Ch.477Episode 17 – The Blood-Drinking Tree

In intelligence agencies, code names are used as part of security measures, and the scope of their application is more extensive than one might think.

From small conversations between intelligence agents to broader official meetings and intelligence documents. Except for documents written under the premise of non-code/non-disguise, code names and disguised terms are essential in almost all conversations and documents.

In that sense, it wasn’t strange that our new companion, Akande, was assigned the code name “Michael.”

For reference, Michael wasn’t an identification code assigned by the company, but a code name that Camilla had personally given him.

The first reason was that he was tall enough to rival basketball player “Michael Jordan,” and the second was that his full-body tattoos and muscular physique resembled the image of boxer “Michael Tyson,” so combining the two, she thought “Michael” would be a good name.

“Do we really need to call him by that name? Why use a code when we could just call him normally…?”

“It’s about the mood, you know.”

“What mood? Why do we need codes when we’re just talking among ourselves?”

I thought it was a code with no particular use, but Camilla took every opportunity to refer to Akande as Michael.

Her insistence that I use the code too seemed quite childish, but she seemed to find it amusing. So occasionally I played along with her by using the code name Michael, while teasing her about her lack of naming sense.

However.

After witnessing Akande’s frenzied behavior, I had to acknowledge Camilla’s naming sense.

The guy was pummeling an angel with his fists.

Episode 17 – The Blood-Drinking Tree

As his fist strikes the air, a thunderous sound erupts from empty space.

When his left hand smashes a thick pillar, the pillar sheds stone fragments like a snake shedding its skin. His right hand burrows into bricks like tofu, and when lifted, reveals the cracked floor’s innards like a turtle’s split shell.

The angel’s sharp twin blades, seemingly capable of cutting even a gaze, rush through the air without missing an opening, but they’re quickly blocked by fists with bulging veins.

“Your attack.”

Akande spoke after defending against Nathaniel’s attack.

“Fast. Quite.”

The pronunciation that escaped his lips was extremely awkward. But Akande didn’t care about pronunciation and just grinned.

“But. Slower. Than me.”

As his thick lips curled up revealing teeth as sharp as beast fangs, his fist—harder than rock—shot out like lightning.

The tattoo extending from his shoulder to forearm began to glow, roaring fiercely like a lion charging across the savanna.

His powerful punch, which even stone pillars couldn’t withstand, drove into Nathaniel’s breastplate like a dagger.

Boom! The force in his fist resonated like the drumbeat of natives driving out invaders.

In response, Akande, with a deep smile, let out a thunderous cry.

“Zullûwth (storm, fierce wind)!”

-Rumble!

Like distant thunder, Nathaniel’s body was pushed back with a roaring sound. The impact was so strong that even we, standing at a considerable distance, staggered.

Nathaniel couldn’t dodge in time and took the full force of the punch. The impact must have been significant, as one of the angel’s knees touched the ground.

It was both a mistake and an opportunity. And Akande didn’t miss the opportunity given to him.

“Krama-ta hum!”

The tattoos extending like tree roots down his calves and Achilles tendons blazed brightly, and the bricks beneath his feet cracked.

As the stone bricks split, Akande’s form charged forward, crushing the floor like a sandcastle.

Space warped, and the scenery around Akande stretched back like taffy.

Successfully leaping to Nathaniel’s front, he began to swing his veiny fists mercilessly.

“Uryyyyyy-!!”

The storm of punches began. Each blow was critical.

Letting out a strangely familiar battle cry, his relentless assault made him appear like something that had abandoned being human. In the battlefield filled with dust and stone fragments, Akande swung his fists, and Nathaniel was taking a beating without being able to move.

“This is no joke!”

Veronica, watching the scene, wore an expression of astonishment. It was truly a mythical scene—a mere human overwhelming a divine being.

“Besides the hero who beat up demons and his siblings, I’ve never seen someone like this. How did you manage to bring him?”

How did I bring him? I loaded him into a van, of course.

Akande was literally overwhelming Nathaniel. It was hard to believe, considering how he had fought evenly with the armored knight, Ramiel.

He struck the abdomen with his left hand, hit the jaw with his right, thrust a punch into the breastplate, then grabbed the wrist and arm and threw him. When Nathaniel was airborne, Akande leaped into the air. Leaving the cracked floor behind, he soared high, raised his leg—thicker than a horse’s—and brought it down with all his might.

The angel’s fall wasn’t as idealistic as depicted in the Bible or literature. The form that plummeted to the ground like a fired shell created cracks upon impact. Dust and powder rose like from the site of a shell landing.

It was a scene that made observers’ flesh tremble, but Nathaniel showed no sign of pain.

Without even a groan, the angel dusted off his shoulders and raised his head. By then, Akande had landed on the ground and was taking a proper stance.

“…Hup.”

Strength entered his two legs connecting earth and body. The stone bricks cracked like roof tiles, and his feet dug into the earth.

At the point where he connected with Mother Earth, Akande lowered his body to its center. Like a tiger stalking its prey.

All ten fingers curled at once. As if modeling the claws of a fierce beast, Akande extended his two bent hands forward. At that moment, something like a black shadow behind him took the form of a lion and began to roar.

-Grooooar!!!

Mighty roars echoed one after another.

The cry of the savanna’s ruler made the entire desert tremble. The earth shook, animals cowered, and the roar seemed to reach the sky.

With his posture lowered and fingers curled, Akande put his whole body into it. As if to end the match with a single blow. In sync, his tattoos vibrated and blazed brightly.

However.

-Shing!

When a frost-like metallic sound was heard, everything disappeared.

The lion’s roar, the vibration of the tattoos.

It felt as if all sounds in the world had vanished. I looked up, wondering what had happened, but all I could see were Akande, ready to strike, and Nathaniel, holding his sword.

Something happened. I don’t know what, but something occurred.

As an indescribable ominous feeling flashed through my mind—

“Enough.”

The angel’s voice, seemingly resonating in my head, was heard.

At that moment, changes began to occur as if time, which had stopped, started flowing again. The roar that had shaken the savanna ceased, the glowing tattoos calmed, and the lion’s form disappeared.

Sensing the lion’s disappearance in some way, Akande’s expression visibly hardened. As he looked around in confusion and quickly turned his head forward, the angel, who had been at a distance, was suddenly standing in front of him.

Nathaniel’s hands firmly gripped both of Akande’s wrists. Akande tried to free his wrists by putting strength into his lower body. It was tremendous power that pushed and crushed the bricks beneath his feet, but his gripped wrists didn’t budge at all.

Like an adult playing with a child, Nathaniel silently stared at Akande while holding his wrists. Then,

-Crack.

A terrible sound was heard.

The sound of bones being crushed began to emanate from the gripped wrists. Akande’s scream, who had been trying to escape by pushing against the floor with his legs, followed half a beat late.

“Aaaaargh!”

Despite the terrible scream, Nathaniel didn’t release the wrists. Releasing one hand, Nathaniel applied pressure to the remaining wrist, as if kneading soft clay.

“Hup…!”

“Holy sh…”

As his screams echoed around, Veronica gasped in shock.

The freed hand clutched the trembling arm, but the shaking didn’t stop. As the grip on the wrist tightened like a noose, the piercing screams grew louder, and red pulp squeezed out between the fingers.

Just by gripping, Nathaniel had crushed Akande’s wrist. Like releasing caught meat, when Nathaniel let go of the wrist, hideously mashed flesh and bone fragments spilled out.

Akande, who had leaped up from the ground, fell with a thud next to us. When I grabbed his wrist to check his condition, a curse involuntarily escaped my lips.

“…Shit. He’s turned it into complete mush.”

The wrist was beyond crushed—it was pulverized. Even to someone without medical knowledge, amputation seemed the only treatment option.

Veronica pushed me aside with her body and invoked her divine power, but Akande stopped the saint with his uninjured hand and concentrated with a deeply furrowed brow.

As his tattoos began to glow brightly, the mangled wrist started to swell rapidly. The mashed flesh regenerated, and the fragmented bones realigned. The grotesque sight of severed blood vessels moving strand by strand and connecting to the dangling hand caused Veronica, who had been using divine power for healing, to turn her eyes in shock.

“What is this…!?”

“The power of the essence.”

Nathaniel said, slowly moving his steps.

The angel inserted his finger into the ring at the end of the sword handle and spun the sword. After spinning the sword in mid-air, Nathaniel gazed at Akande.

“It’s an excessive power not permitted to you humans. With a human body, you shouldn’t even be able to feel it, let alone handle it.”

“……”

“If only some fool hadn’t spread the knowledge.”

As Nathaniel’s gaze shifted, Ramiel, who had stuck his greatsword into the ground, rose.

“There is nothing excessive for any being on this earth, Nathaniel. I understand your desire to blame me, but refrain from uttering unwise words.”

“Ridiculous.”

The wise one criticized the foolishness of the brave one.

“Shamir, was it? That was what the human you gave the essence to called himself, I believe.”

“That’s right.”

“Despite inheriting the essence for hundreds of years, seeing how they can’t even handle it properly, it seems your poor judgment has only wasted precious essence.”

“That might just be the limit of what your eyes can see.”

“Even your excuses are elaborate. Since when has your tongue grown so long?”

Nathaniel snorted derisively, but Ramiel showed no reaction.

With his greatsword stuck in the ground, he pulled out a hammer. Grabbing the long handle that appeared in mid-air and pulling it, the massive head revealed itself. The incredibly heavy hammer raised dust just by being set down.

Ramiel, with his new weapon, turned his gaze toward us. He spoke softly in a gentle voice.

“I appreciate your intervention. But there’s no need for you to get involved. This is a matter that Nathaniel and I must resolve.”

“For once, your foolish words are correct.”

Swish. As the cloak was lifted, its interior began to sparkle. Dozens of daggers hidden under the cloak revealed themselves under Veronica’s lantern.

“Do not interfere.”

Nathaniel, holding the daggers, issued a warning to us.

The angel pointed the daggers specifically at Veronica and Akande.

“Your valor is commendable, but this is not a fight for you to join. So flee. I won’t stop you from leaving. The master of Altiora, the inheritor of the essence, and…”

His words paused briefly. The angel’s gaze stopped on me. I waited silently, thinking he might have something to say, but Nathaniel remained silent for a while.

“…who are you?”

A single question was thrown. I looked around just in case, but there was no one else here.

The sudden question caught me off guard, and I stuttered like I was experiencing buffering. Ramiel, resting the hammer handle on his shoulder blade, answered on my behalf.

“He’s an envoy sent from abroad.”

“I don’t know who he is. Do you?”

“I don’t know either.”

Wait, what’s with these idiots? Are they trying to embarrass me?

I was momentarily speechless from disbelief. It’s one thing for Veronica, but even Akande, who looks like a half-naked Native American, knows about it—why am I the only one who doesn’t? Life is too bitter to live.

I wanted to object, but the feeling of injustice made it hard to speak. Nathaniel just stared at me for a while without saying anything else.

Then.

“…Oh, you want us to run?”

Veronica, who had been quiet, suddenly spoke up.

With a distinctly uncomfortable expression.

“How could we run away? We’ve been attacked and have our pride. We need to repay before leaving.”

Clatter.

The wooden case she had been carrying rolled on the ground. Kicking the case open with a flourish, the saint retorted to the angel’s words.

“Did you think I’d just run away if you threatened me to flee?”

“I told you this isn’t a fight for you to join. Aren’t you afraid of death?”

“If I were the type to be scared by such words, I wouldn’t have come this far. Do you know how much I’ve been through?”

Veronica’s response to Nathaniel’s blatant threat was extremely simple.

She picked her ear with her finger. First with her right hand, then with her left. After picking her ear, she blew on her finger.

Politely put, it meant she wasn’t even listening to his words. In cruder terms, it meant “go fuck yourself.”

“I barely listen to the Pope, why would I listen to a bipedal pigeon?”

As if everything in the world was a bother, the saint ignored the angel’s words and took something out of the case.

“Even the old fogies at the Vatican can’t judge me! Cardinals, bishops, archbishops, inquisitors, even the Pope!”

What emerged from the box was a very old musket. A legendary weapon said to have been gifted to a famous marksman by a demon hundreds of years ago.

A musket that fires magic bullets, said to have pierced the heart and head of targets with a single shot.

The flintlock of Catastrophe.

The saint, holding the legendary weapon that had been used to assassinate a Pope, aimed the muzzle at the angel.

“That’s the limit of church law!”