Chapter 673: Fight for the Sacred Forest [3]

Matthew saw it as well, and his body jerked against the roots securing him to the moving platform.

"No..." Even his voice changed. "How could it be you people...?"

The captain's gaze snapped toward him and he

quickly fell silent, but the reaction had already exposed too much.

Gabriel glanced toward him.

"You recognize that mark?"

"I... I—"

He couldn't finish. The captain suddenly slashed toward him, and a black sword aura tore across the altar.

The living platform shifted backward with Matthew still secured on top of it, but the attack was too fast for the roots to escape completely.

Turning, Gabriel swept Crimson Judgement horizontally. The sword aura burst apart less than two meters from the platform.

Matthew's face turned pale. That attack had been a genuine attempt to silence him.

Gabriel looked at Matthew again. "Keeping you alive was a good decision."

Matthew didn't appear comforted with those words, if anything it ruined his mood even further.

Meanwhile, the white mark on the captain's temple began to glow.

The cardinal's expression changed completely.

"Stop him!"

The fear in his voice was different this time.

In his time here, Mathew had seen alot of scary things but none of it had drawn this kind of reaction from him. He even pulled against the roots restraining him without seeming to notice.

Edgar turned sharpny toward him. "What is that mark?"

"Don't let him fully activate it!" Matthew shouted, "It isn't an ordinary enhancement ability!"

The captain's gaze turned icy as white light spread from his temple across his cheek. The aura around him seemed to rise making the storm fragment around his feet to tremble and the air to crackle.

Matthew felt cold chills in his spine when he saw that gaze. His face grew even more pale. If one looked at him closely the would even notice the trembling of his hands.

At the same moment, the Godslayer Bloodline Spark stirred inside Gabriel's blood. His heart pounded heavily; the pull was far stronger than anything he had felt from the nails.

At Stage Zero, with its integrity still Extremely Low, the Spark's hunger told him nothing about what he could safely consume.

The residue inside the nails had stirred it, but the captain was human, even with the mark burning on his temple.

Having that mark didn't make him a divine being. Gabriel tried to inspect it, but the information was incomplete. All he could tell was that the mark contained divine power, was somehow connected to the man, and was being pushed beyond what it could safely handle.

Gabriel smiled anyway as he took a step forward. 'theres only one way to find out.'

The captain frowned. That smile was the same one Gabriel had worn when he saw the seven nails.

"What are you smiling at?" he asked, a look of fear entering his eyes.

"Nothing." Gabriel said as he raised Crimson Judgement. "I just realized something."

The captain tightened his grip on his sword, feeling all his hair stand on edge. For some reason he was having a very bad feeling.

"You look edible too." Gabriel's smile widened.

Silence! descended around them as everyone wondered if they had heard right or wrong.

The captain stared at him, Edgar stopped moving, and Matthew's mouth opened without producing a sound. Even Sophie turned toward Gabriel.

For the first time, the captain's expression visibly twisted.

"You're courting death."

The white mark erupted. Pale power rolled from the captain's body, shoving the natural mana around him away. Faint scorch marks spread across the roots beneath his feet. He was still Hero-rank, but the mark was forcing him toward the Champion threshold.

Thin cracks appeared around the mark, and several blood vessels burst in his left eye. His face tightened as the light continued to spread. Whatever power he was drawing through the mark, his body couldn't endure it for long.

Gabriel's battle intent only intensified. He lowered his stance and tightened both hands around Crimson Judgement.

"Sophie."

"Hmm?"

"Leave the rest to you and Edgar."

Sophie glanced across the altar and nodded.

"What about you?"

Gabriel's gaze never left the captain.

"Obviously, I'm keeping the biggest one."

His boots shifted against the cracked stone as he placed himself directly between the captain and the others. The remaining ritualists were no longer his immediate concern. Sophie and Edgar could handle them. For the next few seconds, all Gabriel needed was enough space to find out exactly what that white mark could do.

Blood Rush activated! ℴℴ𝗺

Twenty percent of Gabriel's current HP vanished in a beat. Red battle aura erupted around him, flooding his muscles with violent power. His heartbeat hammered against his ribs, and the captain's movements seemed to slow before his eyes.

The rush would last ten seconds. After that, sixty seconds of Blood Exhaustion would keep him from using Blood Rush or any other high-output burst skill.

Gabriel stepped forward and the captain did the same.

Red battle aura and white divine power collided at the center of the old altar with a boom.

Far beneath them, the withered World Tree root trembled.

The Church's corruption had already eaten deep enough to crack open the passage beneath it. Removing three nails had stopped the ritualists from claiming the root, but it couldn't close what their ritual had opened.

Stone split in the darkness below. Dust poured from the ceiling of an ancient subterranean tunnel as something massive approached from its depths.

A gigantic black foot crushed the loose stones beneath it. Another heavy step followed, then a third.

A goblin nearly three meters tall emerged from the darkness, carrying a black spear covered in dark-red patterns. Its dark-red eyes lifted toward the trembling ceiling. Behind it, countless goblins filled the underground passage.

This army had never appeared on the surface battlefield or headed toward the Fifth Outpost Sector or Seventh Outer Outpost. It had waited beneath the forest for the sealed passage to open.

The towering goblin raised its spear. The dark-red patterns along it flashed in response to the corruption clinging to the root above.

The goblin commander bared its fangs. "It's finally open." It pointed the spear forward. "Go in."

With a thunderous rumble, the goblin army began advancing toward the old altar.