What Ludger drew forth to face Coilwat at full power was a spear that looked as though he had torn down a bolt of lightning straight from the sky.
‘What is that...?’
The hammer in Ludger’s right hand had already looked extraordinary, but this new lightning was different.
The hammer’s lightning was fierce—its destructive power palpable even to the eye—but this new one felt... different.
It was not just power.
It was power itself.
It was so pure that it felt as if it had been forged from the condensed essence of the clear heavens above.
And yet, by sheer magnitude alone, it couldn’t compare to the overwhelming spectacle Coilwat was displaying at that very moment.
It was impressive—no doubt—but could it really overcome that monster?
Coilwat thought the same.
[What is that supposed to be.]
From within the sphere of lightning, Coilwat’s voice boomed, echoing like the rumble of a storming sky.
Merely speaking, his presence bore the weight of one granted divine authority.
Those who had drawn back to avoid being caught in his power flinched and stumbled farther away without realizing it.
[So that’s it? You made all that noise, only to show off something like that?]
“Something like that.”
[What’s so funny?]
“Isn’t it amusing? A frog in a well looks up at the patch of sky it can see and declares it to be the entire heavens. And besides—”
Ludger lifted his gaze toward the black rift in the air.
“—thanks to your words, it seems he’s become quite angry.”
[He?]
“The Lord of Lightning. The god seated upon the celestial throne, gazing down over the heavens. His temper has never been gentle—and it seems he’s displeased that the weapon he lent has been so poorly treated.”
So there was only one thing to do.
Ludger raised the lightning spear in his left hand, drawing back to throw.
Coilwat felt irritation burn in his chest. That calm face, the unshaken composure even after seeing his full power, the unbending gaze that still looked certain of victory—
[Regret it in hell.]
The violet lightning surrounding Coilwat flared brighter, its center turning white-hot.
[I’ll make it painless out of pity.]
Between his outstretched arms, a colossal mass of lightning condensed tighter and tighter, shrinking as it did.
What formed was a spear of violet lightning, similar in shape to the white spear in Ludger’s grasp—but nearly thirty times larger.
[The 6th-tier lightning grand spell Heaven-Cleft Thunderblade is named for its ten thousand blades. This attack—has ten thousand times its strength.]
The lightning compressed to its absolute limit, forming a single weapon:
Tera-Watt Judgment.
The spear of thunder fell vertically, its purpose as clear as its name—to judge Ludger from the heavens.
At almost the same instant, Ludger hurled his own weapon.
“Astrapé.”
A moment shorter than a heartbeat—time split into tens of thousands of fragments.
Within that infinitesimal instant, the two bolts met at the midpoint.
All anyone could see was a white streak and a violet streak colliding high in the air.
And everyone thought the same thing.
That the violet lightning would devour the white.
That Ludger would be obliterated.
But in that single flash of light, the battle was already decided.
With Coilwat’s defeat.
“W-what?”
Coilwat muttered without realizing it.
His thunder-laden voice had returned to its human tone.
And the endless current that had surged through his body—was gone.
In its place came pain from his abdomen.
“Why...?”
He looked down—and saw nothing below his waist.
His lower body had been cleanly erased, as if carved away by a god’s scalpel.
Too fast to see. Too sharp to even feel pain.
As his eyelids grew heavy, Coilwat recalled the clash a moment before.
The spear of lightning he had forged with every ounce of his power—had been pierced through effortlessly by Ludger’s white spear.
As though Ludger’s lightning reigned above all lightning.
Coilwat, who had believed himself one with living thunder, was annihilated beneath divine retribution.
Thud.
His upper half fell to the ground.
Even in death, his eyes remained half-open, staring upward.
“......”
A heavy silence blanketed the field.
Coilwat was dead—his entire lower body gone.
He hadn’t been careless. He hadn’t held back.
The power he’d shown before dying was undoubtedly that of a true Color Mage at full force.
And yet he’d lost.
Not narrowly, but utterly—overwhelmingly.
As everyone stared, unable to accept what they’d just seen, one man moved, calm amid the chaos.
Fwoosh—
A quiet flame rose.
But the heat from it could melt the world.
Dark night was driven away, and a new sun seemed to descend to earth.
Its master was the Red Mage—Alon Pavlo.
The instant he saw Coilwat die, he unleashed fire upon Ludger.
A tidal wave of flame surged forth, spreading wide enough to swallow the world itself.
It filled the crater in an instant, seeking to melt Ludger alive.
Ludger sent Astrapé back into the void and extended his empty hand.
The wall of fire struck something unseen and stopped—frozen in place.
Alon grit his teeth and drew deeper on his power.
“What are you doing?! Support me!”
The subjugation army, snapping back to their senses, rushed to aid him.
Priests and paladins invoked blessings of light, layering holy enchantments upon Alon.
Golden radiance stacked upon him, one layer after another.
With every surge of that light, he poured all the rising power into the flames.
Kwooooooooom!
The outward-spreading inferno narrowed.
Zzzzing—
It focused into a single, perfect line—a pillar of pure white fire.
A column of light so hot that its temperature reached hundreds of millions of degrees.
It fired straight at Ludger.
The invisible wall began to buckle.
Ludger’s expression remained bored as he waved his hand sideways.
The pillar of flame bent sharply, sweeping past the crater and across the distant mountain range.
KUUU-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!
The beam carved through the mountains like a horizontal laser.
Moments later, the places it had touched erupted in massive explosions and towering infernos.
The pillars of flame soared so high they nearly brushed the heavens.
The force of that attack rivaled the breath of a dragon from myth, turning night into day for an instant.
An entire mountain range—erased in a single strike.
Every tree, every hill, burned crimson in less than a second.
And Ludger stood untouched.
Alon lifted both hands toward the sky.
Sssssshhh—
Far off, the inferno he had unleashed began to move, drawn toward him.
The blazing waves that had consumed the mountains curled upward, crossing the air to swirl around Alon like a living storm.
It was a spectacle—terrible, but magnificent.
A Red Mage could command the fire of nature itself.
He who could quell a wildfire that not even rain could extinguish gathered even more flame than before.
The earlier conflagration had been merely the prelude—a spark to awaken greater fire.
This was the true battle.
Above him, a radiant sphere rose.
It illuminated the world—a sun born in the night.
Normally, summoning such a thing would demand enormous time and focus, but with the blessings of the Bretus Theocracy bolstering him, Alon had surpassed his limits.
Bathed in divine benedictions that heightened his power beyond measure, Alon gazed coldly down at Ludger.
Ludger returned that gaze, expressionless.
Why did they all love to look down from above so much?
Reading the meaning in Ludger’s eyes, Alon’s brow twitched—and he hurled the sun he held in both hands.
He didn’t waste words or threats.
When his power hit its limit, he simply struck.
The sun fell toward the crater, blazing to consume everything—Ludger, and even the black rift itself.
The world turned white.
Too hot, too bright to be red—so bright it shone pure white.
And Ludger murmured a single word.
“Ra.”
The sun fell from the heavens—
and within the crater, another sun rose.
A golden sun, dazzlingly beautiful, radiant beyond mortal sight.
The two suns collided.
And it was Alon’s sun that vanished.
“This... can’t be.”
Alon trembled, his eyes wide, unable to believe his ultimate attack had been so easily undone.
The golden sun that appeared within the crater devoured Alon’s creation and then gradually shrank in size.
Until it became no larger than a baseball—hovering above Ludger’s palm.
“A sun, is it? An impressive display of arrogance. Yet before the true Sun God, such power is meaningless.”
“Y-you... what are you?”
Even the ever-rational Alon asked with a trembling voice.
Ludger’s existence had already surpassed all sense, all reason.
An ancient fear—forgotten, buried in instinct—raced through his veins.
A True-Blood Vampire? A legendary demon?
No. Compared to Ludger Cherish, those names meant nothing.
“That power... that form...”
That was—
That was the one.
The being spoken of in myth, the most dangerous, the most dreadful existence of all.
Ludger did not answer.
He simply flicked the tiny sun in his hand toward Alon.
That alone—
—and space ceased ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) to exist.
The air warped and melted, reality itself dissolving under the heat.
Everything along its straight trajectory vanished—including Alon.
“Ma... king...”
Alon’s final words reached Ludger’s ears.
Thus perished Alon Pavlo—the Red Mage, and youngest head of the noble House of Pavlo.
“Demon King, is it.”
Ludger let out a soft laugh at Alon’s dying words.
“A fitting title for me at this moment.”
His gaze turned toward Cardinal Patricio.
The man had remained standing through it all, staring fixedly at Ludger.
But there was no longer any composure in his face—only fear, as though beholding an impossible miracle.
“This... this is impossible. It’s impossible!”
“What exactly is impossible?”
“For a human—a vessel, no matter how one molded by divine design—how can it contain the powers of multiple gods?”
The Holy Grail of God—
It could hold only one god’s power.
That was its rule.
But Ludger... what was he?
How many divine powers had he just displayed?
Even one would shatter a human body. Yet he wielded them all effortlessly.
“A human can only serve one god! To take power from many—when serving one means enmity with all the others—how can that be?!”
Patricio’s voice cracked into a near-scream.
Humans could serve only a single deity.
To devote oneself to Lumensis meant relinquishing all others.
That was why religion existed as one.
To follow the sole god who bestowed power upon them.
And yet, Ludger had transcended even that foundational law of the world.
“No matter how heretical you are, to serve multiple gods—!”
“To serve gods?”
Ludger cut him off coldly.
“No. It’s the opposite.”
He spoke as though the words were scarcely worth saying.
“The gods serve me.”
“......!”
Patricio’s eyes went wide.
The gods... serving him?
He couldn’t comprehend it.
Gods were to be worshiped—to be praised, revered, and feared.
Humans were the small, the lowly, who could only look up to them.
But gods serving a human?
Even if an elephant bowed to an ant, it wouldn’t be this absurd.
And yet, Ludger said it with absolute calm.
More astonishing still—
—as though to prove his words true, countless murmurs began to echo from within the black void.
The voices of gods.
Even those who dwelled beyond this dimension—
in far-reaching worlds—
resounded in agreement.