Chapter 174: Counterattack (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 174: Counterattack (1)
Kududududuk!!
The tip of my spear, containing my very all, finally reached the space between his eyes.
I felt an unimaginable resistance in my hands.
It wasn’t the sensation of piercing flesh or bone, but of trying to break through a massive wall.
Crack.
Then.
With the sound of something finally shattering, my spear pierced the space between his eyes and went straight through his head.
However.
“Hah…”
My spear had only passed clean through his head.
There was no blood, no brain matter, nothing.
With the massive spear still lodged grotesquely in his forehead, Belial tilted his head up to look at it.
“I simply do not understand.”
He asked me, his voice calm and filled with pure curiosity.
“How in the world did you do that?”
Zzzzzk.
Even now, the Fragment’s mana imbued in the spear was denying Belial’s very existence, burning and eating away at the wound.
But he seemed completely unfazed by the excruciating pain.
“I was certain… I had died. I almost… understand… ha…”
A madness began to creep into his eyes.
The calm demeanor from moments ago was gone, replaced by a burgeoning insanity.
Just then.
The purple barrier surrounding the space itself began to hum and vibrate as if responding to his will.
Dozens of violet mana tendrils snaked out from the barrier’s walls and flowed into his body.
He grabbed the shaft of Catastrophe, the spear piercing his forehead, with one hand.
And then.
Crrreeaak….
He pulled it out as if it were nothing.
Slowly pushing it out, ignoring my grip on the other end.
As I held the spear, I felt an unimaginable power in his grasp.
His forehead tried to regenerate, but the Fragment’s mana stopped the process.
A hideous hole remained between his eyes.
“I…”
He looked at me and spoke, his voice filled with rage.
“Despise things I cannot comprehend more than anything else.”
Sssrrk….
The moment he finished speaking, the pure white priest robes he wore were engulfed in black flames, turning to ash and scattering away.
From his back, six enormous, grotesquely writhing wings unfurled.
The Fallen Archangel.
Belial’s true form.
“Do you understand now?”
I took a small step back, spear in hand, and watched him.
“That an insect like you, no matter what tricks you pull.”
His voice echoed throughout the entire space.
“Can never, ever reach the heavens.”
I gave him a blood-stained smile.
The bleeding from my forehead had stopped at some point.
Thanks to that, I could see his face clearly.
The gaping hole in his forehead, the writhing wings.
It was a sight so grotesque it would have been better to keep my eyes closed.
What a monstrous form.
“We’ll see about that.”
I raised the tip of Catastrophe and pointed it at the space between his eyes.
“Seems doable to me.”
At my provocation, all expression vanished from Belial’s face.
The next moment, a horrifying shriek erupted from his mouth.
“―――――!!!”
Simultaneously, thousands of hands and spears materialized behind him.
The spears were larger and more grotesque than before, and the hands had veins bulging from them like a swarm of worms.
Swiiiiiish!!
Spears rained down from the sky like hail, while black hands erupted from the ground to grab me.
From above and below, a perfect siege, leaving no room to escape.
However.
Every single one of those attacks touched the black mist that had spread out around me.
Thud-thud-thud.
The moment they did, something strange happened.
The spears and hands that had been pouring down with such ferocity plummeted powerlessly to the ground as if pulled by gravity.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Like a torrential downpour, his attacks now became a rain that soaked not me, but the floor.
A moment ago.
He had been hit by my attack.
It might have seemed like the attack had no effect on Belial, but that wasn’t true.
He had healed the wound as if it were nothing. But that healing came at a price.
The power of Shatter Evil, Reveal Justice imbued in my spear was no mere physical wound.
It was a conceptual wound that denied his very existence.
To restore it, he had to draw a portion of the power that maintained this entire barrier into his own body.
That meant that while his main body may have grown momentarily stronger, the power maintaining the barrier had weakened.
In other words, his control over this domain had diminished.
And attacks like those surreal spears and hands were techniques only possible when backed by the power of a domain.
“Why?”
Tap… tap….
I knocked on the faintly shimmering wall of the purple barrier beside me.
It was still solid… but definitely thinner.
I looked at Belial and provoked him again with an innocent face.
“Is something wrong?”
All to make Belial draw even more power from the barrier.
And if he drew more…
I had a plan for that, too.
“Good.”
The voice beside me spoke.
It seemed to be affirming that I was on the right path.
“That’s enough.”
But Belial was surprisingly composed.
“It seems I have… forgotten my place.”
The moment he finished speaking, the purple barrier that had trapped us screamed.
Kkieeeeeeeek!
The barrier’s energy, in dozens of violet streams of light, began to be sucked into his back like snakes.
And the six jet-black, grotesquely writhing wings on his back wrapped around the front of his body.
Crunch. Crackle.
The wings began to reconstruct his body, digging into and covering him all over like a living suit of armor.
A horrifying sound filled the space.
Before long, a jet-black and hideous suit of armor had formed around his body.
And in Belial’s right hand, a massive spear was now held.
“I will end this quickly.”
I gripped my spear tightly.
I looked around.
The barrier’s power had weakened significantly.
Now was the time.
I immediately stabbed Catastrophe into the floor.
Thunk!
Then, I unleashed every last bit of the Fragment’s mana, intending to overwrite this entire space with my own domain.
To swallow the weakened barrier whole.
Flicker.
Crack!
But he didn’t wait for me to act.
Before my domain could even expand a meter in radius, the image of Belial before me vanished like a mirage.
The next moment, I felt an unimaginable impact in my side, a pain so intense it felt like my body was being crushed.
An attack far stronger than anything before.
CRUNCH!
I didn’t even have time to turn my head.
All-Encompassing Perception had certainly detected his movement and screamed a warning.
But I simply didn’t move.
Because this was more important.
I coughed up blood and collapsed to the floor.
I didn’t even know how many times I’d thrown up blood now.
The balance within my body, which I had briefly managed to tune, came crashing down again.
The pain of broken ribs piercing my insides made it impossible to breathe.
But even in my agony, I smiled.
“Keuk…”
Thud, thud.
Belial stood over me, looking down.
His voice was a mixture of pure confusion and irritation.
“Why go this far?”
He asked, as if he couldn’t understand.
“You could have run. You could have dodged. What are you walking to your death for? What is the meaning of this arrogant resistance?”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t have the strength to.
Instead, with a blood-stained smile, I looked past his legs to where my spear, Catastrophe, was embedded in the floor from the last of my strength.
An incomplete technique. My domain, still young and unstable.
But I could see it there.
Someone clad in black martial arts robes was holding my spear, looking at me silently.
The Owner of the Voice that had guided me.
====
[Authority: Fragment of Harmony (片鱗)]
① Shatter Evil, Reveal Justice (破邪顯正)
— Destroy that which is evil.
② ???
③ ???
====
And he, looking at me, opened his mouth. His voice no longer echoed in my ears, but resonated directly in my soul.
[You did well.]
I smiled at him.
[This was all your doing.]
And then he took hold of my spear.
The moment he did, his body shattered into pieces and began to seep into the incomplete domain I had so desperately laid out.
That jet-black energy slowly imbued itself into my spear, Catastrophe.
And then.
The black energy spread out like roots, climbing up the walls of this purple barrier.
“?!”
Belial, who had been looking down at me, whipped his head around.
He stared with bewildered eyes at the foreign darkness that was eating away at his world from beneath his very feet.
“…What is this…? This unholy…”
====
[Authority: Fragment of Harmony (片鱗)]
① Shatter Evil, Reveal Justice (破邪顯正)
— Destroy that which is evil.
② Universal Decree (萬象勅令)
— The emperor's command over all phenomena in the world.
③ ???
====
Before my eyes, the name of the second Authority, once blurry, finally revealed itself.
[Universal Decree (萬象勅令).]
The emperor’s command over all phenomena.
Within this domain I created, I am the emperor.
The Expanded Authority unfurled.
At some point, the entire area, including Belial and me, was filled with nothing but the jet-black energy created by my will.
I muttered quietly.
“Shatter…”
CR-CR-CR-CR-CRACK!
At my word, spiderweb-like cracks began to spread across Belial’s purple barrier that had trapped us.
My domain was eating away at his world from the inside, destroying it.
Just as I commanded.
On Belial’s face.
For the first time, an expression of pure bewilderment and rage appeared.
Forgetting even to speak, he shot up into the sky.
Then, he swiftly brought his foot down to stomp on my head.
I didn’t dodge the attack.
No, I couldn’t.
I had used all my strength to destroy the barrier.
I couldn’t even move.
‘This should be enough.’
I’d done everything I could.
I closed my eyes.
And at that moment.
Even with my eyes closed, I felt an unbearable burst of light.
I reflexively opened my eyes.
And a clear, yet rage-filled voice echoed through the domain.
“Holy Fire.”
KWAAAAAAAANG!!
A massive pillar of white fire descended from the sky.
“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”
It swallowed Belial’s body whole as he was about to strike me.
His screams echoed wretchedly from within the flames.
I turned my head.
The purple barrier was gone.
Instead.
Beyond where the barrier had vanished, several women were slowly walking into the heart of the battlefield.
And at their very forefront.
A woman with a blazing white magic circle in each hand, glaring at Belial with blue eyes burning with fury.
It was Cheon Yeo-wool.