At first, when the flames surged and enveloped him, Judas was taken aback.
“Kuh…?!”
He instinctively raised his arms to protect himself.
But nothing happened.
The unique scarlet flames surrounding him inflicted no harm at all.
It was simply an ordinary light that felt even devoid of temperature.
He quickly realized and sighed in relief.
The trait “Perfect Moon” he had recently acquired granted him immunity to all fire.
‘So it was thanks to the trait… phew, that’s a relief. I didn’t expect such a trick to be hidden away…’
He had anticipated some artifacts.
However, he hadn’t expected one of this scale and convenience to fall within the bounds of his predictions.
Artifacts that allow someone who isn’t even a wizard to use high-powered magic usually require complex methods.
In any case, he was immune, so he waited inside.
So that Cain could be assured of victory.
Even at the moment he turned around, relieved and sighing, he silently endured.
It may have been somewhat cowardly, but he didn’t care.
This was not a game; it was a war.
Survival and victory were the utmost values.
Nothing else mattered.
Like a predator hiding in the grass, he waited for a very brief moment that felt eternal.
And finally, the moment Cain bent down to pick up his sword.
He dashed out and stabbed him from behind.
As he pulled out the sword, blood gushed forth.
“Ker-hak-!”
Before Cain could even react, Judas had severed both his arms.
Thud, missing his arms, Cain collapsed helplessly to the ground.
The surrounding troops didn’t dare to intervene.
The scarlet flames were Balak’s symbol.
Not only had he come out unscathed from those flames, but he had also survived the initial magical bombardment.
How could they defeat such a monster?
Fear consumed them.
They could only watch as their commander displayed his defeat.
Judas kicked Cain to lie him flat.
Even on the brink of death, his red eyes were fiercely unyielding.
He glared at Judas and coughed up blood.
With a bitter smile, Cain said,
“A monster like this… it wasn’t supposed to be….”
With a knife pressed against Cain’s neck, Judas asked,
“You. Do you….”
He wanted to ask if Cain remembered him.
Whenever he saw Cain, an emotion close to disgust stirred within him.
However, his voice spat out a different question.
“Do you remember?”
Did he remember him?
It sounded like something a person who thought they ought to be remembered would say.
Cain coughed again and looked up at Judas.
He could hardly understand what was being asked.
Judas read his thoughts in his expression.
“…I see. Just one more question.”
This was a question purely out of his own curiosity.
“Do you feel any remorse for Eliya?”
He was simply curious.
Had he ever felt sorry towards Eliya, whom he abused as a bastard, even for just a moment?
The answer he received was as he expected.
Cain burst into laughter, as if it were absurd.
“Nonsense…. How could I feel that way….”
Without listening to his endlessly arrogant response, Judas pierced his throat.
Thus, Cain was dead.
At that moment, Judas felt something escaping from within him, a sensation akin to liberation.
A very light sense of liberation.
It wasn’t a situation where he could pause to consider what it was.
There were still remnants around.
Judas glanced around.
When his cold, golden eyes met those of the fleeing soldiers, they flinched as if pierced by a spear.
“If you surrender, your lives will be spared….”
Just as he was about to say that.
From behind the fleeing soldiers, someone riding a horse came charging.
It was so familiar.
It was an appearance he didn’t want to encounter in this place, momentarily leaving Judas in shock.
The knight on horseback smirked and said,
“Loosing yourself on the battlefield? Have you already forgotten the teachings?”
Judas had no choice but to simply stare at the knight.
*
The golden stalks that grew from the ground seemed to pierce the sky.
Like flowers of people, each stalk had people pierced through it.
But it wasn’t a stalk.
It wasn’t a flower.
It was golden fire, and it was Eliya’s magic.
“Mon…ster….”
Someone’s dying words scattered softly.
Among the corpses blooming abundantly, Eliya looked down at Levi.
Levi was half-buried in dirt.
He looked up at Eliya with hollow eyes.
“…I didn’t know such magic existed.”
“Indeed. I learned of it this time by using it.”
Like Cain, Levi had fortified his defenses against large-scale magic.
His personal power was much weaker, making him even more thorough than Cain.
Before Eliya, he was worthless.
She turned the ground over, creating a tsunami of earth and rock.
The tsunami aimed at the line of troops led by Levi.
It began as magic, but in the middle, due to inertia, it was no longer magic.
Thus, the magic interference realm was meaningless.
Even after entering the anti-magic field, the tsunami continued to advance, completely overwhelming Levi’s army.
After that, it was easy.
She incinerated the wizard first, then pierced the rest with the golden fire.
This was the outcome.
Golden flowers blooming through the corpses.
The land turned into a wreckage due to the tsunami.
Levi spoke with a hollow voice.
“It’s absurd…. This is, this is unbelievable…. How can one person have that much power…? Why, why would someone like you….”
His mutterings were filled with insulting disbelief.
Eliya felt apathetic.
In the past, leaves of sadness had unknowingly piled up in her heart.
Now, she no longer felt that way.
The fact that petty and foolish individuals mistreated and disregarded her simply for having direct descendants was even more unreasonable.
Such matters were trivial now.
With only Judas by her side, everything else became secondary.
“Levi. Did you try to kill Judas?”
“And yet.”
“Then you will not die peacefully. You will become a sacrificial offering for all to see, to learn what happens when they lay hands on what is mine.”
“…What? Ha, ha ha, ha ha ha-!”
Levi, who had been laughing weakly, suddenly erupted into loud laughter.
He found it genuinely enjoyable and amusing, unable to contain his mirth.
Eliya looked down at him as though observing an insect.
“Eliya, ah! Eliya!”
His voice, lamenting in a dramatically exaggerated manner.
“I never thought you would hold such feelings! Especially against that guy! I wonder if he thinks the same of you?”
Eliya scoffed at his childish provocation.
Did Judas see her that way?
Did they share the same feelings?
Of course.
Eliya was certain.
Even if she hadn’t confirmed it with words, it didn’t matter.
Between her and Judas, there existed a transcendent bond that didn’t require verbal explanation.
It was obvious that others wouldn’t understand.
They didn’t need to understand, and she even hoped they wouldn’t.
The line that connected them was solely theirs.
Interference from the outside was simply displeasing.
“You can never connect with that guy! Do you even know who he is? He is….”
-Boom!
The golden flames shot out, striking Levi through the back of his neck.
The flames burst out of his mouth.
Perhaps it was a reaction to being born with a weak constitution; Levi was eloquent.
There was no need to listen to such a person’s words.
Listening could lead to being swayed by unnecessary information.
Well, his feelings for Judas would never be swayed or shaken, no matter who he was.
It didn’t matter who it was.
The range of “whoever it is” was, well, uncertain.
She initially accepted that he was of commoner descent.
Now, he had climbed to a position that made it difficult to disregard his origins.
The most horrifying scenario she could imagine was him giving someone else attention while they were apart?
She could overlook that once.
Of course, she would find out who the other woman was, burning the entire continent and enclosing Judas to interrogate him.
Including meals and anything else he might need, she would take care of everything.
Thinking like this, she felt it might be quite nice to do so without any reason.
Eliya suddenly found herself smiling while lost in such fantasies.
Seeing herself behave so childishly, she realized she couldn’t treat Judas logically.
She didn’t despise herself for it.
Fiddling with her ring, she smiled contentedly.
‘Mine….’
She had said to signal her if he was in danger, but it was quiet.
Having secured that promise, he must be safe right now.
Just as she was about to head toward Judas.
“!”
A surge of magical energy rippled in the air.
Eliya quickly teleported backward to create distance.
Scarlet lava was descending in a parabola towards where she had been.
The lava hit the ground and exploded.
It splattered in all directions.
Eliya raised a veil of fire to block the small lava rocks flying toward her.
At that moment, someone arrived from far away via teleportation.
Eliya could not help but smile as she saw him.
It was a distinctly different smile from the one she made when thinking of Judas, a cold smile.
Ecstasy bordering madness.
She could hardly tell how long she had waited for this moment.
“Lord Balak. Why have you arrived now?”
“…Eliya.”
With a stern face, Balak appeared before Eliya.
“I wanted to kill you first.”
Eliya decided to end the war today.
*
“Loosing yourself on the battlefield? Have you already forgotten the teachings?”
The knight dismounted from his horse.
Judas stared at him blankly.
‘Why…. are you…?’
A question he muttered inwardly.
The answer was already known.
He had originally been Balak’s knight and servant.
He had come to Eliya’s training camp purely on orders.
What taught him wasn’t anything more than a transaction.
The commander of the Bevel family’s knights.
“It’s the last lesson.”
Gawain stood in front of Judas.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
