Ch.124124. Elandia (3)

A black sun rose in the darkened sky.

It was clearly black, and indeed the sky was appropriately dim for that time, but… the blood-colored light emitted from the black sun still illuminated the ground below.

To draw a comparison, it was like red lighting in a darkroom.

An eerie landscape where everything was bathed in red light—sufficient for visibility yet undeniably giving the impression of surrounding darkness.

“W-what’s happening…?”

“…I don’t know, I just don’t know.”

This bizarre scenery was enough to instill a particular emotion in the legion’s soldiers: fear mingled with awe in the face of an overwhelming supernatural phenomenon.

The voices of soldiers whispering to each other in terror filled the city.

Even the officers who should have been maintaining discipline and morale were equally terrified, and even the interim legion commander Tinel Segtus felt distinct fear.

The celestial realm—symbol of the pantheon’s gods and domain of the supreme deity Jupiterius—had been transformed by some unknown force, and that was enough to evoke such emotions.

And then it happened.

[I have come, I have arrived for vengeance.]

A chilling voice echoed in all directions for everyone to hear, and immediately after—the sun itself descended before them.

It was, that being was… red. There was no other way to describe it—utterly, completely red.

Engulfed in flames of red light and blood-colored fire, the body of the being before them was… enormous.

The massive form was in a shape that the human brain could not comprehend, which is why its enormous body appeared merely as a black silhouette to the soldiers’ eyes.

Its intensely red body burned with flames that evoked certain emotions just by looking at them, and the electrifying radiance it emitted was literally the sun itself.

Though its appearance resembled a human, its essence was infinitely far from humanity.

Under the black sun, this being revealed itself and proclaimed to them:

[I am vengeance, I am rage, I am violence. I am the proxy of the One, the great Avatar of Avenge. I am the herald who has come to declare the end of the false empire.]

The being referred to itself as the Avatar of Avenge and continued speaking… but none in the legion could comprehend its words.

Endless, boundless emotions shone through its wide-open eyes.

Overwhelmed by the presence that seemed to be the very embodiment of compressed vengeance, the mortals could not gather their wits and could only stare blankly at the being.

This phenomenon became even more severe when the Avatar of Avenge began speaking directly.

“Ugh, ugh, uwaaa■aaa■■a■a■■■aaa■■■■■───!!!”

Some went mad after making direct eye contact with the Avatar of Avenge and facing something within that should never have been seen.

“It’s a lie it’s a lie it’s a lie it can’t be it can’t be be be be───”

BOOM───!!!!

Some with minor magical aptitude happened to glimpse the Avatar’s true nature and briefly connected with someone beyond it, paying the price with their exploding heads.

CRACK!!!

“Awuuuuu───!!!”

“S-stab it!!”

Some soldiers’ bodies even swelled up in madness before tearing apart as red wolves burst out from within.

While chaos erupted among the survivors of Elandia… the Avatar of Avenge, the cause of the commotion, nonchalantly opened its mouth─.

[Deceivers of the celestial realm, behold. This is the fate that awaits you.]

With those words, the Avatar of Avenge unleashed its “power” and drew its sword.

Overwhelming power, energy, and heat radiated from the Avatar of Avenge, sweeping through the surroundings.

The will of the bleeding god of vengeance, flowing from the sanctuary through the Avatar as a medium and manifested in physical reality, incinerated everything nearby.

Everything within approximately 500 meters of the Avatar of Avenge evaporated without a trace, and even beyond that, little remained unscathed.

The city gates, protected by sacred magic bestowed by the Goddess of Wisdom, were reduced to ashes, and the rocks and metals that formed the walls melted, creating pools of magma.

The moisture in the vicinity not only evaporated but vanished entirely, and most of the buildings that made up Elandia were reduced to “something flattened against the ground.”

In such circumstances, the fate of humans was painfully obvious.

Humans relatively close to the Avatar of Avenge evaporated, leaving only slight traces of ash on the ground as evidence of their existence.

Those at medium distance had their bodies carbonized, leaving behind small blackened lumps before vanishing from the world.

Those fortunate enough to be farther away at least left corpses, though these were merely traces of melted metal mixed with burned remains.

The Avatar of Avenge’s attack, which vaporized everything in an instant, made no exception for the farmlands outside Elandia.

The farmlands were burning.

Crops cultivated with people’s utmost dedication were reduced to ashes, and forests likewise burned completely to nothing.

This heat, not ordinary fire, scorched even the earth itself, turning the once-fertile land into desert-like terrain in an instant.

As the Avatar was about to swing its sword to finish everything in this burning land—at that very moment.

[You have committed an unforgivable act, idol of heresy!!]

The dim sky split open, and golden light poured through the gap as an angel wrapped in golden authority appeared amidst the golden radiance.

Though not as large as the Avatar of Avenge, which stood tens of meters tall, this being was still quite massive—about 4-5 meters in height with majestic stature and snow-white angel wings.

A blessed armament consisting of a golden round shield, spear, and armor, along with snow-white garments—a being with the appearance of a typical “angel.”

This being was a high-ranking servant of the pantheon and dedicated servant of the 12 main deities—a “Celestial Champion.”

[In the name of the exalted celestial realm, I shall judge you!]

The being that descended from the sky shouted thus at the Avatar of Avenge, and naturally, the response was explicit and cold mockery.

[Judge… how laughable. You show up after everything has happened, yet you have so much to say.]

Though it was hardly appropriate for the one who caused this catastrophe to speak this way, it was true that the pantheon had known about and ignored the disaster.

If they had sent down even a few mid-ranking servants during the wolf attacks—the preparatory stage before the Avatar of Avenge was summoned—the Avatar would never have been summoned.

The fact that this city had no specific deity as its guardian, and they neglected it because they didn’t want to suffer losses for something that wasn’t their property.

This was an undeniable fact, so the Avatar continued speaking with an expressionless face:

[Let me ask you, self-proclaimed agent of the celestial realm. What did your celestial realm do while the One’s hunting dogs killed people and I personally burned this city?]

[That is… not for you, the perpetrator of this attack, to say!]

[Yes, I suppose so. So you admit that you knew and turned a blind eye?]

[……..Be silent!]

The effect of the villain’s classic “It’s okay for me to be bad, but can you, on the side of justice, afford to be?” strategy was tremendous.

[The words of a heretical evil god’s spawn aren’t worth listening to!]

Perhaps realizing she couldn’t win with logic, the Celestial Champion raised her spear, declaring she would resort to force, but.

“It’s, it’s a lie… yes… it’s a lie……”

“The celestial realm, abandoned? Us?”

[………..Huh?]

In her ears, she heard voices that should never have been heard.

She shouldn’t turn her head. It might be irreversible if she did.

Despite the voice in her mind warning her like a prediction of the future, the Celestial Champion turned her head with such stiffness that a creaking sound could be heard.

“C-Celestial Champion?!! Did, did you really abandon us?!!”

“Are you saying that the celestial realm, the pantheon, abandoned us?!!!”

There, somehow, were traces of people—the corpses had disappeared, and only a barrier of red energy protecting people inside remained.

Not just people, but even the souls of those who had died in the city were inside.

And as these beings desperately appealed to the Celestial Champion, the Champion, who never had much patience, finally exploded.

[S-silence!! How dare you, apostates protected by a heretical evil god!!!]

Immediately after blurting out her inner thoughts without filtering them, the Celestial Champion wrapped her golden spear in sacred energy and threw it with all her might.

Whoooosh────CLANG!!!!

As the Avatar of Avenge blocked the thrown spear with a swing of its greatsword, those who witnessed the pantheon’s chosen Champion attacking believers…

*Thud!*

It felt as if the sky had collapsed—everything they had known until now had become a lie.