A Common Attack Of A Common Man (3)

Having given up escape, Caelum concentrated fully on defense. He didn’t hesitate to use his power to cloak himself in thunderclouds around him.

But Talis’s magic was more persistent, bizarre, and uncanny.

The most absurd sight was when the thunderclouds that had been continuously discharging to bolster themselves at the magic Talis cast were consumed.

The spell Talis manifested was a mid-low level magic, Lightning Spear.

The only difference from a normal lightning spear was that ominous black lightning flashed through it.

And this peculiar lightning spear devoured the thunderclouds, swelled in force, and dealt internal wounds to Caelum.

Caelum, who had been alternating between defending and dodging to find timing, succeeded in activating the emergency escape magic stored in his bracelet.

The scenery changed distinctly. Clouds flowing beneath his feet, his dwelling.

He had finally succeeded in fleeing. He breathed a sigh of relief and checked the remaining manifestation time.

Something was wrong. The time wasn’t decreasing.

Could there be a problem with the Advantage Rule Scroll? That couldn’t be, the Creator made that scroll personally.

Only then did oddities start to register one by one.

He had used emergency escape yet returned to his own dwelling. The divine power nearby felt as abundant as in Exorsus. And the manifested time still didn’t decrease.

“Ah…”

As Caelum realized the situation was an illusion, the surrounding scenery began to crack here and there, then shattered with a crash.

The scene that reemerged was above Kim Han’s mansion and the sky of Exorsus.

“Ho? So a god is still a god? Or did he have something special that I couldn’t interfere with?”

Talis’s admiring voice was heard.

When Caelum confirmed his guess, he shivered all over. A being that could plunge a god into illusion! Such an entity had been in Exorsus and he hadn’t known!!

“Hmph… Even the demon god had a hard time with that magic. So you have something the Creator interfered with, huh. Tsk, it would have been better if you floundered in the illusion and were captured casually… Now there’s no helping it.”

Muttering to himself, Talis gestured toward Caelum with a tone of regret.

The gesture looked oddly like the moment earlier when Caelum ordered the mana to attack.

And the ensuing result showed that not only the appearance but also the outcome would be similar.

Like an avalanche rolled from a mountain peak, a tidal wave of mana starting from Talis crashed into Caelum. With nowhere to flee, he could only brace himself until his body was shattered.

Caelum did not give up until the end.

At the critical moment he focused more on triggering the bracelet’s emergency escape magic than on defense. After becoming a god, Caelum decided to trust the artifact he had made himself.

But his gamble failed.

“…Huh? Ugh!”

He only paused for the briefest instant in panic, and in that moment five spells struck his body.

Though only hit by five spells, the gnawing pain consumed his consciousness.

He couldn’t control his falling body. The intense impact with the ground nearly knocked him unconscious.

“…Ugh, ugh ugh!”

He tried to wield divine power to calm the turmoil within, but as time passed, even Caelum’s own divine power raged like a ball of fire tearing through him, only intensifying the pain.

Soon it became difficult for him to even breathe.

As Caelum struggled desperately to break free, Talis’s voice crashed into his ears and shattered his mental state.

“Isn’t this too weak for a god? He gets hit by five spells and soils himself… Ugh!”

“You’re insane, old man. Don’t you think you made some weird magic?”

Despite Biosis’s rebuke, Talis paid it no mind. He simply stared down at the chick-like god writhing in Destruction.

“Hmm… For now, let’s take this one to the back. Don’t we have to sort these guys out here too? Ugh, his condition isn’t great at all…”

Talis looked displeased at Caelum floundering on the ground in pain. What about him was displeasing?

Talis grabbed Caelum’s teal hair and dragged him toward the training ground.

Why did the sight of Caelum being dragged by the hair by Talis somehow feel familiar?

I briefly heard about the Advantage Rule Scroll from the gardener and rushed toward the mansion at full speed.

In truth, my going didn’t change much, but trusting the reliable insurance of training time, I picked up speed.

Using Light footwork to arrive, the mansion was, contrary to expectations, very quiet.

Continentals loitering around the house looked surprised to see me and some greeted me warmly.

I waved casually and entered the mansion, which reeked of blood from the walls to every corner of the garden. It made me frown.

Four magic tower masters flew out upon spotting me entering the gate. Blue tower master Zephyrus was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s he?”

Even with the subject omitted, the tower masters understood and answered immediately.

“He’s at the training ground now. Talis, Biosis, and Jimnas are torturing him together.”

“…Who is doing what?”

I had clearly heard from the gardener that Caelum had invaded.

Caelum may be the youngest god along with Ludicer, but he was still a god. Did I really hear that they were torturing such a god?

I hurried to the training ground.

As I neared the supposedly torturing training ground, there were no screams or sounds of suffering. Instead, a strong incense and the smell of roasting meat wafted thickly.

The training ground I arrived at across the mansion showed Jimnas, Biosis, and Talis throwing a drinking party.

Far from torturing, the atmosphere was merry.

“What the… now…?”

“Oh? Disciple, you’re here? Good. Come over. Master prepared some rare teaching material, though the quality is a bit lacking.”

Where Talis pointed lay a man collapsed on the floor, trembling.

Only then did I realize the teal vibrating clump of fur next to Talis was the man’s hair.

A man with short teal hair and a slender build.

He dripped tears, snot, and saliva, looking in great pain yet not struggling. He merely shivered as if naked and thrown against a northern ice cliff.

“What is this?”

“This? I heard he’s a god.”

“This?”

“Yeah.”

A frail man lying still and struggling.

They say he’s a god.

At first I thought it was a joke. Then I activated ‘Check’ and a message I had never seen popped up.

“Unknown target.”

“This pathetic thing is really Caelum?”

“Apparently so.”

Only then did Talis and Biosis look like true monsters. To reduce a god to this between the two of them…

“You two are truly something.”

“Huh? Not me. That mad old man caught him alone. Played with him for a while.”

“…Are you crazy?”

“What, man?”

Biosis’s words made me blurt out ‘Are you insane?’ without thinking.

Even if Biosis and Talis rank among the transcendants and even if they had driven the demon god Serpens mad, how could they catch a god alone?

“This idiot attacked with magic of all things. If he’d relied on powers it would’ve taken longer. Also, he seems new as a god—clumsy with using powers. A sky god’s main weapons are unpredictable attacks like lightning, hail, storms. But this idiot immediately pulled out magic and stubbornly stuck to it until the end. If he’d laid void and kept fleeing with powers, they’d have given up from the hassle; instead he insisted on escaping with magic and ended up like this.”

“…Still, he’s a god.”

“What’s big about being a god? A god bleeds when stabbed and dies if his neck’s cut. The issue is not being able to even scratch him, let alone decapitate him, due to a gap in rank. Of course we’re different. Ahem! Above all, Serpens wouldn’t even attack that mad old man with magic. He devours magic. Anyway, that’s for later—come here.”

At Biosis’s beckoning I stepped closer, and he pointed at Caelum as he continued.

“Use what you learned from us. Even imitating it might at least scratch him.”

Talis nodded toward the writhing Caelum urging me to try, while Biosis kept jabbing a finger at him.

And Jimnas watched with eager eyes.

Seeing them, the fact that I had rushed here prepared to lose a limb felt anticlimactic.

“Phew… real monsters.”

“Ah! Quickly!”

At Biosis’s urging I approached Caelum, dropped to one knee, and assumed a martial stance as if to break a roof tile.

Whatever the means, Biosis was right. Where would you get the chance to use a living god as teaching material?

I raised Breakthrough Enhanced Energy and lightly struck the writhing Caelum.

Thud—

The difference from when I attacked Aetas on Earth before entering the Battlefield of the Gods was that then the rebound had harmed me. This time, that didn’t happen.

My attack still couldn’t touch the god Caelum.

The process of my strikes failing to hit and bouncing off repeated. No matter how much I pummeled or used skills, I couldn’t deal any damage.

Unable to stand it, Biosis spoke in a brusque tone.

“Tsk tsk. That’s your biggest problem, you fool! You use techniques too readily! I already told you the method. Use your head, dull disciple. I introduced this idiot to you as teaching material.”

Biosis’s Zen-like admonition muddled my mind. Biosis and Talis always spoke the same way.

“Destroy it. Break and annihilate whatever blocks your way. With all your heart.”

“Devour it. With the magic I manifest, consume the enemy’s divine power and life!”

‘Damn.’

I thrust the breaker-clad fist again and again.

Stubbornness grew, and then resolve beyond stubbornness—I struck with the determination to land one decisive blow.

Thud— thud— thud— thud— thud— thud— thud— thud— thud— thud— thud— crack— wham—!!

“Huh?”

“Ho.”

“That’s it!”

I had no idea what I’d done, but the two old ones cheered as if that was it.

I could vividly feel the sensation of my fist plunging into Caelum’s face.

“What did I do?”

“That’s it!”

“Exactly!”

I had simply resolved to pierce that damned barrier…

“Ah! This?”

I raised the breaker technique.

I poured in fierce will to utterly shatter anything obstructing my reach to the writhing fellow.

I imbued more will than necessary, willing to die with this single attack.

The breaker’s color slowly darkened like an abyss.

With the abyss-darkened breaker I attacked Caelum again.

As before, the barrier between Caelum and me disappeared immediately after I passed through it.

Smack— smack smack—

Strangely, after touching Caelum’s skin, the barrier energy did not regenerate.

Just as I was about to test again, Caelum’s body vanished before my eyes, as if teleporting.

I looked up at Talis; he shook his head, meaning it wasn’t magic. Then a line of messages scrolled up.

“Congratulations. You have awakened the power ‘Deicide’. However…”

“…?”