This was Ciel’s first time riding her wyvern into actual combat, but surprisingly enough, she didn’t meet with any problems.
Usually, monsters like wyverns were so scared of demonic beasts that it would be difficult to make them attack, but even their monsters’ instinctive fears had been erased by blessings granted by the priests.
However, these blessings couldn’t help with some minor physiological discomforts felt by the riders.
The demonic beast that Ciel, along with dozens of other wyvern-riders, was currently facing was a giant, insectoid demonic beast.
Although she didn’t really want to describe it in detail, if she had to make a comparison, the demonic beast looked like a huge cockroach that had been glued together with the wings of a dragonfly and the limbs of a praying mantis. Every time its four wings fluttered, it summoned windstorms as sharp as blades, and each swing of its forelimbs, which were bent like scythes, was sharper than a slash made with sword-force.
It was a bit smaller than a dragon. However, that meant it was still much larger than a wyvern. And though they might have different appearances, dozens of demonic beasts of similar size were occupying the sky around it. The flying squadrons’ role was to prevent these demonic beasts from directing their attacks at those marching below and, if possible, neutralize them as quickly as possible so that they could go on to provide some ground support.
Although she had little actual experience with aerial combat, Ciel was performing quite well. She used Javel, which was as flexible as a whip, to penetrate the thick hides of the demonic beasts, and whenever she saw a clear opening, she would unleash one of the powers of her Demoneye. But the stronger her opponent, the greater the cost of restraining it with the power of Immobility. The power of Darkness, however, could be used comfortably even with Ciel’s current strength, especially if she only used it to attack.
As it swung its forelimbs while flying towards them, the demonic beast’s movements gradually began to slow down. Hoping to take advantage of this opening, Ciel plunged spikes created from her Demoneye of Darkness into the joints of the demonic beast’s wings. Once she had done so, the demonic beast’s body began to lean precariously to one side.
But right at the moment when Ciel was about to launch another attack—
Rooooooar!
A thick Breath attack swept over her head. Startled by the loud sound and the density of the mana contained within the Breath, Ciel raised her head.
“That was her Breath?” Ciel muttered in shock.
So Raimira finally got a chance to show it off. Ciel let out an amused snort and pulled on her reins.
Everyone flying in the sky was surprised when Raimira’s Breath suddenly burst out. Even Carmen, who had mounted one of the demonic beasts and was taking it down all by herself, felt surprised as she turned to stare at Raimira.
“Ooooh…!” Carmen murmured in awe.
She had just seen Raimira, who was armed and armored by the Battleship spell. The combination of the two had created the appearance of a dragon wearing a magical suit of armor, and Carmen couldn’t help but feel a sense of romance[1] at this sight.
Wasn’t something like that also a complete transformation?
Carmen trembled, her fists shaking in excitement before raising both her arms high and shouting, “Transform!”
Fwoooosh!
Her Exid deployed around her. Now transformed into her Dragon-Lion form, Carmen slashed down with both her fists, which had gained sharp nails like a dragon’s claws.
“Dragon Claw,” Carmen called out her attack in a quiet whisper.
Her voice may have been low, but the power of her attack was by no means weak.
Cracracracrackle!
The flames of the White Flame Formula poured out from her claws that had been sunk deep into the body of the demonic beast.
Pop, popop!
The demonic beast’s body, having been injected with flames, began to bulge out on all sides. Without further delay, Carmen withdrew her claws and leaped off of the demonic beast’s back.
Booooom!
A huge explosion erupted. Carmen, who was leaping away with her back toward the explosion, spun a few times in midair before landing on top of her wyvern’s back. Her trusty steed, no, her trusty wyrm, Crimson Waltz, took the impact of Carmen’s landing without any difficulty and spread her wings with a roar.
Hiding her inner satisfaction at her spectacular landing after leaping away from an explosion, Carmen turned her head as she belatedly realized something, “…?”
Raimira had obviously fired her Breath at the barrier. However, there hadn’t been any further sounds after that.
[Tha—that can’t be…! To think that this lady’s breath would—!]
“I knew it would turn out like this.”
Raimira might have been flustered by the outcome, but Eugene just furrowed his brow and let out a grumble.
Raimira’s Breath had definitely burned through the air and crashed into the barrier. However, it didn’t seem to have any effect on the barrier.
When her Breath made contact with the surface of the barrier, no explosion had erupted. All it had done was cause the barrier to ripple slightly. The dark power of Destruction that made up the barrier had nullified her Breath right at the moment of contact.
“After all, there is so much dark power poured into the barrier that it even makes the technical quality of the barrier insignificant,” Eugene muttered to himself.
All of this dark power had thoroughly and thickly covered the entire sky above the city.
From now on, you are a Demon King.
Although Eugene had been the one to say this, he had no choice but to reevaluate the specter’s true strength once more. If he was able to freely control such levels of dark power, then the specter already deserved to be treated as a Demon King.
“We won’t be able to break through with just a Breath,” Eugene speculated.
A dragon’s Breath was just a mass of pure mana. The same thing applied to spells. The most effective solution to this type of barrier was divine power, which was the antithesis of dark power.
Or else, an even stronger power.
‘I should save my Divine Sword for later,’ Eugene decided after careful consideration.
Currently, the number of times that Eugene could use his ability of the Divine Sword was only thrice a day. So it would be a waste to use one of those times just to break through this barrier.
“Let’s get closer,” Eugene said out loud.
[B-but, Benefactor, the barrier still hasn’t been broken,] Raimira protested.
“That’s why we’re going over there to break it,” Eugene confidently stated.
Raimira was shaken by his assertiveness, [Eeep…!]
Until now, Raimira had had such strong momentum, but… she must have been thoroughly shocked when her Breath was nullified without doing any damage.
However, Riamira soon came to her senses and accelerated forward. If she were on her own, she would have definitely run away, but right now, she had both Eugene and the Saint riding on her back.
[Benefactor… I can feel it. That isn’t just a simple defensive barrier. The barrier itself gives off an ominous feeling,] Raimira warned.
“That certainly seems likely. If we get too close, that dense dark power will probably shoot at us like a barrage of artillery fire,” Eugene said with a somber expression.
However, Raimira’s eyes couldn’t help but tremble in fear as she heard Eugene say this.
Eugene felt her trembling beneath him and chuckled, “Don’t worry.”
Raimira just groaned uncertainly, [Mmmm….]
Since Eugene had already voiced his confidence, Raimira also mustered up all her courage. Eugene wasn’t simply relying on his words alone to reassure Raimira. Maise’s Battleship spell as well as the Graceful Radiance’s holy magic, under the direction of the Saint, all of that came together to cover Raimira from head to toe in protection.
Booooom!
When they got closer to the Centipede Mountains, a loud roar was heard from below them. When they looked down, they saw Sienna, who had a galaxy of stars floating behind her back. She was shooting out giant spheres one after another as if she were pulling the stars out from the galaxy behind her.
Balzac and Rynein were standing near Sienna as if they were acting as her guards. With every swing of Balzac’s hand, the undead collapsed around them.
Rynein seemed to just be standing quietly with her hands held together in a seal, but the desert around her was churning and seething. This phenomenon seemed to have something to do with her Signature.
“Indeed, it’s just as solid as I expected it to be,” Sienna muttered.
Even though Sienna had confidently cast all her spells at it, the Centipede Mountains remained standing. It might be because this guy’s carapace was just that hard, but it was more likely that the dark power of the barrier was also granting a protective effect on the Centipede Mountains as well.
Booom!
Once more, Sienna fired off another star. Though her spells had proven ineffective, there was no doubt that Sienna’s attack had managed to draw out more of a reaction from the barrier than Raimira’s Breath had. Unlike Raimira’s Breath, which had been erased as soon as it touched the barrier, Sienna’s spells would explode and create shockwaves whenever they struck the Centipede Mountains or the barrier.
However, neither of the two defenses showed any signs of collapse. Eugene thought he might be able to rush in if they could only manage to destroy one of them, either the Centipede Mountains or the barrier, but it seemed like he would be forced to destroy them together.
“Hmm,” Eugene grunted, his brow furrowing as he turned to look backward.
A demonfolk was catching up to them from behind. He had a hulking, reptile-like body, was covered in scales, and had curved horns. Had Eugene seen this guy somewhere?
‘Ah,’ Eugene suddenly remembered something.
He was that guy, the twenty-sixth-ranked demonfolk. This demonfolk was currently leading dozens of similar-looking subordinates in hot pursuit of Raimira. Their intention was obvious. They were coming to prevent Eugene from attacking the barrier.
‘They might also be aiming to get a Dragonheart,’ Eugene idly considered.
There had been a large-scale purge going on within the Demon King’s Castle of Babel, and the surviving demonfolk had been granted the dark power of Incarceration.
Eugene had also happened to hear that news. But as the twenty-sixth ranked demonfolk, was that really enough for him to step forward to meet the Hero with such confidence? Eugene’s lips twisted in an amused grin.
Kristina noticed something, “Sir Eugene?”
“I’ll be back soon,” Eugene reassured her.
The feathers of Prominence flew backward. Before Kristina had time to do anything to stop him, Eugene spatially leaped in front of the pursuing demonfolk, who were busy trying to narrow the distance gradually. The demonfolk were just as surprised as Kristina had been when Eugene suddenly appeared right in front of them.
But they didn’t let out any panicked shouts. Instead, the twenty-sixth ranked demonfolk at their head immediately readied himself for battle, and his subordinates who were following behind him also did the same. Their murderous intent was all focused on one point and aimed squarely at Eugene.
Eugene had met this demon once before, three hundred years ago. Although Hamel hadn’t made his name, even back then, this demonfolk had been a fighter of adequate skill. Indeed, if he weren’t so skilled, it would have been difficult to survive these past three hundred years until he reached this present day.
Currently, the fact that the demon was already moving into action mere moments after their collision had taken place was also quite impressive. In this sort of situation, trying to have a conversation was useless. What was the point of the two sides talking in the first place when their only goal was to try and kill each other?
That was why Eugene also didn’t feel the need to say anything. Even at this very moment, Raimira was drawing closer to the Centipede Mountains. Eugene couldn’t afford to spend too much time dealing with these pesky pursuers.
He reached into his cloak and wrapped his hand around the hilt of the Moonlight Sword.
As he drew it, he immediately swung it forward. At the moment of Eugene’s swing, the blade shot out a ray of pale moonlight. Eugene’s black flames were mixed in with the moonlight.
Following the completion of his training with the Divine Sword, the light of the Moonlight Sword now contained traces of Eugene’s black flames as well as the poison spread by the Nur that had covered all of Lehainjar.
The moonlight sliced the sky in two. The black flames seemed to want to spill over the sides of the slash, but the gray moonlight caught the flames in its forward rush as it raced across the sky.
‘What is that?’ the demonfolks thought as they fearfully watched the moonlight surge towards them.
The demon at the head of their group roared as he unleashed his dark power of Incarceration in response.
But it was of no use. If it were the Demon King of Incarceration himself who had unleashed the dark power, then it might have been a different story, but there was no way to stop this moonlight with mere borrowed dark power. If the demon had wanted to increase his chances of winning even slightly, or at least have something close to an actual battle with Eugene, he should have never attacked Eugene head-on. If he was smart, the demon should have avoided having such a confrontation as best as he possibly could.
It was already too late. Eugene didn’t give him the opportunity to make a different choice. Once Eugene had turned around to face his pursuers, approached them, and swung his sword, the outcome had already been decided. The intuition of the former God of War had already foreseen these results.
So what if he was ranked twenty-sixth? So what if he had the dark power of Incarceration? With just those, there was no way for him to affect the outcome.
Without even confirming the aftermath personally, Eugene turned back around.
Crackle!
Leaping to one of the feathers he had left on Raimira’s back, Eugene returned to where he had just been standing.
Instead of Eugene, Maise was left slack-jawed when he turned to look behind at the aftermath.
The wave of moonlight that had been spreading across the sky flickered out like a spent match. There was nothing left behind in its wake. The dozens of demonfolks who had been letting out such ferocious killing intents moments before had all been annihilated in a single slash.
“Wha… what was that…?” Maise gaped.
Although Maise wasn’t sure if this was an appropriate thought to have… that sword definitely didn’t seem like it should belong to the Hero. It was even more frightening than when Maise had faced the Demon King of Fury at sea. And it felt much more cruel and ominous than all the demonic beasts, demonfolks, and the undead advancing across the desert beneath them.
However….
The Hero who had held that sword and defeated a Demon King while drenched in his own blood, with a mischievous expression and casual tone, had arrived on the battlefield before anyone else, slain a giant, and cut down all of the demonfolks who had been pursuing them in a single blow, that Hero—
‘…I can somewhat understand Princess Scalia’s devotion,’ Maise thought with a snort as he shook his head.
In Shimuin, active worship of the Hero, Eugene Lionheart, was already being led by Princess Scalia.
She had taken charge of a liturgy that she forced on the royal family every month, and she also performed these liturgies whenever crowds of citizens and tourists had gathered together like thick clouds in front of Eugene’s statue in Shedor. The way she appeared when giving those public sermons, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to decide that she was already at the head of a full-fledged religion and grant it the official name, ‘the Church of the Hero.’
“Climb up a bit,” Eugene instructed.
He hadn’t put the Moonlight Sword back into his cloak. Instead, Eugene set it down at his feet, where he could comfortably pick it up again. With his right hand still holding on to the Holy Sword, Eugene held it up in front of him.
At some point, Raimira had already flown over the top of the Centipede Mountains. However, when they looked down, they still couldn’t see Hauria City below them. This was because the black veil of dark power covering the city was too thick.
Eugene eventually told Raimira, “There’s no need to go any further. You can stop here.”
Immediately after Eugene had said this, Raimira stopped moving forward. She was able to maintain her altitude and position in the air just by keeping her wings outspread. Eugene stepped off of Raimira’s back and unfurled his wings of Prominence.
Eugene had reached his other hand into his cloak to take hold of Akasha. Even with its help, he couldn’t completely see through the barrier’s formula. However, it wasn’t like he didn’t manage to see anything at all.
‘It keeps on building up,’ Eugene realized.
Whenever Sienna attacked the barrier, ripples would spread across its surface. As the internal shockwaves continued to accumulate, the magic formulas contained within the barrier were collapsing.
Since they couldn’t allow the barrier to break, whenever the formulas underlying it began to collapse, the wizards within would hurriedly reinforce the spell.
“That bitch,” Eugene cursed as his lips twisted in a sneer.
His eyes might not be able to see through this veil in front of him, but he could very easily imagine the scene occurring on the other side.
He could just see Amelia Merwin huddling behind the barrier. The woman who had been a fatal threat to Eugene in the past when he was still weak. The woman who had robbed the tomb built for him by his comrades and who had created a Death Knight from his corpse. And after that, even when Eugene had met her once more at the Knight March, the woman had still shown an irreverent and bossy attitude towards him.
But in fact, even under those circumstances, Amelia had still decided to hide away in her mouse hole because she grew so scared of him and Sienna.
That bitch was waiting for Eugene down below.
She had erected this barrier in a desperate attempt to stay safe and would be doing her best to hold it up in order to prevent anyone from breaking through. While holding Vladmir up with both hands, with dozens of liches kneeling behind her, Amelia had to be leveraging all the support she could muster to keep the barrier whole.
“I really want to see the look on your face when you fail,” Eugene muttered as he held the Holy Sword aloft.
In response to his actions, Kristina also stretched both hands forward.
Fwoooosh!
The Stigmata engraved on her palm began to glow as the priests of the Graceful Radiance brought their hands together in prayer.
Their bodies had all been implanted with the holy relics that the Holy Empire of Yuras had managed to artificially develop after hundreds of years of research. Implanting these relics had taken away from them the chance to enjoy their lives as normal humans, but in place of that, it had given them powerful reserves of divine power. One battle priest of the Graceful Radiance was the equivalent of a hundred ordinary priests.
Besides that, Eugene also had a Saint marked with the genuine Stigmata at his side, so currently, it was as if there were thousands of priests praying together on Raimira’s back. Their prayers all resonated with each other, and their collective divine power gathered into a single mass. By doing so, a massive source of light was created.
“No way…,” Maise gasped quietly.
Was it really alright for a wizard like him to be here, in a place like this? Suppressing his instinctive trembling, Maise gulped nervously.
It was a widely known fact that wizards did not believe in the gods. This made it difficult for wizards and priests to be ideologically compatible. Magic was created by combining sophisticated formulas with the world’s mana that had clear proof of existence. On the other hand, just how clumsy and ambiguous did the holy magic that priests used seem in comparison?
A priest’s divine power depended on their faith. It was said that the gods still existed somewhere, and they granted their priests power in accordance with their faith.
So what about Holy Magic? It also made use of certain formulas, but the rules weren’t as clearly defined as with Circles magic. One wasn’t able to use holy magic if one lacked faith, and even if two people were performing the same holy spell, the power of the spell would be different depending on the differences in their level of faith.
Moreover, there were also miracles that didn’t make use of any formulas whatsoever. They could only be performed by truly great priests. That’s right, if one were using wizarding terms, these real priests who could skillfully use miracles were the ‘Archwizards’ of the church.
Honestly speaking, it was hard to understand how it all still worked. Or at least, that was what Maise had always thought about it up until now.
Maise wasn’t the only wizard who thought that way. This was actually the case for most wizards. In fact, this should be a feeling shared by all Archwizards. For wizards, the only god worthy of any discussion was the Wise Sienna, who was steadily seeking a way to turn herself into a god through the use of magic.
That was what Maise had always thought, but now….
‘Is this… a miracle…?’ Maise wondered in awe.
Their surroundings were filled with light. Maise eventually collapsed into his seat, unable to suppress his trembling any longer.
When the prayers that the priests were reciting resonated as one, it sounded like a song. And it almost seemed like a trumpet was being sounded from somewhere high in the sky. From the light that currently filled his surroundings, Maise felt a warmth that seemed to be bathing his soul.
The black veil was still waiting below them. The sky above it was overcast due to the influence of all this dark power. This was also the center of the battlefield, and they were currently flying over a city that had been occupied by a Demon King. All of this made this place an ominous and terrible location.
However, it didn’t really feel that way. At this very moment, Maise felt that this place had to be the center of the world and the warmest and brightest place he had ever been in.
Maise saw the figure of the Saint with her wings outspread. Kristina was directing the flow of light.
His eyes followed the light flow being guided toward the Hero’s sword.
“Would you like to convert to the church?” a soft voice approached Maise.
Startled, Maise turned his head.
It was the Saint, Kristina Rogeris. With her eight wings outspread, she looked like an angel, and with the Stigmata-engraved hand held up towards the sky, it almost seemed as if she was holding up the heavens. Her smile made it seem as if she could understand everything Maise was thinking and every emotion he was feeling.
“The Light will always welcome any lost lamb who feels the faith,” Kristina said invitingly.
A lamb, she said. To think he would actually be called something like that at his age.
Maise let out a snort and shook his head, “…No. I have no intention of joining… the Church of the Light.”
“So not the Light, hmm,” Kristina’s grin grew a little wider.
Her narrow eyes were curved in a smile, but her blue pupils shone beautifully through the slight opening.
Maise smiled in embarrassment at having had his true intentions seen through by her.
“…I intend to convert to the Church of the Hero,” Maise admitted.
He still wasn’t too sure about the existence of gods. However, the light that surrounded him and the figure of the Hero who was connected to everyone here gave this Archwizard who had devoted his entire life to magic a different sense of awe than what magic had always given him.
“I bid you welcome,” Kristina said with a warm smile.
As the light connecting everyone was drawn into the Holy Sword, the sword of Light split apart the darkness.
1. The original text uses the English word romance, but it means it in the more uncommon definition of the word. A quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life. Something that makes you feel hot-blooded. ☜
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