"The power bound to my na. Answer my call and open the gate. Co forth, my city.
City of Shadows."
As Scáthach's crimson spear touched the stone of the ruined ground, a deep surge of Mana spread outward. The skeletal soldiers clad in armor, their bones etched with multicolored magical patterns, were swept by the wave of power, their movents briefly freezing.
The corners of Camazotz's ever-downturned mouth curled even further.
Dark clouds suddenly blanketed the sky. Within the dense cloud cover, a massive stone gate revealed itself, heavy and ancient, slowly creaking open.
The gate to the Land of Shadows had opened.
Any being designated as its target would be pulled inside at that very mont.
Especially creatures such as undead and skeletal monsters.
The skeletal warriors Camazotz had awakened from the ruins of Ka'an had unfortunately run into the Queen of the Land of the Dead. Their compatibility with her could not have been worse.
"Wandering souls with nowhere to go, I shall take you in! [Gate of Skye]!"
The gate opened fully, its imnse force pulling the skeletal soldiers upward from the ground.
Yet the smooth extraction Scáthach had expected proved extrely difficult, as though so overwhelming force were resisting her attempt to guide these remains onward.
There was only one answer.
"Stop playing clever tricks. This is my territory. Foreign ruler of the underworld, don't overstep your bounds!"
Camazotz was interfering with the effect of Scáthach's Noble Phantasm.
"Then I'll simply add a little more!" Skadi shouted back. "[Gate of Skye]!"
The sa Noble Phantasm's True Na, yet its effect was different.
Scáthach's Noble Phantasm leaned toward offense, interference, and slaughter, while Skadi's version focused on support and protection.
All allies within its range received the blessing of the goddess of ice and snow.
The ice that had remained frozen in her heart for thousands of years had now lted completely into soft, flowing water.
With her heart filled with love, the goddess unleashed a power far beyond what she herself had imagined.
"Petty tricks!"
Camazotz counted sothing beneath his breath and aid toward them. From deep within the forest ca the screeching and frantic flapping of countless bats.
From the shadows, he summoned a swarm of bloodsucking bats.
Blood was an important dium for Mana. To drain blood was to steal magical power.
The bats shot forward like blades of darkness.
"O storm, sweep everything away! [Invisible Air]!"
They had not yet opened enough distance. If the Noble Phantasm were released here, it would place defensive pressure on allies other than the Unity God and prevent the Holy Lance from demonstrating its true power.
Using [Invisible Air] was the best way to disperse everything.
Those within the eye of the storm were unaffected. Everything outside it, however, would be swept away by the force of the barrier.
More and more skeletal warriors could no longer remain on the ground. Drawn upward by Scáthach's Noble Phantasm, they were pulled toward the far side of the Land of Shadows.
Since the Bleaching of Human Order, Scáthach had never returned there. She did not even know whether the Land of Shadows still existed.
But the fact that her Noble Phantasm could still be used was enough.
"I'll admit you have so skill. But it's still not enough! Undying warriors of Ka'an, let grant you the power of life!"
The authority currently wielded by Camazotz—Shiomi's Gift『rcy』—was now unleashing its power.
The remains of the Ka'an warriors, each already comparable to a Servant's Spirit Origin, were strengthened by this authority. Strange-colored flesh even began growing over their bones.
"Not just bones… you're trying to give them flesh as well? Turn them into ghouls… no, wait… are you trying to resurrect them?"
Scáthach was utterly confused.
These remains had been dead for thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years. Their souls and minds had long since vanished. Even if flesh were recreated on their bones through authority, they would only beco living puppets without free will.
Such a thing had no real aning.
Leaving aside whether reviving the dead was even right, the authority Tenkei Shiomi wielded under the divine na Tehom did indeed possess the potential to alter the boundary between life and death.
The master who governed the land of the dead had a disciple who granted life.
Scáthach often found the contrast strangely dramatic, though she understood the weight behind it.
Just as she was marveling at this, another force slamd into Camazotz, interrupting his attempt to grant flesh to the remains.
"You really do whatever you please, Camazotz. Are other people's things really that convenient to use?"
Morgan extended her hand, clearly displeased.
A powerful pull emanated from her palm, targeting the authority Camazotz had failed to fully absorb but was still borrowing.
"Trying to take it back? It won't be that easy!"
Camazotz's bat wings beat violently. The claws at the tips of his wings, like a second pair of hands, lunged forward in a tearing strike.
A crimson light shot toward Morgan.
But it failed to hit.
The attack was deflected by the conceptual defenses surrounding her body, its trajectory forcibly altered.
After pulling back to create distance, Camazotz no longer had the spare attention to deal with the Ka'an warriors' remains.
Although more and more skeletal corpses continued to awaken, without his guidance they were nothing more than a large number of enemies. They posed no real threat to the three fighting them.
More importantly, the Unity God before him—
"We've only been apart a few days, yet your power has grown this much? To wield one-third of the authority to such a level… it only makes want the rest even more! I'll be taking it!"
Camazotz wrapped his wings around his body as imnse Mana rapidly accumulated before bursting outward.
A surging torrent of deep blue netherfire roared toward Morgan, spreading wide enough to engulf the three who had ford a defensive formation against the endless skeletal soldiers.
"Stand down."
Unity God Morgan lowered her altitude and positioned herself between Camazotz and the three behind her.
At her cold command, the blazing netherfire—hot enough to lt steel—split apart at the point where Morgan stood, spreading outward to both sides.
The fan-shaped area behind her, untouched by the flas, was exactly where the trio stood.
Seeing this, Camazotz did not stop the flas. Instead, he manipulated their shape, surrounding the group completely.
The netherfire twisted into a massive vortex, compressing inward.
Just as Camazotz prepared to detonate it, the vortex of netherfire was suddenly sliced open from within. Deprived of its sustaining force, it quickly dispersed among the ruins of Ka'an.
"Tsk… Even Tezcatlipoca treats that netherfire with caution, yet you scattered it just like that."
Camazotz looked deeply displeased.
"If that's all the power you have, return my husband's authority at once. Otherwise, don't bla for showing no rcy."
Morgan gripped the Holy Lance, its silver and azure light intertwined, and issued her final warning.
...
What's up, PinkSnake here.
I finally finished translating this book, all volus included. I'll be releasing chapters here at a faster pace from now on, but if you can't wait, feel free to follow on P@treon:
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