Ch.677Doubt, Suspicion, Intervention

The overlapping vacuum blades became a formless hammer, carving out a section of the palace.

Debris scattered in all directions. Rock fragments crushed by the impact became like shotgun pellets sweeping the surroundings. Ragnar Lokan hurriedly dodged and swung his shield to deflect the fragments flying toward him.

“You’re still far from it!”

I charged toward him, smashing through the flying rock fragments with my body. Adding karma acceleration to my falling body.

“You monster…!”

The distance closed to zero in the blink of an eye. Ragnar gritted his teeth and awakened the rune engravings. Gray holy light rose like a pillar.

ᚢ ᛜ ᚱ

Strength, vitality, acceleration.

The blessing of Volberg and the mana of the runes interlocked, granting his body tremendous power. Was this what it meant to be an apostle? It was enough to overwhelm knights at the threshold of heroism.

“Kyaaaah!”

A close-quarters battle unfolded between swordsmen who had crossed the wall.

My swung Durandal was blocked by his shield, and the blade of his extended magic sword grazed past Frosting.

A blade thrusting toward my neck over my left arm. When I grabbed and stopped it, a whirlwind of blood erupted, forcing my grip loose.

I twisted my upper body to avoid the thrust and kicked out with my right foot. Ragnar pushed his shield forward to block my leg. My right foot stopped. The mighty force that could tear even steel scattered futilely.

“How annoying!”

I bent my knee and sprang up to strike the edge of the shield. His left arm shot up, completely exposing his side. Our killing intent crossed. The blade I swung toward the exposed gap met his blood-wrapped magic sword.

– KWAAANG!

Unlike when blocked by the shield, a massive impact struck my shoulder. My body lurched for an instant. The aftermath of the collision roared, tearing through the atmosphere.

“Keu…!”

Ragnar gritted his teeth and twisted his blade to deflect Durandal. Blood flowing between his teeth stained his beard red.

ᚦ

“Þurisaz!”

A blood-mixed shout. One streak—no, suddenly nine streaks of lightning bored in like snakes. Lightning strikes unleashed at close range. There was no time to block with the rune of collapse.

In that case.

【 Defying Fate 】

The world turned monochrome.

Lightning that slowed as if painting a brush stroke in the air. I spun like in a waltz, avoiding the lightning streaks and diving into his flank.

Ragnar, who had awakened two additional runes, turned his body as if chasing me and swung his blood magic sword. Two colorless slashes collided, spewing sparks, and the deflected blades changed direction to clash again and again.

—!

Repeated silent collisions. Perhaps due to the strain of the excessive acceleration, Ragnar’s face grew increasingly distorted.

His body was breaking down, unable to withstand the acceleration’s burden. Faster than it could be healed by the recovery rune.

After seven sword strikes like this, Defying Fate reached its limit and deactivated, returning color and sound to the world.

Rumble…!

The lightning streaks, having lost their target, cut through the air and collided with the kingdom’s outer wall. Neither I nor Ragnar had any interest in the lightning anymore.

“Cough…!”

Ragnar spat out blood he had been holding back and leaped far backward. A blatant move to create distance. He must have realized that even with the power of runes to strengthen himself, he had no chance in close combat.

With no chance even with a national treasure-level holy relic, he must be planning to utilize the power that multiplies projectiles ninefold for long-range bombardment, just like the 8 Apostles in the game.

– KWAOOOOO!

Sure enough, as soon as he created distance, nine spears of war appeared behind him.

—-

“Hah… that again?”

I clicked my tongue and glared at him.

An apostle freely using Volberg’s powers like this.

Anyone watching would think he was a devout crusader rather than an apostle of the ancient gods. That’s how it was in the original work, but…

Wait, hold on.

Come to think of it, something’s strange.

A doubt suddenly crossed my mind.

A question so obvious that I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t thought of it until now.

How is that even possible?

I stared at the spears of war with wide eyes.

When I first saw them, I didn’t think much of it since it was a technique I’d seen in the game, but now that I think about it, him using Volberg’s power made no sense at all.

There’s no way someone who changed gods could still use powers granted by their previous deity. Would Volberg not reclaim the powers from a follower who betrayed him? That’s impossible.

It was clear that Ragnar was an apostle of the ancient gods. He admitted it himself.

Whether he served Alfodhr of Chaos or Bellona of Death, I wasn’t sure, but it had to be one of them, judging by his actions.

So logically, the power he wielded should have been either Alfodhr’s or Bellona’s.

Not the power of Volberg, who was once part of the 11 Major Gods before being excommunicated!

I stared in astonishment at the gray holy light storm swirling through the air.

How… no, rather, why? Why hadn’t I realized such an obvious fact until now?

When facing the 8 Apostles in the game, I should have immediately questioned this upon seeing the spears of war.

No, it wasn’t just me. None of the players who played this game questioned the fact that the 8 Apostles wielded Volberg’s power. Looking back, it made no sense.

How could no one have noticed?

…Or did they actually notice?

A strange sense of dissonance invaded my mind.

Did truly no one notice? Something this obviously strange? That can’t be. It can’t be…

I tried to recall all the strategy guides and speculation posts I had read on player community sites.

To confirm if there really wasn’t a single player who questioned the fact that the 8 Apostles used Volberg’s power.

Because it made no logical sense.

– Crackle.

Suddenly, with a strange noise, the memories I was trying to recall became distorted and twisted.

The lines of text on the monitor transformed into incomprehensible special characters, and my vision shook as if an earthquake had struck. The clear memories were changing into something incomprehensible.

And then.

– FWAAAASH!

The memory of my small room shattered like glass, and a blinding light covered everything.

What is this…?

As I opened my eyes wide at this incomprehensible phenomenon, an intense headache pierced my mind.

“Kugh…?!”

Damn it, what is this…!

I groaned, clutching my forehead and staggering. A pain too intense even for me to bear. It felt like millions of ants were crawling into my head and eating my brain.

【 N҉̢̣̘͇͊̇̽̕o҈͇҇̆̾́͢t҉̧͙̞̎̿̊͡ y҈̢̞͔͛̒͠e҉̡͉̎̕t■.̴̡͉̎̕ 】

As I gritted my teeth and endured the headache, a bizarre voice spoke to me.

Each pronunciation was distorted and mixed with noise, making it a short, completely incomprehensible phrase.

Whose voice it was, what they were saying—all I could understand was that it sounded more like a woman’s voice than a man’s.

As soon as I heard that voice, the stigmata of the scales engraved on my left chest heated up as if it would melt.

– Fwoosh…!

The heat that started in my chest flowed through my blood vessels into my head. The heat enveloped my brain, burning away the splitting headache.

My mind cleared. So much so that I couldn’t even remember what I had been thinking about until just now.

…Thinking?

What was I thinking about?

I straightened my slightly tilted posture and tilted my head, wondering why.

So… right, I was thinking how strange it was for an apostle of the ancient gods to use Volberg’s power.

It was essentially a double sacrilege.

I raised the blade of Durandal that had been pointing toward the ground and taunted Ragnar, who was glaring at me with a majestic appearance, his spears of war loaded.

“You’re doing a fine job of disrespecting two gods at once. Should I call this a double apostasy?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you worship an ancient god but don’t use their power, and despite betraying Volberg, you rely on his power. Don’t you find that funny even to yourself?”

An apostle of the ancient gods whose main skill was Volberg’s power. Thinking about it, there couldn’t be a greater irony.

It was nonsensical that a god who had been part of the 11 Major Gods, even if excommunicated, would lend power to someone who was essentially a top executive of a cult opposing the Major Gods.

It was clearly absurd, yet it was happening in reality.

Then there must be a reason. Some behind-the-scenes circumstances I didn’t know about.

“Are you saying the ancient gods are too pathetic to grant their apostles useful powers, and Volberg is too stupid to recognize someone who betrayed him?”

To find out, I provoked Ragnar. He seemed like the type with a loose tongue, so if I hid my questions within suitable provocations, he might spill the answers.

—-

What could be the reason that Volberg, one of humanity’s major gods, hadn’t reclaimed his power from the apostle before me?

There were two possibilities.

Either Volberg was not just one-eyed but completely blind, unable to recognize a follower who betrayed him…

“I was wondering what you were saying. It seems Elpinel didn’t tell you everything.”

Or he had been in league with the ancient gods from the beginning.

“Well, I suppose such knowledge would be unnecessary for a mere hunting dog. How amusing. Being used without knowing anything.”

…Judging by how this bastard talks, it’s probably the latter.

So was Volberg some kind of subordinate deity to the ancient gods? That would explain why he could use Volberg’s power.

If Volberg was subordinate to the ancient gods, then Volberg’s crusaders would essentially be subcontractors of subcontractors from the ancient gods’ perspective.

However, if that wasn’t the case…

If Volberg, the warrior god, wasn’t subordinate to the ancient gods.

Then, there was only one reason why he could use Volberg’s power.