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Chapter 429: Battle Between Angels and Mortals

It was ironic how the living representative of Holy Light declared battle against the glorious angels that represented holiness and Order itself. But mere irony wouldn’t stop the battle hammer of fury and its blinding Holy Light.

Estrada’s fervent belief manifested as fiery wings as the Strongest Holy Knight utilized his powers of flight to clash against the fiery-winged angel in midair. Against the flame-wreathed holy sword, the furious battle hammer created dazzling sparks. Angel leader Achas, who was only a second-rank angel, only managed to block the wrathful strongest human’s attack for a split second.

*Bam!* *Bam!*

With a wave of Estrada’s battle hammer, two clear sounds rang out in midair as the exquisitely beautiful holy sword and the angel leader’s head were both smashed to tiny pieces.

The headless corpse fell below, and the Holy Light started disappearing from its white wings. Red blood splashed everywhere with the angel’s golden hair, but this gruesome scene helped everyone learn that an angel’s body wasn’t that different from human’s.

The headless corpse crashed heavily into the ground as the holy sword’s tiny pieces scattered everywhere.

However, the angel army didn’t make a sound or stop its advance—it was as if they didn’t notice that their leader had just died. This was what they had done during the previous battle against Bardi as well. Not a single angel among them was special or irreplaceable. If their leader died, the sub-leader would take over. When that leader was devoured by a dragon, the next sub-leader became the new leader.

Coldblooded, calm and not afraid of sacrifice—they were perfect war machines, as well as the species the Gods trusted the most: War Angels.

At this moment, an irreversible event had occurred.

Holy Light job class members would always humbly refer to themselves as the Holy Light’s servants. Meanwhile, angels were the God of Holy Light’s God Envoys, but now the Holy Light’s servant had slain them. This was the equivalent of killing one’s superior. Everything was no longer stoppable—there was no going back.

In the air, high-ranked Holy Knights capable of using flying Divine Arts fought against angel sergeants. Others that chose to either side with mortals or the God of Holy Light also commenced fighting. When the justice in human hearts clashed against the justice of Order, not a single person was able to remain uninvolved.

“Monsters! This world doesn’t belong to you!”

In front of the Holy Knights who chose their heart’s justice and started whirling their battle hammers, these legendary angels turned out to be not much at all. They were no stronger than some monsters with the power of flight.

On this battlefield, battle hammers and sharp swords flew everywhere. The angels showed no signs of mercy or kindness. Since they had pointed their swords at these traitors, it was only natural that the next step would be to eliminate them.

As Stephen’s coughed-up blood continued bleeding into the ground, angel blood from slain angels fell down from the sky and mixed together with it. Soon, their blood could no longer be told apart.

A Holy Knight named Caso viciously swung his battle hammer at an angel’s armor. The reverberations from this impact knocked his angel opponent right into the ground. Judging from the large amounts of innards that the angel coughed up, it wasn’t going to live much longer. But before Caso could find another target a Spear of Holy Light impaled him in the air.

As a Legend-ranked Holy Knight, however, Caso was unwilling to die off just like that. He pounced on the angel closest to him, and the next instant blinding Holy Light illuminated everyone’s eyes. Caso had self-destructed in a flash of Holy Light, leaving behind only his purple crystal battle hammer in a large crater.

Caso wasn’t the only one who met such an end. These War Angels were armed to the teeth, and ordinary Holy Knights were no match for them. While humans addressed Gold-ranked warriors as grandmasters, to the angels they were nothing more than the level of a young child. The two sides had been unequal from the very start.

In order to master “Angel Wings,” “Wings of Holy Light” and other such flying magic Divine Arts a Holy Knight must be at Gold or higher. Moreover, fighting the angels in the air turned out to be one of the most foolish decisions possible.

The high-level warriors on both sides fought in the air, but mortals were the ones who fell out of the sky and perished in the great majority of cases. The angels were a well-trained military squadron, while the others were just scattered powerful individuals that had just banded together minutes ago. Even without mentioning differences in individual power levels, there was a huge difference in both sides’ teamwork.

Approximately three or four hundred chose the path of the justice in their hearts. Fewer than fifty among them were at Gold and above, and there were barely ten Legends. However, they faced a total of five hundred Legendary angels—there was a tremendous difference between their overall strength.

Once the angels eliminated the high-ranked Holy Knights capable of flight, they turned to the easy targets—the remaining Holy Knights and ordinary warriors. Spears of Holy Light and thrown holy swords killed these warriors with a single blow. Helplessly, the Holy Knights on the ground were continually killed from a long distance.

Compared to these Gods’ warriors, mortal warriors seemed powerless. This reckoning came far too quickly for them as they hadn’t even prepared themselves for the calamity they knew they would face.

Estrada witnessed all of this from the corner of his eyes and felt like his heart was bleeding.

“Caso, you have two children to take care of. Albina, you…”

But unfortunately, even though he witnessed the deaths of many of his disciples and believers, he couldn’t go and save them. He didn’t even have spare time for idle thoughts. As the “lead traitor,” the angels viewed him as the most important strategic objective. All the leader-level angels were currently surrounding and attacking him.

“Castle of Holy Light.”

A Holy Knight tried to open up his Soul World but it ended the moment he activated it. This was a Soul World that greatly improved the powers of Holy Light. However, opening it for even a moment was the most foolish decision he could have possibly made. How could ordinary mortal Holy Knights possibly compare to heaven’s angels in their control over Holy Light?

Holy Knights’ typical enemies were evil villains, undead and demons. Holy Light was always highly effective against such enemies. However, they were now fighting against angels that possessed tremendous affinity for Holy Light. Bullet of Light, Holy Light Judgement and other such typical Holy Light spells that had always been effective were only absorbed by the angels’ armor or left mere light scratches.

The Holy Knights’ attacking methods were easily seen through and predicted. Their Holy Light attacks weren’t even as effective as simple physical attacks. On the other hand, the angels were pure slaughtering machines, and their dual-handed holy swords possessed holy flames that were absolutely merciless against the humans.

After the “Holy Church’s traitors” received tremendous losses to the point where they appeared like they would lose at any moment, the ones most worried were actually the Holy Light army’s “observers.”

Abo Kaso was an elite warrior who swore loyalty to the God of Holy Light at a holy sanctuary. Although he didn’t have any talent for Holy Light, which prevented him from becoming a Holy Knight, he had always worshiped this glorious job ever since he was a child. That was why he volunteered to join this Holy War. But now, his faith was greatly shaken.

“The justice in my heart? Or the justice of the Gods? Just what led me down this path? The Gods’ guidance or the kindness in my heart?”

Those who possessed even the slightest modicum of logic and reason knew that slaughtering defenseless civilians was absolutely shameful. As for slaughtering the gigantic number of two million civilians? No matter which insane leader carried it out, that person would surely make the history books in the most humiliating fashion.

Perhaps this was why believers were never allowed to be close to the Gods. Perhaps this was why divine will always appeared so unfathomable. Those who got too close would find that the Gods weren’t so mysterious. There would even be contradictions between divine will and reality.

“Why did the God of Holy Light choose to slaughter so many? Why? Are human lives truly just like ants to the Gods? In that case, just what is this belief that we’ve always had?”

Those who had even the slightest conscience were asking the same question as Abo Kaso. However, none of them had any answers. Out of all the humans present, Estrada, who was currently locked in a difficult battle, was the only one who knew the answer.

This wasn’t because he was the most intelligent one here. This was because Roland had already explained everything to him while predicting that there would be a tremendous slaughter of the heretics.

“…Not enough people have died in this Holy War. Do you remember what I told you before about the source of all Holy Wars? When the wheat is ripe, it’s naturally time to harvest the crops. The Source of Order desires for large amounts of souls to enter the Cycle of Reincarnation during the Holy War. Due to certain reasons, far too few people are dying. And the Source of Order naturally prefers heretics to die over its own side.

“Any Order God that wants to increase in power level or just preserve their own position will be unable to go against the Source of Order’s will. This is just like how any demon prince will be unable to go against the Chaos Abyss’s will. The God of Holy Light that abandoned his own sense of self is an example of the easiest type of puppet to control.”

However, Roland’s words weren’t merely to give Estrada a simple explanation.

“That’s why once there’s a somewhat usable excuse and concrete benefits to be had a tremendous slaughter will definitely occur. These angels that suddenly descended are the best evidence of the God of Holy Light’s determination. Even if you can convince other humans against committing such a slaughter, it will still be meaningless. That’s because in the current world, when the God of Holy Light has decided on a course of action, not a single individual will be able to stop the strongest True God of the Order Faction. That’s why I recommend for you to be wiser and take good care of yourself… Forget it, pretend I didn’t say anything. If you were that ‘wise,’ you wouldn’t have reached your current level.”

The approaching angels made it so that Estrada didn’t have any more free time to think on this any longer. Besides, he had acted foolishly plenty of times in the past. However, likely not a single previous time was as despairing as his current situation.

“Holy Light, don’t you have any sympathy for the humans that worshiped you for so many years? Perhaps Roland was correct. Holy Light is Holy Light and is different from the God of Holy Light.”

The elderly Estrada, who still had a young appearance, asked this question from the bottom of his heart. All he saw before him was a group of angels that covered the skies. Only now did he feel that the angel statues decorating every Holy Church branch were annoying to behold, that these more magnificent versions of Winged Tribe were disgusting.

Estrada wouldn’t possibly hesitate about making a decision which would put him in a dangerous brink on the verge of death. The only part where he hesitated about was that younger lives would also accompany him in this dangerous brink.

“If Holy Light is mostly ineffective against these angels, then…”

As Estrada hovered in midair, he raised his battle hammer and concentrated a dense amount of Holy Light upon it. The next instant, this Holy Light transformed into countless meteors that crashed into countless… Holy Knights.

That’s right, the Holy Knights, not the angels.

“Angel’s Twelve Blessings… I never expected that I’d think this Divine Art’s name was so ironic. Perhaps I should give a new name to this Divine Art.”

Body strengthening, dexterity increasing, regeneration, perception strengthening, dispelling evil, justice’s protection, holy healing, Holy Light power of flight and so on. This Holy Light spell contained twelve different special effects that would buff the targets of this spell. The most important effects were the Holy Light’s most basic abilities of healing and flight.

The Holy Knights, who had large gaping holes in their bodies and were bleeding to their deaths, stood back up again with incredulous looks on their faces as they covered their injuries which were now completely healed. The wings of light on their backs also gave them the power of flight.

As for those who were already dead… Unfortunately, this world wasn’t a game. Even the Strongest Holy Knight Estrada didn’t have any resurrection magic spells at his disposal.

Was Estrada actually able to cast the highest-level support Divine Art with so many special effects on several hundred people at once and maintain it? He once again taught everyone here just how strong the Strongest Holy Knight was, although he was indeed temporarily weakened from casting such a spell.

This scene also exceeded the angels’ expectations. The angels were the Gods’ favored species and were born with natural talent for Divine Arts. However, Divine Arts had also been taught in the mortal plane for countless years. This scene was beyond the angels’ understanding.

Yet not a single War Angel would consider retreating in front of a powerful enemy. No War Angel understood the concepts of fear or hesitation.

Taking advantage of Estrada’s momentary weakness from casting such a powerful spell, the War Angels arranged themselves in a combat formation typically used to fight against high-level demons. Holy sword-wielding War Angels stood at the forefront, spear-wielding War Angels stood in the middle to assist from a greater distance, while Divine Art casters incanted from behind.

Just Estrada alone had succeeded in taking up the attention of several hundred angels. This was no different from him single-handedly taking on several hundred dragons.

“Holy Flame Inferno.”

Not real, these holy flames were actually Holy Light pf the highest purity. In the area under this inferno, all undead and demons would be immolated. Meanwhile, the angels that thought they wouldn’t be harmed found themselves mysteriously transforming into fireballs.

The elderly Holy Knight’s understanding and control of Holy Light had far surpassed these low-ranked angels’ understanding. Estrada was capable of using his own Holy Light to directly explode the power of Holy Light within these angels’ bodies. This technique was also effective against other Holy Knights, but this would obviously be a forbidden technique.

Once the Strongest Holy Knight abandoned all his inhibitions and finally attacked with the full extent of his power, half of the sky started burning. The angels were turning into torches of holy fire. Once the elderly Holy Knight decided to guard this piece of sky, even the angels found themselves unable to pass him.

However, at this time the angel leaders uttering their long incantation from behind finished, causing a pillar of light to suddenly ascend to the sky. Yet nothing seemed to happen.

“Did it fail?”

The next instant, Estrada realized that his guess had been wrong. He found himself no longer able to sense the Holy Light.

That’s right—the God of Holy Light received a report and cut off Estrada’s ability to use the Holy Light. The moment that Estrada lost his powers, he began falling from the sky. His young appearance speedily started aging at a visible speed. Without the protection of his Holy Light, his life was rapidly reaching a natural end. But what was even more fatal was the burning holy sword about to impale him.

“The ninety-seventh Holy Light forbidden spell: Holy Light Reclamation. This is a Divine Art that’s specially used against fallen angels. You should be proud of yourself for being the first human to ever receive this Divine Art.”

Estrada wasn’t the only person on the receiving end of this forbidden spell. All the other “traitors” on the ground suddenly lost their powers of Holy Light as well. These former fervent believers in the God of Holy Light had their powers personally reclaimed by the God of Holy Light himself.

Despite the fact that he was at the brink, Estrada laughed. Of course he would have realized that when he’d made this decision, the God of Holy Light that he had believed in for so many years would betray him. However, he never felt more relieved in his entire life.

“In that case, my ‘venerated and revered’ God of Holy Light, let me show you the light.. the light which belongs to us mortals.”