Chapter 204 - Sloth and Thunder (6)

BOOOOOOM!!!!

The violent explosion from the falling purple star swallowed the ruins and the forest. When the dust cleared, it revealed Deus lunging forward and driving his sword into the Apostle of Sloth's heart.

"Ghk!"

'It worked.'

Alon let out a small sigh at the sight. Just as he had hoped, Deus had put his advice to excellent use.

What Alon had advised Deus to do was a technique the Sin of Sloth used in the game's second phase, after the player cleared the first: binding invisible mana with threads.

'... Teaching him how the Sin of Sloth uses threads was the right choice after all.'

With that thought, Alon looked at the Apostle of Sloth.

The apostle was in a horrific state. Both arms were gone, and the right side of the back of the head had been crushed. Simply remaining upright was practically a miracle. Deus's sword had pierced clean through the apostle's heart.

"Gah!"

SPLURT!

Black blood sprayed in every direction, welling back up and gushing from the apostle's mouth.

By any measure, it was a complete victory. But just as Deus tried to push his sword deeper to finish it—

"Heh."

The apostle began to laugh.

"Heh heh heh."

It was a vacant laugh, yet unlike any emotion the apostle had shown so far. A laugh utterly free of care.

Deus stared at the apostle's broad grin.

"!"

SLASH!

Instead of pushing his sword farther in, he immediately ripped it upward. A fountain of blood erupted.

But—

"!"

Despite having been split in two from the heart all the way to the head, the Apostle of Sloth spoke through choking chuckles.

"Fine, I admit it. I let my guard down. I never imagined you could use your ability to that extent without borrowing that one's power."

"But—do you really think this is the end?"

"!"

The apostle gave a grotesque smile, hideous enough to send a chill through anyone who saw it.

Deus wrapped purple threads around the apostle's remaining limbs and tore them apart outright, but—

"!"

The shredded body turned into black threads and was sucked into the black veins.

CRACK!

The eggs burst open, and spiders sprang out.

SKREEEE!

Each spider was the size of a grown man, and their appearance was profoundly bizarre. Every one had a human face embedded like a pattern in its abdomen. They crawled out of their broken shells with movements that made the skin crawl.

It was a truly nauseating sight.

But that was not the end. Before long, the spiders that had poured out began to kill themselves.

THUNK!

"...?"

"Wh-what is this?"

Sircal was bewildered, while Reinhardt cried out despite himself.

The spiders' mass suicide did not stop. As though something controlled them, they tore open their own throats or ripped their bodies apart, ending their lives. Then they collapsed to the ground and began to be absorbed into the veins.

"!"

Only then did Alon realize what these spiders were doing.

At that moment—

BOOM!

The ground began to collapse.

RUUUUMBLE!!!!!

An immense noise battered everyone's eardrums, and a tremor powerful enough to make standing almost impossible shook heaven and earth.

"What the fuck—!"

Reinhardt's voice came out harshly as he spotted something rising and overturning the earth.

"What is that?"

It was enormous enough to bring down the entire ruins.

"... An abomination."

It was Kraksha, harboring the Abomination of Sloth.

■■■■■■■■■■■■■—!!!!!

As though hatching from an egg, Kraksha broke through the ground and rose with a horrifying, unnatural cry. At its appearance, every knight's eyes filled with fear.

"Fucking hell—"

The curse escaped Reinhardt involuntarily as he adjusted his grip on his sword. He hurriedly scanned their surroundings, dismay plain on his face. Spiders still alive carpeted the entire ruins.

"B-black mana!"

To make matters worse, black mana began spilling out the instant Kraksha emerged from its underground burrow. The knights' fear was now turning to panic.

"Tch!"

Deus hurriedly spread his purple threads to hold back the black mana, but Reinhardt's urgent voice rang out.

"Hey, Marquis! You never mentioned this!"

'... I never expected even an abomination to appear.'

Alon scanned the area, inwardly frowning behind his expressionless face. Hundreds upon thousands of spiders filled his view.

More despairing still was the fact that killing them all would not allow anyone to escape. Even if they dealt with every spider, Kraksha would remain, spreading black mana just as the apostle had.

It was a desperate situation by any reckoning. There was no escape, and even if they fought, no one could dare promise victory. They were beset on every side.

Alon let out a small sigh.

'I hadn't intended to use it here—but I have no choice.'

Just as he reached inside his coat—

"!"

The scene before his eyes changed.

He saw the Milky Way across a blue night sky. The instant he registered it, Alon instinctively knew where he was.

["Thankfully, you arrived early."]

A girl's voice—no, the voice of Kalanon, the Receiver of Lightning, rang out.

["But things seem rather difficult for you, so I'll quickly explain how to manifest."]

Dark clouds began to gather across the blue sky.

####

The worst possible situation. Quite literally, the worst.

Alon's already expressionless face grew even more rigid. Seeing it, Reinhardt clenched his teeth.

'Damn it...!'

A monstrous creature loomed before him. The spider stood in all its imposing glory, so overwhelmingly huge that it seemed capable of crushing the world.

Of course, an enemy's size meant little to Reinhardt unless it was on the scale of the Rain Altar. Even so, he felt overwhelmed.

He knew instinctively that this creature was dangerous—and that the black mana it spewed was no different from what the apostle had spread earlier.

'This isn't good.'

Reinhardt assessed the situation coolly, though anxiety filled his body. The giant spider radiated a dangerous presence strong enough to put even him on edge. Meanwhile, the smaller spiders surrounded the entire ruins, forming an encirclement.

But the most hopeless factor here was the knights who had come in with them. He had brought them to keep the Apostle of Sloth from manipulating the residual mana in the air. Now, instead, their presence was a cause for despair.

Once the temporary seal Marquis Pallatio and Deus had placed on the black mana broke, and it began exerting its power again, most of the knights here would become mere puppets.

'What should I do?'

Reinhardt looked around anxiously. Sircal could no more hide her tension than he could. Even now, Deus was using his purple threads to hold back the encroaching black mana.

As though mocking their efforts, a voice descended from overhead.

["Heh. I never thought you'd force me to go this far. Good thing I prepared this."]

Reinhardt looked up at the grotesquely distorted voice.

"Fuck—you aren't dead?"

Looming above him was the Apostle of Sloth, with only the upper body exposed. The hideously mangled apostle gave a sinister smile.

Then the apostle began snapping the purple threads Deus had spread.

["Did you really think I'd prepare all this without making a final contingency? No—well, I suppose you might. Ordinarily, my power alone would have been more than enough to deal with you."]

SNAP!

["Unfortunately for you, I make thorough preparations for every eventuality."]

SNAP SNAP SNAP!

"Tch!"

Deus rushed to reinforce the threads. But despite his efforts, they were severed faster and faster. His earlier strike had already consumed far more power than he had expected.

At last, the purple threads holding back the black mana snapped completely.

"Ah..."

A quiet groan escaped someone's lips. The apostle atop Kraksha twisted that smile still further upward. Just as the black mana was about to spill into the area Deus had protected—

RUMBLE!

"...?"

Reinhardt suddenly realized something. The sky, which had been clear just moments before, was now covered in dark clouds.

And that was not all.

PAT! PATTER PATTER!

Within mere seconds, rain began falling from the overcast sky, as though someone were deliberately controlling it.

"What—?"

Confusion crossed the Apostle of Sloth's face, triumphant until only moments ago. Marquis Pallatio, who had remained silent, began walking slowly forward, his footsteps sounding against the ground.

One step. Then another.

He approached Kraksha, from which the black mist flowed.

He formed no seals. He recited no phrases. He spoke no sentences, nor did he move his mana.

He simply walked.

Toward Kraksha. Toward the source of the black mana. Like a moth to a flame.

And he did not stop there. Marquis Pallatio kept walking, casually crossing the threads Deus was desperately trying to restore as a barrier.

["Heh, have you given up on everything?"]

"My lord, what in the world—!"

The Apostle of Sloth sneered again, while Deus cried out in horror. But—

CRACKLE!

For an instant, their surroundings flashed. And in that fleeting moment, Deus saw lightning flow from Alon's fingertips.

A spark of static electricity appeared. A tiny one.

Yet it shone distinctly in the dark gray world. In an instant, it flashed blue and touched the black mana. The moment they made contact—

CRACKLE-CRACKLE!!!

The black mana began turning into blue lightning.

["What—!"]

The apostle gasped in bewilderment. But the static flowing from Alon's fingertips raced unhindered through the black mana, turning all of it into lightning.

Watching that spectacle, Alon recalled what Kalanon had told him.

["Wielding divine stature isn't particularly difficult. You need only draw out the divine stature within you. But merely drawing it out won't let you freely wield the power it holds."]

He looked ahead. There was no longer any black mana floating in the air. In its place was vividly blue lightning.

Kalanon's voice continued.

["That is why you must accept the divine stature you have drawn out."]

["I'll kill you—!"]

■■■■■■■■■■■—!!!!

As though sensing that something ominous was about to happen, Kraksha raised its enormous leg. At the same time, the spiders surrounding them began charging with hideous cries.

["Accepting divine stature is difficult. It takes more practice than you might think. But—this time, I'll help you. So focus on pulling the trigger. The trigger is—"]

The leg that had risen into the air against the falling rain came crashing down. Countless spiders lunged at Marquis Pallatio in unison.

Yet even in that fleeting instant, Alon did nothing but raise his left hand.

["To seize the lightning—"]

"Seize it."

He simply grasped the mana rippling like lightning all around him.

At that moment—

CLICK!

Everything stopped.

The pouring rain stopped. The spiders rushing toward Alon stopped. Kraksha's enormous leg stopped, and the lightning grasped in Alon's hand vanished.

It was as though time had stopped throughout the world.

Then—

"...!"

Sircal was the first to notice the strange phenomenon.

'They're... disappearing?'

She realized that the countless spiders charging at Alon moments earlier were vanishing like dust as they hung motionless in the air. Slowly, starting at the tips of their legs.

As she watched the spiders return to dust, like corpses returning to the earth—

"Manifestation."

A quiet voice rang out, and she saw lightning burst explosively from Marquis Pallatio's body. Blue lightning erupted with a tremendous roar, as though it would devour the entire world.

At the same time, blue horns began growing from Marquis Pallatio's head.

At last, amid the rain and wind that began sweeping down once more, fiercer than before, a god manifested.

CRACKLE!

Kalanon, the Receiver of Lightning.