/
Sarah’s heart ached at the sight of the darkness flowing down.
‘That is…’
Even though she hadn’t seen it before, as Gaia’s Apostle, she could feel what was happening.
The pillar was destroyed.
The darkness rising from the destroyed pillar would slowly take down the entire universe and turn it into nothing.
“Brother?”
Negative thoughts went through her mind.
She didn’t know why or how it got destroyed, but she was sure it had something to do with her brother. The pillar was everything to this universe, and it was impossible to destroy it unless it was Jamie and Ra.
No, she didn’t even think the two could break it, but there was a chance they could figure out what to do.
Because the pillar was destroyed.
“I have to run away with Mother.”
But where? With the pillar destroyed, there wasn’t any safe place.
Sarah bit her lip as she realized they couldn’t escape. Her family had finally reunited.
But would things just end like this?
It felt unfair.
Tears dripped down her eyes as she thought that they couldn’t even have happy moments together.
“For no reason…”
What was this struggle for?
At that moment, various kinds of barriers were spread in the sky and began to resist as much of the darkness as possible.
There were also weak barriers that were quickly destroyed, but new ones filled their place.
Sarah opened her mouth, and her tears continued to fall. The sight she was looking at was spectacular.
“Gods…? Not just them.”
The energy she felt from the barrier was so diverse. From Gods, dragons, High Elves, and even human magicians were helping out.
Even those who couldn’t use magic were drawing out their energy to help strengthen the barriers.
Everyone was trying to resist it.
They struggled to stop the destruction somehow.
‘It is meaningless, though.’
As the Apostle of Gaia, Sarah knew better than anyone else.
It couldn’t be stopped.
They could just buy some time, but all life in Bless would come to an end.
Why would they exhaust themselves so much for that?
Why…
“Why?”
Sarah got up.
She knew it couldn’t be stopped if she just thought to herself, but giving up was more stupid.
“Everyone is struggling to live.”
No one was expecting a miracle. They just believed.
For that, everyone was trying to buy time.
“Brother can’t be defeated.”
He would definitely do something about it.
She didn’t know how, but her brother wasn’t the type to just give up until he found a way to stop the darkness from destroying the world.
But there was a catch.
To stop it, she would have to leave, but then Sears would be left alone. If someone invaded the current situation, she couldn’t protect her mother.
But someone shouted just then.
Sarah turned to see where the voice was from.
“Sarah.”
There, Sears was leaning against a tree with an exhausted face. Despite being exhausted, she smiled at her daughter.
“Come back safe.”
“Mom.”
“Mom is fine, so come back safe.”
“But what if someone invades in the meantime…?”
“My daughter.”
Sears walked right in front of Sarah and gently stroked her cheek. Sarah felt her mother’s touch and closed her eyes. While placing her other hand too, Sears said,
“Everything is fine. Don’t worry.”
“…”
“Go. Mom will be waiting here.”
The uneasiness that filled her was lessened by her mother’s warm voice. And Sarah moved into her mother’s arms.
Then Sears exclaimed,
“Oh goodness!”
She was a bit shocked by Sarah’s actions, but she soon smiled softly and hugged her back.
Sarah raised her head and said,
“When I return, I will come back with Brother.”
“I will be waiting.”
After the hug, the mother and daughter looked at each other affectionately for a while, and Sarah turned around first.
She ran ahead and then stopped to look back.
Then she shouted at Sears,
“Quickly! I will be back!”
After saying that, Sarah disappeared. Sears smiled in the direction her daughter had disappeared, then she looked up at the sky with a stiff face.
“Jamie.”
Her son was somewhere there. Sears mumbled as she held her hands together.
“Please let our children come back safe. Honey.”
Rumble!
Black lightning bolts flashed in all directions and roared.
Jamie was fighting Ra using black mana.
“Remove your hands.”
Then he aimed the black mana at Ra.
Ra, who was holding the black light, maintained an expressionless face and silently turned to Jamie.
“If you don’t listen to me, I have no choice but to force you.”
Jamie’s hand now held a purple light, and he shot it toward Ra. Ra pulled his right hand from the light and touched the beam with his bare hands.
The beams that had bounced disappeared as if they were sucked into nothingness.
Ra frowned when he saw that the back of his hand was a bit burned.
“As expected, you have also become weak.”
Jamie smiled when he realized that.
“No matter how much you and I have joined our strengths, it is impossible to destroy the pillar with just the orb. You will probably consume a lot of strength when you handle the orb.”
“….”
“Well, I assumed that you must have exhausted your strength, but looking at you now confirms it.”
As Jamie said, Ra spent all his energy on the orb. If not, he wouldn’t have gotten hurt by the black mana.
There was a fairly deep scar on the back of his hand, but it wasn’t just Ra.
“Isn’t it the same?”
Jamie also looked exhausted from trying to survive the explosion. Not just that, but his black mana seemed unstable.
Jamie clenched his fist, feeling a slight spasm in his fingers.
Ra glanced at the black light.
‘Even if I absorb just a part of it, it is my victory.’
But the problem was that Jamie wouldn’t just leave it at that.
It was clear that he would somehow interfere and try to steal it, but even Jamie was in a tough state now.
If the two of them still had energy left, they would be on the same level. In that case, Jamie, who could move freely, had the advantage.
“Seems like your head is making rounds?”
Jamie sneered.
“If you want to absorb it, you will have to kill me, so get your hands off me. Unless you want to accomplish your plans one-sidedly.”
Ra’s face changed for the first time. His brows, which were always the same, furrowed a bit.
Jamie loved this new expression he was seeing.
“So you know how to get angry?”
“Such an annoying one.”
He removed his hand from the black light, and as he said, he would have to kill Jamie and take it.
“I will burn you without leaving behind a single bone.”
The Sun God, Ra, raised his natural strength.
The darkness brightened in an instant, and the sun’s flames began to rage everywhere.
Jamie gulped at the feeling of the flames touching his skin.
‘Such a monster.’
Even though he wasn’t so invincible anymore, the flames were still so bright. Jamie summoned Balisada, raising more black mana.
Light and darkness touched each other, pushing and pulling constantly for the upper hand, and when the two were in a perfect position…
“Huhhh!”
“Haaap!”
Both of them threw their weapons into the air at the same time. In the empty space, light and darkness clashed and exploded.
“Leviathan!”
The darkness of gluttony devoured the flames of the sun and moved for Ra. Ra’s eyes were white as if they were burning at a high temperature.
The energy to annihilate everything was pushed back as it was suppressed by Leviathan.
Jamie spread a cotton-like protective shield to stop the high-temperature energy from reaching him and summoned Longinus as he threw it open.
“Such tricks will not work.”
Kwaaang!!
Sparks exploded, and when Ra swung his spear, Longinus disappeared.
At that moment, Jamie appeared behind Longinus. Right from the start, Longinus was bait.
Ra rotated his spear, looking a bit flustered, and pulled his body back.
[Chain of Reverse Heaven]
Chiikk-!
Black chains were summoned from the air and bound Ra’s limbs.
Ra immediately melted the chains, but it took him a moment. Jamie, who had now come close to him, violently swung his blade coated with black mana.
[The Sun]
A small ball of flame shaped like the sun was created from the blade. Upon contact with the blade, the sphere of fire, ‘The Sun,’ caused a massive explosion that was too great for its size.
Jamie flew back and got engulfed in flames.
If he hadn’t covered his skin with aura, he would have had severe burns. But Jamie wasn’t too disappointed with the result.
He was aiming for something else. Then Ra corrected his stance and attacked back.
Puak!
His eyes widened at the sight of the dagger that pierced his stomach. When he turned his head, someone with purple eyes was smiling at him.
“Nice to meet you.”
“A disgusting corpse worse than…!”
Azad raised the corner of his mouth in a smile, and Ra began to give out a terrifying heat with a displeased look.
“Kuaaak!”
Azad hurriedly moved back, but he screamed as he couldn’t completely avoid it.
Ra pulled out the dagger stuck in his back and threw it. He didn’t think there would be this unexpected blow from behind.
But this was just the start.
He felt a sense of shame and turned his head to the side, only to have another dagger move in the air.
“My bad.”
It was Raiza, another undead.
He clicked his tongue, genuinely feeling bad.
Ra couldn’t stand it and threw him into the flame, and with an excruciating scream, Raiza fell and was wrapped in black smoke.
“You things! Know your place!”
Ra was furious at the fact that he had been attacked by the undead. In the past, such blades would have melted if they had gone close to him.
He raised his voice even more, expressing that he didn’t want to face these things again.
“You coward! You think I would be assassinated with these worms…!”
“Such a noisy guy.”
Puakk!!
Then, a blade pierced Ra’s body once more, and it was from the right side this time.
He also felt it this time. No matter how weak he was now, there was no way Ra couldn’t feel the presence of such things.
Ra grabbed the long blade.
‘Chains?’
He checked the remains of the melted chain around him.
That was it.
Those bugs used the door and came out of an unexpected place.
His prediction was correct.
“Reconstruction!”
Ashtar’s sword melted in an instant, and Ra’s eyes shone with a beam coming out.
“Kwaaaaak!!”
Ashtar screamed at the terrible feeling of his skin being burned, despite being an undead.
It was said that the undead wouldn’t die unless their master died. However, if their existence itself was annihilated, would they still not die?
“This won’t kill me, Jamie Welton!”
Ashtar’s body was engulfed in flames and burned black. Ra grabbed the long blade and tried to melt it.
“Try enduring, Ashtar.”
Came the voice of a woman next.
Ashtar, who was in flames, reached for Ra’s shoulders.
As Ra was startled and turned his head, the black skull spoke in a ghastly voice,
“You… will… die… here…”
“You cheeky bastard! How dare you put your hands on me!”
Kwaaang!!!
Ashtar’s body exploded right then. At the same time, a knight in armor appeared in front of him.
And Ra tried to burn the knight into ashes.
However, the knight was different from the three he had just burned.
“I will root out the evil.”
The flames didn’t even touch Bianca.
It was because Jamie was protecting her, and Bianca lowered her sword in a straight line with all her might.
“Cheeky woman!”
She seemed to be a little special, but in the end, she was just a simple corpse.
And so Ra swung his spear.
He intended to crush that thing down, but his spear didn’t move.
“Kuaaak-”
“Kuaaaak-”
“Rumble…”
Numerous undead clung to the edge of the spear.
‘When did they divide like this?’
It was a fleeting moment.
Ra immediately shook the undead with his spear, and soon after that, Bianca’s sword cut Ra in a straight line.
Instead of blood, hot light shone from the cut. It felt like his string of patience had been cut.
Then he shouted with an enraged face,
“I will give you more pain than death!!”
His entire body started to burn like the sun.
“Kuaaaak!”
Bianca, who was right in front of his nose, couldn’t handle the heat, and her armor began to melt down.
Ra’s entire body shone in white light. He intended to explode the energy right then, but at that moment…
“Now, now. You got so excited.”
Among the undead, Jamie appeared with a smile.
‘Suddenly?!’
Ra’s eyes shook.
Jamie, who appeared through the undead’s gap, asked him,
“Remember what I promised you before?”
A ring of darkness hung around Ra’s neck.
Ra increased his strength to remove this ring of darkness, but the darkness only grew thicker.
Another attribute of Darkness was absorption.
Then Jamie said,
“I told you I would blow off your head.”
Madness shone in his purple eyes. For the first time in his life, he felt a certain emotion.
His heart was racing, and he could feel nausea going up his throat—it was the feeling of fear.
“W-wait!”
“Die.”
Jamie clenched his fists in silence, and the ring of darkness began to tighten around Ra’s throat.