Chapter 236: 125. The Tomb’s Guardian -3 (Part Two)
Even the movement of the dragon had changed.
Broken bits of bones were being regenerated quickly.
The Bone Dragon pounced on Metatron once more and managed to tilt the archangel to the side. The fangs of the dragon bit into the golem’s body as it proceeded to shoot its Breath in the next moment.
Metatron’s huge figure went up in flames, and the choking heat even reached me. It was hot as hell.
Without a doubt, my Bone Dragon remained a massive threat, yet…
Metatron’s glare was not directed in the dragon’s way, but at Alice over yonder. Even as its body was breaking down, Metatron still managed to endure the dragon’s Breath.
It was also even reaching out with its massive hand.
It must’ve determined that the small girl over there was far more of a threat than my Bone Dragon.
The cogwheels around it spun around, and another barrage of spears and arrows rained down.
Their target was the defenceless Alice.
“Not on my watch!”
I snapped my fingers. The skeletons’ bodies rapidly crumbled and their bones coalesced into one mass, morphing into a huge wall in front of her.
The defensive bone wall ably blocked off all the spears and arrows.
However, the crystal spheres on Metatron’s body began emitting bright light. The magic bombardment of condensed divinity was about to be poured out in every direction.
The indiscriminate bombardment quickly commenced.
The Bone Dragon, still biting and tearing into Metatron’s body, was directly struck and exploded into bits. While flames and smoke billowed out from its open maw, the dragon crashed back down to the ground.
As for me still riding on the dragon’s skull, I too got struck by the light projectiles and got sucked into the massive explosion.
My bone armour shattered and my battered body fell to earth. While vomiting a mouthful of blood, I urgently shifted my gaze to Alice.
The magic bombardment was also falling on top of her.
The projectiles’ destructive power was too incredible. The defensive bone wall wouldn’t be able to withstand an attack of this level.
This meant that I couldn’t protect her.
I dunked myself into the lake of holy water before urgently crying out, “Hans!”
“I know, sir!”
Hans stood before Alice and spread open a large parchment.
The Aztal Rune responded to the Saintess’s power and instantly created a transparent barrier to defend against the bombardment.
But the undead on standby all around her got sucked into the explosions and blew apart into pieces.
I pushed myself back up as the lake of holy water tumbled violently all around me.
My bone armour, soaked by the holy water, creaked noisily as I picked up the grimoire.
When I turned my head, I saw Metatron’s huge palm descending in my direction. The palm which had been super-heated by the bone dragon’s Breath mercilessly closed in.
The damn thing seemed to be planning to crush Alice, Hans, Norman, and me in one go, seeing as it came flying in without a shred of hesitation whatsoever.
However, it’s too late for you.
I was finally done with my preparations.
The rune letters inscribed within the grimoire began emitting bright light. And as the pages began flapping wildly on their own, I loudly called out, “Skeleton King!”
The strongest, most powerful undead in existence, and the king of all undead that only the Necromancer King could summon.
“Donn O Donnchadha.”
THUD-!
A huge hand made of bones emerged from the lake of holy water and grabbed Metatron’s descending hand.
The waves of holy water tumbled violently.
And in the midst of the tumbling waves, I was smiling away.
I heard the sound of metal being crushed coming from Metatron’s hand.
-To answer the call of my master…
Spirit Speech permeating in divinity loudly reverberated throughout the interior.
The remaining three hands emerged from the holy water lake and secured themselves on the ground. The gigantic and imposing skeleton tore open the gap between the dimensions and revealed itself to the world.
-This servant, the Skeleton King…
Just as Metatron tried to withdraw its hand, a spike made out of bone jutted out from the ground and impaled the arm. Now resembling some sort of a mechanical hedgehog, the archangel’s arm became firmly stuck in that location and was now unable to budge.
-…Has descended.
The Skeleton King continued to heavily breathe divinity out from its skull that was adorned with a crown.
It pushed its ten-metre-high giant torso up from the holy water lake.
Metatron’s figure visibly froze up right then.
Heh. It probably hadn’t expected its super-sturdy hand to be crushed like that.
I smirked deeply under the skull helm and spoke up. “Well. It’s about time that we start a proper battle, oh dear archangel.”
**
(TL: In 3rd person POV.)
Metatron faithfully carried out its role as the sword of god, as well as the guardian of the throne for a very long time.
After all, it was the divine command from the Holy Emperor.
Holy Emperor Ordin Olfolse addressed Metatron, as the latter did possess some semblance of an ego.
-Oh, archangel. When I die…
Ordin spoked with such a bright smile on his face.
-Continue to protect this land. And, just in case…
The first Holy Emperor continued muttering away, and Metatron committed the will of its noble, sacred master to its core. This turned out to be his last testament and his final command.
Eventually, the first Holy Emperor passed on from this world and Metatron carried on protecting his tomb.
It had never experienced defeat; intruders showed up every so often in the past several thousand years, but every single one of them met their ‘death’ the moment they crossed the doorway.
No one was permitted to defile this sacred place.
No one was permitted to destroy this place, either.
This place was the territory of the absolute guardian. As long as Metatron existed, no one would successfully intrude upon this sacred location.
It believed that since no creature surpassing it existed in this wide world, it’d forever be able to guard its master’s side.
However…
Metatron’s glowing eye grew so much larger.
Its hand got gripped by another which was made out of bones. The giant golem froze right up when it heard creaking metallic noises.
Even its forearm had been impaled by a spike of bones. Cracks developed on this large spike before smaller skeletons leapt out from there to destroy Metatron’s arm.
The mechanical archangel stared at its own arm before shifting its gaze over to the Skeleton King. Even though it was only for a moment, Metatron had suffered from an impact force strong enough to temporarily immobilise it.
Just what on earth…
…was this the ‘devil’?
Metatron sensed a truly enormous power emanating from the Skeleton King. If the mechanical archangel could speak in human tongue, it would’ve definitely screamed out aloud by now.
But that made sense, since the Skeleton King before Metatron was still ‘hiding’ most of its true power.
Metatron’s eye looked down to where the Skeleton King’s lower torso should be. It was currently ‘sealed away’ within the holy water.
The strength this undead had displayed so far was not on a truly threatening level. However, it still clearly could exhibit a far greater level of power than this despite half of its body currently being sealed away in another dimension.
The holy water lake was acting as a type of a shackle at the moment. But if the Skeleton King forcibly distorted the dimensions and managed to undo the sealing shackles, then Metatron was certain that it wouldn’t survive the ensuing battle against this giant undead.
In that case, there was only one solution to this predicament.
This monstrosity had to be eliminated before it gained its ‘completed’ strength.
Metatron’s eye shifted over to the ones responsible for summoning this monster, Allen, and the one helping the boy, Alice.
These two were just too dangerous. If those two were allowed to leave this place with their lives intact, then there was no doubt that Metatron would be defeated by them in the future.
The concept of ‘defeat’…
Metatron was the proud combat treasure of Holy Emperor Ordin Olfolse. As such, there could be no such thing as defeat for god’s sword.
It’d pour out everything at its disposal on the next attack.
Metatron forcibly twisted its captured arm. The bone spike that impaled its arm shattered and broke apart, allowing the archangel to finally retract its limb.
The archangel rapidly flew up again as the cogwheels all around it began spinning a lot faster. Sparks spat out from the wheels as Metatron’s entire body seemed to dye in a reddish hue colour.
It wasn’t planning to take this beating lying down. It wanted to extinguish every single one of them without leaving behind any traces in order to protect this land.
That was the sacred duty of the guardian assigned to protect the throne.
The cogwheels’ spinning speed grew faster and faster.
More divinity exploded out from Metatron’s entire figure as it pressed its hands together. As if to offer a prayer of its own, the archangel bowed its head.
‘In the name of the noble Holy Emperor…’
Large sparks came off from Metatron’s body.
‘As the sword of the noble and grand Heavenly World…’
Metatron’s pressed hands were gradually forced apart.
Its hands were shaking around as if the golem was experiencing a seizure. A humongous mass of divinity was coalescing in the space between its hands at the same time.
‘…I shall judge these demons.’
But, just before Metatron could unleash its final attack…
“The beauty of a magician is her patience.”
Metatron’s gaze quickly shifted away.
An old woman who had been hiding away until now suddenly revealed her true self. An old woman wielding a crystal staff – Queen Rox Aihrance, raised up her staff high in the air.
“To think that I’d get an opportunity to avenge my father’s passing.”
Almost at the same time, the space above Metatron’s head began distorting. The empty space was forcibly twisted before being ripped apart.
Arcs of intense electricity buzzed out from the black hole, and the previously-bright interior of the temple suddenly became dyed in darkness.
Metatron slowly looked upward.
Boom-!
A humongous object was now completely filling up the temple’s ceiling.
This was the result of the highest-class magic that distorted the dimension itself to summon a piece of an astral body – the legendary ‘Meteor’ spell.
A huge meteor was shoving aside a copious amount of air as it descended towards its target.
