The Light of Beginnings (4)
A piercing scream echoed as the giant spider spewed its venomous fluid.
“Ugh!”
Deltimur, the warrior with his helmet pulled low, took a deep breath and raised his shield.
Sizzle! Hiss!
The corrosive acid from the monster’s stomach hit the shield, melting the metal and leather in an instant, turning them into a mushy mess.
If this continued, the acid would eat through the shield and reach his hand. Quickly, the warrior discarded the shield and raised his sword.
The spider’s gaping maw was right in front of him.
Crack!
A blue blade sliced through the maw.
Crunch! Rip!
The spider’s sharp pincers began to crush his armor and tear into his flesh.
“Aaaah!”
He let out a scream that was almost a battle cry, tears welling up from the pain. Memories flooded back to him.
Countless years ago, waking up in the snowy mountains, becoming a mercenary, and settling with the Western Guild Alliance.
And the night when everything was burned to the ground by the demon god’s army from beyond the western desert.
“Die! Die, you demon spawn!”
He endured. He fought to win.
To tear apart the monsters, to slay the demons, and ultimately to bring down the hell that was the source of the calamity.
He spat out the blood that surged up with a desperate scream, swinging his sword wildly, unleashing a burst of blue energy.
He had already tasted defeat once as the city’s captain. A second defeat was unacceptable.
‘For the comrades who burned with the city…’
As Deltimur pierced the spider monster’s heart, his consciousness began to fade.
[Oh dear, you’ve overexerted yourself.]
「Great Restoration」
A refreshing sensation awakened him. Pure vitality reconstructed his body.
Torn muscles reattached, regaining strength, and crushed organs swiftly returned to their original form.
“Uh, um?”
「Blessed Earth」
「Heavenly Rite」
「Spirit Guard」
Before he could fully regain his senses, layers of blessings and enhancement spells enveloped his body and soul.
Clank! Clink!
Whoosh—thud!
Armor inscribed with rune symbols replaced his torn gear, and a powerful sword and shield, fit for a knight, were placed in his hands.
[Now, go again.]
「Battle Call」
With the echo of the divine voice in his mind, a righteous fury surged from deep within his chest.
“Aaaah!”
Recalling the city trampled by demons, Deltimur charged at the monster once more.
“We work better together than I expected.”
The saint, the source of the divine voice, watched from afar with a gentle smile.
Beside him, a burly blacksmith with a bushy beard chuckled. He said, “Indeed. If only we lived in the same worldline.”
“But such a thing cannot exist. Diverged paths cannot become one again. They can only intersect at certain points, like now.”
“Haha! A holy knight talking like a spellcaster, is it?”
Even as they exchanged light-hearted banter, their eyes and hands never stopped scanning the battlefield.
With each flash of the saint’s divine tattoos, the air of the battlefield shifted, and his gestures scattered miracles that supported their allies.
With their physical and mental abilities pushed to the extreme by blessings, the weapons from the blacksmith’s subspace seemed to fly into their hands.
With the saint’s blessings added to the relic weapons, even ordinary people became forces to be reckoned with, surpassing most superhumans.
“The dragonkin are coming. They seem quite angry.”
“Are they?”
At the saint’s murmur, the blacksmith turned his head.
Squinting, he saw thousands of dragonkin flying in the distance.
Like a flock of migratory birds, the dragon army cast a massive shadow over the horizon.
“Those lizard bastards are still a nuisance.”
The blacksmith grinned wickedly. As he raised his hammer to the sky, the ground shook violently as if an earthquake had struck.
「Domain Unleashed: The Forge Where Dragon’s Breath Scatters」
A massive forge, shaped like a chimney, burst from the ground.
「Master of All Weapons」
Clang, clang, clang…!
From the chimney’s peak, tens of thousands of swords and spears rose, covering the dark sky with a silver wave.
Spears and shields formed a wall across the front, while short spears and bows prepared for support fire from behind.
Magic armors, glowing with blue energy from their eye sockets, stood in formation, each holding a weapon.
Watching the army of armaments, the blacksmith twirled his hammer and lightly tapped the saint’s shoulder with a laugh.
“It was an interesting conversation. Let’s meet again soon.”
“Indeed.”
Boom—!
The blacksmith launched himself toward the dragon army.
With the help of his cloak, he glided through the air, kicking the sky with shoes engraved with unique patterns.
The saint watched him for a moment before turning his gaze. His eyes, gleaming with divine power, focused on the undulating sea of yellow pus.
‘The Illusion Palace.’
Once the domain of Lapilem, now a part of the unified great hell under Enaxagus.
Lapilem had been a persistent foe, constantly harassing the holy knights alongside the dragonkin.
As such, he had faced the corrupting plague demons numerous times.
“O God of War.”
Recalling the countless comrades who had lost their lives to them, the saint lifted his head to the sky.
The sky was filled with darkness, devoid of even a single star. It didn’t matter.
He wasn’t looking at the physical sky. Closing his eyes, the saint finished his prayer with his hands clasped.
“Grant us the power to destroy the abominable spawn of evil and save this isolated world.”
And then.
「Domain Unleashed: The Divine Breath Caressing the World」
There was light.
Thwack—
A faint twang of a bowstring echoed in his ears.
Whoosh—!!
With a sound like a jet engine, a golden streak shot overhead.
Thud, thud, thud!
Like a fighter jet flying low and scattering flares, the archer’s arrow unleashed golden magic in its wake.
Each burst of magic was a concentrated spell of destruction, a bomb crafted by the powerful will of a transcendent being.
The path beneath the arrow’s long trajectory was akin to being carpet-bombed.
「Step: Thunder Flow」
Boom—!
He raced down the path cleared by the bombardment.
With each step imbued with thunder, the ground shattered beneath him, and the shockwaves swept away the surviving monsters.
Dalen was running toward the Palace of Destruction.
Once the great hell of Suum, it was a place where seas of blood and mountains of corpses literally existed.
He leaped over rivers of molten metal and dashed past the glowing bronze bulls’ stables.
Raising his head, he saw in the distance the towering palace at the heart of the hell of battle and death.
His destination was the highest spire of that palace.
[Are you sure that’s the place?]
A voice echoed beside him. It was Dallain.
The warrior, shrouded in black lightning, easily kept pace with Dalen’s sprint.
Dalen shrugged, pondering how to respond. There was another lightning mage eager to speak up.
[According to the design, that’s the only place, warrior. The unification of hell was built up from the Palace of Destruction. Therefore, the original connection between the Palace of Destruction and the Celestial Throne must still exist.]
[Damn it. Do I look like I asked because I didn’t know? That’s typical spellcaster talk…]
[It’s not just my opinion. The necromancer agrees. When it comes to hell, he’s the most knowledgeable, isn’t he?]
Daltarion gestured behind them, toward the direction of the land of the dead, opposite the Palace of Destruction.
[If you’re unsure, you could go back and ask Dallum. But I doubt the exhausted necromancer, holding back the entire undead army, would be too friendly to a barbarian glaring at him.]
[Tch, forget it. What good would come from arguing with bookish scholars?]
The warrior clicked his tongue and snapped his fingers. The mountain of corpses blocking their path exploded.
「Earth Rend」
A spectacle of lava and fireballs scattered in all directions.
「Sudden Rain of Blue」
Crackle!
Following the lightning mage’s gestures, blue lightning flowed like a river, blocking the falling debris and creating a path of thunder.
[I’m just trusting the judgment of our seeker, that’s all.]
”…Thank you.”
Dalen replied as he raced through the path of thunder.
After summoning all the heroes from the Well of Reversal, his plan had a single focus.
To find the hidden sanctuary of Enaxagus within this infinite hellscape.
And somehow, they had to break through and split the head of the one watching this entire battle.
While hundreds of heroes and six transcendent beings faced the infernal army, only Dalen and two others were pushing deep into the enemy’s formation for that very reason.
After all, the legions of the great hell would keep pouring out endlessly.
Even the most powerful transcendent beings couldn’t just sit back and fend off the oncoming demons forever without eventually exhausting themselves.
[Aaaaargh!]
The cries of the dead echoed from beyond the horizon.
The domain of the necromancer, Daelum Jive, descended with such force that its impact was felt even hundreds of kilometers away.
[He’s already descended. It seems holding out isn’t as easy as it looks.]
”…”
It wasn’t that he didn’t worry about the heroes’ safety.
Even though they were summoned as part of the domain, the pain they experienced here was very real.
With the support of the saint and the blacksmith, an army of hundreds of undying superhumans had been raised, but the cycle of death and rebirth would eventually wear down their spirits.
Not only the necromancer holding back the legion of the dead alone, but also the fighters, summoners, and archers clashing with the other infernal forces were in no position to relax.
”…”
But the more dire the situation, the more they had to press forward.
Ending this battle quickly was the outcome the heroes, fighting beyond their own deaths, most fervently desired.
[We’re here, hero of prophecy. Go on up.]
They had reached the gates of the Palace of Ruin.
The two who had run with him immediately turned to hold their ground, trusting him to leap towards the spire.
「Step of Ascension」
He climbed the nearly vertical wall.
「Crossing the Abyss」
He leapt through the gaps in space, heading for the top of the spire.
The towering spire of the colossal palace stretched skyward for tens of kilometers.
This hellish architecture, defying the laws of physics, seemed to literally touch the sky.
「Black Thunder」
「Nameless Blade of Enlightenment」
「Domain Full Release: The Great Sea of Thunder that Swallowed Hell」
「Crimson Spirit Prison」
Below the spire, black lightning and red thunder began to intermingle.
The transcendent powers unleashed upon the demons and monsters of the Palace of Ruin that pursued them.
Leaving the heated air behind, he ascended the spire, finally reaching the top and planting himself firmly.
Whoooosh…
The wind roared harshly in his ears.
The air resistance pushed against his rising body.
The sky before him was pitch black, devoid of even a sliver of light.
No presence or magic could be felt there.
‘This doesn’t make any sense.’
This was a dreadful world where hell’s sinister magic boiled over on all sides.
Even having come this close, the absence of any detectable energy was absurd.
In the same vein, in this place where the five great hells had merged, only Enaxagus’s hell had been invisible from the start.
That one was surely watching the battle from the rear, having pushed its minions forward, waiting for the right moment.
But that ends here.
As the momentum from the spire’s push waned, he flipped his body in mid-air.
「Domain Descent」
「Inverted Waterfall」
He reversed the very concepts of up and down within his localized domain.
「Reversal」
Thus, the landscape of the lake that had rippled from the ground was juxtaposed with the sky, now resembling a vast, dark sea.
Whoooosh────
Dalen’s form plummeted straight toward the sky.
The dark expanse below began to resemble a vast water surface.
Splash!
Ripples spread in concentric circles beneath his feet.
「Inverted Waterfall」
「Intensify」
Crash―!
Breaking through the existing laws with the power of his domain, he descended.
What he thought was the sky was actually the surface of the water.
What he thought was the water’s surface was actually another sky.
As Dalen shattered the celestial sphere of this inverted world, he saw the true sea below and the throne at its center.
[…Dalen.]
For the first time, the voice of the evil god called his name directly.
The gleaming eyes on its mask-like face radiated a power far beyond what he had faced above the heavens of the Diamond Palace.
The mere sight of it could bewilder the mind, and its voice alone could break one’s will.
Gritting his teeth against the wave of power from the united might of the five great hells, he drew the sword he had kept sheathed.
A smile formed on the evil god’s mask. The intensity of its power, shaking his resolve, grew even stronger.
[Very well, Dalen. I have watched your strength until now. Now, join me…]
“Shut up, you bastard.”
[…?!]
━━━━━━━━!!
The throne split in two.