Chapter 935: Anathema (9)

From beyond the ruined satellite city, an earth-shattering rumble surged forth, overturning the ground and making it rise.

It uprooted, crushed, and swept away everything standing on the surface, reducing it to a handful of dust.

It was a tidal wave of earth, as if intent on burying this city—abandoned for decades as part of the City Expansion Development Plan—beneath a white sand desert without a trace.

Kugwagwagwagwa!!!

Seeing the Apostle, whose eyes glowed with a dark crimson light, standing at the edge of that tidal wave, Lennok asked.

“Just a moment is enough. Can you do it?”

Though he said that, Lennok also had no intention of simply demanding assistance from the two vanguards.

Anathema, protected by the Pontiff, had grown stronger than anticipated.

It was also true that Lennok had not been able to properly support them during his encounter with the Director.

From the moment Anathema wielded the Apostle spellcraft so skillfully and utilized the Sixth Apostle’s durability to its extreme limit, it was a comprehensible result that the two vanguards, who were not in good condition to begin with, were being pushed back.

If they could do it, they would do it together; if not, he would handle it alone.

But as soon as the two spear-wielders heard Lennok’s words, they twisted their lips in self-mockery and rose to their feet.

“You idiot. It’s not a question of ‘can we do it?’”

Peshia, spitting on the ground, rose and sneered.

“We’re telling you to do it because we have to. This is why you shouldn’t work with a magician who’s never even seen military service.”

“If you want to be precise, I’m not entirely without experience, but…”

“Tower Lord. I will endure for as long as my strength allows, but I have little magical power left.”

As Lennok, unable to tolerate it, retorted, The Guileless, who had risen with his spear held with a serene demeanor, spoke.

“I may not be able to tell you when the moment comes that I can no longer fight.”

Both Peshia and The Guileless were clearly far from their peak capabilities to begin with.

Not only their physical abilities, but even their reserves of magical power were difficult to guarantee in such a tense battle.

But as soon as Lennok heard those words, he nodded as if he had been waiting and raised his left hand.

“If it’s magical power you need, I’ll replenish it.”

Crackle!!!

At that moment, a bolt of lightning shot from his fingertips, instantly piercing the hearts of The Guileless and Peshia.

“…!!”

A blindingly fast flash, so quick that the two physical combatants couldn’t even properly react.

Immediately after, attuned magical power, activated to its extreme limit, began to surge within their bodies.

“Since I’ve used the Residual Thunder Body spell to induce Property Transformation in your bodies, you’ll be able to use my attuned magical power directly.”

“Wait, does that mean…?”

“Since it’s another’s magical power, its efficiency will be a bit lower, but it’s more than enough for supplementing your brawling.”

He had cast Residual Thunder Body not only to increase the combat power of the two facing the Apostle.

But also to temporarily change the nature of their bodies to supply them with Lennok’s magical power.

Lennok nodded, looking at the two, who were dumbfounded by the magical power surging within them.

“With this much, I won’t have to hear any excuses about lacking magical power, right?”

“…With such comprehensive support coming from the rear, how could I possibly withdraw?”

As The Guileless drew upon the magical power, tendons bulged over the hand clutching his spear, and a strange hum resonated.

“This time, I shall truly take this battle to the point you desire.”

“An excellent stance. Do you have anything to say?”

“Fuck you, battery.”

“…”

“But this isn’t bad. Only with this much can you actually take credit for it.”

Peshia slowly began to stretch, a fierce smile on her face.

“Let’s start again. Just don’t let the magical power cut out halfway.”

“It’s coming!!”

Kugugugugugu!!!

The tidal wave of earth, which had been surging from the far end of the city’s horizon, had already reached right before the three of them.

[The blessing of the Subterranean Giant God does not merely stay in one place; it is a miracle that exists as if breathing within all spaces on the surface.]

Driving a tidal wave of earth tens of meters high, crushing everything on the surface, Anathema spoke.

[From this moment on, in this very place, I shall personally administer the grace of annihilation, which leads to the world’s demise.]

KWAANG!!!

The tidal wave of earth violently pressed down upon the ground, completely overturning and crushing the terrain across the entire area.

Waves of earth soared against gravity, engulfing the entire battlefield, a wide-area spell that crumbled every foothold without leaving an inch of ground.

The ground they stood on not only surged upward but snapped and broke, and the moment Lennok soared up with a single peal of thunder.

“Let’s see each other alive…!!”

“Hah, if you’re gonna die, die quickly. Just don’t get in the way!!”

The forms of The Guileless and Peshia, who had re-gripped their spear shafts, split to either side.

Narrowly dodging beneath the surging waves of dirt and rock, they twisted their shoulders and slashed in different directions.

[Ghost-Gathering Guiding Fire (鬼收導火)]

[Gathered Burning One Spear (輯燒一槍)]

Immediately after, Anathema, who had been standing atop the tidal wave, also leaped directly down into the dirt and countered their spear attacks.

KWOOOOOONG!!!

The Apostle, clad in earthen armor, collided with the spear-wielders, who had unleashed different slashes from both sides.

They clashed, moving back hundreds of meters as if pushed, simply by receiving the tidal wave’s force from their positions.

Kugugugugugu!!!

Rock walls rose vertically, defying gravity.

The ground rapidly shifted overhead, inverted.

Amidst the surging tidal waves, in the chaotic battlefield where heaven and earth were indistinguishable, the three exchanged attacks and defenses at tremendous speed.

Kagagagagaga!!!

They sprinted without a single moment’s rest through the constantly transforming city.

In fleeting instants, they executed dozens of leaps and footwork techniques amidst the swirling dirt and debris.

Everything on the surface was swept up, spun, crumbled, and melted away, yet even in such a battlefield, the transcendent techniques of the warriors shone brilliantly without fading.

Dududududu!!!

“…!!!”

Even their mutual resentment and curses ran dry, becoming an intersection of intense killing intent where not a single word was exchanged.

Peshia and The Guileless, already pushed to their limits, gritted their teeth and focused all their nerves on striking down the enemy before them.

They frantically rotated and accelerated their limbs, enveloping their entire bodies in a storm of magical power, and swung the polearms in their hands at subsonic speeds.

The attacks and defenses swung by the three in different directions surpassed sound, and each time, sonic booms exploded, tearing through the tidal waves of dirt.

From the sky, dozens of lightning bolts fell upon the three, constantly crushing and reshaping the battlefield.

Kwa-rururung!!

Beneath their feet, backflows of dirt and sand and ripples of thunder and lightning clashed and vanished as if boiling, melting down and flowing as lava.

Lennok’s magical power was continuously supplied to the entire bodies of The Guileless and Peshia, elevating their bodies, which were pushed to their limits.

An elixir, perfected through multiple meticulous combinations, flowed through their blood, igniting their vitality.

“Oooooh!!!!”

A message, not fully formed into words, bursting forth with all their will-thought on the boundary between life and death.

And as if responding to the two spear-wielders’ desperate struggle for their lives, lightning magic pierced down onto Anathema’s crown like divine retribution.

[Tremor-Stored Wielding Support (震貯揮支)]

[Single Sand Rain Thunder (個砂雨雷)]

Deodeodeodeodeodeong!!!

Countless fragments of lightning gathered like raindrops from the sky, rotating counter-clockwise to form an inverted triangle.

Lightning fragments, filtered down from the triangle’s tip, coalesced like a complex hand seal and landed atop Anathema’s head.

Immediately after, it rotated clockwise again over the Apostle’s head, completely grinding and crushing the earthen armor he wore all over his body.

[Thunder Night (震夜)]

[Shatter (拍碎)]

Drrrrrrrk!!!

[To the very end…!!]

The earthen armor peeled away, and the moment Anathema’s fiercely distorted face emerged into the air.

Peshia, throwing her entire body into the attack, re-gripped her spear in a reverse grip and collided.

Three spirits, which had risen behind her back, merged into one as if collapsing and dwelled within the tip of her spear.

“ANATHEMAAAA!!!”

Spirit-Binding Secret Art

Ghost God Union (傀神合體)

Three Forms, Three Poles (三體三極)

Spirit Fusion: Freedom from Defilements (漏盡通)

It was a secret art of Spirit-Binding, where she simultaneously possessed herself with three ancestral spirits, fusing their powers to wield them.

The spear she held in a reverse grip accelerated as if sliding, wreathed in a faint, blurry flame as if possessed by a ghost.

Crossing the boundary between the material and spiritual realms, it pierced Anathema’s heart.

Pwoooosh!!!

[…!!!]

Anathema gasped, and Peshia, losing all her strength, limply collapsed.

The battered body of the spear-wielder fell onto Anathema’s shoulder, then slid and crashed onto the ground.

Anathema stood with Peshia, whose head was buried in the ground, beneath his foot, gazing at the spear embedded in his heart.

“Kukuk, khuhut…!!!”

With Anathema silent, Peshia’s shoulder faintly twitched.

Vomiting copious amounts of blood, Peshia, whose head was buried in the ground, muttered.

“It’s a technique that strikes both matter and spirit simultaneously… Even your goddamn Apostle spellcraft couldn’t block all of it.”

[….]

What Peshia attempted, taking advantage of the opening created by The Guileless and Lennok, was a secret art of Spirit-Binding that pierced both matter and spirit simultaneously.

Because it strikes both matter and spirit with a single spear, unless one knew this technique, at least half the damage would be guaranteed.

Peshia had realized that Anathema was halving the damage by assimilating with the earth through his Apostle spellcraft.

And conversely, she had been preparing a secret art that could definitively inflict half the damage.

The drawback of Spirit Fusion: Freedom from Defilements was that because it pierced two concepts simultaneously with a single action, there were limits to the individual damage dealt to each realm.

That was why Peshia had waited until the very end without using this technique, aiming for that single moment when Anathema would create an opening.

To precisely pierce the area near the heart, where even with the weak power of Freedom from Defilements, the most fatal injury could be inflicted.

“What’s wrong? Why don’t you… say something?”

Peshia gurgled and spat out blood, grinning.

“Or are you… afraid to die, now?”

[As if that would ever happen.]

Thud!!

The moment Anathema violently stomped his foot, Peshia’s body was sent flying into the air from the recoil.

Just as he was about to angrily kick her bloodied body, The Guileless barely squeezed himself between them.

With a powerful shockwave, he bounced back with Peshia and crashed behind the ruins.

Jeooong!!!

[Bajour’s pawns are disappointingly rusty. To be pleased with merely scratching me by risking their lives…!!!]

The ground where Peshia and The Guileless had fallen split wide open, and countless earthen spikes and whips erupted from within, lashing out wildly.

KWAANG!!

The moment Anathema’s full power explosively surged, countless earthen hands erupted from beneath the ground, seizing the Apostle’s body.

It was as if they were holding the Sixth Apostle’s body to the ground, dramatically increasing his assimilation rate with the earth.

Kugugugugu!!!!

The surrounding ground surged up around Anathema, coiling around him, and soon began to form a massive sphere around him.

[In the end, you were just bait. If penetrating my authority was solely the magician’s role, then there’s no longer any reason to humor you.]

Anathema spoke, enveloping his entire body within a massive earthen sphere.

[From this moment on, I shall begin by thoroughly seizing this battlefield as my sacred domain.]

A massive earthen sphere was created atop the surging mountain, seemingly draining all the surrounding earthly power.

Dudududuk!!

Above the mountain formed by the surging city, the massive earthen sphere was completing itself and about to close off.

The moment it was complete, Anathema would devote himself entirely to destroying the city and crushing his enemies using Apostle spellcraft, without revealing his true form.

But Peshia, knowing that fact, spat out blood and laughed weakly.

“Go to hell… because my job is done.”

Though she fought as if abandoning her life, losing herself in the battle, she hadn’t forgotten the initial agreement she made with Lennok.

The unreasonable condition that the Sixth Apostle Anathema, who moved freely by assimilating with the earth, had to be bound in one place, even if only for a very brief moment.

As a result, she and The Guileless succeeded in pinning Anathema down, making the entire city their battlefield and risking their lives running around.

“The promise has been kept… so do what you have to.”

As Peshia muttered that and finally let go of the spear she had clutched until the very end.

Lennok replied.

“Yes, you did well.”

Pzzzt!!

A single bolt of lightning fell from the night sky, striking down as if sucked into the closing earthen sphere.

[Lightning-Bringing Electrical Calm (雷來電靜)]

KWOOOOONG!!!

The moment the lightning rotated and was sucked into the sphere, it flickered and twisted at tremendous speed above Anathema’s head.

The moment Lennok, appearing as if grazing past the Apostle’s back, swung his hand as if shaking something off.

[Principle-Thunder Mountain-Sever (理雷斷山)]

[Lightning Key (雷鍵)]

“From now on, I’ll take care of it myself.”

He planted a bolt of lightning that pierced directly through Anathema’s mind.