Chapter 734
Naturally, the first to react to Derus's bizarre statement was the person in question, Lephon Robert.
"F-Father...?" Lephon looked up at the smirking Derus, his teeth chattering. "What do you mean I'm not human! What nonsense are you spouting!" He revealed his shocked eyes, still unable to accept that Derus was the Blue Dragon Helmet.
"No need to worry, Lephon. You're an extraordinary being." Derus stroked Lephon's cheek with the back of his blood-soaked hand, as if telling him to trust him. A red glint began to form in his sunken eyes.
"Mage Tower Master!" Raon bit his lip and called out to Mage Tower Master Larian on his right.
"T-The thread magic hasn't been broken..." Larian exhaled sharply, saying she was still binding Derus's arms, legs, and neck with threads.
"That's not magic." Chamber frowned, glaring at Derus. "Nothing was caught in the magic circle that blocks artifacts and mana movement." She shook her head, saying it was neither magic nor a technique using mana.
"It's not martial arts either." King Lecross swallowed dryly as he raised his sword.
"That's right. Derus hasn't moved an inch from that spot." Glenn narrowed his eyes. "It's not that Derus had done something, but that Lephon had appeared as if he had teleported."
"What the hell is this? What's going on!" Ogram slammed his tightly clenched fist down hard, saying he didn't understand.
Derus Robert. Raon bit the inside of his cheek as he looked at Derus holding Lephon in his arms. "What the hell did you do?"
He couldn't understand what Derus had done when the Mage Tower Master was controlling him with thread magic, Chamber was blocking magic and artifacts with a magic circle, and Glenn, Lecross, and Ogram were suppressing him with their aura.
"Could it be..." Did he borrow the power of a Demon King? Like Wrath's 'Anger', a Demon King's authority is neither mana nor aura. Since it uses the emotions possessed by that being, even a Transcendent Warrior can't easily block it.
The remaining Demon Kings are 'Pride' and 'Lust'. But Pride was said to be related to Eden, and there was no sense of Lust at all.
Rather... a holy aura. A faint feeling similar to when he encountered the Saintess's holy power in the Suphren Holy Kingdom spread. Moreover, if Derus had really used a Demon King's power, Wrath would have said something by now.
Wrath. Raon took a deep breath and looked back.
"Do you know something…?"
"He's gone mad." Wrath's eyes were more distorted than ever before.
"Why is that vulgar aura here?" He gritted his teeth, showing greater anger than when facing other Demon Kings.
"What is this aura?"
"It's the divine power of the Angels!" Wrath frowned, saying it was the aura of the Angels, a powerful being.
"An...gels?" Rather than a Demon King, he never imagined the name of Angels would come up here. It felt like being hit on the back of the head with a hammer.
"I've told you many times!" Wrath shouted, waving his arms. "Angels are completely different from what you humans imagine!" He shook his head vigorously, saying they were even more dangerous than demons.
"Damn it!" If Wrath's words were true, they couldn't leave Derus alone now. If the divine power he possessed was similar to a Demon King's authority, there was no telling what might happen.
"We need to strike now! Even if we can't get information, we have to kill him!" Raon aimed his Divine Sword and Demonic Sword at Derus again.
"I know." Glenn also seemed to sense the dangerous aura emanating from Derus as he raised his Heavenly Tremor to mid-level. In the moment the red lightning flashed from the tip of the sword, the right upper body of Derus, who was holding Lephon, was blown away entirely.
"Kuhek..." Before Derus could even cough up blood, Chamber's magic and King Lecross's sword strike followed, blasting away even his lower body.
"This way!" Raon stepped with the Supreme Harmony Steps to save Lephon. It might not be calm, but seeing the frightened eyes of the child, he felt a reflection of his past self and couldn't just stand by.
"You mustn't!" As he was about to grab Lephon, Wrath screamed. "The medium is not your enemy, but that child!" Wrath waved his arms frantically, telling him not to approach.
"What do you mean...?" As Raon swallowed dryly, Derus, who had seemed dead, rose like a zombie and embraced Lephon again.
"Haa..." It was a wound that would have killed any human, but Derus seemed to have already transcended the human frame, instantly regenerating and returning to his original body.
"W-What's this...?" The Mage Tower Master fell to her knees, her fingers trembling. "The magic is being distorted…!" She bulged her eyes, saying she was losing control of the thread magic.
"A-Are you really my father...?" Despite being frightened by Derus's malice crushing his entire body, Lephon forced himself to speak. He seemed more afraid of the possibility that Derus might not be his parent than of his own death or this situation.
"Lephon." Derus smiled eerily without answering Lephon's question. "I haven't given you a coming-of-age gift, have I?"
"Why are you bringing that up now...?" Lephon bulged his eyes, unable to understand.
"Thank you." Derus looked at Lephon's red sword, which he had given as a birthday present, and burst his left chest. A jet-black hole sprouted in Lephon's chest, from which an eerie amount of blood gushed out.
"F-Father. Why..." His eyes began to sink into darkness. The child's breath was cut off without hearing the answer he wanted. A thick book fell from Lephon's lifeless chest.
"Ah..." Raon's hand trembled as he looked at the breathless Lephon. "What is this...?" He never thought Derus would burst his heart and kill him, expecting him to use Lephon as a hostage or for the child to undergo some change. He still couldn't understand what had happened. It felt like his mind had gone blank.
"You bastard!" With Glenn's roar, Derus's abdomen was split in half by red lightning.
"You call yourself a father after doing this!" King Lecross, seemingly truly enraged, drove his sword into Derus's neck.
"You evil spirit, not even worthy of being called trash!" Chamber wailed as she tore apart Derus's remaining limbs. The leaders of the Six Kings explosively revealed the killing intent they had hesitated to show because of Lephon.
"Kuh..." Derus fell, coughing up black blood. Even his super-regeneration ability seemed to have reached its limit, as his arms and legs didn't reattach or regenerate.
"I won't... last much longer..." He chuckled with a dried-up voice.
"What the hell are you doing!" Glenn gritted his teeth and drove his sword into Derus's heart. "He was your son!" Having just realized the importance of family, he spewed out the deepest anger of anyone here.
"I'm sorry, but that wasn't my son, nor was he human." Derus laughed with a voice that seemed about to break at any moment. "Come out, Uriel." He stuck out his tongue, looking at Lephon's corpse. "It'll be troublesome for you too if I die, won't it?"
The moment Derus's faint voice trailed off, the red blood filling the training ground turned into a brilliant golden light. A massive heartbeat like a drum sound resonated from inside Lephon's lifeless body. From inside the chest that had been pierced by Derus's sword, a scarlet flame began to burn like a ring, forming a new heart.
"That's..." Raon swallowed dryly as he looked at the heart filling Lephon's chest where bone and flesh had regenerated. "Ring of Fire...?"
Strangely, the flame filling Lephon's heart looked similar to the Ring of Fire. Glenn showered his Azure Sky Sword wrapped in lightning to prevent Lephon's transformation. However, the holy flame burning over Lephon's body pushed back Glenn's sword strike and raised an even larger pillar of light.
"It's coming!" Wrath growled like a beast, tensing the veins on his forehead.
"Is there a way to stop it?"
"It's impossible! Once that child has arrived, there's no way to prevent the descent!" He shook his head, saying there was no way to stop the descent no matter what they did.
From within the holy flame that had shot up as if to touch the sky, something of a different caliber from humans walked out. Golden hair and blue eyes. Though a common hair and eye color in this world, the being itself was different.
Each strand of golden hair sparkled like the sun, and within the blue eyes was contained a vast sky. Just by standing here, an overwhelming presence naturally emanated, dominating the surroundings.
Wearing a snow-white robe as if cut from a snowfield, with golden ornaments on the shoulders, it seemed as if the words elegance and nobility were flowing from him. Three strange fire trumpets were tied at his waist, giving off an ominous feeling just by looking at them.
"How unsightly." The angel Derus had called Uriel wrinkled his nose as if this world itself was disgusting.
"This is..." Raon's dry lips trembled, unable to move a finger. "An Angel?"
"Not just any Angel." Wrath clenched his fist as he looked at Uriel. "Archangel Uriel! The most despicable one among the leaders of the Angels!" He revealed his anger as if he had a grudge against Uriel.
"Uriel..." Chamber's blurry eyes trembled as she looked at Uriel. "He's one of the Seven Archangels..." She swallowed dryly, saying he was the most exalted being among the Angels.
Uriel looked down at Derus, ignoring everyone else here.
"You called for me ages ago, and only now do you appear?" Derus twisted his lips, looking not at Uriel but into the air.
"Hmph." As Uriel waved his fingertips, Derus's torn body was restored, and color returned to his pale face. It was an ability that could only be called miraculous. However, even in this process, the scar on the back of Derus's hand remained unhealed. Uriel looked at the back of Derus's hand with displeasure before turning his gaze away.
"I don't want to stay in this filthy place a moment longer." As he said he wanted to leave, wings as beautiful as a sculpture sprouted behind his back.
"You can't leave." Glenn stood in front of Uriel, lowering his dry eyes.
"I don't care if you're an Archangel or a Demon King." He said he would behead him right here, surrounding his Heavenly Tremor with killing intent.
"You..." Uriel's transparent gaze, which had been dismissing humans as a species, wavered for the first time. "Why is a being like you still remaining here?" He frowned as if he couldn't understand.
"To stand alone at that level without anyone to bear the causality in your stead, what an absurd human you are." Disgust flowed from Uriel's sacred voice. It was surprising in itself that an Archangel would hate and dismiss humans.
"Don't clash with him." Derus shook his head as he stood beside Uriel. "Even you would be in danger." He said to retreat, wiping away the blood that had trickled down his forehead.
"You're underestimating us too much." Chamber stepped forward, wrinkling her nose. "Who said we'd let you leave?" She spread a curtain of mana that couldn't be escaped, as if not yielding to Uriel's pressure.
"Ugh..." Larian also combined thread magic and shadow magic to create a prison-like structure.
"Angel or whatever, this place will be your grave!" Ogram and King Lecross also stepped forward, raising their aura as if ready to fight.
"This is why humans are problematic." Uriel lowered his straight eyebrows, turning his chin sideways. "They don't know their place." He caressed one of the three horn trumpets tied at his waist with his fingertips. Raon shuddered at Uriel's chilling voice. This Archangel seemed to dislike humans even more than Demon Kings.
"But today is not the day." As Uriel snapped his fingers, the bodies of Derus and his subordinates were tinged with a translucent light. It wasn't simply becoming transparent; it felt as if their bodies were disappearing from this place.
"Strike!"
"Stop them!" Chamber and King Lecross were the first to unleash magic and sword strikes.
"Hnngh... How dare you!" Larian and Ogram also poured out magic and fist strikes, but they couldn't touch Uriel and Derus. They seemed to have already left this place, passing through all magic and aura.
"What is this...?"
"Magic doesn't work at all?"
"Even for an Archangel, this is..."
The Transcendent Warriors of the Six Kings bit their lips as they watched Uriel becoming increasingly faint.
"It's Ethereal Transformation." Wrath shook his head fiercely. "In that state, even a Transcendent Warrior can't touch them!" He frowned, saying neither aura nor magic would work.
"What kind of cheat ability is that...?"
"However, he can't attack in that state either." Wrath gritted his teeth, saying he was trying to escape.
Glenn stepped forward, pushing aside the leaders of the Six Kings. A hazy aura began to burn from the Heavenly Tremor.
"Soul Sword?" It seemed to be the absolute swordsmanship that had slain the leaders of the Five Demons and the Dragon in one stroke.
"That's...!" Even Uriel's eyes widened in surprise at Glenn's aura. It seemed the Soul Sword would work even in Ethereal Transformation.
"Move and I'll cut you down." Glenn spoke in a cold voice, as if he would slice through their soul if they tried to disappear like this.
"That sword could certainly reach me." Uriel nodded heavily. "But if I die, you too will cease to exist in this land." He revealed unwavering eyes, as if certain. "You seem to have much left to protect, will you risk it?"
Uriel tilted his chin, looking around at the people who could barely breathe under the Archangel's pressure. His calm expression suggested he wouldn't care even if he died here.
"Hmm..." Glenn turned to look at Raon. He seemed torn, his hand holding the Heavenly Tremor trembling slightly.
"There's no need to be so impatient, we'll meet again soon."
Uriel narrowed his eyes, tapping the fire trumpet at his waist. "Not much time is left." He faded into a hazy color again, as if knowing Glenn's answer.
The veins on the back of Glenn's hand bulged, but he ultimately couldn't swing his sword. Raon gritted his teeth so hard his gums hurt as he looked at the spot where Lephon had fallen.
"That book..." On the blood-soaked ground lay the biography of Raon Zieghart that he had promised to sign. The image of Lephon's smile as he shyly held out the book overlapped with the blood-soaked book, and the anger buried deep in his soul began to rage uncontrollably.
"Wrath!" Raon gritted his teeth as he watched Uriel and Derus fading away. "Is there anything you can do? I'll accept your anger..."
"No need! I'll help you, don't let that despicable bastard get away!" The moment Wrath shouted, a terrifying level of anger seeped in from the ice flower bracelet connected to him.
"Divine power and my authority are opposites! We can break through even the Ethereal Transformation!" He waved his fists, saying they could do it.
Raon poured all of Wrath's anger and the Ring of Fire's energy into his Divine Sword and Demonic Sword, which were about to extinguish.
He stomped his left foot hard enough to shatter the earth. Pouring out all the muscle and aura rising from his lower body and energy center, he threw the Divine Sword and Demonic Sword he had held behind his shoulder.
The Divine Sword and Demonic Sword, drawing red and blue flashes, pierced into the backs of Uriel and Derus.