Chapter 85

Legion Commander of the Abyss

The Devotees of the Fallen Souls.

The true name of the Dark Merchant Company, an organization closer to a religious order than a trading company.

They were fanatics who worshipped the Sovereign of the Abyss, dwelling beyond the Negative Dimension, as their god. They believed true order would come only when it ruled this world.

Thus, the Devotees of the Fallen Souls had one overriding objective: to bring the Sovereign of the Abyss out of the Negative Dimension and manifest it on this continent.

To that end, they did everything they could and offered everything they had.

In return, the Sovereign of the Abyss lent them its power and even connected them to its trusted servants.

The chosen Devotees.

The allied army called those chosen Devotees the “legion commanders of the Abyss.”

In that sense, Avarus had not been a legion commander of the Abyss. He had merely been granted a true name, not chosen by a being of the Abyss.

Even the Elixir of Infinity Avarus had made was originally intended for Seraphia, not himself.

Avarus had received no power from the Sovereign of the Abyss or any other being of the Abyss. Calling him a legion commander of the Abyss would therefore have been something of a stretch.

Iratum, however, was different.

He was one of the chosen Devotees, someone who had forged a pact with a being of the Abyss and received power directly from it.

But as the translucent message had made clear, Iratum was dead.

That meant the entity shrouded in that dark-red mist was the being from far beyond the depths of the Negative Dimension that had lent Iratum power through their pact—one of the Sovereign of the Abyss’s closest servants.

And now, emerging from the dark-red mist, using Iratum as a medium to force its way through a crack in reality and manifest here...

That was Kraulgar, a true legion commander of the Abyss.

ROOOOOOOOAR!!

An immense roar from within the dark-red mist shook the entire sky over Violess.

“Ghh...!”

The ear-splitting reverberations engulfed the world. Instinctive fear surged up from deep within my chest.

The roar pierced my consciousness like a storm.

Just as my mind began to turn scarlet—

◆Player's Will[EX] resists the conceived anger!

A translucent message appeared before my eyes, snapping me back to my senses.

Then another message appeared.

◆One Conceived from Anger (Furyborn)[?]

: The user can absorb, generate, control, or manipulate anger/mental aberration energy from themselves, others, or their surroundings. Through this energy, they can amplify or suppress the intensity of anger, as well as generate and strengthen new anger energy.

They possess the ability to convert absorbed and generated anger energy into a physical form and transform it into power.

Kraulgar’s ability, One Conceived from Anger[?].

Kraulgar was a being born from the negative emotion of anger, the progenitor of anger, a being of the Abyss that ruled over anger energy.

Iratum had merely been a medium borrowing Kraulgar’s power.

In other words, this being was on an entirely different level from Iratum.

KABOOOOOM!!!

Kraulgar slammed its enormous, mace-like arm into the ground, causing an earthquake that shook the very foundations of the earth.

Having absorbed the anger energy of Violess, its destructive power was overwhelming.

There was a reason it had taken all the allied army’s heroes and every battalion commander together just to subdue it.

That was why I had tried to deal with Iratum quickly. I had deceived him completely, lured him into letting his guard down, and seized that single opportunity.

As a result, I had managed to blow Iratum away with Dragon Rage Explosion[E], but—

ROOOOOOOAR!!

I took an oil can from my Inventory and poured it down my throat. As I continued stockpiling calories, I studied Kraulgar carefully.

'It’s unstable.'

Kraulgar wasn’t in proper condition.

'It was weaker than I expected, too.'

Its earth-shaking destructive power was terrifying, but it fell short of what I had seen in my previous life.

'It’s a lot smaller, too.'

Kraulgar hadn’t been this small. Not that it was small now, of course.

But the Kraulgar that had overwhelmed the heroes had been nearly a hundred meters tall—more than twice its current size.

Which meant...

'Its manifestation is incomplete.'

The Iratum from my previous life, roughly fifteen years from now, had been able to manifest Kraulgar completely. The current Iratum could not.

More importantly, its medium, Iratum, had suffered devastating damage from Dragon Rage Explosion[E].

Kraulgar had merely forced itself to manifest through the dead body of Iratum, to whom it was bound. I could tell from the way its body was crumbling by the moment.

In other words, the operation had been a success.

'We have a chance.'

This was well worth a try.

'I need to buy time.'

A head-on fight, however, was out of the question.

And Isolde—

“Hah...!”

Isolde staggered violently. She had used Divine Ascension twice in succession, and her desperate battle with Iratum on top of that had left her in terrible shape.

“Are you all right?”

“I-I’m fi—!”

She swallowed her words and bit down hard on her lower lip. Fresh red blood trickled from beneath her ogre mask.

A woman who was practically divine power made flesh, and she couldn’t heal her wounds.

In short, Isolde had reached her limit. She couldn’t fight any longer.

Expecting anything more from her now would be asking too much. She had performed her role better than I had hoped.

So now...

“I’ll draw its attention this time.”

It was my turn.

* * *

The moment the immense roar engulfed the skies over Violess, Isolde felt as though thunder had exploded inside her skull.

Her mind lost its balance, clouding over in an instant.

She squeezed out her divine power to erect a mental barrier, but it was useless. Overloaded by repeated uses of Divine Ascension, her body would barely obey her.

“Hah...!”

The lingering roar made her tremble. She felt as if something enormous were crushing her.

Even breathing was a struggle. Her legs could no longer support her.

Just as the roar’s incessant echoes were tearing her mind apart—

“I’ll draw its attention this time.”

Adrian’s voice rang out calmly.

She could sense nothing in that voice. Yet she felt her reason and emotions, which had been wandering through an oppressive dream, begin to settle.

She slowly raised her head.

“Lady Isolde, get as far from Violess as you can.”

With those words, Adrian leaped as if taking flight.

KABOOOM!

His superhuman leg strength carried him well over ten meters, and he bounded freely among the buildings still standing.

He lacked wings, but as long as he had something to push off, he might as well have been flying.

But there stood the enormous beast, its skin hard as rock, dark-red markings glowing across its body.

Those markings emitted a faint radiance like living things, shining more fiercely as its anger mounted. Its luminous eyes blazed like fire, and within them lay an emotion beyond anger: murderous intent.

Murderous intent...?

No, that wasn’t murderous intent.

It was malice, chilling enough to make every hair on her body stand on end.

That dizzying malice shook Isolde’s mind to its core. Something beyond the Abyss whispered ceaselessly to her.

And yet Adrian bared his merciless instincts and leaped at the beast.

He charged up its leg, extending his sharp nails and tearing into its rock-hard skin.

'How...?'

How could he withstand that and fight?

Even the faintest trace of that malice filled her with shuddering terror.

Adrian kept attacking. Each time his nails grazed the beast’s skin, they left tiny cracks.

But the overwhelming disparity in their size was something he could never overcome.

RRRRRUMBLE...!

The ground collapsed as the beast moved.

KABOOOOM!!

It swung a fist, tearing through the air with an explosive boom. The impact split the ground, scattering earth and rubble.

“Ghah!”

The erupting shock wave sent Adrian bouncing several times like a stone skipping across water. But he got up again.

Once more, he leaped with superhuman leg strength and darted between the beast’s legs as if trying to confuse its vision.

This time, he didn’t extend his nails. Instead, he clenched his fist tight and struck its leg.

THOOOM!!

The beast staggered for a moment—

ROOOOOOOAR!!

Another tremendous shock wave swept through all of Violess.

The beast’s red eyes burned with rage as it stared at Adrian. A hand larger than a building swung at him again.

KABOOOOOOM!!!

Dust and debris erupted into the sky over Violess. The fissures in the ground widened, and a deafening rumble mingled with explosions to resound between heaven and earth.

“Leave this to me and get to safety, now!!”

Adrian shouted urgently.

Isolde clenched her gauntleted fists, then relaxed them.

Her body was overloaded from repeated uses of Divine Ascension. Looking at it objectively, she could not fight any longer. If she joined the battle in some misguided attempt to help, she would only get in Adrian’s way.

Leaving now was the best way to help him.

But she couldn’t simply flee.

“U-ughhh...!”

“Uaaagh...!”

The vagrants of the Ruins District. The people Iratum had captured, who hadn’t managed to evacuate.

Had the shock waves crushed them? Or had their mental fortitude failed them?

Their eyes rolled back, and their bodies did nothing but tremble.

What would happen if she fled now?

A moment of silence.

Then it happened.

KEEEEEEN!

A strange sound suddenly burst from the markings etched into the beast’s skin.

Like living creatures, the markings emitted a blazing red light that obliterated the boundary between day and night in an instant.

“You can’t withstand this!! Get out of here, now!!”

Adrian shouted urgently, his warning fierce, as if telling her not to even dream of trying to handle it with divine power.

She didn’t know what it was or why it had provoked that reaction from him. But she knew that these people would certainly die.

Already, everything around them was turning to ruin.

... Could she do it?

Isolde clenched her gauntleted fists tight.

... She had to.

Without hesitation, she leaped in. Crossing her arms, she expanded her divine power.

A holy veil flared outward from her crossed arms, enveloping her and the people around her.

Divine Martial Fist. Celestia Style.

Celestial Guardian.

CRAAACK!!

Formless energy slammed into the holy veil.

Isolde knew at once.

... She couldn’t withstand this.

Raging fury stained the night sky red.

ROOOOOOOOAR!!!

The hope that had enveloped the sky was being eaten away.

That savage anger had no end. It held nothing but unspeakable malice.

Driving back that endless evil was impossible, and yet...

“You never did listen, and you still don’t!!”

It was a battle someone had to endure, no matter what.