Ch.218218. Awaken, Come

[We don’t need such a god.]

Stella’s resolute declaration echoes.

Anyone can deny god. When life takes an unexpected turn, people often seek and blame god.

But the Saintess’s words carried a different weight.

It seemed the same for Mul.

“You bitch……”

Stella’s declaration appeared to have provoked him quite effectively.

Mul’s beautiful face distorts with rage as he glares at Stella as if about to annihilate her.

As he extends his emotion-filled hand, tentacles burst through the floor.

There were so many tentacles emerging from underground that one had to wonder just how many were buried beneath.

But Stella wasn’t alone here.

Crack!

A rough pressure crushes the tentacles from above. The tentacles spew green blood everywhere and lie sprawled across the floor.

Standing on them is none other than the executioner of the execution ground.

“Indeed, this place suits an execution ground better than a debate hall.”

Golden robes resembling armor, a staff shaped like a spear resting on his shoulder.

Magic Judge Tairn Ol Velocus had jumped down from the VIP seats to join them.

[Tairn.]

“It’s been a while, Saintess Stella. I didn’t expect you to be with Deus.”

Since Tairn was also acquainted with Stella, he bowed his head and gripped his staff with both hands.

“I only know magic, but what that creature is handling now… is it divine power?”

[Yes, it is.]

“Hmm.”

Tairn tilts his head and asks again.

“Deus handled divine power with the Holy Grail, and you, Saintess, were chosen by god. That creature calls itself a god.”

Stella, anticipating Tairn’s question, waits with a slight smile.

“Is it truly a god?”

[Yes, it is.]

“……”

[But Tairn, remember this.]

“Yes?”

[We are human.]

Stella’s resolute declaration.

It contained the same conviction as my belief that the boundary between life and death must be preserved.

[I have served god for the sake of humans, for all of you.]

Hearing those words, Tairn looks at Stella as if having realized something.

“…Ha, how you continue to teach even after death.”

As the light emanating from his staff drives away the shadows on Tairn’s face.

With a hearty laugh, Tairn strikes the floor with the end of his staff.

Boom!

“How right you are! I have admired your good deeds, not the radiance of god.”

As the Magic Judge takes his position, the Magic Judges who follow him naturally rush in and surround Mul.

Ordinary weapons cannot even touch the tentacles, but these are all the kingdom’s elite forces.

The golden robes they wear are surrounded by complex protective magic that creates heat haze around them, and their staffs are equally capable weapons for both close and long-range combat.

The equipment they wear alone would cost a jaw-dropping amount.

Naturally, Mul’s tentacles were helplessly bursting apart before the Magic Judges.

At first glance, one might think the situation had turned favorable with the arrival of the Magic Judges, but.

Looking at the tentacles that kept pouring out, I clicked my tongue.

“This is dangerous.”

Despite the judges gradually surrounding Mul and clearing the tentacles, they continued to spurt from the floor relentlessly.

The tentacles were emerging not just from the debate hall but also from the audience seats, or Mul’s followers were transforming into tentacles.

If they were coming from Mul’s body, I could have ignored them. But I had seen something similar to this scene where tentacles burst through the ground from below.

“It’s like the 4th floor of the Mongma Palace.”

A foul stench flows in through the holes created by the tentacles. The sticky air and stench made it uncomfortable to breathe.

“It’s below.”

Right underneath.

The main body of Romuleus, which had swallowed the entire Mongma Palace, was buried below.

Considering its size, it could devour at least half of the debate hall in one bite.

“We need to get out of here.”

Lucia was focusing on suppressing Mul’s divine power with Stella, while Rockpellican was casting magic for the people in the audience.

I approached Rockpellican.

“Grand Mage.”

“Deus! Congratulations on winning the debate!”

A joke trying to lighten the mood despite knowing the situation.

I gave a bitter smile and continued.

“Is there a way to move everyone in the debate hall outside?”

I asked with a glimmer of hope, but wrinkles immediately formed on Rockpellican’s forehead upon hearing it.

“Everyone? Including the audience?”

“Yes, everyone.”

“…Wind magic could do it. But there would be many injuries and deaths. It would also require considerable mana, so my disciples would need to help.”

“I see.”

“Plus, we might miss some people. But why do you ask? Everyone is already evacuating.”

I shook my head at his words that they would handle Mul so there was no need to worry.

“It’s too late. If we stay like this, everyone will die.”

“…What?!”

Although the situation seemed to be turning in our favor with time, that wasn’t the case.

The fact that the proud Mul wasn’t fiercely resisting the Saintesses and Magic Judges already indicated he had dark intentions.

And I was the only one who had experienced and noticed it.

“There’s no time to explain. If you can’t do it, Grand Rockpellican, I will.”

“…Are you saying you can take everyone outside?”

“I won’t be doing anything.”

However.

“I’m just asking for help.”

There were people who would lend a hand to resolve this situation. It would consume quite a lot of mana, and that would solely depend on my skill, but.

I was confident.

“The microphone.”

Because I am the Spiritmaster of the Griffin Kingdom.

* * *

Bang!

The harsh firing sound of Deia’s shotgun. A precious item imported from the Republic of Clark, fortunately effective against the tentacles.

Click.

Bang!

“Hurry! Run this way!”

Standing by the exit of the second-floor audience seats, she was shooting at the tentacles lunging at people.

Though difficult to aim precisely, the weapon was effective since there were so many tentacles clustered together.

The only drawback was that it fired bullets through Deia’s mana.

As a result, Deia’s mana was running low.

‘Damn, how many more are coming?’

She felt like she had shot down at least fifty, but these tentacles kept emerging without stopping.

Moreover, when a tentacle wrapped around someone, that person would also become a tentacle and attack others, making the escape increasingly slow.

“Deia! Don’t you smell something strange?!”

While Deia was providing cover and protection by shooting her shotgun at the entrance,

Darius had drawn his sword and was cutting down tentacles.

The family sword he wore as the eldest son of the Verdi family was proving its worth.

“Smell?”

Furrowing her brow, Deia sniffed, and indeed, a stench was creeping up from the floor.

“What on earth is happening.”

She understood that the man called Mul was the problem. There was a strange composure in the way he was holding his own against the Magic Judges.

Deia found that unsettling.

“What is he doing, not running away.”

Why was he involved there, being a Spiritmaster who doesn’t even handle souls separately.

While harboring complaints about Deus, seeing the Grand Mage and his disciples gathered behind him,

She was also curious about what he would do next.

As if preparations were complete, what Deus slowly held in his hand was.

“A microphone?”

Deus calmly spoke into the microphone he had used during the debate.

-Great people who live on the back of the divine beast Griffin.

“Ow!”

A truly ear-piercing volume. A call that jolted the confused minds of Greyford.

The voice was so loud that birds flew away in surprise, and evacuating people frowned and covered their ears with both hands.

But Deus didn’t stop speaking.

-Those who still love this land with lingering attachment.

His voice spread vastly across the sky.

“Could it be?”

But Deia realized his intention the moment she heard his words.

His voice traveled across the sky throughout Greyford, but.

He was speaking to the ground, not the sky.

* * *

-Greyford is now facing an unprecedented crisis.

The voice resonating from the debate hall reached even Erika Bright, who was guarding the city walls.

With each word, her body flinched slightly due to the volume, but.

A small smile was drawn on her lips.

“W-what’s happening?”

“Isn’t that the Spiritmaster’s voice?”

“I-is he going to use some magic!”

The soldiers on the wall with Erika were filled with anticipation.

It was ironic that they expected magic from him, a Black Mage, but the situation was that desperate.

Outside the golden barrier surrounding the walls, thousands of tentacles were writhing, waiting for the magic to disappear.

If Erika hadn’t used the Spirit King’s magic, the outcome would have been horrific.

And once the magic faded with time, those creatures would resume their invasion.

In such a situation, the unexpected voice of the Spiritmaster came to them like a blessing.

“Magic.”

Erika thought of Deus while maintaining the magic with her arms crossed.

-A corrupt god is invading this land.

His magic is necromancy.

But he doesn’t handle souls recklessly.

-Where you were born, lived energetically…

Erika began to anticipate what he would do.

More precisely, she seemed to know whom Deus was calling.

-Finally, this land where you died needs your help.

* * *

“He’s calling the dead.”

Luanes, who was heading outside with Aria, Findenai, and Owen, explained calmly.

What Deus was calling now were the souls who had died in this land.

-Who are the true owners of this land?

“Since he lost the Lemegeton, he can’t wake them up recklessly like before.”

“It doesn’t matter whether he has it or not.”

Findenai, displeased with Luanes’s cold analysis of Deus’s actions, retorted.

Despite the tension between the two, Deus’s voice continued to resonate without wavering.

-Do you intend to surrender your homeland to a god who appeared from nowhere?

His voice, awakening and stimulating the souls, gave listeners a strange sense of exaltation.

-How long will you remain asleep?

“So this is Deus Verdi’s necromancy.”

“T-the sky…”

-For those who placed flowers at your graves.

Luanes, a fellow necromancer, and Owen, with his superior spiritual sensitivity, reacted first.

-For those who wet your tombstones with tears.

While Findenai and Aria couldn’t see anything,

Luanes and Owen were witnessing a spectacle of souls covering the sky.

There were so many dead.

In such a scene that could only evoke such reflection,

-For those who visited despite their busy lives, not forgetting their sorrow.

Deus Verdi’s voice continued to call them.

-Awaken, come to me.

To give them an opportunity.

-Let us protect it together.