#264
The King of Madness (3)
The sight of the enormous fist dropping down was reminiscent of a landslide.
Kuuuuung—!
And the shockwave it produced instantly tore through the surrounding space, causing a tremendous earthquake across the area.
A massive crater formed in the earth, dust and dirt scattered in all directions, and a fierce storm swept through the surroundings.
It was a phenomenon caused by a single blow.
The result of an ordinary punch.
“Kahahaha! Now this is thrilling!”
But the one opposing it was not intimidated by its majesty and immediately moved.
Harley, who had inflated his body as much as possible, had grown to about fifteen meters tall—roughly up to the giant’s thigh.
Crack!
His entire body covered in dark red scales, he charged like a beast and immediately raked his sharp claws through the giant forearm.
The solid muscles were torn to shreds, and white blood dyed the surroundings in an instant, but—
Puh-uhk—!
Kwaang!
The giant paid it no mind and swung his arm as it was, striking Harley as he tried to retreat.
With an incredible reaction speed that did not match his size.
“You are an irritating one, barbarian. Do you think that no matter how you jump and fly about, you can do anything to me?”
The giant growled in annoyance.
Before anyone knew it, the wound on his arm had been restored in an instant.
Of course, thanks to the madness stored inside his body, Harley also sprang right back to his feet, but there was a considerable difference in the total amount of power between them, leaving him overwhelmingly disadvantaged in the exchange rate.
‘On top of that, his senses are too sharp, so it isn’t easy to make use of my smaller build and speed advantage. No matter how irregularly I move, he responds as if he was waiting for it.’
When fighting as Hans, he had crushed him down with omnidirectional pressure and overwhelming power, so it had been hard to feel, but now that he was facing him in a physical brawl like this, he could clearly realize just how fraudulent the authority that creature possessed was.
With Harley, who had thought he had become quite strong, there was no way he could defeat that thing even if he died and came back to life.
‘As expected, it was a good thing I drew him as far away from the city as possible. If I hadn’t…’
Only about a minute had passed since Harley and the Revolutionary began fighting one-on-one, but the surrounding area had already been devastated as if it had been bombed.
The earth, twisted by the aftereffects of terrifying physical force, screamed, and the surrounding energy surged violently from the collisions of energy mixed with aura, madness, and more.
‘…Still, we need to get farther away. Tarak is Hubert’s base city. I can’t let it be damaged even by mistake.’
They were already well over five kilometers away, but judging by the situation, he could not help feeling uneasy even at this distance.
It would have been nice if Hubert had run a little farther away.
The problem was that when he had taken advantage of the giant’s carelessness to snatch Diana away and flee, he had been caught up to sooner than expected.
Even though he had driven that expensive suit into overdrive, pushing his instantaneous speed to supersonic levels and even having to use a separate protective magic tool.
“Kahahaha! It certainly isn’t easy! I guess you’re not just big like the ones who came before?”
“Hah! How dare you compare me to those—!”
At that moment, the giant’s expression, which had been answering leisurely, hardened in an instant.
Then he turned like lightning and…
Whoooong—!
Swung his massive forearm through empty air.
The violently raging storm made what little vegetation remained in the area whip fiercely.
And immediately after.
“Tch. To think you would even notice this. How troublesome.”
A man quietly revealed himself a short distance away, speaking in a cold voice.
It was the Sacred Blood vampire, Heinz II, who had intended to use “Existence Denial” to launch a stealthy surprise attack first.
He clicked his tongue as he calmly adjusted his clothes.
Just as the giant frowned and was about to say something—
A second anomaly occurred.
Paaat—!
A brilliant light that appeared a short distance away embroidered the air.
“So this is where you were. You vile spawn who defies the will of the Main God.”
A man who appeared together with that flash calmly continued speaking.
The aura of sacred light rising from his body spread widely, instantly calming the nearby energy that had been surging.
It was Heinrich, the Saint of the Church of the Main God, who had joined them using “Blessing: Leap.”
Transcendents naturally surrounded the giant from three directions.
The giant, who had been silent for a moment with narrowed eyes, twisted up the corners of his mouth.
“Kuhah! After a mongrel barbarian, now a vampire lord and the Saint of the Church of the Main God? This is truly… hm?”
But the giant’s sarcastic words did not continue to the end.
His expression subtly contorted as he stopped speaking, and he whipped his head around to stare piercingly at Harley.
That gaze then turned to Heinz II, and next toward Heinrich…
“…What are you lot?”
Soon, with a question that welled up from the bottom of his heart, he unknowingly spat out a sullen voice.
He had no certainty. He did not possess an authority suited to that sort of thing, like a sense of smell.
But he could clearly sense the sense of incongruity emanating from them.
Of course—
“Kahahaha! I am none other than Lord Harley, Overlord of the South!”
“Hoo, you’re going to die anyway. Don’t be troublesome and just disappear quietly.”
“You heretic who defies the will of the Main God and throws the world into chaos. I shall execute you here and now.”
‘They’ had not the slightest intention of answering that question.
***
Kwaaaang——!
A roar that shook heaven and earth reverberated through space.
With a massive explosion, hazy dust and dirt shot upward, and the shockwave bursting out from its epicenter swept in every direction…
“The aftermath is coming! Prepare to respond!”
“Reinforce the barrier!”
It had an enormous effect even on the walls of Tarak, which were about ten kilometers away.
Kurururung—!
The shockwave pressed forward, compressing the air as if distorting space, while the defensive barrier enclosing the entire city grew even more distinct.
The barrier, which had swayed precariously for a moment under the powerful aftermath, soon regained stability through the desperate efforts of the mages, and yet another crisis, impossible to count by now, passed safely once more.
“Whew— that chills the liver.”
At that, a knight guarding the northwest section of Tarak’s walls let out a relieved sigh.
It was a thought shared by everyone atop the wall, but that relief did not last long and quickly vanished.
Because they could not even guess how many more waves of this magnitude would come crashing in.
“Damn it, if only the wall hadn’t been broken, it would be better than this! What about repairs? Not yet? What are the mages saying?”
“They say they’ve prepared a temporary construction formula for now and are somehow holding out, but fully restoring the barrier in this situation is impossible! Still, they say it’s only because it didn’t collapse completely that they can even do this…”
“…Shit. Should I be grateful, at least, that they’re fighting that far away? If a monster like that had gone berserk inside the city…”
It was no joke; the entire city might have been cleanly evaporated.
The knight glanced at the mages, who were busily moving about, then turned his head toward the direction where the cause of this situation lay.
Kuung—!
At that moment, another shockwave burst out from the point of origin.
Still, this one was smaller than the previous one, so it was not at a level that warranted making a fuss now.
While the mages groaned, he drew up his aura to enhance his vision and looked toward the fierce battlefield in the distance with a hardened expression.
“This is absurd. What on earth is that…”
“Ha, haha… insane…”
And he was not the only one staring blankly at that place.
The other knights stationed on the wall, who unlike the mages had no separate tasks to perform, also watched that spectacle in a daze, cold sweat running down their faces.
Beyond where every tree and hill that might have blocked their view had been shaved away—
There was an enormous giant whose size was obvious at a glance despite the considerable distance.
A monster whose vicious presence pouring from his body created the illusion that he was hundreds of meters tall.
His very existence was no different from violence itself.
The atmosphere shook with his simplest movements, and each attack he unleashed distorted space and spread destruction around him.
Moreover, simply looking at him placed an immense burden on the mind, so he was an existence against whom a normal fight could not be established in the first place.
In truth, the knights could only stand there and endure because they had distance, the defensive barrier, and their own level of attainment to support them. Ordinary soldiers had all long since collapsed from the moment they saw that giant.
Kururung!
And now, before those who had secured the bare minimum qualification to spectate—
A legendary battle, the sort one would only hear of in stories, was unfolding.
“…Am I dreaming? This is far too unreal.”
“Puhuhu— I’d heard plenty about how incredible they were, but if anything, the rumors were understated. I was living at the bottom of a well…”
They were not merely standing equally against the enormous giant, whom they had thought absolutely impossible to approach; they were instead pressing him back—
Three beings moving organically, as if they were one body.
The hero who had appeared like a savior and the Saint of the Church of the Main God; a vampire who seemed to have come in support from the neighboring country of Thalia; and finally…
“…Could that be Harley the dragonkin? I heard it had been quite some time since he left this place.”
“Harley? Harley, you say? I heard he performed tremendously during the defense of the Steel Fortress, but… are you saying that red giant really is that Harley?”
“Hmm, so little is known about dragonkin…”
A large lifeform covered head to toe in dark red scales and armed with sharp claws, toenails, and fangs.
Although his build only reached around the white giant’s thigh, he was facing him toughly, holding the creature down from the front.
So that the others could attack more surely.
Harley charged toward one of the giant’s legs like a great tiger.
The giant immediately reacted and tried to kick him instead, but at the perfect timing, numerous blood-red chains appeared and wrapped around one of his arms, causing him to temporarily lose his balance.
At that moment, Heinrich appeared before his face and swung the holy sword wreathed in a pillar of light to slash near his eyes, forcing the creature to tilt his head back to avoid it…
Kwaang—!
Harley’s devastating body tackle immediately followed, driving into one of the giant’s legs just as originally intended.
And while the giant staggered with his center of gravity shaken, struggling not to fall, the vampire and the Saint once again carved into his body.
“Kraaagh—! You insects—!”
The giant’s thunderous scream rang out.
The coordination that followed was the same.
The three of them steadily drove the giant into a corner with such perfect teamwork that it inspired admiration, and in that way, they hunted the enormous monster as if slowly tightening a noose around his throat.
“Beautiful… That is what one could call the ultimate form of coordinated combat.”
“Huh— at the very least, that vampire couldn’t have ever practiced with them separately, so how are they so perfectly in sync? Do those who have reached such a realm communicate with one another in their hearts?”
“Khhm, my stomach churns just from watching. If not for the barrier, ordinary people would have died in droves.”
While the knights were pouring out exclamations of admiration at the precise combined attack, as if each breath had been divided into tens of thousands of parts and matched together—
Unlike them, who had nothing to do, the mages were undergoing a desperate struggle no different from war.
“Mana stones! Are they still not here? Bring them quickly! As many as possible!”
“Don’t stand around blankly—move, hurry! If this place falls, the citizens will be massacred!”
“Switch! Rocapelli Magic Tower, fall back, and Tenure Magic Tower, take the center! Hurry!”
In order to protect the city from the waves of destruction crashing in without pause, not only the territory’s mages but even the mages of the magic towers had been mobilized and clung to the walls.
And just as the color was gradually draining from the faces of those being ground down in real time—
[“You seem to be in quite a precarious state. I will lend you a little assistance.”]
A strange woman’s voice clearly embedded itself in the minds of those who were desperately struggling.
The refined operation of mana contained within it was so profound that it was a technique worthy of involuntary admiration.
“Huh?”
“Wait, who is this…!”
The moment the startled mages all raised their heads at once—
Crack, crack, crack—!
The surface of the wall froze over in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, it expanded its range and even covered the section where the wall had collapsed, soon emitting a strange wavelength as it began replacing the severed defensive barrier.
“W-what on earth is this… She forcibly overlaid the barrier’s circuit using ice magic as a medium?!”
“Does that mean she grasped all the circuits of this enormous wall?”
“More importantly, what is this amount of mana? At this level, she isn’t just an archmage, is she? Don’t tell me…!”
Above the heads of the mages who had fallen into confusion in a different sense—
The archmage Isea, who had lent a hand to the city’s defense remotely, met the eyes of her companions floating beside her and slowly nodded.
“But I’m not sure whether we will be of any help in a battle on that scale. I worry we may simply get in their way.”
“Let us set our first priority as supporting the Saint. If we use the sky as we are now, shouldn’t we be able to minimize the danger?”
Lydia, the high elf who had been the strongest in the Elven Kingdom before Harris appeared, and Riesta, the Saintess with the greatest divine power in the Church.
All the members of the Hero’s party, who had been staying at the Great Temple during the period of the Pope’s funeral, had hurriedly arrived after Heinrich.
But they were not the only reinforcements.
There was another place on the ground where other powerful figures had gathered.
“As expected of the High Lord! You are not inferior even to the Saint of the Church!”
“Ahh— I shall offer this life for the glory of the Hybrids!”
“Hmm, I likely cannot use the giant’s blood. This is troublesome.”
Many True Blood-class vampires of the Hybrids, including Frisia Brokoslak…
“Hohoho, do not overdo it for no reason. Just provide support. It has been a while since I found an opponent who looks amusing.”
“Yes! Lady Briki!”
And even another Sacred Blood-class vampire, Briki, had arrived in Tarak.
In order to thoroughly crush a single Revolutionary.