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Side Story Chapter 307
Houl stood in a hallway, panting for breath. His escape from the vault had earned him a weeping wound on his shoulder.
He stopped the bleeding using his mana and turned his eyes back to his path. In front of him were the giant doors that led to the council chamber of the palace having been in the palace for several days, he knew that the chamber was the only way to escape from the vault.
“...I have to let Sir Bel know about the situation here.”
Houl put his hand in his pocket and felt for the magic firework stick he would use to signal Hubalt’s forces. However, in order to use it effectively, he had to get to a place where he could see the sky.
The moment he tried to open the door, however, he heard the clamor of battle. He instinctively backed away. Nobody was supposed to be there.
“Someone’s fighting...”
There were at least ten people. Judging from the strong mana in the air he could feel on his skin, each and every one of them was just as skilled as he was.
“...It’s the Blood Flower Knights!”[1] Houl’s face brightened up once he recognized his reliable allies’ mana.
Houl shoved the door open without hesitation. As expected, the Blood Flower Knights were there, locked in an intense battle against three enemies. It was obvious that they were winning given their three-on-one advantage.
A glance to the side, however, revealed half of the Blood Flower Knights collapsed on the floor.
Houl’s jaw dropped. “Who in the world defeated them...!?”
Houl was greatly dismayed because he knew how strong the Blood Flower Knights were—but the moment he saw the enemy confronting the Knights, Houl understood the situation instantly.
“Joshua Sanders!”
It was Joshua Sanders the Martial God. Although the Martial God looked like a boy, Houl was certain that it was him.
“Huh...?”
However, the Blood Flower Knights’ sacrifice wasn’t meaningless. Despite his unfathomable power, the Blood Flower Knights had forced their enemy down onto his knee, although eight of the Blood Flower Knights had been defeated to do it.
“Die, Joshua Sanders!” First Flower, the sole survivor, swung his gleaming blade down on Joshua.
Despite his precarious posture, Joshua parried First Flower’s sword with the grace of an acrobat, shrouding himself in a curtain of sparks.
“You freak!” First Flower gritted his teeth.
However, Joshua wasn’t in a good condition.
‘Creshua isn’t answering me. Did he pass out after taking the shock to his heart?’
Strong heart beats thumped in his ears. Joshua sank to the floor, his limit exceeded. First Flower’s eyes gleamed sharply as he swung his sword once again.
His sword was parried away once again, but it wasn’t done by Joshua’s spear.
-...Long time no see, master.
A truly gigantic death knight stood in front of Joshua, bathing the air with his energy of death. There was no way Joshua wouldn’t recognize the death knight.
“Wild King!” Joshua exclaimed, his face bright.
“We’re here too!”
Selim and Kireua also rushed into the chamber, making Joshua’s smile grow.
“B-But what happened to the ceiling...?” Kireua gaped at the huge hole.
Selim recognized the traces of a Magic Spear Art technique and shrugged. “...His Majesty must have used one of his Magic Spear Art techniques.”
However, no one expected how the hole in the ceiling was going to be used.
Something yellow suddenly soared into the sky, making Selim and Kireua's eyes widen.
“If I can already see the sky... I don’t need to bother going outside.” Houl grinned as the magic firework burst. He then immediately lost consciousness, his final mission complete.
The chamber fell silent. Everyone ceased fighting and stared blankly at the sky.
* * *
Yggdrasil, the tree of life, had numerous branches of various sizes. Among those branches were twelve giant branches that made up the base of the continent.
With only his fists, Bel had snapped off six of them, but nothing could destroy the remaining branches.
“Hmm...” Bel sat down on Yggdrasil’s branch and frowned.
He knew that he had to destroy all the twelve branches to speed up the Human Realm’s collapse.
“I’m pretty sure that it’s not because I got weaker.”
Bel tilted his head in confusion and threw a light aura punch into the air.
It wiped out everything in its path.
Close to Yggdrasil were seven old buildings that made up the Magic Tower, clustered around the tree as if they were protecting it. Bel’s punch landed among them with an enormous boom! One of those centuries-old buildings crumbled into dust, unable to withstand Bel’s aura punch even from a distance.
“You!”
In the blink of an eye, Bel was swarmed by mages.
“You guys are quicker than I thought.” Bel he looked at them and grinned.
The mages already knew that Bel was raising havoc nearby, so why had they only shown up after he’d destroyed one of their buildings?
“The Tower Master must adore his mages a lot,” Bel said. His eyes were glued to the leader of the mages.
Thetapirion Whitesox, the Tower Master, gave Bel a death glare. “...Mages of the Magic Tower, listen. We shall stop that monster today even if it costs us our lives. I’m not asking you to do this to save the continent I wouldn’t be so pretentious.”
As the eight Circles in his heart began to work, Theta shouted, “This fight is to protect our home! Yggdrasil won’t be destroyed, but that monster will obliterate our home. We must defend our home from that monster by any means necessary.”
Bel watched, amused, as the mages let out vigorous shouts.
“...Yeah, that’s right.” He tilted his head again. “Come to think of it, I was trying to test my level.”
Bel turned to look at Theta.
“Hey, I’m sorry to interrupt your pep talk, but you know why Yggdrasil can’t be destroyed, don’t you?”
This was the biggest question on Bel’s mind. It wouldn’t have been a question at all under normal circumstances, but the Angel and Demon Realms had fallen and the realms’ leaders—the Angel and Demon Spirits—were also gone. The Human Realm’s balance was almost nonexistent, and Yggdrasil was the foundation of the realm. If Yggdrasil could still withstand Bel’s assault...
“...It’s strange. I can forget about the Demon Spirit since he’s still alive, even though he’s close to being erased, but the Angel Spirit is...” Bel’s eyes slowly widened in realization as he mumbled to himself. “...I actually haven’t verified if all traces of the Angel Spirit are gone.”
Bel came up with a theory: what if traces of the Angel and Demon Spirits were still left in the Human Realm and they were maintaining the Human Realm’s precarious balance? That would explain the current situation.
“...Interesting.” Bel suddenly wasn’t bored anymore. Well, he would feel quite empty if the Human Realm collapsed like this, especially since he wanted to fight Joshua Sanders once again.
“Ready your spells! Don’t worry about Yggdrasil. On my signal, fire everything you’ve got at that monster,” Theta coldly ordered.
“Yes, sir!”
Bel wasn’t worried in the slightest. He simply cracked his knuckles, eager to play with his new toys.
Just then, his smile froze on his face. Bel caught a distant scent, so faint that only he could sense it.
Immediately, Bel leaped from Yggdrasil’s branch, but Theta wasn’t going to let him go just yet.
“Fire!”
A rain of spells followed Bel, but he nullified all the spells with a shout.
“What the fuck...? He disrupted the flow of mana with his voice?”
Bel flew higher into the sky, unbothered by Theta’s frustration. And... as expected, he could see a faint pillar of smoke in the distance. frёewebnoѵēl.com
“...I knew it!”
As he’d thought, a pillar of smoke was rising from Avalon. Although it was very far away, Bel had surpassed the level of an Absolute long ago and had no trouble seeing it. The smoke was no doubt a signal made by one of his knights, which meant that the person Bel had been waiting for had appeared.
“Hahahahahaha! You finally showed up, Joshua Sanders!” Bel burst into manic laughter and turned into a ray of light headed for Avalon.
1. Earlier chapters stated that they were fighting in the graveyard. It’s unclear when or how (or why) they moved. ☜