Chapter 290
The flower that touched the ground quickly withered and dried up.
A clear sign of ill omen.
“……!”
Abyssinis snapped her head around to face forward.
A strange phenomenon was occurring on the map displayed through Conquest’s Clairvoyance.
One red dot turned white.
Up to this point, it could have been dismissed. But approximately 1 minute later.
“Oh?”
A startled sound, losing all decorum, escaped Abyssinis’s lips.
This was because another nearby dot had turned white. And then, another minute later.
“Oh-oh?”
One more.
“Oh-oh-oh?!”
And another one.
“No……?!”
Subsequently, they cascaded down in units of less than 30 seconds!
“W-what on earth is happening?!”
Abyssinis was greatly flustered.
The church strongholds in the northeast, which she had painstakingly dyed red, were sequentially turning back into white dots, one by one.
It looked as if dominoes lined up in a row were collapsing.
Of course, what was actually collapsing was far more immense than mere dominoes.
“Wait, this place! It’s near the border of the mages’ country?!”
As the demonic encirclement collapsed, the blackened areas regained their original colors.
The Ragneif Magic Republic had returned to human hands. From the demons’ perspective, they had suddenly lost 20% of their occupied territory.
Only then did Abyssinis realize. Attacking the three city churches had merely been a distraction.
In the meantime, the cunning humans had clearly deployed a large number of troops near the Ragneif border and carried out simultaneous subjugation operations.
That’s right. Looking at how the border encirclement collapsed, there was almost no time difference.
It could only be concluded that they had organized subjugation teams, one for each church, and moved them all at once.
‘To think the humans had the capacity for a massive offensive!’
She had been careless, having swept through the Pontifical Palace at the very beginning and nearly annihilated all Divine Power Tiers 6 or higher awakened individuals.
The large-scale counterattack was a shock, but there was an even more important fact for Abyssinis right now.
The humans had simultaneously recaptured the border churches and taken back the Ragneif Magic Republic.
This was a strategic move precisely in accordance with the rules of Har-Magedon.
What this fact implied was clear.
“Surely……”
Abyssinis’s purple eyes trembled slightly.
“Does this mean there’s someone among the human commanders who possesses an ability like ‘Conquest’s Clairvoyance’?”
✠Approximately 10 minutes ago.
The Hegelix Mountains, forming the border of the Ragneif Magic Republic. Nestled among its winding ridges was a small mountain village.
Greenwall Village.
It was the starting stage of the original story, where the ‘Sculptor’s Atelier’ dungeon had burst.
As soon as the tutorial period ended, Aillet had spatial teleported here and evacuated all the villagers into the church.
Then, as now, the church was almost unused.
The presiding priest had long since fled, claiming he hated a village that smelled of goat droppings, and the Pontifical Palace had not assigned a new priest to this remote mountain area.
The villagers had not set foot in the church, which had been neglected for years without worship, so it had become nothing more than a junk storage.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Thus, the church, which had holes in its ceiling leaking rain and cobwebs strung everywhere, was no different from an abandoned house.
In terms of size and appearance, it seemed insignificant.
However, because it was a geographical strategic point for Har-Magedon, Abyssinis had sent a considerable demon of great importance here.
<Kugh. To think I, the Spider Noble, would be demoted.>
A handsome young man with long white hair and red eyes wove threads and sighed.
In truth, calling him a young man was a misnomer.
His naked upper body was as beautiful as a plaster sculpture, but his lower body was that of a pure white spider with four pairs of legs.
Arachnon, the Spider Noble with a two-digit demonic hierarchy ranking.
He was a half-human, half-spider male arthropod-type demon, reminiscent of an albino spider.
As the Grand Archbishop of the Great Temple of Chaos Evil, he was sadly assigned to a nameless, abandoned church.
Since it was originally an unused church, he hadn’t seen a single human shadow since he had been transferred.
So, Arachnon was currently in a pitiful state, quietly weaving cobwebs, unable to release his inner murderous urges.
Thanks to him, the abandoned church became even more eerie with cobwebs.
He was jealous of the other archpriests who had taken over large churches. Arachnon himself wanted to rampage on a spacious stage.
Paralyzing humans with venom, turning them into cocoons, hanging them, and slowly extracting and savoring the fear of death.
Just imagining it sent shivers down his spine, and Arachnon’s red eyes were glazing over in ecstasy when…
Thud!
A dull vibration was transmitted from nearby.
Arachnon instinctively knew.
<It’s an intruder!>
His hazy eyes glinted with madness, and his murderous instincts surged.
Just then, chattering voices were heard from the corridor outside the chapel where he was.
“Is this the first place to start, as expected?”
“Yes. Although it’s not adjacent to Ragneif, Greenwall Village is subtly like the center of the four nations, isn’t it?”
“Right.”
“Oh, I need to explain to Agnes. Terry, will you do it?”
“Holy Saint, this is a place we must occupy in case Abyssinis discovers our movements. If Abyssinis tries to reinforce her encirclement to prevent us from breaking through to Ragneif, this place will be the reference point. Of course, it would be even better if Abyssinis remains careless.”
“Yes, yes, Agnes. Yes, that’s right. You understood correctly. If we recapture it, it will be intrusion-free for two hours. We need to use that time well.”
Though there were only two presences and voices, they were strange individuals who pretended to be talking among three, but Arachnon didn’t care about the mental state of his prey.
‘Entertainment is walking right in! I’ll enjoy myself to the fullest!’
Pat-pat-pat-pat!
Arachnon’s four pairs of legs performed nimble footwork.
Clinging to the ceiling, he held his breath, preparing a spectacular welcome.
Finally, the door opened, and the sacrifices stepped into the chapel.
‘Now!’
The moment he was about to spurt hot venom, drawn up from his belly, onto the heads of the two men and women.
Whoosh!
A pure white beam of light shot vertically upwards. An aura blade struck Arachnon’s abdomen squarely.
<Guhh!>
Instead of venom, he spat out a groan, and his massive spider body crashed to the floor with a thud. The intruders said as if they had expected it.
“Spiders, as expected.”
“They like ceilings.”
The pink-haired woman and the silver-haired man each drew their weapons. No unsheathing motion was needed.
Light formed shapes in their hands, creating a scythe and a sword that glowed white like moonstones.
<Y-you two!>
Summoned weapons. That proved the identity of the two intruders to Arachnon.
<Evil’s Bane Executor! And the Executor’s male counterpart!>
What returned for his outburst was a combined attack from the two human powerhouses.
From the left, Tesillid held Holy Sword Libra diagonally.
Divine aura light spread from the blade, which he cradled with his left hand. He lowered his stance and then pushed off the ground with both feet.
From the right, Aillet loosely held Holy Scythe Librilly. Refined aura ascended from the tip of the scythe blade.
The next moment, she too plunged towards the enemy with lightning speed.
Slashing attacks poured down from Arachnon’s left and right.
Slish-slish-slish-slish!
<…!>
The two weapons each cut through four legs. The targeted areas were the joint parts forming gaps in the hard exoskeleton.
They were severed by the terrifyingly destructive aura.
<Huh…?>
Thud!
Arachnon collapsed right there. All four pairs of legs that supported his massive body had been destroyed and crumbled.
The enemy was incapacitated. Now it was time for the finish.
Aillet, who had moved behind Arachnon, snapped her fingers without even looking back.
“Divine Retribution.”
The sky opened. Blue lightning, splitting the dark clouds, descended upon the target, completely destroying the church ceiling.
Crash-boom-boom-boom!
The explosion swallowed the abandoned church. With a clean demolition, the Spider Noble vanished into ash.
The two, having unsummoned their weapons, rummaged through their paladin uniforms.
“It took 1 minute and 32 seconds from arrival to disposal.”
Tesillid checked the hands of his pocket watch.
“Alright, from now on, speed is key. Let’s hurry.”
Aillet shattered a Spatial Teleportation Stone.
The two moved to the next location. Another church in a mountain village appeared, occupied by Deadly Blooms and emitting black energy.
Unlike their relatively leisurely entry before, this time the two dashed through the shortest route to the chapel.
<Purururung! What are you two?>
A Black Unisus demanded to know their identities, but what it got in return were blades of light adorning its vision.
<Kwoaaah.>
The time it took to melt the beast-type demon with overwhelming firepower was…
“1 minute and 19 seconds.”
“Alright, next!”
They moved to the next fallen church without delay. They ran down to the church basement and smashed the massive skull-shaped boss buried among other small skulls.
“48 seconds.”
“Next!”
They shattered the Spatial Teleportation Stone etched with the coordinates of the next church without delay. This time, they beat up the monstrous giant rabbit-type boss in the church backyard.
“39 seconds. Weaker guys are showing up, so it’s taking longer to find them.”
“Let’s move more efficiently. How about we split up into three groups from now on, visit them, and then meet back in Kreco Village?”
“Sounds good, Ail.”
The two who had been moving as a pair split up. And after each unleashing an bombardment using Divine Retribution and divine aura, they met again at the promised location.
“Almost simultaneous arrival.”
“Indeed.”
In that way, Aillet and Tesillid moved along the ridges of the Hegelix Mountains, recapturing churches one by one.
Aillet had prepared the Spatial Teleportation Stones with coordinates etched into them a long time ago.
Precise spatial teleportation ensured their mobility, and sufficient combat power backed them up, making guerrilla warfare possible.
Contrary to Abyssinis’s expectations, there was no large-scale troop deployment. Just those two were enough to carry out the strategy.
Even if Abyssinis had known they were attacking the border, she wouldn’t have had time to construct new layers of encirclement.
That was how fast they were.
And finally.
“Done!”
Privilege for Possessors