#227
Immortal King vs Hero Party (2)
Even though they had crossed but a single door, air of an utterly different quality surged in.
As expected, the central building of Beorsen was no longer an ordinary space.
‘…How unpleasant.’
Heinrich frowned as he looked around.
The vast, high space could no longer even be called the interior of a building; it was filled entirely with darkness, and a filthy, stifling, sticky energy enveloped those who had entered.
Like an abyssal pit trying to drag them down to a bottomless depth.
And in the center of that space.
He was there.
[It has been a while. Heinrich Saint Landgard.]
The source of the havoc occurring not only in the current situation but across the entire continent.
…and a being with a disposition diametrically opposed to Heinrich's, yet also another side of him.
“Immortal King, Hannibal Strauss.”
It was finally the moment the Hero Party encountered that King of the Undying.
***
‘Immortal King.’
Crunch—
Gios Kalkin, a member of the Hero Party, gripped his spear shaft tightly.
‘Finally.’
It was a moment he had truly, desperately waited and waited for.
Had a year passed since the tragedy of that day? No, had it not even been a year yet?
Emotionally, it felt like a distant past…but he could not quite remember.
‘As expected, it was good that I joined the expeditionary force.’
Had he not done so, creating an opportunity to face the Immortal King directly would not have been easy.
Crossing weapons directly would have been out of the question.
Of course, he had slaughtered numerous dark mages who were involved in that incident while defending against the Immortal King's raids.
He had always prioritized the dark mages as targets, and after battle, he did not hesitate to take the survivors away for torture.
Heinrich, who knew Gios's circumstances, permitted his actions without much comment.
Considering that righteous disposition of his, it must surely have been uncomfortable, but for Gios, it was truly an unspeakably grateful thing.
[Kkkeukeuk— This is quite amusing……]
“Immortal King! Now……!”
The voices of the Immortal King and the Hero were exchanging nearby, but they did not reach Gios's ears at all.
In his hazy vision, memories from long ago rose vividly as if they had happened yesterday.
-“Ufufu— How is it, Gios? Are you mentally prepared to be a father?”
His wife Anna, stroking her fully pregnant belly lovingly.
With no relatives, the two who had only each other conceived a child, and finally they became three.
-“What do I do! So cute. Whose daughter is she that even her sleeping face looks like an angel?”
He remembered that child who had come into the world and couldn't even open her eyes properly, just wriggling.
-“H—heeeehng—!”
-“What are you going to do if you make the baby cry, Gios! You need to be moderate with your pranks! There there~ It's okay, Nia. Mommy is here.”
He remembered that moment when he was so clumsy with the child and always failed.
-“Dadaaa! Look at this, this! Kyahaha—!”
He remembered the bright smile she wore as she approached him, having grown up in the blink of an eye when she couldn't even speak before.
-“Then I'll take our daughter on a date and go slowly, so Daddy the lord should go ahead and work alone first, right~?”
-“Right~? Heehee! Daddy, we'll be there soon so don't cry and wait for us, okay?”
-“Come on, does Daddy look like someone who would cry from loneliness? He'll probably just hole up in some corner and dig in the dirt.”
-“Ah! I really think so! Eeheehee!”
…He still clearly remembered that moment when they exchanged their last goodbyes.
Gios raised one hand and slowly traced the deeply carved scar on his chest.
After receiving the tragic news, he had clutched his chest until his hands were covered in blood and his muscles were torn to shreds, yet desperately swallowed his tears.
To keep his daughter's last words telling him not to cry and to wait.
Of course, no matter how much of a Master-class knight he was, that much could not be done as he wished.
Still, he had not shed a single tear since that day, so perhaps she would overlook that much?
‘As expected, she knows me too well.’
Moreover, it wasn't wrong that he would hole up in a corner and dig in the dirt.
Though he had now set a goal and come outside, it was true that for a time he had holed up in his residence, blankly wasting his days.
Smiling bitterly, he gripped his spear tightly again and lowered his stance like a beast about to hunt.
While directing his gaze toward the source of all this, imprinting his opponent's every move into his mind so he could cut off their breath at any moment.
‘But… I'm sorry. I don't want to wait anymore.’
A fierce flame flowed through his blood vessels.
The karmic fire named vengeance and rage—burning with sorrow and despair as fuel.
‘If no matter how long I wait you cannot come to me, then I must go to you.’
Because that heat was so intense, a twisted smile formed on Gios's lips, already reduced to ashes.
And soon, as he had waited for.
The battle between the Hero Party and the Immortal King began.
***
Shwick shwiik—!
Swhaak! Swak!
Heinrich charged toward the Immortal King, continuously cutting down abyssal serpents rushing from all directions.
The 「Blessing: Light Sword」wielded with the holy sword was no different from a natural enemy to the abyss, yet they paid no heed even as they were continuously cut down and vanished, surging endlessly.
‘Tch, the situation is more serious than I thought.’
Fortunately, he had some room to breathe thanks to Gios in the rear continuously supporting him with the Refraction Spear.
He used 「Blessing: Amplification」to further heighten his divine power and bit down hard.
In truth, the conversation Heinrich had with the Immortal King was not of great importance.
It was merely a clichéd exchange between a Demon King and a Hero.
What was truly important was the mental conference that should have been proceeding implicitly.
He had thought that if things came to a direct confrontation, Hans would reluctantly lift the barrier blocking communication again…
‘It seems he has no intention of conceding.’
Even now that battle had begun, the channel for conversation showed no sign of opening.
I have no intention of retreating here. I will do as I please, so if anyone is going to back down, it should be you.
It was essentially a one-sided notification of that sort.
‘Hans…’
Kwaang—! Kung! Kwakwak—!
Then, arrows fired by Lydia, who was with the group in the rear, struck the Immortal King's barrier in succession.
Arrows made from dried branches of the World Tree that Howard was using as kindling poured down like an artillery barrage, carrying not only the power of spirits but also Riesta's divine power.
[Tch, troublesome.]
The moment that mutter ended.
The darkness filling the space writhed and then simultaneously bristled with blades, covering the party members in the rear, but—
“O Lord— protect us from defilement!”
A sphere of light spreading simultaneously with Riesta's prayer pushed back the surrounding darkness and protected the group.
She was still engaged in a contest of strength against the pressure pushing in from all sides, but as a Saintess, she would not collapse so easily.
Pzzt—! Pzzzik—!
And in the space around Isea beside her.
Sparks that had been repeating countless times since shortly after the battle began flared up again.
“Kuh, in the middle of such a hectic fight, he still has the leisure to care about this side? What an absurd monster…!”
She sweated coldly and bit her lip.
Mana gathering around her at tremendous speed formed structure only to repeatedly collapse along with sparks.
He was using a magical reverse calculation—a technique a high-level mage would only use against a vastly inferior opponent—against her, an archmage.
And he was doing so dozens of times over while in the middle of fighting others.
[Ridiculous.]
And it didn't even end there.
Hwararak— Kwang!
High-level dark magic cast without giving her time to react—black flames of hell rained down upon the light barrier maintained by the Saintess.
“Ugh!”
From the impact, Riesta let out a low groan as she maintained not only the barrier but also the divine protections upon the party members' bodies.
He interferes with others' magic while effortlessly using high-level magic himself.
At this unreasonable situation, Isea ground her teeth and focused again.
Whether it bore fruit or not, if she let go entirely, the opponent would pour down high-level magic like rain with that much more leisure.
But even as everyone struggled so.
Damage was gradually increasing and burden weighing upon the Hero standing at the forefront.
[Kuhaha! What's wrong? Hero? If there is something you desire, seize it yourself!]
The Light Sword activated with the holy sword was extremely effective against the Immortal King as well.
It was good that he could intercept numerous flying attacks and then slice through that hard barrier like nothing upon approaching, but the opponent was not a scarecrow that would take every attack.
‘…How annoying. If Halli had been here, would things have been a bit different?’
Even if he somehow succeeded in peeling away the barrier, he was caught by the ensuing counterattack, and the distance widened again several times.
But he could not stop until he delivered a fatal blow to the Immortal King, and the damage he inevitably took in that process continued to accumulate.
‘I'm a Holy Knight so it won't be a big problem immediately. But even so, it's troublesome if abyssal attacks overlap excessively.’
No, before that, it was questionable whether his comrades could hold out until then.
That he had been able to approach several times until now was only possible thanks to Lydia's support fire, Riesta's divine assistance, and Gios intercepting attacks aimed at him mid-flight.
‘In addition, thanks to Isea reducing Hans's magical bombardment, that was quite helpful too.’
If Halli had been here too, they really could have landed a decisive blow.
Well, if that had been the case, Hans might have summoned some of the remaining executives in the Immortal King's castle.
Kkwak—
Heinrich shook off his regrets and gripped the holy sword tightly once more.
Now, while Hans was keeping him occupied alone, was the opportunity.
Whether it was habit from how things had been until now or simple arrogance, he didn't know.
‘This is not the time to spare any means.’
If he could inflict a fatal wound now and make him behave for even a few days, he could buy time until the true body awakened.
Heinrich generously used even the 「Blessing: Leap」he had saved for the decisive moment and swung the holy sword.
With all his heart, to split this stubborn skull.
***
Throughout the fight, Gios calmly analyzed what he could and could not do.
The Refraction Spear he had learned from Chehai was the pinnacle of aura utilization that transcended space to strike desired targets, but it was not without restrictions.
‘My attacks do not reach beyond the Immortal King's mana barrier.’
In fact, this applied to all defenses above a certain level, not just the Immortal King's, so it was nothing particularly new.
If he had ascended to Transcendence it might be different, but he was still far from reaching that level.
‘Even if I aimed for the moment the barrier was destroyed… there wouldn't be much effect, probably.’
Gios, who had analyzed his opponent with near-obsession, noticed the secret surrounding the Immortal King's heart based on the intuition about space he had accumulated using the Refraction Spear.
‘A tremendous level of spatial distortion surrounding the heart. Simply refracting the spearhead to pierce that place is meaningless. Unless one intervenes in space itself to strike beyond it.’
And that was a level of skill impossible for the current Gios.
‘…By normal means, that is.’
Naturally, the secret technique he had learned was anything but ordinary.
For one who had not ascended to Transcendence to be able to intervene in space using only aura was the pinnacle of extraordinariness.
And the technique created by Chehai's hands, which had been closer to a 'superpower using aura'.
Through Gios who inherited it, developed into a form closer to an 'aura secret technique'.
“Huu—.”
He swung his spear to deflect the dark magic surging from the surroundings, taking a deep breath as he surveyed the situation.
Pzzt—! Pzzt! Pzzt—!
Several sparks flared in succession from Isea's direction.
Perhaps fired up, she was gathering her enormous mana—her specialty—to attempt simultaneous construction of multiple spells.
It was a dangerous attempt that could go out of control, but thanks to it, the frequency of the Immortal King's magic use had distinctly dropped.
Lydia and Riesta were also continuously supporting Heinrich.
He wondered just how many arrows she had; the continuously flying arrows pierced through the abyssal serpents.
Divine power now erupting from the Saintess's body—so intense she appeared to be light itself—incinerated the darkness in all directions and breathed strength into them.
Gios's gaze turned forward again.
Heinrich desperately clinging on by occasionally transcending space, and the Immortal King responding to him leisurely.
As expected, there was no hope like this.
At this rate, not only the Hero but even the Saintess might lose their lives here.
And that was truly, truly dangerous… a crisis for the world.
‘Yes, so… this is unavoidable.’
A subtle smile formed on Gios's lips.
As if welcoming something.
‘Immortal King.’
And Gios Kalkin, a Master-class knight who had reached the pinnacle and Count of the Lesc Kingdom.
‘Even if I do this, probably I cannot kill you.’
Without hesitation, he twisted, squeezed, and uprooted the aura core within his body.
“Kuh— keolkeok—!”
Based on that, he drew out a single blood-red aura embodying his own life, caliber, and karma.
‘Still, this… will hurt quite a bit.’
Just as the Hero's holy sword cut through the barrier.
At the same time Gios's spear was thrust—its tip pierced through space.