Chapter 233: 124. The Tomb’s Guardian -2 (Part One)
It felt like the air was being tautly pulled here.
Without a doubt, the thing leaking out from the open doorway was divinity. But I was getting this sense of repulsion instead from how overwhelming it was.
I looked up at the giant-like fortress up in the air.
It didn’t even move an inch. All it did was stare down at us with an eerie glowing light visible under the helm.
It didn’t bother with invaders that hadn’t entered through the open doorway. Quite literally, it was the guardian protecting the throne inside the tomb.
“I’m really tempted now.”
When I muttered that out, both Alice and Hans stared at me.
The treasured tool of the first Holy Emperor, Metatron. My desire to acquire it grew only stronger while being subjected to the angel’s grand, overwhelming splendour.
My greed actually broke past the level of simple ‘desire’ to reach a realm previously unseen, and I even began shivering in excitement.
Norman was staring at me with a dismayed expression. “How can you say that after witnessing that thing, your highness?!”
“You said that we should be fine as long as we don’t cross the doorway, right?”
I had no doubt that it wasn’t an ordinary little golem. Hell, that thing scared me so much that my body was getting numb all over from simply staring at it even as we stood here. Just the sheer pressure it emitted alone was enough to make me feel this much ‘fear’.
Which also meant that its strength should be quite considerable.
‘Let me test your powers, dear guardian angel tasked with guarding a god’s throne.’
I summoned my undead.
Ranging from skeletons kitted out in heavy armour to dullahans riding on skeleton horses, as well as banshees with bows, and even Bone Golems – an army of undead about three hundred strong had appeared.
They broke through the floor and completely filled up the passageway around us. Their heads were raised up to glare at the angel floating in the air.
“Go.”
One word from me, and all of my holy undead broke into a sprint.
Weapons were unsheathed.
The undead cavalry rode on the skeleton horses, banshees darted around in the air, and the Bone Golems advanced forward while sending tremors through the ground.
They had only one job this time, and that was to help me confirm how strong that ang…
BOOM-!
I immediately froze up.
Right in front of my nose… The moment a skeleton horse crossed the boundary line beyond the doorway, a spear of light impaled the heavily-armoured undead rider.
A spear well over two metres in length easily pierced through both the skeleton rider as well as the skeleton horse beneath, blowing them both apart.
The shattered bits of bone shards scattered away in all directions.
-Ku-oooooooh!
Almost at the same time, the other skeletons dashed past the doorway.
More spears of light came flying in.
Dozens of skeletons got impaled by the spears of light and blew apart into pieces.
The power behind those projectiles made me mistakenly think that they were being fired from siege weapons or something. And the accuracy showcased here also sent shivers down my spine.
The temple’s interior floor got caved in and bits of it exploded everywhere. Loud explosion noises resounded out and thick smoke danced in the air.
The remaining skeletons scythed past the smoke and continued to dash forward.
I looked up at the giant floating fortress, Metatron, once more.
Those cogwheels floating all around it began to spin ominously. Dozens of spears embedded between their teeth were fired out towards the undead.
These spears of divinity easily impaled my legion.
One of the skeleton horses was destroyed, and the dullahan riding on it was thrown off. It crashed on the ground and rolled forward several times before getting back up on its feet to dash forward in anger.
It picked up its separated head and the light in its eye sockets quickly darted around. A spear of light flew in its way, and the undead swung its sword to deflect it.
The sword noticeably trembled before a crack ran through its blade.
That was a sword crafted by a master artisan. A dwarf poured all of his heart to forge the sword, but all it could do was barely endure the impact from the spear made out of divinity.
Bang-! Bang-!
The Bone Golems made a ruckus as they dashed out. The large crossbows in their hands were aimed at the ‘archangel’, Metatron.
The triggers were pulled and taut strings snapped loose. Bolts flew out right away, and just as it looked like they would successfully hit Metatron’s body, they instead collided against a formless wall and shattered into bits.
“…A barrier?”
Alice gasped out in shock.
I too was stunned by what we just witnessed.
That thing’s huge body was at least twenty metres in height. Who would’ve thought that a protective barrier made out of divinity was encasing such a big thing?
Was this the reason why the Aihrance army failed to inflict even a single scratch on that thing?
The glowing light in Metatron’s eye rapidly shifted around, then it grasped the positions of each and every undead currently spread out trying to attack it from all directions.
The cogwheels in its surroundings spun around even faster. And as if to match that, countless crystal spheres embedded in Metatron’s body began leaking out bright light.
And then…
Beams of pure light flooded out in every direction like some kind of fireworks. Or more precisely, an attack foregoing all semblance of accuracy had commenced.
Hundreds upon hundreds of light projectiles flew up in the air before indiscriminately pounding the ground below.
This was literally a…
“…bombing raid?!”
A chain of explosions rang out. Noises loud enough to burst my eardrums resounded everywhere, and billowing flames instantly enveloped the entirety of the temple’s interior.
The army of holy undead got swallowed up by the flames and were extinguished from existence as piles of ashes.
My undead legion numbering three hundred individuals couldn’t even last ten minutes before getting utterly annihilated.
Even though the interior of the temple was going up in flames, the giant floating fortress that was at least twenty metres tall still didn’t budge from its spot. It simply stared down at us without even lifting a finger, perhaps determining that we might be the next ones to invade.
The flames inside the temple gradually died out. But then, golden-hued rune letters suddenly engraved the body of the ‘angel’ and the temple’s burnt-out interior was rapidly repaired.
“…The Aztal Rune.”
I stared at Metatron’s body. All those letters engraved on it were not ‘fake’ like mine, but the ‘real’ language of the gods.
And those things fully restored the interior of the temple.
At the same time, a light spear flew in and brushed past my head. My cheek got cut open and blood trickled down.
That was clearly a warning.
A warning to let us know that even if we didn’t cross the doorway, the ‘angel’ wouldn’t be so nice the next time I chose to attack it again.
The guardian protecting the throne, Metatron, looked down on us from the air. The angel held its head high up in a confident manner as if doing so was the most obvious thing in the world. The gaze it sent in our direction could only be described as ‘arrogant’.
I began furrowing my brows at that.
What a cheeky bastard that thing was.
However, that only poured more fuel to my burning desire to acquire it.
“You. You just sit tight and wait for me.”
Because I’ll definitely get my hands on you.
**
We left the tomb of Holy Emperor Ordin and took up residence in one of the ruins.
Once we were finished with setting up camp, Norman turned his attention to me and asked, “Now do you understand, your highness? That monster cannot be subdued through the strength of humans.”
When I first looked through Queen Rox’s records, I was under the impression that the annihilation of the three thousand Aihrance troops were partially due to the lifeforms living in this place.
However, now that I’ve witnessed the angel’s firepower, pulling off such a feat would be more than doable for that machine bastard. That giant could easily fight off an entire army all by itself and then some.
It was even more dangerous than a dragon. Even my skeleton king would find it difficult to fight against that airborne golem.
And to be honest, I wasn’t sure whether or not I’d be able to control it if even I did manage to somehow acquire the angel. No, hang on a minute – never mind controlling it, the current me wouldn’t even be able to summon the damn thing in the first place.
“As expected of a treasure constructed by twelve thousand-plus Priests.”
It was definitely the sword of the god. But that only made it all the more worthwhile to get my hands on that thing.
Even the marquis-class Vampire version of the dragon slayer possessed enough strength to hunt down a dragon. It would be safe to assume that Vampires with higher ranks should be even stronger than him. Much stronger.
The ‘angel’ was a powerful tool that the Theocratic Empire definitely needed.
The ability to create a domain of absolute defence…
It certainly possessed powerful-enough strength to stop the invasion of the Vampires.
As expected. I now understood the reason why the kings of other nations had to kneel and submit to the dear old ancient Holy Emperor.
I mean, seriously. Who in their right mind would even think about resisting when facing such a monstrosity like that?
“Can we really win against such a thing?”
Hans asked me. He sounded deeply anxious.
Well, that angel was at least twice as large compared to my Bone Dragon or the Skeleton King. In front of its overwhelming splendour, us humans would come across as frail as heck, that’s for sure.
I replied to him. “There’s no reason why we can’t.”
Of course, we’d need to thoroughly prepare first.
I recalled the tomb of the Holy Emperor. Divinity was permeating every nook and cranny of that place.
Such an environment was actually advantageous for me.
Even if I summon either the Bone Dragon or the Skeleton King, the resulting backlash should be halved due to the environmental factors. Unfortunately, though, just one wouldn’t be enough for the job. The angel was far too strong for that.
That’s why…
‘…I gotta summon at least both of them.’
That’s right, I needed the strength of both the Bone Dragon and the Skeleton King.
‘But if I do that…’
My body wouldn’t last for long.
Even if I used the world tree’s branch that Tina had given me, activated the divinity amplification of the imitation Aztal Rune, and even resorted to using its sanctuary declaration in order to negate the backlash as much as possible, there was still no guarantee of me surviving the aftermath.
Although, I might have a small chance if the actual world tree back in Aslan was here with me.
Feeling rather rueful here, I ended up muttering to myself, “Isn’t there an optimal way to prevent divinity from going out of control?”
“Uhm, excuse me…”
I shifted my gaze over to Alice.
While I was musing to myself, she had placed some skewers on the fire, and once they had been sufficiently cooked, took one out and presented it to me. “For now, please take your time thinking about it while eating this, your highness.”
I took over the meat skewer and bit into the chunks.
The meat came from the ancient dragon. Not only did it taste pretty good, Norman also informed us that the Mana permeating the meat would help with the recovery from fatigue.
“If you’re talking about divinity going out of control, could it be divinity deviation…?”
I glanced at Alice again while chewing the meat skewer.
When our gazes met, she scratched her cheek and avoided staring into my eyes.
“I can control divinity and tune it just right for you, your highness.”
My brows rose up high at what she said.
She saw my reaction and quietly whispered back, “I’m a Saintess, after all.”
That’s right, Alice was the Saintess who possessed a god’s fragment, wasn’t she?
