The Bomber (2)
The Bomber Gael harbored a deep grudge against the priest who had refused to heal her until the very end. That resentment eventually twisted her into a vengeful monster who lost all faith in the goddess and came to despise the seekers of truth. To insult the goddess, she burned countless cathedrals to the ground. To trample on faith itself, she slaughtered countless seekers in the most horrific ways imaginable. And in the end, she even launched an attack on Beatrice, the one known as the incarnation of the Earth Mother.
Though Gael’s terror plot ultimately failed, she brought down the grand cathedral of the Savoyard Duchy and blew up numerous priests in a series of bombings. The trauma she carved into Beatrice that day would never fade.
“I knew you’d go after the cathedral in the end. After all, Bomber Gael is nothing but filth that curses faith and seekers without end. Isn’t that right?”
In his left hand he held a pistol, in his right the violet Holy Sword hung loosely at his side. His signature sharp, three-hundred-sixty-degree glare flashed as he threatened the bomber.
As Edanant began to approach, Gael instinctively retreated. Something seemed to flash across her mind; her face went deathly pale and she stumbled backward again and again. The image of the ‘monster’ who had brutally slaughtered her subordinates kept overlapping with the man standing before her.
“Just who the hell are you?! Why do you look like that monster…!”
Her thunderous roar shook the entire cathedral. Immediately after, the sharp crack of gunfire signaled the real beginning of the fight.
Bang—!
Bang—!!
Bullets screamed through the air the instant the triggers were pulled. Gael twisted her face in fury and hurled a bomb.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!!!
The bomb and bullets collided, triggering a massive explosion. Fierce flames licked the ceiling while a violent shockwave tore through the cathedral’s interior.
‘Good. It looks like ordinary explosions won’t set off the explosives planted outside. Still, if the Bomber suddenly decides to go out in a blaze of mutual destruction, things could get dangerous.’
Edanant frowned and swung Aldebaran. With a clean swish, he sliced through the surrounding smoke in one stroke, clearing his vision. He then took aim at Gael, who was reaching for another bomb, and pulled the trigger.
“Kuh!”
The bullet pierced straight through Gael’s shoulder. Blood and flesh splattered onto the floor. Gael’s already hideous face twisted even further as she glared at Edanant. Yet the wound that should have been fatal healed in the blink of an eye.
Witnessing a regeneration ability that defied common sense, Edanant frowned deeply. The moment the injury closed, he had sensed demonic energy leaking from it.
“Kill that damn bastard right now! Leave not even a single bone… burn him to ash!!”
At her desperate scream, the thugs waiting in the rear finally moved in. The Explosive Corps. A mercenary group armed with bombs and gunpowder weapons. Villains wrapped in dark rags surrounded Edanant, clutching explosives in their hands.
────!!!
The thugs aimed the nozzles connected to the fuel tanks strapped to their backs. In the next instant, flames hot enough to scorch bone poured forth. A flamethrower made from a mixture of oil and tar—the very weapon they had used to horrifically burn fleeing citizens during the earlier explosion.
The flames, released in a massive burst, completely engulfed Edanant, who had been caught in their encirclement.
“Cough!”
“Kuaaaaack!!”
He must have been reduced to charcoal by now. The thugs who had fired the flamethrowers stared into the crimson blaze with satisfaction—until a flash of light shot through it.
It was a sword strike born from the violet blade. The slash that cut through even the roaring flames severed the heads of every thug surrounding him. Blood fountains erupted in unison as the decapitated heads rolled across the floor.
“H-how…!”
The streams of fire that had poured in from every direction froze mid-air. It was no metaphor. The moment they touched Aldebaran’s edge, they stopped as if time itself had halted.
Faced with a phenomenon impossible to explain, both Gael and her subordinates froze in place. The sight of a giant fireball suspended in the air was something that belonged only in nightmares.
The halted flames only extinguished like snuffed candles after Edanant had already stepped clear of their reach.
“U-uaaaaack!”
“He’s a monster! That guy’s a monster!!”
Edanant charged. The thugs, having lost all will to fight, could only scream. The tip of Aldebaran glowed. Every time its chilling flash descended, a final shriek rang out alongside a fresh gush of blood.
His merciless slaughter, devoid of even a shred of emotion, was like a blade sharpened to perfection. Watching Edanant carve a mountain of corpses and rivers of blood, Gael recalled the name of the monster that had remained an object of terror for her even after all these years.
“F-fucking hell! Maximilian…! You bastard, what the hell is your connection to Maximilian?!”
“……”
The Bomber shrieked as if in agony. Edanant slowly raised his head, the Holy Sword in his hand dripping with blood and gore. A heavy silence fell.
It was as if the nightmare that had haunted her for so long had appeared before her once again. Even the way he was drenched in blood was identical to Maximilian. But what truly triggered her terror was the complete absence of emotion in those eyes.
He must be connected to Maximilian. There’s no other way he could be this similar.
“……”
He offered no answer to her desperate cry. Instead, just as he had done when hunting demonic beasts, he drew forth a dark hue resembling black gunpowder. The inky mist scattered like haze before coalescing into the shape of a musket. Soon, the muzzles were trained on the enemies who had lost their will to fight.
It was as calm and unwavering as a firing squad passing sentence on traitors who had rebelled against the throne.
‘That… is it a divine blessing? No, there’s no way something so ominous could be a blessing! I’ve faced countless blessings before, but I’ve never seen anything like that!’
The power one could be born with from mythical beings, or the power one could earn through extraordinary achievements, was called a Blessing. The many blessing holders, including Princess Ludmila who had received hers from a red dragon, were perfect examples.
But that thing was a blessing, and yet not a blessing.
Gael screamed the moment she witnessed an ability that carried not even a trace of divinity.
“D-don’t tell me…! You serve a heretic?! That must be the blessing of a god that was erased!!”
Gael had spent her entire life hating faith and scorning seekers. That was precisely why she possessed such extensive knowledge about blessings, which were known as the goddess’s grace. This power came from heresy. It was undoubtedly the blessing of an evil cult that the Holy Kingdom had strictly forbidden and concealed.
It was nothing short of blasphemy against the goddess Gael, whom the Valtaria Empire and countless other kingdoms revered as their state religion. Naturally, accepting the blessing of an evil cult was an unforgivable sin under any circumstances.
“That’s why I almost never use it. I have to keep it completely hidden so it’s never discovered.”
The pitch-black muskets spat fire.
Ta-haaaang—!!
More than forty muskets fired at once. The instant the gunfire ceased, every thug who had occupied the cathedral collapsed like sieves. Even Gael, who had been facing Edanant directly, was no exception. Her entire body—including her head—was riddled with dozens of bullet wounds, turning her into a hideous rag.
“Cough…! Kk, cough…!!”
The terribly mangled woman thrashed about, vomiting blood in heavy spurts. Not yet. It wasn’t over yet. She could not die until she had erased every trace of divinity from the world. With bloodshot eyes, she glared at Edanant and radiated a desperate, venomous killing intent.
“Now it’s time for round two, Bomber Gael.”
Crrrrrrrrk—.
Crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk!!!
Was it the final cry of someone determined to achieve revenge at all costs? The Bomber’s torn and tattered flesh regenerated in an instant. Grotesque lumps of meat bubbled up like foam and began to swell. The once scrawny, hunchbacked Gael grew into a giant. The lumps covering her body gradually transformed into rugged, bulging muscle. The monster opened its jaws wide and roared.
At the same time, an overwhelming demonic energy capable of filling the entire cathedral burst forth.
“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”
The sheer pressure was terrifying. The roar that erupted from a body nearly five yards tall was truly monstrous. What an ugly thing. No wonder it survived like a cockroach. Edanant clicked his tongue at the sight of the endlessly writhing muscles.
“MAXIMILIAN!! MAXIMILIIIIIIIIIIIIIAN!!!”
With her intellect swallowed by her monstrous regenerative power, Gael called Edanant by Maximilian’s name and spewed savage killing intent. Her eyes burned like sulfur flames, as if she would pounce at any moment. Thick shoulder muscles swallowed her neck. Both arms, wrapped in muscle, resembled iron maces. Even her torso boasted vigorous muscle like a heavily armored infantryman in full plate.
How many bullets would it take to kill something like that?
Damn it. I’ll just have to try.
After all, when it came to firepower, he had been unmatched even in the Saintess’s party.
At Edanant’s gesture, the force of forty muskets instantly swelled to over a hundred. The muskets deployed in mid-air all took aim at the massive lump of muscle before them.
“You son of a bitch…! Don’t you dare call me by that cursed name!”
“GUOOOOOOOOOOH!!!”
He leveled the tip of the Holy Sword. The muskets began their bullet barrage. In response, the giant beast charged forward on all fours and leaped from the ground.
Kwagwagwagwagwa!!!
Would the bullets pierce through? Or would they be devoured by muscle? In the end, that would decide the outcome of the battle. Even as the giant charged like a tank, Edanant did not move. He fully expected the hideous monster to be stopped by the hail of bullets.
The muscle-covered monster raised a fist as thick as a war hammer, determined to crush that arrogance.