved his hand and said, “Let’s go.”
Immediately afterward, he crossed his arms in front of him, closed his eyes, and saw a flash of holy light—his figure disappeared on the spot.
The remaining cardinals also quickly closed their eyes and crossed their arms. With another flash of holy light, in moments, only a dim candle flame remained glowing in the chapel…
…
Prince Fischer still sat on the ground, observing everything before him. He sat quietly, seemingly able to understand everything that was normally incomprehensible to ordinary people.
Before him, the ground was in chaos, and the jungle had long disappeared—this was the result of a battle between two saints.
Yet everything before his eyes had already changed.
Behind Francis, both the earth and the sky were a deep gray. In this space, everything seemed to be accelerating. Prince Fischer saw a small tree turn into a towering tree in the blink of an eye, and in the next blink, it had become withered wood!
It seemed that time flowed countless times faster in this gray realm.
Behind the Holy Flame Warrior, the earth remained extremely heavy; nothing could float on it, not even air.
These two distinctly separate realms extended backward from the point where their energies met, covering several miles in radius.

At this moment, this place was the domain of two holy-grade powerhouses. Aside from Prince Fischer, who remained unharmed under the protection of the Holy Angels, no other creature could survive within their holy domains.

Francis’s expression was dark, with the blood-red roses displaying a vivid hue, as brilliant as the blood-red sunset before dusk, making his pure white warrior robes appear even more striking.

The golden and gray combat energy, combined with the blood-red color of the roses, made this holy warrior appear extremely magnificent.

Yet, Francis’s heart was filled with fighting spirit. This was the first time since he had mastered his combat energy that he encountered an opponent who could also use a holy domain, allowing him to finally use his own holy domain to its fullest. For someone who pursued the pinnacle of martial arts, this was a truly rare experience.

The sacred artifacts passed down through generations by the Holy Church, and the Holy Angel protection, which only the Pope was qualified to wield—indeed, they were nothing ordinary!

Without wasting time to think further, the Holy Flame Warrior roared and slowly raised his giant sword, aiming it at Francis.

His movement to swing the sword was extremely slow, as if lifting a massive boulder, but despite its apparent slowness, under the control of the Holy Flame Warrior, it appeared before Francis in an instant!

Extreme slowness and extreme speed are inherently contradictory, yet in this move by the Holy Flame Warrior, these two opposing traits were almost simultaneously displayed and skillfully combined!

This was the mastery of rules! Within his own holy domain, he could freely utilize these rules. And since his holy domain controlled gravity, he could easily imagine that this sword strike would carry a force thousands of times greater!

“But if you have a holy domain, does that mean I don’t?”

With pride burning in his heart, Francis spun the blood-red roses in his hand and met the approaching giant sword head-on!