Ch.1097There is More Old Man?

“Negotiations… failed before they even began? How regrettable. I thought someone like you, the embodiment of my ideals, would understand my intentions.”

Paulus glanced at my sword pointed directly at him and let out a deep sigh. His eyes were filled with indignation, as if wondering why I couldn’t understand his intentions.

“Fine, fine. Go complain to Menes. He might understand. I’ll help you on your way there.”

What a shameless old man.

I would have spent a long time deliberating whether to spare him even if he had spilled confidential information. Yet he expects to live after spouting nothing but nonsense? Has his conscience died before he has?

“I’ll have to decline. This old man still has much to do.”

Now he’s openly speaking informally. Since we can’t be allies, he’s dropping all pretense of courtesy, is that it?

Anyway, judging by how he was forcing a smile while sweating profusely, he seemed to have some hidden trump card, though I couldn’t tell what it was.

…Should I find out?

Or…

“You can do your work when you get there. I’ve been there before, and heaven is quite…”

【Defying Fate】

“…a livable place. Though you probably can’t hear me anymore.”

In the frozen world, I finished my muttering with a smirk, knowing no one could hear me.

A surprise time stop in the middle of conversation. Using the same technique Garmerlic had used on me proved extremely effective.

Yes, people are all the same. When they hear information about something they’re interested in, they can’t help but focus on listening.

Just like this old man now frozen before me.

“……”

I let out a hollow laugh as I looked at Paulus, frozen stiff without any chance to resist.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen an enemy fall so easily to Defying Fate. Despite inviting me here, he didn’t prepare any countermeasures against time stop?

Lack of preparation. Or perhaps he simply lacked the ability? Either way, it was truly reckless.

And that’s why he dies.

——!

A silent flash of my sword split the old man’s body in half.

As time resumed, Paulus’s body fell apart, spilling his entrails as he collapsed to the left and right.

A gruesome yet anticlimactic death.

—-

“Phew….”

I took a deep breath to replenish the energy spent on Defying Fate while looking down at Paulus’s cooling corpse, which hadn’t moved an inch.

I felt no sense of achievement from defeating an Apostle. If anything, I felt slightly suspicious. It felt too easy, even for an easy kill.

…Is he really dead? Just like that?

“Hmm….”

As I tilted my head in doubt and began to sheathe Durandal—

“…I see, so this is the famous… Indeed, few could stand against it.”

That all-too-familiar elderly voice came softly from behind me.

*Splat!*

I twisted my waist like lightning and swung my left arm behind me. With the sensation of human flesh bursting apart, a bouquet of bones and flesh scattered everywhere.

Another corpse, with only the lower half remaining, collapsed backward.

I quickly turned around to look behind me, and the vertically sliced corpse that had been there moments ago had vanished.

…What’s going on? Hallucinations?

No, such illusions shouldn’t work on me now. Then resurrection? Or doppelgangers?

“However, no matter how much you swing your sword all night, you won’t be able to kill me that way.”

A third Paulus. Annoyed by his mockery, I grabbed his head and ripped it off.

“Did you think I would appear before a god without proper preparations?”

Immediately, a fourth Paulus appeared. Thinking he might feel pain if this was resurrection, I burned him alive.

“…I see, so you did have a hidden card.”

Before the fifth Paulus could appear, I quickly searched my memory for the second Apostle’s battle pattern from the original work.

What did he do again?

Right… he occupied an entire city, drove all its inhabitants mad to use them as both hostages and troops, launching a massive offensive.

He also sowed confusion among allies, making them attack each other.

Judging by that alone, it was a typical mental ability focused on illusions or brainwashing.

Considering the scale of the ability and the fact that Paulus was the second Apostle, it was probably some kind of power bestowed by Menes that he hadn’t reclaimed.

“An illusion-type power…? No, something’s still strange.”

However, attributing the current situation to that power didn’t make sense…

“You think you can cast illusions on me? Breaking through my current mana resistance?”

Illusion abilities that had reached the level of divine powers, like Isabella’s illusions or Valkers’ city-wide brainwashing domain, could indeed pierce my mana resistance.

No, they could have. They certainly could have before.

But now? How could that be possible? My mana resistance has increased incomparably since awakening my divinity.

At the very least, powers wielded by those without divinity wouldn’t work. It would require at least the powers used by demigods… though I’m not even sure about that.

None of the demigods I’ve encountered so far used mental powers.

“That would be true for powers based on dark mana or mana.”

The fifth Paulus answered. Judging by his intact voice, he didn’t seem to share the pain with those I’d killed earlier.

Then it definitely wasn’t resurrection.

Even Isabella would moan and twitch from phantom pain for a while after resurrection if she experienced the pain of being burned alive.

So, perhaps I should just cause pain without killing?

*Crack!*

I instantly cut off and crushed all four limbs of the fifth Paulus, then cauterized the wounds with flames to prevent bleeding out.

“Ugh…!”

Reduced to a worm-like state in an instant, Paulus couldn’t even scream properly as he crashed to the cave floor.

However, he only groaned at the moment his limbs were severed. After hitting the ground, he was surprisingly calm.

Calm enough to speak casually with only his head and torso remaining.

“…But the foundation of my power is the holy power of the moon and dreams. It’s not based on mana at its core, so what meaning does mana resistance have?”

“Ah, was there such a loophole…?”

Now that I heard it, it made sense.

The blessing of mana resistance was originally meant to counter dark mana and mana. It was natural that it wouldn’t react sensitively to the holy power of human gods like Menes.

If it could filter out all holy power, I would have been a corpse long ago.

If mana resistance blocked holy power, healing miracles wouldn’t work either, and I probably would have died around chapter 40 if my life were a novel.

“…Still, something’s strange.”

Let’s say I couldn’t block it because it was based on holy power.

But could I, of all people, fall so helplessly to an illusion without any warning signs or even the slightest sense of something being off?

Even if I couldn’t avoid falling victim to an illusion-type power, I should have at least noticed the signs before it happened.

The moment I realized this was something like an illusion was only after the Paulus I had killed reappeared behind me, completely unharmed.

In other words, I had helplessly fallen for the trick of an enemy much weaker than me without even noticing.

If I had been careless and underestimating Paulus, I could accept being caught off guard, but that wasn’t the case.

[You got caught completely off guard. How embarrassing.]

‘I wasn’t careless! Didn’t you see me use Defying Fate as a surprise attack?’

[How could I see that? You even stopped my time.]

Oh… that’s right.

When I use Defying Fate, even Hersella’s consciousness stops momentarily. We share the same body, but we’re separate souls.

Anyway, I wasn’t careless. If I had been, I wouldn’t have used Defying Fate as a surprise attack to guard against his tricks.

In other words, Paulus cast an illusion on me so stealthily that I couldn’t detect any signs despite being fully on guard…

I doubt that. Could this old man accomplish what even Garmerlic couldn’t? It doesn’t seem likely.

Rather…

‘Let me ask you something. Are you seeing the same scene as I am right now?’

[What do you mean by the same scene? You mean the scene where you’re just tearing apart the twentieth old man?]

‘Yes, so we’re seeing the same thing….’

As I thought, Hersella seemed to be seeing the same illusion as me.

That means either his illusion power is distorting the physical senses of my body rather than my soul, which is why Hersella is also affected…

“…I think I understand. What kind of trick this is.”

Or, the target of the illusion power isn’t me at all.

*Thud!*

I kicked the twenty-fifth Paulus into the cave wall, then bent down and placed my left hand on the ground.

“Hagalaz.”

The power of destruction spread uncontrollably in all directions through the ground.

The entire cave shook violently as if hit by an earthquake, and cracks appeared in the walls, ceiling, and floor—every visible rock surface.

And then, the next moment.

*CRASH!*

With a shattering sound like hundreds of mirrors breaking simultaneously, the entire cave collapsed into fragments like shards of glass.

All those rock fragments disappeared like mirages the moment they touched the ground outside.

Just like how Paulus’s corpses had vanished without a trace seconds after dying.

“As I thought.”

I smiled as the debris showered down over my shoulders. As expected, there was no sensation of fragments touching my skin. Of course not.

They were all fake.

“You used your head well. I didn’t expect you to cast your power on this space itself rather than on me. I suppose a Cardinal can do such things?”

It wasn’t me who was under his power, but this space itself.

I wasn’t under an illusion power; rather, this space was controlled by his power, continuously projecting the nonexistent rocky cave and the illusion of Paulus.

“…Impressive. To think ‘Moon on the Water’ would be broken so easily.”

That was the true nature of Paulus’s power from Menes—’Moon on the Water.’