The Side Story – Blood Battle [7]
[50]
“…”
The field of vision was filled with flashes of light.
Speira exhaled a hot breath amidst the swirling flames.
Just before the flash lit up, Speira had noticed a dark-shimmering substance through her second-opened eye.
Though Speira did not know what to call this substance, she could sense its inherent properties.
“Such a strange…”
It was an otherworldly material that defied even the imagination of humans living in this world.
It was extremely unfamiliar, and even in minuscule amounts, it was unbelievably destructive.
Only now did Speira understand the true nature of the ‘power’ that devastated Lucern years ago.
However, Speira’s expression after resolving the curiosity she had harbored for years was far from pleasant.
Ku-gu-gu-gu-gu!!!
As the flashes and flames subsided, a heat wave swept through.
Just as the view began to clear, another flash erupted.
!!!!!
“…”
Speira twisted her face, unable to endure the irritation.
The dark luminescence devoured and overwhelmed most mana-based powers, rendering them ineffective.
Thus, purely physical force seemed cumbersome against it.
Speira decided to focus on defense first and then move once the view cleared.
However, every time the flash and flames began to subside, highly precise bombings continued to blanket Speira.
!!!!!
Flashes and flames repeatedly illuminated the atmosphere, heating it up.
Of course, using antimatter-based bombings alone made it extremely difficult to deal significant damage to Speira.
Pure physical force was almost impossible to pierce the dark luminance and other powers possessed by Speira.
Moreover, Speira had already penetrated deep into the Empire.
The area currently being bombed was a barren plain where no one lived, but several large cities existed not too far away.
To deceive Speira, evacuation orders couldn’t be issued to these cities beforehand.
Thus, they couldn’t recklessly increase the mass of antimatter projected at once to harm Speira.
“…”
But even the firepower they were unleashing was enough to obscure Speira’s vision and tie her down.
The continuous flashes and flames caused sensory confusion for Speira.
Contrary to the expectation that such bombardments would end after just two or three rounds, there was no sign of stopping.
Amidst the continuously blazing flashes and flames,
Speira’s expression grew increasingly distorted, and she irritably gripped the Sacred Sword again.
“Haah…”
Initially, Speira planned to coordinate actions with Anthonyus to swiftly bring down the Empire.
If the Demon King rampaged while the White Tower-based defense system collapsed, the ensuing chaos would have been uncontrollable.
However, the Empire had pinpointed Speira’s location and disrupted her plans.
They were also trying to restrain her movements by pouring out strange substances.
“Trying to buy time?”
Although it wasn’t entirely ineffective, the time they could restrain Speira with this kind of bombardment wouldn’t last long.
However, Luna must have had a clear reason for needing even this short amount of time.
“Haa…!”
!!
With full power, Speira swung the Sacred Sword.
The flashes and flames surrounding her split apart along the trajectory of the sword.
Tearing off and discarding her robe, which had almost burned black, Speira laughed roughly.
“So, let’s see if your preparations are sufficient.”
Despite laughing, Speira was far from cheerful.
Regardless of the outcome of the war, she had been restrained. And it was done very one-sidedly.
Speira, openly showing her irritation due to this, accelerated towards the White Tower.
*
Jjerik!
A dagger of azure hue shattered.
Beside it lay the severed corpse of Siliaar, and behind it, a mansion collapsed, spewing dust due to the explosion triggered by the dagger.
Johanna frowned as she looked down at Siliaar’s body.
Originally, Johanna intended to subdue Siliaar without harming him, despite his intense resistance.
However, when Siliaar drew the dagger, Johanna instantly sensed danger and had no choice but to swing her sword with all her might.
This was the result.
“…”
Johanna didn’t know how Speira had recruited Siliaar.
Whether it was through pure deceitful allure or some coercive brainwashing method—continued investigation would likely still fail to provide exact answers.
Of course, politically, it would be announced externally that Siliaar’s betrayal was due to Speira’s wicked schemes.
If there were other high-ranking individuals who had betrayed, similar measures would be taken, ensuring their honor remained intact.
Ultimately, their reputations would be preserved.
“…”
In the past, though rare, there were cases where clerics turned traitor and caused problems.
There were also instances where high-ranking nobles or kings of nations betrayed.
However, the continent’s nations also possessed means to distinguish corrupted traitors.
Among the sacred barriers that clerics could construct, there existed types that reacted against “sin.”
The most representative was the penitence barrier, and several similar barriers also existed.
These sacred barriers were useful for distinguishing “traitors.”
By faintly constructing a sin-reactive type of sacred barrier and setting it up at entrances, ordinary people could pass through without issue, but those who had consorted with evil gods would inevitably react.
The problem was that the maintenance time for sin-reactive barriers was short.
Therefore, they weren’t often used during peacetime, but things were different during periods like now, when followers of evil gods were rampant.
“…”
Currently, crucial facilities like the White Tower were surrounded by sacred barriers throughout.
The same applied to the major routes leading to these core facilities.
Traitors, unless they possessed some extraordinary abilities, should have shown reactions when passing through these sacred barriers.
However, Siliaar had clearly passed through several sacred barriers yet remained undetected until now.
Had Johanna not come here, Siliaar could have accessed the heart of the White Tower without any issues.
“…tsk.”
Johanna clicked her tongue.
Siliaar carried an object imbued with dark luminescence, yet the El-Lam-blessed barrier did not detect any sins.
Though this was information Johanna already knew, seeing it confirmed with her own eyes made her frustration rise.
An entity that had received worship across the continent for over thousands of years had abandoned it.
Accepting such tragedy overnight was beyond human capacity.
In any situation, clerics and most continent residents would find it hard to accept El-Lam’s betrayal.
Thus, Johanna realized that even if Speira completely eradicated the traitors she recruited, the tumors planted within the continent would never disappear and would only continue to spread.
Although Johanna was not deeply religious, she still felt something akin to betrayal warming her chest.
After tightly biting her lips, Johanna gave a brief command.
“Clean it up.”
At least, Siliaar’s betrayal had been proven.
Thanks to this, the momentum of the dissenting clerics was completely quelled.
Of course, there might still be more traitors besides Siliaar, so they couldn’t relax yet.
Johanna couldn’t help but suspect the clerics here.
How could she fully discard her suspicions about them? It was a question with no easy answer.
Just as Johanna sighed again,
A flash erupted from the Obelisk visible beyond the horizon.
Kooong—!
The vibration originating from the Obelisk traveled through the ground.
An unusually powerful wave of energy rippled out from the Obelisk.
Curious, Johanna gazed toward the horizon, where Delun approached and whispered.
“A request has been made for you to return to the Imperial Capital.”
Since it was a formal setting, Delun conveyed Luna’s request in a stiff tone.
Johanna slightly nodded her head.
*
The White Tower, built near the southern region, was enveloped in tension.
The empire’s legions had gathered at the White Tower, and Ulte, despite his injuries, had joined them.
The Demon King would soon reach this place. The battle was imminent, yet the morale of the legions was at rock bottom.
It wasn’t merely because the signs of defeat were heavy that the legions’ morale had fallen so drastically.
Certainly, there were those willing to sacrifice their lives for a meaningful cause, but many believed that death in the upcoming battle would be meaningless.
Ulte somewhat understood their thoughts.
Even with numerous sacrifices thus far, meaningfully delaying the Demon King’s advance proved difficult.
The empire had desperately regrouped the legions at the White Tower, but if they failed again without results, the situation would become desperate.
‘This will make it hard to properly command the legions.’
Repeated powerless defeats verging on one-sided massacres would inevitably cause cracks.
Few would obediently follow orders to mindlessly get slaughtered by the Demon King. This was the moment to deliver results.
“…Resina. And human.”
A voice came from beside him.
When Ulte turned his head, an unfamiliar elf appeared.
It was Raphaella. Though dozens of elves accompanied her, only she revealed herself.
Raphaella looked at Ulte with displeasure for a moment.
Her displeasure wasn’t baseless; Ulte instinctively understood why she felt this way and silently waited.
Furrowing her brows, Raphaella twitched her ears and eventually reluctantly extended her hands toward Ulte and Resina.
In Raphaella’s hand was an object resembling a twig.
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary branch, but its true identity was an elven artifact comparable in value to Genesis.
It was a weapon born from one of the 12 roots that the World Tree originally extended into the earth at the dawn of time.
Out of the six weapons originally born from these 12 roots, two had been lost, and one was unusable.
And among the remaining three artifacts, two had gathered here.
“…”
It shouldn’t have happened this way.
These artifacts were supposed to be bastions for protecting the World Tree, so they shouldn’t have been taken outside the elves’ territory.
With only three immediately usable artifacts available, exporting two of them was something Raphaella found hard to accept.
Still, she had come here following the will of her mother, communicated through Ramenta.
“…”
Resina carefully accepted the artifact offered by Raphaella.
Closing her eyes briefly, Resina then showed the artifact to Hayden.
Hayden inspected it curiously from all angles.
Every time Hayden’s eyes moved, Raphaella flinched, ready to leap and snap his neck at the slightest misstep.
Fortunately, before Raphaella’s patience ran out,
Hayden nodded with a smile.
“All preparations are complete.”
