*Schwing—*
With the slight sound of metal scraping, Riezel dispersed the blazing flames surrounding him, which had made him look like a small sun, and sheathed Hermit into the scabbard at his waist.
Now, his body was a little aching and weak, clearly the price of using 'Blooming Radiance'.
By intensifying his breathing for a split second, all his internal strength was concentrated into that moment, unleashing his power in a burst, maximizing his body's potential, and for just that instant, his strength was increased several times, allowing him to deliver an ultimate strike.
However, the cost of using it was total immobility afterward, losing all combat ability.
Fortunately, after some time of experimentation, Riezel had successfully improved Blooming Radiance, allowing him to adjust its power depending on the situation.
Just like earlier, Riezel didn't push his body to its limit, avoiding the state of complete immobility. Instead, he controlled the power drain to about a third, only exhausting a third of his strength before executing Blooming Radiance.
Although this reduced the power of Blooming Radiance by more than half, under these circumstances, Riezel wouldn't fall into the state of complete immobility and still had enough energy to continue fighting.
Even though the power was significantly reduced, with Riezel's current strength, Blooming Radiance still remained terrifyingly powerful. At least what happened to Ainz had already confirmed that even someone of his caliber could not withstand the blow from a weakened Blooming Radiance.
""AAAAAAAHHHHH—!!!""
From a distance, Shalltear and Albedo, who had flown back, immediately fell into a frenzied state.
One morphed into an ugly monster, while the other's armor expanded and twisted—both charged toward Riezel like berserkers, letting out a devilish roar that seemed to burst from the deepest depths of hell, filling the air above the royal capital with a dark, malevolent aura.
*Swish!*
Riezel, however, as if he had already anticipated their movements, flickered and appeared in front of Shalltear and Albedo.
Now that Albedo and Shalltear had lost their sanity and become no different from mindless beasts, they were too slow to react and were easily closed in on by Riezel, who reached out with both hands—one resting on Shalltear's chest and the other pressing on Albedo's head.
"Decompose."
A cold voice echoed from Riezel's mouth before crimson waves erupted from his hands.
*BOOM!*
Slamming into Shalltear and Albedo's bodies, the crimson waves turned the two into dust like statues eroded by time.
"..."
In an instant, everything fell silent again.
"Even if they're powerful, if they lose their minds and go mad like this, they'll be much easier to deal with than before..."
Muttering softly, Riezel withdrew his hands, as well as the crimson waves.
"Although you guys are monsters with no sense of reason, I'll still say this just in case."
"It's best to stay calm during battle, or else your movements will become predictable, your reactions will slow down, and in the end, you'll be easily beaten." ṛ𝐚𐌽Ộ𐌱ĚȘ
Speaking to the empty air, Riezel soon felt the thrill and excitement in his chest gradually fade before he chuckled bitterly.
"Well, I'm in no position to talk..."
Indeed.
In battle, the one who had the hardest time staying calm might have been him.
Sighing, Riezel looked around and found that there was no one around—whether it was Ainz, Albedo, Shalltear, or the fallen Demiurge and Cocytus, all of them were gone.
In the two deep craters in the ground, aside from pools of blood, there was no sign of Demiurge or Cocytus—it was unclear whether they were dead or had escaped.
Besides them, there was one more figure who had sadly met an unfortunate end.
"..."
Floating down from mid-air, Riezel silently stared at the corpse lying in front of him, completely devoid of life.
It was none other than Certain Death's corpse.
After Ainz used 'The Goal of All Life Is Death' and 'Cry of the Banshee', Riezel managed to survive thanks to the ability of Divine Meloe, but Certain Death clearly didn't have the means to resist Ainz's trump card.
Evidently, Certain Death was caught in the effect range of Cry of the Banshee and was directly killed. If this fact got back to the Slane Theocracy, it would probably cause an extremely terrifying shock.
It was only natural.
As the guardian of humankind and the Extra Seat in the Black Scripture, hailed as humanity's strongest, to die so miserably in a foreign land was definitely a huge loss for the Slane Theocracy and the human race.
Even though the Slane Theocracy was a nation that promoted humanocentrism, pretending to act for all humans while ruthlessly using anything at their disposal, indiscriminately treating demi-humans and heteromorphic races as enemies, and even going so far as to harm their own kind, as they did to Gazef, for the sake of their goals, one had to admit that, without the theocracy standing at the forefront of the human race, humans might have long been reduced to food and livestock for other races.
It was precisely for this reason that when Riezel sold the Slane Theocracy's information to Ainz, he did so with a warning, ensuring Ainz wouldn't casually take action against the theocracy.
Riezel didn't have much affection for the Slane Theocracy, which prided itself on humanocentrism and claimed to be acting under the flag of gods, but at least for the sake of the human race, they still needed the theocracy.
In this world, there was no human nation stronger than the Slane Theocracy, and Ainz probably thought the same way, which was why he dragged the Re-Estize Kingdom and the surrounding countries into a war with the theocracy to uncover its hidden secrets.
If the Slane Theocracy were to fall, the position of the human race in this world would likely plummet.
"Forget it..."
Riezel didn't want to think too much about it since it wasn't his style, so he decided to focus more on his emotions.
"At least this woman didn't give me a bad impression."
Riezel reached out to the corpse in front of him and cast resurrection magic.
"True Resurrection."
Of all the resurrection magic Riezel had learned, the highest tier was undoubtedly the 9th-Tier Magic, True Resurrection.
And so, thanks to Riezel and True Resurrection, Certain Death was given a second chance at life.
===
A gentle sensation spread throughout her body, something that Certain Death, who was supposed to have lost all consciousness and was no longer able to feel anything, suddenly experienced.
In the haze, she felt as though she had sunk into a bottomless sea, continuously falling deeper, as if she were about to leave her world and head somewhere else, making her completely unable to control her body.
However, when that gentle sensation enveloped her, she realized that she had stopped sinking.
Not only that, it seemed as though a hand was trying to pull her up, bringing her back to her original world.
She could feel that the hand was large, thick, and warm, making her body and mind, which had been slowly falling apart, feel a moment of comfort.
Because of this, she slowly stretched out her hand and grabbed onto that large, thick, and warm hand before she got pulled out of the bottomless sea, and before long, she felt as though she had leaped out of the water.
It was at that moment that she realized her body had become heavy, and she had no strength left in her at all, just like when she was a child, after enduring her mother's harsh and inhumane training.
Aside from the overwhelming exhaustion, she felt nothing else, but this exhaustion made her not want to open her eyes, wishing to simply fall asleep right there.
Just then, however, a voice suddenly rang out, directly waking her up just as she was about to fall into slumber.
"Since you're awake, you should get up quickly."
It was a voice Certain Death didn't often hear, and it felt a bit unfamiliar, but the calmness and stillness in the voice left a deep impression on her, to the point that even though she had just heard it, she immediately recognized who the master of the voice was.
As a result, her body shook before she suddenly opened her eyes.
As soon as she opened them, the figure of a young man standing before her came into view, looking down at her from above.
"Looks like the resurrection went smoothly."
'Resurrection...?'
Certain Death didn't quite understand what the young man meant for a moment until she remembered a little later.
Yes, she had already died—or rather, she had been killed by that terrifying undead in a black robe, whose power far surpassed her own.
She still remembered the last thing she saw.
It was as if the entire world was dying, with even the air wilting in decay in that terrifying scene.
Caught in it, there was no way she could have survived, so she should have already been dead.
Nevertheless, it seemed she had been resurrected by the young man before her, which honestly wasn't such an incomprehensible situation since resurrection magic indeed existed in this world.
Even though it was a 5th-Tier Magic that could only be cast by priests who had entered the Realm of Heroes, the young man in front of her, who was no different from a god in her eyes, should be able to use it easily, right?
Certain Death had no reason to doubt this.
Meanwhile, as Certain Death lost herself in thought, the young man, Riezel, spoke again.
"I used the highest-tier resurrection magic, so your strength shouldn't have dropped too much."
"Even so, you probably feel weak and can't move right now, so it's better to just rest for a bit before doing anything."
"I know now is probably an urgent situation for you, but you've got no choice but to rest here until you can move again."
While speaking, Riezel cast several magic spells around Certain Death to hide and protect her.
"I've done all I can, so the rest is no longer my concern."
Riezel continued calmly before turning his back.
"If fate allows it, we'll meet again."
Leaving these words behind, Riezel flew into the air, leaving Certain Death alone.
"Wa-Wait..."
Certain Death wanted to call out to him but found that she couldn't even speak clearly.
Feeling frustrated, she had no choice but to let herself fall into a deep sleep.
At least she was alive again.