"Lucian?"
"Lucian? Evans?"
Natasha, Camille, Purifying Fire, and the others besieging Anantans had also noticed the change on this side—some were pleasantly surprised, some stunned—but facing a Golden Knight meant tremendous pressure, and the thoughts that flickered through their minds had barely formed before they had to throw themselves back into the fight with all their concentration.
Francis, however, had not yet identified who Lucian was. From the way he had seized Ashin, he seemed to be a mysterious and powerful knight, so Francis's first thought was to run through which Celestial Knights or Golden Knights of the principal material world might match Lucian's description.
A faint divine luminescence suffused with the essence of death and resurrection flowed into his left hand, and Lucian clearly felt Etna's slow revival.
But once the death-and-resurrection-related portion of the divine essence had been absorbed, and the remaining powers—the "Incarnation of Love and Beauty" and the "Star of Dawn and Dusk"—began to leak away from Ashin, Lucian found that Etna had stopped siphoning. So he gently pushed Ashin away with his left hand, partly to avoid any conflict with his own cognitive world, and most importantly because absorbing that particular portion of divine essence would very likely turn him female.
Ashin's mind was as muddled as paste, utterly bewildered about what had just happened. When the mysterious black-haired man had seized His throat, He had assumed this time meant complete annihilation—so why had He been released after absorbing only a portion of divine essence?
"Picky eater..." The thought flashed through Lucian's mind, and then he used Wind Message to send Natasha a quick communication.
By now, El had recovered from His momentary shock. Seeing His long-sought prey snatched away by someone else, fury and greed surged simultaneously. His eyes bulged, and in a lofty, detached voice, He declared: "I command you—death!"
The river water around Lucian churned gray-white as his life force drained rapidly, yet his body showed not the slightest change. The eerie, nearly unpreventable Commandment spell seemed to have utterly failed before his outstretched left hand!
"What is this?!" El stumbled back a step in disbelief. Since the day He had first wielded Commandment spells, He had never encountered anything like this. Regardless of whether a target could resist, the victim always showed some corresponding reaction first—and only then could they attempt to resist. It had never been like this, as though He had never cast Commandment of Death at all!
In His eyes, Lucian stood in the river as calm and still as before, unfathomably deep, like a devil lurking in darkness.
Suddenly, the devil in His vision moved. Moonlight blazed across Lucian's body, muscles swelling and knotting, as he burst from the river and lunged toward Him with his left hand outstretched!
Lucian was not the sort to simply complain and lament when trouble found him. Now that his presence had been exposed, with the One-Eyed Anantans before him and a Legendary mage possibly lurking nearby, fleeing was pointless. So if he wasn't going to sit around waiting to die, he might as well seize this chance to absorb divine essence from the domains of the Silver Moon, Undeath, and Resurrection, letting Etna recover as much power as possible!
This time, it was not Etna's "hunger" driving Lucian to act—Lucian had taken the initiative, transforming into a Celestial Knight and launching himself at El, a false god who governed the domains of Resurrection, Undeath, Moonlight, Redemption, and Destruction!
A vast, boundless, and supremely exalted will emanated from Lucian's left hand, causing El's thoughts to freeze and stagnate, as though He had encountered His natural nemesis. He stood rooted in place, unable to mount an effective response.
"Idiot! A lunatic driven mad by divine influence!" When he saw El rashly attack the mysterious knight in the river, Francis couldn't help but curse silently, uncertain whether he should lend El a hand.
But the moment he saw Lucian spring into action, his mind was made up—after all, the man was only a sixth-rank Celestial Knight! The earlier display must have been due to an unusual bloodline that could counter divine essence and quasi-divine arts.
Gripping his massive sword with both hands, Francis slashed downward from his elevated position in midair. Instantly, it was as though a vortex had appeared on the ground, absorbing all the mist in the air. The destructive fog coiled into a nine-headed black serpent spiraling downward, carrying the power of lightning, venom, and acid as it struck viciously at Lucian.
With his left hand forward and "Pale Justice" gripped in his right, Lucian faced the fanged, sky-blotting nine-headed serpent. He shifted his footing, soared into the air, and threw a punch, the muscles of his arm coiling and bulging.
His plain, unremarkable left hand struck the black mist. With a crisp crack, the fog dispersed into nothing, and the night sky—pierced by the silver moon hanging high—was restored.
Francis landed heavily, his great sword riddled with cracks, staggering backward in an endless retreat, his eyes filled with utter disbelief.