Side Story Chapter 311  

Kireua’s sword and Bel’s fist continued to clash, sending aura sparks flying everywhere. It was like Kireua became a totally different man; Selim couldn’t even follow Kireua’s movements.

“Hahahahahaha! Now this is exciting! You Sanders boys are so interesting!” Bel guffawed. He was genuinely enjoying the fight.

In contrast, Kireua looked quite bizarre. All of his veins were bulging grotesquely, and his eyes were bloody red.

“Kireua…!” Selim clenched his fists. Frustrated, he watched the fight, waiting for the right moment to join in.

That moment never arrived. Kireua attacked Selim when he got within a certain distance, as if he’d gone mad. Kireua’s state reminded Selim of a story about ancient warriors named berserkers who fought in a frenzy. However, the situation wasn’t totally abysmal.

“Hmm…?”

Anyone would have been taken aback when they realized that the confused grunt came from Bel.

A subtle crack tickled Bel’s ear. He wasn’t mistaken—every time Bel clashed with Kireua’s sword, he could feel the aura enveloped around his fists dissipate.

‘This is quite a hassle. Greed is living up to its name; it won’t stop trying to devour my aura.’

The moment Bel reached that conclusion, he dodged an attack for the first time—a striking contrast from his insistence on tackling problems head-on. It was so completely unexpected that Kireua lost his balance.

Bel didn’t miss the opportunity and kicked Kireua, catapulting him into the corner. Bel clenched and unclenched his fists several times.

“Those abilities are a real nuisance.”

Bel could sense two Evil Sins from Kireua. To make up for the unfathomable gap in their physical abilities, Kireua was using Wrath. At the same time, Kireua also used Greed to slow Bel down.

“…But that kind of method has limits.” Bel smiled and bumped his fists together. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

Once again, Bel made an unexpected move. He summoned his subspace in the air and pulled out something that shocked everyone watching.

“It’s been a very long time since I felt the need to use a weapon.” Bel giggled.

“W-Wait…” Selim was utterly appalled. The fact that Bel used a weapon was a shock, but the nature of his weapon was even more surprising.

“...A spear?”

The ominous-looking weapon was a spear that looked exactly like Longin, Selim’s cherished weapon.

-Agh! Gah!

Greed suddenly coughed as if it were choking on something.

-Master?

“…Master…?” Greed’s goofy voice brought Kireua to his senses. His Wrath-reddened eyes regained their focus.

“Hahaha. Do you get it now, Greed? I am the sole god of Chaos, your true master.”

Bel whirled his spear and slammed the butt into the ground. “Come to me, Greed.” He beckoned toward Kireua. “It’s me, the Shining Darkness, whom even the Demon Spirit feared.”

Although Kireua couldn’t really move himself like he wanted to, his mind was swearing up a storm. What in the world was Bel talking about? Kireua shared the memories of Greed and Wrath, so he knew better than anyone that the Shining Darkness was the Emperor of Avalon’s title in his previous life!

“Kireua Sanders, there’s no need to be confused.” Bel chuckled.

“…What…?”

“Those people up in the Angel and Demon Realms made a grave mistake.”

“A mistake…?”

“They only heard the rumors of the Demon Spirit betraying and killing the Shining Darkness. No one actually saw the Shining Darkness’s end with their own eyes.” Bel nodded. “If you know that, it should be easy to understand what’s going on right now.”

Bel pointed his spear at Kireua, grinning. “Do you want to know what kind of end the Shining Darkness met?”

*

The troops Hubalt sent to invade Avalon were in hell right now.

“I-I can’t feel my hands and feet.”

“It’s cold… I-It’s too cold…”

“Someone help me please…”

The sound of clattering teeth was heard all over the battlefield as the temperature plummeted. The cause of the sudden change in the weather was clear: the Ice Archmage and her mages were pouring a barrage of attacks on them using all of their mana. They were furious after losing their home. When their mana was nearly depleted, they used top-grade mana stones they had brought from the Magic Tower.

“Ice Field!”

“Ice Rain!”

“Blizzard!”

While over one hundred mages cast Ice Field, the Fifth Circle mages cast much more destructive and brilliant spells, although they were fewer in numbers. While two of them cast a Sixth Circle spell named Ice Rain, the Ice Archmage herself cast Blizzard, a Seventh Circle spell.

The mana they poured out was freezing over the entire area.

“L-Let’s retreat! Everyone, get back inside the city!” Gyo ordered, as acting commander of the forces stationed outside Arcadia.

“The enemies are retreating!”

The alliance forces cheered as they watched the enemy disappear. The alliance’s forces and mages couldn’t have asked for a better result, but Theta wished for more.

“Tower Master! Our enemies are retreating, so how much longer should we continue with our spells?”

“Ugh… I feel like my heart’s going to burst!”

“A little longer! We need it to be colder, so hang on just a little longer!” Theta personally walked among the mages, cheering them up.

As the first human Eighth Circle mage, Theta wished to help, but he had another job.

‘This isn’t enough. The amount of mana itself is fine, but I didn’t account for how much pressure the mages’ Circles would be under after using so many high tier spells in a row.’

In their haste, Hubalt's forces had left behind their frozen colleagues. No one was left alive in the attack range of the Ice Archmage and her mages anymore. It seemed the enemy’s next strategy was to force the alliance into a siege, but Theta couldn’t stop.

“Not yet! Hold on a little longer!”

“Ahhhhhhhh!” The higher-circle ice mages scraped up every drop of their mana.

The low-circle mages didn’t sit on their hands either.

“Ice Fog!” “Ice Blades!”

“Ice Arrow!”

Theta watched everything anxiously. What he needed was the ultimate cold. He couldn’t let it get warmer when the sun was high, creating a White Night, a phenomenon that could commonly be found in arctic regions.

However, one element was missing.

“Shit…” Theta cursed, biting his fingernails.

“…Ice Tempest.”

Although that was a single spell, it was as powerful as dozens of others. A tempest that was colder than Blizzard swept over the area. Theta turned to where the spell had been cast from, surprised.

When she noticed Theta’s eyes on her, Iceline beamed, in contrast to her typical expressionlessness. She was extremely grateful that the Magic Tower was here to help Avalon.

“Iceline!” Theta’s legs gave out in relief. “Phew.”

“It’s Avalon!” one of the mages shouted in delight. Avalon’s forces, who had been fighting on the other side of Hubalt’s army, were trickling into the area.

“I didn’t know the Magic Tower was the reason why the enemies were suddenly retreating.” Icarus came forward with a gentle smile.

“But… what is going on here, Tower Master?” Charles asked, watching the mages casting their spells at an empty field.

Although Iceline had cast her spell because she believed that Theta had a good reason for their behavior, the question was on the minds of everyone who wasn’t from the Magic Tower.

“Well... my mages and I shouldn’t do this in the city, so I should scare them like this at least.”

“Then I think you’ve done a marvelous job. The enemies must have wet their pants by now,” Iruca joked.

“…I’m joking. My plan is to move the ice boulder from north Avalon over here with the help of the mages who are already there.”

Everyone’s eyes widened.

“I-Is that possible?”

“I have to make it possible if we want to have a world to live in.” Theta pointed at the tightly shut gates. “Anyhow, how do you guys propose dealing with that? It doesn’t look like Hubalt's going to come out any time soon, but directing our spells at the city might ruin it...”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan,” Icarus confidently answered. “The special unit inside the city will open the west gate, so we’ll wait there for their success.”

“Oh.” Theta’s eyes gleamed. “Do you still have that many people inside the city? It’ll require quite a bit of skill to breach the enemy’s security and open the gates…”

“They’re some of the most skilled people in Avalon.”

“It bodes well that even the Heaven’s Mind speaks so highly of them.”

Icarus nodded with a smile. Over one thousand three hundred people were hiding all over the city, disguised as common citizens.

“Then I’ll count on Avalon as I proceed with my plan,” Theta said. He pulled out a crystal ball.

After a short hum, the crystal ball projected the image of a familiar place—the snowy mountain in north Avalon. A handsome man with black hair was trapped in an ice boulder, his eyes closed.

“…Your Majesty…” Charles watched the image with sorrowful eyes.

Although they didn’t say anything, Icarus and Iceline felt the same way.

“Are you guys ready?” Theta asked.

-Yes, Tower Master.

After confirming that their magic circle had been completed near the peak of the mountain, Theta nodded. “We’re ready on this side, so let’s get started.”

-We’ll activate the magic circle of summoning.

The air thrummed with an incredible amount of power and the magic circle below Theta released radiant golden light.