Ch.219218. Starting Point (4)

# 218. Starting Point (4)

At that moment.

On another battlefield, a different battle was raging.

The intersection of dozens, hundreds of spells, the collision of tens of thousands of weapons.

Even amidst that dizzying spectacle, there were naturally those who engaged in spectacular combat as if flaunting their existence.

And among such individuals, the brightest and the darkest two.

Naturally, they were the ones positioned at the very top of their respective countries—their leaders.

Their fierce battle left spectators with their mouths agape, breaking some people’s fighting spirit while igniting others’.

-BOOM!! CRASH!!!-

The shockwaves and magical fragments created when their fists collided caused massive damage to those nearby.

Occasionally, they disrupted magic circles or spell casting, or flew toward innocent bystanders, inflicting wounds.

Yet they did not stop fighting.

Both of them…

‘If I just kill this one in front of me, we win..!’

‘If I just kill this human before me, we win..!’

That was their mindset.

And that thought was an absolute truth.

Just as most living beings die when their heads are severed, an army composed of numerous personnel loses its strength when it loses its commanding leader.

Of course, the same applied to their own armies, so they had to be careful with their bodies.

Reinhardt leaned his left shoulder back to prepare for a spell flying toward his left side.

-Whoosh!! BOOM!-

The spell that appeared before his eyes and disappeared in an instant lost its way and flew off in some strange direction.

After dodging the spell like that, he extended his fist toward Bael’s hand, specifically his right hand.

-CRACK!!-

Bael caught his incoming hand with his left hand.

Then he aimed his remaining right hand at Reinhardt’s face.

-Whiiiiing!!-

Bael preparing a spell.

Naturally, Reinhardt wasn’t going to just watch this happen. He instantly twisted his body and targeted Bael’s head with his free right hand.

A critical moment.

It was a matter of who was even slightly faster, and the answer to that question wasn’t singular.

-Thud!!- -Boom!!-

Reinhardt’s fist embedded in Bael’s face and Bael’s spell smashing into Reinhardt’s face.

These events occurred simultaneously to an astonishing degree.

Naturally, both had to retreat a little.

Both had simultaneously and precisely landed hits on each other’s faces.

Yet both wiped away the blood flowing from their faces with expressions suggesting they were completely unfazed.

“Tch…”

This situation was beneficial to neither of them.

The demons who, unlike humans, couldn’t immediately recover from wounds, and the humans who were facing Solomon without Bael.

The situation was certainly ambiguous now.

That’s why they immediately resumed combat.

-CRASH!!-

The tide of battle could completely change with just a little achievement, which is why they clashed fists.

They tried to wound each other as much as possible and hurried to rejoin their forces as quickly as possible.

And as these thoughts took root in their minds, their own safety became secondary.

Whether that was a good choice or not, they had no other option.

The weight on their shoulders was heavier than anything else.

“Why don’t you just give up now?”

He grabbed Bael’s head firmly.

Then he slammed it into the ground.

-CRASH!!-

The ground caved in as if swept by magic.

Despite such force, Bael didn’t make a sound nor did he blink an eye.

Seeing this, Reinhardt released his grip and stood up.

“Are you still playing that doppelgänger game? Doesn’t it drain quite a bit of magic?”

“Is that any of your business? It’s my choice, don’t tell me what to do.”

“Then is it also your choice to wield tools like the humans you so despise?”

While there were countless subordinates using tools around them, Bael was someone who never used them himself.

Knowing this fact better than anyone, Reinhardt could bring it up.

To which Bael responded as if it were nothing:

“I’m simply acknowledging that I was wrong, don’t make a fuss about it.”

“You’ve changed quite a bit.”

“It’s a problem when people don’t change.”

“That sounds like an excuse to me, or is it just my imagination?”

-Woooong!!!-

With those words, he finally activated [Transcendence].

Normally, he would have increased his magical defense.

But now, the atmosphere felt completely different from usual.

Seeing this, Bael pointed his staff at him.

“Quite a risky… gamble.”

He propelled his now nimbler—no, dimensionally more agile—body to close the distance with Bael.

In an instant, a moment brief enough to be called a flash, Bael smiled as he saw Reinhardt approach right before his face.

Then he cast a spell as usual.

-Shrick!!-

But the spell didn’t spread.

Generally speaking, this would mean the spell didn’t reach him.

But in reality, it did.

Yet Bael’s [Explosion] didn’t activate.

Having visibly absorbed Bael’s magic with his second unique skill, he said:

“You’re being… quite troublesome.”

His second unique skill.

[Sage’s Hand], a skill that explained why he was rated higher than Bael.

[Sage’s Hand].

This skill allowed him to absorb all magic below a certain level.

And while it said “below a certain level,” he could absorb everything except for Bael’s magic within the Babylon Kingdom and Bael’s unique skills.

Of course, like [Transcendence], it had a time limit.

But someone who had been saving his skill like this…

“You’re not the only one.”

From the perspective of saving skills, Bael was actually one step ahead of him.

After all, Bael’s second unique skill was the world’s greatest mystery.

For the first time in actual combat, Bael used his second unique skill, [Heaven’s Gift].

“I too possess such a unique skill.”

***

While everyone was shedding blood and sweat, wrestling with matters of life and death.

In the imperial palace, the voice of someone worried about them echoed.

That voice was trembling.

“Do… do you think they’re doing well…?”

She could see the situation anytime she wanted.

Yet the Empress didn’t look.

She simply prayed to her god, Michael.

In the cathedral located within the imperial palace, before the statue of Michael.

The Empress was praying to that statue.

“Oh God… please… let them return alive… I don’t need anything else, just let them come back alive…”

“They will surely return alive.”

Andres, responsible for the Empress’s safety, stood beside her.

Although he was protecting her, the Empress found his actions displeasing.

She thought he was wasting his time guarding someone as useless as herself in such a dire situation.

That’s why the Empress urgently grabbed Andres’s shoulder.

“Andres..!”

“If you’re ordering me to head to the battlefield right now, I must refuse.”

Of course, Andres understood her feelings.

But he couldn’t leave.

He had made a promise to his lord, and that took precedence over everything else for him.

And that lord would want it that way too.

“Why…? Are you saying that order is more important than the very existence of this country…? Without this country, nothing else matters…!!”

The Empress’s outcry.

Hearing that cry, Andres’s heart began to waver.

Without this country, nothing else matters.

Those words shook his heart.

‘If there’s no country, what’s the point of keeping that order? Is it even an order that can be kept while abandoning the country? Shouldn’t protecting the country come first?’

The numerous thoughts swirling in his mind and the desperate face before him.

Seeing that… his heart couldn’t help but be moved.

“Your Majesty… is it alright for you to depart so early?”

Of course, death wasn’t certain.

Naturally, him leaving to join the battlefield didn’t guarantee the Empress’s death.

Yet Andres had concluded the Empress would die.

Was it because of what he had said before the war began? Or was it just a feeling?

Whatever it was, the thought that ‘if I leave now, the Empress will die’ wouldn’t leave his mind.

And that terrified him.

But the Empress felt differently.

“If my death means this country lives..! That’s more than fine..! Nothing could be better..”

Those sincere words.

Words so genuine that they couldn’t possibly be false struck Andres’s heart.

And they completely shattered the stubbornness residing in his heart.

Having finally made his decision, Andres clenched his fist.

“Then please evacuate to the safest place possible, somewhere that no one, not even I, would know about.”

“Of course..!”

The Empress shed tears of joy.

She immediately ran toward that place.

She hurried toward a location that only she and the Emperor would know, not even Andres.

Andres watched her retreating figure.

As he did, he admired the determination and courage emanating from her back.

“Indeed… she’s an extraordinary person…”

However, he failed to sense another aura emanating from that retreating figure.

Of course, that aura was something that no one could see except for the one who had told Andres…

‘Don’t leave Her Majesty the Empress alone, ever.’

But…