Chapter 443

When they crossed into Earth, their bond with the gods had been severed.

Yet ironically—the weapon to kill a god still remained.

It wasn’t forged by the Highlanders.

It was a weapon crafted by a god himself.

In the distant, ancient Kurayan, there had once been a war among the gods.

For reasons unknown, conflict had erupted between them.

A god, who possessed divinity, could not easily vanish nor die.

Only another god, or one who wielded the authority of death, could slay them. And the weapons forged by the gods were the only certain means of erasing divinity.

Thus the gods created weapons to kill one another.

Those weapons became known as Godslayers.

By the Godslayers, countless gods were extinguished—and so ended the age of their dominion.

It was then that the age of the other races and mankind began.

But though the age of the gods had ended, the gods themselves had not wholly disappeared.

Humans and other races worshipped the remnants of the divine. Through prayer and veneration, the gods sustained their existence.

The Highlanders were a race beloved by Hamora, goddess of compassion and light. Hamora entrusted them with the weapon she once wielded.

During the war of the gods, Hamora had suffered grievous wounds and lost much of her divinity.

Realizing she could no longer protect her weapon, she left it in the Highlanders’ care.

A weapon once wielded by a god—

a Godslayer.

But the Godslayers could not be wielded by humans or the other races.

At times, once in an age, a great hero might be born who could claim one as master. Yet even they could not unleash a tenth of its true power.

The same was true for the Highlanders.

By fortune, they had carried the Godslayer with them to Earth—but possessing it and wielding it were two different matters.

No one had ever activated a Godslayer alone.

But as a group, it was different.

If the Highlanders as a whole joined together, the weapon could be used.

Garanta drew forth the pendant he had kept hidden beneath his robes.

A mysterious necklace engraved with geometric sigils—

this was the Godslayer, the Necklace of Radiance.

The divine weapon once borne by Hamora, goddess of compassion and light.

Though with Hamora’s extinction, the Necklace of Radiance had lost nearly all of its true might—it was still, in name, a Godslayer.

Garanta believed that if he could only awaken it, even the Black Queen could be annihilated.

To invoke it, however, required the strength of every Highlander.

Two of them placed their hands upon Garanta’s shoulders. Others lined up behind, resting their palms upon the one before them.

Through that chain of touch, each passed their strength along. And all that power gathered at last into Garanta.

Uuuung—!

At that moment, dazzling light burst from the Necklace of Radiance, with a resonant hum that shook the air.

Those nearby squeezed their eyes shut.

The divine power within the weapon was stirring.

Even if only a fraction of its original strength, divinity itself was present within.

In this age, where the gods had vanished and the link to them severed—when had they ever felt divinity?

The first touch of it was intoxicating. Sacred.

Some felt their whole bodies cleansed—some even wept.

But when the Necklace of Radiance fully awakened, such feelings were ripped away.

Their blood dried, hearts pounding in mad rhythm.

It was as though time itself accelerated hundreds, thousands of times—

a sudden rush of age upon them.

Garanta lifted the necklace, pointing it toward the Black Queen, and declared:

“In the name of Lady Hamora—I condemn you, Black Queen. Vanish from this world forever.”

Puhwahhak!

Even as his words ended, an immense pillar of light roared down upon Neria.

The colossal beam struck before she could so much as evade.

Kwoooooom!

A detonation of light erupted.

As if the sun itself had exploded, the flare forced all within the barrier to shut their eyes.

The force of the pillar was so great it shattered even the Shadow Clan’s barrier, like glass splintering apart.

Such was the magnitude of its might.

It was as though a god had descended in person.

“Khuk!”

“Ghhhk!”

Garanta and the Highlanders who had invoked the necklace spewed blood and collapsed to their knees.

Wrinkles carved deep into their faces, hair turned white in an instant—

as though decades had passed in a breath.

Such was the cruel price of wielding a god’s weapon.

Garanta, trembling, forced his head up.

His gaze fixed upon the place where the Black Queen had stood.

He prayed.

That this single strike had utterly erased her.

There was no strength left for a second.

Even if there had been, the Necklace of Radiance required decades to regain a fragment of its divinity.

It was not a thing to be used lightly.

“She’s dead… The Necklace of Radiance is not something a mere beast can withstand.”

He muttered as if to convince himself.

The blinding light that had drenched El Harun slowly receded.

Only then could the awakened and the other races open their eyes.

And what they beheld—

was Neria, her body half obliterated, bleeding lifelessly.

Her left side was entirely gone, blood pouring without end.

A cheer erupted.

“Waaaaah!”

“We did it!”

“The Black Queen is slain!”

Humans and other races embraced one another, exulting.

Before such a foe, all grudges were set aside in pure celebration.

Osolo, Kelota, Repo, and Taboaru approached Garanta.

“Well done, priest!”

“Thanks to you, we felled the Black Queen.”

“Justice has prevailed.”

“Huuh! A grueling fight indeed.”

They exchanged words of triumph. But Garanta’s face was not bright.

“No.”

“No? What do you mean?”

“She still lives.”

“What?”

Only then did they look back at Neria.

Kraduduk!

The earth beneath her stirred.

From her spilled blood, a massive serpent rose.

Every snake she had ever birthed from her blood was absorbed into that colossal form.

Already vast, it swelled to nearly seventy meters.

The serpent raised Neria’s broken body onto its head.

Sruuuk—

Her lower half fused into the serpent’s skull.

“My god!”

“What is that?”

“Is this… the Black Queen’s true form?”

Neria, now one with the seventy-meter serpent, lifted her head.

The body that had been half destroyed—restored in an instant, whole again.

But her eyes—

All focus was gone. No reason remained.

The shock had shattered her mind.

What remained was only the serpent’s instinct.

A serpent devours all.

That is its purpose of birth.

It eats, and eats again, growing without end—

until it devours the entire world.

When nothing is left, it devours itself.

Beginning with its tail, until nothing remains.

That is the serpent that brings the end of the world.

And Neria had become that very thing.

Devoid of reason, she was tormented by a hunger unbearable.

―Sssssaaaa!

Neria roared to the sky.

Her scream spread through every corner of El Harun.

Had the Shadow Clan’s barrier remained, it might have muted her cry. But now destroyed, her voice pierced the eardrums of every living creature in El Harun.

“Huuhk!”

“Khuhh!”

“W-what… is this?”

Those who heard collapsed, trembling uncontrollably.

Her roar carried power that struck at primal instinct.

Like mice quailing before a snake, the beings of El Harun lay paralyzed—awaiting her judgment.

Even Garanta, wielder of the Necklace of Radiance, had not foreseen this. His face went deathly pale.

“She… she hasn’t died. She has grown stronger.”

“What do we do now?”

Even his Highlanders received no answer. His mind was blank, incapable of thought.

Then Repo, chief of the beastkin, hurled himself forward, shouting:

“While her reason is gone—this is our last chance! Miss it, and she can never be killed!”

He grit his teeth.

He had faltered when the Necklace’s light struck her, thinking her dead. That hesitation had allowed her rebirth, in a form far worse.

He could not face Garanta, nor the Highlanders, without atonement.

I must kill her. I can do it.

“Krwooooar!”

Repo roared.

His already massive frame swelled even greater.

No thought for tomorrow.

He gathered the last of his strength, ready to stake his life on this battle.

Taboaru prepared a spell of forbidden magic, muttering:

“Damn it… Today may be my last. How did it come to this?”

“Shhhhit!”

Kelota the Giant Dwarf gripped his war axe and charged.

Quang! Kwaang! Quang!

―Sssaaaah!

Explosions and Neria’s roar shook the field.

Repo, Kelota, and the others attacked with death in their hearts.

Their claws, their axe, their blades—all glowing with aura.

All were S-class awakened.

Their strikes were formidable.

A single swing of Kelota’s axe could shatter the skull of a mid-tier beast.

Yet even that failed to mark Neria’s scales.

Taboaru’s magic fared no better.

Even Repo, leaping like a mad tiger, slashing with aura-clad claws, could not wound her.

―Sssaaa!

The serpent’s massive head reared, maw agape, spraying venom in every direction.

Chiiiiik!

“Gaaaah!”

“Huuhk!”

Screams erupted as the venom seared flesh, melting where it touched.

Neria advanced, venom spraying like mist.

And in her path lay the World Tree.

“No!”

Riala’s voice broke into a shriek.

Already in poor condition, the World Tree could not withstand such a body colliding against it.

If it fell—El Harun’s fate would be catastrophic.

“Damn it! Stop her!”

“She must not reach the World Tree!”

The awakened launched all they had. Yet their powers could not halt a serpent seventy meters long.

Despair shadowed every face.

Then—

“A wretch cursed by the gods dares set its eyes upon the World Tree?”

A booming voice split the air as a massive figure hurtled toward the serpent’s head.

Hope lit in every gaze.

A giant, over five meters tall, his body carved of stone-like muscle—

a presence overwhelming in itself.

His name was Krudu.

Chieftain of the Giants, and Chairman of the Council—

the strongest warrior of all, at last revealed.

Kwaaang!

With Krudu’s strike, the serpent’s head reeled.