Chapter 526 - The Exploit

Freya realized she was being stupid.

The battlefield was filled with Level 5 strong fighters. A Level 4 like her lacked the qualification to stand at that stage. Entering it was simply inviting death.

And yet, that was exactly what she did.

Why? Because she couldn't just watch while her master, who she respected and loved like a father, was fighting all on his own against the cultists.

She didn't care about the Aurora Scroll of whatever. She only wanted to... save Gregory? Aid? Protect? How would she do that against a bunch of Level 5s that even her master struggled against? She knew in her mind she was being stupid, yet she was doing it anyway.

“Master!!!” Freya shouted after seeing Gregory get hit by a nasty explosion.

“Hahahaha! Your master will die here. I’ll do you a favor and send you after him. In fact, if you’re such a dutiful pupil, you’ll go first to the afterlife and prepare a place for him!”

Standing in Freya's way was Norgard the Gourmand. He was a stocky young man and a prominent member of the Death Society, the cult of Lichzen. He served as the middle guard while the Level 5 from his cult was winning.

Truthfully, in forces alone, the Death Society had the most powerful force on the battlefield and was the most likely to obtain the Aurora Scroll. There was the abomination that was the combination of the three Level 5 liches, Merciless, Honorless, and Faithless. All three were scourges of old who had been revived. Then there was Marlborough the Undying Juggernaut, yet another prominent figure of the Death Society, one of their strongest active members.

Norgard was acting as the rear guard, so no interruption came from behind, not that they needed it but Death Society's new blood didn't twindle his thump. Although Freya wished he had.

The cannibal used immaterial tendrils with mouths on their tips. These mouths ate the life force of those it chomps.

“Khhh!” Freya was hit by such things on her left arm because of her momentary loss of focus. Even though the arm was physically fine, the pain and damage to her astral body were evident.

“I’ve wondered how you taste for a while now,” Norgard said with a delightful expression on his face. “I say, you do not disappoint, Freya Marianus! MORE! Feed me moreeeeeee!!!”

“Rrghhh!” Freya let out slashes of light to sever the mouth-tendrils that came at her like a forest of barbs.

Since the start of the Tower of Remorse’s invasion, Freya had been fighting nonstop. Even though as a Silver Legionary she had the Vigor of Responsibility Arte to bolster the amount of her Victa generation, she also fought many strong enemies and used great Artes. Like when she dispatched Rotpriest and the rest of the Gardeners of Perfection, then Whiskey Dog and his Warbringers cohort.

Her Victa and stamina from the back-to-back battles without rest had taken a serious dip. Even now, she had to burn a lot of Victa and had to maintain concentration to prevent her mind from being tainted.

The Demon King, newly minted by Dumuzin’s cult, carried the touch of their deity. The aura of madness felt like a constant swarm of rats crawling all over her, even from this far away. Another fresh horror that spawned in the bowels of the Tower of Remorse. That the Demon King rose in the first place, Freya couldn't help but feel responsible.

Amidst the fierce offense of Norgard, Freya suddenly lost her footing. Looking down, she saw a wet field of rotten corpses and foul smell.

This is Death Society's Bog of Death Arte! Not good!

“Welcome to my stomach!” Norgard combined his mouth-tendrils to create a gigantic one, big enough to swallow a person whole. It came straight at the immobile Freya.

With a grim face, Freya was about to fight back, but the unexpected happened. The attack was blown away before it reached her. Familiar figures surrounded her.

“Hmph! What were you thinking going on on your own?”

“You guys...”

They were Freya’s teammates. Eliott, Hunter, Casey, and even the wounded Cedric.

“Go back,” Freya said to Casey, who had already started healing her. “It’s too dangerous for you all.”

“Feh! The General said the same thing to you but you didn't listen, so why should we?” Hunter replied.

“Follow the plan. We've got this,” Hunter said while repelling Norgard’s attacks.

“Alright, brother. Leave it to us. Casey, back them up,” Cedric said.

“Without me, you people would have keeled over ages ago. Don't get injured and add to my work, you hear?” Casey the healer was filled with concern despite her words.

Cedric nodded to her and grabbed Freya on the arm before advancing. Norrgard tried to stop them but the three Silver Legionaries stopped him.

“Cedric-”

“The two of us are going to get the Scroll. It’s the only way that might save General Gregory and might save all our hides.”

Freya looked at the youth beside her. Still very pale, his soul was severely injured a short time ago. He had been in a coma and his heart even stopped beating a few times. Despite his condition still being dangerous, the otherworlder dragged his ass out here to help his friends.

“But how? Catching up to Master won't be easy; they are already so close to the finish. And the cultists won't let us slip past them.”

“Heh, you must be so flustered that you didn't even realize. What happened to the ice-cold intellectual, aloof team leader of mine? Look around.”

“...How could this be?”

Freya asked with a clear surprise in her voice.

In the battlefield, there was an invisible repelling force from the artifact. Therefore, even though the way to the rainbow-sun looked clear and free of obstacles, nobody could go towards it in a straight line, they were forced to trace the path of a spiral to the scroll.

However, Freya realized Cedric was significantly less hampered by the repulsing force. By sticking close to him, Freya was also shielded. Cedric had been going forward in a straight line, bringing her with him.

“I don't know the answer either,” Cedric said. “But the Aurora Scroll is an artifact about fate, isn't it? Maybe it’s because of my origin?”

The rest of the team didn't know Cedric was an otherworlder, only Freya knew. Thinking about Cedric’s reasoning, Freya conceded it might be right. Were otherworlders less influenced by fate or something along those lines?

At any rate, this is a Goddess-sent opportunity! There might be hope for us just yet.

“Hold on, Master. We’re coming...”

“All right, let’s go,” Cedric led the way, like a snowplow clearing a path.

***

“Weak! How weak you’ve become, Gregory. Growing old is a sad thing, isn't it?” Grausam the Catastrophe gloated to the man who decisively defeated him fifty years ago.

“It happens to all of us. I have lived a full life and nurtured the sprout of the next generation. I have no regrets should I meet my end here. All that’s left is to cleanse the blight of this world like you!”

The two Level 5 treated blows using the Palladion Icon once again. The clash of power of an utterly humongous force!

Someone used the opportunity to break through from the pack.

“My gratitude for your efforts, Grausam. I’ll be going ahead now.”

“Marlborough, you scurrying rat! You want to use me as a stepping stone? Not happening!”

Gregory, Grausam, and Marlborough. The two Level 5 cultists had been fighting Gregory two-on-one all this time. However, at a critical junction, Marlborough went on ahead during the battle’s chaos. They were from different cults after all, no loyalty. Their cooperation for the Tower of Remorse raid was a very shallow thing.

Angered at being made use of, Grausam attacked Marlborough using a volcanic barrage. Gregory also attacked Marlborough with giant weapons of fire. However, they failed to stop Marlborough. Even though his body was half-destroyed, the man with the moniker Undying Juggernaut pressed through.

The Level 5 from the Death Society finally reached within touching distance of the Aurora Scroll that shone brightly with seven-colored light.

“The Aurora Scroll is MINE!”

With greedy eyes and heart, Marlborough grabbed the scroll. Unlike before when the race hadn't started, there wasn't a barrier that prevented him now.

The next instant, his head snapped straight up. To every other person, they didn't see anything unusual, but for Marlborough, he saw history.

The scroll shone even brighter the moment Marlborough touched it. From the now blinding light, Marlborough’s scream could be heard.

Soon, the light dimmed and Marlborough was seen unconscious, moving away freely like a piece of space debris from the repelling force. Gregory and Grausom frowned, witnessing Marlborough’s fate.

***

“Fufufu. The Aurora Scroll cannot be obtained by those without the capability to bear its burden. It seems your little human failed, Lichzen.”

Yasterah, who was riding Izabella’s body, said to the abomination of three liches.

“He has served his purpose,” said the three skeletons at once. “All as our Lord wills it.”

The way Yasterah saw it, the three wills were joining as one, influenced by Lichzen's. Right now, the three liches thought they were doing this out of their own will but little did they know the subtle nudges and their mind would soon shatter into pieces.

The three Devil God avatars had been traveling without fighting all this time but their amicability was at an end.

What the Aurora Scroll did to Marlborough was not an attack but a gift. However, the recipient couldn't handle such a gift, like a jar that broke after being filled with too much water. Not even three Devil God avatars could handle the Aurora Scroll’s power in their vessel. That was the reason for their leisurely stroll.

However, now that the Aurora Scroll had spent some of its power, they might be able to handle it now.

Yasterah looked at the third member, who had been silent this whole time. “Dumuzin, you’ve been unusually quiet. Tell me dear, how much of you is actually in there?”

The silver-haired Demon King remained silent. Not a single sound passed through his lips from the start. He kept acting aloof as if he were the only one in existence. Not even Yasterah and Lichzen did he acknowledge.

“Fine, if asking nicely doesn't work, the hard way it is.”

Yasterah extended her red angel wings fully and her eyes twinkled with red light. Her attention was directed at the Demon King. Sensing hostility, the silver-haired demon in the shape of a man responded. The air twisted with visions of madness.

“Lichzen, be a dear and handle the little rats, will you. I’ll be teaching this one some manners,” Yasterah was not intimidated and showed her no less potent aura.

The abomination of earth and bones and liches that Tanael named Bob, opened one of its three mouths and swallowed a certain someone that drifted to them without hesitation. If Marlborough wasn't dead before, now he certainly was. The deathly aura inside its body would kill the defenseless Level 5 in seconds.

After that, the hill-sized living graveyard turned towards Freya and Cedric and moved towards them with a speed that beggars belief.

“Oh, bollocks!” Cedric cursed. They tried to be sneaky but they couldn't escape the notice of the three avatars.

“I’ll handle this,” Freya said while her body was glowing with specks of silver. Not even she could keep calm when the living graveyard was coming like a solid tsunami. “Get to the scroll, Cedric!”

“No way, I ain’t leaving you!”

“Don't be stubborn. There’s no sense that we both- Ah!?”

As she was preparing her trump card, a flash of golden flame struck the tsunami of death.

“Leave my disciple alone, dead thing! Away!” Gregory arrived to the rescue with flame and fury.