Ch.1110Arm for Arm

When blood starts to flow, excitement rises, and when pain begins, anger follows. That’s the nature of all living beings.

People, beasts, even monsters are the same.

– CRASH!

In the thunderous noise that had become so familiar it now seemed natural.

The long intestines that had burst from the center of Invidius’s chest writhed with holes punctured throughout.

Wounds carved by Perlien’s crimson flames, Joshua’s slashes, and the concentrated barrage from the Holy Corps led by Adamante.

The blood flowing like a waterfall excited the Holy Corps.

“It’s working! Keep pouring it on! We’ll chip away at its flesh bit by bit!”

“It’s neither invulnerable nor immortal! So eventually…!”

Eventually it will die.

Eventually they can kill it.

Finding a faint sign of victory in the wounds carved into the evil god’s body, the Holy Corps fought with even greater ferocity, clinging to that hope.

White, scarlet, gold, silver.

Holy lights of every color illuminated the sky like fireflies, spreading like rippling waves or pouring like rain.

Each time the paladins’ miracles struck directly, dazzling bursts of light exploded, and pieces of the evil god’s flesh torn away by that light burned as they fell, wrapped in sacred radiance.

The Void God of Envy, gradually crumbling under the assault of countless light bursts.

It was a magnificent, sacred, and solemn sight.

—-

【 A bit҉̧̘̭͔̱͆̀̂͗͠ too many҉̢͎̙̌̑̍̍̓͡…. 】

Perhaps the evil god, who had been focused on fighting the three of us, found their struggle somewhat impressive.

It teleported both arms that had been swinging at us and began to target the Holy Corps in earnest.

– BOOM…!

Enormous, impossibly massive arms cast long shadows as they struck down and swept across the earth.

Like mountain rocks crumbling, like a garden broom sweeping away fallen leaves.

“Here it comes! Defensive formation-!”

The onrushing force was as fierce as a storm, and its reach as vast as a plain.

No time to dodge, nowhere to flee from this massive calamity.

All the Holy Corps could do was gather their strength and try to block those arms head-on.

…But how could that possibly work?

– CRASH!!

The evil god’s arm, wrapped in a whirlwind of dark mana, struck the holy barrier deployed by the Holy Corps.

The ground cracked like a spider web and overturned with the shockwave that erupted with the thunderous noise, raising a thick cloud of dust.

– CRACK!

The holy barrier twisted and distorted, unable to withstand the impact. Black and white lightning scattered across its surface as dark mana and holy power collided.

“Urrrgh…!”

“Hold!! Hold it! Maintain the barrier!”

Paladins and priests spat blood as they reinforced the barrier, resisting the dark mana.

However, even all their combined strength was barely equal to just one of the evil god’s arms.

“Demian! Help them-“

Even as I fought against the evil god’s powers and magic, becoming covered in blood, I urgently tried to send Demian to support them.

【 Denied҈̧̦͕̠̍̄̒̆͡. 】

But Invidius held us back, firing all manner of high-level magic spells.

“Damn it…!”

Persiella and I did our best to hold them off and clear a path for Demian, but a delay of several seconds was unavoidable.

– CRASH!

And those few seconds were enough time for the Holy Corps’ sacred barrier to shatter, unable to hold any longer.

======[ Ground Level ]======

“Scatter! Scatter-!”

“Oh Goddess…!”

Those in command of the troops shouted with blood spilling from their mouths for everyone to take cover, and the paladins under them urgently led the priests to scatter in all directions.

“Sun that never sets—!”

Perlien, gritting his teeth, manifested the power of the “Sun Sword.” A small sun rose within his domain of crimson flames.

“AAAAARGH!”

Thus, Perlien, becoming a sphere of burning scarlet flames, charged toward the evil god’s arm.

The recoil from simultaneously manifesting two powerful abilities caused his entire body to burn, and he endured the excruciating pain and weakness that felt like being shattered to pieces with a desperate roar.

– CRASH!

Within the domain of crimson flames, the sun sword, burning with himself as fuel, collided like a meteor with the evil god’s right arm.

Shattered flames scattered like fireworks with a deafening sound.

The evil god’s right arm plowed through the earth, pushing Perlien back. The god’s flesh, melted by the heat, regenerated repeatedly while wrapped in dark mana, undulating grotesquely.

“Urgh…!”

In the swirling vortex of flame and darkness.

Perlien fought with all his might, even as he sprayed a mist of blood through his clenched teeth, but he couldn’t overcome the overwhelming difference in power.

The result of deploying two abilities at full power was merely to slightly delay the evil god’s arm from sweeping through the Holy Corps and softening its flesh by burning it.

“Even like this… even going this far, I can’t reach it…!”

That was Perlien’s limit.

“—Not yet!”

But he was not fighting alone.

“UAAAAARGH!”

Behind Perlien, who was being pushed back while leaving half-melted, lava-like footprints, a giant rose with a fierce roar.

【 Giant Slayer’s Sword. 】

Joshua’s heroic tale that transforms his weapon into a massive armament dozens of times its original length, capable of slaying even giants.

“I am Joshua, the ‘Giant Slayer’! Legacy of Landenburg, the dawn’s sword gathered beneath the starlit sky!”

The greatest hero of old Landenburg used not his sword but his own body as a weapon, expanding himself to the size of a giant, if only for a brief moment.

Indeed.

A giant cannot be killed by human strength.

One who hunts giants must rightfully become a giant.

“HAAAAA!”

Casting a mountain-like shadow over the battlefield, the enlarged Joshua brought down his greatsword in a diagonal slash.

The giant’s sword and the evil arm.

A collision of massive bodies far beyond human scale.

The earth overturned, exposing its underbelly, and shockwaves spread through the sea of dark mana, creating tsunamis that swept in all directions.

– BOOM…!

A heavy and intense roar like the echo of an avalanche.

The giant sword, swung as if to cleave the world, stopped just before reaching the evil god’s arm, unable to advance further, merely trembling and convulsing.

“Urrrgh…! Yes… indeed, indeed worthy of being called an evil god…!”

Joshua gritted his teeth, his eyes burning with fighting spirit as he endured the immense repulsive force transmitted through the sword hilt.

Blood gushed from between his clenched teeth.

The extreme heat from the Sun Sword, the dark mana’s corruption poisoning his soul, and the massive repulsive force transmitted through the blade touching the evil god’s arm.

Just from matching his sword against the evil god’s arm in earnest, Joshua’s body was advancing toward death with each passing moment.

The only reason he hadn’t immediately died was because Perlien’s “Domain of Crimson Flames” was purifying the dark mana’s corruption and healing his wounds.

“Kuhak…!”

But there was a clear limit to that power. The damage Joshua had sustained exceeded what could be healed by Saulite’s sacred domain.

From the beginning, the Domain of Crimson Flames was already gradually collapsing under the dense and powerful dark mana emanating from the evil god’s arm that had penetrated so close.

If he continued to hold out like this, it wouldn’t be strange if his body, reaching its limit, burst and crumbled into dust—no, that outcome was certain.

Yet instead of taking a step back, Joshua straightened his waist that was about to give way, gritting his teeth, and pushed his greatsword forward with all his might.

“…But a knight of Landenburg, even without the slightest chance of victory… even if there is no meaning to the struggle… will never know retreat…!”

In his consciousness growing dim from the excruciating pain, Joshua recalled an old friend.

A man who had dedicated half his life to protecting the Empire, devoted the other half to revenge, and after taking in and supporting his enemy’s daughter, met his death alongside his enemy.

His friend. His lord. The one who had been like a brother to him.

Ludwig of Landenburg.

Old memories unfolded like a kaleidoscope, filling Joshua’s mind.

An era when the realm of Master was believed to be the pinnacle of humanity. A time when all the principles of the world were incomparably clearer than now.

Not an age of gods, monsters, and heroes, but an age of ‘humans’—the Empire’s golden age. In those days, Joshua feared nothing.

Of course, even now, Joshua still feared nothing.

“Cursed god of evil karma! I, Joshua, Joshua Blake, swear as the sword of Landenburg!”

Joshua shouted, vomiting a gush of blood.

Sky-blue haze flickered on the cracking blade. His soul, the karma he had accumulated, used itself as fuel to push him a little further beyond his limits.

The soul of Landenburg burned within the blade forged from the corpse of a star.

“At the very least, I will take this one arm—!”

Joshua stepped forward, burning his own soul.

The white-hot blade became a blue lightning bolt, flashing brilliantly with a thunderous roar that shook heaven and earth.

Roar, flash.

And the next moment.

– BOOM!

The blade at its limit, Joshua’s two arms unable to withstand the backlash, exploded and scattered like dust.

The cracked parts all split at once, shattering like glass thrown to the ground, along with the remnants of the massive right arm.

【 GRAAAAAAAH―! 】

The God of Envy, having lost an arm once again, howled in rage and humiliation.