Chapter 7: 3.5 – A protagonist’s coming of age ceremony

January 2^nd, year 781 of the Imperial calendar

In a town deep inside duke Daniel Hargus' - the human duke's territory, there was a boy praying inside an abandoned church.

The boy's name was Arthur Kilvillain. If Theodore Gray had seen the boy, he would have immediately identified him as the protagonist of the novel 'The Holy swordsman'.

The boy, who has pitch black hair and brilliant bright golden eyes, always prays to the statue of the goddess of Light after his sword art training.

Sword arts are a type of battle art - powerful techniques that could unleash the martial prowess of a person. Sword arts, or battle arts in general, are categorized into 5 grades. I, II, III, IV, and V, in ascending order.

The grades determine how powerful the battle art will be upon mastery. His sword style, [V - Holy sword dance] style was a V-rated battle art passed down to him by his father.

IV and V rated battle arts were so rare and powerful that a kingdom would mobilize half of their forces just to secure them.

Of course, being largely uninformed of the outside world, Arthur had no way of knowing this.

Not being aware of him having a literal national strategic weapon in his hands, Arthur continued to train away until exhaustion like he normally would.

Today, however, was a special day. It was the day of the coming-of age-ceremony. It is one of, if not the most important event in a person's life.

Ever since his parents died, Arthur had not once cared about anything. All he knew was to practice and perfect the sword art, the last thing his father gave him before passing away.

Leaning against a wall, he started to fall asleep, unaware of the commotion that was happening in the nearby town.

***

In the town of Plexcious, not too far from where Arthur was, the coming-of-age ceremony was being held.

Unlike every year, however, there was an important figure present in this town, it was the captain of the Holy knight order of Light, Marx Letium.

As to why an S-ranked powerhouse of the Empire was here, it was because he received direct orders from the Pope of Light a few days prior.

According to the revelation the Pope received not too long ago, in this little town, the hero chosen by the Goddess of light will appear. The captain's job was to identify and bring the hero to the church of Light to undergo training.

Well, it won't be that hard, the captain thought.

Well, normally, he would have been right. He was in a town that was in the middle of nowhere after all. What's the worst that could happen?

***

Almost everyone was done with the ceremony. The captain's face darkened for there were no signs of the Hero. All of the children that have awakened their Status was, for lack of a better term, utterly talentless.

Has the Pope gone senile already? He thought.

Waking him up from his seemingly blasphemous thoughts, however, was a little girl with pointed ears. She elegantly walked the Holy orb to awaken her status interface. The girl was obviously of Elven descent. She has rather attractive features for a 10-year-old, with a well developed figure.

She could have easily been mistaken for a noble's daughter if not for the rags that she apparently wore as clothes. Her lush green hair that flows down her back like a stream and jade pair of eyes further cemented her beauty.

Waking up from his stupor and cursing at himself for being captivated by a 10-year-old kid, Marx grimaced once more. That little girl was most likely the last person to awaken, and he still had not found the hero.

She can't be the hero. The Knight captain thought. After all, people would laugh at his entire religion if the so-called Holy Hero of Light turned out to be a frail little kid wearing rags for clothes.

Maybe the pope has gone senile after all. To even make a mistake regarding the Holy revelation, the future of the Church of Light looks blea—

=====

Name: Marie Holftman

Race: Elf

Rank: G+

Strength: G

Agility: G+

Stamina: G+

Intelligent: G+

Mana capacity: G+

Profession: Archer (Lv.1)

--

Affinities:

[Perfect - Wind magic]

[Intermediate - Light magic]

--

Skills:

[A - Hawk eyes]

The skill allows the user to see all things clearly up to 2km away. If the user focuses their sight on a target for 15 seconds, their location will always be known to the user for the next 20 minutes. The skill raises the user's proficiency with any bow-type weapons.

--

Battle arts:

-NONE-

=====

Who would have thought a kid like this existed in this backwater town? Marx widened his eyes in surprise. 

Like any overly excited 10-year-old child would, Marie displayed her status for everyone to see.

There was an uproar. She was, without a doubt, extremely talented. She was already at G+ rank when she awakened. And there weren't many people with perfect affinity with the wind element like her either.

'Could this girl be the hero in the revelation?' The holy knight captain thought. After all, she was the last of children to awaken, and her affinity towards Light was pretty decent.

Well, she has to be. Though I've never heard of a bow-wielding hero before. Marx grimaced. A hero of Light being proficient with the bow was never heard of before. And the church of Light wasn't even specialized in long-ranged combat. 

Maybe we have to ask for help from those cowards at the church of Wind, He thought.

Despite his thoughts, Marx had already decided what to do. Even if she weren't the hero of Light, he would still scout her as the church of Light definitely needed a good bowman.

Just as he was about to call out to the girl, however, a man in a dark cloak suddenly jumped out of the crowd, grabbed the girl and ran away.

The man was barely a threat to Marx. Yet, he managed to flee from the knight captain, easily at that. As the figure of the hooded man and the girl melted into the trees' shadows, Void mana erupted from the spot he was at mere moments ago.

"Void fiends" Marx mumbled. 

Why are they here, he thought.

This town was not special in any way. Neither was a retired swordsmaster living here nor was this a strategic location for the Void fiends. After eliminating all the possibilities, Marx came to a painful conclusion.

The Void fiends, they had spies in the Church! 

He immediately reported this to the Archbishops that accompanied him, and commanded his subordinates to start searching for the girl - the hero candidate.

Hours passed without any leads. That was, until the kidnapped girl showed up herself with a bloodied boy on her back.

***

Although Arthur was fast asleep, he was always vigilant of his surrounding. After all, he learnt his lesson from almost dying due to his carelessness just months prior.

Hearing footsteps, Arthur jolted awake. He could tell that it belonged to a human, or at least something humanoid.

Is Marie coming here? he thought, before immediately pushing such thoughts away.

The footstep was too heavy for it to be Marie - the elven girl with long green hair and and jade eyes that helped Arthur come to terms with the death of his father.

Raising his vigilance to the extreme, he peeked into the main prayer room. 

In the middle of the room was Marie, lying there, with her hands and feet bound together by sturdy ropes.

Next to her was a hooded man in black-clad armor laughing about how he was sure to get a promotion after this. 

However, to call him a human was a bit of a stretch. His skin was black, pitch black, maybe even blacker than the color of Arthur's hair. He looked exactly like the Void fiends that Arthur saw in a book. That was not to say that Arthur needed to read books to know what Void fiends looked like. After all, his respectable father was murdered by a Void fiend right in front of his eyes.

"YOU BASTARD!"

"YOU'RE TRYING TO TAKE MARIE AWAY FROM ME TOO? WASN'T KILLING MY FATHER ENOUGH FOR YOU?" he roared with rage.

Startled by the loud noise, the Void fiend jumped back before calming himself down almost immediately, snickering at Arthur.

"Well, that scared me. I thought for a second there that the absurdly strong human I've seen earlier today was already here. Luckily, it's just a brat that haven't even awakened."

Ignoring the Void fiend's remarks, Arthur rushed straight towards it.

His father, before passing away, had always told him that everyone deserved a second chance in life, however bad they may be. 

Indeed. To Arthur, everyone deserved a second chance. Everyone except for Void fiends, that is. After all, they murdered the person he cherished the most in cold blood. And here they were again, daring to harm his one and only friend right in front of his eyes.

Arthur slashed his sword straight at the Void fiend's neck, only to have it be easily blocked by the fiend's claws.

The Void fiend then used his other hand to try and grab Arthur's neck. Fortunately, Arthur stepped back, distancing himself from the opponent before that happened. 

Using the brief moment of respite to cool his head down, Arthur realized how foolish he had been. Not only had he thrown away the element of surprise, he also even engaged in direct battle with an opponent well above his level when he should have just grabbed Marie and bolted out of there.

This Void fiend, it has to be at least E- rank, Arthur thought as he assessed the fiend.

Well, it's too late to regret now, Arthur readied his stance and charged at the Void fiend yet again.

Just as the Void fiend was about to yawn from the overly telegraphed attack, Arthur's figure blurred, before appearing behind the fiend, surprising it greatly.

However, the difference between a non-awakened and a E- ranked individual was like heavens and earth.

Despite taking the full brunt of Arthur's perfectly executed technique, the Void fiend was left without even a scratch. 

Arthur immediately started attacking again, assaulting the enemy with a storm of stabs and slashes. The Void fiend, however, just stood there, motionlessly, seemingly bored from Arthur's futile attempts at wounding it.

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Wanting to torture Arthur for daring to waste his time, the Void fiend controlled his strength and punched Arthur in the abdomen. Arthur, not being able to evade the fast attack, spurted blood and fell to the ground. The Void fiend then repeatedly kicked Arthur in the stomach, disregarding his cries of pain.

Marie, who woke up moments earlier due to the sound of the skirmish, widened her eyes in horror as she saw Arthur lying on the ground like a bloodied rag getting tortured. She immediately used her newly acquired wind magic to cut the rope and ran towards Arthur, aiming to rescue him from his predicament.

However, she could not do anything, as the Void fiend had already noticed her movements. As she was only a few meters from Arthur who seemed to be in a lot of pain, the Void fiend suddenly appeared besides her and grabbed her by the next, aiming to strangle her until she passes out again.

It can't end like this, Arthur thought.

His friend, Marie was the only reason why he hasn't charged straight into the Void regions yet. And now, she was being strangled to death right in front of his eyes.

Yet, he couldn't do anything but to watch her die.

For the first time in his life, he felt hopeless. Not even when his father died did he feel this emotion.

Just as Arthur was about to give up, however, a voice rang out in his head.

|My child, do you wish for power?| 

|Do you wish for revenge, do you wish to never feel the dread of losing your loved ones again?|

The voice, full of dignity and holiness, asked him.

'Yes, I do' Arthur replied in his head, wanting to kill this despicable Void fiend that was torturing his dear friend to death.

|Then, accept my power and become my apostle!|

Just as the voice stopped, a brilliant pillar of golden light descended upon Arthur before vanishing as quickly as it appeared. However, that brief yet powerful surge of holy power was enough for several powerful individuals, including Marx the knight captain, to take notice of it.

Not aware of the commotion he had just caused, Arthur slowly stood up, still bloodied. However, there was something different to him. That something manifested as the translucent blue screen that only he could see.

=====

Name: Arthur Kilvillain

Race: Human (Divine vessel)

Rank: G+

Strength: G+

Agility: G

Stamina: G+

Intelligent: G+

Mana capacity: G+

Profession: Swordsman (Lv.3)

--

Affinities:

[Perfect - Holy magic]

[High – Fire magic]

[High – Water magic]

[High - Wind magic]

[High – Earth magic]

--

Skills:

[SSS – The Goddess of Light’s vessel] 

The skill given to the one chosen by the Goddess of Light. Allows the user to borrow the strength of various gods allied with the Goddess of Light. The user is given the highest affinity to Holy magic. Excessive uses can strain the user’s body.

[SSS – Hero’s bloodline]

The skill granted to the successor of the first hero – Arthur Vritious. Allows the user to have high control over the four basic elements. Increases the user’s proficiency with the sword significantly. Grants the user the qualification to wield Excalibur, the legendary holy sword that the First hero Arthur Vritious used to slay Celestial Lumet Carsotian.

[A – Appraisal]

Given to Arthur Kilvillain as a gift from the Goddess of Light, the user can appraise everything without the use of artifacts. The skill can also be used to appraise other people, although the user cannot inspect affinities, skills or Battle Arts with it. If the target's strength is much higher than the user’s current strength, the appraisal will fail.

--

Battle arts:

[V – Holy sword dance style]

A battle art that focuses on disguising feints and true attacks alike under the veil of a beautiful sword dance.  The art had been recognized by the Goddess of Light as the most mesmerizing sword art she had ever seen. As it was recognized by one of the Great Gods, the sword art has been enhanced. Its every attacks are now imbued with Holy attribute.

 

“This beautiful art allows the wielder and the blade to become one, resulting in an elegant yet lethal dance of blades.”

                                                                                         -The Goddess of Light-

=====

Arthur Vritious... I'm his... successor? Arthur widened his eyes in surprise.

Arthur Vritious, the first hero, the man that single handedly ended the biggest threat to the continent, Celestial Lumet Carsotian.

The Celestials, also known as demi-gods, are being above everything else but below the gods and goddesses. Regardless of races, once a mortal transcends SSS+ rank, they will evolve into Celestials.

Celestials can't interfere much with the mortal world, just like the gods. When a celestial transcends, they have to choose a god to serve. In the case of Lumet Casotian, he foolishly chose to follow the Evil God.

The Evil God, who were having a war with every gods and goddesses there is, finally acquired a servant after what felt like a millennium. The god decided to take a gamble and used a significant portion of his power to send Lumet Carsotian back to the mortal realm, tasking him with killing all the followers of every other gods.

The gods were obviously not content with this and tried to use every methods to stop Carsotian. However, they could not stop the rampaging Celestial without sacrificing a large amount of their power like the Evil God did.

When the world was about to meet its end, however, the Goddess of Light decided to make the sacrifice and gave her blessings to a mortal, Arthur Vritious.

Due to the accomplishments of Arthur, the Goddess of Light gained many new followers. So much so that the amount of powers she gained greatly surpassed the one she had before, making her the strongest among the Gods.

Before Carsotian's defeat, however, the Evil God commanded him to open rifts to his domain.

The Evil God's domain, which was overflowed with the Void element, invaded the world. The Void corrupted any life forms that came into contact with it.

Arthur Vritious, along with all the other gods and goddesses, didn't take notice of the Evil God's schemes until it was too late. 

By then, the Void had already corrupted 20% of the continent. The humans that were corrupted by the void, the Void fiends, built churches and kingdoms dedicated to the Evil God. They waged wars with nearby kingdoms, winning almost every battles thanks to their absolute control over void beasts - corrupted monsters.

Arthur Kilvillain died protecting the Empire from the Void fiends. The other heroes, being weaker than Arthur, also perished. As a result, 40% of the continent had already fell to the corruption of the Void when the Goddess of Light spent her power once more to choose the mortal known as Arthur Kilvillain as her champion. Only the Empire and a few other kingdoms and theocracies still stood strong against the attack of the Void fiends to this day.

Leaving the history of the continent aside, the battle between Arthur Kilvillain and the Void fiend has started its second round.

The Void fiend, who were blown a couple of meters away from Marie by the sudden burst of power, eyed Arthur warily.

Arthur, not wanting to waste any times, charged towards the Void fiend and attacked it with an overhead strike.

The attack, which would normally be extremely telegraphed, surprisingly worked thanks to Arthur's new found speed. Black blood spurted from the fiend's left shoulder, which was cleanly cut off by Arthur's sword.

Badly injured, the Void fiend jumped back a few dozens of meters.

"DIE, YOU VERMIN!" the Void fiend screamed as he hurled several magic spells towards Arthur, aiming to take him out from a distance.

Unluckily for the Void fiend though, Arthur's new power came with high affinities with all of the four basic elements. Thus, Arthur counterattacked by launching spells of his own, cancelling out the Void fiend's barrage of magic attacks.

Horrified that the little brat who was groveling under the ground not too long ago was nearly as strong as him now, the Void fiend prepared to run away using the technique he previously used to escape from the Knight captain.

Unluckily for the Void fiend, Arthur sensed that he was doing something fishy and launched holy magic, the polar opposite of void magic, towards him, cancelling out his [Void transfer]. Catching the Void fiend off guard, Arthur dashed forward for the final attack.

Seeing no other way out of this situation, the Void fiend enforced his claws with Void mana, preparing to meet with Arthur's Holy mana coated sword.

In a normal contest of strength, the Void fiend would have won 10 times out of 10. However, this was a clash between 2 opposing elements. Arthur's perfect control of the holy element exceeded the Void fiend's authority over the void mana. Thus, the void mana in the Void fiend's claws dispersed, leaving him at the mercy of Arthur's sword.

Not wasting the opportunity, Arthur shattered the fiend's claws and immediately decapitated the Void fiend.

Exhausted from overusing his strength, Arthur passed out, but not before catching a glimpse of the green-haired elven girl running towards him with a face full of worries.

***

In the town of Plexcious, Holy knight captain Marx Letinum was gathering his subordinates, preparing to investigate the huge burst of holy power in the direction of the abandoned church.

Just as he was about to mobilize his troops, however, he caught sight of a girl. It was the same green haired girl that was kidnapped hours ago.

Absolutely overjoyed, he quickly ran towards her.

Quickly glancing over the girl, the captain was relieved to see that she were unscathed.

'Good', he thought. After all, all those old Archbishops would surely chew him out if he returned with the hero candidate being near dead.

However, she was carrying something strange on her back. No, rather, someone strange. It was a boy, with hair as black as the night sky, all tattered and bloodied up.

Just as he was about to ask the elf girl about the boy, he felt a presence coming from him. A holy presence, specifically.

Intrigued, he put on his [Inspecting goggles], the C-ranked item that lets him see the status interface of people ranked lower than him.

'IT'S HIM' He widened his eyes in surprise as he inspected the boy.

His Status... he's definitely the hero! 

Satisfied with the discovery of the hero, he left the matter of investigating the surge of power for later as he quickly took the hero away from the girl and ran full speed towards the Archbishops that tagged along with him.

'Yep, definitely getting chewed out', he thought as he carried the wound-filled hero to the Archbishops for healing.

This little event was the start of a journey much grander than anyone could have ever expected.

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