Chapter 61

Chapter 61, The Order (6)

The paving stones that had been neatly arranged across the ground collapsed into ash.

The sparse grass, along with several nearby trees, had also been reduced to ash and scattered through the air.

The only things left where Arlin's lightning had struck were ashes and several pure white fragments dropped by the followers.

“Did we get him?”

Hwa-ryeon muttered while sticking her head out the window.

I had started to relax, but the moment I heard her words, my body tensed again.

Hwa-ryeon had just spoken the famous resurrection spell.

Lee Yeonhee also looked slightly nervous.

But fiction and reality were clearly different things.

“Yeah, we got him.”

After looking around and seeing no sign of Delta anywhere, Hwa-ryeon said that and threw herself out the window.

It was around the height of the third floor, but Hwa-ryeon landed lightly on the ground.

Just like Arlin, she had been steadily growing stronger.

Her movements were even lighter than when I had seen her at the Company as she collected the fragments scattered across the ground.

It took her about one minute to gather every fragment.

Holding the fragments against her chest, she gathered strength in her legs and jumped.

Perhaps because she had strengthened her body with internal energy, the leap was powerful enough to practically be called flight.

With a single kick against the ground, her body rose closer to the sky than the earth.

Hwa-ryeon flew in an arc and landed on the frame of the open window.

Clatter.

She dropped the fragments onto the floor.

A rough count suggested there were somewhere between ten and twenty.

I picked up one fragment of a decent size and handed it to Lee Yeonhee.

The moment it touched her hand, it rapidly melted into her.

The divine power contained within the fragment seeped directly into Lee Yeonhee.

A relaxed and pleased smile appeared on her face.

“Yeonhee, how does it feel?”

“Good... It feels like soaking in a warm hot spring.”

“Can you feel yourself getting stronger?”

“Yes. With this much, I think I've grown by around ten percent.”

Her wings fluttered and shone brightly.

There wasn't an obvious change like when she absorbed the first fragments, but the light did seem stronger.

Ten percent from one fragment.

That's incredibly efficient.

After calculating the efficiency, I kept one fragment aside and gave Lee Yeonhee all the remaining dozen or so fragments.

She looked uncomfortable, as though it was too much.

I told her it was fine and showed her the fragment I had kept.

The single fragment in my hand was so enormous that even all the smaller fragments combined couldn't compare to it.

Its light was nearly as bright as the sun in the sky.

At a glance, it was obvious that this was the fragment Delta had dropped.

“This one fragment alone should be more efficient than dozens of the smaller ones. And these aren't the only fragments we'll be getting.”

I looked down through the window.

Followers who had heard the disturbance were slowly gathering around the empty area filled with ash.

Judging by the divine power violently pouring from their bodies and their twisted expressions, they were furious.

It seemed they had already realized we were responsible.

Soon, they would probably rush over to punish us.

“Arlin. How much mana do you have left?”

“Hmm... I believe I can use the spell from earlier about three more times.”

That's plenty.

“Still, we don't know what might happen, so stay here until I give you the signal.”

Arlin nodded.

Hwa-ryeon and I quickly headed down before even more followers could gather.

Hwa-ryeon simply jumped through the window again.

I couldn't do that, so I melted through the floors and descended one level at a time.

Once I reached the ground, I could feel the earth trembling from the followers approaching in the distance.

There seemed to be more than a hundred of them.

If we had waited just a little longer, we might have had to fight three or four hundred instead of one hundred.

Even now, more followers were continuing to gather.

The fortunate part was that the tricks we had prepared meant they weren't in normal condition.

Some collapsed with pale faces while walking toward us.

Others vomited blood.

And there weren't only a few of them.

But whenever someone collapsed, the other followers poured divine power into them, and they quickly stood back up and rejoined the group.

“...Those are zombies.”

I felt tense at their absurd tenacity, but tightly gripped the fragment in my right hand.

At my will, the flame rising from my palm slowly began devouring the fragment.

As it did, the color of the flame grew deeper.

By the time only around ten meters remained between me and the followers, it had become closer to deep navy than blue.

Whoooosh...!

Boom!

I moved the fragment, now reduced to around half its original size, into my left hand.

The flames burst violently as if throwing a tantrum, but I was out of time.

The killing intent coming from the followers who had closed the distance was strong enough to make my skin tingle.

They stood directly in front of me, staring as though they wanted to kill me.

Even then, the actual battle hadn't started.

I didn't know whether they lacked a proper trigger or simply lacked the courage.

While suppressing the greedily moving flames and gradually adjusting to my increased power, one follower pushed past the others and stepped forward.

The man who eventually stopped in front of me was someone I remembered.

He was one of the men who had received divine power from Eriel four days ago.

He spoke slowly, carefully enunciating each word as if chewing them before spitting them out.

“...Why did you do this?”

“Do what?”

“Did our Order make some mistake against you? Did we do something wrong? Even if we did, couldn't you have talked to us first...?”

“None of you personally did anything wrong to me.”

“Then...”

“But does that matter?”

“...What do you mean?”

His expression became a complicated mixture of disbelief and anger.

Honestly, if we were going to discuss the Order's wrongdoings, there were plenty.

They were the ones who created the raider group chat, which caused damage across Korea, including my apartment complex.

Their indirect involvement was also what caused the Church of Nihility to spread throughout the apartment complex and led most of its followers to kill themselves.

And beyond that, many incidents had been caused or worsened by the Order.

They weren't exactly in a position to complain about being treated unfairly.

Instead of explaining every one of those things, I raised the flames, which were finally starting to move smoothly, and asked him a question.

“How did you awaken divine power?”

The question must have seemed somewhat sudden, because for a brief moment, confusion became stronger than anger on his face.

But it truly lasted only an instant.

By the time I blinked, only determination and anger remained.

He surrounded himself with divine power and answered with a resolute gaze.

“It was a power granted by God, who was moved by my devotion and faith.”

“Didn't Eriel give it to you? Is Eriel the god you're talking about?”

“How did you... No. That doesn't matter anymore. I won't be swayed by your words.”

“No, I'm asking how you got it.”

He ignored my question and charged.

More than a hundred followers rushed after him.

I moved as well.

Standing before them, I swung the hand wrapped in flame.

A long diagonal line was drawn from left to right.

Blue flames surged along that line.

Then the line became a surface.

A thin rectangular wall of flame, thousands of degrees hot, stretched through the air and swallowed the followers in front of me.

Every part of their bodies touched by the thin blue rectangle was reduced directly to ash.

Those unlucky enough to have the flames pass through their chests were cut in half and died instantly, without even enough time to feel pain.

It had only been one attack.

One attack.

Yet most of them suffered severe injuries, and dozens died.

Screams and ash filled the air.

The smell of burning flesh spread through the charred surroundings, crushing the followers' morale.

At this rate, victory seemed inevitable.

But the moment each follower raised divine power in their hands, I couldn't help feeling exhausted.

Whoooosh!

A brilliant and enormous light swallowed the entire area.

The light vanished quickly.

But the miracle it left behind did not.

Everyone except those who had already died stood back up like roly-poly toys, their bodies completely restored.

If those aren't zombies, then what are they?

Their vitality was insane.

If we wanted to kill them, a long battle where we continuously released smaller attacks wouldn't work.

The only answer was a short battle where we used overwhelming firepower to kill them instantly.

I shook my head at Arlin, who seemed to be wondering whether she should step in.

Then I glanced at Hwa-ryeon.

“Is it my turn now? Haha!”

Hwa-ryeon laughed cheerfully, drew her sword, and charged through the followers.

Every time she took a single step, several sword paths appeared.

Her strikes relentlessly targeted only the neck and heart, which made healing with divine power meaningless.

A cut through the neck or heart meant death.

I watched her rampage brilliantly while bringing the fragment in my left hand against my right.

The flames began devouring it like mad.