Episode 61: Apostle (3)
Barkus rose into the air.
Dark storm clouds, charged with lightning, gathered around him.
Thunderclouds (雷雲).
His eyes snapped open.
— Rumble…
The space trembled.
Instinctively, I shouted.
“Yucal!!!”
Yucal reacted immediately, spreading his arms wide to activate a magic circle.
And then—larger, larger, even larger.
The magic circle expanded, forming a barrier that covered the entire battlefield.
— Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!!
A blinding flash filled my vision.
Lightning, surging through the sky, crashed against the barrier.
“Kh…!”
Yucal groaned in pain.
His hands trembled, and the barrier wavered violently.
The paladin parted his lips, hurriedly reciting a sacred incantation.
A woman, seemingly the leader, stepped forward, raising her shield.
A divine aura infused the barrier, gradually reinforcing it.
The mages from Team 2 of the Alliance of Tigers also joined in, reinforcing the barrier.
— Doom, doom, doom, doom…!
Barkus’s lightning relentlessly battered the shield.
The force of the impacts shook even the air itself.
I clenched my teeth.
At this rate, it will shatter.
My mind went blank.
Before the barrier breaks, I have to act first.
I pushed off the ground with all my strength.
But—
Someone was already soaring ahead.
It was the old man.
He shot into the sky, his fist wrapped in Steel Fist (拳剛), tearing through the lightning.
“Where is Sion—!!”
A thunderous roar erupted.
For a moment, it drowned out even the deafening storm.
His ferocious charge toward Barkus was enough to halt the enemy’s lightning barrage.
— Boom!!
With a massive impact,
The old man and Barkus clashed.
The old man’s fist was caught in Barkus’s grasp.
But he didn’t falter—he immediately launched his other fist.
— Thud!
Barkus’s head tilted slightly.
But—
He was smiling.
“I questioned His command when He ordered me to deal with you.”
Barkus slowly straightened his head, twisting the old man’s left arm.
— Crunch!
A grotesque sound echoed as the joint twisted unnaturally.
But the old man’s expression didn’t change.
Rather, his gaze sharpened even more.
“Now I understand.”
Electricity crackled violently in Barkus’s eyes.
“You are indeed worthy of being called the strongest human!”
At that moment, the brawl began.
Fist met fist in a brutal exchange.
The old man struck whenever an opening appeared.
Barkus, unyielding, moved with the lightning itself to counter.
Their speed seemed evenly matched…
But Barkus’s lightning struck true, piercing the old man’s body with precision.
Meanwhile, the old man’s Steel Fist was blocked by Barkus’s force field, slicing through nothing but air.
“Is this all?
Did I come here for something this insignificant?”
Barkus’s voice filled the space.
At first, the old man held his ground and counterattacked.
But as time passed, Barkus grew faster.
Meanwhile, the old man’s movements became heavier.
He was tiring.
I gritted my teeth.
No.
He can hold out,
But he cannot win.
The absolute authority granted to them by the Evil Gods was a prohibition (禁制)—
A power that could not be harmed by conventional means.
My head felt like it was going to explode.
My hand, gripping the spear, trembled violently.
Cheon Yeoul, Yu Hana, Kang Arin, Sion.
They had been taken by the Apostles.
I failed to stop them.
I reached out, but grasped only empty air.
As they were dragged away, I could do nothing but watch in a daze.
I thought I knew everything.
I anticipated the Apostles’ arrival.
I believed we were prepared this time.
But in the end—
My choices had only led them into a death trap.
The decision I made had consumed them.
Can I save them?
Can I turn this situation around?
Despair filled me.
My entire body felt heavy.
But—
[『Serene Mind (明鏡止水)』 awakens your consciousness!]
The noise in my mind vanished.
The turmoil within me settled.
Like a still, calm lake, my vision cleared.
As the thick mist faded,
Only one thing remained, rising clearly above the water’s surface—
The task I must accomplish now.
At this moment, the only one capable of truly harming Barkus…
Excluding the Paladin,
The only being with even a fragment of power.
Was me.
My fingertips slowly heated up.
The sensation of blood boiling.
I took a deep breath.
And—
I launched forward from my spot.
—Crash!
The ground beneath me shattered.
Gathering all my strength, I shot through the air, slicing through space.
The scene before my eyes distorted in an instant.
But I wasn’t the only one.
“Old man!!!”
With a shout, an explosion of red fire erupted to my left.
Park Gwangchul was soaring alongside me, his body blazing like a fireball as he tore through the air.
His face was filled with fury, his entire being compressed into a single explosive force.
I lowered my gaze.
The battlefield was awakening.
Vanquisher, Fierce Tiger, Paladin, Blue Wind Squad—all of them had come to their senses.
The frozen heroes were beginning to move.
They, too, had lost their loved ones.
But they did not stop.
Park Gwangchul and I charged toward him.
And at that moment—
Every ounce of the battlefield’s fighting spirit converged on a single enemy.
Barkus.
A slow smirk crept across his face.
He took two steps back and raised his hand.
“Come.”
—Crackle!
Black lightning raged in the sky.
Electricity crackled and spread, searing the very air.
There was no fear.
No hesitation.
Into the storm of lightning—
We threw ourselves.
The battle had begun long ago.
***
Chun Yeoul opened her eyes.
Red chains bound her wrists.
Without a change in expression, she flicked her hand once.
—Clang.
With a metallic clash, the chains fell limply to the ground.
The web-like restraints, as if they had never truly held her, unraveled meaninglessly.
She slowly looked around.
A ruined temple.
Massive pillars cracked and crumbled.
The structure was on the verge of collapse.
Above, the sky was dyed deep violet.
It was as if time had stopped.
Everything was eerily vivid.
A sense of complete stillness… and then—
“Isn’t it beautiful?”
A voice that was almost too sweet to bear.
A sickly, nasal tone, oozing with amusement.
Cheon Yeoul turned her gaze.
There, floating in midair—
Mary.
She lounged seductively, one leg crossed over the other, arms draped loosely, resting her chin on one hand.
A sinister smile played on her lips.
Mary twirled her fingers.
From her fingertips, strands of red energy unraveled,
Slithering along the temple walls and pillars,
Slowly engulfing the space.
“A domain personally bestowed by the Great One.”
Her voice trembled with ecstatic reverence.
Cheon Yeoul silently watched the spectacle.
“A space that transcends time and dimensions… Honestly, don’t you think using it as a mere trap for you is a bit wasteful?”
Mary giggled, her words laced with mockery.
Here, within the domain imbued with the Dark God’s power—
The Apostle was immortal.
Even if she was struck down, she would never truly die.
She reveled in the divine grace she had been granted.
Now, it was time to fulfill the mission given to her.
With a flick of her hand,
Red chains writhed and slithered up from the ground, from the air—
Emerging endlessly from every direction.
The temple was painted crimson.
“Farewell.”
Mary whispered, lightly snapping her fingers.
In an instant, the chains shot forward, lunging to devour Cheon Yeoul.
But—
Cheon Yeoul’s expression remained unchanged.
She lowered her head indifferently.
And then—
“Ah… Ahahahaha!”
Cheon Yeoul suddenly burst into mad laughter.
Mary’s expression twisted in confusion.
“The pure power granted by God?”
Cheon Yeoul murmured, her eyes turning icy cold.
“Your god… has a sharp intuition. I wondered if they’d notice… and in the end, they did.”
“But…”
She took a slow step forward.
“It seems they only know half the truth.”
“What?”
It was then that Mary finally sensed something was wrong.
The crimson chains—
The divine restraints she commanded, which should have been binding the woman before her—
They couldn’t even approach Cheon Yeoul.
Wherever Cheon Yeoul stepped, the crimson chains recoiled as if avoiding her.
“It must have seemed like the best move in an incomprehensible situation.”
“But.”
Cheon Yeoul reached out her hand.
At that moment, the air within the temple twisted.
“That was a mistake.”
And then—
A small crack opened before Cheon Yeoul.
—Chirp, chirp.
From within that rift—
White feathers scattered into the air.
And from their midst, a small bird emerged, fluttering toward her.
Cheon Yeoul smiled softly and whispered.
“Yeah, it’s been a while, Baekryeong. I missed you too.”
The bird lightly pecked at the back of her hand, as if reaffirming an old bond.
She, too, pressed a gentle kiss to the bird perched on her hand.
The chirping bird soon dissolved into radiant light and merged into her body.
It was only then that Mary understood.
Why He had ordered this woman’s elimination at all costs.
A force beyond comprehension, something utterly dangerous, was beginning to surge from within her.
Mary instinctively tensed, her body shrinking back.
Cheon Yeoul’s expression hardened.
—Boom!
As she stepped forward, the crimson chains surrounding the temple began to burn away.
As if accepting a fragment of an overwhelming power.
And then—
A colossal temple rose behind Cheon Yeoul.
The very laws of space were rewritten.
No longer did this space belong to Mary, nor to the Great One she served.
“The Holy Sanctuary has opened.”
Cheon Yeoul declared calmly.
It was nothing like the Holy Sanctuary she had previously unleashed against Moras.
This was a domain that transcended space and time—
And that was the mistake.
The god’s domain, meant to suppress her, instead reached beyond time and space—
And brought forth the past.
Summoning the Cheon Yeoul of another era—
The one once feared as the Saintess of the Battlefield.
“Your god… was wrong.”
Cheon Yeoul extended both hands.
Mystic sigils formed around them.
In her left hand, Divine Law (聖法)—
A sacred inscription imbued with light.
Pure power, carrying the authority of a Saintess.
In her right hand, Magic (魔法)—
A cold and precise flow of mana.
An intricate control only a master sorcerer could achieve.
Light and darkness. Order and chaos.
The fusion of the holy and the arcane.
A realm that only Cheon Yeoul would one day pioneer.
She spoke quietly.
“For the record.”
She lifted her gaze,
A chilling glint flashing in her eyes.
“I have never lost to you.”
At that moment—
The space was engulfed in radiant light.
—KWA-AAAAAAANG!
The battle between the Apostle and the Saintess had begun.