The Legendary Spearman Returns

Side Story Chapter 109

Icarus quietly looked down from the ramparts. The paladins in their white armor had just exited the Palace, followed by the mage knights of the Tetra Kingdom. It was safe to consider the two countries as one at this point.

“The entirety of Arcadia is quiet,” Icarus murmured.

“That is because you put out an evacuation order in advance, Your Majesty.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m a little sore… but I’m fine,” Cain answered.

Icarus glanced at him. Unlike what Cain had said, it was obvious that he wasn’t feeling well; he was pale as a ghost.

“…How strong is this Bel…?” Icarus bit her lower lip. She hated unexpected variables and didn’t want to even imagine a scenario where Joshua Sanders was her enemy. All the strategies that she had planned would become meaningless, and it wouldn’t take long for the plans she made on the spot to be rendered futile. That was how influential the presence of an Absolute was in a war.

“I was going to execute the operation I had prepared… but your state…” Icarus trailed off.

“I’m fine, so do as you wish, Your Majesty.”

“Then you won’t be able to get your cure. You’ll die.”

Cain shook his head. “The cure doesn’t exist anyway.”

“What?” Icarus whipped around to face Cain.

Cain smiled bitterly. “His Majesty sent me a telepathic message. He’ll help me with my condition after this, but I shouldn’t think about getting the cure from Hubalt.”

“How dare they commit fraud against us?” Icarus’s eyes turned cold.

Hubalt’s paladins were everywhere in Arcadia, but they quickly surrendered when they saw their comrades holding up the white flag, forced out of the Palace under the watchful gaze of Duke Tremblin and the Imperial Knights. The foreign delegations from around the continent would see them as well.

“Hahaha,” Cain chuckled quietly. “It’s still refreshing to see those invaders beating a hasty retreat from our country waving their little flags. They’ll all know which country is truly the most powerful on the continent.”

“No, we can’t let them off the hook that easily.”

“Pardon?”

Icarus looked up at the sky and shouted, “Iceline!”

A short thrum heralded the arrival of around one hundred people in the sky. They were Avalon’s Imperial Mages, who had been hiding in a spatial rift. Every last one of them was an elite mage with four circles at minimum and was capable of casting a levitation spell and an invisibility spell at the same time, having been selected and trained by Iceline herself.

“…It definitely looks like I’m not my usual self right now. I can’t believe I missed such a large number of people…” Cain muttered to himself.

“Iceline has outdone herself here. She confidently told me a few days ago that she was certain no one would notice them, so I think she’s created another outstanding stealth artifact or something,” Icarus explained.

When it came to artifact development, Iceline was a genius—not many mages on the continent were as skilled as her. Only Thetapirion Whitesox, the current Master of the Magic Tower, the “genius of geniuses”, could possibly compare to her.

“Then did you and Her Majesty see this coming?” Cain asked.

“Of course. I don’t believe in gods in the first place and I’m quite familiar with how wicked priests and paladins are. Lilith Aphrodite’s situation alone indicates the level of their wickedness, doesn’t it? She was once revered as a saint in the Hubalt Empire, but she became a witch overnight.”

“…It’s incredible,” Cain exclaimed with genuine wonder.

Icarus smiled coldly.

“Are you ready?” she shouted.

“We’re ready whenever you are.”

“Good. Get to the outer north gate. The moment they step out of the castle gates, pour out all the magic spells you have ready.”

Their plan was coming to a climax.

“A-Are you sure it’s going to be okay?” Cain stammered, shocked by their cunning. “They already surrendered, so if we attack them…”

Icarus produced a transparent crystal ball from her inner pocket with a flourish. “They’re the ones who broke the promise first. Besides, ‘surrender’?”

The crystal ball showed the state of the Palace’s council chamber in real-time. Cain’s eyes widened as Michael, one of the Four Paladins, slowly approached the throne with his sword unsheathed.

“Which prisoner points his sword at an emperor as soon as he sees the opportunity?” Icarus asked.

“…He’s begging to be killed.”

Obviously, Cain wasn’t worried in the slightest; this was his master they were talking about.

Icarus snapped her fan open and lightly fanned herself. “His Majesty, Iceline, and I don’t show mercy to those who abandon their honor.”

* * *

“What did he say earlier? He was sure he’d win if we fought with our weapons alone?” Joshua slowly walked down the steps, his spear held tightly in his hand.

Michael moved toward Joshua from the other side. The Paladin’s aura undulated around his sword, and his eyes were filled with murderous intent.

“Once I cut off your head here, hegemony of the continent will surely land in the hands of the Hubalt Empire,” Michael said, his voice back with an iron determination.

“Right back at you.”

Who could have fathomed that Joshua and Michael had also been mortal enemies up in heaven? Although it was technically Michael’s unilateral jealousy toward Joshua’s previous self, Michael wouldn’t even remember since his soul as an angel had been annihilated and he had been reborn as a human.

“Come.” Joshua gestured at Michael.

Michael disappeared from sight, but Joshua didn’t need to follow him because he could feel Michael’s sharp aura from any direction.

Joshua parried all Michael’s attacks with one swing.

“Is that all?”

“This is the real one!”

To Joshua’s surprise, Michael suddenly disintegrated into a cloud of light, and then those grains of light amassed right behind Joshua. This was Illumination Source, which allowed Michael, the First Great Angel, to freely transform into light and move like light; it was what cemented him as the strongest in the Angel Realm.

The collision between their auras palpably shook the air. The divine power was boiling up like a volcano, so who could call this a god’s blessing anymore?

“Use your demonic power, Martial God! No, Demonic God!”

Joshua blinked in the middle of deflecting Michael’s attacks. He smiled bitterly as he figured out what Michael was aiming for. In the past, the Demon Spirit had slaughtered the Imperial Family of Avalon using the Brittens and Dark God as his medium. It was obvious that the Hubalt Empire intended to use that fact to brand Avalon as the Demonic Empire, just as they slandered Lilith Aphrodite as a witch.

“…No matter how long it has been or how you change your shell, you never change, Michael,” Joshua mumbled.

“What…?”

“Let’s end this here.”

Lucifer, the most powerful being in both the Demon and Angel Realms, was gone, and so was the angel who had fallen after being betrayed by both realms. Joshua Sanders, the human, was the one who was present here.

“…What?” Michael’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull. Joshua had vanished into a cloud of black smoke, just like Michael’s Illumination Source ability.

-Isn’t that what you wanted?

“Yo-You hide yourself using demonic power? How?!” Michael yelled.

-It’s the same mechanism as your ability.

Michael’s hands squeezed his sword. It was like Joshua was speaking directly into his head.

An excessively bright light would force people to close their eyes and even cause them pain. Michael’s Illumination Source was an optimization of that, and so was the ability that made him look like he was moving at the speed of light. Light tended to distort through human eyes, so when Michael adjusted the brightness at the right moment, it looked like Michael had suddenly disappeared from his opponent’s perspective. It was one of Michael’s biggest advantages in battles. However, it was proving useless at this moment.

“Where there is light, there is darkness,” Joshua said. “Aren’t you familiar with this saying, Michael?”

“You…!” Michael growled. For some reason, Michael was overwhelmed by emotions. Fear, jealousy, excitement… All of those emotions entangled with one another and surged from deep within his heart.

‘The soul is getting angry?’ Mikhael thought. It didn’t make any sense! A soul was an intangible form of mind, so it wasn’t capable of feeling emotions. If it could, most humans in the current generation wouldn’t want to manifest an authority; no one would want to deal with the possibility that they could turn into somebody else at any time. Although everyone wanted to succeed in life, they didn’t wish to make sacrifices or pay the price. That was the irony of all life, and humans were at the peak of that irony.

“Ahhh… Ahhhhhh….” Michael loosened his grip on his sword, allowing it to clatter to the ground. He clutched his head, groaning in pain. Was he Michael the human or the renowned First Great Angel of the Angel Realm?

But suddenly, his focus snapped back to the real world.

Joshua had reappeared and slammed the end of his demonic spear against the ground, snapping Michael out of his struggle.

“Pull yourself together unless you wish to be consumed by the Great Angel’s soul.”

“Joshua… Sanders…!”

“My father and Emperor Marcus lost their bodies like that.”

Michael gritted his teeth. He fixed his grip on his sword and gathered his divine power to put an end to this fight with one leap, one collision, and one attack.

Every muscle was stretched to its absolute limits, and he awakened every single cell in his body. Michael was going to blend his masterpiece technique that contained his life’s effort into Illumination Source, the authority of the First Great Angel of the Angel Realm.

“… Michael, the Sword of Hubalt, Final Origin…”

The light around Michael gradually became brighter and thicker. Michael continued to spur his authority until he became impossible to see; looking at him alone would blind a person. The light grew and grew until even his sword turned blinding white…

“...World Upheaval.”

…He cleaved the air in two.

The entire roof of the Palace was ripped away.

The marble floor split as if it had been struck by an earthquake. Michael was sure that even the Martial God’s grandfather wouldn’t be able to stop—

“…Unbelievable.” Michael gaped blankly.

The overwhelming attack he’d obliterated the Palace with was redirected by Joshua simply and quite crudely swinging his spear, instead of turning the world upside down.

“It’s slow and weak,” Joshua arrogantly mumbled as he slammed the end of his spear against the ground once again.