Seeing the hostility of the soldiers, Lewis frown ever so slightly.

"Hey! I asked you if you did this or not! Do you know who were are!" The man who yelled radiated an aura of immense pressure among the slaves around them.

"H-Hey, dont you guys feeling that it's harder to breathe out of suddenly." A young man among the slaves said while touching his neck searching for comfort.

"Just looking at him makes my hand tremble....whats going on?" A woman in her early thirties said while her complexion turning paler by the second.

Such cases were happening in every slave who looked at the leader of the new group. And among the current confusion, an old man stepped up and pointed his shaking finger at the group leader.

"I know this feeling! I experience that when I met a 3rd-tier knight once! That guy must be at least of the 3rd-tier!" The old man said with a hoarse voice.

Hearing the old man, the slaves who just won their freedom went into a panic.

Before they were freed, most of them hoped to die right there. With their freedom robbed away from them, the light in their eyes had long since faded in the days inside their cages.

Everyone inside of those cages didnt know if the abuse that their bodies received would cause their death or the chilling cold would slowly claim their lives.

For them, this place was hell itself.

Miserably waiting until they would be chosen to go in a different kind of hell.

Many thought that being chosen to be sold was their salvation, but deep inside of them they knew the truth.

The men who would be sold will be forced to work themself to death, while the woman will be used as toys and die as ones.

Facing such fate many thought it was better to die here in does cages that suffer such fates.

When they had made up their minds, a deem light showed up with the form of a dark knight.

What they didnt expect though was that after killing their abusers the knight would leave right after freeing a group of dwarfs.

While they were falling to despair of rotting on those damn cages, the true light seemed to have descendent for their rescue.

With steel armor with bright silver color and some small pieces of what looked like gold, he destroyed the chains that kept them in following that cruel fate while at the same time showing them hope.

And that newly acquired hope was shortly after threatened by a man of the 3rd-tier and his group of other soldiers.

Compared to the 1th-tier where every person lien on with some being stronger than the other, the gap of strength between the 2nd-tier was immense, and trying to fight someone of this tier while being 1th-tier would be considered the same as suicide.

After all, the 2nd-tier was the gap where magic and other special skills starting to show up, such as the [Beast Bear Form] that the Dark Fist had used.

Though the 1th-tier could also rarely achieve such abilities and learn magic, that went only towards the prodigies born with immense talent.

But when is about the 3rd-tier the power gap grows way out of the tiers below reach.

If the 1th-tier had a tiny bit of chance beating a weak 2nd-tier person, the 2nd-tier could never hope to even compare towards the 3rd-tier.

Seeing the man tier rivaling his own tier, Lewis's frown grew even more.

`Of the same tier....

Moving this hand on his neck, he bought out across and showed it to the arrived group.

"This is..." The men beside the 3rd-tier started mumbled and having troubled faces.

The cross that he showed was the one that every paladin of the Sacred Cross that was at least of 3rd-tier carried. It was a cross made out of pure gold with a diamond-shaped hole in the middle, that in the middle of the hole was an upside-down made out of pure silver that represents how the circle of reincarnation went according to the teaching of the Goddess of Life.

The cross was made out of pure gold so that it can represent how life is precious and that taking a life is a heavy burden that one would have to carry for the rest of this life.

The upside-down silver symbol instead symbolist that every soul has its own place in the circle of reincarnation.

The soldiers looked nervously towards their leader with a "What should they do" expression.

Their leader instead, frowned upon the sight of the cross.

"Hey, if you are from that damn church, then why are you stopping us? I thought that we made a deal that you keep your nose out of our business." The man said while inspecting Lewis from top to bottom.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Hearing what the man said, he sharply glared at the 3rd-tier man.

`From what deal is he talking about?

Hearing this response, the man started laughing frantically as if he heard the best joke in this life.

"Bahahahaha!"

"I see now! Of course! I should even realize it sooner that you are one of those dogs that follow that bright twinkle light that you all like to call a saintess." The man said with a mocking grin on this face.

"You...take that back!" Lewi sheathed this sword out of his sheath and pointed it towards the man while releasing a killing intent even stronger than Danzel did a few minutes ago.

"Heh, so scary~, werent you suppose to be a paladin who holds killing a person a sin towards you precious goddess? Just so that you know, we were allowed to do this by that church of yours! Bahaha! Now, arent you a hypocrite, Pa~la~din~san?"

The slaves who heard that subconsciously gazed at Lewis with doubt and wary look in their eyes.

"Hey, did the church really allow that?"

"To think that they would do such a thing..."

"I am actually a believer towards the Goddes of Life, but this..."

"Is that some kind of ploy to make us..."

As the slaves were putting more doubts towards the church of the sacred cross, a bright golden glow surrounded Lewi.

"Lies!" He said with a thunderous voice.

`So thats what the brightest light, the Saitness meant... those guys probably made some kind of a deal with that heretic!

Anger surged through Lewis's body, but that anger did not blind this judgement.

"As a 3rd-tier knight, I Lewis Apollo from the Sacred Cross, I will follow the brightest lights orders and eliminate the criminals plaguing our kingdom!"

Putting this strength on his feet, the wooden floor cracked and Lewis vanished from this position, only to appear in front of the leader of the group.

*Thunk!

A loud sound of clashing metal echoed through the building.

"You..." The man's arrogant smile faded away, with a shocked expression replacing it.

Though with the help of using this life force he managed to strengthen this body to block the attack, the man wasnt confident that he could defend against that attack.

While he was thinking of a way to strike the paladin back, he felt a scorching sensation going through around this body.

"What the-!" Disengaging from the paladin he looked around this body only to see that this clothing was still fine, but that wasnt the same case on this skin too.

"Tch, how the hell did he burn my hands" The man cursed at the burn marks on his hands.

"What are you all doing standing there! Go capture does slaves already." The man order before dashing towards the paladin using this life force.

*Thuad!

Both the swords clashed with each other, following that came a series of various clashes.

"Let's go while the boss is keeping that paladin dog at bay!"

"Yeah!"

Seeing the other soldier moving towards the slave, Lewis frown slightly.

The glow around him turned bright and a burning sensation came towards the leader of the group.

"Again!?" Determinate not to make the same mistake, he quickly created some distance between the paladin.

What he didn't know though was that this by itself was this mistake.

"Light, Purge my enemies by fire!" Casting this spell, a bright golden light engulfed Lewis's sword with the light extending even more by the second.

Turning around, Lewis swung this sword in the direction of the soldiers.

The light suddenly extend with the immense speed that together with the sword it had a length of 8,50 meters!

The soldiers who saw that panicked at the incoming blade, but as the light touched their body, nothing seemed to happen to them.

"Huh? What was that? Was it only to scare u-" As the one soldier was asking the same question as all others.

Flames exploded in their body one by one, bringing together pain and agony.

"Kyaah!"