Chapter 253
Chapter 253
Chapter 253
Temple of the Creator God (3)
CLATTER!
With a rough noise, Raihon's neck fell.
"……!"
"……!"
They hadn't let their guard down.
They knew things had gone wrong the moment those beings were subdued, but even so, Rudian's eyes had been quickly tracking Abel's movements.
And yet... he missed it.
"...Raihon."
A god doesn't die just because their neck is cut.
But Raihon, like a human, couldn't reattach his separated head and body and died just like that.
"...The technique to kill divinity. Is this the Creator God's power?"
Garganta, stroking the head of Raihon who had become a corpse, spoke quietly.
"Dangerous."
Genesis Technique.
The power of protagonist Abel that bloomed through the White World and was completed in Chapter 4.
'When I first encountered him in the spirit realm, he wasn't at that level...'
Only two people had reacted to Abel's strike just now.
Only Ruura and Garganta, two of the Seven Great Gods.
As for the others, as could be seen in Raihon's case, even if they were high-ranking gods, they couldn't react properly.
A strike so fast, precise, and lethal that it transcended even divine perception.
"But it's not enough to turn the situation around."
When Garganta waved his hand, purple divinity began to scatter.
And the moment that power wrapped around the party, forming a dome...
BAAAANG!
Abel's stunned figure was bounced far away.
'Tremendous power...'
At the last moment, Abel resisted by unleashing his Genesis Technique, but Garganta's power easily broke through Abel's strength.
"It's certainly a threatening power, but it has no special qualities that surpass numbers. Just finish it with overwhelming firepower."
The gods' morale, which had been deflated by Garganta's words, revived.
"Hmph, with these numbers, we'd be fools if we lost."
Ruura also stood beside Garganta and gathered her strength.
"We'll finish so quickly they won't even dare to approach."
GOOOOO!
What happened to Raihon was certainly surprising, but the gods quickly pulled themselves together and began unleashing wide-range divine powers toward Abel's party.
'It's hard to interfere in this situation.'
In this scale of battle, Rudian's party's combat power could only be used in close combat.
Rudian gathered his companions and temporarily retreated backward.
"Hmm...."
"……!"
At that moment, somehow having gotten behind them, Berus had appeared near Rudian's party.
Berus raised his hand to restrain Rudian's party, who were about to enter battle stance.
"The battle will take some time to conclude anyway, so is there really a need to fight now?"
"...What are you scheming?"
At Rudian's words, Berus chuckled and shook his head.
"Nothing in particular? I just want to have a conversation. This is our first time meeting face to face, isn't it?"
Berus seemed quite pleased about something, smiling contentedly.
"Actually, when I originally planned to meet here, I hadn't intended for it to be in such a grand form."
There was certainly some truth to that.
Rudian had also expected this kind of meeting to signal the start of a new story, not feel like a final battle.
"I was going to throw you some quests and slowly lead you in the direction I wanted. After a war of that scale ended, it would be natural to take a long breather."
But Rudian had finished the war with almost no damage to the planet.
And he had quickly entered the heavenly realm, keeping pace with the angels.
"Well, this isn't bad either. It's a bit disappointing that I couldn't enjoy it more, but I can finish the story that much faster."
"...Do you think you've won? Even with this much power before your eyes?"
"That's rather what I'd like to ask you."
The smile on Berus' lips deepened.
"Do you think you've won, bringing just that level of power?"
"……."
"I know better than anyone how powerful they are. I've been watching from Genesis until now."
Rudian unconsciously swallowed his saliva.
'Is there a card that can turn this situation around? No matter how powerful Abel's party is, this isn't a power difference they can overturn head-on...'
As if reading Rudian's mind, Berus struck like a killing blow.
"You're underestimating them too much."
"Well..."
"Of course, if you're the one who inherited 'my position' at the end of the story, you'd think you have a chance too."
FLINCH!
It was a statement with quite meaningful implications.
"Watch carefully."
Berus' hand pointed toward the battlefield where the gods were fighting.
"Soon, most of the forces you brought will disappear."
"……!"
At that moment, Rudian tried to draw Diablo and join the battle.
But due to the pressure he felt from Berus in front of him, he froze in place like an old tree taking root.
'He approached to bind us from the start!'
The other party members also realized this fact and quietly glared at Berus.
Actually, in terms of exchange ratio, it wasn't bad.
Abel's party of five couldn't handle forces numbering over ten upper-tier god class beings plus two of the Seven Great Gods.
'But what is this unease...?'
Rudian's eyes turned to the battlefield.
Would it really happen as Berus said?
That was something they'd have to wait and see.
***
"...That Berus, what is he thinking?"
There was no way those present here wouldn't know that Berus had appeared before Rudian and his companions.
But whatever his intention, the fact that no fighting spirit could be felt from Berus right now was nothing short of an opportunity for them.
Garganta quietly advised Ruura.
"Push forward thoroughly with bombardment-focused attacks. Don't create variables by letting them get close."
"I know!"
Actually, the scale had passed the point of casting complex divine powers or whatnot. If they just simply hammered away with divine power and divinity, the enemies would naturally be blown away.
'No matter how fast and strong they are, if we eliminate the space for activity itself, there's nothing they can do.'
All directions were filled with divinity emanating from the divine beings.
If this weren't the Creator God's temple, the space would have already collapsed and transformed into an imaginary dimension.
KUGUGUGUGUNG!
'We definitely poured out power that could easily annihilate a star system.'
But...
'...Why are they so unharmed?'
Certainly Abel's party was being unilaterally beaten by divine power without being able to counterattack properly.
But even though their bodies should have decomposed and disappeared at the atomic level long ago, they were still maintaining their original forms within the tsunami of divine power.
"Something's strange, Ruura."
"……."
Garganta also seemed to sense that strangeness, slightly frowning.
"Even if it were you or me, if we faced this much power head-on, survival would be out of the question."
Power that even Garganta guaranteed he couldn't withstand.
"That's like a bug falling into lava with its bare body and surviving unharmed."
Something impossible was happening.
Ruura and Garganta instinctively knew things were going wrong.
And that intuition... was right on target.
"...This can't be."
The gods' power that had spread as if to devour the entire world was gradually diminishing.
But this wasn't because the gods had withdrawn their power.
"The divine power... is being eaten?"
Ruura muttered blankly while looking at Abel's party.
Abel's party wasn't being unilaterally beaten.
Slowly but steadily, they were devouring the gods' scattered power bit by bit!
Garganta showed a similar reaction to Ruura.
"Something impossible has happened."
The amount of food that can enter a stomach varies from person to person, but there's certainly a limit.
But Abel's party was endlessly absorbing divine power as if ignoring that limit.
"...I think I understand why Berus was so confident."
Garganta quickly turned his head in one direction.
"Michael."
At the end of Garganta's gaze was Archangel Michael, who couldn't hide his bewildered expression.
"Yes, Lord Garganta."
"Right now, take several archangels and go to where the Avatar of Destruction is sealed."
"...Why now of all times?"
To the puzzled Michael, Garganta delivered shocking words.
"And check whether Luciel is still alive and whether the seal is functioning properly."
"……!"
"Hurry. There's no time."
Michael, also recognizing the gravity of the situation, quickly left the battlefield leading Uriel and Gabriel.
Ruura looked at their backs with anxious eyes.
"...Isn't it already too late?"
"Perhaps, it might be."
"What has Berus... created?"
In Ruura's eyes, that Abel party only looked like monsters crafted in human form.
"Whatever it is... right now before our eyes..."
On Garganta's face, which had never shown expression before, a faint fear appeared.
"It's as if there are five Avatars or Destruction."
"……."
The reason why even beings at the level of the Seven Great Gods feared the Avatar of Destruction was simple.
The Avatar of Destruction was a being that devoured everything.
Magic, chaos, divine power... and even 'concepts' and 'laws' - a beast created to devour everything and return the world to nothing but a pure white blank page.
"Of course, those things aren't perfect beings like the Creator God's beast. But... even so, just that characteristics of endlessly devouring divine power makes me understand why Berus was so confident."
"Are there... any chances of winning?"
"If we had noticed this from our first encounter, there would have been some way. But..."
Before Garganta and Ruura's eyes appeared the sight of Abel's party of five, devouring near-infinite divine power and fully unleashing that strength.
"Now... I don't know."
Garganta's strategy was certainly not wrong.
From the moment he saw Raihon's neck fly off, he had intuited that the enemy's close combat ability would definitely exceed their expectations, and switching to a firepower battle was generally the right choice.
The only mistake was not realizing it was Berus' trap.
"We have no choice but to each strike their bodies with divine authority. If they were real Avatars of Destruction, even divine authority wouldn't work... but it seems like they only copied the characteristics."
"Right, whatever they are, they're beings created through loopholes by twisting absolute laws, so there must be weaknesses."
"...We'll take the front line."
Three archangels armed with mythic-grade artifacts - Raphael, Raguel, and Barakiel - stood guard in front of the gods and drew their swords.
Watching this, Garganta smiled wryly.
"Originally angels were created as shields to protect the gods like this. To think I can see your true role properly only after reaching this situation... How ironic."
"……."
The archangels didn't answer those words.
Instead, they initiated action by charging at Abel's party.
SWISH!
Seeing the archangels' charge, Future Gray waved his right hand in the air with a dazed look.
The archangels' charge, piercing forward sharp as awls.
Toward them, Future Gray's quiet words echoed through the Creator God's temple.
"Genesis Domain, Almighty."
FLASH!
A mythic-grade spell that even Gray, called the God of Magic at the end of the original work, found burdensome.
It unfolded quite simply without incantation, and a crown woven of light appeared on Gray's head.
"...That's the Crown of Light! How did he get one of Berus' divine authorities...!"
Ruura widened her eyes and shouted at the miracle Gray had displayed.
"Light of Berus, sweep away the enemies."
BANG!
As those words ended, a massive pillar of light struck down from the sky, directly sweeping away the archangels' bodies.