Chapter 123: Childhood Friend – Dop Design
“That’s not a Swordmaster!”
Count Ogerton, who had been searching for a Swordmaster for several years after leaving the Mage Tower, recognized at a glance that the distortion on Lev’s sword was not an Aura Blade.
Swordmasters who had reached the pinnacle of their craft by infusing mana into their swords.
They were barely affected by magic.
Thus, if the apostle was not a Swordmaster, it meant that wizards could suppress it, and Count Ogerton encouraged his companions and shouted again.
“Priests, clear the dome laid out in the square! It hinders magic!”
Magic was also disrupted by divine power. Mana, which should naturally flow, would be refracted upon encountering divine power, and thus the lightning that aimed at the apostle just now hit the ground in vain.
Lev clicked his tongue.
Kingdom knights, who had been scattered around rescuing citizens, gathered. Wizards in front of the palace, engulfed in various types of magic, were observing the scene.
The arrival of more knights was no longer concerning, but the lightning strike just now was quite threatening.
Lev wasn’t well-versed in magic. He only had indirect knowledge through {Noble Society} information, perceiving wizards as strong but slow, akin to cannons.
However, the magic just unleashed seemed to contradict that notion.
At that moment, as soon as the dome laid out in the square dissipated, Lev’s body became heavy. As if smeared with glue, his entire body felt sticky, and his limbs moved unnaturally.
From a distance, the king, the archbishop, and a wizard in a green robe shouted.
“Knights, listen! Defeat the villain who ruined the kingdom’s ceremony and killed my people! And generals, encourage the soldiers to save the people!”
“Priests, focus on blessing the Crusaders and knights! May divine punishment be bestowed upon that sinner!”
“I will bind him! Everyone else, prepare anti-personal magic!”
Crusaders, who had fallen into despair, reignited their spirit and approached the apostle with the knights. Instead of divine spells that interfered with magic, priests lavishly used blessings and healing, and lightning, flames, and blade-encrusted gusts poured down on Lev.
“Devour!”
Lev swiftly lunged at a knight while offering up the newly arrived sacrifices. It was now the wizards’ turn to be troubled.
[ Barbatos’ Hunting Ground ]
“Ugh… it’s difficult because of these divine scripts. If only we had staffs.”
A wizard grumbled.
As both scholars and strategic weapons, wizards were unable to bring their staffs into the palace, having left them all behind.
They could still cast spells without staffs, but installing mana roads, paths for mana to flow through in three-dimensional space, became more complex and required longer formulas without a reference object.
Furthermore, despite the priests’ divine spells being cleared, targeting remained challenging.
Not only was the headache bothersome, but the divine scripts hanging in the sky scattered mana throughout Nevis strangely, and with the apostle in close proximity to the knights, they couldn’t just unleash magic recklessly.
“It’s better to prepare one strong spell. The knights will buy us time.”
“Alright. I’ll handle the reflection measurements. Can someone else shape the portal?”
“I’ll do that.”
“I’ll install the mana roads to gather mana through the portal form. Who will take the aim? Who will cast the spell and what kind?”
The wizards swiftly assigned roles and began muttering spells, preparing their magic.
Though unseen by Lev, who was ignorant of magic, thousands of ‘mana roads’ were intricately woven. Massive mana swirled around, avoiding the Barbatos inscriptions hanging in the sky.
Leaving it alone would spell disaster.
Anyone knew that wizards shouldn’t be given time. Lev stopped tussling with the knights and charged towards the wizards.
“Stop him! Protect the wizards!”
But royal knights and Crusaders blocked Lev, whose body was not in normal condition.
It felt like his limbs were entangled in spiderwebs.
Though not entirely restrained, each chant from the green-robed wizard tightened the web around him one layer at a time.
[ Achievement: Beast Hunt – ‘2’, Mild mana imbues your body. ]
Not even reaching the level of a Swordmaster, if Lev had at least been at the Expert level, he wouldn’t have been so entangled.
For knights whose bodies were saturated with mana, the power of magic was naturally halved.
However, Lev was not an Expert, and meanwhile, priests’ blessings poured down. Lev’s body glowed with intense heat, and the divine power of Barbatos leaked out.
“Curse you!”
“Ugh!”
Lev swung his sword horizontally like a windmill. The giant Aura Blade, swung at waist height, sliced through eight knights. Nevertheless, most knights dodged by lowering their bodies or leaping high to stab with their swords.
Lev had no time to admire the message that popped up amidst the chaos.
[ Quest: Duelist 10/1000 – {Swordsmanship} ability increases by one level. ]
The scene of Lev trying to approach the wizard and the knights attempting to stop him was truly spectacular. In front of the red-stained royal castle and in the equally blood-red plaza, aura blades blazed and swung in all directions as more than six hundred knights and crusaders valiantly threw themselves to hold back the apostle’s single step. Pieces flew apart. Surrounding the grand melee were four hundred priests who continuously offered their prayers. It was only as the knights were nearly all dead that Count Ogerton shouted.
“It’s done! Everyone, stand back! Pulsating Marble!”
The mana road established by six wizards. Along the complex path suspended in the air, mana surged violently. As the mana, which had gathered to a bursting point, was arranged at precise rates and rules, it evaporated in an instant. The wind died down. What remained, along with a vacuum-like stillness, was a small marble. That blue marble shrunk to the size of a walnut and then continuously expanded to the size of an apple as it pulsed, true to its name. The marble slowly but firmly descended.
“Eek!”
That cannot be avoided.
Lev instinctively realized he couldn’t escape, so he gritted his teeth. He poured all his divine power into his sword and delivered a desperate strike. However, the marble did not shatter. It was not a matter of breaking or not; it simply passed through as if it didn’t exist.
Mana was a force separate from divine power. A force that God spread throughout the continent ages ago, it was natural and ‘equal.’
“O Barbatos! This cannot end like this! Save me, and I will offer you all I have!”
Sensing the end, Lev screamed. It was more of a frantic cry of a person trapped in desperation rather than a genuine plea for salvation…
The necklace lifted as if responding. The necklace he stole from Harriet Guidan. The crimson jewel on it blossomed like a flower unfurling its petals. It floated upwards and swallowed the falling blue marble. That was the end. The crimson jewel reverted to its shrunken petal form and vibrated a few times as if digesting before becoming still.
“What in the world…?”
The exhausted and panting wizards were aghast. The Pulsating Marble. The pinnacle of anti-personnel attack magic and the essence of the Mana Superposition Theory spell. Even the most skilled Sword Masters would suffer a hit from it, yet the apostle remained unscathed.
“R-Retreat!”
Count Ogerton urgently shouted to the king, princes, and nobles who were anxiously watching the fight, and Lev, who had been blankly staring at the necklace, came to his senses.
“O Barbatos! Thank you!”
Praising the divine grace, he lunged toward the more precious sacrifices.
* * *
In the end, the king and princes died at Lev’s hands. Only a few crusaders, priests, and royal knights fiercely fought back. The mages and royal guard knights hindered them, allowing those who fled through the palace’s secret passages to escape his sight. It was troublesome. The blessed royals and nobles couldn’t be found using [Target Hunting]. But Lev had the absolute ability of {Tracking} along with Barbatos’ power, making it easy to traverse the labyrinthine secret passages. The exit of the secret passage led to a ranch on the outskirts of Nevis. There, the angry king said something, but Lev emotionlessly took his life. Prince Aeton de Lognum accepted his death hopelessly, while his brother, Prince Algeo de Lognum, desperately tried to escape until the end. He did not grovel for his life. While the few remaining royal guards and nobles fought bravely, Algeo hid in a manure-smelling feeding trough, holding his breath. Of course, such a trick would not work against Lev with his {Tracking}.
Algeo de Lognum was cut in half along with the trough.
“It’s over…”
Lev exhaled a breath soaked in exhaustion in the now-quiet ranch. He had killed all those who had doomed Lena to tragedy in his second timeline. Only the merchant leader who had handed them over remained, but with his primary goal of killing the princes achieved, his mind calmed. Yet, thinking of Lena brought a strange clarity to his mind.
Lev stood still for a while, pondering. The sunset had already set in, and it felt like he was thinking for the first time in ages. Wasn’t I planning to adopt Lena as a princess? Wasn’t I supposed to find a way to start a rebellion for the next timeline? What am I doing? Lev looked around with a fundamental question in mind. He saw the ranch wrecked by sword fights with royal knights and their scattered corpses. Seeing the blood-soaked scene, he realized why he was doing this. ‘Because I am a servant of Barbatos.’ I had strange thoughts for a moment. Wasn’t it Barbatos’ grace that allowed me to exact revenge for Lena? Lev knelt and offered a prayer of thanks and homage.
[Quest: Warmongering 2502/10000 – {Leadership} ability has increased by one level.]
[Quest: Duelist 492/1000 – {Swordsmanship} ability has increased by one level.]
[Achievement: Wizard ‘0’ – You become stronger against wizards. min(1)].
[Quest: Magic Slayer 6/10 – {Magic Resistance} ability increases by one level.]
[Quest: Noble Slayer 50/50 – {Nobility} ability increases by one level.]
[The ‘Noble Slayer’ quest disappears.]
[Achievement: Royalty ‘0’ people – All royalty feel a faint fear towards you. min(1)]
[Quest: Rebel 10/10 – {King’s Blood} ability increases by one level.]
[The ‘Rebel’ quest disappears.]
Messages popped up frantically as he ran. However, these were of no concern to Lev; he didn’t pay attention to them.
The game was over.
I will live forever as an apostle of the great Barbatos. I will never reach an ending again.
‘I should go fetch Lena.’
– Why?
As soon as he thought of Lena, his mind grew complicated. Something seemed to ebb away like the tide, then a question gripped a corner of his mind and asked.
– Who is Lena that you need to fetch her? Why should you?
‘Lena is my childhood friend… Of course, I should fetch her. Because…’
Feeling odd that he questioned something so obvious, Lev stopped thinking and tilted his head.
Thankfully, his mind soon quieted down, and he returned to Nevis. As he passed through the north gate, countless citizens were anxiously shuffling their feet.
[Barbatos’s Hunting Ground]
They had come to the city gate to escape the blood-red city but couldn’t get out because of the traps Lev had laid meticulously. Looking around, he saw people who hastily tried to leave through the gate, now hanging in ragged corpses.
“Ah! Someone’s coming in!”
“Help us!”
They shouted towards Lev as he passed through the gate nonchalantly.
But they had completely barked up the wrong tree. Without hesitation, Lev marked them all with the [Target Hunting] debuff and left the north gate.
I should stay here for a while.
He couldn’t leave the prey in the hunting ground unattended, so he thought of bringing Bante here. He needed it to patrol every corner of Nevis.
He also had to catch the soldiers that Marquis Harvey Guidan was bringing…
As he was headed to Marquis Guidan’s residence, lost in thought, Lev felt an eerie presence. Although he didn’t hear any footsteps, someone was very close. Right behind him!
Lev was taken aback but didn’t turn around. Pretending not to notice, he continued walking.
‘Who is it?’
Even though he had been careless, there was no one here who could hide from his keen senses and approach him like this.
This was Barbatos’s hunting ground, and as long as Lev was the apostle, he could sense the location of every prey in the hunting ground. Therefore, only blessed knights or crusaders could get this close.
‘Seems like someone survived.’
Lev tensed up, preparing to strike. No matter how many hundreds of knights he had killed, a stab could still kill him just the same.
He slowly moved his hand to grip his sword. The moment his adversary kicked off the ground, he swung his sword like lightning.
“Ugh…!”
The assailant’s arms were severed. Expecting a two-handed sword, he had aimed to counterattack with an aura blade as the enemy thrust his sword to also behead him.
However, the adversary had intended to strike downwards, causing his arms to be severed and a deep cut across the chest. The weapon in his dropped hands was not a two-handed sword.
It was a familiar old dagger.
The man with a messy beard, dressed unmistakably like a hunter…
“…Father?”
It was Lev’s father. He possessed a faint power of Barbatos.
“D-damn it. My son… let my son g…”
Lev’s father, glancing resentfully past his son towards something beyond him, died.
[Achievement: Dop Bizan’s Son Protected to the Death]
[Quest: The Life of Dop Bizan – Free Dop Bizan from his shackles.]
His name was Dop Bizan, a survivor of the ‘Bizan Tribe’ massacred twenty years ago. Only after killing his father did the parricidal son learn his father’s name.
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