Chapter 207 – War of the Gods (5)
“Isn’t it better to go there?”
“I will only interfere if I go.”
A bandaged man was lying down in the room.
“The scale is different.”
Then the person sitting next to him spoke while cutting an apple. They were watching the war coverage of Elder Lord on the screen. The screen showed light, flames and disturbing sights. It was filled with deaths and slaughter.
The screen was focused on an orc. The esteemed warrior, Crockta.
“But you…” The man lying in the room scratched his head and asked. “Is it okay for you to come here every day?”
“It’s fine.” The apple cutter shook their head. “I don’t have any schedule. Why? Do you dislike my presence?”
“That’s not it…”
The atmosphere was awkward. There was only the sound of fighting from the screen and the apple being cut. At that moment, the door opened and visitors appeared.
“Hey! Shin Jahu! What are you doing?”
“Exemplary citizen! I can’t match you!”
“Jahu Jahu…eh?”
They hesitated. They were coworkers at Shin Jahu’s Chinese restaurant. As soon as they entered the room, they found someone quietly sitting beside Shin Jahu while cutting apples.
Black hair flowed down to the neck. It was in contrast to the pure white skin. Long eyelashes and beautiful double-lidded eyes were revealed when the beauty turned towards the visitors. A beautiful woman they were seeing for the first time was sitting next to Shin Jahu.
“W-Who…?”
“Girlfri…end…?”
They were tough men who did heavy work in the kitchen, but they became mild sheep in front of this beauty. They couldn’t even meet the eyes of the unidentified beauty.
“That…”
“Uh…”
Shin Jahu stared at them and asked, “Uh, you came?”
“Yes, it has been a while…um…”
The beauty seemed to sense the awkward atmosphere, setting the apples on the table and standing up. “I’ll be going now.”
“Yes…”
“I have to go. Everybody, please have a pleasant conversation. “
The beauty left with a faint smile, leaving a sweet fragrance behind. As soon as the door closed behind her, Shin Jahu’s colleagues quickly fired off questions.
“Who is that, who? Who is it? Quickly!”
“Hey! This bastard was hiding everything!”
“Girlfriend? Girlfriend? If she has any relatives, introduce me…”
Shin Jahu sighed, “That’s not it…”
“What isn’t? Why did she come to your hospital room and cut apples?”
Instead of answering, Shin Jahu changed the channel with the remote control. The war video of Elder Lord changed to a music program. Well-dressed idols were dancing and singing.
“What are you doing all of a sudde…”
Their faces stiffened as they saw the beauty that they just saw in the room dancing and smiling on screen. Idol. It was the identity of the beauty who was just here.
“You, you are hanging out with a celebrity?”
“What is going on…?”
Shin Jahu stretched out his finger and pointed to the bottom of the screen. His co-workers followed his hand and fell silent. In front of the strange group name, the tag ‘bishonen group’ was attached. It wasn’t a girl group but a bishonen group. (TL: pretty boy)
“……”
“Uh…”
“Hrmm…”
The room became quiet. Shin Jahu changed the channel again. Footage of Elder Lord. Crockta was swinging his sword at a man. According to the commentator’s noisy explanation, the opponent was the war god.
Crockta and the war god, two big figures were confronting each other. Every time they exchanged blows, the battlefield shook.
“……”
“……”
On the other hand, the room was still calm. Shin Jahu broke the silence and shouted, “Hooray Crockta!”
The idol youth was a friend Shin Jahu had met through ‘He’s an Orc, yet still Praiseworthy.’ After Shin Jahu got into the accident and was unable to access Elder Lord for a while, he had written the address of the hospital he was in.
Then ‘he’ came. Him… the idol.
“Crockta, beat him!” As Crockta’s greatsword descended towards the war god, Shin Jahu raised his hand again. “Hooray Croc…cough!”
Who knew? Gilgamesh was an idol. A beautiful young idol! He came to Shin Jahu’s room every day, and as time went by, Shin Jahu couldn’t focus on Crockta’s video. He couldn’t get immersed in the dangerous fighting.
Why?
Shin Jahu closed his eyes. Suddenly, he recalled a phrase from the Korean classic ‘A Bittersweet Life’, which he enjoyed.
「On a clear spring day, the disciple gazed at the tree branches moving in the wind and asked,
“Master, is the branch moving or is it the wind moving the branch?
The master looked at where the disciple was pointing and smiled.
“It isn’t the wind or branches moving, but your heart.”」
Shin Jahu shook his head and glanced towards Crockta. Crockta’s greatsword hit the war god several times. The feet of the war god dug into the ground. An enormous strength. The fight became rougher.
Shin Jahu shouted desperately, “Crockta, fighting!”
***
Tiyo avoided the enemy’s attack and silenced the enemy with rapid shots.
“Today is going to hurt a little dot!”
Tiyo’s General wasn’t meant for killing. Instead of killing the enemies, it played a secondary role in stopping the enemy using temporary electric shock, paralysis, and numbness. But today was different.
“I warned you in advance dot,” Tiyo muttered as he looked at the fallen enemies. Now General’s output was at its peak. Tiyo would bring death.
“They are appearing with no end!”
Nevertheless, the opponents continued to come. Rather than fearing his attack, they felt anger towards the little gnome. It was a misjudgment.
“More than this…”
Tiyo gripped General tighter. At the same time, the shape of General started to change. The rifle shortened and the number of muzzles multiplied. Two became four; four became eight. It was no longer a gun.
It was Vulcan. Vulcan started to spin fiercely in Tiyo’s hands. He would give the greatest mercy to those who were running towards him. A quick death with no pain!
“Aaaaaaah!”
Magic bullets were fired from General. They bombarded the running expedition troops without mercy. Every hit caused the expedition soldiers’ bodies to shake, as if they received an electric shock.
Thousands, tens of thousands of such attacks! General’s output was overloaded and Tiyo was tired, but he kept aiming General at the enemy. Vulcan’s spinning didn’t stop. Then General’s rotation soon stopped.
No one was standing in front of him. All the enemies were crumpled on the ground. They occasionally twitched, but Tiyo switched General to shotgun mode and killed them. However, more expedition members soon rushed over those slain by Tiyo. They had the power of the gods and felt no fear. Everyone was a puppet.
Tiyo’s mouth twisted. It was an expression of disdain.
“I can’t trust the gods who are controlling them this way dot.”
More and more enemies were approaching him.
“Tiyo! Please step aside!”
“Leave it to us!”
Orc warriors rushed to Tiyo’s side.
“I’m fine dot…” Tiyo shook his head. “That friend will act dot.”
The orcs turned their heads. There was a dark-skinned elf with his ears cut off. He hadn’t shown his strength once on the battlefield. Therefore, the expedition members felt no sense of crisis from him. What type of strength did this slender dark elf have?
“Hoo…I didn’t want to do this.”
Anor closed his eyes. Dark energy boiled around his body. His power swelled before entering the ground. That power spread through the battlefield. It was like a plague spreading through the earth. Corpses were infected by that power and twitched.
The dead. They started to wake up.
“W-What is this?”
“Kwaaaack!”
“Corpses are rising! Blessings, the blessings!”
The expedition troops panicked despite the power of the gods. Their dead comrades and dead orcs rose again, grabbing their ankles. The dead sought life, looking for the bodies of the living.
“Bite! They’re biting!”
“Kuaaaak!”
Weapons were used to cut them down, but the dead kept on biting. The expedition, that had been scared by the demons called by the joint actions of Zankus and Tashaquil, once again were frightened by the strange beings that appeared. Even the blessings of the gods couldn’t overcome their fundamental fears.
“Using such a dirty power!”
The face of the old man floating in the sky distorted. His rays of light aimed at the expedition members as well as the undead. Once the divine light reached them, the undead instantly fell down.
“Darkness can’t beat light!”
The old man shouted loudly before scattering the light again. There was a moment of confusion, but all the undead eventually returned to the soil. But at that moment. His vision turned dark. The face of the old man distorted.
“Who?”
Who was it?
“Tashaquil?”
Someone had the power to isolate him in another dimension. An answer came from below.
‘Not Tashaquil…’
He lowered his gaze. At that moment, he flinched. There was a deep darkness below him. How deep it was and how dark, no one knew. The infinite abyss. In it, the sound of wicked laughter could be heard.
‘Kuhul…hul!’
***
The god of light, the sun dying, the demons appearing, the meteors falling and the dead waking up to bite the living. Flames that didn’t stop swallowing people, while immortals and mortals mixed on the earth. It was an unbelievable battlefield.
But the most intense battle here was between two swords.
“Garbage orc──────!”
The war god tried to counterattack, but was one beat too late. A gap appeared.
Crockta grinned, “Calm down.”
Fine cracks appeared on the sword and shield, while God Slayer descended towards the war god’s helmet.
Kuaaaaaaang!
There was a blast. As God Slayer struck the war god as searing hot flames appeared as part of the power of the weapon created using the last fire from the temple of the sun god. Crockta retreated after the fire appeared.
“……”
He had clearly felt the war god being cut. But the fight wasn’t over yet. He could feel it instinctively.
“You are good.”
The war god walked out from the flames. His helmet had flown off and his flesh was split vertically from the crown to the abdomen. However, flames burned on the cut instead of blood. The fires of war.
Aklan had died from the blow, but the war god had tied the broken body together using the fires of war. The body was dead, but it continued to fight under the control of the war god.
“Crockta.”
The body of the angry war god burned even hotter. Now he looked like a fireball in the shape of a human. A brilliant light flashed in his eyes.
“I acknowledge you.”
At that moment, something flew towards the war god. It was an arrow. The war god lifted his hand and snatched it. Then he broke it.
“You and I. One of us must die.”
He reached a hand towards the sky. An unknown power started to wrap around him and Crockta. The expedition members and orcs around them were pushed back. It was an intangible power that turned this area off-limits. The power of the god of war.
The Colosseum. Now no one, not even a god, could intervene in this fight. Everyone in the world was the audience.
Crockta grinned, “This is an interesting ability.”
No one could interfere. Only the inevitable sword and sword confrontation remained. In this intangible prison, the two of them couldn’t leave until one of them died.
“In short, can I kill you?”
“You understand it well.”
Crockta and the war god looked at each other. The war god’s expression was blurred from the flames, but Crockta could tell that he was smiling.
“If it wasn’t for the grey god, I would’ve made you my apostle.”
“As you like. I would like to follow a guy like you.”
“Mortal. Don’t think of this as an honorable fight.” The war god lifted his sword and shield and said, “You are fighting to protect your people.”
“That’s right.”
“We…” At that moment, the war god seemed somehow tired. His body seemed to shake for a moment, as if the sword and shield were heavy burdens. He continued speaking, “We are fighting to protect this world.”
The war god tightened his grip on the sword and shield before charging forward explosively. Crockta wanted to ask what his words meant, but he needed to stop the shield. His sword hit the shield. Sparks flew. It was a tremendous pressure.
“Kuaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Bul’tarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”
The two opponents pointed their swords towards each other. Blood splattered.