Chapter 86
Chapter 86
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 86
Chapter Title: Fall of the Ebony Shadow Mercenaries (3)
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The translucent wings sprouting from my back after activating Light's Ascension lit up the passageway of the Ebony Shadow Mercenaries' hideout, causing Darius to panic and stagger back.
"W-What is this...?! The power I felt at the cathedral was nowhere near this strong..."
"I told you, didn't I? Don't assume you're the only one who's gotten stronger."
I raised my Light Saber, its firepower incomparable to what it had been at the cathedral, and the gathered light surged upward.
Then space tore open above Darius's head, unleashing a massive barrage of light spears that rained down on him with overwhelming intensity and power.
Ku-ku-ku-ku-
"Keurgh...! Damn it...!"
Darius barely escaped the vastly amplified Judgment, but he couldn't dodge completely—one of his shoulders was shredded to an unbelievable degree.
Black smoke crept up from within his body to fill the mangled half, but since it was an attack with terrible matchup against him, the smoke sparked and crackled in rebellion, failing to fully reform.
"You bastard...!"
Darius slammed his claw into the ground and swung it upward viciously, sending a shockwave hurtling toward me.
I countered by sweeping my Light Saber upward from below, and the colliding shockwaves met at the midpoint, shaking Darius's chamber to its core.
Ku-rung!
The underground hideout trembled violently, sending clumps of dirt and pebbles raining from the ceiling.
"Everyone okay back there?"
Getting buried alive down here would be disastrous, so I called out without turning around.
"Yes! We're fine, so don't worry about us and keep fighting!"
"We'll handle this side!"
"Quickly take out that trash and let's go support our country!"
At that moment, a message appeared before my eyes.
Damn it, this crap again?!
Just as a curse was about to slip out involuntarily, the message glitched with static, and another one appeared.
Chzzzt- chijijik-
Pajijijik
One message would appear, only for the other to overwrite it, repeating the cycle.
Eventually, one glitched out completely, its text garbling like an overloaded circuit.
One message warned of incoming backlash damage, while the other urged the exact opposite.
Luna's words finally hit home.
The lingering thoughts of the Underground Vermin that had burrowed into her divinity acted like a virus, lying dormant until they could steer me toward a worldline where events unfolded according to their desires.
I recalled Luna saying she'd suppressed those interfering Underground Vermin influences as much as possible when she'd absorbed them into me.
They'd clearly intended to inflict backlash damage on me, but since I felt no pain now, it must have worked.
Given the situation, the message urging me to support my comrades stemmed from the Underground Vermin's thoughts, while the one demanding I focus on eliminating Darius led toward the goddess's desired path of world salvation.
I'd have gone all-out against Darius regardless.
I trusted Ravi, Elfin, and Lenis's strength.
'Once this is over, I should thank my little gold nugget.'
I'd nearly become dead weight again, suffering backlash mid-battle and dragging everyone down.
Even if Luna had suppressed it, I had no idea how long that would last, so I needed to wrap this up quickly before more interference.
"Haaah!"
The wings on my back shone even brighter, amplifying my power further.
The ceiling wasn't high enough for the dramatic flair of the Revendale Church, but...
I leaped toward Darius, the wings propelling my body to heights no ordinary human could reach.
"Your schemes end today!"
"Kugh...!"
Kwaaaaaang!!!
My briefly airborne body plummeted toward Darius at tremendous speed.
The low ceiling prevented much visual spectacle, but the power was on par with what I'd unleashed at the Revendale Church.
No, it was even greater this time—back then I'd used it on empty ground, but now it was against an enemy, maximizing the effect.
The wings vanished from my back, replaced by the condensed energy rippling outward in a circle, destroying everything around it.
Lights shattered, desks and chairs crumbled to dust, beds collapsed.
Everything touched by the circle of light was obliterated. Darius raised his claw in defense, but this wasn't something you could block.
"Huck... W-What is this?! Gah... Kyaaaaak!!!"
Even the initial strike had triggered backlash due to the poor matchup, preventing proper regeneration from the black smoke. My strongest ultimate technique was far beyond what he could withstand.
When the expanding light circle touched his claw, the black smoke enveloping it washed away. Then, a sizzling sound emanated from Darius's body as the smoke erupted like fireworks.
"Damn it... What the hell is this?! I never heard about anything like this from the clients...! Uwaaaaaak!"
"Of course not. They wouldn't know. Darius, you and your gang have caused too much chaos in this world. We couldn't prevent the war from breaking out, but we can make damn sure you never pull this crap again."
"Gah... Aaaak!!!"
Both of Darius's hands—deeply influenced by the Underground Vermin—dissolved into black dust. One leg vanished too, sending him crashing to the floor.
His masterless claw clattered limply to the ground. Once Descent's effects ended, his chamber held only a limbless cripple crawling on the floor—minus two arms and one leg.
The light circle's reach extended to the rear, where Ravi, Elfin, and Lenis fought. A golden aura enveloped them as if I'd directly empowered them, while the Ebony Shadow Mercenaries were swept away by the encroaching wave, taking damage.
Being mere grunts without executive status or Underground Vermin influence paradoxically meant their injuries were far lighter than their boss's.
Ravi, Elfin, and Lenis seized the moment, surging forward with the light circle to annihilate the mercenaries. Meanwhile, I strode toward the fallen Darius.
"Keurk... Uuugh..."
"Kinda anticlimactic, huh?"
The battle against the Ebony Shadow Mercenaries' boss had ended far too easily.
Caught off-guard by my enhanced power, Darius desperately flailed as I approached, trying to bargain.
"H-Hey! Hey, Holy Warrior! W-Wait a second! Let's make a deal! T-The Ebony Shadow Mercenaries! I'll give you the whole damn group! And me, the others— we'll all obey you faithfully! I'll even abandon the goddess! J-Just spare my life..."
I let out a hollow laugh at his proposal.
Taking over the Ebony Shadow Mercenaries.
It was the first idea I'd had after learning I'd been brought to this world.
But now that I'd smashed them and stood on the verge of takeover, the thought didn't appeal at all.
Maybe because these scum had directly or indirectly harmed my comrades' nations. Or because I'd learned who their backers were. Either way, it didn't matter.
What mattered was that I'd eradicate them from the world completely.
"Spare your life? That requires a prerequisite. Revive the people of Aldebaran, the Empire and Carrot Duchy citizens killed by you bastards at the border, and all the Empire and Kingdom casualties from the war you sparked. Do that, and who knows—maybe I won't kill you."
"That's..."
"Impossible? Then here's another option. How do I get to that cathedral where the Underground Vermin are? Tell me the way."
"I-It isn't somewhere you can go just because you want to! The passage only opens when they summon—"
"Then you're useless no matter how you slice it."
Chwaaak!
I swept my Light Saber upward from the ground, cleaving Darius in two. Instead of blood, black smoke billowed from his corpse as he died.
Even not bleeding despite being summoned deep into the Underground Vermin's lair matched their traits perfectly.
The moment Darius fell, Ravi, Elfin, and Lenis finished off the remaining grunts in the back.
The three had strong aversions to killing, but their foes weren't innocents—they were deranged murderer trash.
They weren't naive enough to show mercy to that lot.
Ku-rurung!
My unleashed power had been too much—the hideout now shook dangerously.
"This place is about to collapse. Let's get out!"
These guys took direct verbal orders from their 'clients,' so there were no secret documents worth salvaging. We bolted without looking back.
Just as we escaped the crumbling Ebony Shadow Mercenaries' base and surfaced, a massive boom echoed from below—the entire lair buried.
But there was no time to catch our breath.
"W-What are you lot?! You're not our members—how are you coming out of there!?"
Another group rushed over from the distance, weapons drawn upon spotting us.
Leading them was a man wearing a pumpkin head—Jack-o'-Lantern Edmund. They'd clearly incited the Empire-Kingdom war and sneaked back here.
"Not... an insignificant number."
"Alvis, can you fight?"
"I've got less than half my mana left, but I can manage. What about you, Alvis?"
"Yeah. Let's end this fast and—"
As we spoke, Linian stepped forward with a bored expression and asked me,
"Hey, I really hate dragging things out, and this is getting boring. We're not underground anymore, so it's fine if I just handle them, right?"
"Uh? Well, sure, but—"
"Doesn't matter what you say. Just asking for form's sake."
Having done nothing but guard Luna and watch blankly throughout the underground fight, Linian raised one hand and pointed at a mercenary at the group's rear.
Chwaaaak!
A high-pressure water jet erupted from her fingertip, slicing the mercenary's waist clean through.
"Huuuuh?! W-What the—!"
The mercenaries and Jack-o'-Lantern Edmund recoiled in horror at their comrade bisected without a scream.
Linian lightly swept her extended finger horizontally, and the water pressure laser severed the upper and lower bodies of every Ebony Shadow Mercenary in front—including Jack-o'-Lantern Edmund.
With a single gesture, she'd annihilated dozens of fairly skilled fighters and razed the surrounding forest.
As if it were nothing, she casually withdrew her power.
"There. I was seriously about to die of boredom down there."
"......"
She hadn't even recovered a fraction of her original strength, yet she was already this powerful. I couldn't help but worry if I could stop her should she regain it all and turn hostile.