Back of the Head
“Hello.”
“Hm? What, you came here too?”
A man who was confidently showing off his muscular body.
Cthulhu was moving across the battlefield, directing others.
To be precise, it was more like giving orders.
I greeted him first.
We had a good impression of each other when we last met.
‘…Didn't we?’
I think we were a little messy at the end.
Thinking such thoughts, I checked the battlefield.
I didn't have any professional knowledge in combat, but I was able to grasp the rough situation of the battle.
First of all, there were many adventurers on the battlefield.
There were also a lot of monsters.
The Legion Commander was nowhere to be seen, as if he had gone somewhere.
He must be hiding his presence for a while.
Well, it didn't really matter.
He’d show up on his own once all the monsters were gone.
“It’s good that you came. Take care of these guys. I'm too lazy to beat them all up one by one.”
I thought so.
First of all, martial artists weren't specialized in wide-area attacks.
That’s why wizards were welcomed in war.
No matter how strong a martial artist was, there was no way they could withstand an attack from a large number of people.
It was inevitable.
‘I think Cthulhu would be able to handle it though.’
Someone like Cthulhu would be able to endure it.
This person had already transcended humanity.
As I was looking around, thinking such thoughts.
‘Hm?’
I spotted a familiar face.
Someone I never thought I'd see here.
I was a little flustered.
Why was this person here?
It was the person I saw when I went to Koruntum before.
The person I suspected to be ‘MayTheUnfaithfulFindPeace’.
‘He was being so argumentative on the forum.’
To think he was acting so polite in real life.
Thinking it was absurd, I approached the Faithful Grandpa and greeted him.
“Hello.”
I greeted him lightly.
“Greetings.”
Then, the Faithful Grandpa returned my greeting.
Faithful Grandpa was wearing a white robe that seemed to prove he was a devout believer.
There was also gold embroidery near his neck, which seemed to involve very sophisticated techniques.
If I hadn't known his true nature, I wouldn't have even approached him.
He didn't look like this last time, but he definitely gave off a pious feeling when he was dressed up.
An atmosphere that made you want to worship him right away.
With that in mind, I lightly exchanged pleasantries.
“How have you been?”
“These days, I've just been wandering around, living the adventurer life.”
“An adventurer, good times. It’s important to do what you want when you're young.”
“That’s true.”
After such a brief conversation, we parted ways.
I didn't want to talk to Faithful Grandpa for long, and there was no reason to.
Crack-!
I stretched the joints in my body to loosen them up and prepared to sweep the battlefield.
It seemed like using wide-area magic would be the most efficient.
So, I slowly began to deploy my magic and accumulate mana.
Magic naturally becomes stronger as mana accumulates.
Wooong-
As I gathered mana, I looked around.
Clang-!
Slice-!
The sounds of war could be heard from all directions.
To think the place I lived in until just a few months ago would change like this.
A strange feeling came over me.
Anyway, I was lost in random thoughts for a moment.
‘It’s done.’
Finally, all the mana was gathered.
Now it was time to use magic.
Slowly, the magic formula aligned, distributing the mana and then activating it.
[Holy Inferno]
There was no more effective magic than Inferno for killing multiple targets at once.
Fwoosh-
The battlefield was engulfed in flames.
If I only used the Inferno spell, it would burn all enemies on the battlefield, but using Holy Inferno would only set ablaze those who were unholy.
The unholy beings here referred to the monsters.
So there was no need to worry about other adventurers getting hurt.
‘It consumes a lot of mana though.’
It did consume a lot of mana.
It was a characteristic of magic with ‘Holy’ attached to it.
It consumed a lot of mana.
After all, holy magic was magic used by priests.
Holy magic used by those who weren't priests could be considered a degraded version.
Perhaps if Faithful Grandpa used holy magic, he would show tremendous power.
As I was thinking such thoughts and cleaning up the battlefield-
-Behold…
I could feel something wriggling up from the ground.
I could feel it instinctively.
This presence was-
‘…The Legion Commander.’
The Legion Commander.
The force of mana emanating from him was enormous.
Even I, who was skilled in handling mana, felt this way, so how would others feel?
“Ugh-!!!”
“Stop, stop…!!!!”
“Urgh…”
The adventurers on the battlefield started to vomit, bleed, pick at their ears, and exhibit other strange behaviors.
There were even adventurers who stabbed themselves in the stomach and giggled.
What kind of being could transform the battlefield like this?
As I was wondering and preparing my magic while waiting-
Faithful Grandpa, who hadn't gone far, began to mutter quietly.
“…Barbatos.”
Barbatos.
I knew it as a being that was depicted as quite powerful even in modern works of fiction.
To think such a being would suddenly appear from the ground.
“Was Barbatos originally among the Legion Commanders who attacked?”
If such a being had attacked, it would make sense that Lukphelton had fallen.
“…No.”
Faithful Grandpa was staring blankly at Barbatos, who was gradually rising from the ground.
By the way, it was strange.
It didn’t make sense for Barbatos to suddenly appear here.
Of course, there was a possibility, but… for another Legion Commander to disappear and Barbatos to appear instead.
While I was lost in such random thoughts.
-Revere…
As Barbatos spoke in a deep voice, the quality of mana in the surroundings changed dramatically.
To be precise, its density increased.
And the effect was immediate.
Thud-!
The martial artists fell to their knees.
Many martial artists lacked talent in mana.
So, they weren't exposed to high-density mana very often.
That’s why the martial artists were the first to collapse.
“…This is…”
Faithful Grandpa, as if he had finally come to his senses, was healing the adventurers who had collapsed around him.
While I had great difficulty healing others, it wasn't the case for priests.
They were a class specialized in healing others.
That’s why they didn't run out of mana easily, even if they used [Heal] recklessly.
‘Do priests use divine power?’
It seemed right to call what priests used divine power.
There was a detailed explanation on the forum about the difference between divine power and mana, but I didn’t bother to read it carefully.
So, I didn't remember it.
Since I usually remembered everything, if it wasn’t in my memory, it meant it was really boring, or I hadn’t read it properly.
While I was having such thoughts.
“Yahoo-!”
With a vulgar shout from somewhere, someone dashed towards the rising Barbatos.
It was Cthulhu.
I was expecting him to do something like that, but seeing him actually do it was absurd.
I wondered if this was right.
-Insolent…
Barbatos swung his massive hand, trying to shake off Cthulhu.
But-
“No way?”
It was nearly impossible to swing his hand in time with Cthulhu’s movements.
Cthulhu dodged Barbatos’s attack and landed a clean hit.
Wham-!
Cthulhu punched him right where it would make a woman’s uterus tremble.
-Ahya…
As if that was the trigger, the force emanating from Barbatos changed.
If this were a game, I would say he had entered Phase 2.
Anyway…
“Just how big is that thing going to get?”
“Holy shit… What is that?”
He was originally 8 meters tall, but now he was much larger.
It was like looking at a 7-story building.
We had to tilt our heads back almost all the way to see Barbatos’s face.
Barbatos, who had grown so large-
-Out of my way…
Stomped his massive foot on the ground once.
Then, the ground rumbled-
Crush-!
The bodies of the adventurers within Barbatos’s range were crushed.
There was no possibility of reviving them.
Cthulhu was among them.
But I wasn’t worried about Cthulhu.
Cthulhu wouldn't die from an attack like that.
“Ah, that hurts like a bitch.”
As if to prove my thoughts right, Cthulhu got up, lifting Barbatos’s massive foot.
And then-
Woong-!
He clenched his fist and began to gather mana.
Extremely pure mana at that.
And at thatmoment.
[Rat Spear]
I decided to strike the back of Barbatos's head.
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