The Grand Duke's Son Is A Heretic - Chapter 443
Chapter 443: 443
“Tsk.” Ramos clicked his tongue as his body was thrown back by the impact. He hit the broken ground, skidding a few meters before forcing himself upright again. Dust fell from his shoulders as he wiped blood from the edge of his mouth.
“This bitch is troublesome?” Ramos muttered while glaring at the figure floating in the sky.
“When I saw it on the screen, I did not think it would be such a trouble,” Edward said. He stood beside Ramos with his staff raised, his breathing sharp as they both stared at the Archangel of War gliding above them. Her wings spread wide, glowing faintly with a divine shimmer that twisted the air around her.
The problem was that unnatural layer of divinity. A thin veil of sacred light clung to her form, blocking most of their attacks. Every time their strongest blows landed, the light trembled but did not break. It made almost everything they threw at her useless, and that was enough to push both men toward frustration.
The two struck again and again. Ramos swung his massive sword and Edward fired his spear that bent the space around them.
Each attack exploded like falling stars against the glowing barrier. The sky above them roared, turning into a violent battlefield belonging to a higher realm.
A blast erupted when Ramos and Edward combined their power. Two streaks of force collided with the Archangel’s barrier, creating a thunderclap that shook the entire region.
A massive shockwave tore through the air, and a mushroom-shaped cloud rose high into the sky before expanding outward with a deafening boom. The ground cracked open beneath them and swallowed both men inside the newly formed crater.
For a moment, everything fell silent.
Then, moments later, the earth trembled again. Ramos shoved aside debris and crawled out first, coughing hard.
“Damn…” he groaned as he dragged himself to his feet.
Edward followed him out of the crater with a long sigh. His robe was torn and covered in dirt, and he patted himself as if trying to confirm his bones were still intact.
Ramos lifted his head and shouted toward the sky, “Hey!” His voice echoed loudly. “You cannot stay here indefinitely, is it?”
The Archangel of War paused midair. Her brows pulled together slightly. “I cannot.”
Ramos and Edward released the breath they had been holding. Relief washed over their faces for half a second.
However the relief instantly disappeared when she continued speaking.
“However, as long as the sacrifices are enough, I can last.”
“Fuck this shit,” Ramos growled. He roared in frustration, raised his sword and slammed it downward with all his strength.
The weapon hummed with power and released a devastating arc of sword light. The slash streaked through the sky, tearing clouds apart and shaking the air like thunder. It raced toward the Archangel so fast that even she reacted with surprise.
The massive sword arc slammed into her barrier. She tried to deflect it with her spear, but even for her, the power was too much of a nuisance. The divine light rippled violently as the slash cut through everything in its path.
Far below, the land itself split open. The sword light carved through mountain after mountain, leaving behind a long open wound across the earth. A new valley stretched far beyond sight, extending into the unknown distance.
Edward’s face twisted as he stared at the devastation. “You should have held back, you fool. The only thing this attack did was create such a stupid rift that is going to be troublesome to repair.”
“What the fuck? Think about the enemy first, then the landmark,” Ramos shouted. He pointed at the floating Archangel. “Nothing will remain if this woman is not killed.”
He had not even finished speaking when a swift shadow darted from the giant hole in the sky. The Archangel of War came out with her wings spread wide, the dust and debris falling away from her glowing form.
“Stop struggling, you foolish mortals,” she said in a calm yet cold tone. She raised a finger toward them. “Accept the end.”
Before she could fire her attack Ramos shouted again, “Since you are here wreaking havoc, why is the Church not intercepting?”
“That is a good question!”
“It didn’t matter if the Church came or not … .Since the dawn of humanity,there had been only one person who had managed to take down Archangel but even he had been buri-“she froze for a moment as if feeling something.
“Are you talking about me!”
“Huh!”Both Ramos and Edward looked at one another in confusion.
The Archangel of War froze. Her hand paused midair and her wings folded slightly. Ramos and Edward also turned stiff, their senses reacting before their minds did.
A voice had reached them from behind.
And not just any voice.
The three of them turned their heads toward a nearby mountain. A lone figure stood on a jagged rock, looking down at them. A man wearing a mask. His long black hair swayed behind him, untouched by the wind around the battlefield.
Ramos blinked several times. He rubbed his eyes hard. “Hey Ed, am I hallucinating?”
“I do not know,” Edward said. His old eyes narrowed. “My eyes stopped working properly so long ago.”
Their reaction was casual, yet they both took slow steps back without realizing it.
“Yo…It had been a long since I saw you pigeon bastard…I still remember the soup I made from your wings…Damns..That was some fine shit.”
However the Archangel of War did not react casually at all.
“Kyaaaaaaa!”
A piercing shriek tore through the sky. Her wings spread wide in pure fear.
“KYAAAHAHH!”
Her voice cracked.
“NOOOOO!”
She backed away as if she had seen a nightmare she thought was gone forever.
“IT CAN’T BE…”
Stop.
The Archangel of War screamed again as her body trembled violently. Her wings shook and folded together as if she wanted to vanish from the sky.
As an Archangel, she also carried the power of omniscient sight. She saw visions others could not. When she had glimpsed her own figure getting beaten by that masked monster in the virtual realm, she did not think of revenge.
Instead she prayed to the Lord of Abyss, hoping it was not real.
And why would she not?
That man was the same one who had thrashed the Lord of Abyss inside his own realm. Yes, he had entered the Abyss, fought the ruler of that world, beaten him and then walked out as if nothing happened.
And worse,he tore off the feathers of every angel he encountered and used them to create a decorative item.
If not for the fact that a god could not be killed, the Outer Gods who used to descend freely would have disappeared one by one. The number of times they were beaten by this man was a menace in itself. At first he came to fight and sometimes retreated when defeated. But after years passed, it became the Outer Gods who had to run.
He killed them, and when a God revived again, he killed them again and again until they had to go to hibernation to accumulate power to revive.
This cycle continued until the Outer God finally awakened fully cause this man dies.
They took hundreds of years to recover and only now were planning to descend again.
And now… this.
“You… how are you alive?” she shouted in terror. “You should be dead. How?”
“You guess?” the masked man tilted his head slightly.
It was just a small gesture, almost playful, but the pressure behind it made everyone’s heartbeat jump. Just his presence alone released a killing intent so dense and suffocating that the entire area felt as if it was drowning in blood.
The Archangel of War stared and then suddenly said, “Wait…”
Her eyes narrowed.
“You are just an S rank. No… you cannot be him. You are impersonating him.”
Hearing that, the masked man laughed.
“What if I am really him but just awakened now?”
“What?” she whispered as fear crawled across her face.
“It is what you heard, little pigeon,” the masked man said calmly. “I just sacrificed something to survive and had been slumbering. But your descent woke me up. After all, no way those bastards from the temple are going to clean up the mess, so I have to protect the world just like I did in the past. Isn’t it, pigeon?”
He straightened and raised his gauntlet casually.
Her eyes widened instantly.
“That…? How did you have that?” she screamed. Her voice cracked as she imagined the disaster that could come next. “Wasn’t the God of Time killed? So why do you have that? No, do not tell me you killed him. But you still have not become a God…”
She began babbling, her fear overflowing into senseless words.
The masked man turned toward Edward and Ramos. His tone dropped into seriousness.
“Hey, you two.”
They straightened unconsciously.
“I am a bit weak. However I can break her barrier. You two will be in charge of finishing things.”
He paused for a moment.
“So can you do it?”
Edward and Ramos exchanged a silent look and both nodded firmly.
“Yes.”
“As long as her barrier is gone, we will wipe her out.”
They have a huge number of questions but it wasn’t asked.
Kael almost raised his thumb out of habit but stopped himself. He reminded himself to keep up the mysterious persona.
“Good confidence,” he said instead.
He then crushed the Stone of Restore attached to the gauntlet. A burst of light exploded outward, washing over the air like a wave. Sparks of fractured time crackled and spun around him.
Restore.
It could restore ten percent of his peak power. In most cases it was the least useful stone in the entire set, but unlike the others, it did not violate the law of casualty and demanded little from the user. Yet even that much was more than enough right now.
A deep vibration rolled across the battlefield as the masked man’s aura slowly flared. It rose like a storm building inside a sleeping volcano. The air shook. The ground trembled. Even the sky seemed to pull backward.
The pressure descended on the world like a falling mountain.
Ramos and Edward stumbled back for a second, caught off guard by the sudden surge.
The masked man lifted his hand. A crimson blade manifested in his grip. The instant the blade appeared, faint phantoms of corpses spread across the land. Countless silhouettes of fallen beings crawled into existence, covering the horizon. Rivers of blood flowed around the masked man’s feet, their echoing cries mixing with the roar of the world itself.
Everyone’s breath halted and even the Archangel’s wings froze mid-flap.
For a moment she even started crying and cursing.
“Cheating…This is cheating..”
“I didn’t agreed for this..”
“BASTARDDSSS…YOUUU CHEATED MEE!”