Chapter 198
Chapter 198
Chapter 198
Krakar and Ktuna (2)
—…….
—…….
Rudian raised his head to look at the two outer gods floating in the sky.
They had arms and legs attached like humans.
But that was the only resemblance.
Tentacles protruding and writhing here and there, skin resembling the texture of crustaceans, and countless eyes embedded throughout their bodies.
Above all, the Outer Force rippling across their entire bodies added an incomprehensible grotesqueness.
"Still, they must have been in a hurry since they didn't bring their subordinates."
Rudian felt that they were observing him.
"…There's still time before Berus's barrier is released, but are you planning to eliminate me when the opportunity comes?"
—…….
The Hall of Heroes had fulfilled its role with Elvin as the last.
When the hall disappeared, the barrier catalyst inside it was revealed, and the moment Rudian saw that catalyst, he realized everything was already too late.
The reunion was merely bait all along.
He never could have imagined that Archangel Gabriel would conspire with Garganta and take the lead in dismantling the barrier.
However, that didn't mean Gabriel was discarded afterward—they were able to put something like a leash on Gabriel, who had betrayed their alliance.
Of course, Gabriel wasn't the type to submit to ordinary threats or external pressure, but when a truly enraged Rudian came at him with details about Heaven's Fall and other settings, demanding a life-or-death confrontation, Gabriel had no choice but to surrender.
Well, let's deal with that later….
'I don't know why they're staying still, but I should respond first… huh?'
Before Rudian could do anything, he paused as he saw white light shooting up from the distant earth.
'Ah, right….'
He could feel massive divine power and a small number of divinities.
—Gods of other dimensions! Why have you come here leading your true bodies instead of incarnations!
—This is a violation of the agreement! The Heavenly Army, intercept those gods!
—Light the flame of demon extermination!
The lesser gods and angels of the Pantheon stationed in Helheim immediately took flight.
—Eliminate those invaders who dared to set foot on the demon realm's land!
—Follow Lord Astaroth!
'…I didn't expect to receive help this way?'
Since those divine beings had shoved their true bodies in raw instead of incarnations, it was no wonder both Heaven and Hell were having fits.
In the gloomy Helheim, white and black lights suddenly blazed, and countless star clusters began charging from the sky toward the two gods tinged with purple light.
'Good. They'll buy some time at least. It would be even better if they could drive them away.'
Meanwhile, Rudian awakened the scattered legion commanders.
"Hey, get up, you lot."
"Ugh, urgh…!"
Most of them were still unconscious, having rampaged so wildly.
'Adi, can you move all these guys to Dilmun?'
—Sufficient. I'll use the forced summoning function.
The moment those words ended, Rudian felt the presence around him rapidly disappear.
—The numbers are fewer than Master expected. There are a total of 274,039 demons and monsters subordinate to the nine legion commanders.
If all 14 legions had been intact, it would have been close to 500,000, but considerable time had passed….
'It can't be helped. The fact that they maintained nearly 300,000 entities in this environment is praiseworthy enough.'
—However, if there's a decent miscalculation, it's that each individual entity far exceeds the average capabilities of the demons and monsters we saw in the Great Forest.
'By how much?'
—In terms of physical abilities alone, they're over 30% higher than the average.
'That's good?'
That's enough to do their part wherever they're deployed.
Having handled things in the brief gap, Rudian turned his head again to look at the sky.
'…Should I run?'
Thankfully, the celestial and demonic forces stationed in Helheim were handling the response on their own, so if he just fled to the middle realm like this, Krakar and Ktuna would end up only suffering losses.
But something was bothering him.
'Those bastards couldn't have come here without knowing this situation….'
Above all, the fact that they were only defending against the attacks of numerous celestial and demonic forces was concerning.
'…What are they thinking?'
Even if he were to flee, it seemed better to have a conversation first.
"Yev."
"Did you call?"
Before he knew it, Yev had popped up behind Rudian.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
The Yev he saw after a while was eating potato chips from Liang Bonaparte, the luxury confectionery of the former Lu Gloria.
It was that brand whose bag had been torn by the sword of Jereon, the former apostle of North, preventing him from eating them.
"I have something to ask."
"About why those things came looking for you?"
Since this was Helheim, Yev had released her personality restrictions.
"You know well?"
"Hmph, I've been watching everything that needed to be watched."
Yev, who had rarely shown herself recently, had been touring the continent lately, enthusiastically collecting desserts.
Of course, she hadn't forgotten her original purpose, as she had put her true body inside Rudian's shadow and was using an incarnation to travel around.
Naturally, since stealing wasn't allowed, he had provided her with plenty of continental common currency and gold and silver treasures….
"Those bastards probably came to negotiate."
"Negotiate?"
"Yes, negotiate. In their own way, they'll probably say something like peacefully handing over part of the planet as their territory."
"…Why?"
Rudian tilted his head as if he genuinely didn't understand.
Basically, outer space beings don't negotiate.
They were creatures with an extremely weak concept of negotiation, as their values were fundamentally extreme survival of the fittest.
"You view outer space too primitively."
Yev, who was one of the pinnacles of outer space, pursed her lips and expressed her displeasure.
"No, but it's true that they can't communicate, setting aside their level of civilization development, right?"
Except for a few intelligent species called 'Great Races,' all outer space civilizations were extremely biased.
"Ahem, ahem…!"
Rudian grabbed Yev's cheek as she turned her head and turned it back.
"So why are those bastards trying to negotiate with me?"
"…There are two reasons."
Yev continued speaking after flicking away Rudian's hand.
"First is that you're a being blessed by the Great Mother."
"Shub…?"
"Don't keep calling someone else's mother by name like that. In outer space, even those of noble rank face extreme punishment if they carelessly mention that person's name."
Well, Shub's existence was an absolutely sacred and inviolable being in outer space, so that could be the case.
"No matter how those twins planned this invasion by binding multiple civilizations together, they can't treat someone who has a contract with Mother carelessly. Until now they stayed still because there was no way to make contact, but now that you've appeared here, a method has emerged."
The outer space creatures that attacked the surface this time were merely terminals that had escaped control due to being blocked by Berus's barrier—more precisely, terminals with only basic commands input and wifi cut off.
"Then what's the second reason?"
"They probably judged that this planet's defenses weren't too bad."
This outer space invasion was led by North and Garganta, unlike the original.
In the original, they would have judged it feasible after seeing the continent's chaotic situation through Chapter 2, but it was certainly different now.
Dragons, demons, celestials, humans, other races…. Unlike the original where they had worn themselves down through the Heaven-Demon War and the superhuman war, the forces Rudian had gathered now were truly formidable.
While Rudian was having such thoughts, Yev raised her head.
"It seems they've recognized me."
—…….
"Are you thinking of getting serious?"
As soon as those words ended, the atmosphere of Krakar and Ktuna, who had been consistent in defense until now, began to change.
—HUFF!
From Krakar's massive body, over a hundred meters tall, near-infinite Outer Force began pouring out.
Mid-level Demon King Astaroth, who had been leading the demon army, was swept away by the storm of Outer Force gushing like a halo.
—Wh-what kind of ridiculous power is this…!
The situation was similar for the celestial forces.
Ktuna's thousands of tentacles split into thousands more, revealing a hideous and bizarre appearance.
But the problem was that tremendous energy barrages began pouring from each of those tentacles.
—Dodge!
One million? Two million?
Ktuna's rays that engulfed the entire sky swept over the celestial forces.
—AAAAHHH!
Those who could at least scream were among the relatively skilled ones.
Most couldn't even leave such screams and were helplessly swept away by the attacks the tentacles spat out.
'…How terrible.'
Each strike was far more powerful than Elli's Starlight Blaster.
That was the biggest problem in war with outer space.
The outer space beings appearing in were of the same dimension, not a different dimension.
This meant they could inflict such power without any causal restrictions.
Rudian swallowed slightly and watched the battle situation.
Half of the total forces were blown away by a single attack from Krakar and Ktuna.
—Huff, huff!
Nex, a lesser god of the Heavenly Pantheon and commander of Helheim's angel army, broke into a cold sweat as he looked at his vanished arm.
—Just from blocking once….
The situation was the same for Demon King Astaroth of the demon legion.
—Higher-ranking Demon Kings who received word will arrive soon. You will pay the price for daring to invade the demon realm!
—…….
From their perspective, it was certainly a unilateral invasion of the demon realm by other forces… so it wasn't wrong.
Then Krakar, who had maintained silence until now, spoke for the first time.
—Don't worry.
—What?
—It will end before they arrive….
WHOOSH!
The divinity of Outer Force covers the sky.
Angels gathered divine power, demons gathered demonic energy to resist, but the power of Krakar and Ktuna went beyond overwhelming them all and began covering all of Helheim.
—Master! We must retreat! Dilmun is included in their attack range!
'Damn it, let's just run!'
Rudian, who had been watching the situation to some extent, decided to just flee, negotiations be damned.
If he fought, he could put up a decent fight, but in the current situation, it would be hard to win and there would be no benefit.
But as if recognizing Rudian's actions, the one presumed to be Krakar looked directly at Rudian and spoke in the divine language.
—Stop, you who are blessed by Mother….
'…Damn it.'
—I want to have a conversation with you. Won't you wait while I dust off these specks?
Setting aside the audacity of treating numerous angels and demons as dust, the sincerity in Krakar's words was a bit bewildering.
—Even if negotiations break down, I will not harm you. It will be of great benefit to you. How about it?
"……?"
Why on earth were those bastards being so respectful?
"They must be quite desperate too."
"…Yev?"
"I never thought they'd come out this way…. Heh, hehehe…."
"Won't you explain properly?"
Rudian was seized by a strange awkwardness.
The way Yev was laughing right now felt quite different from usual and gave off a rather alien feeling.
"The reason those bastards took this risk to meet you is simple."
Yev's purple eyes held a faint heat as she looked directly at Rudian.
"Apparently, they've also realized that you're the one who will bring this story to an end."