The Greatest Warrior of All Time Returns

[Translator - Night]

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Chapter 487

The gigantic magic circle created by the archangels was a gate.

Its form was horrifying even at a glance, a shape that instinctively provoked fear in anyone who looked upon it.

And then, through that gate, dozens of grotesque and gigantic arms stretched out, slamming down onto the ground and beginning to crush the tentacles erupting all across the archipelago.

Baal.

Never in my wildest imagination had I expected an archangel to actually summon a demon and have it join the battlefield.

“Hah.”

A hollow laugh escaped me.

Of course, I already knew demons weren’t the vicious beings the world made them out to be, but I still hadn’t expected them to cooperate this willingly.

Demons were beings that dragged evil souls down into hell and judged their sins.

In a sense, they were closer to executors.

And from their perspective, the Outer God Yog, who was trying to crush this dimension apart, was naturally one of the targets that absolutely had to be dealt with.

Gigantic arms tearing through the sky tangled with the tentacles.

The demon’s arms wrapped around the tentacles decomposed into particles, but before they could fully break apart, even more arms burst out, tore the tentacles apart, and collided against them.

The tentacles Yog pulled out through the ground were enormous.

But the parts currently protruding were only an extremely tiny portion of its body.

The fact that even that much was already this overwhelming felt utterly absurd.

Those arms Baal had supposedly summoned appeared to be gigantic masses of energy, so it was unlikely any actual harm would reach Baal.

“I figured demons were probably a bunch of idiots because of the Laplace Compass.”

Apparently not.

Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered hearing that one of the methods Raguel used to find the Fate Lord involved using the compass’s power.

“Leon. Need to move.”

“More importantly. Are you okay from the corruption?”

“If I weren’t, I wouldn’t have followed you. More importantly, Grivy is……”

“The undead too, and the spirits too. Since I’m immune, it looks like they’re sharing the effect with me.”

That was fortunate.

Not just the undead, but the spirits born practically by my own hands were close enough to my children that the thought of them suffering mental corruption was unpleasant.

I didn’t think I was opposing Yog because of some grand, noble sense of justice.

The biggest reason was simply that if I left him alone, protecting my family and the world Elpiria would live in would become impossible.

That was the kind of bastard Yog was.

A creature that had been reaching out to devour this world from the very beginning.

And I, who had interfered with his plans from the very start, was practically his worst obstacle.

So if I were Yog, after devouring this world, who would I kill first?

The answer was obvious without even thinking about it.

Me.

And Cascadia, where I lived.

Because we would be obstacles to him.

Whatever the case, they were the ones who started this fight.

All I was doing was making them pay the price.

And in the process, using the people living in this dimension who wished to survive was, in its own way, entirely rational.

Archangels.

Humans, elves, dwarves, beastfolk, and even spirits.

Still, the appearance of demons was definitely unexpected.

The archangel Gabriel had said this assault operation could not be finished in one go.

We had to slowly chip away at Yog’s influence and exploit the openings that appeared.

That was why my objective was the core of power Yog had exposed, while purifying the outskirts where I had landed was the first step.

While the archangels and demons drew the aggro of the tentacles, I would clear out the outskirts as quickly as possible and return to R’lyeh.

After that, we would retreat a suitable distance, reorganize ourselves, and launch another assault.

It was essentially hit-and-run tactics.

One might think that since Yog could recover, we should finish things in one decisive strike.

But if Yog had some hidden move prepared and we recklessly charged in only to have our escape route sealed, the situation would become disastrous.

-GRROOOOOOO…….

KWAANG!!!

Grivy smashed apart a bizarre amorphous lifeform with the palm of her hand, then returned to her original small form with a tearful expression and leapt into my arms.

I could see wounds scattered across Grivy’s arms.

For injuries to remain on the body of a spirit like Grivy, they had to be fairly severe.

“Waaah! Father! It hurts!”

“Sorry, Grivy. Stay by my side now.”

Grivy wasn’t the only spirit rampaging around.

Serqet continuously spewed poisonous smoke toward the malformed monsters flooding in from every direction, melting them down until not even bone fragments remained, while Sur bravely soared into the sky and unleashed explosive heat shockwaves everywhere.

And as for the youngest spirit, Tiamet, she raised massive tidal waves and swept away all the corrupted beings.

In practice, the gigantic tentacles attacking me were all being held back by the angels and demons, meaning the only enemies left were corrupted humans who had lost even their forms and unidentified lifeforms.

And realistically, they weren’t much of a threat.

The Outer God Yog was a monstrously arrogant being.

Perhaps because of that, it didn’t even seem remotely wary of me, the one attempting to destroy the core anchoring it to this dimension.

It was simply focused on eliminating the annoying flies buzzing before its eyes.

Of course, the martial power of the archangels and the demon Baal they had summoned clearly weren’t opponents that could be easily dealt with.

Even so, this was fascinating.

They said archangels were beings fundamentally different from ordinary angels, but seeing a similarly extraordinary existence among demons was still unfamiliar.

Luna answered my unspoken question.

“The Great Demon Baal is one of the strongest among demons. A demon that has lived for a very long time.”

“Ahh.”

Well, there was no point digging deeper into it.

Realistically, it wasn’t a being I’d ever meet again anyway.

Afterward, Luna and I properly began carving a path forward.

Wrapped in brilliant white light, Luna instantly charged in and crushed monsters with her bare fists.

Truthfully, martial arts was an extremely dangerous profession.

While everyone else used weapons with long reach, fighters used their bare hands and legs—their own bodies as both weapon and shield.

The funny thing was that if your hand got cut off by a sword, then from that point onward all you could do was wait to die after losing your neck.

That was why, when I endured the Hall of Martial Arts in Labyrinthos, the very first thing I trained was extreme bodily durability.

Your hands and feet had to withstand and deflect the enemy’s attacks if you wanted to survive.

That prerequisite extended endlessly, and even at the very end, it remained the same.

From that perspective, Luna was truly strange.

The other archangels all had their own weapons, but Luna insisted on using her bare fists.

Of course, she frequently used spears made of light, but fundamentally, she preferred martial arts itself.

Why was that?

Honestly, the answer was obvious.

Luna’s greatest strength was her regenerative ability.

Whether her hands shattered or her legs were destroyed, her healing ability never allowed her to be neutralized.

That was why she had become such a charging tank.

Though naturally, the innate toughness unique to archangels probably played a role too.

Regardless, what mattered was securing territory.

To reach the place where the core anchoring the Outer God’s existence was located, we had to gradually reduce and carve away its influence starting from the outermost regions.

It was essentially a territorial conquest game.

This son of a bitch had already fought me over territory at the dimensional boundary before, and it had a history of losing to me, but the difference between then and now began with the sheer disparity in power itself.

Even the pressure I could feel was beyond imagination.

Most likely, the deeper we advanced toward the center, the more crushing the pressure would become, like the water pressure of the deep sea.

Luna and I continuously purified and destroyed the outskirts without rest.

Thanks to Elpiria, the heavens were moving once more, and by using sacred relics forged from the refined pure light produced there, we drove highly concentrated relics of light into the ground to weaken Yog’s influence.

The assaults from the tentacles erupting everywhere were all intercepted by the archangels before they could reach us.

It was Gabriel’s role to weaken Yog’s influence by planting those pure white relics of light.

Once we swept an area clean, Gabriel would plant the flag and back us up.

Since the outer regions covered the widest area, I never expected this to end quickly.

Unlike Luna, who had fully inherited Lucifer’s power, or me, who possessed the power of the Book of Genesis, the other archangels were said to gradually suffer corruption little by little.

It wasn’t merely information entering their minds—they were being directly exposed to Yog’s power.

That was also the reason the archangels could not openly fight Yog for extended periods of time.

Without the support of archangels and demons, it was impossible for Luna and me alone to purify the outskirts, so we had no choice but to match their pace.

Thus, we circled the outer regions, reducing the Outer God’s influence and repeatedly creating paths inward for several hours.

Eventually, some results began to appear.

It was fair to say the first assault had achieved considerable success.

Perhaps because this was merely the outskirts, no particularly threatening beings appeared.

It was proof that Yog itself wasn’t in a position to leisurely wield its power either.

This invasion hadn’t originally been part of its plans, so naturally its preparations were lacking.

When the assault first began, an Ancient God-class servant had appeared, but it wasn’t much of a threat to me, and the fact that no similarly powerful enemies appeared afterward also contributed greatly.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

BWOOOOOOO~

At that moment, the archangel Kamael, who had been intercepting tentacles in the sky, pulled out a massive war horn and blew it.

The signal to retreat.

I had never expected to be satisfied after the first bite.

This was closer to a siege war, slowly carving away the outskirts bit by bit.

As promised to Melissa, this was the best method if I intended to return without getting hurt.

I withdrew the undead and spirits, quickly left the area alongside Luna, and rapidly retreated back to R’lyeh.

Yog did not send servants to pursue us.

It was focused on re-corrupting the territory it had lost.

Viewed from the island, the Phinas Archipelago looked like hell itself.

The bitter truth was that not even a single being remained alive enough to cry out in pain.

Every human living in the Phinas Archipelago had already died, twisted, and become corrupted.

That was why there was no option other than thoroughly burning everything down and purifying it.

The monsters not yet destroyed were exposed to the energy spreading from the influence zone of the pure white relics of light and screamed as they turned into piles of ash.

“I don’t know what kind of bastard he is, but he’s unbelievably cruel.”

After returning to R’lyeh, I spoke in the gathering place where everyone had assembled.

“Who are you talking about?”

“Who else? The one responsible for all this. Just how many people died?”

“Judging by numbers alone, at minimum, hundreds of thousands.”

Every single casualty had been a resident of the Phinas Archipelago.

Hundreds of thousands—and that was the lowest estimate.

If counted generously, the death toll could easily reach into the millions.

At my words, the light in Michael’s eyes flickered.

“It is already done. Thanks to their sacrifice, we have managed to bind Yog to this place.”

“That’s exactly what’s wrong with you.”

Luna spoke coldly.

“That damn utilitarianism. That attitude of accepting the sacrifice of some without hesitation for the sake of maximum happiness.”

“I have no intention of leaving the traitor alive either. But the opportunity before us is undeniably real.”

“That is…….”

Luna and Michael’s dispositions were fundamentally complete opposites.

While Michael pursued order and utility, Raphael—that is, Luna—followed an entirely different philosophy.

In truth, Michael had genuinely believed that sacrificing only Elpiria would grant them an opportunity.

Of course, now that he had become convinced Elpiria was not an Immaculate Archangel but rather a being bearing traces of God whom the archangels should serve, he no longer said anything.

If Luna and Michael were opposites among the Three Great Archangels, then what was Gabriel?

He felt closer to a centrist.

“Tadaaa!!”

At that moment, a cheerful voice shattered the gloomy atmosphere.

Grotesque, horrifying eyes emerged from the darkness.

The sight stimulated instinctive terror in anyone who looked at it, but then the eyes split apart with a riiip! and became a door, from which someone stepped out.

The appearance was completely unexpected.

Goat horns growing from the head.

A childish appearance that looked barely ten years old.

An endlessly bright smile, flawless skin, even an adorable grin.

A figure utterly unsuited to the atmosphere.

The girl’s pupils were peculiar, split horizontally like a goat’s.

I had never seen her before, but instinctively, I knew.

She was the one who had created those gigantic arms earlier.

“The demon, Baal?”

“Wow. Sharp instincts, huh? This kid.”

She smiled brightly and skipped toward us with bouncing steps.

That was Baal?

The being who had just sent gigantic arms through a gate terrifying enough to induce fear just by looking at it?

For a moment I wondered if she was concealing her appearance, so I stared intently at her, but there didn’t seem to be anything special.

Come to think of it, Diablo’s appearance had also been unexpectedly normal.

On one side stood a Great Demon, on the other an archangel.

And over here, a human.

What a bizarre combination.

She spoke to Michael, who had been arguing with Luna.

“Archangel at the Right Hand of God. The counterattacks from that extradimensional monster are only going to grow fiercer. I’m helping because of our agreement, but this really does have a chance of succeeding, right?”

Her lively manner as she looked up at Michael with sparkling eyes made it hard to believe she truly was the demon Baal.

“I act according to rational judgment.”

Michael replied calmly.

I really could not get used to him.

Eventually, she glanced around before trotting over to me and plopping herself directly onto my lap.

Luna frowned at the baffling behavior.

“Hehe, you’re quite an interesting human.”

She tilted her head up and looked at me while speaking, appearing entirely like a child yet somehow feeling fundamentally different.

“Leon Cascadia. Catch.”

At that moment, Raguel, who had silently observed the situation, tossed something toward me.

I reflexively caught it and muttered its identity.

“Laplace.”

At my words, Baal smiled briefly, seemingly intrigued by the compass in my hand.

“Ahaha! It’s only half complete! Hehe, that thing’s terrible for proper searching. Mhm!”

“No wonder. I thought it was useless. So, can this thing actually be used properly?”

“Impossible! That’s just what Laplace’s Compass is like from the start. Better not get too attached to it.”

I stared at the compass.

Then, on a whim, I entered a command.

“There is a traitor. Point toward the one seeking to destroy this dimension.”

At my words, the compass needle began spinning rapidly.

Thinking about it now, even if it was an ambiguously useful compass, it should at least provide some kind of clue.

As I narrowed my eyes at the rapidly spinning needle, the meaning became obvious.

“There’s no traitor? What a joke.”

“Ahahaha! That’s exactly the kind of thing Laplace’s Compass is. It never gives easy answers.”

“There’s no solution?”

“Like I said before, impossible! Honestly, from my perspective, wouldn’t it make more sense to suspect one of that monster’s servants instead?”

The one Baal referred to was probably Nyarlathotep.

“If it’s something like that, then honestly it makes organizing the situation easier.”

At least it would mean we weren’t going to get stabbed in the back.

“By the way, are you the only demon here?”

“Yep!”

Her answer was so absurdly cheerful that it actually left me speechless.

“I’m the only demon who can easily leave my seat!”

What a shame.

Though Baal’s power truly was astonishing enough to rival an archangel.

Still, seeing her licking candy she had apparently gotten from somewhere made her look no different from a random kid off the street.

As I sat there feeling oddly conflicted about Baal, Michael spoke.

“Conserve your strength as much as possible, Leon Cascadia. You are the only one who appears almost completely immune to Yog’s mental corruption.”

So now he no longer called me merely a mortal.

Thinking about it, my lifespan had long since ceased to matter.

Michael’s words were actually reasonable.

I alone could truly be called completely immune to Yog’s mental corruption.

The two things Michael currently placed the greatest expectations on in me were these:

The ability to delve deep into the Outer God’s territory while remaining entirely unaffected by mental corruption.

And the extradimensional energy capable of directly affecting the Outer God.

I had already expended a massive amount of energy once, but this place—the Phinas Archipelago—was overflowing with extradimensional energy.

Since hordes of Shoggoths appeared everywhere constantly, I was absorbing and stockpiling them whenever I saw them.

“Gabriel. Guard the perimeter.”

“Understood.”

At present, R’lyeh was inside the territory of the Outer God Yog.

A prey that had entered its domain would never be released by Yog, so the moment R’lyeh entered the territory, it sealed off the outside and prevented R’lyeh from escaping.

That meant we couldn’t move too far away, and just as we could attack at any moment, the Outer God Yog could also attack us at any time.

KWAANG!!!!

No sooner had those words ended than a tremendous explosion echoed from outside.

At the same time, Uriel, the Archangel of Wisdom, who had been assessing the situation with closed eyes, spoke.

“It has begun sending servants.”

“No rest day or night, huh.”

Just as I rose from my seat to head out and deal with them—

Baal and Michael blocked my path.

“Leon Cascadia. Your role is not defense.”

“Kid, shouldn’t you stay out of this?”

The gap between her childish appearance and that tone of speech was bizarrely unsettling.

“You focus solely on the offensive. Wasting your strength during defensive timing is not rational.”

With those words, Michael and Baal headed outside to slaughter the monsters sent by the Outer God.

“Leon.”

Then Luna tugged on my arm and rested my head against her thigh.

“Leon only needs to think about Leon’s own safety. We’ll handle the rest.”

“It feels strange. Being put in such an important position makes the pressure pretty heavy.”

At my joking tone, Luna smiled beautifully.

Then she gently covered my eyes with her palm.

“Get proper rest. Since I’m here, you can even sleep.”

“I’ll rest for just a bit.”

After saying that, I closed my eyes.

‘Librarian.’

[Confirmed.]

‘Can I transfer to the Hall?’

[Would you like to confirm?]

At the question, I quietly affirmed.

The Librarian’s text seemed to scatter chaotically for a moment before falling silent.

Then, an unexpected response appeared.

[Key activation confirmed. The activation rate of the Hall of the Martial God is rapidly increasing.]

At those words, I shot my eyes open and sat upright.

“Leon?”

I immediately pulled out the Demonic Sword Elekstra, which I had stored away in subspace.

The demonic sword was condensing and resonating with far more immense power than before.

This was the first change that had appeared after activating the demonic sword through the Fate Lord.

Its resonance rapidly grew enormous in only a brief moment.

[Warning. Abnormal variable detected. The activation rate of the Hall of the Martial God is rapidly increasing.]

[Large quantities of the Hall’s memories and power are being absorbed.]

This was the first time it had so openly stolen something away.

Then it happened.

Another unknown resonance echoed through my heart.

“Leon! Where are you going!”

“Wait here for a second.”

I quickly moved forward.

After walking nonstop toward the source of the resonance waves, the place I arrived at was none other than the domain of the Progenitor Dragon.

And when I saw the Book of Genesis stored there, my eyes twitched.

The Book of Genesis emitted even greater power, resonating with the Hall of the Martial God pulsating within me.

Even though I hadn’t enhanced it, it looked as though it had already been strengthened.

“Coincidence? This doesn’t feel like coincidence. Why the hell is this thing freaking out on its own?”

Amid the confusion, the Librarian’s text resonated with the power of the Book of Genesis once more.

[The Book of Genesis resonates more deeply with the Resonator.]

[It digs deeper into the Resonator’s essence and projects it into reality.]

[The maximum number of enhancements for the Book of Genesis increases.]

[Successfully reading the Resonator’s potential and immortal will.]

[Confirmed that the corresponding authority is currently dormant. Awakening and applying authority.]

[If the Resonator’s life signs completely cease, a single spark of resurrection will ignite once.]

[Translator - Night]

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