Barbarian in a Failed Game

Chapter 327. The End of the World (5)

A whale the size of a city drifted through the skies. Even while exerting overwhelming power, Aecharis did not let his guard down.

It was only natural.

How many times had he underestimated mere mortals and tasted defeat? His fragments of power were sealed by the machinations of the Goddess of Justice, leading to the demons’ followers being immobilized and significantly decreasing their influence in Midland.

『I should have killed them then and there. Incompetent fools…』

The pride of a being equivalent to the Scion of the Arch Demon was beyond imagination.

Therefore, Aecharis had devised a trap to eliminate Khan, even at the cost of abiding by certain rules, and successfully kidnapped Khan to hell. However, even that ended in failure.

Despite sending demons of such high rank that ordinary mortals couldn’t even fathom confronting them, they failed in their pursuit. Not having even faced a higher God, the two demons met complete annihilation, causing Aecharis to lose a portion of his powers that were entrusted to them.

『Fine. I acknowledge it.』

Stretching his enormous body as if awakening, Aecharis flashed with dark energy. He had decided to manifest in Midland himself, unaware that his adversary had become a God. The Arch Demon’s advent was imminent; how could one refuse such a summons!

『It had to be acknowledged. Even with the body of a mere mortal, he had managed to trouble this Aecharis. If he had now grasped the realm of transcendence, it is fitting for him to be the adversary of the World Devourer, Aecharis!』

Thus, he devoured all demons. Not only the demons who had borne his banners, but also everything within his realm was dissolved alive in his stomach, partially restoring his lost power.

『Come forth! My nemesis!』

Aecharis’s senses perceived every living being and transcendental entity on this vast battlefield distinctly. Ancient dragons, apostles of gods, witches, and mages with an aura reminiscent of the lunatics from the ancient council, among countless other vermin.

Among them, one exuded an exceptional presence. The moment Aecharis precisely recognized the being that had provoked him out of the Cradle of Void, his incarnation trembled slightly.

‘How…?’

To a being like Aecharis, human form was merely a shell.

Even if his adversary suddenly transformed from a hulking barbarian into a beautiful woman, it wasn’t a change he found particularly surprising. Just because unseen stripes appeared on an insect, it didn’t cease to be an insect.

『Apostle? No, even if it were an apostle. The soul’s form shouldn’t be identical…!』

Maya Eldred did not miss Aecharis’s bewilderment.

“Cast your spells!”

The mages responded first. In the battle against Aecharis, the most crucial tactic was to spread a wide net of firepower and relentlessly project spells.

“Knights, prioritize the protection of the mages! Priests, focus on mental defense instead of protective spells! Paladins, hold off the creatures!”

Maya’s orders echoed across the battlefield, ensuring everyone could comprehend them. This was an additional phenomenon resulting from her ultimate awakening as an apostle of Khan, the God of Victory, pushing her holy power to its limits.

The power that the God of Victory bestowed upon her was twofold.

First, albeit imperfectly, she inherited all the power that Khan possessed. This was why Aecharis had mistakenly thought Maya was Khan. At this moment, she wielded a power strikingly similar to Khan before godhood.

Boom─!!

With a single stomp, Maya crushed the head of a creature and used its corpse as a stepping stone to crouch down.

Whoosh-!

As she soared into the sky, the ancient dragon Arkadnil tore through the space beside her.

『Apostle, give your commands to everyone.』

The wise dragon’s insight clearly recognized who controlled the flow of the battlefield: Aecharis and Maya Eldred.

Crunch!

In the blink of an eye, Arkadnil, who had taken the form of a dragon, let out a roar imbued with dragonic words. The oppressive power that had been ominously encroaching upon everyone was completely shattered before the ancient dragon’s might.

“Nothing’s changed. To kill Aecharis, binding that annoying power of predation is the start and the end of it”, she remembered.

All her battles had been like that. Hundreds of confrontations with Aecharis. In her memories, the faces of her comrades changed every time, and there were certainly transcendents like Arkadnil who fought alongside her in most battles.

Additionally, even the Maya in her memories were different individuals in each fight against Aecharis. A man who became the king of mercenaries, a Swordsmaster who reached the ranks of transcendents with a single sword, a legendary assassin who killed countless nobles, an archer who pierced a dragon’s heart with a single arrow….

Countless such memories resided in her mind naturally.

『How dare a mere lizard act so arrogantly─! Even your king could not stand against me-!』

As Aecharis twisted his body, the space around him began to warp. It was as if the distorted space itself formed a barrier to block any approach. However, the scion of the arch-demon was not merely wielding his power to curl up and hide.

‘Back off!”

A former apostle, who grasped the night sky in his hands, flew to his side at an incredible speed, swinging his sword.

Pakuwakwakwang!!

The veil of space surrounding Aecharis expanded- no, it projected in all directions.

The veil spread not just around him but across the entire Great Demonic Realm, an overwhelming blow. For humans, who had only just begun to grasp the concept of spatial magic, Aecharis was nothing short of an irrefutable disaster.

“With sheer will alone, to create a spatial interference of this scale…”

It would have been so, had Ludmilla not been present. She was advancing toward the pinnacle of magic-.

Perhaps, it wouldn’t be wrong to say she had already reached it. In fact, Ludmilla, if given the last piece of the puzzle, was presumed capable of constructing her own divinity.

However, that peculiar conviction—that what she would attain in the end wouldn’t be magic—held her steps in check. Because of that, there was no need for her to clash with the grotesquely shaped whale in the sky.

As she, who remained on the ground, reached her hand towards the sky, dozens of magic circles overlapped, forming a gigantic magic circle. With ordinary talent, one couldn’t grasp even a fragment of its wisdom; this was a prelude to dimension magic.

“I will help…!”

Jan was the mage who stepped forward to assist her. With growth that could be described as almost uncanny, he had already surpassed his master’s level. Together with the masters of the five towers, he lent his power to the dimensional magic.

As the peak of the current continent’s mages focused their efforts on a single spell, it was completed in a mere instant.

“Reversal.”

Right after Ludmilla’s brief murmur reached Jan’s ear, the world turned upside down.

Everyone who stood on the ground found themselves looking down at the sky, and all but those with exceptional senses, like knights or paladins, lost their balance and collapsed.

Even as the mages disgracefully sank to the ground, they couldn’t help but realize the wonder and true “magic” of the miracle she had performed, and unconsciously sought out their gods.

Reversing the entire space of the area. It wasn’t simply about confusing human senses. The grand-scale spell directly interfered with the concept of “space”, affecting the entire Great Magic Circle.

Anything within the area, including the spatial distortions projected by Aecharis, was encompassed by the spell.

『……!』

At the very moment Aecharis felt more baffled than ever, the twisting of space hammered through Aecharis’s entire body.

Crack-a-boom-!

Who would have imagined that Aecharis, even with the reputation of devouring worlds, would have its body distorted by a spatial spell? At the very least, Aecharis hadn’t imagined it. Disconcerted by the ancient dragon’s breath that seared its skin, its fury made its mind go completely blank.

『You, insects──!』

The rage of a transcendent being wielding willpower was akin to a disaster. Especially Aecharis’s anger, which was quite literally like a natural calamity.

Swish!

The gaping maws covering the massive whale’s entire body stretched out long tentacles that engulfed Akardnil. With their numbers reaching the thousands, they almost obscured the entire sky.

In front of this, Maya Eldred quietly exhaled.

“Hoo-ooh.”

It was a heavy and sluggish breath that felt as if a lead weight pressed down on her lungs.

The strength that burst forth from within Maya’s body was so potent that Akardnil, who had been conjuring words of power to fend off the tentacled maws, flinched momentarily.

“Hoo-ooh.”

She took another deep breath Maya’s entire body heaved.

What she needed was not the process of tuning her body. She had already reached the level of a master in spear techniques, and above all, the numerous memories infused into her mind elevated her to an even higher realm.

Even in an inverted world, Maya perfectly controlled her body’s senses as she thrust her spear. From the tip of the extended spear, a spiraling vortex transformed into a typhoon, grinding away at the thousands of mouths covering the sky.

If a swordmaster’s sword strike could cut through everything, Maya’s spear tip pierced and shattered everything. Not even the typhoon created by the spiraling vortex was an exception. The small mouths, parts of Aecharis, were shattered by everything they touched.

‘Not yet.’

Based on countless memories, Maya anticipated Aecharis’s next move.

‘It will create distance.’

That whale-shaped body was a calamity in itself, but Aecharis was a demon who knew how to cunningly wield its power.

In most battles within her memories, it enjoyed creating distance and using its authority to accumulate large-scale damage, wiping out hunting parties. Then, it would use the victims of its authority within its stomach as nourishment to grow its strength.

Aecharis’ pit and the distortion of space had even stopped the advancing blow, leaving only one option for the beast.

*Flash-*

Maya’s prediction was accurate. Just as the storm she had unleashed tore apart the tentacles and was about to strike Aecharis’ main body, the creature’s massive form vanished without a trace.

That location was—

‘Behind!’

No sooner had she turned her head than she was met with an abyssal blackness. Already, half of Arkadnil’s body had been swallowed by the darkness, but Arkadnil seemed unaware.

It was a desperate situation.

Nevertheless, Maya’s gaze cooled even further. From the very beginning, she had anticipated such an attack from Aecharis.

The information accumulated by the hundreds or even thousands of heroic warriors who had battled Aecharis, combined with the power granted to her by the God of Victory, pointed to the only path to victory.

‘Reletalrasa.’

Amongst countless memories.

The divine artifact of the Knight God, which had delivered fatal blows to the Arch Demon several times, slid from E-Urel’s embrace into Maya’s hand.

Typically, divine artifacts rejected the touch of the unworthy. However, Reletalrasa began to emit a brilliant blue light as if it had been waiting for this moment all along.

The holy power bestowed by Khan and the Knight God’s holy energy encapsulated within Reletalrasa converged. At the same time, an immeasurable amount of aura spread through Reletalrasa, permeating her entire being.

Once, she had wished to become a knight. But as the daughter of a knightly family in a remote kingdom, it was exceedingly difficult to become one. Ultimately, she had no choice but to take the path of a mercenary.

And that was sufficient. One could become strong enough living the life of a mercenary. No, one could always dominate the weaklings that mercenaries often faced.

Even as she constantly longed for strength, she had resigned herself to the inescapable reality.

‘My lord.’

And then she met Khan. Even now, she felt shame recalling their first encounter, but she did not regret the decision she made then.

Crack…

From Maya’s eyes, wielding Reletalrasa, a mix of ashy and blue light gleamed. Her focus had only one objective: to pierce the core of Aecharis, hidden within the abyss.

The core, concealed within the vast form of Aecharis surpassing the dimensions of this Midland, was considered impossible to locate. If it had been possible, the heroes she remembered would not have perished in vain.

However, thanks to countless trials and errors, she had finally pinpointed the core’s location. Therefore, her task was simple. She only needed to fire the arrow towards the core’s location.

And that arrow was already in her hand.

『Die─! You wretched insect…!』

Aecharis’s jaws closed completely just as Arkadnil and E-Urel realized what was happening.

Thud──.

The light-imbued Reletalrasa was shot, piercing through Aecharis’s core.

TL’s Corner:

There were two blessings given to Maya by Khan, first was his strength, and although it wasn’t explicitly stated, the second one could be Khan’s experience from playing Midland quest.