Ch.231230. Divine Weapon

# 230. Divine Weapon

Of course, it was just bravado.

It was clear we were at a disadvantage, but I was putting on a brave front anyway.

However, that bravado also contained a small measure of hope.

Of course, it wasn’t some ridiculous expectation like…

‘Maybe we could actually win this?’

It was simply that if we could stall for time… things might move in a more positive direction.

That’s what I was counting on.

But Bael burst into laughter when he saw my demeanor.

“Hahaha!! Bravado? Do you even realize how absurd what you just said is?!”

I tightened my grip on my sword.

Then I hurled it with all my might toward the center of Bael’s body.

-Whoosh!!-

Bael dodged the flying sword with remarkable ease.

But the soldiers behind him weren’t so fortunate.

“Arghh!!”

They screamed in extreme agony.

Looking at them, I asked Bael:

“Didn’t you just say you don’t treat your comrades as worthless? Was that just an empty, pretty lie?”

“Those things, comrades? Now that’s nonsense.”

“If not comrades, then what are they?”

Bael opened his mouth with an expression that suggested my question was ridiculous.

“Obviously, they’re meat shields, aren’t they?”

“…”

“I thought you’d see it the same way… no?”

I couldn’t help but think that way.

Not to belittle them, but it was the truth.

Their attacks would never reach powerful beings like Bael, the Emperor, or Solomon.

“But they still have their uses, don’t they?”

“Does having a use make someone a comrade?”

“I’m asking from your perspective?”

To me, if they’re on the same side, they’re comrades, even if they have no use.

At least that’s how I saw it.

But Bael’s thinking seemed quite different, and sure enough, he agreed with that assessment.

“Of course, they need to be useful to be comrades, and only then are they worth looking after. But it seems our standards for ‘usefulness’ are quite different.”

“Do they need to be at least at the Executioner level?”

“Naturally. Everyone else is nothing more than meat shields.”

Bael didn’t offer any response to the dying soldier beside him.

He ignored the soldier’s desperate pleas for help.

“Besides, I’ve been dead for so long that most emotions are gone. Seeing things like this doesn’t affect me at all.”

Then he walked toward us step by step as he spoke.

“But that doesn’t mean my hatred for you has disappeared, so don’t be relieved.”

After finishing those words, Bael quickly approached us.

He swung his sword.

-Clang!!-

My sword collided with his with a loud noise.

I was withstanding the immense pressure of his incredibly heavy sword head-on.

At that moment, a wave of magical power appeared and struck him.

“I knew it, Lilith.”

The wave wounded him, and Lilith’s sword that appeared right after aimed for his neck.

Of course, while Bael couldn’t block the wave of magic, he easily deflected Lilith’s sword.

-Drip!-

A stream of blood from his cheek fell to the floor.

And then a long ice spear flew toward that spot.

Bael released a small amount of magical power toward the spear aiming for his head.

The rapidly approaching spear lost its power and plummeted to the ground.

-Crash!!-

In that moment, I suddenly twisted my body and withdrew the hand I had been using to exert force—specifically, my left hand.

“Ugh!!”

This broke the balance of power that the three of us had been maintaining, and Bael’s body, being the first to lose power, lurched forward.

I seized that opening and swung my sword toward his body.

However…

-Thwack!!-

What made contact first wasn’t my sword but his foot.

Taking Bael’s kick directly, I couldn’t withstand its power and rolled across the floor.

“Ah… shit…”

I got up from the ground, rubbing my burning right cheek.

It really… fucking hurt.

It felt like I’d been hit by a rock rather than a foot.

Moreover, shattered pieces of ice were scattered beneath Bael.

“Haha…”

As I grimaced in pain, Bael spoke with an unbearably arrogant expression.

“Do you still think I’ll regret this?”

“So far…”

“Seeing that you’re still not in your right mind after taking a hit, I guess that’s just your personality.”

Bael maintained that expression and gestured for me to come at him.

At that moment, I mirrored his exact expression and said:

“Why don’t you come to me?”

“Haha! You’ll definitely regret those words!!”

I couldn’t help but be startled by his speed, which was unbelievable for someone supposed to be a mage.

I tried to maintain distance between us as much as possible, utilizing the magic she created.

Her magic broke easily, but it could definitely reduce the power of his attacks.

Of course, it still hurt like hell.

“Leg!! Stomach! Face!!”

Bael, who swung his fists or weapons at the parts he shouted out with a psychopathic glee, was truly… like a natural disaster.

Not all of his attacks connected, and only a few rare ones reached me.

Even so, my stamina and vitality were rapidly depleting.

“How can you be so exhausted already? Not even an hour has passed…”

There were clearly three of us.

Yet he persistently targeted only me.

Not Lilith, the strongest among us, nor her, who was the weakest in close combat, but me.

I got up from where I had fallen again and asked him why.

“Why are you only targeting me? That seems… most inefficient?”

Bael answered with an annoying smile that showed he knew the meaning.

“That’s exactly why I’m targeting you.”

“What…?”

“I said, that’s exactly why I’m targeting you.”

He was truly… insanity incarnate.

Deliberately moving in the most disadvantageous way… I couldn’t understand it at all.

Bael uttered another incomprehensible statement.

“Can you still go on?”

“Of course…”

“Good.”

As soon as he heard those words, Bael hurried without even summoning a new weapon to replace his broken one.

Bael approached right up to my face, then belatedly realized this fact and looked at his empty hands.

I finally activated [Transcendence] and [Mortal’s Last Stand], then firmly grabbed both of his arms.

“You talk big, but you seem in a hurry?”

“Tch…”

He exerted all his strength in his arms to break free from me.

But since I was doing the same, he couldn’t escape immediately.

“In pure strength, I’m stronger, aren’t I?”

Both of us had dropped our weapons.

In such a situation, I had a slight advantage, armed with various skills.

“By the way… you’re really brutally strong.”

Compared to me, Bael was in a bare-handed state without using any skills.

Yet I was barely managing to control these arms.

I saw Lilith moving behind him and said:

“Now it’s your turn to suffer!”

“Tch…”

Lilith’s sword sliced through the air, aiming for the center of Bael’s back to pierce his heart.

But with a sudden burst of magical power, the sword’s path was twisted.

-Thunk!! Drip!!!-

Lilith’s sword penetrated his body, though not the heart, and his blood splattered onto the floor.

Seeing that sight made me smile.

Of course, that smile didn’t last long.

“You… you bastards!!”

With a furious roar, an enormous amount of magical power erupted from Bael’s enraged body.

-Swish!!-

Lilith and I had no choice but to retreat from that magical power.

I touched the wound created by that magic, which felt like a cutting wind.

“Blood…?”

Bael also touched the massive wound on his body with trembling hands.

A wound larger and more fatal than any he had suffered so far.

Once again, he released an absurd amount of magical power in all directions.

-Swish!!!-

Countless people died from that massive wave of magical power, and even the few who withstood it soon lost consciousness and collapsed.

That unbelievable scene was almost like watching Lilith’s unique skill.

“To do that much with just a magical discharge…”

It couldn’t be explained by simply having a large amount of magic.

The concentration of his magic far exceeded Lilith’s.

It was even superior to Lilith’s magic enhanced through her unique skill.

“This is truly unbelievable…”

Moreover, despite performing such an absurd feat twice, his magical power showed no signs of depletion.

I really couldn’t understand how we had defeated him before.

“Do you know what you’ve done?!! To inflict such a wound on my body…! You’re the first to ever do such a thing!!”

This was definitely not the time for jokes.

In that moment of silence on the battlefield, Bael used [Heaven’s Blessing].

The bright, clear golden spear he summoned this time.

That spear exuded an aura of a completely different caliber from any weapon he had summoned so far.

It was like a grim reaper visiting humans to deliver death.

In my hundreds of years of life, I had never felt such an aura.

Even Solomon’s would pale in comparison.

Bael lightly swung that spear.

-Whoosh!!!-

A wave of golden energy formed.

That wave reduced everything in its path to ashes.

-Fwoosh!!-

Bael pointed that spear at me, at us, at the Kainis Empire, and said:

“I don’t know who this Michael is, but he’s truly foolish.”