Level 1 Strongest Sage ~

Guzion had been blown away towards the entrance of the Great Shrine the moment the flaming knight appeared.

That flaming knight was a spell casted by Halt.

The magical circle that Halt placed on Seira was activated in response to Seira’s cry of help.

Originally, it was supposed to summon Halt when Seira was under duress and danger, but because he didn’t immediately respond, it summoned a flaming knight, instead.

“W-what is that?”

Seira was dumbfounded at the spectacle before her eyes.

There was another person who immediately moved, contrary to her as she stood rooted to the spot.

“Bastard! How dare you do that to Father!”

Lovelia attacked the flaming knight, extremely infuriated that the knight managed to punch Guzion, her father.

She no longer cared about the reason why this knight of flames suddenly appeared here. This guy beat her father, so that was enough reason to treat him as the enemy — Lovelia already decided that was enough reason to slay this flaming knight unhesitatingly.

Guzion had been reincarnating his soul into the human children, and that paved the way for him to enter the Holy City despite being a demon.

Lovelia also possessed the power of a demon, being Guzion’s daughter. Moreover, she had been one of the saint candidates, so she had honed her ability to use and control holy mana due to the prolonged training she had undergone in order to become one. 

She had complete command of the Holy Lance — the spear that had been blessed by the deities. 

Lovelia ingeniously manipulated the Holy Lance as she attacked the flaming knight repeatedly.

If this flaming knight was a monster, then just a graze from the holy spear was enough to fatally wound it.

— Supposedly.

“W-why!?”

Lovelia was in a fluster.

She was considered the best among all the saint candidates when it comes to handling the Holy Lance — no, she was considered the most proficient among them when it comes to wielding any kind of holy weapon.

She was even confident that she could surpass Seira, the current Saint, in any kind of weapon except for the rapier. 

The holy spear was her forte, specializing in all the skills required to use this weapon, however, she couldn’t even land a single hit on the flaming knight.

“$#(%!, come on, JUST A SINGLE HIT!”

Just a single graze is enough, and it’ll be my win.

Her mind was focused on that single goal as her movements increased in malice. 

“How about this!?”

She whirled around and aimed at the cross where Ysha was still bound and threw the holy spear with all her might.

Lovelia had noticed that the flaming knight was trying to protect Seira, galloping within her vicinity.

If it was here to protect the saint, then it would surely protect Ysha, the successor, as well.

She was right.

The flaming knight charged towards Ysha in order to protect her, and it stopped the spear with it’s bare hand before the Holy Lance pierced her. It was wounded as a result of this.

“Gotcha!”

This guy will vanish now, for sure.

I need to rescue Father after this and —

“…What?”

Lovelia couldn’t believe her eyes.

The flaming knight didn’t vanish even after sustaining that injury from the Holy Lance.

Moreover, it pulled the spear out with its left hand and raised it in the air towards Lovelia.

There was no way a monster could touch, let alone hold, a Holy Lance that had been blessed by divinity. In that case, then this flaming knight was a high caliber being that could brush that blessing aside as if it was nothing, or —

It might be somebody else’s magic spell.

However, it was impossible that somebody could conjure a magic that had its own mind and could control itself, and possessed power that was at par with hers, to boot. She couldn’t believe it — no, she didn’t want to believe it.

The flaming knight clutched two spears — a flaming spear on one hand and the holy lance on the other — as it walked towards Lovelia.

“T-this is impossible!? Wait, it’s a mistake!”

Lovelia backed away.

Horror was written all over her face.

“Water Jail!”

A huge wave of water came crashing towards the flaming knight out of nowhere before encircling it entirely.

“Father!”

Guzion had recovered and he sealed the flaming knight into a water chamber.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, this is nothing.”

Both of them turned their gaze towards the flaming knight that was held captive in the water chamber.

The water had already been covering the blaze, but it didn’t have the slightest indication of being extinguished, and they committed that to their memories.

It was highly plausible that this being possessed a huge amount of power that would shock even a demon.

“Father, what is this thing?”

“… this is probably that guy’s — that Sage’s magic.”

“N-no way!? There’s no way a human can use this much mana —”

“That guy protected the Saint from two of my warlock subordinates. Moreover, he slayed them without a single wound, despite the fact that they worked together to attack him. That’s how powerful he is.”

Guzion had discovered that his subordinates had been slain because his soul was linked to theirs.

He also heard from the mouth of Seira and the person himself that he had indeed defeated the warlocks, so he knew about it.

— He was supposed to know about it.

Actually, he wasn’t aware that the Sage Halt had defeated only one of the warlocks, and the other one was brought down by his family.

The demon didn’t know.

It was not only the Sage Halt who could defeat a warlock.

He didn’t have any inkling about the extent of the abnormality of Halt’s family.

And that family held a deep grudge against him now — well, he had no way of knowing that. 

“At any rate, it’s best to kill that guy rightaway.”

“I will help you.”

“Yeah, by all means. You will become the Saint tonight, and you just have to use that power to unleash my true nature that I had hidden all these years. That Sage will be nothing against me, then.”

“That’s true — Father!! Look out!!”

Lovelia pushed her father out of the way.

A holy spear flew towards the spot where Guzion was standing just moments before.

Lovelia had moved towards that spot in order to remove her father from harm’s way, but she ended up switching places with him, and because of that, the Holy Lance pierced her body.

“W-wha….”

“F-fa-th-er…r-run..a-awa-y…..”

Lovelia’s demon core and her human heart had been pierced at the same time, so she breathed her last after those words.  She had inherited the demonic blood, but it was purified by the holy power, so her body turned into ashes and was scattered by the wind.

“Lovelia, LOVELIAAAAAAA!!!”

Guzion whirled around and glared at the direction from where the spear had soared.

The flaming knight was standing right there.

The blazing fire that enshrouded its entire body was burning up more vigorously than ever.

Moreover, sparks of lightning ran around it.

Why?

How the heck did this happen?

What’s going on?

— No, all those questions were pointless.

It had destroyed his scheme that had taken him a thousand years to fulfill.

He did not love his daughter.

He was a demon.

Love was nothing to him.

He had been living for a thousand years as a human, but he never learned how to love.

Lovelia was just a tool for him to accomplish his plan — a tool that had taken him a few hundred years to prepare.

There was no way he would be happy for that to be destroyed.

“Halt, I will kill you, mark my words, I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF.”

Guzion unleashed his demonic power that he had sealed off for a thousand years while mumbling those words.

————T/N: Hello guys! Sorry for the late post, had an urgent matter to attend to last Monday. I finished the chap late yesterday, so I decided that I might as well do a double post tonight, instead. Thanks for understanding! 😀