As the cold air from the ice axe seeped into his body, his mind, which had been crushed by the pressure, slowly rose to the surface.
From Kyle’s body, which had lifted up the spell destroyer that had been sprawled out, two glows rose like lanterns, brightly illuminating the ash-gray world that had no shadows.
It was impossible for a human to possess two divine powers. He put aside the complicated reasons for that, and anyway, the arrogant deity would not lend his power to a rude fellow who worshipped not only himself but other beings. It would be a relief if he didn’t give him a punishment.
From that point of view, Kyle’s current state was a monumental event. He, the sword of Tivella, not only had the protection of Ganakus on his body, but the two powers did not conflict either.
Why?
He buried the simple question in his chest and kicked the ground. In the direction he was running, the eerie trees were swaying as if they were dancing and singing.
Roar-!
Was he wary of the warrior who was running towards him with a glow behind him? The ground that had risen concavely cracked and the roots of irregular shapes flew like whips.
Kyle, who would have chosen to evade or block with a shield in normal times, decided to trust the power that was boiling hot in his body and swung the ice axe at it.
The axe that swallowed the will of the knight who was fully aroused shone pale and dyed the front white.
Kyle stepped on the roots that had frozen in front of his nose and sped up. After that, disgusting things that he couldn’t identify flew one after another, but he slid on the ice like a slide and avoided all the attacks, reaching the vicinity of the god tree in a single breath.
Thud-!
When he looked closely, the god tree was not dancing. It was just shaking from the aftermath of the huge shock.
Kyle glanced up at the fierce battle that was taking place high above. To him, the fight between Ruon and Beolun looked like a battle between a demon who wanted to drag the world into hell and a god who descended to the ground to judge him.
He believed without doubt that Ruon was the only one in the party, no, in the world who could face such an out-of-the-ordinary enemy alone.
I’ll do what I can!
He knew better than anyone what he could do for his friend who was fighting his own fight as always. And that was something that only he could do among everyone here.
Without hesitation, he fixed the spell destroyer on his back and clenched the handle of the axe with both hands. From the body of the knight, a sun-like glow burst out explosively.
In that state, he pulled the axe back and shouted the names of the two gods who were blessing him.
“Tivella-! Ganakus-!”
Roar-!
At that moment, all kinds of disrespectful attacks flew at him without a gap. The blade of the axe wrapped in the glow struck the trunk of the god tree.
***
“···Ugh!”
A groan escaped from the mouth of the great demon for the first time. He staggered and twisted his neck as Ruon hit him with a headbutt and stabbed his elbow into his face. Blood spurted out like fireworks along with a crunchy sound.
Normally, a knife-like counterattack should have come, but for some reason, Beolun, who had retreated far away, looked down anxiously like a child who had been caught doing something he shouldn’t.
Kyle?
He found the knight who was swinging the axe fiercely at the end and threw the sword at the great demon who stretched his arm towards him.
Whirring- The Ruin, which rotated at a tremendous speed and flew, cut off Beolun’s arm and then turned around like a boomerang.
Around that time, Ruon, who had approached the opponent again, kicked the abdomen of the great demon who turned his head and caught the returned sword and swung it right away.
With a smooth but powerful combination, the neck of the one who flew back was cut off. He fell down with a thud. Of course, he was not dead.
“How dare you… You have the power of two gods in you, not enough to engrave your name in the heavens… How much do you intend to deviate from my expectations? I have no idea.”
Ruon laughed without knowing it when he heard that. If he deviated that much from his expectations, he had nothing to say even if he died.
Then, cluck cluck, the body of Beolun, who was laughing with a bloody cough, slowly rose as if gravity had reversed. He said.
“Yes. I didn’t think I could overthrow the world without this much ordeal. I thought it was urgent to form a legion, so I was paying attention to the distribution of power, but I shouldn’t have done that…”
As he continued to speak, his appearance gradually changed. The skin that had been folded in dozens of wrinkles melted down, and the darkness that was wriggling underneath quickly swelled up.
“Little star. I acknowledge your and your comrades’ prowess. But that’s it. I have reclaimed the abyss that will spawn thousands of demons just to face you! You will all pay the price without exception.”
Roar-!
In the blink of an eye, a giant of a dark being with a full-fledged shape roared. The indescribable evil power surged from every corner of the giant’s body and dyed the surroundings black.
At that moment, Ruon kicked the ground and closed the distance in a single breath, but the demon’s eyes that were like fireballs flashed a little faster.
He was hit directly by a wave of tremendous power that distorted the space. Ruon was thrown back as if time had been rewound several times.
He got up coughing dryly after being embedded in a branch of the god tree that was bigger than a single-story building. The giant who flew over him slammed his hands with his fingers clenched.
There was a huge explosion that made his ears ring. Ruon, who swung his fist to block the attack, swung the ego sword roughly in his other hand. A red line appeared on the chest of the giant and then disappeared as if swallowed by the darkness.
That was possible because the recovery speed was much faster than the cutting speed.
“It’s useless! It’s impossible to face the abyss that has a substance with your tiny light!”
The great demon roared like thunder and pushed his face forward. Immediately after, the smooth darkness that had no facial features waved and a red sphere flew out of it.
Bang-!
The sphere exploded as soon as it touched Ruon’s body. The condensed black flames greedily devoured his skin and spread throughout his body in an instant.
The blast snapped the branch he was standing on, and Ruon fell straight down.
The giant, who had been watching him fall with a thud on another branch, sprouted membranous wings and a bat’s tail from his shoulders and tailbone respectively.
He descended silently with his huge wings and spoke, looking at the blazing front.
“How do you like it? It’s a flame imbued with the abyss. It has a destructive power that is incomparable to ordinary flames. No matter how strong your body is…”
He was cut off by a loud noise that swallowed his sneer, as Ruon flew at him like a cannonball and hugged his body.
The giant, who had fallen unexpectedly, flapped his wings to regain his balance and tried to shake off the warrior who clung to him like a leech, but he was overpowered by his overwhelming strength.
“Madman! You think-”
Beolun, who was falling like a broken-winged bird, finally managed to grab Ruon’s neck, but he was met with merciless punches.
What he saw in his eyes was the face of a man who did not lose his sharp gaze even as his whole body was burning. He shouted.
“Shut! The hell! Up!”
With the last punch, they both hit the ground. The impact caused thousands of sparks to rise and fall.
Before the collision.
Ruon, who had been flung far away by the repulsive force of the shield that the giant had hastily created, got up with a grin and turned his head at the sight of someone staring at him.
There was Kyle, blinking his eyes, holding an axe in both hands.
“What are you doing here?”
“…Ruon fell, didn’t he?”
Oh, right.
Ruon, who had been feverish because of the demon lord who kept whining and not paying his dues, looked around with a calm anger.
It seemed that a fierce fight had taken place here as well, as the roots and branches of the sacred tree were frozen and broken everywhere.
That’s when Kyle, who had been spouting nonsense, spat out a mouthful of blood and said.
“It’s hard to inflict effective damage on the sacred tree because it’s so big. But still, we’ve been squeezing it all day long and it definitely got weaker… But then it suddenly resisted more strongly, so we were dealing with that first.”
As he said, there was a large triangular cut on the trunk of the sacred tree. It was not a random axe strike, but a skillful one that had also cut off the front teeth. It looked like he had shown his old skills.
Ruon couldn’t help but laugh at his unnecessarily professional appearance. Kyle said to him.
“Hey. Why are you laughing? We have to do this so that the tree doesn’t fall on the side of the person who chops it. Of course, we have to hit the other side…”
Before he could finish his sentence, something flew at them with a sound that cut through the wind.
Ruon and Kyle, both of them, swung their weapons at the direction where the sound came from without hesitation.
Ego Sword cut the crimson sphere first, and Ice Axe froze the spreading flame in an instant. Freezing the flame was actually absurd, but on second thought, it meant that the flame had some unnatural power mixed in it.
From the direction where the sphere came from, a giant revealed himself with a thud that shook the ground. In a moment, his size grew much larger, and his shape was clear even from afar.
“You were nicely gathered together.”
He said that and a long disc rose in his palm. The rotating speed was terrifying, so Ruon and Kyle adjusted their posture and prepared for the attack.
Zap-!
A ray of light from somewhere pierced deep into the giant’s temple. It didn’t do much damage to him, but it seemed to disrupt the flow of his spell, as the disc he was spinning lost its momentum and soon dispersed.
“Ah, Amela! It looks like it worked!”
I turned my head and saw Colin running towards me, holding Amela in his arms. His hand was glowing brightly, probably because he had cast a spell to increase his strength.
“You worthless worm!”
The giant tried to pull out the dagger that was stuck in his head, but Colin had already snatched it with his hand, leaving the giant clutching at thin air.
“Hahaha! You got hit by that worm!”
“Yo-you-!”
Enraged by the mocking laughter, the demon lord lunged at us.
Behind Colin, who kept a certain distance from him, the knights’ bodies shone with light. The light gathered into a huge shield that blocked the demon’s charge and began to wrestle with him.
Meanwhile, Colin, who arrived panting, quickly hid behind Ruon and laid Amela on the ground. She was too weak to stand up, and she opened her mouth while sitting on the floor.
“Beolun’s pressure has weakened because he concentrated his power on one entity.”
She added, wiping the blood that was flowing from her nose.
“That means… he may have infinite power from the abyss, but he has a limit to how much he can use at once. Of course, the amount will gradually increase over time.”
Krrr-oo-oo-oo-oo!
Cracks began to spread like spider webs on the light shield that the nine knights, excluding Aslan, had created.
“Now is our chance. Ruon. While you’re fighting him, we’ll cut off his lifeline.”
As soon as Amela’s sentence ended, the light shield shattered with a loud crash.
Ruon didn’t say anything and slammed the ground, heading towards the dark giant beyond.
Amela turned her gaze away from the warrior and the demon who clashed once again.
“Kyle. Is Tivela not resisting Gannicus’s holy power?”
“Not yet. There’s no sign of that.”
“I see. Maybe she’s not in a situation to care about her petty pride.”
Then, Chevil, who walked staggering from the front of the knights, put his palm on Kyle’s shoulder as Aslan did and said.
“…I’m sorry, but this is the best we can do right now. As the demon lord’s power grows stronger, Gannicus’s voice is fading away… You’re the only one who can endure this power right now.”
As all the knights took turns to transfer their remaining holy power to Kyle, he suddenly vomited blood from the surge of power.
As the knights who squeezed out their last strength fell like rotten straw, Kyle moved his trembling body forcibly and took one step after another toward the tree of god.
Colin supported him.
“Let’s go, brother! You can do it. Let’s cut down that bastard tree right now!”
As Kyle reached the trunk of the tree of god, he swallowed the blood that flowed back and clenched his teeth. He gripped his axe again and made a vow. He didn’t need to think about anything. Wasn’t this the best and the greatest moment for the woodcutter who had lost everything once?
“Fall down-!”
He swung his axe with all his might, not even realizing that a brilliant golden aura was rising from his axe.
───────!
The power of courage that had been the fertilizer of the tree of god long ago and was now in danger of being swallowed by the demon lord exploded inside the corrupted tree of god, emitting a dazzling light. A terrible scream burst out in all directions.
At that moment, Rion stepped on the demon lord’s knee and jumped up, stabbing his sword into his forehead. He thought it was just a matter of buying time, and he was preparing for the next attack when he saw an unexpected sight in his eyes.
The wound where the sword pierced was torn apart, and a huge amount of darkness poured out like blood.
He didn’t care about the wound, but he seized the opportunity instinctively from the sight of the enemy who couldn’t recover right away. Rion flew up again as soon as he landed.
As the will that came from [Rion] inside him cleared away the layers of darkness, Ego Sword went through the gap as if it was sucked in. The blade slashed the demon lord’s flesh.
“Hey, wait!”
As the demon screamed in a situation he couldn’t understand, his body crumbled like a sandcastle hit by a wave.
