Chapter 766

Chapter 766
Grrrrkkk!
Ghislain ground his teeth, summoning his mana in an attempt to wrench his arm free. It was a grueling struggle.
Despite the blade remaining buried in his flesh, Rahamod was pouring every bit of his remaining vitality into maintaining his grip on Ghislain.
Ghislain fixed Rahamod with a frigid, unwavering stare.
With no decisive advantage in sight, it appeared Rahamod was willing to sacrifice himself to drag his opponent down with him.
Yet, Ghislain did not panic. He had numerous ways to break free. If brute force failed, he was prepared to sever his own limb.
Though Astion would surely disapprove, Ghislain knew he could forge a magical prosthetic and continue on without hindrance.
However, a more effective solution was currently at hand.
“You’ve made a critical error.”
Ghislain channeled the entirety of his mana into Gramdir.
Until this moment, his strikes had been mitigated by Rahamod’s protective energy, but with the sword now deep within the enemy’s body, the situation had shifted.
Fwaaaaaah!
“Grrruuugh!”
A guttural, pained cry escaped Rahamod.
Ghislain’s mana erupted from within the man’s core, shredding his internal structure.
Even with Rahamod’s legendary regenerative powers, such catastrophic internal trauma was life-threatening.
Yet, Rahamod refused to buckle.
Locking his jaw, he began to vent his own power in violent waves. That dark energy coiled around Ghislain, pinning him in place and stifling his movements.
In response, Ghislain amplified his mana output even further. He was determined to hollow Rahamod out from the inside and end the confrontation right there.
This desperate deadlock was mirrored elsewhere on the battlefield.
Craaack!
The halberd held by Grondal bit deep into Tagmah’s flank.
“You fool! What do you think you’re accomplishing…”
Grondal realized immediately that Tagmah had taken the wound on purpose. Just like his counterpart, Tagmah released a surge of energy to ensnare Grondal.
The movements of both Ghislain and Grondal were now heavily restricted.
Consequently, Rahamod and Tagmah were also standing on the brink of death.
Pushing the fight to this extreme wouldn’t turn the tide in a conventional sense—it was a mutual suicide pact.
But Rahamod and Tagmah weren’t aiming for a standard victory; they were offering their lives to manufacture a single opening.
“Grrruuuugh…”
His eyes swimming with blood, Rahamod suddenly unleashed a massive burst of energy. Tagmah followed suit.
BOOOOOM!
Their combined power, however, wasn’t aimed at Ghislain or Grondal. That destructive force didn’t even target Deneb—it was fired in a completely different direction.
BOOM!
Rahamod’s strike slammed into Julien, who was occupied with Munareff.
The impact sent Julien tumbling backward. Simultaneously, Tagmah’s energy wave knocked Ereneth aside.
Seizing the brief window of chaos, Rahamod let out a thunderous command.
“Kill that woman!”
BOOM!
BOOM!
The priest who had been engaged with Ereneth pivoted and sprinted toward Deneb. Munareff did the same.
Ghislain attempted to intercept, but Rahamod’s suicidal hold kept him firmly anchored.
Rahamod was burning through his very soul to keep Ghislain sidelined, even as his own life ebbed away.
“Kh…!”
Ghislain gritted his teeth, deploying threads of mana into the air.
Fwaaaaah!
Hundreds of these glowing strands whipped out, ensnaring Munareff.
Still, Ghislain didn’t relax, whipping his head around to check the other threat. The priest from Ereneth’s flank was closing in.
But that priest was intercepted by someone entirely unexpected.
“Aaaaargh!”
With a defiant, animalistic roar, Lionel threw himself into the priest’s path.
He had been providing rear support for Ereneth. The combat was far too high-level for him to join the front lines without being a liability.
Because he had been keeping his distance, he had escaped the blast that knocked Ereneth away.
He understood perfectly that Deneb’s survival was paramount. He didn’t personally care for her—but his personal feelings were irrelevant to the mission.
Lionel lacked the raw power to face a superhuman opponent in a fair fight, so he chose the only option left: a reckless, physical blockade.
BOOOOM!
The two collided with bone-shattering force. Under normal circumstances, Lionel would have been vaporized.
Instead, he absorbed the momentum with his entire body and locked his arms around the priest.
They rolled across the dirt in a tangled mess, but Deneb remained untouched.
“You miserable pest!”
The priest raised a hand to crush Lionel, but the strike faltered.
Ssssss!
“Guaaaaagh!”
The divine energy radiating from Lionel’s form bit into the priest like acid.
Already drained, the priest felt a searing agony wash over him.
In a normal state, he would have ignored the pain to strike Deneb down, accepting his own death. But now, the sheer intensity of the burning sensation fractured his concentration.
“G-Get off me! You brat!”
Enduring the torture, the priest began to hammer his fist into Lionel’s skull.
“Ghk…”
Lionel fought against the crushing weight and the blows, tightening his grip. The priest continued his brutal assault.
BAM! BAM! BOOM!
Lionel channeled every scrap of mana into his defense, but he was reaching his limit. He bit his lip until it bled, forcing himself to stay conscious.
“Lionel!”
Ereneth recovered and lunged at the priest. The priest took her hit without flinching, focused entirely on pummeling Lionel.
The elimination of Deneb was the only goal that mattered now.
Ereneth’s intervention bought a precious few seconds. Ghislain turned his focus back to Munareff.
Drrrrkkk!
Munareff, despite being wrapped in Ghislain’s mana web, was straining forward with terrifying resolve.
He was only delayed, not stopped.
Crack!
The mana threads snapped one by one as he lunged forward again.
Ghislain tried to re-bind him, but the new threads only acted as a slight drag on his speed.
Drrrk!
Munareff tore through the interference and charged toward Deneb.
Even slowed, his movements were those of a superhuman. He would reach Deneb in a heartbeat.
“Julien!”
Only Julien was in a position to intervene.
At Ghislain’s roar, Julien scrambled to his feet and sprinted after Munareff.
But Munareff maintained the lead.
‘Deneb!’
Julien pushed his body past its breaking point, throwing himself into a desperate pursuit.
He had never exerted this much will in his entire life.
It felt as though his very muscles were tearing from his bones, but he didn’t slow down.
Despite his effort, he couldn’t close the gap to Munareff’s back.
Ghislain’s mana continued to hamper the attacker, but it wasn’t enough to halt the inevitable.
Inch by inch, the distance closed—Munareff reached for Deneb.
Crack!
Julien’s frame let out a sickening sound, unable to handle the kinetic stress.
Yet, he refused to stop. His entire existence was focused on one thing: reaching Munareff—protecting Deneb.
Fwaaaaah…
In that split second, Julien experienced a shift in reality.
As if the gears of the world had ground to a halt, everything around him slowed to a crawl.
Munareff, Ghislain, and even Grondal seemed frozen in time.
The spray of blood, the ragged gasps for air, the very whistle of the wind—
Everything became stagnant.
‘What is this…?’
He didn’t understand the cause, but in this suspended moment, he felt he could finally reach Munareff.
However—
His limbs felt like lead, as if he were submerged in the deepest trench of the ocean. A weight like a mountain made every breath a struggle.
His mind had slipped into the fissures of time, but his physical form was lagging behind.
The chasm between his perception and his body—
That realization felt like a crushing weight of despair.
In that moment, Julien understood.
This was how the world appeared to a superhuman.
And he wasn’t one of them.
This was merely a fleeting phenomenon caused by an extreme, singular focus.
‘A superhuman…’
He needed to ascend to that level. Only then could his physical body match his mental speed.
But such an ascension isn’t granted simply through desire. If it were that simple, he would have crossed that threshold years ago.
‘Deneb…’
Munareff’s hand was now inches from her.
Julien could only watch, trapped in his heavy, sluggish body.
Drrrrrk…
Munareff opened his palm, and a gathering of shadows began to coalesce.
A second more, and Deneb would be crushed.
‘No… I won’t allow it…’
Julien ground his teeth together. He fought the invisible weight with everything he had.
He forced himself forward, one agonizing step at a time.
But the gap remained.
Without the power of a superhuman, bridging that distance was a physical impossibility.
‘Ghislain…’
— To become a superhuman… you must define your own world.
That was the guidance Ghislain had given him regarding the path.
Ghislain, who was usually so precise, had been uncharacteristically vague about this one thing.
— Some find it through conviction, but it’s not universal. Some find it during a meal, others through endless, grueling practice.
— You have to find your own reason. Everyone’s gate is different.
— How do you do it? I can’t tell you. It’s a realization you have to reach on your own.
Naturally, Julien and Kyle hadn’t grasped the meaning. It was too abstract, too ethereal.
Even as he reached the peak of standard mastery, Julien had remained stuck at the door.
‘My world…’
He was just a commoner from a small village.
He lacked grand designs for the future or a burning thirst for power.
An orphan who had spent his youth just trying to stay alive. Cold, hunger, and the scorn of others—survival was his only law.
Then he found his companions.
The loud but kind-hearted Kyle, and the eccentric, brilliant Astion.
And… Deneb, the girl who had looked after him and cherished him since they were children.
Because of them, he never lost his way.
The shift in his mundane life started with Astion.
— The prophet inside me told me! We are the ones destined to save this world!
No one took Astion seriously. They just thought he was a strange friend with a wild imagination.
Using his bizarre insights, Astion taught them how to fight. Under his tutelage, they all began to transcend their limits.
Deneb would often tell them:
— Let’s use this strength to help people who can’t help themselves.
Julien always agreed.
The idea of “saving the world” was too big for him to wrap his head around, but helping people—that was something he could manage.
He knew the bitterness of being powerless. He had lived it. He had no reason to say no.
So he lived his life as a protector. That path eventually led him to Ghislain.
Even now, he doubted that someone as unremarkable as himself could be a savior of the world.
But because Ghislain believed it, he tried to become that person.
He spent his days aiding the weak and striking down evil.
Was that his world?
“……”
Deep down, it didn’t feel right.
He had lived by that code faithfully.
Yet, the desire to help others had never triggered his awakening.
That was a choice of lifestyle—not the core essence of his being.
What was he missing? How was he supposed to shatter the barrier?
Time, which had been sluggish, now seemed to stop entirely.
In that total stillness, Julien sifted through every memory, every thought—searching for the key.
Then, a spark.
A memory he hadn’t thought of in years surfaced.
— Eat this. I’m not hungry.
A young girl offered a crust of bread to a boy with hollowed cheeks.
She looked just as starved as he did, yet she was smiling as she gave away her only meal.
The boy, who had collapsed from exhaustion, survived because of that small act of kindness.
— You can sleep here. I won’t tell anyone.
When she found him hiding in a barn, she didn’t chase him away. She brought her own blanket to cover him.
Because of her, the boy didn’t freeze to death that winter.
— It’s okay to cry if you need to.
When the boy sat in the shadows, crying over a false accusation, she sat beside him and offered her presence.
Because of those words, he allowed himself to be vulnerable for the first time.
— Don’t let go of my hand.
When a massive fire swept through their village, the boy had been trapped in a burning house.
He had been too terrified to move. But the girl had run into the smoke, found him, and grabbed his hand.
Because of her, he escaped. Covered in soot, she had smiled at him with pure relief.
— Don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you.
The girl was his pillar of strength.
The boy relied on her completely. He grew up in her shadow.
Even after he became the stronger one, he still followed her lead.
Helping others and living a good life were all paths she had laid out for him.
He never questioned them. He never doubted them.
Because that was his reality.
— I’ll protect you.
He wanted to say those same words back to her.
More than anything else in existence, he felt a singular, burning desire—
To protect her, always.
To become the strongest version of himself, just for her sake.
‘Ah…’
In that moment, the boy finally understood.
My world…
It wasn’t built on ideals, duties, or grand goals.
‘Deneb.’
It was only ever you.
BOOOOOOM!
A brilliant blue aura of pure light erupted from Julien’s eyes.
Simultaneously, his body blurred, launching toward Deneb.
The heaviness was gone.
The weights had been cast off.
Only—
‘Faster…’
He needed more speed. Munareff’s fingers were almost touching her.
Fwaaaaaaaaaa…
Suddenly, spirits began to manifest around Julien.
Entities that usually remained hidden in the unseen world responded to the purity of his will.
Though they were faint, they moved in perfect sync with Julien’s heart.
The spirits gave him a phantom push, as if breathing momentum into his soul.
Their touch was delicate and warm, yet it carried the fundamental laws of existence.
And in that heartbeat,
The universe answered Julien’s plea.
Fwaaash!
His body cut through the air like a streak of lightning.

—

Munareff’s face was twisted into a grin of victory.
Finally, he would extinguish the woman who carried that loathsome divine power.
Once his hand closed around her, it was finished. He was certain of it.
Stab!
His hand met resistance. His fingers had punched through the back of a different person.
Sensing the shift in the air, Deneb stopped her prayer. She slowly looked up.
“J-Julien…”
Julien stood directly in her path. Munareff’s arm was buried in his chest.
Deneb’s eyes shook with horror. she struggled to stand, her mind refusing to process the scene.
Julien just smiled. He looked as if it were a minor inconvenience.
With his usual gentle expression, he looked at her.
Slowly, he reached up and wiped a tear from her cheek.
He whispered with his remaining breath.
“Don’t be afraid… I’ll… protect you.”
“J-Julien…”
Deneb caught his failing body as he began to collapse. The color was draining from his face at a terrifying rate.
His heart had been pierced—the darkness was already claiming him.
“N-No… please, stay with me…”
Tears fell freely from her eyes.
She couldn’t accept this. She couldn’t let him fade away like this.
He had always been the one to keep his promises.
“Julien—!”
And so, the girl,
For the sake of the boy, felt a fierce, divine longing ignite within her.
Ruuuumble!
The shadows over Vallscrum grew heavy and oppressive, churning with dark intent.
Black clouds blotted out the sun, and the ground trembled with thunder.
But it wasn’t a harbinger of doom.
Fwaaash!
The sky itself seemed to fracture.
Through the absolute darkness of the clouds, a pillar of divine radiance tore through.
And that magnificent, blinding light—
Cascaded down upon Deneb.