Chapter 81
Chapter 81
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 81
Chapter Title: Wrath (2)
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“So, if I accept this, I can get stronger?”
“You probably won't get stronger instantly. This is on a whole different level from what ordinary knights and soldiers take, so it will require much more time. You have to absorb a lot more, after all.”
Ivan Pons lightly shook the bottle, which contained a sloshing, dark red substance. Could he truly trust this man?
Honestly, the only answer he could give was no. The man was just too damn cunning.
“He already knows everything. I’m in the process of accepting it too. You’re the second. You have been chosen, Ivan Pons. This isn't the time to be weighing your options.”
He felt like he was being played by Ludwig Brandt's silver tongue, but even that bastard wouldn't dare lie about *Him*.
“The vacancy in the military command can’t be left open for long. If you won’t do it, we’ll have to find another candidate.”
“A vacancy… How dare you!”
“We can’t have someone who isn’t part of His grand plan sitting in the Commander-in-Chief’s seat. Now that the traitors are being dealt with one by one, He wishes to quell the chaos quickly.”
The traitor, Prometheus. That bastard had exerted a profound influence on the Empire. And he was the one who had blocked his path time and time again.
Everyone associated with that traitor had been purged, and as a result, many parts of the Empire were naturally failing to function properly.
“And if you accept this, that Sword Master title you dream of won’t be a dream, either. You’ll reach that position very easily. Much more easily than you think…”
“You bastard. The day will come when I rip that tongue of yours out.”
As he spoke in a growl, Ludwig Brandt laughed heartily and spread his arms wide, as if to say, *anytime*.
That tongue was the height of arrogance. But that was precisely why, even knowing it, one couldn't help but be swayed.
“Kugh—”
He downed the dark red substance in one go, right then and there.
Suddenly, rage filled him to the brim. Unbearably so. He wanted to destroy everything in sight.
“The right choice.”
The urge to rip out that bastard's tongue right now surged through him.
“That is His domain.”
Ludwig Brandt said in a low voice, grabbing the hand reaching for him.
“Kugh—”
“Endure it. And accept more. Much more. So that you can become wrath itself. The more you do, the closer His grand plan will come to fruition.”
Unbearable rage filled him, his vision turned red, and Ludwig Brandt's laughter echoed endlessly in his ears.
***
Was it five or six meters tall? Two horns soared high as if to pierce the sky, with red skin, massive muscles, and sharp-looking bone fragments protruding from parts of its body.
Dark red demonic energy continuously flowed from its nose and mouth.
“The Seven Deadly Sins…! Kratos! That is the form of one of the past Seven Deadly Sins!”
Gleb's urgent voice came from atop the castle wall.
The form of Wrath, one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
It was probably true, coming from Gleb. But did Ivan Pons summon Wrath into his body? Or did he accept Wrath itself?
What was certain was that this transformed state felt at least twice as strong as Ivan Pons in his human form.
“Heh… Awesome. Is it transformation time now? And into one of the Seven Deadly Sins, no less.”
We were evenly matched before he transformed. I wonder how much stronger he's gotten.
My skin tingled. Goosebumps rose from my fighting spirit, and my fists clenched on their own.
“Oh, God. Watch over us.”
“Save our souls, and may this demon spewing wrath be laid to ruin.”
The prayers of the priests, radiating divine power, could be faintly heard. Their voices were filled with despair.
It was understandable. If they had been fighting the minions of demons until now, this bastard was claiming to be Wrath itself.
But why wasn't I scared? I didn't know why, but I wasn't afraid. In fact, I felt calm.
“You will all become my fertilizer.”
“Yeah, I get that you're Wrath, and I get that you're spouting nonsense, but let's wrap up the self-introduction.”
First of all, he was definitely different from a simple test subject. He had a will, and he could talk.
“You won't die easily until you spit out every piece of information you know. I'll catch you and chew on every last one of your bone fragments.”
“Chew up everything but my gold teeth? That line's already taken, you know.”
The soldiers with him also began spewing red demonic energy from their eyes, noses, and mouths, slowly approaching the palisade like zombies.
“I wonder what business a guy full of nothing but wrath has crawling all the way out here.”
*Inhale—exhale—*
The creature took a deep breath in and out, licking its lips.
“Isn't it delicious? All of this.”
“Wow, so you're just a pervert. Are any of the others crawling out too? Those Seven Deadly Sins things, I mean.”
“Hmph. What difference would it make if you knew?”
“So they are all crawling out. Like a bunch of cockroaches. And you.”
I'd been thinking. No, no matter how much I thought about it, it was strange. Wrath was suddenly summoned without any offering or price?
The most crucial part of a demonic summoning is the offering, isn't it? The price. But this guy just naturally changed. It wasn't a summoning; it was a transformation.
There was a big difference.
Therefore, he couldn't be the perfect embodiment of Wrath itself. He must have gained the power of Wrath. Or maybe he was harboring a fragment of it.
That was why he hadn't lost his reason.
If so, then everything fell into place.
“You're not Wrath. Definitely not. You might be calling yourself Wrath, but you're just Ivan Pons. Ivan Pons transformed into Wrath. And that's a huge difference. Because it's a transformation, not a summoning.”
“You insolent bastard—! How dare you!”
“Yep. That's a phrase Ivan Pons habitually spits out. ‘How dare you talk back?’ right?”
It was clear. It could also be because I didn't feel the kind of power I had imagined.
As I thought, was the Empire aiming for the revival of the Seven Deadly Sins?
If that was the case, then his unstable form also made sense.
“Gleb—!”
“Don't… worry! We'll take care of the small fry!”
The land, purified with such difficulty, was gradually being stained dark red again. My comrades at the palisade looked exhausted just from deploying their divine power.
Even if that thing wasn't Wrath itself, it was still undeniably strong.
“You're probably the strongest one in this Demonic Realm, right? If I take you down, there probably won't be any more problems purifying the whole place.”
“Do you think you can surpass me—!”
He roared as if he thought I was looking down on him. Yeah, seeing that, he was definitely still Ivan Pons.
A fragment of Wrath had been overlaid onto Ivan Pons. All the evidence pointed to it.
Besides, there couldn't be another one at this level in the Demonic Realm. Not unless the Empire pulled back all its continental front lines to go all-in here.
But that would surely be the Empire's miscalculation. They would obviously think Ivan Pons alone was enough.
“So. All I have to do is take you down right here, is that it?”
Kratos took out the wooden tablet the Pope had given him.
The tablet he was told to use when necessary. The one he had saved for a time like this.
“Oh, heavens. My God!”
Seeing the tablet, Gleb clenched his fists. He knew better than anyone what it was.
And how this tablet would change the tide of this battle.
As he infused Spiritual Power into the tablet, the sacred white light Provino had imbued in it erupted, drenching the entire land.
“Gyaaaaaah—”
Screams echoed from all around. The weaker soldiers began to writhe on the ground from the pain coursing through their bodies.
Conversely, the weary expressions on the priests and paladins atop the palisade vanished, replaced by confidence and ease.
“What is this—!”
Ivan Pons countered with the demonic energy of Wrath, trying to push back the divine power.
But this was divine power personally imbued by the Pope. Its strength was not to be underestimated, and the land became a fierce battleground as divine power and the demonic energy of Wrath clashed for dominance.
“We should fight fair and square. Where'd you get that buff?”
Ah, for the record, my buffs are legitimate. Isn't life all about double standards?
And we're on the side of justice, you know!
“Engage—!”
While I was talking with Ivan Pons, the palisade quickly lost its form under the assault of the charging knights, and a melee began.
“In the name of God—!”
“In the name of Goooood—!”
A massive burst of divine power erupted from the rear, and soldiers' heads were sent flying.
“I don't have to hold back anymore, do I?”
Niceta asked quietly, gripping her holy sword.
“Break them all.”
“Yes. All of them.”
As if that were the signal, Niceta's holy sword emitted a brilliant light, heralding the start of the battle.
And as if unleashing her pent-up anger, she swung her greatsword fiercely, showcasing the skills she had learned.
At the front, Doug Reinhardt held an axe and shield, serving as a pillar of defense, while Seamus swung his dagger from the enemies' blind spots, aiming for their most fatal weaknesses.
That was reassuring. They wouldn't die in this battle. They weren't alone; they were fighting alongside the Holy Kingdom.
“I've fought a death worm before, you know. A large surface area just means more places to hit.”
“What nonsense is this—!”
They had their battle. I had mine.
The creature also took a step forward, greatsword in hand. Perhaps because of its massive size, a faint tremor shook the ground.
I twirled my hammer.
“Now, I wonder where your weak spot is.”
My fingertips tingled. A strange excitement washed over me.
“Well then, shall we play?”
I'm not short by any means, but I had to look way up. Was he almost twice my height? No, three times?
“This isn't exactly David and Goliath.”
For his size, the creature was quite agile.
*CRASH—*
The creature's greatsword and my hammer clashed, creating a small crater. A head-on collision of strength against strength, with neither side backing down.
However, due to the difference in height and weight class, Ivan Pons was naturally the one pressing down from above, but I didn't fall behind in terms of strength.
I might be relatively shorter, but that didn't mean I was lacking in power.
If anything, I was stronger.
“Keuk—!”
While our sword and hammer were locked, a kick from the creature sent me tumbling to the ground.
His body was so big that the impact area was different. If I kicked his leg, it was just one leg, but his leg was large enough to cover my entire upper body.
“Ptooey—”
I spat out the dirt that had entered my mouth and charged toward him.
I deflected the sword falling toward my head with my crowbar and then struck the flat of the blade.
Unless that demonic energy of Wrath was reinforcing the sword and not just his body, the sword would eventually break, wouldn't it?
Damage is something you have to accumulate bit by bit. You have to look at a fight in the long term.
I twisted my body to dodge another kick, then stepped on his bent thigh and leaped up.
The target was the head. After all, for any living creature, nine times out of ten—no, ten times out of ten—the head is the weak spot.
The creature reached out to grab me as I jumped, but I hadn't leaped high into the sky, just to about eye level.
Adding acceleration and centrifugal force, I swung my hammer toward the creature's temple.
*THWACK—*
He twisted his body to dodge the hammer, but because of its speed, it didn't hit the intended temple but smashed into the nape of his neck.
“Kraaaaaaah—!”
“Keuh—! Even better—”
He screamed as if he'd taken a much harder blow than expected. It couldn't just be from the hammer hitting his neck.
From smashing countless heads since entering the Demonic Realm, I've realized that Annihilate Evil not only adds extra damage based on its percentage but also inflicts excruciating pain.
In other words, as long as I kept beating him up, the damage would accumulate. Whether it was a fatal blow or not was another question.
“Hoo— This is the first time I've fought someone this much bigger than me.”
I've never fought a human two or three times my size. Of course, I've fought ogres about twice my size, but there's a difference in intelligence, isn't there?
“Hmm. Maybe there's not much of a difference after all?”
The moment I exhaled, raising my concentration, my surroundings felt silent. As if everything had been blurred, only the form of Ivan Pons entered my vision.
His attacks seemed to move in slow motion.
I could read the path of his sword, the position of his feet, the movement of his muscles—it all came into view naturally.
The path of a sword can be hidden. You can mix in feints.
But the body cannot lie. The movement of muscles, the direction of the body, the glance of the eyes, even the breath.
It was safe to say that no being could perfectly control all of those things.
Blocking in advance is meaningless. If your hand is already there to defend, the enemy will just change direction and attack.
However, if you know the direction in advance, you can block the enemy's attack without exerting much force.
“What kind of trick is this—!”
When suddenly none of his attacks landed, the creature, seemingly seething with rage, emitted an even denser demonic energy and swung his sword down.
His attacks seemed like they were about to succeed, yet they never inflicted any critical damage.
From the start, both Annihilate Evil and the use of Spiritual Power are focused on offense. For defense, there's no method right now other than literally dodging well and blocking well.
The destructive power of each sword swing was immense. A wrong move, a direct hit or even a graze, would mean a serious injury at the very least, no matter how much I used my Spiritual Power.
“In the end, swordsmanship…”
The pressure from his sword tore my clothes and the number of minor cuts kept increasing, but I continued to block and deflect without taking any major damage.
I was learning his attack patterns.
“The basics are just slashing and stabbing, right?”
There's aura and heart techniques, but it's not like the fantasy novels I read on Earth, where they boast incredible power or have dragons leaping out of the sword to strike me.
Of course, depending on the shape of the aura emanating from the sword, it might look that way.
“As long as I know that, I'm good. And since he got bigger, his attacks have become quite simple.”
I raised my hammer and crowbar to my chest, taking an offensive stance.
Because he was tall, he had to bend his upper body even deeper to bring his sword down.
As he swung the sword, I twisted my torso to dodge it and struck the flat of the blade hard with my hammer, throwing him off balance.
Taking advantage of his broken balance, I slammed the claw of my crowbar into his temple.
And then, like a lever, I pried at his temple with the crowbar.
“Kraaaaaaah—!”
Blood burst from the spot where the crowbar hit, and the creature screamed, twisting its body.
The biggest effective hit in the battle so far. Landing a solid blow was encouraging. It meant the tide of the fight had changed.
“I've always wanted to say this. Even if it doesn't quite fit the situation.”
This made it certain. I could not lose this fight.
“You are already dead. You bastard.”