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On the hilltop, rain fell in curtains.
Someone roared, someone wailed miserably, someone cursed the heavens, and someone was numb.
Blood and flesh splattered, blades clashed and hummed.
Monsters surged, pounding the barrier.
Clang!
Sparks flew!
The spark, following the path of the rain and air, shot down in an instant! But the rain that followed extinguished it inch by inch in midair.
Bald North Saint sliced through the bone blade in front of him. With a backhand! He forcefully struck another bone blade that was quietly thrusting from the left. Battle aura exploded in the air! He pushed back two Specter monsters that were noticeably larger.
The thin, rippling light before the rain curtain trembled slightly, reluctantly healing its 'wound.'
The North Saint glared to the side. He saw Merna, who had climbed onto the barrier's membrane and was maintaining the barrier with her own mana, now collapsed on the ground. Her face was ashen, her eyes were vacant, her body was trembling. Urine flowed down her rain-soaked legs. It was clear that she no longer had the physical strength to maintain the barrier spell.
The North Saint gritted his teeth and shouted.
"Take Merna back to rest! Watch her! Give her food! Let her recover her stamina!"
"Brothers! After this wave, they will definitely retreat!! Hold on!!!"
Merna was lifted up by two men and dragged towards the wooden huts on the hilltop. In this life-or-death situation, the two men were already groping her. The string of rationality that had been stretched taut by the brink of death had long since snapped. What's more, they were on the verge of dying?
They were laughing maniacally.
They were all f***ing crazy.
The North Saint was one of the few rational people left in the group. He ignored the scene.
The words he had just shouted were for everyone to hear. This so-called Saintess of the Milis Church was clearly at her end. If she could come out again, that would be for the best. If not, then so be it.
After all, they were just barely surviving. Living another day was a bonus! Living another minute was a bonus!
Blood splattered, flying past his eyes!
An adventurer five meters away had his left arm severed at the elbow by a bone blade!
"Ah!!" The adventurer roared in agony, but he immediately backed up a meter. He held his single hand flat, in front of his body.
The pain, anger, and near-death experience from the sudden loss of his arm wiped away what little rationality he had left. He squeezed all the remaining mana from his body!
He no longer cared about the mana consumption in his emotional frenzy.
But even this irrational act still invigorated the adventurers around him.
The Divine Strike Art! This was one of the few adventurers in the team who had mastered the Advanced Divine Strike Art. With this full-power strike, he could kill at least three... no! Four Specter monsters!
The golden arc of electricity could not harm humans or physically destroy objects. But, it had a miraculous effect on ghost-type monsters that came from mana vortices and were not born of biological reproduction!
In response to the adventurers' thoughts, the next instant, a golden arc of electricity appeared out of thin air around his palm, crackling loudly!
The chant also began at the same time!
"A God is seated upon the firmament!" The overflowing electricity from his palm shot out, a light flickering between illusion and reality that hit the air, continuously spreading upwards along his arm.
The North Saint's eyes widened in disbelief. He roared, "Angely! What are you doing! Stay calm! Conserve mana!!"
"Ah!! Angely, kill them!!" The cheers around him drowned out his warning. The adventurers at this moment, compared to rationality, which was inedible.
They lacked courage.
The bald North Saint spat. He cursed, "Damn it!"
"The Divine Light! Like a merciful mother's hand on your shoulders and mine, the eyes of God, reflecting the filthy tide of the underworld!" The cheers of the crowd pushed Angely's rage to its peak. Under extreme emotion, the mana from his entire body surged out!
"You filthy beings who defy the heavenly order! I, in the name of God, command thee!"
The golden arc of electricity instantly enveloped his entire body, crackling. It even illuminated the rain curtain on the hilltop. The rain could not extinguish its radiance.
This dazzling, fiery light made the two men who were dragging Merna stop in their tracks and look back. And Merna, who was in a daze, also looked over.
The radiance danced, flickered, and shot out from his eyes. It was dazzling.
And it also shone in the eyes of everyone else.
On this gloomy hilltop, it was as if it were the divine order itself.
The divine order spoke human words, roaring out!
"Kneel!!! Accept divine punishment!!!"
"Advanced Divine Strike Art—Pur..."
A fierce gust of wind! It tore through the air between the people!
Swish!!!!
A suddenly flying bone blade pierced him! It pinned him to the ground!
The light died.
The wind pressure turned Angely's face into a bloody mess. His body twitched.
He died in the mud.
Everyone was silenced by this sudden turn of events. The light in their eyes went out.
The next instant, a hoarse roar sounded!!
"Hold on!! Angely's dying glow shattered two Specters! His death was not in vain!! The Specters in the distance are already retreating from the deterrence! Give it your all!!"
This time, the adventurers did not respond with cheers. They were numb. They cried as they continued to resist the bone blades that pierced through the weak points of the barrier.
It was chaos.
Amidst the miserable wailing, everyone knew they were about to die.
The North Saint's teeth chattered. He shoved an adventurer who was about to kill himself to the ground and took his place. But when he turned, he saw a white shadow flash past the distant rain curtain.
He focused his gaze.
It was Leuf and Klem, who had secretly jumped out of the Specter horde at this chaotic time. They had taken advantage of a clash between a bone blade and a sword blade, and had slipped into the barrier spell, running towards the wooden huts on the hilltop.
"You bastards!! Those two are still alive!!"
He sliced through a bone blade that was thrusting towards him. A look of shock flashed in his eyes.
The gaze that he had just seen made him belatedly realize that they had a person on their backs.
The person on their back was mostly looking at Angely's corpse on the ground, but also gave him a brief glance.
"Why is there a person on their backs? A new survivor from the shipwreck?"
On the ground in the distance, Merna stared blankly at the corpse that was pinned to the ground by a flying bone blade.
On her numb face, the light that had just appeared in her cerulean eyes disappeared.
The two adventurers beside her, who were greatly stimulated, laughed even more. They spun around several times, then turned to look at the lifeless Merna, and dragged her towards the wooden huts on the hilltop.
But they were not going to the 'shelter' where the food was. They were heading for the small wooden hut built for the bald temporary adventurer leader.
They, it seemed, also wanted to 'give it their all.'
Merna's expression was wooden. She didn't even resist. She just let herself be dragged along.
The wooden hut was small, only a little over ten square meters. It was made of rotting wood, and its roof was covered with a piece of torn sail to keep out the rain.
At the door, bang! The two men kicked the door open and threw Merna inside.
"You first, me first!"
"Me first!"
"Me first!!"
"Both of us!!"
The two men unbuckled their belts and rushed into the dark hut. They lunged towards Merna's shadow, which was lying on the ground.
Swish!
A flash of electricity, illuminating the inside of the hut.
The blood on Merna had been washed away by the rain outside. Her pale skin, which was exposed from her torn clothes, was frozen white by the cold rain. It made them think of the noble ladies of Asura, who were once so unattainable.
They were so white...
I heard this woman used to be a noble...
Heh... heh... huh...
But, why...
Did someone get in before us? And they don't even have an upper body. Only half a body came in. Damn, they're so thirsty...
That lower body looks a little...
Familiar.
Slash! The wind cut them both in half at the waist. Their upper bodies fell backward, while their lower bodies ran a few steps before they fell onto Merna.
Black, dirty blood, lungs, spleen, and intestines splattered all over her on the ground.
The latter, however, just turned her head blankly, her eyes vacant, staring at the table beside her.
Scratch! Scratch! Scratch! Scratch!
Slash.
A match was lit. The only candlestick in the hut flared to life. The orange light, like the dawn they hadn't seen for months, illuminated the entire small hut.
Even though the door was open, and the wind and rain were pouring in, for some reason, the flame would not go out.
It burned in Merna's eyes, illuminating the three figures in front of the table.
Footsteps came from outside the door, but they suddenly stopped at the entrance, unmoving.
Merna did not turn. She only stared blankly at the table in front of her.
Someone.
In the warm candlelight, the kind adventurer who had given her the dagger earlier put down the match and stood up.
Klem, the one with the eye patch who knew the Divine Strike Art, was staring at the corpses on the ground in shock. He looked back at the person outside the door, repeatedly. He seemed very frightened.
Merna instinctively turned to look back.
The menacing, terrible, demon-like bald adventurer leader stood at the door, rain streaming down his shoulders, his arms, his entire body. Even though he was in the rain, he did not step into the hut. He looked at the spot where he stood with a horrified expression, then shifted his gaze to the candlestick beside him...
The candlestick...
So even a person like him wants to see the dawn again...
We haven't seen it in two months... It is indeed beautiful.
But I will probably never see it again...
Merna woodenly turned her head, looking at the candlestick again, trying to embrace this hallucination before her death.
She froze.
In front of the candlestick, a grey-white cloud was embracing the dawn...
Oh... it's not grey-white. It's pure white. It's grey-white because the light is too dim...
The candle flame could burn his hair, like a cloud... He...
Is he the dawn?
Clang! A sword was placed on the table. The sound caused Merna's scattered consciousness, which had been accelerating towards 'Specterization' from her prolonged use of Specter magic stones, to re-focus.
This time, she saw it clearly.
In front of the table, a person was sitting.
White hair, black pupils.
Allen casually placed the sword he had pulled out from Klem's waist onto the table. He glanced at the North Saint outside the door, who was stiff and unmoving from the 'Sword of Light.'
He looked at Klem, who had an expression of 'What just happened? How did the waists of these two men break?' Klem, sensing Allen's gaze, secretly looked at the North Saint outside the door. He then ran to a pile of junk on the side, making a clinking sound, and began to search for something.
These were the belongings that the North Saint had confiscated for 'centralized distribution.' He hadn't been rummaging for long when he found a piece of bread that had been flattened into a cracker, with a piece missing.
He looked at the North Saint outside the door in shock. Cold sweat streamed down the latter's face along with the rain.
Logically, in this life-or-death situation, he should be swinging his blade at Allen, shouldn't he? After all, the camp was doomed, wasn't it? What's the difference between dying now and dying later?
But the 'Sword of Light' that he couldn't see the trajectory of gave him a new thought.
What if...
Boom!!!!!
The roof above them suddenly exploded!! A sharp bone blade pierced down from above. A Specter, thrown into the sky by another Specter, plunged into the barrier.
The next instant, a cold aura swept over everyone's faces. It was as if something had been swung around.
Thump!!!!!
The air pressure exploded!!
In an instant, the hut returned to silence.
The candlelight was still candlelight.
The people were still the same people. No one was added, and no one was missing.
The increasingly violent rain poured down from the hole in the roof. Before it could reach the tabletop, it flowed down along an invisible 'air wall,' washing away the blood and the filth on Merna in a few breaths.
The North Saint looked at the 'battle aura shield' that enveloped Allen. He thought of the Specter monster that had been thrown out by Allen without even having its form fully defined. He swallowed hard.
And Leuf, from the very beginning, had his head down. He slapped the dazed Klem and urged him to continue what he was doing. He snatched the bread from his hand and toasted it over the candlelight.
Sizzle... sizzle...
The aroma was intoxicating.
Outside, the sound of rain, wind, wailing, and roaring was incredibly clear.
But inside this small hut, it was as if it were...
...a warm evening.
Allen looked at the roof, then looked outside the hut, confirming that the barrier spell had not been breached. He casually ran his fingers through his messy white hair.
He extended his finger, pointing to the damp wooden chair opposite the table.
He spoke, his voice clear.
"Merna, sit."
When his words fell, Merna only looked at the flickering fire above Allen's hair from the hole in the roof.
The latter did not urge her. He took the toasted food from Leuf and ate a very small piece.
He chewed very slowly.
Very carefully.
Merna looked at his hair for a while, then, inexplicably, she clung to the leg of the table and sat down on the chair weakly.
Her eyes, however, never left his hair.
The sound of his chewing and his voice pierced her ears.
"I heard from Leuf that you were a candidate for the Saintess of a Milis temple in a port city. You violated the temple's rules to visit your family during your ascetic training, and were expelled. That's why you became an adventurer in a fit of pique."
"Your main skill is the barrier spell. Your healing spell, with a sufficient mana source, can even reach the Saint rank."
"The monster attack this time has been repelled because of you. You are the 'core' of the adventurer team on the hilltop."
"So, there's no need to be afraid. This is your right."
He paused, and placed a piece of bread on the table. The latter looked stunned. This scene was also seen by Leuf, Klem, and the North Saint at the door, who all had different expressions.
Allen continued eating and said.
"In a harsh living environment, everything outside of life and death is a small matter. It's hard to distinguish right from wrong. If we were to trace the source, the monster tide was started by me."
"But it wasn't intentional."
"Countless coincidences brought us all here, creating this terrible fate."
"But, it is precisely because of this terrible fate..."
Allen narrowed his eyes, swallowing the bread in his mouth.
"...that we must use our strength to break free from this uncontrollable path."
Merna finally shifted her gaze from Allen's hair to his eyes.
They were different from 'clouds' and 'dawn glow.'
They were like the black sea at night. On the surface of that sea, a rising sun.
She was momentarily dazed. She looked at them again. The eyes were just eyes. The light within them was just the flickering flame of the candlestick on the table.
Allen continued eating his bread.
"How to break free from fate?"
"First, eat a full meal."
"Only when your stomach is full will you have the 'strength' to live."
"Eat. You've been hungry for a long time. Don't eat too fast, or it'll be a waste if you throw up."
Merna looked at Allen's eyes again. She dazed grabbed the bread in front of her and put it in her mouth.
For a moment, the only sound in the hut was the gentle chewing.
[Allen Boreas Greyrat]
[Mana: Remaining, 65%]
[Battle Aura: Remaining, 89%]
[Physical Stamina: Remaining]
[1.5%]
[1.9%]
[2.5%]
[3.4%]
[4.5%]
Merna quickly finished eating. Allen's bread still had a quarter left. He glanced at the steadily increasing percentage of his stamina, which was rising with his digestion, [5.2%], and placed the bread on the table.
He looked up at Merna.
The latter was staring fixedly at Allen's face. Perhaps it was because she had eaten carbohydrates for the first time in a month, or for some other reason, the numb expression that couldn't even cry was now filled with life. Tears were welling up in her eyes.
Allen suddenly stood up.
It startled the North Saint at the door, who took a step back. At the same time, a miserable wail sounded from outside. "The barrier spell can't hold up anymore!!" "Ah!!!"
He looked at the bald North Saint. "Go help." He then glanced at Klem.
The latter, who was rummaging through a pile of junk a moment ago, suddenly froze. He seemed to have seen something, and then he accelerated his rummaging with excitement.
The North Saint quickly ran off.
Allen turned to look at Merna, who was sitting at the table, looking up at him.
"Time's almost up. So, Merna, I'll ask you."
"Do you want to break free from your current fate?"
"...Yes."
"Very good. Let's make an exchange."
Merna murmured. "An exchange? What exchange..."
Allen reached out and took a wrinkled, old notebook from Klem. He quickly flipped through the pages.
"A barrier spell. You'll cast a barrier spell. Listen, not to charge the magic circle, but to cast a barrier spell directly."
Merna was stunned. She looked at Allen in disbelief, then at the 'battle aura shield' around him. Her lips parted. She seemed to find it very hard to accept what had just happened in the past minute.
Tears streamed down her face. Pat, pat, pat, they fell on the tabletop. She held it in for a while, then finally collapsed into sobs, covering her face.
"...Why... why... why... are you all like this..."
Tap, tap!
The sound of tapping on the table interrupted her sobbing.
A calm voice continued to speak.
"The lowest-level beginner barrier spell. The smallest possible range. Is that enough mana for you?"
Merna looked up in a daze at Allen and the 'notebook of the Divine Strike Art and its chants—Klem's.'
The latter was flipping through the pages, not even looking up. "You don't have any mana left? It's fine, no rush. We'll wait until you've rested..."
"...I do... I can maintain it for about a minute... but only one person can go in..." Merna said, crying. "After that, I have to absorb mana from the magic stones. But if I absorb too many magic stones from Specters in a short amount of time, I'll turn into a 'Specter.' I'll gradually become a ghost without any consciousness..."
"One minute? That's enough."
Merna froze. She looked at Allen. The latter had no intention of making her cast the barrier spell immediately. He turned, still looking at the last page of the notebook, and walked out of the hut.
The sight of this left Klem stunned. Leuf, however, had heard their conversation. He was silent, not knowing what to think.
Klem took two steps to catch up with Allen. He rubbed his hands together awkwardly, looking at the latter as if he were a madman.
"Mr. Allen, I think your proposal is... a bit too much. I've never heard of anything like this. What if..." As he spoke, the two of them walked out of the hut.
Splash! Rain fell from the sky, drenching Klem and stopping his words in his mouth.
Allen's body, however, did not get a single drop of rain on it. Water flowed down around him as if he truly had a 'barrier spell.'
In the distance, a roar of desperation was heard. "The barrier spell is breaking!!" "Ah!!!"
The magic circles at the four corners of the hilltop were dim. "It's broken here too!! Run!!!"
Figures ran in all directions, wailing and scrambling. "Run... run!!! Huh?? Why are the monsters..."
The monsters, however, stood in place, not attacking.
Allen patted Klem's pale face and walked towards the adventurers who were running towards them.
He walked forward.
Forward:
Over the mountains and fields, without end, the faceless Specters looked at his figure from a distance. They all stood still.
What do you mean 'they slipped in' when the barrier was broken?
The monsters themselves had made way for him.
If the Specters could talk, who among them would dare to say they hadn't been flung away by Allen before?
Naturally, they were wary of Allen.
What the Specters were thinking, the adventurers did not know.
They just stopped. All of their faces showed looks of shock. They looked at the figure who was walking in the opposite direction.
The person who was walking against the flow of people and the rain, with his head down at a notebook, his demeanor relaxed, and his lips murmuring.
"Above the firmament, the throne of God is empty..."
At this moment, in the eyes of all the adventurers, the brilliant light that had just gone out a few minutes ago...
...was burning again!!
It was more brilliant than Angely's light!
It was more dazzling than Angely's light!
The golden arc of electricity between illusion and reality broke free from the dark, theatrical curtains of the environment, crackling as it pierced the air. It climbed and leaped along the legs and arms of the person walking alone in the rain!
It was etched into the surface of every person's eyes!
And with his voice, it pounded against the rain curtain!
"Above the firmament, the throne of God is empty."
"Beneath the clouds, foul filth blinds all eyes. The glorious sun cannot be seen."
"Divine power, so brilliant, why must it be defiled?"
"Therefore, let divine light flow like fire, burning away all foul blood and filth!"
Klem stood at the entrance of the wooden hut, his expression as if he were in a dream. Leuf had already come behind Klem, his face filled with fervor as he watched the light of the divine fire illuminating the rain, the rising electric flames.
The hilltop seemed to have been swept by the light of the morning sun, illuminating the inside of the hut. Merna stumbled away from the table and came to Leuf's side. She looked at the back of the person who was walking past the North Saint at the front of the camp, heading towards the monster horde.
The radiance burned in Merna's eyes, in Leuf's, in Klem's, and in everyone's eyes. It was a sun that rose in the storm.
"All mortals, they all prostrate themselves, looking up at the summit of the mountain."
Swish! The wind howled! It pierced the rain curtain! Two bone blades shot out from the Specter monsters in the distance, slamming into the air in front of Allen.
But they were extinguished inch by inch before they could reach his outstretched palm, disappearing into the rain.
And this, like a signal, made the densely packed monster figures all freeze. In the astonished eyes of all the adventurers, they scattered, fleeing from the source of the light!
An electric arc playfully jumped around Allen's legs, rolled over his waist, climbed to his shoulders, and finally leaped over his head.
It hovered over his raised index finger.
"Pray for the descent of God."
"—The Divine Descent."
The light went out.
The crackling of electricity also disappeared.
The rain curtain around Allen returned to normal, obscuring his figure.
The hearts of the adventurers immediately sank.
It's happening... again?
Klem plopped down on the ground, and inexplicably, he let out a sigh of relief.
"I knew it... how could... how could it be..." Before he could finish, he froze again.
Because the monsters, which had been all over the mountain, were running faster. They showed no sign of turning back.
Beside him, Merna, whose consciousness was irreversibly blurring due to her Specterization, murmured.
"Mana manipulation... a vortex... this is the first time I've seen it... He... He... is he a god?"
Klem just stared blankly at the ground.
In his line of sight.
The bloody, muddy water was reddish-brown.
The rotting wood was black from the rain.
The moss on the rocks was a sickly green.
"God... a god..."
"Ah, God... has come to save us..."
The cries of the adventurers nearby were so clear.
In his senses, they were as vivid as the colors he was seeing.
The colors were no longer obscured by dark clouds.
He slowly looked up.
The sky, a gigantic golden vortex, had replaced the dark clouds, covering the entire island.
The light had not disappeared.
It had just moved from the ground to the sky.
Klem could no longer hear Leuf roaring beside him. The golden lightning, agitated in the clouds, shot its head out.
It twisted and plunged towards the earth!!
A massive electric arc, a hundred meters in diameter, with Allen's position as its target, poured its power, which existed between illusion and reality, onto this monster-infested island.
Small golden electric arcs spread out from Allen's location, moving at an incredible speed! In an instant! They covered the entire island!
A thousand thunders! Piercing the wind and rain!
The golden arcs of electricity blinded everyone. This light, which could not harm a human, only served to draw everyone's attention to the source of this divine miracle.
The golden electricity had dyed 'His' hair gold.
In his line of sight, 1243 Specters were instantly vaporized.
The sound of bones falling to the ground merged into a single, massive clang.
As the sound faded, the aftershocks of the Divine Strike Art disappeared. The golden mana vortex in the sky gradually dissipated.
However, the change in mana had already happened. The sky above this outer island of the 'Archipelago' dungeon cluster had a crack in it.
The rain stopped.
The midday sun shone down on the entire island.
The world had become bright.
The adventurers, who had not seen sunlight in over two months, knelt on the ground, crying uncontrollably.
And Merna's cerulean eyes stared blankly ahead.
The impurities from the Specter mana that had been causing her 'Specterization' were driven out when the Divine Strike Art passed through her body. She was saved before it could reach its final stage.
So she had been rescued.
And the hallucination of a god's descent, which she had experienced in her dazed state, was now gradually aligning with reality. Reason returned, helping her sort out her thoughts.
In her line of sight.
The sun's radiance shone down on his white hair. Not a single trace of filth.
That was not a god.
That was a 'sun' as dazzling as the evening glow.
Swish! Water splashed on her face. Merna looked to her side.
She saw Klem suddenly raise his arm and point at the sun.
"Above the firmament, the throne of God is empty."
"Beneath the clouds, foul filth blinds all eyes. The glorious sun cannot be seen."
"Divine power, so brilliant, why must it be defiled?"
"Therefore, let divine light flow like fire, burning away all foul blood and filth!"
"All mortals, they all prostrate themselves, looking up at the summit of the mountain."
"Pray for the descent of God."
"Emperor-rank Divine Strike Art..."
"—The Divine Descent!"
No second Divine Strike Art fell from the sky.
Klem's face was completely dazed. He put his arm down.
"That's right... how could a god's attack be... I just copied the chant for the Emperor-rank Divine Strike Art from a book in the church library. How could I cast it just by reading it? Haha, haha. How can anyone just read a chant and cast a spell? That's impossible, impossible."
"That's right! I'm dreaming! I'm dreaming!"
Thump, he fell into a puddle.
He closed his eyes.
And went to sleep.
The sun shone down on his face.
Peaceful.
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