Ch.133133. Rage

Whoosh!

A massive vibration shook the forest. The atmosphere churned and the wind screamed. An earthquake? Charlotte immediately dismissed the thought that had flashed through her mind. Though equally terrible, this was a disaster caused by humans, not nature.

“I suppose I won’t need to handle this personally.”

Alvar chuckled as he spoke.

“That sensation just now… you felt it too, didn’t you?”

The harbinger of divine release. There were three apostles in Albheim. Besides Alvar and Charlotte, only Elandir remained. The worst possible scenario flashed through her mind. This outcome had been inevitable from the moment Rex set out alone to find Elin. If Elandir had truly manifested his divine release…

“I acknowledge that child’s talent, but in the end, he’s just a child. With Elandir involved, Rex has no choice but to die.”

She knew that. And knowing it, she had still let Rex go.

A foolish, dull-witted man. But Charlotte wanted to respect his stupid choice. Even if he was a fool who didn’t know how to respect his elders and tried to shoulder all burdens alone. Charlotte liked Rex as a person. For four years, she had watched how fiercely he trained. She was pleased by how he worked hard without becoming intoxicated by his talent. She liked that about him.

That’s why she didn’t want to see that young man crushed.

Even now.

Her feelings hadn’t changed. Spilled water cannot be gathered back up. Rex had been swallowed by Elandir’s divine release. As an apostle herself, Charlotte knew how ferocious and terrifying the power of an apostle’s divine authority could be.

“It’s a meaningless fight. Why not give up? Even I find it burdensome to be your enemy. You can still make amends for your mistake. As for the elves’ anger… if I mediate properly, perhaps Rex’s life alone will be enough to settle things.”

There was only one thing Charlotte could do now. Defeat Alvar and reach Elandir before Rex died. A white light rippled along Charlotte’s sword. Alvar shook his head with a long sigh.

“Do you truly intend to pass by me?”

“If you step aside, I could walk an easier path.”

“Impossible. In my judgment, maintaining peace with Albheim is more valuable than a promising candidate who may or may not become an apostle someday. I will do my utmost to stop you—”

Before Alvar could finish speaking, a pale flash illuminated the world. Charlotte had only one sword, but the number of slashes she unleashed was countless. Hundreds, thousands of blades cut across the world. As if the middle of the action had been cut out and reconnected. When Charlotte swung her sword, the blade had already sliced through Alvar’s entire body.

“Hmm!”

But Alvar was also a sacred awakener who had reached the level of apostle like Charlotte. The Righteous Command Mallet. The divine artifact of the Order sect appeared in Alvar’s hand. He lightly tapped the ground with it. Boom! Just as the slashes were about to cut through Alvar’s aura and into his flesh, a translucent circular barrier rose up. Though each of Charlotte’s slashes contained enough power to reshape the terrain, they couldn’t break through Alvar’s barrier.

“If you are the sword, then I am the shield. Just as I cannot kill you, you cannot kill me either.”

The acrid dust slowly cleared. Standing unharmed, Alvar muttered in an indifferent voice. Charlotte’s slashes had overturned the forest floor and felled dozens of trees. But they had failed to penetrate Alvar’s defense.

“Be careful. Your blind attacks might harm that innocent child.”

Alvar pointed at Chloe. Although Rex could no longer be protected as he threatened the empire’s peace, Chloe was innocent. Alvar still found her endearing. Her talent was exceptional. He believed Chloe would grow to be a great asset to the empire.

“At least there’s one consolation. It would have been a painful loss if we’d lost both, but Miss Chloe remains. Isn’t it better to keep one than to lose both?”

Chloe stared at Alvar with disgusted eyes. She couldn’t comprehend how Alvar could speak so calmly in this situation. What was the empire to this man? What exactly was order in Alvar’s mind? Though she couldn’t understand, what angered her more was herself.

Helplessness.

Rex was facing mortal danger, and Charlotte and Alvar were fighting right before her eyes. Yet she could do nothing. Though not as skilled as Rex, Chloe’s abilities were far superior for her age. She was knocking on the wall of aura and had inherited the Thousand Sword Style.

But it wasn’t enough. It was woefully inadequate to join the battle of these monsters who shattered terrain with a single attack and fought at speeds beyond sound. Help? If Chloe joined the fight, she would be a burden, not help. She couldn’t even follow their movements with her eyes. The best she could do was to stay far away from the battle’s aftermath and watch silently.

Even at this moment, Rex was fighting for his life. That fact made Chloe anxious and distressed. Charlotte felt the same urgency. Alvar was right. Charlotte and Alvar were the worst match for each other. Charlotte’s sword couldn’t break Alvar’s defense, and Alvar’s mace couldn’t reach Charlotte.

‘Damn it.’

When neither could land a decisive blow on the other, normally—in an ordinary fight—they would stubbornly search for a way to break through over time. But that wasn’t possible now. In the end, the disadvantage was on Charlotte’s side. Alvar only needed to focus on defense and endure. His divine artifacts, the Righteous Command Mallet and the Sacred Law Crown, were divine objects created solely for protection. To break through, a decision had to be made.

“Myriad Swords.”

She made her decision. Charlotte’s sword crumbled into dust and scattered. A weapon called a sword was now unnecessary. Because everything in the world had become sharper than any blade. Alvar’s expression hardened. He too had noticed what Charlotte was attempting.

“Surely not. Do you truly intend to end it here?! If you use that, even you won’t be able to ignore the consequences…!”

“To break something hard, one must be prepared for one’s fist to hurt.”

Charlotte retorted with a slight smile. The Apostle of the Sword. That title was not self-proclaimed. Nor was it given by someone else. All apostles instinctively understand their destiny when they reach the level of apostle. Though the beginning is the same for all sacred awakeners, the paths they forge as they accumulate karma are all different.

At the moment of reaching the final point.

The destiny Charlotte realized was the sword.

She would yield to no one when it came to swords. She was not bound by the form of a sword. She was the foremost swordsman. The sharpest sword was the one she wielded, and it was within her.

“Return Flow.”

All the swords Charlotte had ever swung, cut with, and stabbed with throughout her life condensed into one. A dark blue light like the night sky, filled with faint starlight. Crack! Space distorted. The mere existence of the sword was crushing space with its formidable pressure. If that were to be swung as is. Alvar could predict the near future. He couldn’t block it. Not only would it take Alvar’s life, but most of Albheim’s territory would be lost.

“Why go so far for just one brat…!”

Alvar swallowed hard and gripped his mallet firmly. He wouldn’t just wait for Charlotte either. Myriad Swords Return Flow. Charlotte’s divine release wasn’t an ability that constructed a subspace like other apostles. It simply delivered a brutally destructive single strike. But such a powerful attack came at a cost. It took considerable time to complete. If it hit, it would pierce even Alvar’s defense, but then he just needed to subdue Charlotte before it hit.

Of course, Charlotte wouldn’t submit so easily. The best way to counter a divine release was to manifest an equally powerful divine release.

“Herald’s End…”

As he raised his divine power with that thought.

Thud. A small vibration was heard. Charlotte and Alvar’s bodies froze simultaneously. That vibration was incomparably weaker than the one caused by Elandir’s divine release.

Only at first. The repeated vibrations soon became a roar. Kwang! A sense of dissonance. Elandir’s divine release had given a terrible sensation. The feeling of one world being overturned and painted over. Apostles couldn’t help but feel uneasy about another apostle’s divine release, knowing how unreasonable such abilities were.

But now.

It wasn’t a terrible sensation. It was simply incomprehensible. Unfathomable. Something eerie seemed to sweep over their bodies. Goosebumps rose on their heated skin. Charlotte and Alvar blankly turned their heads. Toward the World Tree. The direction where Elandir’s divine release had manifested.

“…What is that?”

Alvar muttered with a confused expression. Elandir’s divine release was being covered by a more vicious and massive presence. And then it disappeared.

Alvar’s confusion was just a momentary gap. It was enough time for Charlotte to exploit the opening. Charlotte instantly dispersed the dark blue light in her hand and wrapped her arm around Chloe’s waist. Chloe flinched in surprise, but there was no time for consideration.

“Where are you going?!”

Charlotte ignored his words. Soaring high into the sky, she kicked the empty air. Her body, which had been moving upward, bent and rushed forward in a straight line.

Toward the World Tree.

“…Damn it!”

Alvar, who had been looking up at Charlotte with bewildered eyes, grimaced and hastily followed after her.

***

“You are…”

Elandir widened his eyes and stepped back. The paradise with colorful flowers in full bloom had disappeared. The ground he now stood on was the forest of Albheim. The Myriad Flower Celestial Realm had been broken. Surely the state of the Myriad Flower Celestial Realm that Elandir had constructed was flawless. Nevertheless, it had crumbled.

Because confusion had mixed into his mental image. It was only natural. An apostle’s divine release is an ability woven from mental imagery. Mental imagery is the mind, and when the mind wavers, the divine release is bound to be affected. It’s not a major problem. Even if the divine release disappears, Elandir is an apostle who has reached the supreme realm. He hadn’t expended much energy so far either.

More than enough power to kill a mere aura-level opponent.

The true reason for Elandir’s shock was the man standing right before him.

“Kaiserion…!”

He didn’t even consider the possibility of a mistake. A similar face? Ash-gray hair and red eyes. Though uncommon, it wasn’t a feature so rare that it couldn’t be found anywhere on the continent. But the aura—that vicious, fearsome gaze that made one’s skin tingle—could never be imitated.

In nearly a thousand years, Elandir had seen countless people. Among them, only one man had possessed such an aura.

Kaiserion.

“The air after hundreds of years feels quite refreshing.”

Rex, no, Kaiserion murmured in an indifferent voice. Elandir’s lips twisted.

“Why… how are you alive? Surely, you should have died hundreds of years ago?”

“A foolish question. Do I look alive to you? To become a follower of the God of Life, yet unable to distinguish between the living and the dead. Your eyes are still as worthless now as they were hundreds of years ago.”

Elandir didn’t understand the mockery. Dead? Then what was this figure standing before him? Was he seeing an illusion? Moreover, that tone that scraped at one’s insides and that contemptuous attitude—it was undoubtedly the cursed Kaiserion he remembered.

“You said you could defeat me if we met again. Now, here’s your golden opportunity. Why are you standing there like a wooden statue?”

“I… I can’t believe it. I heard of your death. That you ascended and became a new god… That’s what I heard, did you deceive the world?”

“You really don’t understand what I’m saying. Didn’t I say I’m dead? I could briefly rise to the present world through an arrangement, but I haven’t come back to life. So don’t worry. What you fear won’t happen.”

“…What I fear?”

Kaiserion’s lips curved into a sneer.

“You’ve always feared me. Beaten down and lying prostrate, begging pitifully for your life… In the end, you pleaded with me not to invade Albheim. Fortunately, I didn’t return for such a purpose.”

“I… I did no such shameful thing!”

Elandir gritted his teeth and shouted. Kaiserion shrugged with an indifferent face. Elandir’s hands trembled. He didn’t know why or how Kaiserion had returned to reality. But. Hundreds of years ago, he was an enemy of Albheim. He still is. As the guardian of Albheim, Elandir must eliminate Kaiserion.

His inability to move immediately was due to the memories from hundreds of years ago. Elandir denied Kaiserion’s mockery. But in his heart, he couldn’t deny it. The courage he forced out was too small compared to the fear his body remembered.

“H-however. If you withdraw quietly, I will forgive your insults. So, leave this place quickly…”

“That won’t be possible.”

“…What?”

As Elandir stared with a blank face, Kaiserion replied while pulling out the black sword stuck in the ground.

“I received a request.”

“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t invade Albheim!”

“That’s right. It’s not an invasion.”

It’s salvation. Kaiserion’s final words were drowned out by the sound of arrows cutting through the air. Pabapak! Dozens of arrows struck in succession. It didn’t matter. Before the arrows even touched the ground, Kaiserion was no longer there.

“Are you alright!”

“Lord Elandir!”

Reinforcements had arrived. The commotion caused by the clash of apostles had quickly spread throughout Albheim. The elves who had just arrived were reserve forces always on standby for emergencies. On their way here, they had seen fallen warriors. They knew something was amiss when they heard Lord Elandir had personally intervened.

“…Lord Elandir?”

The elves looked at Elandir with puzzled eyes. Cold sweat drenched him, and his pupils trembled with anxiety. The elves tilted their heads in confusion, then shifted their gaze to Kaiserion.

“Much time has passed, it seems.”

“Insolent human. You will pay with your life for disturbing Albheim. Lord Elandir, please give us your orders!”

Elandir did not answer. A savage smile spread across Kaiserion’s lips.

Rex…

Silently observed all of this. The world appeared distant, as if viewed through thick glass. Unlike Elandir, Rex understood what was happening. The specter that had always slumbered in his mental world had awakened and temporarily inhabited Rex’s body. This was possible thanks to Rex’s permission.

[I’ll lend you my power.]

The moment he responded to those words, Rex’s consciousness was pushed into the mental world. Kaiserion’s spirit took over the empty body.

“You don’t recognize me.”

The dull ash-gray hair slowly floated upward. The world rippled like heat haze on a hot summer day. Kaiserion spoke with a sinister smile.

“That’s understandable.”

“Get away!”

A killing intent subtly rose. Elandir, having regained his senses, gritted his teeth and shouted. The elves hesitated and stepped back. Kaiserion opened his mouth.

“Five hundred years ago—I killed too many of you.”

Watch carefully.

A voice was heard. Rex opened his eyes wide and peered through Kaiserion’s vision.

[This is the future you would have reached someday.]

Kaiserion raised the black sword. Crimson flames blazed along the blade. The sacred flame, which greedily enveloped the blade, didn’t stop there but rose higher.

Asura Destruction Method.

Annihilation.

Bright red flames devoured the world.