The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations Chapter 871

Episode 871: Is There Only One Way? (4)

Naktura still floated in the sky, his face arrogant.
“Kuuuuuuuu… You insignificant creatures. You will now witness what great magic truly is, how death rules the world.”
Flames blazing within their eye sockets gazed down upon the battlefield.
Under their gaze, the priests of the Salvation Church were held back by the Death Knights’ onslaught.
Of course, they hadn’t completely collapsed.
A massive number of Crackers were still pressing in, and the priests, taking turns, struggled to maintain some semblance of order.
“Hmm?”
Naktura, who had been watching, tilted his head.
In an instant, a translucent shield unfolded before him.
Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang!
A black beam of light shot up from the ground and struck the shield. It was an attack by the high priests targeting the floating lich.
It seemed that Naktura was irritated by the several aerial attacks.
Indeed, several high priests spread their wings of darkness and rose into the sky.
They charged straight towards Naktura.
But Naktura was a Circle 8 Master, far more powerful than the half-superhumans.
“You fools!”
He waved his staff, his air blazing as he blocked the priests’ attacks. ”
Kurururung!
” With a thunderous roar, dozens of magic circles unfolded in the air.
“Howl… and remember… this is… the blessing of death!”
Red fireballs rained down again.
It wasn’t a simple fall.
Each one altered its trajectory, precisely targeting the priests of Heaven and Earth.
KWAAAAH!
KWAAH!
KWAAH!
The battlefield was torn apart by an explosion.
The priests hastily summoned their energy to protect themselves, but the flames melted and consumed their darkness.
The Death Knights, seizing this opportunity, charged again.
Every time their bony hooves struck the ground, the earth split. With every swing of their greatswords, the bodies of the Cracklings burst apart.
The Death Knights, cut down, shattered, and knocked down, rose again, swinging their swords.
Regeneration and immortality seem similar, but they are completely different.
The priests expended energy to regenerate with each injury, but the Death Knights continued their fierce attacks as they had in the beginning.
And along the path the Death Knights had opened, the Knights of the Order dug in again.
Living and dead knights,
humanity’s present and past, stood side by side, pressing down on their enemies.
The Superhumans of the Order were not idle either. They protected their allies and hunted down and killed the Priests with minimal force.
Faced with the precise and cold-blooded movements of the Order, the Priests of the Salvation Church were forced to retreat.
“Kaaaaaaah!”
The Cracks charged, frantically, but now they were nothing more than noise, unable to change the course of battle.
The Mobile Forces, which had retreated, also formed a solid formation and began to systematically and mercilessly cut down the Cracks.
With the Cracks effectively reduced to scarecrows, the only ones who could truly fight were the Priests of the Order. But their formation had already crumbled.
Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaaang!
Fireballs continued to fall from the sky, and Death Knights and Knights rampaged on the ground. The Salvation Church priests fell one by one.
Still, there were quite a few left.
They too, though half-human, possessed superhuman strength. Using the Crackers as shields, they somehow withstood the Death Knights and Knights’ fierce attacks.
Naktura looked down on the battlefield and chuckled softly.
“The living are always mistaken. Death is the end.”
With a gesture, black smoke rose from the corpses of the fallen priests.
The souls, stained by the Demon God’s thoughts, could not be captured. However, their corpses themselves were quite usable.
Although they were mere low-level undead lacking reason, the ability to move right now was crucial.
Geeeeeee… …
The dead priests rose again as zombies.
Although low-level undead, they were beings created from flesh that had once held a powerful aura. Even in death, those excellent materials exerted their power.
The zombies swung their arms wildly, killing the rifts. And at Naktura’s command, they clung tenaciously to the nearby priests.
While no match for living priests, they were sufficient to hold them back and buy time.
And taking advantage of this gap, the Death Knights and the Death Squad slaughtered the priests.
As the priests fell, more and more rose as zombies.
Naktura acted with a little more daring,
mercilessly destroying any zombies that strayed even slightly from their allies.
“If I get caught in the explosion and die… there’s nothing I can do. Khehehehe…. In my heart, we’re not on the same side.”
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Every time a zombie exploded, the rifts were torn apart. The Salvation Church priests were growing increasingly exhausted, fighting enemies they couldn’t kill.
The battlefield was now telling them a clear truth:
if this trend continued, the Salvation Church’s forces would eventually be annihilated.
Yet, the apostles remained motionless.
Jisel quickly scanned the battlefield.
‘They have no more cards to play.’
The odds were tilted in their favor. If they continued like this, even if it took some time, they would eventually push back all the priests and win.
However, they couldn’t continue using Naktura and the Death Knights.
‘They’re probably waiting for my mana to drain more.’
The apostles had clearly heard from Yulien. He was the one controlling those liches and death knights.
This short engagement alone had consumed a considerable amount of mana. Every time he revived the Death Knights, he was constantly draining his mana.
To prepare for the fight against Yulien, he had to stop here.
The Apostles wouldn’t care if they lost all their rifts and priests.
Their
only goal was to drain their own strength, even if only a little. Furthermore, they likely knew that the Death
Knights
weren’t giving their all.
Considering that, they were undoubtedly constantly assessing the situation.
‘
You
don’t know about you… … . We still
have one more
trick
up our sleeve.
‘ Deed …
Its speed was faster than lightning, and its momentum was so powerful that no one could dare to stop it.
Kwaaaaang!
With a roar like thunder, the sky, filled with darkness, tore open.
The sky, once covered in black, split open like a wound, and a gleaming sunlight seeped through the gap.
The priests of the Salvation Church unconsciously raised their heads and looked up at the sky.
No one yet knew
what Jiselle’s actions meant.
Saaaaah… …
In an instant, Naktura and all the Death Knights on the battlefield vanished like smoke.
At the same time, a clear voice rang out from behind the suicide squad.
“Juana, look upon this will that cuts through the darkness, and grant courage and protection to those who follow the light.”
Paaaaah!
The darkness in the sky split completely.
As the blue sky revealed itself, a single, massive beam of light descended upon the battlefield.
A pure white radiance, splitting through the clouds, bathed the earth, and at its center stood Fiote, eyes closed and hands outstretched.
His great will, his connection with the goddess Juana, fully opened, divine power radiated like a storm.
Kaaaaaaaaaah!
Wherever the light touched, darkness screamed.
The rifts shattered, their black aura evaporating from their bodies. The knights and mobile forces’ armor was engraved with unbreakable symbols of protection.
Although it couldn’t match the miracle of Deneb, who unleashed the full might of the four goddesses, it was more than enough to suppress the darkness of this battlefield.
Kwaaaaah!
Covered in blood, Elena leaped back and swung her massive hammer.
In an instant, she pinned a priest to the ground and let out a lion-like roar.
“Charge again! Just charge!”
“Waaaaaaah!”
The knights of Fenris roared and charged after her. Rachel and Arel also led the knights.
The Death Squad, awash in a storm of divine power, instantly swarmed the enemy.
The battlefield was no longer the Salvation Cult’s.
Humanity’s offensive, a fusion of will, rage, and divine light, repelled the Salvation Cult helplessly.
The Cracks had no chance to attack the Death Squad.
Even a passing touch of the storm of divine power shattered their forms into dust.
No Cracks could withstand the light.
The priests were no different.
While they didn’t vanish in vain like the Cracks, their bodies burned like flames, writhing in agony.
The priests had already expended considerable energy fighting the Death Knights. Then, struck by the powerful divine power, they were unable to fully exert their power.
The Salvation Church’s formation was completely shattered. The Death Knights charged in, roaring wildly.
“Waaaaaaaaa!”
Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaaang!
As the massacre began, the storm of divine power began to rapidly subside.
Fiote couldn’t maintain his miracles for as long as Deneb.
However, the divine power unleashed at this moment, when the high priests were exhausted, had a decisive effect even in a short period of time.
Thanks to this, they had seized the perfect opportunity for victory. Giselle believed this was enough.
If the apostles hadn’t intervened, the Death Knights could have concluded this battle without major casualties.
Naktura and the Death Knights had also performed admirably. Their original purpose up until this point had been to minimize allied casualties.
Giselle, having completed all preparations, glared sharply.
“Now, try to stop them.”
Kwaaang!
Giselle’s body, dismounted from the Black King, shot out like light. He no longer paid attention to this battlefield.
His work here was already complete. Now, he must face Yulien and decide the outcome.
This battle will be handled by those who remain.
As he ran towards Yulien, four black beams of light suddenly charged at him.
Kwaaaaang!
A loud crash rang out, and Giselle’s body suddenly stopped.
The impact was so strong that the earth around her split open.
Giselle narrowed her eyes and looked around at those who had stopped her.
“Gatros.” ”
Duke Fenris! You’ve finally moved! You die here today!”
Gatros, with a proud expression, radiated immense energy.
Giselle smirked at the sight.
“You’ve grown quite strong since I last saw you.”
“Yes! The King has bestowed upon me the grace of the Apostle!”
Gatros is a descendant of the Apostle. Instead of awakening the Apostle, Yulien allowed Gatros to inherit its power.
Giselle glanced away.
“Rahamod.”
“See you again. You said you were the Duke of Fenris? I’d love to know more about you, but I don’t think I have time.”
Rahamod looked at Giselle with a cold expression.
He was the type who wouldn’t mind joining forces to achieve his goals. That’s why he was the most dangerous and difficult of all.
This time, Giselle’s gaze turned to someone else.
“Tagmah, you’re alive too.”
The apostle who had invaded Valscrum alongside Rahamod.
He too gazed at Giselle with profound eyes and nodded.
“Indeed… You exude a similar aura to that guy, just as I’ve heard.”
The “guy” Tagmah was referring to was none other than Astion.
Since Giselle had faced him in Astion’s body in the first place, it was inevitable that they would share the same aura.
Rahamod and Tagmah sensed this and were beginning to find Giselle suspicious.
Giselle looked at the last remaining apostle.
“Nedruman.”
“…”
Unlike the other apostles, the one with his face covered with a cloth.
The author had never directly confronted Giselle.
Even Giselle only saw the author through Astion’s eyes.
The apostle who always fought the warriors in silence.
The opponent Nedruman fought most often was none other than Marika.
The four apostles began to pressurize Giselle, radiating energy.
The air felt heavy, as if it were weighing down Giselle. He could sense their intense determination to never let Giselle go.
Even for Giselle, fighting four apostles at once was no easy feat.
Of course, she was confident she would win. But if she were to let go here, she would never be able to defeat Yulien.
Giselle smiled and said,
“Sorry, I’m a bit busy.”
Then she added calmly,
“The others will take care of you.”
As soon as she finished speaking, a multitude of lights descended from behind Giselle, falling upon the apostles.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!