Battle Commences

Battle commence.

A declaration of war.

Crawl across the floor and pass between my legs, or I'll kill you the moment this starts — that was what he meant.

Was it because we were both from Adrium?

He was speaking as if he were doing me a favor. The situation almost made me feel like I ought to shed a few tears for Aron's ocean-wide magnanimity.

"Death still doesn't feel real to you, does it? Or are you actually deluded enough to think you'll survive just standing there?"

"Haha! I'm not quite that much of a fool, Lord Aron."

"He looks like a soft little scholar — can he even fight properly?"

"He'll wet himself before it even starts."

Aron and the holy knights behind him looked me over and jeered. Isolated as I was, I made easy prey in anyone's eyes. Certain death. The man overwhelmingly most likely to claim the title of first to die.

...All nine hundred ninety-nine participants besides me were surely thinking the same thing.

And he was offering to save me from that death!

"I'll make a prophecy of my own," I said, shrugging.

Aron cast me an intrigued look.

"A prophecy? You fancy yourself a seer now?"

"On this eleventh floor, one of your left arms will be cut off."

"...?"

"On the twelfth, one of your right arms. On the thirteenth, a left leg. On the fourteenth, a right leg — one by one. And on the fifteenth... well, you can think about that when you get there."

"What the hell is this lunatic babbling about?"

Shring.

Shriiing!

The holy knights drew their swords and leveled them at me. Good. They weren't complete idiots. They seemed to have grasped my intent precisely.

Floors eleven through fifteen of the Tower of the War God all ran under the same rules. The field would keep thinning by ten percent each floor; by the time anyone reached the fifteenth, a little more than half the original number would remain. Whether those sturdy holy knights could actually protect Aron all the way to the fifteenth floor remained to be seen.

Has he lost his mind?

Aron's easy expression crumpled. It wasn't a simple threat to kill him — I had just promised to disassemble his limbs one by one as the floors rose. No one would sit still for that. Least of all when the one saying it was the universally acknowledged weakest contestant.

Had he lost all fear? Or had he been so terrified he'd gone mad?

"Fine. I'll kill you exactly the way you described."

But Aron soon recovered his composure and smirked. A cornered rat will bite a cat, after all — and that was exactly what this looked like. The annotated Sutra of Life and Death was a waste, but it was a mirage that would vanish the moment the man died anyway. In the end, the one who climbed the Tower of the War God to the top would claim the tournament's victory.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

I almost thought I could hear the clock hands moving.

"Looks like you've got sixty seconds left to live."

Aron shrugged and turned his back. But not far away, he and his knights were still aiming for my life. Glittering eyes. It was obvious that more than thirty holy knights, thick with killing intent, would charge the instant the match began.

Final check.

I slowly lowered my gaze and smiled.

...Because I had made it.

Unbreakable Conviction!

The Unique-grade gear that had once belonged to Wilhelm. After endless refreshes, I had gathered every last material and forged it.

Whew.

A whistle escaped me on its own. The description itself was simple to a fault — but the options were so wondrous that no further explanation was needed. Honor, too, was shared with Randolph.

Honor was something like the grade of a soul.

Looking at it again, it's still incredible.

Only the honorable could obtain overwhelming power. And the Honor I shared with Randolph had already climbed, through trial after trial after trial, to a height ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no one else could touch.

Thus the Agility boost alone was a full twenty-two!

But the most important options on Unbreakable Conviction were Steps of Conviction and Divine Shield.

Movement and stillness. Depending on how you control them, the synergy is enormous.

Using Unbreakable Conviction properly demanded ultra-fine control. Divine Shield only activated in the instant of stillness — a span of time no longer than a blink. Foresight that could see several moves ahead was essential.

And Steps of Conviction?

Movement speed increased by 130%.

A passive that casually shredded most ordinary movement-speed buffs. Running like the wind and shattering enemies was entirely possible.

Offense and defense as one. Stopping the charging enemies and smashing them to pieces would have been more than enough with these boots alone.

But this isn't everything.

What I had obtained from the Golden Rule Shop wasn't just the materials for Unbreakable Conviction.

I had completed the growth-type sword Transcendence Sword and the combination sword Lu-Maria. On top of that, six talismans socketed into the Archetypal Armor — one of them a Hidden Combination talisman forged through the Hidden Talisman Cube.

With that, every preparation was finished.

Status window.

I checked the stats laid out before my eyes.

This would do. I was confident I had done everything I could.

In that moment—

...All right.

Let's begin.

A struggle that was anything but equal.

"For the Goddess!"

"Divine Sword!"

The holy knights moved first. Wrapped in every blessing and buff imaginable, they surrounded me in an instant. Holding both the Transcendence Sword and Lu-Maria, I calmly swept my gaze across the front.

Soft.

This wasn't a proper formation. They had simply ringed me in a rough circle. Even a lion gives its all when hunting a rabbit.

I stepped forward with my right foot.

"Wh-what?!"

"Why is he so fa—!"

The holy knights' movements turned frantic at once. They tried to block me, but I had already driven into their ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠midst. Agility past one hundred forty, amplified by the movement-speed boost from Unbreakable Conviction. Paper-thin defenses like these would be shredded in a single stroke and still leave room to spare.

Hup!

The holy knight in the front rank swung his greatsword with everything he had. The destructive force riding that massive weight must have been beyond imagination.

But I met the greatsword head-on and struck it aside.

KWAANG!

"Guh—!"

Unable to withstand the rebound, both of the holy knight's arms shot upward. Yet he still refused to release the greatsword.

CHWAAAK—!

"Aaaagh!"

It happened in the span of a blink. Both arms were torn free as if ripped apart.

The Additional Strike from the Celestial Axis Whale Talisman had triggered — a blow that amplified Strength from 0% up to a maximum of 150%. Even a 110% Additional Strike was more than enough to tear both of a holy knight's arms clean off.

"Sir Alken!"

"Kill that demon!"

A demon now, was I? Not even a demonkin — a full-blown demon.

Shweeeeek!

Stop.

Jwaaak—!

The incoming arrow struck the barrier, then slowed as if sinking into a swamp before coming to a complete stop.

Fwoooosh!

A moment later the arrow burst into sacred flame and burned away. There was only one shield of this form.

"D-Divine Shield?"

"Impossible! Is he a high priest?!"

Divine Shield could only be used by high priests — a skill reserved for the honorable and the upright. And high priests were a vanishingly rare rank even within the Goddess Sect. They would never have dreamed a mere Level 4 could wield it.

"It's sorcery! Don't fall for a demon's tricks!"

"Do not be deceived by illusions!"

"O Goddess!"

The Goddess Sect. The largest religion in Pangenia, devoted to the twin goddesses Rhea and Fina. They cried out the goddesses' names, trying to shake free of the delusion.

Whoosh— whoooo—

A shallow wind. The chime of blessing bells rising above the holy knights' heads. Blessings grew stronger the more of them there were, the more they stacked. Only steadfast faith would save them.

Wide open.

I did not miss that gap. The time it took for blessings to take hold — that was a chronic weakness of holy knights. Trying to play both priest and knight at once left a "gap" every time they switched roles. Exactly like now.

"Aaaagh!"

"Ghk...!"

Waists split clean through; torsos rolled across the floor while heads flew into the sky. With their death cries, two men died instantly. Thick armor and protective blessings alike were utterly useless.

That was the holy knights' second chronic weakness. To buy themselves time to cast blessings, they wore heavy armor and accepted blessings that dulled their movement. Defense rose — and agility died.

"Out of the way!"

At last a man who had been guarding Aron's side stepped forward. Having finished his blessings, he let out a sigh of pure irritation.

"You — Hyun of Adrium, was it? Your swordsmanship is decent. But how did you use Divine Shield?"

I shrugged. How did I use it?

"I'm a little close with the goddesses."

Of course it was an effect of Unbreakable Conviction, but there was no need to say so. At my words the man's face hardened even further.

"I am Bartash. Captain of these fools, and the man who will shortly send you to the Goddess. Go and atone."

Small mercies. At least he hadn't told me to go to hell. Being from the Holy City Adrium seemed to have worked in my favor... though of course Adrium wasn't my real origin either.

But Bartash?

Patrasche?

For a second I thought I'd misheard. A Dog of Flanders. The deep-set eyes didn't help — he genuinely looked like Patrasche.

"Patience. Atonement. Salvation. Fanaticism. Sanctuary."

With each word, additional blessings stacked — every one of them top-tier. A wide sanctuary then spread around Bartash: absolute ground that the unholy could not even set foot upon. It was a clear demonstration of just how powerful a holy knight he was.

"I declare it. You will never be able to 'touch' me. Naturally, you will not lay so much as a finger on Lord Aron either—"

Fwoooosh!

His eyes blazed. They shone together with the sanctuary, as if he had taken a god into himself. A bearing that inspired reverence on its own.

Then he pronounced judgment.

"I deliver the final sentence. Die in regret."

Divine Speech. The words of a god, usable only by one who had received a god into themselves. Absolute language that cleaved through all space. Even a high priest could not defy this power.

"...Hm?"

But nothing moved. For a moment he wondered if I had died on my feet.

Tap. Tap.

I was still moving. Bartash's brow furrowed. The Divine Speech had done nothing. No — more precisely, the Divine Speech had been canceled.

And that wasn't all.

Ssshk.

Sssshhk.

"...What?"

Bewildering things kept happening. The ground of the "Sanctuary" he stood upon was being erased. Erased with every step I took. He had never once seen such a phenomenon.

No. That wasn't true. There was one exception.

His Holiness the Pope. Only he could receive every power of the goddesses — and nullify them all.

Pssssshhhh....

Once the Sanctuary was erased, Fanaticism followed. The sacred flame kindled in both eyes lost its light. The closer I came, the more severe the effect became. And at last the blessings of Salvation, Atonement, and Patience vanished as well.

Every grace of the goddesses, every power of blessing... as if they dared not harm the man before them.

"You... are an apostle of an evil god...!"

Bartash raised his sword. If blessings would not work, pure swordsmanship would suffice. He set his stance and launched a single strike at the apostle of the evil god who had closed to point-blank range.

Ssshk.

And he saw it.

The ground rushing closer. His head was falling toward the floor.

At the same time he saw, looking naturally upward, the figure of the man — and what stretched above that man's head.

O Goddesses...! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Why?!

...The forms of the two goddesses.