＜ 21. The Strongest Card (8) ＞
A common misconception people in this world make is that angels are unconditionally good.
The cause is, of course, due to religious reasons. There is no country on the continent that does not worship God, and the priests never portray angels, the messengers of God, negatively. Because of this, most people know angels only as agents of God who are just and good, helping humans unconditionally.
However, those who actually encountered angels in dungeons would question that common sense. Angels are in fact neither righteous nor good, nor do they try to help humans unconditionally.
The inconvenient truth that those who serve gods try to hide is that angels are fundamentally no different from demons. A powerful spiritual entity that governs certain ideas or abstract concepts. There is only a difference between serving God or not.
Andrea already knew that, so she wasn’t too surprised by Emilia’s change. When using ‘Archangelization’, it was not uncommon to see him change into a rough figure instead of a good one.
‘When you become an archangel, you use the most intense desire as a medium, but usually the more intense the suppressed desire is, the more intense it is…’
I guess the driving force behind Emilia’s transformation into an angel was her hatred for that devil. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to explain the reason for subduing the devil so violently.
Whoa! bang!
Whoo! Kwa-ang!! Kwa-ang!!!
“die! die! You son of a b*tch!”
Emilia easily swung the tall bottle as if it were a cane. Ose hurriedly activated all kinds of protective spells, but the giant bottle contained the power of perma (破魔), so all the spells were destroyed at once.
Ose manages to block the attack with a giant sword, but is pushed back from strength and gradually falls back. Emilia completely cornered Ose and delivered a powerful blow to the head. Ose belatedly noticed that there was a long crack in the sword he had raised.
Whoops, pa-chang!
Kwa-ang!!!
“Heuk!”
The sword was shattered and the face split open. Ose hurriedly pushed something that flowed through the gap to prevent it from coming out.
Emilia let out a frenzy as if she was having the most fun and unilaterally beat Ose, who was cornered in a pinch. Trisha stared blankly at the sight, then limped towards Andrea.
“Andrea… what is that? Is that Emilia?”
“That’s right.”
“··· If you use ‘archangelization’, is everything like that? It’s just that they don’t have horns, but they don’t look like angels, they look like demons.”
Andrea told me that the form of an angel changes depending on the wish.
“Perhaps the hatred for Ose was deeply rooted after the Betty incident… It was just that it wasn’t revealed because it was hidden by remorse.”
“… that’s bloody.”
In fact, if he had a stronger desire to protect the people around him, he would have lacked the firepower to beat Ose, so it wasn’t all that bad that he changed like that.
However, what Andrea was concerned about was the side effect of ‘archangelization’.
‘As it is an unreasonable skill that forcibly raises the level of spirit, there are not a few aftereffects… Among them, even after the skill is canceled, there are cases where the personality of the person who used Archangelization remains.’
For example, when I used archangelization as Trisha in the game, there was an event where people who did not know the circumstances suspected that she had a dual personality because her inner soft personality came out at times. Perhaps Emilia, on the other hand, would occasionally lose her timidity and reveal her cruel personality.
‘It would be nice if the direction was toward the enemy…’
It had already been done, so I had no choice but to pray.
Meanwhile, Emilia was mocking Ose.
“It’s very nice to see him curling up his tail, frightened and servile. yes, keep doing that. You demon bastards look best in that way.”
“Kheuheugh, heo-eok, heo-eok…”
Ose was already a man-in-the-middle. The armor had been dented like a tin can for a long time, and while trying to block the attack, he broke his left arm and lay limp. No magic worked, and the spirits were the same, so even the domination of the actions did not work for the enemy.
At best, there was no time to hurt his pride at the fact that he was being pushed unilaterally even after becoming the Great Devil. Ose was in a hurry to avoid the attack and survive.
‘Should I use that method…’
Ose realized that there was only one way left to inflict damage on the enemy. To risk death and completely collapse this space.
There was no reason to hesitate as long as it was decided. Ose concentrated all his mana in the palm of his hand and slammed it down towards the flesh on the floor.
Kwa-ang!!!
Gurruk – puck, puck! Furbuck!
The space was distorted, and the six walls twisted all at once. Blood poured like a fountain from the hole in the flesh, and the studded pupils burst out. The whole space was changing and narrowing like a deflated balloon. Disintegration that gives off a bloody smell and eventually disappears as a single point.
If space is annihilated, beings in it cannot avoid death. Of course, angels who are not all flesh can be resurrected, but the rest of the challengers will undoubtedly face death.
Since he couldn’t kill himself, he couldn’t leave the dungeon upstairs or go downstairs. Ose was convinced that he had an unstoppable one-shot.
However, that was a hasty idea.
“A bastard. Did you think you could kill him by clearing up some space?”
Since all space had disappeared, only emptiness should exist, but Emilia’s voice was heard.
Ose realized that he was still standing with his feet on the floor. It was not a floor made of flesh. A floor made of hard rock. Heads raised, hundreds of huge rocks were floating on a black background.
Ose opens his mouth with a trembling voice.
“Couldn’t it be… Did I just create a new space the moment I collapsed it?”
“It would be more strange not to be able to create new space while collapsing at such a slow speed.”
Objectively, it was by no means slow. It was just that the enemy was an unbelievable opponent.
It was over.
“We dragged on enough time, so let’s finish it now.”
Kwa-ang!
Emilia kicked off the floor and leaped upward. In the aftermath, the floor caved in and a shockwave raged. She floated like sparks among the rocks floating in the air, and held onto the largest rock with both arms.
Then he threw it at Ose with all his might.
“Meteor Strike!”
Andrea looks at the surreal scene with an absurd expression.
Originally, ‘Meteor Strike’ is a skill that summons a huge meteorite by consuming an enormous amount of mana, but can that also be called a meteor? I had never heard of a meteo flying in that way.
‘… Meteor Strike (physical)?’
In any case, it seemed that the destructive power would be similar, and the prediction was not wrong.
The moment they collide, the flower of destruction explodes.
Kwagwagwagwagwagwagwa!!
Kwa-Ah!!!!
Bah- enemy! Damn it!
In an instant, the whole world shook as if it were about to collapse.
Violent earthquakes, scattering dust, collapsing ground. Rocks the size of a house flew around like pebbles, and the wind pressure was so strong that I couldn’t stand it while standing. In the center of the land, which split into hundreds of branches, a high crater appeared like a mountain range.
Truly shocking power.
Andrea realized that the ground she stood on, the ground that seemed indestructible, could be destroyed at any moment.
Emilia landed right in the center of the crater. To confirm Ose’s death. The armor became scrap metal and was scattered everywhere, but Ose’s body was nowhere to be seen.
“… I won’t be able to run away this time either.”
As I focused my senses, I felt a very faint presence. Digging through the rubble, he saw a slimy liquid wriggling and crawling. Emilia quickly approached it.
Then, without hesitation, he raised his foot and crushed it.
“Jjiik!”
It sounded like a mouse being trampled on.
Among the demons, there was no one who was unaware of its power, and it was the last will left by Ose, who was worshiped by many people who were obsessed with magic, and who eventually rose to the position of the Great Demon.
After completing her mission, Emilia felt the overflowing power and seething anger draining from her body. It was like releasing a rubber band that had been pulled tight. The muscles that were stiff from tension were relaxed, and the strength in both legs was released.
Her red-hot hair had also returned to a bright blonde color. My eyes widened and I felt dizzy. Emilia closes her eyes and lies down on the floor. As if getting wet in drizzling rain, I was slowly sinking into soma.
It’s been a while. Andrea, who crossed the crater, finally found Emilia.
They fought fiercely, and they were lying in a dusty pit. He acted to the point where anyone looking at him would ask if he had lost the fight.
However, Emilia was wearing a smile that felt more comfortable on the inside than ever before.
* * *
In the evening, when darkness fell, Gilbert gnawed his teeth and galloped. The desperation in that expression was comparable to that of a person whose life was in immediate danger. A boy who never stops even when he is out of breath.
It was for a girl named Betty.
Betty, Gilbert’s best friend, was attacked by a demon one day and fell into a coma and never woke up. When the hell will I open my eyes? The years of waiting endlessly. Gilbert prayed and prayed that Betty would open her eyes as soon as possible.
As if the wind had reached the sky, Betty finally opened her eyes today.
However, Gilbert’s wish came true in an extremely wrong way.
Betty didn’t recognize anyone around her and acted like she was possessed by a demon. The sight of him clawing at the wall with his twisted arms and tearing at people with his eyes open was something the boy had never seen before.
Since the power had become ridiculously strong, it was impossible to subdue it with only the power of the children. That’s why Gilbert went to town to find an adult who could subdue Betty.
Suddenly, a faint voice came from behind.
“Gilbert, Gilbert! it’s okay! You can just come back!”
“Heo-eok, what, what are you talking about? Heo-eok, hurry up and call the adults!”
“Betty, Betty has come to her senses! come back quickly!”
Gilbert came back as fast as he had run out. He opened the door as if it was about to break and called out his name in a desperate voice.
“Heo-eok, Betty, Betty, Heo-eok, are you okay?”
Betty opened her eyes wide and looked at Gilbert. The shack was in disarray, with boards broken and floors demolished, but the girl’s eyes were as the boy remembered them.
“Ugh, Gilbert… it’s okay now.”
“Ha, that’s good… what happened, what the heck?”
A small child held out a jug of living water to Gilbert. Gilbert gulps it down and waits for Betty’s answer.
“I don’t even know… I couldn’t move my body on my own… but suddenly I woke up.”
“Whoa, I don’t know why, but… I’m glad, really. Aren’t you sick?”
“Eh, I’m a bit tired, but I’ll get better if I rest.”
Gilbert was finally able to breathe a long sigh of relief. I felt tired as my body relaxed. Gilbert sat down as if collapsing on the floor.
But suddenly, when I turned my head, I felt Betty’s gaze. It seemed that there was something left to say.
“By the way, Gilbert. I saw Priest Emilia before waking up.”
“In a dream?”
“I don’t know. It was too vivid to be called a dream… but the priest just, really cool, then, really, really strong, and just, just, beat the bad guy?”
“… Betty, stop talking nonsense. How did Priest Emilia beat people? Rather, since you are the priest of the earth, why don’t you say that you dropped a meteorite and caused an earthquake?”
“It’s true… I just want to believe that Priest Emilia woke up because she beat the bad guy.”
Betty puffs up her cheeks with a sad expression. Gilbert burst out laughing. Betty liked Priest Emilia so much that she would sometimes say nonsense like this.
‘But well, just thinking about the priest will help me regain stability, so it wouldn’t be bad to leave it as it is.’
“Okay, if you’re right, then I’ll believe you too. I think you’re right, Betty.”
“yes!”
Betty smiled brightly and nodded. With a girl who finally got her smile back, Adsel’s night deepened.
This puts a smile on my face.