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A reddish light covered the sky.

The transformed sky, resembling the twilight of sunset, was beautiful enough to convey profound emotions to those who gazed upon it. However, Damian could not simply consider the scene before him as merely beautiful.

It was still far too early for the sun to set.

The “Light of Hope,” created by the four great magicians, had freed the world from the power of the Foreign Beliefs that had trapped it in darkness, returning a local semblance of the world’s previous time. Yet, under the protection of this “Light of Hope,” the now red sky was an obvious anomaly.

“Was this your doing, Richard?”

Damian asked the man standing before him.

Richard, the man with hair the color of the twilight sky, nodded in affirmation to Damian’s words. Without saying a word, Richard merely nodded, and Damian refrained from asking why he had committed such an act.

From the moment Richard nodded, a sword had materialized in Damian’s hand, which had previously been empty.

Richard Ertuven.

Currently one of the only four great magicians, he had reached a realm of transcendence and created the “Light of Hope” together with the other great magicians. However, this “Light of Hope” was not a spell to whimsically change day into night; it was a barrier meant to dispel the force of the Foreign Beliefs engulfing the world.

Damian already understood, even without Richard saying a word.

The distinct annoyance of the holy essence of the Foreign Beliefs intensified with each moment he escaped the barrier. Richard, not believing that Damian would be oblivious to this fact, acknowledged it without any further explanation.

Holding his sword casually, the reality that a reliable comrade who had fought alongside him until yesterday had now fallen to become an enemy’s pawn was enough to tear Damian’s heart apart.

Questions about why he had made such a choice and what had transpired pushed against his throat, but he swallowed them down and gripped the hilt of his sword, suppressing the boiling emotions within. Regardless of the accomplishments Richard had achieved in the past and his high status, the man who stood before him, Richard Ertuven, was a traitor to humanity and an enemy.

That single fact allowed Damian to bury his feelings deep within.

Crack—

As Damian steadied his mind, a sound like flesh bursting rang out in the space between him and Richard. A spear, unknown from where it had come, pierced through an invisible entity targeting Damian’s neck.

Upon being struck by the spear, the grotesque figure that had been aiming for him, with a strange blade embedded in its arm, was revealed. But that was short-lived, as it was swept away by a black flash erupting from the spear, leaving no trace behind.

Only then did Richard, who had kept silent until now, speak up.

“Haha. How unfortunate. It seems this isn’t enough to shake you.”

Richard’s face was smiling, yet his laughter held no emotion. Damian gazed at him with equally emotionless eyes, but Richard, noticing Damian’s hidden feelings, smirked and said, “Don’t look at me like that. I can’t face you head-on.”

“You know that little tricks won’t work on me. So, why don’t you just offer your neck now and spare yourself the pain?”

In response to Damian’s calm words, Richard shook his head.

“That won’t do. I really want to kill you.”

As he stepped away, the reddened sky began to move along with him. This place, beneath the red sky, was his domain, and the space within it obeyed Richard’s command. As he lowered his hand, the sky began to descend.

It was not merely a metaphor.

The red sky was coming down upon Damian, and the heightened pressure around him caused everything to crumble. The ground sank, and mountains began to fall, yet through all the collapsing world around him, Damian stood upright, maintaining his form, facing Richard.

“Is this all you’ve got?”

Damian raised his sword high against the sky that descended towards him.

And then he slashed.

He cut through the red sky bearing down on him, slicing through the crumbling world.

If Richard had crushed the world with his ultimate magic, Damian had transcended that limit, cutting through the world with unparalleled strength. The sky, tinted with the red of a broken sunset, shattered like a broken mirror.

But that was not the end. The scattered fragments of the sky began to open doors, drawing forth entities not of this world.

Clang!!

Damian immediately threw his sword to shatter the fragments.

However, handling the pieces scattered around the area with just one sword was insufficient. Ultimately, he couldn’t break all the doors, and the beings that crossed through them charged at him like predators spotting their prey.

In response, a storm of aura swirled around Damian.

Whatever drew near him burst with a sound, their bodies bursting like balloons. Nevertheless, many otherworldly beings still approached Damian. Realizing this, he abandoned the pieces and leapt toward the cause of the problem: Richard.

By pouring aura into his ring, the Dragon Heart embedded within it summoned the weapons forged from his flesh. The once-living body of the dragon had been processed into various forms of weaponry, including more than just swords.

A massive axe crafted from the dragon’s skull appeared in his hand.

With all his might, Damian swung the axe down toward Richard.

Thud—

But the axe did not split Richard apart. At some point, a colossal giant, summoned behind Damian, had grasped the axe to prevent him from harming Richard.

“No matter how strong you are, you can’t contend against the endlessly emerging monsters alone.”

Richard’s voice rang out right in front of him, scratching at Damian’s nerves, but there was no time to expend mental energy over it. Damian immediately released the axe from his hands and summoned the spear he had first retrieved to throw it at the giant’s head.

The spear pierced through the giant’s head with a burst of black light. Gripping the axe again, Damian searched for Richard, but he found himself surrounded by numerous summoned creatures that prevented him from getting close.

The tide of monsters crashing down on him was far too plentiful for him to simply use an aura storm like before. Swirling his weapons to cull their numbers still didn’t suffice, as they constantly swarmed him from all directions like ants, no matter how many he killed.

Thus, the wave made entirely of monsters swept Damian away.

No matter how transcendent one might be, there are limits.

If a thousand enemies could be faced alone, then one could simply crush them with an even greater number.

Moreover, since all the monsters summoned here had been enhanced by the power of the Foreign Beliefs, facing them alone was nearly impossible, even for someone regarded as a god among transcendents.

Seeing Damian buried under the monsters, Richard erupted into mad laughter.

Yet, like his earlier laughter, it contained a sense of accomplishment in achieving his goal but lacked any genuine emotion. What remained for him, tainted by the sanctity of the Foreign Beliefs, was an indelible lingering regret that had persisted since the moment his heart had collapsed.

Nevertheless, Richard could not stop laughing. Otherwise, he felt he would lose his sanity at that very moment.

“What’s got you laughing so much?”

The voice clear in his ear silenced Richard’s laughter immediately. He turned to gaze at the grave he had created. Then he began to doubt what he was seeing. Light that should never be seen was seeping through the gaps of the monsters.

As the mountain of monsters crumbled, a radiant figure shrouded in golden light emerged.

“I am not dead yet.”

He still looked the same as he did before as he gazed back at Richard.

*

“What on earth is happening…?”

Elena muttered as she stared at the sky, which changed color with each passing moment.

How could the echoes of the Foreign Beliefs be felt in a place where the “Light of Hope” existed?

The grand magical barrier, “Light of Hope,” crafted with utmost care by the four great magicians, had never allowed an external incursion until now. Given the fierce onslaught of the Foreign Beliefs, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say this “Light of Hope” was responsible for humanity’s survival.

Yet, the power feeling permeating the impenetrable barrier, one she thought would never crumble unless the true form of the Foreign Beliefs descended, was undoubtedly that of the Foreign Beliefs’ holiness.

Faced with the sudden disturbance, Elena quickly accessed the barrier’s spell to check, and the “Light of Hope” protecting the entire area of Merohim was still intact, showing no signs of damage.

Because of this, Elena momentarily thought her eyes might be deceiving her; however, the unforgettable discomfort permeating her being confirmed the situation she was witnessing was real.

There was an intrusion.

How they had breached the barrier remained unclear, but one thing was certain: an enemy had entered this barrier.

Had this occurred while she had briefly stepped away?

One comforting fact was that he was the remaining one still present here. Despite the reduction of transcendent allies to combat the Foreign Beliefs, his very existence had been crucial in maintaining the war and allowing for thoughts of victory.

Thankfully, as Elena moved toward what she thought to be the source of the disturbance, the sky regained its original color, and she no longer felt the nauseating presence of the Foreign Beliefs.

However, that didn’t mean she wasn’t worried. Given the sudden occurrence, the chance of him having sustained injuries was significantly high.

As she had expected, the area where the disturbance had emerged was far from normal. Everything was shattered, and only traces of destruction remained.

“Damian!!”

Yet, upon seeing his seemingly fine form, Elena smiled, hastening toward him.

Until she saw the man lying in front of him.

The man with a sword piercing through his heart bore a face familiar and friendly to Elena. He was a comrade who had fought alongside them to the very end in their previous lives, and her oldest friend, so it was impossible for her to not recognize him.

“Da, Damian, what is this… ah!! This is just a prank, right? Richard, stop messing around and get up! I’m seriously shocked! Please wake up!!!”

In response to Elena’s words, both Damian and Richard remained silent.

Shaking Richard’s body, Elena understood what that silence meant. She sensed the echoes of the Foreign Beliefs in Richard’s cold body; thus, she was not entirely oblivious to what had transpired here.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t let go of Richard’s clothing until the very end.

She couldn’t bear to believe that what lay before her was reality and desperately turned her back to avoid it.

It was a nightmare.

A truly terrible nightmare.

 

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