Retreat

Cecilia and the rest of the Royal Guards finally arrived on the scene just as Sigurd finished absorbing the power of the Demon King Fragment.

Feeling the malicious energy he was exuding, Cecilia and the knights who were with her immediately knew who the enemy was when they saw Neo chained to the ground and Merlina lying in a pool of her own blood.

The knights couldn't believe their eyes though when they saw that the enemy was actually their former comrade, Sword Saint Sigurd.

"Protect Her Highness!"

The knights moved to Merlina's side and quickly tried to tend to her wounds, but it was extremely bad.

"We have to get Her Highness out of here!"

Sigurd looked down at the knights who were scrambling below the platform and getting into formation. He eyed them pitifully before saying, "You ants should've stayed outside where it was safe. Now it looks like I'll have to kill you all as well…"

He took a step forward and wielded his blade, slashing out with a demonic energy wave at the knights who took the brunt of the attack with their shield and somehow managed to stand their ground to Neo's surprise.

"Run, you have to get out of here!" Neo yelled towards the knights standing in formation in front of him."

Cecilia arrived next to him and began using her powers to dispel the demonic energy chains that were shackling him to the ground.

"Thank you, but we have to run. Sigurd has betrayed us and he's absorbed the Demon King Fragment's power!" Neo quickly said.

"...What?"

Cecilia was surprised by what Neo said and so were the other knights who heard what he said.

"How's that possible?" Cecilia mumbled as she turned to look at Sigurd.

In her eyes, Sigurd still felt like a regular human being, not a Shade like her. Only Shades was known to be able to harness and use demonic energy outside of demons and demonic beasts, so she couldn't understand how Sigurd was able to do it.

However, since it was true that he was able to use demonic energy, then their situation was extremely dire. They were fighting against the man who was known as the Sword Saint.

Fighting against him was literally akin to suicide as he was one of the strongest people in the land.

The knights had already recovered Merlina and regrouped with the rest, but their situation seemed incredibly hopeless at the moment.

Neo still needed some time to dispel the demonic energy that Sigurd had injected into him earlier through the demonic chains so he could fight immediately. He hoped that the knights could at least buy him some time until he was ready to fight, but Cecilia had other plans after seeing the critical condition Merlina was in.

"Everyone get ready! I'm teleporting us back to the castle!"

When the knights heard this, they immediately got into a defensive formation around her and quickly raised their shields.

"Protect Lady Cecilia while she prepares the spell!"

After launching his initial attack, Sigurd didn't do anything after that. He instead sheathed his sword and just watched as Cecilia finished casting her spell. The spell was invoked and everyone was safely teleported out of the crypt.

However, just before they disappeared with a flash of light, Neo saw a familiar figure emerge from behind Sigurd.

'Archdemon Kenos!'

******

After Neo and the others teleported away, there were now only two people that remained. One of them began cackling in delight while the other began tearing down the crypt.

"Kukuku, you let him get away~"

"Quiet demon. Are you going to help me or not?"

"Kehehe, fine, fine. I guess this officially makes you one of us now."

Sigurd wasn't proud of what he did, but it was something he thought that was necessary…if he wanted to break the cycle.

"...Since I've absorbed the Fragment, you can now tell me how we're going to revive him, right?"

"Yes, of course…but it won't be me doing the explaining. Asterai will be the one to fill you in."

Sigurd frowned before saying, "Take me to him."

******

In an underground room underneath the palace of the Lumenia Kingdom, Cecilia, Neo, and the rest of the surviving Royal Knights appeared with a flash of light and a chaotic whirlwind of mana.

Cecilia quickly fell to her knees and nearly lost consciousness because the teleportation spell that sent them from the Demon King's crypt all the way back to the palace was extremely taxing on her mana pool.

"Thank you, Lady Cecilia! Someone, bring her and Sir Neo to the infirmary!" The knight captain of the second royal knight squad quickly thanked Cecilia before turning to one of his subordinates and telling them to bring her and Neo to the palace's infirmary.

He then turned to two others and ordered, "You two, go and call the royal physician and the High Priest! Ask them to quickly head to Her Highness's chambers immediately! Her Highness is in critical condition but we can still save her!"

"YES SIR!"

The knights quickly began to scramble and the two that were ordered to get the High Priest and the Royal Physician went up first. Another knight escorted Cecilia and Neo to the infirmary where they quickly had their conditions checked.

Cecilia was only suffering from Mana Exhaustion and all she needed to do was rest, but Neo's condition was quite awful. He, the Goddess's Champion, was actually suffering from demonic poisoning.

As the Champion, he should be completely immune to demonic energy and its adverse effects which are harmful to normal creatures. When he heard this from the physician checking on him, Neo was extremely surprised.

'...has the Goddess's blessing weakened? I should be immune to–'

Neo quickly remembered something and recalled that he had that Status Plate item from the adventurer guild. He quickly took it out and checked it.

[Name: Neo

Race: ???

Attribute(s): Light, Fire

Mana: 150 (-50) (S)

Strength: 100 (-33) (A)

Endurance: 100 (-33) (A)

Agility: 100 (-33) (A)

Intelligence: 100 (-33) (A)

Blessings:

Light of Luminance (B), Perfect Memory (S)]

"So the blessing really has deteriorated…" Neo said with a wry smile on his face as his deduction was correct.

'The Goddess has definitely weakened and so has her blessing. This is solid proof that in this life, I won't be able to rely on the Goddess as much…'

Previously, his blessing, the Light of Luminance, was S tier but it had now become B tier. The change was quite obvious and he couldn't help feeling a little dismayed by it. However, he also felt extremely surprised.

He didn't think that the piece of metal that the adventurer guild had given him could actually detect the deterioration of his blessing and accurately display it for him to see.

'It surely is a surprising item…'

The creator of the item was definitely a genius and Neo thought that he should go meet them. With Merlina's life currently hanging in the balance, he needed someone else to fill in the shoes as the Goddess's Chosen.

It was cold of him to be feeling this way when his friend's life was currently in grave danger, but he didn't know how to express any empathy or even feel it. There was only the quest in his mind.

"I'll think about the matter of selecting a Chosen later. I first have to deal with the demonic energy that's poisoning me…"

His blessing had indeed deteriorated which caused him to be poisoned by the demonic energy, but even without the blessing, Neo knew how to deal with it.

In his previous lives, many people researched ways to counteract demonic poisoning and one person called the Immortal, was able to create such a method though it wasn't something that a normal person would be able to do.

"First, I need an isolated space or else the purification process will harm those around me…"

He remembered the underground passage he went through earlier had been in the palace dungeons and there was no one in those dungeons.

It was completely empty and isolated from anywhere else so he decided to go back their again. Normal people wouldn't be able to move if they suffered from demonic energy poisoning, but Neo was able to despite being under the effects.

The Goddess's Blessing allowed him to at least not feel any pain from the poisoning and continue moving around as if he was fine.

He quickly arrived back at the palace's underground dungeons and found an empty cell in the far corner and began preparing himself for the purification process.

"Alright, let's get started."

Neo sat himself down in a lotus position and closed his eyes. He then started circulating his energy according to the Immortal's Demon Converting Art. This art was rather insane as it converted the demonic energy inside someone into pure energy that could either be dispelled or absorbed by the person.

It sounded extremely good and all, but the process of converting the demonic energy was anything but pleasant.

Neo began to feel the pain of the conversion directly with his body but he endured it and only let out a muffled groan.

"Urgh…"

'T-This is…much more painful than I imagined…'