A Powerful Martial Artist Reincarnates as a Nun Knight

As the greater demon Tammuz burst through the floor of Rotaringhia’s palace lobby, he gnashed his teeth.
Ordinarily, he adored grandeur and opulence – rumored even among demons for his ardent appreciation of geological marvels displaying diverse forms, luxurious jewels and ornaments, and masterful artworks painstakingly crafted.
This propensity explained his proclivity for assuming human guises of exceptional beauty, considering his true demonic visage repulsive.

For Tammuz, revealing his actual form represented an utterly unacceptable prospect. Had the shocking upheaval of his intricately woven Rotaringian schemes not transpired, he would have avoided unveiling his genuine appearance until the absolute last possible moment.

His intention involved swiftly neutralizing those clerics hunting demons within the banquet hall before hastily withdrawing his subordinates from the premises. Fortunately, his underlings shared his proficiency in disguise – once they escaped this immediate predicament, they could retreat while concealing their true selves.

This muscular, winged demon with ram’s horns protruding from his bat-like visage inflated his barrel chest after ascending, intending to unleash an ultrasonic shriek violently debilitating or slaughtering the humans outright.

However, he failed to notice the blue-eyed nun-knight who had levitated directly before him until the last moment.

{Kkkeee―eeaaaa―aakkk!!!}
[Kwauuuuuuuu!!!]

Tammuz’s violent sonic barrage collided with Sophia’s Roar of the Primordial Lion she had opportunely unleashed while airborne.
The thunderous shockwaves clashing shattered surrounding chandeliers and windows, yet only exerted percussive force upon those below – ultimately harmless for bystanders.

‘My roar…it was devoured!’

Realizing what had occurred, Tammuz’s expression contorted with utter disbelief. Like a diminutive prey consumed by a larger predator, Sophia’s leonine roar had effortlessly absorbed his sonic attack in its entirety.

This instantaneously reflected the fundamental divergence between their respective natures. In that moment, Tammuz the perpetual hunter of mortals had been reduced to the prey’s perspective.

‘I, who have survived as predator over those lesser beings, stand in the prey’s position?!’

An utterly unacceptable reversal for Tammuz.

The commonality among alpha predators from the wild – their shared beauty as victors. Lions and tigers undoubtedly inspired dread, yet transcended that through sheer majesty. Raptors like falcons and eagles displayed comparable sublimity while hunting. Even a stag’s antlers or a peacock’s tail plumage exuded unique, exalted magnificence.

However, wounded, diseased, defeated prey lacked such beauty – Tammuz’s underlying philosophy. Never once had he imagined, not even in dreams, being forced from the predator’s exalted perch.

{Unacceptable! I cannot accept this!}

The enraged Tammuz charged forth screeching, his crimson morningstar tracing a sinister arc through the air. The sheer menace of that spiked iron club evoked a heavily reinforced pillar.

Yet Sophia’s corresponding strike seemed remarkably understated. The instant her outstretched pale hand made contact, Tammuz sensed an incomprehensible force twisting and wrenching the morningstar from his grasp.

{Guhk!}

Instinctively clinging to the weapon’s haft as it tried slipping away, the bewildered demon thought:
‘Like being seized and pulled by a giant! Just what manner of technique is this?!’

Observing the baffled demon recomposing his stance, Sophia clicked her tongue derisively.
“You possess rather keen senses. Are you unwilling to conclude this easily?”

{Out of my way!}
Tammuz roared, yet felt an ominous chill the next instant. Reflexively spinning, he swung his morningstar just as Sophia’s longsword phantom-manifested, its slash trailing luminous contrails.
Narrowly avoiding that converging trajectory, Tammuz had no respite before an eerie whisper reached his ears:

“You moved quite urgently there. Daring to show your back before me.”

Eyes bulging, Tammuz whirled to swing his morningstar – only for Sophia to disappear from that spot. As his weapon cleaved the empty air, Tammuz unleashed a ‘Curse Detonation’ spell behind himself while lunging frontward.

“My, you certainly have a rough touch.”

Of course – Sophia had simply repositioned behind him instantaneously.
As a phantasmal longsword grazed his thigh, Tammuz ignored the wound – his survival instincts blaring too intensely to heed superficial damage.

The demon inwardly regretted his oversight:
‘Damn, if I had known, I should have withdrawn first before worrying about my subordinates or this territory…’

Evidently, the prospect of abandoning this established regional foothold momentarily overwhelmed his judgment.

‘Just what sort of monstrosity manifested here?’

Having infiltrated Rotaringhia for so long with scant contact alongside other demonkind, Tammuz remained largely oblivious to that dreaded Paladin’s name which had become infamous among demons across the Frankish Empire recently. Not that he would have paid it much heed regardless.

“Ho, you still possessed wits to ponder idle thoughts amidst that?”

As Tammuz’s consciousness briefly wavered, calamity ensued – his keen senses detecting spatial distortions. The next instant, he realized some unseen force had immobilized him in an inescapable grip.

A pressure akin to the entire space constricting like a giant’s fist had seized the demon. Tammuz instinctively recognized Sophia’s manipulations, bellowing furiously:

{Release me, monster!}
“Monster, you say…? Heh, indeed. Who exactly called who that?”

Sophia scoffed while effortlessly restraining the demon within her Cosmic Dominion’s binding force. Yet Tammuz clearly differed from other adversaries she had previously subjugated. Instantly unleashing shockwaves from his entire body, he managed to shift into a scrawny human male form momentarily to slip her grasp.

Immediately reverting, Tammuz indiscriminately unleashed shockwave and curse detonation spells stored within his sockets before brazenly fleeing without assessing the aftermath.

“Tsk, what a nuisance!”

Even Sophia had not anticipated a demon would unhesitatingly choose flight without facing her directly. Her delayed response enabled Tammuz’s unleashed spells to nearly devastate the entire palace – potentially catastrophic collateral if they accidentally triggered a structural collapse alongside civilian casualties.

The political ramifications for the Church from such unintended destruction within the royal capital could have proven disastrous. Clicking her tongue, Sophia re-engaged Cosmic Dominion – manifesting an incredible phenomenon that would have defied belief for any knowledgeable spellcaster.

Instead of dispersing outward from their release points, the shockwaves and curse detonations Tammuz had unleashed began converging toward Sophia herself. Drawn inward, they progressively overlapped above her outstretched palm into an increasingly destabilized mass resembling a singularity – only Cosmic Dominion’s binding force preventing its implosion.

Momentarily frowning at the precarious spell-mass overhead, Sophia sighed in resignation before a luminous afterglow began emanating from behind her. Intermingling golden and opalescent radiances flowed like liquid at her behest, enveloping the spell-mass restrained above her palm.
As the malefic spells derived from curses, this purifying luminescence proved sufficient to unravel them into dissipating smoke.

Observing the spent spell-mass vanish, Sophia turned her gaze toward Tammuz’s fleeing trajectory – a sly smile creeping across her lips.

“Hah, it seems I needn’t have concerned myself over him after all.”

Within her sight appeared Hildegard, Ezio and Conra – who had ambushed the retreating Tammuz in concert.

{Kkhh?!}

Tammuz found himself entrapped between Ezio’s densely muscled arms and chest, his throat constricted within that vice-like grip. Ezio’s physique now exuded a brilliant golden luminescence – having perfected the technique of channeling the Immovable Bright King’s luminous force to coat his musculature.

“This is the signature stranglehold passed down from the Great Priestess of the Alb Mountains!”
“No, quit blaspheming against the Great Priestess already…”

{You…wretches…?!}

While ‘Luminous Muscle Ezio’ performed his bizarre headlock, Hildegard’s halberd and Conra’s spear immobilized Tammuz’s other limbs. Pinioned by their tenacious restraints with no leverage to maneuver, the demon could only thrash impotently as Ezio’s rippling musculature steadily constricted his windpipe – suffering the Immovable Bright King Technique’s radiant onslaught.

A more pathetic sight than any demon they had previously subjugated – the once-proud predator rendered utterly helpless prey.

Observing the demon’s waning vitality, Sophia smiled with satisfaction.
Evidently, she had not been the only one strengthening throughout this period. Her comrades had steadily grown too – a fact Sophia could discern from their seamless, combined restraint overwhelming this greater demon.