The battle erupted in an instant.
This time, Lloyd chose to confront them head-on. A blaze of incandescent white flame rose within his pupils, and moments later, a dense divine armor enveloped his body. His speed was so overwhelming that the air inside the room howled violently as he moved.
The demon hunters had never expected that Lloyd himself was also one of their kind. Before they could even make sense of the situation, Lloyd was already upon them, wielding his nail sword and folding blade like a bolt of lightning descending in broad daylight.
It was a devastating strike. The dense divine armor was Lloyd's strongest defense. With such protection, he could attack without restraint, completely unconcerned about the enemy's blades.
The exchange lasted only for a heartbeat.
The instant they clashed, a violent explosion erupted. Lloyd threw out the weapon in his hand like a flying dagger. The flint inside sparked upon impact, and those tiny sparks immediately ignited the pure black, viscous liquid contained within.
The lacquered antimony burned fiercely. The surging flames devoured all the oxygen in the room in a single moment. First came the unbearable sensation of suffocation, followed immediately by extreme heat and the crushing force of the explosion.
The windows shattered beneath the raging shockwave, falling like countless blades from above. The wooden furniture was swallowed by flames and reduced to charred remains. The three people at the center of the explosion were thrown away instantly, slammed heavily against the ground as the force continued to spread outward. Even Shyermans, who had already fled some distance away, was struck down by the impact, as if an enormous stone had pressed against his body.
Several seconds later, a violent wind carrying icy rain poured into the room. Amid the smoke that had yet to disperse, Lloyd struggled to stand.
As the person closest to the center of the explosion, even with the protection of his divine armor, he looked utterly miserable. His body was covered in wounds, and countless cracks spread across the armor.
He breathed heavily, his heart still trembling.
He had never imagined that lacquered antimony would possess such terrifying power.
After spending an entire night thinking it over, Lloyd had finally figured out how to utilize this strange substance. Turning it into bullets was impossible. The moment he fired, it would explode just like the divine armor firearm and blow up directly in his own hands. Instead, it was far better to create a throwing weapon, something like a dagger.
However, there was one crucial thing to remember.
The throwing distance had to exceed the killing radius of the substance. Otherwise, the result would be exactly what had just happened.
Although he had also been caught in the explosion, thanks to the divine armor, Lloyd was merely left looking battered. Looking ahead, he saw the two demon hunters lying motionless on the ground. They had no protection whatsoever, and at such close range, the explosion had torn their bodies apart beyond recognition.
One of the demon hunters had reacted in time. He had drawn his nail sword and raised it before himself, but that decision had instead dragged him into death's embrace. The nail sword shattered under the force of the explosion, and the broken fragments pierced into his body, while blood poured endlessly from his wounds.
Lloyd did not hesitate.
Gripping his nail sword, he leapt forward. With this unexpected attack, he intended to further expand his advantage.
An ominous power began to rise.
The demon hunters allowed their secret blood to surge freely. In a situation like this, there was only life or death. Within only a few breaths, one of them had already regained enough strength to move.
Truly, they were demon hunters.
Their vitality was terrifying beyond imagination.
The hunter gripped his nail sword and swung at Lloyd. Half of his body had been blown into a bloody mess, and Lloyd could even see the pale bones beneath the torn flesh.
But Lloyd was faster.
The nail sword pierced directly into his heart.
Then, with a powerful twist, he crushed the heart completely.
"You don't want to become a monster, do you?"
Lloyd whispered.
Yet even as he spoke, his hand never stopped moving. He did not know what abilities these demon hunters possessed, so he had to kill them before they had the chance to activate them.
The demon hunter's strike descended at that moment, but it struck against the divine armor.
Having just suffered a devastating injury, he no longer possessed enough strength to break through Lloyd's defense. And then, another flash of sword light descended.
In such a short amount of time, the other demon hunter had also recovered and launched his attack.
Lloyd had always been proud of the strength he possessed as a demon hunter.
But now he was facing enemies who were also demon hunters.
Not one.
Several.
Although he still held the advantage, he could not help but feel troubled.
Then, suddenly, that ominous feeling surged violently.
Lloyd had no time to care about the falling blade. Instead, he stared at the demon hunter before him with a trace of horror.
On that burned and distorted face, flesh began to writhe violently.
Lloyd tried to twist the sword embedded in the man's body, but no matter how much force he applied, the nail sword remained completely motionless.
The flesh rapidly regenerated, spreading like countless red threads. They wrapped around and locked the blade in place. The secret blood surged madly.
And in the blink of an eye, dazzling flames rose within the demon hunter's eyes.
"Demonization…"
Lloyd cursed under his breath.
He forcefully swung the blade upward, creating a violent gust of wind. He completely abandoned his defense and allowed another sword to pierce into his body.
On a religious level, the Silver Shackles were more like a gate leading toward darkness.
They were firmly sealed shut, and unless absolutely necessary, they would never allow a demon hunter to step through. Even those who crossed that threshold would have to pay a terrible price.
Although it was a method used by the Gospel Church to control demon hunters, Lloyd understood the reason behind it.
When a demon hunter lost their rationality, this sword that was supposed to defend the mind would become the claws of madness itself.
Yet now, that gate had been thrown wide open.
These new sect demon hunters could step through it whenever they wished.
This was exactly why Lloyd found them troublesome.
They had no restrictions.
If Lloyd could not instantly incapacitate or kill them, then as the battle continued, they would only become more terrifying, eventually transforming into true monsters.
Lloyd could do the same.
He could allow his secret blood to continue rising until he crossed the threshold into demonization.
But the Silver Shackles within his body would punish him.
It would only accelerate his own death.
The sharp blade descended.
A heavy strike tore into flesh.
The nail sword cut into the demon hunter's neck, but because his secret blood had surged, his body had become several times stronger than before. What flowed from the wound was no longer ordinary flesh and blood, but countless red threads that pulled at the torn flesh, preventing the blade from advancing.
Empowered by his secret blood, the demon hunter launched his counterattack.
He punched Lloyd with tremendous force.
The divine armor shattered under the impact.
Then he grabbed the nail sword embedded in his neck and snapped it apart.
Behind Lloyd, another demon hunter stabbed downward with his sword. Realizing that he could not break through Lloyd's armor directly, he targeted the gaps between the plates instead.
The sharp tip emerged from Lloyd's shoulder.
"So this is why I hate this…"
The situation had completely reversed.
Lloyd had fallen into a disadvantage.
But he did not care.
He only stared coldly at the demon hunter before him.
The man's body had already begun to undergo obvious demonization. The fragments embedded inside him from the explosion were being forced out by the rapidly growing flesh. A meaningless roar escaped his mouth, like the cry of a wild beast.
"To step into madness so easily…"
"To rely on madness so completely…"
Lloyd looked at him with pity.
Demonization was a forbidden gate.
Yet these new sect demon hunters did not understand that.
They were beings born upon the remains of the old church. Their existence was not to protect a world governed by reason.
They were merely tools of the new pope.
A far greater force surged from within Lloyd.
He released the broken hilt in his hand and grabbed the shattered blade lodged in the demon hunter's neck. As his fingers tightened around it, blood seeped through the gaps between his fingers.
A force like an immovable mountain drove the blade forward.
A terrifying sound slowly emerged.
Lloyd ignored their attacks.
He allowed the divine armor to continue breaking apart, piece by piece.
He only tightened his grip and pushed the blade deeper.
One thread snapped.
Then another.
Countless red threads were severed one after another.
It was as if he were cutting through indestructible steel.
Every muscle in his body tightened.
Under that devastating strike, the nail sword that had pierced through his shoulder snapped apart completely, leaving only the broken tip embedded inside Lloyd's flesh.
Amid the earth-shaking roar, every thread of flesh, every strand of blood, every fragment of bone—
All of it was severed.
Once the connection between the brain and the body was cut, the will could no longer control the raging secret blood.
The demon hunter was dead.
His extinguished eyes were filled with disbelief.
Although Father Anthony had once told them that the old church's demon hunters were different from them, he had never imagined the gap would be this enormous.
"You rely too much on demonization."
Lloyd spoke softly.
The strongest power humanity possessed was the rational will.
And demonization was the process of allowing that will to be completely devoured.
Lloyd turned around swiftly.
Still holding the broken blade, he drove it backward into the heart of another demon hunter.
Fear filled the hunter's eyes.
Throughout all his training, he had never encountered someone like Lloyd.
In truth, Lloyd's own body was covered in injuries as well.
Yet it was as if some burning fury was supporting him, keeping him standing.
The demon hunter was pierced through and pinned against the wall.
Then the barrel of a shotgun pressed against his chest.
The weapon fired.
The pellets repeatedly tore through his flesh, leaving him barely alive. He was like a blood-soaked sack hanging there, streams of crimson pouring from countless wounds.
His eyes still carried anger.
But when he saw Lloyd's cold gaze, his heart sank into an endless frozen sea.
He had been too slow.
He had relied too much on so-called demonization.
Secret blood was a sharp sword.
The more it surged, the sharper that sword became, until eventually nothing could stand before it.
But in the end, it was still only a tool.
The one who truly determined its power was the person wielding it.
The demon hunters and Lloyd possessed the same secret blood.
Yet Lloyd was far stronger than them.
Throughout those endless years, Lloyd had learned through countless battles between life and death how to use the smallest amount of secret blood to achieve the most efficient combat.
"You cannot even be called demon hunters."
"You are nothing more than miserable creatures who were lucky enough to survive the corruption of secret blood."
As he spoke, Lloyd severed the hunter's head.
The demonization abruptly ceased.
The headless corpse fell like a lifeless statue, crashing to the ground.
Blood painted the wall.
They had possessed a chance to win.
They could have searched for Lloyd's weaknesses during the battle.
They could have relied on precise cooperation and agility.
But when faced with danger, they abandoned thought entirely.
They handed their choices over to the devil within their hearts.
The surging secret blood was indeed powerful.
But that was never the way it was meant to be used.
Lloyd did not even spare the corpses a glance.
He turned and ran in the direction Shyermans had escaped.
And during that pursuit, Lloyd himself failed to notice one thing.
His own strength and recovery ability had far surpassed what they once were.
This was the power he had gained upon his rebirth.
The power of the Holy Grail.