Chapter 216: Shock in Heaven (3)

Rian, while stealthily closing the distance and looking for an opportunity to attack, Tess shouted as if she were frustrated.

“Hey, you bear! Fight later and free us first!”

“Damn it! Even if I want to…!”

Deep down, he wanted to run to them immediately. But in a situation where an archangel was watching, looking away even for a moment was practically a suicidal act.

Arin explained calmly.

“Canis, the liquor of life has already started. We have to remove the panel attached to our foreheads. If not, we will all end up gestating a nephilim.”

Before Canis could respond, Rian opened his eyes wide and shouted.

“What? You should have said that first!”

“That’s why I told you, idiot! If you don’t want to see me go crazy, hurry up and take off these restraints first!”

“Got it! Wait a moment!”

No matter what, Rian and Tess had similar personalities. Unlike a mage who analyzes the situation until an opportunity appears, Rian ran forward with the idea of removing the panel first.

At that moment, a shockwave formed right in front of his eyes. Feeling a sharp pain, Rian stepped back and looked up. Kariel, floating in the air, extended his hand with an expression of disgust.

‘What is this? It’s not a big deal.’

The fact that a shockwave exploded in empty air was surprising, but its destructive power was not as strong as he had expected.

Rian, who had been intimidated by the title of archangel, tightened his grip on his greatsword with renewed hope.

Canis was also paying attention to the information Rian had obtained.

— The archangel’s ability is weaker than expected. This could be an opportunity for us.

— It must be because of that liquor of life or whatever. Creating humans shouldn’t be easy.

— That seems to be the case. But it’s strange. Is he going to stay like this even after we arrived?

Angels are strong, but they do not exist for combat.

For example, the ability of the archangel Ikael was an activation that did not seem related to combat.

But that concept was so enormous that any demon, even angels themselves, trembled before it.

Kariel also possessed the enormous concept of birth.

Explosion, ignition, machines, drugs.

The possibilities of creating something by combining what already exists were almost infinite.

But among all that, what Kariel was most proud of was life.

No matter what object was created, the energy concentrated in birth itself was enormous.

Especially when it came to the liquor of life that gives rise to living beings, even an archangel had to invest most of his mental power.

“Do you dare interfere in the mission of an archangel? Humans who do not even live a hundred years, how arrogant.”

Without anyone noticing, Canis let Harvest slip into the shadows. The plan was to buy time and then launch a surprise attack on Kariel, and at that moment rescue the girls.

“The mission of an angel? What do you plan to do by creating nephilim? An Unlocker can be found in our world at any time.”

Amy spoke up. She had understood Canis’s plan to buy time.

“Heaven plans to attack the human world using nephilim. Since Unlockers have increased in our world, they are trying to balance the power.”

“Conquest? Are you going to start a war?”

“Yes. Nephilim are not apostles of god. They were spies sent into occupied territories.”

Kariel did not deny it. He did not care at all about the thoughts of insignificant humans.

Angels were great and superior. There was no place for human concepts to interfere with what an archangel did.

“You should be grateful. Thanks to you, we will be able to wage the final war.”

The gazes of Amy’s group focused on Kariel. The expression “final war” was already unsettling, but they could not understand what it meant that it was now possible to carry it out.

“Final war?”

“Just as it sounds. The world of humans will soon be destroyed. Until now, that detestable Miro had prevented the end, but because of you, the prelude to the war has opened.”

Canis felt confused. The woman Shirone was looking for had been stopping the end?

Then he remembered Akain’s reaction. If it was something related to the destruction of humanity, it made sense that his master had erased his memories.

“But why thanks to us? What did we do?”

“The woman called Miro blocks the passage between heaven and the human world. But through the metagate that you brought, a new path has been opened. Soon, the army of heaven will burn humans without mercy.”

Everyone’s hearts sank at once. If what Kariel said was true, they had done something irreversible. The destruction of humanity would be brought forward because of them.

Kariel pointed at the device and shouted.

“Look! This is the metagate that Ikasa brought! When the liquor of life is finished, I will analyze the coordinates! The moment the new portal opens, your world will be destroyed!”

The gazes of Amy’s group turned at the same time.

“…….”

The Great World Hall fell silent. No one said anything.

Not getting the reaction he expected, Kariel, confused, slowly turned his head. Then, he too adopted the same expression.

“…….”

A fairy hugging the metagate was looking this way with her mouth open, stunned.

Kariel tried to say something, but closed his mouth again.

Why was the fairy here? It did not match the law, and even beyond the law, it was a situation where causality could not be found.

As the silence became uncomfortable, Peophe spoke first.

“…Hi, hello.”

Kariel tilted his head. Was she greeting him? Then at least she was not insane. Hoping to find the slightest coherence with this question, he spoke.

“Who are you?”

“I am Peophe.”

Kariel was shaken internally. But showing emotions was a low-class act, so he forced himself to calm down.

“Fine, Peophe. Why are you here?”

“Ah, I came to get the metagate.”

“…I see. Then, why…? Ha… I mean, why would someone like you come to get that?”

“Because there must not be a war.”

At that instant, Kariel’s patience broke. He extended his hand with the sole intention of blowing apart the nuisance in front of him.

With a single strike, in a spectacular manner.

“Die.”

— Harvest! Now!

From the darkness of the great battlefield, Harvest shot forward.

At the moment he swung a shadow sharp as a blade, Kariel rose up to the ceiling.

Taking advantage of that instant, Canis ran toward the girls and shouted,

“Rian! Protect Peophe! Don’t let them take her!”

Rian immediately turned and ran toward Peophe. He wanted to rescue Tess at that very moment, but in an urgent situation it was better to listen to the mage.

“Peophe! Come here!”

Peophe, who was confused by the sudden battle, heard Rian’s voice and flew toward him.

Kariel, dodging Harvest’s pursuit, aimed at Peophe. But when Rian took his sword and held his ground, he abruptly changed direction and rose again toward the ceiling.

Rian, relieved for a moment, looked at Peophe.

“Huff, are you okay?”

“I don’t know! I thought I was going to die of fear! Take this quickly!”

Peophe’s face was pale as soup. She had provoked an archangel. Even now, she did not understand how she had managed to respond.

Rian received the metagate. Even he, who seemed like stone, could not help but feel moved.

If he activated the metagate right now, at least he could return home.

Of course, he had no intention of doing so, but thinking about how much the situation had improved, courage welled up inside him.

“Thank you, Peophe.”

“Don’t get the wrong idea! It’s not like I’m helping you…!”

Peophe fell silent. The situation was too obvious to hide her true feelings.

She had disobeyed the order of an archangel and helped humans. It was not just breaking the law, it was like burning it completely.

Giving up on excuses, Peophe muttered in annoyance.

“S-so then, what am I supposed to do? Now I’m finished.”

“Come with us.”

“What?”

“Come with us. In that world there are also many interesting things. Since you saved us, we will also do everything possible to save you.”

Peophe turned away quickly. Honestly, that had moved her a little.

But she could not accept the proposal. It was not difficult to go to the human world, but that was not what she had been seeking with her actions.

“That’s enough, idiot! Think about that after saving your friends!”

Rian watched the surroundings while observing Canis’s progress. At that moment, Canis was cutting the girls’ restraints with the power of darkness.

— Progress of the liquor of the life: 40 percent.

When the voice echoed from the ceiling, Amy shouted,

“Hurry! There’s no time!”

“Stay still, pumpkin! If your concentration wavers, I’ll cut all the way to your wrist!”

Canis spun shadows sharp as blades to cut the restraints of the three. Since they were completely attached to the skin, it required precise work.

Kariel, moving to avoid Harvest, was beginning to grow irritated. He thought that perhaps it would be better to cancel the liquor of the life and massacre them all.

With his birth ability, there were probably fifty thousand ways to kill.

But he could not cancel the liquor of the life.

Even though the information transmission rate had exceeded 40 percent, none of the women showed a positive reaction.

‘They are top-quality materials. I cannot give up.’

Kariel, as a last resort, opened a portal.

With the mental energy he had left, he could summon a fairly decent Mara, and moreover, he thought of the perfect candidate for the situation.

“Answer my call, Baalbe.”

When the new Mara appeared, the great battlefield was dyed with a sinister color. Everyone, except Canis, looked toward the ceiling to count the number of horns first.

It was a two-horned Mara.

“Baalbe, demon of dreams. I attend the order of Lord Kariel.”

He was a middle-aged man with an elegant appearance. His hair was slicked back with oil and his exposed ears stood slightly upright.

He was as tall as an angel and wore a cloak with a collar that rose above his head.

“Subdue the humans. The liquor of the life must not be interrupted.”

“That perfectly suits my specialty. Understood.”

Baalbe placed his right hand on his chest and descended to the ground.

“Peophe, take care of it for a moment.”

Rian entrusted the metagate to Peophe and charged at Baalbe. But even though he charged prepared to die, he could not even get close. The moment he approached, his mind grew heavy and his consciousness began to fade.

‘What is this? Suddenly I’m sleepy…’

In a situation where one fights risking their life, feeling sleepy was impossible unless he had gone mad.

It was definitely an ability.

Realizing that, Rian immediately retreated.

As soon as he left the invisible area, his consciousness returned. But the fatigue from the lack of sleep remained intact in his body.

It was a situation that could only make him explode with anger.

“Damn it, what kind of trick is this now?”

From giants to fairies, and from Maras to angels, all of them had absurd abilities. Thinking about it, after arriving in heaven, he even felt ashamed of having been nothing more than a burden to his friends.

Baalbe turned his body elegantly.

“It’s useless. You won’t even be able to swing your sword against me.”

Red gems slowly floated around Baalbe. Could that be the problem?

He took a fencing stance and slowly closed the distance. Just as he expected, upon crossing a certain limit, the red gems glowed and drowsiness invaded him again.

‘Damn it. That was it. What the hell is that?’

No one knew the identity of the gems, but the magical organism Harvest could read their peculiar vibration.

— Canis, the situation is bad. It would be better to retreat for now. It’s an object.

— An object? That’s an object?

Canis had also only heard about it from Akain, but this was the first time he had seen one in person.

An object is an object.

The difference from a common object is that it exerts a strange influence on the outside world.

Some objects are also familiar to humans.

Things like the cursed blue diamond or a flying carpet fell into that category.

Since they are things even humans collect, it was not strange that Maras who have traveled through numerous worlds possess at least one.

It is said that a vampirism object possessed by a certain Mara absorbs the blood of its surroundings. Also, an object of hatred can provoke rage and lead to murder.

Baalbe’s object was a dream object, an artifact that made any living being that entered its area of influence fall asleep.