CHAPTER 141…………………………………………….
Unstoppable
I stopped and landed on the ground.
“Damn it…!”
I ground out a curse and glared at the split sky.
A rift had opened in the world.
A distortion of space within space.
From the unknown realm stretched out massive golden hands.
And not just one—two, three… more than ten in number.
Those are…
The Pope and the god they worship, Solius.
“Summoning a god?!”
Pope Lucarion gathered all the divinity he possessed into a single point.
Though his past deeds may not have been true, his faith alone seemed sincere.
Exhausting all his divine power, even sacrificing his own life, he forcibly twisted open the “gate.”
And this was the result.
More than ten enormous hands flailing down from the rift in the sky.
At least it wasn’t a full manifestation.
Lucarion’s divinity was similar to the I had used before.
But unlike me, he couldn’t open a perfect “gate.”
Whether his faith was insufficient, his divinity lacking, or a single human not enough as a sacrifice…
Or if he had forced the rift from the start—it was unclear.
What mattered was that, even if it wasn’t a full manifestation…
Those hands were undeniably a part of a god’s power.
“Th-The god is angry!”
“Solius… punishes us!”
“Oh, God! Forgive us! Forgive us…!”
An unbelievable phenomenon.
A sight that could only overwhelm.
The believers in front of it lost all sense of reason.
Some knelt and prayed; some collapsed, screaming of the end.
Some fled, while others even moved toward the hands.
Even the paladins of the Dawn Knights were shocked.
“Th-That…?”
“……Is that really a god?”
“The dawn… will rise….”
The flailing hands reached toward us.
The heat radiating even from afar.
Intense, surging divine power.
I didn’t know how high the rank of this god was—but a god was still a god.
I couldn’t even imagine what would happen if it touched us.
But one thing was certain…
『The contractor casts magic.』
We wouldn’t survive unscathed.
There was no time to conserve mana or wait for another chance.
Even holding a 『magic』 in mind was a luxury.
I had to use everything I could, and every means at my disposal.
Only then…
Could we barely survive.
I crouched low to the ground.
One hand held 『magic』, the other pressed to the earth.
I flipped through the pages, searching for a spell to stop those hands.
The descent of a god… the manifestation… a magic that could stop it… of space…
『The contractor accesses the grand magic in the records.』
I slammed the pages open, stopping at one with a hand.
A voice echoed in my head, blue letters appearing above the page.
I moved my lips silently.
“<Veil of darkness, a night that even hides the starlight>.”
I began the long incantation.
“Oh, God…”
Valen groaned as he watched the split sky from beyond the walls.
“What… what in the world… is that?”
Beside him, Elnor’s eyes widened at the golden hands reaching toward the ground.
“G-Grandpa… what is that?”
“What is it….”
Valen clicked his tongue.
“A false god.”
“Wh-What?”
If vast divine energy flows strongly, even a god can be briefly called into this world.
Divinity is power borrowed from a god.
And if that power is absurdly strong…
“It isn’t impossible to make a god descend.”
“Th-Then that…!”
Elnor stared at the giant golden arms flailing in the void.
“……You mean Solius?!”
“Precisely… a part of him, I’d say.”
“What… but Grandpa, you say it’s a false god?!”
“It’s not a full manifestation! That… is only a fragment of him.”
Valen’s voice rumbled low.
He gripped his hammer tighter.
The golden hands flailed in the sky, reaching for the earth.
Each hand was mountain-sized, radiating heat like a burning sun.
“We have to stop that.”
His voice was firm as he readjusted his grip on the hammer and stared at the sky.
“Solius… a god, right? We… we’re stopping that—or him?!”
Elnor’s eyes widened.
Her hands clenched the spear shaft.
After a lifetime of serving a god, they had to stop it with their own hands?
“What form did Solius say he would remain with us?”
“Wha-uh? Eh? Suddenly some doctrine study…?”
“In what form did he remain?!”
“Th-The sun! I know that much!”
“Yes!”
His voice boomed.
He readjusted his hammer and pointed at the sky.
“Does that look like the sun to you?!”
“……!”
Elnor’s eyes widened briefly.
A small smile appeared on her flustered face.
“No matter how you look at it… that’s not it.”
“Right? Then that isn’t Solaus.”
The two grinned at each other.
“And if we fail to stop it…”
Valen said seriously, watching the flailing hands.
Even from afar, the hands radiated strong divinity.
If they reached the ground…
“Countless believers’ lives would be at risk.”
Saying “at risk” was putting it mildly.
Every single one would die.
“I can’t watch that happen.”
“Agreed, Grandpa.”
The two nodded and, as if by unspoken agreement, leapt forward simultaneously.
The massive golden hands stretched through the dark storm clouds.
Like a falling mountain range, each finger as large as a building.
The divinity blazing from the arms seemed ready to burn the ground.
“This is intense! Hahaha!”
With a leap, Valen soared.
His hammer traced a golden arc in the air, striking toward a falling hand.
Clash—!
Divinity collided with divinity.
The golden light from Valen’s body slammed the hand—but it didn’t budge.
Instead, he was thrown backward.
“Ugh!”
Twisting in midair to regain balance, Valen barely steadied himself.
Bang—!
Elnor swung her long spear toward the fingers.
Behind her, the halo of blazed again.
Boom—!
’s divinity exploded, and her spear struck.
But even the highest paladin’s divinity couldn’t budge a single finger.
“Damn it…!”
Grinding their teeth,
“Again!”
Valen swung once more, Elnor joined in.
Crash—!
Yet the hands still didn’t move.
Rather, they twitched lazily, as if annoyed.
One enormous finger flexed and bounced back.
Boom—!
Divinity erupted from the flicked fingertip.
“…?!”
“Ugh?!”
Both leapt into the air but were slammed into the ground.
“D-Damn it…!”
Elnor groaned as she hit the ground.
Valen clenched his teeth and stood again.
A flame sparked in his eyes.
“Rise—!”
The axe-wielding paladin shouted.
“Dawn Knights!”
“The dawn will rise!”
“Uoooo!”
His voice echoed across the square.
The Dawn Knights at the edge of the plaza charged.
Each raised their weapon, releasing divine energy at the falling hands.
Crash—! Crash—!
Divinity from swords, hammers, spears, and axes collided with the falling hands.
The hands wavered but didn’t stop.
The power borrowed by faith couldn’t overcome the original divine power.
The paladins kept attacking, but one by one they were thrown back.
Some collapsed, bleeding; some exhausted all divinity and knelt.
“U-ugh…!”
“Th-The dawn…!”
Valen’s eyebrows twitched as he watched them.
As he groaned and struggled to rise,
“Sun Knights!”
Lionel’s voice rang out.
At his command, the Sun Knights lifted their shields.
Divinity gleamed across the shields, stacking into a massive defensive wall.
.
“Hold your positions!”
Lionel raised his shield, layering with the defensive wall.
The Sun Knights’ perfect barrier covered the plaza like a dome.
Boom—!
The hands slammed against their wall.
Several clenched fists struck down as if to crush.
“Ugh…!”
“C-Captain… we… can’t hold…!”
“Hold! We must hold… ugh…!”
Even the Sun Knights’ wall couldn’t stop the hands.
One by one, shields broke, and holes appeared in the once-perfect barrier.
Cracks spread, and even the Sun Knights began to fall.
“The sun…!”
Lionel gritted his teeth and adjusted his grip.
“It rises again…!”
flared from his body.
The searing heat mended the cracks, reinforcing the barrier.
But it was only temporary.
The hands still advanced without retreat.
“Damn it…!”
“Just… a little… more…!”
Valen swung again.
Elnor joined with her spear.
The captains pooled their strength, but the result didn’t change.
Then.
“I’ll join.”
“……?!”
“You…!”
Ronan, at Leonis’s side, leapt in at his command.
A dark aura swirled from his sword, enveloping his entire body.
This was a power distinct from divinity.
Ronan’s will to protect the people.
Slash—!
The massive hand pressing the barrier was cut by the dark aura.
What all the paladins had failed to do, Ronan accomplished.
Whoooosh—!
The pressing hand recoiled in surprise.
“This time….”
Ronan looked at Elnor, panting beside him.
“I won.”
“Wh-what…!”
Elnor chuckled awkwardly, having no time to speak.
Thud, thud, thud—the hands that had retreated began pounding the barrier with fists.
Watching, Valen asked Ronan,
“Can you stop all of that?”
“I can’t. But…”
Ronan said calmly,
“If it were Esric, it might be possible.”
He gestured behind.
Inside the debris of the broken wall, a mage crouched with an old book open.
Esric’s blue eyes glimmered.
The paladins were charging.
But it was impossible.
The very hands belonged to the one shaping mana into divinity.
Thus, no matter what the paladins did, they couldn’t stop them.
Time to punish them was brief, fleeting.
During that time…
“<Widening rift, splitting crack, vanishing boundary>.”
I had to complete the spell.
