The heavenly eye [Heavenly Eye] opened to the Intermediate World was still wide awake.
All of Heaven’s upper echelons, including the Celestial Sovereign, were watching the battle between Duke Yuma and Barbatos.
From start to finish.
Just after the battle ended, the Heavenly Eye was hurriedly closed, fearing that Yuma might approach them again.
With pure white hair, the boyish form of Celestial Sovereign Arten was trembling in disbelief.
“…Wow, who was I even planning to nab?”
At Celestial Sovereign Arten’s mutter, the Valkyrie Brenhild, who stood next to him, spoke up.
“It seems that leaving that human, Yuma, alone would be beneficial for Heaven.”
Like Arten, she had long white hair. If she let down her ponytail, her hair would reach her ankles.
“Yeah… Brenhild, you think so too, right? It looks better not to mess with him.”
Arten recalled the battle he had just witnessed between Yuma and Barbatos.
The battle that unfolded over the bridge of death Barbatos had created.
Barbatos had mercilessly slaughtered five Celestial Beings, even those with Divine Power.
And that human, Yuma, had killed Barbatos.
Arten sighed.
If Brenhild was Arten’s right arm, his left arm was the gigantic Seraph Great Angel—Garenmoon.
Garenmoon’s voice was heavy, unlike the light tone of Celestial Sovereign Arten.
“It seems he also acquired some ability to reverse his physical time just before dying. There probably was a limit on the number of times he could use it sequentially. But it seems he exhausted all those chances and ultimately met his end.”
Garenmoon easily grasped the principle behind Barbatos’s [Time Rewind]. The power that the now-dead divine being had possessed.
Celestial Sovereign Arten muttered while glancing back and forth between the two conversing next to him.
“Is that guy just gonna sit still? Huh? He won’t try to wipe us all out just because we tried to kidnap him, right?”
Garenmoon, seeing his master Arten looking utterly terrified, spoke again.
“That man, Yuma, has now eradicated two Evil Gods from this world. It’s one thing to do it once, but doing it twice by coincidence is absolutely impossible… First, we must acknowledge that he is someone who can defeat Evil Gods. In other words, someone with power equal to that of a God.”
Nodding several times at Garenmoon’s words, the Celestial Sovereign muttered,
“Yeah, yeah. I have to acknowledge it. That human, Yuma… he’s truly someone who can stand up to a God.”
At the Celestial Sovereign’s mumble, most of the over a thousand elite Seraphs kneeling before him widened their eyes in shock and gulped.
The fact that a human could be acknowledged as capable of killing a God held immense significance.
The Celestial Sovereign had always held the belief that mere humans could never kill a god.
Of course, it wasn’t just humans; even elves and members of the Join Tribe could only hope to reach the realm of demigods, not gods.
Thus, the only race capable of slaying an Evil God was their own Celestial Beings.
Celestial Sovereign Arten had reiterated this countless times over thousands of years. Yet, this time, that concept had been completely twisted.
Garenmoon, witnessing it firsthand, nodded in relief at the Celestial Sovereign’s willingness to believe.
“Yes, it seems so. We must acknowledge this. And we need to communicate that recognition to Duke Yuma; after all, we share a common enemy in the Evil God… we need him to feel that way.”
The Celestial Sovereign nodded vigorously at Garenmoon’s advice.
“Right… that sounds good. I should send an envoy to make our intentions clear. Let’s propose an alliance. It’ll be easier since that human is probably all flustered right now… Maybe send it in about three days?”
Garenmoon was inwardly impressed by the Celestial Sovereign’s sudden consideration of the human’s mental state and replied.
“Yes, that should work.”
Among the Celestial Beings present, there was not a single one who opposed the Celestial Sovereign’s will.
They all had witnessed through the Heavenly Eye the sight of a single human erasing the formidable Evil God Barbatos from the world.
*
With firm steps, Duke Yuma moved forward.
He saw his comrades approaching, with none other than the Empress of the Astes Empire, Princess Brigitte, at the forefront.
What was Brigitte doing leading the pack?
Screeeech—
She was flying in on the griffin Ethan! Behind Brigitte, riding on Ethan, was Bell. Behind Bell was Cloney.
Since the Cat-Folk Swordswoman Hestia couldn’t ride the full-capacity griffin, she had the former Holy Maiden Ermel perched on her back.
“Hold on tight!”
Ermel’s eyes widened in surprise; she’d never been carried on someone’s back before.
“Eeep, okay!”
Thus, they all moved, somewhat chaotically, towards Yuma, who was slowly coming back to his senses.
The griffin began to lower its speed and angle.
Thud!
Brigitte, the long-haired empress, rushed toward Yuma.
Bell and Cloney followed closely behind.
Brigitte quickly scanned Yuma’s whole body, her jade-green eyes moving rapidly with her head.
Then, those eyes halted sharply on Yuma’s right arm.
The sleeve of his black coat was tattered, and blood was trickling down from his right arm.
At first glance, it looked like a serious arm.
“Yuma…! Are you okay?”
Yuma slowly shook his head at Brigitte, who was filled with concern.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine right now.”
Despite Yuma’s words, Brigitte carefully grabbed his right arm, maintaining a worried expression.
“F-Fine? That definitely looks like blood…!”
As soon as Brigitte finished speaking, Bell and Cloney clung onto Yuma’s body one after the other.
Bell’s pink eyes widened.
“B-Blood! What should we do…?!”
Bell said, her lips trembling. Yuma patted Bell’s shoulder and spoke.
“I told you I’m fine.”
Bell leaned her face closer to Yuma.
“I-I’m fine, right?”
“I’m good. Right now.”
“Is it not Yuma’s blood?”
“Well, it is my blood.”
Bell looked at Cloney with tears in her eyes.
“Ahhh! Cl-Cloney! He said it’s his blood! What do we do?!”
Cloney moved closer with a tense expression.
“It is my blood, but I’ve already healed it with a holy relic item. I’m fine.”
Finally, a complete explanation was given. The group relaxed and let out a sigh of relief.
“Alright, Yuma. Get on Ethan!”
Bell insisted on helping Yuma over to Ethan’s side.
“Sure.”
Yuma felt no need to refuse. It was quite a distance from here to the palace. Just because he wasn’t injured didn’t mean he wasn’t exhausted.
“Heeeek! Hek! You look fine, Yuma!”
Hestia, whose cat ears were strikingly red, was satisfied that Yuma was okay.
Ermel, who was riding on Hestia’s back, also let out a sigh of relief.
Only those who just rode the griffon couldn’t fit. Three of them were already a full load.
“I-I’ll walk!”
It was Bell who decided not to get on Ethan this time. After all, she was the fastest when not riding anything.
Yuma handed the [Magic Armor] in his left hand to Bell.
“Use this; it has flight magic embedded in it. You can handle it easily.”
Bell’s eyes widened.
“Y-Yes!”
And she accepted the [Magic Armor].
Swoosh—
Yuma stroked Ethan’s back.
“Let’s go, Ethan.”
Grrrrrum!
Ethan roared and stomped the ground. Then he spread his wings wide and soared into the sky. And so, the group returned to the palace.
Whoosh— thud.
Ethan landed softly beyond the castle walls.
Thud— thud—!
The palace guards who hadn’t evacuated all knelt down in unison.
They certainly couldn’t think that what Yuma had taken down was a [God].
I certainly didn’t think that the thing I exterminated would be a [God].
But even if I couldn’t have predicted it was a god, anyone could see that Barbatos, who traversed the battlefield with ease, was an entity possessing extraordinary power. The ominous and overwhelming aura he exuded could indeed be felt from the castle walls.
I came to eliminate a being that wouldn’t become an asset, no matter if it became the enemy of the Empire. It was only natural to feel a sense of reverence towards Yuma as a protector of the Empire.
Yuma’s arms were still stained with blood.
As they watched Yuma walking gracefully, seemingly unfazed by the bloodshed, the knights and soldiers bowed their heads low.
“Stop your useless antics and get up.”
Saying this, Yuma pushed through the ranks of soldiers and moved forward.
Step, step.
The knights and soldiers knelt silently until Yuma passed by them.
The world’s perspective was now inching closer to high noon.
Yuma went to bed a little early that night.
His body was saturated with fatigue. After sinking into a deep sleep, he opened his eyes at dawn.
[You have defeated the Evil God, [The God of War and Strife, Barbatos!]]
[You have defeated one of the Eight Evil Gods! Now you have defeated a total of two Evil Gods!]
Yuma frowned slightly as he lay down.
There were still six Evil Gods remaining.
Still a long way to go. Still.
[The status increase achievable through accomplishments has already been completed.]
He had achieved level 100 with the status obtained from defeating Leviathan in the sea of the Mullen Tribe. He had already received the notification that he had finished all possible status increases through achievements back then.
And indeed, afterwards, no matter how many strong foes he defeated, he hadn’t received status rewards.
[Once the shedding from mortal to transcendent is completed in the user’s body, the settlement for this achievement will be processed.]
The time remaining until [Dragonheart of Vulcan—Dehit] was fully digested and activated was roughly three weeks.
*
Three days later.
Divine Realm.
The [Malicious God of Construction], Malphas, opened the door to the Temple of All Gods.
There were only six chairs at the massive round table, and three of them were empty.
The three already seated turned their heads at the arrival of the giant crow.
“…The other two haven’t come. Just as expected.”
The crow, Malphas, spoke.
“Thank you for coming. The reason I called you is… You all saw it too, didn’t you? That guy.”
Clap!
Malphas clapped his hands.
Crackle…
A screen flickered to life before the wall, showing Barbatos and Yuma within the battlefield.
“What to do about this human, Yuma… That’s what we need to discuss.”
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