Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Baal God's Fury and the Great Barrier
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The heart of the now-ruined pantheon of all gods.
There, he began to unleash a scorching fury.
The god who had lorded over humanity for the past several hundred years.
Baal God.
{Fucking asshole son of a bitch Seraphim!! You bastard… how dare you!!!}
Baal God hammered down repeatedly on the throne where he sat, spewing incomprehensible words.
What had driven him to this state was a single piece of sudden news.
The city of Sodomora in his direct territory, the Blackset Empire, had vanished from the map in an instant.
Countless spells had been researched and implemented there under Baal God's command.
It was a place that had produced more than satisfactory results.
But now, it had transformed into a vast basin where not even traces of the magic tower remained, littered only with unidentified salt pillars.
All the research results there, along with the countless mages, had been completely wiped from existence.
This was an enormous loss not just for the Blackset Empire, but for the Baal Church as well.
And naturally, it was a massive blow to Baal himself, their de facto leader.
{You filthy bastard! Now you're directly invading my territory? I can't forgive this. Right now, I'll wipe you and all your followers out in one fell swoop!}
In his extreme rage, a single word surfaced in his mind.
War.
He would declare a holy war through Pope Ahab to every nation on the Central Continent, obliterating that Seraphim bastard along with the Kanan Kingdom and Moabmon Alliance that followed him, erasing them from the map.
But at that moment…
{Calm down, brother. This won't solve anything, will it?}
Isiris, speaking in an unusually composed voice, tried to restrain Baal God.
She knew well that he was extremely angry now, as his outbursts of incomprehensible dialect often came when he was genuinely furious.
However, with Anumaesi's defeat creating a power vacuum,
and now Sodomora—responsible for a key part of their upcoming plan—obliterated as well, starting a war would be an excessive gamble.
Even she, normally just as hot-tempered, knew this full well, so Baal God surely did too.
{Tch…}
With his sister's persuasion, Baal God barely managed to calm his emotions.
He then forced down his anger and began coldly assessing the situation once more.
{Hoo… fine… let's say we accept Sodomora's fall for now… the real problem is what comes next.}
No matter that it was an avatar's body, he'd known since defeating Anumaesi that the enemy's power was no joke.
But even so, to think he'd wield the power to erase an entire city…
That meant if Seraphim got serious, he could turn major cities in the nations worshiping the Baal Church—
like the imperial capital Kyle,
or even Assul, the capital of the Blackset Empire—into ashes in a single blow.
{This is truly dire… of all times, right now… when the great undertaking is within reach.}
{Exactly. Preparations are almost complete… if something like Sodomora happens again, it might even become hard to keep the plan going.}
The project they had prepared for over several hundred years.
To achieve it, Baal, Isiris, and the other 'gods' under them had steadily advanced their work within their respective nations.
Now that completion was finally at hand,
they couldn't let it be ruined by some angel that popped up out of nowhere.
{No choice. At this point, we have to activate that.}
{That…? You don't mean…? Ha… but doing so would deal a severe blow to the nation's power…}
Isiris furrowed her brow slightly at Baal's words.
But Baal responded in a resolute voice.
{It's only a year at most. No need to leave gaps when enduring that long ends everything.}
{Mm…}
{Proceed immediately. In the name of I, Baal God, activate the Great Barrier.}
{Yes… under…stood.}
⚙ GREAT BARRIER ⚙ A powerful defensive magic arrayed along the Central Continent's borders via magic stones placed across the continent. Originally installed under the pretext of the church preventing invasions by demons and devils,
it actually had another hidden function.
Blocking interference from external transcendent beings.
Once activated, only Baal God and those under his authority could pass through the barrier into the interior.
Tied to the world's fundamental laws, even a transcendent angel couldn't breach it.
However, maintaining such a powerful barrier naturally required a steep price.
A considerable number of mages had to burn their own mana,
and periodically, living sacrifices offered, their bodies and souls used as fuel.
Of course, the backlash from public sentiment, declining faith, and other losses had to be borne.
Yet Baal resolutely carried it out.
He'd already been screwed over by Seraphim not once, but three times.
The second had some of his intent involved, but the third was truly fatal.
If another loss like that occurred, the plan itself could collapse, so Baal would allow no more variables.
'Just wait a little longer… once the plan is complete, I'll tear you apart first, Seraphim… brace yourself!'
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Life never goes the way you expect.
The trope of a messenger of justice suddenly appearing to sweep away the villains is just something from those tired old tales.
And my current situation was exactly that.
[I figured they wouldn't go down easy…]
[Impressive… to think they'd deploy a barrier on this scale.]
A massive barrier enveloping nearly the entire central continent.
After several checks, even I couldn't pierce it, causing Arcroyal and me (though I have no face) to frown slightly.
I'd resolved to punish those damn god bastards starting from Sodomora, but they weren't complete idiots; they were countering in their own way.
[But even so… maintaining a barrier like this must cost them dearly in sacrifices.]
[Agreed. To cover the whole Central Continent, they're surely expending enormous mana. And if it can block even you, Lord Seraphim…]
[They must be burning through a ton of offerings.]
From the countless books left in Heaven,
and the data retrieved from Sodomora this time,
one fact became clear.
From that, I could make one prediction.
[They definitely have some scheme… something worth buying time like this…]
I didn't know exactly what it was.
But if we left them be, these already troublesome foes might become even bigger headaches.
And since I'd decided to deal with them,
I had no intention of sitting back with arms crossed.
[No choice… we'll have to use that method.]
[Oh! You have a way? What is it?]
Arcroyal asked with thick anticipation and curiosity.
I answered in a calm voice.
[If we can't break it from outside… we'll strike from within.]
Though this barrier blocked my entry, it couldn't fully sever my influence.
Among them were the many voices reaching my ears even now.
Prayers, so-called.
And right now, one such voice from inside.
"Lord God… please save my kin!" ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The Empire.
Located in the southern reaches of the central continent,
this mighty nation, formed along a massive river, had one distinctive feature.
Even as a human-led human nation, over 60% of its population consisted of a certain race.
Orcs.
Originally inhabiting the even more southern lands,
the jungle and plains of the Southern Continent, this race was born with innately powerful physiques.
With builds 1.5 times larger than a human's average, over twice the muscle strength, and thick hides tougher than average leather armor.
Even their fertility was exceptional, boasting birth rates starting at an astonishing 10.0, and their strong tribal bonds made them unite well in crises.
Yet, despite these strengths, orcs had a fatal flaw.
First, their inherently low intelligence, leading to severely limited mana handling.
This was a critical weakness; regardless of their base physical prowess, they paled against warriors and mages skilled in mana.
Of course, a few orc talents existed, but their level was negligible compared to mana-using humans or other races—like a drop in the ocean.
Moreover, their low magic resistance left them vulnerable even to basic mental spells.
As a result of this dire flaw, orcs occupied the absolute bottom rung in the Empire.
Slaves.
Handling all manner of menial labor,
while enduring constant oppression and scorn in painful days.
Amid such excessive abuse, some orcs tried resisting humans, but human schemes and mental magics thwarted them every time, forcing them back into slavery.
Then one day…
“The Lord has said He will save us orcs from our suffering. His name is the Angel God Seraphim.”
From the mouth of a young orc…
Change began.