Chapter 51

“All mages, concentrate your power on me! Begin the incantation for Arcane Lance now!”

Lucas’s shout was the only shred of reason in the despair-filled chamber. The surviving mages of the Blue Flame immediately gathered around him, planting their staves in the ground and beginning a long, complex incantation. The differently colored mana spilling from their bodies began to be drawn like threads into the tip of Lucas’s staff.

Wiiiiiiing-!

With a sound like the air being torn apart, pure Arcane Power began to condense at the tip of Lucas’s staff. Blue, red, and golden mana mixed violently, forming an unstable orb of light that distorted space itself. The mages’ faces grew pale; some collapsed, bleeding from their noses, but they did not stop the incantation. When a comrade fell, the next one squeezed out mana for them as well, pouring everything into the creation of a single spear.

“Heh heh heh… Foolish struggles! Do you think your pathetic magic can stop the great lord’s creation?”

The senior priest sneered at their desperate resistance and drove a dagger into the hearts of the remaining priests, himself included. Black blood spurted like a fountain into the altar, and the Plague Golem fed on it, growing even more ferocious. Dozens of bone spears sprouted from the golem’s body and rained down toward the mages focused on the incantation.

“Your foe is me, you filthy mass of corpses!”

The one who stood in its way was Commander Gerard. He unleashed all the remaining divine power within him and erected a massive wall of light, the Sacred Wall, to stop the bone spears.

Kwah kwah-kang!

Each bone spear that struck made the barrier shudder violently, and blood trickled from Gerard’s mouth. He gritted his teeth and held. Behind him, the mages bearing the empire’s future were risking their lives in the incantation. If he fell here, everything would end.

“Protect the commander! Now is the time to prove our faith to the gods!”

The surviving Paladins became the last shield behind their lord. They fought against the onslaught of monsters, sacrificing their bodies to buy just a few seconds for the mages. Flesh was torn away, bones shattered with gruesome sounds echoing through the chamber, yet their shield formation did not collapse.

At last, Lucas’s eyes flashed.

“Incantation complete! Arcane Lance, prepare to fire!”

The power condensed at the tip of Lucas’s staff now blazed with a brilliance that could blind.

“Now, mages!”

Commanded Gerard roared.

“Go!”

Lucas aimed his staff at the golem’s heart. At that moment, all the condensed power shot out as a single massive spear, tearing through space. Where the Arcane Lance passed, the air ignited and the corpses on the floor turned to dust and vanished.

Kwaaaaaaa-!

The spear of power struck exactly at the Plague Golem’s chest, at the barrier tangled with countless corpses and curses. With a tremendous explosion, web-like cracks began to spider across the cursed barrier surrounding the golem’s chest.

“Three seconds only! Break through, Gerard!”

Lucas shouted, coughing up blood.

Gerard was already moving to his target. Stepping over the broken corpses of his comrades and across a hellscape of blood and torn flesh, he charged for one final strike with everything he had. His body burned with divine power beyond its limits, but his eyes saw only one target, the plague core pulsing ominously beyond the crack.

“Glory to the gods!”

With Gerard’s final roar, the sun-bright war-hammer God’s Mace plunged into the crack.

And then all the sounds in the world vanished.

Blinding pure white light and all-consuming jet-black darkness collided and formed a colossal sphere. Everything in the chamber was drawn into it—the Paladins’ bodies, the mages’ staves, the priests’ screams.

After a moment, the sphere contracted inward and disappeared.

Silence remained in the chamber. The massive Plague Golem was gone without a trace, leaving only a vast pool and drifting black ash in its place.

Few survived. A handful of mages and Paladins who had barely clung to life groaned as they pulled themselves up.

And at the center stood Commander Gerard, missing an arm and drenched in blood, leaning on the broken haft of his war-hammer. Before him lay Lucas, collapsed from mana depletion.

“…Is it over?”

Gerard muttered in a hoarse voice. Then, from the altar, the last remaining senior priest rose, bleeding.

“Heh heh heh… Do you think it’s over, fools… This is only the beginning… You have incurred the wrath of the great lord… Soon, the whole world will be stained ash-gray…”

With those words spoken, the priest drove a blade into his own heart and ended his life.

Gerard listened to the priest’s final curse and stared vacantly at the sky. They had won. But the cost was immense. Paladins and mages who once despised one another were now comrades bound by blood and death, sensing a far greater darkness approaching from the ruins.