Chapter 192
Chapter 192
Chapter 192
Luciella (2)
"...Huh?"
Kuliak's eyes widened with an expression of disbelief.
The last thing Kuliak saw as he defied gravity was Luciella's red figure from behind, her sword blade pointing downward.
Kuliak, who had briefly denied reality, eventually smiled and uttered his final words of his long life.
"Magnificent."
THUD!
With those words, Kuliak's severed upper body crashed into the ground.
"..."
"..."
Neither the Pantheon, the dragons, nor Rudian.
No one had imagined that Kuliak's divine form would be split in half with a single strike.
'...How did she do that?'
Even if the first three had been caught off guard by a surprise attack, Kuliak had certainly not let his guard down and had given his all.
Kuliak's strike using both chaos and divinity at the same time was clearly in the realm of authority.
The fact that she had split through it without taking any damage meant... that the opponent, Luciella, had grown to an unimaginably transcendent level.
Rudian covered his mouth with his hand as he replayed the exchange of offense and defense that had just occurred.
'A strike that ignored causality, transcending even spatial ignore...!'
At the last moment, the mountain-like black sword that Kuliak had brought down had veered off its normal trajectory, riding along the blade that Luciella had thrust forward.
If she had responded with a simple spatial slash, Luciella would never have emerged unscathed.
'I certainly thought she would grow beyond Grand Master level, but...'
Originally, in , the designation beyond Grand Master had never been specifically mentioned.
They had called it the realm of the Martial God, referring to the demigod realm that Crux had reached by breaking through Grand Master.
But the problem was that after Crux was killed by Diablo and the original battles shifted to focus on authorities, human martial arts completely lost its significance.
But now...
The greatest talent capable of reviving that significance had revealed herself.
"Kuliak!"
Harmonet's expression immediately contorted.
The death of Kuliak, their assault captain, was an irreversible major blow in the current situation.
"Belzebuth! I'll use divine power to forcibly open the gate! Leave only the minimum strength needed to escape!"
"Ah, got it!"
The Pantheon had been conserving their strength and buying time until now, but four of their deployed personnel had been taken down in an instant by the dark horse Luciella.
Harmonet activated his lyre, whose power had been sealed by causality, and slowly began to interfere with the surrounding space.
DING! TING! TING!
Harmonet's past epithet was the God of Harmony.
Having held the position of a high-ranking god who handled the balance of all things in heaven and earth, disturbing that harmony and balance was an extremely easy task for him.
'The problem is that this barrier was created with the power of the Blue World...'
He was confident he could punch a hole through a 9th Class Great Magician's 'Domain' or a subspace barrier created by legendary artifacts in less than 5 seconds.
But the Seven-Colored Worlds, which belonged to the mythical class, were an exception.
He truly had to throw himself into it with everything he had, abandoning all reserves, to somehow open a crack.
"Do you think I'll let you escape?"
Luciella, who had finished off Kuliak, rushed toward Harmonet with her fire sword still in hand.
"Ha, as if I'd quietly offer my neck!"
While the other personnel blocked the dragons' bombardment, Belzebuth devoted herself entirely to marking Luciella and protecting Harmonet.
"I'll acknowledge your attack power, but it'll be difficult for you to penetrate my waves!"
True to her words, the soul flames that Luciella unleashed were blocked by Belzebuth's 'voice' and scattered futilely into mere embers.
"Hmph, I just need to scatter them before they reach me!"
Luciella slightly furrowed her brow when her attack was blocked.
"Certainly an ability specialized in defense. But that alone doesn't make sense..."
At that moment, Gray approached Luciella's side.
"It's the power of a divine artifact. That woman has something lodged in her throat."
"Is that so? I wondered..."
"Since it's integrated with her body, it would be difficult for your senses to detect it."
"...I don't think my senses are particularly lacking, though? And how long do you plan to keep calling me that?"
Gray cheerfully ignored Luciella's protest and raised the wand in his hand high into the sky.
"Hehe, watch carefully. The skills of this great genius Super Magician Gray who has evolved to ultimate form...!"
"...Whether then or now, humility is still a distant concept for you."
Luciella let out a slight sigh, but when she saw the tremendous storm of magic erupting from Gray's body, her eyes gleamed with interest.
"Ha! What do you think you can do to my authority with mere magic power?"
The blue storm of magic looked threatening on the surface, but to Belzebuth, it seemed no different from the 9th Class magic that the ancient dragons had been pouring down.
"Fine by me. I'm grateful that you guys are buying time on your own... grate... ful?"
Belzebuth finally sensed something was wrong when her surroundings began to be enveloped in blue magic.
Gray's magic, which should have been repelled, was somehow defying the flow and approaching her!
"What, what, what is this! How?"
Gray grinned mockingly at Belzebuth.
"You showed me too much of that power."
"Don't tell me you analyzed my authority in that short time?"
"Exactly right!"
"That's impossible! How could a mere mortal...!"
At that moment, Belzebuth saw it.
A magic tome was now held in Gray's other hand...
Though she was late to notice due to the shock of her wave barrier being broken, she immediately identified the true nature of the magic tome in Gray's hand and screamed angrily.
"That's cheating, you bastard!"
"...So what?"
"How dare you use the Blue World to break through and then boast as if you did it with your own power!"
"..."
Ignoring Luciella's contemptuous gaze from the side, Gray still maintained his smile as he spoke.
"So what? Analyzing your power was purely the work of my brain. I just borrowed this tool's power because I lacked the strength to destroy it."
"Grrrr!"
"Before calling me a cheater or whatever, how about dealing with your crisis first!"
"...!"
Gray was right.
Though it was merely an inferior storm of magic rather than the power of chaos or divinity, now that their defense had been penetrated, even such power was sufficient to harm them.
"Harmonet! Are you almost done?"
"Almost finished!"
Belzebuth desperately drew upon his strength and pushed back Gray's storm.
With his authority broken, what remained was a pure contest of strength.
'Damn, who would have thought they'd bring the Blue World!'
As a magician, the opponent's capability was certainly 9th Class level or above.
Normally, she could handle that level sufficiently, but when the Seven-Colored Worlds were added, the story changed.
"Grrrr! Hur...ry...!"
"It's done!"
CRACK!
While Belzebuth gritted her teeth and desperately held on, Harmonet's authority finally created a crack in the subspace barrier surrounding the Dragon Hive!
"Good, we retreat!"
Harmonet cheered upon seeing the barrier's crack open again.
However...
WHOOSH!
"...Huh?"
Harmonet felt a moment of déjà vu as he saw something flying from outside the crack.
'Certainly, there was a similar scene earlier...'
But Harmonet's thoughts couldn't continue to the end.
An 'arrow' that flew from outside the crack struck directly between Harmonet's eyebrows.
THUNK!
"Ha, Harmonet?"
"...Cough, gah!"
That arrow was definitely not an ordinary arrow made of wood and iron.
It was a lethal strike that had been sublimated into 'chaos' through a complex combination of aura, psionic energy, and even necromantic spirit energy!
"Hm, where do you think you're going?"
"Huh?"
Maria was the first to react to the familiar voice heard from outside the barrier.
"I was waiting outside just in case, but Rudian and my younger sister... you completely forgot about my existence, didn't you?"
"Brother!"
Maria's delighted voice echoed throughout the hive.
A blonde young man holding a bow decorated with feathers appeared from outside the barrier.
Elvin Kepler appeared from outside the barrier with a grin.
***
Elvin waved cheerfully with a massive greatsword on his back and a longbow in his hand.
"It's been a while, everyone."
"..."
"..."
Despite Elvin's cheerful greeting, the other three except Maria stood there blinking and dumbfounded.
It was as if they had completely forgotten about Elvin's existence and were just now realizing it.
"You guys, don't tell me..."
Just as Elvin's eyes were about to turn dead like rotten fish.
"Oh, it's been a while, Sir Elvin!"
"Hahaha, why did you come out so late, Brother Elvin!"
"I was waiting for you to appear, senior!"
"Cut it out, you bastards!"
Elvin turned his head away, shedding tears of sorrow.
"I've been desperately controlling myself from getting a bad personality after being tormented by that bastard Aelop for over ten years... Ah, really..."
"I was worried about when Sir Elvin would come out."
"Our party isn't complete without big brother!"
"Come on, let's quickly finish this and catch up, senior."
Rudian and the other two desperately tried to appease Elvin to improve his mood.
While Rudian and his companions were putting on this comedy show.
"Ha, Harmonet..."
Belzebuth, who had been staring blankly at her dead lover's form, suddenly turned her head with venom in her eyes.
The dead were dead, and the living had to survive.
'How dare they turn their attention away from us!'
But that attitude had saved them now.
No, she believed it had saved them.
TAP!
Belzebuth abandoned her other comrades and threw herself alone outside the barrier.
With Harmonet dead, if the barrier closed now, there would be no way to open it again.
The other gods of the Pantheon were too busy defending against the ancient dragons' attacks.
'At least I have to survive!'
This was the decisive reason why Rudian had given up on joining hands with the Pantheon.
There was absolutely no sense of comradeship among them from the beginning.
These were people who had gathered solely for revenge and survival.
If their own lives were in danger, they would stab each other in the back at any time.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"...Wh, when did you!"
The reason Rudian and the other companions could pay attention to Elvin even during battle was simple.
Elvin's sister and the strongest psychic in history was holding her ground at the barrier's entrance.
At that moment, despair was etched on Belzebuth's face.
***
Not a single one of the Pantheon gods who attacked the Dragon Hive managed to leave the hive alive.
They had been strong enough to fight on equal terms or better against dozens of ancient dragons, but when Luciella and Rudian's group joined the battle, the balanced scales immediately tipped toward the dragons.
"Thank you, humans."
After the battle in the hive ended, Calesta and the lords of each race approached Rudian and his companions.
"The damage would have been much greater without you."
"The work isn't completely finished yet."
Rudian pointed outside with a serious expression.
"Only when the outside situation is resolved can we truly say this matter is over."
"I know. All the remaining ancient dragons have now gone out to help their other kin... Even if there's some damage, the work will end safely."
Calesta continued speaking to Rudian.
"Rudian."
"Please speak."
"Due to this incident, our dragon race's policy has been decided."
"...!"
Rudian focused on Calesta's mouth.
"We concluded that the appearance of the alien monsters and the attacks by the fallen gods are not separate incidents."
Rudian finally smiled inwardly with satisfaction.
Calesta's expression also... wore the smile characteristic of one whose plans had gone accordingly.
"Our dragon race wishes to cooperate with you and intervene seriously in this world's fate once again."
Finally, the dragon race, which had been busy avoiding responsibility and fleeing in the original work, had officially entered the battle against the aliens.