episode_0226

Unexpected Support

“Screams!” “Screams!” “Hahahaha! What are these things?! They’re really weak compared to those guys, aren’t they?! You dare to oppose the Church with such skill? How absurd!”

Zerben, a member of the Children of Light, quickly ran, using his small stature, and cut down resistance fighters one by one with his sword. Zerben felt a slight disappointment that none of the resistance fighters had power and skill strong enough to satisfy him, but for the sake of his mission, he continued to defeat them one by one. Just then, Veronica and Karina swiftly rushed towards the arrogant Zerben and thrust their spears. Zerben immediately swung his sword, deflecting their spears, and pulled back, putting distance between them. Karina felt an atmosphere from Zerben that couldn’t be ignored and said, bewildered.

“That kid… is emitting an aura that sets him apart from the others… What is that…? Is he really just a kid…?! From his aura, he seems to far surpass even high-ranking believers…”

“Hmm… You two seem to have some skill, don’t you? Seeing you rush at me like this… The others didn’t even dare to attack me, let alone rush me…”

“Isn’t that obvious? Because you look so young, everyone’s reluctant to attack you, aren’t they…?! What are you, really?! Like Karina said, are you truly just a kid?!”

Zerben was surprised that, unlike the others, they were rushing him, so Veronica retorted that it was because Zerben looked like a boy, which made everyone reluctant to attack him, and asked if he was really just a kid. Zerben then realized that everyone had hesitated to attack him because he was a boy and answered with a serious face.

“What… You hesitated to attack on a battlefield where lives hang in the balance, for such a pathetic reason? Though I’m 13 this year, I’m a proper member of the Children of Light, you know? If you feel sympathy for your opponent, your life will quickly disappear. You truly are foolish heretics…”

“What…?! Thi—Thirteen years old?! He’s younger than when I met Zeke Oppa…?! But how can he have such power…”

“Naturally, it’s power obtained from strongly believing in Goddess Camilla, what else? Anyway… that means you two won’t pity me like the other guys and will fight with all your might, right? I’ll be looking forward to it…!! Now that I know I’ve been killing off stupid guys all this time, I feel like I need to have at least one proper fight to relieve my frustration…!!!”

As Zerben plunged his sword into the ground, gathering divine power, and spoke to them as if warning them to fight properly, Karina and Veronica were so bewildered that they flinched in surprise at the immense divine power emanating from the boy.

“Wh—What is that…? Veronica, what in the world did Camilla create…?”

“Perhaps that kid has some latent ability that Camilla noticed…!! Thanks to that, we’re facing a kid with monstrous power…!! Hoooo… Spirit of Wind!! Grant me your power so I can break through the wall blocking my path…!!”

Veronica, realizing again that the power emanating from Zerben was unusual, gripped her sword with both hands and began imbuing it with the power of the wind spirit. She then pointed her sword towards Zerben and released the power of wind from it. Zerben endured the gust of wind that burst forth with his entire body and spoke to Veronica.

“You’re trying to fight me with just this gentle breeze? To think you can defeat us by borrowing the power of spirits… Isn’t your thinking too shallow?!”

“…!! He’s… he’s walking towards me…?! Does that even make sense?!”

As Zerben, taking the full force of the gust, slowly began walking towards her, Veronica was greatly shocked to see Zerben not only enduring but rather overwhelming the gust. Karina then twirled her spear in her hand, pointed it towards Zerben, and spoke to Veronica.

“No matter how much of a kid he is, he’s one of the Church’s elite members, Veronica!! If we judge him rashly, we could lose!!”

“You seem quick to grasp the situation, beast-kin heretic!! But no matter how you judge me, don’t you still know that you’re dead meat? There’s no chance of you winning against me!!”

“Let’s see if you can keep saying that against the two of us, you hear me!!! Hyaaaah!!!”

As Zerben spoke with conviction that they couldn’t defeat him, Karina retorted, “Let’s see,” shouted a battle cry, and threw her spear at Zerben with all her might. Zerben, seeing the spear flying towards him, didn’t lose his smile and swung his sword within the gust, deflecting Karina’s spear. Karina stared blankly at the spear stuck in the ground after being deflected by Zerben’s sword and said with a bewildered voice.

“Haaaah… He’s certainly strong… What should we do…? A normal attack wouldn’t be enough…”

“But we can’t give up…!! Let’s keep attacking to at least wear down his strength…!! Then it’ll be easier for others to defeat that kid…!!!”

“A strategy where you become consumables to weaken my power, huh…? As expected of heretics, can they only think that way? We, blessed by Goddess Camilla, can easily crush you even without such a strategy…!!”

“Then prove it yourself, strong little brat…!!”

“…!! Huh?!”

As Zerben slowly approached Veronica, he mocked her for choosing the strategy of becoming consumables to weaken his power. At that very moment, a male voice suddenly echoed, and Zerben felt an unusual aura from above him. He flinched in surprise and looked up. Tess, who had leaped directly above Zerben, attacked him by falling straight down with his spear raised. Zerben hastily swung his sword, barely blocking Tess’s attack, who had fallen and thrust his spear at him, and said to Tess.

“Ugh…!! When did you get so close to me…?! I definitely didn’t sense anyone’s presence…?!”

“Little one…!! Beast-kin are a race specialized in moving carefully, you see…!! It seems your Goddess Camilla didn’t even teach you information about your enemies, did she?! What a pathetic mother…!!”

“What…?! How dare you insult my Light in front of me…!! You must be crazy to want to die, aren’t you?!”

“Where did you learn such harsh words? Anyway… it would be troublesome if you only focused on me. You haven’t forgotten that this is a war where everyone is fighting together, have you?!”

“…!!!”

As Tess pressed down on Zerben’s sword with his spear from above and asked if he had forgotten this was a collective war, Zerben realized that Karina and Veronica were rushing in from both sides and was greatly flustered. Meanwhile, Rubaea and Iruvan, who had been fending off Okute by spewing flames, began to show signs of exhaustion, seemingly losing strength little by little. Rubaea then muttered with a deeply indignant expression.

“Damn it…!! I trained this fire ability to defeat at least one more… But I was so weak that I couldn’t even defeat the priest right in front of me…!!”

“All the resistance fighters around us are busy fighting other believers… And the fallen resistance fighters don’t seem to have any intention of getting back up… This is messed up… Well… if the story of us resisting these guys until the very end and dying becomes known, couldn’t we become great figures, Fairy?”

“Great figures, huh…!! Will your story truly spread to future generations…?! This world will become the power of Goddess Camilla…!! As long as we have the Black Saintess, you will never be able to interfere with or stop her plans!!!”

Okute, who had heard Rubaea and Iruvan’s lament, emphasized that Camilla would change this world with her power so that their story would never spread to future generations, and that they had Aria, who was necessary for the plan. Hearing that, Rubaea recalled how Aria had scared her before, but still courted Zeke while receiving their adornments, and she shed a few tears as she muttered.

“Damn it… Aria… If she heard that Zeke was alive, Aria would change her mind…”

“Give up on that man, Zeke, you foolish fools. He was sent to a place where no one was, wounded… He’s probably dead by now…”

“Ha…!! I don’t believe such words…!! I’m the spirit who gave Zeke Hyung his power…!! I don’t know where he is, but I can definitely feel that my power towards Zeke Hyung hasn’t been cut off yet?! So I absolutely won’t believe that Hyung is dead!!!”

“But what would he think, I wonder…?”

“What…? Wait, no way…!!”

As Okute told them to give up, saying Zeke might be dead, Iruvan refuted Okute’s words, saying he could still feel his power connected to Zeke. Okute then grinned and asked what he thought Zeke would think, and Iruvan, bewildered by Okute’s meaningful words, realized something and was greatly shocked. Meanwhile, Aria, who had been mercilessly killing resistance fighters with her staff, tilted her head and asked when a believer suddenly rushed towards her breathlessly.

“Oh my? Is something the matter? You’re even sweating…”

“I—It’s a disaster, Saintess Aria…!! According to reports from other believers, Zeke… that man Zeke was found as a cold corpse below the waterfall…!!”

“…What? Wh—What are you saying…?”

At the shocking report from the believer that Zeke had been found as a cold corpse, Aria’s expression, which had been full of smiles, instantly turned blank as if greatly shocked, and then froze. The staff in Aria’s hand began to tremble along with her hand, and her eyes also began to tremble as much as her hand. The believer then reported to Aria, shedding tears profusely.

“We tried to save the wounded Zeke, but… we were unfortunately interfered with by the heretics rushing towards the Temple of Pioneering…”

“…Lord Zeke is dead…? Because heretics interfered with us…? Ha… Hahaha… Lies… Lies…!! LIES!!!!!”

“…!!! Oh, damn it…!!!”

At the false report that the believers had failed to rescue the wounded Zeke due to interference from the resistance fighters, Aria let out a hollow laugh, then erupted in rage, unleashing divine power from her entire body. Iruvan, seeing the light of the divine power that Aria was unleashing, realized that the Church had lied to Aria, just as he had suspected, and was greatly flustered. And at that moment, Okute, who had approached Iruvan and Rubaea, raised his hammer high and said.

“Your foolish battle is over, heretics…!! Now you too shall become the light of Goddess Camilla…!!”

“Oh, damn it!!!!”

Seeing Okute raise his hammer high to smash them down with it, Rubaea and Iruvan were indignant at failing to stop Aria’s rampage and at being defeated so futilely. Just then, a red beam of light suddenly shot out and knocked Okute sideways. Rubaea and Iruvan were greatly bewildered that someone had saved them when no one nearby would have had the leisure to help them, and they turned their heads towards the direction the beam came from. There, Esti brushed all the dust off her clothes and spoke to them.

“You just mentioned Zeke and Aria, right? Then you two seem to know them… What’s wrong with her? Why is Aria unleashing power over there right now?”

“A slime…? And one in human form… Could it be a mutated monster sent by Rapien…?”

“What? What do you mean by that, Spirit? Are there other mutated monsters here besides me? I came here because I received a message from Zeke asking me to come to this place…”

“…?! You received a message from Zeke?! H-How?!”

When Esti said she had come there because she received a message from Zeke, Rubaea and Iruvan asked with great shock. And Dio V Runner, who was listening to this news nearby, flinched in surprise and said to Gid, who was fighting next to him.

“Hey, Gid…!! It seems Zeke is safe…!! Iruvan said earlier that his power was still connected to Zeke… It seems Iruvan was right…!!”

“Then we must quickly deliver this news to Aria…!! Otherwise, Aria could go berserk and make the situation even more disadvantageous!!!”

“I know…!! But these guys keep interfering, so I simply have no room to do so…!!”

As Gid insisted that they quickly deliver the news of Zeke’s survival to Aria, Dio V Runner agreed with his argument. However, they had absolutely no leeway to immediately take action due to the believers rushing them. At that moment of great difficulty for both of them, Yuria flew in quickly, grabbed the heads of two believers who were rushing towards them, and froze them. When Yuria froze the believer who was threatening him, Dio V Runner said to Yuria with great relief.

“Thank you, Yuria. I needed a hand. Could you perhaps help Gid break through instead of me?”

“…I would have preferred to fight alongside you, Dio V Runner… But since it’s your request, I can’t refuse. I understand.”

“Always thankful. Well then, I have something to do for a moment…!!”

When Dio V Runner asked her if she could help Gid break through instead of him, Yuria, who had come there to fight Dio V Runner, felt regrettable about his words but said she had no choice but to grant his request and agreed to fight alongside Gid. Dio V Runner then nodded to show his gratitude to Yuria and immediately flew off somewhere. Meanwhile, Esti looked around at the various races fighting against the believers and asked Iruvan.

“These are those strange guys who placed weird statues around the world, aren’t they? Did these guys cause all this trouble in the end?”

“Are you unaware that the entire continent is in danger right now…?!”

“No, it’s just… I was trying to live quietly in the forest where my deceased lover is… but I didn’t know the situation had become this serious. It wasn’t for nothing that Zeke and Aria asked to see the statues…”

“By the way, who exactly are you…? A monster that can use magic… Such a creature…”

“How dare a mere monster…!! A mere monster dares to knock me back…!! Graaaah!!!”

Just as Rubaea, still utterly bewildered that Esti had just used magic to save them, was about to ask Esti about her identity, Okute, who had been hit by Esti’s beam and knocked back, suddenly stood up and began unleashing divine power with all his might from his entire body. Esti then gathered a red aura in her hands and spoke to Okute.

“The power of a monster, you say… It’s the power of the person I love… If it were Rezef, he would have quite disliked guys like you, wouldn’t he? Guys like you who are ravaging the world. Then I have a duty to utterly destroy all of you who are trying to ravage the world with Rezef’s power…!!!”

Esti vowed to destroy the Church with Rezef’s power, saying that Rezef would have surely detested the Church for trying to ravage the world. She then began transforming the red aura gathering in her two hands into a dark red aura. While Iruvan and Rubaea confronted Okute with Esti’s help, Dio V Runner approached Aria, who was unleashing divine power like rage due to Zeke’s death, and said.

“Hey, Aria.”

“How dare they… How dare they kill Lord Zeke…!! Because of your annoying interference… that precious person…!!”

“It seems whatever I say now won’t reach your ears. Haaah… What’s that expression? Do you want to kill me?”

“I can never forgive you bastards who caused Lord Zeke’s death…!! I’ll crush you all with these hands…!!!”

When Dio V Runner asked if she wanted to kill him, Aria gritted her teeth and radiated strong hostility and murderous intent towards Dio V Runner and the resistance fighters. However, Dio V Runner maintained a calm demeanor despite Aria’s appearance, then took two red orbs from his pocket and attached them to the flamethrowers on his arms, saying.

“Crush? Fine… Go ahead. The Black Saintess Aria Rit is a formidable opponent… but the way you are now, I could play with you, let alone fight you. Come on.”