Chapter 125

As each step is taken, the backgrounds based on the desolate forest rapidly shift.

Beyond the forest, signs of giants that are not human can be felt throughout the city, but they are ignored.

Not everything can be done.

In acting with will, there must be priorities.

In each changing backdrop, at least one person remains.

There lies the body of a comrade who has been horrifically transformed, leaving no trace of the beauty from the past.

Rustle—

With a single gesture.

Two giants who were trying to run toward the village through the forest were split in half and collapsed.

‘…It has increased.’

While adjusting my body, I am unsure exactly how the battle situation has unfolded.

Towards the direction of the city gate, there were traces of a dense forest that had blossomed from my mother’s divine power.

It seems almost swept away.

In the time a regular human would take to exhale a few breaths, I rushed out from the underground quarters of the Peddler Guild and charged into battle.

Seeing the dead Elf and even just the fleeting remains of the giants gave me a surge of spirit.

More than the number I had glimpsed before fighting Terato.

But the energy from the giants felt like a surge all the same.

Moreover, I sensed other entities that were different from the usual giants.

Taking another breath.

As my feet tore through the air like a tempest, the area of the forest gradually shrank, revealing my brothers and Elves who were steadily repelling the enemy while striking back.

The orderly forms, which no human could pass by without being mesmerized, were nowhere to be seen, replaced instead by faces caught in a desperate struggle for their lives.

Anya, who always smiled brightly, was soaked in fatigue, and there were streaks of tears on Ahti’s face where the dust had caked on.

Demis, who was leading, and Palas, who was slowly reducing the number of giants without collapsing, were supported by Elmony.

Although I couldn’t see Saras.

‘Saras would think worrying is foolish.’

The barrier that had been shaken by Terato before I lost consciousness was still intact, but as I watched the incoming giants breaching it, I thought.

He is probably in the Grand Temple.

Glints like dancing flashes swept past the giants and beings resembling Roa.

“…Araya!”

Palas, who had been leading ahead of everyone, was the first to sense the anomaly and shouted with relief and joy in his voice.

The place where the flashes passed began to be sliced away smoothly.

In an instant, twenty-seven were severed.

But.

‘…There are many I couldn’t kill in one go.’

The giants could be ignored, but the beings that appeared to be Roa were not of normal life cycles.

Among them, there were those who could not be killed simply by cutting away parts of their bodies.

However, with my appearance and a singular technique I’d shown, the exhaustion and resignation in the eyes of the Elves began to diminish.

“The situation is… clear without me having to say it.”

At my words, Palas and Demis smiled sadly.

Whether it was because I had instantly cut down dozens, the giants behind me hesitated for a moment.

And I looked outside the city wall.

It seemed the size had diminished slightly from when we had fought, but Terato was battling my mother and Gal with an even fiercer momentum.

I couldn’t tell if the moment I witnessed was the right one.

Graaah!

Gal’s wing was torn from his body like it was being ripped, and he let out a cry filled with pain.

My mother also seemed to be not completely intact.

She was desperately stretching her branches to bind Terato, but her roots appeared as if they might get pulled out entirely.

It was an imbalance.

Even while holding off the giants, the morale of the Elves was not good.

Moreover, the blood flowing from Gal’s wounds soaked the ground, causing new giants to be born each time.

There was nothing more to be said.

As my gaze met Demis’s and Palas’s, they quietly nodded.

I felt a mutual trust that we would carry out our respective roles without a single word exchanged.

The will surged forth, and the energy that enveloped my body moved accordingly.

The consciousness through the Hundred Realms flowed, containing thoughts as it followed the sword in my hand.

Bulrak reveled in the high-quality energy crashing down like a raging storm, making sounds as it trembled.

Unlike the gentle tread I usually took, I struck the ground like it was breaking apart.

In response to this, the energy that surged from me, like a dragon’s breath, empowered my small form as I rushed toward the mass of monsters like a beam of light.

No sound could be heard, but in that timeless vacuum, I swung as if dancing sideways.

I leaped directly toward Terato.

One breath.

Swaaaaaa-!

As time, which had momentarily stopped, began to flow again, I witnessed the storm of my energy erupting below, accompanied by the sound of sharp winds and the bodies of flesh crumbling.

◈ ◈ ◈

The arm of Terato reached out toward falling Gal.

Targeting that arm, I leaped into the air.

But in a moment, it seemed Terato instinctively sensed something and withdrew the outstretched hand.

As Terato’s gaze fell downward.

Just as my body soared upward, it met Terato’s outstretched arm and cut through.

Slick—

The black blade skimmed past Terato’s fingers, which had grown thick like the trees that had taken centuries to mature.

The sensation of Terato’s bones, which were denser and harder than solid iron, breaking was conveyed through the sword to my fingertips.

「…You!」

Terato’s gaze shifted toward the piles of flesh that were crumbling near the city wall, and as he witnessed the fingers of the hand that had reached for Gal getting severed and falling to the ground, his voice dripped with anger as he called to me.

“Is that painful?”

As I grinned, Terato’s enormous face, which was hard to catch at a glance, was filled with rage.

「Araya! Don’t worry about anything else!」

Gal, who had lost his wing and was falling, seemed to have recovered and was gliding around Terato’s massive body near the waist.

「Weren’t you dead?」

“I lost consciousness for a moment because your punches were quite powerful.”

My gaze passed Terato and landed on the branches binding him.

Although it was only a fraction of my true form, my mother, rising magnificently at the end of those branches, was present.

『You’re late. Mother.』

『Hehe. Did you rest well enough?』

『Thanks to you.』

『Then will you punish the nasty friend who has troubled me and your brothers all this time?』

『Of course. …Including the fallen comrades below.』

When I mentioned the Elves, my mother’s sorrow passed through the unspoken thoughts.

“You also seem to be in a dire situation. But, of course, regardless of whether or not you regained your original power, Mother and Gal would not have allowed you to rest easy.”

The wounds I had left before losing consciousness still had not fully healed.

I’m sorry, but I can’t assist with that.

It was a soft moment.

‘…There is no means to end Terato.’

It was at that moment.

The consciousness of all transcendents, including myself, headed towards one place.

‘…Alia?’

For some reason, at that moment, it seemed like Alia was speaking to me.

At the same time, the darkness of Pohelrn, which was like hell, split open in the sky.

“!”

「「!」」

The light that descended between the split skies struck the plaza in front of the Grand Temple of Pohelrn.

Simultaneously, it began to expand its area and eventually started to illuminate all of Pohelrn.

「…No way! It can’t be!」

A voice filled with shock from Terato.

At the same time, Terato looked up at the sky and shouted.

「Star! Are you allowing mere beings who will wither away after a few decades this miracle that I was not allowed!」

It was a cry that felt almost mournful.

‘…Deus Ex Machina?’

Apart from Terato’s shout, I felt confusion as I sensed the energy enveloping all of Pohelrn.

A force that was similar yet distinctly different from the powers of the Elder Roas.

Was it complete? At such an opportune time?

But… would that help right now?

「…I will trample everything!」

Injustice, emptiness, jealousy, hatred, anger.

Feelings that were farthest from what transcendents usually possess erupted like an explosion.

Creeeak-plit-kiik-

As strange sounds emanated from the joints of the giant’s massive body, the ground beneath Terato’s feet exploded.

Neither I, nor my mother, nor Gal were targeted.

「Give it to me! That is mine! Since the day I was born! I have come to Ba!」

Terato’s body began to strike Pohelrn.

Though it had lost its past size, the compressed power slammed against the barrier and the corresponding backlash returned.

「Give it to me…! Give it to me! Mere beings…! That is not something you should crave!」

Even as the heavens and earth shook and his bones misaligned, flesh bursting out, Terato’s flailing continued.

As I stared blankly at the giant’s mad thrashing, cracks began to appear in the once-solid barrier.

“!”

「Do not interfere-! Elf!」

Terato’s madness paid no heed to the strikes that pierced his own body.

No, precisely.

‘Because it doesn’t matter if I ignore it.’

Humiliation.

But there was no time to be soaked in humiliation.

Terato’s body was collapsing, but the cracks on the barrier were falling apart even faster.

Whoosh-!

At the same time, a beam of light that had been shining down on Pohelrn began to shine upon him.

‘Please. Lady Araya. For Lord Priegoss. Please protect Priegoss’s beloved Pohelrn. Protect the humans.’

‘Alia?’

It was Alia’s voice.

But how?

At that question, as the energy of light touched my body, new flesh sprouted on my blistering skin.

Simultaneously, a different energy filled my body, distinct from the energy I had been manipulating.

Instinctively, I realized it was the power of Deus Ex Machina, according to the theories of Alia and me.

‘If my power and this power come together…’

No.

This alone was not enough.

The experiences of having excavated the giant’s body countless times warned me.

‘…I need a bit more.’

Something. Something.

“Gal!”

Calling out to Gal with a sudden flash of insight.

“Give me your breath!”

「What? Are you out of your mind?」

“There’s no time to explain! Hurry!”

In a brief but eternal moment, confusion filled Gal’s eyes.

But upon meeting my gaze, he gritted his teeth.

「…Don’t die…!」

I had no intention of dying.

Though it wouldn’t work on Terato, Gal’s breath, which had once been a wall named despair for both Terato and me, began to gather in my mouth.

A power that turns everything it touches to null.

As all mana surrounding Gal was sucked in and he began to grow, his breath poured into me with a slight hesitation.

‘Araya’s inheritance.’

About a ten-yard radius around my body came under my control.

Ignoring that control, the power that would erase everything surged into that domain.

‘Suck.’

As I tried to control the strength contained within the pillar of destruction that was coming in with the momentum to erase even my traces, my blood cried out, and my whole body heated up.

The upper dantian screamed as if my brain were boiling.

「I will help too.」

My mother’s energy wrapped around me as a protective shield instead of the defensive energy.

And Alia’s energy also embraced Gal’s breath as if to calm a fierce beast.

「Huh.」

Gal, who watched the scene, let out a voice that sounded like relief.

Centered on my energy, Alia’s energy and Gal’s energy intertwined, drawing a triskelion within my body.

It shot up into the sky.

“I’m sick of this. Babel Terato.”

Below that distant height was nothing but a guilt-ridden giant, engulfed in madness, who had been robbed of his lifelong wish by others.

“Now, enough. Be written as a single line in history.”

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