Chapter 502.1: Absolute Trust (1)
Roel Ascart whizzed across the cursed darkness like a shooting star.
As he advanced, his frost aura surged toward the sky like a silver sword. Crimson mana blazed around him, manifesting the avatar of the humongous Giant Sovereign. He was finally able to go all out without having to worry about the backlines.
Behind him, the newly-arrived reinforcement began charging at the Saints Convocation.
The mounted knights channeled the mana into their lances and tore through the evil cultists’ formation like knives slicing through white cloth, achieving great results from their first charge. Their success was further driven in by the diverse range of powerful abilities wielded by the core members of the group.
At their forefront, Kurt activated his bloodline and transformed into a giant, which he then rammed to and fro through the evil cultists’ formation to induce as much chaos as possible.
Juliana fully exploited the advantages of the dark environment to quietly maneuver the shadows and reap as many lives as she could.
Selina fully unleashed her bloodthirsty nature and allowed her feral side to let loose. She nimbly darted around the battlefield and slaughtered anyone who showed the slightest opening.
Brittany, together with Geralt and Stuart, headed over to the carriage where Charlotte was resting in and carefully guarded the area, not allowing any evil cultists to come close.
This was the trump card that Roel had been reserving all this while.
In the first place, Charlotte was an important member of Rose of Dawn even if not for her relationship with Roel. It was only right for the other members to lend her a helping hand. Furthermore, the Six Calamities wasn’t just her own enemy but a threat to humankind. It was the kind of entity that Rose of Dawn had devoted themselves to dealing with.
And to those from Knight Kingdom Pendor, the descendants of the Twilight Sages Assembly, the Six Calamities were the mortal enemies of their ancestors as well.
Kurt and the others were absolutely trustworthy, and they were the only ones whom he could easily mobilize aside from the soldiers of the Ascart Fiefdom. Their timely appearance on the battlefield had proven crucial to turning the tables around.
Following them, the other reinforcements from Rosa trailed in one after another.
With many more people taking over the responsibility of protecting Charlotte, Roel was now able to focus his attention on dealing with the main problem here.
Fatigue and weakness were like countless invisible hands attempting to drag Roel’s consciousness into the abyss, but his less-than-ideal condition couldn’t hope to quell his burning rage at all. Fueled by his wrath, his Origin Attribute began trembling in madness.
It wasn’t just once or twice that Roel had encountered dangerous situations, but never once had he had to helplessly watch a loved one wither away but be completely incapable of helping her. Countless nights he had spent watching her curling up her body in pain, and each time, he solemnly swore to himself that he would tear the culprit who had put her through this to shreds.
The intensity of the anguish and despair he had felt over the past month could hardly be described with words. It seethed and bubbled like a growing monstrosity within him, and it had finally found its target to be unleashed on.
His mana burned furiously like an inferno, granting him an unbelievable burst of power. It enabled him to propel across the sky like a comet.
Amidst the crackling of flames and lightning, Roel looked at the ancient monster cackling shrilly above him and called for his partner.
“Grandar?”
“I’m here.”
“I have a favor to ask of you. It might be difficult, but I intend to kill it,” Roel calmly revealed his goal with a voice filled with murderous intent
Flooding Death was relatively famous amongst the little known Six Calamities. It was revered as the Death God in the ancient era by intelligent races, so there was no question about its strength. It wouldn’t be an easy opponent even if it had only awoken from its hibernation not too long ago.
Many would have deemed the notion of killing Flooding Death to be nothing more than a pipe dream. After all, it was an entity that even gods struggled to rival in the ancient era.
Yet, Grandar’s answer was as concise as ever.
“Let’s kill it then.”
Grandar didn’t waver in the least even though they were up against an unfathomable monster of cataclysmic proportions. Roel’s lips curled up at his partner’s calm yet domineering response.
An explosive surge of mana surged through Roel’s body and flowed toward the Crown Origin Attribute, which then emanated blinding radiance. An immense amount of mana gushed out of his body and whipped up furious winds.
At the same time, his severely weakened body also received a tremendous burst of strength under the blessing of Goddess Sia.
Being Toward Death—that was the ability created through the essence of Roel’s strength, a power bestowed only upon those who sought to defy fate. The weaker one was, the stronger one would be. The closer one was to one’s limits, the likelier one would surpass one’s limits.
The sheer intensity of his rage manifested into reality, converting his mana into intense shockwaves of flames and wind. Under the supernova-like burst of light, Grandar shot through the sky like a demonic god of flames and reached for the black monster in the sky.
The crimson flame he wielded seemed to harness the strength to vanquish all evil, but the swirling clump of curses in the sky wasn’t intimidated in the least. After all, mere physical contact was already an offensive means to Flooding Death.
Be it human or god, anything that came into contact would be swiftly afflicted with its curse and wither away. No living being in the world could be truly invulnerable to death. Even if the curses lacked power in a direct confrontation, it would always have the last laugh.
That was also why Flooding Death didn’t hesitate to charge down and meet Roel face-on. The two mortal enemies collided with each other, giving rise to an intense clash of mana.
…
The moment Roel and Flooding Death collided into each other, everyone else on the ground stopped what they were doing. They knew that the slightest lapse of attention on the battlefield could spell death, but none of them could ignore the menacing threat rattling their instincts.
Crimson flames and lightning rippled out as devastating shockwaves that obliterated everything in their path. Under their sheer heat, the deathly curses were reduced to grayish whiffs of smoke
On top of that, the sheer strength exerted by Grandar was so great that it shook the fabrics of space. Under such overwhelming offensive prowess, Flooding Death’s intangible body of clumped curses could only last for an instant before bursting like a balloon.
The seared body of the ancient monster scattered in all directions, dyeing the air ashened-gray.
The strong gale arising from the explosion forced the Rosaian guards and evil cultists to lower their bodies to the ground so as to not be swept away by it. When the winds finally died down, the Rosaian guards looked toward the sky and saw that the ominous black clump looming over them had disappeared. There was a brief second of pause before resounding cheers broke out.
What they didn’t notice was that the black-haired man who had launched the attack had gone completely silent.
Unlike others, Roel had a sharpened sensitivity toward the presence of the Six Calamities due to his Crown’s Stones. He could sense that the Flooding Death didn’t sustain fatal damage from the earlier attack, and just as he had expected, the latter’s retaliation came swiftly after.
As the light from the spectacular first collision started to fade, the scattered curses started to reappear with greater fervor than before. At the same time, many black spots started to appear on the arm Grandar had used to scatter Flooding Death’s body.
The shrilly calls echoed from the sky once more.
Now that he was standing at a close proximity to those shrilly calls, their effects were even more pronounced on him. Roel could feel his mana going into disarray, and the primitive fear that living beings carried toward death sprouted in the depths of his heart, unable to be repressed.
It was then that he finally understood what those calls were. They were the death throes of countless living beings, the rawest sound of death.
Amidst these perturbing sounds, a blurred silhouette appeared in the sky once more.
At its reappearance, the curses quickly gathered in the sky and covered the stars and moon once more, almost as if everything was rewinding to its earlier state. At the same time, darkness started to devour Grandar’s body bit by bit.