Side Story Chapter 112
“Gabriel!” Raphael shouted.
“Loose!” Gabriel immediately ordered, his commanding voice quashing the paladins’ panic. “Prioritize taking out the flying mages! Disregard all of the knights approaching the walls!”.
The paladins raised their divine bows to the sky, and launched hundreds of arrows simultaneously. The rain of light arcing through the air was majestic, but Iceline and the other mages didn’t stop to watch.
Iceline acted first by firing her Blizzard, a sixth-circle spell, cueing all sorts of lightning bolts and a hail of fire to smash against the incandescent mana arrows launched by the paladins.
Despite how powerful the attacks were, both sides held their lines. Considering that the mages all had at least four circles, those bow artifacts were remarkably strong.
At that moment, someone leaped on top of the ramparts.
“A-Already...?” Gabriel’s divine bow jerked, his eyes widening.
An elderly man stood in front of Gabriel; his name was Duke Tremblin, famously known as the Sword Emperor—and he was swinging his saber toward Gabriel’s neck.
“Gah...!” Gabriel grunted.
“Get down, Gabriel!” Raphael shouted.
Gabriel threw himself to the ground without a second thought, allowing Raphael to swing his sword right over Gabriel’s head.
However, the outcome of their clash came as a shock. Was Raphael not fully healed yet? Or was his stance wrong because he had to respond so abruptly? He wasn’t even able to deflect the Sword Emperor’s one attack. In the split second it took for Raphael’s sword to fall to the ground, Tremblin’s saber bifurcated Raphael, its specialty.
“Raphael!” Gabriel watched his comrade fall in two pieces.
“Why don’t you worry about yourself?”
Gabriel flinched. Selim Sanders had joined them on the ramparts and had his spear leveled at the Paladin.The source of this material is novelbin★
“You...!”
Gabriel’s divine bow transformed from a bow into a sword of light. The key ability of this weapon was creating as much aura as possible using the minimum amount of the user’s mana.
“...For just an artifact, it’s full of surprises,” Selim murmured.
“Sir Gabriel!” the paladins screamed, appalled by their leader’s precarious position.
“Don’t care about me. Focus on the sky!” Gabriel shouted back.
“Bu-but...!”
“Once we give up fighting back, all of those spells are going to land on our heads. Do you think you’ll be able to deal with those?”
The paladins of Hubalt bit their lower lips and continued launching arrows into the sky, filling it with an unceasing rumble.
“You’ve lost, so give up, you invaders disguised as paladins,” Selim quietly said .
Gabriel clutched his sword, but his expression was dark.
“Shit...”
* * *
“...Halt.” Babel raised his hand.
The nearby knights rushed to deliver Babel’s command to the rest of the army marching through the Hubalt Empire.
“Everyone, halt!”
“The general’s orders. Stop!”
“Who... is that?” Babel narrowed his eyes.
One person? No, the man seemed to be carrying a corpse. Despite the extra weight, the man arrived right in front of Babel in no time. The knights were in the middle of driving stakes into the ground, so they didn’t care nor did they think that one man carrying a corpse could possibly be an enemy.
“...Who are you?” Babel asked.
The man came to a halt and then grinned. “Me? My name is Bel.”
“Bel...?”
“Let’s save the introductions for later.” Bel waved his index finger at Babel. “You look like the most skillful person here, so come at me. I’ll fight you one handed as a special bonus.”
* * *
“Mmmm...” Joshua quietly grunted.
His soul had pushed his new vessel to its limit. The more power Joshua used, the stronger the soul established itself in the vessel. Someone else’s body couldn’t embrace his soul. However, Michael was in a more serious condition.
“...Gnh!” Michael trembled. He lay helplessly on the ground; his white armor that once protected him from head to toe had shattered long ago. “I even used the descent, but... I can’t last a second?”
“Don’t be too disappointed. All of the Magic Spear Arts’ techniques are intended to finish my enemies with one strike, and I was able to use it in my normal condition. ...The result is understandable,” Joshua said.
Michael smiled blankly. He may be one of the Four Paladins, but he was just a big fish in a small pond compared to Joshua. He could say without a doubt that he’d felt this way only once in his life: the day he had first met Bel decades ago. He’d never imagined he would experience the same thing again.
“Any last words?” Joshua asked.
“...What is your relationship to the original owner of my authority?”
Joshua stood silent for a moment before crouching down next to Michael.
“It’s a boring story. ”
“I still want to hear it. I have no way of knowing if you don’t.”
“...It’s nothing special. For example...” Joshua thought for a moment and then smiled meaningfully. “...you know, about that man named Bel...”
“Why are you suddenly mentioning him...?”
“If the Hubalt Empire were to succeed in conquering the continent, do you think you, paladins of Hubalt, would have left him be?”
Michael’s eyes slowly widened. He knew how terrifyingly strong Bel was better than anyone else. Unifying the continent? Bel had the power to divide the continent that the Hubalt Empire had conquered into dozens of pieces.
“...I see. I understand what you mean now.” Michael slowly stood up, revealing the true severity of his state.
A big hole gaped in the center of his abdomen; his intestines were also gone. Michael wouldn’t be able to recover this power even if the Angel Spirit descended into him.
“You’re a tragic man who wasn’t welcomed anywhere and was abandoned because you were too strong. I’m better than you.”
“If you can find solace in that way, it won’t be too bad.” Joshua stood up, slowly pointing Longin at Michael. “I’ll put your body out of its misery.”
“...It’s... quite disappointing... to leave... before seeing... the same two men’s fight.”
“Well...” Joshua lightly swung his spear.
Michael’s head rolled on the council chamber’s floor.
“...Judging from my condition, I don’t think we’ll be fighting though,” Joshua mumbled.
On top of that, his children were the ones who had the debts to settle with Bel, so the future was in the hands of the people Joshua was going to leave behind.
“I also need to... rest now.”
Joshua slowly collapsed to the ground.