[Ongoing Sub-Quest]
[Eliminate the Priest of One’s Mother, Astrid of Lamentations]
[Completed Sub-Quests]
[Eliminate the Monsters of Krabrige, the Priest of One’s Mother]
[Eliminate Leranda’s Knight, the Priest of One’s Mother]
[Support the Enthronement of a New Chief for the Insufficient Tribe]
…
……
A long list of completed quests filled Aslan’s view.
Aslan realized that the names of the two priests were indeed on the list and understood that his hasty decision had been correct.
It was difficult to guess what exactly was happening, but at least some results were evident.
Lumel and Phey had combined their strength and defeated the two priests.
This was certainly encouraging news.
Still, emotions did not easily boil over. Of course, it made sense why they wouldn’t.
“Die, general killer!”
Aslan was currently on the battlefield.
He stood upright, facing forward.
Aslan, who was heading straight toward the charging beast cavalry, swung his deep blue greatsword.
The spear being thrust downward like a harpoon from above.
The parts forming the spearhead and shaft were severed by the greatsword, and the cavalryman holding the spear was also torn apart and scattered.
“Charge all at once!”
The one shouting was a monstrous soldier riding a similar beast.
While Aslan observed the countless hostile intents rushing toward him, he exhaled deeply.
Ordinarily, this should have been intimidating, yet he remained calm.
Perhaps influenced by his demeanor, the cavalrymen swiftly charged toward Aslan.
KWAHAAAAAAA!
They hesitated and stopped upon encountering the soaring heat and light.
An arrow speeding toward the charging cavalry.
That arrow was a lump of plasma formed by mana.
Even without a direct hit, the intense heat foretold a terrible death.
The cavalrymen, startled by the sudden downpour of death, tried hastily to turn their reins,
but before they could, the lump of mana struck their center.
KUUUUUUUUUNG!
Then rose the blazing sun. Amidst the swirling plasma, flesh was torn and burned, scattering in the wind.
“HAHAHAHA!”
Following naturally was a hearty laugh, surpassing human capacity.
Tiamat, revealing abundant red scales, was a massive dragon standing at 2.5 meters tall, gripping a high-temperature bow while emitting boisterous laughter.
“Bow down before this elder’s power!”
“That’s too loud… It hurts my ears.”
“I’m sorry! But how can I not get excited?”
Under normal circumstances, Tiamat would have struggled to strip off clothes and drastically reduce accuracy,
but thanks to Ereta radiating heat beside her, Tiamat could confidently discard her clothing and wield her bow without hesitation.
In terms of power, she was undoubtedly the strongest among the group, akin to a strategic weapon capable of altering the battlefield alone.
If there was a downside,
[Unidentified Operator’s Available Energy: All Mana Depleted. Switching to Secondary Firing Mode.]
it was that Tiamat’s mana reserves were alarmingly low.
When the seams of the high-temperature bow closed, Tiamat clicked her tongue and drew out an arrow as long as a short sword.
“Even without mana, this elder won’t falter! Take this, you bastards! Let’s see who’s livestock and who’s greater!”
Following the “WHOOSH,” screams echoed.
A creature resembling a dragon pierced by the flying arrow tumbled, and a knight impersonator priest was running ahead when Angie blocked its path.
“Die!”
With a ferocious shout, the Sword of War and Knowledge descended vertically.
The knight had no way to evade the attack.
As the priest was struck by the sword and split apart, the following monster soldiers roared savagely and charged.
Meeting them was Richard, who had joined in to manage the situation somewhat.
Richard dodged the spear thrust by the leading charging monster by wedging it under his arm and sidestepping.
He smashed the monster’s jaw upward, shattering it, then spun around deflecting the weapons aimed at his life one by one.
“HRYAAAT!”
Finishing off the soldiers sliding across the ground was Angie, repeatedly striking knights with her sword.
As soldiers were split by the horizontal swing of her blade, Richard was splattered with blood and snow.
Wiping the splattered face with his hand, Richard muttered a complaint.
“…Could you be a little more restrained, Sister?”
“What?!”
“No, never mind…”
At Angie’s sharp rebuke, Richard lost his spirit and adopted a defensive stance.
Grabbing and twisting the arm of the charging soldier, Richard pinned him to the ground, covering Angie’s back.
Thus, the group fought within their respective domains, and any priests or monster soldiers who ventured into those domains met their end without exception.
Therefore, the battlefield wasn’t terribly unbalanced.
Rather, it maintained a delicate balance.
“Stand against them, you bastards! Draw your weapons!”
“For War and Knowledge!”
First, the warriors. Though they didn’t fight as valiantly as Aslan’s group, they continued to battle without letting go of their weapons, whether their limbs were intact or not.
They either blocked the charging cavalry with long spears or knocked them down using makeshift poles torn from tents.
Several died in the attempt.
Some lost their lives to spears or swords because their limbs didn’t move smoothly due to statuesque conditions.
Nevertheless, the Northern Empire citizens were people who didn’t know retreat.
They were individuals who wouldn’t abandon a fight, however futile, as long as there was a chance for victory.
Thus, even after a powerful magic swept through the battlefield, the situation wasn’t desperate.
Aslan found this point suspicious.
Using powerful magic and attacking up to that point was a conventional approach.
Given Geladridion’s characteristics where magic exists, many tactics and strategies focused on magic were prevalent.
However, such tactics and strategies didn’t discourage withdrawing troops if things went poorly during an attack, even if the magic succeeded.
Especially if there was a veteran capable of toppling Supreme Divinity’s Sword among the soldiers casting the magic, it would be common sense to observe the situation and withdraw the troops.
Yet, Astrid hadn’t withdrawn the troops.
She hadn’t cast new spells either.
Nor had she introduced new strategies through new priests.
She merely used magic and deployed the soldiers.
This wasn’t a strategy suitable for fighting against someone as strong as the wielder of Supreme Divinity’s Sword.
Confident in this belief, Aslan thought that this couldn’t possibly be all of Astrid’s strategy.
There must have been something else she was aiming for.
There had to be something beyond soldiers and tactics.
Though he didn’t know what the goal was or how it would unfold, leaving it unchecked wouldn’t be wise.
‘I need to meet Astrid.’
By directly observing her, he could grasp whatever schemes she might be concocting. Trusting his luck, Aslan moved immediately.
“Purity.”
Retreating his greatsword behind his back, he plucked a feather and murmured.
Growing from his hand was a pure white resolve shining brightly.
The divine art that transformed sheer resolve into a sword. With the feather-light sword in his hand, Aslan cleaved the body of a soldier blocking his path in half.
“Stop him! Stop that guy!”
The priests serving Astrid reacted spasmodically as Aslan suddenly began charging.
Aslan glanced briefly at those priests and ignored the warriors rushing toward him, continuing his charge.
‘Thunder Call.’
KWARRRRRNG!
His leg, glowing white, kicked off the ground, simultaneously creating a blurred afterimage stretching ahead.
The enemy blocking his path was bisected by the purity he extended.
Scattered soldiers. Beasts trying to catch up to block Aslan. For them, a short-sword-length arrow flew.
“Go away, kid!”
Tiamat’s voice. The beasts following closely were pierced and fell as glimpses of Angie and Richard fiercely battling nearby came into view.
Taking advantage of Aslan’s departure, the group dropped the pursuing beasts and killed them.
With their help, Aslan broke through the soldiers and ascended the hill.
The snowy hill offering a panoramic view of the entire battlefield.
Reaching the hill after crossing the battlefield,
a place where accumulated snow had hardened like thick ice.
There stood Astrid.
“Astrid.”
Astrid looked exactly the same as the last time Aslan had seen her.
“Aslan.”
Her flowing black hair and piercing eyes. A woman who suited winter well and whose smile was cheerful.
Now, gazing at Aslan with a solemn and somber expression, there seemed to be no trace of the cheerfulness Aslan had seen before in her face.
She tightened the cloak around her body and spoke.
“It’s been a while, my friend.”
Actually, it hadn’t been that long. Barely two years. Time-wise, it wasn’t long enough to call it “long.”
The word “long” expressed time in terms of events rather than literal duration.
Many things happened while you were gone—an indirect and vague statement.
Upon hearing this, Aslan frowned.
It sounded like a request to let bygones be bygones.
However, becoming a priest was something Aslan could not tolerate, regardless of any circumstances.
The cheerful and considerate woman who cared about the Northern Empire, Astrid, was no longer there.
All that remained was Astrid of Lamentations, merely a priest and magician.
For this reason, Aslan remained silent, pointing his purity.
Aslan and Astrid silently locked eyes across the white powder, and the few magicians standing behind Astrid stepped forward.
When Aslan’s gaze swept over them and returned to Astrid, Astrid wore a genuinely sorrowful expression.
There was no room for negotiation.
What remained was a battle testing will and survival.
Understanding this, Aslan and Astrid prepared for combat, but—
Thud thud.
Something suddenly intruded between them.
One of the disciples, fully cloaked in a robe—or rather, what appeared to be one.
As both Aslan and Astrid looked curiously at the figure, it discarded the robe.
A disciple in werewolf form.
Astrid felt a strong sense of dissonance seeing the disciple who had vanished after urging and commanding investigations come forward.
Before she could judge based on that dissonance, the disciple’s shadow moved.
For Aslan, it came with a tingling sensation of ominous fate.
The moment Aslan reflexively raised his purity, the shadow at the disciple’s feet moved savagely.
It resembled a giant wave made of swords, spears, and axes sweeping violently in all directions.
On one hand, it was like the concentrated chaos of a battlefield condensed into a single slash.
The mages and priests caught in the surging shadow were shredded and scattered.
The only exception was Aslan, who blocked it with his purity.
Everything else was cleanly sliced and scattered without a trace of waste.
Naturally, Astrid was included in this.
Astrid’s severed head, her eyes wide open in confusion and unable to comprehend the situation.
Her face contorting as she realized the impossibility of regeneration through the powers of the priest of her mother.
Aslan watched this through the purity and looked at a certain existence just as unscathed as himself.
It was an instinctive gaze.
Like looking at a car about to hit you before getting run over, or staring at a bullet flying straight toward you.
An instinctive movement to look at the cause of a clearly wrong situation.
The wolf-shaped priest standing completely still.
A chilling sensation creeping up the back of his neck.
Aslan reflexively lowered his sword and shielded himself with Steamfalos’ wings, and the dissonance revealed itself before his eyes.
The shadow wriggled and surged.
The black shadow emerged, covering the snow-covered hill shaped like a mound.
The spire-like shadow pierced and scattered the bodies of the priests, pushing Aslan back.
Only the Dragon King’s scale armor and Steamfalos protected him from being pierced like the priests.
Stopping his body sliding through the piled snow, Aslan stared at the shadow.
The scattered priests immediately merged into the shadow, and Astrid was snatched and pulled by the shadow moving like tentacles.
The method of handling the shadow was extremely familiar to Aslan.
Only one person could manipulate shadows like this.
“Rowena…”
Aslan called out the name that brought both longing and pain.
“Hi, Hyunwoo.”
The Black Witch dispelled the illusion of the werewolf and revealed herself.
Her flowing black hair and the black dress she wore.
Her violet eyes, like the most beautiful part of the sunset carved into gems.
Aslan clenched his teeth at Rowena’s sudden appearance, and Rowena lazily waved her hand.
“What…”
Before Aslan could glare and question her, Rowena smiled brightly and answered.
“Sorry. Magicians this useful are rare.”
Before Aslan could grasp what she meant, Rowena’s shadow moved.
The writhing shadow grabbed Astrid’s head and body and reassembled them right in front of Aslan.
As the pale, dead eyes turned dark, Aslan could predict what was about to happen.
Preparing for battle by pointing his purity, Astrid’s body began to deform almost immediately.
Creak, crunch, groan!
The sound of joints twisting and grinding viciously.
The murmurs of soldiers startled by the sudden shadow spike assault as they looked up the hill.
The slow emergence of it amidst the cries of soldiers screaming and dying.
Covered in black crystals, the grotesque figure appeared unnervingly thin despite its massive size.
From afar, small enough to perhaps say it looked like a sheep.
Something beast-like covered in black crystals.
The moment Aslan recognized it, Rowena spoke.
“This is too easy for Hyunwoo. Heroes need trials, don’t they?”
Trial? Aslan chuckled bitterly as he watched Astrid’s body slowly rise.
A monstrous figure with a goat-like head covered in black crystals.
A towering body rising unsteadily, dripping streams of black liquid.
[Ongoing Sub-Quest]
[Eliminate the Priest of í–´ìŠ¤ë¦„ì˜ ì£¼ì¸, í†µê³¡ì˜ ì•„ìŠ¤íŠ¸ë¦¬ë“œ]
As evidenced by the distorted quest notification popping up,
It was no longer Astrid.
Realizing this, Aslan chuckled bitterly, prompting Rowena to grin and say,
“Enjoy.”
As the twisted monster wailed, black snow began to fall from the sky.
