The one whom Lumenis granted power through the gate opened by Ludger was not only Cayden Lumos.
Those gathered at the crater—
the continent’s strongest, lured by the bait called Grander, assembled to defeat Ludger.
All of them were now manifesting divine power, white and gold intertwined, bestowed by Lumenis himself.
“So, you wanted that badly to capture me.”
As Lumenis began to intervene through the gate, some of the lesser gods withdrew, choosing to observe the situation from afar.
Whatever else might be said, in the present world, the being capable of exerting the greatest influence was Lumenis.
Even Lumenis could not directly exert power in the lower world, yet now that Ludger had opened the gate, this was the perfect opportunity to claim the largest share of it.
Lumenis had searched desperately.
Almost twenty years.
To a god, such a span was but an instant—
but to Lumenis, those twenty years had felt unbearably long.
At last, he had found it.
The Holy Grail that had hidden its identity and wandered the continent, evading his eyes, had finally unveiled its power.
[You are mine.]
Lumenis’s will reached Ludger.
Though the gate had opened, it was still impossible for Lumenis to exercise direct physical force upon Ludger, so he bestowed his power upon those who sought to capture him.
Patricio Romelo chose to obey Lumenis’s command.
“It is unfortunate that we cannot kill him, but since our Lord himself commands it thus, we have no choice but to comply.”
At Patricio’s sides stood the Archbishops—
the elites of the Theocracy of Bretus, beings possessing greater authority and divine power than even the High Priests.
When they stretched out their arms, a holy benediction spread across the entire crater.
With the divine power of Lumenis layered upon it, the sacred law woven from that foundation empowered the entire subjugation force.
At this moment,
even the strength of an ordinary mercenary among the subjugators had risen to the level of a high-ranking knight.
That was the power of God.
That was proof of those who governed the world.
“That the place blessed by Lumenis’s power is the very site where the Great Demon and the Saint once fought... if this is fate, then so be it.”
Bentham, who had already recovered his body, rose to his feet, and beside him stood Valrut, whose broken arm had regenerated and who now gripped his weapon anew.
“Right now, it feels as though I am peering beyond the realm of Mastery itself.”
Valrut could barely restrain himself from displaying this surging power that boiled within his body.
Hearing Bentham and Valrut speak thus, Ludger looked utterly unimpressed.
“To think fools would prattle so confidently just because they gained a bit of borrowed strength—what a comedy.”
“You speak as if you yourself did not receive any power.”
“Compared to you, my level is hardly ‘a bit.’”
Ludger extended his arm toward Valrut.
In that instant, the shining spear at Ludger’s right side vanished from its place.
‘It’s coming!’
Valrut’s eyes darted; he swung, deflecting the spear of light that had come from his blind spot.
Had this been before, he wouldn’t even have reacted before dying.
But with the power of the god now flowing through him, things were different.
“I can see it all!”
Using the rebound from deflecting the spear, Valrut shot forward like lightning toward Ludger.
“Now—!”
Thud!
Valrut’s body slammed into the ground.
An intense pain pierced from his back, and he spat blood.
“Khuh! W-What...?”
The same spear of light he had deflected moments earlier had now impaled his back and pinned him to the earth.
With his heart pierced, he should have died instantly—
but Lumenis’s power prevented his death.
Even so, that was now at its limit.
The divine power did not nullify death; it merely granted a brief postponement.
“I’m certain I deflected it.”
“Did you really think you could deflect a divine weapon so easily?”
Ludger gazed dispassionately at Valrut, pinned to the ground like an insect specimen, then drew upon the spear’s power.
Boom!
Valrut’s body exploded into a storm of blinding white light particles.
Seeing this, Bentham’s eyes widened.
His dearest friend had been obliterated without leaving a trace of even a corpse, and rage consumed him.
“How dare you kill my friend!”
“If you attempt to kill, you should be prepared to die. Why are you so angry? You’ve killed countless others yourselves.”
“Silence!”
Ludger sighed faintly at the sight of Bentham, who could not be reasoned with, and raised the same spear that had slain Valrut.
“Areadbhar.”
Bentham swung the massive holy sword woven from sacred law toward the spear of light that surged at him.
Clang! The spear ricocheted away with a ringing sound.
But having just witnessed Valrut’s death, Bentham did not let down his guard.
The spear, instead of flying away, curved through the air, tracing countless erratic paths as if defying all physical laws.
Its speed was truly that of light itself.
Around Bentham, innumerable afterimages of light drew a web of dazzling threads in less than a second.
He raised a huge shield formed from sacred law to block the incoming strike.
Kaaang!
Weapons clashed again.
In that instant, Bentham altered the shape of his shield, transforming it into a gigantic pincer.
The spear of light was caught between its jaws, and Bentham immediately drove it deep into the ground—
if it rebounded to return, then he would simply bind it there.
With the weapon neutralized, Bentham allowed himself a moment’s satisfaction—
only for Ludger to act as though it were nothing and summon another weapon.
“Tathlum.”
The magical stone hurled by Ludger was the same one the god of light, Lugh Lámhfhada, had used to slay Balor.
“You again!”
Bentham’s eyes widened as the sacred law he formed shattered upon contact with the faintly blue stone.
Though slower than the spear, its destructive power was on another scale entirely.
Before he could react, pillars of radiant light cascaded from the sky, striking the magical stone.
The stone, diverted by the blow, veered from its course toward Bentham.
Kwoooom!
A massive explosion erupted from the point of impact, shaking the ground.
The archbishops watching from afar broke out in cold sweat.
“We used the power granted by Lumenis, yet all we managed was to deflect its direction?”
“That was a weakened strike, and it still had that much power...”
“Every weapon he wields—each one is something out of legend itself.”
Ludger’s so-called “battle of myth” was no empty boast.
He turned his gaze toward the archbishops who had interfered.
“How curious, to see such sedentary men all gathered together.”
Ludger made no effort to conceal his contempt.
A large staff materialized in his right hand with a crisp sound.
He raised it slightly, as though to swing.
“What is he trying to do?”
It wasn’t a spear but a staff—did he mean to throw it?
No, his stance was more that of a swing.
But how could that work?
There were hundreds of meters between Ludger and the archbishops, and the paladins stood guarding them.
Even if he swung a staff, what could it possibly reach—
“Enlarge.”
The moment Ludger uttered that single word while swinging the staff, his voice reverberated across the entire crater—
and the staff grew, swelling thousands of times its size in an instant.
Then, one side of the crater vanished, along with every paladin standing there, completely erased.
“......!”
Kwaaaang!
The archbishops stared in terror at the enormous staff that had stopped just before them.
Now so immense and long it could hardly even be called a staff, it had erased everything between Ludger and the archbishops—space itself wiped clean.
The only reason they survived was due to instinctively invoking sacred law.
A woman of divine grace, descending from the heavens, raised both hands and blocked the strike.
It was [Protection of the Holy Mother], the highest and most legendary of sacred spells.
Even that protection could not fully withstand the blow—
by the time the staff halted, the woman’s form had already vanished.
“Hmph. Too short-lived.”
Seeing the unharmed archbishops, Ludger clicked his tongue.
Then came a faint rustle—swift, stealthy movements approaching from all directions.
“Oh?”
Golden weapons aimed at his vital points with no sound or warning—
the Golden Rule Mercenaries had arrived.
Thunk, thunk, thunk!
Their weapons pierced Ludger’s body.
For a moment, they thought their ambush had succeeded—
until unease crept up, and they instinctively leapt back.
That saved them.
Those who reacted too slowly were instantly incinerated, leaving not even ash behind.
“Though you rank second to the Monarch Mercenaries, your scale and efficiency could easily make you first.”
Though his vitals had clearly ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) been pierced, Ludger showed not a single wound as he spoke casually.
The Golden Rule Mercenaries felt a chill crawl up their spines.
The burning swords hovering around Ludger radiated an unbearable pressure.
Then, from afar, arrows flew toward him—
loosed by hunters.
Empowered by Lumenis, each arrow shone faintly, carrying power greater than the shells of heavy cannons.
Nearly a thousand of those glowing arrows blanketed the sky, falling like a meteor shower.
But with a light flick of his hand, Ludger erased them all, as though they had never existed.
“If you wish to see falling stars,” he said lightly, “then I shall show you real ones.”
He snapped his fingers.
A gentle golden light appeared in the heavens and began descending toward the earth.
6th-Circle metal-element grand magic — [Heaven-Collapsing Meteoric Iron].
Over thirty of them, massive and radiant, fell upon the hunters like a storm of meteors.
Boom, boom, boom!
The ground quaked as enormous golden cubic masses crashed down, forming vast craters.
Yet despite the impacts, the earth did not crack or collapse.
Ludger understood why.
“So, you’ve come to interfere as well?”
From one side, a mountain of rock rose suddenly, and the colossal head of a turtle emerged.
The Elemental Lord of Earth.
As everyone looked on in astonishment, Ludger met the Elemental Lord’s gaze.
After a moment, he withdrew his eyes.
“I see. So long as you do not intend to interfere, I will not concern myself with you. And I shall try not to harm the earth you so love.”
At that, the Earth Elemental Lord seemed satisfied and slowly sank back into the ground.
Its vast, mountain-sized body descended quietly, like a stone slipping beneath calm water.
Had Ludger not murmured then, the Elemental Lord might have fully withdrawn.
“But it seems the other one doesn’t feel the same.”
Even as he spoke, the ground split open with a deafening crack.
The Earth Elemental Lord could manipulate all the land around at will—
yet now, something with power equal to that authority was forcing the earth apart.
From the widening fissures, seething crimson lava surged upward.
Sensing the power within it, the Earth Elemental Lord raised its head halfway out of the ground.
“W-What is happening?”
“Could one of the earlier attacks have triggered a volcanic eruption?”
“What are you talking about! There’s no volcano here to begin with!”
Then what was this magma?
As confusion spread, something began to rise from within the molten flow.
From the thick magma burst forth a being formed entirely of blazing red flames.
A lizardlike head, two blazing horns, a humanoid torso, wings of fire spread wide, backward-bent legs, and a tail that writhed behind it.
When it fully stood, its height was nearly eight hundred meters—
a being towering over the entire crater, the very embodiment of fire in the world.
“The Elemental Lord of Fire?”
“W-Why would one that dwells only in volcanic regions appear here?”
The sudden appearance of the Fire Elemental Lord shocked all,
but even more astonishing was that this primal embodiment of nature now glared at Ludger with open hostility.
“Ha.”
Ludger, too, understood why the Fire Elemental Lord bore such enmity toward him.
“You sensed the sword that burns the world, did you.”
The Fire Elemental Lord, ruler of flame, had felt the presence of the flame sword Ludger carried—
a weapon capable of incinerating creation itself.
More than mere caution, its very pride as the essence of flame had been provoked.
“Interesting. But you are not my opponent.”
At that, the Fire Elemental Lord snorted, releasing gouts of flame.
“How long do you plan to hide and watch? Suruna.”
As Ludger spoke to the empty air, the space before him wavered—
and a man with black hair appeared.
“My, I was hoping to watch a bit longer, but you caught me.”
At his appearance, not only the Fire Elemental Lord but also the priests of the Theocracy of Bretus were thrown into confusion.
If they had heard correctly, the name Ludger had just spoken—
it was the name of the Great Demon who should have perished in the Great War long ago.