Chapter 517

How should I describe it?

It was literally a divine tsunami.

—

My consciousness, which had entered a state of trance, was forcibly brought back, and the forgotten agony struck my entire body. It felt as if my body had been torn apart piece by piece and then hastily glued back together with adhesive. If I hadn’t experienced the limits of pain through my fight with Isabella, I would have screamed out loud.

My vision darkened as if I had entered a dark room, and my entire body felt heavy, as if being pressed down. What on earth had happened? I was utterly confused.

“Ugh…”

As I tried to move my arm to push away whatever was pressing down on me, something hot surged up from my stomach. I coughed up bright red blood, which flowed down the corners of my mouth.

Had I been hit by something and knocked out?

As the confusion in my mind subsided, the situation from moments ago came back to me.

Right. The moment I drove Durandal into the demon’s neck, it let out a scream and pulled up the black lake water… and all of it transformed into lightning-like shapes and poured down.

A wide-area attack using all the Lake of Magi pooled beneath its feet. It was too fast and ferocious to completely block.

In the end, I was swept away by the attacks I couldn’t block and was flung backward, crashing into something.

[Are you alright?]

‘Damn… it hurts like hell. But I’m not dead, so I guess I’m fine…!’

I gritted my teeth, mustered my strength, and pushed away the pile of rubble pressing down on me. Sunlight from the sky seeped through the cracks in the rocks.

“Haah!”

With a forceful push of my arms, I broke free from the debris and emerged. The distance between me and the demon had grown significantly. No, not just significantly. My body had been embedded right in the middle of Arvil’s City Wall.

I must have flown horizontally across half the city’s diameter. It was a miracle I was still alive.

The scales of my armor had long since shattered. Ryu-rik’s fur leather was also tattered, with only the edges remaining. I pulled out the black thorns embedded in my shoulders, arms, and thighs, assessing my condition.

No bones were broken, but my abdomen, stained purple, was throbbing horribly, and blood kept rising in my throat. The wounds where the thorns of Magi had pierced me were rotting black from the flowing blood tainted by Magi.

Thanks to the Holy Mark and Demon Resistance, I was resisting the erosion of Magi, but without a priest’s purification, the Magi would continue to spread, worsening the wounds horribly.

Lacey’s blessing had vanished, and my Life Force Technique was also depleted. The blessing of Divine Light had protected and healed my body, reducing severe injuries to minor ones, and the shield of Life Force Technique had somehow defended against the shock that could have sent me flying hundreds of meters. Without the help of those two, I shuddered to think what would have happened.

Right, Lacey…!

I clung to the broken city wall, my legs wedged into the cracks, and surveyed the city’s situation. The city, already half in ruins, had now turned into a wasteland. The only thing standing upright on the ground was that damnably powerful demon.

【 Gr҉̢̕o҉̢̛o҉̢͠o҈̛͜o҉̕͢҈̛͜o҉̧̕!̷̡͝ 】

The monster born from the Arm of the Evil God let out a roar of victory, standing tall in the middle of the dried-up wasteland. One pair of arms severed at the biceps, one arm missing a wrist, and three arms with tattered biceps. Out of eight arms, only two remained intact.

Yet, it was still alive. Black blood gushed from the severed arms, and blood spurted from the deeply torn nape of its neck.

Since the Lake of Magi that had pooled on the ground had disappeared as if it were a lie, I could finally see the state of its lower body. It wasn’t much different from what I had expected.

Entrails twisted like a whirlpool extended outward like octopus tentacles, and black liquid gushed from the tips of the tentacles.

Was it planning to create another Lake of Magi? Judging by the flow, it seemed safe for now, but once the black lake filled up again, it would undoubtedly become an impregnable fortress and a moving calamity.

So, if we were to defeat it, it had to be now.

The problem was… our allies were also weakened to an incomparable degree.

The group had gathered together to block its attack and had been pushed to the opposite side of the city. The barrier, a mix of gold and white, was riddled with countless holes from the thorns of Magi embedded in it.

Lacey, having reached her physical limit, was leaning on her Cross Spear like a cane, barely standing with Leonor’s support. Her complexion was paler than her hair.

Seilon, having taken the brunt of the impact at the front, seemed to have no strength left to maintain his power. He was kneeling on one knee, supporting himself with a longsword whose light was fading.

His left arm, which had just begun to recover, was deeply wounded to the bone, and the skin exposed through his shattered Holy Armor was turning black like that of a black man.

Nigel and Leonor still had some strength left, but they weren’t skilled enough to last long against such a monster without a priest.

It was a crisis, a crisis of annihilation. I gritted my teeth, leaped onto the city wall, and looked outside. The area outside the city was also a mess. Most people were asleep, but the Shaulite paladins and Agnes, who were supposed to protect them, were awake. They were kneeling, praying in the face of the unprecedented disaster.

“Hersh! Bring Agnes up here! Bring my bow too! The rest of the paladins, pour all the healing and purification you have on me!”

“Ha, Princess Ha-shal-leur?! Are you alright?! Your body…!”

“Sister?!”

Rana looked like she was about to faint. Well, it had been a series of shocks. The descent of the Evil God, and then the giant monster that appeared afterward. But there was no time to comfort her now.

The moment that demon turns its attention back to us, those damn black beams will come flying to smash the city wall.

“Sorry, Rana! We’ll talk later! Hersh, you get up here quickly! We’re out of time!!”

Hersh, nodding, grabbed Agnes by the waist and ran toward the city wall. The paladins and Rana, who had been panicking, soon turned their Divine Light toward me, casting miracles of the Sun Church.

I felt the dozens of strands of Shaulite’s Divine Light infusing my body as I steadied my breathing.

The paladins’ blessings were miracles meant for themselves, so even multiple layers didn’t have much effect. But Rana’s Healing Miracle was soothing the pain throughout my body, rapidly healing my wounds.

—

I kept my eyes on the demon, waiting for Hersh. It took about ten seconds. Hersh, using a dagger to climb the wall, finally reached my side.

“Y-you’re not thinking of making me fight that thing, are you…?!”

Hersh looked like she was about to faint. No, if the demon just looked at us and roared, she might actually wet herself.

“Don’t worry. Go down and take care of the others. Get as far away from the wall as possible. Got it?”

I didn’t need to hear her answer. I took the bow, hoisted Agnes onto my back, and ran along the wall toward the group in the distance.

“…Are you alright? Your wounds look serious.”

“I’ll manage. More importantly, listen carefully. With Lacey at her limit, you’re the only priest we can rely on.”

I explained the situation to Agnes.

Belcus wasn’t actually a powerful monster but had summoned the Evil God, and when it descended, it was blocked by the light of the gods, leaving only its right arm behind.

“I see. So it was Invidius after all…”

Surprisingly, Agnes didn’t seem too shocked. Instead, she nodded as if she had expected it.

“I thought you’d be more surprised. Did you already know?”

“After seeing a giant being tear through the sky, how could I not realize its true nature? At that moment, I felt like my heart would stop… So, what should I do?”

Her calm demeanor was astonishing. I knew she had a strong will, but this much?

“You have your sword, right? Use it to target its eyes. Support Nigel and Leonor. Don’t even dream of facing it head-on.”

The Holy Relic of the Menes Church, the Moonlight Blade, was a curved sword that shot out sword beams made of Divine Light. Its power wasn’t great, but if it hit the demon’s eyes directly, it could probably burst them.

I nodded to Agnes, explained the demon’s attack patterns based on my experience, and drew my bowstring, aiming at the distant monster as I ran along the wall.

– Thwack!

The arrow shot out like lightning. Without the Life Force Technique, it wasn’t as powerful as Milia’s arrows, but it was enough to draw the demon’s attention.

【 Gr҈̛͢o҉̢̛o҉̢͠o҈̛͜o҉̕͢҈̛͜o҉̧̕!̷̡͝】

The demon’s gaze turned toward me. The circles of Magi began to rise in each of its eyes.

Good. This significantly reduced the chance of it targeting Seilon and Lacey. But it also made our side more dangerous.

“Hold on tight!”

I shot another arrow, handed the bow to Agnes, and held her tightly as I ran at full speed.

– Kwaoooooo!

Black beams poured down like a barrage, striking the city wall. With a deafening roar, the wall behind us began to crumble.

“Princess Ha-shal-leur! Ahead! Ahead!”

Agnes urgently pointed ahead. Magi bombardments were flying in, blocking my path. If this continued, I’d be like a moth flying into a flame.

【 Reversed Heaven 】

I activated the Heroic Tale for a moment to evade. In the monochrome world, the soundless black beams pierced only my afterimage.

And so, leaving the crumbling wall behind, I descended the wall’s stairs and ran across the ground toward the group.

“Princess Ha-shal-leur!”

“Miss!”

The group looked at me with faces mixed with relief, worry, pain, and lament. They were all exhausted, but their fighting spirit remained.

“Change of positions! Leonor! Take Lacey outside the city and then return! Nigel, protect Agnes!”

“Yes!”

“Got it!”

Leonor hoisted Lacey and ran toward the city gate, while Nigel approached me.

I handed Agnes to Nigel and looked at Seilon.

“Seilon! Can you still fight?”

“No problem…!”

Seilon staggered but nodded as he stood up. The golden Divine Light flickered like a dying candle, but his eyes were still filled with determination.

“Good, let’s go! This is our only chance to kill that damn demon!”

And so, we whipped our tired and wounded bodies, charging toward the demon that had lost its Lake of Magi.