Chapter 184: Once Again (3)
“There is no one here who should be begging you for mercy. I’d love to see you begging with all you’ve got, but that’s disgusting so I will take your life instead.”
‘The weapon of the one who does not believe in god’ had finally met its master and swung like lightning.
Clank-!
Hard golden scales covered Gaionia’s forearm as he blocked the attack as he did before.
Crack, crack-
But unlike before, there was a slight crack on his armor-like skin.
Hades raised the tip of his lips in satisfaction.
Clank, clank, clank-!
He didn’t miss a beat and attacks continued to pour down like thunder.
Gaionia seemed to have no intention of fighting back, busily holding back from Hades’ attacks.
The more the fight continued, Hades finally felt that he had the higher ground. Because the amount of aura leaking out and disappearing as if it’s discarded from his heart was increasing more and more.
Even as she watched Hades drive Gaionia to the edge, Aisha trembled in nervousness.
Everything was going towards the future she had seen.
Roxa’s death.
All who have gathered before Gaionia in the end.
And Hades fighting against Gaionia …
For now, it looked like Hades had the upper ground, but she knew all too well what tragedy would happen in the last moment.
“Be careful my lord!” Azar shouted as he shot arrows from the distance to cover for Hades. He said so because Gaionia, who was merely defending himself from striking attacks, fell back distantly and looked like he was preparing to attack.
Indeed, a huge flow of mana strong enough to make everyone there tremble in tension, could be sensed.
‘What’s…’
The moment Hades was baffled, his body caught fire in an instant and burnt away.
“My lord!”
“F-father!”
Azar and Abel shouted in surprise.
Combustion.
It was quite devastating to see him being attacked with the very ability of fire that he had wielded at will all his life.
But it was all within the realm of expectation.
Since all the powers of Crescentians stemmed from Gaionia, it was no exception for Hades who did not believe in god.
“Father…!”
“Abel.”
Aisha stopped Abel from jumping in hastily from being unable to stand it anymore.
For some reason, she shook her head heavily with a grave look on her face.
There were no painful shouts coming out of the burning fire.
As Hades took a step forward, the flame engulfing him disappeared.
Gaionia’s expression slightly distorted as he saw him from a distance.
“Oh, and I thought all the abilities in this space had been sealed…”
Even in this dire moment, Michael muttered with a quite casual voice.
He looked at Aisha standing on the other side and nodded in understanding.
“You must have casted continuous nullification on him. Even so, it’s a wonder it got activated.”
Looking at Hades charging at Gaionia as he held his sword back up, Michael smiled in satisfaction.
“A benefit enjoyed by the one who does not believe in god, perhaps. Indeed, my sibling has planned ahead impressively.”
Looking at Michael smiling mockingly, Deborah trembled in his arms.
She thought Hades would be burnt to death in an instant, yet Michael seemed like he wouldn’t even bat an eye if that really happened.
It would be hard to find a way out of here alive if Hades were to die, so she could not understand how Michael could be this laid back.
Sensing Deborah staring up at him, Michael spoke affectionately.
“Gaionia is a god. He wouldn’t go down that easily. What I expect from the duke is not to slay Gaionia and survive. You shouldn’t expect such a thing either, Priestess Deborah.”
“W-what if His Grace dies? We should help him in some way…”
Blam-!
At that moment, a giant ball of fire struck down.
Hades moved away quickly and coughed a few times above the thick smoke.
At that moment, Abel realized after watching Aisha in pain.
It seemed to be Aisha’s ability that defended against Gaionia’s attacks.
Gaionia must have realized that as well, as he could feel his gaze on her.
“So you have the leisure to look elsewhere?”
Clank-!
Gaionia defended from Hades’ sudden striking attack as reflex and laughed lightly.
[Indeed… impressive. Though a lot of my powers have been sealed away, I never thought I would have to put this much effort into taking on a mere creation like you…]
“You displease me. A scamp who should be worried about his death is still blabbing.”
The more they fought, Hades could clearly see Gaionia’s weakness.
First, it seemed that he was unable to fight in his original form since some of his powers were sealed away by Procreathor. In other words, he was unable to fight in his full dragon form.
All he could do was to partially manifest his main form at best.
It was a good thing since he wouldn’t have had a chance against Gaionia’s gigantic true form.
Clank, clank, clank-!
Looking at Gaionia as he foolishly blocked Hades’ attacks pouring from different directions, Hades inwardly laughed.
He was supposed to be an ultimate being who could wield overflowing mana with just a flick of a finger. And so, he would have never fought someone physically in his human body. No being would have dared to challenge him this way either.
‘Taking mana out of the equation, he could be handled by Azar or even Jax. I never thought it would be this easy.’
Hades smirked as he licked his lips once.
In order for Gaionia to take the higher ground, he must attack Hades with magic but there wasn’t much time left.
Even at this moment mana was leaking out of Gaionia’s punctured heart and being discarded.
He must want to finish the fight before his unlimited mana is all consumed, but…
‘Well.’
That would also be difficult due to Aisha’s nullification.
Shiiiek-!
Sharp blades of wind poured down around Hades, but they merely dented his invisible protective layer and disappeared.
Shwook-!
In that instant, Hades’ eyes gleamed as he saw Azar’s arrow fly diagonally towards Gaionia without missing a beat.
It was a chance.
Hades ran full speed towards Gaionia as he turned to his side to avoid the arrow. He drove his sword into his chest deeply.
Squelch-!
‘Ah, shoot.’
He just missed it by an inch.
Backing up from Gaionia hastily hardening the skin on his chest, Hades pulled his sword out in a hurry.
‘Oh no.’
At the same time, Hades saw Gaionia’s eyes shining golden in rage. Hades turned around and shouted.
“Take cover!”
A flow of wind crafted into thousands of blades flew towards Azar instead of Hades this time.
Azar wasn’t someone who couldn’t sense the attacks that were aimed at him, but unfortunately, it wasn’t within his powers to avoid it.
He couldn’t even use his specialty teleportation since this space sealed away one’s abilities.
“Ugh…!”
Blades of wind poured down slicing through his whole body and Azar dropped his bow, coughing up blood.
Michael was looking at the horrid scene of flesh bursting and bones grinding off without missing a moment then covered Deborah’s eyes as he himself turned his head away slightly.
“This is bad.”
“G-Grand priest, l-let go of me.”
“Huh?”
Deborah gave one big struggle to escape Michael’s arms and started to run towards Azar.
“Priestess!”
Michael followed behind Deborah in surprise, but thankfully Gaionia’s attacks on Azar had stopped.
Hades was stopping him from conentrating and once again poured down attacks.
“No need to wear yourself out in vain, Priestess,” Michael said, turning his gaze away from Azar who has now become near-corpse, barely breathing.
He would die if he was left be, but it seemed that Deborah wanted to go through the trouble of saving him.
With a tearful face, Deborah landed her hands on Azar’s wounds and attempted to use her abilities, but it was of no use.
Looking at Azar panting like he would die at any minute, Deborah cried out loud.
“I said it’s no use.”
“W-why… did you br-bring me here, Grand priest? I-I cannot do anything and I’m just a burden, i-it would have been for the best if I-I was left it the magician’s place instead of him…”
The powerlessness tortured the little child’s weak heart constantly.
Would it have been better if she never came here in the first place?
Gaionia who was revered as ‘god’ by Crescentians was a being far crueler and scarier than a demon, and she was so powerless before it. She could not understand why in the world Michael would bring her here and what could be something that ‘only she could do.’
Michael spoke as he patted Deborah’s head, “No, I have definitely seen it. The sight of you finally taking down that evil god.”
“How, how in the world could I possibly…”
Michael’s gaze was now aimed at Hades and Gaionia.
“My, it looks like father is finally using his head.”
Michael spoke as if lamenting.
For some reason. Gaionia was continuing to pour mana down on Hades despite knowing it wouldn’t work.
Hot flames stormed around him and blades of wind poured down on the light element protection around Hades.
Every step Hades took to shorten the distance, ice particles grew and disappeared as they melted away.
Looking at all the magic getting nullified, Hades laughed. “What kind of desperate struggle is this? Haven’t you learned already?”
“Mother!”
At that moment, Abel’s desperate voice could be heard from behind.
Hades’ gaze went to Aisha beyond Gaionia sharply.
“Aisha.”
Aisha was coughing blood and collapsed. She was barely holding on with her eyes wide open.
‘Shoot, was he trying to strip nullification away from me?’
The limits to how much nullification could protect someone depended on the wielder’s mana amount.
Since there were no humans who could cancel out a level of mana that has awoken nullification, the ability was praised as being invincible, but…
[It’s over.]
With Gaionia’s dry words, Hades could sense the warm mana around his chest disappear.
At the same time, a giant ball of fire appeared in the sky. It was aimed straight at Hades.
“Father! Please!”
Hades’ eyes widened in surprise as he was about to evade.
That was because Aisha jumped into the spot where the fire ball would land.
He could not evade by himself because he had to shield her.
Shaaa-
“Hmb…”
But the giant ball of fire fell apart before reaching Aisha. Only a few flakes of ashes scattered in the sky.
[You… what on…]
Hades was lost for words, quietly staring into Gaionia’s face. Gaionia, who has cancelled the attack.
His surprised face was bafflingly human-like compared to his expressionless face from before.
Surprised at how he almost killed Aisha with his own hand, his bloodshot golden eyes floundered in confusion.
[You foolish thing…]
Gaionia snatched Aisha’s arm at once and disappeared before Hades’ eyes.
Gaionia took her far up in the sky and spoke.
[Why.]
“…”
[Why do you hurt me so?]
“Father…”
With her face already covered in tears, Aisha crawled towards Gaionia’s feet.
“Let him live. Please… Don’t kill that man, please… Don’t kill him, I….”
[…]
“I beg of you. I don’t care if you don’t forgive me. But please, s-spare him. Please, please…”