Kwaaaaah—
—A savage sound of the air being torn apart, as if a missile had been launched, rang out.
But it was not the result of any scientific technology, some mysterious principle of magic, or even a special weapon.
“Uahahaha!”
Its source was nothing but the power of a pure body.
The pinnacle of violent physical force produced by a single human being, originating from a fist as hard as rock... though whether that existence could truly be called human was another matter.
Kwaaaang!
“Khup!”
The Scribe let out a strangled breath at the tremendous impact transmitted through the shield of holy power in her left hand.
Her steps, which had only ever advanced like a runaway locomotive, had already been forced several paces back.
Even though the sacred miracle contained in the shield had neutralized most of the damage, it was still this much!
It was so absurd that it was bewildering.
‘Ugh, what is this? Where did a guy like this suddenly come from...?’
A barbarian over two meters tall, adorned in eccentric attire and garish tattoos.
She glared at the muscular giant blocking her path and gritted her teeth.
She had thought it was all over now.
If she stalled for just a little more time, the surrounding area would be thoroughly sealed off by those who followed her, and then she would be able to make the impudent unbeliever who had dared attack her without fear pay the proper price...
‘How in the world...!’
It had taken less than a single minute for that flow to change.
For a trial that, though difficult, she could have overcome, to turn into a life-or-death crisis where she was hard-pressed even to steady herself.
All because of those suspicious assailants who had suddenly barged in.
“Paha! You blocked it? What a fine punching bag you are! Then shall we pick up the tempo a little?”
The barbarian, letting out a mad laugh through a mouth stretched wide enough to split, lowered his body and clenched his fist tightly once again.
Crack!
Kigigiging—!
At the same time, a noise leaked from his body.
Could that really be a sound produced by a living creature’s body?
As his extremely compressed muscles twisted, a shrill metallic sound spread in all directions.
Steam rising from his reddened skin was merely a bonus.
“Kuh! My Lord! Grant me the strength not to fall before any adversity!”
But the Scribe was also an enhancement-type battle priest whose direct offensive power was not lacking.
The holy power filling her body blazed like fire, and a radiance like a small sun settled over the head of her hammer.
“Receive judgment!”
“Hup-cha-cha!”
Whoosh—
—Kwaaaaang!
The hammer, swung in a great arc, and the fist thrust straight forward collided head-on.
The tremendous pressure produced in the aftermath pressed down on all sides, and the formation Harris had repaired screamed once again.
“Wow! You’re really something, huh? It’s been a while since I broke a bone! Kahaha!”
“...Monster. You clashed head-on with the hammer of God, and all you got was a fracture? No, wait. You’ve already recovered?”
“Ah, my recovery’s on the fast side!”
Immediately after exchanging attacks, the two of them, their faces close together, exchanged murderous words.
The Scribe brought down her hammer burning like the sun, and Harley met it with his fist, resisting its force.
The scene was so fierce that it made their overwhelming difference in physique seem meaningless.
“I’ll pound you to pieces so you never run that mouth agai—”
However, if there was one variable in the current situation—
“Pardon me for a moment.”
It was that the target she had to pay attention to was not only the giant before her.
Slaaash—!
“Khup!”
The chilly voice and the attack came at the same time.
At the stealthy ambush aimed at her back, the armor of holy power covering that area was torn away and blood sprayed into the air.
She had reacted the moment she sensed his presence and twisted her body, but in a defenseless state right after exerting all her strength once, with her attention divided on top of that, responding without taking damage had been impossible from the start.
“Kuh! You cowardly demon bastards...!”
Scattering holy power without restraint, she barely retreated and ground her teeth as she suppressed the blood magic burrowing into her body through the wound.
If not for the fact that holy power had an absolute advantage over vampires, it would not have ended at just this much. One wrong move, and her heart would have been ripped out in that single attack.
‘My regeneration is slower than expected. A curse that worsens wounds? ...I need time. If this continues, I really will...!’
Of course, her trial did not end there.
———!
As if aiming for the opening created by her critical wound, a bombardment she had already experienced several times poured down in succession.
Multicolored beams of light flew in silently and mercilessly battered her body as she hurriedly assumed a defensive posture.
“Kyaa! As expected of a holy power user, you’re tough, aren’t you? You’re holding out better than I thought.”
Crack! Crunch—!
The humanoid monster, now beginning to swell in size as he actively used bodily mutation as if revealing his true nature, entered the fray once more.
“Ptui. Is it because of the Divine Descent? The blood’s no good at all. It’s been two minutes now... no, a little under three? If we’re going to end this within five minutes, we’ll have to move a little tightly.”
The body of the vampire lord who spat out the blood he had put in his mouth vanished as if melting into the air.
Transcendents against whom victory would be uncertain even if faced one-on-one.
They coordinated organically as though they were a single body, thoroughly driving their sole prey, the Scribe, into a corner.
‘...How? Why? How did things end up like this? Were they in league from the start? To think I didn’t notice enemies of this caliber laying a trap and approaching me...!’
As the relentless attacks threw Adeline’s limbs into chaos, confusion over the current situation flared up inside her like wildfire.
The monster blocking her path as if to seal her movements showed no sign of breaking no matter how much she struck him, and in the meantime, the continuing ambushes from the vampire and the sniper’s bombardment were more than enough to mercilessly shave away her life force, which had been erupting like an active volcano with nearly infinite holy power.
“Keheuk...! Ah, my Lord...! Please forgive this unworthy servant...”
Exactly five minutes.
That was the time it took for her, who had struggled desperately until the very end, to finally fall to her knees.
***
Western United States, near San Francisco, California.
Screeech—
—Skid!
“This way!”
“Hurry and prepare the barrier! Don’t be careless, and handle it properly!”
A number of people got out of several vehicles that had come to a sudden stop, quickly scattered into the surroundings, and moved in perfect order.
The personnel, dressed in various attire, naturally divided into several groups.
“Phase inflection point detected. This is the central core!”
“Then let’s begin right away. What is Pantheon doing right now?”
“They say they’re preparing to enter immediately. After all, they can’t help but prioritize the target’s safety above all else, can they?”
“We should cooperate as much as possible too, so nothing unnecessary gets said later. There’s nothing more exhausting than sensitive fanatics.”
“Yes, understood.”
Though they happened to be acting together, they did not belong to one organization.
From agents of the California state government, to Guardians dispatched by the American Returnee Association, to personnel urgently sent from Pantheon’s headquarters located in San Francisco, their backgrounds were varied.
But their objective was more or less the same.
They had gathered to safely rescue Adeline Schneider, one of Pantheon’s highest executives and a seat among the Twelve.
“Still, to dare touch Pantheon’s leadership. They’ve got guts. It must have been the work of an evil god’s follower, right?”
“Who knows? There’s been so much talk related to that side recently. Including the matter of that otherworldly saint who supposedly summoned the dragon.”
“Ah! Come to think of it. Could this be related to that as well? Those Beoncheonhoe bastards might have done this...”
“Who can say?”
With so many ability users gathered in one place, it took only a few minutes to identify the center of the spatial distortion, install a barrier, and finish preparations for entry.
Including the time it had taken to detect the anomaly and rush here, perhaps a little over ten minutes had now passed.
It was a swift response made possible because they had already sensed something suspicious and begun moving even before detecting the signal.
“We’re entering the interior!”
“Three— two— one—!”
In that situation, the first to enter the formation were those from Pantheon.
For them, the safety of their leadership was more important than neutralizing traps inside or constructing barriers to prevent the culprit’s escape.
“Now!”
Pajik—!
Thus, when they entered the other side of space while holding their tension to the limit, the first thing they encountered was...
“...My God.”
“What in the...”
It was a scene of destruction on a truly enormous scale.
Trees not only uprooted and strewn about, but burned black into charcoal.
Rocks smashed to pieces so thoroughly that their original forms could not even be guessed.
The ground split and dug up as though an earthquake had struck, with enormous craters exposing its innards for all to see.
At a single glance, it was clear that something extraordinary had taken place here.
“Battle traces of this magnitude. If there had been no barrier...”
“The effect on the surroundings would have been considerable. Casualties would not have been few either.”
“No, that’s not what’s important right now! Lady Schneider— is Lady Adeline Schneider safe?!”
“Ah! Begin tracking immediately...!”
As soon as those who had been overwhelmed by the horrific scenery came to their senses, a search of the surroundings began at once.
And as they suppressed their impatience and continuously used mystic arts related to exploration and information gathering, they were soon forced to confront a reality that was impossible to believe.
“How is it on your side? Did you find her?”
“...No, nothing...”
“Ugh, same here. The traces are left so clearly, yet we can’t identify any information at all!”
That reality was the fact that, with their abilities, they could find out absolutely nothing from this place.
Starting with psychometry, which read memories of the past from traces, to clairvoyance, farsight, tracking—none of it was of any use.
“...It’s been erased cleanly. It seems the culprit acted first.”
“If that’s the case, then Lady Schneider has already...”
“Hah! That’s impossible! She is a Transcendent America is proud of, and one counted among the very best even within all of Pantheon! There’s no way she could have been defeated in such a short time...!”
They tried hard to deny reality, but no matter how thoroughly they searched the scene, nothing changed.
It was the same even after those outside finally completely dismantled the formation and joined them.
“Concealment ability of this level. I’m at a loss for words.”
“Complete erasure that even abilities cannot interfere with. On top of that, the rank used seems, at the very least, to be Transcendent-class... I wonder if there’s anyone who could see through this.”
“The barrier construction, the information concealment, and the battle traces left at this scene. For now, it’s certain the culprit was not an individual.”
With no other choice, they even tried to summon ability users specialized in exploration to understand what had happened here, but all they could ascertain was an empty void of mystery that felt almost futile.
In the end, the full story behind the terrorist incident targeting Pantheon’s leadership could only sink into a labyrinth.
And it became an opportunity to instill wariness not only in the leadership who held positions similar to hers, but also in the heads of other forces outside Pantheon.
Along with a sense of crisis toward an “unknown force in the shadows” whose identity could not be discerned at all.
***
‘It was worth investing excessive combat power.’
A five-minute time attack.
Against a Transcendent who had even used Divine Descent, that was an extremely tight time limit.
Though there was a time limit, within it she could use a nearly infinite amount of holy power, and the explosive increase in every ability born from that was certainly not something to be ignored.
‘Originally, no one can stand before superior numbers.’
When Harris had been alone, I’d thought it might be a little difficult, but once additional combat strength was投入, hadn’t things been resolved this easily?
There was a reason heroes of justice in comics and the like overwhelmed villains with numbers when defeating them.
This must be what they called a life lesson learned from real life.
‘And thanks to Heinz II, we were able to erase the traces cleanly too.’
“Existence Denial,” which had grown to the point that it could be called the ultimate skill in the concealment category.
It demonstrated excellent performance in post-battle cleanup as well.
With Heinz II’s rank, having begun to sprout the seed of faint divinity after becoming divine-blooded, no one would be able to see through the remaining traces unless someone on the level of the Beoncheonhoe Master personally came.
‘Harley, the main tank who holds enemies in place; Harris, the ranged dealer and utility supporter; and Heinz II, the close-range main dealer. Quite a decent combination. ...More than anything, the blow Beoncheonhoe received from this incident must be fatal as well.’
I slowly nodded at the satisfaction welling up in my heart.
Taking care of the Scribe, the head of Beoncheonhoe’s North American branch, an apostle of its Master, and at the same time one of Pantheon’s leaders, was an extremely significant achievement.
This could serve as an opportunity to further increase Heinrich’s influence over Pantheon.
‘...And that’s not the end of it.’
I gently closed my eyes and sank into the chair.
The Scribe, an apostle of the Beoncheonhoe Master.
A priest who had reached such a high level that she not only used the holy power bestowed upon her by him, but could even use Divine Descent.
Naturally, her body and soul could not help but contain an immense amount of information regarding the Beoncheonhoe Master.
‘From one to ten. I’ll analyze you thoroughly.’
As it happened, he had the greatest expert in this field on his side.
The greatest in the world... no, the greatest in all dimensions.