Chapter 274
Chapter 44
Silence settled over the surroundings, where deafening explosions and thunderous roars had been ringing out moments ago.
The remnants of the power that had exploded in every direction scattered into the air as tiny particles.
“We… won, right…?”
Luceria murmured as she stared at the dreamy-colored mist formed from the finely shattered remnants of various powers.
Her snow-white hair was stained with dust, and her fine, pure-white priest robes were torn in several places.
“It seems so.
It appears they were completely annihilated by that last strike.”
“Ahh……”
Lidenhall, the skeletal priest standing beside Luceria, quietly nodded.
Only then did Luceria seem to relax, and she collapsed onto the ground.
“Sister?!”
“I-I’m fine… It’s just that when I realized it was finally over, my legs lost their strength……”
“You have been releasing divine power for nearly twenty hours.
It would be strange if you weren’t exhausted.
For now, lean on me.
I’ll support you.”
“Ah… Thank you, Brother.”
Sorden County, southeastern part of the Holy Papal State.
Luceria and Lidenhall had prevented chaos by eliminating the lower gods Pashu and Ganas, who had risen up locally, before they could grow any stronger.
“You both worked hard.”
“You worked harder than I did, Brother.
Especially since you received the relic from Brother Glenn.”
Luceria gave a faint smile.
A knight clad in golden armor approached her and Lidenhall and bowed his head.
Clang—
“You said you were a Knight of the Sun, right?
Thank you for protecting Brother and me.”
“……”
“He says that as a knight who serves the light and the sun, it was only natural for him to do so.”
The Knight of the Sun, Sol.
He was a summon called forth by the Scripture of Charloua, a mythical-grade artifact Glenn had entrusted to Lidenhall.
He had allowed Lidenhall to fight against a god.
“……”
“He says that if you ever need his help, you shouldn’t hesitate to summon him.”
“Ahaha… Yes.
I’ll definitely ask for your help again next time, Sir Knight.”
Sol bowed his head in greeting.
Soon after, his body crumbled like smoke and returned to the Scripture of Charloua held by Lidenhall.
“A relic that reaches the realm of mythology… It’s incredible.”
Luceria’s violet eyes widened as she thought back on Sol’s performance.
“Indeed.
If we hadn’t had the Scripture of Charloua, we wouldn’t even have been able to fight them.”
“There really was a reason Brother Glenn asked us to gather them.”
“I wonder just how far ahead he is looking…
Every time I help with his plans, I cannot help but feel amazed.”
“Exactly……”
Luceria let out a deep sigh as if she was no longer surprised by anything.
Then, a gentle smile appeared on her lips.
“Even so, he truly wishes for peace and harmony in the world.”
“Yes.
When I see how he wishes to embrace not only humans but even the demonfolk, I can only feel like following him blindly.”
“Hehe… Though he is a little unusual.”
“He certainly is.”
Quiet laughter flowed between them.
Soon, the two turned around.
“Shall we head back now, Sister?”
“Yes.
We somehow dealt with the god in the southeast, but we don’t know where another god might rise up with their followers.
Besides, now that we know what kind of power they possess, we also need to recover the relics that reach the realm of mythology.
Fortunately, there is still a relic nearby that we haven’t recovered.”
“No.
You… you don’t need to do that.”
At the sudden gloomy voice, Luceria and Lidenhall turned around.
At the same time, a silver-white candlestick rolled to a stop at their feet.
“……What is this?”
“Sister, step back first……”
“W-Wait!
I’m not your enemy.
So you don’t need to be on guard.
You… you’re the children of Minis, right?
I came here because an unknown being asked me to.”
“An unknown being…?”
Lidenhall questioned in confusion while bringing a Skeleton Champion to the front.
At that moment, Luceria, who had been silently staring at the silver-white candlestick behind Lidenhall, suddenly widened her eyes.
“Brother!
This is the Candlestick of Dawn!”
“What?
The Candlestick of Dawn?!”
The Candlestick of Dawn was one of the relics that reached the realm of mythology that Glenn had told Luceria and Lidenhall about.
“An unknown being recovered it and asked me to deliver it to you……”
When the voice sounded once again, a gloomy-looking woman with violet hair was standing directly in front of them.
Judging by the way she had moved without making even the slightest sound, she was clearly a heavenly god.
“If you mean an unknown being……”
“I mean the being on the surface you call Glenn Wordsworth……”
Luceria and Lidenhall exchanged glances.
Then Lidenhall dispersed the Skeleton Champion with divine power and spiritual power.
“……My apologies.
It seems you were sent by Brother Glenn.”
“I-I told you so……
I was worried you might not believe me……”
The gloomy woman sighed.
Then she introduced herself as Rudiker, the God of Poetry and Theater, and a member of Minis’s faction.
“So there was a God of Poetry and Theater…
Anyway, it’s nice to meet you, Rudiker.”
“Ah… Y-Yeah……”
Rudiker looked far too timid for a god.
Lidenhall and Luceria tilted their heads slightly as they stared at her.
“W-Why are you staring at me like that?”
“……It’s nothing.
More importantly, you said we don’t need to do that just now.
Could you tell us what you meant?”
Avoiding Luceria’s gaze, Rudiker nodded.
“Yeah……
You two can stop what you were doing, take the thing I gave you, and go back to Wordsworth.
W-Wordsworth Territory, I mean.”
“Stop?”
“Yeah.
From now on, we’ll take over what you were doing.”
“When you say ‘we’……”
“The surviving gods of Minis’s faction, including me and Alberios.”
A handover.
Simply put, that was what this was.
But Luceria felt that everything was happening rather suddenly.
“Rudiker.
Did something happen to Brother Glenn?”
“H-Huh?
N-No?
It’s not like that.
We’re just following that child’s instructions.”
“Brother Glenn’s instructions?
Are you saying that you, a god, are following the orders of a human Brother?”
Even if Rudiker looked gloomy and powerless, could a god really be given orders by someone else?
Could it be that Glenn Wordsworth was actually a heavenly god?
“Could it be… Rudiker, are you not a follower of Lord Minis, but a follower of Brother Glenn?”
“H-Huh?
Uh…?
N-No, it’s not like that……
It’s just that Minis was annihilated, so we promised to help the child Minis cared about the most.”
However, Rudiker’s answer was several times more shocking than what Luceria had expected.
“……What?”
“Lord Minis… was… annihilated……?”
“……”
“Haaaa……”
Romina let out a deep breath.
The wind blew, but there were no trees left to sway, so not even a sound could be heard.
She simply stared up at the sky, which had been dyed red, amid the flowing silence.
The Demon King.
Rupellos van Zausreze, the one who had taken away her beloved father and her entire happy life, was dead.
His corpse was growing cold, pierced by countless ice spikes.
“What a shame… I was planning to keep him alive.”
Just like with Kasim Brion, the Fifth Legion Commander of the Demon King's Army, she had planned to torment him until he was on the verge of death, keep him alive, drain his demonic energy, and slowly torture him to death.
But the moment she took away his life force, she could not suppress the anger rising inside her.
It was a shame.
But aside from venting her anger, the man was not even worth using anymore, so Romina shrugged her shoulders.
“Well… If I send him off even one day earlier, Dad will probably be happy too……”
Her amber pupils trembled.
She suddenly wondered.
