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Asia wasn't someone who knew how to hide her feelings.
Tears blurring her vision, she rushed toward Diadora.
"Mr. Diadora!"
Her voice trembled, hoarse with anger.
If Anos had said it, she would not doubt it.
But why?
Why would he do something like that?
Asia's nature was kind to a fault, She needed to hear it from him.
"That's… straightforward."
Anos watched her charge forward and sighed, then followed.
As he did, he casually took Ophis' hand again, She offered no resistance.
Her deep black eyes studied him closely same dark hair, same dark eyessomething in her gaze flickered
...
Meanwhile—
Diadora, lost in thought, suddenly heard the familiar voice.
"Mr. Diadora!"
He turned instinctively.
And saw the saint he had been obsessing over.
"Asia! I've been looking everywhere for you! When I heard you were expelled from the Church, I searched for you nonstop!"
He hurried toward her, a story already forming in his mind.
But—
"Please don't come any closer."
Asia's tone was firmer than he had ever heard.
"Did you deliberately expose the fact that I healed you to the Church?"
Her question was heavy.
There was still hope in her eyes.
Hope that he would deny it.
Hope that the life she saved was worth saving.
Diadora froze for half a second—
Then smiled.
"So someone told you, huh?"
"Yes, I wanted the saint to be expelled, Only then could I truly approach you... Hahaha…"
He didn't bother denying it.
If she knew, then someone had informed her.
No matter how he tried to spin it, suspicion would remain.
And if suspicion lingered, his carefully crafted hero narrative would collapse.
So—
He dropped the mask.
Yes.
He admitted it.
This wasn't how he had planned to harvest the fruit.
But picking it early might be… exciting in its own way.
That was how his mind worked.
Asia simply cried.
She understood.
Even if she had been naïve, she wasn't blind to the truth once it was placed before her.
"I suppose this was inevitable," Anos' voice came calmly from behind her, "but seeing you make my Asia cry is still unpleasant."
Diadora had been preparing to seize her outright when he finally noticed Anos.
"…You."
He hadn't sensed him approach.
"You're the one who killed Raynare."
That was all he knew.
He didn't know about the suppressed dragon soul.
Didn't know about the defeated nekomata.
He had stayed away from the earlier battle and had incomplete information.
"Diadora," Anos smiled faintly, "how about you join Raynare?"
Before Diadora could react—
Light flared across the ground.
In an instant, everyone including Ophis vanished.
Anos wasn't foolish enough to leave evidence behind.
If you were going to erase someone—
You did it cleanly.
---
When Diadora regained his bearings, the surroundings had changed.
"So you're full of tricks…"
He studied Anos more carefully now.
"Diadora," Anos said lightly, "there's something you should know."
He wasn't even slightly concerned.
"Ark Sphere, Execute Command 001."
[Acknowledged.]
[Executing Command 001.]
Anos' presence shifted.
Even Ophis glanced sideways.
When he opened his eyes again—
There was something different.
[Sacred Overdrive Mode — Activated.]
They were all standing on the same ground.
Yet Diadora felt as though he were being looked down upon from above.
"…What is this?"
Asia stared in awe.
Sacred light radiated from Anos' body.
The sense of holiness and redemption was overwhelming.
The Lord truly had descended.
Ophis stared at him openly now.
"…Interesting."
Then, quietly—
"Perhaps… viable."
Diadora, however, felt only danger.
"You're with the Church!"
He sensed the terrifying sacred power emanating from Anos.
"No."
Anos smiled.
If anything, it would be the Church belonging to him.
"I'm here to deliver judgment."
He formed a blade of pure, condensed holy light in his hand.
Against a devil—
Sacred power was the most efficient solution.
"Judgment?!" Diadora burst into manic laughter. "What are you, a Seraph? God? You think you can judge me?"
He clutched his stomach, laughing.
He wasn't unprepared.
"It's not you who will judge anyone," he snarled, his expression twisting, his body subtly distorting, "it's time for me to begin the ritual of the fallen!"
A writhing mass of dark energy formed in his hand.
His obsession burned openly now.
The ceremony he had long fantasized about—
He intended to force it into reality.
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