Ch.1203Even if Caught by a Tiger, You Can Survive if You Keep Your Wits About You.

# The Seventh Trumpet

Converting immense divine power into pure destructive force, a beam of annihilation that reduces everything it touches to dust with its overwhelming current of power.

The most fundamental and powerful ability that the Fallen Angel Israfel possessed since his creation as an angel mercilessly engulfed the Goddess of Stars and Dawn who failed to evade it.

“KWAOOOOOOO…!”

A river of light spread across the void. A sight like the Milky Way descending to earth.

That massive and intense beam of light shattered the magical formation protecting the allied forces’ fortress like paper, and penetrated the highest spire of the fortress—the core maintaining the formation—along with the cliff behind it.

“Good heavens, that’s…!”

A power that made one wonder if even a great dragon’s breath could achieve such destruction.

The light advanced, dissolving the cliff’s rock like ice melting over flame, carving a tunnel through the Eastern Mountains large enough for giants to pass through.

Everyone on the battlefield witnessed this spectacle in shock.

“Lord Haschal!?”

“Sister!!!”

Both the Arachne forces—who had been rampaging out of control after their queen’s death—and the powerful warriors under Haschal who had been engaged in fierce battle against them.

“What is that light…?!”

“The mountain has a hole…”

“How terrifying. Is this the power of angels…!”

And the allied warriors who, according to the original plan, had split into two groups—one holding back the enemies while the other evacuated the rear forces in sequence.

—-

“Hurry! Get on quickly!”

“There’s no time to hesitate, we must escape as swiftly as possible…!”

Although the situation had improved somewhat with Hubrisia and Caljarat falling, leaving only one demigod-level enemy, the battle situation could hardly be called favorable.

Therefore, Haschal’s initial retreat order remained valid, and the allied forces continued to fight with all their might while evacuating troops through the underground passage at the rear.

In a way, this was voluntarily reducing their already slim chances of victory, but no one opposed the order.

The fortress they had built in front of the Eastern Mountain cliff was a temporary stronghold constructed with the assumption that they would abandon it and escape as soon as they were discovered by the enemy.

Sacrificing lives to defend a facility that had lost its strategic value would not be an act of courage but merely foolish attachment.

So they neither opposed nor became confused by the retreat order, but steadily evacuated from the battlefield using the pre-dug underground waterway and the numerous small escape vessels they had prepared.

“…Will they be alright?”

“We have to believe they will. That’s all we can do.”

Everyone felt somewhat heavy-hearted about escaping first while their comrades were still engaged in fierce battle, but there was no better solution no matter how much they worried.

The best they could do was to pray for the safety of their comrades who were buying them time, and to reduce their burden by escaping as quickly as possible.

*Rumble…*

They nervously glanced up at the ceiling of the underground waterway, which was shaking as if an earthquake had occurred from the impact that had pierced through the mountain range.

======[ Israfel ]======

Israfel had concentrated “The Seventh Trumpet”—a power that would normally sweep the entire battlefield with thousands of beams of light—onto a single target, achieving transcendent destructive power.

【 Spell inscription overheated. Attack terminated. Remaining divine power…72%. 】

Though he had expended more than 30% of his divine power in that single strike and would be unable to use that ability for some time, he had no regrets about the outcome.

【 Target hit. Defense failure confirmed. 】

His target, Haschal, had failed to properly block the light and had been swept away—this he had clearly confirmed with his observation organs.

That alone was already an achievement beyond expectations. He had easily defeated a formidable enemy who could have taken his life with a single misjudgment.

Though it wasn’t apparent due to his emotionless demeanor, Israfel had been unable to suppress his extreme vigilance from the moment he first saw Haschal.

This was entirely natural for him. He couldn’t possibly lower his guard.

She had been stronger than him from the beginning, and even after he stole Hubrisia’s divine power to surpass her in total power, she still maintained superiority in terms of existential rank.

From the perspective of demigods who judged others’ levels by power or presence alone, she might have appeared to be just another demigod like themselves, but that was a grave misconception.

Israfel, originally an apostle of heaven, unlike those demigods, could clearly understand not the power Haschal had accumulated, but the rank she had attained.

‘A god.’

She was already a god.

A being of a different rank from demigods or angels. A candidate for ascension who had fulfilled all the conditions and qualified to ascend to heaven.

Only her attachment—or lingering affection—for remaining in the mortal world prevented her from fully realizing her potential; the moment she let go of that attachment, she would become a true transcendent being who would reach heaven and become a new god.

How could Israfel possibly lower his guard when he, a mere angel—a servant of God—had to defeat such a being?

Moreover, not only was her rank high, but the power contained within her soul was also more transcendent than any enemy he had ever faced.

Spatial severance, time stoppage.

Both were clearly high-level powers, but… not enough to consider them fatal threats. There were plenty of demigods with similar powers.

The problem wasn’t these simple powers—tools, so to speak—but the most essential and fundamental power engraved in her very soul.

The Goddess of Stars and Dawn, Haschal, after endless struggles, had become aware of and named her fundamental power: “Transcendence of Limits.”

It was a power of transcendence that used her divine power as fuel to lead all things in the world beyond the essential limits set from birth.

But even such a transcendent power was, in reality, merely a fragment of the potential she had unconsciously suppressed.

The true nature of the power dwelling in her soul was not an ability with an ambiguous name like “Transcendence of Limits,” but a power of a much higher dimension.

Its true name was Fate Alteration.

A unique power that could twist the destiny of all things and change even the fate of the world, encroaching upon the domain of the Creator who brought forth all the laws of this world.

It was an alien and absolute ability that could never be granted to beings of this world—one that even the ancient gods who had existed since the beginning had never obtained.

‘I must secure it.’

And Israfel had been aware of the nature of this power from the beginning. Not from the moment he saw her, but from before that.

That was the very reason he had come here in the first place. To steal the power to alter fate, along with the divine power that sustained it.

And with that power, to forcibly twist all fates connected to his god, to resurrect his master who had died according to predetermined fate.

That’s why Israfel had broken his long silence and descended to this place, and why he had spared no expense in deploying the divine power he had accumulated over long years for this one battle.

*Gooooooo…*

The result was manifested in the form of the mountain range with a huge hole, now billowing smoke.

【 Expanding detection function. Observing blast center. 】

After stopping the bombardment of light and completing a simple self-check, Israfel looked at the tunnel he had created and amplified the sensitivity of his detection organs to a more precise level.

It was difficult to ascertain the target’s condition clearly due to the swirling ash wind, smoke, and the remnants of light writhing in the form of lightning and flames at the blast center.

Given that she had been directly hit by the concentrated Seventh Trumpet, it would be reasonable to assume she was already dead, but what if? She might have somehow barely survived.

Even if she had luckily survived, she would certainly have suffered fatal wounds, but Israfel wanted to confirm this with his own eyes as soon as possible.

Only then could he feel at ease.

【 Confirming target’s complete silence— 】

Just as Israfel was about to observe the situation at the blast center by activating all his sensory organs to their limits—visible light detection, heat detection, divine power detection, and more—

“—Complete silence? That’s still too early…!”

Along with a woman’s voice weakly sneering, a blue lightning suddenly flashed and embedded itself like a hungry wolf’s fang into the Fallen Angel’s wing.

*Crack!*

Without time to deploy his illusion barrier, his wing bone instantly shattered and split vertically like firewood being chopped.

【 ……!! 】

Turning around in shock and quickly creating distance by shooting a whirlwind for recoil, Israfel saw before his eyes,

【 Question. Direct hit confirmed. How…? 】

The Goddess of Stars and Dawn who, as expected, had suffered serious injuries but had not fallen, was glaring at him with eyes like burning flames, emitting a cold starlight.

“I stopped time…!”

In the midst of her armor and even her flesh being invaded and crumbling from the light, Haschal had somehow managed to escape by deploying her fate-defying power through gritted teeth.

“And escaped. It took about three seconds…?”

In just those three seconds, Haschal had sustained injuries that would have been fatal in the past, but she could still move her limbs, if barely.

If she could move, she could fight. Haschal believed this without doubt, and her body did not betray that belief. As always.

“I almost really died… but too bad for you. You couldn’t kill me!”

In the stopped time, the blue-silver longsword—which had suppressed even its spatial severance power to approach without revealing its presence—danced fiercely once more with a roar.