Chapter 211
Chapter 211
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 211
Chapter Title: Part 2 Chapter 5: Divine Beast (1)
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Jamie gazed at the wriggling darkness.
It should have been obliterated in an instant by all rights, but it was struggling desperately to escape somehow.
From the moment he learned it had dragged the Driane Church into this, he had wondered what kind of bastard it was, and it seemed it wasn't just some petty noble.
"Graaaah!"
The darkness expanded for a moment, then began to squirm with a deflating hiss like a punctured rubber ball.
At the same time, an aura burst from within, shattering the swollen darkness outright.
Helm, cloaked in black divine power over his entire body, was gasping for breath.
He withdrew the divine power rising above him and asked Jamie,
"Weren't you our ally?"
Helm was confused.
Something bad had happened in the evening, but Jamie Welton was a grand magus dispatched from the Seldam Kingdom to aid Harmonia.
So why was he helping the enemy instead of him?
Jamie replied,
"We are allies, aren't we?"
"Then you should have captured Viscount Fatal just now!"
"Hm? Why would I?"
"...You don't know?! That bastard is the Liberation Army's...!"
"Viscount Fatal is a noble of Harmonia too, isn't he? The Liberation Army are the people of this land. What's the problem?"
"You bastard! Are you playing word games right now?!"
Helm's face flushed red with fury and disbelief as he shouted.
"We even offered up our nation's treasure! What the hell is this?!"
"Haha. Why get so angry? The world is full of variables, as always, isn't it?"
"You bastard!"
An ominous divine power began to emanate from Helm's body.
Jamie's relaxed expression hardened slightly.
He had known the man was hiding power, but the scale far exceeded his expectations.
'Master class?'
The necklace around Helm's neck trembled violently before snapping with a ping!
Then, the power it had concealed erupted explosively.
"You were hiding your strength, huh?"
"The continent's greatest talent? Youngest master? Heh heh heh. You must have thought that meager power was enough to pull off this absurd betrayal."
The whites of Helm's eyes turned black, and his irises yellowed.
"You've made a mistake. I don't know why you chose such folly, but if you'd stayed on our side, I'd have let it go with just a scolding."
"A scolding?"
"Haa... You're suddenly pissing me off. Pissing me off!!"
A brutish killing intent exploded outward.
Jamie felt his skin prickle and saw the hairs on his arms stand on end.
Suddenly, he recalled the three high priests who ruled the Driane Church.
Normally, without saints, high priests or archbishops were the most devout in their orders.
Conversely, military might fell to the paladins.
Prime examples were the Zenith Church's Seven Knights and the Pyro Church's Holy Enforcers.
But there was one order where the entire church wielded martial power.
The Driane Church, devotees of Driane, god of violence and plunder.
The world called them the seeds of violence, and the high priest at their pinnacle was said to be the closest thing to violence itself.
Being the strongest among the 12 orders meant master-class prowess at minimum.
In other words...
"You're a high priest, aren't you?"
From what Jamie sensed with his own skin, Helm was the Driane Church's high priest—a monster who had reached master class.
"If you have ears, you must know what a Driane high priest entails."
Their power surpassed most masters.
For it was violence incarnate, bestowed by their god.
How ridiculous.
"I've always thought this since ancient times: how the hell do you lot even survive under heaven?"
Violence and plunder.
Driane preaching such drivel as divine will, and its followers lapping it up.
Even 60,000 years ago, the Driane Church was the least comprehensible order.
He regretted shoving them to the back burner, deeming them unworthy of attention. He should have torn them apart before the Zenithians.
"Straightening out your kind is part of my role too."
"What?"
"Just die, you moron."
Jamie spread his hand wide, and darkness formed from authority sprayed forth.
This darkness, imbued solely with annihilation properties, began erasing everything around without leaving a speck of dust.
Helm glared at the pouring darkness with contempt and shouted,
"That darkness! I suspected as much—it's black magic, isn't it?!"
Jamie gave no reply.
Taking it as affirmation, Helm sneered.
"Hahaha! So even that power of yours was achieved through black magic? Your 'greatest in the continent' title was all lies and deception after all! Fake!"
"Who're you."
His purple eyes glowed more intensely.
"Calling a fake?"
The darkness swelled massively in an instant, rising like a tsunami to engulf the surroundings.
Helm cloaked himself in a barrier and soared high through the darkness. His barrier was riddled with holes, as if gnawed away.
The divine barrier had nearly shattered in that brief moment.
The realization chilled Helm.
'What the hell is this darkness.'
He had faced black sorcerers a few times in his life, but most crumbled like insects before divine power.
Divine power was their natural predator.
So when he realized Jamie Welton's darkness was black magic, victory seemed assured.
'Thinking back... something was off.'
Helm swatted away the encroaching darkness with his hand.
Even wrapped in layers of divine power, part of his sleeve vanished like it had been burned.
"...Can black mana pierce divine power?"
If the power gap was overwhelming, piercing wasn't impossible, but this felt different from mere superiority.
He couldn't pinpoint it, but it was like divine power losing a matchup.
'A head-on fight is dangerous.'
It bruised his pride, but he wouldn't pierce that darkness directly.
In master-class battles where power was close, the one reading a step ahead won.
He, who had spun countless schemes and crushed all with these hands, faced a foe whose genius power stemmed from black magic—the outcome was obvious.
"I'll kill you and broadcast to the world that you're a black sorcerer! Heh heh heh! The famed Welton name will crumble in an instant!"
Helm mentioned the family to rile Jamie emotionally while scanning for weaknesses.
Jamie smirked at Helm buzzing around like a fly.
"As if."
Grip-
"Wh-what?!"
Helm jolted in shock at the sudden vise grip on his forearm and whipped his head around.
A bony arm from a emaciated corpse had burst from a black subspace, clutching his arm.
Recognizing necromancy at a glance, Helm tried to shake it off, but...
"Kuh!"
His raised left arm was also seized.
This time by rotten skeletal fingers.
His ankles were similarly locked by undead arms, unyielding.
With all limbs restrained in an instant, Helm struggled to break free, but they wouldn't budge.
"Those arms' grip stems from my power, so escape is impossible."
Jamie recalled his darkness authority and ascended.
For five years, his training hadn't been limited to magic and swordsmanship.
He had researched authorities extensively, uncovering new applications.
Especially Defying Heaven, which had advanced greatly—he could now manifest parts of undead in subspace form without opening the gate fully.
Just like this.
"Kuh! To wield such repulsive power... How utterly vile."
"Vile describes your god better."
"Blasphemy!!"
"Die already, blasphemer. I've got things to do."
Jamie raised his hand overhead.
Above Helm's head, an arm clutching a sword emerged from a subspace linked to Defying Heaven's gate.
Black aura coiled around the blade.
[Specter Sword]
A blade that kills even the soul if it cuts.
Jamie dropped his arm without mercy.
The specter sword plummeted in a straight line to bisect Helm.
Helm's black divine power turned crimson, unleashing ferocious battle lust.
The specter sword tried to cleave through even the red shockwave, but its blade trembled without descending.
Jamie wrapped himself in a barrier and widened the distance from Helm.
"Graaaaaah!!"
His eyes turned entirely red.
Battle Aggression, permitted only to elites in the Driane Church's Violence combat unit.
It was no surprise for its high priest, Helm, to wield it.
His muscles grotesquely swollen, Helm easily shook off the specter arms, seized the fallen sword overhead with both hands, and snapped it.
"Making me use such brute force!!"
"Whoa, macho much?"
"I'll rip that mouth off first!"
Helm bellowed in a thickened voice and charged at terrifying speed.
He condensed all his divine power into his clenched fist and swung with full might.
Like a mountain flying head-on.
Jamie reversed his grip on the sword hilt.
"This should be enough."
Darkness rippled along the slightly drawn silver blade.
Helm's fist approached right before him.
The air blasted away, creating a momentary vacuum. Jamie drew his sword at an angle.
Slash-
The massive fist split in half, parting to either side.
Helm's eyes widened.
Muscles hardened by Battle Aggression tore like paper.
Jamie readjusted his grip, overlaying his empty hand on the back of his sword hand, and snapped his middle finger and thumb.
[Black Thunder Punishment]
8th-class lightning magic infused with black magic.
Black Thunder Punishment arced between the split arms.
"!!!!!!!"
Pain too excruciating for screams assaulted him.
Helm convulsed violently, eyes rolling back.
Not a wide-range spell, Black Thunder Punishment destroyed targets down to the cellular level—a horrific curse.
[Stage 3 Authority: Cursing]
Boosts all curse magic potency nearly tenfold.
The third authority, manifested two years ago, infused into the spell.
As the curse ended, smoke rose from Helm's body.
Not just surface burns—his organs had been ravaged by lightning, unimaginable agony.
Yet he still stood.
"I don't know your plan, but the moment you fell into my grasp, it was over."
"......"
"Die and atone to those you've tormented."
Jamie raised his hand to finish it.
"Heh heh..."
Then Helm began to laugh.
Jamie frowned and asked,
"Laughing in despair?"
"...It's not over yet."
"No point listening."
"Guh!"
A beam from his fingertips pierced Helm's heart.
Even a high priest couldn't survive a heart pierced by darkness.
Helm knew it too, his face twisted in regret, but he spat a curse with a final smile.
"You monster... We never accounted for... your kind. Kuh."
He stemmed the dark blood from his heart as best he could and continued.
"Even if I die... it's already... irreversible."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll... see."
Helm's body began crumbling to dust.
At that moment.
Ruuuumble!!!
The heavens and earth shook violently.
"...My god."
Jamie rubbed his forehead in disbelief.
A massive hexagram activated across Harmonia, centered on the royal castle.
Helm, now just a head, grinned.
"My ancestor's faithful servant."
The sky blanketed in red clouds.
"The divine beast 'Basilisk' descends."
With those words, Helm vanished completely.