Ch.3030. Emil Albieu (3)

The Banner of Horror made a grand entrance as a magnificent savior with a flashy first strike, but…

Objectively speaking, the Banner of Horror was inevitably inferior in combat ability compared to the Avatar of Avenge.

The Banner of Horror, which appeared solely through the power of automated protocols installed in the facility without divine intervention, was not only composed of materials from the physical realm but also lacked connection to its master Phobos, making its specs inevitably lower than its full condition.

On the other hand, what about the Avatar of Avenge?

Following Marduk’s opinion that its first debut needed to make a definite impact, it was summoned through a ritual in which he had clearly intervened, albeit indirectly, ensuring it possessed about 80% of its full power—and was further strengthened by Marduk’s blessing.

Additionally, choosing ten sacrifices in the summoning ritual—Marduk’s sacred number—and using fresh blood as the offering type befitting Marduk, the Blood God, along with drawing a ritual formation with ten points at the end… what could be called a decagram.

With all these conditions combined, the current Avatar of Avenge was not only in a state barely different from its full condition in the divine realm but was even equipped with specially prepared gear.

The greatsword—transformed from a dagger made by Marduk himself chipping off a small piece of his essence—was equivalent to a Level 4 weapon, making it inevitably stronger than the Banner of Horror, which had nothing but its mask.

And truthfully, even if the conditions had been equal, it would be normal for the Banner of Horror to be militarily inferior to the Avatar of Avenge.

The Avatar of Avenge possessed a passive ability for mob control that dealt combined holy and fire damage in a wide area around itself, overwhelming physical stats that were well-balanced, and depending on its summoning state, skills equivalent to a Rank 4 warrior plus Level 3 holy magic capabilities.

While it might appear to be a jack-of-all-trades, the Avatar of Avenge was actually well-balanced across all abilities, capable of pulling its weight in almost any situation barring extreme counter-matchups.

The Banner of Horror, on the other hand… befitting a god of thugs and gangsters, a deity of fear, oppression, and submission, had all its abilities structured specifically for dealing with multiple weaker opponents.

Its physical abilities featured high strength and especially high defense, but low agility meant that attacking equal-level opponents rarely succeeded unless it was an ambush. As evident from its appearance, it had learned various tanker skills making it incredibly durable, but…

In exchange for that durability, it couldn’t use holy magic or single-target warrior attack skills, resulting in insufficient damage output. Moreover, all its remaining resources were invested in crowd control specialized for farming weaker enemies.

Wide-area fear debuffs with extremely difficult resistance checks, a chance to brainwash targets who failed secondary checks while in a fear state, mental magic that drove targets within sight into frenzy or madness, and active-type wide-area panic-inducing skills.

While unmatched for handling mobs, these skills and magic had little effect against opponents of similar level, and its basic equipment—the mask—wasn’t particularly impressive either.

At best, it could fire beams from the mask’s eyes that inflicted high mental damage with guaranteed fear, or emit wide-area sonic waves from its mouth that dealt moderate damage with confusion debuffs, but…

Against overwhelmingly higher-ranked beings—for instance, a high-ranking divine servant is immune to all status effects unless inflicted by a god, and even has 80-90% resistance to mental damage, reducing potential damage to just 10-20%.

So after the battle began, the Banner of Horror, whose damage output came primarily from mental damage, naturally became a punching bag for the Avatar of Avenge.

BOOM! THUD! CRASH! BANG!!!!

Though incredibly durable thanks to its tanker skills that enhanced defenses and reduced damage, and able to instantly repair its destroyed body using nearby unmelted rocks… that was the limit of the Banner of Horror’s resistance.

WOOOONG—KABOOOOM!!!!

WHOOSH—CRASH!!!

Its mental damage beams were too easily dodged, and when it threw punches, it was countered, causing stone dust to fall from its body.

[————————!!!]

Even when it unleashed sonic waves that were nearly impossible to dodge, the damage they inflicted on the Avatar of Avenge was lower than its natural recovery rate.

As a result, the Banner of Horror, whether enduring sonic waves while swinging weapons or taking one-sided beatings, eventually began to be destroyed by the Avatar of Avenge, which had started using warrior skill combos in earnest. As time passed, it was breaking apart faster than it could repair itself.

The merciless seven-consecutive-slash skill, activated with a defense reduction debuff, pulverized both arms, and the subsequent Armor Break skill shattered the surface rock, exposing the vulnerable interior.

Before long, more than half of the rocks forming its body had been reduced to small fragments or stone dust, and the mask covering its face had long since shattered, revealing the hideous true form within.

Eventually, the Banner of Horror, no longer able to resist and taking a one-sided beating, finally reached the point of no return—its body lost its light, collapsed, and fell to the ground, never to rise again.

A servant of a lesser god not even ten years old had achieved victory against a servant of one of the twelve high-ranking pantheon deities who had dwelled on this land for hundreds of years, committing evil deeds.

But the Avatar of Avenge, as if such a remarkable achievement meant nothing, moved with only vengeance in its essence, approaching right up to the main shrine of the God Phobos.

In front of the first shrine—essentially a partially manifested divine realm in reality and the most important place among the temples—the Avatar of Avenge raised its sword high like an executioner, infused it with flames, and swung with all its might—obliterating the shrine.

The columns of the temple, similar in form to the real-world Parthenon, broke; the roof split in half and collapsed. The sacred artifacts enshrined within were shattered by the aftermath of this great destruction.

The oak staff used by the first apostle of Phobos met the same fate, and countless other things—everything the Phobos cult of fear had accumulated—vanished in an instant.

Like Chairman Mao’s finger snap (the Cultural Revolution), the Avatar of Avenge—Emil—had blown away everything the fear cult had built up in the past. Realizing this was the end, he thrust his sword into the ground, igniting flames to burn the temple site.

Slowly, his entire body began to glow red like the things he had burned, melting and gradually collapsing.

His black fibrous skin became brass, his flesh melted bronze, his blood—bubbling and evaporating—became strangely brilliant scarlet mercury.

Even the sword stuck in the ground melted into lead, leaving only the inner dagger. Emil, maintaining his vengeful spirit to the end, covered the entire area that had been Phobos’s domain with metals that remained perpetually molten.

Only then, as if satisfied, did Emil’s soul—having become the first Avatar of Avenge—spread a laugh far and wide before being reclaimed by the hand of the God of Vengeance.

Of course, this wasn’t the end.

※ ※ ※

The molten metal maintained its initial heat regardless of how much time passed, and attempts to cool it with magic failed due to its powerful anti-magic properties. Even the imperial court magicians of the Rom Empire couldn’t remove it, forcing the area to be closed off.

The molten metals seeped through the ground, contaminating water sources like underground wells within the city, while mercury vapor spread in all directions. The poor and city residents who gathered in the area due to the warmth were naturally exposed to severe heavy metal poisoning.

When a god finally intervened to cool the metals and examine them, they found that while the anti-magic power had dissipated, the quality of the metals had become terrible, mixed with all sorts of impurities—truly reflecting a will to leave nothing behind, the essence of vengeance.

And observing all this, Marduk eventually—

《AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—!!!!》

Laughed uproariously as if greatly pleased, commending Emil who had ascended as the Avatar of Avenge.

With the highest praise that it was, truly, the perfect revenge.