Chapter 291 – Devildom (1)

The Spiral of Battlefield was wrong again.

Of course, there was no rule that it had to be perfect.

At its core, it was merely an item that steers the user toward the course of action with the highest possibility of success. Since it was a matter of probability and possibility, failing was possible.

However, he couldn’t understand why such a variable hadn’t been taken into account.

‘it means that the Pyro church wasn’t accounted for…’

Kreon saw the goddess’s apostle, who was giving out tremendous energy.

Just five years prior, he was just a kid who only knew how to depend on others, but now he had a terrifying presence.

Was it even possible for an apostle to have this much strength?

The same went for Holy Executioner.

In the past, he was someone who couldn’t even look into Kreon’s eyes, but now he showed no such things.

‘I can kill him if I want to.’

But it will not be easy.

The power of Ismenios within him was turning weaker. If he continued using it, his life force would be exhausted.

And Kreon felt like that would be a significant loss now.

This felt so bad that his head might explode in anger, but he couldn’t go around showing his emotions.

Because there is an apostle here.

‘This is bad. This is difficult. If I live, I need to ask.’

How can the Spiral of Battlefield be used when it continues to give us incorrect results?

How was such a huge variable not considered?

If only these people hadn’t appeared, both Beryl and Count Welton would have been dead in his hands.

Bang!!

Even in the places where the chimera paladins were fighting, pillars of golden light shone.

The priests and knights of Pyro were intervening in the war.

Retreat.

His death would be an acceptable outcome if he could get the task done, but right now, there was a higher chance of being killed without getting the task done.

He had to get out of here.

“Don’t even think about it. You can never run from here.”

Ricky raised his right hand and a golden spear formed in his hand.

He pointed at the ground with his left hand, causing Pyro’s holy power to spread around as if to fill the land. After a few moments, it rose up, forming a cage around them.

Kreon clicked his tongue.

“A sinner’s prison?”

It was a kind of barrier that Holy Executioners of Pyro church would use to prevent the sinners from escaping.

The problem is that this was being done by the apostle himself.

The purest and most sacred being in Pyro Church was unfolding his barrier, so even Kreon would be unable to escape this.

Ricky had created the absolute prison here.

Kreon looked at Ricky, who was approaching him.

“You grew so strong, little kid.”

“And you turned ugly. Both your appearance and personality. And.”

Ricky looked at the chimera paladins fighting around them. The horrific experiments had continued to this day and resulted in a staggering number of victims.

How many children were sacrificed?

Five years back, Ricky was one of the victims of their experiment.

And Shino, a friend from the orphanage run by the Zenith Church, was sacrificed for this.

These cruel experiments.

He thought that Jamie had taken down the chimera maker of the time.

“You still seem to be carrying out those terrible experiments.”

His hands and feet trembled at the thought of it.

Those poor children.

Ricky couldn’t help but feel bad for those who must have been very scared of the situation.

With tears in his eyes, he looked at Kreon.

“You won’t have an easy death.”

Ricky’s form scattered. Kreon used his instincts and turned to the side.

It looked like a normal power, but if one is as experienced as Kreon, they had no choice but to know how dangerous the attack was.

‘One hit is enough to end me.’

Since he had reached the status of Grand Master and accepted the power of the holy beast within him, he was certain that this attack would be the death of him.

Ricky’s gaze followed Kreon.

“Use that Reversal of Causality.”

Ricky stretched out his hand, and a force was created which pulled Kreon’s body regardless of his will.

It felt like he was being pulled into a black hole.

“Kuak!!”

He wondered if this kid was the same as the one he saw 5 years back.

All this felt absurd.

Did the apostle have such power just because they were chosen?

Kreon’s eyes turned red.

[Holy Beast Mode]

[Brightening]

Threads moved from the pale skin, and his body turned red. The blood was flowing fast.

The muscles were expanding and contracting differently. Both legs were like blades once again.

Kreon held Durandal in his left hand and turned his right hand into a sword.

[Reversal of Causality.]

“Apostle or whatever, just die!!”

Pung!

Breaking through the force of Ricky, Kreon fired a slash at the child.

He could see the body being cut.

Puck!

Blood flew from Ricky’s body, who got pushed back a few steps.

“Tch, not dead?’

Kreon, who landed on the ground, triggered the Reversal of Causality once again.

Step!

A lot of deep marks were evident on Ricky’s body.

Realizing that the attack worked, Kreon slammed the ground. His power had risen significantly over the past 5 years as an apostle, but the child wasn’t good at fighting.

‘You should have left it to the Holy Executioner, then you would have had a chance.’

With confidence, Kreon cut down the horns and blades on the back to form a plain sword. With a body made of nothing but swords, he could do more with Reversal of Causality.

Two swords were drawn out according to the will. And were thrown at Ricky, who was standing stiff.

“Haha!”

He laughed, being sure of success. At the same time, Ricky raised his head.

Crash!

The sword was shredded in the air, which startled Kreon. He couldn’t figure out what had happened.

What was certain was that something invisible broke down his ability.

And he heard Ricky’s words.

“Is that it?”

The voice echoed.

Kreon noticed that the scenery around him had changed. It was like he stood in the middle of a dark cave.

No.

This place isn’t a cave.

Suddenly, a dazzling light shone inside, and this light gradually shone higher and higher to make the space visible.

Now Kreon knew where he was.

“Palm…?”

He was standing in the middle of a large palm. He could see the tip of a finger in the distance. That means the owner of this hand is beyond.

So he turned back only to lift his head too high.

Someone’s body, with white clothes on them.

He raised his head further up.

It was so bright that it was a struggle to look at, so much so that he had to cover his hand a little to check the face of the hand’s owner.

It was all still hard to see.

Who is it?

Why is the body this big?

Even dragons will be smaller than this. And it bowed down.

The light disappeared, and darkness fell. And when he got used to it to some extent, Kreon could make out the face.

When he checked the face, he dropped the sword, like he had given up on everything.

[You were in my palm from the start.]

A voice that seemed to be speaking from afar but still clear to be heard.

Ricky.

‘Inside his palm?’

Kreon’s eyes fluttered at those words.

If so, all the attacks he managed to put on Ricky were all illusions?

It couldn’t be.

His ability was clearly triggered, and he could feel the cutting on Ricky’s body too.

‘This is an illusion.’

The apostle who got cornered was deceiving him!

Then he should just cut down this illusion…

Puak!

Kreon felt a massive pain assaulting him.

“…!”

He couldn’t even scream. It was as if everything inside had been smashed down.

Why isn’t he dying?

It wouldn’t be strange to die when facing such torturous pain.

This really felt like his body was being crushed down.

‘I cannot breathe!’

Actually, even being able to think about the pain felt absurd. Everything felt too submerged.

It felt like even the connections to the brain were cut off, and it was normal to die.

[Why aren’t you dying?]

Ricky raised his hand, and Kreon was flattened beneath.

[Well, it is because I am not allowing it.]

Ricky put his head close to Kreon, who was as small as an ant, and said.

[Didn’t I tell you? You will not have an easy death. Here you are being punished. That is the will of the goddess who rules over sin and punishment]

Kreon was desperate.

There is neither life nor death here. Just pain.

‘Fuck!’

Even a manic who wasn’t scared of death felt helpless in the face of this unfamiliar pain.

Ricky looked at Kreon, who was locked in a small prison.

He was being tortured to the extent that made death look like a gift. Kreon’s mind would eventually collapse, his soul would die, and all that would be left behind was the shell.

This was the punishment.

He had no intention of giving an easy death to this vicious bastard. He will continue to inflict pain until Kreon felt pain no longer.

“You suffered too much.”

“Not at all.”

Ricky shook his head at Lars’ words.

“Are Count Welton and Mr. Beryl fine?”

“Yes. Both are safe, Count is yet to wake up, but there is no problem with his life.”

“Thank god.”

Ricky sighed in relief.

“I will see those two now. Lars, look after the great magician who this jerk hurt.”

“I understand.”

At Ricky’s command, Lars headed to where Linmel was lying.

There were priests there, but it would be better with a high-ranking priest helping them.

Ricky approached Beryl and Count Welton, who were recovering.

Beryl, who saw him, smiled.

“It has been a while, apostle of Pyro.”

“It has been so long. Mr. Beryl.”

After a brief greeting of the two, Beryl asked.

“How is he?”

“He is locked up.”

Ricky shook a small bottle. Kreon, as small as an ant, was lying in it.

Beryl spoke in a worried voice.

“You won’t kill him?”

“Punishment is worse than death. Until he loses himself completely.”

“Huh.”

“I have no intention of letting him die so easily. The crime he committed isn’t something which can be forgiven with death.”

Those words made Beryl shiver.

It was because he realized just how harsh and terrible the punishment Ricky inflicted on him was.

He didn’t feel bad, though.

As Ricky said, the crimes Kreon had committed were things that couldn’t be repaid even with his death.

Beryl, apart from that, even felt afraid of Ricky.

‘Is this what an apostle is?’

Even though he, Count Welton, and Linmel rushed to defeat the monster, they couldn’t do anything.

At first, he thought having an apostle of god in here was enough. Still, seeing the power with his eyes, the apostle looked like a transcendent being.

And he was still a young child.

And this wasn’t even the realm of Pyro.

The apostles are known to show a strong performance in the realm of their gods.

‘This reminds me of Jamie.’

He heard that Jamie and Ricky were friends. The fact that both of them had strength that seemed to transcend humans shocked Beryl.

‘Are all kids these strong?’

When he was thinking about it.

“But.”

Ricky spoke.

“Please ask.”

“Where is Jamie? I heard that he was here.”

At that question, Beryl jumped up. He was too overwhelmed with dealing with Kreon that he forgot about Jamie.

“Jamie vanished somewhere with an odd man.”

“Vanished?”

“Right. But with Jamie’s skills, he should have come back right away; why didn’t he make contact with us?”

Ricky frowned.

Jamie was here, but it looked like he was moved away during the war. And considering how he couldn’t sense the presence of Jamie, he wondered if maybe he hadn’t moved far away but shifted to another dimension.

“I want to look for traces of dimensional shifts.”

“Dimensional shifts?”

“Yes. It seems like the Zenith church took Jamie to a separate place to not let him intervene with war.”

With Jamie being a 9th class magician and a Sword Master, there was a high chance of them considering Jamie as a variable in the war.

And since Jamie wasn’t an opponent they could simply remove and was nothing but a headache for them, they decided to isolate him from others in a different dimension.

From what Ricky knew, Zenith church had the right artifacts for it.

‘Jamie.’

Although he hadn’t met Jamie for a long time, he never forgot the bond with him. He never once doubted his power, either.

So this time, he will come back without trouble.

“For now, let’s end the war.”

Right now, ending this war is the priority.

Ricky flew towards the chimera paladins.

At that time, the demon.

“… uh, Trika.”

Jamie saw the huge demon castle on fire. Trika was standing next to him, but his expression couldn’t be seen behind the helmet.

“Hahahaha! Too late, Demon King of Lust! It has been a month since you were away. Your land is mine now!”

They stared at the pale-skinned man in a bat-like cloak mocking him.