Chapter 204
Chapter 204
Chapter 204
Pantheon (2)
"Hoo… Your eloquence hasn't changed from the past to now."
"Thanks for the compliment."
Rudian suddenly became curious.
The relationship between War God Mars and Baal.
Since Baal died in Chapter 1, his past itself remained a MacGuffin... but facing this situation, he felt his blood as a setting enthusiast slowly beginning to boil.
"Um..."
"Hm? What is it?"
"What happened in the past? Can't you tell me?"
"......"
Baal's expression rarely changed to one of bewilderment.
Not only Baal, but the other Demon Kings behind him and War God Mars also looked at Rudian with expressions that said 'What's with this guy?'
Rather, Mars became angry at those words.
"Don't you know that peeking into the secrets of gods is the most forbidden of taboos? You dare do something deserving of divine punishment...!"
"Ah, well, let me tell you. It's not really that great a secret anyway."
"...What?"
When Baal cut off Mars' words, Mars' expression twisted into something worth seeing for a moment.
"You, you...! Have you even abandoned your pride as a deity!"
Baal ignored those words and continued speaking.
"I used to go by the name 'Bel' long ago. I was one of the members who comprised the Pantheon in the previous genesis..."
"......!"
Rudian was genuinely surprised.
If those words were true, it meant Baal's rank was much higher than he had thought.
"You're... an ancient god?"
"Yes, that's right."
"......"
How the hell did this guy get eliminated in Chapter 1?
His very existence is a walking mass of plot hooks, isn't it?
"It's a past I don't particularly want to remember. Right now I'm Demon King Baal, not Bel who was the god of storms."
"You bastard!"
Golden radiance spread from Mars' entire body.
"I tried to scold you moderately to keep Heaven in check...! From your attitude, it seems you won't listen!"
"Of course, could there be more than one purpose for coming here? By the way, your archaic way of speaking is still the same."
"Do you think we simply established ourselves in a place like this just to avoid Heaven's eyes? Your crawling all the way here was a mistake!"
STARTLED!
At that moment, Rudian unconsciously raised his head to the sky.
Something he had heard from Baal before coming here, and something Rudian also knew about.
FLASH!
At that moment, a massive beam of sunlight began striking down from the sky toward them.
"Light of Helios!"
One of Pantheon's most powerful weapons, and the biggest reason why they, with their powers sealed, had been able to avoid Heaven's pursuit until now.
A guy with a total length of about 800m capable of sub-light speed flight, capable of easily destroying several planets - something that would appear in a super robot series.
An all-weather interstellar mobile causality accumulation battleship, thanks to the existence of Helios.
KU-WOONG!
The battleship Helios, hiding outside the atmosphere, activated its degeneracy cannon according to its master Mars' command to eliminate the intruders.
"As expected, coming out strong from the start!"
Rudian quickly activated Phantom Castle's defense system.
Helios, powered by a black hole that had devoured an entire star system before genesis.
He didn't know how it would compare to Adi's terminal, but at least Helios had a unique point compared to any other weapon...
That was its ability to convert the degeneracy cannon's power source to causality and accumulate it.
Even in , it was officially a cheat-level artifact of which only one existed.
BAAAAANG!
With a single strike, all of Phantom Castle's external defense systems were destroyed.
Moreover, it didn't stop there - Phantom Castle's functions temporarily ceased.
'I expected it, but...'
Fortunately, there was no damage to the surroundings.
Not only his companions, but the other Demon Kings were also sufficient to protect themselves.
But separately from that, Rudian clicked his tongue bitterly.
He knew that even among mythic-grade artifacts there were differences in weight class, but he never thought Phantom Castle would cease functioning after taking just one hit.
"You're lucky."
While Rudian was assessing the situation.
Before he knew it, Mars had risen into the sky, displaying divinity like a sun god.
Rudian instinctively frowned at that intensity.
"Such a greedy old bastard..."
Power surpassing Karon, the god of shadows, who had previously used his full strength.
That was absolutely not power that a fallen god could produce.
Without drawing the causality that battleship Helios had accumulated over a long time and using it to partially unseal his bound power, he couldn't emit such divinity.
Rudian sneered at Mars.
"If you had that power, the personnel deployed to Dragon Hive wouldn't have been annihilated."
Even at those words, Mars showed no particular emotion.
"Anyway, Helios is a flagship solely for me. There's no reason to share this power with other guys."
"...Are you really comrades?"
No matter how much Pantheon was a group with little sense of camaraderie, he didn't expect them to come out so shamelessly.
"Anyway, once I defeat the Avatar of Apocalypse and open a new genesis, those guys will come back to life. Though they won't have memories..."
"...What?"
"You don't need to know such things."
Making people curious then what's this and that about?
"What's important is that you guys crawled into our 'domain' without fear."
Though the village had long since vanished without a trace from the aftermath of Helios' strike, the domain that Pantheon had spread was still intact.
In other words, this place was now like Mars' divine realm.
"And... there's no need to share Helios' power."
"......!"
The moment those words ended, pillars of divine power began shooting up from various places.
Deities each possessing power that couldn't be ignored.
"Within this domain, we have enough power to kill you all."
"They say even a dog eats 30% when it's in front of its own house..."
It seemed like 300% rather than 30%.
The number was twelve in total.
Coincidentally, it matched exactly with the number of Rudian's party.
"Perfect if we each take one."
Demon King Agares showed fighting spirit, banging his two fists together.
"Hey, humans! Having come this far, you're not going to make weak excuses about not being able to handle one of those guys, right?"
"Who's going to what?"
Gray, who immediately took the bait at those words, frowned.
"You guys do well yourselves. Don't get pathetically beaten while carrying the Demon King title."
"Kahahaha! There, that's a guy I like!"
Agares laughed heartily, but in cases like Gamigin and Vasago, their gazes toward Gray were absolutely not kind.
However, they weren't foolish enough to cause internal strife with enemies right in front of them.
"Shall we have some fun!"
"Agares, naturally, but that guy is my share."
Agares pouted slightly with a tone mixed with complaint toward Baal.
"Got it."
Agares found the guy who looked strongest among them and immediately charged.
"Come out, Helios Alligator."
"Huaaaam! Shall we fight once?"
Vasago and Gamigin also entered battle, calling forth summoned creatures or drawing up magic power.
'Huh? Why are those guys so strong?'
Rudian slightly stiffened his expression upon noticing the concentration of demonic energy flowing from Vasago and Gamigin's bodies.
Rudian's eyes thoroughly examined the Demon Kings' bodies.
'What? The bindings have loosened considerably?'
They weren't completely released, but to that degree, they wouldn't need to worry about schemes or ambushes from beneath the surface like before.
To be more precise... if two of those guys combined their efforts, they could sufficiently capture Marbas from that time?
'It's not like they used sacrifices. Then they wouldn't become like that.'
He hadn't heard reports of mass slaughter occurring in the Kingdom of Rohans.
Absurdly, the rule those guys conducted in Rohans was quite stable.
"You seem curious."
"...Iblis?"
"That's right."
A nobleman with a different feeling from Baal.
Demon King Iblis, who had newly risen to 5th rank, appeared before Rudian.
"This is the first time seeing you like this."
"Just get to the point."
Rudian glared at Iblis with a cold expression.
Though he would learn later, the trigger for Rebecca's awakening when she had been perfectly fine was because of some guy called Decarabia or whatever sent by that bastard's subordinate.
Naturally, his hostility toward Iblis could only rival that toward Baal.
"This is all thanks to you."
"What...?"
"Since you brought Heaven's overflowing power down to earth, didn't we benefit from it?"
"......!"
Only then did Rudian grasp the situation and grit his teeth.
'Balance of power!'
Due to Heaven's excessive intervention, the demon race had relatively received benefits.
"Don't say unnecessary things, Iblis."
"S-sorry, Lord Baal."
When Baal glared at Iblis, the guy immediately tucked his tail.
"You don't need to worry, Lord Rudian."
"...Don't need to worry?"
"There's an old saying... 'Strange bedfellows'? Even though we started as enemies, ultimately we have no choice but to be in the same boat when facing a crisis, don't we?"
He didn't know how that guy knew that Earth proverb... But even though they say strange bedfellows, ultimately Wu was destroyed by Yue.
Without a common enemy, it would ultimately return to the law of the jungle.
But Baal continued speaking gently as if soothing Rudian's concerns.
"Even bringing all of the demon realm's power, there's no guarantee we can defeat Heaven. Considering your final objective, our power becoming stronger isn't such a bad thing, is it?"
"......"
"Don't worry. There will be no more occasions for 'us' to fight."
He didn't know what confidence Baal had to say such things, but he somewhat agreed with those words.
In a situation where even outer space was intervening and things were flowing urgently, there was nothing particularly to gain for the demon race that had now established themselves on this land by fighting humans.
"I'll be watching."
"By all means."
Baal still smiled with an expression whose inner thoughts couldn't be read.
Rudian stood before Mars.
His companions had already each grabbed an appropriate opponent and entered battle, and Baal had also left for another guy, leaving Mars as Rudian's share.
'...Damn bastard.'
Rudian had tried to pass Mars off to Baal, but Baal had changed Rudian's mind with just one sentence: 'If you defeat Mars, you'll get something very good.'
'If it's not something good, know that you'll be smashed!'
It seemed Baal's target wasn't Mars.
"The one standing before me isn't Baal but you?"
"Got a problem with that?"
"...Not particularly."
Mars made a shocking statement with a calm expression.
"If you're the master of Arcadia, you have that qualification."
"......What?"
***
What did that bastard just say?
His appearance had become unbelievably calm for someone who had been barking at Baal as if he had anger management issues.
"Surprised? Well, since I ignored you so much just moments ago, you'd be surprised if I suddenly said something like this."
'Adi, you don't know that bastard?'
-...I'm seeing him for the first time today.
'Then why does he know you?'
-I don't know that either.
"You look confused."
Mars smiled broadly.
"I'm a being from before genesis. Unlike those born from divine seats when the new era began, my essence is a bit different."
"...So?"
"Shall I explain in a way you can understand a bit? The battleship Helios that just attacked you... was made in the same era as the Heavenly Demon Dragon battleship you pulled out when eliminating Marbas, and by the same creator."
"......!"