Chapter 61: Apostle (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 61: Apostle (3)
Barcus rose into the air.
Black clouds, crackling with lightning, swirled around him.
A thundercloud.
His eyes flashed open.
-Rumble…
The space around them trembled.
I shouted instinctively.
“Yukal!!!”
Yukal reacted instantly. He spread his hands wide, casting a magic circle. And it grew. Larger. Larger. Even larger.
Its size continued to expand, forming a barrier that encompassed the entire battlefield.
-KRA-KOOOOM!!
A flash so bright it momentarily blinded me.
The lightning that filled the sky slammed into the barrier.
“Kghh…”
Yukal let out a pained groan.
His hands trembled, and the barrier shook violently.
The Paladin’s lips moved as she hurriedly began to chant a Holy Method. A woman who appeared to be their leader stepped forward, shield raised.
A sacred energy imbued the barrier, gradually thickening it.
The mages of Maengho, Maengju Team 2, also lent their aid, reinforcing the barrier.
-BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM…!
Barcus’s lightning relentlessly hammered the barrier.
The impact of the blows shook the very air.
I gritted my teeth.
At this rate, it’s going to shatter.
My mind went blank. I had to get to him before the barrier broke.
I kicked off the ground with all my might.
But.
Someone was already flying toward him.
It was the Old Man.
As he shot into the sky, the Fist Reinforcement enveloping his fists tore through the lightning.
“Where is Sion---!!”
His roar erupted.
It was a thunderous shout, powerful enough to momentarily drown out the roar of the lightning.
His ferocious charge toward Barcus was enough to stop the man’s lightning strikes.
-BOOM!!
With a massive crash, the Old Man and Barcus collided.
The Old Man’s fist was caught in Barcus’s grip.
He paid it no mind, simply throwing his other fist.
-THWACK!
Barcus’s head snapped back slightly.
But.
The bastard was smiling.
“When The Great Being ordered me to deal with you, I had my doubts.”
Barcus slowly righted his head and twisted the Old Man’s captured left arm.
-CRACK!
A grotesque sound echoed as the joint was twisted.
But the Old Man’s expression didn’t change. If anything, his gaze only grew sharper.
“But now, I see.”
Crackle— Lightning swirled in Barcus’s eyes.
“You are truly… worthy of being called humanity’s strongest!”
In that instant, a flurry of blows began.
Fist met fist.
The Old Man looked for an opening and struck Barcus.
Not to be outdone, Barcus rode the lightning and retaliated.
In terms of speed, they were nearly equals, but…
Barcus’s lightning struck true, as if piercing the Old Man’s body.
The Old Man’s Fist Reinforcement, however, was blocked by Barcus’s barrier, striking nothing but empty air.
“Is this all? Did I come all this way for a mere trifle like this?”
Barcus’s shout filled the space.
At first, he blocked and parried.
But as time passed, Barcus grew faster and faster.
The Old Man’s movements, on the other hand, grew heavier.
He was tiring.
I gritted my teeth.
No.
The Old Man could hold out, but he couldn’t win.
The absolute Authority the Evil God bestowed upon them was akin to a divine prohibition, something that could never be damaged by ordinary means.
My head felt like it was about to explode. The hand gripping my spear trembled.
Cheon Yeo-wool, Yu Hana, Kang A-rin, Sion.
They had been abducted by the Apostles.
I couldn’t stop it. I reached out, right in front of me, but my hand closed on empty air. As they were dragged away, all I could do was stare blankly at the scene.
I thought I knew everything. I had anticipated the Apostles’ arrival and believed I was prepared this time.
But in the end, calling them here had only driven them into a deathtrap. The choice I made had devoured them.
Can I save them?
Can I turn this situation around?
Despair washed over me.
My whole body felt heavy.
But.
[『Mirror-Still Water』 awakens your mind!]
All the noise in my head vanished.
My inner turmoil subsided. Like the calm surface of water, my vision cleared.
As the milky fog lifted,
what I had to do now—that alone rose to the surface, sharp and clear.
The one person here who could actually harm Barcus.
Excluding the Paladin.
The only one who possessed the power of a Fragment.
Was me.
My fingertips slowly grew hot.
The sensation of my blood boiling.
I took a deep breath.
And—
I shot forward.
-CRACK!
The ground beneath my feet shattered. I gathered all my strength and launched myself forward, as if tearing through space itself.
The scenery before me blurred in an instant. But I wasn't alone.
“Old Man!!!!”
With that shout, a red explosion erupted to my left.
Park Gwang-cheol was flying alongside me. His body blazed like a fireball as he streaked through the air.
His face was a mask of fury, his entire being condensed with explosive power.
I glanced down.
The battlefield was awakening.
Vanquisher, Maengho, the Paladins, the Cheongpung Sect—all of them had snapped out of it. The heroes who had been frozen in place began to move.
They too had lost those precious to them, but they weren’t standing still.
Park Gwang-cheol and I charged the bastard.
In that moment, all the fighting spirit on the battlefield focused on a single enemy.
Barcus.
The bastard slowly raised the corners of his mouth.
He took two steps back and raised a hand.
“Come.”
-BZZZZZZT!
Black lightning writhed in the air. The swirling currents spread out, sharp enough to slice through flesh.
There was no fear, no hesitation.
Into that lightning—
we threw ourselves.
The curtain on this battle had risen long ago.
*
Cheon Yeo-wool opened her eyes.
Red chains were wrapped around her wrists. Expressionless, she flicked her wrist once.
-Clang.
With the sound of clashing metal, the red chains fell limply to the floor.
As if the web-like restraints had meant nothing at all.
Cheon Yeo-wool slowly looked around.
A ruined temple.
The massive pillars were cracked and split. The structure was so precarious it looked like it could collapse at any moment.
The sky was stained a deep violet.
It was as if the flow of time had stopped. Everything was bizarrely vivid.
A sense that everything had come to a standstill… and then…
In that moment.
“Isn’t it beautiful?”
A voice so cloying it was sickening to hear.
A nasal, smug, and leisurely tone.
Cheon Yeo-wool turned her gaze.
Someone was floating there in mid-air.
It was Mary.
She was posed alluringly, legs crossed, one arm dangling while the other propped up her chin. A smug smile played on her lips.
Mary waved her fingertips.
From them, red, thread-like strands of mana spread out.
They flowed along the temple’s walls and pillars, beginning to envelop the space as if staining it red.
“This is a space personally granted by The Great Being.”
Mary’s voice was filled with ecstasy.
Cheon Yeo-wool watched the scene in silence.
“A space unbound by time, transcending all things. It’s… how should I put it? A bit of a waste for a trap meant to catch you, don’t you think?”
she whispered mockingly, her voice thick with nasality.
In this space, imbued with the Evil God’s Authority, an Apostle is immortal.
They can be struck down, but they will never die. Mary was overwhelmed by The Great Being’s grace.
Now, it was time to carry out the mission He had given her.
At her gesture, the red chains around Cheon Yeo-wool began to squirm and rise again.
They shot out endlessly from the floor, from the air, from everywhere.
The temple was stained red.
“Farewell.”
Mary whispered, flicking her fingertips lightly.
The red chains shot up in unison, moving to swallow Cheon Yeo-wool.
But.
Cheon Yeo-wool’s expression remained unchanged.
She nonchalantly lowered her head.
And then.
“Aha… Ahahahaha!”
Cheon Yeo-wool began to laugh like a madwoman.
Mary’s expression twisted.
“A pure power bestowed by a god?”
Cheon Yeo-wool said softly. Her eyes grew cold.
“Your god certainly has good instincts. I wondered if he’d notice… and it seems he finally did.”
“However…”
She slowly took a step forward.
“It seems he only knows one part of the story, not the whole.”
“What?”
Only then did Mary sense that something was wrong.
The red chains. The divine restraints she directly controlled. The very things that should have been binding the woman before her couldn’t even get close to Cheon Yeo-wool.
Wherever Cheon Yeo-wool stepped, the red chains retreated as if avoiding her.
“It must have been the best move he could make in a situation he couldn’t comprehend.”
“But.”
Cheon Yeo-wool extended a hand.
In that instant, the air in the temple twisted.
“It was the wrong move.”
And then.
A small crack opened before Cheon Yeo-wool’s eyes.
-Chirp, chirp.
From within the rift—white feathers fluttered out.
And from inside, a small bird flew forth.
Cheon Yeo-wool smiled gently and whispered softly.
“Yes, it’s been a while, Baek-ryeong. I missed you, too.”
The bird pecked lightly at the back of her hand, as if confirming an old bond.
She, in turn, placed a light kiss on the bird perched on her hand.
The chirping bird soon became a figure of light and seeped into her body.
It was only then that Mary realized.
Why The Great Being had ordered her to eliminate this human at all costs.
A dangerous, utterly incomprehensible energy began to radiate from within her.
Mary instinctively flinched.
Cheon Yeo-wool’s expression hardened.
-THUD!
The moment she planted her foot, the red chains enveloping the temple burned away.
As if she had accepted the power of a Fragment.
At that moment.
A massive temple materialized behind Cheon Yeo-wool. The laws of the space were being rewritten.
The master of this space was no longer Mary, nor The Great Being.
“The Sanctuary is open.”
Cheon Yeo-wool declared calmly.
A Sanctuary on a completely different level from the one she had deployed in her decisive battle with Moras.
This space was a divine domain that transcended time and space.
And that was precisely the wrong move.
This space, granted by a god, transcended time and space, and in doing so,
before the regression,
it allowed the Cheon Yeo-wool of that time—the one renowned as the Saintess of the Battlefield—
to descend once more.
“Your god… was wrong.”
Cheon Yeo-wool extended her hands.
A formation was drawn on each of her hands.
In her left hand, a Holy Method.
A sacred seal, imbued with light.
A pure power, containing the Authority of a Saintess.
In her right hand, Magic.
A cold and intricate flow of mana.
A precise tuning that only a master mage could manifest.
Light and darkness. Order and chaos.
The harmony of the sacred and the demonic.
It was a unique realm that only Cheon Yeo-wool would one day pioneer.
Cheon Yeo-wool quietly opened her mouth.
“For your information.”
She lifted her head.
A chilling light flashed in her eyes.
“I have never lost to you.”
In that instant.
The space was flooded with light.
-KWOOOOOM-!!
The clash between the Apostle and the Saintess had begun.