Chapter 219
Chapter 219
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 219
Chapter Title: Heaven (2)
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Baalv, known in some civilizations as the god of anesthesia, was a Mara that put all sorts of creatures to sleep and implanted them into its own organs.
Sleep demotes a living being to the status of an inanimate object.
Creatures caught by Baalv were no different from objects, fated to live out their lives as the monster's organs.
-Art of the One progress: 90 percent.
The over 100-ton Baalv floundered with its sluggish body, chasing after Shirone. Something like the forelegs of a quadruped burst from its shoulders and slammed into the ground.
The Great Hall of Worlds reverberated loudly.
"Kiki! How's this? The power of 260 lions. Soon, you too will become a part of my body."
-Art of the One progress: 91 percent.
Once it passed 90 percent, the voice announced every one percent. The fact that only nine percent remained made Shirone's heart sink.
"...rone! Shirone!"
Canis's call brought him back to his senses.
"Where's your head at? If you have something prepared, do it now. Don't tell me you just charged in here recklessly."
If Shirone had come running just because his magic had improved a little, Canis was ready to cast Dark Worm on himself.
He would rather die than become a part of the sleep Mara and suffer for eternity.
Hearing Canis, Shirone recalled the magic circle Ikael had given him.
But even if he could create the halo, he couldn't use it instantly like an angel.
"There is one thing..."
"Then do it! What are you dawdling for!"
Twenty crab legs shot out from Baalv's lower body.
As the rapidly moving legs propelled the 100-ton mass forward, Shirone and Canis threw themselves to the side.
Baalv leaped ten meters into the air and crushed the spot where they had been.
The Great Hall of Worlds shook, and iron dust fell from the ceiling.
"I need time. Can you buy me some?"
Canis sighed. *So that's what it comes down to?*
But how long could he hold off a Two-Horned Mara, an opponent difficult to face even at his best?
"Ten seconds. I can't last any longer than that."
"I need one minute."
The moment Shirone moved away, Baalv swung an octopus tentacle. Just as Canis leaped like a flying squirrel, the damp tentacle smashed the floor.
"Kihehehe! You're excellent at running away. Then again, that's the only advantage the weak have."
"Hmph! For someone so sluggish, you're awfully arrogant."
Canis collected himself and calculated the time. The difference in power was extreme, but if he focused solely on evasion, it wasn't entirely impossible. A mosquito can't defeat a human, but that doesn't mean it can't evade one for a minute, right?
Rian gripped his greatsword and stood up.
"I... have to go."
He couldn't rest forever. Shirone was preparing something, so he had to buy time with Canis.
Just then, Feofe looked outside and shouted.
"That... that thing!"
Rian turned to see Ymir, the giant king, rushing toward them with eyes burning with rage. He was clearly targeting Shirone, who had humiliated him.
Dragging his broken body, he tackled with all his might, shoving Ymir's body aside. Rian rolled on the floor, grabbed his greatsword, and blocked the path to Shirone.
*'What? How?'*
He had charged in, risking his life, but he hadn't actually expected to push Ymir back. It felt like the giant was weaker than before.
Ymir dusted off his knees and stood up.
"The third time. But I don't think it'll be much fun anymore."
"I am Shirone's sword. You will not get near him until I am dead."
Thanks to Feofe's telepathy, they could now understand each other. But Ymir only frowned, a look of disappointment on his face.
"You are wrong. Power does not exist to protect something. The essence of power is destruction. You, who do not realize this, will never be able to stop me."
Ymir moved like the wind. His physical strength had decreased, but his agility seemed to have increased.
A shower of consecutive blows rained down on Rian's body. Already broken beyond repair, Rian couldn't even counterattack.
But he was satisfied with that. As long as he was alive, Ymir would not get to Shirone.
*'Endure. If I can just hold on a little longer, I can die in peace.'*
Ymir's eyes began to turn red. No matter how much he pummeled him, Rian did not fall. He had destroyed everything visible, yet Rian endured as if something still remained.
"Rian! Rian! Stop it, you bastard!"
Tess shouted, her face a mess of tears.
"Please stop hitting him! You're going to kill him!"
Ymir's assault did not stop. It was a madness different from what one felt in a normal battle.
The feeling of life clashing against life was palpable.
*Interesting. A very interesting human.*
"Magnificent! It is my mission to destroy you!"
Rian's body trembled with a sound like it was being torn apart.
Tess squeezed her eyes shut. But she could still see it. Rian's dying moments were being transmitted through all five senses.
She cried out to Kariel through her tears.
"I get it! I'll give birth to them! I'll bear as many Nephilim as you want, so please just make it stop!"
Kariel was unmoved.
"Giving birth to Nephilim is a given. And I am not the one controlling Ymir."
-Art of Life progress: 96 percent.
Ymir stopped his attack and gasped for breath. It was shocking. What in the world was this human made of?
He was dead. No, he *should* have been dead.
Standing there, unable to even raise his guard, there was no trace of life force.
But he was still gripping the greatsword.
How was that possible? He had crushed all the muscles in his right arm. It was impossible to hold a steel sword with the strength of ligaments alone.
*'No, he's just a corpse. He's frozen stiff.'*
He had clearly won, yet it didn't feel like a victory.
"I'll finish you!"
Ymir gritted his teeth with a grating sound. He widened his stance and raised his fist, intending to deliver the final blow.
At that moment, he saw Rian's greatsword rise. Very slowly. When he widened his vision, only Rian was moving in the entire Great Hall of Worlds.
*'Tch! This again?'*
Ymir, who had experienced countless wars, called this the seesaw of time. It was a phenomenon where, when the world's speed suddenly surged, time would seem to flow relatively slower for the one perceiving it.
As one side speeds up, the other slows down.
In other words, the fact that time was flowing slowly for Ymir meant that Rian's arm was moving incredibly fast.
*'Damn it!'*
Ymir realized why the boy before him could move even with a broken body.
His spirit hadn't been broken. That unbroken spirit was directly moving his physical body.
A technique that completely transcended the biological mechanism of the mind commanding the body to move.
It was Incarnation, a skill only the highest-ranking giants could perform.
Since Schema was originally a giant's art, Incarnation also resembled a certain concept in the human world.
Swordsmen who strengthen their brains with Schema control their bodies through mental locks.
But when that goes too far, the mind and body become one, and the body moves exactly as one thinks.
In the human world, this phenomenon is called 'Divine Transcendence'.
*'Keke. You should have done this from the start.'*
Ymir watched Rian's greatsword aiming for the ceiling and twisted his body.
The moment he thought he had leaned back far enough to dodge, the speed of time abruptly returned to normal.
Rian's greatsword vanished from his sight. At the same time, his severed right arm spun in the air.
Ymir's expression turned bitter. The faster Rian moved, the slower time flowed. The fact that he still couldn't dodge it completely meant it had been impossible to avoid from the beginning.
*F-f-f-f-f-whump!*
The moment the greatsword hit the ground, Rian's right arm exploded. Torn muscles hung in tatters, and his bones were completely exposed.
His physical body couldn't withstand the speed of Divine Transcendence.
-Art of Life progress: 97 percent.
The Art of Life was nearing its end. And so too were the lives of the humans. Struck by Baalv's tentacle, Canis flew several dozen meters and slammed into a wall.
And he did not get up.
"Baalv, finish it."
"Yes, Lady Kariel!"
Having dealt with Canis, Baalv charged at Shirone. The one minute he had initially been promised had long since passed. But there was still no change in Shirone.
"Shirone! Watch out!"
Shirone couldn't hear a thing. In the process of opening and reversing the Immortal Function to its limit, there was no room for his nerves to interfere.
"Khahahaha! I'll attach you to my most hideous part!"
Something like a scorpion's tail shot out from Baalv's back. A dark drop of liquid hung from the tip of its stinger.
It was a potent sleep poison, said to be able to anesthetize even a dragon with a single sting.
At that moment, Shirone's eyes flew open. *Fwoom!* A two-meter-diameter circle materialized, and Baalv's attack was repelled by the shockwave.
A look of bewilderment flickered across Kariel's face as she watched.
*'Could it be? No, that's impossible.'*
A human cannot wield the power of an angel. It was not something the human mind could comprehend.
But why did she feel so uneasy? What was this base feeling of anxiety?
"Baalv! There's no time!"
"Kieeeeeeeh!"
Hearing Kariel's command, Baalv shrieked and launched a physical assault. Its hideous face was steeped in terror.
Shirone's halo spun at the speed of light, a red dot embedding itself in the center. Then, the initial magic circle began to draw in countless concepts.
The angel's magic circle.
Infinite Judicial Halo.
Kariel stared at the countless magic circles blooming like lotus flowers from the halo, unable to hide her astonishment.
It was truly a Halo.
It made no sense for a human to realize it on their own. Someone must have taught it to him.
But who? What mad angel in this Heaven would teach a human the Halo?
While Kariel was reeling from the shock, Feofe flew to the women.
"Hurry! Hurry!"
"I know! Just a second!"
Applying spiral force, the handcuffs twisted.
Thanks to Canis having cut through more than half of them, Feofe was able to destroy the cuffs without much difficulty.
All the while, Kariel couldn't take her eyes off the Halo.
What was happening before her eyes was a more serious problem than the Nephilim.
The betrayal of an angel was a grave matter that could shake the very foundations of Heaven.
She had to know. Who had taught him?
And she had to annihilate their existence.
Baalv used every organ at its disposal to crush Shirone. But its attacks stopped before they could reach his body, as if blocked by an invisible barrier.
"Kiik! Kiik!"
It struggled with all its might, but it was an irresistible force. Just as a child cannot kill its mother, the authority of a higher being, recorded in the law, was blocking its approach entirely.
As brilliant, multicolored flashes of light slammed into the Halo, countless magic circles were born, interlocking like gears.
The moment the information density surpassed 80 percent, the concept abruptly changed, and the rotation speed accelerated.
The halo's unimaginable rotational speed felt as if it could throw the world into disarray by itself.
Realizing the concept contained within the magic circle, Baalv's face turned deathly pale. Its legs gave out, and it fell to the ground with a thud.
It had come face to face with the one thing a Mara feared most.
"Hiik! Ata...! Ata...!"
Baalv used all its mobile organs to crawl toward Kariel. But it was so terrified that not a single one of its organs could properly push off the ground.
Giving up on survival, Baalv looked back and shouted.
"Lady Kariel! Get away! It's the Super Magic Amplification Circle, Ataraxia!"
Kariel already knew. But she didn't move. Her mind was so full of thoughts that it felt as if time itself had stopped.
*Ataraxia.*
The strongest judicial art in Heaven, which had brought countless angels to their knees. It was Ikael's trademark, said to make any Mara scream.
*She gave such a power to a human?*
*It couldn't be.*
It was more plausible that her eyes were playing tricks on her, and that Ikael was standing there in the form of a boy.
*'Ikael, have you truly... gone mad?'*
No, she hadn't gone mad.
She was genuinely trying to stop the war. She had decided to side with the humans, even abandoning her honor as the strongest angel.
-Information transmission rate: 98 percent.
Kariel's body trembled. Only two percent left. But Ataraxia was waiting.
She saw the look in Shirone's eyes as he glared at her. *Can a human really wield it?*
It might be a trick. The Art of Life must continue. But if this situation was real...
...she would be annihilated.
"Ikaeeeeeeel!"
Just as Kariel let out a roar of fury, Shirone's Photon Cannon fired.