Ch.298Storm (6)

Llewellyn moved the fortress of the Three Clans.

Normally, it wouldn’t move unless someone sat on the throne, but Llewellyn had already obtained divine power.

Projecting his power to manipulate the fortress as if he were sitting on the throne was simple enough.

Of course, he could attempt to move it with anti-magic power, but…

‘It’s too big.’

The fortress was enormous. Though not quite the size of the Pantheon, it was still massive.

To move that thing with anti-magic power alone, even if he mimicked Valterok’s anti-magic power, he would have to consume all his divine power.

Efficiency was the key consideration. Llewellyn raised his hand as if grasping the fortress, and the structure soared into the sky following his gesture.

The sky surrounding the fortress crumpled and distorted, creating an intense sensation of speed through the warping space.

With his insides churning and twisting, Llewellyn extended his remaining right hand.

Valterok’s anti-magic power was abnormal in both output and quantity.

Even before the Anti-Magic School properly emerged, he possessed a power similar to anti-magic.

He amplified it through organs in his body, called circuits.

It was an infinitely expanding, truly perpetual power. A force standing at the antipode of mana, the commonly used power in this world.

It was a power meant to deny those commonly called black mages, the seekers of truth, and a power capable of opposing the world itself.

Llewellyn mimicked that. His divine power imitated the form of anti-magic.

He structurally raised it to be similar and matched Valterok in both quantity and output.

Blood welled up in his mouth and his eyes turned red as blood vessels burst.

Llewellyn wielded tremendous anti-magic power from his extended hand.

His goal was simple. To lift all the divine avatars and contractors currently fighting at the Pantheon from the ground.

To draw them all up and guide them to the fortress.

Gritting his teeth, Llewellyn raised his hand high.

As if perfectly coordinated, contractors and divine avatars throughout the Pantheon shot upward.

Those in the midst of battle looked up in confusion, and even monsters that weren’t being pulled gazed skyward.

The fortress soared high. Countless contractors and divine avatars were drawn up toward it.

This surreal ascension was something none of them had ever experienced before.

Only Lucilla, who had been a modern person, thought of cows being abducted by aliens.

She watched her opponent shoot toward the floating fortress before facing reality.

“Everyone, continue the battle!”

Her command spread widely, carried by the homunculus’s enhanced power.

Those who heard echoed her cry and aimed their weapons at the remaining monsters without hesitation.

Lucilla knew her brother well. She understood his thoughts and the task he had entrusted to her.

Contractors and divine avatars were beings that ordinary soldiers couldn’t match. Naturally, one would question:

Could everyone survive fighting against such beings?

Llewellyn had simply found the answer before anyone else.

This was the best course for the Pantheon’s future. Lucilla’s job was to support her brother in this.

She twirled her spear elegantly and struck several approaching monsters, sending them flying.

‘Really, such a high-maintenance brother.’

Lucilla charged forward, with soldiers following behind her, moving busily. They threw nets and faced monsters with spears and polearms.

They used everything from arrows, javelins, and crossbows to catapults, and some even shot rare weapons like matchlock guns to bring down monsters.

The chaos that had descended upon the Pantheon quickly subsided.

With the contractors and divine avatars gone, the soldiers seized the opportunity to push back against the monsters.

The clashing of weapons echoed throughout the Pantheon.

Weapons swung and fired, formations were adjusted, the wounded were evacuated to the rear as fresh troops took their places.

Such continuous fighting occurred throughout the area.

Though their compositions varied greatly, it was clear that everyone was fighting for their future.

Llewellyn sensed it all through his divine power. Amid the humming divine power and mimicked anti-magic, Llewellyn’s lips curled upward.

He was satisfied. He hadn’t realized this was what he wanted, and he smiled at the thought.

The sight of people cooperating and striving toward a single goal was beautiful. Though it pained him to see people getting hurt.

He couldn’t prevent that. Rather, he should be relieved that there had been no fatalities yet in such a battlefield.

Grinding his teeth and barely supporting his legs that threatened to give way, he persisted for this reason. Llewellyn still had work to do.

If he didn’t act, countless people would die.

So Llewellyn planted his star cluster into the ground to steady himself, removed his helmet, and wiped the blood from his face.

“You’ve come.”

No answer came to his words. Whether they didn’t want to answer or had lost their vocal organs, he couldn’t tell.

All manner of grotesque forms appeared.

Each was something that gave no sense of having once been human.

Twisted into bestial forms, the divine avatars of the “Father” who were once human.

A contractor walking from the opposite direction, holding light like a weapon, his entire body disfigured by burns.

A contractor twitching from lightning strikes, shambling forward covered in filth, and beings whose original forms were completely unrecognizable.

Most were contractors; divine avatars were extremely rare.

Perhaps because becoming a divine avatar required a form of self-harm? Llewellyn considered this fortunate as he gripped his helmet with both hands.

“Sorry I don’t have much to offer, but I need you to stay here for a while.”

Llewellyn’s purpose was clear: to lure the divine avatars and contractors far from the Pantheon, and either hold them off alone or eliminate them all.

Ideally, he would handle them all himself, but he knew that wouldn’t be as easy as it sounded.

Contractors possessed such power.

A contractor was the terminal of a transcendent being that surpassed gods, exceeding human cognition and imagination.

As terminals of such beings, their potential was formidable.

Despite his lofty ideals, Llewellyn set a more modest goal.

To survive without dying.

If possible, until Netel closed the world.

“…No, that’s not right.”

That would be merely treading water. Llewellyn knew it was time to take bold steps.

He needed to go beyond just holding out; he had to defeat them.

But ideals and reality differed, and Llewellyn knew ordinary methods wouldn’t suffice.

He knew he needed to use more drastic measures, even if they seemed extreme.

Without time to collect the laugh that escaped him, Llewellyn said:

“I’ll have to apologize later.”

The contractors and divine avatars were approaching. As suddenly as he had pulled them in, Llewellyn raised his left hand.

His left hand was still connected to the throne. Being on the fortress, the connection was greatly amplified.

Just then, Llewellyn sensed something at the edge of his divine power. Something rising from the seabed, likely the work of a transcendent being.

The underwater temple that reminded Llewellyn and Lucilla of cosmic horror. Monsters were pouring out from there and falling into the sea.

“When I was young, my friends told me about going to an amusement park.”

At these sudden words, even those steadily closing the distance hesitated. There was something that made even the divine avatars pause.

They resumed running as if they hadn’t stopped, but the distance was great.

They smashed through buildings and obstacles in their path, but reaching him seemed impossible.

Everyone realized they couldn’t reach him before he fell.

“It was a field trip. I couldn’t go because we didn’t have money at home, so I remember playing with my sister instead. I didn’t mind much because it was actually quite fun.”

Lucilla, Yoon Se-ah, had been devoted to Llewellyn. Though she knew she couldn’t earn money without working, she took a day off to play with him.

Llewellyn still remembered the path they walked and the conversations they had while holding his sister’s hand.

The problem came afterward. He couldn’t join in when his friends talked about their experiences at school.

If one friend hadn’t been considerate enough to include Yoon Se-jin in the conversation, if his friends hadn’t had that childlike desire to show off, it would have been a difficult situation.

But that wasn’t the case.

Still, that didn’t mean he felt no regret.

“They talked about riding bumper cars, and I always wanted to try something like that.”

A game where people bump into each other, laughing and exchanging non-hostile attacks.

Llewellyn wondered what it would feel like, what kind of joy it would bring.

He thought he might get to experience it someday.

Sadly, before he could, he fell into this hellish land of Netel.

Now, Llewellyn had found a way to satisfy that unfulfilled desire.

With his plain story and spreading smile, Llewellyn clenched his left hand until it might crush itself and slowly lowered it.

A sensation of liberation and speed followed.

Even the charging divine avatars faltered, almost brought to their knees by the high velocity.

In the midst of this, Llewellyn’s lips curled into a wide grin.

“Aren’t you curious?! Between the transcendent being’s temple rising from the seabed and the Three Clans’ fortress made from part of Netel, which is sturdier and which will withstand?!”

Heat filled his eyes. The anti-magic power Llewellyn wielded gave wings to the fortress’s mobility.

It descended at an even faster rate. A soldier who happened to look up at the sky from the Pantheon thought it resembled a meteor streaking across the heavens.

Perhaps it was natural, falling from a height similar to the stars? It might have been confusing that something that had just soared upward was now falling, but the soldier gritted his teeth and focused on the battle.

A dark blue trajectory crossed the sky above the Pantheon. The divine avatars and contractors, beings without emotion or expression, faced a sudden change that might have bewildered them.

Amidst this, Llewellyn gritted his teeth and exerted his anti-magic power to the maximum, propelling the fortress.

It was more like a cannonball than a bumper car.

The only difference was that there was a person inside the projectile.

After a space-rending boom, the Empress, who had been slaughtering monsters where the divine avatars had departed, burst into laughter with an “Ahah!”

Really, she hadn’t expected that.

“Sleep well, our home.”

With the Empress’s farewell…

KWAAAAAAAAAANG!

A thunderous explosion erupted as the fortress collided with the underwater temple.