LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 176: Mutations (1)
Durandor, who appeared before Lartania without even the time to prepare through the power of the Great Archangel Metatron, was confident of victory.
The tens of thousands of soldiers and angels he had sent before had been blocked by the heroes with Lartania’s abnormal strength, but now the situation was different from back then.
This time, they had the Archangel Metatron on their side.
Not only could he teleport tens of thousands of angels by himself, but his presence – having fought more than seven commanders during the Divine-Demon War and having never lost – could not even be compared to the forces Durandor had prepared.
Furthermore, under the guidance of the great Metatron, there were angels participating in the Great Crusade to resurrect their lord, so he never thought he would lose this battle.
…That is, until a moment ago.
“This is-!”
Durandor widened his eyes as he stared at the wraiths emerging from the blue smoke.
Each one, shrouded in thick malevolent energy, was walking towards the angels under the command of the hero standing atop the fortress wall.
Of course, angels generally do not fear wraiths.After all, the divine power they wield is specialized for dealing with the dead, and even the lowest-ranking angels could inflict fatal damage on the undead with their divine power.
But despite knowing this, the reason the angels’ expressions were growing worse was-
“This is absurd-”
It was because of the sheer number of undead crawling out of the blue mist.
The massive army reached the angels in an instant, leaving even the faces of the great crusading angels frozen in shock.
A massive bone dragon emerged from the wave of undead and began the full-scale battle by crushing the body of a lower-ranked angel in half with a single bite.
Tens of thousands of angels unleashed divine power towards the undead.
■■■■■■■■■■-!!!!
The undead let out agonizing screams as they melted away.
But no matter how much the angels fired their divine power, killing the undead, more continued to emerge from the blue mist, which concealed everything.
As if the gates to Hell itself had been linked to this place.
And then, all the gazes of the cherubim, who had been watching, turned to where Aria stood atop the fortress, holding the censer. In that instant, the angels all charged toward her.
They realized that unless the woman creating this army of undead was killed, this situation would never end.
However,
“That won’t happen.”
“…!”
Four cherubim who had been rushing towards Aria were blocked by a single stroke from Rin’s sword.
[…!]
Likewise, the angels who had been gathering divine power to launch at Aria were scattered in an instant when a giant sword fell upon Metatron from above.
As Archangel Metatron quickly raised his hand to block the falling sword,
“Arang.”
Kwajijik-!
[Kraak-!?]
Merilda’s attack instantly ripped one of Metatron’s six pairs of wings apart.
Metatron, screaming in pain, gritted his teeth and glared at Merilda, attempting to catch her, but-
[Grr-!]
Because of the giant sword falling from the sky, he was forced to let Merilda, who had torn through his wing, escape.
[These creatures of the Middle Realm…!]
Metatron, clearly enraged, growled and gathered divine power in both hands before unleashing it explosively.
Kwakwakwakwakwa-!
The divine power spread out like a shotgun, shredding the undead in all directions.
[Tsk-!]
Even though the undead were dying in droves, Metatron frowned.
Because his true target wasn’t the undead but the two heroes currently attacking him.
[……]
Metatron landed on one side of the fortress wall and saw Merilda, who was waiting for an opening, and thought.
‘…Is that truly a hero of the Middle Realm?’
Metatron, as the proxy of their Lord, had fought in countless wars, including battles against humans.
And in Metatron’s memory, battles with humans were never impressive.
No matter how great they were, humans were still humans and could never defeat the superior angels.
Even after hearing about the emergence of ‘heroes’ following their Lord’s fall into the void, Metatron’s belief that ‘humans are weak’ never changed.
After all, the heroes of this world, as reported by Durandor, were weaker than the commanders of the demons.
But at this moment, Metatron was feeling something strange.
The reason was that the strength of the heroes he was currently facing exceeded that of the demon commanders he had fought before.
‘Am I mistaken?’
For a moment, such thoughts crossed Metatron’s mind, but he quickly shook his head.
While he had indeed used a lot of divine power for teleportation, he hadn’t used so much that his intuition would be off.
Thus, Metatron could only frown as he gazed at the heroes staring him down.
Kwaaang-!!
Kim Hyunwoo, having returned to the Lord’s castle thanks to Rin, unconsciously stuck out his tongue at the sight of the enormous battle unfolding in the distance.
Watching Metatron’s fifth wing being blown off, even from a distance, Kim Hyunwoo thought with a peculiar expression.
‘…Surprisingly, I don’t feel a sense of crisis.’
In fact, when the angels first arrived, Kim Hyunwoo had felt that perhaps today would be Lartania’s last day.
But how was the situation now?
‘…We’re winning too easily.’
Kim Hyunwoo looked at the giant angel in the distance.
The being who introduced himself as Metatron had abilities that far surpassed the realm of a 5-star hero, at least in Kim Hyunwoo’s eyes.
The divine power exploding from one hand, and the continuously forming divine spears above his head, obliterated the surrounding hills with each strike.
And that wasn’t all; a divine spear that had barely grazed the fortress wall earlier had completely shattered it.
In other words, Metatron was as powerful as his appearance suggested.
…Enough to surely surpass a 5-star hero’s abilities.
Yet despite that strength, Metatron was being pushed back by the heroes.
‘Is it because of numbers…?’
After thinking for a moment, Kim Hyunwoo shook his head.
Of course, numbers were helpful to a certain extent, but in this world, overwhelming force could offset numerical advantages.
In other words, the fact that the heroes were winning meant they had enough force to face Metatron, who far surpassed a 5-star level of strength, even without the advantage of numbers.
‘…They’re at a 5.5-star level, but that shouldn’t be enough.’
That’s why, as he marveled at the heroes’ ridiculous strength, Kim Hyunwoo, with a curious expression, once again opened the hero stats screen he had seen last time.
Hero Name:
Merilda
Title:
Beast King
Star Rating:
5.5 Stars ★★★★★☆
Affection:
Level 5
━Stats━
🔸️Strength: 142
🔸️Agility: 282
🔸️Intelligence: 88
🔸️Luck: 92
🔸️Magic Power: 150
※The hero trusts you.
Hero Name:
Rin
Title:
Absolute Ruler of Darkness
Star Rating:
5.5 Stars ★★★★★☆
Affection:
Level 5
━Stats━
🔸️Strength: 121
🔸️Agility: 230
🔸️Intelligence: 110
🔸️Luck: 42
🔸️Magic Power: 180
※The hero trusts you.
Hero Name:
Charyll
Title:
Hero King
Star Rating:
5.5 Stars ★★★★★☆
Affection:
Level 5
━Stats━
🔸️Strength: 240
🔸️Agility: 259
🔸️Intelligence: 79
🔸️Luck: 180
🔸️Magic Power: 322
※The hero trusts you.
“…Ah.”
He realized one thing.
Something that was so obvious, he hadn’t considered it until now.
“…Affection Bonus.”
In Arteil, there is a system called the Affection Bonus.
The higher the Affection level, the greater the bonus to the hero’s stats.
And at Affection Level 5, the bonus is 50%.
“Ah.”
The moment he realized that, Kim Hyunwoo suddenly understood the heroes’ strength.
The heroes, with their absurd 5.5-star abilities, receive additional stat bonuses based on their star count.
That bonus is as much as 70%.
And now, with the Affection system activated in Lartania, they receive an additional 50% bonus.
In other words, the heroes’ current bonus has increased from 70% to 120%.
‘Merilda’s total stats are 754… If I add the 120% bonus, her current total stats are.’
Kwaaaang-!!!!
“…1658?”
Kim Hyunwoo muttered quietly as he watched Metatron’s body slam into the ground in the distance.