Noah placed his chin on Ricky’s shoulder and whispered,
“Does it hurt?”
“… you bastard.”
“Which is why I told you not to be careless. And maybe your Goddess too.”
Clearly.
Pyro did plead with Ricky constantly not to get drowned in anger.
Noah smiled and saw his hand moving. It started from the back and pierced at once.
Even the same level of holy power was used, so it would be difficult for even an Apostle to be alright.
‘But he isn’t going to die from this, right?’
How could someone survive such a wound?
What a strange being an Apostle was. However, he had no intention of ending this with just a stab to the stomach.
The Spiral of Battlefield told him how to kill the Apostle.
“It took me a long time to get to this level. Still, I worked hard until the end. Like this.”
“Kuak.”
“Hurting? Well. If your stomach is stabbed but you are still fine, then you are a monster.”
Ricky felt his consciousness fall.
The other person kept talking about nonsense that he didn’t want to hear. And he wanted to hit the bloody man in the throat, but he couldn’t.
‘Brother Lars.’
Lars collapsed down like a doll. A few scars were visible on his body.
Where did the bright blonde hair go to make way for this grey frail hair?
Where did the calmness of the person who was always full of confidence and playfulness vanish?
He could feel his head boiling with rage.
Ricky’s eyes changed.
“Look here.”
Ricky grabbed the hand that protruded from the stomach, and Noah frowned at the pain.
Did he have more strength left?
“You cannot counter!”
Lifting his head from Ricky’s shoulder, Noah raised his other hand to sever his neck.
But Ricky continued,
“I am very angry right now!”
Thud!!!!
Noah’s eyes widened.
A great force shone from Ricky, sending him back, and so did the arm that was lodged into Ricky’s stomach.
No.
It felt more like a force that grabbed his body and threw it back. However, Noah wasn’t too shocked.
“What is this? This is nonse—”
He was at a loss for words despite seeing this.
An enormous power rose from Ricky’s body.
This was surely…
“I told you I am angry. You fucking shit!!!”
Black mana rose.
Noah couldn’t believe this.
The black mana gushing from Ricky’s body began to move around with the holy power of Pyro. Noah immediately distanced himself from there.
[… this ended up happening.]
Pyro mumbled.
Noah was mistaken.
It wasn’t because he was too simple in his actions to lose his calm. It was because Diablo Volfir’s mana, which had been asleep in his body and suppressed by holy power, had awoken.
Ricky listened to the sad voice of the Goddess as the two powers merged into one.
And with eyes that were gold and purple, he said,
“I will kill you now.”
Ricky was an Apostle of the Goddess and an undead revived with the power of Jamie.
Ricky was Jamie’s undead, but he couldn’t use black mana.
The exact reason wasn’t known, but he guessed that his power as an Apostle was too strong, and there was no room for the black mana to manifest.
But at this moment, the black mana suddenly manifested.
The reason was simple.
“I will kill you. I will kill all of you!”
Black mana manifests or forms when one is extremely angry, just like now.
It has been a little less than a year since Ricky entered the main church as an Apostle.
Anna went to a flower viewing and got kidnapped.
Unknown to the world, a group of bandits seeking ransom for the Saintess, murdered a paladin who accompanied her as an escort and kidnapped her.
It was rather a notorious group that was beyond regular thieves and acted by hiding their true identities.
Ricky went out to save his sibling, and one of the bandits who got cornered put the knife in Anna’s throat.
And Ricky was extremely angry for the first time since becoming an undead.
He didn’t remember what happened after that. When he came to his senses, Anna was in his hands, and the bandits were annihilated, leaving no one alive.
Pyro recognized the danger of the black mana due to what happened that day, and she made sure Ricky had the mindset of the brightest hope in him.
-But it turned out like this.
She thought that one day the black mana would wake up again, and at that time, she expected that it would be when her church was in crisis.
-Maybe it is better.
This was an unstoppable situation.
If it weren’t for the black mana, her Apostle would have died. Also, the power wasn’t like the black mana of the dark magicians, which was created through evil doings.
This black mana was directly taken from Jamie Welton, and the overall amount of it wasn’t much less than Diablo Volfir’s familiars either.
“Phew—”
Ricky felt the power surge through his body.
‘Jamie’s power.’
It had only ever appeared once before. He wasn’t sure how to use it, and Pyro hated it, so he made sure not to touch it.
‘Was anger its trigger?’
Black mana was generated from anger.
Ricky felt calmer now.
He was angry, but it felt like he was acting in a calmer manner.
Perhaps it was because the holy power was trying to suppress the black mana.
‘Whatever it is. It is fine and good.’
This power should be enough. Ricky felt his pierced stomach heal.
When he reached out, the Holy Sword on the ground swiftly made its way into his hands.
“Sword of Judgement.”
The golden and purple light wings spread out.
The hour of judgment had come.
‘…. I never heard anything about this.’
The Apostle of the Goddess uses black mana.
Especially since this was the black mana he had suffered against, so Noah familiar with it.
‘Jamie Welton’s black mana.’
Through his background research, he had learned about Jamie and Ricky, but he had not anticipated that they would also both possess black mana.
Even so, Ricky was an Apostle of God.
An Apostle of God standing at the peak of holy power!
“Not an opponent I can handle.”
From Apostle-level holy power to God-killing black mana.
It wasn’t something even a war God’s Apostle could handle.
What was certain was that the Spiral of Battlefield ended up being wrong.
Again, Jamie Welton was the problem.
His black mana worked as a variable here.
Noah was angry that his plan was going wrong.
“We will retreat.”
“I am not going to allow you.”
That was the moment.
Leaping through space, Ricky swung the Holy Sword with eyes wide open, and Noah hurriedly used the shield to buy time and tried to hide in the subspace.
“I was told the Apostle of Zenith was naïve, I guess it was true.”
He swung the Holy Sword, and Noah trembled.
He summoned a spear to block it.
Crack!
When two weapons collided, a huge wave of air began to crush the ground they were standing on.
Noah frowned.
It felt like every bone in his body was being crushed.
The holy power itself would be easy to handle, but this black mana was what made it difficult for him.
‘Retreating would be better.’
He was an Apostle, and if he died here, then the entire flow of the war would change.
The problem was that retreating wasn’t so easy.
Ricky has been attacking like a raging wind.
Noah was in a hurry to block. And the shock continued to extend from the spear to his body.
‘Father… help me.’
….
‘Father? If you leave it like this, your son will die here. You should help me….’
No answer came back.
Noah anxiously called for Zenith several times, but it was still silence, and Ricky’s sword came flying in.
“You are so cruel.”
Lily looked at Noah anxiously, searching for Zenith with pity.
Either way, Zenith was staring at something without even looking at his Apostle.
“Being an Apostle is too restricting.”
In front of him was a large glass tube filled with water, in which a naked man was floating.
Zenith put his hand in the glass tube with a smile.
“Oblion seems smart in a way. Even though he didn’t have an Apostle, he used his own methods to descend into the world, and he gave me a good impression.”
Oblion, the God of Nothingness, released his priests into the open, who began to hurt humans without a care in their space of nothingness.
And by substituting the power of nothingness as a causality, he could descend when needed.
Thanks to that, he descended onto the body of a priest.
“But he ended up meeting Diablo.”
That was the bad part.
He managed to descend to the ground without any risk, but then he met with the nemesis-like being, and maybe now it would be better to change his name to God of Unluckiness.
Even though he was dead.
“Well, if that is his way, then there is no need for an Apostle.”
Noah did a lot for him, but in the end, he failed.
If he had succeeded, then Zenith would have given him a chance, but with this happening, there was no need to descend into the body of his Apostle.
“So cruel.”
“Being a little cruel is fine”
Zenith held the glass tube.
Crack!
The glass cracked, and water began to leak out. The water receded, and the man inside opened his eyes.
“Now. Let’s start now, Vincent. The reincarnation of Diomedes.”
Zenith smiled.
“Father?!”
Noah called for Zenith anxiously but heard nothing.
Why?
“You have been abandoned”
“It makes no…”
God abandoned his Apostle?
This meant giving up the war. There was no way Zenith was insane enough to do that.
At that moment, someone’s face passed through Noah’s mind.
“No. Father… you abandon me to use that one as a vassal?”
Vincent?
A reincarnation of Diomedes.
A secret weapon created to stop Jamie Welton and used as a vassal by Zenith only once before.
However, the right set of circumstances has to exist for that to happen.
At that time, there was a holy relic that managed to help them.
‘No. Did he prepare something without my know—’
If it was Zenith, then he must have.
Noah’s eyes trembled.
He never expected that he, an Apostle, would be abandoned.
Ricky looked at Noah with a little pity.
“Die, you orphan.”
Ricky cut Noah’s throat, causing it to deform badly.
He had the face of a man who had been betrayed.
And….
Wooong!
Bang!!!
Intense holy power rose from a distance.
“Kuak!”
-This power?!
Pyro cried out. Could it be that Zenith was descending here? But his Apostle just died.
He should no longer appear here.
An overwhelming feeling spread all through the battlefield.
A black shadow fell over the darkened sky. This was Zenith’s power.
-Jamie Welton…
Pyro mumbled his name, not realizing it.
There was no way to change the situation right now, as she couldn’t descend.
-Help me.
Her hope turned to Jamie, who was extremely far away.
And…
“You did well, Ricky.”
Hearing that voice, Jamie pulled Ricky a little back by his shoulder and walked ahead.
“I will take it from here.”
Ricky looked startled at Jamie.
“J-Jamie. How are you here?”
Jamie didn’t answer that part and looked at Lars, who fell to the ground.
“Brother Lars looks like he is hurting. Help him. That bastard….”
With a calm face, he glared at Zenith, who spread his huge force around.
“I will kill him.”
Jamie’s eyes turned purple.
