Chapter 201 – Iscariot’s Descendants 3 (1/2)
“As unexpected events started to unfold during the battle, you come across some life-threatening trouble, so you release the remaining seals off of Verserios, allowing the demonic power to run rampant. As a result, Verserios’ explosive power overpowers the battlefield and completely takes over your consciousness.”
Verserios had the power to destroy the world. This was why Mary, as a Saintess, had desperately tried, in her vision, to stop Woohyuk before meeting her own demise.
Of course, now that they had met each other like this, there was a possibility that the future would change, but the future she saw in her dreams was so impactful and terrible that her hostility toward Woohyuk didn’t fade.
“So, what happened to me? Did I join Cruella?”
“As I said before, I haven’t seen all the scenes in my visionary dreams. However, based on the context of my dreams, I would reason that events unfolded in the way Aleister wanted.”
Aleister’s end goal was to introduce the demons into the world and create utter chaos and destruction. Ultimately, he wanted to challenge the Creator.
His vision of the future was the exact opposite of what Woohyuk and Etheria Rodinus pursued. If Aleister’s wishes were to come true, there was no meaning for Woohyuk to work so hard.
At a loss for words, Woohyuk stared at Maria. Hildegard, who was silent up to now, started speaking,
“Saintess, why didn’t you tell me the story of your foresight and dreams? If that was the case, I would have tried to take countermeasures with the remaining Paladins in the empire.”
“I’m sorry for hiding information from you. I had to do this secretly until I met him so as not to change the future in any unpredictable way.”
Since she didn’t know how the future would change again in the future, it was better for her to reduce the variables as much as possible.
Though Mary was the Saintess of Prophecy, she wasn’t able to have foresight and visions every night.
At Maria's clarification, Brynhildr spoke up,
“Did the apostles of the Goddess of Destiny give out any oracles? I wouldn’t think you’d be the only one receiving foresight dreams if this is going to be such a large-scale event…”
“It’s been a long time since the apostles passed any oracles along. The last message was to prepare for the fateful fight that is to come in the near future. Still, I did try to confer with others to see if anyone else received similar visionary dreams, but no one mentioned anything.”
During this period, when she was conferring with others to confirm her visions, she unintentionally caught the attention of the demons.
In order to escape a crisis, Maria asked the castle knight Hildegard, whom she met by chance, for assistance and had been traveling with her ever since.
“Save me!”
“A monster appeared!”
One of the mercenaries suffering from withdrawal had eaten a Qliphoth’s Fruit and turned into an Awakener.
Helena and Sieg both had uncomfortable expressions.
“What should we do? It’s difficult to do anything because we’re in disguise…”
“There’s a high possibility that we’re being observed by the Pope’s people. How about observing the situation first?”
Though they were all reluctant to see innocent bystanders being hurt, in their current situation, it was inevitable.
While Woohyuk’s party took positions to watch what would unfold, Hildegard picked up her holy sword.
“If that’s the case, I’ll deal with it. My official mission is to solve the problems inside the Holy Apheria Empire during its war with the Enoa Kingdom.”
Hildegard was a Paladin, so she should easily be able to handle one Awakener, especially one that recently converted.
As she took off her hood and rushed out, the people who were running away from the Awakener exclaimed aloud,
“Hey, that’s Hildegard!”
“She’s come to save us! We’ll live!”
In the Holy Apheria Empire, everyone knew about the Seven Paladins.
With all the attention of the people focused on her, Hildegard performed brilliant swordsmanship.
Slice!
Following a clean, slicing sound, the Awakener’s right arm fell onto the ground.
Thud!
It was a fatal wound that would have put any normal person into a state of incapacity. However, the opponent was an Awakener, so Hildegard immediately climbed up its left arm and tried to behead it while it was screaming out in pain.
When her blade was about to reach the Awakener’s neck…
Kwa-Kwa-Kwa-Kwa-Kwa-Kwa-Kwa-Kwak!
A dark cloud rose in the previously clear, dark sky. A purple thunderbolt came down from the cloud and struck Hildegard.
“Keuk…!”
As a result, Hildegard wasn’t able to execute the final blow and had to step back from the Awakener.
Luckily, she had cast Guardian Magic on herself in advance, so she hadn’t suffered much damage.
However, the bigger problem was that there was someone who intervened in their battle by dropping a lightning bolt onto her.
As Hildegard gritted her teeth and lifted her head upwards, she heard a wicked man’s voice come from the direction of the dark clouds.
“Kekeke! Did you think you could run away from me? Pretty little girls!”
The voice was from Amon, the 7th ranked Demon King.
Unlike the demons Woohyuk’s party had met so far, Amon was by far the most powerful.
The 9th to 1st ranked Demon Kings were able to participate in the Demonic Overlord meetings and possessed the power to stand against the Gods alone.
When Helena and Brynhildr saw Amon, they instantly became uncomfortable.
“The situation is getting tangled up. There’s no reason why Amon would appear here…” mentioned Helena.
“As long as this is the case, we can’t just pretend we don’t know anything. No matter if she’s a castle knight, Hildegard will be overwhelmed facing a high-ranking Demon King,” Brynhildr added.
The good news was that Helena had cast top-notch stealth magic in advance, so Amon wasn’t able to recognize the existence of Woohyuk’s party.
Seeing Amon confronting Hildegard, Woohyuk fell into serious thought.
‘If I want Amon defeated, I’ll have to step out.’
However, if he were to battle Amon, it was highly likely that his location would be exposed to Rosenkreuz. This was because, although he was in a remote area, the Holy Apheria Empire’s informants were everywhere within the Empire’s lands.
‘It would be better to summon Altair.’
The Dragon Tribe had long been natural enemies against the Demon Tribe because of the Dragon Tribe’s tendency to value order and creation.
Besides, Altair’s rank among Dragons was quite high, so he’d be able to help Woohyuk in various ways in this battle.
As soon as Woohyuk touched the silver leaf item, Altair appeared next to him.
“You summoned me a lot quicker than I thought. What the hell is going on?”
“I have to subdue that guy, but I need your help.”
“… Amon. He’s definitely a tricky opponent to deal with.”
“You only need to take care of matters outside my battle against him. I need you to make sure my identity is not revealed.”
Because it was a quiet village, the Pope’s people and informants would easily be able to know what was going on if Woohyuk didn’t take precautions.
While Woohyuk’s party faced Amon, Altair only had to watch over everyone to keep anyone from running away.