< 53: Under the Name of the Evil God (5) >
<Fanatic> has died.
The amount of karma gained from faith is reduced.
Even at this moment, messages kept popping up that my followers were dying.
I moved the screen to find where the problem was happening.
***
Eutania. Estasia. Evan. And Roan.
As I switched the screen from one to another, I quickly realized where the trouble was happening.
The headquarters of the Order, located at the entrance of the mountain range.
There, a battle was raging between the Order and another faction.
“Filthy royal dogs! As long as I live, you will never set foot in this place!”
From the building where the Order’s followers were lying dead or wounded, Roan shouted with his [Magic Sword: Ednos] in his hand.
In front of him, there were characters wearing uniformed outfits.
Were they hit by Roan’s magic?
About half of the uniformed characters were incapacitated.
He must have used his magic several times already.
“Are you Roan Hebriss?”
“Yes. I am Roan Hebriss, the archbishop of the Order.”
“Didn’t you fire your magic eight times already? You don’t have much mana left, do you? It would be better for you to give up and surrender peacefully.”
The man who seemed to be the leader of the uniformed characters said, pointing his sword at Roan.
He was right.
The [Magic Sword: Ednos] that Roan had could store up to 10 spells.
If he had already used eight of them, he would only have two left.
On the other hand, the uniformed characters still had half of their forces left.
But Roan was still blocking the entrance, holding his ground.
“The great one is watching over us. I will overcome this ordeal and protect his will!”
“As expected of the Order’s followers, they are all insane.”
“Come at me if you don’t value your lives!”
That’s when I understood the situation.
While I was away, the uniformed characters had attacked the Order.
The Order was currently without any apostles.
If another faction attacked them, the only one who could fight back properly was Roan.
I sighed at the tangled mess that had happened.
I had been too focused on expanding my territory, and neglected to defend my base.
“This is not a simple idle game. It’s a game that requires defense as well.”
The monsters that periodically came to Eutania had headed for the Order instead of the apostles this time.
I thought I could just leave the characters alone, but it turned out that if I neglected them too much, they would be wiped out.
I had not considered the increasing difficulty of the game.
I couldn’t watch the game 24 hours a day, but I should have at least brought enough forces to defend it.
I felt a deep anger boiling in my heart as I saw the invaders who killed the Order’s followers.
“How dare they touch my precious karma suppliers?”
The Order’s followers were precious characters who provided me with stable karma.
They sometimes offered useless items, but they regularly donated through the altar.
They killed such precious followers.
It was an unforgivable act.
I looked at the character who was running towards Roan with his sword drawn.
It was time to make him pay for defying a human as a mere AI.
“You are dead.”
Stab.
***
I touch the skill icon and move the target to Roan.
The skill that I activate by pressing the icon is <Barrier>.
It is to protect Roan and his followers from the enemy’s attack.
The moment the character who quickly closed in on Roan swings his sword.
I touch the target and cast the <Barrier> spell.
You used <Barrier>.
A translucent barrier appeared, separating Roan and the opposing character.
It was so big that it could be mistaken for a boundary rather than a barrier.
Clang! Clang!
The leader character swung his sword at the barrier that blocked his way several times.
But the barrier that I had created did not break by his sword.
The character showed a surprised expression in his speech bubble as he saw the barrier in front of him.
“You were hiding such magic!”
“Oh, great one!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll break it soon and send you to your great one’s side.”
He was a character who kept scratching my nerves.
Was it right to give him a normal death?
No matter how much I thought about it, I felt that I couldn’t completely vent my anger with just that.
Annoyed by his appearance, I touched one of the skills at the bottom of the screen.
I chose a moderately powerful magic among the skills that I had.
You used <Lightning>.
Crack!
A lightning bolt fell from above the leader character’s head with a thunderous sound.
Clang. Clang. Clang!
Maybe it was because he was an elite monster that appeared after a long time.
He tried to block the falling lightning with his sword.
But it didn’t matter if he blocked this attack or not.
The reason why I used the lightning magic was to break his defense from the beginning.
“Go ahead and try to block it. I’ll keep shooting.”
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
I move my finger and keep pressing the skill button.
It was a skill chain that I had learned from my long playing experience.
As my finger moved fast, messages popped up one after another at the bottom of the screen.
You used <Lightning>.
You used <Lightning>.
You used <Lightning>.
You used <Lightning>.
You used <Lightning>.
Crack! Crackle! Crackling!
The thunderous sound that repeated from the speaker.
At the same time, as the lightning fell like a machine gun, the leader character swung his sword frantically.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The fallen lightning bounced off in sequence.
It was a skillful swordsmanship that proved he was an elite monster.
As I watched him swing his sword in sync with the thunder, I felt like he was playing a rhythm game to the beat.
Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Bang!
He parried the falling lightning dozens of times.
His defense, which had been trained to the extreme, seemed to have reached its limit, as I saw him make a mistake.
He tried to block a lightning bolt that fell at an angle, but he ended up taking a direct hit.
“Cough! Ugh!”
The boss character who was hit by <Lightning> flinched for a moment.
Of course, I didn’t miss that opportunity and used <Lightning> magic a few more times.
Clang! Clang!
The character who was hit by lightning consecutively stopped completely in his place.
He seemed to be afflicted by a status effect from being continuously hit by <Lightning> magic.
This was the situation I had been waiting for.
“Phew… Now it’s time to get serious.”
I finally stopped moving my finger that was using <Lightning> magic.
Then I placed my smartphone on the table and put both fingers on the smartphone.
The action I was about to do now.
It was the basic attack of this game that I hadn’t used for a long time.
I moved my fingers to the character and started to tap him with both fingers.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound of tapping the screen echoed and the smartphone on the table shook.
But I didn’t care and kept moving my fingers busily.
To vent my anger for losing my followers.
And to completely shake off the stress that had been building up until now.
***
“You should just give up and surrender peacefully.”
The entrance of the cult’s main building, where the standoff situation continued.
There, an agent who pointed his sword at Roan spoke to him.
He thought he could break through the main building quickly, but the fierce resistance of Roan and his followers made the standoff situation drag on.
Moreover, Roan’s surprise magic attacks were very dangerous.
More than half of Cloud’s investigators had already been incapacitated by Roan’s magic.
No matter how much he was an archbishop, he couldn’t use magic indefinitely, but if the battle dragged on, Cloud’s damage would only get worse.
As an agent, he felt the need to end this battle as quickly as possible.
“The great one is watching over us. I will overcome this ordeal and uphold his will!”
But Roan still showed a stubborn attitude.
The other followers also threw their lives at him, but the archbishop in front of him showed even more fanatical faith than them.
He could understand why he was in the position of an archbishop.
He clenched his teeth at Roan’s resistance.
Fanatics like them were always a headache.
“They’re all crazy, just like the cult’s followers.”
“Come at me if you don’t value your life!”
This time, Roan pointed his dagger at the agent and shouted at him.
He was telling me to brace myself for his magic as he approached me.
The agent tilted his sword after hearing Roan’s words.
He couldn’t back down now, even if Cloud’s power had suffered a great loss.
If he didn’t finish this operation, more people would disappear than the ones who died now.
He had to wipe out the enemy’s base completely when he had the chance.
‘I guess I have to break through by myself.’
The agent calculated the trajectory to swing his sword at Roan, who was within his reach.
No matter how much he was an agent, he couldn’t block Roan’s magic, which was too powerful.
He had to dodge or avoid the magic that was shot in front of his eyes.
Step.
He took a step forward and looked at Roan with his sword raised.
And the moment Roan blinked as he watched him.
The agent’s body sprang forward.
“Damn it…!”
Roan aimed his magic at the agent who was watching him, but it was too late. The agent had already reached right in front of Roan’s nose.
Their eyes met at close range.
Roan’s face turned pale with panic, and the agent’s sword glowed blue with aura.
An attack with aura couldn’t be completely blocked.
Either get attacked or stab together.
Roan only had two choices left.
“Die.”
The agent’s sword flashed in the air.
Roan also moved his dagger as he saw the agent approaching him.
He was trying to shoot a lightning bolt right in front of him, even if he had to risk getting caught in it himself.
Crackle. Crackle.
The dagger that Roan held was wrapped in lightning.
But the agent’s sword moved faster.
The moment the agent’s sword swung at Roan’s neck to cut it off.
A translucent wall appeared and blocked the agent’s sword.
“…!”
Clang!
The agent’s sword, which was wrapped in aura, collided with the barrier that suddenly appeared.
As his sword, which he swung with full force, was blocked by the barrier, the agent frowned and pulled back his sword.
Roan, whom he watched, was clearly flustered by the agent’s attack.
But he still managed to create such a strong barrier in that short gap.
It was an amazing skill that surprised even the agent who swung his sword.
“So you were hiding this kind of magic!”
The agent exclaimed as he looked at Roan.
He was a crazy follower of an evil god, but Roan was a great magician with impressive skills.
Of course, while he was admiring him, his sword was still moving to break the barrier.
There was no defense that could withstand an attack with aura.
If he kept swinging his sword, the barrier would eventually collapse.
“O great one!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll break it soon and send you to the side of that great one.”
He threatened to kill Roan, who was calling out to the evil god, and swung his sword with force.
No. He was about to swing it.
The agent felt something and quickly retreated as he was about to swing his sword.
A massive amount of magic was leaking out from the sky where he had been standing.
The magic of lightning, which had been scattered like a mirage, soon began to form a shape.
“What is this…?”
It wasn’t Roan’s magic.
Rather, it was much more powerful and dense than his magic.
The agent raised his sword as he watched the magic forming in the air.
It was a dangerous magic. If he allowed a direct hit, he wouldn’t survive.
Clang!
The agent swung his sword with aura at the lightning that fell toward him.
‘It’s heavy.’
He felt a heavy sensation in his hand that parried the lightning.
He could parry it a few times, but he wasn’t confident that he could handle such an attack continuously.
He was lucky that only one lightning bolt had fallen for him.
He checked the sensation in his hand after parrying the lightning.
Clang! Clang!
Another lightning bolt started to fall from the sky above his head.
‘…Is it coming again?’
The agent swung his sword at the lightning again.
But this attack was strange.
As soon as he parried the lightning with his sword, another lightning bolt fell down.
Clang! Clang!
He also parried the next lightning bolt, but then another lightning bolt fell from the sky.
Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang! Bang!
He kept parrying the lightning that fell without stopping.
At first, he could see and parry it, but at some point, he had to rely on his intuition to parry it.
He couldn’t keep up with the increasing frequency of the attacks.
He barely parried the lightning that fell from the sky dozens of times.
As he maintained the flow and swung his sword, he failed to parry the lightning.
“Cough! Ugh…!”
Clang!
The sharp lightning tore through his body.
The agent who was hit by the lightning tried not to let go of his sword, but another lightning bolt fell from the sky.
Clang! Clang!
His body started to convulse as he was hit by the lightning.
He was an agent with high resistance to magic, but even that resistance couldn’t completely suppress the damage from the lightning.
“Ugh… Ugh…”
Thud.
His hand, which held the sword, lost all its strength.
His electrocuted hand refused to hold the sword any longer.
Along with that, his legs also lost their strength.
His legs refused to walk, and his body fell backward.
Thud.
His eyes looked at the empty sky as he fell to the ground.
‘Who… used magic?’
No matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t find any magician around him who could use magic against him.
Even Roan, the archbishop, didn’t show any sign of using magic.
Yet, powerful magic kept falling from the sky.
As an agent who knew well about magicians, he couldn’t understand this phenomenon.
Of course, he didn’t need much time to understand the reason.
Right after the lightning that fell on his head ended.
A huge presence revealed itself to him beyond that.
“…Ah.”
An overwhelming presence.
It was a gigantic aura that couldn’t be thought of as a human’s.
A being that couldn’t be properly seen by the eyes of a mere creature.
Such a being was moving in front of him now.
He felt like his breath stopped by the massive presence that crushed his body.
The only thing he could do as he faced the alien being was to let out a groan from his mouth.
“…Ah.”
He understood why Roan called him a great one.
He was a being that couldn’t be measured by human eyes.
A being that was great by itself, and deserved reverence by its birth alone.
There was only one name that the world called such a being.
God.
The evil god of another dimension was moving to punish him.
“…Aah.”
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
His heart started to beat wildly as he saw the god’s figure approaching him.
He couldn’t resist.
And he couldn’t defy.
He was the rule of the world, the truth, and the order.
He had insulted the great god as a mere human, and now it was time to pay the price.
He felt more and more pressure as the god grew larger in his sight. He closed his eyes.
He felt tremendous pain throughout his body.
“Ah… Aah… Aaah… Aaaah——!”
A scream burst out of his mouth along with the pressure that hit his whole body.
The time of pain continued until he lost consciousness.
