There are many kinds of weakness.

A person may possess great physical strength but lack mental fortitude. Conversely, one might have an iron will while having a frail body.

But the priest was certain of one thing:

There was no such thing as a “weakling” here.

The one he’d just been fighting was a formidable opponent—physically, mentally, in every regard.

No, calling a superhuman weak to begin with—what kind of person would not be weak in comparison?

Still gripping Ghislain’s arm, the priest asked,

“Wh-Who are you talking about...? There must be some mistake...”

Ghislain jerked his chin toward the side and said,

“Him. The guy who was fighting you just now, the one barely hanging on. He’s got a weak body and even weaker mind. More than once, he tried to play sick and run off during training.”

“......”

The priest was stunned. From what he was hearing, that sounded like someone truly feeble.

Then who the hell had he just been fighting with all this time?

But now wasn’t the moment to dwell on it. The man in front of him gave off a far more dangerous aura than the last.

The priest surged his energy. He had only been caught off guard—he wasn’t weaker.

Rrrrrrrrrk...

He gripped Ghislain’s arm and poured all his strength into it, trying to snap it completely.

Ghislain scoffed.

“Oh? Trying brute force, are we?”

Ghislain himself was already quite worn down. His intense battle with Rahmod had left him nearly drained of stamina and mana.

But the priest was no better. He had taken the shock of Deneb’s divine power and Kyle’s final strike—he was already weakened.

Ghislain summoned what strength he had left and pressed his grip harder around the priest’s neck.

Crack—!

“Ghhhk!”

Far from breaking Ghislain’s arm, the priest was instead being crushed under the sheer pressure at his throat.

In a gasping, breathless voice, he choked out,

“Wh-Who are you...?”

“I’m his guardian.”

“You—insane...”

The priest was at a loss. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Who the hell sends a guardian to follow a superhuman?

But Ghislain was dead serious.

Julien, Deneb, Kyle—even after their awakenings, they still weren’t where he wanted them to be.

To fight the Demonic Realm and save the world, they had to become much, much stronger. Ghislain still couldn’t let his guard down.

To him, they were all still like kids left unattended near water.

Kyle overheard and laughed as he sank to the ground.

“Dammit... I’m a superhuman now, you know.”

Saying that, he collapsed flat onto the ground.

He’d thought he was dead for sure—but Ghislain had appeared.

That alone gave him peace of mind. Ghislain was someone who gave unshakable reassurance simply by being there.

If he wanted to call himself Kyle’s guardian—Kyle had no reason to object.

'Still... I’m a superhuman now, so at least I’m stronger than Julien, right?'

Kyle closed his eyes and grinned smugly. It felt like he’d finally won the rivalry.

'Maybe I should just take the squad leader position next...'

An ambitious idea floated through his tired mind.

With that cheerful thought, Kyle slowly slipped into unconsciousness. His body was far too exhausted to keep going.

Ghislain glanced over his shoulder with a small smile.

“You did well. Get some rest.”

At those words, Kyle fully relaxed and passed out.

From here on, Ghislain would handle everything.

And that would be enough.

The priest clenched his teeth. He couldn’t stand how relaxed and unconcerned they were, right in front of him.

Still, his opponent seemed formidable. He needed to put some distance between them and get a read on the man’s strength.

No ordinary force could break that grip. The priest poured out his power without holding back and fired it directly at Ghislain’s face.

FWA-BOOM!

Ghislain tilted his head and dodged.

In that brief moment, the priest broke free of the hold.

Now the two faced each other again.

Ghislain left the sword at his hip untouched and instead pulled out a staff from his subspace.

Gramdir was powerful, but it was more suited to fighting someone like Rahmod—a true monster. For weaker enemies like this guy, a staff felt way more satisfying to smash with.

The priest, having backed away, didn’t stop—he unleashed another blast of energy.

KWAHHHHH!

Dark force split the ground apart.

The explosion of power surged from his fingertips, sweeping out like a tidal wave.

Boulders shattered. Earth flew into the air. The ground cracked like dry clay.

But Ghislain evaded everything with uncanny precision.

“That’s it? No wonder you pick on weaklings.”

With that, Ghislain launched forward.

The priest snarled and whipped his hands through the air.

FWOOOOSH!

Dark energy swirled around him, forming a massive curtain of shadow.

Ghislain’s eyes gleamed. He was reading the weave of the curtain. The moment he confirmed its pattern, he swung his staff directly at it.

With both hands, he cleaved the air. The impact boomed like thunder.

KWA-BOOOOOM!

The staff tore through the curtain of darkness, shredding it completely and revealing the priest.

“Th-That’s impossible...”

The priest was shaken. He had poured substantial energy into that defense, and it had been destroyed so effortlessly.

And the opponent didn’t even seem to have used much strength.

He tried to summon more power—but Ghislain vanished from sight.

“...!”

As the priest instinctively turned around—

WHAM!

A staff came flying from behind and struck his face.

KWAANG!

“Gkk!”

Several of the priest’s teeth shot into the air as his body spun and tumbled across the ground.

“Urgh... you bastard...!”

He spat blood and forced himself upright.

Ghislain clicked his tongue and muttered,

“Guess I really am running low.”

He hadn’t been able to fully channel his mana into the strike—his body was starting to falter.

He still had some Willpower left to use, but even that couldn’t last through many more strikes.

The priest extended his hand and unleashed another dark storm.

Ghislain stepped forward and boldly swung his staff into the oncoming tempest.

BOOM! BAM! BWOOOM!

Each time his staff moved, the storm shattered into scattered pieces in the air.

The priest instinctively stepped back.

“Wh-What is this?! What the hell is he doing?!”

His opponent wasn’t destroying the energy with sheer force.

Somehow—he was disrupting it with only minimal power.

It was exactly like the final technique that unconscious kid had used earlier... no, it was even more refined.

And while he stood there dazed—

Ghislain was suddenly right in front of him.

Whoooosh!

Seeing the incoming staff, the priest barely twisted to the side to dodge it. The weapon slammed into the ground beside him.

KWAANG!

“Huh?!”

The shockwave launched the priest’s body into the air.

Before he could regain his balance—

THWACK!

“Guhhhk!”

The staff smashed into his side.

Even as he flew back, the priest—superhuman that he was—still tried to unleash another burst of energy.

But a desperate attack like that had no chance of landing on Ghislain.

Dodging easily, Ghislain drove his staff straight into the priest’s abdomen.

Puh-eok!

The priest’s body bent at the waist and went flying, tumbling backward several times.

“Keuhk...!”

Coughing up blood, the priest rose to his feet, his face pale.

'No... I can’t fight this man.'

Judging by the pressure alone, he seemed like a manageable opponent. The priest could clearly see that this man, too, was exhausted—just like himself.

But now that they were actually fighting, he couldn’t even touch the hem of his clothes. His movements were on a completely different level.

Even without his strange abilities, his technique was so refined it was impossible to approach.

'What the hell is he? Who the hell is this guy?'

His appearance was a mess, his face deathly pale. He’d clearly come from a fierce battle... so how could he still move like that?

'Wait a minute... if he’s coming from a fight, then...'

A bad feeling struck the priest.

He stretched out a hand toward the approaching Ghislain and shouted.

“W-Wait!”

“What? I don’t take surrenders.”

“Who... who are you?”

“Astion.”

“T-The Mad Mercenary Mage?!”

The priest swallowed hard.

He knew well about the Julien Mercenary Corps. It was the group they had planned to eliminate after this operation.

They’d interfered with their work far too many times.

And now, those same bastards were interfering here too!

The priest asked cautiously,

“Who were you fighting just now...?”

He clearly looked like someone who had come straight from battle—and from the direction of the Vallscrum royal fortress.

Two Prophets were stationed there. So the priest, just in case, asked.

Ghislain gave a slight smirk and answered,

“Rahmod.”

“......”

“And that Tagmah bastard too.”

“W-What happened to them...?”

“They’re dead. Cleanly. They were damn strong.”

“......”

“They were helpless before the Saintess’s divine power. You felt it too, didn’t you?”

“L-Lies...”

The priest’s body trembled.

He desperately didn’t want to believe it.

But he couldn’t deny it either. If it weren’t true, there’d be no reason for someone like Astion to show up here.

And there was another reason he couldn’t deny it.

'Don’t tell me that divine power...'

The divine power that had suddenly swept through this area...

It had only lasted a moment, but its power was undeniable. And it had originated from the direction of Vallscrum’s heart.

If the two Prophets had been caught in that overwhelming power from close range... it made sense that they could’ve been taken out.

The priest now understood everything.

The Prophets were truly dead. And this man—barehanded—had come here to help.

With his face drained of color, the priest spun around.

He had to escape. The other high priests and black mages were probably all dead by now too.

But before he could take a step, Ghislain blocked his path and swung his staff.

WHAM!

“Kehek!”

With the sound of ribs shattering, the priest was thrown like a ragdoll.

“Running? Now? If you were going to run, you shouldn’t have been bullying someone weaker in the first place.”

Ghislain quickly closed the distance to the priest.

The priest tried feebly to rise, but before he could, the staff slammed into his knee.

CRACK!

“Kuaaaagh!”

His knee twisted and snapped. As his posture collapsed, Ghislain brought the staff down on the back of his hand.

BOOM!

“Uuurrgh!”

The priest’s hand was reduced to a mangled mess. Ghislain didn’t stop. He brought the staff down hard on the priest’s back.

KWAANG!

His body slammed into the ground, sending dust flying. The pain left him unable to think.

'I-I have to run...'

The priest no longer had any will to resist. He was overwhelmed with terror, only able to think of fleeing.

He couldn’t even consider self-destruction like the other priests had.

Ghislain raised his staff as he looked down at the broken priest.

“Kyle nearly died because of you. Time to pay for picking on someone weaker.”

“W-Wait...”

BOOM!

“Gahhhh!”

Ghislain mercilessly brought the staff down again.

The strike was so powerful, the ground around the priest fractured like shattered glass.

But Ghislain didn’t stop.

“This one’s for Julien.”

BOOM!

“This one’s for Deneb.”

BOOM!

“This one’s for Dark, who vanished fighting here.”

BOOM!

“This one’s for Osvald... Lionel... Ereneth... Leo... Andrew... uh... who else...? Right—Belinda... Gillian... Arel... Vanessa... Alfoy... Claude... Kaor... Jerome... Parniel... Elena... Piote... Wendy... Lumina... Lowell... Ascon... Galbaric... Rosalyn... Gordon... Lukas... Porisco... Kong-i... Amelia... Bastet... Cain... Kkokko...”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Ghislain just kept spouting off names of people he knew, swinging the staff down again and again.

Of course, the priest didn’t recognize a single name. He couldn’t understand why he was getting beaten on behalf of people he’d never even heard of.

He was pretty sure some of them were animals too.

“Keuhk! Guhhhk! Krrk!”

The priest screamed as the blows rained down. Already weakened, his energy dissipated further with every strike.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

As time went on, his body flattened. Even his screams stopped.

Only the occasional shallow breath could be heard.

The attacks were powerful enough to crack the earth. No matter how strong the body of a superhuman was, no one could endure dozens—hundreds—of blows like that.

Eventually, Ghislain stopped and wiped the sweat from his brow.

“Phew... Guy’s weaker mentally than I expected. Couldn’t even endure this much(?) basic discipline.”

He had prepared for the possibility of the priest self-destructing, like others had.

But this one had lost all will—he hadn’t even tried.

If the priest had been in normal condition, it wouldn’t have been so easy to push him this far.

But the shock of divine power and Kyle’s final blow had already drained him.

That’s why, though Ghislain was also exhausted, he could dominate with sheer technique.

'And guys who only think about running... aren’t hard to deal with.'

No matter how powerful someone is—if they’ve lost their will to fight, it’s no different from being defeated.

Ghislain looked back.

Kyle lay there, unconscious and drenched in blood.

He had been weaker than the priest. But he never lost his fighting spirit.

He didn’t give up until the end. He kept fighting until the very last moment.

One man had overwhelming strength, but chose to run.

The other collapsed—but never backed down.

This battlefield had shown clearly who the truly strong one was.

A satisfied smile appeared on Ghislain’s face.

'He’s grown up well. More than I expected.'

Truthfully, Ghislain had thought it would take Kyle more time to reach the realm of the superhuman.

But in this fight, after burning through everything he had, Kyle had finally crossed the wall.

Ghislain already knew—from Dark—what Kyle’s mindset had been during the battle.

And he was genuinely pleased.

As expected—those who would save the world were always built different.

Ghislain turned his gaze back to the priest and raised his staff.

“Shall we finish this?”

“P-Please... spare me...”

The priest begged, voice barely audible.

But Ghislain’s face was cold.

“There’s no such thing between us.”

SPLAT!

With a resolute swing, Ghislain’s staff shattered the priest’s skull.

With that, the last of the Salvation Order’s priests who had invaded Vallscrum was dead.

The enemies battling the dwarf warriors were mostly wiped out too.

“Let’s go.”

Ghislain hoisted the unconscious Kyle onto his back and headed back toward the fortress.

Everything had been resolved.

They had stopped the Salvation Order’s invasion, killed the powerful Prophets, and even secured a promise from Grondal to hand over the Sacred Stone.

But it wasn’t completely over.

A critical negotiation still remained between Ghislain and Grondal.