Chapter 472: Hauria (7)

Chapter 472: Hauria (7)

This was Ciel’s first time riding her wyvern into actual combat, but surprisingly enough, she didn’t meet with any problems.

Usually, monsters like wyverns were so scared of demonic beasts that it would be difficult to make them attack, but even their monsters’ instinctive fears had been erased by blessings granted by the priests.

However, these blessings couldn’t help with some minor physiological discomforts felt by the riders.

The demonic beast that Ciel, along with dozens of other wyvern-riders, was currently facing was a giant, insectoid demonic beast.

Although she didn’t really want to describe it in detail, if she had to make a comparison, the demonic beast looked like a huge cockroach that had been glued together with the wings of a dragonfly and the limbs of a praying mantis. Every time its four wings fluttered, it summoned windstorms as sharp as blades, and each swing of its forelimbs, which were bent like scythes, was sharper than a slash made with sword-force.

It was a bit smaller than a dragon. However, that meant it was still much larger than a wyvern. And though they might have different appearances, dozens of demonic beasts of similar size were occupying the sky around it. The flying squadrons’ role was to prevent these demonic beasts from directing their attacks at those marching below and, if possible, neutralize them as quickly as possible so that they could go on to provide some ground support.

Although she had little actual experience with aerial combat, Ciel was performing quite well. She used Javel, which was as flexible as a whip, to penetrate the thick hides of the demonic beasts, and whenever she saw a clear opening, she would unleash one of the powers of her Demoneye. But the stronger her opponent, the greater the cost of restraining it with the power of Immobility. The power of Darkness, however, could be used comfortably even with Ciel’s current strength, especially if she only used it to attack.

As it swung its forelimbs while flying towards them, the demonic beast's movements gradually began to slow down. Hoping to take advantage of this opening, Ciel plunged spikes created from her Demoneye of Darkness into the joints of the demonic beast’s wings. Once she had done so, the demonic beast’s body began to lean precariously to one side.

But right at the moment when Ciel was about to launch another attack—

Rooooooar!

A thick Breath attack swept over her head. Startled by the loud sound and the density of the mana contained within the Breath, Ciel raised her head.

“That was her Breath?” Ciel muttered in shock.

So Raimira finally got a chance to show it off. Ciel let out an amused snort and pulled on her reins.

Everyone flying in the sky was surprised when Raimira’s Breath suddenly burst out. Even Carmen, who had mounted one of the demonic beasts and was taking it down all by herself, felt surprised as she turned to stare at Raimira.

“Ooooh...!” Carmen murmured in awe.

She had just seen Raimira, who was armed and armored by the Battleship spell. The combination of the two had created the appearance of a dragon wearing a magical suit of armor, and Carmen couldn’t help but feel a sense of romance[1] at this sight.

Wasn’t something like that also a complete transformation?

Carmen trembled, her fists shaking in excitement before raising both her arms high and shouting, “Transform!”

Fwoooosh!

Her Exid deployed around her. Now transformed into her Dragon-Lion form, Carmen slashed down with both her fists, which had gained sharp nails like a dragon’s claws.

“Dragon Claw,” Carmen called out her attack in a quiet whisper.

Her voice may have been low, but the power of her attack was by no means weak.

Cracracracrackle!

The flames of the White Flame Formula poured out from her claws that had been sunk deep into the body of the demonic beast.

Pop, popop!

The demonic beast’s body, having been injected with flames, began to bulge out on all sides. Without further delay, Carmen withdrew her claws and leaped off of the demonic beast’s back.

Booooom!

A huge explosion erupted. Carmen, who was leaping away with her back toward the explosion, spun a few times in midair before landing on top of her wyvern’s back. Her trusty steed, no, her trusty wyrm, Crimson Waltz, took the impact of Carmen’s landing without any difficulty and spread her wings with a roar.

Hiding her inner satisfaction at her spectacular landing after leaping away from an explosion, Carmen turned her head as she belatedly realized something, “...?”

Raimira had obviously fired her Breath at the barrier. However, there hadn’t been any further sounds after that.

[Tha—that can’t be...! To think that this lady’s breath would—!]

“I knew it would turn out like this.”

Raimira might have been flustered by the outcome, but Eugene just furrowed his brow and let out a grumble.

Raimira’s Breath had definitely burned through the air and crashed into the barrier. However, it didn’t seem to have any effect on the barrier.

When her Breath made contact with the surface of the barrier, no explosion had erupted. All it had done was cause the barrier to ripple slightly. The dark power of Destruction that made up the barrier had nullified her Breath right at the moment of contact.

“After all, there is so much dark power poured into the barrier that it even makes the technical quality of the barrier insignificant,” Eugene muttered to himself.

All of this dark power had thoroughly and thickly covered the entire sky above the city.

From now on, you are a Demon King.

Although Eugene had been the one to say this, he had no choice but to reevaluate the specter’s true strength once more. If he was able to freely control such levels of dark power, then the specter already deserved to be treated as a Demon King.

“We won’t be able to break through with just a Breath,” Eugene speculated.

A dragon’s Breath was just a mass of pure mana. The same thing applied to spells. The most effective solution to this type of barrier was divine power, which was the antithesis of dark power.

Or else, an even stronger power.

‘I should save my Divine Sword for later,’ Eugene decided after careful consideration.

Currently, the number of times that Eugene could use his ability of the Divine Sword was only thrice a day. So it would be a waste to use one of those times just to break through this barrier.

“Let’s get closer,” Eugene said out loud.

[B-but, Benefactor, the barrier still hasn’t been broken,] Raimira protested.

“That’s why we’re going over there to break it,” Eugene confidently stated. Yôur favorite stories at novelhall.comira was shaken by his assertiveness, [Eeep...!]

Until now, Raimira had had such strong momentum, but... she must have been thoroughly shocked when her Breath was nullified without doing any damage.

However, Riamira soon came to her senses and accelerated forward. If she were on her own, she would have definitely run away, but right now, she had both Eugene and the Saint riding on her back.

He hadn’t put the Moonlight Sword back into his cloak. Instead, Eugene set it down at his feet, where he could comfortably pick it up again. With his right hand still holding on to the Holy Sword, Eugene held it up in front of him.

At some point, Raimira had already flown over the top of the Centipede Mountains. However, when they looked down, they still couldn’t see Hauria City below them. This was because the black veil of dark power covering the city was too thick.

Eugene eventually told Raimira, “There’s no need to go any further. You can stop here.”

Immediately after Eugene had said this, Raimira stopped moving forward. She was able to maintain her altitude and position in the air just by keeping her wings outspread. Eugene stepped off of Raimira’s back and unfurled his wings of Prominence.

Eugene had reached his other hand into his cloak to take hold of Akasha. Even with its help, he couldn’t completely see through the barrier’s formula. However, it wasn’t like he didn’t manage to see anything at all.

‘It keeps on building up,’ Eugene realized.

Whenever Sienna attacked the barrier, ripples would spread across its surface. As the internal shockwaves continued to accumulate, the magic formulas contained within the barrier were collapsing.

Since they couldn’t allow the barrier to break, whenever the formulas underlying it began to collapse, the wizards within would hurriedly reinforce the spell.

“That bitch,” Eugene cursed as his lips twisted in a sneer.

His eyes might not be able to see through this veil in front of him, but he could very easily imagine the scene occurring on the other side.

He could just see Amelia Merwin huddling behind the barrier. The woman who had been a fatal threat to Eugene in the past when he was still weak. The woman who had robbed the tomb built for him by his comrades and who had created a Death Knight from his corpse. And after that, even when Eugene had met her once more at the Knight March, the woman had still shown an irreverent and bossy attitude towards him.

But in fact, even under those circumstances, Amelia had still decided to hide away in her mouse hole because she grew so scared of him and Sienna.

That bitch was waiting for Eugene down below.

She had erected this barrier in a desperate attempt to stay safe and would be doing her best to hold it up in order to prevent anyone from breaking through. While holding Vladmir up with both hands, with dozens of liches kneeling behind her, Amelia had to be leveraging all the support she could muster to keep the barrier whole.

“I really want to see the look on your face when you fail,” Eugene muttered as he held the Holy Sword aloft.

In response to his actions, Kristina also stretched both hands forward.

Fwoooosh!

The Stigmata engraved on her palm began to glow as the priests of the Graceful Radiance brought their hands together in prayer.

Their bodies had all been implanted with the holy relics that the Holy Empire of Yuras had managed to artificially develop after hundreds of years of research. Implanting these relics had taken away from them the chance to enjoy their lives as normal humans, but in place of that, it had given them powerful reserves of divine power. One battle priest of the Graceful Radiance was the equivalent of a hundred ordinary priests.

Besides that, Eugene also had a Saint marked with the genuine Stigmata at his side, so currently, it was as if there were thousands of priests praying together on Raimira’s back. Their prayers all resonated with each other, and their collective divine power gathered into a single mass. By doing so, a massive source of light was created.

“No way...,” Maise gasped quietly.

Was it really alright for a wizard like him to be here, in a place like this? Suppressing his instinctive trembling, Maise gulped nervously.

It was a widely known fact that wizards did not believe in the gods. This made it difficult for wizards and priests to be ideologically compatible. Magic was created by combining sophisticated formulas with the world’s mana that had clear proof of existence. On the other hand, just how clumsy and ambiguous did the holy magic that priests used seem in comparison?

A priest’s divine power depended on their faith. It was said that the gods still existed somewhere, and they granted their priests power in accordance with their faith.

So what about Holy Magic? It also made use of certain formulas, but the rules weren’t as clearly defined as with Circles magic. One wasn’t able to use holy magic if one lacked faith, and even if two people were performing the same holy spell, the power of the spell would be different depending on the differences in their level of faith.

Moreover, there were also miracles that didn’t make use of any formulas whatsoever. They could only be performed by truly great priests. That’s right, if one were using wizarding terms, these real priests who could skillfully use miracles were the ‘Archwizards’ of the church.

Honestly speaking, it was hard to understand how it all still worked. Or at least, that was what Maise had always thought about it up until now.

Maise wasn’t the only wizard who thought that way. This was actually the case for most wizards. In fact, this should be a feeling shared by all Archwizards. For wizards, the only god worthy of any discussion was the Wise Sienna, who was steadily seeking a way to turn herself into a god through the use of magic.

That was what Maise had always thought, but now....

‘Is this... a miracle...?’ Maise wondered in awe.

Their surroundings were filled with light. Maise eventually collapsed into his seat, unable to suppress his trembling any longer.

When the prayers that the priests were reciting resonated as one, it sounded like a song. And it almost seemed like a trumpet was being sounded from somewhere high in the sky. From the light that currently filled his surroundings, Maise felt a warmth that seemed to be bathing his soul.

The black veil was still waiting below them. The sky above it was overcast due to the influence of all this dark power. This was also the center of the battlefield, and they were currently flying over a city that had been occupied by a Demon King. All of this made this place an ominous and terrible location.

However, it didn't really feel that way. At this very moment, Maise felt that this place had to be the center of the world and the warmest and brightest place he had ever been in.

Maise saw the figure of the Saint with her wings outspread. Kristina was directing the flow of light.

His eyes followed the light flow being guided toward the Hero’s sword.

“Would you like to convert to the church?” a soft voice approached Maise.

Startled, Maise turned his head.

It was the Saint, Kristina Rogeris. With her eight wings outspread, she looked like an angel, and with the Stigmata-engraved hand held up towards the sky, it almost seemed as if she was holding up the heavens. Her smile made it seem as if she could understand everything Maise was thinking and every emotion he was feeling.

“The Light will always welcome any lost lamb who feels the faith,” Kristina said invitingly.

A lamb, she said. To think he would actually be called something like that at his age.

Maise let out a snort and shook his head, “...No. I have no intention of joining... the Church of the Light.”

“So not the Light, hmm,” Kristina’s grin grew a little wider.

Her narrow eyes were curved in a smile, but her blue pupils shone beautifully through the slight opening.

Maise smiled in embarrassment at having had his true intentions seen through by her.

“...I intend to convert to the Church of the Hero,” Maise admitted.

He still wasn’t too sure about the existence of gods. However, the light that surrounded him and the figure of the Hero who was connected to everyone here gave this Archwizard who had devoted his entire life to magic a different sense of awe than what magic had always given him.

“I bid you welcome,” Kristina said with a warm smile.

As the light connecting everyone was drawn into the Holy Sword, the sword of Light split apart the darkness.

1. The original text uses the English word romance, but it means it in the more uncommon definition of the word. A quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life. Something that makes you feel hot-blooded. ☜