Chapter 29
Chapter 29
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 029
Chapter Title: The Underworld Heir is a Cheat Player
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Slash!
A chilling sound accompanied by a fountain of blood erupting.
The knight, cleaved by the holy flame sword aura, staggered back with hollow eyes.
More than the pain from the wound.
“How... how...”
It must have been shocking that the ruffian before him had used the holy flame sword aura, the symbol of piety and the mark of a paladin.
In the past, paladins had always been exceedingly rare.
In this era without angels or temples.
“What's there to be surprised about?”
Grin.
The holy flame sword aura was truly the exclusive domain of the chosen ones.
Sein approached the knight with a smiling face.
The knight still hadn't regained his senses.
He didn't even know his name, but that was enough.
Splash!
Once more, from below to above, the swung Bastion sliced across the knight's chest.
Thud.
The knight collapsed to his knees and fell.
Sein slowly looked down at him.
As if a god judging a human.
Stab.
Sein passed judgment on the knight.
End.
‘That was close.’
He didn't show it, but Sein was breaking out in cold sweat.
Though he could wield the holy flame sword aura, a holy knight was still a tricky opponent for Sein to handle.
Moreover.
Tremble.
His arm gripping Bastion was shaking.
“This damn thing still does this.”
This was one of the reasons he'd discarded Bastion.
It was a holy sword that allowed even the unqualified to use the holy flame sword aura.
“You a holy sword? You're a cursed sword.”
In exchange, it drained life force.
Moreover, if too much life force was drained, permanent damage could occur.
Sein hurriedly sheathed Bastion in the scabbard on his back and let go of it.
The knight wasn't the only one startled.
“Th-thank you.”
Barus approached with a dazed expression.
If not for Gallio's prior warning, he too would have collapsed upon seeing the holy flame sword aura.
“You, truly...”
Sein looked at such a Barus.
“This isn't the time for that.”
What mattered wasn't who he was.
He held the girl cradled in one arm.
“...!”
She was the key figure in this moment.
‘Saintess.’
Beings who symbolized the temples alongside the saints.
Born from the gods' choosing, their mere existence elevated them to the position of the temple's highest leader, the pope.
However.
‘With the gods absent now, how was a saintess born?’
Normally impossible.
He had a hunch.
That was why Sein regarded Barus with such icy eyes.
“Well, it's not something you could have handled alone anyway.”
Half-baked bishop.
If such a thing were possible, the answer would be the true archbishop.
“Gallio, no doubt.”
It had to be Gallio's doing.
It was at that moment.
“...!”
Barus, who hadn't been able to lift his head, suddenly jerked it up.
Something he'd missed amid the confusion from the Iron Cross, the saintess, and the holy flame sword aura.
“The archbishop is in danger!”
Gallio.
“That man right now...!”
His face stained with guilt and panic.
Sein looked at such a Barus and spoke.
“With the Iron Cross captain...!”
Barus was too flustered to even string words together properly.
“No need to worry.”
Sein said.
But Barus couldn't erase his anxious, urgent expression.
“Even if the archbishop possesses immense divinity, his combat ability can't match a holy knight's!”
Barus's own bodily experience.
No matter that Gallio had faced inquisitors before, it wouldn't extend to the Iron Cross captain's level.
He might not die, but dangerous situations could arise anytime.
However.
“I said no need to worry.”
Sein's voice and face were icy.
And the corners of his mouth.
Grin.
Slowly curved upward.
“I told you before.”
“...?”
“There's another who entered Antara.”
“...Ah!”
Barus seemed to sense something and whipped his head around.
Right there, where Gallio faced the Iron Cross.
Tarrian's stronghold.
Sein had said it.
“Won't it be even more dangerous instead?”
A witch had entered Antara.
“Kidding, kidding. Don't worry. That old man won't die.”
Tarrian's stronghold.
There.
Splash-!
A pillar of darkness was surging up.
*
*
*
Iron Cross Knight Captain Badoman.
The one leading the last remnants of the Iron Cross in this era, expected to awaken the holy flame sword aura in less than a decade.
He swung his sword while emanating a blazing green aura.
Boom!
With the whoosh of the flying sword aura.
Kaboom!
An explosion followed soon after.
He'd already unleashed sword aura dozens of times, no, over ten times by now.
“The faith of heretics is annoyingly steadfast.”
Yet he couldn't pierce Gallio's divine shield.
But that was all.
Crack!
Cracks began forming on Gallio's divine shield, which seemed unbreakable.
The reason Gallio's shield, thought capable of holding for days, was cracking was simple.
Shatter-!
Devout Iron Cross.
Gallio was diverting power to block them from hunting Tarrian's slaves and false priests.
“How long do you think you can hold out, heretic?”
Badoman said.
“At this very moment...”
Power born from faith.
That power.
“Darian has arrived there.”
Stemming from belief and heart.
Iron Cross Vice Captain Darian lacked much compared to Captain Badoman, but he was an inquisitor who could easily hunt false priests.
“To the false saintess you so desperately protect!”
At that moment.
Humm.
A gap appeared in Gallio's steadfast divine shield.
Worry for the saintess.
The delusion that she was in danger.
Badoman didn't miss the gap it created.
Shatter-!
The divine shield shattered under another sword strike.
Badoman had already slipped his body into the resulting opening.
“The sin of abandoning Angel shall not be atoned even with your life.”
It was the moment Badoman's gripped sword swung horizontally.
A strike of piety that the aged archbishop could never block.
But at that instant.
Boom!
A surging pillar of dark light blasted Badoman far away.
“What in the world.”
A voice echoed from the darkness.
“Is going on here.”
A chilling, terrifying voice.
“Flies buzzing around in Demorus's domain.”
It was.
“Witch!”
The one who single-handedly destroyed six temples.
The one who laid to rest the great three paladins in their graves.
“Yes, that's me.”
The Legion Witch.
*
*
*
Witch.
With Arin's appearance, the area fell into instant silence.
The pillar of darkness that had surged with her arrival vanished.
Her suffocating dark aura also disappeared.
Standing there was simply a maddeningly beautiful black-haired woman.
However.
“I turned a blind eye since you were hiding underground in Antara.”
At her words, the Iron Cross knights attacking Tarrian.
Boom boom boom!
Exploded on the spot.
Arin's eyes, sunken low.
They were eyes of plain, unremarkable fury.
“Flies have come in.”
Flies.
Words aimed at the Iron Cross.
Grit.
Badoman ground his teeth in humiliation at the sound, but that was it.
At this moment, alarms blared endlessly in Badoman's mind.
‘Move and die.’
Arin Segmore.
One of the continent's three witches, the Legion Witch.
Even paladins couldn't face her alone, and he, not yet a paladin, stood no chance.
“I was planning to sweep away the flies while at it.”
Arin now stood before the kneeling Gallio.
“Your doing, I see.”
Gallio?
No.
Arin's gaze went beyond Gallio.
Seeing something.
“I told you to stay quiet.”
Ha.
A small sigh.
Arin slowly turned her body.
At that moment.
Whoosh-!
A torrent of divine power poured toward Arin.
It was green in color.
Yet each part clearly shimmered white.
Sizzle!
Arin's skin and hair melted where touched by the divine power.
Paladin-level divine power.
Badoman's doing.
“...”
But Badoman had vanished without a trace.
Sensing no chance after Arin's appearance, he'd used his trump card and fled.
However, that was all.
Boom!
A massive explosion erupted from afar.
“Gaaah-!”
Iron Cross Captain Badoman.
A gigantic black sword was impaled in his back.
Swish, swish.
As if conducting an orchestra, Arin's moving hand drove the black sword of ruin deeper into Badoman.
Thud!
When the black sword was fully embedded.
Poof!
It crumbled into black dust and vanished.
All that remained was Iron Cross Captain Badoman, his back pierced clean through, facing death with a look of despair.
Flies.
Beings she could swat away with a flick of the hand.
Arin's first words upon appearing were not bravado, but simple fact.
“Well, that's sorted for now.”
Tarrian's raid ended there.
Now remained the matter of Tarrian's disposition.
“Archbishop Gallio.”
Arin spoke to Gallio with a slightly warmer tone.
“I'm sure I told you. To quietly stay here.”
“...”
At Arin's voice, Gallio shut his mouth.
He didn't know about the past, but now Arin was a being of status and power beyond what Gallio could dare gaze upon.
His survival and eking out existence were all due to her mercy.
“Normally, you'd be subject to disposal per our agreement, but...”
Arin slowly turned her head.
“I'll let it slide this time.”
There stood a white-haired youth grinning broadly and waving cheerfully.
With an utterly infuriating face and expression.
“Haa.”
“All done?”
Sein, and the girl he cradled.
Barus following behind them.
“...”
Barus gaped at the scene before him, unable to close his mouth.
He'd heard endlessly of the witch's infamy, but this was his first time witnessing her prowess.
It was overwhelming violence, pure and simple.
“Your handiwork?”
“I told you, I had something to fetch. The Iron Cross wasn't my doing, though.”
“...”
Arin fell silent.
“Anyway, check this out?”
Sein, holding the girl with both arms.
He said.
“This is a saintess.”
“...!”