Princess’s Struggle for Survival Chapter 567: Sword breaking Shackles

[Heaven’s Tremor, Solar Judgnt]

A pure white sun blotted out the entire sky, so intense that even the real sun hanging high in the heavens could no longer be seen. Scorching heatwaves swept through the town.

Weeds between the stone tiles quickly withered and drooped, then ignited under the hot wind, as a destructive flood of light elents descended upon the earth like a falling celestial sun.

Charlotte instantly understood Hebrew’s intent. She summoned a violent gust rising from the ground, using its counterforce to hinder the "Radiant Sun" from advancing.

However, Charlotte was rely a middle tier Arcanist mage, while the Pope of Light, Hebrew, stood at the peak of Arcanist, further empowered by a sacred light artifact of the sa rank as the [Sword of Light] serving as spellcasting material. Thus, this wind magic had barely any effect, only granting Lyra half a second more to think.

Within elental vision, violent fire and abundant light entwined, forming a devastating outward manifestation. All other elental particles paled under such an arrangent.

An intense suffocation overwheld Lyra. Even with her high light-elent resistance, she struggled to withstand the bombardnt of such a high-tier light spell, the so-called elental resistance being the natural scattering of elental properties upon impact due to affinity variance.

For a top-tier expert like the Pope of Light, control over light-elent particles had reached its pinnacle. Very few light particles can be resisted by affinity. Unless Lyra reached his level, her high Magnus-tier ntal strength simply couldn’t fully nullify the spell.

Let alone, this was not rely a pure light spell. Countless fire-elent particles were densely interwoven within, serving as a secondary guarantee for Lyra’s annihilation.

Even if she bore stolen glory upon her, there was no way she could withstand this strike.

Cherry-pink hair fluttered in the wind. Holy white armor reflects the searing flas. Light illuminated Lyra’s face, rendering her flawless, porcelain-smooth skin even paler.

Before such a surging cluster of light and fire elents, even shadows had nowhere to hide.

Feeling her life threatened, Lyra’s wrist trembled involuntarily. Her survival instinct urged her to flee imdiately, not to stand and block.

She had barely endured the earlier blast waves. Now facing an entire Arcanist-tier spell, how could she possibly resist?

Scorching heat blew against her armor. Her body temperature skyrocketed. Behind her, the city defense troops staggered in retreat, fleeing toward the protective bunker ant for their survival.

Amalia had clearly defined the bunker’s purpose during its construction: to protect withdrawing soldiers from the residual effects of Arcanist mage battles. In other words, it could only shield against blast waves, not withstand a direct point-blank strike from an Arcanist mage.

With current human empire magical technology, building a fortress capable of completely resisting Arcanist magic bombardnt was simply impossible.

If she fled now, everyone here would die. And the very bunker ant to protect them will beco their agonizing prison. The soldiers outside would be slowly roasted by the external firestorm, feeling their skin blister and dehydrate, their blood baked dry, limbs burned beyond use, nerves transmitting every inch of pain accurately, instead of a clean, instant carbonization.

"..."

At this mont, every extra second of hesitation reduced Lyra’s chance of safe retreat. Moreover, Hebrew’s original intention had been to kill her, sealing all escape routes the mont he began casting.

This brief hesitation seems to leave Lyra with only one choice. In truth, from the very beginning, she had only one path forward.

To withstand head-on this blazing solar inferno, whose casting scale spanned half the size of White Maple Town.

A translucent Sword of Light hovered before the girl’s chest. Her back’s luminous wings are fully unfurled. The silver-white holy armor blazed with radiation.

[Lightfall] operated at full speed. The once-brilliant spring of light now paled before the sun. Most light-elent particles had already been seized by Hebrew. What Lyra could control amounted to re firefly glimrs.

Then, the wind carried a ring into the holy light, and a chaotic, disordered spatial surge detonated [Heaven’s Tremor, Solar Judgnt].

Charlotte had thrown into the heart of the Radiant Sun the spatial ring that had accompanied her for years. The turbulence from spatial collapse absorbed a massive amount of light-elent particles and simultaneously ruptured a small section of the barrier.

Outside White Maple Town, Arcanist mages rushed to the scene keenly sensed this disturbance and imdiately reported to the silver-haired regent still in flight.

"Your Highness the Regent, there is significant spatial fluctuation ahead."

"It appears... a spatial artifact has been detonated."

A spatial artifact?

Hearing her companion’s words, Astrid prepared and tightened the ruby pendant at her chest, realizing what might be happening within White Maple Town.

Previously, outside Post City, Crown Prince Lucas had once detonated his spatial ring, severely damaging Second Prince Alistair and the carefully constructed breath-blocking barrier he had labored over.

Now, with Kingdom of Velys sealing off White Maple Town, the only possible one to detonate a spatial artifact would be soone from their side.

Could it be... Charlotte...

The image of that mature, elegant dark silhouette flashed through her mind. Astrid accelerated her flight.

At the battlefield’s center, sensing a breach in the barrier, Hebrew’s attention instantly snapped back to the barrier itself. The light waves rippling from his artifact repaired the spatial fissure sacred within half a second.

Seeing this, Charlotte narrowed her beautiful eyes, inwardly confirming her suspicion, growing even more anxious for Lyra’s plight.

As long as that light remained inside the spatial structure, the internal spatial turbulence could only cause limited impact, utterly insufficient to allow more people to escape.

Fortunately, although the spatial fissure was sealed in an instant, the escaped light-elent particles received no replenishnt. From that single blow, the might of [Heaven’s Tremor, Solar Judgnt] diminished by forty percent.

Yet even so, the energy contained within remains beyond anyone’s ability to confront directly.

The Radiant Sun roared downward, like a space-based weapon deployed in Earth’s orbit. Crushed beneath its imnse weight, Lyra resembled an ant, instantly swallowed by light in everyone’s view.

The sound of shattering glass echoed in Lyra’s ears, nearby watchtowers destroyed by light and heat. Scorching waves shattered every glass container, overturning flower pots and dinner plates.

Her palms stung from the shock. The ground beneath her boots cracked in layers. Her vision filled entirely with blinding white light, nothing else remaining.

Her sea of consciousness felt like an opened floodgate, rapidly draining away in the light. Contrasting the searing heat waves, a cold, dark death enveloped Lyra’s spirit.

Everything was ending.

All dreams, futures, hopes, everything will turn to ash in this beam of light.

Father, mother... they must be heartbroken...

Winter was approaching. Were they still waiting at ho for her return? Coarse yellow ale poured into large oak mugs. Knitted woolen sweaters placed in the wardrobe of her bedroom.

And Astrid... they had traveled so far together...

Apparently, she wasn’t the extraordinary person the others claid her to be. She had rely survived until now due to luck.

Perhaps it was the flash before death, but Lyra’s thoughts raced at incredible speed. Countless mories surged into her mind, flickering past like a slideshow.

From the first ti as a child, reading knight tales under moonlight on her small bed, deducing the next plot from the tattered book’s edge, even dreaming of what ca next.

Her first ti planting flowers, first ti giving her mother a gift, first ti receiving a small puppy in a wooden crate from a neighbor.

Her first visit to Kost Town, first ti seeing a bustling marketplace, first ti igniting a speck of light at her fingertip with ntal energy.

Then the first ti drenched in red wine, first ti dining at the sa table as Princess Astrid, first ti giving her a massage, first ti sitting with the one she liked on a hay bale, gazing at the stars.

The Sword of Light in her hand trembled constantly, seemingly on the verge of losing its physical form. Scorching air seeped through the Lightfall, her light breathing burning her lungs.

The searing pain snapped Lyra’s spirit back to reality. After a brief daze, she experienced the mont closest to death.

Everything slowed down to an extre. The entanglent of light and fire decelerated and magnified before her eyes. Thanks to her extrely high affinity with light elents, Lyra didn’t find it blinding. Instead, she could see even more clearly.

Clusters of light-elent particles ford wave after wave of wavelength. Chaotic fire elents gathered at the edges of the light waves. Their junctions share similar photothermal properties, locking together firmly like two naturally interlocking hooks.

Then, light waves transford into light particles, reassembling in the void. Fire elents first adhered, infiltrating the reford light waves, blending into a single entity, multiplying destructive traits previously nonexistent.

Shifting perspective upward, this was rely one tiny recurring loop within the vast sun. Simultaneously, millions of light and fire elents undergo similar arrangents, with magic providing the initial driving force.

A few sparks landed on Lyra’s wrist, surprisingly not scorching as expected.

Perhaps half a day had passed, or rely a second. Gazing at the [Sword of Light] bathed in radiance, Lyra suddenly recalled that night when, driven purely by instinct, she swung her wrist. Along the line separating dawn and dusk, light and darkness were clearly divided, that sword strike which had seemingly severed day from night.

Planting her legs firmly upright, the heroic Holy Knight stood with her back to the magically sheltered crowd. Her other hand, previously used to maintain an elental shield, now gripped the sword hilt together. Within the slowed ti flow, Lyra’s blue eyes shimred as if flowing with light particles. She faced the all-encompassing Radiant Sun before her, the blade’s light igniting as she aid it at the sky.

At that mont, the nearly exhausted ocean of her ntal energy surged with fresh water. The invisible shackles that had been struck countless tis crumbled into sand and decay, disintegrating within her mind.

Just when everyone believed Lyra had perished and the protective bunker behind her would be destroyed by [Heaven’s Tremor, Solar Judgnt], even more chaotic elental activity erupted within the Radiant Sun.

The grand curtain had not yet fallen.

Not only Charlotte, but both warring sides halted their actions in unity. Every gaze on the battlefield focused here, ready to witness the final judgnt of divine punishnt.

Scorching steam filled the air. All buildings in White Maple Town were destroyed by the blast waves. Intense explosions echoed within the light sphere. Then...

A sword beam, carrying a massive light surge, erupted from the center, instantly slicing through the entirety of [Heaven’s Tremor, Solar Judgnt]. Two beams of light from the sa source illuminate the entire battlefield. Everyone’s vision turned crimson, as if their retinas had suffered light damage. Only elental vision can capture the rolling light surges erupting from the ground, like a volcanic explosion.

The powerful sword beam, undiminished after cleaving the Radiant Sun, shot straight into the sky, its overwhelming might seeming capable of piercing even the real sun high in the heavens.

"Crack..."

The next second, a crisp cracking sound echoed. This magnificent sword strike actually carved a fissure into the spatial barrier.

The Radiant Sun severed. The Judgnt halted. Radiating shockwaves blew sand and dust into the air, fine particles drifting over the gleaming silver-white knight’s boots.

Lyra stood firm, her six luminous wings supporting her body. Her unhard holy white armor glowed, radiating light and heat, making her appear like an incarnation of the sun.

In her hand, the surface of that Sword of Light still flickered with fla, retaining the montum of that previous strike.

The invisible shackles that had once bound Lyra were now completely shattered. The girl’s ntal energy broke free from stagnation, ascending to a higher level, transitioning from high-tier Magnus to Arcanist mage, becoming a true force capable of swaying the war between two nations.

Lyra had now reached the peak humanity could ascend to.

Feeling the abundant ntal energy filling her body, the previously aching wrist bones were wrapped in a warm current, healing rapidly. Lyra lifted her head, gazing at the Pope of Light Hebrew, standing at top light bricks in midair.

Her long sword trembled slightly, mirroring Lyra’s current emotions. Having just returned from the gates of death, the desire to live intertwined with the joy of growth, enveloping her heart.

She had survived... and finally broken through the Magnus barrier...

High above, the spatial barrier’s cracks were quickly repaired. Hebrew also looked at Lyra. Their gazes collided in midair, a faint scent of gunpowdering between them.

If she hadn’t broken through just now, not only herself, but all those behind her would have turned to vapor.

She had been that close... to losing everything...

Under the celestial do, the sun’s light shone as it always had, equally covering everyone’s heads. Light particles surged in Lyra’s pupils. The aura of the [Sword of Light] surged.

Her wings are fully unfurled. The supersonic speed granted by the Six Wings rapidly lifted Lyra into the high sky, confronting the Pope of Light from afar.

Although there was still a gap of over two minor ranks between beginner and peak high-tier, at least in this mont, the disparity in their power had qualitatively narrowed.

Raising her sword, the sharp edge of holy steel gathered radiance. Between the dense light particles, Lyra swung her sword once more, aiming directly at Pope of Light Hebrew.