Chapter 280 |
Apostle Descent (1)
A 7th-level saint-class esper was the realm achieved by harmonizing the power of a warrior with the secret arts of a sorcerer's lineage. Though it might not have compared to those superhumans who had fully mastered a single domain, there was no need to explain how swift the Ibon Family Head's reaction speed had been.
But even so, what did it mean that she failed to react until the prayer beads wrapped around her right forearm? It was proof of Renok's proficiency in activating Archangel's Compassion. His sharp intuition pierced the gap between breath and perception, far surpassing Ibon's level.
However, Ibon had no leisure to deduce such inner workings.
"......!"
"Wait, this sensation is......!!"
The prayer beads fastened to her wrist activated, drawing power from Renok's mana and spinning in place. Starting from the wrist where the prayer beads were bound, it began freezing space itself. In an instant, it climbed her arm, stiffening her elbow and encroaching on her shoulder.
"Kyaaaaaaaah!!"
This was no ordinary artifact. It was one of the nine tools that Celestial Hound had favored right up until his ascension. Even as she resisted with full power, Ibon realized she might not escape the prayer beads' restraint, and she let out a horrific scream.
Slash!!
Almost simultaneously with the bracelet binding her, she raised her left hand and severed her arm entirely.
At that radical response, everyone present except Renok widened their eyes.
As Ibon retreated after amputating her arm, Chen caught Oren's body and dashed toward Renok.
"Ughhh......!!!"
No matter how skilled a sorcerer or mighty a warrior she was, the pain of severing her own arm could not be absent. It was not just her flesh; to evade spatial freezing, she had sliced through the mana flow within her arm as well.
Ibon's face twisted hideously as she screamed in agony.
In the meantime, Walter, who had slipped out from between Suryeon and Manson's encirclement, supported her.
"......You!!"
"Let's retreat. I told you, didn't I?"
Walter replied leisurely.
"We still have a chance. You kept the Ilwon Family Head alive for a time like this, even if it meant delaying until the last moment, right?"
"That's not for you to decide."
Renok stepped forward, swiftly recovering the dharma tool.
He had expended considerable mana preheating Pure Land Binding Mantra, but severing one of Ibon's arms was a decent outcome.
The others seemed pressured by Ibon and Walter's forces after felling Oren, but Renok surmised Walter could not sustain his combat ability for long.
There was no need to explain how inefficient it was to infuse life into a dead corpse.
If he dragged this out to pin down their feet, Walter's combat prowess would dissipate on its own, leaving only the one-armed Ibon to deal with.
There was no reason to let them escape here.
Click!!
But Walter smiled leisurely even upon seeing Renok raise the double-barrel shotgun.
"Spatial freezing...... I was surprised the first time I saw it, but you can't use an artifact of that caliber repeatedly."
"......"
"The preparations are already done. It ends if the Ibon Family Head agrees."
"Wait, that means......"
Renok, grasping the intent from Walter's glance toward the sky, immediately surged his mana—but he was one step too late.
As Ibon bit her lip and raised her hand, her attendants thrust their polearms into their own necks in unison.
"......!!!!!!"
Many of Ibon's attendants had fallen as warriors trying to assault Oren, but dozens still remained alive.
The ritual they intended to reactivate by sacrificing that force entirely was obvious.
Amrita's Scale, devouring dozens of lives, activated once more. The rift in the sky sucked in Walter and Ibon at lightning speed.
From the start, the two had planned to sacrifice everyone else's lives if things went awry, to escape this place.
Crunch!!
The sound of flesh being chewed.
"It's not your mistake. Don't be too disappointed."
Walter, perched on the narrowing rift, looked down at Renok and smiled.
"This is a miracle woven by the will that manifested directly on earth through the cult's apostle. Unlike ordinary cult rituals, it alters the hierarchy itself based on the number of offered lives."
"......"
"It's impossible to defy the miracle bestowed by Lady Amrita. You got us good today. I'll visit again soon."
Beyond merely moving through space by offering an equivalent number of lives, the ritual's hierarchy changed with the count of sacrifices.
Linking it to the 'apostle' Walter mentioned, it meant the spatial rift was a ritual where Apostle Amrita directly received and manifested the will of apocalypse.
But Renok raised his hand, gazing at the rift closing before his eyes.
"I don't put much stock in what fanatics babble."
He understood they had prepared some escape route.
The translocation ritual was already activated, paid for with sacrifices—and bloated with dozens of lives at that.
Even for Renok, deciphering and canceling such a ritual on the spot was impossible.
But disrupting it was entirely feasible.
Dozens of mana threads extended from his hand, seizing and infiltrating the narrowing rift.
Rrrrrumble!!!
On the other side of space.
Through the mana threads, he fully interpreted and assimilated the ritual's operating principle—designating coordinates and translocating physical forms in exchange for lives—and simultaneously interfered.
Walter's face, peering from beyond the rift, contorted.
"To the bitter end......!!"
"I can't let you go nicely."
Renok smiled up at the rift, his expression fatigued in an instant.
While interpreting the operating principle of Amrita's Scale through the mana threads, he hammered mana into it from all directions, brute-forcing the rift apart.
Overloading the nearly complete ritual through superior mana sensitivity and manipulation.
The space inside the rift heated to an eerie degree, scorching Walter and Ibon's skin.
"Aaaaaah!!"
With a guttural scream, the rift sealed shut, and the two vanished.
Twisting like a helix, they left a hazy heat shimmer between spaces. Everyone in the compound stared up in stunned silence.
"Th-they escaped......"
Suryeon muttered with a pained expression.
Chen sighed and slumped down.
"In the end, we couldn't settle it here."
The plan to expose Ibon's intentions at the proxy battle's end, claim the justification, and punish the Gido Order's bishop and Ibon Family Head had fallen through.
They had been outmaneuvered in the intricacy of their hidden preparations.
The damage inflicted on their side in the process was catastrophically severe.
They had succeeded in protecting the citadel residents' safety, but the Ilwon Family Head was taken, and Oren lay in critical condition.
Yet Renok calmly shook his head.
"I didn't just stand by. They won't arrive unscathed."
He had not stopped the activation, but he had surely overloaded the ritual at the last moment.
If the translocation glitched, the worst case could mean permanent loss of body parts.
Walter's final death cry before fleeing was likely an outburst sensing that.
"And I figured out their destination. That's enough."
The heart of Eightfold Star Citadel. Ibon's stronghold, where she gathered information as the citadel's root.
Instead of fleeing outside, choosing to escape deeper into Ibon's innermost sanctum—what that intent was needed no explanation.
"Ban's...... words weren't wrong."
Oren, supported by Chen, struggled to rise and murmured.
"Family Head!!"
The Samyeong attendants, who had evacuated the citadel residents and joined late, hurriedly caught his body.
Oren ignored the surrounding reactions and addressed the others.
"The plan...... cough! got tangled, but claiming the citadel lord's authority...... succeeded. In the proxy battle, we won......"
"Yeah. That's what matters."
Renok nodded.
The citadel lord's authority to manage the outer barriers and all internal facilities without restraint, through the proxy battle system.
By defeating Walter Martinez in the final general battle, Renok had secured the qualification to designate the citadel lord.
What Ibon and Walter attempted at the end—sacrificing citadel residents—was likely to alter the qualifier for that designation.
"Th-the citadel lord...... cough!!"
As Oren hunched over, coughing blood, the Samyeong warriors swiftly supported him and moved.
"You mustn't speak anymore!!"
"Call a doctor immediately. What are you doing!"
Oren's condition was so dire they could not go far.
The group silently watched as attendants laid the unconscious Oren in an unnamed mansion near the compound and began treatment.
[The plan got messed up.]
Manson approached Renok and muttered.
Renok glanced at him and asked.
"Your arm okay?"
[Oh? This...... I had to take it.]
His left forearm below the elbow was bloodied, likely from suppressing Walter, who had absorbed the two family heads' life force.
Manson glanced at his arm and replied nonchalantly.
[That woman isn't unscathed either.]
"......"
Suryeon, rubbing her shoulder with a faint grimace.
And Chen, pale-faced and slumped in place, along with Asui.
As Renok silently surveyed the surroundings, the others hesitated before approaching him.
"You said...... Ban."
The other family heads, who had sided with Ibon until the proxy battle.
They did not grasp the full details of the recent events, but they knew whose side to take now.
The Yukryeong Family Head said with a stern face.
"With the Samyeong Family Head down, you're the only one who fully understands this situation."
"......"
"We fell for Ibon's scheme, but we never intended to ally with the cult. From now on, we'll cooperate fully with you."
"The same here."
The Paldoon Family Head added with a reluctant expression.
"Not content with bringing in fanatics, she tried to sacrifice us all as living offerings...... Ibon's lost her mind. We'll cooperate as much as possible without harming our family."
"As much as possible without harm."
Renok chuckled.
"You seem to be mistaking whose situation is urgent."
"What, what do you mean?"
"If you get devoured by Ibon like this, it'll be you, not me. If you're thinking of shifting blame and minimizing damage from behind, I have no reason to accommodate you."
"Th-that's......"
They had dithered, merely observing while Renok's side clashed fiercely with Ibon's attendants.
In this situation, there was no reason to cater to their convenience.
"If you want to survive intact even after Oren wakes, you'll follow my words from now on."
At Renok's chilling words, the other family heads fell silent, unable to retort.
Renok sharply eyed them while rapidly thinking.
With Oren unconscious, someone had to gather the scattered citadel residents and evacuate them to the outskirts.
Beyond humanitarian concerns, it was to prevent their lives from being used as Walter's weapons.
Renok planned to foist that headache on the family heads. To do so, he needed to seize initiative now.
"You think it'll be okay?"
Chen asked, watching the family heads hurry away with their attendants.
"They're not trustworthy."
Most of the eight families' heads were neither virtuous nor particularly capable.
There was a chance they would harbor selfish desires during resident evacuation.
But Renok shook his head, lighting a cigarette.
"They won't have time for tricks. I plan to conclude this within a day, one way or another."
The citadel's weakened prestige as the Triad had endured by rejecting outside communication, maintaining a closed society, and controlling information.
But that vain glory ended today.
At the unexpected reply, Chen's eyes widened.
"......A day?"
"They didn't retreat from lack of strength. They confirmed retrieving the Ilwon Family Head first, then fled to Ibon's main house. Impossible without another scheme prepared."
Considering what the two had done so far, there was a high chance they aimed to use the Ilwon Family Head's body for something.
They showed little concern for Taeo's well-being, who had sacrificed thousands for his father's resurrection.
But if they planned a ritual, striking preemptively in that gap would be most effective.
It was the perfect chance to witness the cult's true aim up close.
Renok's eyes gleamed sharply as he overlooked the ruined compound.
"Things dragged this far, so they won't be unscathed either. We move once my mana recovers."
*
A dim cavern trapped in darkness.
Piercing the chilling silence devoid of any life traces, a rift tore through space like ripping fabric, yawning wide.
Two figures burst from the rift, collapsing to the ground as if thrown.
Rumble!!
"Grraaaah!!!"
Walter writhed on the floor, his body flushed red-hot.
"Damn, that bastard......!! Ugh......!!"
Sizzle!!
Amrita's Scale, the large-scale translocation ritual.
A mighty translocation equaling the number of offered lives in exchanged lives.
Activation succeeded, but Renok's final interference overloaded the ritual itself.
To tamper with a ritual bestowed by an apostle receiving the outer sea's will—what level of mana manipulation and sensitivity was required?
Errors in the gate linking spaces naturally affected those passing through.
A delicate task involving space. One could call it fortunate they emerged conscious.
But that thought vanished the instant Walter saw Ibon Family Head collapsed beside him.
"Kyaaaaaaaah!!"
Ibon wailed a beastly scream unfit for human.
Her face, a grotesque blend of young woman and elder, betrayed her immense suffering.
Her right shoulder, upper torso, and side were cleanly severed.
She had suffered bodily loss, the worst byproduct of translocation.
"F-Family Head......!!"
"This is......!!"
"Haaaaah!!"
Attendants rushing at Ibon's screams met instant death, blood spraying in the blink of an eye.
Ibon, eyes rolled back in pain, began devouring the still-warm corpses voraciously.
"More, bring more!! Hurry!!"
Now more beast than woman, lost to reason—Walter sighed deeply.
"Well, can't be helped......"
The burns from translocation severance were not ordinary pain.
During transfer, ignored physical entities were observed, manifesting friction equal to the distance traveled on the cut surface.
Like grinding the wound on asphalt at full speed.
If Ibon's body were not half-beyond human, she would have died from shock long ago.
Even her attendants unrecognizable, she devoured human flesh indiscriminately. Watching, Walter rose.
"Bring the Ilwon Family Head."
"B-but the Family Head is......"
"She'll regain sanity after devouring a few more. Hemostasis shouldn't be hard, even if regeneration is out. More importantly, we have urgent business."
With things thus, Walter's tasks were set.
His gaze fell on a small garden.
A water droplet on a leaf fell slowly.
"Unlike planned, we'll begin the Apostle Descent ritual here."