Anubis Draws Near
"Canteas. Block the summoning ritual."
"Got it!"
At Do-ha's command, Canteas adjusted his grip on his staff and surged forward.
The cardinal reacted at once.
"All of you — stop that one! The summoning must not be broken!"
"Yes, Your Eminence!!"
Every cultist who had been working the underground excavation charged as one.
There were five thousand of them in total. Against Canteas — a being who could summon undead by the hundreds of millions — five thousand might have looked like nothing. The problem was that every last one of them possessed the combat power of an assistant bishop.
They had never been granted the rank, but their strength was identical.
Flames roared. Steel rang. The ground shuddered under the weight of charging feet.
Knight-class cultists drew their swords and rushed in. Mage-class cultists hung back, casting buffs and hurling elemental magic in a relentless barrage.
"Hmph. Pathetic."
Canteas snorted as a black storm of spells came screaming toward him.
Most of those mages were around Fourth Circle. The knights were three-star. The martial artists were a mix of Peak and Super-Peak. A truly formidable force — one that could hold its own in a proper war.
"But in front of me, all of it is worthless."
He flicked his staff. Every incoming spell simply vanished.
Then a sword thrust came in fast — and he turned it aside with the tip of his staff as if swatting a fly.
"Wha—?"
The cultist who had lunged stared in shock. The thing in front of him was a lich. How had it parried a sword with a staff?
"Surprised? Don't be. After hanging around that bastard Do-ha long enough, this much is nothing."
Canteas unleashed a Shadowless Lance. A massive hole punched clean through the cultist's chest.
"Kill the lich before he summons undead!"
"Waaaaaah!"
At someone's shout, the cultists redoubled their assault. In a way, they weren't wrong. A lich's true power lay in summoning.
Canteas, however, had no intention of calling undead against the likes of them.
"Using summons on trash like you would be an embarrassment."
Dark Spear.
As he chanted, thousands of spears of pure darkness formed behind him — a formation that looked uncannily like Do-ha's Heavenly Spirit Flying Swords.
"Try hard to block them."
A thin, cold smile touched Canteas's lips. He thrust his staff forward, and the hovering Dark Spears streaked out, punching through cultist hearts one after another.
While Canteas was slaughtering the cultists, Do-ha rolled his shoulders and looked at the cardinal standing before him.
"Shall we get started too?"
The cardinal had not joined the ranks. He had been blocking Do-ha's path from the beginning — which meant he was counting on something.
"Looks like you plan to hold me here until the ritual finishes."
The cardinal flinched. The guess had been far too accurate.
He had no intention of killing Baek Do-ha. More precisely, he knew he couldn't. Anyone who had already dealt with Saleos was far beyond anything he could hope to match, no matter how hard he struggled.
"I'll grab your ankles and buy every second I can."
"Oh? That look in your eyes is pure steel. Makes me want to pluck them out."
To an outsider, it might have looked like a man steeling himself for a righteous cause. That was exactly why Do-ha despised fanatics. They truly believed their every action was a path to salvation.
"I'm curious how long you'll last."
"Since you're curious, I'll show you."
The cardinal began to chant. Magic circles bloomed across the floor — strange ones, nothing like ordinary spellwork.
"I told you. I will buy time."
The circles shifted into new forms, and from within them, a torrent of demonic beasts poured out.
"Ah. So you're a summoner type."
That explained the sudden Anubis ritual.
"Every one of them is a beast from the Demon Realm."
Thousands upon thousands of monsters kept vomiting forth. The cardinal smiled. Even the Absolute Being, Baek Do-ha, would need time to clear a horde of this size. He didn't expect the beasts to inflict a fatal wound — this was someone who had broken through the Demon Kings' assaults and fought the Demon God himself. But they could stall him.
"These beasts will hold you."
"That so?"
Baek-bo Myeol-hwang Gong, First Step: Cheon-roe — Heavenly Thunder.
Thousands of lightning bolts crashed down at once. The black mass of monsters that had filled the chamber an instant before scattered into drifting ash.
In the same breath:
Ruin of Ground.
An Eighth-Circle spell tore open the floor, creating a bottomless abyss. Some of the beasts had been burrowing underground; this was the only way to finish them all.
"Th-this is…"
The cardinal's eyes went wide. His mouth worked soundlessly, shock stealing his voice.
Even a Demon King would have needed at least ten minutes to wipe out that many summoned beasts. Baek Do-ha had done it in under thirty seconds. Was that even possible? Absolute Being or not — was this truly something a living creature could do?
Do-ha glanced toward the Anubis summoning circle and nodded to himself.
"Hmm… still a ways to go."
Calling a god, after all. It was going to take considerable time.
"Hey. That all you've got?"
He looked at the stunned cardinal. This wasn't even a warm-up. Numbers meant nothing when every last beast was hollow. The summons had been strong enough — some of them on par with quasi-baron-class demons — but they hadn't been difficult opponents. If the cardinal had truly wanted to pin Do-ha down, he should have summoned beasts that were troublesome to fight, not ones that simply hit hard.
"Having enormous power doesn't make you strong, you idiot."
"Y-you—!"
"Doesn't look like you've got anything else to show me."
As the cardinal trembled, Do-ha shook his head. He should have just let Canteas fight this one and taken the cultists himself. This was neither fun nor a proper delay.
"W-wait! It's not over yet!"
As Do-ha started to move, the cardinal thrust out a desperate hand. The beasts had died easily, but he still had more to offer.
"Don't need it."
Baek-bo Myeol-hwang Gong, Fourth Step: Geukma Noegwon — Extreme Demon Thunder Fist.
In the blink of an eye, Do-ha closed the distance and tore the cardinal's heart clean out of his chest.
"Im…possible…"
The cardinal collapsed, ambition still burning in his eyes as he hit the ground. He had wanted to summon Anubis and become a candidate for the next papacy. He died far too hollow a death for that dream.
Do-ha was already moving when a strange energy prickled at his senses. He turned toward the ongoing summoning ritual.
"…So you're Baek Do-ha."
Atop a massive boulder beside the summoning circle, a figure revealed himself.
Demonic energy on a completely different scale from any cultist Do-ha had faced so far. A flowing, numinous presence. And a killing intent so deep it was almost suffocating.
"You. Pope Asmoden."
The Pope himself had appeared. How long had he been watching? Even as the cardinal died, he had stayed hidden to the very end.
He only showed himself because he was afraid the ritual would break.
A cruel bastard. He hadn't even come out when a cardinal following his own orders was in mortal danger.
"I wonder — can you stop me? I'm rather looking forward to it."
"Don't. I have no intention of fighting you."
Asmoden gathered demonic energy in his hand and began pouring it into the summoning circle.
"Not a chance!"
Do-ha exploded into motion, unfolding Noeryeongsinbo. The Pope's appearance was clearly meant to accelerate the Anubis summoning.
That is not happening.
No matter what, the summoning of Anubis had to be stopped.
Baek-bo Myeol-hwang Gong, Eleventh Step: Cheonhwa Myeongchul — Heavenly Fire Life Blaze.
A pillar of dark-crimson fire crashed down onto the summoning circle.
"…Block it."
At the Pope's command, the remaining cultists threw themselves forward as one, detonating every scrap of power they had to hold back the fire pillar. It was like watching a human breakwater. Even as the Heavenly Fire Life Blaze melted them, they did not scream — they simply died one by one, holding the column at bay.
"Truly… what tremendous power, Absolute Being."
When the fire pillar finally faded, Asmoden murmured in admiration. He had always wondered why the Demon Realm treated the Absolute Being with such caution. Facing him in person, he finally understood just how strong the man was.
"You… aren't the real body, are you?"
Do-ha narrowed his eyes, reading the Pope's condition. It wasn't illusion magic. But it wasn't the true body either.
"Every last dog in this cult makes clones, don't they."
Among the enemies he had killed so far, several had used clones like this. Looking at it now, they had all learned the technique from their Pope.
"A body infused with thought-essence. You learned that from Lucifer, didn't you?"
Do-ha had seen that kind of thought-essence manipulation before — Lucifer, lurking in the depths of Dimerof's mind, had used the same method.
"You know well. Then you also know that killing me here is meaningless."
"I'm going to find the real you and kill you soon enough. But right now, destroying the summoning circle comes first."
"Heh heh. Wise. But you're too late."
Laughing, the Pope drove his fingers into his own solar plexus. His body liquefied and began seeping into the summoning circle.
The entire cavern shook. A thick, choking death-qi flooded the air.
Canteas, having finished off every last cultist, came running.
"Do-ha!"
By his calculations, Anubis should still have needed more time. Why had the summoning suddenly accelerated?
"The Pope did something."
"The Pope showed up?!"
"As a clone."
"Damn it… what now? Should we attack the circle?"
"No."
Do-ha narrowed his eyes at the summoning circle, which was now pouring out death-qi. Attacking it in this state would accomplish nothing.
"Better to strike the moment Anubis emerges."
They were on the verge of completion. Every scrap of power was protecting the circle. Trying to destroy it now would only feed it more energy.
"Canteas. When I give the signal, hit that circle with the strongest magic you've got."
"And you?"
"I'll hit Anubis."
Canteas swallowed hard and tightened his grip on his staff.
Five seconds passed.
"Now."
At the command, Canteas gathered every ounce of his power and unleashed his magic.