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Chapter 298 - Appetizer (4)

“What did you just say...?!”

“Why get all worked up? Or maybe you’re just weak, not obedient. Well, that would make sense. Since you’re so weak-minded, you can’t even give up on those humans because of that useless sympathy of yours.”

“Shut up!”

Clank!

McDowell was the first to respond to Lydkan’s mockery.

Along with Allen and Valhald, McDowell’s hatred for Arthus was at its peak, fueled by the scar on his back. Moreover, McDowell had more of a temper than the rest of them.

In a fit of rage, McDowell drew his sword, dismounted from his saddle, and flew into the air.

‘Oh no!’

Being easily provoked always led to unforeseen circumstances. However, it was the job of a competent leader to take those unforeseen circumstances into account and create a plan. And Henry was most competent.

Seeing McDowell soar in the sky, Henry immediately clasped his hands together and cast a spell.

Then, huge, sharp stone tendrils, reminiscent of tentacles, sprouted from underneath Jade’s feet and stretched out like whips toward Lydkan.

“Everyone out!” Henry shouted at the Seven Sages who were still inside the carriage.

They all rushed out.

The Seven Sages quickly assessed the situation, realized what they needed to do, and cast spells on their own without waiting for more instructions from Henry.

“You’re obedient, weak, and... stupid.”

Lydkan didn’t make an effort to dodge the stone tendrils that stretched out toward him. He looked like he was embracing them.

Henry didn’t feel that the tendrils hit anything. Lydkan had let the tendrils pass through his body, just like Arthus had done with Henry’s sword back in the imperial palace.

Henry assumed that this had to do with Lydkan’s divine power, which made him even more angry.

‘This guy too!’

Unless this was an illusion, there was no way one could make their body intangible and just ignore any physical force like that.

Lydkan’s power was quite literally the ultimate defense that anyone could ever wish for.

After becoming intangible and letting the stone tendrils pass through him, Lydkan materialized just his right hand to intercept McDowell’s sword as it fell from the sky.

Lydkan stretched out his hand with a nonchalant expression.

Slice!

“...!”

McDowell’s sword cut clean through Lydkan’s right wrist.

‘It’s just as the Commander said!’

McDowell smiled in satisfaction as he looked at Lydkan’s severed wrist.

‘What the—!’

McDowell was delighted by Lydkan’s shocked expression. Realizing that his attacks were working, he immediately twisted his waist and spun in the air again, charging at the enemy once more.

“Die!” McDowell shouted from the bottom of his heart.

He spun like a peg-top in the air and used all the momentum to drive his blade straight into Lydkan’s neck.

Gush!

McDowell felt the impact of his blade cutting through flesh. Blood splattered everywhere.

Thanks to Henry’s divine rings, which he had received from Herabola, McDowell was significantly stronger compared to when he first fought an apostle.

“Son of a bitch!”

The spinning blade didn’t pierce through Lydkan’s neck completely because when his wrist was severed, Lydkan realized that something was wrong and immediately fully withdrew his physical form. However, he had been taken off guard and had turned his body intangible a second too late.

As a result, McDowell had made a deep cut in the right side of his neck, blood spurting everywhere.

Henry used the wind to grab McDowell, who was falling to the ground powerlessly. It looked like a giant hand grabbed McDowell.

When he landed close to Henry, he smiled in satisfaction and said, “Nice work, Commander.”

“You got him pretty good, considering that you lost your temper.”

McDowell was now speaking formally to Henry, unlike before, but Henry still felt like he didn’t respect him at all, but that was probably just his imagination.

The tide of the battle quickly turned in Henry’s favor.

Lydkan of Flames, who had been dominating the scene just seconds prior, now looked miserable as he put pressure on the gash in his neck with his remaining hand. Moreover, the fire he had spread throughout the cornfield was quickly being extinguished by the Seven Sages.

“How was it, now that you cut him yourself? Did it work?” Henry asked McDowell.

“Of course! At this rate, Shahatra should become the religious capital of the continent!”

Although Henry had explained the divine objects to all the Union members at the last meeting, everyone had looks of disbelief back then. Their skepticism was reasonable because the divine objects were supposed to be Henry’s trump card in this war against Arthus, but they hadn’t yet seen them in action.

However, McDowell had just demonstrated the incredible power of the divine objects, making Lydkan hold his hand over the deep wound in his neck.

The nine knights, who all had one divine ring each, looked overjoyed.

However, Lydkan was anything but overjoyed. He gritted his teeth and blurted, “How dare you!”

“Shut up!”

“W-what...?”

“Stop acting so tough! You’ve just had your hand severed and you’re still spilling blood from your neck! If you wanna come at me, get on with it already! We haven’t prepared for a full month just to deal with a piece of shit like you!”

The atmosphere was definitely in Henry’s favor, and everyone\'s fighting spirit was sky-high, especially McDowell’s as he promptly returned Lydkan’s mockery.

McDowell raised his sword and shouted, “Commander! Let’s get rid of this bastard as soon as possible and continue to Lizark Hill!”

“I agree!” shouted Allen, energized from McDowell’s previous attack.

Henry also nodded and said, “Great idea. Union, take out Lydkan!”

“Let’s goooo!”

Henry was on board with McDowell’s suggestion.

The nine knights, who had been eager to join the fight, put their divine rings on their fingers and instantly charged at Lydkan.

“You savage heretics!” Lydkan bellowed as he was overcome by a sense of inferiority.

Boom!

Boom!

Lydkan released his grip from his neck and swung both of his arms downward, crisscrossing them. Then, a huge fire explosion occurred, and the intense wind spread the flames across the cornfields, instantly turning them to ash.

Lydkan’s divine power was out of control.

As the firestorm swept through the cornfields, the corn quickly evaporated like snow and scattered all over the place.

However, Henry was unfazed by Lydkan’s threats and immediately cast an 8th-Circle-level cold wind spell. As the cold wind swept through the firestorm, a thick fog appeared.

Lydkan’s flames now looked weak, as though they were about to go out at any moment.

“Khaaaa!” Lydkan screamed in frustration, his hands sagged at his waist.

This specific howl was called Fear, and normally only high-level demonic beasts could use it. This howl instilled so much fear and dread into the opponent that they wouldn’t even be able to move. They would be paralyzed on the ground, trembling.

“Don’t be afraid, everyone!”

Zngggg!

At that moment, Irenae, who had been observing the situation from behind, cast the Protection Holy Code along with the Twelve Apostles. This was the same Protection Holy Code that had served them well in the war against Henry, protecting their allies and giving them courage.

A bright and warm wave of light embraced the nine knights.

The Holy Code had turned the Fear of Lydkan, one of the deadliest predators on the continent, into a mere beast’s howl.

“Die!” shouted McDowell as he jumped forward, enveloped by the Saint’s blessing. He got up close to Lydkan, who had fully healed his wounds, enveloped himself in blue Aura, and thrust his sword into Lydkan’s forehead.

Swoosh!

However, McDowell couldn’t feel any impact. His blade just slid smoothly through Lydkan’s head, as though he had thrust it into water.

Because of this, he came closer and closer to Lydkan’s face, unable to stop from all the momentum.

In response, Lydkan opened his mouth. Not even a beast could open its mouth as wide as him.

Lydkan had turned intangible and planned to swallow McDowell whole, along with his arrogance.

But the moment he opened his mouth, the other knights thrust their blades at his face.

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

“You think your little tricks will work on me?!”

One, two, three, four.

A total of four blades stretched out toward Lydkan, but none of them made contact because he was still intangible. Being humiliated once by a mere mortal with a ring of divine power had been enough for Lydkan.

However, the fifth blade drew blood.

Ronan felt his sword cutting through flesh.

“It worked!”

After Ronan landed an attack on Lydkan, everything else happened in an instant.

After allowing the first four blades to pass through him, Lydkan had tried to devour McDowell without a care in the world. However, he felt indescribable pain as Ronan plunged the fifth blade deep into him.

“Ghhaaa!”

Lydkan squirmed and closed his mouth, or rather, he tried to. Just as he was about to close his monstrous mouth, a heavy morning star, not a blade, flew right into his upper lift, making a grotesque sound upon impact.

Crunch!

The sound of crushing bones filled the air.

Balak’s Black Punisher had shattered Lydkan’s skull.

Thud!

Lydkan fell backward, his face utterly disfigured. He didn’t have time to recover. His lips were barely clinging onto his crushed face as he struggled to articulate words.

“J-just how...?”

“I guess this means that you only have divine power worth four rings at most,” remarked Balak.

“What... did you just say...?”

“Die.”

Gush!

In his last moments, Lydkan still didn’t understand why he had lost, why that fifth blade had managed to penetrate his flesh.

Nevertheless, Balak felt no obligation to provide him with an explanation. In accordance with his character and attitude toward criminals, he swung his Black Punisher again, completely crushing Lydkan’s head.

His body convulsed for a few seconds and then went still.

“Good.”

Balak had made sure to give Lydkan the miserable death he deserved.

However, the first four knights whose attacks had been futile, including McDowell, who had almost been devoured, were still furious, so they trampled over Lydkan’s corpse, venting their anger.

‘Commander was right,’ Balak thought to himself as he retracted his weapon.

When Henry had distributed the rings at the Union meeting, he had said that the more divine objects they had, the stronger their divine power would be as a whole.

‘It worked!’

Henry smiled with satisfaction as he looked at the bloody mess that had once been Lydkan.

As he had expected, the power of the numerous divine objects had allowed them to easily defeat one of the nine apostles, Lydkan of Flames.

“Let’s get back on the road.”

However, there was no time to celebrate their victory.

Quickly after they put an end to the apostle, Henry ordered everyone to get back on the road, but no one in the Union was upset with his prompt order.

On the contrary, they hummed in their saddles, smiling from the fact that they had killed the apostle with far more ease than they had anticipated.

“Giddy-up!”

They were off to a good start.