After they had successfully binded him, the chains froze in place. 

“Stay.” Ordered John as he pulled back his arm while clenching the dark knight’s neck.

In that instant, they separated.

The bright sword’s body now back to normal, was thrown aside onto the floor next to john, leaving behind a single humanoid shape of a shadow standing there.

The shadow couldn’t properly keep it’s physique on it’s own without a body, so john had maintained it for him. 

It was the shape of a demon. Upon realizing that it was able to maintain it’s shape, the demon looked confused, and looked at itself in doubt.

“Huh? M-My form… It’s incomplete but… It’s fixed.” 

The demon was confused as to why John would do this and surprised by how John could do this. Giving him a form wouldn’t benefit John in anyway, in fact, it would mean the Demon would finally be able to do what it wanted, and freely too.

He thought John was an idiot. Until, he realized it.

“Yeah. I fixed your form.” Said John as he raised his hands.

The clouds were moving in a strange manner, circulating and forming a hole in the sky above them. Inside of the circle, there was light. 

Now that he had a form, he could be destroyed.

“N-No… HEEEEEELP!” The demon shouted out as loud as he could, letting out a deafening screech as it struggled to get out.

The screech had attracted all of the nearby lesser demons summons causing them all to gather and charge straight at John.

However, the instant they were within a fifteen meter radius of him.

*VOOOM!*

A Black hole was formed in front of one, dragging all of the ones nearby into it. The black hole then dispersed before it could do anymore damage to the nearby buildings.

He could feel all of their locations, he didn’t even have to look.

Earth spikes began to rise throughout the city, piercing mainly the lesser demons right in their core, while avoiding damaging anything else.

Shadow spikes extended from the inside of the remaining demons finishing them all off in an instant. 

All this happened without John having raised a single finger, and this was only the beginning to the extent of his power.

After the demon had exhausted it’s energy with it’s shout. John let go of him, before turning his back to it and crouching down beside the bright sword who was unconscious.

His hair was back to normal along with his features. As he saw this, he muttered a single word.

“Judgment.”

*BOOOOOOM!* 

A beam of light came down from the Sky crashing straight into the demon with full force. 

“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! STOP!!!!” The demon cried out in pain

The light however, only increased. The smell of something burning was present in the air, as steam began to come from the middle of where the light was concentrated. This was where the demon was at.

With each passing second, it only got stronger, no matter how much it tried to run and escape, it was bounded heavily by the chains.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!” It screamed out with a demonic voice

And that was it’s final cry, before it’s whole entire shape had completely evaporated. 

*Snap*

With a single snap of his fingers, the light dispersed. Leaving behind a crispy black circle along with a small hole on the floor. The demon was gone, it didn’t return to the underworld but had it’s existence completely erased instead.

John stood there before giving a quick look around. The lesser demon summons had all disappeared at once along with the main demon who John just destroyed, however, the village had been completely destroyed. It was in ruins.

Even though John hadn’t been here for long enough, leaving the village in this condition wasn’t something that would sit well with him.

‘John.’ Called out Zestari.

John nodded in response, he already knew what Zestari meant when she called out to him. 

“I’ll be careful.” He muttered before crouching down. 

The village was mainly empty, those who had stayed, had hidden away inside of their homes, however the chance of this next spell hurting them was low. Meaning it was very unlikely.

Right as he was about to leap up to activate it, he remembered about the Bright Sword and decided to deal with him first.

“Heal.” He muttered

For a moment a bright glow was emitted from John’s eyes before The Bright Sword’s unconscious body began to glow.

Seconds after, his eyelids slowly cracked open, greeting him with the light blue sky. 

“Get up.” Said John

The Bright Sword was then suddenly pushed up by some strange force along with a hint of wind from his back, before standing straight up.

He was surprised but sluggish, his body was completely worn out and that wasn’t something John would have been able to heal. He was lucky John healed all the pain which he was supposed to experience after, however even he did not know this.

At first he was disorientated, however upon seeing John, his eyes widened. 

“I HUMBLY APOLOGIES FOR HAVING CAUSED YOU SO MUCH TROUBLE!” He shouted out as he quickly bowed in front of John

His whole body trembling as he did so. It was a sight unfitting of an A-Rank adventurer, however it was a genuine apology.

It appears that he had remembered everything which he had done while he was possessed. That was good for John as it saved him time from having to explain himself.

“It’s fine. Raise your head.” Said John

As he raised his head, John noticed tears flowing down his face. As he too realized this, he began to clear his face with his hands. His blue eyes were starting to swell from all the tears.

“Thank you… Truly… Thank you so much for stopping me… I… Because of me… All those people… I have failed the church… And our lord’s teachings…” He muttered as he moved over towards his Sword.

John watched as he moved over to one of the sword’s lying on the floor, just a few feet away from him. After grabbing on to it, with trembling hands he placed the edge of the sword next to his neck. 

His hands wouldn’t stop trembling. John could tell as he too had gone through the same experience. It wasn’t trembling out of fear, but out of guilt.

John couldn’t bare watching this any longer, however, he also didn’t want to get involved in the Bright Sword’s decision. His only Job was to save him, what he did after with his life was his choice.

It would be much better to end it all than to live with the guilt. John had picked the latter and has suffered everyday since. Even he didn’t know when was the last time he was able to have a good night’s sleep.

“So are you going to end things?” John asked 

His voice alone was overwhelming, just from hearing it, anyone could tell that it carried great power. Upon hearing it, The Bright Sword had flinched before nodding.

The tears just wouldn’t stop flowing.

“I’ve committed a grave sin… I have no other choice…” He muttered

“Live with the guilt. Spend every day reflecting and thinking back on your actions, suffering as you come to realize how horrible of a person you are.” Said John

“Then, what would be the point of living…?” He asked

To this, John simply hung his head as he muttered. “I don’t know. I’m still looking for mine.” 

He then placed his hand on his chest before looking The Bright Sword straight in the eye and saying. “But you already have yours.” Said John as he turned to the left and looked down the road.

There, he could see it. A young girl with long ashy blue hair braided along the back with sharp sweet violet eyes. She was currently heading to them at full speed using wind some sort of wind spell to propel herself. 

Her mouth was moving constantly showing that she was chanting and her eyes had tears flowing down her bright red cheeks as she was overwhelmed by emotions.

When the Bright Sword saw this, his eyes widened and before he had realized it. He had let go of the sword.

“Silica… She- I see… Haha… Ha… That girl… So that’s how you knew, she asked you for help, didn’t see?” The bright sword asked.

John replied with a simply nod before looking over at him and saying. “She never gave up on you. So don’t give up, for her.” Said John

Shortly after that, John leapt up, soaring through the sky as he ascended at a fast rate. After a few seconds, and he was at a good enough distance above the city. He raised his hand.

In that instant, a large wide blue circle could be seen, with numbers and patterns written all over it. After giving it closer look, anyone would have been able to tell that it was a clock.

It spread out throughout the sky, covering as much distance as it could, being nearly as wide as the whole city. 

“Advanced Sacred Treasure Art: Regressus” Muttered John / Translation: Regress.

Everyone witnessed what happened next, and no one could believe their eyes.