The True Apostle

Udeududeuk―――!

Seeing the abnormally wide-open mouth, the Cult Leader reflexively pulled back, but the hand that was holding onto the torn-off arm was eaten. Literally. Like digging into a soft pudding, the Cult Leader’s wrist had clear bite marks. Seeing that, the Cult Leader muttered without realizing it.

“…How?”

The Cult Leader’s question was natural. Currently, the Cult Leader’s body was not a simple body. Because it contained chaos, it had a hardness that couldn’t even be scratched by sharp objects. Skin that could even lightly grab Ross’s shadow spear… Ross had easily eaten it as if he were taking a bite out of a dessert.

That’s not all. The Cult Leader, who understood chaos even fragmentarily through the god, suddenly began to feel traces of ‘chaos’ from Ross’s body. It wasn’t a mistake. The missing two arms, and the wounds all over his body, were regenerating in an instant, spewing out pure white smoke as if he had poured potion all over himself.

“Delicious… but not enough.”

The Cult Leader, who met Ross’s gaze as he raised his head, felt extreme displeasure. To wear a greedy smile as if he had insight into his own worth was an act that no being other than God should dare to do to him.

However, the Cult Leader was clearly angry but did not act rashly. He simply used the effect of ‘reversal,’ the source of chaos, to reverse his emotions and grasp the situation more calmly than ever before.

“…An ability to absorb the abilities of the target he eats?”

Saying that, the Cult Leader regenerated his hand and checked his condition. There were no abnormalities. What was taken was insignificant to him. The situation hadn’t changed. It was just that the opponent’s struggle had become a little longer.

“Heh heh, do you think that a bug like you can completely digest me, who is chaos itself?”

It was an unknown ability that he had never seen before, but there would definitely be a limit. Unless he grasped the essence of chaos, he couldn’t withstand the sense of alienation between the soul and body that dared to embrace chaos. Even the Cult Leader could only understand it fragmentarily with the setting of ‘ambiguous.’ The Cult Leader coldly judged that it was impossible for Ross, who had only reached the level of transcendence, to absorb chaos and use it himself.

“You’re saying things you don’t mean, aren’t you? Are you scared?”

When Ross’s unblinking eyes stared at him as if piercing through him, the Cult Leader burst into a hollow laugh.

“Afraid? Are you saying that you can make me feel an emotion that even the Roels of countless worlds couldn’t give me? Heh heh, haven’t you understood your character yet? Ross is just a disposable extra to advance the story. If you wanted to be a being that could scare me, you should have given up on Ross a long time ago.”

At the Cult Leader’s words, Ross tilted his head exaggeratedly and raised the corners of his lips.

“But I scare you, don’t I?”

“If that’s what you want to insist, then fine.”

“No, I’m not insisting. I just thought that if you weren’t really scared… you would confidently offer me your arm. Your words aren’t wrong. A disposable like you can’t absorb me. Go ahead and eat until your stomach bursts… I thought you’d put on such a show.”

Ross’s words were true. If it were the usual Cult Leader, he would have willingly handed over his arm to Ross’s last struggle. He would have smiled contentedly as he watched Ross’s eyes crumble with helplessness, unable to withstand the absorbed chaos.

However, he didn’t act that way. It wasn’t that he felt fear, as Ross said. It was just clear that Ross, born from lies, was definitely still hiding something and harbored a clear danger that could reverse the situation. In fact, even the current conversation could be one of his schemes.

“Usually, one doesn’t do the foolish thing of putting their arm inside a cage where a tiger is trapped, just because they can kill the tiger at any time.”

“Is that so? That’s a shame.”

Ross, looking genuinely disappointed, continued.

“I thought that Ross of transcendence with tremendous power would be a being who could transcend even such common sense… but you’re just the same as me, aren’t you? You’re still Ross.”

“Bullshit!”

At the words he could never ignore, the Cult Leader unknowingly released the power of chaos to the outside. The club room, which had been precariously maintaining its shape, began to collapse completely due to the huge shockwave. The Cult Leader, who floated his body using the power of chaos, escaped the collapsing building.

“…!”

In an instant, feeling a chilling presence behind him, the Cult Leader hurriedly turned his body and swung the chakram.

Kang-!

Ross, who had escaped from the building using space magic, had aimed for the Cult Leader’s back. The Cult Leader, falling straight down due to gravity and continuing to swing his spear using space magic, once again used the power of chaos to destroy the surrounding space, eliminating all the space coordinates that Ross had recognized.

The Cult Leader, who safely landed on the academy grounds, burned all the dust on his clothes with magic and opened his mouth.

“There’s no point in fighting the same fight, don’t you still know―.”

Shuuuuuk―――!

The Cult Leader, who dodged the spear thrown by Ross with a nod, decided not to talk to the impolite beast anymore. But he had no choice but to open his mouth at the boundary created by the lines around him. The Cult Leader wasn’t extravagant, but Ross’s actions were too foolish to ignore.

“Are you using the Spear of Resolution on me now?”

“That’s right, I was afraid you’d run away because you were scared. So I trapped you in a cage so you couldn’t run away.”

At the sight of Ross wearing a playful smile, the Cult Leader finally burst into a shout full of anger.

“Shut up!”

A tremendous shockwave swept through the inside of the battlefield boundary. Emitting tremendous pressure, the Cult Leader completely released the power of chaos. Like a typhoon sweeping away everything around it, the released power of chaos crushed Ross’s skin.

However, Ross ignored the pain and sprinted across the ground, instantly plunging into the Cult Leader’s arms. Pushing away the chaos that surrounded the Cult Leader, the spearhead aimed for his heart, but the Cult Leader’s hand lightly blocked the spearhead.

Ross, who measured the distance by moving his legs, launched a series of attacks again, but they were all blocked by the Cult Leader’s chakram and hands. Rather, the more he stabbed the spear, the more the chaos scattered around him began to create straight-line wounds on Ross’s arm. It was like reaching out his arm in a place where blades were scattered in the air.

The Cult Leader didn’t overdo it. Rather, he thoroughly blocked the opponent’s attacks and used the power of chaos to change the environment into a battlefield advantageous to him. Seeing Ross retreat after realizing that his body was being wounded every time he attacked, the Cult Leader once again created a shockwave and drove Ross to the corner of the battlefield.

“…Keuek!”

Ross, who had been trying to attack somehow by moving back and forth, was eventually driven to the end of the boundary. The Cult Leader, who had prevented him from escaping to the opposite side of the boundary using space magic with the scattered chaos, wore a victor’s smile and brought the two chakrams in his hands forward, making them appear overlapped.

“Legs, arms… next will be the head.”

In front of the Cult Leader’s presence, which would be enough to kill an ordinary person instantly, Ross raised magic power all over his body and took out the World Tree Spear from his space warehouse. And he swung the two spears at the Cult Leader. It was an unavoidable choice in a situation where there was nowhere else to retreat, even though he knew that the act of attacking was carving away at his own body.

Emitting the light of destruction, the World Tree Spear pushed back the chaos and headed towards the Cult Leader, but the chakram containing chaos excellently blocked the wooden spear. Even the World Tree Spear had visible cracks from the collision with chaos.

The Cult Leader acted as he had said. He pushed back the spear that bent at an incomprehensible angle, blocked the fatal blow that aimed for the gap in his defense, and eventually cut off Ross’s two legs. Watching Ross, who was rolling on the floor after losing his balance, the Cult Leader retrieved the chakram and smiled as he stomped on Ross’s chest like crushing a bug.

It was a perfect victory. In this state, he couldn’t swallow him no matter how much he opened his mouth. It was the same situation as grabbing and pressing down on the nape of a violent dog.

“So, any last words?”

At those arrogant words that a winner, that he, would naturally say, Ross’s movements, which had been writhing in pain, stopped abruptly.

“…Would you believe me if I said I read the flow of you acting like this?”

The Cult Leader, who was about to laugh at him for talking nonsense, saw something expanding in Ross’s body. Seeing that, the Cult Leader instinctively released the power of chaos and swung the chakram, but nothing happened. It couldn’t be helped. What appeared around Ross was the Encroachment Barrier, the most powerful barrier among the magicians’ barriers, which could even nullify the Cult Leader’s attacks for a moment.

“This is, the Fairy King’s Staff?”

Ross had been carrying what was left in his arms after Elly became a sacrifice for the Holy Grail and was last used. Ross, who activated the Encroachment Barrier using magic power, smiled at the Cult Leader.

“That’s right, it’s an item made to allow Bella to die together with the Cult Leader in the novel. A barrier with the [setting] to nullify all of your attacks for a moment.”

“…You’re pathetic until the end. Are you trying to buy yourself a moment of life?”

As the Cult Leader frowned with a face full of displeasure, Ross wore a faint smile.

“No, I’m acting like Bella too.”

“What…?”

“To defeat an opponent you can’t win against, you have to risk your own life.”

Only then did the Cult Leader realize that his leg, which had been stepping on Ross’s chest, was trapped inside the Encroachment Barrier.

“No way…!”

Seeing Ross’s mouth widening like a snake, the Cult Leader desperately tried to break through the Encroachment Barrier by releasing all the power he had, but he couldn’t overcome the [setting] that the Encroachment Barrier had on the Cult Leader.

Seeing Ross wriggling his body like a bug and crawling down towards the chest he had been stepping on, the Cult Leader was able to feel an emotion he had forgotten for a very long time.

Fear.

He didn’t know why, but he felt fear.

What if all of this was really a plan? Then absorbing Bella and becoming a vessel of God too…!

“…!”

The Cult Leader unknowingly spat out a voice mixed with despair. He felt like he knew what Ross was plotting. This bug… was trying to steal the role of summoning the God of Chaos to this world by absorbing him!

“How dare you try to replace me, you bastard!”

The Cult Leader misinterpreted what the God of Chaos had foreseen. He wasn’t an apostle who would eliminate the boundary dividing the human and demon realms and summon the Demon King, but an apostle in the truest sense who would summon the God of Chaos in his place…

“I’m not a hero. I just need to protect Luna, who is precious to me.”

The mouth, which had become monstrously large, drew an arc.

“Whoever it is, wouldn’t they grant Ross’s wish that made them win? After all, from God’s perspective, both are indistinguishable bugs.”

Udeududeuk―――!

“Don’t be ridiculous!!!”

Looking at his legs being eaten, the Cult Leader struck down on the Encroachment Barrier with all his might. However, Ross, whose arms and legs had regenerated, grabbed the Cult Leader’s legs and moved his mouth even wider.

Udeududeuk―――!

Ross, who had eaten the Cult Leader’s legs, wore an ecstatic smile.

“Ah, now I know.”

The Cult Leader wanted to block Ross’s mouth somehow. But as long as the Encroachment Barrier existed, he couldn’t stop Ross. He could only watch as Ross summoned the God of Chaos, his only role, without deviating from the plausibility.

Because Ross was already the vessel of God!

“No….”

In the Cult Leader’s scream, Ross quietly called out the true name of the god who had repeated endless battles with Roel.

“Nyarlathotep―――.”

***

Roel, who was looking at the sky from the imperial palace, gripped the Holy Sword.

He felt the chaos hidden in the abyss crawling up again to destroy the world.

The moment he had been waiting for had finally come.

The moment when the hero to save the world would appear.