Fill the Gap (1)

The Kaldris Kingdom and the Mado Kingdom were ready for war.

Strong forces from both countries marched to the borders of Allendia, awaiting orders from the king.

At that moment, if the Thunder King and Archmage came forward and led the invasion, the Fairy Kingdom, which had already been weakened by civil war, would collapse without resistance.

But Garhan and Genovia couldn’t move.

“I don’t know how much real power they have.”

Locked up in the regent palace, Garhan was frowning.

When the Transcendental lost, the group of the incarnation was deemed no longer an easy opponent to deal with.

Instead, they were unknown and powerful enemies.

“I thought we could win if the two of us fight together…”

In the first place, he thought Hollien would never lose alone.

‘But she lost. So what’s the guarantee that we’ll win the war if we join in?’

Their lack of information terrified them.

Hence, he used Akhtarun’s Aliens to check the level of the enemy.

And they were all the more confused.

“Level 7 swordsman? What nonsense is that?”

More than one person had witnessed Felard Bean, the heir to the Sword King, wielding Gigant to devastate the battlefield.

“There’s no way he’s level 7!”

The Alien, standing in front of Garhan, looked unhappy.

“What am I supposed to do when the Guidelines say Level 7? I’m just following orders.”

Unlike the new Great Earth, Akhtarun’s Aliens followed Garhan on a mortgage. Of course, their attitude was arrogant.

“Fine. You may go.”

After letting the Alien leave, Garhan requested a video call via the magic mirror.

After a while, a beautiful blonde black beauty appeared in the mirror.

“You were looking for me, Garhan?”

“Yes, Genovia.”

Garhan shared the information he had obtained with her, and Genovia’s brows furrowed.

“The incarnation of darkness must have hidden his level on purpose.”

“That’s what I think. If we can’t determine his level, we have no choice but to figure out his skills through the traditional way…”

Latnains couldn’t figure out the opponents’ level just by looking before.

If an unidentified yet powerful individual was an enemy, it was the long tradition of the world powers to send their subordinates to estimate their skills beforehand.

Genovia immediately noticed Garhan’s troubles.

“That’s going to be difficult. If he’s powerful enough for us, it’ll be hard for the Aliens to make him show off his skills.”

The problem was that the Thunder King and Archmage were playing separately in heaven and earth.

Garhan’s most powerful men were level 106 Magic Swordsmen, and Genovia’s men were level 107 Mages.

The gap in skills was so large that it was challenging to draw out the opponent’s power by using subordinates for the old method.

“But through the civil war in Allendia, I could roughly infer his level.”

When he swept the battlefield, Garhan could deduce him to be level 130, but he sometimes saw the man performing around level 140 or higher whenever he destroyed terrain features.

“There’s no way he could make Hollien unable to use the skill, Transcendence. Garhan, I think he is as good at technology as you are.”

Garhan asked again, questioning Genovia.

“Is he a student of Baotolt? The fact that he has technical brilliance…”

The Sword King was a genius from the heavens, but his talent was focused on making himself powerful.

It wasn’t the universal type of genius who was quick on the uptake.

“I hear he has quite a different personality from Baotolt, but just because the teacher is simply ignorant doesn’t mean his student will also be simply ignorant.”

“I doubt he’s his student in the first place.”

Garhan squinted.

“You’ve been watching Baotolt the whole time since the relationship went awry, haven’t you? When did Baotolt have time to raise his students?”

“What if he raised his student secretly to avoid our surveillance?”

At that moment, Garhan burst into laughter.

“Huh! Was he that kind of person? If he knew someone was watching him, he’d try to catch the observer and finish their life immediately.”

“That’s true.”

Genovia smiled bitterly, then became serious again.

“Anyway, it’s true that he has mastered the Valtara’s Fighting Spirit. So I’m sure he’s a disciple. It’s not an easy skill to learn from some book.”

Garhan corrected her misunderstanding.

“Fighting Spirit is a skill that he can learn from writing. It’s not that difficult to get the know-how. Well, it’s possible at our level.”

He, too, was able to imitate the Force.

It was because he blew himself up and died.

“But… it is certain that Baotolt didn’t have enough literary skills to write it down.”

In any case, both agreed that they shouldn’t intervene in the battle directly under the current situation.

“Their purpose is obvious since they’re showing off blatantly. They’re seducing us.”

“Well, we’re not stupid, so we can’t let them get us easily.”

“I need to figure out what they’re capable of… Can’t we use Akhtarun’s Aliens, Garhan?”

Akhtarun’s Aliens had a maximum level of 100. It wouldn’t be enough to send one or two men to force his skills out.

“But if we mobilize dozens of them at once…”

“That’s a little difficult to do as well, Genovia.”

Garhan explained why, with an embarrassed face.

“Hollien has consumed too many level 90s and 100s Aliens.”

Not all of Akhtarun’s hundreds of Aliens were at that level.

They were level 60 to 100, evenly distributed.

Hollien had selected only the top level to face the Holy Punishers.

Only then could they be of help.

As a result, many of them were killed by Ryu Han-bin.

“There are only about fifty high-level Aliens left.”

“Is that all? Hollien should’ve saved them.”

The remaining Aliens of level 60s and 80s were still deployed in major cities on the continent, complying with the existing order to find the Incarnation of Darkness, which was long meaningless.

“So this time, they returned to Akhtarun together.”

Genovia had a ridiculous look on her face.

“Hollien didn’t even clean that up?”

“We didn’t tell her to do it.”

“But she should’ve done it on her own! Isn’t that common sense of the powerful?”

“She wasn’t in power, was she?”

She was only the wife of an influential person.

The problem that was ignored when Hollien was the Transcendental burst around after she was incapacitated.

Genovia had a plan.

“Can’t we send the Aliens under the 80s to the disciple of the Sword King? If we push him using numbers, we’ll manage to…”

Again, Garhan flatly rejected the idea.

“We can’t force them to fight a losing battle.”

It was never due to his compassion for Akhtarun’s Aliens.

“You know how they feel, don’t you? More than half would shout, ‘I’d rather kill myself after enjoying my last pleasure!’”

They were worth using, but they couldn’t be wasted like that.

That was the problem with the ban, which took life as collateral.

They couldn’t use those Aliens in a situation where their life was on the line anyway.

Genovia, who had been agonizing over it, came up with measures.

“I think we can use the Upper Draconium. But this needs quite a bit of preparation time.”

“Hollien has already lost. Allendia was taken.”

Garhan continued with a look of no confidence.

“It means that the Incarnation of Darkness has the means to subdue us. But is there any reason to buy time?”

Genovia replied with a sigh.

“I can’t. First, we start a war, and then we buy time through a local war.”

* * *

A few days later, the new Fairy King, Sormel, was crowned.

However, he wasn’t the main character of the coronation ceremony.

Taking advantage of that, the pope of the six Churches informed Latna of the surprising truth.

– The great Goddess of Darkness came down to Latna. Let the faithful rejoice and welcome the Incarnation!

A black-haired beauty appeared in front of the large crowd in the square.

She was a stunning woman decorated with elegant dark silk and ornaments.

“In the name of Kybriel, I, the incarnation, Kibie, inform the faithful!”

The content was creepy.

“Hollien the Transcendental, Garhan the Thunder King, and Archmage Genovia. Those great heroes who once defended Latna have been corrupted and became the mainstay of the devil. They have committed an unacceptable sin against the world!”

The people were surprised and convinced at the same time.

It was strange.

By that moment, even though Hollien had lost her power, why did the night’s changes hadn’t stopped?

“The Transcendental has been punished. It is not Kybriel’s wish to punish the remaining two sinners in exchange for the blood of innocent believers. At the mercy of the Goddess, I’ll give them one last chance.”

After breathing calmly, Kibie continued.

“You two sinners, repent of your sins and kneel before the Incarnation of Darkness! This is the will of Latna’s six Goddesses!”

* * *

“I wondered why the incarnation of darkness was hiding its identity all this time…”

Garhan nodded when he heard the news.

“You’ve been waiting for this timing.”

Through the oracle of the Goddesses, she had already declared the Transcendental an enemy of the world.

Later, however, if she edited her own words, saying, ‘I couldn’t say it before, but Thunder King and Archmage were bad guys!’ that would seem too ‘human.’

Oracles were limited and ambiguous. Even the six Templar Lords couldn’t grasp all the authenticity.

Hence, the incarnation of darkness brought to mind the ‘part that stupid humans didn’t realize.’

“Did you mean to come out like that?”

Touching his chin, Garhan grinned.

“Then we’ll have to take it.”

* * *

The descent of the incarnation shook the entirety of Latna.

Not only the Transcendental but also the Thunder King and the Archmage were sinners of the world?

They had no idea how terrible the chaos would be on the continent.

Everyone was nervous and looked at the reaction of the Kaldris Kingdom and the Mado Kingdom.

A few days later, official announcements came from both kingdoms.

-The six Churches and the unholy woman who claims to be the incarnation of the darkness, the will of the six Goddesses is sacred beyond the lips of mortals!

The denominations that tried to overthrow their regime with groundless nonsense were the enemies of Latna. Weren’t they sinning against the world?

But they could agree on one thing.

It wasn’t their wish, either, for innocent Latna believers to bleed.

Hence, they would give them one last chance.

Gently kneel and surrender. Then the two kingdoms would be as generous as they could be.

A sharp reaction that didn’t budge an inch.

Nevertheless, the people of Latna breathed a sigh of relief.

At the brink of war, they stepped back from each other for the time being.

Still, they remained anxious.

It wasn’t the end of the war, but rather just a delay.

It was evident that the two forces would soon collide.

Numerous refugees left their homes on the borders of Allendia, Kaldris, and the Mado Kingdoms.

The war hadn’t broken out yet, but the war had already begun.