Chapter 113 - A Wild Card (2)

A demon-god fragment was, naturally, not something easily obtained.

Even for demons, who could be considered its direct descendants, using another of the very same thing they had unleashed in the capital so recently was all but impossible.

Given the limited number Aiden knew existed, such a thing was far too precious to waste on a mere gathering of royals like this.

In other words...

'... A replica.'

That was a far more plausible conclusion. Its operating principles and mechanisms would be identical to the original, but its power was very likely much weaker.

Who had set it off, how they had managed it, and for what purpose were questions he would have to investigate in time. But if that was indeed what it was, dealing with it using only the people here was not impossible.

... Though certain people would have to go through absolute hell.

"... Shall I?"

Noel looked at Aiden uneasily. Her face said she had never imagined she would have to do this again, but he nodded mercilessly.

The first ones he needed to send in were Alester and Julius.

Ordinarily, they would have protested and asked whether he was out of his mind. Unfortunately for them, the Pontiff had just indirectly told them to follow Aiden's instructions, leaving them unable to resist.

"Throw them."

At those words, the two men shot high into the sky. They flew until they were face-to-face with the black death energy now beginning to creep toward the ground.

"Tch!"

Julius wore the expression of a man who had instinctively realized he was facing the greatest crisis of his life.

All trace of his earlier languor vanished as he swiftly raised his rune-inscribed arm. Runes whose effects had once impressed even Aiden radiated outward, charged with divinity.

-[ᚲ] Kenaz

His already fiercely burning divinity blazed twice as intensely as before. It was so dazzling that some people instinctively shielded their eyes.

"...!"

The strain on Julius himself must have been immense, for he gritted his teeth.

As Julius spoke in a voice torn by pain, Alester steadied his breathing with a resolute expression.

"Brother! I'm counting on you!"

The flames Alester raised beside him eclipsed even Julius's dazzling divinity.

He seemed every bit as aware of the danger as Julius. Streams of divinity poured forth, the difference between this and what he had used against the royals earlier as vast as that between a match flame and a wildfire.

Before long, Julius's and Alester's divinity met and mingled. They were, in effect, joining their powers into a barrier.

Additional supporting spells from the other royals were layered thickly behind it.

It was fair to say they had scraped together every ounce of strength the Holy Kingdom's divinity wielders had to offer. In terms of sheer protection, wouldn't its tremendous resilience rival a barrier deployed by an entire military corps?

'... That should stop the first wave, at least.'

Watching it take shape, Aiden nodded inwardly.

*'Still, as good a job as they've done...'

Would that really be enough?

Was a demon-god fragment really so easy to deal with?

In contrast to his thoughts, exclamations of admiration rose around him for the moment.

Their reactions clearly said that this was just what they expected of the royals at the top of the succession rankings. But soon, their expressions began to change.

Alester and Julius, who were holding it back themselves, looked much the same.

At first, they had looked proud, certain they would stop it. Now their faces were suffused with the peculiar bewilderment of men whose expectations had been betrayed.

Those who faced the breath of destruction approaching within a hair's breadth would realize instinctively:

This was a calamity.

This was the worst of nightmares.

This was not something they could fight.

Replica or not, it contained the might of a malevolent god capable of devouring the entire world. Even with all their powers combined, humans on this scale had never stood a chance of stopping it.

And, just as Aiden had expected all along, the phenomenon began to unfold.

* * *

* * *

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Death energy collided with the barrier, producing a horrific resonance. The two enormous forces clashed at full strength, triggering a colossal explosion.

The pure-white protective barrier and the black death energy pushed against each other in a tug-of-war.

On the surface, they might have looked evenly matched. In reality, the struggle was anything but.

"... It's breaking through?!"

"Impossible! That easily?!"

There was a reason Aiden had specified the first wave earlier.

Confronted with the barrier the two men had joined together, the death energy was indeed unable to descend directly to the ground.

Instead, it seeped through the gaps.

Like dripping water that eventually penetrated a rock's cracks and split it apart, it subtly but surely worked its way inside, widening the fractures.

But...

'It's slowed down.'

Its force had also weakened unmistakably compared to before it began breaching their barrier.

They could not force the entire thing back and annihilate it as the Lord Protector's Remnant had, but they would still serve admirably to check its descent for the moment. They were, after all, two men ranked just below the very strongest of the royals.

Aiden's certainty that they could stop the first wave meant, in other words, that he was sure they could do at least that much.

Just before the death energy, which seemed to devour everything in its path, could engulf them, Aiden made his next move.

"Dame Noel."

"... Yes?"

Noel, who had been watching with her teeth clenched like everyone else, tilted her head.

She was dumbfounded by how calmly he addressed her amid all this tension, as though inviting her out for a stroll. But then her face grew far more tense than before.

'... That's his look.'

She did not know what he was planning, but the expression he wore when preparing to launch into some bizarre stunt was now plain on his face.

And as Noel shifted warily, Aiden delivered a line that did not disappoint.

"We're going to jump up there, Dame Noel."

He was pointing straight into the heart of the death energy struggling to break through the barrier completely and descend.

"... Why?"

"Have you ever seen me do anything pointless?"

And, as always, he absolutely refused to explain why he was doing it. What a nightmare...

While Noel entertained that thought, Aiden moved again.

He walked over to Mylène, who was concentrating on a supporting spell like the other royals, and snapped his fingers in front of her eyes.

It was completely inappropriate and outrageously rude, but that hardly mattered. What he was about to do would draw attention in a thoroughly... embarrassing way anyway.

As she slowly turned her head toward him, he pointed at Alester and Julius, who were maintaining the barrier in midair.

"Look after those two, please."

"... Huh?"

"There's really no one else I can ask, Your Highness."

Then his finger swung toward Katya, who stood a short distance away.

"... And stop her later, too."

... Probably no one but this man knew what she would need to be stopped from doing.

Before the bewildered Mylène could reply, Aiden returned to Noel and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Let's go."

"... No, I mean, why are we going—"

"If we don't hurry, we'll be in serious trouble."

"..."

Noel had a feeling they would be in serious trouble even if they did go. But Aiden was the only one with a solution in a situation like this.

Looking as though she had lost half her will to live, she took him on her back and leaped.

Reaching the two royals in an instant, Aiden now laid a friendly hand on each of their shoulders.

They were clearly suffering pain so intense that it numbed every sense in their bodies, yet even then, they noticed him and turned their heads with difficulty.

He waved loosely downward, but the two men failed to understand and simply stared blankly at him.

"I'm telling you to lower the barrier."

"..."

"There's no point keeping it up any longer anyway."

"..."

Apparently too strained even to answer, they gave him looks that asked whether he was insane.

'... You're not wrong.'

While Noel answered for him in her head, Aiden sighed in frustration at the two uncomprehending men and channeled supernatural power into the shoulders he held.

Then he shoved them roughly downward.

Their bodies, held aloft by their spells, lurched at once. The raging force breaching the barrier accelerated further.

Unconcerned, Aiden shoved them downward once more.

"What in the world...!"

He grabbed Alester before the man could finish and hurled him toward Mylène. Then he immediately did the same to Julius.

Naturally, the spell shattered, and the black breath of death surged toward them like a wave.

"..."

With only seconds left before they were directly exposed to it, Aiden sighed, glancing between it and Noel.

'... Ah.'

Teresa might beat him within an inch of his life later.

He was already afraid of how Katya would react, too.

But even so...

'... I had to try it myself at least once.'

This was the only way he could think of to stop that thing here and now.

It was a step he would have had to take sooner or later anyway.

He did feel that his approach was far more drastic than he had expected, but there was no helping it.

"Dame Noel."

"Yes! If you have something to say, please hurry! At this rate, we're going to die—!"

"I'll take full responsibility afterward."

At those solemn words, Noel stopped short.

She must have realized it, too.

Aiden's demeanor was subdued in a way that was entirely unlike his usual madness.

... In a way, he almost looked guilty.

But rather than say anything about it, he gently cupped the back of her head.

It was an extraordinarily tender gesture, utterly at odds with the situation.

"... Aiden?"

Noel asked the question in outright alarm, wondering just what he was about to do to make him act this way.

And then, holding Noel as she stared at him without the slightest understanding of what he was doing, Aiden pressed his lips to hers.