Ch.1090Divine Descent

The master of the oath sword Hauteclere and a paladin blessed with the power of flames by Saulite, the Sun Sword Perlien de Genes.

His power, which had grown through fierce battles against the fairy army, boasted enough might to kill even void monsters with a single strike.

Though he had received help from the Church of Menes to conceal his presence for a surprise attack, it was purely Perlien’s own firepower that instantly killed the powerful void creature Maul.

It was a display of might that justified why his seemingly blasphemous behavior—still serving Saulite and wielding the power of the sun even after transferring to the Church of Elpinel—was tolerated.

“Now’s the time! Somehow regroup during this opening!”

“If we retreat any further, the next battlefield will be our homeland! Defend with your lives—no, sacrifice your lives to defend it!”

However, despite Perlien’s presence, the battle situation was not optimistic in the slightest.

Vanquishing the turtle-shaped monster merely bought a moment’s respite for the surrounding clergy to regroup.

The monsters on this battlefield weren’t just limited to that one; in places beyond Perlien’s reach, countless paladins were even now being thrown back by monster attacks, rolling in the mud as they spilled their blood.

“It’s time to prove our faith! Be shields of belief and fight! The gods are watching over us!”

The high-ranking paladins of each order fought at the forefront, encouraging their subordinates, but they couldn’t achieve any meaningful results.

In this battlefield, Perlien was the only cleric capable of vanquishing void monsters.

The rest could at best halt the monsters’ advance, and the thought of inflicting fatal wounds to vanquish them was beyond their wildest dreams.

—

After the World Tree’s extinction, the desertified forest was essentially abandoned land, and since there was no reason to station main forces on worthless territory, the Holy State withdrew most of its core forces to the mainland.

They did leave some forces behind as a garrison, including Perlien, but the enemy they anticipated was at most the uncertain remnants of Alvheim.

Believing that Perlien alone would be sufficient for such threats, they filled the remaining positions with mediocre secondary forces just to maintain numbers.

But as luck would have it, an unprecedented emergency erupted there—not just monsters, but a horde of void monsters.

The garrison, suddenly struck by this disaster, fought with all their might, but void monsters weren’t opponents that could be overcome with determination alone.

No matter how desperately they fought, no matter how willing they were to face martyrdom with sword in hand, some things simply couldn’t be done.

They lacked power.

The mighty power needed to go beyond inflicting shallow wounds on the void monsters’ flesh and shatter their cores to end their lives.

Therefore, despite Perlien’s heroic efforts, the battle situation continued to deteriorate.

“Lord Perlien! Lord Wayne’s unit is half-destroyed! We cannot maintain the defensive line!”

“I’m heading there now! Hold on somehow!”

“Is anyone there! We need support! ‘The Fortress of Earth’ is collapsing!”

Even if he blocked one part of the battlefield with the power of the sun, three or four other areas would simultaneously fall in the meantime.

“Sun Knight Order! The priests of the Church of Ceres—”

“They’re engaged with a centipede-type monster in the rear! We don’t have the capacity to dispatch forces!”

“Damn it, of all times…! Menes priest order! Draw their attention with illusions! Earth Knight Order, scatter and retreat during that opening! Those with strength remaining, support the Sun Knight Order!”

Perlien felt like his head was about to explode.

Fighting with all his might against enormous monsters that could kill him if he let his guard down, while simultaneously assessing the battle situation and commanding the holy army.

And on top of that, he had to endure the burning pain from the Sun Sword’s recoil.

For Perlien, who became the commander-in-chief due to being the garrison’s strongest and highest-ranking member, the current situation was more overwhelming than even the Alvheim War.

‘If only the Holy Maidens—no, even if just Lord Ceylon were here…!’

He desperately called out in his mind for those who weren’t present.

Nevertheless, Perlien continued fighting to the end.

Even as his body began to burn from the heat of the Sun Sword, which had far exceeded its time limit, he forcibly restored himself with healing miracles.

—-

“Haaak…! Haaaak…! Kuh, huaaaa…!”

A red-haired paladin covered in black ash kneels, leaning on his sword thrust into the ground, exhaling violent breaths mixed with blood.

Blood spatter boils and steams as it hits the parched earth.

How much time had passed?

How many enemies had he cut down and burned, how many wounds had he healed before rising again and again?

After a brutal and desperate battle so fierce that even such thoughts were blurred by the heat and forgotten, Perlien finally reached the limit of his life.

His physical and holy power were completely depleted, making even simple healing impossible.

The arm gripping his sword hilt felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, and each labored breath brought searing pain to his throat, cracked from the heat.

Even the crimson flames of the sun that had burned its own master now left only a shimmer of heat haze as its trace.

“Kuuugh…. Saul…lite…. Goddess of…the Sun….”

Looking as if he had burned everything except his life itself, Paladin Perlien weakly offered a prayer to his goddess.

A prayer murmured softly like a last will.

Perlien’s mind, pushed to its limits, had already half-sunk into darkness, making this more an unconscious habit than a deliberate act.

“Lord Perlien!”

“Damn it, is this the end…!”

The garrison he had led was also too wounded and exhausted to stand again.

They had managed to rescue Perlien after his life-risking charge, but that was their limit.

“GRWOOOO…!”

“KYARRRK!”

Though Perlien had single-handedly vanquished nearly a hundred void creatures, the monsters remaining on the battlefield numbered more than ten times that.

While many of the monsters weren’t particularly strong despite being immune to attacks, their sheer numbers meant that there were also plenty of individuals with power rivaling hero-class knights.

In other words, unless a divine miracle occurred, the garrison’s defeat—no, annihilation—was already certain.

Everyone who had barely held on understood this.

This battlefield would be where they all faced martyrdom. The only task remaining was to somehow ensure Perlien’s safe evacuation to the rear.

“Goddess of Order. Soon, I shall come to your side…”

Thus, those remaining steeled themselves for the end of their lives, offering final prayers to the gods they served.

“Heavenly gods…! Please, please help us… no, help all those who will fall victim to these monsters…!”

Among them were those who, even facing imminent death, prayed not just for themselves but for others.

“Menes… please grant your protection to those who will remain…”

A desperate prayer asking for protection for others, so they wouldn’t suffer the tragedy of falling victim to monsters they lacked the power to vanquish.

Perhaps that desperate prayer reached the heavens.

“—Stand back.”

With a voice that echoed like thunder, a meteor wrapped in crimson flames crashed into the earth like bloody lightning.

An impact faster than sound. The boom that followed a moment later.

KWAAAANG!

The ground within a twenty-meter radius completely overturned, and shattered rocks covered in karmic flames swept across the area like a fiery tsunami.

A section of the monster horde was torn apart, blood and flesh evaporating instantly, creating a cloud of reddish-black steam mixed with dust.

“Ughk!”

“Kuugh…!”

The paladins and priests who had reflexively looked up at the echo tumbled down from the earthquake-like vibration and aftershock.

Fortunately, no one died or was injured because the densely packed monsters absorbed the impact and fragments of karmic fire with their bodies.

“This… could this be…!”

A few paladins who had enough strength left to avoid falling looked with trembling eyes at the source of the bloody steam.

Shock, bewilderment, disbelief.

Followed by joy and exultation that swept away all those emotions.

Within the swirling smoke and steam, a blue cross star blazed white-hot, scattering brilliant holy light in streams.

The starlight that had been branded like a hot iron in the minds of all who had experienced the Alvheim War, a memory they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

Everyone who had survived until now realized the meaning of the sight before them.

“The goddess…!”

A god had descended.

The guardian saint walking the earth. The Goddess of Stars and Dawn.

【 Sky Slash 】

Light cleaved the horizon in two.