Chapter 350: Archbishop Manuela (1)
Chapter 350: Archbishop Manuela (1)
“It’s the same no matter how many times I’m born again. I’ll make sure that you-…”
***
Rain poured down.
The rain was heavy and cold at the same time, and it blurred his vision.
Ga?l let out a warm breath.
His rain-soaked clothes were heavy.
The muddy ground dirtied his feet.
“Haa… haa…”
Rain and blood flowed down along his sword. It mixed and fell to the floor.
The sound of rain weighed down all the screams, cries, and shouts. Or rather, it suppressed it all.
The chancellor’s army was not made up of ordinary humans.
The majority were low-level monsters and soldiers who had fused with monsters, and their fighting power overwhelmed the soldiers of the kingdom’s army, bringing fear and terror.
“”
A huge vortex accompanied by a raging sound then swept through the ranks of the chancellor’s army. As the water spread to the ground, the water blades became more powerful than usual.
“Ga?l!”
Ga?l was able to look back for a moment when the vortex swept the enemies in front of him.
He saw Adelia looking his way with her white wings spread open.
The angelic halo above her head looked beautiful every time he saw it.
But due to the wet hair, rain-soaked clothes, and panting breath, he felt regret first.
How long had it been since the battle started?
Ga?l was quite familiar with the battlefield since he went on a monster subjugation with Count Bayer every year, but it was his first time on a battlefield like this one.
“”
Adelia suddenly raised her hands and cast her magic again.
Two walls then rose from the ground, causing a change of terrain across the battlefield.
A good wizard on the battlefield was not simply a wizard with strong attack power.
People who could change the battlefield itself with the miracle called magic.
People who could sometimes attack, defend, and change the flow of battle by changing the terrain like what she had done just now.
In that sense, Adelia was a really good wizard.
“Adelia.”
It was forbidden to think about anything else during a battle, but there was someone he remembered.
A good person.
A dear lover.
A beloved wife.
He roughly heard from Count Chase on what had happened to the world called Pleiades.
The story was unbelievable.
And at the same time, it was a cruel story.
‘Iris.’
Ga?l’s first fiancée.
His first wife.
She died the day after their wedding.
Although she had been weak since childhood, she had a lively personality and always laughed, but she contracted an incurable disease and her lifespan became limited.
So she had one last wish.
After the wedding, when their first night had passed, she died with a smile on her emaciated face.
Count Chase said that it was not a regression.
But he said that the same history had been repeated several times.
The history from Jude’s birth until the age of seventeen was always the same.
So what about Iris?
What about her, whose lifelong wish was to simply be his bride, who at such a young age could not think of any other wishes, and who had to die in grief without knowing the world?
“Ga?l!”
Ga?l raised his head at Adelia’s shout.
He woke up from the past and saw the present again.
Adelia knew Iris too.
Jude, who was too young and could not get out of bed due to his Gueumjulmaek, could not remember Iris well, but Adelia was in her early teens at that time, so she vividly remembered the lively and cheerful lady who lived in a nearby estate.
Ga?l stared at Adelia.
He also recalled the other stories he had heard from Count Chase.
“I heard that this was the first time.”
His meeting with Adelia.
His connection with her.
‘We have to end this.’
This crazy situation that had been repeated several times.
‘I have to protect it.’
The present time.
His present time with Adelia.
Ga?l breathed in.
He focused and cleared his thoughts.
Protect.
Adelia and the present.
Against the enemy in front of me now.
“Jude.”
Ga?l reassured the worried Adelia with a smile and turned around again.
Despite the pouring rain, he looked far away and saw the huge red pillar of light.
***
Violent Avalanche danced in a lively way.
The cute bear cub’s dance was not for boosting the morale of the soldiers.
It definitely gave visual satisfaction to the nearby elves and shamans, but its main purpose was something else.
“Yosha! Yosha! Yosha! Yosha!”
The shamans of the wild lands danced in a circle centered on Violent Avalanche.
The power of the wild gods in the distant wild lands was brought to this place.
“Grow! Grow!”
The Golden Dragon King’s crest appeared on Violent Avalanche’s forehead as he gestured, and the ground violently shook.
As bushes and trees rose at once, the empty plain quickly became a huge forest.
It was an outrageous act that broke the balance of nature.
But it was something necessary now.
Kwagagagagagaga-!
The raging waves that covered the ground then collided and was destroyed by the natural breakwater everyone had suddenly created.
Violent Avalanche danced again, and the shamans and spirits of the elves tried to disperse the remnants of the destroyed waves.
One of the 7 major calamities that Jude and Cordelia had spoken of.
It was not a calamity for no reason.
Despite gathering all the powers of the wild gods, they could do nothing else but impede it as they did now.
But Violent Avalanche did not give up.
Although it was gradual, the momentum of the waves was weakening.
It was proof that their operation to break and disperse it was working.
“They’re coming.”
Red Gale spoke as he looked afar with narrowed eyes.
Because monsters appeared in between the raging waves.
It was questionable if it was their own decision or another person ordered them, but it was the right decision.
To directly attack Violent Avalanche and prevent him from interfering with the raging waves’ advance.
Their goal was so clear and obvious, so Red Gale was naturally prepared.
“Let’s go. Let’s show them the power of the wild lands.”
He had heard of what had happened.
The disastrous future the wild lands would have faced if Jude and Cordelia had not appeared.
Their pitiful fate of becoming puppets of demons and being mobilized in the war against the north.
“It must not happen anymore.”
Red Gale held his giant axe and fiercely smiled.
He blew the trumpet that signaled everyone to advance, and shouted out loud again.
“Kuraha!”
“Kuraha!”
“Kuraha!”
The warriors of the wild lands responded as their hearts all united. They grabbed their own weapons to slaughter the monsters rushing in front of them.
“Blade Song, sing us a war song.”
Great Storm thus said from a distant place.
The shamans began to sing, and the warriors remembered the battle in Snow Breeze Plain.
No one knew who sang first, but everyone sang the war song of the great Blade Song.
They raised their fighting spirit by calling out the names of those who sacrificed themselves for the wild lands.
“Go, go, go and tear them apart!”
“UOOOOOOOOO!”
The warriors of the wild lands furiously rushed.
Watching the scene, Count Hr?svelgr raised his sword. He ordered the Jackdaws to charge.
Elune also lifted her sword.
She had been seriously injured both physically and mentally in her fight against First Sword, but she picked up her sword again instead of crying in her room.
Because she never wanted to go through something like that again.
Because she wanted to protect the elves.
“Jude, Cordelia.”
Elune called out their names as if reciting a spell.
She raised her sword as someone who moved towards the horizon.
***
The fights intensified everywhere.
Sarah, Leon, and the emperor’s army in the north blocked the advance of the Gray Lady while the elite members of the Guardians of the Holy Cross, who were led by their generals, stopped the movement of the top-ranking demonic human, Jabberwock.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the entire continent was swept by the ravages of war.
The Great Tribulation.
But it had happened so suddenly.
It was not possible to cause the Great Summons with this much.
So they had a chance.
This time, they had a chance to stop the Great Summons.
The young goddess Atalia put her hands together.
She prayed and wished as one of those who lived in Pleiades, and not as a god.
Her last hope.
At a time when even Atalia herself, the goddess of Pleiades, had a broken heart from the destruction that had been repeated many times, she thought of a person.
The one who never gave up.
“Jude.”
Atalia prayed.
She made a wish again.
***
“F*ck bang! Bang! Bang!”
As soon as the door opened, Cordelia shouted out loud and threw all the remaining bombs with her telekinesis.
And a star-shaped explosion followed.
Gold Star Explosion.
A star-shaped flash of light filled their sight.
The light was so intense that it instantly filled the entire space beyond the door.
But it was only for a moment.
There was light and sound, but no destruction from the explosion.
It was the power of Kaira, the leader of the Devil’s Hand who was now guarding the ritual chamber.
The explosion shrank the moment she grabbed it with her outstretched hand. It concentrated on one point and disappeared afterwards.
An overwhelming telekinetic power.
It was as they had expected.
So right after the explosion disappeared, when the blinding light was gone and their vision cleared, at a time when Kaira and the demon followers were distracted.
“We’ll be fighting these people.”
A day before Operation Meteor Strike began.
Jude and Cordelia gathered those who would invade the imperial palace, and began a lecture.
“Considering the circumstances, these people will probably be the ones guarding the ritual chamber.”
Kaira, the leader of the Devil’s Hand.
Tanesia, the leader of the Devil’s Eye.
Yekaterina, the leader of the Devil’s Mouth.
Great Demon Forte, one of the seven swords of Asmodeus.
Even Kamael, who had been fighting the demon followers for a long time, was ignorant of their identities and abilities.
But Jude and Cordelia were different.
[You do know, right? That I’m the record holder for defeating Yekaterina in the shortest time?]
When Cordelia sent a magic with a snort, Jude replied with a smile.
[I know. Am I not the record holder for defeating Kaira and Forte in the shortest time?]
Cordelia pouted at Jude’s message, and Jude smiled again at her lovely appearance.
[My successor, please be serious.]
Jude was not embarrassed by Valencia’s sharp remark. Because it was the truth.
Therefore, Jude began the lecture again with a calm expression.
Who would fight who.
How to attack each of their enemy.
“Perfect! I’m going now!”
Bang!
The flash was just for blinding the sight of their opponents.
The moment she opened the door, Cordelia pinpointed the location of the enemies with her unparalleled spatial perception.
When the flash blinded the enemies, she delivered an image to everyone in the party with magic, so everyone who identified the location of their enemies knew where they should go.
Bang!
The light disappeared.
The sound scattered.
Kaira, the leader of the Devil’s Hand, extinguished the explosion.
And by that time, everyone in the party was already standing where they were supposed to stand.
“Black Lightning Covers the Sky!”
Jude became like black lightning.
Yekaterina was the leader of the Devil’s Mouth who worshipped Lilith, the overlord of love and hatred.
As an apostle of the powerful Succubus Queen, Yekaterina possessed a strong seduction power, so anyone who made eye contact with her were bound to voluntarily become her slave regardless of age or sex.
There were two ways to deal with Yekaterina.
One was to close their eyes and fight, and the other was to knock her down with long-range attacks at a considerable distance.
But Jude came up with one more trick.
“As expected, Cordelia is the prettiest.”
Jude said as soon as he saw Ekaterina’s fair and beautiful face.
If seduction was a problem, it would not be a problem if he was already seduced.
[My successor’s love filter really is amazing.]
To the point where seduction magic did not work on him.
At Valencia’s grumble that sounded pleasant to Jude, he brightly smiled in response.
“The second prettiest woman after Cordelia is Valencia. So even if I got hit hard by the magic, she’ll only be the third.”
[Yes, yes, after all, Cordelia is the best, right?]
Jude smiled again when Valencia snorted. He then mercilessly released the energy of the black dragon to Yekaterina whose face had turned red because she was enraged from his successive insults.
Bang!
Sword Demon Forte blocked Kamael’s sword with his huge sword. But he had to pull away and step back. Because the chill from Kamael’s sword was about to swallow Forte’s flame.
Forte was an excellent swordsman.
And so was Kamael.
Forte used fire. Kamael utilized ice.
So Forte’s opponent naturally had to be Kamael.
“Light.”
Lena rushed towards the Tanesia, the leader of the Devil’s Eye. Tanesia’s specialty was light magic, but Lena who inherited the genealogy of the sun goddess naturally had a light attribute.
Tanesia’s attack was halved, and Lena was not affected by her halved attack.
And one more person.
The leader of the Devil’s Hand, Kaira, was in a panic.
She was a woman of little emotion, but could not help it at this moment. Without realizing it, her face turned pale as she stepped backwards.
“A mind of steel, an indomitable will, and an invincible body.”
Her formidable telekinesis could crush even a huge explosion at once.
But it did not work for the man in front of her.
She tried to crush and break him, but he repelled it with his steel-like muscles.
“UOOOOOOO!”
The man who was 2 meters and 30 centimeters – no, he had now grown to 2 meters and 40 centimeters, came charging with the Solar Blade in his hand.
Realizing that it was useless to directly attack him with her telekinesis, Kaira hurriedly destroyed the surrounding terrain to use it for attacking, but it was futile.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
His fists broke the sky and his feet pulverized the ground.
Landius did not even swing the Solar Blade. With just his punches and kicks, which was his normal attacks, he neutralized all of Kajsa’s attacks.
As soon as they entered, they created a one-to-one situation to block the enemy from helping each other.
They pitted those who had the advantage over their enemy to push them.
Cordelia looked straight ahead.
Jude, Landius, Lena, and Kamael pushed the leaders and the great demon towards the corners of the room, so Cordelia stared at the presider of the ritual, Archbishop Manuela who was sitting on a heavenly throne, and the demonic humans in between her and the end of the ritual chamber.
[Shall we go too?]
Cordelia responded to Melissa’ question with a smile.
A golden storm engulfed the ritual chamber.