Chapter 30: What Is a Duel Meant to Protect? (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 30: What Is a Duel Meant to Protect? (2)
Every eye was fixed on Count Palatio.
The terrified soldiers.
The despairing knights.
Penia and Deus.
And even the giant standing before him.
[….]
The giant’s expressionless eyes looked down at Alon.
Alon’s emotionless eyes met the giant’s.
And then.
[Heh—]
A smile tugged at the corners of the giant’s mouth.
[Hahahaha—!]
A boisterous laugh erupted from his throat, echoing through the space as if to dominate everything within it.
The laughter was so intense that the earth trembled, and even the deceased singing of despair fell silent.
Most of the living assumed the giant’s sudden laughter was filled with mockery and contempt, but the truth was quite the opposite.
[Good. Very good! Noble one!]
The giant’s laughter was filled with absolute sincerity, joy, and rapture.
The atmosphere radiating from the giant’s body began to shift.
From contempt to joy, and from joy to ecstasy.
And then.
[I, Uultultus, under the Great Covenant, accept thy duel!]
At the giant’s shout, the deceased singing of despair began to move in unison, forming a massive circle around Uultultus and Alon.
Drip. Drip.
Blood seeped from the ranks of the deceased, staining the ground and marking a boundary.
Thus, a blood-red Colosseum was formed.
In this ashen dueling ground, bordered by blood and decorated with blood flowers.
[According to the Great Covenant, none shall interfere with this sacred duel until it reaches its end!]
As he made his declaration, the bodies of the deceased burst apart to form a wall of blood. With the perimeter set, a deep smile spread across Uultultus’s face.
It was a look of pure, vivid rapture.
In contrast, Alon, standing opposite him, remained utterly stoic.
However—
‘…I want to go home.’
Behind that expressionless mask, Alon was trembling piteously.
* * *
He reminded himself of it over and over: the reason Alon had come to the North was to kill the Outer God Uultultus standing before him.
To that end, from the moment he heard the Outer God had awakened, Alon had prepared everything necessary to face him. Now, all that remained was to execute the plan.
However, despite being fully prepared, Alon’s mind was currently gripped by a fear born of the Outer God’s overwhelming pressure—a pressure far beyond anything he had imagined.
‘…Stay calm.’
He had taken a Potion of Extraordinariness to maintain a steady psychological state, yet his heart refused to settle. It thundered against his ribs, betraying his stoic facade.
Part of it was the instinctive dread radiating from the Outer God, but there was another factor he hadn't anticipated.
‘Why has the Manifestation progressed this far already?’
From the moment they descend, all Outer Gods undergo a process of adapting to reality over a certain period to become a Living God. Uultultus was supposed to be no different.
And yet, the speed of Uultultus’s Manifestation was far faster than he had predicted.
There should have been about a month left, but the Outer God before him was clearly on the verge of becoming a complete Living God at any moment.
This accelerated Manifestation was a variable that had never existed in Alon’s calculations.
A god only grew stronger the closer they came to being a Living God.
[How curious. Noble one who bloomed amidst the barbarians… looking into thee, I wonder: how is it that thou, a man not of our era, knows of our covenant?]
As Alon swallowed hard, ruminating on that fact, Uultultus posed his question.
However, Alon no longer had the luxury to engage in idle conversation.
‘Can I… really do this?’
Countless doubts and hesitations swirled in his mind.
Uultultus, having grown far stronger than expected, shook the resolve Alon was barely maintaining through his potions. But he soon shook off the negativity.
He understood clearly that from the moment he reached this point, there was only one path left to walk.
Even as Alon remained silent while sorting through his hesitations, Uultultus seemed to be in high spirits, maintaining his deep smile.
[If thou dost not wish to speak, then so be it. Thou hast earned that right. Then, shall we begin the sacred duel?]
The giant’s smile deepened as he raised his arm.
[The Babylonian Duel.]
Uultultus took a step toward Alon.
With every stride, he left noise and footprints upon the ashen, blood-stained earth, yet Alon did not move.
He simply stood there, waiting for the entity before him.
And then.
Thump—!
With a massive sound, Uultultus reached him and raised his fist. Even then, Alon remained silent, merely watching.
The confused voices of the living could be heard from a distance, but he continued to observe the giant’s actions in silence.
The reason was simple.
‘The rules.’
Running or moving in this situation would violate the rules of the Great Babylonian Duel that had existed in the forgotten Age of Gods.
The rules of a Babylonian Duel were only two:
This turn-based combat style would lose all meaning the moment Alon took even a single step.
Furthermore, if that happened, he would lose his only chance to deal with the Outer God.
Without the constraints of a duel, there was no way he could ever kill an Outer God—a transcendent being capable of slaughtering even Master Knights in an instant.
In other words, this duel was Alon’s way of imposing the only set of constraints that would allow him to win.
“Fixation.”
Therefore, the only thing Alon could do here was defend.
As he whispered, a sphere manifested before his eyes.
“Condensation.”
The condensed sphere focused on his left arm.
“Reinforcement.”
As the Phrase was uttered, the energy condensed on Alon’s left arm began to glow with an intense light.
“Deepening.”
With his final words, he completed the seal.
Uultultus, wearing a thick grin, pulled his fist back.
His muscles coiled across his entire body like a ballista being cranked.
Alon knew that technique well.
Because he had seen it.
The technique that could overturn the earth with one second of charging.
The sky with five seconds.
And the entire world with ten.
The Song of Ruin.
And then.
[Truly magnificent…!]
Uultultus’s smile widened in pure rapture at Alon’s adherence to the Babylonian rules. At the same time, everyone watching wore expressions of horror.
Even without fully understanding what was happening, they instinctively realized one thing:
The power gathered in that Outer God’s hand was anything but ordinary.
In that moment, with every eye fixed upon them.
[O honorable one, who knows the nobility of the duel!]
The fist was swung.
────────!!!!
With a deafening roar, everything was swept away.
The earth burst apart as if its very crust were shattering.
The atmosphere vibrated, letting out a violent explosion.
For a fleeting moment, the world within the path of his fist became a vacuum.
And then.
BOOM—!!!
Following the ear-splitting explosion that arrived a beat late, ashen dust scattered in every direction.
“This… this can’t be…”
They could see it.
Centered on the path of Uultultus’s fist, the world had been reduced to nothing.
A massive, conical crater had been carved into the earth.
The ashen sky had been torn open, allowing the purple light of the setting sun to shine through the gap and illuminate the ground.
It was overwhelming power.
Just as the living, staring blankly at Uultultus standing against the sunset, began to feel a sense of awe alongside their despair.
“The… The Count is… he’s still alive?”
“What? What do you mean—”
At a knight’s murmur, everyone’s gaze shifted toward the conical void.
And there.
“Holy…”
With a knight’s low curse, they all saw it.
The figure of Count Palatio, bleeding from his entire body, rising from the ground.
The Count was clearly in no normal state.
His right arm hung limp, as if it no longer possessed any strength, and the blood pouring from his body seemed to signal that his death was imminent.
Yet, even in such a state, Alon looked straight at the giant without a trace of emotion and finally stood firm.
As the lotus-patterned pendant around the Count’s neck crumbled into a handful of ash and vanished.
“All conditions have been met.”
The Count’s voice rang out.
“I enact the Constraint.”
* * *
The ‘Ring of the Madman’ was an item that, much like the ‘Constraint’ he had originally obtained, allowed one to gain power by paying a price.
The difference in the game was simply that the item obtained changed depending on whether the protagonist’s class was a Mage or something else.
Beyond that, there were two other differences.
One was that, unlike the ‘Constraint’ he usually used, it provided four constraints all at once.
The other was that, unlike his usual constraints, the ring’s activation condition required the wearer to be in a near-death state.
Thus, all conditions were met.
Luring the Outer God into a duel with constraints.
Using Lemiteon’s Potion to block out the pain he would feel beyond a certain threshold.
Enduring the Outer God’s attack with the Pendant of Reincarnation—a one-time artifact he had obtained before stopping by Calliban, which ensured that no matter what attack he took, he would suffer damage but never die.
Obsessively reinforcing only his left hand so he could force the recovery potion he was holding into his mouth without it breaking.
And through all that, meeting the conditions for the ‘Constraint.’
“…It shall be done.”
Within the frozen flow of time, Alon, having completed the ‘Constraint,’ looked forward.
There stood the giant, arms spread wide in deep rapture, not moving a single inch.
Watching the giant stand there as if waiting for his attack, Alon staggered and extended his unharmed left hand.
‘I didn’t bring Lemiteon’s Potion because it took too long to pack, but if I hadn’t had it, I wouldn’t have even been able to stand up.’
A sentiment uttered amidst the faint throbbing of pain.
He had taken Lemiteon’s Potion to block the pain and forced a top-grade recovery potion down his throat, but naturally, Alon’s body was still a wreck.
Unless it was an Elixir, nothing could heal Alon’s body instantly.
But for now, being able to lift his left hand was enough.
The giant, who held duels sacred and had gained honor by reaching the pinnacle of barbarism, would neither interfere with nor dodge his attack.
No matter how long that attack took to prepare.
“Whew—”
Seeing the haze of mana rise from his lifted hand and begin to twist into a spiral, Alon recalled the constraints he had just enacted and allowed a crooked smile to form behind his expressionless mask.
Due to the nature of the trait—where offering a greater constraint yields a greater reward—the constraints he had enacted were far more specific than his original plan.
The strength Uultultus had gained from his rapid Manifestation was beyond anything he had anticipated.
But.
Precisely because of that, he could be certain.
That this strike would reach the Outer God.
Skreeee—!
Watching the electricity begin to rotate in a spiral with an eerie sound, Alon recalled the four constraints with a low chant.
“Diffraction.”
The first constraint. May the laws of the world be twisted when magic is cast upon this land of severe cold.
“One Point.”
The second constraint. May the laws of the world be twisted when magic is cast while in a near-death state.
“Condensation.”
The third constraint. May the laws of the world be twisted when facing a god with magic.
“Extinction.”
The fourth constraint.
When facing the great God of Duel, Uultultus, with magic.
May the laws of the world be twisted.
Alon looked forward.
Before his hand, a massive line of lightning had been formed.
Thin and long.
A line of red lightning, glowing purple as it caught the light of the setting sun.
Ashen mana flowed like smoke from the bracelet on his left wrist, wrapping around the red line of lightning.
In the eyes of the knights and soldiers, Alon was silhouetted against the sunset.
In the eyes of Deus and Penia, two ‘eyes’ appeared behind Alon, etched alongside the light of the setting sun.
With that.
“Line of Silence.”
At Alon’s whisper, a pure white flash was fired toward the grinning giant.
KWAAAA────────!!!
—The ashen earth briefly reclaimed the appearance of a pure white snowfield.