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Side Story Chapter 113

“Jake! Get a hold of yourself!”

“I’m… exhausted… I’m sor—” Jake plummeted to the ground before he could finish speaking.

It wasn’t just him. One by one, the other mages’ levitation spells failed as the demands of casting high-level spells while constantly maintaining levitation to stay in the air quickly exhausted their mana.

“Another person is falling!”

“Spread out! Catch them!”

The knights standing by on the ground scrambled to spread nets out and caught the falling mages. Jake landed safely onto the big net—a carpet, actually—which the knights held by the corners.

Iceline, still in the air, let out a quiet sigh of relief. Every mage there had been personally trained by Iceline, so she cared for each and every one of them deeply. If it hadn\'t been for Icarus’s preparations, all of them would have been a bloody smear on the ground.

“…I was too complacent to think that we would be able to subdue them easily.” Iceline bit her soft lip. She knew better than anyone else how destructive the paladins’ divine bows were. She had been involved in the development process. The scariest part about the artifact was that its users could use it until their divine power was depleted.

In the end, there was a high possibility that this fight between mana and divine power was going to come down to quantity, not quality. Every one of those light arrows launched from the divine bows was as strong as a third-circle spell; in other words, all the paladins had to do was pull their bowstrings to cast upper-level magic. It really was cheating.

“Why did I make such a thing…” Iceline bemoaned, regret hitting her like a sack of bricks. At the time, she had believed that Hubalt was going to be the new protector of the continent; there had been trustworthy people like the Pope and Lilith Aphrodite holding the reins.

“I have to end this fight even if it means overworking myself,” Iceline decided.

Her mana rapidly began to circulate around her like a storm. The air near her instantly turned freezing cold, ready to devour her enemies.

“Urgh…”

Of course, the paladins about to be subjected to her wrath weren’t in good shape to begin with. Most of the archers had drawn the bows so many times that their fingers bled, so all they could do was watch Iceline while their hands trembled.

While Iceline was incanting the highest-level ice magic spell, the battle between Gabriel and Selim was intensifying. Selim’s spear and Gabriel’s sword clashed, scattering fragments of their aura everywhere.

“Mmmm….” Gabriel quietly grunted. He hadn’t even dreamed that he would be losing to the Martial God’s son, not the Martial God himself.

“I did hear that the First Prince of Avalon was born with an unprecedented level of talent…” Gabriel groaned.

“Can you afford to talk right now?”

Selim thrust his spear. Gabriel gasped and immediately tilted his head. Selim’s sharp spear only left a scratch on Gabriel’s cheek.

‘It’s fast and accurate. A spear is a long-range weapon, so utilizing it like he does right now, especially at his age, is difficult. He must die here,’ Gabriel thought, his eyes gleaming with murderous intent.

Gabriel and Selim both flinched at the sound of calm footsteps. After slaying all the paladins that had stood in his way, the Sword Emperor was slowly approaching Selim and Gabriel.

“I’ll assist you, Your Highness,” Tremblin said.

“Duke Tremblin…” Selim’s face brightened up, but then his eyes widened. At the same time, Gabriel smiled crookedly.

“Duke Tremblin! Behind you!” Selim yelled.

Tremblin gave him a puzzled look.

It didn’t take long for Tremblin to find out what was going on. A sword shining with white light punched straight through Tremblin’s right collarbone. Tremblin frowned and grabbed the sword when Raphael tried to pull it back out.

“Oh? So you’re going to avoid bleeding out first, huh? Hehehe.” Raphael chuckled.

“…This is a surprise. I definitely cut you in half from your head to your crotch.”

“Hehehe—did you really think I would die that easily? I, Raphael, have the authority of a Great Angel.”

“It’s quite difficult to think of you as a human anymore.” Tremblin clicked his tongue in annoyance as he turned to look behind him.

Raphael had been divided in half, but he was now one again. Since Tremblin had already seen Raphael’s ability in the council chamber, he had a rough idea as to what happened.

“Is this your super-recovery ability?”

“A Great Angel’s authority can revive a man from the dead, you damned old bastard.”

“…Then I’ll make sure you won’t even be able to use your recovery ability.” Tremblin’s hand clamped down on the sword that was piercing him even more tightly. Blood dripped from his hands and wound, but it brought him no pause.

“You’re acting very tough for a man who’s ready to die of old age—”

Raphael froze mid-sentence due to intense murderous energy abruptly overwhelming him. It was like he’d been tossed into a forest of swords naked.

“…What is this…?” Raphael murmured.

“It’s said that the peak of swordsmanship is to kill your opponent without using your sword.”

“…Mind Sword?”

Raphael’s eyes widened. His cheek hadn’t even been touched, but that was torn now. Starting from his face, the cuts only spread all across his body.

The Mind Sword technique didn’t mean one could slay anything they could see—certain requirements had to be met. The most important requirement was that the user needed to be in a position where they could feel the presence of their opponent near perfectly.

“By piercing me, I’m able to feel you even better… You dug your own grave, Paladin.”

“What the hell!”

Raphael tried to let go of the sword, but he wasn’t even able to do that. Raphael went still as a statue, thick streams of blood pouring out of the cuts and splashing in all directions.

Then azure flames started to burn in Raphael’s cuts.

“Blue… flames?” Raphael murmured.

Fire didn’t usually harbor a specific color, but there were several instances where they did. The Flame Emperor’s flame was scarlet red, and the legendary flame of the Demon Realm was ebon. However, there was also azure flame—the chilling fire. The chances of being born with the talent for mana was one in one hundred thousand people, and among those people, one in a million was born with the talent of azure flame.

“You have the sword skills… and you were born with the azure flames?” Raphael mumbled in disbelief.

Tremblin pulled Raphael’s sword from his body and flicked the blood off of it, splattering the ground with a fresh misting of blood.

“Play war with your god and angels in the otherworld,” Tremblin coldly said.

“You’re a monster… old man…”

Raphael’s consciousness faded away.

* * *

After leaving Iceline in charge of the battlefield, Icarus barged into the council chamber with a contingent of the Imperial Knights.

“Your Majesty!” Iceline raced up to the throne.

Joshua kneeled powerlessly on the ground, his face covered in cracks like dry mud.

He slowly lifted his head. “…Icarus.”

“A-Are you okay?”

“I think this is the limit with this body.”

“Pardon? What are you talking about…?” Icarus shed fat tears, unaware of the exact details of Joshua’s state. “Aren’t you supposed to be the Martial God, not an idiot?! Why would you die together with that worthless paladin?!”

“No, I’m not dyin—”

“Shut up! You’re so annoying. You act all tough and strong, and then you finally came back after over a decade—why are you in this mess… Waaaaah!”

Icarus burst into tears, leaving Joshua to awkwardly scratch the back of his head. If he told her that this wasn’t his real body, she might really kill him.

Joshua decided to prioritize.

“…Icarus, listen to me.”

“I don’t want to listen to your last words! Aaaaaaah!”

“…After the collapse of the Angel and Demon Realms, the powers known as authorities appeared, and now those so-called gods are after this land. Since the Demon Spirit also disappeared, his Demon Kings and the highest-ranking demons are blatantly taking action.”

Icarus looked at him with teary eyes.

“They’ll probably want my body very badly since the Demon Spirit’s soul is dormant inside it,” Joshua added.

“Why does that matter when you’re dying right now…?! I don’t know anymore. You made me live like a widow for over a decade, but now you’re really going to make me into a widow. You’re awful…!”

Although Joshua wished he could explain, he really was out of time.

“The worst scenario is that guy named Bel acquiring even one of the Seven Evil Sins’ powers—the Demon Kings’ powers,” Joshua quickly continued.

“...The Seven Evil Sins’ powers?”

“Bel was born strong, but the origin of his power is too different from divine power. The Great Angels wouldn’t have had a chance against him in the first place since his wicked and destructive power isn’t something that belongs in the Angel Realm. However, an Evil Sin’s power would be a perfect match with him…” At this point, the cracks began to reach across Joshua’s entire body. “…I’ll cut to the chase. I’ve already located three of the Evil Sins’ powers. Lust, greed, and gluttony. Lilith has manifested the power of Lust, and Kireua’s are greed and gluttony.”

The power of Gluttony that had shown itself in west Avalon must be lying dormant inside of Kireua. Even Joshua had no way of knowing how the two powers would transform after they merged, but Joshua didn’t see that Kireua was in any danger for the moment.

“There’s only one way for Avalon to conquer the continent and protect the peace as the most powerful nation on the continent,” Joshua said.

“What… is that?”

“These gods didn’t belong here in the first place, so eradicate these beings, knock Hubalt from their pedestal, and take back the position of the most powerful nation on the continent.”

Icarus clutched Joshua’s sleeve.

“So please hold on for the next ten months.”