Chapter 171: Belial (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 171: Belial (3)
I would win.
My determination surged through me, radiating outward as a palpable force.
The Fragment of Harmony within me blazed hot, as if responding to my will, and jade-green mana began to condense at the tip of Catastrophe.
Seeing this, Belial…
“Heh… Hahaha!!”
…laughed.
It wasn’t a pleasant laugh. It was the kind of laugh that grated on the ears.
“There’s no need to be so on edge,” he said, his voice exceptionally soft and gentle.
“After all, you still have a chance.”
With those words, Belial gestured lightly toward the barrier that had trapped us.
Swoosh…
At his gesture, one wall of the solid barrier split open as smoothly as tearing paper, creating a massive hole.
Beyond it lay the misty forest we had come from.
“There.”
Belial said, gesturing toward the opening with his chin.
“I will give you the chance to simply walk away.”
His eyes shifted to the cave behind me, where Yu Hana slept.
“That is, if you abandon the pitiful queen behind you.”
Belial continued, his voice still soft and gentle as he smiled.
“Honestly… how long do you think it would take? To kill you, shatter that great chunk of rock, and tear apart the defenseless queen hiding inside.”
His voice was utterly serene.
As if explaining how easy it is to crush an ant underfoot.
He gestured to the barrier once more.
“Run.”
His voice was laced with boredom.
“I promise. If you take your other companions and leave this place, I will not pursue you.”
For a moment, I was speechless.
Belial was probably telling the truth. If I abandoned Yu Hana and ran, that bastard really wouldn’t chase us.
But.
What would be the point?
What meaning was there in prolonging a life like that?
To not let a single person die, to not lose anyone.
That’s what I’ve been fighting for all this time.
That was my conviction.
And now I was supposed to abandon Yu Hana to save myself?
I’d rather die.
Death would be better.
Can you call it living just because you’re breathing?
That’s not a life.
I scoffed inwardly.
It was an offer not even worth considering.
And then, very slowly, I lowered my head.
The tip of Catastrophe, held in my hand, drooped listlessly toward the ground.
My shoulders slumped, a helpless posture as if all the strength was draining from my body.
I pretended to be conflicted, to be in agony.
I glanced back and forth between the rock wall where Yu Hana slept behind me and the escape route Belial had opened.
One second.
Two seconds.
Time… ticked by.
Even a little bit would be good. If I could buy even one more second for Yu Hana to acquire the Fragment, that would be enough.
“Hmm…”
Belial, who had been observing me, stroked his chin.
And then, he spoke.
“I see.”
SLAM!
With that word, the massive hole in the barrier slammed shut in an instant.
“You did not run.”
Belial clapped his hands and laughed.
“How romantic. A king who won’t flee for his queen…”
The moment he finished speaking, the ground where he stood transformed into a black swamp.
“In that case, I suppose I’ll have to end the game by killing the king.”
“Well, damn.”
I, too, readjusted my grip on my spear and said to Belial.
“Busted.”
At my response, Belial’s face filled with glee.
Rumble…
And from within that swamp, tens, hundreds of black hands began to rise, screaming.
They reached for me frantically, like living specters.
As long as I stood on the ground, there was no escaping their grasp.
Aldebaran's Authority.
No Step.
Fwip!
My feet left the ground.
As if defying gravity, I pushed off an invisible foothold in the air and shot upward.
Beneath me, hundreds of black hands clawed at the empty air, wailing.
In mid-air, I tightened my grip on Catastrophe.
Against this endless wave, a half-hearted attack would be meaningless.
I needed a powerful strike that could wipe them out at once.
I condensed the mana within me at the tip of my spear.
Then, I swung it hard in a diagonal arc toward the black hands reaching for me.
Ghost Slash.
KRAKOOM!!
A spear aura powerful enough to rip space itself shot out from the tip of my spear, flying straight toward the hands.
SCREEECH!
The destruction I expected didn’t happen.
Instead, the bastard’s hands grabbed hold of the intangible spear aura and began to push it back.
Wherever my mana, imbued with Shatter Evil, Reveal Justice, touched them, the hands burned away into black smoke, but from behind them, other hands rose ceaselessly to take their place.
My strike was shattered in mid-air.
Despite that, hundreds of hands still remained, surging toward me.
As expected… this wasn’t easy.
Even if I dodged, their trajectory would carry them to Yu Hana behind me.
I had no choice but to parry them all myself.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
I swung Catastrophe like a madman.
Parrying and slicing at the hundreds of black hands reaching from all directions.
With every parry, a colossal force that felt like it would tear my hands apart traveled up my arms and through my entire body.
KANG! KANG!
The hands that touched my spear aura burned away, but more rose from behind them, endlessly, relentlessly, to fill the void.
“Hah… hah…”
I was gasping for breath.
In the distance, Belial watched me with his hands clasped behind his back, like a nobleman enjoying a play.
This was going nowhere.
No matter how many of those hands I cut down, as long as his mana remained, they would just regenerate infinitely.
I have to aim for the main body.
I released a burst of mana to momentarily push back the dozens of hands reaching for me.
And in that fleeting moment, I kicked off the air and launched myself toward my target.
Phalanx, One Flash.
My body became a single, great spear.
Mana drawn from the Fragment condensed around me.
I became a jade-green meteor, streaking through the darkness as I shot toward Belial.
Belial immediately shrouded himself in a purple barrier.
SHREEEEEEE!
With a deafening roar that tore through space.
The tip of my spear finally reached his barrier.
KRA-BOOOOM!!!
The clash of spear and shield.
The moment my spear, filled with the power of the Fragment, struck his barrier, a tremendous shockwave erupted.
Crack…
And then.
Slowly.
His barrier began to crack, spiderweb fissures spreading across its surface.
I pressed my spear forward with even greater force. My muscles screamed, my mana circuits felt like they were on fire. I poured every ounce of my strength into this single point.
But Belial didn’t move an inch.
He simply gazed up calmly at the tip of my spear, which had penetrated to right before his eyes, as if admiring an interesting work of art.
“I see…” Belial murmured softly.
Crack…
The barrier slowly cracked apart.
“Now I understand why The Great Being spoke as he did.”
His empty eyes pierced through to the power of the Fragment flowing from the tip of my spear.
“It is, quite literally, a blasphemous power.”
Belial finished speaking and raised a single finger.
“Indeed, it would be best to erase it here.”
CRACK… SHATTER!
Finally, the barrier broke.
I carried the momentum forward, thrusting my spear toward him.
And then.
Tap.
His palm touched my abdomen, ever so lightly.
It wasn’t an attack, just contact.
But in the next instant.
Before my spear could even reach him.
My body was sent flying backward like a cannonball.
KRA-BOOM!
Struck by an immense, invisible force, I was slammed into the hard wall of the barrier far behind me.
Pain, as if every bone in my body was being crushed, wracked me, and blood burst from my mouth.
This was a power I knew.
Shatter Evil, Reveal Justice…
The pain was like being hacked to pieces.
I barely managed to lift my head. And then, I saw an unbelievable sight.
From Belial’s back, six massive wings made of pitch-black darkness were unfurling.
A Fallen Archangel.
Once known as the messenger of God, the Archangel Uriel…
Now, the Evil God’s most faithful servant.
The Apostle, Belial.
This entire space was his domain, his world.
Belial’s actions were law, and his will, truth.
What had struck me wasn’t simple physical force. It was an attack that twisted causality.
He had returned all the power I had just used to break his barrier right back at me.
I struggled to my feet.
“You are welcome to give up.”
Belial slowly approached me, his six pitch-black wings beating gently.
With every step he took, the surrounding rocks were consumed by darkness, turning to ash.
“Of course, even if you do, I won’t be letting you live now.”
He gave a chilling smile.
I spat the blood that had pooled in my mouth onto the ground.
Then, using Catastrophe as a cane, I forced my staggering body upright.
“Fuck you.”
I gave him a bloodstained smile.
The battle… hadn’t even begun.