Chapter 320: Fighting Oneself. Faith in a "God"?
Whoosh— Whoosh—
The Bone Dragon's cold, white form beat its wings, hovering in mid-air and highlighting the conspicuous red-robed magic caster standing on its spine.
The oppressive aura the opponent exuded upon appearing forcefully halted the demi-humans' offensive momentum.
Occupying the advantageous high ground and possessing the Bone Dragon's immunity to magic, the demi-humans led by the Beast General, Hector Weiss, felt the frustrating helplessness of being attacked without being able to retaliate.
Terrifyingly, the magic their opponent casually cast was astoundingly powerful. They could only scatter to reduce casualties.
The Seven-Colored Scales, Kōkosh, flickered his snake-like tongue incessantly. Seeing the heavy casualties among the demi-humans, his crimson eyes were filled with both shock and fury.
It was this person!
The one who had caused the Ten Evils of the Demi-Humans to suffer such grievous losses.
If the White Elder, Halisha, were still alive, their combined power should have been enough to defeat this cowardly human hiding behind the Bone Dragon.
Unfortunately...
The White Elder, Halisha, was already dead. The remaining warriors of the Stone-Eating Ape tribe couldn't hit the Bone Dragon from this distance with their stone-spitting ability alone.
As for the other demi-human races, while the winged demi-humans had wings, they could only glide, not truly fly.
After some careful thought, the Seven-Colored Scales, Kōkosh, realized that his people truly lacked the means to counter an enemy with the ability to fly.
Actually, it wasn't that there were no options.
There were magic casters among the Demonkin who had mastered the [Flight] spell. If they cast it on the winged demi-humans, they could fly properly.
The Seven-Colored Scales, Kōkosh, himself could also fly using this method, and with his power, it would be no problem to hold this red-robed human in check.
However...
He currently needed to command the demi-human rear guard to deal with the humans.
The Seven-Colored Scales, Kōkosh, could clearly sense that the two female humans on their side, who looked like twins, bore a deep malice toward his people.
And that man with the scar on his face!
The only one whose malice wasn't as palpable was the human acquainted with Gagaran, but that person gave him an unfathomable sense of danger.
"If we can successfully deal with the undead by borrowing the humans' power, it would be best to ensure this group of humans never leaves these hills."
"These people must represent the greatest strength of the human nations."
The Seven-Colored Scales, Kōkosh, glanced at the humans behind him, his eyes flickering as the dazzling seven-colored scales on his serpentine body twisted slightly.
"Hiss~, that female human who has mastered resurrection magic must be captured alive."
The mysterious red-robed magic caster!
This was a crucial piece of information initially provided by Gagaran, which was further confirmed after exchanging intelligence with the demi-human faction.
He was a suspected member of Zuranon, with a "threat level" second only to the Alliance Leader.
The "Bone Dragon" was an extremely rare undead. Although not as dangerous as the legendary Death Knight, it still possessed the power to nullify all magic.
It was the nemesis of all magic casters.
But the Bone Dragon's own strength wasn't high, so a countermeasure had naturally been devised.
The anomaly on the demi-human front was quickly relayed to the humans at the rear, who looked up at the enemy manipulating the Bone Dragon in the sky.
Tang Zheng and "Black" Pabel paused their advance, looking up in unison at the enemy in the sky who exuded a powerful, oppressive aura.
"I didn't expect the target to appear so quickly."
"According to the information provided by the demi-humans, this enemy is extremely dangerous. We must be careful."
"Black" Pabel held his bow in one hand and an arrow in the other, his terrifying gaze locked firmly on the target.
Tang Zheng nodded, a fleeting smile crossing his lips. For him to be the one to deal with his own shadow clone was the most fitting arrangement imaginable.
"Then, as planned, the two of us will pin him down. First, we need to find a way to destroy that Bone Dragon undead," Tang Zheng announced in a loud, righteous tone, his expression stern.
"Fourth-Tier Angel Summoning: Monitoring Dominion Angel!"
A holy light condensed—
Two Monitoring Dominion Angels appeared. Under the sunlight, their armor reflected a silver metallic sheen. Beating their wings, they hovered above the heads of the two men.
"Go!"
Tang Zheng gave the order, and the two angels flew into the sky simultaneously.
[Flight] was a spell mastered by arcane magic casters; faith-based magic casters couldn't use it. However, they could compensate for this by summoning angels that could fly.
Ordinary angels were no match for the red-robed caster.
But Tang Zheng, who possessed the power to summon two fourth-tier angels, was coordinating with the archer "Black" Pabel, who excelled at long-range attacks.
The two of them were the key to dealing with the red-robed mage!
"Leave it to me!" "Black" Pabel responded calmly.
His objective was to destroy the Bone Dragon.
As long as the Bone Dragon was gone, the red-robed magic caster wouldn't be as much of a threat, and the others' magic could harm him.
"Triple Shot!"
"Black" Pabel drew his bowstring, and a layer of flowing energy appeared on his arrowhead.
Whoosh— Whoosh—
The arrowheads easily tore through the air.
Their speed was so great that they easily overtook the two fourth-tier angels who had taken to the sky first, shooting toward the shadow clone.
As the only powerhouse on the Holy Kingdom's side, aside from Kelart and Remedios, who could unleash power in the Heroic Realm, his arrow was filled with immense destructive force.
"Gravity Reversal!"
The shadow clone cast a spell.
Invisible magical power spread out. The three incoming arrows, affected by gravity, began to slow down before falling uncontrollably from the sky.
"What kind of magic is that?" A look of surprise appeared on "Black" Pabel's face.
Magic really was troublesome.
These strange and bizarre spells were what made magic casters so difficult to figure out and deal with.
This brief exchange had already made "Black" Pabel realize that a direct frontal assault was probably not going to work.
"Then I'll take the lead. Pabel, you assist me." Tang Zheng, having seen this exchange, readjusted their previous plan.
"Alright!" "Black" Pabel nocked another arrow to his bow.
At this moment, the two Monitoring Dominion Angels also reached the shadow clone's position.
"Flame Knight Lance!"
The shadow clone unleashed a magical attack.
A red stream of light slammed heavily into one angel, causing a violent explosion. The scorching heat of the flames engulfed both angels.
However!
Under the formidable defense of a fourth-tier angel, the attack had merely knocked one of them back, leaving a dent in its silver armor.
The other Monitoring Dominion Angel, largely unaffected, had already charged forward, swinging its spiked mace to attack the shadow clone.
"Black" Pabel's arrow followed close behind, intended to harass and interfere with the shadow clone's spellcasting.
For a moment, the red-robed magic caster was actually forced into a steady retreat.
Everyone noticed that under the coordination of Tang Zheng and his companion, they were actually suppressing the mysterious red-robed caster who controlled the Bone Dragon. Everyone's spirits were lifted.
"That guy and Pabel are doing a good job." Remedios tossed her short brown hair, a wide, carefree grin spreading across her face as she held her holy sword and glanced at the scene in the sky.
She withdrew her gaze.
"Stingy, only giving me one bottle." Remedios touched her chest, where the potion was stored, and muttered, "A genius alchemist? I guess the title fits."
The healing effect of the [Regeneration Potion] could actually cure the damage caused by the corrupting sword. This was beyond her imagination.
With this potion, she was confident about facing that Black Armored Knight again.
Over on the Sunlight Scripture's side, Captain Nigun was also watching the sky, giving an almost imperceptible nod.
"As expected of high-tier angels. No matter how strong that magic caster is, he can't easily break through the defense of two of them."
Captain Nigun was a bit envious. He felt he should probably have a private chat with Tang to find out how he could summon two angels.
"Hmph," Clementine followed lightly by Captain Nigun's side, a bored expression on her face as she pouted. "That magic caster controlling the Bone Dragon doesn't look like much. If he were on the ground, I could probably take him out."
"Don't be foolish," Captain Nigun responded with a cold expression, then his tone turned serious as he reminded her, "From now on, no matter what happens, you are to stay by my side. You should understand why."
Clementine, toying with a stiletto in one hand, replied listlessly, "I know, I know."
Her dismissive reply caused Captain Nigun's brow to furrow, a flicker of anger rising in his eyes.
Clementine's attitude had long since angered him. If she were his subordinate, a personality like hers wouldn't even qualify her to join the Sunlight Scripture.
Disrespectful to her superiors, completely without reverence!
Unfortunately, Clementine's status and position were no lower than his. Moreover, he needed her power to prevent any accidents, so he could only suppress his inner rage.
At this moment, at the very rear of the forces, Enri rode on an Evil Spirit Hound, surrounded by the resurrected paladins, methodically clearing out the low-tier undead that had been missed at the edge of the battlefield.
Looking at everything before her, Enri's long, slender knuckles tightly gripped the black fur on the back of the Evil Spirit Hound's neck. She felt increasingly useless.
Although she had practiced some of the techniques the paladins had taught her over the past few days, it was clear that those meager skills were utterly inapplicable to the current battle.
"That's Lord Captain's angel!"
"The enemy is controlling undead too? Why? He should be a human, right?"
Enri craned her neck, widening her brown eyes, trying to get a clearer view of the scene where her Lord Captain's summoned angel was fighting the enemy in the sky.
But it was just too high up.
As an ordinary person, her vision was limited, and she couldn't see very clearly. Even so, Enri could still make out that the caster controlling the strange bone undead was a human. But why?
Lord Captain had said that the undead were the enemies of all living beings.
Enri agreed with this completely. Such terrifying monsters that desecrated the corpses of the dead should not exist in this world.
It was as if someone had heard Enri's puzzled muttering.
From the side, a paladin, panting slightly, responded with a clear, firm voice, "What's there to be confused about? Zuranon is an evil secret society. It's perfectly normal for those fiends to commit any despicable act."
"We are here now to eliminate them!"
Hearing such a forceful tone, filled with a sense of justice, Enri's confusion didn't lessen.
"But, they're humans too, aren't they?"
"Why create undead and kill so many living beings?"
The bewilderment in Enri's eyes did not diminish in the slightest. Her gaze fell upon the corpses of the undead lying one after another on the ground.
Before their deaths, these corpses were also living beings, weren't they?
Now... they had all been killed and turned into undead.
But why do this?
Back when Enri was in Carne Village, there were many things she didn't understand, like the war between the Kingdom and the Empire, which happened every year.
The wheat that everyone in the village worked so hard to grow was always affected by the war, and the tax collectors would take even more.
War was a terrifying thing, but Enri felt it was a matter for the great nobles to consider. She just needed to work harder to grow some grain.
And compared to war, everything before her now was even more incomprehensible.
Turning the living into the undead—
"Why?" Enri suddenly felt a surge of anger welling up inside her.
"Because they are an evil organization that has abandoned the faith and teachings of 'God'," the paladin's answer remained simple and firm.
God?
Enri lowered her head slightly.
She didn't seem to believe in God. Or rather, the people in her village didn't really care much about "believing in God."
Just being able to get food and survive was already hard enough.
The paladins were all very devout.
Enri felt a sudden, inexplicable panic in her heart, then she abruptly remembered that Lord Captain had once said he didn't "believe in God" either.
It seemed to have been during a festival in the royal capital of the Kingdom. Lord Captain had been completely uninterested in "Prayer Day."
And Lord Captain was a faith-based magic caster.
As Enri thought of this, a smile suddenly appeared on her lips, and the feeling of panic that had just risen in her heart vanished.
Boom—
"Kill!!"
Seeing that the humans had suppressed the red-robed magic caster, the demi-human faction roared and clashed with the undead once more.
"Reform ranks! Spearhead formation, advance!"
"Magic casters in the ranks—clear a path with magic!"
The pressure on the Beast General, Hector Weiss, was immediately reduced, and he once again commanded the demi-human army to attack deeper into the territory.
The entire battle line pushed forward again.
Skeletons, zombies, scavengers, and various other bizarre-looking low-tier undead in the form of demi-humans continuously surged from the front.
The sky-high stench mingled with the shouts of battle!
Shhh!
The air twisted and warped.
[Teleportation]!
The Gray-robed Mage and the Black Armored Knight appeared simultaneously, the overwhelming sight of the battlefield rushing to meet their eyes.
"Excellent!"
"Gahahaha, what an unimaginable scene! Death, blood, and screams! There is no world more beautiful than this!"
The Gray-robed Mage stared at everything before him, his withered yellow eyes blazing as he let out a maniacal laugh.
Compared to the incident of merely destroying a city twenty years ago, this was a truly grand undertaking!
If they could annihilate the allied forces of the Holy Kingdom and the Slane Theocracy, as well as this group of demi-humans, Zuranon would truly become an existence feared by all human nations!
"My opponents aren't this bunch of demi-humans. I'll leave this place to you."
The Black Armored Knight glanced around, then suddenly moved. His black figure was like a rampaging beast; all the undead obstructing his path were blasted away.
After dealing with the troublesome undead, the Black Armored Knight watched the demi-humans charging toward him one by one. The scar on his face twisted like a worm as he held the corrupting sword in one hand and spread his arms wide, roaring:
"Remedios Custodio!!"
(end of chapter)