⚙ PROPHECY ⚙ The one who gathers the twelve Divine Weapons shall become the successor of All God Theos!
This passage is from Chapter 2, Verse 14 of the Book of Sword Saint Rolan.
Divine Weapons.
The legendary armaments wielded by All God Theos during the Mythical Age.
The Sword Saint who slew Demon King Kaniza was also a wielder of Divine Weapons—a resonater.
Ordinary mercenary Karyl believed such legends had no connection to him.
However...
KABOOM! KABOOOM!
'Damn it! Hell itself couldn't be worse!'
Eardrum-shattering roars and flashes illuminating the night sky like broad daylight.
On the vast plain, the Divine Weapon left behind by All God Theos—its resonaters—were battling right before his eyes.
Holy Spirit Armor adorned with wings of light tore through the heavens. Each clash of the holy sword and heavenly bow in their hands shook heaven and earth.
Watching their fight felt like the Mythical Age had returned.
Was the war between All God and Demon God like this?
Yet there must have been people below them as well.
"You bastard... That Mercenary King using his men as bait!"
Karyl and his comrades had followed Mercenary King Hakan into the battle for control of the western Bellarion Continent.
He'd thought it was a fight for shining glory and vast riches, but upon arrival, it turned out they were mere arrow fodder meant to exhaust the elf queen and her Divine Weapon.
'Cough! If I'd known, I should've just farmed like Mom said.'
Karyl, reduced to fodder for the heavenly bow and critically wounded, lay sprawled on the ground.
Spitting blood, he looked up at the sky where the so-called heroes still soared.
Heroes? What a load of crap—damn bastards.
As the black-haired mercenary youth in his brief thirty-three years of life recalled an incident from a few months prior...
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"This is the holy sword?"
Karyl tilted his head at the sword hanging in the Mercenary King's office.
Apart from its antique design, it looked far too plain and humble to pass for a holy sword.
And the storage was laughably careless.
"My own sword, forged from dwarf-made Mirsil alloy steel, looks more like a holy sword..."
"It's the real deal."
A voice slurred slightly with drink drifted from behind, carrying the thick stench of alcohol.
Karyl spun around and snapped a salute.
"My apologies, Captain."
"Forget it. At ease."
Bronze skin and a burly frame. Long, coarse golden hair like a lion's mane, limbs covered in scars.
This man, who looked like he'd leaped straight from a heroic myth—with a notorious history of romantic conquests—was Hakan Leviathan.
The sole hero on the Bellarion Continent bearing the title of Mercenary King, and the only successor to the Stella Sword founded by Sword Saint Rolan.
"What brings you here?"
Hakan dismissed the beauties clinging to his arms and asked the question. Karyl promptly handed over the documents in his hand.
"17th Squadron personnel composition and status report. You ordered it submitted this morning..."
"Ah, right. The one-eyed guy—you're the 17th Squadron staff officer."
Karyl's brow furrowed.
Over ten years in the Leviathan Mercenary Corps, countless brushes with death.
Yet Hakan seemed to have no memory of him.
'Well, he treats even Aura Experts like stray mutts. To him, an ordinary merc like me must be less than an ant.'
Hakan skimmed the report and tossed it aside before turning his gaze to Karyl.
"So... 17th staff officer Karim Daymond, was it?"
"Ka.ryl. Day.wood."
"Right, right. Anyway... Curious if this is really a holy sword?"
Hakan snatched up the holy sword, flashed a grin, and hurled it at Karyl.
"Urk!"
Karyl hadn't expected the priceless holy sword—worth more than any treasure—to be chucked so casually. He caught it reflexively in both hands.
But the instant it touched the sword, a fierce bolt of lightning crackled from the blade.
Crackle!
"Gah!"
"Kuhahaha! How about now? Feels more like a holy sword, eh?"
Stunned by the shock that jolted through his entire body, Karyl dropped the sword.
Hakan smirked arrogantly as he picked up the fallen blade and continued.
"If just any mutt could wield it, it wouldn't be a Divine Weapon. Only the chosen can use them."
Whoooong!
The moment Hakan channeled aura into the holy sword, a mystical light flashed, and the blade's form transformed entirely.
An elegant golden blade etched with an angel motif and the Leo constellation insignia.
And enveloping Hakan's body: gleaming golden armor with fluttering wings of holy light.
"This is the true form of Holy Sword Angelica—and the original Holy Spirit Armor, nothing like those knockoff magic armors."
Karyl silently stared at the swaggering Hakan.
A hero renowned across the continent.
Enviable, but irritating too.
Why had the holy sword chosen this drunken thug as its resonater?
'Is a dirt-spoon nobody like me doomed never to possess such a treasure, even in death?'
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Aaaah!"
A piercing, agonized scream snapped Karyl from his reverie.
The heavenly bow's resonater—the queen of the elf kingdom Magmellia—vomited blood and writhed on the ground.
Drained of power, the Holy Spirit Armor that had protected her had already vanished.
"Heh heh heh! Surrender, Eleanor. I'll spare your pathetic life."
"Shut your mouth! I'd rather die than become a slave to the monster who slaughtered and persecuted my kin...!"
Queen Eleanor, blood tears streaming from her eyes, burned her last reserves of strength—even her soul—to shatter the heavenly bow.
Crack!
Rooooar!
As the heavenly bow snapped, the divine power sealed within rampaged wildly.
An immense surge erupted from the broken bow. Hakan, who'd been smirking in victory, blanched.
"Crazy bitch! Self-destruct..."
Karyl, watching blankly with his one good eye, let out a smirk.
The mighty Mercenary King of the continent, scrambling like a coward!
'All God Theos, is this the hero your Divine Weapon chose?'
Karyl's sneer froze as his eyes widened.
The Mercenary King was fleeing straight toward him.
Squeezing out his last strength, Karyl swung his chipped sword.
Clang!
Karyl's strike couldn't even scratch Hakan's leg, shielded by Holy Spirit Armor.
But it was enough to trip the frantic man.
"Kekeke. Don't run ugly, Captain. Die like a hero—All God would want that."
"Fuck off, you trash scum!"
Stab!
Hakan's eyes flashed murderously as he plunged the holy sword into Karyl's chest.
Squelch.
"...Kekeke."
The blade withdrew, blood spraying. Yet Karyl only laughed.
The explosion was closing in on the desperately fleeing Hakan's back.
KABOOOOM!
A roar like the heavens collapsing.
A blinding flash that seared his sole remaining eye.
A shockwave upheaving the earth.
'So this is the true final moment.'
His body lifted into the air—then came the agony of his entire being incinerating.
In that torment, Karyl prayed to All God.
'Theos, born an Aura Incapable unable to wield aura, yet I believed in your grace and fought to the bitter end on the battlefield. So please, in my next life...'
Let him live ordinarily in a peaceful world without war.
With that final wish, Karyl's consciousness faded.
And...
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