Chapter 697: The Promise (2)
A flash of lightning lit up the sky.
As the lightning struck the earth, everything in the world was erased.
Color, shape, sound—everything.
It was as if the world had reverted to a blank canvas, but fortunately, that moment didn’t last long.
The lightning that erased the world was powerful, yet its duration was short-lived, and soon, the erased elements began to return one by one.
Sound, shape, color.
The first to return was sound.
Ka-ga-ga-ga-gaaaang━━━━!!!
The cacophony of a hundred birds crying out in unison resounded through the heavens and earth.
It was the cry of none other than the Thunderbird, a spirit of lightning, following the trail of the light-speed lightning that had preceded it.
Soon after, the world regained its shape, and visibility returned.
One could now see a woman on a camel, one hand holding a medical staff, while her other hand gripped the Thunderbird that had just attacked her.
The woman handled the divine creation meant to govern nature with the ease of snapping a chicken's neck.
“Hmm... I’m not sure whether to call this clever or foolish.”
The woman on the camel started, wearing a sly smile.
“It’s indeed smart to use a spirit to make up for your lack of skill and unstable condition, but to think you’d use it against me of all people. I’d say it’s not the best choice, wouldn’t you?”
Her criticism was accurate.
A demon ruling hell and a spirit created by the divine.
Though both were categorized as “beings outside this world,” that was merely a human distinction; a significant gap still existed between the two.
The fact that spirits would flee at even the faintest trace of demonic aura spoke volumes.
“It looks like you forcibly summoned a spirit with a trick from the Archive, but if you thought that would make a difference, I’m quite disappointed.”
The smile faded from the face of the woman on the camel.
“The Archive that’s not only the weakest in history but even the most foolish? In situations like this, that’s a bit... unflattering, isn’t it?”
“First response.”
This time, Kevin spoke.
“So what?”
“…”
“Whether you think this Archive is the weakest or the most foolish, I don’t care. I didn’t become an Archive to earn the approval of someone like you.”
“Hoho... what’s your second response?”
“I didn’t force the spirit to obey. I merely persuaded it. Showed it that it could handle this.”
“What are you saying…”
The woman on the camel tilted her head, but in the next instant, she received an answer to her question.
Kevin produced an ancient book from thin air.
It was the book left behind by the First Archive, and as he opened it, the power embedded within emerged, covering the Thunderbird in a mystical aura.
Rather than Kevin himself, the spirit received this power.
At that moment, the Thunderbird spirit broke free from the woman’s grip, and a lightning bolt shot up from the ground to the heavens, scorching everything within its path.
Kwa-ra-ra-ra-ra-rang━━━━!!!
This was no exception for the woman on the camel.
One of her arms, charred and blackened by the strike, bore witness to the attack’s potency.
The woman on the camel looked surprised, and Kevin seized the opportunity, destabilizing the weakened hillside, intending to trigger a massive landslide.
“Push her off.”
The entire ground collapsed to sweep the woman on the camel away.
It wasn’t a bad strategy, as demons were bound by certain physical rules after descending into this realm.
Ku-gu-gu-gu-gu-gung...!!
The thunderous noise of falling earth echoed, and the woman on the camel began to slide downward along with the crumbling terrain.
Kevin took advantage of this opening to shout.
“All Holy Knights who can move, protect the pond! She said she came to reclaim the root of Holy Law, so don’t let her approach the pond, the source of the Holy Law! Everyone, keep it together!”
The priests and Holy Knights, who had been half-dazed by the demon’s overwhelming presence, snapped out of their stupor at Kevin’s call and tried to tend to Joanna—until they heard a resonant sound.
“Do you think that’s going to matter? They’re as good as useless.”
The woman on the camel, who had been swept down the hill, was now climbing back up, reconstructing the ground that Kevin had destroyed.
As soon as the sound rang out, the space above Kevin’s head distorted—
Kwa-ang━━!!
—and the distorted space descended upon Kevin like a massive club.
Kevin managed to activate spatial magic just in time to narrowly block it, but the sheer weight of it left him momentarily immobilized. In that instant, the woman on the camel closed the gap until she was right in front of him.
With her staff pointed at him, she thrust it forward slowly, yet with deadly speed.
Pa-ak—Cheong!!!
As the staff, seemingly capable of shattering anything, aimed to pierce through Kevin, Joanna, now recovered on her own, intervened, deflecting the woman’s attack with her mace.
A massive shockwave swept through the area, and Joanna spoke amidst it.
“Whether it matters or not is for us to decide!”
Joanna finished speaking, raising her submachine gun and firing a barrage of bullets containing Holy Power at the woman on the camel.
The woman on the camel lightly blocked the blessed bullets with a curtain-like spread of her gold-threaded dress.
Simultaneously, her camel, with a nun’s face on its head, opened its mouth and extended its tongue, resembling tendrils, attempting to seize Joanna’s head.
Chwaak!
As dozens of tendrils tried to grasp Joanna’s head, Kevin swung a piece of enchanted paper, severing the camel’s neck with spatial magic.
The camel’s severed head fell to the ground.
The head continued to squirm, trying to reattach itself, but Kevin kicked it down the hillside.
“Feel free to go retrieve it.”
“Oh, it’ll come back on its own.”
The woman on the camel answered Kevin’s remark playfully, then engaged in combat with Kevin, now an Archive, and Joanna, who had absorbed Holy Blood.
In the blink of an eye…
The staff collided with Joanna’s mace, causing cracks in the space around them. Kevin nullified the cracks intended to shatter Joanna using spatial magic.
The ice crown on the woman’s head glowed, spreading a freezing, disease-laden chill that poisoned and froze the surrounding space itself.
In response, Kevin summoned a salamander and imbued it with the power of the First Archive, igniting fierce flames.
The flames, charged with the First Archive’s strength, melted the poisonous chill. The woman on the camel reached out toward the salamander.
Pa-ak!
Joanna intervened, slamming her shield into the woman’s hand, causing it to recoil, then emitted light to bolster the salamander’s flames.
The flames began to burn the woman on the camel.
Unfazed, she ordered her camel, composed of nuns, to chant a prayer.
As the prayer spread, the flames extinguished, and the woman on the camel struck the air as if playing a piano, shattering space mercilessly.
Countless distorted spaces crashed down on the ground like hammers, striking the salamander.
Kevin and Joanna were forced to defend against the onslaught with the Archive's power and the Holy Blood, respectively.
Thud! Thud!
In that moment, the woman on the camel thrust her staff forward, aiming for the smallest of gaps in Kevin and Joanna’s defenses.
Kevin and Joanna stumbled, but despite the intense pain, they didn’t falter, retaliating with the enchanted book and Joanna’s mace, driving the woman on the camel back.
Ssshaaaack!
The camel, now headless, clung to the ground with limbs formed from the nuns' arms and legs, struggling to hold its position.
“Oh dear, the two of you look quite exhausted.”
The woman on the camel taunted, though her next words were no jest.
“I suppose I’ll need some assistance.”
With those words, a sharp blade sliced through the air, aimed directly at Kevin.
A grotesque figure, resembling a person turned upside down, sped toward Kevin, wielding a blade made of flesh, blood, and entrails.
To Kevin’s horror, this monstrosity was a Holy Knight, revived as an undead knight through a ritual that summoned them from hell.
The bloody sword glistened with Holy Power, an indicator that this was no ordinary weapon—its Holy Power rendered it resistant to common magic.
“If I overuse the Archive’s power, my body will begin to deteriorate…”
Kevin focused his mana and dodged with deft movements, mindful of the damage overuse of his power could do to his body.
Yet, his evasion seemed futile as new undead Holy Knights appeared overhead.
A horde of twisted corpses, numbering at least a dozen, all resembling people turned upside down, gathered in the sky above him.
“It may only be a small town with a thousand people, but that means a thousand resources.”
With unnerving precision, the undead Holy Knights swung their swords down upon Kevin.
Joanna attempted to rush to his aid, but the woman on the camel jabbed her medical staff forward, blocking Joanna’s approach.
Joanna missed her chance to assist, and Kevin had no choice but to unleash a burst of the Archive’s power, deflecting the undead knights’ attack.
Cr-crack…
Tiny cracks appeared on Kevin’s skin.
The accumulated force of the Holy Power intensified with each additional attacker, forcing him to expend more power than he’d anticipated, which came at a cost.
But before he could even acknowledge the pain, the woman on the camel closed the distance, raising her staff to strike again.
━━━━━━!!
Kevin lifted his book to block, but as the staff struck, the book shattered, sending Kevin flying backward, slamming into the ground.
The woman on the camel attempted to approach Kevin again, but Joanna quickly positioned herself to intercept.
However, there was little she could do against the swarm of undead Holy Knights that now surrounded Kevin.
Despite having absorbed the Holy Blood, Joanna’s single body was stretched thin defending against the woman on the camel alone.
Meanwhile, the undead Holy Knights, wielding blades infused with Holy Power, closed in on Kevin from all directions, forcing him to defend, dodge, and counter with minimal use of the Archive’s power.
Within the swirling maelstrom of golden swords, Kevin’s body began to show cracks, though fortunately, the number of undead Holy Knights visibly dwindled.
If only he could hold out a little longer...
“Oh, impressive. Shall we increase the numbers?”
In response to the woman on the camel’s voice, a new wave of undead Holy Knights, easily double the previous number, ascended the hill.
It was clear now—the woman on the camel intended for Kevin to self-destruct from overuse of his own power.
If this battle continued, Kevin’s body would collapse, victory or defeat irrelevant.
Kevin attempted to summon a spirit to escape, but the undead Holy Knights, reckless in their assaults, blocked every attempt, even inflicting damage upon the summoned spirits.
Though the number of undead Holy Knights decreased, it was ultimately meaningless. To the woman on the camel, they were expendable, mere ammunition to weigh Kevin down.
As long as they served their purpose of exhausting him, she could always replenish their numbers.
Gradually overwhelmed by the seemingly endless ranks of undead knights, Kevin found himself fully surrounded, forced to parry Holy Power-infused blades from every direction.
Shaa-shaa-shaa-shaang!!!
With each increase in numbers, the sheer power of the Holy Power-infused blades multiplied, making deflection increasingly difficult—just then, an ominous cry echoed from below.
Goooooooong...
A Holy Knight with the head of a camel.
The camel’s severed head, which Kevin had kicked down earlier, had taken over the body of another knight and climbed back up the hill.
As the woman on the camel had promised, it had indeed returned.
It pulled a Holy Power-imbued blade from the air and—
Taang!
—disappeared in a burst of speed, charging toward the immobilized Kevin.
Paak!
Just as it lunged at him, the camel-headed knight leapt, gripping the Holy Power blade in reverse, ready to strike Kevin down.
Tang━━━━━!
A gunshot rang out, blasting away part of the camel’s head.
This was the work of Armand, who had ascended the hill with a cross-shaped sniper rifle. But he wasn’t alone.
“Are you truly going to entrust everything to them alone?!”
Archpriest Roderick roared, summoning a massive Holy Power-infused giant wielding a warhammer, which it used to strike down the undead Holy Knights surrounding Kevin.
In response to his cry, light erupted from below the hill like a sunrise, as over a hundred Holy Knights charged upward, weapons in hand.
“For the divine!!!”
“Arrrghhhh!!!”
“Let’s go! Be the shield of humanity…!!”
“Fight against the demons!!!”
While Joanna and Kevin faced off against the woman on the camel, Armand and Roderick had traveled across the Holy See State, rallying the knights who had been weakened and broken under the weight of calamity and sin.
The Holy Knights, newly resolved, cut through the undead summoned by the woman on the camel, rushing to Kevin’s aid, and then surged toward the woman on the camel herself.
As if in response to their rekindled will, the Holy Power within them resonated, shining even brighter, clearing away the darkness over the holy hill and briefly turning night into day.
Bathed in this divine light, every Holy Knight pointed their blade toward the woman on the camel.
Roderick’s giant, summoned with Holy Power, lifted its warhammer, aiming to crush the woman on the camel.
Armand, clad in iron armor, abandoned his rifle and forged a massive sword of Holy Power, leaping high into the air.
The other Holy Knights, following their lifelong training, united their resolve and aimed their blades at the woman on the camel.
It was as if all the light in the world had converged to vanquish evil.
In the midst of this radiant spectacle, the woman on the camel put away her staff, raised her bare hand toward the sky, and commanded:
“Recall.”