The dynamic vision and reflexes of superhumans on the level of Regarda or Vitalianus were beyond imagination.
To put it simply, the world they saw was different.
They split seconds into fragments, grasped the situation within them, and acted.
If one intended to stand against the world with nothing but a single sword or spear in hand, one had to be at least that capable.
Then let us think of it the other way around.
What, exactly, would one have to do to wound such a monstrous person?
Naturally, it was not easy.
One had to strike at a moment beyond prediction, with force faster and stronger than his own.
And that difficult feat had just been accomplished.
Kwaaaaaang—!
There had clearly been no one off guard.
From the moment Abelard stopped answering—no, even before that—they had been sufficiently on alert, and because Hio knew that, he had allowed the approaching Regarda to continue.
It was not only Hio. Everyone must have thought the same.
If it was Regarda, he had the ability to respond even if an explosion went off right in front of his face.
This was the result of that faith.
“Get back!”
Mana and the Abyss surged in a vortex from the aftershock.
Even picking out Regarda’s presence within it was no easy task.
Everyone must have been in much the same state.
Hio, too, had barely managed to block it and barely managed to evade.
There had not even been enough time to deploy Celestial or any other defensive magic as skills.
Even an instantly activated skill required the slightest moment before its manifestation was complete.
And so he had stacked Blink nearly ten times, and only after that had he been able to deploy a defensive skill.
How had that been possible?
How had he prepared that much power without any of them noticing?
Deceiving every member of an expedition composed of eight superhumans and causing an explosion at a speed they could scarcely react to was, by common sense, impossible.
For great power required great energy, and the moment that energy gathered, every single one of them would have noticed.
Unfortunately, however, Kreutzwald had been wary of Hio’s eyes, which could see mana.
He had known this and prepared accordingly.
That was why he had hidden the power in the Abyss.
He had used Abelard’s skin to scatter their attention, and concealed the scent of mana with the dense Abyss.
This was the Abyss.
They always had to keep in mind that anything considered common sense could be twisted here.
『How dare you……!』
The roar of an enraged dragon thundered through the Abyss.
The mana and Abyss that had been thrashing wildly gradually subsided before the dragon’s wrath.
As a fierce wind blew the ash far away, the storm of qi settled and the Abyss began to stabilize.
Only then did the presence begin to register properly.
“Regarda!”
Unlike usual, Regarda’s presence felt enormous.
That meant the situation was not good.
For Regarda, who normally released his energy in a restrained manner, to be radiating such a presence meant he had lost control—and that the danger was that severe.
「Skill - ‘Blink’ activates.」
Regarda’s condition was not good.
No, “not good” was not the right expression.
His dominant right arm had been torn away below the elbow, and both of his legs were in tatters.
And yet, somehow, he was still holding his spear. He gripped it in his other hand and stood by planting the shaft against the ground.
“For now, I’m fine. Leave me be and determine the enemy’s position first.”
That was what he said to Hio.
For a human, they would not have been strange to die on the spot from such wounds.
The reason Regarda was alive was that he was an undead resurrected through necromancy.
Even taking that into account, his composure despite having lost limbs was enough to inspire awe.
“……All right.”
Right now, Hio hated, terribly, the fact that Regarda was right.
“Freyja is……”
“She’s fine.”
“I see.”
Fortunately, it seemed the injuries of the others aside from Regarda were not serious.
They had put enough distance between themselves to respond, and Freyja had been between Claire and Melissa, who lacked evasive abilities, so it seemed she had manifested her true body and protected them well.
Aside from them, Gale had sustained some injuries, but they were not severe.
What hurt most was that from the very first engagement, a key force like Regarda had been badly wounded.
They had to protect him and make him recover somehow, even if slowly.
For that, the energy of death was essential, but……
“Kreutzwald won’t just let us do that.”
Kreutzwald had revealed himself in earnest.
And in the most revolting way possible—not as himself, but as a golem wearing another person’s appearance.
It meant attacks would come in one form or another.
The worst possible scenario they could imagine was him not revealing himself directly, dragging out time while gnawing away at the expedition’s stamina and minds, but……
“……It seems we’ve been caught in the worst-case scenario.”
Presences began to register from far away.
Each and every one was faint and thin, giving them a ghostlike feeling.
Just like…… the golem with Abelard’s face from moments ago.
“……Kreutzwald.”
Dozens of such presences occupied every direction, swiftly closing the distance.
He did not need to see them to know what forms they would take.
The mages from a thousand years ago who, together with Abelard, had trusted him and crossed over into this hell.
They would be wearing their appearances, their faces.
“This rotten bastard.”
Sure enough.
As their figures slowly emerged, strength entered Hio’s hand.
He gripped his staff so tightly it seemed it might shatter, and began slowly lifting it.
The faces of those who appeared, each with robes fluttering, were ones he had once seen in Abelard’s memories.
All of them were mages of the Magic Tower.
Their expressions were chillingly identical.
The corners of their mouths and eyes were bent in grotesque smiles.
Their mouths opened at the same time.
—My disciple.
The voice that came from them all at once was not theirs.
It was a viscous, unpleasant voice, as if resounding from the very bottom of the Abyss.
—Welcome to the hell you walked into of your own accord.
It was Kreutzwald’s true voice.
Before that sight, Hio had no choice but to admit it.
“This place is truly hell.”
This was a true hell where something more dreadful than hell itself resided.
* * *
Night came once more to the allied forces’ camp.
They should have grown accustomed to it after passing through several nights already, but not a single knight let down their guard.
Had they not experienced the overwhelming presence of the colossal aberration just the previous night?
They had encountered it at the very end of the night, so they had been able to greet the day safely without battle.
If those things had appeared from the beginning of the night, it would not have been a problem that ended with casualties in the dozens.
“Prepare yourselves! Night will soon be upon us!”
Night approached.
Perhaps because of the previous day’s experience, a tension similar to that of the first day settled over the heads of the allied forces.
And soon.
“It’s night!”
Night arrived, and the aberrations began to rise one by one.
A black tide of aberrations began to fill every direction, enough to make the tens of thousands of allied soldiers seem insignificant.
The formation of the allied forces standing against them looked bright, sacred, and filled with fighting spirit, but—
“O-over there!”
“I-it’s here!”
“A colossal aberration has appeared!”
Misfortune came together with the beginning of night.
A single fist crashing down into the formation was like a meteorite.
Kwaaaaang—!
Hundreds of skills flew in and clung tenaciously to it in order to stop that one fist, but they achieved only the slightest effect.
Kwaaaaang—!
“Guaaagh!”
“Don’t stand against it, fall back!”
“Skills, pour your skills into it!”
The formation near where the colossal aberration had appeared collapsed in an instant.
“If the passage is seized, it’s over!”
“Don’t just retreat blindly! Draw its attention to the opposite side of the passage!”
Its body was absurdly tough, far beyond common sense.
Its size, too, was so enormous that it seemed physically impossible.
In short, it was something outside the bounds of common sense.
An existence they could neither block nor wound.
“It’s slower than we thought!”
“Slow its movements even more!”
But the allied forces were not some rabble of mediocrities.
Their commanders were outstanding, of course,
and not a single person was frightened or panicking.
“Pour more skills into it! Damn it, the side is open! Get your heads on straight!”
That was why they were managing this much.
And yet, this much was all they could do.
They protected the most important priests, somehow forcibly maintained the formation, and moved as far away from the passage as possible.
Even if they minimized casualties, that was their limit.
Whatever the case, it meant they had no method to directly bring down that dreadful despair known as a colossal aberration.
The same was true for Antiphus, Sirbert, and Daphne.
The reason was simple.
They lacked the power.
Attacks below a certain level might hinder the colossal aberration, but they could never pierce it.
Outside, such a thing would have been impossible, but this was the Abyss.
A hell that twisted common sense.
Thus, no matter how high-tier a skill might be, it could not deal damage to that thing.
Because it was far too light.
“Why…… Why won’t it reach!”
Even when he poured out every skill he had confidence in, he could not peel away even a single layer of its tough hide.
As stated before, it was because the power was too light.
Skills that contained nothing, impressive only in outward appearance.
All power that could not handle intent was like that.
But Antiphus, who could not possibly know this, only poured out skills again and again.
The highest-tier skills that, due to the Ruler’s penalty, had been steadily disappearing until only a handful now remained.
Toward the heart of the aberration he could never reach, toward its depths, he continued to unleash them.
Kwaaaaaaang—!
Of course, the sound alone was thunderous, and the creature still took no damage whatsoever.
Sirbert’s telekinesis only restrained its movement slightly.
The arrows of cold fired using Daphne’s Rafflesia merely lodged shallowly into the surface, accomplishing nothing.
“Why…… why am I……!”
What had he lacked?
He had thought about it countless times, and the conclusion he reached had been rather miserable.
That was why he had acknowledged it and accepted everything, had he not?
He had acknowledged the Supreme Heavenly Demon, and acknowledged that becoming a Ruler had been excessive greed.
He had thought he had let go of everything as his stats and skills slowly vanished.
If he could just wrap this up properly, then he could return to his homeland and live out the rest of his life with what he had built.
That was what he had thought.
But apparently, that had not been the case.
Deep within his heart, he had not been able to let go so easily.
Was that why he was so angry?
No matter how desperately he struggled and tried.
No matter how furiously he poured out attacks, that thing would not budge.
Was it not because, on that giant creature that was busy swinging its fists at those beneath its feet without paying him the slightest attention, an all-too-familiar face seemed to overlap, making rage boil up inside him?
As if pouring out all the resentment he had held back, he unleashed skills, and unleashed them, and unleashed them again.
He paid no heed to mana or stamina, focusing on only one thing.
Glaring only at that creature he could not reach no matter how much he attacked, that creature he would never reach, he fired off skills without pause.
“……Stop.”
Why couldn’t he do it?
Why was he unable, while that one could?
“Antiphus Framan, stop. It’s all over.”
When he suddenly came back to his senses, the aberration had disappeared, and the night had withdrawn.
It had been the night with the greatest number of allied casualties since they entered the Abyss, and the night on which Antiphus had tried harder than ever.
“……That thing……”
The colossal aberration had vanished just like that, without suffering even a single wound.