Chapter 50
Chapter 50: The Experienced Hunter (5)
Erica stared blankly at Erik, her sword still pressed against her own throat.
Puk!
The blade bit into her flesh.
Blood droplets flowed along the sword, gathering into a sticky pool in Erica's palm.
"Aah"
Even as she carved into her own neck with each passing moment, Erica harbored the belief that she would survive.
Not only her, but all the knights gathered here shared that same conviction.
"Astia."
The golden wheat field darkened by the second as light vanished from the clear sky. A landscape that seemed to evoke thoughts of death unfolded, yet—
"—Please bestow your sublime sanctity upon this land."
The enormous back now visible before them.
Thanks to Erik's presence, which appeared alongside the golden cross, they did not abandon hope.
'There is light...'
Even as something black continued to dye the entire world in thick darkness, a single thread of light sparkled before Erica and the Imperial Guard Knights.
"—Thus, protect your children from the darkness."
The prayer of the great Holy Paladin continued to echo against the something spreading black across the world.
Holy, sublime, and faithful.
It was an earnest prayer offered with all his might.
'Such a reverent prayer...'
Erica had never heard Erik's prayer contain such fervent faith.
The miracle of sanctity had not yet occurred.
Yet with that prayer alone, the delusion that had filled her mind completely vanished.
Thud!
As something broke in everyone's minds simultaneously, the power of the seven-circled black thing disappeared.
"Cough"
Erica spat out a handful of blood and pulled the sword blade from her neck, immediately stepping forward toward Erik.
However, as if to reject the approach of both Erica and the other knights.
Kyeeng!
A resonant tone accompanied six golden wings erupting from Erik's back, and those wings naturally shielded everyone from the black thing.
'A subordinate, then.'
Erik well knew that without establishing sanctity on this land, he could not harm the thing before his eyes.
"Erik, for what purpose does your prayer exist?"
Even in the days when Erik traveled battlefields following his master, his true enemy was merely individual black mages—not a terminal-tier black mage like the one before him with seven lines.
When black mages reached six lines, they wielded dominion, earning the title 'Calamity'.
From seven circles onward came the title 'Apocalypse', and they twisted the laws of the world through concrete manifestation of their dominion.
'Now it falls to me.'
The current Erik possessed the strength to protect.
Moreover, there was no need to recite hollow prayers to suppress powerful sanctity—no such situation existed.
Thus Erik's prayer had been earnest.
Because of that, he had enabled those watching his back to shake off the dominion.
What was needed now—
'Establishing sanctity upon this land.'
A sacred act conducted under divine permission—work that was nearly impossible for Erik, who could not hear God's voice.
'I have no need for God's words.'
Erik had set his own standard.
He desired no communion.
He sought the manifestation of power.
He had made a vow to establish sanctity through his own will and prove it himself.
That prayer was an oath, a covenant.
"I shall become a single blade, severing evil and protecting this land—"
Please bestow light upon this land.
If so, I shall erase all black things from this land—
"I offer my conviction to purge evil."
Erik's prayer reached completion.
Still no divine answer came forth, but through the vast sanctity dwelling within Erik's body as a medium, pure sanctity descended upon the earth.
A brilliant beam of light tore through the blackened sky and struck down.
Baaang!!!
From heaven to earth.
The light drove back the darkness and erased the erosive effects of black magic.
As the black magic that had relentlessly consumed everything was pushed back, the black thing finally spoke for the first time.
"How vile."
The surface of the pitch-black form resembling human shape now displayed a distorted visage with twisted eyes, nose, and mouth.
The moment the black thing contorted its face—
"—Silence."
Thud!
A heavy shockwave accompanied Erik's form vanishing.
***
'I have established sanctity.'
Black magic erosion functioned similarly to a field effect.
Just as a flame mage became more efficient when turning the ground into a sea of fire, so too did black mages.
'Death has been pushed back.'
Erik had successfully repelled the apocalypse-tier black mage's power.
Establishing sanctity meant that divine power had directly descended upon the material realm.
'Yet...'
The problem was that the enemy was far too strong.
A black mage with seven lines.
Over a million souls sacrificed, with centuries of accumulated lifespan to spare.
"Kughk"
Erik rushed at the black thing the moment he established sanctity. Drawing out his wings and grasping Sword of Creation, he unleashed a lightning-fast ambush, yet—
"How feeble."
His all-consuming strike was blocked with embarrassing ease.
The black thing merely stirred smoke, and Erik's blade could neither advance nor retreat, trapped within it.
The black thing tilted its head.
"What did you expect from a low-tier plaything of a pathetic god?"
Erik spat blood pooling at the corner of his mouth, glaring at it.
They had merely collided.
His insides felt completely shattered.
Concealing such a bodily state, Erik spoke matter-of-factly.
"When did this subordinate begin its activities?"
The black mage group he had driven to annihilation—
Before becoming a group, they had carried the name 'Black Society'.
'Reestablished in merely a decade?'
Erik felt bewilderment at the impossible, but what the black thing said next left him unable to hide his shock.
It said—
"We conducted a merger and acquisition."
The words were not of a typical black mage, yet their meaning was unmistakable.
Who had acquired whom, and how?
'A black mage acquiring another black mage.'
In other words—
'Madness...'
Fratricide had allowed the Black Mage Group to revive in a single blow.
The brief exchange ended, and the black thing swung its dominion toward Erik.
Bang!!
Erik was pushed high into the sky.
He spread his wings in the void and came to a stable hover.
"Kughk"
To summarize his impressions from a brief exchange—
'A monster.'
It erased sanctity and effortlessly dismissed power strengthened by blessing.
The apocalypse-tier black mage with seven lines was truly a monster.
"Erik, when facing creatures that wield dominion, there is something necessary."
Firm determination of will and unwavering, straightforward direction of faith.
This was 'Conviction'.
'Is it still insufficient?'
Erik, unable to commune with God.
His faith was built solely upon himself as the standard.
'No. My faith is genuine.'
Purchasing sanctity with money.
Growing stronger through expenditure—Erik was precisely such a person.
Yet with power obtained in such a manner, he would protect all that was precious to him.
Kkeuk.
Erik gripped the sword hilt firmly. Sword of Creation blazed as sanctity poured forth like a torrent.
Observing this, the black thing commanded—
"Corrupt the axis of sanctity."
Five black mages bowed their heads and moved toward the pillar of light.
Within it lay Erica and the Imperial Guard.
Erik trusted in their strength.
Because of this—
"—Protect them."
Leaving only that word, Erik rushed at the apocalypse once more.
He had to give his all during this moment when the creature focused on him.
'Should it unleash even a curse...'
The moment the apocalypse turned its attention from combat to slaughter, the southern region of the Empire would become a Demon Realm.
Bang—!
A single line remained as Erik shot forward like an arrow.
The black thing swung its hand again.
Seureuruk.
Black smoke like heat shimmer grasped Erik's blade.
Yet Erik's conviction grew ever more solid and steadfast.
"My child, my child left first."
"All I could do was... share the pain before my child departed."
"So please do not apologize so much. I wish for you to live differently than my child."
Painful memories flickered through his mind.
This was a cherished remembrance.
The reason Erik sought to protect.
"—Creation."
The source of emotion that became the foundation of his conviction to drive evil from this land.
Erik's sword spilled forth light.
The blade trapped within heat shimmer tore through empty space.
Kyeeing!!!
Letting loose a clear resonant cry, a line was drawn point-blank along the sword's trajectory.
'I shall establish conviction and achieve miracles.'
A circular halo gleamed brilliantly above Erik's head.
And—
Bang!!!
A late-arriving sound explosion erupted as all black things began getting sucked inward.
The line drawn along the sword's arc.
Creation — the dimensional rift leading to the world of sanctity displayed such vivid presence.
Upon this, the apocalypse wept tears of blood.
"Descend—"
With those words, a demon descended upon the world.
***
It was a dragon.
A colossal dragon with undulating black flames as its skin.
The dragon was born from the black thing, consuming it as it manifested upon the earth.
"—Let apocalypse fall upon this land—!"
Even as the black thing was absorbed into the dragon, gaining even greater power, it offered its wish.
Kuoeoeoe!!!
The black dragon roared.
In response to the fervent wish of its follower who had sacrificed his body to manifest it, who had accumulated souls across a lifetime to give it concrete form.
Tak, tak-dak.
The black thing intermingled with the dragon's flames wore a clear smile.
"...What the!"
Within the divine light established by Erik, Erica stared blankly upward.
The battle between the possessors and those possessed had long ceased.
"Damn it, whoever wins up there will kill everyone anyway—let's not waste energy."
Raising both hands, the possessors proposed surrender.
Erica agreed with this assessment.
In truth, the black mages had avoided fighting within the sanctity pillar.
There was no reason to fight while feeling their entire bodies burn.
'Let's just flee and bolt from here.'
Already, the five black mages had hardened their resolve.
They came because someone summoned a subordinate and opened a portal, not expecting to get caught up in a battle between monsters like these...
Baaaaaang!!!
A colossal Holy Paladin swung his sword toward the dragon blanketing the heavens.
The Holy Paladin was immense, yet the dragon overwhelmed him in scale. Thus the Holy Paladin appeared utterly tiny.
"How is a mere human fighting a dragon like that?"
The possessor muttered in a daze.
No matter how you looked at it, the black dragon was an unreasonable existence like a natural disaster.
Yet a Holy Paladin swinging a sword against such a thing.
"That is..."
An Imperial Guard knight harbored doubts similar to those of the possessors.
"...What is happening here?"
One Imperial Guard asked Erica, but no matter how much her mind churned, no satisfactory answer came.
'Divine...'
Rather, Erica's mind directly conjured a single character.
Erik is divine.
Establishing sanctity upon this land, driving back darkness, defeating the descended demon—he was no different from a god's incarnation.
Thus Erica knelt, gazing upward.
"Aah"
The Imperial Guard knights found it difficult to understand Erica kneeling while leaving the black mages behind them.
However
Kugugugugung!
As the black dragon scattered pitch-black flames in all directions from those lofty heights
Kyeeing!!!
A clear divine light tearing through darkness swallowed that blackness.
As the dark sky cleared and a single beam of light caressed the crops, they too felt a natural desire to offer reverence.
"My god, Erik."
Beginning with Erica's earnest prayer, the Imperial Guard knights too collapsed to the ground one after another, raising prayers toward Erik.
'Is he really only fifteen?'
The possessors could not believe the sight before their eyes.
Local black mages' descents experienced reduced efficiency, but even accounting for that, Erik's feats defied all logic.
"That subordinate of theirs..."
The subordinate lived for centuries, commanding them like slaves with mere words—a supremely powerful black mage.
The demon this subordinate summoned had consumed its summoner, gaining even greater power.
Yet still,
"Is the dragon's breath being severed?"
The Holy Paladin slicing through black dragon breath and ascending.
"Hey, that guy's limbs are all severed too. He just doesn't know it yet..."
Of course, the apocalypse's power was formidable.
Erik's body accumulated wounds upon wounds.
Arms severed, legs burned away.
Even his lower body vanished entirely—
"Does that even make sense? The limbs just regrow the moment they're cut..."
Yet predicting the subordinate's victory proved remarkably difficult.
Rather, the situation appeared increasingly desperate.
"No matter how much sanctity..."
Such high-speed bodily regeneration was something a bishop-tier cleric achieved perhaps once daily at best.
"..."
Amazement gave way to silence.
How was a single human winning against a monster blanketing the heavens?
What was this sanctity?
Such thoughts drifted through their minds.
'What were the possessors even dragged here to do?'
An existential question even arose.
"Aah... My god, Erik."
Had not those reputed iron-hearted Imperial Guard knights abandoned the enemy at their backs and knelt upon the ground like fanatics?
Based on this series of events, the possessors decided their course of action.
"Let's bolt."
The justification was sufficient.
With this subordinate summoning a demon and being slaughtered to death.
Rather, leaving with intelligence would prove more beneficial to the company.
[Guild Home Transfer Ticket]
The posessors drew the ticket from their Inventory.
A ticket toward the Black Mage Group branch located in the demon realm—a safe location with no risk of exposure like the Garcian Kingdom.
Zziik!
The possessors tore the ticket—
"Huh? Why...?"
"Transfer seal? What does this mean?"
They looked at their status window in confusion, gazing upward.
Conveniently, Erik too was looking down at the possessors.
Their eyes met.
Looking down at the possessor, Erik spoke.
"Where are you going?"
His eyes shone with golden brilliance more vividly than ever.
[The Divine Edifice has become clearer.]
[I shall establish conviction and achieve miracles.]
[The laws of the world are twisted.]
[Transfer effects have been sealed.]