Chapter 341: D-Day (1/2)

The man smiled at the woman’s words.

Instead of collapsing in despair at a world that had become ashes, he stood up with his remaining strength and said.

“I know. Even if my memories remain, my existence will eventually disappear. But even so…”

The man’s words continued and the woman had a bitter smile.

With tears in her eyes, she whispered very quietly.

“You will always be the same. That’s who you are.”

***

It was a bright morning.

As soon as their campsite was set up, the Jackdaws and the warriors of the wild lands who marched and fought last night went to sleep to recover their strength.

Jude and Cordelia were no different.

They had taken a break in the middle, but in retrospect, they had fought a series of battles since entering the Tomb of Solari.

The two had defeated huge armies twice in a day, and killed two top-ranking demonic humans, so it was reasonable for them to rest now.

“Sleep well.”

“Good night.”

The two lied beside each other on the bed provided by the elves and deeply fell asleep at the same time.

Several hours passed.

It was a really peaceful time.

Kirara grumbled as she faced Red Wind, Lucas was sweating profusely at the complex gaze of Count Hræsvelgr, and Kajsa and Scarlet were exchanging fierce glances at each other several times, but overall, it was not that bad.

Elune was very exhausted, but her life was not in danger. The Red Gate suffered damage, but compared to the battle they had fought, it was not that significant.

But it was a few hours at most.

The brief serenity was shattered by the sudden news.

***

Princess Daphne and the empress dowager delivered the urgent news almost simultaneously.

The contents were short as long-distance communication could not contain a lot of content in the first place.

The chancellor’s army is trying to have the archangel Auriel descend.

The archangel Auriel is about to initiate the Great Summons herself.

The news was unbelievable.

Demon followers would try to have an angel descend?

But it was the clear truth, and there were people who understood the full story as soon as they heard the urgent news.

“Auriel.”

Having the most memories of his past lives among all the beings in Pleiades, Jude filled the missing information with his reasoning.

He quickly figured out what had happened.

“The archangels of Heaven…”

In the urgent news, there was no word about the ‘copy and paste’ method that Atalia had done.

But Jude was sure of it.

It was clear to him that the copy and paste method was at least the external cause.

“This is driving me nuts. Does this make sense? Are they telling us to just die?!”

Cordelia shouted.

It was natural for her to do so.

The ones that originally caused the destruction of Pleiades were Hell and Heaven.

Hell and Heaven took a different route than before in completely connecting the three worlds via the Great Summons.

When two overlords of Hell descended on Pleiades a long time ago, Heaven was not involved with it.

Likewise, the reason why the archangels like Solari descended on Pleiades was not to prevent the offensive of Hell. It was simply because they could not stand to see the beings of Pleiades suffering.

But everything changed after the Great Summons.

A blitzkrieg attack.

Hell tried to make Pleiades their forward operating base to conquer Heaven, and Heaven tried to stop the forces of Hell in Pleiades.

An all-out war between two worlds was set with Pleiades as the stage.

Pleiades was destroyed by Armageddon.

So Atalia tried to start over.

“It was only Raguel from the beginning.”

Having been given clues, memories gradually came to his mind.

In the great war that was repeated several times, the only one who truly cared and looked after the beings of Pleiades was the archangel of justice, Raguel.

The rest of the archangels only saw the beings of Pleiades as useful resources. Just as how the demons of Hell did.

Sometimes Hell won.

Sometimes Heaven won.

However, the fate of Pleiades was the same no matter which side won.

Destruction.

It became a world of ashes.

Upon hearing Jude’s words, Cordelia let out curses.

“F*ck no! Isn’t this our final chance now? Do they know how annoying it is to repeat a game several times?”

Cordelia definitely knew.

The situation was different from simply repeating a game.

It was a situation where beings from Heaven forced them to continue the original without asking for any permission.

“That b*tch! Auriel never cared about us! It’s only Raguel as you have said!”

On whether the beings of Pleiades died or not, or whether the world called Pleiades was destroyed or not!

Jude closed his eyes.

The situation was complicated.

In fact, even if Heaven did not intervene, Pleiades had no choice but to walk the path of destruction.

It was powerless to stop the forces of Hell.

In the end, their choice was to block Armageddon itself.

To prevent the Great Summons so that neither side could intervene.

It had been going well.

It seemed like they could stop the Great Summons this time.

But the tables were turned.

The archangel was trying to directly descend and cause the Great Summons herself.

“It’s not over yet.”

Jude spoke slowly.

Cordelia roughly exhaled in her frustration and looked at Jude.

“The Great Summons has yet to happen.”

They still had a chance.

The descent of an archangel-class was not normal.

It would clearly consume more resources and time than installing a Hell Gate.

So they still had time.

It was too early to be in despair already.

“Let’s gather some more information first. We should also contact Master Landius.”

They had to pull themselves together and come up with countermeasures.

Cordelia nodded at Jude’s words.

Frankly, she was very angry and wanted to make something explode, but struggled to suppress it.

“Let’s share information.”

They had to hide the story about the copy and paste method.

But if the situation had gone this far, it was necessary to tell the truth to the key figures at least.

Cordelia nodded again this time.

After breathing in and out a few times, she spoke in a much calmer voice.

“I’ll bring my father.”

“Please.”

Jude lightly kissed Cordelia’s forehead and asked an elven knight to prepare seats.

From the perspective of the Red Gate, Jude was an outside figure – a foreigner, but none of the elves who witnessed his fierce battle against First Sword disobeyed his orders.

They diligently fulfilled Jude’s orders with respect and trust.

People gathered.

Count Bayer, Count Chase, and Count Hræsvelgr were present on behalf of the kingdom, and Red Gale and Violent Avalanche were present on behalf of the wild lands.

On the side of the elves, Elune and her aide took their place.

And a few people were specifically called by Jude.

Red Wind, Sun Song, Kirara, Lucas, Scarlet, and Kajsa.

“It’s a little… no, frankly, it’s a very unbelievable story.”

In a calm voice, Jude explained what he knew one by one.

Not everything, but not too little either.

History had been repeated several times so far.

Pleiades had never escaped destruction.

The Great Summons should be prevented.

Destruction was unavoidable once the Great Summons happened.

“If we stop Auriel from descending, we will be able to stop the Great Summons.”

Jude remembered the archangels.

Sariel and Raphaela were indifferent to the beings of Pleiades, but that did not mean that they would hold hands with the demons for their own purpose.

If they could stop Auriel and then eradicate the demon followers, they would be able to move forward to a future without a Great Summons this time.

“That is all.”

Jude’s explanation was over, but no one could easily open their mouths.

His words were so shocking and confusing.

But everyone could tell.

Jude was not lying.