Chapter 161
Chapter 161
Chapter 161
Legion (2)
"Ah, aah…."
The Spirit of Light and the Spirit of Darkness.
The reason Evangeline couldn't summon them from the beginning was simply because she couldn't fully handle the two spirits.
Unlike the other Five Great Elemental Spirit Kings, Light and Darkness don't possess physical forms.
They could only manifest their existence in the world through their contractor's body.
"Aaaahhh!"
Even for her, a spirit being, the waves of power so strong they were difficult to bear spread around the area.
'Which one will it be?'
In the original work, when both spirits are manifested, one of the two spirits—Light or Darkness—would devour Evangeline's personality and rise to the surface.
Which one would emerge depended on her usual mental state, and judging from what was shown in the original work, Darkness tended to emerge more often than not.
But….
FLARE!
Light began to swirl around Evangeline's eyes as they filled with brilliant radiance, and pure white light started to spiral around her.
-This isn't good.
Kimaris, who was beside Rudian, let out a slight groan.
If it had been the Spirit of Darkness, which was at least closer to demonic magic, the compatibility would have been decent, but unfortunately, the Spirit of Light—which was completely incompatible—had emerged instead.
This was proof that Evangeline's current will was quite firm, but….
-…….
Soon, wings of light so magnificent they reminded one of an archangel spread wide behind her back.
Darkness receded to a supporting role, and Light appeared.
However, the Spirit of Light, who was expected to engage in battle without question, was quietly staring directly at Rudian for some reason.
-I am Elpis, the Spirit of Light who acts on behalf of Berus's will.
'What…?'
A spirit attempting dialogue while ignoring its contractor's desire for battle?
-Lord Berus foresaw the day when his apostle—myself—and you would meet face to face, and left several messages.
"…Berus left messages for me?"
Surprise flashed in Rudian's eyes.
He never would have imagined that Berus's name would be mentioned so directly here!
At that moment, Kimaris exploded with rage and charged at Evangeline.
-Where does a mere seed of light get off deciding whether to leave messages or not!
"W-wait!"
He understood that most demons held feelings beyond mere dislike for Berus, but still, couldn't he at least consider his opponent's caliber before attacking!
Naturally, the Spirit of Light also didn't have good feelings toward demons, so his tone was far from kind.
-A wretched demon with only a soul remaining… I'd prefer if you stepped aside.
CRACK!
-Graaah!
A single beam of light from Evangeline's fingertip directly blew away Kimaris's left arm.
Kimaris had tried to deflect the light beam with the black sword he was holding, but because it contained such tremendous force, the arm holding the sword was blown away instead.
However, Elpis, the Spirit of Light, showed a surprised reaction as he watched Kimaris stagger back.
-Not bad. I was aiming to blow off your head….
-Damn it….
Even though spirits supposedly couldn't handle divine power, that guy still proclaimed himself to be an apostle of the main god Berus—he was that strong.
According to the setting, while he might not be on the level of the other Seven Great Gods, his power was at least comparable to a high-ranking god.
Turning his gaze away from the silent Kimaris, Elpis looked at Rudian once again.
-Now that the nuisance has quieted down, let me continue delivering the message.
"Speak."
-Lord Berus wishes to meet with you at 'that place' once you've resolved all the calamities that will befall the earth.
"That place?"
-He said you would understand if I put it this way: the place where the 'White World' exists.
"……!"
'The Creator God's Temple!'
The location where the White World and Abel's holy sword Grandia exist.
Among the Seven Great Gods, Berus of Light, who was actually closest to the Creator God, was virtually missing except for the occasional one-way instructions he gave to the archangels.
Of course, having knowledge of 's setting, Rudian knew where Berus usually resided, but….
'Why of all places?'
Berus and Rudian currently had no connection whatsoever.
Of course, he could meet him once out of personal curiosity, but the place where he hoped to meet was far too coincidental.
It was something that absolutely couldn't be said unless it presupposed that Rudian knew about the existence of the 'Creator God's Temple,' which even the other Seven Great Gods didn't know the true nature of.
Whether Rudian was shocked or not, Elpis continued delivering Berus's message.
-Lord Berus said that even without the White World, you would be able to resolve the earthly matters.
"……."
Saying such things meant Berus knew about North and Garganta's treachery….
Moreover, he was essentially telling him to resolve matters without the White World.
Even though there was the realistic stronghold of Adi's 'terminal,' his heart couldn't help but twist.
Rudian slightly pursed his lips and sneered at Elpis.
"For the great Berus of Light to think so highly of me, I truly don't know where to put myself."
-Yes, Lord Berus said you are a being who can see the 'end' of this world.
"……."
He had intended it as mockery, but receiving a much heavier answer than expected was somewhat bewildering.
But aside from that, the fact that the main god Berus thought of him in such terms was definitely information that couldn't be ignored.
'I don't know how much he knows about my situation, but… the fact that I can remain safe despite causing such mayhem must mean his influence exists somewhere behind the scenes.'
Whew…!
Rudian let out a deep sigh and steeled his resolve.
He was quite surprised by the sudden mention of Berus, but that didn't change what he had to do.
'First, save Evangeline. Then complete the Death King's request to recover the Black World, and gather all forces including Adi's terminal to crush the incoming extraterrestrial forces.'
To do that, he first needed to smash that Spirit of Light in front of him.
-Well then, having delivered all of Lord Berus's will, I'll act according to my contractor's will from now on.
Elpis was also about to enter full combat mode.
'Let's see….'
Rudian slightly turned his gaze to survey the battle situation.
The course of battle was flowing as expected.
While the fight between the Spirit Kings and Legion Commanders remained deadlocked, the battle between subordinate spirits and monsters was being overwhelmingly pushed by the spirits, who were grinding up the monsters in real-time.
At this rate, the monster legion would be completely annihilated before long.
'I need to finish this quickly.'
Rudian's current Magic stat was 6,666.
In terms of absolute quantity, it was a number that made him virtually no different from a god, but even so, if he got into a war of attrition with that guy, it would be utterly hopeless.
Simply because recovery power was entirely separate from the visible numbers.
-Sunlight Treasure Box.
DING!
The Spirit King of Light Elpis's anti-personnel interception skill.
A pure white, round, flat treasure box appeared above his hands.
Seeing in reality what he had only encountered in the novel, Rudian flinched slightly.
'This is indeed a bit frightening, isn't it?'
The energy concentrated in that treasure box alone far exceeded the total power of the Fire Spirit King.
It could probably be called an artificial sun.
"If I shout 'Prajna paramita,' will time travel happen too?"
-…What are you talking about?
"There's such a thing!"
Rudian launched a surprise attack on the bewildered Elpis.
However, true to Elpis being the fastest-reacting of all spirits, he began to respond immediately despite Rudian having only approached a few meters.
BOOM!
The moment the light from the treasure box briefly intensified, a pillar of light with physical force directly struck Rudian.
"Urgh!"
And it didn't just sweep over Rudian's entire body—it buried him straight into the ground, piercing through the crust and creating a massive hole all the way to the planet's interior.
-Elpis! Go easy on him!
Noah, the Earth Spirit King with horns, protested, but Elpis remained unmoved.
-Going easy won't be enough to break that human's momentum.
Rather, he filled the sky with light bullets similar to the previous one and began firing a barrage at the hesitating Rudian!
"Are you insane!"
-I am perfectly sane.
Even though it wasn't divine-class power, each of Elpis's attacks was fast, heavy, and powerful.
He was using 9th-class top-tier anti-personnel spells as basic attacks, so it was only natural.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
Pillars of light swept the surroundings, turning everything into particles.
As an emergency measure, he had poured Magic into creating a basic shield, but both the efficiency and limits were clear.
'Damn it, Adi's absence really hurts!'
If Adi were here, he would have handled any situation with this overflowing power.
'But Adi isn't here now. I have to solve this myself.'
He wasn't sure if it would work, but he had to try.
-Hmm?
While enduring Elpis's attacks, Rudian gathered divine power in his palm.
The only breakthrough to overcome the current situation.
Elpis also realized that Rudian had made his decisive move.
-Indeed, divine power would certainly be able to inflict definite damage on me. However….
The light from the Sunlight Treasure Box that Elpis was holding grew even stronger.
-Aside from Outer Force, I know that the Black Goat's divine power dwelling within you isn't that abundant. If I can endure that, victory will be mine.
"You're stating the obvious!"
Rudian immediately reversed the divine power he was holding.
Divine power was the highest-tier force standing at the pinnacle of all power systems.
To be precise, any power system existing on earth would evolve into chaos when it reached a singularity, and progressing further from there would be refined into divine power.
'That means it's also possible to reverse divine power back to before the singularity!'
With the small amount of divine power anyway, he could inflict damage but couldn't achieve victory itself.
In that case, it was much more likely to succeed by targeting that guy's compatibility as a Spirit of Light.
GOOOOO!
The divine power of Outer Force returned to chaos through reverse rotation, and that chaos took on a single 'color' through Rudian's will.
-What are you doing now?
"Trying to beat you up."
-Do you think you can defeat me without divine power? That you can attack me with that power?
"More than enough!"
While light's opposite is commonly said to be darkness, demonic magic couldn't replace darkness itself.
Especially since that guy was pure light without divine power.
Elpis frowned as he looked at the 'green' power that Rudian had transformed.
-Psionic energy…!
Psychic power.
If it was space-time class psychic power, it could definitely serve as a counter to that light.
This space-time class was not only incredibly difficult to acquire in the first place, but expanding its power scale was even more difficult—it was a power with absolutely terrible development difficulty.
However, having acquired this power through the shortcut called the Green World, if he reverse-rotated the divine power he possessed and amplified it to the extreme, it could become a powerful force capable of literally stopping the world!
Rudian spread green particles and directly sealed Elpis's power.
"You didn't know about this, you damn bastard!"
-This, this can't be!
The pillar of light that had been striking Rudian stopped as if time had frozen.
Through the pillars of light that had become like giant fluorescent lights, Rudian finally penetrated toward Elpis—that is, Evangeline's body.
-Explode!
Elpis tried to detonate the light power concentrated in the Sunlight Treasure Box.
If that exploded, at minimum the Iskar territory, or possibly the entire Morian Empire and Kingdom of Rohans would be blown away!
"You crazy bastard! Are you planning to set off a super-sized nuke here!"
Before the treasure box could explode, Rudian desperately poured psionic energy into it, sealing the treasure box's rampage.
Crackle, crackle! Crackle, crackle!
The treasure box shook frantically like electricity flowing through it, trying to release its power, but ultimately couldn't overcome Rudian's space-time freeze.
After all, power without divine essence had its limits no matter how large its scale.
-Darkness! Help me!
Elpis desperately requested help from the Spirit of Darkness that had retreated to a supporting role, but….
"Too late, you bastard!"
Enraged by Elpis's outrageous behavior of trying to blow up this entire area, Rudian struck the back of Evangeline's neck with a furious curse.
THWACK!
-……!
No matter how tremendous the power he wielded, Evangeline's durability as the main body was ordinary… no, below that.
With a dull impact sound, Evangeline's fragile body collapsed.