Chapter 333. Promise (3)
Kazuki continued speaking.
“It’s either that… or he already has them out. Almost like they have to be. Isn’t it a bit too strange to chalk it up to a simple force of habit?”
Philip Muller’s eyes narrowed.
Now that he thought about it, Raging Temperance really did release a portion of his divinity through Nightshades every time he made a move.
“Think about it. Not just what that Unicorn said, but also what Twisted Kindness said.”
It was at that moment that Raging Temperance released its energy once again.
To confirm Kazuki’s theory, Philip Muller quickly unraveled his spells. As he erased the Unicorn’s energy yet again—
“Y-You b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!!”
The Unicorn’s furious voice echoed out. On the other hand, it could not hide its frustration and looked overtly restless.
Stalling for time when a new World Tree was in the process of being born was not such a wise idea. The Unicorn’s reaction to getting its Nightshades killed clearly supported Kazuki’s theory.
“…Now that you mention it.”
Philip Muller pushed his gla.s.ses up. Mulling over Twisted Kindness’ words just like Kazuki said, there were a few points that caught his attention as well.
“Trying to imitate Twisted Kindness and ending up with an ill side-effect…”
“That most likely means that Raging Temperance ran into a problem while trying to fully absorb his divinity.”
Kazuki finished Philip Muller’s thought.
“My guess is that he failed to fully absorb the divinity, but was also unable to get rid of his greed.”
Meaning.
“Since he would lose the chance to retrieve the divinity if he formed an army with the remnant energy, he must be stopping at using what he can without going over the line.”
“Puha!”
Philip Muller burst into laughter. He thought it was only an absurd theory at first, but now, looking back, it all made sense.
The reason why the Nightshades were so weak, and how Raging Temperance initially showed an instantaneous explosive power that could even send Baek Haeju flying.
“I get it now.”
Philip Muller snickered.
What Kazuki was saying was simple. The Fourth Army Commander had failed to fully absorb his divinity. Because it was too burdensome to store all of it inside him, he had to release some of it outside before using it.
Meaning, they would be able to restrain Raging Temperance if they just forced the energy he emitted back in.
“If your theory is right… I get why Twisted Kindness treated him like a total fool.”
If he didn’t have the ability to fully accept the divinity, he should have used the remnant energy to create an army of his own like the other Commanders. But since he was refusing to do so out of personal greed, it made sense for Twisted Kindness to look down on him from an ally’s perspective.
“Self-righteous and egotistical. From the Parasites’ perspective, those words fit Raging Temperance perfectly.”
“The Parasite Queen just let him be?”
“Well, Twisted Kindness did say that the Queen thinks highly of his experimental mind.”
Kazuki smirked.
On the other hand, Raging Temperance’s eyes flared up in anger as he looked at the chattering humans.
“What are you waiting for!? Hurry up!”
Twisted Kindness urged him at the same time.
“W-Wait! I’ll need to take care of these punks first…!”
A rough snort came out of the Unicorn’s nostrils.
“Keu! Fine, I’ll kill you two first!”
The Unicorn’s horn that was aimed at the expedition team turned towards the two men. But just as it was about to kick off the ground, it was forced to a halt.
This was because Philip Muller quickly raised a magic circle into the air.
It was the Teleport spell.
“Keeeeuu!”
It wanted to rip them apart, but it was still affected by the curse left behind by Avaritia. Unless this curse disappeared, it was impossible to chase after a spatial movement magic spell.
So, glaring at the two men fiercely, the Unicorn fixed its stance. Then—
“How’s this!?”
A never-before-seen quant.i.ty of Nightshades shot out of its body.
Countless amounts of haze flew out in all directions.
Kazuki and Philip Muller hurriedly attacked them, but the sheer amount of Nightshades made it impossible to eliminate them in one go.
“Haha! Let’s see if you can sto…?”
The cackling Unicorn suddenly stopped laughing.
“Huh?”
A black smoke brushed past its eyes out of the blue. Each time the wildly flying smoke brushed past the haze, the Nightshades were sucked back into the Unicorn’s body in vain.
That was right. The quick-witted Flone had acted swiftly.
“Eeek…!”
Unable to do this or that, the Unicorn could only grit its teeth in frustration. It was at that moment that it felt a piercing gaze. Stealthily looking back, it saw Twisted Kindness glaring at it with furious eyes.
“You are… truly…”
Judging by her trembling voice, she seemed to have realized that the Unicorn’s weakness was found out.
“A d.a.m.ned useless clown.”
After spitting out a biting remark, Twisted Kindness clashed forward again.
The Unicorn turned its gaze with a dazed face.
Kazuki and Philip Muller were still on standby, and the black smoke was also swirling around the air in his vicinity. Their intent was clear. They would return the Nightshades back to its body the moment it released them.
Soon.
“You…!”
The Unicorn’s face reddened.
What Twisted Kindness said was one thing.
“You…!”
But what was even worse was that two trifling humans were shackling its freedom. This hurt its pride more than anything else.
How could it not feel humiliated with its embarra.s.sing weakness revealed to the whole world?
“Yoooooou…!”
However, what infuriated it the most was that it could not do anything about it.
Except for one thing.
It was then.
“You puny insects….!”
The Unicorn’s face went red with rage…
“You puny insects dareeeee!”
Before its eyes suddenly flashed with darkness mixed with light.
“Now that it’s come to this, screw it all!”
Kazuki knit his eyebrows at the unexpected roar. And witnessing what happened in the next moment, his mouth gaped open.
“I will kill you allllll!”
Along with a scream shaking the heaven and earth, the Unicorn’s body was torn into shreds like a piece of paper.
From the shattering pieces of its body, a dark figure popped out. At the same time, a large gale raged around it.
This phenomenon could only mean one thing. Raging Temperance had unsealed his divinity!
Kazuki and Philip Muller were forced to look up as the darkness that emerged from the Unicorn’s body began to expand in size.
Two meters, four meters, eight meters, sixteen meters…!
Growing at an exponential rate, the head of the figure reached the sky.
The final form that appeared shortly afterward was truly the definition of bizarre.
A shadowy giant, whose body was made of burning darkness!
It wasn’t just darkness. An orderly white light was flowing around the giant overlooking the sky.
But even that only lasted a moment. As if it was affected by the burning darkness, the light slowly began to boil before bubbling like lava.
“Huaaaaaaaa!”
A deafening howl burst out.
Kazuki’s cheeks turned pale. He didn’t expect Raging Temperance to go so far as to unseal his divinity.
Of course, they would arrive at the best outcome if they could hold out for the duration until his divinity ran out… but facing this towering figure directly, Kazuki realized that this was only an empty dream.
Humans were fundamentally different from G.o.ds. A mortal was incapable of defeating an immortal.
At this point, the battle came to a total lull.
“Kuaaaak! Kuaaaaak!”
The darkness once again let out a deafening howl, and then it slammed down its t.i.tanic foot as if to vent anger.
BOOM!
The ground jumped.
This was not an exaggeration. As the foot slammed down, the earth was flipped upside down, causing a huge earthquake.
Rumble!
The expedition team members lost their balance at the terrifying rumbling of the earth and fell.
The intensity even made Twisted Kindness falter. Immediately spreading her wings and flying up, Twisted Kindness’ eyes lit up.
“Hoh!”
Gazing at the towering giant overlooking the earth, she exclaimed in a great surprise.
“It’s a little late, but you’re finally being useful!”
Breathing a sigh of relief, Twisted Kindness regained her composure.
As a Unicorn, Raging Temperance was a buffoon who could not even wield his sealed divinity. However, a G.o.d was still a G.o.d. As long as he fully unsealed his divinity, even she could not look down on him. Though it would only last a few minutes, he would display absolute power!
Seeing this, Twisted Kindness flew far into the distance. Her efficiency-focused personality made her want to fight together with him, but she knew she could not do so.
The Fourth Army Commander’s Divinity Manifestation had a problem that was on a fundamentally different level than the other Army Commanders’ Divinity Manifestation.
The other Army Commanders simply took a long time to recuperate after unsealing their divinities. However, the Fourth Army Commander had a side-effect of losing his reason due to not having absorbed his divinity in a normal way.
Simply put, he went mad and indiscriminately attacked both allies and foes. This was the main reason for his ‘Raging’ t.i.tle.
But that wasn’t the only side-effect. Once Raging Temperance unsealed his divinity, he could not control his energy without the help of another Army Commander. So if left alone, he would rampage until he ran out of time and then perish.
Of course, Twisted Kindness did not have any intention of helping Raging Temperance control his energy.
“This is perfect.”
A smile emerged on her face.
She didn’t need to look to know that the pesky expedition team would get swept away by the overwhelming difference in their league. Even if a few managed to escape, she could easily give chase and finish them off.
Since the embarra.s.sment of an Army Commander would also self-destruct at the end of it all, how could she not be happy?
“Fufu, I will at least cheer you on in your final moments.”
Twisted Kindness raised her hand.
Rumble!
The ground heaved once again. A thick wall rose from the earth and surrounded the expedition team in an instant. It was as if they were trapped in a circular stadium.
“Krr?”
A low growl rang out inside. The dark giant slowly scanned its surroundings at the sudden appearance of the wall. It was like a predator searching for its first prey.
“…Run.”
Baek Haeju murmured all of a sudden.
“You need to ru…”
However, she shut her mouth half-way. Breaking the wall and escaping did not guarantee safety. For some reason, Twisted Kindness had disappeared. Although Baek Haeju did not know where she went, looking at the wall, she was sure Twisted Kindness was looking at them. In that case, splitting up and running away would only make it so that she could cut them down one by one.
The expedition team was truly stuck between a rock and a hard place, and they stood still in a daze.
People instinctively feared the unknown. Moreover, the dark giant was giving off a terrifying pressure that threatened to crush them just by standing near it!
Seol Jihu barely managed to twist his trembling neck and turned his gaze. All sorts of thoughts flashed through his mind, but he wasn’t in any situation to be nitpicking every available option.
The thing in front of him was a truly unfathomable existence! Looking at it, he partly understood why the Army Commanders treated humans as ‘insects’.
Baek Haeju was right. They could not fight it. They had to run.
And so, as he opened his mouth to shout—
“Everyone…!”
The giant’s head suddenly turned.
Seol Jihu froze up mid-sentence. It couldn’t be helped. The giant had looked down at him with a monstrous, irresistible gaze. Just by looking at it, his body stiffened like a frog in front of a snake.
Death. Unavoidable death.
For some reason, that was the only thing that popped up in his mind.
Whoosh. Raging Temperance walked forward. With a single step, it arrived in front of Seol Jihu.
It pulled its right arm back.
“Kuaaaaaaaak!”
With a deafening roar, it swung down at full power. Its shaking arm descended vertically like a falling roller coaster!
As Seol Jihu went ‘Ah’, a powerful gale whipped up around him. As his bangs fluttered from the wind, Seol Jihu’s eyes waned.
He couldn’t dodge it. Even if he did, it would be meaningless.
The attack carrying the full power of Raging Temperance was more than enough to obliterate the entire land.
Out of instinct, Seol Jihu aimed his spear at the sky. Although he roused his mana, he still had the same devastated face.
‘I held out… this far…’
He was already gasping for breath.
‘I got… this far….’
His widened eyes lost strength and slowly began to close.
‘I can’t… die…’
In the next moment, darkness blanketed his vision. Feeling closer to death than ever before, Seol Jihu shut his eyes and wished from his deepest subconsciousness!
‘I don’t want to die…!’
Whoosh—!
In an instant, Seol Jihu felt all sorts of indescribable feelings. If he had to liken them to something, it would be the feeling of bungee jumping.
A terrifying blade of wind swept past his entire body, and his lower stomach churned as if it would explode.
Then.
By the time the fierce wind flew far away and disappeared, this sensation had vanished completely.
His fluttering hair and flapping coat slowly subsided.
For a moment, all sorts of thoughts swirled inside his head.
‘Did I die…?’
Did he die without feeling even a slight pain because the attack was just that powerful?
Or…
‘Am I… alive?’
Seol Jihu’s closed eyes slowly opened. Next, his blinking pupils were dyed in bewilderment.
He still only saw darkness. But when he staggered back unwittingly, he realized the darkness was the giant’s hand.
Its fist was right in front of him.
However, he was still alive.
This could only mean that for some reason, the fist had stopped before it hit him.
Gazing at the fist with a blank look, Seol Jihu soon realized a small change.
The outside light that was raging from the rampaging darkness inside the Fourth Army Commander slowly calmed down.
Receding at a rapid rate visible to the naked eye, it eventually restrained itself like serene river water.
This was as if it was reacting to something else.
Just what happened?
Seol Jihu, who was about to look up, flinched. He had just then seen a silvery light being emitted below his chin, illuminating the darkness.
Looking around to find where this light was coming from, Seol Jihu subconsciously lowered his head. Soon, when he found the source of the light, his mouth slowly gaped open.
‘What?’
At Seol Jihu’s neck.
“…My pendant…?”
The pendant hanging from his neck was s.h.i.+ning with a pure, silvery light.