Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven
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-Ssssss...
A horrific screech that clawed at his eardrums.
Amid the irritating sound of the ground boiling like raw flesh,
he barely managed to steady his body, which seemed on the verge of collapse.
{Kuh... grrrgh...}
The God of War wore an expression twisted in agony.
Anumaish.
The magnificent figure who had charged boldly at the enemy just moments ago in resplendent armor was no more.
Parts of his armor had melted away pathetically,
and one arm hung in tatters like a ragged rag.
He had tried to launch a surprise attack, only to suffer a fatal counterstrike himself.
Thankfully, his split-second instincts at the last moment had let him narrowly dodge the blow;
otherwise, it might have ended in a single strike.
'What... what the hell is this guy... An angel does this...?'
For the first time since becoming the God of War, an unfamiliar pain flooded his mind.
Not even when subjugating lesser gods.
Not even when hunting dragons had he sustained such wounds.
How could a lowly angel do this to him?
Yet, despite this overwhelming confusion and doubt,
Anumaish soon ceased his thinking.
{I admit it...}
He had no choice but to accept it.
The being before him was far beyond what he had imagined...
{You're quite strong.}
And to defeat this foe,
he would have to unleash his maximum power with this deficient flesh at his current state.
-Crackle! Crackle...
Divine power began boiling from the hand gripping his sword.
A force on an entirely different level from before gathered there.
At the same time, Anumaish's body slowly rose into the air.
A sinister smile crept across his lips amid the ominous atmosphere heralding something dire.
*
'Incredible... that God of War...'
Watching the scene unfold before her eyes—a clash worthy of gods—Solomon felt a thrill course through her entire body.
She had heard tales of Seraphim's strength, but seeing it firsthand for the first time
filling her heart with profound awe as she witnessed the infamous Anumaish being utterly dismantled.
Hiding deep in the bushes, holding her breath as she observed,
she kept her distance to avoid any interference and silently cheered for Seraphim's victory from afar.
Then.
"! Huh?"
The atmosphere shifted abruptly.
She couldn't pinpoint what was happening, but a chilling sensation unlike anything before gripped her,
making her heart sink.
"Wh-what...? What in the world..."
Even to her, an ordinary human, Anumaish emanated an ill omen.
Her gaze turned to him as he floated higher into the sky.
The God of War smirked confidently despite his disadvantageous position,
radiating an unmistakable danger.
Then.
-Thud!!
{Urk!}
His face contorted in sudden pain.
With the impact of something hard slamming into his abdomen, Anumaish's body doubled over instantly.
{Y-you bastard... You don't even know basic combat etiquette... guh!}
"[There is no such thing.]" With those words, the invisible force began pummeling his body once more, just like at the start.
Lips split open, abdomen struck,
shins kicked, face smashed.
Even Solomon, watching from afar, felt a twinge of pity at the thorough beating.
Yet,
despite the one-sided thrashing,
Anumaish steadfastly gathered divine power into his sword and ascended into the sky.
Finally reaching a height above even Seraphim,
an immense divine power, on a level far beyond before, erupted from his blade.
And what followed
was a heavy, momentary silence.
In that quiet where one second felt like hours,
a single piece of information flashed through Solomon's mind belatedly.
It was... the worst atrocity Anumaish had committed in the past.
Obliterating an enemy capital that defied him in a single strike.
The exact magic used,
how he accomplished it, remained unknown even now.
The only clue
was the testimony of a mad old man who barely clung to life amid the ruins of that destruction.
'It split. It split! The heavens! The earth!'
Unclear in meaning,
yet hinting at some terrifying event.
And now,
Solomon realized that the 'destruction' from back then might be reenacted here.
"N-no! Seraphim n...!"
Solomon cried out desperately.
But before her shout could finish,
the second hand ticked.
Along with the voice of the god.
"In the beginning, there was chaos." "From the cleaving of that chaos, above and below were divided." "Above is the firmament." "Below is called the earth." "Now, I shall reenact that moment of world-rending once more." ⟨ Enūma Eliš ⟩
The sword swung with a mad declaration.
With that strike,
the god spoke.
"Worship." "⟨ This High Place (Enūma Eliš) ⟩!" A colossal beam of destruction erupted amid churning red energies.
That unstoppable wave of power dwarfed even what had poured from Seraphim's eyes moments ago.
A pure, brutal force that seemed capable of sundering heaven and earth.
Amid the raging storm, Solomon clung desperately to a nearby tree to avoid being swept away, overwhelmed by sheer terror.
Yet, in this moment, her own safety was the furthest thing from her mind.
What she truly worried for was...
"H-how can this be... Seraphim... my lord..."
An aftershock alone far beyond human endurance.
Even for Seraphim, taking it head-on was unimaginable.
Feeling true despair at that reality,
overcome by guilt for her mistake in drawing that being here,
tears welled up in Solomon's eyes.
Then.
"[et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum (And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven)]" "! Huh?"
A soft voice whispered in her ear.
Even amid the unrelenting tempest, it pierced her heart clearly.
Clutching a sliver of hope,
Solomon arduously lifted her head against the howling gale.
And then, the scene that began to unfold.
"[Et quodcumque ligaveris super terram (Whatever you bind on earth)]" It was.
Something reminiscent of golden chains binding it, halting its advance.
"[Erit ligatum in caelis et (shall be bound in heaven as well.)]" ⟨ Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven ⟩
-Clank!
A sharp metallic click as the incantation ended.
With that sound of something firmly locking shut,
the storm shaking everything vanished as if it had been a lie.
Along with the grotesque destructive force writhing before Seraphim...
"How... how...?"
{Wh-what have you done!?}
A voice cut off her unwitting murmur.
Solomon's gaze naturally turned to him.
To the god, his bewilderment palpable even from this distance.
Anumaish.
*
The divine authority to enact the sundering of heaven and earth.
Even for a god, perfectly recreating it was impossible,
yet Anumaish held immense pride in this power.
The ability that made him the God of War,
the force that instilled inescapable terror in defiant mortals.
Before this absolute authority of destruction, no one dared resist.
But this moment,
that pride shattered utterly.
His greatest authority in name and truth,
imbued with power to erase even gods, had vanished without effect.
Impossible.
It shouldn't be.
For absolute destruction to fizzle out so pathetically,
powerlessly blocked by the very angel he had always scorned.
How could this be?
He couldn't believe it despite seeing it with his own eyes.
And that bewilderment, that shock,
the realization that 'it is overwhelmingly stronger than me'
soon morphed into fear.
{What... what the hell are you...?}
A feeling he'd never known since becoming the God of War.
His body trembled uncontrollably, cold sweat beading on his forehead like a mere human, when
{You... what... what are you!?}
Anumaish unwittingly staggered back from the colossal being before him.
But.
{Gah!}
Sudden agony gripped his nape.
A sensation he'd grown numb to from repeated blows,
but the 'terror' this strike brought was utterly unfamiliar.
{Keurgh! Y-you... grrrgh!!!}
The merciless beating resumed.
An even more ruthless barrage from invisible fists, devoid of mercy.
And amid that chaos, Anumaish belatedly noticed.
The countless red eyes now fixating on him.
Gleaming with the same crimson light as before,
but now not one, but innumerable eyes shining simultaneously.
"[genimina viperarum (Brood of vipers.)]" What it signified was clear...
"[quomodo fugietis a iudicio gehennae (How will you escape the judgment of hell?)]" {!? N-no! Grgh! St-stop!!!}
-KABOOM!!
Holy destructive power lanced from countless eyes.
Those myriad crimson beams poured toward one target alone.
Laden with unmistakable killing intent.
⭐ Top Comment — Anonymous 'Married woman NTR with Gold Sun? Of course he has to die.'