Chapter 193: Allemier (3)
“…Hus.”
Evan called out Hus’s name as he got up from his seat.
The hero of knowledge. And the second son of the Allemir family.
His younger brother, who had followed him since childhood, was now standing in a different position.
Evan was looking at him with a hostile gaze, standing in the place that he had longed for so much.
“Evan Allemir. I will judge you according to the will of the goddess.”
It was a terrible fate.
A tragic destiny that forced them to point their weapons at each other.
It was a fate that could not be called anything but a joke of the gods.
Yet they did not hesitate to point their weapons at each other.
Because they had already made up their minds long ago.
“The will of the goddess… You have become a devout believer, haven’t you?”
“I don’t think that’s something a fallen paladin should say.”
Clang.
Evan grabbed his magic sword with his gauntleted hand and pointed it at Hus.
A lightning-like energy was spreading from the sharp magic sword.
“——Hieroglyph.”
Hus, who was facing him, was not idle either.
He held his hieroglyph and prepared a magic spell to shoot at Evan.
Their eyes were full of killing intent as they glared at each other.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Evan.”
Now the only thing that supported them was their irreconcilable faith.
A tremendous amount of magic power burst out from their bodies, chosen by the heavenly god.
Crack.
A black lightning erupted from Evan’s body.
As he watched the clash of their momentum in the air, Rebels, who was standing on the wall, shouted in a loud voice toward Hus.
“Lord Hus, I’ll join you now, so please wait for a moment…!”
“Evan Allemir is mine. No one can interfere in this fight.”
But Hus immediately refused Rebels’ participation.
“…Hus.”
Evan called out Hus’s name as he got up from his seat.
The hero of knowledge. And the second son of the Allemir family.
His younger brother, who had followed him since childhood, was now standing in a different position.
Evan was looking at him with a hostile gaze, standing in the place that he had longed for so much.
“Evan Allemir. I will judge you according to the will of the goddess.”
It was a terrible fate.
A tragic destiny that forced them to point their weapons at each other.
It was a fate that could not be called anything but a joke of the gods.
Yet they did not hesitate to point their weapons at each other.
Because they had already made up their minds long ago.
“The will of the goddess… You have become a devout believer, haven’t you?”
“I don’t think that’s something a fallen paladin should say.”
Clang.
Evan grabbed his magic sword with his gauntleted hand and pointed it at Hus.
A lightning-like energy was spreading from the sharp magic sword.
“——Hieroglyph.”
Hus, who was facing him, was not idle either.
He held his hieroglyph and prepared a magic spell to shoot at Evan.
Their eyes were full of killing intent as they glared at each other.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Evan.”
Now the only thing that supported them was their irreconcilable faith.
A tremendous amount of magic power burst out from their bodies, chosen by the heavenly god.
Crack.
A black lightning erupted from Evan’s body.
As he watched the clash of their momentum in the air, Rebels, who was standing on the wall, shouted in a loud voice toward Hus.
“Lord Hus, I’ll join you now, so please wait for a moment…!”
“Evan Allemir is mine. No one can interfere in this fight.”
But Hus immediately refused Rebels’ participation.
He wanted to defeat Evan with his own strength, without Rebels’ help.
Rebels’ voice echoed in the air, flustered by his resolute answer.
“Hus Allemir! What are you talking about!”
“Rebels Ederlant. You should be dealing with the cult’s army that is descending on the ground, not with me.”
“What did you say…?”
As soon as Hus finished speaking, a man with a dagger fell from above Rebels’ head.
The man’s presence was so stealthy that even Rebels, the knight commander, could barely sense him before the collision.
Clang!
The black holy sword and the assassin’s dagger clashed, and a metallic friction sound rang in the air.
“Ugh…!”
It was a sharp strike that Rebels had not expected at all.
Rebels, who barely fended off the assassin’s attack, swung his holy sword to counterattack.
But Rebels’ sword only grazed the spot where the assassin had disappeared.
The assassin had completely hidden himself while Rebels was swinging his sword.
Seeing the trail of his holy sword passing through the air, Rebels shouted in a hurry to his surroundings.
“An assassin has infiltrated! Everyone, be on guard!”
The enemy was a skilled assassin.
And now, the ground was covered by the evil god’s power.
Even a skilled paladin could fall victim to an ambush.
But the battlefield did not give Rebels any respite, as loud voices began to erupt from all sides.
“Commander! The gate is in danger!”
“Edward! Hera! You go down and prepare for the gate being breached!”
“Commander! We received news that the Holy Palace was attacked…!”
“Don’t panic! The Holy One is in the Holy Palace!”
The beasts that kept charging at the gate.
The cult that broke through the gate by some means and wreaked havoc inside the Crossbridge.
And the assassin who hid in the darkness that covered the ground and launched a surprise attack.
The paladins who defended the wall had no room for leisure.
In the end, Rebels was crushed by the pressure of the battlefield and turned his eyes away from Hus’s matter.
“Hus Allemir! I will hold you accountable for your unilateral action later!”
“I will take responsibility here with my own hands.”
He stepped forward.
Hus clenched his magic with flames and took a step forward.
“Second Apostle, it is my responsibility to kill Evan Allemir.”
Hus smiled faintly as he moved away from Rebels’ sight.
Evan also moved his feet as he faced him.
He did not want to settle things with Hus Allemir either.
The two heroes who met eyes in the air moved toward each other.
“——Astraphe.”
“——Fire Storm.”
Evan ran with his magic sword of lightning and wondered at Hus who was closing the distance like him.
Hus seemed to not avoid the collision with him, as he raised his magic power and ran toward Evan.
It was a different sight from the usual tactics of a mage.
It looked like he had no reason to avoid close combat with Evan, who could not use aura or holy power.
‘He must be looking down on me.’
Zap.
The lightning with a long tail moved to swallow everything in its trajectory.
The light refracted in the space where the sword moved, and the black sword shot at the enemy in front of him.
The dazzling bombardment of light and darkness reached the mage in front of him.
Hus curled his lips and uttered a chant.
“——Teleport.”
Boom!
The lightning that lost its target stabbed into the empty ground.
Evan’s magic sword that hit the ground scattered black lightning around.
Rumble.
The trees in the forest that were caught in Evan’s attack broke from their roots and collapsed.
But Evan’s sword only hit the wrong place, and Hus had already left there after that.
“He dodged the attack…?”
“I’m not who I was back then.”
Hus, who had taken his place behind Evan, raised his hand.
Whoosh!
Hus’s hand still held a dense fire magic power.
He did not hesitate to release the magic condensed in his hand.
The fire magic power that was compressed to the extreme aimed at Evan’s empty back and shot out.
“…!”
He couldn’t block it with his magic sword in his hand.
In the end, all he could do was to twist his body as much as possible.
He pulled out the power of lightning to the limit, and twisted his body to avoid the center of the firestorm.
Boom!
A loud explosion sounded as his body flew away like before.
“As… traphe…!”
Zap.
Lightning flowed from his gauntlet, and he moved to protect his flying body as much as possible.
Clang! Crash!
The gauntlet that was stabbed into the ground and scraped away raised flames and dust, trying to deflect the impact somehow.
Of course, Hus wouldn’t let him fend off the impact easily.
Hus’s next attack flew toward him as he was pushed back by the dust.
“——Inferno.”
A trail of light and flames was drawn in the air, and a red flash began to stretch toward him.
The burning flash was so intense that it would burn his whole body at the touch.
Sizzle.
The light that flowed from his wings of lightning pushed his body away.
He twisted his direction with the power of lightning and collided with a tree, stopping his body. A sharp pain ran through his body.
“Ugh…”
He clenched his teeth and quickly got up from his place.
He felt a thick taste of blood in his tightly closed mouth.
His left arm that was grazed by Hus’s magic also looked not so good.
But he didn’t have the luxury of groaning in pain from being hit.
Every moment on the battlefield was connected to death.
“You’re lucky to dodge that.”
Hus’s hand that floated in the air pointed at him again.
Whip.
He also gripped his magic sword and pulled out the power of lightning.
“——Astraphe.”
“——Hieroglyph.”
He moved in sync with the power of lightning, and Hus also pulled out the power of flames.
Zap. Whoosh.
The two fierce energies aimed at each other and flew out.
Flames and lightning. And light and heat.
The red and black colors that collided in the air tangled to gain the upper hand.
“——Ice Strike.”
Boom!
The colliding magic power exploded and scattered.
Beyond the broken magic light that lit up the surroundings, the two men started to move again to prepare for the next attack.
Hus’s hand that crossed the space had a cold ice magic power, and Evan’s sword that spread its wings had a lightning magic power on it.
“——Astraphe.”
The first one to move was Evan’s attack again.
The light of lightning stretched out its trajectory, and Hus dodged it with a space movement magic. Then, a sharp ice flew toward Evan.
But Evan escaped from his place with the mobility of Astraphe.
He was faster to prepare for the next attack than Hus.
“——Astraphe…!”
The strike of lightning flew out, and Hus dodged it by crossing the space again.
Then, just like before, Hus crossed the space and shot out his magic.
It was the same movement as before.
Boom!
Evan blocked the attack that flew at him with his sword of lightning.
“——Hieroglyph.”
“——Astraphe.”
“——Fire Storm.”
“——As, traphe…!”
The battle afterwards repeated a similar pattern for a while.
Block, dodge, and attack again.
A monotonous stalemate where neither gave each other any space.
As the two had infinite magic power, the battle did not tilt to one side quickly.
“What a pointless struggle.”
Ten minutes. Twenty minutes.
And an hour.
The light that swallowed everything around did not stop.
As the battle continued, the forest near Crossbridge changed its shape repeatedly.
If the two had infinite stamina as well, it seemed like the battle would never end.
“…Hus.”
“Evan Allemir. You will never leave this place alive.”
But the two were not equal.
Evan’s body was damaged from the beginning of the battle by Hus’s attacks, and Hus did not look tired yet.
It was because Evan did not judge Hus’s changed tactics properly.
The longer the battle lasted, the more disadvantageous it was for Evan.
The wound on his shoulder widened, and his hand holding the sword trembled slightly.
“I will kill you.”
Hus understood that as well.
Time was not on Evan’s side.
It was his own fault for getting injured, so he could not blame anyone else.
Even if he somehow defeated Hus, there was no guarantee that he could fight well in the next battle.
‘I guess I’ll get scolded by Eutenia after this battle.’
Evan smirked and lifted his sword with his shaky hand.
He thought he could defeat the hero and stay on the battlefield.
But that was also Evan’s mistake.
He saw his younger brother who always followed him, but still, his enemy in front of him was a true hero.
He was not a leisurely opponent who would let him save his cards and defeat him later.
Fighting other heroes was the job of other apostles.
“…What are you thinking?”
Hus, who was preparing his magic in the air, asked Evan with a sudden smile.
He still saw his immature brother in Hus’s face.
Suddenly, a memory from the past flashed through Evan’s mind.
He had admired the heroes of old stories since he knew nothing.
“I remember my childhood. I thought I could be a hero back then.”
“That’s too bad. The goddess chose me instead of you.”
“No, now that I think about it, it was a good thing. I wasn’t fit for the hero’s seat.”
His longing for heroes did not fade even after he became a paladin.
He believed that someday the goddess would look at him if he had the strongest faith in his heart.
Faith. Longing. And heroes.
All those things were the driving force that supported Evan Allemir in the past.
“So you finally realized your place.”
“Yes. I finally understood my place now.”
But there was no place for Evan in the old hero tales.
He was not a hero now.
He was a paladin abandoned by the goddess, and the second apostle chosen by the evil god.
Hus in front of him was not his brother who always lagged behind him, but his enemy who aimed his weapon at him to kill him.
What he had to defeat was not his blood relative Hus Allemir.
It was the hero of knowledge who ruled over the seat he longed for.
“Hero of knowledge, Hus Allemir. I will defeat you with all my power now.”
Evan’s eyes glowed with a different color than before.
The light of faith that burned Evan had gone out long ago.
But what he had to do was not much different from before.
Like a paladin who devoted everything to follow the goddess once, he now had to become an apostle who burned everything to chase faith.
Evan made up his mind and recited a prayer as he glared at Hus.
“——O great one, let your will be done.”
Since he gave up the light of faith, what Evan wanted most was a ray of miracle.
And his master always gave him miracles.
Once a day.
The most brilliant miracle in the world that could only be used at the most needed moment.
