Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage - Chapter 365: Armageddon (3)

As the tempest subsided, Henry’s surroundings changed.

A brilliant azure sky stretched overhead, and the ground took on a rich maroon hue. This was the same landscape Henry had seen upon his arrival in the heavens. But now, there were countless heavenly beings in the sky.

They were troops of the heavenly army, the defenders of this realm. In a state of emergency, angels of all ranks would come together to form one large army, but the strongest warriors were the sixth-rank angels, the Powers.

Despite being considered the most fierce angels in the heavens, they had a certain elegance to them, partly due to their golden armor that glinted in the sun.

Posla, Chief of Powers, and Virtus had also joined the army, waiting for Henry in formation.

“Bingo,” said Henry.

Unlike the archangel he had burnt not long ago, Principatus had actually given him the feather that led to Virtus. Henry wore a satisfied smile as he looked around and realized that he was in the right place. He was also happy to see Posla, a nice bonus besides Virtus, his main target.

The silence was eventually broken when Posla locked eyes with him.

“You filthy lapdog! You’re nothing but the Demon God’s bitch!” spat Posla. He cursed out of the blue, not trying to intimidate Henry, but purely out of frustration. He had heard from the Sisibabas that the eighth and seventh-rank areas, along with the angels that dwelled there, had been annihilated by Henry.

Because of that, the heavens were in an unprecedented state of emergency.

At Posla’s vulgar greeting, Henry mumbled to himself, “Demon God’s bitch…?”

The angel’s words ringed inside Henry’s head. He was irritated that such an insult was actually affecting him. He frowned and said, “Who are you calling a bitch?”

Henry couldn’t believe how cocky Posla was. The angel was clearly aware that he was nothing before Henry without the Heavenly God, and yet he dared to hurl such lowly insults at him.

Henry couldn’t help but think how hypocritical Posla was, commanding the Powers and yet acting in such an undignified manner. In any case, he shook his head and shifted his gaze on the main prize, deciding to stop fiddling with the bonus for the time being.

“Virtus,” Henry called out.

In contrast to how nervous Posla seemed, Virtus was maintaining his composure. He replied in a placid tone, “Yes?”

“I didn’t know back then, but apparently you’re the best out of everyone.”

“Pardon?”

“What I’m trying to say is that I’m going to spare you.”

With that, Henry had said everything he wanted to say. He then summoned his Colt Sword to engage in battle. The army of angels responded instantly by getting into position. Seeing them, Henry chuckled.

“Alright then. I’ll start swinging, so try and stop me if you can.”

Henry wielded his sword with his right hand, his only real hand. Even though the magical left hand was perfectly functional, he didn’t consider it his actual hand.

After fixing his grip on the sword’s handle, Henry bent forward slightly and drew his sword back. He smirked before swinging his sword horizontally with a sharp sound.

Swoosh!

“AAAAH!!”

At his swing, the angels at the forefront of the army screamed and lifted their shields. However…

“…?”

…To everyone’s surprise, nothing happened, even though a good few seconds had passed since Henry had swung his sword. The angels in the forefront slowly lowered their shields to see what was going on.

Seeing them all tensed up, Henry chuckled.

“Haha, gotcha!”

“…!”

Henry had merely swung his sword without activating his Aura, making the angels get scared for nothing. Posla was no different from the rest, as he had also raised his sword to brace for Henry’s attack. When he finally realized that nothing was going to happen, he lowered his sword and cursed.

“Shit!”

Even though Posla was the leader of the Powers and was in possession of one of the holy relics of the Heavenly God, it was only natural for him to be scared of Henry. After all, Henry was a god.

Realizing that they had been played for fools, the Powers charged at Henry, screaming at the top of their lungs.

“How ignorant.”

But then…

Rumble, rumble–!

As Henry lowered his sword, the earth started shaking. An earthquake occurred right behind him, and the earth eventually cracked and lava erupted everywhere.

“…!”

The angels’ jaws hit the ground, unable to believe what was happening right in front of their eyes. It was their mistake for thinking that Henry hadn’t done anything. In fact, he had actually cast a delayed spell to take the angels by surprise.

As the angels panicked, Henry gave them his last words.

“I’ll see you folks later.”

Since they had assembled such a large army to stop a single person, Henry thought that he ought to show them something for it.

This spectacle was what he had prepared for them.

The lava surged forward like a crashing wave, devouring every angel in its path. Its searing heat was so intense that it seemed like it would melt into the earth.

The anguished screams of the angels along with the scent of searing flesh filled the air.

At this, Henry put his left hand behind his back while holding his sword with his right one and went in between the waves of lava to observe how the angels were going down. He didn’t feel the slightest amount of remorse seeing them melt away. In fact, didn’t feel any guilt for any of the angels he had killed so far.

As Henry observed the dying angels, something caught his eye. He instantly locked his eyes on it, and he quickly realized that he was staring at a large, gleaming silver sphere. Just like a wave that couldn’t do anything to take down an enormous cliff, the lava flowed around the sphere, unable to melt it.

Henry sensed a tremendous divine power coming from the sphere, and he instinctively knew that it possessed a power of the Heavenly God.

“Is it one of the Three Sacred Treasures?”

Of course, the Heavenly God couldn’t intervene directly in the Armageddon. However, he had to be aware that the likes of Virtus and Posla wouldn’t stand a chance against Henry, given that not even the Chief of Archangels had managed to do anything against him.

Therefore, the only conclusion Henry could get to was that the object he had his eyes on was one of the Three Sacred Treasures.

‘Interesting.’

Henry clenched his fists, and the lava instantly stopped flowing. He then slowly pointed at the ground, causing the lava to disappear into the earth. Small traces of lava remained on the charred ground, smoking and sizzling as though it were burping, signifying that the lava was satisfied with the feast.

There was nothing left but the silver sphere, as the lava had consumed everyone besides Henry. As the smoke finally faded away, the silver sphere started cracking, and through the cracks Henry could see some of the heavenly beings, along with Posla and Virtus.

Then, something that was glowing caught Henry’s eye.

‘Bingo.’

If Henry remembered correctly, what Posla was wearing was the Celestial Armor, one of the three Sacred Treasures of Heaven. This explained how the angels had managed to avoid being melted away by the lava.

Henry then looked at Virtus, who was holding the Lyre of Defiance in his hands. The angel seemed rather nervous.

Henry felt relieved to see Virtus tensed up. If he had maintained his impassive look, Henry himself would’ve been nervous. The angel’s reaction also confirmed Henry’s theory that the Heavenly God hadn’t told him about the true power of the Lyre of Defiance.

Henry was overjoyed. The heavenly army had been cripled, their so-called prestige and dignity nowhere to be seen. The remaining soldiers were just leftovers who had barely survived his lava attack. Besides, they were trembling in fear, not knowing if they would manage to survive another attack from Henry.

Looking at the herd of terrified sheep, Henry smirked and lifted his sword. The remaining angels did the same, bracing for what was to come. However, contrary to their expectations, a beam of light flashed around Henry’s hand, and the sword was gone.

“You know, I’ve been through so much that I can’t let you folks join the others that easily,” said Henry.

With that, he snapped his fingers, and a few black rings appeared behind him, floating above the ground.

“Rings…?”

The inside of the rings was completely black as though they led into a void. The angels stared at the inky circles, apprehensive about what Henry was doing. There was something ominous about those floating rings, and their instincts weren’t mistaken.

– KIAAA!!!

A bone-chilling screech came from within one of the rings, and a few seconds later, Gretel’s army of bone dragons emerged from all rings.

“…!”

The bone dragons locked onto their prey, their hollow eye sockets glowing a dark green color that seemed to signal the end of the heavens.

Seeing those monsters, the angels fell into despair as they realized that this was the end of them. Before they even managed to do anything, they spotted numerous wyverns flying right behind the bone dragons.

However, the bone dragons and the wyverns were just the intermediate-level monsters Henry had prepared for the heavenly army.

Thud! Thud!

At that moment, heavy stomping came from within another portal, making it seem like the earth was shaking. There were four consecutive heavy thuds, and they were heard from the largest portal Henry had created.

Then, a voice was heard from the portal, one that Henry instantly recognized.

“I see everyone is here.”

It was none other than the genius Red Giant, Gigatan. He grabbed onto the edges of the portal with his four muscular arms while peeking inside this area of the heavens. After he was halfway in, the scent of blood filled the air.

Given Gigatan’s red skin, the angels couldn’t tell at first whether there was any blood on him. But as they took a closer look, they realized that the giant was covered in dried-up blood.

Stomp! Stomp!

Another series of stomps were heard from one of the portals, but unlike Gigatan, this one didn’t cause a scene. He first pushed his two black hands through the portal before showing his face.

It was none other than Klever. After he fully passed through the portal, he got on one knee before Henry and respectfully gave him a report.

– I have carried out the task you’ve given me, Master.

“Good job. Remain on standby until I give you orders.”

– Yes, of course.

Klever stood right next to Henry, exuding the most intimidating and overwhelming aura among the entire demon army. Soon after, two other beings emerged next to Henry, and he welcomed them.

They were none other than Ganisel and Gretel. Unlike Gigatan, the two were clean as snow, not having a single stain of blood on their clothes.

“Ho-how did you…!” someone shouted from the other side.

“Hmm?”

Henry, Ganisel, and Gretel all directed their gazes toward the angel who was foaming at the mouth. Posla was pointing his finger at Ganisel, trembling violently.

Recognizing him, Ganisel flashed him a smile and said, “Posla? Hey, long time no see!”

“You bastard!”

Bang!

Out of anger, Posla slammed his fist into the ground as hard as he could. Then, both the Celestial Armor and the Sword of Condemnation glowed brightly. It seemed like Posla was ready to charge at his enemies.

“The things you have there… They seem quite familiar.”

Posla’s sacred treasures radiated a white glow as though they were about to burst with divine energy. However, Ganisel wasn’t fazed. If anything, he was glad to see those treasures, given that they had been his when he used to be in the heavens.

Ganisel unleashed his Lillsha Wayne to match Posla’s two treasures. His emitted a purple light, the souls trapped inside letting out eerie cries.

– KIAAA!!

It sounded as though Ganisel were wielding a screaming demon. As he swung the sword at Posla, a peculiar white energy surged toward him.

Posla immediately tried to defend himself, but he ultimately only managed to scream at the force that came at him.

“AAAAHH!!!”

Initially, Posla had thought that Ganisel had just unleashed some kind of sword energy against him. However, the mysterious white energy was actually Angelus’ soul that Ganisel had collected in the eighth-rank area.

Ganisel had unleashed Angelus’ soul as a sword strike. The former Chief of Archangels was now part of Ganisel’s Lillsha Wayne as a demon, obeying his master like a loyal hunting dog.

Upon reaching Posla, Angelus held onto his soul as though his only purpose was to rip it to shreds.

“ARGHHH!”

Posla wasn’t getting a single scratch on his body, but he was still going through unimaginable pain. He felt like his insides were melting and that he was going to suffocate to death soon.

The Lillsha Wayne was a soul-eating sword, and every soul captured by the blade became part of it, doomed to forever serve the master of the sword.

Thud!

Posla collapsed. He had no scars, but he had foam at his mouth, and his eyes were vacant, lifeless.

Ganisel had swiftly extracted his soul, capturing it with his sword.

After the chief of the Powers fell, the rest of the demon army took care of the other angels that had survived the lava, delivering a painful death.

Amidst the cacophony of roars and death cries, Henry walked forward through the carnage, and after a few moments, he stopped, fixing his gaze on Virtus.

Virtus, struggling to maintain his composure, met Henry’s gaze.