Chapter 136: Evolution (2)
"The Papal See doesn't even have coordinates marked, so how is this possible!"
Holy War Knight Commander Julius cried out while rubbing his nose bridge. Several hours had already passed since the black mages attacked the Papal See, demanding Thomas be handed over.
The religious order had fought with all their might, but the number of monsters only kept increasing.
"What is that monster I've never seen before—"
A monster with an appearance reminiscent of Drake. Despite having no wings and crawling on four legs, it resembled a dragon in appearance, and its size far exceeded that of dragon-class monsters. Its abnormally massive body indicated a monster that had flowed out from the Labyrinth.
"A monster from the Labyrinth, and one that sacred power doesn't affect."
"Commander! Sacred power isn't the issue right now!!!"
Even if it didn't suffer sacred penalties, it should at least be wounded by the attacks of strong warriors. Yet not a single scratch appeared on its skin.
"Is it truly invincible?"
Julius frowned and looked behind him. He could see a man standing before the Papal See.
'That's similar to the invincibility technique that one used before.'
The Slayer Luke had stayed at the Papal See, and various exchanges had occurred. Among them was ti spent carefully examining the [Skills] of possessors who had completed their tertiary class change.
'No, that monster's skin is even more powerful than that invincibility technique.'
Watching the creature before him, Julius felt indescribable bewildernt. Could it even be said that his sword strikes, imbued with supre sacred power, had absolutely no effect?
"Your Holiness—"
As Julius stood in shock, the Pope himself stepped to the front lines.
"That is not black magic. It's similar to the laws of the Labyrinth itself."
Golden shimr rose in the Pope's eyes. The monster before them seed to have so law applied where it simply ignored all damage.
"It possesses power similar to a Floor Master within the Labyrinth."
The Papal See had been built outside the demon realm's range. Outside the demon realm, even if a Floor Master appeared, it couldn't use the Labyrinth's power.
"Yet if a being with the Labyrinth's laws applied—"
Still, they could block the monster's attacks, so no major damage had occurred yet. Though what would happen next was uncertain...
Then ca the mont.
Screeeech!
"Krraaahhh! Y-Your Holiness!"
Luke, who had been stationed before the Papal See's main gate, tried to step forward. The Pope responded firmly.
"Halt! How dare you step forward into a battlefield filled with sacred power!!!"
The Pope stomped his foot. A wall of sacred power rose, pushing Luke back to the gate once more. After that, the Pope began discussing counterasures with Julius.
"Julius, can you push that creature far from the Papal See?"
"If we can deal with just that isolation spell, it seems possible."
The Pope pondered. Like that nine-lined one from before, sothing he would need to face might appear.
'If only I had infinite sacred power like Erik—'
He had handled many unusual abilities, but by the Pope's estimation, the greatest was the power to instantly regenerate sacred power to maximum.
'I must rely on Father. What foolish thoughts I was having.'
The Pope quietly made the sign of the cross, then attempted to drive back the massive drake-type monster alongside Julius.
But,
"Halt! You wretch!!!"
Luke crossed the sacred barrier once more, approaching the Pope. A battlefield of Paladins was fundantally filled with sacred power everywhere, and the sacred choir's hymns spread divine power to all places the sound reached. For a possessor, it was a land of death itself.
Zzzzzt!
Yet Luke endured all that pain and reached the Pope. Golden smoke rose from his skin, and his face twisted in severe agony.
'Is there a reason he endures such pain to co this far?'
The Pope, respecting the determination shown by the world's first possessor, withdrew the surrounding sacred power.
Though this ant the front line might collapse, he chose to honor Luke's will. As the sacred power ceased, Luke opened his mouth.
"S-Saint Erik sent a ssage for to convey."
"What?"
At those words, the Pope's eyes narrowed. Beyond the [Isolation] spell, a massive golden light was clearly visible.
"Erik sent a ssage... What did he say?"
The Pope had confird Erik's presence, but he wondered how the aning was transmitted across the isolated space. However, given the urgency, he asked about the content first.
"The great monster's na is Drake, and you can only damage it by destroying the small red dot on its back!"
"What does that an?"
The Pope questioned, but Luke truly had no answer to give. He had possessed at level 1 and hadn't properly played the ga. It was a situation where Luke, as a possessor, could be doubted.
Yet the Pope knew Luke reasonably well. During Luke's stay at the Papal See, through their exchanges, the Pope had grasped his true nature.
'Is there another being in this world so pitiful?'
He had hard many in the Labyrinth and even earned the notorious na Slayer. Yet his essence was pure. He was a seeker living for blind love and devotion.
"I shall believe you."
The Pope trusted Luke.
"Everyone, withdraw your sacred power and fall back!"
Thus he unified the battlefield. He intended to act according to Erik's advice relayed by Luke.
"Clear the cliff's edge entirely!"
First, he withdrew from the front line to create space. Monsters tried to pour through the gap, but Luke rushed out faster. A bright red light undulated across his body.
"Kyaaaaahhh!!!"
As Luke roared, all the monsters turned their heads toward him. The massive drake-type monster did as well. Then its back was exposed.
'There truly is a red dot.'
The Pope quickly shouted.
"Target the red dots on that dragon's back!!!"
Priests shot sacred light. Paladins hurled sword auras. The nurous red dots on its back burst simultaneously.
"Julius, with the Holy War Knight Order, dispatch the individual whose dots have disappeared."
As the Pope commanded, golden flash traces were drawn. It was the leap of the Holy War Knight Order, their bodies reinforced entirely with sacred power. They burned with fighting spirit. They held the belief that their swords, which had been uselessly blocked until now, would finally connect this ti.
Then,
Puuush!!!
The creature, which had never received a single wound, now poured blood. Sacred power worked through that wound, creating pale smoke.
Kuaaaaahhh!!!
The drake, large enough to crawl up the canyon, shrieked. The Holy War Knight Order moved fluidly with their blades, and the dragon-type creature fell from the cliff in monts, dying. There were dozens of them.
"Were they this weak?"
The battle ended anticlimactically in an instant. Julius returned to the Pope's side.
"Now we only need to break through the isolation spell."
The Pope's eyes glead gold. His gaze fixed on soone beyond the wall.
'This could truly be called the return of a god.'
The Pope gazed at the massive sacred power beyond the wall with such thoughts.
***
"Brother, we've finished this side."
"Boss, this side is also cleared."
Erik had instantly cleared the outside of the [Isolation] spell. The black cube surrounding the Papal See was filled with black mages. Erik drew out wings and swiftly captured them all.
anwhile, Du-sik and Janson handled the monsters below and the remaining black mages.
"Um, brother, what now?"
At Du-sik's question, Erik concentrated sacred power in his eyes. Then the interior of the isolated space beca visible.
"The ssage seems to have been delivered well."
Luke drew the Drake's aggro while the priests shot sacred power, targeting its weak points. With all weak points exploited, the Drake beca soft flesh and was torn apart by Paladin blades until death.
"Now all that's left is the isolation spell itself."
Once the situation cald, Erik manipulated the [Raid] tab.
[Luke is being removed from the raid.]
'Whether that one becos an ally is still unknown.'
It was preparation for any contingency.
"Boss, if you remove him from the raid, how do we communicate with the inside?"
"For now, let's observe. If needed, we can invite him again then."
As he observed the situation, Erik felt a gaze directed at him.
'His Holiness the Pope.'
Their eyes t. Yet it was a familiar sensation. Like when exchanging gazes with his master. Erik read the Pope's eyes.
'His Holiness probably received many head flicks in his youth too.'
Those close to Riferoze had reached a level where they could understand intentions just by looking. That intention was—
'Break the isolation.'
Erik raised his hand vertically. He took a skill motion.
"Janson, strong ones communicate with their eyes by nature."
"Boss, surely—"
Janson recognized Erik's skill motion and quickly used the [Guardian's Shield] skill before the captives. Once that skill activated, all the captured black mages would certainly die.
"Besides, I can do that much too."
Du-sik quickly raised his bludgeon. Then he set up a magical barrier before Janson's [Guardian's Shield]. A barrier that even blocked sacred power. Once preparations were made,
Swish. Erik brought his hand down vertically. Then,
Kwoom!
A heavy vibration occurred. A massive greatsword appeared, cutting through the trembling air. That blade targeted the [Isolation] spell surrounding the Papal See. And from within, a similarly sized blade rose.
With the wall between them, the tips of two great swords t.
Srrrrch!
The slowly moving great swords aligned to a single point.
Claaang!!!
A sound like the world had been struck by a hamr echoed across everything.
"Hah—. Every ti I see it, I'm speechless."
Du-sik cried out enthusiastically.
-How is that a skill, boss?
Janson smartly used [Team Voice] to ask.
'The boss's power makes no sense even when I see it.'
Whether miracles or divine wrath— Truly mythical scenery unfolded. Janson still couldn't believe Erik was just a possessor.
'Though I've been shown so much evidence...'
How could one consider this rely a skill?
Screeeech!
The world shattered. The mont dozens of ters-long great swords t in mid-air, the [Isolation] created by the black mages vanished in vain.
'The boss is consistent.'
The very one who had deployed this grand and solemn sight proceeded without fanfare to his next action. Erik walked toward the captives.
"Did you think layering skills with 30-day cooldowns would work?"
Erik's eyes shone with five colors, and golden light rippled across them. They were sacred yet mysterious eyes. Yet the feeling they gave was close to a judge's coldness.
"Fifty of them completed secondary class changes—"
Erik's interrogation began. His divine eyes pierced through the black mages' status windows, and his five-colored pupils determined truth from falsehood. And so the interrogation started.
"I'll spare just one of you."
With those words, Erik manifested sacred fire. Then he approached the black mages and simply ignited them with the flas.
Whoooosh!
"Krraaaaahhh!!!"
A black mage began burning.
'Wh-what?'
Possessor black mages and regular black mages alike—all their eyes widened. Terror gripped the black mages.
Whoooosh!
"Krraaaaahhh!!!"
The massive Paladin knelt before the black mages lined up and simply ignited them with sacred fire. There were no words.
'Wh-what kind of interrogation is this?'
Normal interrogation was fundantally about asking and answering. Yet there was nothing.
'H-he definitely said he'd spare just one—'
That single line spoken at first was all there was. When the black mage possessor Jas trembled in fear, the one wielding the bludgeon suddenly shouted.
"Um, brother, they're all gonna die."
"Anyway, we're going to dig through the demon realm, so we can just ask the others."
"If those ones all die too, what then?"
"Then we keep searching until we find them."
During this brief exchange, already ten black mages had burned in the sacred fire.
Krraaaaahhh!!!
The area was filled with screams. Suddenly, Jas noticed sothing odd.
'Wh-what?'
He said they were dying, yet the one who first burned in the flas wasn't dead—in fact, none of them were dead.
"Wait, why aren't they dying?"
"Ah, they're burning appropriately then resurrecting."
"Boss, surely you an—"
"Yeah, I applied the thod I used to treat Janson back then, and apparently healing works on black mages too."
At those words, Jas felt chills run through him.
'The aning of 'sparing just one' is—'
When his thoughts reached this point, a massive shadow fell before him. As Jas lifted his head, sothing enormous and brilliant appeared. It wasn't human. Utterly without hesitation, utterly without room for negotiation.
'A monster.'
Jas raised both hands and scread.
"I'll tell you anything!"
***
The Papal See of the Astia Religious Order. In the largest chapel on the continent, Erik and the Pope faced each other. They had just finished a massive battle, so it would have been appropriate to celebrate victory. However, both their expressions were gravely serious.
"Your Holiness, isn't that the Almanism Church's domain?"
"The Almanism Church's faith crumbled long ago—"
The words the interrogated black mage had spoken were that heavy.
"Surely the black mage group didn't eat up an entire nation?"
"Given that religious leader's personality, when would he ever do things properly—"
Silence descended on the chapel. According to the black mages' words, the Almanism Church was abandoning the Garcian Kingdom, their true headquarters, and transferring allegiance to the Allied Nations—
"I understood from when they sent the black mage group to the Empire, but I never imagined they'd abandon all the powerless common people."
"That religious leader has been going around with so fortune teller for quite a while now."
"That fortune teller wears a mask, yes? That one is a possessor."
Erik felt a suspicion that 'this situation might have been designed from very long ago.'
"A possessor, a possessor—"
The Pope rubbed his chin and transford into an elderly appearance. He murmured while gazing into the distance.
"Excessive political marriages caused side effects. Bearing dozens of children and tying them to the kingdom's nobility—"
Those children bore more children. This continued until over a hundred were entangled. With so many people, impure elents inevitably mixed in.
"They wielded blood ties, so they had to preserve blood ties."
Thus the Garcian Kingdom was gradually consud by black mages. At the end of the Pope's gaze lay the Garcian Kingdom.
"Even if we turned a blind eye and maintained coexistence, the kingdom at least retained form—. Huh, why are you smiling?"
The lanting Pope stopped as he looked at Erik's face. That wry smile was enough to send chills down his spine.
"Didn't you say those ones are still in the process of withdrawing?"
"They are."
"I'll stop by briefly."
The ones who attacked the Papal See are black mages based near the demon realm around the kingdom. Anyway, while visiting there, seeing the Almanism Church side wouldn't be a bad choice.
"Stop by and do what—. Moreover, don't you have your status in the Empire?"
At those words, Erik manifested sacred power. The sacred power wrapped his massive body and began changing his form. Then a very rough-looking Marco appeared.
"The Almanism folk aren't good people anyway, and I can't let them leave with the gold and sacred relics they've accumulated, can I?"
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