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“… you are really fine?”
A woman with dazzling blonde hair, so beautiful that anyone would fall in love at first sight.
“Zenith. Looks daunting.”
“This much alone.”
The man ahead answered her in a thick voice.
“Phew. He is nothing,”
Zenith let out a sigh.
She looked at the muscles that were swelling up so much. The thickened blood vessels were wriggling with blood being pumped.
He, who had left his true nature and assumed the aspect of the God of War, smiled as he looked at the muscles that seemed perfect yet difficult to handle.
“Strength is overflowing. Quite… quite a lot.”
“Isn’t this too much?”
“Kuak. Much. Right. Maybe a bit too much. But this isn’t enough, right, Lily?”
Lily, the Goddess of Beauty, could be seen lying back with her arms crossed.
He had already swallowed three Gods.
First was Drian, the God of Violence and Plunder, and Khulun, the God of Hypocrisy.
And now…
“Tantiras, you pitiful person.”
Lily looked at the traces of armor on the ground with a sad face. The God of Shadow had been in a weakened state due to the fight with Satan.
He managed to recover quite a bit and rushed to the place where he heard about Diablo Volfir being resurrected.
And he said he wouldn’t trust Zenith, who had absorbed a few of the Gods and threatened to punish him.
“Such a pitiful bastard.”
The result was disastrous.
Zenith, who had already absorbed two Gods, was now so strong that even Ra would have a tough time defeating him.
There was no way he could have dealt with Zenith without his strength fully recovering.
In the end, he was eaten up by Zenith.
“The essence is all absorbed.”
The bulging muscles that looked strange, like they would burst anytime, began to shrink. The essence was refined in the body and turned into his own.
An unexplainable delight.
“Kuaaak!”
It felt like being invincible.
He felt confident enough to even win over Ra.
‘This will not work.’
These kinds of thoughts were right.
Zenith knew.
Among the 12 Gods, he could claim that he knew more about Ra than the others, but he couldn’t beat Ra at this level.
The place where the monster stood was something he couldn’t reach now.
If he moved with this overflowing confidence, then he would be like a firefly in front of the sun.
‘Right. I cannot be excited with just this much.’
After that, there was one way to defeat Ra.
‘Diablo. It is you.’
Zenith looked up.
The nemesis of the 12 Gods and the strongest human who had tormented him for so long.
Diablo Volfir.
It was good to absorb a God, but to be the master of the world, he needed to have that human’s body.
If that were to happen, even the Sun God would not be able to stop him.
‘Right. It will be me.’
Thinking of Ra being careless, Zenith’s face contorted.
As his mood suddenly changed, the space around him vibrated.
Lily called out to him with a worried face.
“Z-Zenith! What is it?”
But he didn’t answer, and there was nothing but Ra in his mind.
‘I will make you regret it. Ra!’
But, before that, there was something he had to do first.
A higher priority than absorbing Diablo Volfir.
“What is the current situation on the battlefield?”
“It is a situation in which neither side is pushing or pulling.”
“Poor things. Are they struggling with Pyro’s forces on the side?”
Currently, the Zenith Church and the Lily Church are engaged in a fierce battle against Pyro.
Apparently, Kreon was sacrificed to take down the Apostle, and it was irrecoverable. But for some reason, Pyro seemed to command the battlefield.
“Noah, he looks pathetic.”
Zenith didn’t like his Apostle because he didn’t seem as useful to him.
“It isn’t Noah’s fault, but there is a gap in power. Pyro is actively intervening in the fight.”
“And what did you do?”
“I-I am not a combat-type God. You know that the best right?”
“Huh. I didn’t expect this.”
Lily looked at him cautiously. It was because she didn’t know when he would devour her. Fortunately, maybe because they had known each other for a long time, Zenith didn’t try any such thing on her.
She felt glad.
‘Shit. Why did my life turn out like this….’
Lily sighed.
“Lars Armetic.”
A silver-haired man with silver eyes and wearing the robe of the Zenith Church called out to Lars, who was chained.
It was Noah, the Apostle of Zenith.
He reached out for Lars, who was bloodied and unconscious.
A subtle holy power began to spread out and touch the wounds.
“Ugh….”
Lars let out a low growl and opened his eyes.
He glanced around, frowning as he recalled what had happened.
“I hoped that this was only a dream.”
“That is unfortunate, then.”
Noah walked around with his hands behind his back.
“Stop struggling. I do not kill people like you.”
“What is the meaning of talking to me while I’m being tortured? Just kill me.”
“So stubborn.”
Lars looked at Noah and sighed.
It had been a week since he was caught.
On his way to the ‘Sacred Land of Judgement’ to wake Ricky up, he entered the Zenith Church, which was on the way, and a fierce battle happened, with him succeeding in the mission.
But it wasn’t long before he got caught like this.
‘It is against the law for Apostles to act directly.’
Zenith’s Apostle, Noah.
He, of unknown origin, possessed powers beyond recognition, befitting that of an Apostle.
Lars thought that he, too, had developed a lot over the past five years, but he was beaten without even having his collar touched.
And for some reason, Noah wasn’t killing him. As it turned out, it was something related to Zenith.
When Lars kept refusing to side with Zenith, he was tortured for a week.
“Torture will not bring me down, Noah.”
“You have spoken like a true man of the Holy Executioner, but I never thought that he’d be stubborn after experiencing it.”
“The captain gave up on me, too. That is something I will never be, Zenith’s dog.”
“Well, sure. If one looks at how much you have done, I can guess so. But I have found a way, too.”
At those words, Lars frowned.
What was this man trying to do?
Was he going to brainwash him?
The Holy Executioner was known to have the best mental strength that no one could touch.
It wouldn’t be easy to break the blessing of a God with the power of an Apostle.
This was why they must have chosen such a method of torture.
“This is a weapon we have been developing for a long time.”
Noah snapped his fingers, and several people with white robes covering their heads appeared carrying a coffin-like black box.
‘The Judges?’
The Zenith Church was known to have a military unit called Judges.
It was clear that they were the ones who were wearing white robes in front of him, and Noah smiled.
“The previous ones were scattered all over the world for a long time, tested for performance and side effects, and were only recently completed. It is a precious Divine Chimera.”
“You people, what disgusting thing…”
“What? Do not worry. This isn’t a chimera with a child. Please open it up.”
“…?”
At Noah’s command, the judges slowly opened the lid, showing what was inside.
A massive great sword with a complicated hook instead of a handle to hold.
“Project: Blood Bringer.”
Noah carefully grabbed the blade of the great sword and lifted it up.
“It gained a name for itself over the world under the name ‘Demon Sword.’ I know that in the west, there was a man called Sword Demon, and he made quite a name for himself.”
“Sword Demon!”
Lars had also heard about this.
The vicious killer was known to have been active in Arisha for more than 100 years and was said to have killed over 1,000 people.
Western nations had to form an alliance to take down the man, yet they failed to capture him.
He disappeared so freely, and no one heard from him after.
“A person from 100 years ago…”
As befits the priest of Goddess Pyro, who reigned over punishment and sin, they were made to study crimes in history.
“Right. The test subject for Project Blood Bringer that was conducted about 104 years ago.”
“… You insane bastards!”
“And more recently, there was this killer called Kenji.”
Murderer Kenji.
A murderer who worked in Arisha but was active for a short period of time but his actions were so shocking—killing the son of a Lord and brutally killing innocent kids. And the pursuit team lost all their men.
Actually, it was a case that Jamie solved but no one knew.
“What do you people think of life?!”
“I am not interested. If I had thought deeply about it, I wouldn’t have done anything at all.”
“Trash… you will be defeated. You people will never win.”
“Hahaha.”
Noah smiled as he ran his finger down the Blood Bringer’s blade.
“I will put this on you.”
Lars eyes trembled.
“The Blood Bringer eats up the mind of the host. You will be alright at first, but gradually you will be drowning in the madness and turn into a bloodthirsty killer.”
“You bastard!”
“Do not worry, though. If the previous Blood Bringer was too violent, then this one is different.”
“Do not spew shit.”
“This will give the host pure madness. Rather than being a bloodthirsty killer, the name Sword Demon will be suitable for the form using it.”
“You cannot subdue my mind with this.”
“If that is all there is, then yes. But my father gave me a couple of things.”
Noah took out a black stone the size of a fingernail from the subspace.
It was a stone that didn’t hold any energy. But Noah put it through the part of the blade that had a hole.
Woong!
A gray aura began to move around the sword, making Lars’s eyes tremble.
This felt like a bad situation to him.
His mind was surely blessed with Pyro’s protection but this felt like it was on a whole different level.
Noah spoke about it.
“A fragment of God.”
“… a fragment of whom?”
“God. To be precise, it is the Holy Body of the God Drian.”
Drian’s essence that Zenith ate.
It was now just a stone with all the power drained, but that itself held importance.
And Blood Bringer’s core was the body of that God.
“Blood Bringer that absorbs the Holy Body. How can you handle it now?”
“Damn it…”
“This is so fun.”
Noah smiled and approached Lars.
“You will fight for your life with the master you serve. Trust me.”
“What?”
“Ricky, the Apostle of the Goddess Pyro. He is awake and is now leading the battlefield. A troublesome opponent.”
“What are you doing…?”
“I don’t want you to defeat the Goddess’s Apostle. However, if for a brief moment you can earn time…”
“What is this bastard,,,, kuak!”
A tentacle-like thing pierced Lars’s right arm and began to dig in.
Every muscle in his body began to bulge, and Lars’s eyes widened.
His consciousness was fading.
‘Ricky…’
Ricky was awake.
He wasn’t sure how it happened, but he was happy.
But….
‘No… damn it…’
He was conscious at the same time.
What if he completely let go?
Would he end up fighting Ricky?
‘Jamie.’
At that moment, he remembered the son of the Welton family, whom he hadn’t seen for a long time.
‘Look after Ricky.’
And completely lost consciousness.
Noah mumbled while looking at Lars’s body twitch.
“Can Ricky be killed like this? Or would he try to save you as much as possible?”
Would Ricky become defenseless in the process?