Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage

By this point, only about thirty percent of humanity hadn’t been turned into blind believers. The few remaining territories were Monsieur, Shahatra, St. Hall, and Deucekain, along with the three major military camps. Most of the other cities and kingdoms, regardless of their size, had either been destroyed or their population had been turned into blind believers by the apostles.

Such an unparalleled catastrophe had occurred within the span of one month.

And now, Arthus threatened to annihilate the remaining thirty percent of humanity just because Henry and his allies hadn’t listened to him and because he was irritated by their attitude.

Thud, thud, thud...

The ground rumbled as though a herd of buffalos were thundering across a nearby field.

Of course, the rumbling wasn’t coming from a herd. Rather, it was caused by an ominous black wave that drew closer and closer from the horizon. They were blind believers, screaming eerily as they came rushing toward the expedition members.

“Here they come,” muttered McDowell as he eyed the approaching threat across the horizon.

There was still hope. They had already made plans for a situation like this, and thanks to Henry's quick thinking, they were able to avoid the worst case scenario. However, the threat was far from over.

Monsieur, Shahatra, St. Hall, and Deucekain.

Henry had already evacuated the citizens and soldiers of Deucekain and moved them to Monsieur because of its geographical disadvantage and because there were already several soldiers stationed in Monsieur. He knew it would be futile to try defending Deucekain against thousands of blind believers.

Shahatra's situation was slightly better. Henry, Herarion, and Viram had built a temporary palace in Khan following the apostle’s rampage and reactivated the barrier around the kingdom. This level of defense made it impossible for the blind believers to invade the kingdom through the mountain ranges.

However, the valley called the Shahatra Gate was still unprotected, and unfortunately they couldn’t do anything about that. But even so, Henry wasn’t too worried about that, knowing that it would be almost impossible for the blind believers to cross the desert on foot without any water or food, given that it would take days to make that journey on horse.

Moreover, the desert was full of demonic beasts that thrived in that environment, thus making Shahatra almost a natural fortress among the other regions.

The other two regions that needed protection were the Holy City of St. Hall and Monsieur. Just like with Deucekain, Henry had the Sages evacuate the people of St. Hall and bring them to Monsieur.

Given that the Pope and the two strongest Holy Knights were gone, and the Saint was away with the expedition team, St. Hall wouldn’t stand a chance against an army of blind believers. Thus, Henry had no choice but to move all the citizens and the few Holy Knights and priests that had survived to Monsieur.

Although the top commanders of the Holy City were dead, the Holy Knights under them would still be valuable soldiers to Henry.

“Everyone, prepare yourselves!”

The horde of blind believers had been a distant black wave, but now they were alarmingly close, their silhouettes becoming clearer and clearer.

However, Henry’s people were prepared. Even though they had hastily assembled from various parts of the continent, the knights who had regrouped in Monsieur along with Masila, the librarian from Faesiling, had once been esteemed commanders in the empire.

- KIAAA!

- GRRR!

There had been some drastic changes for this battle. The craftsmen of Monsieur were no longer just weapon-makers; they were now warriors fighting for humanity’s survival.

However, one didn’t instantly become a seasoned warrior just by picking up a weapon. Thus, the craftsmen gulped nervously as the blind believers closed in.

Meanwhile, the priests of St. Hall watched the advancing horde and prayed in silence. They knew that these creatures had once been ordinary people, fellow followers of the Church of Peace. But even so, they had no intention of playing defensively like the Saint so as to not harm them.

The priests had heard from those who had returned from Lizark Hill about how critical the situation was, and they weren’t willing to risk humanity’s destruction because of the rigid doctrines of their church.

‘We must put the living first!’

As the blind believers were almost on them, Lore gave the orders, having full authority in Henry’s absence.

“Activate the magic circles!”

At his order, the vice school heads, who stood at equal distance apart from each other along the castle walls, simultaneously activated the magic circles.

Zoom!

All the vice school heads had strange looks of exhilaration on their faces. That was only natural, given that they finally had a chance to use their new powers after evolving their Circles.

As they activated the magic circles, the magicians grouped around the vice school heads also concentrated their magic. Then, a massive blue barrier materialized in front of the castle wall, accompanied by a rising haze.

- KIAAA!

Nothing happened as the blind believers approached the blue barrier, but as soon as they collided with it...

Zap, zap, zap!

High-voltage electricity coursed through the blue barrier.

- KIAAA!!!

Their screams filled the air as the electric current ravaged through them, but they didn’t last long. After a moment of silence, another wave of screaming came from the herd, and then another.

It was an endless cycle of agony and pained screams. As the wailing kept going and the corpses piled up against the barrier, Henry’s allies were relieved to see that they could buy more time.

Zap, zap!

The electric current spread and twisted like a thousand snakes, swallowing up the blind believers and burning them to ash. It quickly became clear that the mindless creatures stood no chance against the blue barrier devised by Henry.

- KIAAA!

The chorus of despair filled the battlefield endlessly, and even the ones who had initially covered their ears and just peeked at the barrier ended up getting used to the scene of destruction and watched the blind believers get charred with straight faces.

Seeing all of this, Vulcanus turned to Lore and asked, “Sir Lore, this magic appears to be extremely consuming, given its scale... Can we really keep it up for a long time?”

“Yes, as long as we’re all in good condition, we’ll be able to keep it up for more than half a day.”

“Really?”

“I’m not sure if Grand Archmage Henry had anticipated all of this, but he significantly enhanced our abilities before we set out to find Arthus. We're much stronger now.”

Just as Lore had said, the vice school heads, who were among the highest-ranking Archmages in Henry’s team, were handling the frontlines. In other words, Lore was saying that fueling the barrier with magic wasn’t an issue, as all the Sages, who were stronger than the vice school heads, were waiting in reserve.

However, even though they had all managed to increase their mana capacity with the Black Tear, elevating it to Archmage-level, their mana was still limited. And so, in order to address this issue, they had come up with the strategy to divide lower-ranking wizards into smaller groups to provide mana for the vice school heads.

This was possible because the wizards had come up with spells that allowed them to share and concentrate their mana into someone else. This kind of strategy was actually standard procedure for activating and maintaining a magic bombardment.

- KIAAA...

Thud!

As the last blind believer fell to the ground, the scent of burnt flesh permeated the meadow in front of the castle.

The charred corpses were stacked in front of the blue barrier, reminiscent of the desolate Demon Realm.

One of the magicians turned to one of the vice school heads and asked a question after seeing the devastating scene.

“Sir, do you have any plans on taking care of the bodies?”

“No. We’re going to leave them where they are.”

“May I ask why?”

“They’ll serve as good obstacles for any subsequent herds.”

As the wizards had been setting up their large-scale electric magic barrier, they had realized something crucial. The incoming blind believers, although great in numbers, were fundamentally no different from ordinary humans. This meant that as long as they could maintain a steady supply of mana, they could handle the overwhelming armies of blind believers, who were unarmed and lacked any strategy.

But of course, the wizards couldn’t be certain of victory because of their sheer numbers. They just had to utilize all the resources at their disposal for the long run and no longer think of the blind believers as humans.

“The only thing we can do here is hold our ground and fight them for as long as possible. We’ll keep doing this until the Archmage defeats Arthus.”

They had been given one mission: to hold on and protect the rest of humanity while having faith in Henry, the last ray of hope, as he fought Arthus in the frontline.

***

Lizark Hill—it had been named after the Lizark flowers that always bloomed around this time of the year.

Of course, there were numerous flowers in the world, and even around this hill, there were tons of different types of flowers. However, this hill was the only place on the continent where the Lizark flowers bloomed in many different colors, resembling a rainbow.

In a couple of days, the Lizark flowers would fully bloom and paint the hill in vibrant colors.

But now...

Instead of being colorful and smelling like honey and flowers, Lizark Hill was covered in blood, its metallic scent filling the air.

At the heart of this chaos stood a handsome man, furrowing his brows.

“Huh? This isn’t what I planned...”

That man was none other than Arthus, and in front of him was Henry, his tattered armor covered in his own blood.

As Arthus looked down on him, he spoke to the Saint in an incredulous voice.

“What are you doing? Treat him.”

“Archmage...”

She trembled as she saw Henry. After a couple of clashes, Arthus had slashed apart everyone except her. But of course, he hadn’t killed any of them, not wanting to break his toys before he could get the most amount of fun out of them.

That was the reason Arthus hadn’t attacked the Saint—she was the one who could heal his toys and allow them to entertain him some more.

He had brought all of them on the brink of death multiple times.

“Aren’t you going to heal him?”

Arthus looked down at the Saint with a straight face and urged her again to heal her people. However, the Saint, overwhelmed by the successive defeats of her companions, was about to have a mental breakdown. Arthus grabbed her chin so that she would look him in the eye and whispered to her once again.

“Why aren't you treating him? You’re not trying to back out now, are you? If so, Irene truly is a cowardly goddess. Why isn’t she descending as she did with Palo earlier? Hmm? Answer me,” demanded Arthus, his voice full of mockery.

Arthus was mocking the Saint, but also Irene, the goddess she worshiped. The memory of being disregarded earlier by the goddess was still fresh in Arthus’ mind, still angering him.

The Saint merely sobbed, unable to speak, so Arthus got irritated and pushed her face back.

“Ah, you’re infuriating.”

But at that moment, something unexpected happened.

Sqwelp!

“Hmm?”

Arthus saw a long sword protruding from his chest. He could feel the cold yet hot feeling of the blade in his chest.

“Hmm.”

Perhaps he had let his guard down. Even for someone who had ascended to the level of a demigod, a moment of negligence was enough to expose several weaknesses. However, the wound itself was not so much of a threat as it was a surprise.

Arthus turned around to see the battered-up Hector, who was barely standing, looking at him with his murderous red eyes, with his arm extending toward him.

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