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122. Childhood Friend – The Nevis Battle

“Aaaagh!”

The citizens gathered in the square screamed and covered their ears.

Reb thought the blaring trumpet echoing throughout Nevis was sacred, but it seemed they didn’t agree.

[Barbatos’s Hunting Ground] had the ability to apply buffs or debuffs to all living beings within a certain area.

Those with the divine power of Barbatos in that area moved faster, rarely tired, and had improved vision.

And for the Apostles, they could sense the location of all “prey” existing within the hunting ground.

There was also an effect that increased the efficiency of the offering rituals conducted within this area, but that feature was of no use to Reb.

Conversely, creatures without Barbatos’s divine power, meaning the prey, were debuffed in the hunting ground.

They became sluggish, tired quickly, and their vision diminished.

It was unsure if these debuffs were the reason, but they easily got injured. The headaches caused by the trumpet sound were a bonus.

But Reb didn’t stop there. [Barbatos’s Hunting Ground] had no lethality.

So even after half a year of tireless effort.

Reb snapped his fingers.

Thus, the traps spread across Nevis were activated, and screams echoed from all directions.

The bright-eyed boy’s thin white neck twisted back. The fingers of a woman, who had lost her sparkle to a hard life, crumbled down, and an old couple neatly aged hung suspended in midair.

A promising young man lost his two eyes while clutching his girlfriend’s hand, crying. Without knowing what had happened to his girlfriend.

And the widow, who had finally repaid her husband’s debts after a whole decade, was left with her only daughter, her mouth ripped from cheek to cheek.

The delightful dumplings made of Belplua that the mother and daughter had been sharing slid down their torn cheeks.

“Hahahahahaha! Devote your life to the great god, Barbatos!”

The loud Reb waved his hand.

The trumpet symbol on his right hand glowed red, and the trumpet symbol appeared above the heads of all over two hundred thousand humans in the square.

It was a [Target Hunting] debuff.

Simultaneously, blood gushed from all sides as the screams grew louder. When Reb began to swing his sword towards the panicking crowd, chaos reached its peak.

[Achievement: Civilian Kill – You have killed ‘116’ civilians. You will become slightly unhappy.]

In the blink of an eye, three-digit numbers of people were dead. As the elderly caught in the traps began to perish one by one, and as Reb slashed more people, red vapor rose from his body.

Reb had exhausted nearly all his divine power in captivating the knights of the House of Marquis Gaidan and setting traps throughout Nevis.

Yet, every time he shouted, “I dedicate this!” at least a hundred lives were offered, and Reb regained his original strength, or even more than that. And that power kept multiplying.

Then, amidst the fluctuating civilian kill achievement messages, something unfamiliar surfaced.

[Quest: War Maniac 100/10,000 – Your {Leadership} ability will increase by one level.]

This appeared when Reb severed a soldier’s neck.

Strangely enough, although the ‘Soldier Kill’ achievement was entirely consumed and down to zero, this quest accurately pointed out the number 100, matching oddly with the number of soldiers killed by the Leos.

Reb chuckled.

He didn’t intend to indiscriminately kill civilians, but that god must surely be out of his mind.

“Dirty God. Make the price for killing my followers…?”

Reb’s movements came to a sudden halt as his eyes turned red with determination.

What was I just thinking?

He was briefly bewildered, but his doubt quickly fizzled out like cold and hot water mixing.

All that remained was a deep rage.

With no reason to grow even angrier, Reb lifted his head.

The dark red square and citizens thrashing in the traps caught his eye.

Most were screaming and fleeing in all directions.

At that moment, a group emerged before the royal castle. They looked unscathed, even amidst this horror.

There were two hundred holy knights and five hundred priests, all dressed in white, although he wasn’t sure if all of them were priests or some had monks among them, and noblemen.

While the holy knights and priests were one thing, the noblemen and surrounding royal guards and knights didn’t have the [Target Hunting] debuff. They must have been blessed by a priest.

“Count Ogerton. W-what is that?”

“Ugh… That is divine script. It’s something that mere humans cannot dare to understand or study…”

As Marquis Evni Dragin pointed at the trumpet symbol floating in the sky, Count Soarel Demetri Ogerton rubbed his aching head and replied.

The nearby sorcerers also seemed to be suffering from headaches, clutching their heads.

They wore robes that reached down to their heels, all purple, indicating their origin from the Bolune Magic Tower.

However, there was just one robe of a different color. A sorcerer dressed in green robes. He was a contracted sorcerer from the kingdom of Conrad, hailing from the ‘Iber Magic Tower.’

Typically, sorcerers contracted for palace defenses were not hired from towers within their own countries.

This was to completely eliminate the possibility of the tower exerting influence in politics, a necessity evidenced by the ongoing power struggle occurring in the Aisel Kingdom.

Nevertheless, this was not relevant now, and the king asked.

“What in the world is going on?”

The old king wore a calm expression, despite the tragedy unfolding in the square.

Perhaps it was because he could unleash similar horrors whenever he wished.

But he wasn’t a tyrant devoid of concern for his people, so anger laced his voice.

“…It seems an Apostle has appeared.”

Cardinal Paulo, who was nearby, replied. He looked quite composed, but internally, he was shocked.

‘Cardinal Michael’s concerns were spot on. Apostles like that really do exist…’

A few months earlier, Cardinal Michael had directly contacted him.

Communication among priests couldn’t be done casually like telepathy. It was done by holding holy relics or divine items provided in each church, so the elderly cardinal personally reaching out meant he took this matter very seriously.

“Is there a solution?”

The king didn’t know what an Apostle was, yet he refrained from questioning it. He was a ruler, not a scholar.

“…Yes. It’s hard to make a judgment currently, but in my experience, those who believe in false gods can be easily subdued.”

As the cardinal of the Orun Kingdom, he had faced numerous barbarians.

Given the Orun Kingdom’s mountainous features, many tribes worshipped their own gods without trading with civilized folk.

However, the more isolated they were, the more they refused conversion, leading to countless tribes being expelled from the Orun Kingdom.

Among them, some had resisted using the power of the false gods, and the cardinal had experienced that firsthand.

But to be honest, he was only a bit surprised at first; that power wasn’t anything remarkable. A tribal priest was unable to deal with just one priest. Even bizarre tricks could usually be resolved with a single blessing.

Later on, after capturing several priests and conducting various studies, the cardinal discovered how weak their divine powers were. No, he realized how ridiculously powerful the true god’s divine power was.

Prayer would yield an increase no more than a grain of millet each day.

Thus, Cardinal Paulo felt confident. He dismissed the idea that Cardinal Michael’s warning about sending the holy knights was undue concern.

Yet now, an Apostle appearing as if out of ancient theology… The cardinal swallowed hard and hesitated as he spoke.

“I believe I can resolve the curse afflicting people and that symbol hovering in the sky. For now, let me…”

He began to chant the sacred ritual.

“O aqua-dives humilis-maloe! Let us vanquish this evil!”

The effect was immediate.

The blood-stained land surrounding the entrance to the royal castle returned to its original color.

The trumpet symbol floating in the sky wavered like a flag in the wind and shrank in size.

“…Excellent.”

That was what the king said.

It was a compliment, but he didn’t seem very satisfied as it was only the castle that had returned to normal while the vast city remained stained red.

The cardinal awkwardly chimed in.

“I must admit my faith was lacking… But there are over four hundred priests here. We should be able to purify it soon. More importantly… It would be wise to deal with that evil god’s Apostle first. While we handle the Apostle, could you please save the citizens, Your Majesty?”

“…That shall be so.”

The old king thought, ‘Those knights should take care of the Apostle while the priests save my subjects’ — yet he readily agreed.

He instructed the three knight commanders to lead their knights to rescue the citizens and commanded the Captain of the Royal Knights to save the princes out there in the square…

A faint smile appeared at the corners of the king’s mouth as he overlooked the square.

“Stay calm! Even if you have a nosebleed, you won’t die!”

“Over there! Evacuate calmly!”

The twin princes consoled the knights and soldiers guarding them, while guiding the surrounding citizens back toward the palace.

The king felt proud of his sons and turned away, speaking to the confused nobles one by one to bring order to the situation.

Meanwhile, the holy knights and four hundred priests commanded by the cardinal advanced towards the evil god’s Apostle. However, as they began their march, something astonishing happened.

As if the ground was splitting, the red-stained Barbatos’s hunting ground was erased wherever the holy knights stepped, and they crossed the square in formation, proud and ready for battle.

That scene appeared to be so holy that the citizens, regaining their composure, parted to give way.

Eventually, two hundred fully armed holy knights and four hundred priests lined up before the evil god’s Apostle. Prior to the battle, the holy knights shouted in unison.

“O God! Remember the wicked!”

The divine mark appeared on Reb’s head.

It was a holy incantation that inscribed a mark upon anyone who had committed evil deeds, performed ceremoniously by the holy knights before going into battle.

To make things ridiculous, a few citizens nearby also had marks appearing on their heads, but no one paid attention to that at the moment.

As the holy knights crossed the crimson ground. The Cross Church was inevitably trying to thwart Reb’s plans.

Faced with a difficult situation, Reb…

“Fuhahahahaha!”

Broke into laughter.

“In the old days, I hated this mark so much! But now, it’s not much of a big deal!”

Just by directing his gaze, the marks started to flicker and lose their brightness.

Then, stomping the ground with a bang! The once fading red ground the holy knights had cleared and the castle restored by the cardinal reverted back to bright crimson.

The expressions of the holy knights and priests hardened.

“Dirty servants of the God! Face Barbatos’s wrath!”

Shouting, Reb charged forward.

The holy knights, muttering incantations, prepared themselves with various blessings. Radiant light emanated from their armor as they surged towards the Apostle…

“Ugh! A Swordmaster!”

Surprisingly, it was the holy knights that began bleeding. The Oblivion Blade shot up from Reb’s sword, and the holy knights charging in a tight formation towards the Apostle were sliced down by his blade.

The Oblivion Blade couldn’t be stopped.

Strictly speaking, the red vapor swirling from Reb’s sword wasn’t the Oblivion Blade, but it exhibited comparable performance due to the divine power of Barbatos.

To face him, it was essential to dodge and find openings, but the two hundred holy knights were too busy obstructing each other, failing to provide any escape routes.

“Spread out!”

Yet the holy knights were quick to respond.

After all, they were all knights, elite figures who had passed the rigorous examinations of the monastery.

“I don’t know how that filthy one uses the Oblivion Blade, but it won’t last long!”

One of the holy knights shouted, exposing the Swordmaster’s weakness. Just as he said, the Oblivion Blade could only be used for short durations in a combat situation.

The reasons for this were unknown—it was something only the Swordmaster himself or kingdoms with experience possessing one would understand.

“O God! Punish the unclean…”

“Shut your mouth!”

With a strike like lightning, Reb split the holy knight before him in two. But Reb realized that dealing with the holy knights was a very tricky matter.

With every flicker of their shining blessed armor, Barbatos’s divine power diminished in chunks, and more importantly, they were all excellent fighters.

There were even some stronger than {Swordsmanship.3v: Bart} among them, making it impossible to gain an upper hand solely through swordsmanship.

Nonetheless, the reason Reb could withstand the onslaught of hundreds of holy knights was due to the buffs from [Barbatos’s Hunting Ground], his divinely enhanced body, and the Oblivion Blade.

“Deus proptius eris impus Shea! O Lord, forgive the evildoers!”

“Dant animos militis non kkeok! Grant courage to the warriors!”

At that moment, the priests behind began chanting sacred invocations. As four hundred priests kneeled and prayed, various miracles unfolded.

A translucent dome covered the square. The white symbol of the Cross Church was etched onto the red ground, and a holy being descended behind the holy knights.

Light poured down from the symbol of Barbatos in the sky, illuminating Reb’s body, and dozens of discs inscribed with ancient script floated up, targeting him.

Reb felt extremely displeased.

It wasn’t that he found the divine incantation unpleasant. There was no opposing relationship between the true god’s divine power and Barbatos’s divine power. They were simply different powers, different divine forces.

It was just uncomfortable to see the divine power of Barbatos evaporate from his body like morning dew under the sunlight.

‘…This is tougher than I expected.’

The [Lustful Gaze] and [Target Hunting] were useless against those with the divine power of the true god. [Trap Hunting] only affected their bodies for a moment, and paradoxically, the traps that had ensnared the holy knights were completely eradicated.

Only [Barbatos’s Hunting Ground] seemed to have a minor effect on them, causing their movements to become slightly sluggish.

“Haaaargh!”

Sensing this, Reb charged forward, swinging the Oblivion Blade around with both hands.

The holy knights wondered, ‘Why is that guy suddenly acting like this?’ and pulled back to create distance, but one holy knight shouted urgently.

“Take cover!”

“Whaat!”

The evil god’s Apostle charged wildly, rushing at the priests in the rear. The priests, who had knelt down to pray, were unable to move and were caught by the blade.

“Protect the priests! Just hold on a little longer! Priests, retreat far back!”

The holy knights gritted their teeth. That guy fought so sneakily and cunningly.

They had planned to surround the Apostle and buy time, but he mocked them by wildly swinging his sword while breaking free, attacking the priests, or slaughtering civilians too panicked to escape.

‘If only that Oblivion Blade was gone…’

That was perhaps the thought of all the holy knights. The moment that Oblivion Blade extinguished, he would be a dead man.

“Press him against the wall!”

“He’s fleeing! Block him!”

The muddy fight continued. The grandeur of their first clash was completely gone.

Over two hundred holy knights swarmed one person like thugs, and the one wielding the Oblivion Blade ran around, searching for weaknesses. It was closer to a farce than a fight.

After a while, the holy knights felt a sense of discomfort.

‘Why is that guy avoiding the fight? If he can’t catch us while the Oblivion Blade is active, it’ll be troublesome for him…?’

“Wait! Something feels off!”

“That guy is stalling for time!”

One by one, the holy knights began to warn each other, bringing awareness to the atmosphere. But that alert came too late.

[Achievement: Civilian Kill – You have killed ‘8891’ civilians. You will become slightly unhappy.]

“Dedicated! Hahaha! You fools!”

Red vapor swelled even bigger from Reb’s blade. What had initially wrapped around the sword began to blaze fiercely like a furnace.

“How—?!”

It took time for a person to die.

Those who died instantly from the low lethality of [Trap Hunting] were exceedingly unlucky individuals or the weak like children and the elderly. Most citizens merely sustained horrific injuries but didn’t receive fatal blows threatening immediate death.

However, they had been marked with the [Target Hunting] debuff. A curse inducing bleeding, where wounds wouldn’t heal.

The tens of thousands of citizens crowded in the square, cursed, panicked, and fleeing due to the sight of [Barbatos’s Hunting Ground] began to scatter.

Whether they got caught in traps set throughout Nevis while fleeing or locked themselves inside their homes, they were slowly dying from excessive blood loss without receiving treatment from a priest.

I simply led them to that end.

The massacre of civilians in the middle of the square was meant to draw the attention of the holy knights and priests. So they wouldn’t disperse and cleanse the [Target Hunting] debuff.

‘It’s over.’

Drenching his sword in newfound divine power, Reb became intoxicated by the thrill of victory. Thousands of lives ignited, and the blade elongated.

The blood-red Oblivion Blade grew to such an immense size that it could easily split a large cart. As despair filled the eyes of the holy knights,

– Bang!

A lightning bolt struck.

From a distance, Count Soarel Demetri Ogerton, shrouded in blue mist, pointed at Reb and shouted.

“That is not a Swordmaster!”