Chapter 82
Chapter 82
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 82
Chapter Title: The Giant Apostle's Assault
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"Kugh!?"
The first effective hit landed on Balak.
Lelia and Vincent, spotting that fact, didn't miss the opening and charged right in.
"You bastards...!"
Balak grimaced as he watched the two rush at him like they had seized their chance.
To him, this whole affair had been nothing more than entertainment.
A bit of fun in hunting down and killing those pesky fox cubs that had been bothering the church lately.
But what about now?
Whoosh!Boom!
Wasn't he disgracefully retreating, swinging both arms to fend off the pincer attack from the two charging foes?
"Damn it, you filthy scum!"
That reality grated on Balak's nerves.
Who was he, after all?
He was an Apostle, the core of the Ruin Church, destined one day to be the wings that would let the church soar.
It was absurd for someone like him to falter in what was supposed to be mere amusement.
It tarnished not just his honor, but the church's as well.
"I won't stand for this!"
Pushed back by Lelia and Vincent's combined assault, he stomped the ground ferociously.
Boom! Boom!
The surrounding earth erupted like explosions, chunks flying outward in all directions.
Moreover, as the soil burst forth, every flying stone and clump was infused with black aura.
Even Lelia and Vincent, in the midst of their pincer attack, had no choice but to hesitate momentarily under the indiscriminate barrage.
And the shockwave was strong enough to affect even Jeon, who had kept some distance.
'What a real monster.'
Jeon swiftly retreated out of the attack's range while once again marveling at Balak's prowess.
Having ascended to a new realm himself, he could now see even more clearly just how absurdly powerful Balak's level was.
But that certainty only strengthened Jeon's conviction.
'We can do this.'
With Lelia, Vincent, and himself added to the mix, they could defeat this monster.
'...In the original history without me, what happened?'
Suddenly, Jeon remembered that he was inside the Door of Awakening.
Right now, with his addition, they had gained some advantage over Balak, but he wondered how it had gone in the unaltered timeline.
'Just the two of them... they'd probably manage a draw at best.'
Vincent and Lelia's combination was far from weak.
But Balak was monstrously strong.
'...Focus on the now.'
He was curious about the original history, but Jeon decided not to dwell on it.
He had just reached this new realm.
It was more important to test what he could achieve here.
"I'll show you what true hell looks like!"
Crunch! Crunch!
In that interval, Balak, having created a brief opening, slammed both feet and hands into the ground.
The surrounding terrain surged toward him like it was being sucked in.
Rumble! Rumble! The gathered earth and rocks enveloped Balak, forming the shape of a massive human figure.
"Damn it!"
Lelia and Vincent, of course, tried blasting it with magic upon realizing what was happening, but thick black aura coated every bit of earth and rock, preventing them from stopping the giant's formation.
In the end.
The soil and stones wrapped around Balak's already enormous body, completing the form of a colossal giant.
"Go on, struggle all you want."
The giant stood at least 5 meters tall, its earthen and rocky body rippling with black aura.
Balak, now in giant form, looked down at the three before him.
An overwhelming pressure emanated from him, enough to make their legs tremble just from facing it.
'...Balak's straining to maintain that form, clearly.'
Jeon and the others reminded themselves of the current situation to ward off fear or panic.
Maintaining that shape must consume a massive amount of aura and stamina.
The odds weren't entirely against them.
"Jeon, hit him with another big one like before."
"Leave it to me."
Thus, the three reignited their battle spirit even against the giant Balak.
Their fighting style hadn't changed much from before.
Lelia and Vincent up front, Jeon supporting from behind.
The difference was that Jeon's spells now packed more power and cast faster.
The moment the two charged the giant, Jeon's prepped magic fired alongside theirs.
Roar!
He layered Silvermont's 4th Circle secret arts heavily, then morphed them into rope form using goblin magic.
The thick silver salt rope wrapped around one of Balak's swinging arms aimed at the charging pair.
Of course, Balak's ferocious momentum prevented it from holding long, but it succeeded in making him hesitate briefly.
"Great support!"
Boom!
As a result, Vincent burrowed into the giant's bosom and slammed a gray whirlwind infused with silver salt into Balak's jaw.
Following up, a massive silver salt fox conjured by Lelia clamped down on Balak's side.
"Think that'll work!?"
But Balak endured the barrage, seized the fox's jaws, and brutally tore them apart.
Then he swung his foot at Vincent charging in.
"Tch!"
Despite the increased size, his speed hadn't diminished at all.
Vincent, cloaked in gray wind around his body, barely dodged the attack.
Whoosh! Thud!
But Balak had no intention of stopping there.
He slammed the foot that had missed Vincent into the ground as a pivot, then whipped the opposite leg around like a windmill.
Lelia and Vincent had retreated, so they avoided the sweep.
"...This guy's insane!"
But black aura trailed the kick's path, targeting them.
A thick whip of dark aura lashed right up to their faces.
And at that moment.
Clang!
A gray projectile struck the black aura whip from below, deflecting it upward.
The slightly altered trajectory let it narrowly miss the two.
"You okay?"
"...Damn, if you think about it, you're a monster too?"
"But a good monster on our side, right?"
The two marveled at Jeon, who had shaped gray magic into bullet form with goblin spells and fired it.
Balak was showing insane feats in giant form, but so was Jeon—barely a 3rd Circle mage, now 4th, deflecting Balak's attacks.
"Here he comes again!"
But they didn't have long to admire Jeon.
Confirming his attack had missed, Balak charged them full force.
"No breathing room!"
Vincent and Lelia fired magic at the onrushing giant.
Jeon followed a beat later with his own prepared spells.
Only after tanking all three head-on did the giant Balak falter briefly.
"If we keep this up, can we win?"
"Probability-wise... about 7 to 3?"
If they just kept defending full-force against the charging Balak.
With him burning through aura and stamina, the three had the edge.
But they couldn't ignore that 30% chance.
"Plus, we have to worry about the situation up top!"
Moreover, they couldn't drag this out forever.
The screams from after sending the two to the suicide squad had lessened, but fierce fighting still raged above the canyon.
Even if they beat Balak, if the other Silvermont mages fell, it meant nothing.
But their discussion didn't last.
Balak, his charge blocked, now swung both arms, unleashing indiscriminate aura blasts.
The sheer number was high, but individual power was less than the earlier kick aura.
None of the three struggled much blocking the incoming orbs aimed at them.
'Wait, something's off.'
But that's what felt wrong.
It seemed like attacks meant to divert their eyes, not real threats.
And sure enough.
"You first."
Using the barrage to draw their gazes, Balak kicked off the ground toward Lelia.
Both Jeon and Vincent knew why.
The key reason their magic hurt Balak meaningfully was Lelia's mana field buffs.
Whoosh!
In an instant, Balak closed on Lelia and swung his fist.
Before Jeon or Vincent could react, it happened in a flash.
Boom!
Balak's massive fist smashed Lelia and drove her into the ground.
"...You fox bitch!"
But Balak felt his fist hadn't truly connected.
The moment it struck, her body dissolved into a puff of silver salt and scattered.
"You underestimated me too much."
Silver Salt Mirage.
Lelia's evasion spell, prepared in case during the aura barrage, shone perfectly.
"Is that so? Then keep dodging if you can!"
But Balak had no plans to ease up.
From the moment he identified her as the linchpin, she was his sole target.
"We have to block him!"
Jeon and Vincent's magic rained down on Balak leaping at Lelia again.
But Balak tanked them with his body, reaching solely to kill her.
"Brute!"
Lelia fired back at him, but Balak's momentum didn't waver.
His giant form chipped away under the spells, blocked only by surrounding earth and rock.
Yet he kept reaching only for Lelia.
Lelia used Silver Salt Mirage again to evade, buying a brief respite, realizing Balak was going all-in.
"...You two, buy me just a little time!?"
With a resolute gaze, as if she'd made her own resolve, she asked them to stall.
'Going for her own trump card?'
At her urgent cry, Jeon and Vincent drew up max mana to prepare spells.
And Jeon wondered if the original history had unfolded similarly.
Thus, Lelia immediately drew five circles around her, each with seven shapes inside, beginning to cast five 7th Circle spells simultaneously.
Balak moved his half-ruined giant form to reach out.
"Not on my watch!"
Vincent's fierce wind batted the hand away.
Jeon's white lightning then crashed into its back.
The giant, enduring shocks, finally halted.
"Grah!"
But in that instant.
Rumble.
Balak deliberately shed the giant form and leaped anew from within.
He thrust a fist brimming with pure black aura at Lelia.
Meanwhile, Lelia's simultaneous casts completed.
Boom!
Balak's fist toward Lelia crossed with her five 7th Circle spells toward him, creating a massive explosion.
"Lelia!"
"You okay!?"
Visibility blocked by the blast, Jeon and Vincent rushed to her.
There stood Lelia, Balak's fist piercing her abdomen, and Balak, burned across his body by her magic.
"...Cough!"
"Kuh..."
Both badly hurt, but Lelia's state was critical.
Blood poured from her mouth, while Balak only groaned in pain.
"Lelia, Lelia!"
Vincent shoved Balak back with gray wind and embraced her.
"Vi... Vincent."
Lelia, cradled in his arms, looked up at him with fading eyes.
His black aura-infused fist had pierced her.
"Lelia, Lelia, no, no!"
Even a high priest couldn't save her now.
Yet Vincent desperately staunched her wound with gray wind, holding her tight.
'...So this is how it goes.'
Watching, Jeon thought this scene likely matched the original history closely.
'Bitter taste.'
As a recreated world from memory, her survival here wouldn't change anything anyway.
Still, it soured his mood.
Shaking off the bitterness, Jeon shifted from Lelia and Vincent to Balak, pushed back weakly by the wind.
His condition was poor too, though better than hers.
His body covered in burns and scorch marks, clothes fully incinerated.
Perhaps because of that.
A small, rectangular plate wrapped in cloth lay on the ground where he stood.
'Huh? What's that?'
Unburned by Lelia's magic, the cloth itself seemed extraordinary.
'...An artifact?'
Come to think of it, the church's main goal, even deploying an Apostle, was transporting relics.
The trap for Silvermont was secondary, for transport.
No safer place than the strongest fighter, Balak's bosom.
'Gotta check...!'
The fight with Balak neared its end.
No telling how long the Door of Awakening would show this.
This might be the only chance.
Jeon dashed, snatched the relic, and quickly unwrapped the cloth.
Unveiling one layer revealed a small stone slab.
At first glance, its importance wasn't clear, but fully unwrapping and reading the inscriptions...
Jeon understood its value.
"This... it's a rune?"
The vital relic the Ruin Church mobilized an Apostle for.
Etched upon it: none other than rune script.