Just before falling, Isaac exploded the condensed Color Beyond beneath his feet.

Boom! The fierce explosion propelled Isaac vertically upward once more.

Since learning to materialize the Color Beyond, Isaac had discovered that its properties could shift between solid, liquid, and gas depending on its concentration.

And the moment solid matter turned to gas, its volume expanded explosively.

This volume was large enough to engulf Calurien, the Sword of May, and everything else in a vast, dark mass. Though the force felt like he had been shot from a cannon, nearly causing him to lose consciousness, Isaac gritted his teeth and held on.

Isaac enveloped himself in the Color Beyond, adjusting his trajectory. As he glided through the air, he caught sight of Calurien, who seemed momentarily startled by the sudden obstruction in his view.

‘A bit too far.’

Isaac realized he was out of range to strike with his sword. Launching himself like a cannonball to hit the target had been a far-fetched idea.

But it didn’t matter. Isaac transformed his left arm into a tentacle. The tentacle, gripping the Luadin Key in its mouth, shot forward, piercing Calurien’s heart and burrowing into his chest.

At that moment, the rings around the Sword of May began to glow brilliantly. Though Isaac couldn’t discern the exact technique she used, he saw the front-facing Calurien shatter into pieces.

Now, the last one remained.

‘Hesabel!’

Isaac turned his gaze to the remaining Calurien on the right. If he cast a resurrection spell, the Caluriens defeated by Isaac and the Sword of May would revive immediately.

From below, a terrifying force propelled an arrow upwards.

The arrow, imbued with a crimson aura, was grotesquely large, composed of bone, muscle, and blood. Isaac didn’t even want to guess what it originally was. The unholy arrow shot skyward, aiming directly at Calurien…

But was caught in his hand.

“What the…?”

Crack! Although the arrow had ascended at an almost unavoidable speed, Calurien managed to catch it, preventing it from piercing his heart. However, the potent energy within the arrow caused blisters to form and his hand to burn.

But it seemed that was all. Hesabel’s attack appeared to have failed.

However, the attack of the unparalleled assassin Hesabel was never that simple.

***

‘What does he expect me to do?’

Hesabel had been baffled by Isaac’s command, but an assassin’s virtue is to obey orders. Above all, Isaac wouldn’t give her an impossible command. If he ordered it, it meant she could do it.

Hesabel believed this without a doubt.

But her crossbow didn’t have the range to reach Calurien’s altitude.

‘Is the crossbow my strongest weapon?’

No. Hesabel had another weapon entrusted to her by Isaac. A token of his trust. The Dagger of Division was in her possession. This dagger had been used by the Dancer to strike down Elil. It was undoubtedly powerful against the angels of the Red Chalice, and even more so against the angels of Elil.

‘I have a way.’

Hesabel mentally dusted off old doctrines she had forgotten. She recalled the trials and miracles of the Prophet of the Red Flesh, whose skin the Dancer had joyously peeled, reassembling her flesh, bones, and blood into a new form.

And a miracle began to manifest where she stood.

‘I can do this… because I must.’

Hesabel’s body melted and her bones restructured.

Flesh was added, and muscles unraveled into fiber strands.

It looked like a grotesque structure made from a human body. Hesabel thought her form might not be beautiful, but sometimes functional beauty can overshadow other aesthetic senses.

She twisted her joints and drew the bowstring.

It seemed difficult to pull her own body and shoot it, but she managed more skillfully than expected. It felt similar to the sense of handling tentacles she had developed under Isaac’s guidance.

Bang. The arrow was launched.

The dark Color from Beyond obscured her vision, but she could see her target, Calurien’s heart, clearly. Calurien easily caught her arrow, her spine.

That was exactly what Hesabel wanted.

Crack! The Doctrine of Red Supplication activated, reconstructing her body around the spine. The unravelled muscles, blood, and bones ravenously consumed everything around to reform her original shape. Even an angel was not exempt. Calurien, who had grabbed her spine, had to surrender his right arm as Hesabel’s prey, as her flesh.

The first thing reconstructed was not her head, torso, or heart, but Hesabel’s right arm.

Even without eyes, driven by instinct alone, she plunged the Rite of Division into Calurien’s neck with her right hand.

“Gah!”

For the first time, a scream echoed from Calurien’s mouth.

***

Without giving Calurien a chance to react, his three clones were swiftly defeated. Seeing Hesabel being reconstructed around Calurien’s body, Isaac marveled at her success and realized how much she had grown.

Though Calurien may have underestimated them, believing he couldn’t be defeated by mere mortals in the presence of the Sword of May, this was an extraordinary feat.

Isaac extended his tentacles into Calurien’s body, seeking to consume the angel’s essence. Opportunities to devour an angel’s essence were rare. Though he only absorbed some dry leaves and a portion of the angel’s power, it was enough.

[You have devoured the essence of ‘Calurien (EX)’.]

[Consumption efficiency is increased by the ‘Intestines of the Dead God’ perk.]

[You have acquired the temporary perk ‘Primordial Magic’.]

[Primordial Magic (S): The magic contains the power of the observers who organized order in a time when the world’s order was not yet fixed. It can grant life to inanimate objects or alter the properties of elements. It is consumed immediately upon use.]

‘What?’

Though he had acquired an absurd power, the realization that he had consumed Calurien’s essence rather than Calurien himself made Isaac aware of the anomaly.

He realized the true nature of the Calurien he had captured. It was a magically crafted puppet, infused with a portion of Calurien’s essence.

It wasn’t strange that Hesabel had identified it as ‘real’. The power within it was strong enough to rival an angel.

Calurien must have endured immense pain and expended great energy to create this puppet, essentially another self.

The greatest illusion is to create an entirely new reality.

‘So, which of the three Caluriens was the real one?’

Isaac quickly examined the Caluriens killed by the Sword of May and Hesabel. But he only saw leaves beginning to scatter.

The ‘knightly’ behavior of the ‘wizard’ Calurien. Isaac had thought he was conserving his strength and aimed to eliminate him as quickly as possible.

But none of the three were the real target.

Isaac finally understood the source of his unease.

‘Why three?’

Calurien had three clones. But there was no reason for it to be three. If more numbers were advantageous, he could have created more, and if concentration of power was key, one would suffice. Perhaps it was a limit, but if there needed to be three?

Three matched the number of archangels who could appear.

‘What if he implied there were only three from the start?’

In fact, there could be a fourth Calurien somewhere, preparing a final weapon.

***

Before he could comprehend the situation, Isaac began free-falling from the scattering leaves.

Isaac quickly reassembled the Color Beyond into a wide parachute. Although he wanted to create wings to glide, it required too much power to make them thick and wide enough.

‘Hesabel?’

Hesabel, too, had lost her support, but she had anticipated being in the sky when she reconstructed her body.

Wide, large red wings sprouted from her back. These wings radiated powerful energy.

Having devoured Calurien’s essence, her strength seemed to have significantly increased.

Hesabel, with a dazed expression, possibly from the reconstruction or the devouring, abandoned the disintegrating Calurien and glided through the sky.

Isaac turned his head to ask the Sword of May what was going on. However, she did not seem shocked or afraid; she was merely waiting for Calurien’s next move, knowing that it wasn’t over yet.

Isaac finally sensed the discrepancy in everything.

Why did Calurien bring such a large army? Why did he choose a stormy night called ‘the night when angels clash’ as the backdrop?

The army and the storm did not significantly help in dealing with the Sword of May. But if it was all a distraction, it made sense.

“The sky!”

Isaac instinctively shouted.

The Sword of May, instead of asking for an explanation, immediately unleashed her rings and directed them toward the sky. Calurien had to summon the storm.

To hide his true form.

And to mask the noise of what he was doing.

Rumble, rumble, rumble…

The air vibrated with powerful waves, strong enough to wonder why it wasn’t noticed earlier. The Sword of May, too, seemed to realize what was happening above the storm clouds and roared.

Her roar tore through the clouds, revealing ‘it.’

A massive mountain of rock.

Hundreds of meters high, with an even greater diameter, it was falling upside down towards them. It was so high that its tip was glowing red from friction with the air as it plummeted.

And atop the falling mountain, a giant dragon was pushing the mountain with all its might.

The battle with the Caluriens had merely been a distraction to prevent them from stopping the mountain’s descent.

This was Calurien’s ultimate illusion.

Not magic or swordsmanship, but pure gravitational energy and overwhelming mass to annihilate the angel.

‘It’s over.’

Isaac considered all options but found no way to stop the falling mountain. It was pure, unadulterated force, impossible to negotiate with, deceive, or intimidate. It was too late to escape, and even with all their power, they couldn’t cut it down.

The Sword of May might be able to stop it if she was willing to sacrifice herself. But Isaac couldn’t think of a reason why she would risk her life to save him or Hesabel. To her, they were just useful tools. She needed to conserve her strength to deal with Calurien afterward.

However, the Sword of May did not flee.

Instead, she flew higher, accelerating towards the falling mountain. Her three remaining rings spun even faster.

[Holy Knight, brace for impact.]

Clang. The three rings extended into three long blades. It looked like three massive swords. Then, she unleashed her ultimate technique, a strike only the angel and the bearer of the sun’s flame could perform.

An immense flash blinded Isaac. He couldn’t see what was happening. The following explosion sent shockwaves that churned his insides. Gliding on the Color from Beyond, Isaac was blown away like a piece of paper.

Isaac plummeted towards the ground but was suddenly caught. Hesabel, who was gliding, had grabbed him. However, she too had not fully recovered from the impact of the storm, managing only to stabilize their fall.

Crash! Isaac and Hesabel tumbled across the field, but they were neither thrown nor broken. Though their bodies screamed in pain, surviving was a miracle in itself.

As soon as he stopped rolling, Isaac looked up at the sky. He was astonished.

‘I must be insane to think I could face an angel.’

The massive falling mountain had been sliced into six pieces.

It seemed to momentarily hang in the air, having lost its initial descent speed. Then, it began to fall towards the ground again. Isaac braced for the inevitable devastation.

But something felt off. He looked up again.

‘The Sword of May?’

She was nowhere to be seen. Amid the scattering mountain fragments, Isaac saw countless glowing weapons and drifting ashes. It was reminiscent of the leaves shed by Elil’s followers upon death.

“The Sword of May…”

Isaac groaned, sensing her demise.

–TL Notes–