Chapter 45: Stream
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[System Message]
▶ The main event, ‘Twin Clowns’, begins.
▶ The Hero’s disposition will change based on the outcome!
▶ Relationships with certain characters will change based on the outcome!
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“Huh, Miss? What on earth—”
Vespa was about to question Gray, who had suddenly fallen out of thin air, but her mouth clamped shut immediately.
It was only natural—outside the window, a scene so bizarre that anyone would notice something was wrong was unfolding.
Though it was still early evening with the sun just beginning to set, darkness was rapidly swallowing the surroundings as if night had been forcibly dragged in.
A pitch-black darkness, as if someone had accelerated time to bring night prematurely, enveloped everything.
No, upon closer inspection.
That darkness was actually countless tiny, bird-shaped wraiths.
There were just so many of them that they blotted out the sky.
“……Well, I’ll be damned.”
Siona let out an incredulous laugh as she watched.
It seemed that the creature, presumably summoned from the black market, had grown its forces during the short walk here.
‘No wonder Carlisle was in such a hurry.’
If they had given it even a little more time, it would have truly escalated into a catastrophe requiring the mobilization of the entire city’s forces.
According to Carlisle, that thing was a ‘lowly ghost’—a Demon not even ranked particularly high.
And yet, just its appearance alone had caused this much chaos.
“How did it multiply so much? Wraiths shouldn’t be able to form unless there are corpses.”
“It must have devoured the ones inside the black market.”
Siona shrugged as she spoke.
“Well, does it matter? They were trash anyway.”
“…….”
“…….”
Vespa and the princess looked at Siona with uncomfortable expressions.
Of course, it was true that the black market was filled with such people, but treating human lives so callously was clearly unsettling for these soft-hearted individuals.
But there was no time to argue.
From among the swarming wraiths in the sky, something resembling a ‘hand’ abruptly thrust out.
As if tearing through its own shell, something slithered out and landed with a heavy thud in front of the group’s building.
A purple giant, draped in flayed human skin like clothing, with skulls dangling from its body like macabre ornaments.
The grotesque veins and strips of flesh stretched across its facial features gave it the appearance of a clown.
“…….”
Vespa and the princess paled, covering their mouths with their hands.
Even Siona frowned at its horrifying visage—one so disturbing that merely looking at it felt like it would erode one’s sanity.
-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then, a deafening shriek tore from the Demon’s mouth.
The sheer force of its cry cracked every glass window in the building, caused the exterior walls to crumble, and even fissured the brick pavement.
For it to wreak this much havoc before even fighting—it was a clear display of the Demon’s monstrous power.
All except one.
A single person with nerves of steel, utterly unfazed.
Gray glared fiercely at the creature and roared back, channeling her magic into her voice.
“SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUP—!”
Simultaneously.
-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A shockwave, easily twice as powerful as the Demon’s battle cry, rippled outward, collapsing an entire section of the building’s wall.
“…….”
“…….”
Everyone around her stared at Gray in disbelief.
Really, who else but this woman could win a shouting match against a Demon?
Though its expression was unreadable, even the Demon seemed momentarily stunned—whether it was just her imagination or not, it looked just as dumbfounded……
“Vespa.”
“Y-Yes, Miss!”
“You can use magic, right?”
“Yes!”
Gray tapped her holy sword lightly.
“Pour something into this—anything that’ll help in the fight. Can you do it?”
“Uh, I’ll try!”
“I’ll count to three—release it on my signal. Spirit Knight, you too.”
She seemed unusually… hurried.
Siona grinned, pointing it out.
“Hmm~ Hero. Planning to finish this quickly?”
“What reason is there to wait?”
“Even so, the opponent is a Demon. Shouldn’t you approach more cautiously?”
A Demon.
The enemy of mankind.
A clear-cut monstrosity that torments humans, devours them, and thrives on their suffering.
Even the weakest among them are vile creatures that embody the cruelest ways to inflict agony.
No matter how strong the Hero was, caution was only logical.
That was the intent behind her words, but—
“—No.”
Gray refused flatly.
“First, there’s no way I’d lose to that thing. Second.”
More importantly—
“That idiot is alone right now.”
The others could handle themselves, but…
Carlisle might be in danger.
“……Hmmm.”
Siona’s eyes curved into crescent moons.
“My, my~ How intriguing. Should I be giving you dating advice soon?”
“If you don’t shut up, I’ll cut you down first.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
After glaring briefly at the swiftly compliant Siona, Gray raised her sword.
“……Ten seconds.”
The words rumbled from her throat like a growl.
“I’ll kill it within that time.”
A moment later.
As if to prove her words to be true, Gray’s sword flashed, tearing through the sky.
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“—Good grief.”
Carlisle clicked his tongue at the brilliant flash of light beyond the annex.
Poor Demon—of all opponents, it had to face the Spirit Knight, the Hero, and a grand sorceress.
Vespa wasn’t at full strength yet, but the other two alone were monsters who would pummel it into oblivion.
He sighed deeply and scanned his surroundings.
‘The evacuation—’
Seemed to have gone smoothly.
He had asked the Gray Cardinal to help evacuate the guests and anyone in the Demons’ path.
And true to her reputation, the Gray Cardinal had fulfilled his request flawlessly.
To relocate so many people in just a few hours—what kind of methods had she used?
‘……Shouldn’t I be the one using magic?’
If Gray was a monster in combat, this woman was a monster of strategy.
It was hard to imagine any request she couldn’t handle. A terrifyingly reliable ally.
“Hey there—”
“…….”
……Except.
If only the Cardinal herself hadn’t trudged up to the rooftop where Carlisle was standing.
“What are you doing here?!”
Carlisle’s face paled as he shouted, and Cardinal Felix covered her face with both hands in mock embarrassment.
“Eek—save me—”
Her voice was pitched to sound like a frightened, delicate woman.
“You wouldn’t hand over such a frail lady to those cruel Demons, would you?”
“…….”
Carlisle stared at her, his expression nauseated as she twisted her body in an exaggerated display of vulnerability.
Was she always like this?
……No, more importantly.
Why the hell was she here?
She had openly admitted she couldn’t even use divine power—what was a useless person like her doing in a place like this?
“—Hm.”
Felix smirked, pulling her hood lower.
“I can’t use divine power, but I’m confident I won’t be a burden.”
“……Excuse me?”
“So, go ahead and do what you were planning. You wouldn’t be here alone if you didn’t have something up your sleeve, right?”
“…….”
“I came to see what it was.”
……Seriously.
Both Gray and this woman were equally self-centered in their own ways.
Carlisle gritted his teeth and gripped his holy sword.
At the same moment—
Darkness descended around them.
-……
-…………!!!!!
Wraiths surged from all directions.
Like a blanket of shadows, a massive ‘eye’ loomed in the distance—the other half of Belicor, the one that spawned wraiths.
‘……Good grief.’
Even after countless regressions, the sheer scale at which Demons operated never failed to unsettle him.
Even the lowest-ranked trash could blot out the sky.
“That’s a lot. Can you handle all of them?”
Handle them?
Could he handle them……
Carlisle chewed on the question bitterly, forcing a wry smile.
Truthfully, whether he could or couldn’t wasn’t the issue.
The problem lay elsewhere.
Especially if there was a witness.
“Cardinal.”
Carlisle sighed and spoke.
“Promise me one thing.”
“Hm?”
“You’re going to exploit whatever I do anyway, so I won’t ask you to keep quiet about it.”
He activated the Tear of the Star.
Channeled magic through the holy sword.
“But. If you try to misuse this, I will get angry.”
After all.
What he was about to unleash was—
A power surpassing even Gray’s in this timeline—the ‘strongest humanity has to offer.’
Its duration? A mere three seconds.
And even then—
‘Hero.’
[Yeah.]
‘Technically, it’s three seconds, but the actual usable time in battle is one second.’
Considering everything, that was the most accurate way to put it.
But the moment he said it, the holy sword let out an amused snort.
[Even half of that would be overkill.]
‘……’
As expected of the Hero.
Carlisle chuckled dryly and pressed the holy sword against his body.
A foreign something flowed into him.
And the next moment—
“Divine Decree.”
As Carlisle spoke—
The Cardinal’s eyes widened behind him.
Because the voice that left Carlisle’s lips was unmistakably mixed with something else.
‘……No, no, that’s not it.’
It wasn’t just the otherworldly tone.
As a Cardinal of the Orthodox Church, she had met countless superhumans.
And precisely because of that, she could tell—the power emanating from Carlisle now was undeniably from a different hierarchy.
How to describe it?
For a moment, the very air changed.
As if—
The ‘power’ dwelling within Carlisle was—
Like a sun bursting forth before her eyes—
……An overwhelming something of blinding brilliance.
“By the decree of the Zenith of All Creation—”
As he spoke—
Carlisle raised the Holy Sword.
“—Evil shall perish.”
The next instant—
-……
-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The sky split in two.
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