Chapter 473. Crumbling Line of Defense 3
A brilliant blue light erupted from Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s body in the shape of a cross.
An earsplitting roar ensued.
It was truly a flawless shot.
The fact that the attack, which successfully caught Vulgar Chast.i.ty off guard, was the result of a combined effort made it all the more remarkable.
Marcel Ghionea tried to get up but stumbled.
Sweat broke out on his forehead, and he felt dizzy.
He was fine until a moment ago, but now he had a terrible headache, and even his vision was blurry.
This showed just how much effort he had put into that attack.
And all that hard work did pay off.
Vulgar Chast.i.ty fell out of the slowly diminis.h.i.+ng light, her body torn and bruised.
The expression on her face was simply dazed as she fell endlessly toward the ground.
Everything happened so fast that she had trouble understanding what was going on.
No, the truth was, she just didn’t want to believe it.
But the hole on the left side of her chest, her insides brutally butchered by the explosion, and the blood reddening her vision, were all very real.
‘Not yet!’
Okay, she got hit by a Thunder. So what?
It didn’t matter that it hit her square in the chest. She was an Army Commander. She couldn’t possibly let one attack bring her down.
And right now, she even had her divinity unsealed. All she had to do was gather herself and prepare a counterattack, even if it meant pus.h.i.+ng herself beyond her…
Crack!
[Arghhhh!]
A scream escaped her mouth before she could even finish her thought.
Suddenly, a gigantic pillar of ice pierced through her chest.
Vulgar Chast.i.ty fell straight down and crashed into the ground.
At this moment, Roselle turned the small opening Marcel Ghionea had created into a more definite opportunity.
Crack, craaaack!
Even though it had already hit the ground, the icicle continued to burrow into the soil.
It not only pierced Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s left chest where the Thunder had already struck once, but also twisted and turned, ripping the wound viciously.
Vulgar Chast.i.ty clenched her teeth as she looked up at Roselle, who was floating in the air, controlling the ice pillar.
‘Not yet…!’
No, not yet. It was still too early.
Petty magic like this posed no threat. She could shatter it in the blink of an eye using her divinity.
“Avar.”
It was then.
All of a sudden, she felt a heavy weight pus.h.i.+ng down on her entire body.
Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s widened eyes revealed trembling pupils.
The energy creeping up her body belonged to none other than Avaritia, one of the Seven Sins.
“Ava—”
Vulgar Chast.i.ty unwittingly turned her gaze to the source of the energy. There, she saw a magician with one arm stretched out toward her.
The pages of the book in Philip Muller’s left hand flipped on their own.
As soon as they stopped, he chanted the last spell.
“Avaritia!”
Zwoong!
The strange sound of the s.p.a.ce warping was heard.
Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s body, already buried halfway in the ground, dug deeper beneath the earth’s surface.
The farther she traveled, the stiffer her body became. Even her toes straightened out.
[Kkeuk! Keuk, kkeeeeuk!]
Blood foamed out of her throat.
The external pressure was brutal, but even more brutal was the energy that infiltrated her body, ripping apart her insides and nullifying her regenerative abilities.
Not even Vulgar Chast.i.ty could overlook the curse of avarice, brought into the Middle World by the G.o.ddess Avaritia.
But then again, this curse came from Avaritia’s physical manifestation, not the G.o.ddess herself. As such, there shouldn’t be any reason why Vulgar Chast.i.ty, in her divinity-released form, couldn’t defeat it.
However, it should be noted that in the past, this curse significantly limited Raging Temperance’s abilities, even when he was perfectly healthy.
So of course, it had a greater impact on Vulgar Chast.i.ty, who was in a physical condition much worse than her comrade at the time.
What normally would have been a debuff at worst was inflicting upon her actual physical damage because she had been hit by a Thunder and magic earlier.
‘Not yet….’
Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s body jerked up and down. Her arms and legs flailed helplessly against the ground. She tried to raise her head and stand up, even as her body shook.
[Keuu…!]
But the shaking suddenly stopped when specks of pure light began to swarm around her body.
Her red face suddenly turned pale.
A tremendous amount of light was gathering in the sky.
That wasn’t all. Roselle was creating a crystal in the shape of a mirror large enough to cover the entire sky.
Just as Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s eyes shot wide open….
—It’s ready!
Roselle’s voice resonated in Seo Yuhui’s head.
“O light!”
Seo Yuhui raised her hands to the sky, s.h.i.+ning runes dancing at her fingertips.
“s.h.i.+ne, burn, cleanse!”
The sky responded to her prayer and emitted a blinding light.
The light illuminating the world pa.s.sed through the concave face of the mirror crystal.
And the next moment, it gathered at one point.
More precisely, it gathered where Vulgar Chast.i.ty was.
[KIAAAAAAA!]
An inexplicably loud scream erupted.
It was more a roar than a scream.
[Kaaaak! Kiaaaak!]
Her head, which she had barely managed to hold up straight, flopped back down and began to shake.
It was hot. So hot that it was driving her crazy.
The light cooked her alive and burnt her flesh.
Her brain, her organs, and her blood vessels were all boiling.
She felt as if she had been placed in an enclosed s.p.a.ce full of gas after drinking several liters of oil.
[Kuhuk, kuhuuuk!]
At last, Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s eyes rolled halfway back in her head.
Her body flopped up and down like a fish out of water.
Seeing how much pain their commander was in, the succubi rushed to save her, only to be devoured by the light.
The same was true of the parasites. The light focused on Vulgar Chast.i.ty was so intense that they couldn’t even dream of approaching her.
[Uaah… uheuaaaaah….]
Even as her entire body twitched and spasmed, Vulgar Chast.i.ty tried to raise herself.
[Ah…. Ah….]
However, through the blinding light, she saw a crimson magic circle dripping with ominous energy and numerous Fallen Angels rus.h.i.+ng into it.
Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s lips trembled.
The enemy’s attack wasn’t over yet.
The Fallen Angels lost all their power and authority when they were banished to Paradise.
But this didn’t mean they couldn’t fight. While it was impossible for them to regain their powers permanently, there was a one-time method that they could use, not as angels, but as fallen angels.
“Come! Exterminator Angel!”
Blood spurted from the crimson magic circle as it repeatedly spun in the air.
Before long, the center of the magic circle split open like a beast’s mouth and spewed out a grotesque-looking monster with a pair of pitch-black wings on its back.
A skeletal angel, holding a skeletal spear, with blood dripping from its eyes filled with endless darkness, entered the scene.
Its lower jaw seemed to have been torn off, as there was nothing where it should be. The surface of its teeth glistened with blood, and the pieces of flesh stuck in between them made the creature all the more appalling.
Exterminator Angel.
Such was the name given to the angel of death that was said to follow its target to the end of the world, if necessary, to kill him.
Because the Exterminator Angel was cla.s.sified as a kind of Fallen Angel, and also because 666 Angels or Fallen Angels were needed as sacrifices for a successful summon, the Heaven Realm strictly prohibited its summoning.
Originally, this method wouldn’t have worked against an Army Commander anyway.
Not only because it was an imperfect summon, but also because the enemy possessed the divinity of a G.o.d suiting Heaven-rank 5.
However, even if it were effective, Gabriel in the past wouldn’t have even thought of using an Exterminator Angel.
But she didn’t care anymore.
She had long been deprived, and now was not the time to hold a moral high ground.
If she could only return to the Heaven Realm, Gabriel could even sell her soul to the devil.
“Kill her!”
Gabriel pointed at Vulgar Chast.i.ty, and the Exterminator Angel lowered its head.
As soon as the creature located its target, it lifted its spear and glided down toward her.
Vulgar Chast.i.ty looked at the angel of death coming down at her.
Her mouth moved but no sound came out.
She knew she had to do something, but her body wasn’t moving.
Her divinity, swept away by an internal explosion, was running wild inside her, and her limbs had already lost all sensation.
…The truth was, she knew.
She knew this would happen the moment she got hit.
The explosion of the Thunder marked the beginning of a perfectly organized series of attacks that denied her any and every opportunity to turn the situation around.
That must have been the chance that the enemy had been waiting for all along.
I shouldn’t have allowed them such opportunity, she thought.
But it was too late for regrets now.
Even now, Vulgar Chast.i.ty was burning.
She had no choice but to watch the Exterminator Angel come so close that she could distinctly see its features.
Puk! The tip of the bone spear penetrated her.
At that very moment, Vulgar Chast.i.ty felt it.
The remains of the Thunder, Roselle’s mana, Philip Muller’s curse, and Seo Yuhui’s cleansing light….
All gathered together, united, and exploded at once.
[…!]
She couldn’t even scream anymore.
No, she couldn’t hear anything.
She only felt her divinity crumble away as the sensation of her body exploding overtook her.
Hwaaaaaaaak!
The light that was concentrated on Vulgar Chast.i.ty spread out in a circle.
Not only did the light devour the battlefield, but for a very short time, it also reached the capital where Seol Jihu and the Parasite Queen were fighting.
Trapped inside the light, Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s body shook and twisted in zigzags like a fluctuating graph.
It wasn’t beautiful at all. It was a horrific sight.
[Ah…!]
Did she realize the end was near? Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s expression became distant as the light continued to envelop her.
Of course, she was dumbstruck. Who would have imagined that an Army Commander would die so fruitlessly during the most critical battle in the history of Paradise?
[This is unfair….]
Her lips barely managed to open.
No. No way. She couldn’t die here.
[You….]
Vulgar Chast.i.ty stretched out her arm in front of her.
But she only saw her own body slowly scattering away.
Starting at her feet, then to her calves, her thighs, stomach, chest, and then….
[Your Majesty….]
Just before her face turned to ashes, Vulgar Chast.i.ty closed her eyes quietly.
The light swallowed even her tears, which then scattered like a spray of water.
Moments later….
When the pillar of light finally disappeared, only a deep hole remained in the ground.
Tuk!
A faintly s.h.i.+ning orb fell to the ground.
Such was the end of Vulgar Chast.i.ty, the Sixth Army Commander of the Parasites.
“Huuu.”
Having confirmed the enemy’s death, Roselle let out a sigh of relief.
She wiped the sweat off of her forehead with the back of her hand.
“Alright, one b.i.t.c.h down.”
Fearing the Parasites might s.n.a.t.c.h it, Roselle quickly grabbed the divinity of Chast.i.ty and smiled.
This outcome was quite frankly surprising, even considering Seo Yuhui’s help.
The field on the right was where the fewest core members were placed. No one thought they would be the first to achieve results, but they were.
The person who contributed most to this important victory was Roselle La Grazia.
She was the commander-in-chief of this particular operation, and also the one who provoked Vulgar Chast.i.ty from start to finish, creating opportunities for others to strike.
Then there was the one who stepped in at just the right moment, not missing his chance….
“Hmm?”
Roselle looked down and blinked.
She saw a sniper trudging toward where Vulgar Chast.i.ty perished.
He stopped in front of a succubus lying on the ground.
The light earlier had rendered the succubus immobile, but the quick, jerking movements of her body were proof that she was still alive.
“…Larisa.”
Marcel Ghionea looked at his lover, who was glaring at him.
There was a short silence.
Though he had a lot to say….
“…Don’t worry.”
He swallowed and continued slowly.
“I’ve already prepared everything. Our friends are waiting at my house to take you to the hospital as soon as you wake up.”
Despite her resentful gaze, his voice was calm.
“I want to go with you, but I… still have work to do.”
Click. The sound of a bolt clicking in place was heard.
“So don’t die. You have to wait for me.”
Marcel Ghionea aimed his crossbow at the succubus’ head.
“I’ll be back as soon as everything is over.”
“…”
“We’ll meet again, and… when you finally feel okay….”
Marcel Ghionea stared back at the succubus glowering at him.
“Let’s get married.”
Then suddenly, he smiled.
“You’ve done so well.”
It was a bright smile, free of all burdens and pain.
“It’s all over now….”
He said in a relieved voice and released the bowstring.
Ping!
The bolt fired at a close range had pierced Marika Larisa’s head.
*
At around the same time.
The news of Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s death quickly spread throughout the battlefield.
It was hard not to notice. They all saw with their own eyes the explosion of light that occurred when an Army Commander died.
They also sensed that Vulgar Chast.i.ty’s presence had vanished without a trace, which could only mean one thing.
Unsightly Humility and Exploding Patience looked aghast….
“…”
But not as much as Twisted Kindness did.
The situation had taken an unexpected turn.
The Army Commander didn’t expect Vulgar Chast.i.ty to make up for her mistakes but thought she wouldn’t fall, at least not while her divinity was in effect.
“Fu….”
As Twisted Kindness stood frozen, speechless from shock, a sound rang in her ears.
It was the sound of something finally collapsing that was barely holding out.
A signal to mark the beginning of change was fired.