A Common Attack Of A Common Man (1)

Biosis and Talis, let loose after a long time, were holding a proper drinking party with Jimnas and the gardener at their side(?).

The dozens of bottles Kim Han had left behind were more than enough to loosen their moods.

“Hm… I like all my disciples, but this liquor is especially to my taste.”

“Right, my disciple is something else.”

“Gentlemen, he’s my disciple.”

“….”

The three who only listened to themselves and ignored others’ words, and the gardener who was carefully rationing the liquor Kim Han left.

And as if by some miracle, a whole wild boar was being roasted on the sacred training ground—where on earth did they get that?

“But haven’t you noticed it’s been a bit noisy since earlier?”

At the gardener’s question, the other transcendants tilted their heads, then returned to sinking into their drinks and meat.

This place was full of wizards, so it could get noisy sometimes—those booms from magical sparring weren’t a one-off.

The four of them stopped as if on cue because they detected a sharp whiff of blood—blood scent.

A strong blood stench cut through the dense scent of liquor and the spices on the roasted boar.

This was no mere sparring.

“Tch. What kind of madman is this?”

Biosis rose, full of irritation, and Jimnas and the gardener followed, wondering what had happened at Kim Han’s house.

And the reason Talis—who had been reluctant to get up—snapped to his feet was an unexpected flow of mana.

He felt lost ancient spells manifesting. Not once, but several times.

“What idiot is doing magic in someone else’s house? What the hell? Summoning a fiend like ‘Jjin’ too? I’ll fry the bastard in crap-water.”

Once Talis moved as well, only the heavy scent of liquor and the mouth-watering smell of roasting meat remained on the training ground.

Caelum strolled toward the mansion at his leisure.

He’d used thirty minutes on the pests’ unexpected thrashing, but about fifty minutes remained—enough to retrieve and arrange for his representative.

He was crossing the blood-soaked avenue and about to pass the fountain when alien presences suddenly entered Caelum’s senses—four of them.

For a moment Caelum wondered if they were strong enough to approach unnoticed, but the thought was ridiculous and made him chuckle.

“Heh. Look at this bastard.”

At the gruff, reedy voice, Caelum’s gaze involuntarily turned.

Two old, shabby-looking men, one musclebound hulking man, and what looked like the gardener.

“Tch. I’m feeling generous today, so I’ll let you live—now get lost. You too, gardener.”

Caelum said it as if in mercy, but he regretted having slaughtered the wizards in a fit of rage.

He should have spared some to spread tales of his greatness across the Battlefield of the Gods.

At Caelum’s words, the gardener moved toward the main gate.

As he scoffed and prepared to move on, a vast flow of divine power surged from the exact direction the gardener had gone.

Startled, Caelum spun around and gaped at whatever the gardener appeared to have unleashed.

Those people would have surely died if left as they were—poisoned ones, ones with burning entrails, ones with broken backs…

Their wounds matched the number of spells that had manifested—most were on the brink of death.

Those vermin were all recovering.

Not merely clinging to life—except for those truly dead, it was as if time had been reversed: they all sat up alive.

“…Crazy.”

Could he have done this at full strength? He didn’t know. No, impossible. He wasn’t of the mage-priest line.

But Caelum’s thoughts didn’t continue.

“You did this?”

“…What?”

“Why are you so unfazed? Did you turn my disciple-slaves into bloody rags? You bastard I’ll fry in crap-water!”

Caelum couldn’t gather his wits.

Were these old men using their age as an excuse to mouth off at him—who looked young—for what he’d done to over a hundred wizards?

“Huh? But this guy’s a bit strange.”

“How so?”

While Caelum was confused, the other old man’s voice spoke up beside him.

“Look closely, this mad geezer—why does this fresh-faced youngster radiate divinity? It’s disgusting.”

“…You’re right.”

“Pfft!”

At the two old men’s words, the hulking muscle man spat on the ground and squeezed his fists until they strained, as if readying for a fight.

“You are Caelum, God of Firmament. I’m the Garden of Gods’ gardener. But how are you manifesting…”

Caelum couldn’t turn to the gardener’s question behind him—three presences were rising in front of him.

“…You—who are you!”

At this level of power, even two of them together would have guaranteed his defeat. Yet there were three.

His scheming mind went blank as white paper.

He thought it would be enough—eradicating wizards by the hundreds had convinced him his plan was secure.

But…

“Well I’ll be… This guy’s a god? With power like that? Nowadays anything gets called a god?”

At Talis’s sneer, Biosis and Jimnas nodded.

The three transcendants gathered here had fought Heavenly Gods and Demon gods and exerted considerable force—so Caelum looked far too weak to them.

What the three transcendants didn’t know was that Caelum’s power here was only 40% of his true self.

Even at full strength he couldn’t be sure he’d handle even one of them—let alone at 40%…

“Hey, get a grip! Figure out why. If you’re some god, why are you trashing someone’s house?”

Like in his earlier fight with the mages, Caelum answered Talis’s question not with words but with magic.

Since his representative days he’d indulged in magic—indeed, he’d mastered the twelve schools of magic.

From that came Caelum’s unique magic: the ‘Orb summoning’ that had just defeated the wizards.

His method calculated and output spells stored in twelve orbs—he only needed to supply a bit of mana for them to work.

The orbs reappeared.

The magic concentrated solely on the three. It even carried Caelum’s divine speech powers.

To most beings, the murmuring carried a sublime force that could annihilate on hearing it, but the three transcendants all wore the same sullen expressions.

Yet despite their similar faces, each of the three responded to the barrage of magic in a completely different way.

Biosis, hands clasped behind his back, batted the incoming spells apart with the backs of his hands.

Talis produced a staff from somewhere and absorbed each incoming spell.

Jimnas’s already bulging muscles doubled in size as he absorbed the magic with his body and pushed forward.

Lost for words at the three transcendants’ appearance, Caelum revealed his true power.

Even if the aftermath would wreck the Battlefield of the Gods, he had to survive first.

“Oh? Using true divine might now? Who will take this?”

“I’ll do it.”

“I’ll do it.”

Talis and Jimnas both volunteered and stared at each other. Biosis stepped back, uninterested.

“We’ll do rock-paper-scissors with three.”

“Fine.”

They tensed like swords at each other’s throats. As soon as someone shouted ‘One, two, three!’ they reached out at each other.

“I win!”

“…Damn, aren’t men supposed to use fists?”

“And you, you throw scissors?”

“Eh.”

Jimnas stepped back too, and Talis advanced toward Caelum.

As Caelum prepared to draw on his divine power, Talis bluntly tossed out a remark.

“You young fool, are you constipated or something? Why are you groaning like you haven’t crapped in a week?”

Caelum’s body slowly rose into the air as he drew power.

He had once been a representative and a mage, but now he was unmistakably the God of Firmament.

The firmament, the void, was his most advantageous battlefield, and merely floating in the sky granted him various benefits.

As Caelum rose high into the air, Talis’s body also slowly lifted—as if Caelum’s divine power was lifting him, and yet without any incantation.

Jimnas, watching the two standing with both feet in empty air, turned to Biosis with concern.

“But is that okay? Shouldn’t we help?”

“Who? That chick-god? Or the crazy old man?”

“Obviously Lord Talis.”

“What nonsense. Worry about the chick-god. From the divinity I sense, his power doesn’t seem complete… Even though there were two of us, the ones who crippled a demon god were me and that guy!”

Jimnas nodded at Biosis’s prideful words.

In truth, he’d only pressured a Heavenly God—that was all.

He hadn’t left lingering aftereffects or deep wounds like these two did—though the Heavenly God may have had his pride badly wounded.

“Biosis is right. By the way, I must be going. A place with a god present is uncomfortable for me…”

“Sure. You’re the gardener, so of course. Go on.”

“Let’s meet again later.”

“Well then. Ah, before that… the garden’s a mess, and if the mansion gets smashed to pieces the Messenger might be displeased. I’ll also inform Mr. Kim Han.”

The gardener handed Biosis a palm-sized disc and vanished.

Biosis smiled faintly, muttered that he was not like some ignoramus, and tossed the disc over the mansion.

Moments later, a milky white veil flowed over the entire mansion like water along the windows.

Above the milky white veil, Talis and Caelum’s duel was in full swing.

Caelum attacked Talis, even invoking divine speech.

In truth he had planned to pretend to attack, heal Unos, and withdraw—if this madman hadn’t attacked outright.

But Talis’s reckless onslaught made him wonder whether he had somehow incurred the old man’s wrath.

At first he used his power to call down lightning, reverse gravity, make it snow, hail, and storm—ordering the mana with divine speech to decisively subdue the old man.

“Burst. Scatter. Cut. Gather. Explode.”

Divine commands and surges of mana poured out endlessly.

It wasn’t a chant or a spell—mana filling the Battlefield of the Gods simply reshaped itself under Caelum’s orders to attack Talis.

Mana suddenly burst around Talis and flew like razor blades. Dense knots of mana exploded, briefly creating vacuum pockets.

Perhaps because it wasn’t ritual or conventional magic, Talis looked to be struggling—some attacks even struck his body before he could block them.

As time passed Talis’s breathing grew ragged, and seeing his exhaustion Caelum let out a thick killing smile.

“Farewell, old man. Death Ray!”

A purple beam hurtled toward Talis at the speed of light.

He smiled in satisfaction as the spell he created—a fusion of ‘Horrid Wilting,’ which drains moisture in an area, and a high-speed piercing ray spell—struck Talis’s body.

But his smile did not last.

If Talis had been killed by the Death Ray—or even harmed badly—he should have fallen to the ground.

Yet Talis remained suspended in midair, merely bowed his head.

As Caelum sensed something amiss, a voice from below echoed his feeling.

“Hey! You crazy old bastard! Stop eating and finish him off quickly!”

But the voice from below sounded odd.

Stop eating? That wasn’t a command to attack. What on earth is he saying he’s eating?!