Chapter 195: The Crimson Spirit (4)
Under a sky darkened by ominous clouds, the sun was hidden away. A streak of bright yellow lightning cut through the gloom, leaving a long trail in its wake, while waves of hellfire surged to meet it.
The clash of flame and lightning was instantaneous.
And then, light returned to the world.
A colossal sphere of light bloomed like a flower, as if the sun itself had pierced through the clouds. To a modern Earthling, it might have seemed as if a nuclear bomb had detonated overhead.
Soon, as if a tactical nuke had indeed exploded, the heat from the sphere began to radiate in all directions.
A scorching storm of heat swept away the air in the vicinity, creating a vacuum that sucked everything back in, triggering a second explosion.
The shockwave, beyond the range of ordinary sound, echoed repeatedly, while a blinding light erased all shadows, enough to blind an ordinary person instantly.
In the air, where moisture had evaporated, hundreds of red and blue lightning bolts intertwined. Under the blazing light, a spectacle of vibrant colors erupted sporadically.
It was in the midst of this chaos that two figures collided.
[Laughing maniacally!]
In a brief moment, sword and fist clashed, the air distorting with a bizarre roar. Amidst the tumult of two-colored lightning tearing at each other like beasts, Dalen’s holy sword carved a long gash across the chest of the evil god.
[A shriek of pain!]
The sturdy armor was torn apart effortlessly, and the flesh beneath spewed blood. Yet, even as the avatar’s body began to heal the wound, the strange resonance of the restored holy sword hindered complete regeneration.
White sparks crackled, forcibly keeping the closing wound open. Though the evil god’s regenerative power tried to scab over and harden the injury, the white energy left a small scar.
[Cackling, “Damn it! Holy power!”]
The evil god, blood streaming from its chest, roared. Despite the anger in its voice, its mouth was twisted into a wide grin.
“Crazy bastard.”
[Heh, is that a compliment?]
From behind the monitor, it hadn’t seemed this insane. But then again, such madness couldn’t be conveyed through mere polygons and lines of dialogue.
The evil god’s body, now a bloody mess, was laughing. Its spiked armor was more than half gone, and it was riddled with half-healed wounds.
[Even as an avatar, I couldn’t fathom how you managed to handle so many sacrifices… It seems you’ve bound yourself with more restrictions than I anticipated to set foot on this land.]
As the spear had noted, the evil god’s body was significantly degraded, even for an avatar. It made sense, considering the invasion began with a massive ritual summoning dozens of demons and tens of thousands of monsters. Even with the souls and bodies of tens of thousands of northerners offered as sacrifices, it was a precarious endeavor.
In the midst of it all, Suum had gone a step further by descending personally, which meant it had to severely diminish its own power to manifest.
[Just a little more effort. Victory is within reach.]
Charina had managed to wound the creature while buying time for this very reason. Though she ultimately fell to its relentless assault, it was clear that Suum had suffered significant damage in the process.
Her sacrifice couldn’t be in vain. Thus, Dalen pushed his weary body forward.
Crackling─!!
He formed a seal and extended his hand. A bolt of green lightning shot towards the evil god.
“Piercing Green”
The emerald flash that had pierced the armor before now drove into the exposed chest, bursting out through the back.
[A pained scream!]
The evil god staggered, vomiting dark red blood, while its hands frantically unleashed a torrent of hellfire.
The wave of hellfire scorched Dalen’s skin, but he didn’t flinch. He continued forming seals, gathering lightning once more.
Crackling…
Green lightning repeatedly pierced through the hellfire’s tide. The blue streaks of electricity tenaciously pursued the blood-red lightning that sought to strike from behind.
As he endured the hellfire with layers of protective armor, the sky above was a battleground of lightning and storm clouds.
Every moment was a life-or-death struggle. Amidst this precarious tug-of-war, Dalen felt his mastery over the sea of lightning rapidly increasing.
‘I can win.’
No, he had to win.
This battle was the one chance to break Suum’s momentum. Its army was already annihilated, leaving only the fallen avatar.
If they won this fight, Suum’s weakened forces wouldn’t dare threaten the continent for decades.
‘Charina sacrificed her life to grant her people a reprieve for those decades…’
The hellfire that pierced through his protective armor gnawed at his flesh. Blood-red lightning found its mark, piercing through his body.
He gritted his teeth and endured. White steam rose from his entire body, and even his dragon blood’s regenerative power was nearing its limit, but there was no time to worry.
This was an all-out offensive, disregarding defense, offering flesh to break bones.
Instead of countering the enemy’s attacks, he focused on unleashing more lightning, honing his control over the sea of lightning.
In the razor-thin gap where not a moment’s respite was allowed, Dalen swung his axe at the evil god’s grinning mouth.
[Laughing maniacally! Such a desperate fight! I love it… Gah!]
He silenced the grinning lips with his axe, then slammed the hilt of his holy sword onto the creature’s crown, unleashing a burst of lightning.
In the midst of it, the evil god’s claws tore at his ribs, but he swallowed the metallic taste rising in his throat and pressed on.
[Choking laughter!]
Even with its jaw shattered and lips torn, the creature didn’t stop laughing. Its madness sent chills down Dalen’s spine.
A god mad with battle was an apt description. Dalen drew his holy sword upward in a long arc.
Crash―!
A hand wreathed in hellfire blocked the holy sword. Dalen ignored it, forcing the blade through.
To finish the creature launched skyward, he crafted a spear of yellow lightning in his hand.
“Thunder Spear”
Though not even half as powerful as when Deltarion wielded it, it was enough to finish the fallen avatar of the evil god.
In that moment.
”······!”
[A warning!]
An instinctive sense of danger flashed through him, and Dalen abandoned the spear, moving swiftly.
Whoosh─
A moment later, the space where he had stood was crushed by an invisible force.
Crack!
The space crumpled, and the ashen shadow lingering there twisted and vanished.
The evil god had reached out towards that spot, muttering.
[Ah… so close. But still, this is fun… heh.]
”······.”
Blood dripped from its lips as it mumbled. Inside its mouth, hellfire flickered with acrid smoke.
It wasn’t breathing fire like a dragon. Rather, it was being consumed by its own hellfire.
[That, that mad…! Offering its avatar as a sacrifice? It will irreparably damage its own essence!]
Arbor couldn’t hide his shock at the sight.
As a fellow demon, he instinctively understood the gravity of the situation.
”······.”
Dalen knew what this phenomenon meant.
It was a ritual.
By immolating its own body, it was opening the gates of hell, summoning a being from beyond.
Had he not moved from that spot, Dalen’s body would have been caught in the ritual, becoming a sacrifice.
‘But that’s not the real problem.’
The evil god’s ritual, offering its avatar as a sacrifice, was not hard to deduce in its implications.
[It’s been millennia… To end it like this… would be such a waste.]
The evil god’s lips curled into a grin. Its half-severed tongue licked its mangled lips.
The storm clouds above began to converge towards the evil god.
The space around them twisted, centering on a single point, as a rift appeared, tearing through reality.
[The gates of hell… Judging by the scale, it intends to summon its true form.]
Beyond shock, Arbor muttered in disbelief.
[Even for a battle-crazed fanatic, how can it do something that diminishes its own essence?]
The spear’s reaction was understandable. When Dalen first witnessed Suum’s madness, he too was utterly bewildered.
Of course, that was a story from beyond the monitor.
This was before any proper strategy had been devised.
In fact, the moment Dalen had been waiting for in this battle was right now.
“Perfect timing.”
He let out a sigh, looking up at the sky where dark storm clouds gathered.
Raising his hand in the direction of his breath, he reached beyond the swirling black clouds surrounding the evil god, aiming for the sea of lightning flashing above.
Rumble…
The sea of multicolored lightning responded to its master’s call.
“Crimson Spirit Prison.”
━━━━━┳┻┳┻┳┻
Hundreds of crimson bolts of lightning descended from the sky, tearing through the evil god’s dark clouds.
A spectacle of red lightning enveloped the area for kilometers, forming a net that spread out like a flattened sphere, encasing Dalen and the evil god, cutting them off from the outside world.
The evil god, whose lips had been twisted into a wide grin, froze at the sight of the dissipating clouds.
The ritual, which had been nearing completion, came to an abrupt halt.
[Wha—why, why has the ritual… stopped?]
The sacrificial vessel, which should have been consumed, spoke with a clear voice. The gate to hell, meant to summon the true form, remained closed.
The evil god’s face was a mask of bewilderment. Dalen, catching his breath, spoke calmly.
“Give it up. To summon you here, you’d need more than that battered body as a sacrifice.”
Crimson Spirit Prison.
An ultimate technique crafted by a sixth-tier mage at the pinnacle of lightning magic.
This space, shimmering with crimson light, was like a separate world, isolated from the outside.
“It seems Deltarion had quite the grudge against you.”
[Deltarion? Who is that?]
“The one who killed you.”
Dalen chuckled softly.
Absorbing the power of the lightning mage, his first focus was on how he had managed to kill Suum.
The clues were already in his grasp. Though he couldn’t see everything from beyond the monitor, he knew what unfolded when the domain was opened.
“At least I knew the finale involved crimson lightning.”
After unraveling decades’ worth of insights, Dalen discovered that the lightning mage’s crimson lightning had two main functions.
One was to unleash a barrage of red lightning, annihilating demons or evil gods without giving them a chance to regenerate.
The other was to spread the lightning wide, isolating the space and separating it from the world itself.
Since Deltarion had ultimately invaded hell to kill Suum, it was likely he used the former.
But seeing the latter prepared, Dalen realized something.
“Somehow, Deltarion knew you as well as I do.”
[What… what are you talking about!]
“You have a habit of sacrificing your own vessel to summon your true form whenever you find someone you fancy, regardless of how much it diminishes your stature.”
The ritual to open the gate to hell and summon a being from beyond is essentially about creating a passage between two worlds.
If you suddenly change the position of one point while drawing the line between two, the picture can’t be completed.
The second function of the Crimson Spirit Prison was designed to thwart that.
In case Suum descended upon this land again, it was meant to prevent him from summoning his true form and instead strike back.
[How did you… know?]
“How could I not know? You’ve deleted so many of my characters.”
Dalen smirked, raising his holy sword.
“And as for how that mage knew… well, I’m curious too. Maybe you can ask him yourself, since you’ll be meeting him soon enough.”