Ch.517Battle with the Fragment (3)

How should I express it?

It was, quite literally, a divine tsunami.

My consciousness, which had slipped into a trance, forcibly returned, bringing with it forgotten agony that pounded through my entire body.

Pain like my flesh had been dismembered piece by piece and haphazardly glued back together. Had I not already experienced the limits of pain through my fight with Isabella, screams would have involuntarily escaped me.

My vision was dark as if I’d entered a pitch-black room, and my entire body felt crushingly heavy. What on earth had happened? I was utterly confused.

“Urghh…”

The moment I tried to move my arm to remove whatever was pressing down on me, something hot surged up from my stomach. Blood spewed forth with my cough. The heated bloody fluid trickled down my chin.

Did I get hit by something and get knocked down?

As my mental confusion subsided, the recent situation floated back into my mind.

Right. The moment I thrust Durandal into the demon’s throat, it screamed and drew up all the black lake water at once… and it all transformed into something like lightning bolts and came pouring down.

A wide-area attack using all the dark mana lake that had pooled at its feet. It was too fast and powerful to block, and I couldn’t respond perfectly.

So I ended up being swept away by attacks I couldn’t block and crashed somewhere?

[Are you alright?]

‘Damn… this hurts like hell. I’m not dead, so I guess I’m fine…!’

I gritted my teeth and pushed harder against the pile of rocks crushing me. Sunlight from the sky filtered through the gap between the rocks.

“Haaah!”

As I flung my arms wide to clear away the debris, I realized the distance between me and that demon bastard had somehow grown considerably. No, more than considerably. My body had been embedded in the middle of Arvil’s city wall.

I’d flown horizontally across half the city’s diameter. It was a miracle I was still alive.

The scales of my armor had long since shattered. Rurik’s fur was also tattered with only the edges remaining. I checked my body’s condition while pulling out black thorns embedded in my shoulders, forearms, and thighs.

No bones were shattered, but my abdomen, stained purple, was bringing up blood through my throat with terrible throbbing pain, and the wounds where the dark mana thorns had pierced were rotting black as the flowing blood was contaminated by dark mana.

Thanks to the Stigmata of Astraea and my mana resistance, I was resisting the dark mana’s infiltration, but without a priest’s purification, the dark mana would continue to spread and the wounds would worsen terribly.

Lacy’s blessing had disappeared, and the power of my Karma of Murder was also depleted. The holy light’s blessing had protected and healed my body, reducing severe injuries to minor ones, and the shield of Karma of Murder had somehow defended against the impact that would have sent a person flying hundreds of meters. Without their help, I shuddered to think what state I would have been in.

Right, Lacy…!

I clung to the gap in the broken wall with my legs wedged in and surveyed the city’s situation. The city, which had been half in ruins before, had now become a complete wasteland, and the only being standing upright on the ground was that damn powerful demon.

【GROOOOOOAAAR!】

The monster born from the evil god’s arm stood in the middle of the dried-up land, letting out a victorious roar. Two arms severed at the forearm. One with its wrist blown off and three forearms slashed to ribbons. Of its eight arms, only two remained intact.

Yet, the creature was still very much alive. Even as black blood gushed from the stumps of its severed arms and poured from its deeply torn throat.

The dark mana lake that had pooled on the ground had disappeared as if it were a lie, allowing me to finally see what state its lower body was in. It wasn’t much different from what I had expected.

Tentacles of intertwined intestines extended outward like octopus legs, and black liquid was gushing from their tips.

Was it planning to create another dark mana lake? Judging by the flow rate, we could probably rest easy for a while, but once the black lake filled up again, the creature would clearly become an impregnable fortress and a moving disaster once more.

So, if we were going to defeat it, it had to be now.

The problem was… our allies were also in a much weaker state than before.

My companions had been pushed back to the opposite side of the city, either from grouping together to block the creature’s attack or from being forced back. A barrier of intermingled gold and white light was riddled with holes from countless dark mana thorns embedded in it.

Lacy, having reached her physical limit, was barely standing, using her cross spear as a cane and leaning on Leonore Wittelsbach’s support. Her complexion, glimpsed briefly, was whiter than her hair.

Ceylon, having taken most of the impact at the front of the group, seemed to have no strength left to maintain his power. He was kneeling on one knee, supporting himself with his dimming light sword thrust into the ground.

His left arm, which had just been recovering, now bore wounds so deep the bone was visible, and the skin exposed through his shattered holy armor was turning as black as an African’s.

Nigel and Leonore Wittelsbach still had some strength left, but they weren’t skilled enough to hold out long against such a monster without a cleric.

It was a crisis, a crisis of total annihilation. I gritted my teeth, leaped up onto the city wall, and looked outside. The area outside the city was also in shambles. Most people were asleep, but the paladins of the Church of Saulite and Agnes, who were supposed to protect the sleeping ones, were awake and praying on their knees in the face of the unprecedented situation unfolding before them.

“Hush! Bring Agnes up here! Bring my bow too! The rest of the paladins, pour all the healing and purification you have on me!”

“H-Haschal Median Aishan-Gioro?! Are you okay?! Your body…!”

“Sister-?!”

Lena looked like she might faint. Yes, it must have been a series of shocks. The descent of the evil god, and the giant monster that appeared afterward. But there was no time to comfort her now.

Because the moment that demon bastard targets us again, those wretched black beams will come flying to shatter the city wall.

“Sorry, Lena! We’ll talk later! Hush, just hurry up here! We don’t have time!!”

Hush nodded and ran toward the wall, grabbing Agnes by the waist. The paladins and Lena, who had looked bewildered, soon cast the miracles of the sun order, emanating holy light toward me.

I felt dozens of streams of Saulite’s holy light settle on my body as I steadied my breathing.

The paladins’ blessings, being miracles meant to be cast on oneself, didn’t have much effect when layered multiple times, but the healing miracle Lena cast was soothing the pain throughout my body and rapidly healing my wounds.

I kept my eyes fixed on the demon while waiting for Hush. It took about ten seconds. Hush, who had launched himself up by stabbing daggers into the wall, reached my side.

“Y-you’re not thinking of making me f-fight that thing, are you…?!”

Hush looked like he might soil himself. No, he might actually wet himself if the demon just roared at us.

“I don’t expect that. Go down and take care of the others. Retreat from the wall as much as possible. Got it?”

There was no need to wait for an answer. I took the bow, hoisted Agnes onto my back, and sprinted along the top of the wall toward my distant companions.

“Are you really okay? Your wounds are severe.”

“I can manage. More importantly, listen carefully. With Lacy at her limit, you’re the only priest I can count on.”

I revealed the truth of the matter to Agnes.

Volberg wasn’t actually a powerful magical beast but had summoned an evil god, and as it was descending from the sky, it was blocked by the light of the gods, leaving only its right arm behind.

“I see. So it was Invidius after all…”

Surprisingly, Agnes didn’t seem particularly shocked. Rather, she nodded as if she had expected as much.

“I thought you’d be terrified, but you already figured it out?”

“How could I not recognize the identity of a massive being that tore through the sky? At that moment, I truly felt like my heart would stop… So, what do you want me to do?”

Her composure was remarkable. I knew she had strong mental fortitude, but to this extent?

“Your sword, right? Use it to focus on that thing’s eyes. Support Nigel and Leonore Wittelsbach. Don’t even dream of confronting it head-on.”

The Church of Menes’ sacred artifact, the Moonlight Blade, was a curved sword that fired beams of holy light. While its power wasn’t great, if it hit the demon’s eyes directly, it could probably burst its eyeballs.

I nodded to Agnes and explained the demon’s attack patterns based on my own experience, while drawing my bowstring to aim at the distant monster as I ran along the top of the wall.

– Thwack!

An arrow shot like lightning. Without the power of Karma of Murder imbued in it, it was weaker compared to Millia’s arrows, but it was enough to draw the creature’s attention.

【GROOOOOOAAAR!】

The demon’s gaze turned toward me. Circles of dark mana began to appear in each of its eyes.

Good. With this, the chances of it targeting Ceylon and Lacy were greatly reduced. Instead, we were in danger, but that was the plan.

“Hold tight!”

After firing one more arrow, I handed the bow to Agnes and held her firmly as I ran with all my might.

– KWAOOOOO!

Black beams rained down like a bombardment, striking the city wall. With a sound like an avalanche, the wall behind us began to crumble.

“Lord Haschal Median Aishan-Gioro! In front! In front!”

Agnes urgently pointed ahead of me. Dark mana bombardment was flying in to block my path. At this rate, we’d be like moths flying into a flame.

【Defying Fate】

I activated the Tale of Heros for a moment of evasion. In a colorless world, the soundless black beams pierced only my afterimage.

Thus, leaving the crumbling wall behind, I descended the wall’s stairs and sprinted across the ground toward my companions.

“Lord Haschal Median Aishan-Gioro!”

“Miss!”

My companions looked at me with faces mixed with relief, worry, pain, and lamentation. They were all exhausted but still had fight left in them.

“Full rotation! Leonore Wittelsbach! Evacuate Lacy outside the fortress, then return! Nigel, you protect Agnes!”

“Yes!”

“Got it!”

Leonore Wittelsbach hoisted Lacy onto her back and ran toward the city gate, while Nigel approached me.

I handed Agnes over to Nigel and looked toward Ceylon.

“Ceylon! You can still fight, right?”

“No problem…!”

Ceylon nodded, staggering but rising again. The golden holy light flickered like a dying candle, but his eyes were still full of determination.

“Good, let’s go again! This is our only chance to kill that demon bastard!”

And so, whipping our tired and wounded bodies, we charged toward the demon that had lost its dark mana lake.