Chapter 932: Anathema (6)

BOOM!!!

The ground split like a crevasse, swallowing the ruins of the satellite city.

Fallen buildings, asphalt, fragments of streetlights and utility poles embedded in the white sand, disappeared into the fissure.

Thick bedrock defied gravity, surging upward and beginning to entirely reshape the terrestrial landscape.

RUMBLE!!!

The solid earth swayed and trembled like waves, as earthquakes and storms raged without cease.

Shattering the boulders floating in the air with lightning, the two figures landed on a distorted cliff.

FLASH!!

BOOM!!

Flickering like lightning, they distorted as if no longer human.

Silhouetted against the dark night sky, the two figures, steeped in lightning, appeared on the newly formed cliff.

“Haa, haa…!! ”

“…”

Peshia, panting roughly and sweating profusely, and the Guileless, silently massaging his shoulder.

Both of them were crackling with brilliant lightning, and seemed utterly unaccustomed to their own movements.

CRACKLE…!!!

“This is truly absurd enhancement magic.”

“Even over his arm, nestled within the folds of his white scholarly robe, tingling lightning crackled as if seeping out.”

“Had it been even slightly weaker, it wouldn’t have worked. Had it been stronger, it would have been uncontrollable.”

“Cough, hrrgh…!!”

“It’s been far too long since I’ve truly grasped how useful and dangerous a powerful wizard can be.”

“Damn it, enough! Just… hurry up and start…!!!”

Peshia shrieked, her face twisted like a demon’s.

“I feel like I’m gonna die… right now!!”

The fact that she couldn’t even shriek as usual showed how immense the pain she felt was.

Yet, her momentum as she spoke was several times more intense than before, and with each shout, lightning bursting from her throat brilliantly illuminated the surroundings.

At Peshia’s appearance, pumping lightning through her entire body like an avatar of thunder, even the flesh-monsters rampaging on the ground turned to look at her, barking wildly.

But the Guileless firmly shook his head at Peshia’s words.

“As per the plan, the Tower Lord giving the signal comes first. Have you forgotten already?”

“Damn it!! Just because you got one useful spell, do you think you’re some kind of dog?!”

“Perhaps. Owing him my life itself might have been magic to me.”

At Peshia’s sharp outcry, the Guileless shook his head, his hands clasped behind his back.

“So that everything about the man named Krod Azlan isn’t negated, so that Turyeonmun and my granddaughter aren’t stained with disgrace. He essentially gave us an opportunity.”

“Keuk-keuk…!! You call yourself a dog, yet you still don’t know that bastard well.”

Peshia’s lips stretched into a demonic grin as she glared at the Guileless with glistening eyes.

As lightning erupted from her grinning mouth, her face literally flickered like a ghost.

“He’s crazier than me, yet his mind still works. Do you really think that bastard restored your sanity for your sake?”

“…”

“To wag your tail, boasting of a favor, when he only kept you alive because you’re useful. It’s utterly ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“Perhaps.”

He replied calmly.

His tired eyes turned towards Anathema, who was wrapped in a colossal ring of earth in the distant night sky.

“Nevertheless, my ability to return like this is his mercy and grace. Even if there were various coincidences, it ultimately wouldn’t have happened without the Tower Lord.”

“…”

“I understand Lord Grisbern resents and hates the Tower Lord. But accept that he is a being capable of earning your hatred, that we are able to be here.”

The gaze of the deeply-scarred spear master looked down upon the eyes of his fellow madman.

“If you cannot accept that even this blessing bestowed upon my body is proof that he is far beyond us, then nothing will change.”

“Hah!! Just like a decrepit elder. Trying to mediate the situation now, pretending to be on my side—”

[You two are endlessly noisy, bickering. Be quiet.]

“…!!!”

Lennok’s chilling voice echoed, piercing Peshia’s mind.

The Guileless, too, seemed to have heard a similar response, his expression subtly shifting for a moment.

A wondrous technique that manipulated the residual thunder of the Residual Thunder Body, the enhancement magic cast on their bodies, to transmit will-thought.

[This kind of preparation is new to me, so it took some time. The preliminary work is more demanding than I expected.]

A faint hint of annoyance mixed in Lennok’s words echoing in their minds.

Just as Peshia flinched at the cold reply, tensing her shoulders.

[Adjustments are complete. I’ll begin fire support now.]

CRACKLE.

At that moment, a brilliant blue line of light streaked across the night sky above their heads.

[If you want to live, get out of the way.]

By the time they noticed, it had already traversed half the night sky, diagonally bisecting and piercing through the Apostle’s true form.

The Sixth Apostle, who served the Subterranean Giant God and wielded Apostle spellcraft that directly manipulated the earth.

The moment it pierced Anathema’s wing, having penetrated the earth barrier and rings surrounding the Apostle’s body in a single strike.

His membrane-covered left wing exploded outwards at that spot with an immense burst of light.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!!

[…!!!!]

Its speed, direction, power, and range—nothing failed to exceed expectations.

Anathema’s form, which had been crumbling the satellite city’s ground and altering its terrain, sharply tilted to one side.

RUUUUMBLE!!!

As if to protect the Apostle who had lost one wing, an earth barrier rose, coiling around Anathema’s body.

A bizarre sight: rings of earth and rock fragments revolving around Anathema as if they were planets.

Instinctively recognizing that this was the promised ‘signal,’ the Guileless and Peshia moved almost simultaneously.

“Let’s go!!”

CRACKLE…!!!

As they drew forth their magic, violent electric currents burst forth beneath their feet, and the two spear-wielding figures sprinted across the collapsing city.

“Damn it, you’re late!!! Why does that great wizard bastard take so long to prepare!!!”

“Think positively. This conversation might be our last. Isn’t the Tower Lord showing us consideration?”

“What nonsense. If you gild someone’s face that much, they’ll suffocate to death!!!”

Peshia spat and drew forth her magic, as a bird-shaped ancestral spirit rose behind her.

Beneath the Guileless’s hearty laugh, a pure white current surged beneath his feet, further accelerating his body.

[I’m warning you one more time.]

Lennok’s cold voice echoed, completely ignoring the two spear masters’ banter.

[Dodge. Or you’ll die.]

Immediately after, the blue light that had pierced the Apostle’s wing shot straight into the sky, transforming into a vast magical formation.

WHOOSH!!

Lightning-Type Unique Magic

Formation Incantation: Eightfold Lightning Catholicon (捌雷伸朝)

A magical formation spanning tens of meters in radius, unfurling above the head of the Apostle who manipulated the satellite city’s earth.

CRACKLE-CRACKLE-CRACKLE!!!!!

Each rotation of the magical formation, imbued with intense lightning, unleashed resonant thunderous roars.

Every moment the moonlight from the night sky passed through the magical formation and struck the ground, it transformed into hundreds of lightning bolts.

[Lightning Well (雷光井)]

[Electric Resonance (電圍共鳴)]

[Punishing Martial Thunder (誅傷武雷)]

[Basic Lightning Pillar (基雷伸柱)]

RUUUUUMBLE!!!!

Hundreds of lightning pillars descended across the entire ruined satellite city.

An overwhelming deluge, as if opening a sea of thunder in the parched sky, pouring elemental magic by tilting the very balance.

KWOOOOSH!!!!

Earth fragments, rising and rotating under the power of Apostle spellcraft, exploded and vaporized upon impact with the lightning.

The ground, overcome by heat beyond its limits, boiled uncontrollably, and things that shouldn’t burn ignited everywhere, emitting acrid steam.

HIIIISS!!!

“Puhahahaha!! Fuck, this is it!!!”

Hundreds of lightning pillars connecting sky and earth. Peshia burst into explosive laughter, seeing the hellish tableau instantly spread between heaven and earth.

“Now this is a great wizard. You’re too laaaate!!!!!”

RATATATATANG!!

They dashed relentlessly, stepping on crumbling ground and falling building debris.

Riding the curved rings of earth extending on both sides, they swept their spear tips over the barriers, instantly breaching the rock formations.

Two streaks of light, with immense speed, tore through and collided with the earth rings that surged like stairs towards the night sky.

KWOOOOM!!!!

A spear-clash where the Guileless and Peshia shattered the earth barrier protecting Anathema’s body from opposing directions.

“Anathema, you traitorous bastard, I’ll chew you to death…!!!”

Peshia, having dashed upwards, gripped her spear in a reverse grip towards the fissure below, gritting her teeth.

“By now, you should crawl out on your own!!!”

As she rotated her shoulder, the ancestral spirit rising behind Peshia transformed into a sloth-like monster.

With the illusion of Peshia’s arm grotesquely stretching, the gripped spear accelerated under extreme centrifugal force.

WHOOOM!!!

As she plunged the spear with all her might into the earth barrier, it split open on both sides, revealing its inner core.

The sound of the earth rending and pulverizing.

Fragments of hard bedrock and solidified ground ceaselessly dislocated, pushed back, shattered, and scattered.

Within, the figure of Anathema, the goat-headed Apostle, floated obliquely, having lost one wing.

Anathema, scattering intense will-thought, slowly looked up at Peshia’s ragged, demonic appearance.

[I was pondering.]

In his left hand, the spear Peshia had thrown with all her might was precisely embedded.

[About the fact that I, who upheld the law even while being branded a traitor of Ars Nova, have at last become a true traitor.]

“…You.”

The moment the spear pierced his hand, he stopped the supersonic spear with sheer grip strength.

His reflexes or speed were unknown, but his physical strength was truly monstrous.

CRUNCH!!

Anathema, gripping the spear shaft with the crushing power of his left hand, lifted his gaze.

[Peshia Grisbern. Your scornful accusations of me being a traitor now reach me. Yes, only now have I truly…]

Anathema slowly closed and opened his eyes, drawing forth his magic as he spoke.

[…forsaken the world’s survival and chosen destruction.]

“Even after becoming an Apostle, your pompous way of speaking hasn’t changed. You nobles are nothing but corpses without your dignity, aren’t you?”

Peshia sneered.

“Go ahead and ramble as much as you like. Phase 1 is over, anyway.”

[Phase 1?]

“That annoying bastard told us to clear the sky first.”

The face of the lightning-clad demoness was stained with a complex mix of self-derision and scorn towards her opponent.

The bitter memory of burning everything against a wizard only to suffer a crushing defeat.

It was absurd, but even at this moment, fighting as allies, there was no end to his capabilities in sight.

The lightning coiling around her entire body, the barrage of spells coloring the night sky in brilliant hues, and even the battlefield’s layout unfolding exactly as he had said.

The unrealistically vast gap never diminished, to the point where even she, consumed by killer intent, inadvertently scoffed at herself.

“He said the sky wasn’t for us, but for him to use as his stage.”

[Spellbinder. Elder Binary. Cartridge Open.]

The moment three purple lights, surging one after another from somewhere on the ground, became fully embedded in the earth sphere.

The three impact points embedded on the sphere formed a violet triangle.

[Trigger activated.]

Creation-Type Unique Magic: Applied Spatial Spellcraft

[Distorted Brightness Connection (歪曲昌連)]

[Shedding Secret Brilliance (脫却秘燁)]

CRACKLE-CRACKLE-CRACKLE!!!!

Fissures, forming cracks in space centered on the triangle, shattered the earth sphere head-on.

“High-level magic of different types from this distance…!!!!”

SWOOOOSH!!!

Before the Guileless could finish his exclamation, a dazzling array of colored lights surged one after another from the ground into the sky.

Blue light bearing intense lightning. Red light wreathed in searing heat. Frosty light exuding chilling cold.

Purple radiance influenced by gravity and space, and viscous, dark black magic radiance continued, embroidering the sky from the ground.

WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH!!!!

Dozens of magical formations unfurled across the night sky, circularly embracing the ground.

A magnificent sight, as if all kinds of magical formations were replacing the constellations in the sky, taking the place of celestial light.

“It’s coming…!!!!!”

The role Lennok had demanded of the vanguard was to survive the indiscriminate magical onslaught that spared neither friend nor foe.

And the chain incantation that would now pour forth was, quite literally, a concentrated barrage unleashed by a great wizard with all his might.

Immediately after Peshia, captivated by the unrealistically beautiful magical radiance, gritted her teeth and drew forth her magic.

Dozens of spells, each containing a different attribute, began to fall from the far reaches of the sky, superimposing dozens of times over.

[Chanting Thunder (唱雷)]

[Jurasal (朱羅撒)]

[Star-Colored Ice Lightning (星色氷電)]

[Magnetic Heavy Lock (磁重鎖)]

[Black Butterfly (黑蝶)]

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!!!!!

Streams of vividly colored magical power and will-thought descended from the sky like rain.

They melted and manipulated the bedrock that rose and twisted under the Apostle spellcraft, shattering and vaporizing it, then dropped it back to the ground.

A barrage of spells so vast it was hard to believe a single wizard was casting them in succession.

[This is…!!!]

Not only did every falling incantation easily surpass the speed of sound, but they also grotesquely and precisely targeted Anathema’s physical body.

Even Anathema’s expression hardened at the unparalleled firepower, and he drew forth his spellcraft with all his might.

The earth fragments coiling around the sky were instantly eroded away by the barrage of spells.

[Jurasal (朱羅撒)]

[Great Flame Wheel (太炎輪)]

[Binding Thunder Mist (約雷費靄)]

[Fire Whirlpool Sky Glide (火渦天滑)]

[Piercing Collapse Thunderbrand (穿崩雷烙)]

KWOOOOOSH!!!

Over his muscular body, covered in fur and scales, dozens of spells plummeted and exploded.

Destructive magic, assembled from immense magical power and will-thought, indiscriminately blanketed and crushed the Apostle’s true form.

Impacts that melted muscle and nerves, and crushed bones, with mere contact.

The ceaseless magical bombardment overwhelmed and crushed Anathema’s will-thought without a single wasted shot.

Its aftermath unleashed shockwaves on the ground, leaving behind a colossal crater.

KWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

From the center of the crater, the Sixth Apostle, Anathema, having shed one wing, slowly rose.

His entire body, burned, melted, and crushed by the spell barrage, regenerated in real-time, its size so immense that simply standing allowed him to look down upon the ground.

With a massive body over 5m tall, a muscular frame intermingled with scales and fur, he was truly nothing less than a monster.

[…Truly astonishing.]

HIIIISS!!

Simultaneously with the acrid smoke of burning flesh and bone, Anathema’s eyes filled with an utterly clear killing intent.

[Is this the level one reaches when unleashing firepower at the apex of the pure spellcraft system, without distinguishing between friend and foe?]

Anathema, who had been looking at Peshia and the Guileless, now perched at the edge of the crater, slowly tilted his head.

[What a sickeningly dangerous talent. What should have been prioritized in this battlefield was never your presence, from the start.]

“You catch on fast. Did you just now feel like hunting down and killing that wizard bastard?”

Peshia, looking down at Anathema, grinned menacingly.

“Whatever. If you’re on the ground, we can stand and fight.”

Behind her, a three-headed, six-armed Asura spirit appeared, and brilliant lightning surged forth, taking the form of a spear.

CRACKLE-CRACKLE!!!

The moment Peshia gripped the lightning spear, the Asura spirit also seized the spear with its six arms and lifted it.

Feeling the searing pain in her palms, Peshia burst into laughter.

“Now it’s Phase 2, you monster bastard!!!”

[You haven’t changed at all since the civil war. You allow no stray thoughts in battle.]

Anathema, clenching his fists, slowly knelt and placed his hands on the ground.

RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!!!!

Around the Sixth Apostle, the surrounding ground began to melt like water and surge upwards.

[My Apostle spellcraft manipulates the earth where ground exists. This place must be the stage where my abilities are most powerful.]

The goat-giant’s eyes, looking at the superhumans standing around the crater, gleamed with cruel light.

[Good. I shall now teach you what kind of being this body, called the beast of the cult, truly is.]

“It has begun.”

The control tower in the outermost airport district of the satellite city, Etanoc.

The only structure that miraculously retained its form amidst being swept by the Sixth Apostle’s spellcraft.

Lennok sat with his back to the broken-windowed control tower, gazing up at the night sky.

WHOOSH!!!

Beneath his feet, a colossal spell formation, tens of meters in radius, unfurled, emitting dazzling light.

So intense was the magical radiance pouring from the formation that the darkness in the sky near the airport facilities receded, turning as bright as day.

Seated in the very center of the brilliantly rotating magical formation, concentrating his mind, Lennok observed the battlefield as it changed in real-time.

WHIRRRR!!!

The golden, relic-grade artifact, Eye of the Wellspring, floating in the air, spun madly and glowed brightly.

Following its light trajectory, it formed a small celestial sphere before Lennok’s eyes.

The forms of dozens of magical formations densely covering the celestial sphere, and within it, the fierce clash on the battlefield.

Watching Anathema rampage, freely manipulating the surrounding earth, Lennok fell into thought.

‘We succeeded in forcing Anathema to the ground. The only remaining question is how long those two can hold out…’

The Sixth Apostle of the Cult, Anathema, who served the Subterranean Giant God, was an Incarnation Body wielding Apostle spellcraft that manipulated the earth.

Pulling Anathema down to the ground, where his Apostle spellcraft was at its peak, would normally be suicidal, but Lennok thought otherwise.

‘As soon as he awakened as an Apostle, he floated into the sky instead of staying on the ground. There’s no reason he would deliberately choose a disadvantageous environment.’

Lennok’s gaze deepened.

‘The Apostle spellcraft, forcibly boosted in power through human sacrifice, must come with a condition. That condition is likely…’

He can only manipulate the earth within his line of sight with Apostle spellcraft. That must be the condition.

If so, it explains why Anathema didn’t descend from the sky immediately upon awakening, and why he was manipulating the earth across the entire satellite city.

That’s why Lennok first instructed the Guileless and Peshia to aim at forcing Anathema to the ground.

He then forcibly created fissures in space with spatial magic to restrict the sky, and concentrated his spell barrage to make Anathema plummet.

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!!!!

The goat-giant rising amidst smoke from the center of the crater was truly overwhelming, but Lennok was already certain.

Though bedrock surged and rotated from all directions, smashing down and agitating the city center, its range was now much narrower than before.

“…Good.”

Having confirmed that much, Lennok immediately stood up.

From now on, Lennok’s task was to maintain fire support while preparing powerful high-level magic that would turn the tide of the battle.

Unleashing pure magic from this distance while simultaneously preparing powerful spells was an extremely difficult task even for Lennok.

The battles Lennok had fought thus far had taken place in situations far more dangerous and precarious than this.

It was rare to have such capable forces at his disposal, or a battlefield where Lennok himself could retreat to the rear.

Here, he would corner Anathema, narrow the battlefield, and ensure his complete annihilation.

That itself was a means to achieve his purpose for coming here.

However, he had returned to this place where he obtained the Eight Trigrams Formation to prepare for battle, precisely because he was certain this moment was the only intersection.

Lennok, clutching the artifact faintly pulsating in his pocket, quietly closed his eyes.

“…”

There was no surprise. Only conclusions based on solid evidence and deduction existed there.

WHOOSH!!

He instantly used Flicker to land in the cargo hold behind the damaged airport facilities.

An old container where a defunct mechanical spider had collapsed.

In the quiet stillness, where faint moonlight filtered through the broken ceiling.

Someone stood with their back to Lennok, silently gazing at the mechanical spider.

A silent presence that must have noticed Lennok, yet showed no reaction whatsoever.

HIIIISS!!

Lennok saw him, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it.

“Magic guns of Epic grade or higher in WORLD 2.0 had a user-bound function, didn’t they?”

[…]

“So they could return directly to their owner if they moved beyond a certain distance. A convenient feature, but because it was grade-dependent, it made the Magic Gunner profession difficult.”

In Lennok’s hand, as he spoke, lay a dusty, old musket.

The Old World magic gun, Teremer’s Demise, obtained from Machina’s Heart-Star Vault.

An Ego Artifact with six different forms, a weapon abandoned at the Ascension Gate after losing its owner.

Lennok, raising the musket with one hand, ran his fingers along the barrel as he spoke.

“Forcibly inducing and activating the user-bound function embedded in a magic gun isn’t difficult. The necessary conditions are spellcraft interpretation, coordinate backtracking, a certain distance. And—”

CLICK!!

Lennok twirled the barrel to re-grip it, then raised the muzzle and spoke.

“…whether the spellcraft target existed in reality.”

[…]

Despite Lennok’s calm explanation, he gave no answer.

As if such an explanation held no meaning, he merely mourned the deceased slumbering within the steel spider.

Having passed through immeasurable trials and ends, having overcome the world’s destruction once to stand here.

He still humbly observed and mourned the deaths of others, and sought to remember them.

“It would be a lie to say I wasn’t curious.”

Lennok said.

“You, too, must have had moments like mine.”

[…]

“Waking up in an unfamiliar world, desperate to survive, then finally realizing the traces of someone who walked the same path through time…”

Lennok whispered.

“…and then chasing after him, like this.”

Only then did the being, who had been gazing at the mechanical spider, slowly turn his eyes.

On the face, barely turned, noise flickered, a sight he never quite grew accustomed to, no matter how many times he saw it.

Lennok gazed at him and quietly asked.

“Did you also used to ask the Pontiff such things?”

[…Perhaps.]

He replied.

[At least it was much… cruder than this. And not as clever either.]

“…”

[That’s why I only thought it was necessary to confirm it here, once.]

“Confirm…?”

The Director, who had turned to face Lennok without a hint of hesitation, asked.

[I’m on my way to meet the Pontiff. Will you come along?]