Ch.103Sleeping Minotaur of the Wilderness

When a massive light obliterated a 10km radius, and after it subsided, people began to distrust and turn against each other.

Crack—

Everyone present could hear the sound of something breaking.

“Is the… seal breaking? Could this explosion have disturbed the sealed monster?”

The captain of The One, Abes, muttered.

It seemed plausible that the seal could have been disturbed, considering the explosion had completely wiped out everything within their field of vision.

“That’s impossible! The seal is more than 30km away from here! I don’t know how far this explosion reached, but at most it would have extended about 15km in radius! An explosion powerful enough to reach 30km is absolutely impossible in this world!”

“Then what’s that sound? And… what’s that pillar of light that’s starting to appear?”

Despite Cardinal Baxter’s near-hysterical objections, when they looked in the direction Cain was pointing, they saw an enormous pillar of light connecting heaven and earth.

The pillar emitted such a dense aura that even from this distance, they could tell it was Uldur’s divine power. In response, Lepil, Jerome, and Baxter instinctively knelt and offered prayers toward the pillar.

“Oh Uldur…”

“Ugh, disgusting energy.”

Of course, there was also opposition.

Lee Juyeon, the Saintess who followed Agni—once the sun god and now considered a pagan deity—reacted this way.

To her, Uldur, the god of light who had sealed away her savior Agni, was her greatest enemy. The involuntary sensation of Uldur’s divine power put her in a foul mood, and Agni, present in her rosary, also expressed his displeasure at sensing Uldur’s power.

“What? What did you just say…?”

“Hero Lepil! Now is not the time for us to fight among ourselves! With a being sealed by Uldur’s own power now being released into the world, we should first consider how to deal with it.”

“Cardinal Baxter!”

Hero Lepil looked at Cardinal Baxter, who was restraining her, with disbelief. How could a believer of Uldur tolerate such words! But the cardinal’s gaze was so serious that Lepil eventually had to back down.

“My, our cardinal is quite competent. If you join our cult, I’ll treat you well.”

“You infidel! Cardinal Baxter would never do such a thing!”

So that was why he had tried to stop her!? Lepil, unable to contain herself any longer, began summoning a spear of light, while Juyeon summoned black flames to confront the hero.

Whoosh—!

“You fools. What do you think you’re doing? We need to move toward that pillar of light right now.”

It was Cain who stopped them. With just a casual swing of his greatsword, he split the ground, creating a fissure. Juyeon was the first to back down.

“It was fun teasing you, but I’ll stop now. I’ll always welcome you to our temple. But only after we deal with that thing.”

Lepil nodded as she looked where Juyeon was pointing. In the clear sky—all clouds having disappeared after the explosion of the sky island—they could see the enormous face of a bull.

The seal of the monster that had once split the continent was gradually breaking.

“Well then, let’s move. Is everyone ready?”

At the witch’s words, everyone began to gather. However, Lepil and Jerome, the only ones who had never used this magic before, looked puzzled but stepped onto the magic circle, trusting the others who were all using it.

“My proficiency with this magic isn’t high enough to travel such a long distance at once, so we’ll move in two jumps. Everyone, prepare yourselves.”

“Oh, I’m counting on you.”

“Um… what kind of ma—WAAAH!?”

The magic circle activated, and they left the space where the sky island had been destroyed, moving toward Uldur’s pillar of light.

* * * * *

“Huff…! Huff…!! Huff…!!”

“Bleeeurgh—!”

“Wow, the hero is throwing up~. How weak!”

“Sh-shut up!”

“And you too, Cain. Acting all tough, but struggling with teleportation magic that you must have experienced many times?”

Cain simply raised his middle finger, ignoring Juyeon’s mockery.

“Haah… I need to rest. My mana is completely depleted.”

“You did well. I’ll leave Cowboy with you, so take some time to meditate. We’ll go to where the seal is breaking.”

The witch, who had used the now-extinct teleportation magic circle twice in succession, retreated to a corner to recover her mana through meditation. Leaving Cowboy, who was practically her boyfriend, with her, the rest moved quickly.

They were all transcendents who had surpassed human limits. As they began running in earnest—these experts who could easily defeat Orichalcon-class adventurers, the minimum requirement to join a hero’s party—they quickly closed the distance to the pillar of light.

“…!”

“Wait a moment.”

As they got closer to the pillar of light, they heard human voices. At Lepil’s signal, who was leading on a unicorn, everyone stopped and suppressed their presence.

“Ohhh… Great God of Destruction, Minotauros! Destroy this broken world and lead us to a new one!”

Ohhh!!

Ohhhhh!!

From the hilltop where they were hiding, they saw people in black robes bowing their heads in prayer before the pillar of light.

“Damn it…!! The Doomsday Cult… How did this group that worships Minotauros, who appeared and shattered the Empire four years ago, know about this place…!”

The Doomsday Cult. A religious sect founded by someone fascinated with Khan, who had collapsed the Laugiel Empire in the past. They were fanatics who believed that someday Khan would destroy the world, returning everything to nothingness before a new world was born.

Three years ago, when the continent split, their growth exploded, but when the Uldur Church designated them as heretics and suppressed them, they went underground.

“After being quiet for two years, I never thought they’d be planning something like this…!!”

“So, we just need to kill all of them and then kill that sealed monster, right? It looks like the seal on its neck is breaking now.”

At those words, everyone looked up at Khan’s face high in the sky.

“Indeed… If we ambush them now, kill them all, and then drill an air hole toward its brain, that should work.”

“Then I’ll prepare to summon my ship. I’ll stand by for one minute.”

“Then, myself, Cain, and… ugh, the heretic as well, let’s sweep away these heretics.”

With those words, the hero charged forward riding Jerome.

Whiiing—!

“Aaaagh—!!”

“An attack of light! It’s Uldur’s dog! Everyone, use what we prepared!”

The light that left Lepil’s hand instantly took down many members of the Doomsday Cult, but suddenly appearing black lightning blocked the light.

“Ha… hahaha! This is the power of Lord Minotauros! Black lightning! Kneel before the great God of Destruction, Lord Minotauros, who has descended to this world…”

Slash!

“Your tongue is too long.”

Whoosh—!

“My, this lightning… Could it be that Minotauros who was with the fairy? I thought it couldn’t be, but since he’s a participant and a Minotauros…”

While Juyeon realized the truth, the members of the Doomsday Cult fell like autumn leaves under their attacks.

The hero’s light flew too fast to be seen, annihilating the remaining cultists. Cain’s greatsword was swung casually as if he found it bothersome, but each strike was far from light, laying many on the ground.

And causing the most damage was Juyeon’s flame. Her black flame, which burned those who didn’t believe in Agni, spread like a plague, quickly turning many to ash.

“Kuk…!”

Watching this scene, the leader of the Doomsday Cult had to make a choice. Even if left alone, the seal on their god of destruction, Minotauros, would break on its own.

But if these attackers continued to wield their weapons, they might attack their god whose seal was imperfectly broken.

So without a moment’s hesitation, he tried to take out a scroll from his body and tear it.

Whiiing—!

If the hero hadn’t been watching him, he might have succeeded. The cultists’ efforts to break Khan’s seal while controlling the light to prevent attacks from reaching the seal ended in failure, and only Khan’s face, whose seal was imperfectly broken and who had not yet fully awakened, was revealed.

“So, what now? If we kill it now, isn’t that our victory?”

“Do you have the destructive power to penetrate a monster of that mass? I’d rather not die from one mistake.”

“I feel the same. But now that it’s shown itself on this continent, we can’t hide it anymore.”

Grrrr…

While they were all discussing how to deal with this monster, the witch and Cowboy appeared using teleportation magic.

“Hey, what are you—!”

Not beside them, but next to the pillar of light.

“I thought about it, Cain. The reason you brought us was because you couldn’t stand weaklings taking credit, right? Actually, I felt the same. Some insignificant person accidentally gaining great power and pretending to be strong.”

“You fucking bitch, what are you…!! My Leash of the Loser should be on you…!”

“Why don’t you try using it? The leash.”

“Hmph! Pain so severe you’ll never defy me again… huh…?”

Cain tried to summon the leash, but nothing appeared in his hand, and no leash was visible on the necks of Cowboy and the witch.

“You! How did you…!!”

“A secret weapon should be kept hidden until the end, right? So we endured and endured. Now we’ll show you the outcome…”

Whiiing—!

Clang—!

The hero’s spear, flying at lightning speed toward the witch. But Cowboy, though considered lower-tier among the remaining participants, was still skilled enough to have survived ten years in Grancia.

The hero’s attack was blocked by Cowboy’s bullet, and from that point on, techniques that precisely targeted the enemy without attacking the seal rained down on Cowboy and the witch.

Juyeon’s black flame clung to their bodies, Cain’s sword wind and Cardinal Baxter’s spear of light targeted them, and when Captain Abes’s ship The One appeared.

The witch deployed a defensive spell against the incoming attacks, and those attacks hit the pillar of light.

Crack—

Sizzle—

“Hahaha, thank you. Actually, your leash is still around my neck. And around our Cowboy’s neck too. I didn’t know pain-blocking magic would be this useful.”

“What!? But when I tried to summon it, no chain was visible…”

Snap!

When the witch snapped her fingers, the Leash of the Loser reappeared.

“My unique trait is that I can make magic work on everything visible.”

CRACK—!

With those final words, the imperfect seal was completely shattered by the participants’ attacks.

“I love you, Alberto.”

“I love you too, Lexi.”

MOOOOOOO——!!!!!!!

Witch Lexi and Cowboy Alberto, though engulfed in black flames, kissed as they confessed their love before turning to ash and scattering. And the Beast of Apocalypse, once sealed by Uldur, once again revealed itself in Grancia.