Ch.39Ep.39 Clashing Beliefs

“Kup!”

“Urgh!”

BOOM!!

Fragments scatter as the magic spear and magic sword shatter, grazing both their bodies.

Their clothes are already blood-soaked and tattered.

But Radios was using the Goblin Mask to regenerate his wounds without Veichel noticing.

And Veichel was continuously regenerating her wounds with an artifact she received from Namgung Ihyun.

The fight dragged on, with neither able to land a fatal blow on the other.

It was a meaningless battle.

Yet both of them had mutually forbidden the use of skills.

Once something starts, it tends to spiral out of control.

Just like how drug addicts might start out of curiosity but become unable to quit.

If either of them used a skill here, the consequences would spread like wildfire.

In the end, they would have no choice but to resort to mutually assured destruction.

Veichel needed to kill Radios, but conversely, she needed to stay alive to take revenge on Olympus.

Radios needed to kill Veichel, but conversely, he needed to stay alive to bring down the Outer Gods’ forces.

This was why Veichel wasn’t using her Order.

She could win if she used it, but it would consume her life force and might ultimately kill her.

Even assuming she didn’t fall victim to mutually assured destruction.

But if they were just going to keep slashing and stabbing at each other like this, assassination would be impossible.

“Looks like we’re at a stalemate, don’t you think?”

“…If I didn’t have this prosthetic arm, I would have won already.”

“No. Even if your skills are better, you know what happens when I’m backed into a corner, right?”

“…”

How nice it would be if they could settle this with words.

Still, both Radios and Veichel were good at running their mouths.

It was clear that if they continued fighting with just physical force, this battle wouldn’t end even after a month.

“I guess there’s no choice.”

Crackle.

She would never use her Order, no matter what.

Aside from it being disrespectful to Radios, using it would wear away her life force.

To extract maximum efficiency with minimum effort, she had no choice.

“Are we finally going to fight seriously?”

“Yeah. At this rate, we might be fighting for a month.”

“No holding back, Radios.”

Whoosh.

Veichel adjusted her stance, and her form momentarily blurred.

“There you are!”

CRASH!!

She moved behind Radios and brought down her magic spear with all her might.

But Radios knew her fighting style well and could respond immediately.

He wrapped blue flames around his magic sword and struck the blade of her magic spear with the flat of his sword.

“..!”

“Blue Flame Tsunami.”

WHOOSH!

The magic spear dispersed instantly.

For a brief moment, Veichel lost her weapon, and scorching flames poured down on her from all directions like waves.

Veichel kicked off the ground and soared into the air.

Radios knew this move too.

Four twilight swords were already in the sky, targeting her.

“Where do you think you’re escaping to?”

“Tch.”

SWISH!

As Radios waved his hand, the twilight swords circled in all four directions and rushed toward Veichel.

Veichel brought her hands together to form a magic sphere.

“Haaaa!”

BOOM!

By expanding it, she shattered the twilight swords.

But she didn’t stop there.

Bang! Bang!

Using the air as a foothold, she rapidly descended and formed a massive spear unlike anything seen before.

“Is that what you’re going with?”

Radios also created a massive twilight sword and launched it with both hands.

“YAAAAH!!”

“HAAAH!”

BOOM!

The collision alone created cracks in the earth, and a tremendous shockwave engulfed the surroundings.

Yet the two who created this spectacle were unfazed, already preparing their next attacks.

“Evil Giant Spear Fall.”

“Swift Sword Dance.”

A sticky spear imbued with malice fell from the sky.

A dance of swords at divine speed unfolded chaotically.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

If the spear was a mass of power, the sword was insane speed that offset it!

The scene they created was nothing short of world-changing.

“Sword of Judgment!”

Whoosh.

Radios, sensing the time was right, used the Sword of Judgment to draw out his full power.

At that moment, the tide of battle began to turn.

The variable of power enhancement from the Sword of Judgment created a small difference.

CRASH!

“Damn it!”

It completely shattered the falling Evil Giant Spear.

But Radios wasn’t finished.

“Evil Giant Spear Fall.”

“What?”

WHOOSH!

This time, a dark spear formed in Radios’s hand and shot toward Veichel’s heart.

“This is absurd!”

Shocked that her skill had been stolen by her opponent, Veichel hurriedly created a shield of magic to deflect the spear.

Normally, she could have blocked or deflected such an attack.

But from her perspective, not knowing Radios could copy skills, this was a disaster.

‘Now!’

Swoosh!

Like a hyena stalking its prey.

Radios lowered his stance until his chest nearly touched the ground and approached Veichel at incredible speed.

“What?!”

“I told you not to get distracted during a fight!!”

Veichel had no choice but to face Radios in an awkward position.

But she had instincts honed from years on the battlefield.

She desperately launched several short spears at Radios, but.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

With a few sword strokes, he deflected them all and finally swung his sword at Veichel.

Slash!

“Urgh!”

“It’s not over yet!”

He successfully caught her off guard and inflicted a long wound across her upper body.

If he could just continue his attacks—

“AAAAARGH!”

“Ugh?!”

Just as Radios’s blade was about to reach Veichel’s neck.

She spread her arms wide, and an unknown, extremely poisonous mist erupted from her body.

“Ugh! Cough!”

Radios quickly threw himself backward, but having inhaled a tiny amount of poison, he couldn’t help but cough up blood.

This was an opportunity for Veichel.

“Eat this!!”

She coated her magic spear with deadly poison and began throwing them in succession.

“Damn it!”

Radios had no choice but to raise an army of the dead as shields.

After blocking the spears and retreating to regain his composure.

Later, when she briefly took her attention off him.

He used the Goblin Mask to detoxify himself before rejoining the battle.

Fortunately, Veichel didn’t seem to notice.

‘No matter how I look at it, the Goblin Mask is cheating.’

If he used it just briefly, his eyes would turn red.

But what if he closed his eyes?

Apart from a subtle change in magic, she wouldn’t even notice he’d used a skill.

Why was he hiding the Goblin Mask until the end?

‘If she doesn’t use her Order now, but decides to use it later…’

Survival would be impossible.

There wasn’t enough time to use the Divine Bullet now, and the army of the dead couldn’t buy that much time.

Besides, even if he used the Divine Bullet, he wasn’t confident it would kill Veichel in one shot.

‘In the end, victory hinges on one decisive blow.’

For that decisive blow, he needed to mix feints with feints before landing a true attack.

Crackle.

Radios drew out Astrape, his final trump card.

Seeing Astrape, Veichel’s gaze rapidly froze.

“You even have Astrape?”

“Yes. I received Kynee legitimately, but I stole this one.”

“So the only divine artifact left in Olympus is Poseidon’s Triaina?”

“..?”

Why was she suddenly bringing this up?

Of course, in their previous meeting, Veichel had shown contempt when she saw Kynee.

But now, seeing Astrape, her expression just turned cold without much change.

The way she nodded seemed as if she had gained valuable information—

‘…Didn’t they say Yog-Sothoth had three fragments?’

Why was this thought suddenly coming to him?

Something felt unsettling.

“Then Olympus’s forces are essentially halved, right?”

“…I suppose. Even halved, they wouldn’t be weak.”

“If we invaded now… they would hide in Erebos…”

“…”

To think she could deduce that much just from seeing Astrape.

As Veichel said, Olympus currently used the Underworld as their base.

But they were prepared to flee to Erebos at any time if necessary.

Although Outer Gods were weakened in the Underworld, fighting would only increase casualties unnecessarily.

The problem was that once they entered Erebos, all connections to the outside would be completely severed.

It would be like handing over the weak faith remaining in Kadinant to the Outer Gods.

They were trying to buy as much time as possible in the Underworld.

They had sacrificed countless forces to obtain fragments to turn the situation around.

But now the owner of those fragments had decided to walk a different path from Olympus.

From Olympus’s perspective, it must feel like being stabbed in the back multiple times.

But he was the one who got backstabbed first.

Whether there’s honor among backstabbers, he didn’t know, but anyway.

“Do we need to talk about those bastards here? We should just focus on our fight.”

“No. I just thought of a possibility. Heh.”

“Possibility?”

“You don’t need to know. But it seems the outcome of this fight is no longer important.”

“What are you talking about—”

Rumble.

The earth trembled, and the Underworld reinforced by the Sword of Judgment began to shake.

This was a first.

Though he had been torn apart by Veichel before, the Underworld had never been distorted this severely.

That’s when it happened.

[Radios! Run away now!]

Hades, who had been watching the fight between Veichel and Radios, suddenly spoke up.

And in a very panicked voice.

“Hades? What are you suddenly—”

[That place is Yog-Sotho—]

“Hades? Hey! I can’t hea—”

Shiver.

Hades’s words were cut off, and just as he was about to ask what was wrong.

Radios realized that the space he was standing in had severely distorted into a space where rules no longer existed.

Then Veichel, appearing in mid-air, spoke.

“Boundary Declaration.”

“..!”

A domain that only someone who could use Yog-Sothoth’s power could create.

It was ‘a boundary that exists only once in the past, present, and future.’