'N, no, how?'
Yuren's eyes were dyed with bewilderment.
He poured out all his Divine Power aiming for Lucas.
However, Lucas shows not even a shred of agitation.
His ability didn't work at all.
The flawless trait that had supported Yuren until now didn't work even a speck on Lucas.
"T, that is false divinity! You are all being deceived right now!"
Yuren denied Lucas.
Having consumed all his Divine Power, the only place he could trust was the people he had already finished inciting.
"U, uh..."
However, the incitement of Yuren, whose Divine Power had hit rock bottom, was gradually fading in power due to Lucas's overwhelming Divine Power.
In the first place, Divine Power in the Holy Empire is synonymous with the right to speak.
Right now, no matter who said what, Lucas was in an advantageous situation.
'Argh, I must end this trial somehow and settle things.'
It was the best solution Yuren could make.
First, remove Lucas, then regroup and settle things.
He trusts the closed nature of the Holy Empire.
He trusts the evils of this natural fortress where entry and exit are impossible without Holy Relics.
"This trial is temporarily adjourned, and Lucas von Kraus is repatriated to his home country—"
"Hey there, wait a moment. I still have questions left to ask?"
A shout containing a vigorous energy that commands attention.
As people turned their gazes, Conference Head Alan appeared along with a skinny old man.
Checking that old man's face, Yuren's expression hardened stiffly.
"You will have to resolve this person's doubts without leaving a single one. Otherwise..."
Alan's ferocious spirit encroached inside Bertro Cathedral.
A tremendous pressure that made breathing difficult.
As people's attention focused, Alan supported the old man and walked into the center.
"Please speak, Chancellor."
"Thank you, Conference Head."
The identity of the old man is exactly Heinz.
Heinz greeted Alan and straightened his body.
Although it was a body filled with harsh suffering, his presence overwhelmed the people.
"Cardinal Yuren, do you remember me? You won't say you don't know me, whom you drove into the construction site of Atan Tower conspiring with the demon Baltan!"
At the bombshell declaration burst from the opening, people were astonished.
"Everyone listen well! Cardinal Yuren's goal was the completion of Atan Tower from the beginning, only that. That tower is not something like a Holy Relic! That is a fragment of super-ancient civilization and one of the worst weapons!"
"What are the Holy Knights doing! Arrest that old man spouting nonsense right now! Hurry!"
As Yuren screamed, doors opened from all directions, and Holy Knights appeared and began to surround them as if laying siege.
"These crazy fanatic bastards..."
At the moment Alan was raising his energy in anger at their behavior.
"Everyone stop!"
Another massive Divine Power.
"Lady Karin!"
Saintess Karin appeared, scattering immense radiance.
"Holy Knights, sheath your swords. It is an order as the Saintess and as the Commander of the Holy Knights."
At her words, the Holy Knights sheathed their swords without a shred of hesitation.
As Karin moved, they made a path like a tidal wave.
She stood next to Heinz and asked Yuren.
"Cardinal Yuren, is everything this person says true?"
"Th, that is..."
Yuren could not answer.
Because it is all true.
"Holy Knights, listen. Right now, arrest the traitor of the Holy Empire—Cardinal Yuren."
"We received your order."
"No, this isn't it!"
Yuren was dragged away screaming.
***
'Haa...'
Karin's appearance was truly timely.
Of course, Alan would handle the Holy Knights on his own, but the problem was that I might have to step in too.
Since they are relatively confused and intimidated, I might be able to handle a few somehow, but eventually, my bottom line would be revealed.
To me, who lived by relying on misunderstandings, a very terrible ending is lurking.
Thanks to Karin appearing in a timely manner, I was spared such trouble.
"I have committed rudeness, Professor Lucas... and..."
"I am called Heinz."
"H, Heinz? Do you mean Sage Heinz?"
"Only some people call me that, I am just an old man who likes reading books."
"H, how could such... I apologize on behalf of the Holy Empire. And I have no words to say to Professor Lucas. It wasn't enough that rudeness was committed from the process of escorting..."
An apology of obvious repertoire followed.
However, my consciousness was focused more on Yuren being dragged away screaming.
"What will happen to that person."
"Cardi…nal Yuren. No, that person Yuren will be processed according to the laws of the Holy Empire."
For a moment, I felt an unknown eeriness.
This repertoire, it is too familiar.
A villain dragged away like that eventually escapes the crisis and becomes a bigger threat to the protagonist later...
To the author, it counts as adding one more episode, but to the reader, it is the very development that becomes a predestined frustration.
"I have a ominous feeling."
This is what my instinct, which enjoyed genre literature for a long time as a reader before being an author, shouts.
I hurriedly threw my body toward where Yuren headed.
***
[Hero of the Eastern Front, Arrested by the Holy Empire?]
[Professor Lucas von Kraus, Visiting the Holy Empire for Investigation]
[Accompanying Conference Head Alan... Charges Undisclosed.]
Although they said they would hush it up at the conference, news about Lucas eventually spread throughout the continent.
Naturally, it was bound to attract people's attention.
Professor Lucas and the Holy Empire.
It was a truly strange confrontation.
One side is the Hero of the Eastern Front, and the other is the vanguard against demons.
An ironic situation where two who seem likely to have more in common are currently confronting each other.
However, due to Bert's peculiarity where entry and exit are impossible without going through Holy Relics, the subsequent situation is unknown.
Because of that, people's eyes naturally turned to Glasco or Aeroc, Lucas's affiliation.
However, those two camps were maintaining silence.
People's doubts were bound to deepen.
'Frustrating!'
Vice-Chancellor Ronald crumpled the newspaper and swallowed his frustration.
Why must Professor Lucas be taken to the Holy Empire.
Did they not clearly see demons being swept away by Lucas's hands already three times.
But they cannot step forward.
They are an educational institution after all.
Stepping forward hastily would only result in throwing students into the flames of conflict.
'By the way, what is the Royal Family doing! Isn't Lucas a more important talent for Aeroc!'
Ronald resented the Royal Family's silence anew.
Lucas, the Hero of the Eastern Front, is being taken away, but what is the Royal Family doing?
However, Aeroc's King, Romero, was equally frustrated.
He doesn't think Lucas was arrested.
Rather, it was correct to see that he entered the Holy Empire on his own for some reason.
That reason would naturally be related to the decoding of the code contained in
Since the result of the decoding surprisingly pointed to Bert, and it was delivered to Lucas, Lucas walked into Bert on his own.
In fact, the desire to argue with the Holy Empire right now is strong.
Not just the Sage of the Continent, but even the Hero of the Eastern Front.
However, the Holy Empire's position is 'World Justice'.
Justification is lacking.
Above all, there are no troops.
Excluding the troops currently concentrated at Aeroc's Igner, Aeroc will be destroyed soon.
Even if not for that, the kingdom closest to the front line currently is Aeroc.
Therefore—the point that the Holy Empire's help is more desperate than anything was holding him back.
Also, even if he declares war, there is no way to enter the Holy Empire.
However, there was a fact they didn't know.
The fact that everything they are worried about has been resolved.
And the fact that a certain change is beginning in the Holy Empire.
***
"Argh, I cannot end it like this."
Around Yuren, corpses whose heads were already severed were lined up.
'Lucas, this damn Lucas!'
Yuren ran to the site of Atan Tower bearing a deep grudge against Lucas.
As long as he has Atan Tower, it doesn't matter what happens to other things.
"Your, Your Eminence Cardinal..."
The Atan Tower site was truly a spectacle.
Supervisors who should be supervising laborers were all fallen and fainted.
Those awake had somewhere broken and couldn't move.
"I, I am sorry. Because some old man barged in—"
Squish-
Yuren stepped on and burst the head of the supervisor approaching him, then extended his steps toward Atan Tower.
Atan Tower is not properly completed yet.
But there is no time to argue about such things.
He faced a situation where he had to operate it even if incomplete.
'Lucas, I curse you who ruined my plan. I will offer you as the first sacrifice of this Atan Tower.'
Heading to the tower, Yuren continued to pour out curses on Lucas.
There is resentment towards Lucas, but it's also because such grudges and malice become food for Atan Tower.
Selecting supervisors intentionally as guys full of malice had a reason.
Creep-!
It was then.
He turned around at the strangeness felt suddenly from his spine.
"Lucas..."
A man existing heterogeneously, as if drawn.
There was Lucas.
***
"Stop. Your plan is already over."
If my feet had been tied by the corpses like the rest including the Saintess, Yuren would have already arrived at the tower.
Even though it wasn't completed, it's a weapon of super-ancient civilization.
It was self-evident that some accident would occur.
"No, my plan is not over. As long as I have this tower..."
"Will that be so?"
I took out a certain fragment from my bosom.
'Please fall for it...'
I will do a bluff betting my fate from now on.
Because I am the author of
Yuren's expression, examining my hand carefully, hardened stiffly.
"Th, that is..."
He fell for it.
A reaction came from the bastard.
"Right. It is the core fragment of Atan Tower. As long as this is in my hand—you cannot realize that plan."
Actually, what is held in my hand is not the core fragment of the tower or whatever.
The core fragment would be installed nicely in the tower.
This was a lie I could tell because I wrote the setting that 'a core fragment for activation exists in the tower'.
"How do you have that..."
"I know the pain you have. I understand you. So, give up now."
"What do you know—"
"Yuren Sosart. Clan of Faithfulness."
"!"
The bastard's expression is dyed with astonishment.
Sosart.
They are a clan more faithful than anyone in the Holy Empire.
But the Sosart clan was exterminated.
By none other than humans.
And while spreading God's will at that.
So the bastard hates humans, and the God who watched the clan's destruction.
That is why the bastard tries to become a god and destroy this world.
Since he was a guy made for the ending, a plausible reason was needed.
Although now it's only holding me back.
"I will bear your anger."
"You, how can you bear my anger!"
It's a mistake.
Unbearable massive anger shakes the space, the tower.
Atan Tower resonates—
With the bastard's anger.
Rumble! Boom! Bang!
A thunderbolt from a dry sky.
The tower scattered and became dust.
...It is not something to welcome at all.
That dust swirled and gathered around Yuren.
The second coming of an Evil God was about to begin.
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