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Chapter 489
The sky turned red.
In truth, Leon had been the only one capable of seeing the crimson sky.
But not this time.
The faces of those now seeing the red sky that only Leon had once been able to perceive became filled with an indescribable terror.
As though... the sky itself were alive, it pulsed.
“Something’s wrong…….”
Someone muttered blankly, as if their soul had left their body.
“Ahh, O God. Please watch over us…….”
Someone else dropped to their knees on the spot and offered prayers toward a god that gave no answer.
But they couldn’t simply stand there in a daze.
After Leon departed, the invasions had begun anew across the five battlefields in each region.
And these weren’t ordinary invasions either—they were catastrophic enough to bring despair itself.
“Everyone!! Draw your swords!!”
At the Holy Knight Commander’s shout, the holy knights clad in full plate armor simultaneously raised their holy power and lifted their swords and shields.
Immediately after, light overflowed from the power of the Saintess Nadia, who knelt with both hands clasped in prayer, and seeped into the holy knights and soldiers.
“Charge!!!”
KWA-AAAAANG!!!
Like dump trucks crashing headlong into something, the holy knights rushed into the battlefield without fearing death.
In the current situation where support from the archangels had become impossible, the only things they could rely on were their own strength and the support of the stars.
Still, because they were in a position where they had to fight a common enemy on a continental scale, the scale of their forces easily surpassed all expectations.
The largest battlefield of all was none other than the northern harbor of the Western Continent.
“When are the reinforcements arriving?!”
In the midst of the chaotic melee, the Emperor of Credos personally leapt into battle wielding twin axes.
People wouldn’t have been wrong to point fingers and ask what kind of emperor fearlessly charged into the middle of a battlefield, but those who had witnessed his martial prowess couldn’t easily open their mouths.
After tearing apart a monster’s tentacles, Emperor Credos shouted toward an officer swinging his sword nearby as if escorting him.
“They say they’ll be here soon! Very soon!”
The area they were fighting in now was an enormously wide highland region.
And for reinforcements to arrive, there was only one route visible to everyone’s eyes.
Yet even so, no sign of allied troops could be seen yet.
The stars supporting the other regions didn’t have two bodies either, so at this location they had no choice but to hold the line personally.
Even so, the messengers had said reinforcements would arrive soon……
Yet all that came was enemy reinforcements. No allied support arrived.
Perhaps... it had still been too early to trust in the alliance.
Suppressing the bitter emotions rising within him, Credos ignited the aura inside his body.
“Your Majesty! Please retreat for now! There are too many enemies!”
If only they had reinforcement troops, they could somehow hold the line.
KUUUUNG!!!!
Then it happened. As if the timing had been waiting for this moment, gigantic amorphous beings began crawling out from beyond the sea.
Stopping even those things was impossible.
Looking up at the reddened sky, Emperor Credos ground his teeth so hard they audibly creaked.
“All troops, retre—”
“Your Majesty!!!”
That was when it happened.
At someone’s urgent shout, he turned his head and looked toward the sky where the soldier was pointing.
What about the sky filled with red clouds?
Just as that thought crossed his mind—
A faint change stirred within the clouds.
PUH-UHNG!!!!
And then—
As though it had been waiting all along, a gigantic being with blue scales tore through the clouds and revealed itself.
“A…… a dragon?”
“My god. What in the world…….”
The appearance of the dragon, whose mere presence exuded overwhelming pressure, caused severe agitation all around.
Having seized everyone’s attention, the dragon soon soared high into the heavens before spreading its wings wide and halting in place.
And then—
Tsutsutsut…….
It began gathering an enormous amount of energy in its mouth.
“It’s a breath attack!! Take cover!! To the sides!!!”
At the desperate shout of the officer beside Credos, everyone threw themselves away and flattened against the ground.
And then—
The Blue Dragon’s azure catastrophe descended upon the earth, leaving behind a massive scar all the way to the sea as though painting with a brush.
The dragon’s breath, imbued with enough power to make flesh tremble, instantly swept away the monsters crossing over from the other side.
At last, those who had taken cover from the breath slowly rose one after another.
At the moment when everyone held their breath at the dragon revealed in the heavens—
The dragon’s entire body became enveloped in light before transforming into the form of a young girl.
“Emperor. What is the state of the battlefield?”
At her question, Emperor Credos spoke.
“The guardian dragon of Dragon Forge……. Blue Dragon Lord. Merkavalt…….”
“Indeed. This body is named Merkavalt. My apologies for arriving late!”
Before the long-lived dragon race, something like an emperor’s authority hardly mattered.
“It is fine. You arrived before it was too late.”
“Khmm. Th-that being said... if one is an emperor, then surely your aesthetic sense must be exceptional…… perhaps. What do you think of this ribbon?”
A large, soft-looking ribbon was tied to the side of her head.
It looked as though she had dressed herself up to look good for someone.
“Why ask that all of a sudden?”
“Well…… I wanted to show it to Leon.”
Seeing her like that, Emperor Credos let out an empty laugh.
Come to think of it, wasn’t the reason Dragon Forge—the Dwarf Kingdom—was participating so actively in this war because of Leon?
He wasn’t here right now.
Yet the emperor found it strangely surreal that the things he had done were once again creating a butterfly effect.
* * *
The throne of bones Baal sat upon was not merely for show.
It was a storage medium that condensed enormous power, as well as her defensive mechanism.
KKADEUDEUDEUK!!
Though the attack had come as a surprise, the bones of the throne moved as if alive and blocked the strike aimed at her.
At first glance, she merely looked like a necromancer controlling skeletons.
But the instant I saw the skeleton, I understood.
That skeleton was a special entity only she herself could control.
Undead?
Could that thing even be called undead in the first place?
It didn’t even possess an original form.
After the operation changed, the movements of both the archangels and Baal changed completely.
Before, they had moved as defensively and meticulously as possible, but now—
Now it truly felt as though they had begun unleashing their full power.
The power of the archangels could be felt from every direction strongly enough to make skin tingle.
Following Baal’s signal, the archangels had activated their final measure.
They had already been keeping things in check well enough, so was there really a need to go that far?
There was.
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Because Yog’s seal had been broken.
KWAAAAANG!!!!
No sooner had that thought crossed my mind than a pure white flash erupted in the heavens, and Kamael came crashing down at terrifying speed before slamming into the earth.
Kamael’s body bore massive wounds.
And from those wounds, black currents swirled and billowed out.
That was the kind of power that continuously gnawed away at its target.
“Kamael.”
“Stop worrying about elsewhere and focus on your task. Leon Cascadia. That is something for us to handle.”
The grotesque tentacles tearing through space freely and the bizarre mist scattering around them were so horrifying they invoked both the instinctive certainty of death and nausea itself.
Even if they were archangels, three pairs of archangels were still archangels.
And yet beings like that had ended up in such a state…….
Kamael forcefully spread his half-blackened wings and flapped them as though shaking something off before charging back toward the heavens at incredible speed.
“There’s no time to stand still.”
PUKWAK!!!
Baal, who had summoned a gigantic arm and grabbed every incoming tentacle from all directions, urged me onward.
But the power of Yog, now freed from its seal, far exceeded imagination.
“Ugh?!”
One enormous tentacle finally snapped apart the arm she had summoned and attacked her directly.
Like a person casually crushing an ant beneath their fingers, it came without hesitation.
She hurriedly prepared to defend herself, but it already felt too late.
That was when—
“Huuup…….”
JJJEEEEONG!!!
Along with a thunderous roar that tore through the air, the pure white divinity gathered in Luna’s hand exploded with radiance and completely shattered the tentacle into fragments.
“My, my. As expected of an archangel. Somehow, you seem even stronger than before?”
Sweating coldly, Baal forced an awkward smile.
“You can’t exactly fall behind after confidently saying you’d open the path for us, can you?”
With a lively smile, Luna slowly moved forward.
At the same time, the throne of bones she had been sitting upon began crumbling apart, and she slowly floated upward as though entering a state of zero gravity before descending gently to the ground.
“The price for making the Queen’s feet touch the ground will be heavy.”
One of her eyes gradually turned red, and behind her enormous demonic wings unfurled.
Even by rough estimation, the wings spread wider than ten meters.
KWAAAANG!!!
The aura flowing from her changed ominously, and the gigantic skeleton she had summoned took a step forward.
Then it seized every tentacle flying in again and began ripping them apart.
“Baal. Burning even your life force is a foolish decision.”
“Does this situation look light enough for us to be worrying about things like that?”
As though determined to block off our approach, the closing passage was grabbed and forcibly held open by the gigantic skeleton.
“Ugh……. I’m seriously dying heree…….”
Her tone sounded relaxed on the surface, but her expression wasn’t bright at all.
“Raphael!”
At her shout, Luna formed a spear of pure white light in one hand and instantly drove it into the closing mass of flesh, pinning it in place.
At the same time, dozens of tentacles stretched out from inside the passage and wrapped around Luna’s neck and limbs.
For a moment, disgust appeared across Luna’s face.
Sreung…….
Chwaak!!
The instant she sliced apart the tentacles, Luna made a tearful face.
“I seriously hate this kind of filthy stuff.”
“Yeah.”
After they had gone this far to set the stage for me, there was no room to spare.
‘Librarian. What’s the activation rate of the Demonic Sword?’
Kicking off the ground and rapidly entering deeper into the passage, I called out to the Librarian.
[!$#$%!$%!%]
However, the Librarian was being heavily affected by Yog’s power.
[So…… rr…… y……&%&(%&#$]
[Current activation $&!^*& ---98%]
It’s risen a lot.
As though trying to completely block my approach, grotesque tentacles covered in bizarre eyes and mouths continuously poured out from deeper inside, but most of them were intercepted by Baal and Luna, and those that broke through were all cut apart by the blade of Pragarach.
Throughout this process, I used extradimensional energy without hesitation.
Even Luna’s and Baal’s attacks could neutralize the tentacles, but they regenerated quickly afterward.
However, when my attacks infused with extradimensional energy struck them, they were unable to regenerate at all.
As though the entire place were one giant trap, attacks flooded toward us from every direction, but we dealt with and avoided all of them as we rapidly advanced.
That was when—
A spear of pure white light flew in from far away, aimed precisely at Baal and Luna.
Baal widened her eyes and moved to counterattack, but Luna stepped in front of her first and caught the incoming spear of light barehanded.
“Leon. Think you should go on ahead.”
The anger contained beneath her calm tone was palpable enough to make one’s skin sting.
The thing that had just flown in was unmistakably a spear of light.
A kind of power Yog could never use.
Meaning—
The one who had thrown that spear of light just now was none other than the traitor Gabriel.
“Child. Go ahead. If you go a little farther in, that bastard should be there. We’ll clean this up and join you afterward.”
Baal spoke while looking in another direction.
The presence coming from that direction was a very familiar one.
Yog’s final remaining subordinate.
Nyarlathotep.
“It has been a long time. My master has invited you. However, unwanted guests must stop here.”
The bastard emerging from the darkness had not changed at all since the first time I met him.
“By all means. My master holds quite a bit of interest in you, so I hope you achieve a good result.”
Perhaps she disliked his snickering appearance.
The instant Baal thrust her hand out like a flash of light, waves tearing through space shot out and seized Nyarlathotep’s body before ripping him apart as though performing execution by dismemberment.
“His way of talking is unbelievably irritating.”
She flashed me a grin and gestured for me to hurry onward.
Selling off your comrades to clear the path so you can go defeat the Demon King—it wasn’t like this was some hero’s tale.
What exactly were we even doing…….
But Gabriel or Nyarlathotep interfering during a confrontation with Yog would be the worst possible situation.
The appearance of the monster whose seal had been completely undone—
Tentacles as though crawling up from the abyss stretched out chaotically in every direction, and at their center a blazing eye stared directly at me.
That too was only a tiny fraction of Yog.
Even now, I had yet to properly perceive its true form.
[Foolish. Truly foolish.]
Yog’s tentacles moved.
[In the end, it is all futile resistance.]
Along with those words, his eye flashed.
And in that instant—
My body staggered and collapsed.
When had it approached?
A tentacle wrapped around my neck and constricted as though strangling me.
Had it moved at a speed beyond my perception?
No.
Had it broken through my defenses?
That wasn’t it either.
The reason I failed to react before my defenses were breached and the tentacle wrapped around my neck—
Was because my consciousness had momentarily vanished.
[The Will of Immortality manifests.]
[Recovering from a fatal attack.]
Meaning I had just suffered an attack capable of killing me.
“Cough…….”
Frowning at the incomprehensible and severe distortion, I spat out the blood pooled inside my mouth.
This wasn’t a physical attack.
Nor was it a mental attack.
Then what exactly had hit me?
[Are you curious?]
A chilling voice struck my ears, forcibly dragging me out of my thoughts.
Soon, the eye staring at me curved as though mocking me.
[In the end, this hope you have embraced is just this meaningless. Unaware that seeds of betrayal have already been planted beneath your feet, you are like a moth throwing itself into flame.]
Though his tone mocked me, it was difficult to deny.
The power of the fully unsealed creature far surpassed everything I had anticipated until now.
The text appearing before my eyes told me what had struck me.
[You have been exposed to an extreme Existential Shock.]
[Adapting.]
[Mental Protection expands its scope and gains resistance to Existential Shock.]
A power I had never even heard of before had knocked out my consciousness like a martial artist being floored by a strike to the vitals…….
I had never expected this would be easy from the start.
Soon, a gigantic world of mental imagery centered around me was forcibly overlaid onto reality itself.
[The fact that your existence did not collapse and you endured is worthy of praise. But what changes simply because you endured once?]
As though mocking me, my head rang painfully once more.
But this time, my consciousness did not disappear.
When I endured perfectly fine this time, something invisible struck me again.
Yet this time, even that shock had become insignificant.
Ahh.
So that’s how it works?
[…….]
For the first time, displeasure flickered within Yog’s eye.
“That’s all it is?”
Closing the distance in an instant, I drove the tip of Pragarach—now in the form of a divine spear—into his eye in a spiraling thrust.
In terms of sheer destructive power alone, it was firepower even the archangel Michael could not withstand.
But it seemed impossible to inflict significant damage on him.
No—even after coating it in extradimensional energy, the attack itself failed to connect.
As though the attack had never touched him in the first place.
[Foolish. Foolish.]
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
[What exactly do you think the ‘me’ you are looking at truly is?]
To him, my existence wasn’t an enemy.
Just a toy amusing enough to play with.
Which was why he could leisurely spout nonsense as though speaking of clouds drifting in the sky.
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