Chapter 270: Offense and defense
A massive tower looms heavy under a dark sky.
At the moment when day turned to night, a building was surrounded by black smoke, and in the blink of an eye, it was born.
The stronghold of the Moonlight Church, a place called the Tower of Moonlight.
Me, Eun-woo and Stardus were flying toward the top of the tower since we knew that the Lord of the Moonlight would be up there.
I was actually flying, with some teleportation mixed in, but whatever.
Of course, the Moonlight Church knew we were coming, and there were all sorts of distractions…Stardus and Eun-woo fended them all off. With the daughter of the Star God on one side and the daughter of the Moon God on the other, it’s a pretty safe bet.
By the way, this was all live.
I’m not looking at the chat in preparation for the upcoming battle, but… The viewership was very high, considering the chaos. No, it was safe to say it was the most viewers ever….Apparently, some people with decent internet were watching from overseas. I guess the title of the broadcast was aggro because we were going to kill the cultist who started this disaster.
Anyway, that’s how we cut through the night air until we finally reached the top of the tower.
“Haa….”
The rooftop of the giant tower was flat, without a railing, like a blackened playground and I could finally, for the first time, see his face.
“Ah… welcome.”
The villain who stood atop this world and the one who had always been the most influential villain in the original, the leader of the Moonlight Church, a master of magic and a fanatical believer in the Moon God, the Moonlight Lord.
-Tak.
At the far end of the tower where we’d just set foot, was an old man connected to dozens of giant magic circles surrounded by worshippers in white robes.
I’ve seen him in pictures, but in person, he’s even more impressive.
With Stardus and Eun-woo standing behind me, I smirked and said to him.
“Moonlight Lord, I’m Egostic. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Moonlight Lord, the one who started this whole mess, the head of the cult, basically, the moon god is out to get you if you say one stupid word.”
I say, looking at the camera in the middle and I can feel him squirming.
“How dare you speak to the High One!”
“…Stop.”
Of course, the worshippers next to him were rather agitated and tried to charge at me with their magic, but the leader raised his hand to stop them.
“…You.”
“It’s all right, Stardus.”
…Of course, I had to stop Stardus, who was gritting her teeth at the sight of them.
Luckily, she heard me and stopped, at least for now.
Wait a minute. We’re broadcasting this to the world, can I show a picture of a hero listening to a villain and then backing down?
…Sure. Who cares about that in an emergency? Let’s focus on the enemy in front of us.
With that thought, I whispered to the retreating Stardus.
“…Please be patient, Stardus.”
Sooner or later, you’ll have to step up. The moment will come when only you can step up.
I turned back to the Moonlight Lord and spoke to him.
“So…Mr. Moonlight Lord, are you happy after destroying the world?”
“You bastard… You must have heard it from the traitor beside me. Happiness? Ah, yes. How could I not be full after purifying the world to the will of the Moon God?”
Moonlight Lord smiles for the first time in his life as he says this.
The magic circles floating behind him shine even brighter as he looks clearly in my direction and proclaims.
“I’ll say it again here, and I’ll say it clearly.”
“Whatever you do here, you will never be able to stop these moon gates.”
“The dimensional walls have long since been breached and lunar creatures are bound to cross over into this world for all eternity.”
“The one besides you knows the meaning of my words.”
“This plague, this apocalypse, can never be stopped. Until the day you all die.”
“That is the truth.”
He gives me an ugly glare and a crooked smile.
I knew, too, that his words were true. That there was nothing I could do to stop them from crossing over but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way to stop them.
And so, as his words hovered over the top of the black tower, where only the cold wind blew hard I turned to Eun-woo, who had been standing silently beside me, pretending not to notice.
“Moonlight Maiden….Is what that old man said true?”
“…Yes. He’s right.”
She replied quietly, her head lowered.
Hearing that, the Moonlight Church Leader’s smile grew even more crooked as he spoke.
“So… The traitor knows that there is no way you can survive.”
“Despair, despair, despair, forever… in agony…In the afterlife!”
And as he said that, suddenly, with a movement of his arm.
“…Wait!”
At that moment, Stardus behind me shouted something.
He moved his arm in an instant, and unexpectedly deployed a magic circle toward us, firing a barrage of magic bullets.
-Puff, puff, puff, puff.
In an instant, the black rooftop was filled with thick smoke from the attack.
After what seemed like an eternity of attacks, the smoke cleared and all we could see was…
“….”
Gritting my teeth, I stood in front of Eun-wo, who was protecting us with a magic shield.
“Ha, ha, are you okay?”
“…..Uh, yeah.”
To my surprise, there was Stardus, who ran to me and hugged me from behind.
In an instant, I was being hugged by Stardus.
…No, of course, Eun-woo had already blocked it with her magic, but Stardus, who didn’t realize it, seemed to have jumped at me in surprise to protect me….
As if he thought we couldn’t stop this, the Moonlight Lord looked down at us with a sullen expression, then turning to Eun-woo, who was standing in front of him, he sneered.
“Yes…yes. Traitor of our Moonlight Church, even though you’ve betrayed I see that your magical skills haven’t rusted.”
“….Moonlight Lord.”
Eun-woo neatly ignored the words of the sect leader, keeping her head down.
For the first time, she spoke to him in a slightly trembling voice, calling him by that name.
“Hehe… After being with him, you don’t even recognize your own father.”
At that moment, Moonlight Lord said in disbelief as Eun-woo clutched her tiny hand tightly, her black hair falling behind her.
Finally, she raised her head, her red eyes meeting his.
No longer trembling, she met his eyes and said.
“You are not my father, you, you… scum!”
Closing her eyes tightly at the end, she said it as if she were screaming.
…My Eun-woo, you’ve grown up a lot, finally getting over your trauma and cursing at the person who traumatized you.
And so, while I was still lying in Stardus’ arms, wiping away my tears, the expression on her face was quite something to behold.
More than that, anyway.
‘He’s really taking it easy on us.’
I thought to myself as I watched from behind.
Just look at it now. Even though we’re so defenseless, he’s talking rather than jumping right into battle.
Maybe he’s planning to keep us tied up, but even considering that, we’re too defenseless.
Confident that we could never hurt him and that we’ll never be able to stop this catastrophe.
…Yes.
And now, we must crush that confidence.
It’s time to show him what true magic is.
Even as I thought that Eun-woo stretched out her hand, glared at him, then spoke as if to declare.
“You… This is it!”
And at the same time, she moved her hand as dozens, perhaps hundreds, of magic circles formed behind her in an instant.
Up to that point, even the Moonlight Lord thought that she was only a pawn who couldn’t even make a scratch on his body, however.
“….Wait, what?”
The countless magic circles floating behind him suddenly flashed red and began to shake and for the first time, he let his panic show.
-Purrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Almost all of the magic circles behind him shattered while the countless magic circles behind Eun-woo glowed blue.
“Haat-!”
She crossed her hands, shaking off the Moonlight Church magic circles as she dodged their leader’s hastily launched attack and slammed into the ground.
Kaaaahhhhhh-!
The sky turns blue and then.
Boom-.
Several of the gates in the air suddenly disappeared, contrary to his words that the gates could never be removed.
“….What!?”
The panicked Moonlight Lord looked up and immediately coughed up blood from the overload of Eun-woo magic circle hacking while Eun-woo, who had exhausted her strength by doing that, fell backwards so I went to her back and supported her.
I smirked at him and said.
“It’s a simple story.”
“The gate you created, or something, we reversed it.”
There was no need for a long explanation.
I merely summarized what Eun-woo had done, in case anyone was watching, in the face of a bunch of ignorant assailants.
The bottom line is that many of the gates around the city are now gone, and will only appear in places where there are no people.
The gates are not completely closed but at least, the immediate disaster was averted.
“You…”
The Moonlight Lord body was magically connected to the gates, and the blow struck him as well.
“Lord…!”
The congregation behind him went wild.
In the end, only his pride could be said to have provoked his fall. He should have attacked us as soon as we saw us. Why did we give us time? Of course, I had it all planned out…
Yeah. It’s only fair to show the human side of the villains when they’re so overspecced and strong.
Even in the midst of it all, Moonlight Lord was laughing with blood dripping from the corners of his mouth.
“…Haha. Hahaha. Did you think you could stop me with something like this? With only this much you’ll only be able to stop it for a few days…”
He muttered like a madman and laughed even harder as he looked at us, then suddenly softened his magic circle and said.
“…That’s right. I’ll give you this much credit for making me use this power already.”
“But you, you are finished…”
“With this land!”
With that, he shouted, and the entire magic circle coalesced.
-Goo, goo, goo, goo, goo.
The earth rumbled as his body, covered in black goo, plunged into shadow, the circle glowing and disappearing.
All the worshippers who had been drained of energy for his last spell collapse and in an instant, the rooftop was empty.
Only I and Stardus remained standing.
-Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.
The sky rumbles as purple lightning strikes the clouds, and it’s not pretty.
As she looked up, Stardus clenched her fists.
“…Egostic, this is the final stage you told me about, isn’t it?”
“Yes. That’s right, Stardus. If we can get past this crisis, we can finally end this scourge.”
Instinctively, she felt the end coming.
There, with that loud clap of thunder as the breeze grew stronger and stronger.
I said to Stardus.
“Stardus, I trust you. Now show me your power.”
So far, I’ve kept Stardus tight all for this day, for this moment.
“….Okay.”
And just like that, my cloak fluttered in the wind, and I met her blue eyes, with golden hair flying to the side.
-Kaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
The loudest noise I’ve ever heard in my life sounded like the sky was falling.
From the ground to the edge of the clouds the whole city in shadow as it appeared.
It was dozens of times taller than the tower we were standing on, sideways and up.
A single huge, circular swirling gate appeared.
-Guh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
From the front of the far side of the tower, blocking us all, it was overwhelming in size.
Yes.
Finally, the final phase of the catastrophe.
