Chapter 712

"I’ll take the Iron Fist Priest’s support!" Mev shouted without hesitation.

Her eyes, looking back at Miguel, were blazing dark red again. With his help, she wouldn't need the barbarian warriors. Of course, the expressions of the barbarian warriors looking at Miguel crumpled.

"Take care of the Saintess and the priests, and join the brazier over there!"

Mev paid them no mind and continued, raising her right hand to the side.

"Once the lingering heat of the sacred fire fades, those void monsters will surge in again! You must protect the Saintess until our brothers arrive! That is an order!"

"Yes!"

"We will obey!"

The warriors facing her answered with grim resolve. Gathering near the brazier, they shoved the supply wagons aside, clearing a path for Mev.

"Going first! Follow me!" Miguel called out as he strode past the rear of the wagons.

His armor, reinforced with leather and chains, was fully exposed now, and with his right hand, he was running his fingers along the raised prosthetic arm beside his face.

It was a sight Mev had already seen several times. It was the preparation process he always did before activating the Mantra circuit engraved on the prosthetic.

"I’m counting on you too, Iron Fist Priest," Mev added, glancing back at the approaching warriors.

A faint warmth spread through her. It was the residual heat of the sacred flame burning weakly in the brazier.

Thud!

The barbarian warriors lined up on both sides, slammed their weapons into the ground, and straightened their stances.

That alone was answer enough.

Rumble—

Mev burst forward at full speed, charging straight between them. The warmth made her breathing easier, but even without it, power was still surging through her.

It was because the culprit who defiled the corpses of warriors and Selim was beyond that swarming violet wave.

"Let's go! Miguel! Open the path!" Mev shouted as Miguel’s back drew closer.

Already scattering sparks as he ran, Miguel suddenly seized the wrist of his prosthetic arm with his right hand.

Shwaaaa—

Golden light began to shimmer from the prosthetic’s fist almost instantly.

Dragon magic spilled from his grip, engulfing the arm in an instant, then creeping up over his forearm and shoulder. It was the brightest light Mev had ever seen from him.

"------!"

At that moment, a shriek tore through the air in the distance, as if ripping the sky itself apart.

The cloudlike remnants of earlier explosions were blown aside, revealing a massive, roaring silhouette beyond them.

Rumble—

A dark crimson arc that had been charging obliquely into its center was bent away as if refracted. It was clearly Ian, but Mev could not properly make him out. The remnants of chaos mixed into the shockwaves veiled her vision like mist.

"Keep running!" Miguel’s suppressed shout rang out just then.

Mev reflexively looked down ahead and saw Miguel twisting his waist back hard as he came to a halt.

Swoosh—

His left arm, saturated with golden light, was fully revealed. Dragon magic was also pouring into his right hand, gripping the prosthetic’s wrist, making it glow.

Beyond him, countless violet tentacles surged forward. They were close enough to seize him in just a few seconds, yet Miguel’s gaze remained unwaveringly fixed on Mev.

"I’ll... open the path—"

Barely spitting out the words, he twisted his upper body back with force before even finishing his sentence. Stretching the prosthetic full of dragon magic forward as is.

Fwoosh!

The surroundings became dazzlingly bright in an instant, and dragon magic spewed out from his fist like an explosion. A fierce, bright yellow trail surged forward, consuming anything in its path.

It was enough to make Mev's glint widen for a moment. Because not only the preparation process, but the result was also the most intense she had seen so far. It was as if a dragon’s breath had been unleashed. He had clearly expelled all the magic stored within the Mantra circuits in a single burst.

Whoosh—

Even the parasites surrounding the blast were torn apart and hurled away. The shockwave released by the Avatar of Pain had already been completely erased, leaving no trace behind.

"

Ugh— Ar, argh?

" Miguel screamed as he floated up with his fist extended.

The pressure was simply too much for him to endure. Most of the magic he had released had already faded, yet he was now slicing helplessly through the air.

Tap, tap, tap!

Rather than trying to catch him as he was flung backward, Mev crossed past him without hesitation. She couldn’t afford to waste the single opening Miguel had carved out with everything he had.

"Don’t worry about m—

aaagh

!" Miguel kept shouting even as he flew away, his voice trailing off amid a cacophony of metallic clanging and screams.

Judging by the way he bounced and skipped like a stone across water, he was being sent a considerable distance.

Still, the fact that he was yelling for someone to catch him suggested his life wasn’t in immediate danger.

Of course, that was not why Mev did not look back.

Kwoosh...

The blinding trajectory of magic stretched out before her, then scattered violently. As its remnants swept the parasites on either side and shoved them farther away, pitch-black ground opened up ahead of her like a road.

Everything caught in the blast had been erased without leaving a trace.

Beyond it, the form of a towering presence rose like a colossal ancient tree. Even as she continued running, Mev steadily took in the fully revealed Avatar of Suffering.

Its lower body, rising like a massive trunk, was nothing but a tangled mass of writhing violet tentacles. Along its gaunt back, more tentacles hung and undulated like a grotesque mane. Beneath the two pairs of spread wing bones, stalactite-like tendrils swayed in place of feathers.

Goooooo—

Violet light flickered within the many fishlike eyes embedded across it, while misty breath spilled from the countless maws opening and closing at random. The spikes protruding from it twitched from time to time, as if alive.

Only then did Mev realize that the ground beneath her feet was sloping gently downward.

So the space itself really is bent around it.

It was hardly surprising. The demonic realm was a place where the laws of the world were twisted. A fragment of an ancient god would naturally distort reality simply by existing.

Swoosh...

More important was the fact that the avatar was turning its upper body, exposing its back to her.

Her glint shimmered dark red, and her whole body was dyed stickier and darker. As if responding to her desire for revenge, the stigmata pulsed violently, vomiting divinity.

Just as both her hands headed to the sword hilts on her waist and back, the Avatar of Suffering raised its head and vomited a shriek.

"------!"

The sound was nauseatingly euphoric, brimming with pleasure. On the far side of its writhing torso, explosions and tearing shockwaves erupted in rapid succession.

Boom, boom, boom!

Mev’s gaze, fixed on its back, dropped lower.

Between the successive bursts of chaotic explosions, violet trajectories whipped through the air like lashes. Weaving among them was a streak of red, darting back and forth.

Ian.

The sight was enough to pull Mev back from the edge of blind fury, reminding her why she had come here in the first place.

Shing—

She drew the swords in both hands simultaneously. Two sword blades of different lengths and shapes revealed themselves. The sticky divinity coating her surged up and stained the steel.

Swoosh—

Immediately after, Mev passed through the path Miguel had opened and entered the battlefield.

The parasites merely surged in to fill the gap, but they didn’t follow her inside. Instead, they slowly began creeping toward another battlefield on the opposite side.

The lingering heat of the sacred flames had faded.

Tap, tap, tap!

Still running, Mev neither knew nor cared about that.

Leaning her slightly forward, she veered diagonally, circling around the avatar.

She was moving to meet Ian, who was running in a wide arc from the opposite side. And the reason she leaned forward was not simply to run faster.

Rumble...

Around the avatar, which was rotating as if tracking Ian, tentacles extending from its column-like core spread outward like roots.

Squelch... Crunch!

Each one was long and thick, and even more were being extruded, squirming into existence. The avatar’s attention seemed fixed entirely on Ian, but Mev did not lower her guard for even a moment.

Kwah—!

She realized that had been the right call only seconds later. Nearby tentacle-roots surged up in a wavelike motion and lashed out toward her like whips, violet light glowing in the fishlike eyes embedded along them.

Mev did not change direction or evade.

She kept running, simply raising both swords beneath her helm, crossing her arms. Her narrowed, dark crimson gaze tracked the incoming trajectories with chilling precision.

Swoosh—

She swung the sword in her right hand faster than the chaos-laden tentacle could reach her.

A dark crimson, crescent-shaped arc of divinity tore through the air and plunged into the center of the oncoming tentacle.

Slash—

A tentacle as thick as an adult’s waist was severed cleanly. The torn segment writhed in midair, erupting in a violet explosion.

That was only the beginning.

Boom!

Mev’s twin blades released sharp crescent arcs in rapid succession, and explosions followed in the air behind where she had passed.

The closer she drew to the object of her vengeance, the sharper the divine blades she wielded became. Now, facing that very target, they were honed to their absolute peak.

Crunch—

That was why every tentacle that came flying at her, without a single exception, was severed and detonated as it did.

Screech—! Rumble—

Of course, no matter how many she cut down, the number of tentacle-roots surging toward her did not diminish. Their lengths, thicknesses, and even the directions they flew from varied wildly.

Even so, Mev neither stopped nor changed course.

Slash— Boom!

She simply continued swinging her twin blades without pause, instinctively cutting down everything that came at her.

The swordsmanship she had forged through a lifetime of training and countless real battles had long since reached the level of a true master.

Of course, her blade dance couldn’t continue forever.

Ahead of her, a red trajectory came into view, racing toward her in a broad arc. It was Ian, gripping a Platinum Barrier and a longsword wreathed in drifting sparks.

Crunch— Clang!

Aside from the fact that he was also running, his movements were entirely different from Mev’s. He narrowly evaded incoming tentacles, smashed them aside with the edge of his shield, or leaped clean over them before slashing with his sword.

Boom!

Each time, formless explosions caved in one side of a tentacle, or a divinity-laced arc carved deeply through it as it passed.

Slash, crackle—

At times, a tentacle that had been flying toward him abruptly changed its own trajectory and slammed into the ground instead. Ian vaulted over its path with acrobatic precision, though his movements were urgent and left no room for ease.

Slash— Boom! Slice—

Even as she cut down tentacles almost by instinct, Mev found herself biting her lower lip. She could vividly imagine how Ian had faced transcendent foes like this, time and time again.

It had always been this way. And yet, that did nothing to make it any less pitiful.

That was when Ian, landing with his tattered cloak whipping around him, turned to look at her. His gaze suggested he had already known she had joined the battlefield.

Indeed.

Perhaps he had seen the explosion Miguel had created earlier. Perhaps her own thunderous charge had given her away. Gritting her teeth, Mev surged forward with even greater force.

Boom! Slice!

Her two blades whipped faster and more violently than before. She needed to reach him even a moment sooner, to hand over the divine sword.

Just then, Ian’s gaze as he ran toward her snapped upward. Almost immediately, an ominous sound spread above Mev’s head.

Kwoosh—

Mev instinctively looked up, her eyes widening. At some point, the avatar’s upper body had turned fully toward her. It was twisting while spreading its two tentacle-wings wide.

The tentacles lining those wings surged forward, etching countless violet trajectories across the air. With the wings overlapping at an angle, there was no visible space left to evade.

"Jump—"

A divinity-laced shout reached her ears almost at the same instant.

Without a moment’s thought, Mev kicked off the ground with all her strength and hurled herself forward.

"

Hhk

!"

The very next moment, it felt as though something invisible had seized her in a crushing grip. Her eyes flew open as she was yanked sharply to the left, her trajectory bending into a slanted arc as she was dragged away.

Instead of resisting, Mev surrendered to the unknown force and turned her gaze forward again.

Rumble—

Ian was closing in at an angle, his cloak billowing as he flew toward her, both arms stretched wide. Mev reacted instinctively, spreading her own arms as she slammed into him.

Thud!

The impact lasted only a heartbeat. Thick arms wrapped firmly around her back, and the sudden surge of his cloak swallowed her vision. Mev clutched his shoulder just as tightly.

Thud, thud, thud!

With a heavy jolt, the two of them crashed together and were hurled across the ground, rolling violently. Mev didn’t loosen her grip for a second.

Boom, boom, boom!

Explosions roared through her, and a beat later, the shockwave hit. The world spun, heavy impacts rattling her again and again—but strangely, it didn’t hurt as much as she expected.

Rumble—

It wasn’t just her armor or the sacred power shielding her.

The one holding her was taking most of the impact. Mev focused all her attention on not letting go of the arms around his shoulders or the swords clenched in her hands.

Before the chain of thunderous blasts had even fully died down, Mev, who had been sliding backward, came to a stop. She was still clinging to Ian, her upper body pressed fully against his as he kneeled on one knee.

As the folds of the cloak that had obscured her view slowly settled, the avatar towering beyond came into sight.

It was still twisting, lifting the wings it had just swung.

Rumble!

Along the path of those wings, violet explosions continued to bloom thickly. That was all that followed, likely because Mev had already cut apart every tentacle that tried to bar the way on their approach.

"Are you okay?"

A low voice brushed past her ear. Only then did Mev finally let the arms around his shoulders fall slack.

"... Thanks to you."

"Your whole body must be numb."

Even after she loosened her grip, she didn’t fall. Ian’s arms were still around her, his left hand’s Platinum Barrier perfectly shielding the back of her head and spine.

"Check yourself. Something might be broken."

After helping her sit upright, Ian finally released her and stepped back.

As Mev reflexively moved her wrists and ankles, Ian’s face came into view before her visor, smeared with dirt and blood.

"I knew you were worried, but I didn’t expect you to jump in like that."

The crimson divinity flickering in his eyes softened into a faint curve. Meeting his gaze, Mev found herself smiling back without realizing it.

"I couldn’t pass up the chance to cross the line of death with you."

That was when Mev lowered the swords she held in both hands.

Immediately dropping to one knee, she reached for the last blade at her waist and added, "And the chance to fulfill a duty I’ve long set aside."