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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Ruby
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The outdoor training ground of the Astes Empire had been turned into ruins.
Swoosh
Yuma, who had flown into the sky riding Griffin Edan, landed on the ground.
He had come down after warning the celestial realm through the Celestial Eye.
Empress Brigitte hurriedly approached.
“Yuma, are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Yuma patted Brigitte’s shoulder, who had a worried look on her face.
Bell slowly approached Yuma.
“…I’m sorry, I couldn’t handle it alone.”
Yuma shook his head.
“It was just too strong.”
Yuma stared at the High Elf, Luinerif, who was peeking his head out from behind the broken wall of the reception room.
“High Elf, I think we have things to discuss.”
“…Hik!”
A type of groan that Luinerif had never made in his life escaped his mouth.
“Follow me.”
Yuma, Michael, and High Elf Luinerif, plus Empress Brigitte, gathered in a place next to the broken reception room.
The atmosphere in the reception room was filled with silence.
A cold chill filled the space.
Yuma pointed his sword at High Elf Luinerif.
Shing—
The reason why Yuma was now holding a sword to Luinerif’s throat was simple.
“What’s the relationship between the Celestial Race and you elves?”
Luinerif had previously informed Yuma about the Celestial Race’s objectives before they had arrived.
That’s why Yuma felt the need to show some intimidation for a moment.
“You’ll need to explain properly.”
To instill fear in Luinerif, in order to hear the clear truth.
“If you try to hide anything unnecessarily, I might have to kill all you elves.”
Yuma, with an expressionless face, made an extremely severe threat.
“Tell me the truth, Luinerif.”
Tremble tremble…
High Elf Luinerif’s body shook violently.
A declaration to exterminate the elves.
It was said directly to the face of a High Elf, who could be considered nothing less than the core of all elves.
Intense anger welled up, but an even greater fear rose from the tips of his toes.
That’s why he had no choice but to open his mouth obediently, despite Yuma’s words and actions that disregarded the elven race itself.
Because he had just witnessed the killing of a top-tier Celestial apostle.
And what gave an even greater shock was a single statement from the mouth of the dead apostle Sarimon.
“…Did, did you really kill a god?”
—Was it really you who killed the god Incrinew.
Yuma tilted his head.
“You’re speaking as if you didn’t know.”
Luinerif’s pupils trembled.
“I, I didn’t know. Of course. If I had known that, I would have prostrated myself before you during the racial council meeting for the preparation against the demon realm invasion!! How could I stand straight in front of someone who killed a god!”
“You’re standing just fine right now.”
Thud—
At Yuma’s words, Luinerif immediately knelt down.
“…I really didn’t know. That the Celestial Realm would do something like this.”
The green eyes within the disheveled long green hair trembled violently.
It didn’t seem like he was lying.
Luinerif continued.
“The World Tree might have known that you killed a god. Since the Tree sees through most of what happens on this continent where its roots are. But the World Tree doesn’t tell the elves everything. Only the World Tree communicates with the Celestial Lord in the Celestial Realm.”
He realized that the World Tree, which he had thought was always cooperative and devoted to the elves, had another side.
Luinerif’s pink lips parted.
“…So, please. Don’t doubt us elves. We really didn’t know.”
Yuma stared expressionlessly at Luinerif, who had knelt down with his head bowed low.
The fear in his words was genuine.
Among the elves, there were beings who possessed the potential to confront a god.
The kings of old.
But having the potential to confront and actually killing one were different.
There was no need to make an enemy of a being who had actually killed a god.
That would be madness.
Yuma opened his mouth again.
“Alright. I believe you.”
“Phew…”
A sigh of relief flowed from Luinerif’s mouth.
“In return for my trust, I’d like something useful as a sign of mutual trust. You still have your spatial pouch, right?”
“…Being as strong as you are, what do you need?”
“Would a rich man not like money?”
“Huuuuuh.”
After exhaling a much deeper sigh than his sigh of relief, Luinerif rummaged through his spatial pouch.
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The Celestial Realm.
Under a massive tree in the Celestial Realm, a boy with snow-white hair leaned his body against the tree and muttered.
“…Wow, what insolence.”
The boy, Celestial Lord Aruten, who had heard Yuma’s voice through the ‘Celestial Eye’, was dumbfounded by Yuma’s words.
“I never thought I’d hear threats to kill evil gods from a human’s mouth.”
The white-haired boy, Aruten, recalled Yuma’s appearance that had been captured in the Celestial Eye with his snow-white eyes.
The image of that man who had flown on a Griffin and stood beside the Celestial Eye, speaking.
“This guy is strong, but…”
Was he too much for him to handle?
Aruten slowly shook his head.
He hadn’t yet gathered enough celestial power to manifest directly.
However, he firmly believed that if he could bring him to the Celestial Realm, he would definitely be able to subdue him.
He had strong faith in his own power.
The white-haired woman standing stiffly to Aruten’s left, Celestial Valkyrie Brenhilt, opened her mouth.
“It might be difficult to subdue him, but kidnapping him to the Celestial Realm wouldn’t be hard. We just need to connect him to the Celestial Transfer Formation.”
Aruten raised the corner of his mouth.
“Oh, that method existed. As expected, Brenhilt is smart.”
Aruten beckoned to Brenhilt. Brenhilt bowed her upper body at Aruten’s gesture.
Aruten stroked Brenhilt’s long white hair.
“There aren’t many left who have been upgraded to god-level power… I’ll have to take one and send the rest at demigod level to create a five-point Celestial Transfer Formation. Once we bring him to the Celestial Realm, I’ll certainly be able to subdue him. I need to capture this insolent fellow and turn him into a sword against the evil gods.”
Aruten’s white eyes shone.
“I’ll send them out again in a week, prepare.”
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6 days later.
The God Realm.
Barbatos, known as the God of War and Struggl and called the Battle God Tushin, was sitting right in front of a cliff.
Meditation.
He was immersed in the world of mental imagery, simultaneously utilizing mana and divine power.
A dim aura of fighting spirit flowing from Barbatos’s body disturbed the atmosphere of the God Realm.
“Barbatos.”
The crow-shaped evil god, Malphas, was standing on two feet on the opposite side of the cliff where Barbatos was sitting.
“…Are you manifesting?”
At Malphas’s question, Barbatos slowly opened his eyes.
Rustle—
A man with black hair and red eyes.
God Barbatos, sitting in a full-lotus position, only turned his upper body slightly.
“I will manifest at dawn in middle-realm time. Don’t interfere unnecessarily and just watch.”
At Barbatos’s words, Malphas nodded his head greatly.
The crow’s head moved significantly.
“…Understood.”
The god before his eyes.
Barbatos, called the Battle God, pathologically hated others interfering in his battles.
Martial arts.
The reason he researched tens of thousands of martial arts alone in the God Realm was because he was fascinated by the thousands of techniques and growth that could be achieved through martial arts.
Barbatos was unlike a god.
Adoration, he didn’t enjoy receiving that adoration.
He didn’t enjoy receiving reverence either.
The very long life as a god, who would never die, was even boring.
So he couldn’t help but be fascinated by martial arts.
Martial arts have numerous branching points in each action.
A small hand movement creates countless possibilities.
Barbatos’s daily routine was all about martial arts.
After meditation, he would spar with the combat-type warrior gods under his command among the second-tier gods.
And after that, his routine was to engage in near-infinite battles with himself inside the Mirror Star that he had personally invented.
Since sleep doesn’t exist for gods, the only thing that essentially plays the role of sleep is meditation.
And even during that meditation, he mentally reviewed all the sparring sessions.
Like playing Go.
All the possibilities that reach him.
He considers all attacking moves and decides how to act.
“I’ll be back.”
Barbatos rose to his feet.
Barbatos was the god of war.
And war would never stop in this world.
So there were humans in the middle realm who believed in and worshipped Barbatos, the god of war and struggle, even at this moment.
But Barbatos had no reason to care about such humans.
If humans worshipped him, he just had to distribute divine power accordingly.
That much divine power could be covered by the refined divine power he had accumulated in his temple so far.
Barbatos originally had no interest at all in the believers who believed in them.
The devotion of the believers was only used to maintain the divine status.
The adoration and awe he received at first was quite sweet.
But that sensation quickly dulled.
God.
An inherently great being.
A being completed from birth.
Barbatos didn’t like that part about being already completed.
He had to progress in some way.
Only then could he endure this boring eternity.
So he couldn’t help but be fascinated by the martial arts invented by humans.
It was an activity that allowed him to feel like he could grow.
So he delegated the bestowing of blessings according to human faith to the temple core created using divine power.
And he devoted himself only to honing his martial arts.
While learning martial arts, Barbatos could feel a progressive emotion that even gods could move forward, and due to that emotion, he rolled up his sleeves and participated when a god first suggested starting a war in the God Realm.
Beating up and annihilating gods of equal rank.
That sensation was enough to awaken a sensual pleasure that he thought wouldn’t exist for gods. T
hat’s why he was called by the name of Battle God Tushin by the gods, not by his original divine name.
Barbatos raised his right hand.
Crack
The Battle God began to open a gate to the middle realm.
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Craaaack!
A gate opened in the sky of the continent.
A being with black hair and red eyes walked out from the torn sky.
God of War and Struggle, Barbatos had descended to the middle realm.
“Astes Empire.”
Confirming the location where his prey lived.
Just as he was about to kick off with both feet to traverse the sky from top to bottom in one breath—
Blink
Barbatos’s body stopped still in the sky.
Celestial Eye Cheongyean.
The eye through which the Celestial Lord observes the middle realm, and the passage through which the Celestial apostles, also known as Archangels, descend, the Celestial Eye opened in front of Barbatos.
And five archangels with snow-white bodies appeared in front of Barbatos with dazzling radiance.
Barbatos opened his mouth.
“What are you?”
The archangels, suddenly encountering one of the evil gods, looked at each other in confusion.
“I.”
Craaaack!
A ferocious killing intent flowed from Barbatos’s body.
“Am I, Barbatos, not asking you. You insects.”
“……”
Five celestials surrounded Barbatos.
Among them, three were archangels.
Two archangels with white hair.
And one archangel with the same form as the celestial that Yuma had annihilated a week ago.
The other two were valkyries.
Yuma.
The Battle God and the celestials, targeting the same target named Yuma, confronted each other in the middle realm.
It was a tinderbox situation.
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