Chapter 348
Chapter 348
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 348
Chapter Title: Scribe (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Kwaaa—
A ferocious tearing sound ripped through the air, as if a missile had just launched.
But it wasn't some scientific technology, mystical principle of magic engineering, or even a special weapon.
"Uahaha!"
The source was purely the power of flesh and blood.
The pinnacle of violent physical force produced by a single human from a fist as hard as rock.
...Though whether that being could truly be called human was debatable.
Kwaaang!
"Kuhk!"
The scribe gasped as an immense shock transmitted through the holy power shield in her left hand.
Her feet, which had been advancing relentlessly like a runaway train, were now pushed back several steps.
Even after neutralizing most of the damage with the divine blessing embedded in the shield, it was still this much!
It was beyond absurd—verging on bewildering.
'Guh, what is this? Where did a monster like him suddenly come from...?'
A savage over two meters tall, decked out in distinctive garb and flashy tattoos.
She glared at the muscular brute blocking her path, grinding her teeth.
She had thought it was all over.
If she just held out a little longer, her followers would seal off the area completely, and she could make this insolent heretic pay the appropriate price for daring to attack her...
'How in the world...!'
But that flow had changed in less than a minute.
A trial she could have overcome despite the difficulties had turned into a desperate crisis where she could barely hold her own body together.
All because of these brutes who had suddenly barged in.
"Paha! You blocked that? What an excellent sandbag! Shall we pick up the tempo then?"
The savage bellowed with laughter, mouth split wide, as he lowered his stance and clenched his fist tight once more.
Pruduuk!
Kkigigiking—!
At the same time, a cacophony leaked from his massive frame.
Could a living body really make sounds like that?
His hyper-compressed muscles twisted, sending metallic screeches scattering everywhere.
Steam rose from his flushed red skin as a bonus.
"Kuh! My Lord! Grant me strength that yields to no adversity!"
But the scribe was no slouch either—a fortified combat priestess whose direct attack power was second to none.
Holy power blazed like flames within her, and a radiance like a miniature sun settled on the hammer's head.
"Receive judgment!"
"Uracha!"
Shiiik—Kwaaaang!
The hammer swung in a massive arc collided head-on with the straight-thrust fist.
The enormous pressure from the impact crushed the surroundings, making the formation Harris had repaired scream once more.
"Whew! Not bad at all? It's been ages since my bones last cracked! Kahahat!"
"...You monster. You clash head-on with the God's Hammer and all you get is a fracture? No, wait. You're already healing?"
"Ah, I do recover pretty fast!"
Right after exchanging blows, the two faced off at point-blank range, trading grim banter.
The scribe swinging down her blazing hammer like the sun, and Harley resisting that force while pressing his fist forward.
Their ferocious exchange belied the overwhelming difference in their builds.
"I'll smash that mouth of yours so you never—"
However, there was one variable in the current situation.
"Pardon the interruption."
The one she needed to focus on wasn't just the brute in front of her.
Chwaaak—!
"Kuhk!"
The cool voice and the strike happened simultaneously.
A stealthy ambush from behind tore through the holy armor on her back, blood spraying forth.
She had twisted her body the instant she sensed the presence, but right after expending all her power in a full-force clash, with her attention divided, perfectly defending was impossible from the start.
"Kuh! You cowardly demons...!"
She barely retreated, scattering holy power freely to suppress the blood demon energy invading through the wound, gnashing her teeth.
It was fortunate that holy power held absolute superiority over vampires; otherwise, that single strike might have ripped out her heart.
'Regeneration is slower than expected. A curse worsening the wound? ...I need time. At this rate, I'm really...!'
Of course, her trials didn't end there.
———!
As if exploiting the opening from her near-fatal wound, a bombardment she had experienced several times already rained down relentlessly.
Colorful beams of light flew in silently, mercilessly pummeling her as she hurriedly assumed a defensive posture.
"Kyaa! As expected of a holy power user—you're tough! Holding up better than I thought?"
Ttuduk! Pruduuk—!
The humanoid monster began actively using body mutation to swell its size, rejoining the fray.
"Tch, probably because of that possession. This blood's no good. It's been about two... no, just under three minutes? To finish in five, I'll need to move a bit tighter."
The vampire lord spat out the blood he had tasted and melted into the air like vanishing mist.
Transcendent powerhouses, each one a tough matchup even one-on-one.
They linked up organically, like a single organism, driving the lone prey—the scribe—into a corner relentlessly.
'...How? Why? How did things end up like this? Were they together from the start? How did I not notice scum of this level setting a trap until they closed in...!'
Confusion raged like wildfire in Adeline's mind as the ceaseless assaults left her flailing.
The monster blocking her path refused to shatter no matter how much she hammered it, and amid that, the vampire's ambushes and the sniper's barrages were more than enough to whittle down her life force, which had been erupting like a volcano with near-infinite holy power.
"Kuhk...! Ah, my Lord...! Forgive this worthless servant...!"
Exactly five minutes.
The time it took for her, who had struggled to the end, to finally drop to her knees.
***
Western United States, near San Francisco, California.
Kkiiik—Kkeuk!
"This way!"
"Hurry and prepare the barrier! Don't get complacent—make sure to handle it thoroughly!"
Numerous people spilled from screeching vehicles, scattering quickly and moving with disciplined precision.
Dressed in various attire, they naturally divided into several groups.
"Dimensional distortion detected. This is the core!"
"Then let's begin right away. What are the Pantheon folks doing?"
"They're preparing to enter immediately. They have no choice but to prioritize the target's safety, after all."
"Cooperate as much as possible so there are no issues later. Nothing's more exhausting than riled-up zealots."
"Understood."
In truth, though they ended up acting together by chance, they weren't from a single organization.
From California state agents to Guardians dispatched by the American Returnee Association, and personnel urgently sent from Pantheon's San Francisco headquarters—a mix of various origins.
But their goal was the same.
To safely rescue Adeline Schneider, one of Pantheon's top executives and a seat on the 12-member council.
"To dare touch Pantheon's leadership. They've got guts. Must be the followers of that evil god, right?"
"Who knows? There's been so much talk about them lately. That otherworld saint who summoned the dragon, too."
"Ah! Come to think of it. Could this be related? Did those Reverse Heaven Society guys do this...?"
"Hard to say."
With multiple ability users gathered, pinpointing the epicenter of the spatial rift and setting up the barrier for entry took less than a few minutes.
Including the time from detecting the anomaly and rushing here, barely ten minutes had passed?
It was swift action possible because they had sensed something suspicious and mobilized even before the signal.
"Entering the interior!"
"Three—two—one—!"
In that situation, the Pantheon side entered the formation first.
For them, higher priorities than neutralizing internal traps or preventing escape with barriers were the safety of their leadership.
"Now!"
Pajik—!
Thus, they plunged into the other side of space with bated breath, and the first thing they encountered was...
"...My god."
"What... is this...?"
A scene of utter devastation on an enormous scale.
Trees not only uprooted and scattered but charred to charcoal.
Rocks shattered beyond recognition, impossible to guess their original shape.
The ground split and gouged like an earthquake had hit, massive craters exposing its innards.
One glance made it clear something unnatural had happened here.
"Battle traces on this scale. If not for the barrier..."
"The impact on the surroundings would have been huge. Plenty of casualties, too."
"No, that's not the point! Is Ms. Schneider safe? Adeline Schneider—is she alright?!"
"Hah! Track her immediately...!"
Overwhelmed by the惨烈 scenery, they snapped to and began searching the vicinity.
And as they suppressed their anxiety, relentlessly using detection and info-gathering spells, they soon faced an unbelievable reality.
"How about your side? Found anything?"
"...No, nothing... ."
"Kuh, same here. Traces this clear, and we can't glean any info!"
It was the fact that, with their abilities, they couldn't uncover anything from this place.
From psychometry reading past memories from traces, to clairvoyance, remote viewing, tracking—nothing worked.
"...Completely wiped clean. Looks like the culprits got to it first."
"Does that mean Ms. Schneider has already..."
"No way! She's one of America's prides, a top transcendent in all of Pantheon! To fall in such a short time...!"
They desperately denied reality, but no matter how they scoured the site, nothing changed.
The same held even after the outsiders fully dismantled the formation and joined them.
"Concealment ability like this. Beyond words."
"Perfect erasure that even abilities can't touch. And the aura used—at minimum, transcendent level... Wonder if anyone can pierce it."
"Barrier setup, info concealment, and these battle traces left behind. At least we know it's not a lone perpetrator."
They even called in specialists for detection, trying to piece together what happened, but all they got was a frustrating void of mystery.
In the end, the full story of the terrorist attack targeting Pantheon's leadership plunged into a labyrinth.
And it planted seeds of wariness not just among her fellow executives, but even in leaders of other factions outside Pantheon.
Along with dread toward an 'unknown shadowy force' whose identity they couldn't fathom.
***
'Well worth the heavy investment of forces.'
A five-minute time attack.
Against a transcendent using divine possession, that was an incredibly tight window.
There was a time limit, but within it, she could wield near-infinite holy power, and the explosive boosts to all her abilities from it weren't to be underestimated.
'Numbers conquer all, after all.'
I'd thought it might be tough with just Harris, but adding more forces wrapped it up easily, didn't it?
No wonder heroes in comics overpower villains with numbers.
Life lessons from real-world experience, I suppose.
'Plus, thanks to Heinz 2nd, we cleaned up the traces spotless.'
「Existence Negation」, grown to the point of being the ultimate concealment skill.
It performed admirably even in post-op cleanup.
With Heinz 2nd's aura, now budding with faint divinity after becoming True Blood, no one short of the Reverse Heaven Society leader themselves could pierce the remnants.
'Main tank Harley to hold the enemy, long-range DPS and utility support Harris, close-range main DPS Heinz 2nd. Not a bad combo... And above all, the blow to Reverse Heaven Society will be fatal.'
Satisfaction welled up inside me as I slowly nodded.
Taking down the North American branch head of Reverse Heaven Society—who was also the leader's apostle and one of Pantheon's top brass, the Scribe—was a massive achievement.
I could leverage this to boost Heinrich's influence in Pantheon even further.
'...And that's not the end of it.'
I closed my eyes and sank deeper into the chair.
The Scribe, apostle of the Reverse Heaven Society leader.
Not only did she wield holy power bestowed by him, but she had reached a level where she could even use divine possession—a high priestess.
Naturally, her body and soul held vast information on the Reverse Heaven Society leader.
'From one to ten. I'll analyze it thoroughly.'
Fortunately, she had the world's—no, dimension's—foremost expert in this field.