The Duke’s Eldest Son Escaped to the Military
chapter-223

The Duke’s Eldest son Escaped to the Military (223)

Translator: Master of Djinn

1. 1. A Fallen God (2)

The fallen god observed Iron, as if it found it cruel that Iron was trying to destroy the dimension gate that the ancient gods had sacrificed themselves to create.

It was the fallen god that poured an immense amount of power into the dimension gate that had been expanded by the ancient gods in order to maintain it. But the dimension gate had been shrunk by a lone human. Even though maintaining a dimension gate from the outside was several folds more difficult than doing so from the inside, it was still a god.

It was impossible for a human to force its back to the wall.

Crash!

Suddenly, one part of the shrunken dimension gate began to collapse, causing Iron’s expression to harden. If the dimension gate collapsed, then it would inevitably become a dimension fissure. If that happened, apostle-level beings would not be able to come out through it. But the fallen god was deliberately causing cracks in the dimension gate.

“On purpose? Why in the world?”

It wasn’t long before Iron understood why. Part of a giant tentacle sprang out through the dimension gate, and stretched all the way to the ground.

Part of the fallen god’s body had come out of the ground. Upon seeing that, Iron unleashed even more holy power, but was unable to prevent the god’s body from coming over. Even though his holy power contained the power of the Lord God, because the one wielding that power was a human, there was a limit to it.

Fortunately, Baepsae’s divinity restrained the fallen god’s body from crossing over, as much as was possible.

“……but there’s a price to pay for doing this.”

Regardless of how high-ranked it was, there would still be consequences if a god tried to force its way through a dimension gate.

And of course, Iron was right. As the enormous tentacle got closer to the ground, the dimension gate continued to crumple, and the hole that had been forced open gradually narrowed. Once the tentacle touched the ground, the gate vanished, leaving behind only one giant tentacle.

“What the heck is……”

“What is that?”

The left-behind tentacle shrank and took form. The bizarre creature, smaller than a giant, glared at Iron with dozens of eyes.

“Did it…… sacrifice itself?”

-Correct.

The fallen god replied to Iron.

-I sacrificed a part of my ranking and part of my body in order to appear here personally.

Iron froze at the fallen god’s statement. The southern commander and the western commander, who had both been watching over that place, left Carlos and Yolke to their subordinates and hastened to where Iron was. But as they tried to hurry over, Iron shouted at them.

“Everyone stand back!”

Saeriden and all the other officers stared at Iron blankly, not understanding what he meant, only for Iron to shout again.

“I said move back! The Commanders too, don’t come over!”

-An excellent judgement you’ve made there.

A mouth appeared on the strange creature, its lips forming a disgusting smile. Iron was right to have asked everyone to not come close.

-Although I couldn’t bring even 10% of my power with me, I am still a god. Do you think you could stop me on your own?

Even though it had fallen, it was still a god. It could only use a miniscule percentage of its full power, but that great power and ranking was not something a master could take on. The only reason why Iron was able to do so was because he was the Lord God’s apostle.

At present, in all of this city of the Southern confederation, only Iron could bear the power of the fallen god.

“Despite that, didn’t you still pay a price to appear here in order to catch me?”

An uncanny laughter flowed from the fallen god’s mouth when it heard Iron’s question.

-Although a part of my strength was destroyed, if I am able to kill the apostle of the Lord God, then I would have profited greatly, so…… how can that be considered a loss?

“Isn’t that something you should say after you have killed me?”

Iron strengthened his trembling hands. At some point, Iron’s surroundings had turned dark, as if day had turned to the darkest night. This was caused by the god’s fallen qi. As the power, so strong that Iron could not purify it even with his holy power, thickened around Iron, the divine beasts gathered around Iron. Baepsae positioned itself on Iron’s head as always, and amplified its divine power to the utmost.

-A futile last-ditch effort.

The fallen god laughed as it watched Iron gathering his strength. The fallen god had the power to toy around with Iron, no matter what he did, just like a bug in someone’s palm.

Bang!

The fallen god’s palm moved lightly, throwing Iron towards a building. Then thousands of blackened hands formed and flew towards him.

But Iron was, of course, a master. Like the warrior at the peak of his swordsmanship that he was, he split the thousands of hands that came at him.

-Try to stop this too.

Along with the fallen god’s playful voice, black energy gathered and then spread out indiscriminately. But then, the holy power in Iron’s body surged and destroyed all the corrupted qi around him.

-Excellent. Truly excellent!

As if it was having fun on a playground, the fallen god launched several attacks at Iron.

‘Is this what it’s like to experiment on lab mice?’

As if it had finally found its human subject to experiment on, the god continued to attack Iron in various ways. It was all play for the god, but it took all that Iron had to defend against the god’s attack.

Less than 10% of its strength was enough to toy around with Iron.

Even though Iron was considered the strongest on the continent by many, he was but a worm before a god.

-That was truly entertaining. But I am bored now.

As the fallen god said that, tentacles flew from its body into the sky, forming a gigantic black arm.

-I don’t have much time, so it’s about time I exterminated all the vermin in this city.

Iron ground his teeth at the god’s statement. This battle that seemed to him well over a day was, in fact, just over 10 minutes. Just as the huge arm was about to fall on the city, Iron corrected his posture.

He still had an unperfected skill. So he used that fusion skill there. A huge steel sword made of aura rose suddenly, a great amount of divine power wrapping around it. When he had first fought the giant, he had been unable to fuse his holy power with his divine power. At the moment, adding his divine power too to the aura blade was far beyond Iron’s current abilities. He could combine the two great powers only by relying on his fusion skill.

-That……

All the while, the god had been leisurely, but now its dozens of eyes opened wide as it watched Iron’s sword. Iron’s holy power continuously wrapped around the sword, creating a wavelength of great strength.

“Umph!”

With a short grunt, Iron swung the sword, shiny white from the power wrapped around it, and split the arm that was coming down. Then the sacred sword turned to hit the fallen god as well.

Boom!

Despite the great attack from the sword, the god did not suffer much damage. Some of its eyes fell and a few tentacles were cut down, but it had no fatal injuries. Instead, the god became enraged.

-You dare try to hurt my body, you vermin!

As it spoke, the fallen god released all the power it had. Instantly, its injured eyes recovered and began emitting a strange light, and its hidden eyes opened and released a corrupted light that aimed at Iron.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Even though hundreds of light beams flew at Iron from both the dozens of eyes the fallen god had before and the newly opened eyes, Iron blocked all of them with his sword. The bizarre alien creature got even angrier as it watched Iron parry all the attacks with near-perfect moves. The vermin it had thought of as a plaything to toy with had gone beyond struggling for life to attacking it. Now the fallen god had tried to kill that vermin with all its might, but even that was impossible. So the fallen god attacked again, just like an angry human running around like crazy to catch and kill a mosquito that has bitten them.

In order to kill this human that moved here and there so quickly, the fallen god moved its bulky body. As it moved, the ground vibrated, its steps leaving the city destroyed in its wake.

But the human was not easy to catch, nimble as he was.

Thousands of tentacles, hundreds of light rays, even ten thousand clumps of corrupted energy failed to catch Iron, only managing to destroy the surroundings. So the fallen god spoke in a voice laden with irritation.

-Just die, every last one of you!

The moment the fallen god finished speaking, all its hundred eyes closed and almost all its tentacles rushed up to the sky. Seeing this as an opportunity, Iron compacted his aura blade, and rushed in to cut down the fallen god once and for all.

Unfortunately, Iron could not make use of that opportunity because a huge shape formed in the sky and was crashing towards the ground. It was a lump of energy that would decimate all the cities of the Southern Confederation once it fell, and still have some left. Seeing this, Iron gathered his strength once more.

“Ha-ahh!”

As he swung his white aura blade in the air, the blade collided with the huge clump of black energy. It was a clash between a power created by the fallen god with all its might and a swing of Iron’s sword that took all the power Iron could muster at the moment.

At that moment, everyone in the city hoped that Iron would win. Even the southerners who had followed the ancient gods saw how much power the bizarre-looking god had, and hoped that Iron, the hope of all humankind, would win.

But contrary to their wishes, Iron’s sword was being pushed back little by little. Everyone sighed at the sight. If things continued the way they were, they thought that the hero would lose.

Right at that moment, the divine beasts gathered their strengths and flew towards the black energy. Their strength helped Iron’s aura blade, and although it was only bit by bit, the blade began to push away the dark clump of energy. The masters who saw that also tried to join in and help Iron. The eastern commander and the southern commander moved forward. However, the masters from the Southern Confederation did not bother trying to stop them. Afterall, they thought it was meaningless for them to meddle in a fight between a god and a god’s apostle.

“……is this our end?”

Muradin sighed as he looked up into the sky. The fallen god had no intention of sparing them. Muradin looked down in regret as he watched the power that seemed determined to destroy all of them.

Carlos, Yolke and all the other people of the Southern Confederation felt the same way too. Unlike the ancient gods, the fallen god did not even attempt to spare them. It had only promised to help them because it had wanted to play around. After confirming that that promise would not be abandoned at any time like an old pair of shoes, the people of the Southern Confederation lost their will to fight against the Empire’s army. They just sat back and watched to see the outcome of the battle.

The two masters of the empire, on the other hand, were in a completely different state.

“We have to kill that bastard!”

The southern commander agreed with the eastern commander’s words, and drew on all the magic he could. They knew that they could not stop the black mass of energy by their own strength.

So they chose to directly attack the fallen god instead.

A large block of ice flew out and several thunderbolts bunched together and flashed, appearing like a large, blinding light beam.

BOOM!

Could the attack that had taken all the two magicians had have even the slightest effect?

A part of the massive body of the fallen god was destroyed. The attack had come from outside the fallen god’s field of view. Upon confirming that their attack had an effect, the two masters wrung out all the magic that was in their bodies. Seeing that, even with the help of the divine beasts, Iron was barely able to push the clump of dark energy off, the two masters tried to vanquish the fallen god as fast as possible.

Did their efforts bear fruit? The massive body of the fallen god began to fall apart completely because of the two masters’ attack. But something came out from inside the body and soared into the sky.

-All your efforts are in vain, you despicable things…… so just accept your demise.

The object that had soared into the sky was the body of the fallen god. It fused with the dark cloud floating in the sky and amplified its power. When Iron saw that, he clenched his teeth and tried to continue fighting, but there was nothing more he could do. The divine beasts had fused together, and Iron poured all his strength into the aura blade for one last attack.

Bang!

With a deafening explosion, Iron destroyed most of the dark cloud. However, there was still part of it left, and now, Iron had no strength left in him. The airships and the magicians joined hands and attacked, but there was no damage to the power of the god. Not even the attacks of Muradin and the other masters of the Southern Confederation worked.

As they watched the dark cloud remain the same, despite all their joint attacks, they fell into despair.

But right at that moment, a ray of light fell from the sky. The ray of light contained a great power that destroyed most of the remaining cloud instantly.

-This…….

Seeing that its own power was disappearing, the fallen god figured out the source of this new power.

“It seems I’m late. That’s disappointing.”

A man appeared with an expression of true regret on his face. .

“Godly Sword clan leader?”

At the eastern commander’s words, the southern commander’s eyes grew round in surprise.