Ch.325Bloody Paradise. Kreeks Hall (4)

BOOM!

With a powerful explosion, the side armor of the Sky Warden burst open, and six silhouettes emerged through the smoke.

If they fought the Apostles inside, the Sky Warden wouldn’t hold. That’s why he had lured them outside, but Viktor quickly realized that had been a mistake.

CLANG-!

“Ugh…!”

“I feared you because you were a god… but you’re not much after all!”

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The sound of metal rings clear and terrifying.

Even though Viktor could wield divine power, his strength was fundamentally based on light and heat.

And since light and heat had no physical substance, they lacked stopping power. Their nature made them more effective against objects than people, which meant they weren’t particularly useful now that he was outnumbered.

The supporting fire from the ship’s cannons was useless too, as ordinary people couldn’t keep up with the speed. After all, you have to hit something to do damage.

“Sun! Your name will be buried and forgotten beneath the earth!”

“This ridiculous religious war will soon end! With your death!”

“How dare you!”

BOOM!

However, it wasn’t necessarily true that five against one was advantageous.

As if to demonstrate the difference between an Apostle and a god, Viktor emitted flashes of light from his entire body, deflecting the scythes, greatswords, and maces charging at him.

Like people with umbrellas being pushed back by a storm, the Apostles faced searing heat that burned their bodies and blinding flashes that nearly blinded them. While they hesitated, Viktor swung his sword imbued with aura, engaging in fierce combat with Karil’s Apostles who dared to defile a god’s majesty.

Through the hole in the ship’s hull, the bow and gun Apostles poured arrows and bullets, while from above, the scythe, mace, and greatsword Apostles launched fierce combination attacks as they charged at Viktor.

With each charge, a violent storm of radiant heat swept through, and the wingless flying beings gritted their teeth like humans resisting a typhoon as they pulled back their weapons.

Each time, what flew at them wasn’t a storm but blades—physical blades wrapped in superheated slashes.

“Gaaaargh!”

“The grave sin of attempting to harm a god as mere humans! You shall pay dearly with your lives!”

An Apostle is the highest status a human body can achieve. Yet Viktor was a god who could mass-produce such Apostles.

This was another moment proving that beings born from humans, granted divinity through union with gods, cannot defeat a true god.

This pattern repeated dozens of times, with the Apostles trying to turn the tide by landing ten strikes for every one of Viktor’s slashes.

But his body, tempered with divinity, did not easily allow their attacks to harm him, and even when they did, he recovered instantly, demonstrating the hopeless gap between humans and gods.

Finally, as despair filled the Apostles’ eyes at the realization they could not kill a god, Viktor began to ignite himself once more.

Like he had done in Belka, but on a much smaller scale.

“You who were born blessed by light, you who filled your bellies with the sanctification of heat! You failed to recognize the true god and lost yourselves in the desire for war! All that remains for you now is an honorable death and dishonorable failure!”

With those words, Viktor transformed his body into light.

In that moment, tremendous heat struck the world, and those firing missiles and anti-aircraft guns from the ground were instantly incinerated by the arrival of the sun.

Trees, grass, lakes, rivers, sand, and soil instantly evaporated from the extreme heat, creating a massive ceramic crater.

Even his flagship was blown far away by the tremendous storm. The right armor plating facing him melted like ice cream, and the gun barrels that had been spewing fire bent like taffy before beginning to melt away.

“Wh-what…!!!”

“AAAAARGH!!!”

The moisture in their eyes evaporated, then their skin carbonized and peeled off. Even as the nerve endings that could feel pain burned away, their final organs and skeletons turned to charcoal, their death throes were this brief.

Screams. Then pain. Finally, terror.

The three Apostles who dared to lay hands on a god’s body at least died before the pain could consume their minds, but unfortunately, the remaining two Apostles who had been pouring bullets from the hole in the armor were not so lucky.

In that fleeting moment, they witnessed their comrades die, turning to charcoal without even being able to properly scream, and even those fragments disappeared without a trace, evaporating in the unimaginable heat.

Terror.

That was the only emotion they could feel.

Since becoming Apostles, they had never felt fear in war, battle, or struggle.

They had reached the position of Apostle through fanatical belief that paradise awaited after death.

But what was this?

Too bright to be light, too hot to be heat.

Slowly but surely, that wave of brilliance, that ripple of scorching heat, approached them.

They couldn’t even be sure how much time had slowed.

Were they already dead? Was this just a life flashing before their eyes? These thoughts struck their minds like thunder and lightning.

It comes.

Death comes.

Their vision gradually narrowed.

Their moisture-rich eyes began to boil alive in the tremendous heat.

Feeling the heat, they gritted their teeth.

Then the wave, the pulse, the flash, the scorching heat engulfed them, and their souls departed on a journey from which they would never return to Karil’s side.

The proposition that humans cannot defeat gods was thus proven true once again.

*

“Phew…”

Viktor stood still in the sky as if fixed to a horizon coordinate system, looking at his battered flagship.

Although he had reduced his output, it was still an explosion from a being who had reached divinity, so it was natural that human-made structures would not remain intact.

The left side was relatively fine, but the right side had armor plating melted and shriveled like the face of a bus driver with one side exposed to the sun for too long, and gun turrets with barrels broken in half like burnt-out matches. The CIWS systems hung limply with their motors and exteriors burned out, looking quite unsightly.

“Well… it couldn’t be helped…”

Perhaps covering the entire ship with orichalcum would have helped, but if he could afford such extravagance, he would have done it long ago.

Besides, even orichalcum—steel transformed by the sun’s light—had the most excellent physical properties because it was imbued with divinity, not because it was some invincible metal.

Viktor entered through the hole in the armor plating to examine the interior of the ship.

A devastating scene where everything had melted from the heat. But it had been necessary to eliminate the five Apostles.

The soldiers were his blessed subjects anyway, so they probably hadn’t been injured.

“My lord!”

“First Officer.”

The First Officer, along with a squad armed with submachine guns, found Viktor. Though covered in wounds, none were fatal, and judging by how well he moved, they weren’t serious injuries either.

“We’ve dealt with all the enemies who infiltrated the ship. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Not even tired… But the ship is a mess. We’ll need repairs.”

“We’ll soon reach Krix Hall. We can get repairs there.”

Viktor nodded.

Karil was the god of war, generous with rewards to the victors.

Having turned five Apostles into past tense, getting repairs at Krix Hall shouldn’t be a problem.

“Report the casualties.”

“Out of 200,000, 70,000 were casualties. 20,000 dead, 10,000 critically wounded. The rest have moderate to minor injuries.”

“What about Kasia?”

“Lady Kasia is receiving intensive treatment, but… she hasn’t regained consciousness yet.”

“The dwarves?”

“They’re fine.”

“…And my wife?”

“Of course. Your consort led us herself, cutting down the heretics.”

Hearing that his wife had been active in battle, his lips curved into a smile.

Though Kasia had been critically wounded, the medical team was providing intensive care, and as a robust aura user, she would recover quickly.

“What about Simon?”

“He demonstrated excellent command. If he hadn’t regained control of the gun batteries that were firing wildly, we would be in even worse shape.”

“I see. That’s just like Simon.”

Viktor nodded, then gazed at the hole in the armor plating.

Though there wasn’t much wind pressure since he was standing still, the high altitude meant strong winds, causing the ordinary soldiers to grip the railings tightly.

“What’s the status of the Sky Warden?”

“…Not good. Especially the lower flight deck, which could be considered completely lost. Most of the attacks were concentrated there… we lost two-thirds of the shuttles that were docked. Most casualties came from the lower decks. Fortunately, the gas cells are functioning normally, and the frame is holding, but in this state, we won’t last long.”

“…Then we need to get to Krix Hall as soon as possible. Start the engines. We’re heading to the Hall of War.”

“Yes, my lord.”

After giving these instructions to the First Officer, he moved to the captain’s quarters.

It truly had been…

A ‘tiring’ day.