Barbarian in a Failed Game

320. The Great Demonic Realm (3)

The Goddess of Justice embodied two symbols in her divinity.

One was the scales.

The absolute scales of justice that weigh good and evil. Against those defined as evil by the goddess’s scales, she held an absolute advantage.

And the other.

The sword that delivers divine punishment to those deemed evil. This sword enacted the execution of justice that could not be escaped by evil.

The sword held by Aries scattered radiant light.

That radiance spread across the entire battlefield in an instant. The process of defining evil with the scales was unnecessary. The chaos minions birthed by the Arch Demon were undeniably evil.

The light emanating from the sword became divine flames. The white-hot fire itself was a sacred flame that burned away evil.

‘Judgment Strike.’

The pure white sword, shrouded in white flames, drew a thin line in the air at a slow pace.

『──────!!』

As the sword slashed the empty air, the chaos minions began to rush madly. The divinity emanating from the sword held by Aries stimulated their primal instincts.

Their numbers reached thousands. The creatures charged, enduring the auras and magic attacks that battered their bodies. Just as a massive wedge emerged in the midst of the battlefield, ready to engulf her.

Burn.

As Aries’s lips moved, the final point of the line she was drawing was completed.

Fwoooosh!!

A flower of white flames bloomed in the middle of the desert. The chaos minions that had been rushing towards Aries rolled on the ground, silently screaming as the white flames clung to their bodies.

The massive grotesque monsters sprawled across the battlefield created significant obstacles just by lying there. The chaotic onslaught of creatures from all directions temporarily faltered, allowing the formation to regain composure.

But Aries’s sword strike did not end there.

Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

The judgment strike radiated out in a fan shape from her position, sweeping through everything indiscriminately.

“F-fire…!”

“Get out of the way!!”

The horrific creatures writhed in agony and died the moment they touched the flames. Small humans, in contrast, would burn to death in an instant. Those caught in the sword’s trajectory either tried to escape or flattened themselves on the ground.

However, the wave of white flames permitted no escape. A soldier, about to scream with eyes tightly shut, blinked in surprise.

“Huh…? It’s not hot…?”

It wasn’t hot. The soldier, amazed, observed the white flames rising from his body. Soon, he realized that the wounds he had received while rolling on the battlefield were gone, and his ragged breathing had calmed.

He was not alone in this realization. His comrades, who had also been engulfed by the wave of white flames, examined the same with similar expressions.

“Indeed, a sword that punishes only evil.”

Aries was not alone when she stormed into the battlefield. E-Urel, the apostle of the Knight God, let out a hollow laugh with his newly acquired body.

“Despite all this, we are still outnumbered.”

Even at this moment, countless humans were dying to the creatures. In places untouched by Aries’s reach, the front lines were on the verge of collapse, unable to hold back even a single creature.

“Submit to chaos.”

“If we don’t do something about that noisy voice, this will never end.”

E-Urel forged a sword from the night sky. He planned to act as a beacon, allowing the knights and mages of the imperial army to fully unleash their power. He intended to make a grand display.

But as if to render his efforts unnecessary, a massive shadow cut across the middle of the battlefield.

“Ha ha ha! So many targets to choose from─!”

It was the arrival of Natrix and the dwarves who operated the magic-engineered cannons. This time, they had brought even more cannons than when they assaulted the Pantheon’s main sanctuary.

“Fire! Wipe them all out!”

Boom─!

At the signal from the dwarf William, the cannons roared with thunderous fury. But the most remarkable presence on the battlefield was, without a doubt, the elf.

“What a dreadful place…. The essence of nature has completely vanished here.”

Neria, now a high elf, summoned spirits with a wave of her hand. That single gesture fused her body with hundreds, thousands of spirits of various ranks.

At this moment, Neria could command all the elements of the world with a mere gesture.

“Protect the people.”

The flow of air changed. Suddenly, everyone’s movements became slightly lighter and faster. The wind spirits were pushing them forward. Flames ignited. The chaos minions had bodies vastly different from humans, their enormous size and regenerative abilities making them nearly impossible to kill with ordinary wounds.

But when the spirits’ flames imbued the humans’ weapons, the creatures’ regeneration was suppressed.

Lightning struck across the battlefield. Bolts of lightning descended upon those in critical situations, momentarily halting the creatures’ movements, allowing many to escape death in those fleeting moments.

Neria was not the only one.

“Focus on support! The spirits’ power alone can’t kill those monsters!”

“Neria! The essence of nature is too scarce here! It’s impossible to maintain this for long…!”

“It’s alright.”

Neria’s gentle smile, unfitting for the battlefield, reassured the frantic elves.

“We are not alone.”

『Karyaaaaan──!!』

The battle cries of hundreds of barbarian, leaping from Natrix in a reckless manner, were loud enough to momentarily drown out even the constant voice of the Arch Demon.

Barbarians who had jumped down from Natrix’s back immediately charged at the chaos minions with relentless ferocity. The chaos minions that had been relentlessly attacking humans couldn’t help but notice the sudden charge of hundreds of humans.

The creatures, several times more numerous than the barbarian who had stormed the battlefield, shrieked silently as they turned their attention to the barbarian. But the barbarian paid them no mind.

Boom!!

At the forefront, the fist of the Great Warrior Gordi crushed what seemed to be the face of one of the creatures. Then, other barbarian wielded axes and halberds, tearing apart the creature’s limbs as if dismembering livestock.

These creatures, capable of massacring hundreds of humans on their own, were dismantled in mere moments, as if in a slaughterhouse.

“Pathetic! Even the hide of a Hoarfrost Gorge Orc is tougher!”

“Ha ha ha! What an adorable little monster─!”

“Kill them all! Karyan is watching us──!”

Though the number of barbarian was but a handful compared to the human army and the chaos minions, they became an unstoppable wedge, tearing through the battlefield.

No creature could withstand a strike from the Great Warrior. Eventually, even punching the creatures became too tedious for him, and he began wielding them as weapons instead.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh─!

The Great Warrior swung the monstrous creatures, twice his size, like blunt weapons, drawing cheers from the barbarian.

“Monster club!”

“I want to do it too─!”

Exceeding mere cheers, the barbarian began to imitate the Great Warrior, swinging the creatures with pure, childlike glee. The imperial army watched in awe at the barbaric display. However, in such a desperate situation, even this spectacle served as a source of strength.

Especially if this bizarre tactic helped turn the tide of battle.

“We can win! Don’t give up─!”

“We have battle mages…! Hold out with your lives so they can cast their spells─!”

With the combined efforts of the dwarven cannons, the elves’ support, and the barbarian’ brute force, the tide of battle began to shift. Gradually, the number of slain creatures surpassed the human casualties.

“It seems it’s time for us to act.”

“Hmm.”

The golden-haired handsome man, the guardian dragon Arkadnil, nodded as he observed the scene.

He was the only ancient dragon who had survived and remained active until this era. Though he spent most of his time in slumber, recovering from ancient wounds, his prowess was unchanged from the past.

A dragon, with its vast mental world, could impose changes upon the world through speech. Natrix had once displayed immense holy power by borrowing the strength of an ancient dragon. But Arkadnil was the ancient dragon itself.

“I will open the path.”

Arkadnil extended his hand toward the sky.

『Hold on tight, everyone.』

His voice began to take on an otherworldly quality. Arkadnil had one singular purpose: to open a path to the second layer of the Great Demonic Realm, the Realm of Chaos.

The first layer, the Border Station, and the second layer, the Realm of Chaos, were not separated by conventional means. It wasn’t like drawing lines on the ground to demarcate territories.

‘Density of Chaos.’

The place where chaos was denser than in the first layer was the second layer. This meant that if there was a way to momentarily increase the density of chaos.

It would be possible to transform this location into the second layer.

And at this moment, with humans and chaos minions entangled, the chaos had reached its peak.

『I shall open it.』

The language of dragons itself has the power to alter the world. Especially for an ancient dragon like Arkadnil, simply wishing for something could cause mountains to collapse and seas to part.

The battlefield was saturated with death.

This had intensified the chaos more than ever.

His long-recovered and stored words of power.

All these elements combined to create an impossible miracle.

The boundary between the first and second layers.

The distinction between inside and outside blurred.

Arkadnil’s dragon language applied to the very nature of the first layer of the Great Demonic Realm, transforming all the humans standing on the first layer into the second layer.

In fact, the space they stood on itself became the second layer. Humans, unwittingly transferred to the Realm of Chaos, looked up in dazed confusion. The ever-changing chaotic sky greeted them.

At times it was purple, at others pitch-black, and sometimes it turned as red as the blood flowing through their veins. But the black sun remained unchanged in the chaotic sky.

No.

It was closer.

“Fools.”

The laughing voice buzzed around their ears.

And.

As if mocking the humans’ struggles.

“Do you think you have come closer to me?”

“You are mistaken.”

“I have approached you….”

The black sun opened.

“Despair.”

The first thing to emerge was a ‘hand’.

“Submit.”

It was a chunk of flesh covered in sulfuric flames. Though not massive in itself, at the sight of even a part of it, many people thought.

There was no stopping it.

“Submit.”

The irresistible urge took root in their minds.

Submit to chaos. And yield.

That was the end.

Bam! Bam! Bam…!

So effortlessly.

The heads of all the imperial soldiers exploded.