Healing System

The two held eye contact; however, Michael could not help but feel uneasy. It seemed like even if he used all his trump cards, the battle might still end with him losing.

Despite this being a newly ascended Bishop, her strength was still great—Tier 3. She was practically a whole tier above him now.

But there had to be some loopholes. Can one really gain such strength without a price, especially when their mana was tainted by those dark threads?

'And so is hers... huh?' Michael inspected the woman before him, and to his surprise, her threads were not pure black like the others. Instead, they held a faint silvery color that he could not quite grasp the depth of.

There was also something else off. The woman gave him a sense of familiarity, but he could not remember meeting her anywhere.

She did not immediately attack him. Instead, she walked up to the four cultist corpses and picked a few of them up, levitating them just a bit off the ground. A small frown seemed to form on her face, but just as quickly, it disappeared as she returned her gaze to him.

"That was cruel," she said with a pout and sent an annoyed glare at him, as if she were some sort of child.

Michael raised a brow at that reaction. "Cruel? Do you even know what kind of group you are a part of?" he questioned with clear disdain.

It seemed comical—an Evangelist telling someone they were cruel. Especially when they sacrificed innocents for power, he could not understand it.

"You killed them; that makes you cruel." The woman began reasoning with him using her own logic.

'Is she a child?' Michael could not help but think upon hearing her words.

However, chatting time was over. He could not let someone as dangerous as her leave the building; God knows what kind of damage she would inflict with that childish personality.

As she had her back turned towards him, Michael cast

Piercing Light

, which hurtled at an incredible speed towards her. However, to his surprise, the skill had no effect. The black aura completely negated his attack and dissipated it without her even having to turn around.

For some reason, she seemed hesitant to attack him, though he might have imagined it. Perhaps there was some sort of fatigue from whatever ritual she had performed earlier.

The system was unusually quiet, too. Michael had expected it to start giving advice the moment the woman appeared, but alas, nothing happened.

He checked the status screen and noticed that

Sanctuary

was finally off cooldown. It was the perfect time to use it.

However, just as he was about to act, a large amount of mana gripped him and smashed him into the ground, slightly cracking it. It was not painful, so he stood up shortly after, not suffering a single injury.

'She attacked halfheartedly? Is she actually some naive child the cultists raised?' Michael was starting to get really confused by her actions.

"I am Aurora. What is your name?" She turned back around and randomly introduced herself.

'...' His speechlessness did not last long as he decided to play along while devising a strategy to deal with her. "Michael. Say, why are you here?"

'Would

Sanctuary

even be enough for her...?'

"Ah... Michael, I had a dog named Michael. His fur was the same color as your hair," she said with a chuckle, ignoring his question and heading towards the exit, seemingly uninterested in him further.

But just before she left, he summoned a massive shield and pushed her back—or that was the plan, anyway. He only managed to push her a few meters.

Aurora turned around and tilted her head at him. "What are you doing, Michael? I thought we were friends now... why are you stopping me?"

He noticed that her words were becoming more coherent, as was her tone. Just a few minutes ago, she had a childish voice and personality. Now, however, it was a mix of both combined with something else entirely.

Almost like whatever ritual she had undergone momentarily messed with her mind.

But now that her actual personality seemed to be returning, it didn't spell good news for him.

'This whole situation has been fucked up ever since she came out... just who is this girl?' He looked at her pure white eyes again, but this time, they held a faint malice.

Just as he was about to speak, Michael noticed her plop her four cultist "friends" onto the ground and begin walking toward him. Her steps were much more confident and serious than before.

Unlike the previous naive moments where she questioned him and laughed at seemingly nothing, this time, she did not hesitate. She used some kind of invisible spell that sent him hurtling backward.

Michael just barely reacted, casting a multi-layered shield on himself in the last moment. And even then, a glance at his status screen revealed 20% of his total HP shaved off in that one exchange.

'...This is a little dangerous, no?' He thought sarcastically and cast a heal on himself, immediately restoring his HP to full.

You should be very careful. That attack was more like a test. She is not yet used to her newfound strength. My advice is to end this as fast as you can.

Michael nodded at the system, which had finally decided to speak. His current plan was to wait for her to approach and cast

Sanctuary

. He needed the upper hand in their next exchange because it was almost guaranteed that, at full strength, she could kill him in a single hit.

Of course, that was only the case if he didn't use shields.

Once again, she began walking toward him, her hand already outstretched, gathering a massive amount of mana in her palm. An attack was forming, and the only way he could block it was with

SanctuaryNôv(el)B\\jnn

. Without waiting any further, he used it.

"Sanctuary."

Just like before, the halo lit up, expanding its golden glow across a 100-meter radius, covering the entire room they were in.

And, crucially, covering Aurora, whose brows were furrowed in annoyance and confusion. She must have noticed her mana was not flowing as it normally did.

While he could not completely inhibit the mana flow of someone stronger than himself, he could at least slow it.

Michael already felt the limits of the skill. It was as if the mana around Aurora had a will of its own, making it incredibly difficult to control.

The only reason he had defeated the demon earlier so easily was because their strength was similar; there hadn't been as many limitations.

He sighed and began draining the remaining mana from the atmosphere, restoring his own mana pool in mere moments before meeting Aurora's glare again.

'Should I just use

Heavenly Judgment

...?' Michael had a stray thought, his imagination running dry.

Yeah, drop a nuke under the city. What could go wrong?

'Oh... right.' He inwardly facepalmed and began twisting the mana in the air, making it unstable. This, in turn, made it more difficult for Aurora to use her strange abilities.

But one thing was clear.

'This will not be an easy fight...'