The battle raged between them among the trees, leaves, branches, and trunks shredded by their bitter fighting. Sairi unleashed all his power, lifting stones, branches, and trees and whirling them around as they fought, fenced, grappled, and inflicted superficial wounds on each other. The Saint felt he was facing a different man than the novice fleeing through the forests, relying on cunning and deception. He saw in his eyes a determination and anger he had not seen in many years. Sairi began moving everything he had lifted in the forest toward the Saint, who started retreating quickly, cutting down the trees, stones, ashes, and branches coming at him while simultaneously blocking the stabs of Sairi, who was chasing him like a predatory beast.

The Saint retreated, sheathed his sword quickly, and created the sphere of blades on Sairi, but Sairi leaped through it, pouncing on him with his sword, saliva dripping from his mouth like a hungry tiger. The Saint felt some fear and wanted to get out of the forest to an open area where he could fight him without distractions and things being thrown at him from all sides. He turned and began running quickly out of the forest, deflecting branches and avoiding trees coming at him from his right and left. He felt as if the entire forest had been uprooted and was attacking him.

He quickened his pace but was surprised by Sairi pouncing on him from his right and striking him with quick, successive blows with his sword. He blocked them with difficulty and received several wounds, then a tree hit him in the face and another in his back. He forced his body upright and set Sairi in his sights, seeing him rushing to stab him, so the Saint decided to activate the full power of his sword.

The Saint waved his sword in the air quickly, shouting, each swing of his sword like a sharp wind cutting everything around him to shreds. But Sairi did not care and jumped on top of one of the flying trees and pounced from among its leaves on the Saint. The other waved his sword with quick movements barely visible to the naked eye, causing deep wounds in Sairi's body, who did not flinch and continued to attack him fiercely.

They were moving through the flying forest at great speed, cutting through it and tearing each other's bodies apart with all their strength and might. Sairi used the trees to protect himself at times, to hit the Saint at others, and to push himself from behind and increase his speed to chase the Saint at yet others. The fast blades continued to move quickly in the air, shaking the trees violently as their bodies were wounded and cut.

Suddenly, Sairi placed several trees horizontally on the ground in front of the Saint. The Saint saw that he could either cut these trees and suffer a serious injury from Sairi or block his successive blows, trip over these trees, and fall to the ground. He decided to jump over them, but Sairi grabbed his foot, pulled him from them, and threw him to the ground. Then he made a sharp-tipped tree fall from the sky onto the Saint's hand, severing it, and another pierced his stomach. The Saint spat purple blood from his mouth.

He writhed in pain and saw another tree falling on him, so he forced himself to pull the sword from his severed hand and waved his previously injured hand, cutting the tree into pieces. He found Sairi pouncing on him from above, from among the fragments of the tree, and his eyes widened. The Saint raised his sword, and it pierced Sairi's sound arm. His thermal sword fell from his hand, and he gasped, dropping the crystal bag from his hand. It came out of the bag and fell into the Saint's severed hand.

Sairi almost fell on top of the Saint, so he pushed his sword to the right and fell next to him, looking at the crystal sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow. His eyes shone with joy, and he said in choked words:

"Here... you are. I knew... getting you... wouldn't be easy. But at least I touched you and achieved my dream, even if I touched you with my severed hand. What a miserable end for me, Eloy. I almost achieved your dream."

The Saint waved his sword and cut the tree embedded in his stomach, but a large part of it remained in his guts. Then he crawled with difficulty, the pain almost making him lose consciousness, and began to groan with every step he took. But Sairi got up from behind him, having lost control of his other arm, but he held his thermal sword with his mouth and walked staggeringly toward the Saint.

The Saint crawled until he almost touched the crystal, but he felt something piercing his back. He spat more blood from his mouth and looked at the crystal a few centimeters away, tears escaping from his eyes because he was so close to reaching the miracle that would change the face of the universe. If only he could touch it, perhaps the blessing would descend on his body and heal him of all his wounds, or he would gain a great power enabling him to kill this demon.

Sairi drove the sword with his mouth a few centimeters deep, then stood up and pressed on the sword with his foot, driving it into the ground and pinning the old Saint from advancing another step. Then he approached the crystal, his body bleeding profusely, having received ninety-some stabs, hundreds of small wounds, and dozens of deep wounds. He had lost a hand and an eye. As soon as he approached the crystal, he fainted and fell, placing his hand on the crystal.

Village of Saint Dinan – Planet of the Franks – Year 17089 of the Zurix Galactic Calendar

Saint Jan Dark walked with his majesty, presence, and dignity throughout the village, distributing alms to the poor of the Franks village. The poor gathered around him, taking alms and thanking him. Some tried to kiss his hand, but he refrained out of humility. Men greeted him, women thanked him, and children sought warmth from him. He would carry them, kiss them, talk to them smiling, pray for them, or give them a gift. Everyone in the village loved Saint Jan Dark, for he was an ascetic who donated everything that came to him to the village poor. Nothing frightened him, for he was also one of the Nine Knights who protected the Supreme King of the Franks, maintained peace, and defeated enemies coming from space, such as enemies from the neighboring Zurix empires, who were hostile to them due to their adoption of a new sect in the Candle religion, the Amish sect, which emerged as a result of the corruption of the monks and the Churches of the Candles.

This sect spread among all those who were resentful of the Agili sect embraced by most of the inhabitants of the Zurix empires. Thus, great battles broke out between the sects in what was called the Three Hundred Years' Religious War. Millions were killed, and the wars were bloody between the Zurix until they almost destroyed everything. Thus appeared the class of philosophers who saw that religion was the root of all evils and that if they overthrew the theocratic religious authority, these heinous wars would end and peace would prevail.

Also, the period of the monks was characterized by intellectual and scientific stagnation, military weakness, increasing poverty, and mismanagement of resources insufficient for the large Franks population.

The Saint walked, greeted by the people of his village, who gave him food and valuable gifts because he was different from everyone else. He believed in what he did and practiced what he believed. His goal was to reform the corruption that had spread in the ranks of the monks one day, but he did not yet know the effective means.

He reached the door of the Church of the Candles and found a girl with worn-out rags, a dirty face, and curly, brittle, coarse green hair standing and looking at him, saying, "Can I have some food, kind Saint?"

The Saint knelt on one knee before her, holding her shoulders. "What is a little girl like you doing alone here? Where are your parents?"

The girl looked at the ground sorrowfully, with a sad, gloomy face, then said chokingly, "They died a year ago from a disease the doctors didn't know the cure for. My relatives kicked me out of the house so they could sell it, and since then I've been living on the streets."

The Saint's mouth fell open, and his brow furrowed. "How could they do this to a beautiful little girl like you? What is your name, girl?"

The girl raised her eyes to him and smiled because he called her beautiful. "Eloy, Sir Saint. Why do they call you a Saint, sir?"

The Saint laughed, and his beard shook. "They think I am an angel who makes no mistakes. The Franks bestow an aura of holiness on others, thinking they are sent from heaven and can solve all their problems."

Eloy pursed her lips. "So you are not sent from heaven to solve our problems? I came to you to solve my problem and bring back my mother and father. They say you make miracles."

The Saint smiled sadly. "No one can bring the dead back to life except by the permission of the Lord. But you will not be sad if you know that they are in beautiful gardens full of delicious fruits, fresh water, and abundant goodness. Do you want to bring them back from this bliss to this poor village?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.