Ch.847Things to Do and Things Not to Do

The barrage of sorcery unleashed by the high sorcerers faded away, unable to penetrate Demian’s divine barrier.

Such a clean defense. It was a sight that made all the effort of providing him with a holy sword worthwhile.

Indeed, against spellcasters, there’s nothing like holy power.

I could block that level of sorcery myself, but that would be an inefficient method of crudely overpowering it with brute force.

It would be no different from deflecting incoming arrows with a sword instead of a shield.

By comparison, how clean and efficient is the divine barrier? Simply by deploying it, all approaching sorceries are nullified, dismantled, and returned to nothingness.

“A paladin…? No, that’s not it. That must be the power of that greatsword.”

Meiharin frowned, glaring at the still-intact light barrier while muttering through gritted teeth.

As a commander, she seemed to be a cut above her subordinates. She immediately recognized that Demian’s divine barrier was a miracle made possible by the holy sword.

“A divine weapon from the westerners. What a troublesome thing…”

Well, being from the East, she only recognized that Demian’s sword was a holy relic, but didn’t seem to realize it was Carlos the Great’s sword.

“What, jealous? Well, I suppose your imperial palace doesn’t have anything like this. Too poor. Now I understand why you live by stealing like thieves on a national scale.”

“…Still so arrogant. A barrier from a false god can simply be crushed by greater power!”

Meiharin roared, spreading her arms wide and drawing up a massive amount of mana.

– Rumble…!

The hall floor shook as if an earthquake had struck, and the extremely concentrated mana became a gale that scattered the debris of the broken hall in all directions.

A vast amount of mana incomparable to the high mages. Truly, this was power granted only to those who had transcended the wall.

Archmage—no, since she’s from the East, I should say Grand Sorcerer.

With the ability to freely control this much mana, one might suspect she was the Third Apostle herself rather than just an associate.

“Go ahead and try.”

I lowered my stance by bending my knees and drew out three Akrin blades using the tentacles of murder karma.

Heat mixed with my breath, and the blood infused with hero’s karma spread through my limbs and began to boil.

Killing intent and hostility poured out like a waterfall. Hersella’s desire, having reached the limit of patience, stirred so violently it seemed ready to tear through my skin.

“If you can.”

The next moment, Meiharin’s body, caught by the throat in Frosting, crashed into the inner castle wall on the far side of the imperial palace like a battering ram.

—-

– CRASH!

A charge that employed all my strength, the propulsive force of karma flames, and the time compression of “Defying Fate.” It was closer to a ramming tactic executed with a fighter jet.

In the compressed time that seemed to stretch a moment endlessly…

I rushed toward Meiharin, extended my left arm toward her neck, and as the duration of Defying Fate ended, intercepted all the sorceries fired in counterattack with my Akrin blades while continuing forward with her neck in my grip.

Breaking through all obstacles with Meiharin’s body until finally reaching the inner castle wall at the rear of the imperial palace.

“Kugh…!”

After smashing through wall after wall with her back and advancing hundreds of meters, Meiharin convulsed and spat blood as she was embedded like a shell into the stone fortress wall.

Though she must have deployed some defensive spell—her neck wasn’t pierced through nor was her body torn to pieces—her neck, gripped by Frosting, appeared to have its cervical vertebrae crushed, hanging limply to one side.

Blood streamed from her mouth where her tongue protruded, and her unfocused eyes rolled upward, half-covered by her eyelids as if she were seeing heaven.

If what leaked from her mouth had been saliva rather than blood, she would have looked like someone who had overdosed on drugs—a truly wretched appearance.

[Is she dead? Surely not, this simply…?]

Perhaps unable to believe her revenge could end so anticlimactically, Hersella muttered resurrection spells in a dazed tone.

‘……’

Instead of answering, I clicked my tongue and wiped the blood from my cheek.

Normally I would have scolded her for such ominous words, but this time it seemed unnecessary.

After all—

“—So, this is your thought technique.”

Meiharin was still very much alive.

– BOOM!

The next moment, I felt as if I’d been hit by a giant’s fist and was helplessly thrown backward.

“Kuk…!”

Blood explosion sorcery. Meiharin’s blood that had splattered on my armor all exploded at once, creating a shockwave that struck me.

Thanks to my winter armor’s defense, there were no notable wounds, but there was no way to prevent my body from being thrown backward by the impact.

“I heard it was acceleration-based… but to think it was time compression. Yes, it’s understandable why everyone would be confused. The abilities look similar from the outside.”

While I flipped in midair to regain my posture and land, Meiharin muttered as she extricated herself from the broken wall, supporting herself with both hands, her neck still broken and twisted to the side.

– Crack! Snap! Crunch!

Like a possessed wooden doll, her broken body twitched grotesquely with bursting sounds.

Her leg, which had been twisted halfway around, twisted another half turn to return to its original position, and her dangling forearm twitched greatly once before regaining its original form.

It felt less like healing wounds and more like rewinding her body to its state before injury.

Meiharin covered her face with her now-restored hand and placed her wobbling head back onto her neck, where the broken cervical vertebrae reconnected with a crunching sound, firmly securing her head.

A sight like a broken doll repairing itself. Should I call it typical of sorcery? It was too grotesque to be called regeneration.

“Ha, you’re quite the performer.”

I let out a hollow laugh as I got to my feet.

Blood trickled down my cheek. It wasn’t from Meiharin but from Sahakal who had been standing beside her.

Despite charging with Defying Fate activated, his blade had already been positioned in my path, and I couldn’t completely avoid it.

He too seemed to be a swordsman who had reached the realm of heroes based on his aura, but it was still an impressive attack.

Unlike Ragnar, who forcibly accelerated his own body to keep up with my movements, this man’s blade had been waiting for me before I even activated Defying Fate.

How should I put it? It was as if he had anticipated where and when I would attack before even seeing any signs of my attack.

That was probably the effect of his hero’s tale.

Judging from his actions, it might be mind reading, intuition… or perhaps a limited form of precognition. Whichever it was, it probably couldn’t be sustained for long.

He managed to position his blade in my charge path, but there was no follow-up attack, suggesting that was his limit.

Well, it wasn’t my concern anyway. I wasn’t the one who would be dealing with Sahakal and the high sorcerers.

Why else would I have grabbed Meiharin by the neck and charged to the edge of the imperial palace? It was to leave Sahakal and the other sorcerers to Demian while I focused on dealing with Meiharin alone.

It would put some burden on Demian, but it couldn’t be helped. Looking ahead, he needed to experience intense battles more frequently.

It would be tough for him, but with the holy sword, he wouldn’t die.

“That aside… what brute strength. To think I’d be pushed all the way to the edge of the inner wall. Truly worthy of divine blood. And I went to the trouble of gathering the children.”

But that wasn’t the only reason. To fight Meiharin, I absolutely had to separate her from the other sorcerers.

If I were to face them myself, the combined attacks of mages who were at best high-level wouldn’t pose much of a threat, but…

[Finally. Finally it’s my turn! Isn’t that right? Say it is. Hurry!]

Because I wasn’t the one who would be fighting Meiharin.

Of course. How could our filial daughter possibly hand over the person suspected to be her mother’s killer to someone else?

Defeating Meiharin was not my role but Hersella’s.

That’s why I separated Meiharin from the other sorcerers.

Handing over my body to Hersella meant giving up the powers of Durandal’s master and the curse-defense ability of the Stigmata of Astraea.

In other words, it meant being fully exposed to curses that I could easily withstand.

Despite having mana resistance, I couldn’t be certain it would block all curses.

So at the very least, I needed to reduce the number of curses that would be thrown at us.

If all the sorcerers surrounding us unleashed various spells and curses while we fought Meiharin, even Hersella would find it difficult to handle them all.

But if it were just Meiharin’s sorcery alone, Hersella should be able to manage somehow.

So, my job now was simply to hand over my body and watch. Leaving Sahakal and the sorcerers to Demian, and Meiharin to Hersella.

It was terribly inefficient, but what could I do? I couldn’t take away her lifelong revenge. So I’d let her do her best.

‘Yes. It’s your turn. I’ve set up such a perfect stage for you—surely you won’t lose pathetically?’

[…Nonsense. Who do you think I am?]

Well, a third-rate, shoddy, sensitive celestial demon lady?

[Just hand over the body already. And watch carefully. Watch and applaud the moment my revenge is fulfilled. The moment my enemy, your foe, is torn into a thousand pieces and sings a lament of agony!]

Letting Hersella’s voice, filled with ecstasy and pride, drift past my ears, I surrendered complete control of the murder karma to her and sank my consciousness deep into my mind.

And so.

“Meiharin…! At last, at last this moment has come…!”

The beast of murder karma, pushing aside the Sword of the Starry Sky and the Saint of Order, howled as it bared its blood-stained fangs.

“The time has come to fulfill my vow—to exact the revenge I’ve endured for the past decade, to tear my enemy’s corpse into a thousand pieces and offer it at my mother’s shrine!”

Like a violently erupting volcano, hatred and killing intent burst forth, dyeing the sky red.