#159
After the Invasion of the Capital (3)
Somewhere in the vast northern mountain range, where monsters swarmed.
There was someone sitting atop a bear-shaped demonic beast the size of a house, stroking its fur as he furrowed his brow.
“...What situation is this?”
The Revolutionary, leader of the Oath of Heaven’s Defiance, who had gone into hiding after bringing down the Principality of Rohan, seriously mulled over the information that had been delivered to him once more.
‘A wager between the Hero and the Immortal King? A three-year grace period? What utter nonsense.’
In the end, unable to trust the information he had received, he went through the process of confirming it again.
Thinking that perhaps his information network had been disrupted while he was on the run after making his move.
But no matter how many times he checked, the result was the same...
The Immortal King was not focusing on covering the continent in death, but was instead enjoying a game purely for amusement.
And that was something that should not have been possible.
‘I did find it suspicious from the moment he began acting strangely instead of following expectations, but...’
His face crumpled.
Until then, he had thought the Immortal King was scheming in some other way, but judging by how the situation was unfolding now, it seemed the Immortal King had completely overcome the influence originating from the Abyss.
‘Impossible. There is no one who can overcome the Abyss.’
It was a compulsion that applied to every being in this world, and if the party in question was even “human,” it was no different from an immutable law.
‘Could it be that the Immortal King wasn’t human in life? No, no. That’s not the issue. Even if he was of another race, it wouldn’t make much difference.’
There was one question that no being in this world questioned.
Of course, it was not a matter of denying the existence of the Lord God, nor of underestimating His authority.
It was simply a question, in the most literal sense.
Each race had its own religion.
The elves worshiped the “World Tree” that rose in the middle of the Enamel Continent, and the dwarves served the “God of Fire and Metal.”
The beastmen had indigenous faiths worshiping animal gods that symbolized each of them, but those too were ultimately nothing more than offshoots of the “God of Beasts.”
Of course, it was not only those races who followed those religions.
After all, though they were minority churches, there were also religions fairly widespread among humans, such as those worshiping the god of the sea or the god of the earth.
But even they ultimately had their roots in their respective racial gods.
Then why did humans have no being that could be called their own racial god?
It was certainly strange, yet not many questioned it.
‘It’s simply because it has always been that way... That is what everyone believes.’
The Creator, the Lord God, was closer to a vast concept or law that mortals could not define.
In other words, normally, it should not have been natural for Him to interfere in the world like this, bestowing divine power and blessings according to faith.
What He was doing now was merely taking the place of someone who had once done that work, so that no error would arise in the world.
Yes, humans too had once had a god solely for them.
Though now, by the Lord God’s hand, he had been erased not only from history but even from causality, leaving not even a fragment of his existence behind.
He had undoubtedly existed in this world.
“It can’t be helped. I feel sorry for Valthaeon, but I’ll have to take the madness. Now that death has escaped its fate, I can no longer leave things in another’s hands.”
The Revolutionary clicked his tongue as he thought of the burly warrior who should be making trouble in the south around now.
In a sense, he was the one who had done the best work for the Oath of Heaven’s Defiance, but now was not the time to consider someone else’s circumstances.
He rose from atop the bear demonic beast he had been sitting on and slowly moved toward the Scar of the Abyss nearby.
Only then did a blood-red glow flare in the eyes of the demonic beast, which had been docile all along, and with a rough roar, it ran off somewhere into the forest and vanished.
“For the god of mankind.”
Leaving behind only that low murmur, the figure pushed his body straight into the scar.
He was the sole apostle of the now nonexistent “god of mankind.”
And he was the Revolutionary who devoted himself to the restoration of the god exiled to the Abyss—the garbage dump of the Auterica dimension.
***
The gist of what Patrick, the secretary-general of the Mercenary Guild, told Harly was simple.
‘So he’s saying he’ll take care of everything else himself, and I should just pay more attention to my reputation. Enough for it to spread evenly across the whole continent, at that.’
They had discussed various things, but in the end, if summed up in one sentence, that was what he meant.
At present, Harly’s name was not very well known compared to his ability, so he needed to raise his fame a little more.
Of course, while living as a mercenary, he had handled several missions that could be called special-grade, and recently, he had made great contributions during the monster madness incident and was gaining renown...
But that reputation was limited to the western part of the continent, and even then, only to the northern region of the Tulk Kingdom.
‘Well, if you look at it realistically, Harly’s mercenary career hasn’t even been a full year yet.’
Time was also an important factor in the spread of fame.
The other candidates for Mercenary King, who could be called his competitors, were all people who had steadily built up the value of their names over a long period to reach their current positions.
Their martial prowess had also reached the master level, enough for them to be called idols of mercenaries, so from an objective standpoint, the difference in experience was bound to feel quite significant.
‘If it were just a matter of fighting them directly, I’m confident I could smash them all!’
But with such a crude method, the public sentiment he would lose would be no less than the recognition he would gain.
No matter how much a group valued martial might, to become the head of a guild that was not a small organization but a continental one, he needed a more refined method.
To be honest, there was also the venerable tradition of challenging every dojo in turn, so it was true that he felt some attraction to that method...
But very fortunately for them, Harly had a better alternative.
Kwaaang—!
A thunderous explosion burst out, and a black pillar of flame shot up.
“Aaaagh!”
“Y-you bastards! How dare you, do you even know where this is?!”
The lord’s family infamous for their bloodless tyranny and harsh exploitation, the House of Count Beoin of the Sharoti Kingdom, was engulfed in flames after a sudden attack by an unknown group.
From all directions surrounding the lord’s castle, thousands of undead troops were surging in like a flood.
“Kihihik! All is according to His will! We shall purify this world through death!”
From the bodies of those leading the assault, dark mana that burned their own life force rose like wildfire.
As if they had never intended to live from the beginning, their malice, with no thought for what came afterward, covered the territory.
In truth, this kind of attack was not taking place only here.
The dark forces that had been hiding for a while for some reason had begun to raise their heads one by one from a certain point onward.
The power they had accumulated while parasitizing the shadows of the world for long years was by no means negligible.
Especially in times like these, when everyone was already frantic because of the monsters.
In such a situation, those who cunningly sought openings while using even their own lives as tools were playing a firm role in worsening the damage.
Paaat!
However, even amid such circumstances, there were those who actively opposed those acts of terror—
“Phew, we arrived in one go this time. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem we’re that late.”
“You appear to be growing more skilled. Even for an archmage, traveling such a long distance with multiple people like this cannot be easy.”
“That’s not exactly good news, since it means I’ve used it that often. It means the situation is that bad.”
The four figures who appeared amid a bright cluster of light were precisely them.
“Kahahaha! How long are you going to keep talking? Then I’ll go on ahead!”
“...I will go as well.”
A muscular giant holding a huge axe and a gloomy-looking middle-aged man with a spear charged into the enemy lines first, like bolts of lightning.
“Guh! Kill those bastards first!”
“M-magic isn’t working?! What the hell are these monsters?!”
“Kuhahahaha! Where do you think you’re running? Come here!”
Harly, who had charged in first, ignored all of the enemy’s attacks with the powerful magic resistance granted by dragon scales and swung his massive axe without pause...
Shishik— Shiaak!
“Puhihit! Just die alrea— kek!”
“Aaaagh! Save m— huh? I-I’m alive?”
The spear of the gray-haired man moved swiftly across space and saved those who had fallen into danger.
“We need to reduce the number of undead first. To think they could launch a surprise attack while leading this many... As expected, the Immortal King must have made separate preparations.”
Wooong—! Kwaaang!
And the tremendous mana surging from Isea’s body manifested mysteries in an instant, sweeping away hundreds of undead at once.
“Damn it! Are they really seeing the future or something? To come this quickly!”
The black mage who led them gnashed his teeth as he watched over a hundred followers and thousands of undead troops melt away in real time like snow.
He had expected from the beginning that they would come, and he had already abandoned any thought of surviving, but... their might was greater than he had assumed, and he could not help but grow anxious.
‘So this is my grave after all.’
But even so, he could not simply die in vain like this.
Even if he was going to die, should he not leave behind some trace that he had existed in this world?
Gooooo—
He immediately began burning his life force while forcibly making the mana in his heart run wild, preparing a great magic he normally would not have been able to use.
In order to dye everything in this area with death at the cost of his own soul.
“Kihihik— You filthy powers-that-be. Remember this clearly! Our resistance does not end here. Death alone is a value equal to all, regardless of noble or lowly birth! We will create a world without discrim—”
“I understand your ideology well enough.”
However, his words, which had been cursing the world as he prepared his magic, were forced to come to an unwilling halt...
Puk—
“Keheok—!”
“You talk far too much nonsense.”
“N-no... There was a barrier...”
Before he knew it, Heinrich had approached his side and driven the holy sword deep into his heart.
Of course, just as he said, there had been several kinds of defenses in place, but with such meager skill, there was no way he could block 「Blessing: Light Sword」, the natural enemy of black magic.
Afterward, the light injected through the holy sword lodged in his heart burned away the evil mana that had been rampaging inside the black mage’s body, and in the end, without even putting up any notable resistance, he quietly turned to ash and scattered.
And after a short while had passed.
“Waaaah—!”
“We-we survived!”
Though they were only four in number, they did not need much time to clean up the thousands of enemies.
Truly unfortunately, by the time everything had come to an end, most of the lord’s family had already passed away in the surprise attack and assassination that followed it.
“May the Lord God’s mercy be with them.”
After a brief silent prayer, Heinrich pretended not to see the people furtively looting the lord’s castle and diligently healed the injured.
“Oh my~ Saint, you saved us, and now you’re even treating us like this. Thank you so much!”
“Thank you! Thank you!”
“Not at all. Helping those in need is only the natural duty of those who follow the Lord God.”
“Now that’s the proper mindset! As expected of Saint Heinrich of the Lord God’s Church!”
“Ah, I’m embarrassed. Mr. Harly, you worked hard as well.”
After using even Harly, who added those supporting comments, to finish the work of imprinting their names on the people here, they gathered again beside Isea to move to another location.
After all, high-level personnel like them could not invest a long time in a single place forever.
‘That aside, he really is quite useful. I chose him because both his ability and character passed the mark... and because of his circumstances as well.’
Heinrich glanced at the middle-aged man with ash-gray hair and blue eyes, Zios Kalkin, who was holding a spear, and nodded.
Zios was a strong individual who had voluntarily come after hearing news of the Hero’s party in order to join, and there were several reasons Heinrich had chosen him for the Hero’s party.
First was his ability.
The fact that a pure aura user who had not yet reached transcendence could launch attacks that crossed space meant that the secret art he had learned was extremely special.
...Enough to make one covet it.
Establishing one’s own system, completing one’s energy, and standing at the end of that path—that was the Ultimate.
In other dimensions, such individuals were also called Sword Masters or those of the Transformation Realm. Even without separate operation, their naturally activated energy supported all their abilities, and when directly controlled, its efficiency increased explosively.
Since the density of the energy they possessed was on an entirely different level to begin with, it was impossible to impersonate such a state.
And after growing even further from there, finally breaking the frame and surpassing the limits of one’s existence—that was transcendence.
Cutting space with a sword, causing phenomena by will alone, and naturally reading even causality.
Because each person transcended in a different way, it could not be accurately defined in a single phrase.
For example, Cornwell, the captain of the Imperial Guard Knights, had such an ability to “cut” everything that he could slice even the energy of the Abyss like a radish.
‘In that sense, that is an extremely tempting technique. I’ll have to coax him properly and then casually bring it up.’
It probably would not be that difficult.
Because of the second reason he had accepted Zios: his personal history.
‘His family was caught up in the continent-wide sacrifice incident, known as something the Immortal King did to open the Abyss, was it?’
He had been a noble of the Lesque Kingdom, but like Isea, he was someone who had won that status solely through his own ability.
Having been a commoner and an orphan, he had possessed a great attachment to his wife and child, only for them to meet with disaster.
In other words, his motive for joining the Hero’s party was not a sense of duty, but solely revenge against the Immortal King.
And Heinrich... could not possibly refuse him when he pleaded, with eyes that had lost the will to live, to be given a chance for revenge.
‘...He’s similar to me, too.’
Of course, he would help him take his revenge properly.
Among the people he had just killed, there had been quite a few belonging to the Oath of Heaven’s Defiance, and that would not stop until all those who had masterminded that tragedy were eliminated.
“Then, we will move. Do not resist the mana.”
Wooong—!
Isea’s endlessly flowing mana wrapped around them.
And before long, they vanished from the County of Beoin in the Sharoti Kingdom.
For small-scale attacks, they issued warnings through “precognition” so preparations could be made, and though the Hero’s party only stepped forward personally for invasions of this large scale, the situation was still so busy they had no time to breathe.
But in proportion to that, the fame of the Hero Heinrich and his companions was also gradually spreading throughout the entire continent.