Episode 1162 Battle of the Workshop (3)
Kugugugung… … Kugugugugung… … !
From the bombardment of weapons to the Old King’s sword energy that neutralized transcendental abilities and divine miracles all at once, and even the unexpected intrusion of the Blood Empress—Alpha witnessed it all as the World Alliance Leader’s proxy golem.
Are the miracles manifested by the ancient king the power of the apostle?
Alpha did not know how to neutralize the Apostle’s power. Observation alone had its limits. There existed a core element that could not be interpreted by reason.However, by observing the parts of the Old King’s body damaged during the battle, he was able to draw various conclusions.
[death.]
Alpha found the Old King’s weakness. In fact, while it was difficult to call it a weakness, he had discovered a way to inflict a more significant blow than before.To maximize the trump card of the Third Line of Defense, he had to break down the Old King’s resistance, even if only slightly.
Whoooosh!Whoooosh!
With the bowstring drawn to its maximum, Merquien is concentrating magical power together with the ancient spirit. Clear waves of magical energy echoed regularly.
Most of the magical power was consumed, and only a tiny fraction was concentrated in the arrowhead. That high density sent chills down the spines of even the mages who had experienced the Transcendent.
Serendia assisted Merquien like a power source, constantly receiving the magical power of nature from tree roots rising from the ground.The Guardian-class elves gathered here linked their magical power to shoulder the load on their behalf. It was a burden that ordinary elves could not endure.
Enormous magical power was measured, but Alpha was not satisfied with that.
[more.]
“More than this?!”
[more.]
Merquien trembled violently, his tendons bulging.
“I’ve already passed the peak…! Seriously, this is the limit…!”
[Current estimated impact. Ancient King. Even if hit, maximum minor injury. Magic power is not the only lacking force.]
Alpha gave advice.
[With all your might.]
“With all my might…….”
Serendia muttered as if she had realized something.
“I see. All-out power, huh.” “W-what is it! W-what… what did you find out?!!”“It goes without saying, but that power isn’t everything.”
After catching his breath for a moment, Serendia’s rank instantly reached a higher realm.
Humans can only handle their inherent magical power by becoming aware of their magical power circuits, but elves can assimilate with the pure magical power of nature without any separate bodily organs.
and.
The elves who manage the World Tree—the great mother and god of nature—are ‘divine elves’ and can perform miracles crafted from nature.
The source of overflowing life, the pillar of the world connecting heaven and earth.
Serendia began to pray.
“Mother’s roots embrace the sole realm of the empty universe, and her branches shield the starlight of destruction, bestowing a fleeting moment of peace upon all.”“Hey! Hey…… Serendia!!! That is……! Without the other Administrators, alone, it is impossible……!!”“Mother looks down, and the child looks even lower, enjoying peace; but I dare to raise my head high and, through the eyes of a child, finally face the great responsibility and suffering Mother has borne since birth. The first earth that is the beginning of all universes and will remain at the end of the universe.”
Serendia returned the life force received from nature and became one with it.Literally prepared to die.
That primordial land.
This is a miracle that borrows the power of the World Tree, but her miracle of knowing what the Great Mother desires for her child has changed anew.
Serendia temporarily became the World Tree.
Naturally, I am of lower standing compared to the Great Mother, but at this very moment, I was like a small tree rooted in a corner of the primordial earth.
Crunch crunch!
Merquien’s bow, crafted from a branch of the World Tree, continued to grow until it became a heavy greatbow that required fixing the tip to the ground in order to shoot.
Mysterious───[Orphe].
Merquien felt that infinite magical power of unfathomable depth was in his hands.
The pressure and fatigue that had been constricting her entire body vanished for a moment. Prima, the primordial spirit that had been wrapping around her and gaining strength, also emitted a deep green light filled with magical power.
The other elves had the same reaction as her.
“Is this the Great Mother’s…? No, something is different.”
The foundation was part of the Great Mother, but what nurtured it was the same yet different magical power. It was pure. As if it came from a different World Tree.
Do you know what a great mother desires most from her children?
Only then did I understand what Serendia had said just before the war broke out.
“Serendia, you, you…… are you insane?? You are insane. You must be insane……!!!”“We cannot remain in the comfort of our mother’s embrace forever, Merquien. If we are children who truly love our mother.”
Serendia stretched out her arm. If Merquien was the bowstring, she was the arrow.
I need to become independent.
In the Battle of Destiny, the World Tree slaughtered the evil gods in the form of a giant tree, but sometimes shot arrows in the form of an elf to pierce them.
* * *
The Transcendents possessed power and a strong will beyond the imagination of ordinary people.No oppression in this world could break their hearts. They were created not to yield. They were born for that purpose.
However, even the most powerful transcendent beings had to follow the providence of the beginning.
Supreme being the strong.
In the end, if you are weak, you will be trampled.
Crack─────────!
Vantoreon’s right arm was split. It split vertically, splitting the palm in two. The Dragon Sword mercilessly extended up to the shoulder, completely snatching away the arm.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahaha!!!”
Vantoreon shouted.
But it was not a scream, but laughter. The madness, indifferent to pain, crashed its whole body against Akand without stopping.Blue lightning and malice tangled fiercely, attempting to devour each other.
“Now, now I understand…! The reason you lost that day wasn’t simply because it wasn’t complete.”
800 years ago, Akand was the pinnacle of the continent, but he had a weakness. Perhaps because he was born in the realm of transcendence without mental or physical awakening and could not escape the limits of his species, he lacked homeostasis like an ordinary human.It was a fatal flaw.The transcendents chipped away at Akand again and again, forcing him into submission, and finally succeeded in inflicting defeat upon him by holding his life as collateral.
Vantoreon thought that as one of the main characters, Akand was exhausted and a gap had opened up.
The guess was correct.However, it wasn’t everything.
The reason they were able to inflict a fatal wound on Akand was that in that final blow, all the transcendents disregarded life and faced only death.
“Only the death of a qualified one can kill Emperor Xerion.”
Qualification is a state of purity.Death is a will to die.
Only a being capable of wounding Akand’s body can grant him eternal rest if it exerts its utmost strength in every sense of the word.
“Didn’t you say that back then? That there is no war without sacrifice.”“Hahahahahahaha.”
Akand smiled back.It was sincere.It was the first time even he had smiled so genuinely since breathing the air of the continent.
“Can you kill me properly this time? Vantoreon Roden Taranis.”“Hahaha!!! That is exactly why I came here!!!”
A bolt of lightning exploded. Before the explosion had even subsided, a holy spear, a greatsword, and a light sword flew in. Akand, who had taken, blocked, deflected, or bounced off all of them with his whole body, stepped on his true kick.
“Then try killing me!!!!”
Finally, the heightened emotions reached the sky.
Heaven and earth were in turmoil.
A much fiercer battle ensued than before. The method to eliminate Akand through Vantoreon was conveyed to the Transcendents.
A blow unleashed with nothing but murderous intent may leave a wound or mark on Akand, but it can never take his life.
You have to risk your life every single time.
It requires not the natural method of giving up flesh to gain bone, but a do-or-die determination to pay the price of one’s own death in order to crave the opponent’s death.The key to victory is advancing and stabbing, even while knowing that one will die if they do not dodge.
The ancient king is not immortal. He is merely strong enough to be mistaken for immortal.The ancient king is not the dead. He is a living being who sheds blood just like them.
Rumble, crash!
A bolt of lightning struck Akand with a thunderous roar. Although it did not penetrate his body, the heat of magic that appeared to have done so exploded inside Akand.
The dragon sword was right on the crown of his head.
If Hythril hadn’t stopped him, Vantoreon would have already been severed and died. Regardless, he did not take his eyes off Akand for a single moment.
The Spear of Light slashed through Akand’s back.The light sword split beneath Akand’s ribs.The sword received from the First Demon King was embedded in Akand’s thigh like a beast’s fang.
Hisril, who joined the battlefield the latest, volunteered to lead the vanguard.
More than 70% of the old king’s armor was damaged and now looked like broken pottery.
The transcendents paid the price for this, yet no one was intimidated. Their exhilaration reached its peak. Whenever death loomed before them, their very essence—the determination to achieve their ideals by any means necessary—shined brightly.When their lives hung in the balance, madness pulled the transcendents by the hand, ensuring the continuation of the lineage.
The Allied forces watching the scene from the Scalum Gorge trembled and clenched their fists. We can win. The war of the Transcendents ends here!Hope drove out the despair that had been lingering in their hearts as if it had never existed.
However, there was something they overlooked.
Among them, the first to go to war prepared for death was the Transcendent. The Transcendent who believes destiny is right and pursues it as an ideal—Arkhand.
Kill or be killed.
Akand broke through the explosion of thunder.
The blade of the Dragon Sword grazed past, slicing through Vantoreon’s right eye, and the ensuing punch struck the very center of his chest.It was a blow imbued with the power of Rest.His ribs were completely shattered, and his heart stopped temporarily.
“Ugh.”
Magic power comes from the heart. Vantoreon, whose heart stopped and whose magic circuit was forcibly deactivated, became one with the collapsed cliff.
A battlefield where magic has vanished and skills and miracles run rampant.
Crunch!
The Holy Spear [Grantir] finally pierced Akhand’s right shoulder. It was a miracle by Ersetia, which would have pierced his chest if it had moved just an inch to the side.
At the same time, the Holy Armor [Arminel] split open.
The dragon sword had already slashed deep between Ersetia’s chest and across her stomach. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Barely managing to tighten the gap before her internal organs spilled out, she collapsed face down onto the floor.
“Gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp……!!”
He is trying to heal himself somehow, but the wound was fatal. He would have died if it weren’t for the Holy Armor. It was only natural, considering he had intended to kill Akand with that thought in mind.
Following the magic, the miracle disappeared.
“……!”
Before Akand could pull out the Holy Spear, the space surrounding him split sharply.
Myriad realms
Many sword marks were etched across parts of his body that he could not defend against with the Dragon Sword. His heart felt like it was about to burst. He drew life force to compensate for his depleted stamina.Amidst a storm of sword energy, Adrian lowered his body to the extreme and continued his transcendental technique. He gripped the light sword in a reverse grip. Crunch! As flesh and muscle caught on the tip of the blade were torn apart, a purple sword light seeped into his weak interior.
I couldn’t cut the heart.
I hadn’t considered what would happen next.That is why I was able to reach it.
… … I was prepared for this.
The moment Arkhand’s blood splattered, Adrian’s left leg was severed. Hisdragon blade fell like a guillotine. His most powerful weapon, specialized for mobility, had been neutralized. Even as he slumped to the ground, he tenaciously refused to let go of his lightsaber and struck Arkhand’s foot. Crack. Immediately afterward, a kick shattered his collarbone and dislocated his arm and shoulder blades.
One of the two skills has fallen.Only one remains.
Bang!
Bloody Hythril threw himself forward and pushed Akand away forcefully. Glancing at Adrian for a slight movement, he gripped his greatsword tightly.
A gap has definitely opened.
Adrian was still a bit lacking, but in any case, it was a combined attack by four 8th-rank transcendents.Transcendents from 8 centuries ago?Hisril was not a transcendent of that era and had not seen all of them, but in terms of pure power, these four were likely stronger than them, not weaker.
It didn’t make sense to overcome it head-on, even alone, but that was the reality, and it was also a reality that the former king was deeply injured because they had risked their lives.
“To thrust the spearhead in, or to be struck before that. The outcome is one of the two… … .”
It would have been better if he had pulled a stunt while the other transcendents drew attention, but Akand was wary of himself, the one sent by the First Demon King.All along.Had he acted recklessly relying on the numbers, the spearhead would have been destroyed in vain.
… … done.
Since the prey is emitting the stench of blood, it simply bites deeply with its fangs.
Hot.
Hisril curled the corners of her mouth into a wide smile and poured out her remaining strength. A sticky, blood-red aura overflowed from her as she assumed a fierce quadrupedal stance.
At that moment—a massive magical power reminiscent of Verden overwhelmed the Scalum Fault.
What is that?
It seemed like the Alliance elf had been doing something for a while, but it was something that far, far exceeded Hisril’s expectations.
Tang-rang!
Akand drew the Holy Spear from his shoulder as if to show off, and held the Dragon Sword [Magrath] upright like a renowned monk facing an inevitable trial.
World Tree.
In the beginning, there was a giant tree.
The giant tree, which had been supporting the world as a god and concept of nature, met the primordial wizard. The giant tree, which knew only how to remain as it was born, felt a strong curiosity about his freedom like a child.However, unable to follow him in the form of a tree, it created a body similar to him for the first time using blades of grass, branches, and pure magical power.
The World Tree, which would later be called the Great Mother, always traveled the world on two feet rather than roots, accompanied by a bow made of its own branches.
Divine Bow
In the days when there was no destiny, the world called the beginning of the free elves that.
──────!
The moment Merquien released the bowstring, the light of magic absorbed all light. In an instant, darkness descended, and a streak of arrows cut through the darkness.
Akand stood firmly in place and stared at the trajectory of the arrow.
Ryn-Seadel
Rest: Returning to the Truth
With a heavy wave, the primordial arrow and the sword pressure of rest collided head-on. The power of the World Tree and the power of ‘you’ had met for the first time since the Battle of Destiny.Akhand let out a silent roar.Radiance concentrated at the point where the sword and arrow met, then burst forth all at once as if erupting.
Whoosh!
Countless rays of light scattered, and the darkness receded.
The arrow split.
Although the Dragon Sword remained unscathed, Akand’s arm gripping it could not absorb the recoil and began to crack as if collapsing.The gauntlet turned to dust. The Apostle’s agony poured out from the cracked skin.
Slaughter in the wilderness.
Frenzied Fangs
Hisril’s transcendent murderous intent struck with seven teeth like lightning, missing no perfect opening. The bloodthirsty ferocity that snatched the eyes of the ancient king.
Crunch!
And the spear that kills each other—the spearhead of Rugina Hon—pierced through Akand’s arm.
