He somehow had to protect the battlefield until his Goddess descended.
So Ricky gripped the Holy Sword with both hands.
There were three Apostles.
If there were only one or two, Ricky could have handled it at a good distance, but three was not easy.
Ricky made up his mind and tried to raise his holy power and black mana.
“Apostle of Goddess.”
The person standing in the middle of the three Apostles spoke. It was a brown-haired man whose eyes were lifeless.
He didn’t seem like an undead but more like one who found no hope in this world.
“There is no chance of victory on your side. I urge you to surrender without prolonging this war with meaningless sacrifices.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about, but we are going to find out how long this war will last once there is a victor in the fight above.”
“God Zenith has absorbed three Gods, and his power has already upset the balance of the 12 Gods. I do not know who he is fighting up there, but Zenith hasn’t even used the power of the Gods we worship yet.”
Ricky narrowed his eyes at what the man said.
He knew that Zenith absorbed some Gods, but he never thought that he could absorb their powers. It would only mean that Zenith wasn’t fighting with all his might.
‘Jamie.’
Ricky had no idea how strong Jamie truly was.
So he wasn’t sure if Jamie could win. So far, they were fighting on equal footing, but just as the Apostle said, the balance would soon collapse.
The Apostle standing in the middle, looked at the sky and said,
“What is the point of increasing the sacrifices?”
“Which God do you worship?”
“Tantiras.”
“And you two?”
Ricky asked the other two Apostles.
The woman with beautiful blonde hair down to her waist was the Apostle of Khulun, and the man with scars on his face and a gloomy aura around him was the Apostle of Drian.
Ricky nodded and spoke while placing the sword down.
“You, Apostles! I will do my best.”
“Ha! You want to take on all three of us? That is insane.”
The Apostle of Drian laughed at his words.
The Apostle of Khulun sighed.
“Why do you not understand? It is an unavoidable situation. Wouldn’t it be better to contribute to world peace, even if it means making a few sacrifices?”
Ricky shook his head.
“Peace cannot exist in the world ruled by Zenith.”
After stubbornly saying that, he summoned his holy power and black mana at the same time.
Thud!!
Once again, golden and purple wings spread wide.
“An Apostle of God that uses strange powers, huh? It would have been dangerous if I had been alone. Everyone, be alert.”
The Apostle of Tantiras mumbled, and they began manifesting their own powers.
Although they were the ones who lost their Gods, Zenith had already absorbed all the Gods, so there was no problem using their powers as Apostles.
“Your choice will end so many lives.”
“I will not curse you for giving in to Zenith. But remember that everyone has their own circumstances.”
Ricky screamed, kicking the ground.
“Do not force us to be the sacrifices!”
Four holy powers and black mana collided.
“They have started fighting as well.”
Zenith glanced at the ground and mumbled.
Then he deflected the sword flying from the side of his head with his spear and took a step back. He wasn’t able to avoid it completely, so blood trickled down his cheeks.
He frowned and wiped the blood with the back of his hand.
“Who are you looking at when your opponent is right in front of you?”
“You are in such a rush.”
Zenith smiled and swung his spear before taking a stance.
Currently, the fight between the two is in midair. They were on equal footing without being able to push back their opponent.
It was because they were limiting the power they used against each other. Because of that, they couldn’t fully judge each other’s strengths.
‘Looking at how he holds the spear with one hand, I can tell that he has plenty of energy left.’
His main specialty was magic. His weapon was a secondary means of attack. And his black magic was superior to anyone else’s.
Unlike before, he could now handle the sword quite skillfully, but Diablo Volfir was still a magician.
And he could finally show his true powers as soon as he started using magic seriously.
“Won’t you use magic?”
“Well.”
Jamie moved fast and stabbed his sword. As the spear and sword collided, sparks flew.
The Sea of Hundred began to move, and Balisada’s speed accelerated with it.
Bang!
A sharp sound echoed from the collision of the blades. Zenith frowned as he felt his body get pushed back.
Seeing that, Jamie said,
“Is magic even needed for you?”
“You…”
Zenith grinned at the pain in his hand from gripping his spear so tightly. Since wearing the white suit that clung to his body, Jamie’s strength has increased.
Even after absorbing three Gods, he was still being pushed back. The problem was that the white suit didn’t appear to be capable of increasing only his physical strength.
Zenith threw the spear upwards, and it split into a thousand parts.
“Let’s turn you into a ‘hedgehog.’”
Thousands of spears fell in Jamie’s direction.
-Deployment of barriers. Activating Absolute Armor.
Something like a blue light spread around the white suit, and Jamie watched the spears falling down.
Numerous spears tightly linked together to prevent escape rained down on his head.
Kwang!
But not a single spear reached him.
The armor-type shield spread around Jamie’s body and began to disappear without a trace. Each time he received a shock, the armor glowed in red, and as the spears came, the red light turned blood red.
-Impact amount of 39,157%. Converting to firepower.
The Absolute Armor launched the attack, and bright red beams appeared in front.
-Reflective system activated. Reflection.
Kwaaakjjjj!!
Black sparks bounced around the bright red balls. And as Jamie reached forward, red beams were created as they fired ahead.
There was no noise, but Zenith avoided them right away.
-Checking the induction function. Capture the target. Starting interception.
The red beam of light exploded in the air and flew in pursuit of Zenith.
Zenith was taken aback, unable to comprehend how it was following him, so he summoned another new spear and stretched out his left hand.
Green holy power began to condense around his arm. It was the power of Khulun, the God of Hypocrisy.
[Invisible Shield.]
Invisible Shield, the relic of Khulun, was summoned.
Its ability was simple.
“Anything this shield doesn’t want to see disappears.’
The power to defend.
When the red beam reached Zenith, it vanished as if someone had extinguished the flames on a candle.
Jamie clicked his tongue.
“Khulun’s shield… you can use the other Gods’ abilities.”
He thought that for someone who had absorbed three Gods, Zenith seemed to be weaker. He expected him to hide his true power, but this was the first time he used the other Gods’ powers.
And this was a new concern for Jamie.
But it was the same for Zenith.
‘That is absurd. He blocked my power, absorbed the shock, and returned it back to me?’
Didn’t it remind him of the terrible items Diablo Volfir had?
Among them, All Might came to his mind.
That fraud artifact could reflect back any attacks, but this was on another level.
“It seems like this fight will take some time.”
Zenith looked down, and Pyro’s Apostle was using black mana to fight against the other three Apostles.
The regular soldiers were fighting fiercely, but Pyro’s side was being pushed back.
However, it seemed that the troops on Pyro’s side were content with just holding their ground.
“If this continues, it won’t end easily on either side. I was saving it for further despair later, but it cannot be helped.”
Zenith called to Jamie with a smile.
“Hey, Diablo.”
Jamie didn’t answer and ignored him.
Still, Zenith continued,
“Don’t you think something is odd here?”
“It is odd that you are pretending to be calm here.”
“Kuak, cheeky bastard, I knew you would be like this… So why do you think I am relaxed and calm?”
“Because you believe in your insignificant power?”
“Kuak, hahahaha! My strength is not insignificant, but it doesn’t matter!”
Four holy powers began to rise from Zenith’s body.
Jamie moved and stretched out his hand.
Black mana and darkness flowed and moved around him, but Zenith didn’t care.
His eyes were visible through the black sphere. His eyes were smiling.
[Power of Darkness.]
[Destruction.]
Jamie performed dark magic.
Ching!!
The black sphere vibrated and made an unpleasant noise.
As a result of the vibration caused by the power of darkness, everything inside the sphere vanished without a trace.
But Jamie wasn’t sure what would happen next.
‘He laughed.’
Zenith could have stopped it from happening, but he didn’t. He let himself be caught right up until the last second.
He seems to have a way out.
Jamie didn’t know how, but he felt that something strange was going on.
And it was then…
“By the time you locked me up, it was already too late.”
Swish.
The black sphere opened with a crack. Jamie didn’t even release it, but the black mana started to scatter due to something that was happening inside.
Then there was another hit.
[Transcendence magic.]
-Mana tuning optimized.
Trinity began to adjust his body’s condition to cast magic, which might be too much for his body.
The speed was less than half a second.
-Optimized. Transcendence Magic ‘contraction’ activated.
The contraction of space and time was initiated.
Jamie intended to completely erase Zenith inside the black sphere.
Crack.
Even the 12 Gods cannot escape this magic that affects the dimensions of time and space.
“Kuak. So pointless.”
The voice of Zenith was heard.
At this point, Jamie decided there was no point in holding him with the magic and withdrew the mana. The shrunken space was back to normal, and the black sphere disappeared.
Zenith was not there. He heard his voice, but his body was not there.
“Are you up to something interesting?”
Frowning, Jamie looked up, and above the atmosphere level he was in—maybe even higher than the mid-layers—he felt an aura similar to a warp.
“Diablo Volfir. I haven’t shown you yet.”
His voice still seemed to be somewhere above. His voice was ahead.
It wasn’t magic.
As long as the law of causality was sufficient, a God could move as much as he wished in the world.
And that was how Zenith avoided the attack.
Then why use the law of causality to escape just to the higher atmosphere?
Jamie knew why.
Dazzling light poured up from the sky.
“This will be troublesome.”
A huge, pure white gate appeared in the sky.
It was a lavishly decorated gate that Jamie had seen several times.
[Heaven’s Gate.]
“Go. Go and sweep the land.”
Zenith appeared from above and opened the Gate.
From the Heaven’s Gate, fully armed soldiers of heaven jumped to the ground with white feathery wings spread.
The ones called ‘angels’ intervened.
It would be impossible for human troops to handle such power. The forces on Pyro’s side would be wiped out in an instant.
Jamie grinned as he watched this.
“Good timing.”
A black scythe cut through the pure white group of angels, and a black holy power spread around, splitting the space.
Seeing this, Zenith was shocked.
“… holy power?!”
“HAHAHAHAH!”
There was a voice of a woman laughing menacingly.
Jormungand shouted at her Lord.
“We are here, Lord~”
“A little late. No, you are probably here faster than I expected. Well, it doesn’t even matter.”
Jamie looked at Zenith, who was shocked, and said,
“Reverse Heaven Gate. Open.”
The black chains began to unravel.
