Chapter 9 – The Advent

The battles in the three locations intensified.

In the Yudelia Holy Nation, Count Bayer held the upper hand against the War God, but in the imperial capital, the opposite was happening.

The First Sword’s blade, rapidly advancing toward the horizon, relentlessly pushed Lucas back.

A contrary progression.

And thus, a balance was struck.

But it wasn’t over yet.

The most crucial battle, the one that could shatter the balance on both fronts, was only just beginning.

The Azure Dragon raised his head and looked to the sky.

He watched the golden flash that had instantly torn through the dreadful dark clouds created by the falling star, revealing the blue sky, and thought.

It was a memory of the past, not the future.

“Daddy, I’m scared. I’m scared. Daddy.”

Those conqueror bastards had imposed a quota that a five-year-old child could never hope to meet.

As punishment, they had cut off his daughter’s arm.

No, in truth, it wasn’t just his daughter.

The Azure Dragon himself, and all his brothers and sisters under the conquerors’ rule, had each lost an arm or a leg.

With his one remaining arm, he held his sobbing daughter.

Why did those bastards commit such atrocities?

To prevent them from rebelling?

Because they found it amusing to cut off arms and legs?

Because they didn’t even see them as fellow human beings?

[Azure Dragon!]

Aylia’s voice echoed in his mind.

The Azure Dragon looked forward.

Landius was approaching, his Solar Blade held low.

As if to confront him, the Azure Dragon drew a single longsword.

It was a dragon’s arm, given to him by Aylia to replace his severed one.

Daddy.

He should have resisted.

He shouldn’t have cowered, trying to cling to his wretched life. He should have risen up.

He should have fought back, even if it meant a dog’s death.

But he hadn’t.

He had his justifications.

He had to protect his daughter.

He couldn’t let an unwinnable fight lead not only himself but also his comrades, his family, and his daughter to a meaningless death.

It was a hollow justification.

His daughter never saw her seventh birthday.

She was executed by the conquerors for failing to meet her quota.

When he returned from work, the small hand they gave him, telling him it was his daughter, still came to mind vividly whenever he closed his eyes.

[Landius is coming.]

It was a rainy day.

A night just like this one, with a torrential downpour.

He had huddled in his small, dirty house, unable to do anything.

All he could do was gaze at the straw sandals he had been slowly making with his single hand to give his daughter on her birthday, and at her severed hand, and weep endlessly.

It was then that he heard Aylia’s voice.

“You are just like me.”

The Goddess of the Broken World.

One who had lost everything precious and was left with only a shell.

Aylia made a promise.

If he helped her restore her broken world, she would let the Azure Dragon and his people migrate to it.

She would shatter the world of those conqueror bastards.

“Aylia, my goddess. I thank you.”

Aylia gave him power.

With each Outer God she summoned to indwell him, the Azure Dragon could feel himself becoming something other than human.

“I will repay the grace you have bestowed upon me.”

He slaughtered every last one of the conquerors who ruled his village.

He invaded their home country and cut off the limbs of their king and all his officials.

When the king and queen wailed, asking why he was committing such cruel acts, he showed them his daughter’s hand.

The king’s face, understanding the situation, turned deathly pale, but the queen did not.

Unaware of whose hand it was, she shrieked curses, screaming about how he could cut off the hand of such a small child, calling him a demon in human skin.

Laughter escaped him.

A bitter, foul laugh.

The Azure Dragon looked forward again.

The Warrior of the Sun.

The Great Hero of Salvation who had saved the world from a mad god.

It was literally true.

He knew the moment he faced him.

This man was a true hero.

If he had known about his and his daughter’s circumstances, he would have been the first to charge forward and repel the conquerors.

But he hadn’t known, and now he stood blocking his path.

The Azure Dragon took another step forward.

Thinking of the end, he unleashed all the powers he had obtained through his contracts with the Outer Gods.

“Aylia, my goddess. I pray that your wish will be fulfilled.”

It was his final farewell.

Aylia clenched her teeth and forced a smile.

With a tearful smile, she bid farewell to her hero, who had laid down everything to fulfill his promise.

The Azure Dragon kicked off the ground and soared into the air.

Transforming into a massive black dragon, he blotted out the sky and, summoning thunder and lightning, charged toward Landius.

It was the power of a god.

From their respective battlefields, Kamael and Lena raised their heads to look at the sky, and Landius steeled his resolve.

To stop the man before him, he too would have to use his full power.

The gates of the Nine Heavens and Nine Gates opened one by one.

The First Gate.

The Second Gate.

The Third Gate.

Landius’s power grew exponentially.

The Azure Dragon hurled lightning at him, but it was useless.

The lightning distorted.

The power of the Nine Heavens and Nine Gates, having surpassed the Fourth Gate to reach the Seventh, was distorting space itself.

The Eighth Gate.

The Azure Dragon once again unleashed the power of a god.

He tried to crush Landius with the very divinity of a Human God.

A colossal force rained down on Landius’s head.

It was a power so immense that it compressed everything within a radius of dozens of meters around Landius, but he did not falter.

Instead, he raised his head and looked at the sky.

“Open it, Landius.”

Kamael said.

Lena clasped her hands and prayed.

Landius looked at the sky.

Facing the Azure Dragon, he raised his right hand.

It was a power he should not have been able to reach.

A power permitted only to the chosen.

But Landius, after overcoming countless adversities, had managed to reach it.

Beyond the horizon, beyond his limits.

The Ninth Gate of the Nine Heavens and Nine Gates.

Transcendent God.

At the overwhelming release of power, the royal capital—no, the entire world—trembled.

As if the sun were rising over the horizon, the darkness that had blanketed the royal capital was instantly swept away, revealing the blue sky.

The Azure Dragon smiled at the overwhelming power Landius displayed.

He let out a triumphant laugh and charged with all his heart and soul.

This was his final battle.

Landius raised his Solar Blade toward the charging Azure Dragon.

Once again, he unleashed the power of a god.

*

“The Azure Dragon cannot win.”

She knew.

If Landius reached the Ninth Gate as expected, the Azure Dragon, who had only reached the level of a Human God by borrowing the power of the Outer Gods, could never be his match.

It was the difference between a real god and a false one.

No, from the very beginning, their innate capacities were on completely different levels.

The Azure Dragon was a hero, but Landius was in a class of his own.

A Great Hero.

A miraculous being whose existence, even over hundreds or thousands of years, was questionable, with perhaps only one ever existing in the world.

Watching the Azure Dragon disintegrate under the golden flash of the Solar Blade, Aylia shed tears.

Instead of fearing or resenting his foretold defeat, he had prayed for Aylia’s own victory, and for that, she was truly grateful.

“It was not a meaningless death.”

The Azure Dragon had fulfilled his role.

He had made Landius open the Ninth Gate.

The Ninth Gate was a realm not originally permitted to Landius.

He had made the impossible possible with the power of a Great Hero, but he could not maintain it for long.

To open the gate again today was unthinkable.

If not for the Azure Dragon, Landius would never have opened the Ninth Gate.

But the Azure Dragon had made him do it.

“Azure Dragon.”

The sword of creation, forged through the Solar Blade, swept over the Azure Dragon.

He resisted until the very end, calling down rain and lightning, but it was a battle he could never win.

The Azure Dragon was annihilated.

The torrential rain pouring down on the royal capital ceased, and the solar energy radiating from Landius’s entire body subsided.

Now was the time.

In a Pleiades where Yuder and Cordelia were gone, the only man who could harm Aylia had just used his one-time-use card.

So it was done.

The plan was a success.

Now, no one could stop Aylia.

The skies of the royal capital were once again shrouded in darkness.

Upon the shattered remains of the Azure Dragon, the Goddess of Pure White descended.

“Azure Dragon.”

My hero.

My precious person whom I met in this world.

I will keep my promise.

All of your people will live in my world.

Gently cradling the blood-soaked dragon arm that lay at her feet, Aylia stood and looked at Landius.

Though he had lost all his power due to the side effects of opening the Ninth Gate, she felt he could not be ignored.

But Aylia smiled.

She summoned all the Outer Gods fighting across the world to the royal capital.

“Kkiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The eerie shrieks of the Outer Gods could be heard from afar.

The Outer Gods who had been fighting in the royal capital were the first to fly to Aylia and indwell her.

Even the Outer Gods who had lost their sanity through repeated ruin followed their instincts and gathered to Aylia.

A new world.

The promised land where they could begin again.

The Outer Gods continued to gather.

Their powers were meager compared to the gods who possessed worlds, but with dozens of them gathered, their combined strength was by no means negligible.

Aylia spread her wings, which were made of the Outer Gods.

Reveling in a divine power equal to that of the chief god she had lost long ago, she declared through her tears.

“I will resurrect the world.”

Dividing her forces into three locations was all for this very moment.

Make Landius and the Azure Dragon confront each other head-on, forcing Landius to open the Ninth Gate.

Once she finished off the powerless Landius, suffering from the aftereffects of opening the gate, there would be no enemies left.

All that remained was to leisurely seize the World Stones from the imperial capital and the Holy Nation, following the one in the royal capital.

Aylia was white and beautiful.

Her wings, formed of the Outer Gods, were jet-black, yet they looked like a night sky full of stars.

Once again, the power of a god descended upon the entire royal capital.

Wielding a sword made of the Outer Gods, Aylia charged toward Landius.

Kamael and Lena, who had rushed over, blocked her path, but it was futile.

All the two could do was buy a little time.

The blood-soaked Kamael and Lena tumbled to the ground.

Landius blocked the sword Aylia swung to take their lives with his Solar Blade.

But that was all.

Landius’s arm, gripping the Solar Blade, broke.

Though he didn’t let go of the sword, Landius lost his balance, staggered, and collapsed.

“Landi!”

Lena spread her blood-stained wings and unleashed her power, while Kamael charged at Aylia.

But again, it was merely a way to buy time.

Lena, who took the full brunt of Aylia’s divine power, was thrown back, coughed up a torrent of blood, and collapsed. Kamael, who met the aura of the Outer God rushing to attack Landius head-on, succeeded in dispelling the aura itself but had reached his limit.

Lena couldn’t get up.

Blood flowed ceaselessly down the sword Kamael held limply.

Aylia looked past them to Landius and raised her sword of the Outer Gods.

She focused the power of the Outer Gods, intending to incinerate the soul of the Great Hero who was propping up the collapsing Kamael from behind and helping him to his feet.

“No.”

There were no other options.

Athalia gathered what little power she had and chose to descend upon the royal capital.

And at that moment.

The First Sword suddenly looked back at the sky.

Count Bayer and the War God did the same.

Maia, who had been weeping while tightly hugging the unconscious Dahlia, raised her head toward the sky.

A crack appeared in the heavens.

One edge of the barrier that covered the world began to break.

Athalia smiled.

The First Sword laughed as if he found it amusing, and Maia tightened her grip on Dahlia.

“Young Master.”

Light spread.

The crack grew larger.

A scream erupted from Aylia’s deathly pale face.

And then, an explosion.

A voice from beyond the hole in the sky.

“Fucking boom!”

Through the barrier that shattered and rained down like shards of glass, a jet-black beast charged.

To drive away the darkness that covered the world—

The Sun of Pleiades had returned.

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Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

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