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Chapter 17 - Vanquish
The last elite knight blanched as his strongest comrade was launched like a cannonball through the trees, vanishing into a wake of splinters and shattered bark. But Lucien didn't give him a chance to react. His blade whistled down like a divine verdict, wreathed in golden aura and suffused with unstoppable force.
Selene's pained cry rang in Lucien's ears. He could hear the clash of metal as she held off the remaining two elite knights alone. Gritting his teeth, he channeled every ounce of momentum into his descending strike. The air warped around the blade as it cleaved down.
The knight raised his weapon to block, but Lucien's blade shattered it like brittle glass. His sword continued without pause, punching through the knight's armor and tearing into flesh and bone. Blood sprayed as the enemy fell in a broken, unrecognizable heap.
Lucien didn't stop to examine the wreckage—he turned instinctively toward Selene.
What he saw nearly made his heart stop.
One of the knights was wrapped in chains of silver light, his movements slowed to a sluggish crawl. But the other had bypassed the spell and was furiously hammering away at Selene's barrier. Her brows were knit in strain as cracks spiderwebbed across the shimmering shield. And just as Lucien looked, the barrier shattered with a sharp, crystalline sound.
Without hesitation, Lucien summoned the system window.
Spend: 600 gold crowns → Speed +600
He felt the change instantly.
His senses exploded outward in a way that defied comprehension. Every sound became crystalline and distinct—the rustle of leaves, the faint flutter of bird wings far above, the crackling tension in the knight's armor as he swung. His sight sharpened until he could see motes of dust in the air and trace the trajectory of each glinting shard of Selene's shattered shield. Time seemed to slow—not for the world, but for him.
He didn't waste a moment marveling. His body blurred as he launched himself forward.
Selene had thought death was certain. When the knights had surrounded them, she had steeled herself. She was no longer just a helpless maid—Sister Luna had awakened something inside her. The moon's blessing coursed through her veins. Her perceptions had sharpened; the world seemed to crawl at a manageable pace. She could hear the distant flapping of wings, see the fine detail on leaves far beyond normal vision. Her body moved like flowing silk, her feet barely touching the ground. Best of all was her mind—she could remember everything with crystalline clarity. 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝒃.𝙘𝒐𝒎
Moonlight spells came to her instinctively, the light around her responding like an obedient pet. She had thought she could help Lucien. She had bound one knight with silver chains and tried to cast a light-lance spell to repel the second. But offensive magic was a different beast, and her inexperience showed. Her cast fizzled, and the knight closed in.
Only her innate barrier had saved her. It flared up in the nick of time, holding off the strike, but she knew it wouldn't last. Desperate, she poured all her mana into the shield. Even so, it shattered.
As the enemy's blade descended, Selene accepted her end. She had wanted to follow Lucien to the bitter end. To see him rise again, to see the kingdom tremble beneath his name. But fate, it seemed, had cut her short.
She closed her eyes—and waited.
But no pain came.
She opened her eyes to a sight that made her breath catch.
Lucien stood before her, his slender frame shielding her with unwavering resolve. His blade locked against the enemy's, his eyes glowing with rage and golden light.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Lucien didn't hold back. His fury exploded like a storm. His blade blurred with impossible speed, carving arcs of force that crushed the elite knight's defense. The battle was over before it began. Lucien's speed, strength, and aura mastery completely dwarfed theirs. When the dust settled, there were only mutilated corpses littering the ground.
Selene stared, breathless and blushing, as Lucien turned to her with concern written across his face.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, his voice low, almost tender.
She shook her head, cheeks burning as he scanned her for injuries. His closeness sent her heart into a frenzy.
Lucien smiled faintly at her blush, but then his expression hardened. They weren't done yet.
He recalled the two elite knights he had knocked away earlier and beckoned for Selene to follow. They sped through the broken forest. It didn't take long to find Ren Leboa—the knight who had taken Lucien's brutal kick to the head. He was staggering upright, propped against his sword, blood streaming from his nose and temple.
Lucien didn't give him a chance to recover. One strike, clean and efficient, ended the knight's life.
The other knight, however, had vanished. Either dead or wisely fled.
Lucien exhaled and took a moment to finally assess the transformation his body had undergone. After boosting his speed to 1400, he felt like he had shed the limits of mortality itself.
He could see, with frightening clarity, the fluttering wings of an insect hundreds of meters away, the ripple of disturbed air as leaves swayed in the breeze. Every vibration in the ground transmitted to him—he could feel approaching footfalls long before he heard them. The world had become a living map of energy and movement.
Sound became music—each note distinct. The breathing of Selene, the faint footfalls of their distant pursuers and the breath of the forest —he heard them all. And more than that, he understood them. His brain could process these sensations in real time, giving him what felt like precognition. He didn't just react—he anticipated.
Lucien felt like a living weapon, a sword honed not just by gold, but by clarity.
Selene reached his side, eyes wide with wonder and worry.
"You've changed," she whispered.
Lucien gave a small nod. "And I'll keep changing. If I don't, we'll both die."
The silver light still shimmered faintly around Selene, reflecting off Lucien's golden aura. They were stained in blood, surrounded by corpses and shattered trees—but in that moment, they looked like mythic figures from a forgotten legend. A moon-blessed maiden and a golden heir reborn.
But their journey was only beginning.
More knights would come.
And Lucien knew—he would need even greater strength to survive what was coming next.
