The Second Coming of Gluttony

Vulgar Chastity, who was in charge of one of the Parasites’ battlefronts, perished.

If this had happened a few years back, it would not have been a matter of much concern. Though the death of an Army Commander would have been a great shock, the Parasites always had leisure on their side.

If one Army Commander weren’t enough, they would dispatch two. If two Army Commanders weren’t enough, they would send three or four. Even then, they would have forces in reserve.

However, that was no longer the case. Less than half remained of the seven Army Commanders that once invoked fear in anyone who heard their names.

On the other hand, the Federation and humanity grew in strength, and an Earthling appeared that could rival the Parasites’ last line of defense, the Parasite Queen.

Now, it was no longer enough to say that the allied force held an advantage. The Parasites were experiencing the feeling of despair when faced with overwhelming odds stacked against them.

Unlike the allied force, which experienced this feeling every time they were attacked, this was a first for the Parasite Army Commanders, so it was a somewhat unfamiliar feeling.

If only they had some time to think of a method…

However, the allied force wasn’t so soft as to let go of such a preciously seized chance.

“Now’s the time! Let’s go!”

Roselle spoke sonorously and pushed down her conical hat. The broom she rode on quickly cut through the air to the vanguard, or to be more precise, where Unsightly Humility was.

Philip Muller was also running… or rather, walking briskly. He wasn’t in any condition to fight. Because he allowed Avaritia to take over his body, he was now suffering from the aftereffects.

However, thanks to Vulgar Chastity dying rather quickly, he did not fall into a groggy state. He only had to rest until his mana calmed down.

Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough time. He had to hurry to the vanguard to make Unsightly Humility think that he was going to aid the allied force for the second part of the plan that would begin soon.

Only, he could not get too close.

The reason for that….

*

“Unni!”

Eun Yuri helped Seo Yuhui up. Seo Yuhui’s face was pale and almost lifeless. Blood was streaming down from the corner of her lips. This was all because she used several ancient prayers and took a few of Vulgar Chastity’s attacks.

“I’m okay. I can still fight…”

Seo Yuhui pushed Eun Yuri aside and stood straight.

There were too many things that had to be done. The current situation was only thanks to Valhalla’s members holding Twisted Kindness off, and there was no way of knowing how long they would last.

Furthermore, with Seol Jihu likely being in a fierce fight against the Parasite Queen, Seo Yuhui wanted to act with haste.

“Thank you for helping me.”

“Are you sure you don’t need to rest?”

Eun Yuri asked with a worried expression.

Seo Yuhui feigned a smile.

“Don’t worry. I still have some time before I need to rest…. Also, don’t you have something you need to be doing?”

“…Yes.”

Eun Yuri nodded. She had become one of the main powerhouses of the allied force after accepting Roselle’s inheritance and coming back from the Path of the Soul.

Given that she lasted several days against Sung Shihyun during the defense of Haramark, it would not be an exaggeration to say that she was one of the strongest people after Seol Jihu.

There was a reason that someone of her level had yet to appear on the battlefield.

In any case, Eun Yuri wasn’t so stupid as to not understand that Seo Yuhui was telling her to focus on the task she was entrusted with.

“Be careful.”

Shortly afterward, Eun Yuri turned around and flew up. She gazed down at the battlefield with eyes that were brimming with nervousness.

She had already finished finding the location.

There was only one chance. To succeed, she had to start preparing now.

“….”

Seo Yuhui slowly turned to the battlefield after watching Eun Yuri fly away.

The movement of the vanguard force was getting disorderly. The allied force’s vanguard was suddenly retreating.

*

[Shoot….]

Unsightly Humility groaned. He had raised his caution as soon as Vulgar Chastity perished. And just now, two people entered his radar.

A witch, emanating a frightening aura and the Star of Avarice were approaching him.

Their intention was obvious. He must be their next target.

Unsightly Humility scanned the battlefield. It was a mess, no matter how many times he looked at it. The undead army was utterly broken up by the combination of the vengeful spirit unit, the cavalry, and the infantry, and was being pushed back by the Earthlings.

Even the few Death Knights that were protecting him could no longer be seen.

In reality, Unsightly Humility was doing rather well since he joined the battle. Although the vanguard force was broken through, one had to consider that the allied force invested most troops into this task.

The fact that he lasted until now without releasing his divinity meant he had performed at least one and a half person’s worth of work.

But now, holding on was getting difficult. He was already in a dangerous spot, and the powerful witch and the Star of Avarice, and the Star of Lust would join in?

Not even the Second Army Commander could guarantee anything in that case.

‘I guess there is no choice.’

Given that this was an emergency, Unsightly Humility did not hesitate for long. Smacking his lips, he roused his energy.

“He’s releasing his divinity!”

Feeling Unsightly Humility’s exponentially rising energy, Cinzia shouted with mana imbued in her voice.

“Retreat! Retreaaaat!”

In the next moment, those fighting Unsightly Humility retreated as if they were prepared this entire time.

Once they gathered around Cinzia, she cast Teleport without a moment of hesitation.

[Gorgonu! Come back! You too, Grandpa!]

Flone also took her Grandpa and her puppy and flew up high.

It wasn’t just them. The Earthlings fighting in the area also ignored the enemies they were fighting and quickly distanced themselves. They moved swiftly and readily as if they were told beforehand.

Unsightly Humility did not think much of it. When an Army Commander released their divinity, a large shockwave of energy would burst out around them.

With divinity being a powerful energy, to begin with, it wasn’t uncommon for people to die from the shockwave. And so, running away with their tails between their legs wasn’t such an unexpected thing.

Without stopping, Unsightly Humility fully released his divinity.

Then, as tremendous light erupted on the battlefield….

“Everyone, get ready!”

Vidalif shouted at the top of his lungs.

The Dwarf unit was similar to Eun Yuri. They had not participated in the battle for the most part. There was only one task they were entrusted with in this war. And that was to detonate all the Thunders at once.

Such a thing would have been unimaginable in the past. Not only were there not enough Thunders but using Thunders was also pivotal in maintaining equilibrium when they were at such a disadvantage.

However, now that the allied force could stand their ground independently, a new use was found for the Thunders.

The idea did not come from Vidalif. The one who brought it up was actually Seol Jihu.

[Me? How did I kill Abhorrent Charity?]

[Well… It wasn’t anything grand if that’s what you’re thinking. We pretty much scraped up every tool in our arsenal to just barely succeed.]

Training was not the only thing Seol Jihu did in the Path of the Soul. He talked about the upcoming final battle and sought advice.

Black Seol Jihu had participated in more battles against the Parasites than anyone else and had even killed the Third Army Commander from a disadvantageous spot.

[It wasn’t anything special. I couldn’t have killed him by myself, ever. It was all thanks to the Dwarves.]

[I fought desperately with my life on the line, waiting for him to use Teleport, and then we predicted where he would appear and detonated Thunders crazily. I finished him off afterward.]

[Why, do you want to give it a go?]

When Seol Jihu gave an affirmation, Black Seol Jihu added in more detail.

[Then you should pick a target first. None of the Army Commanders are unaffected by Thunders, but killing them is an entirely different matter.]

[First, don’t even think about using this method on Twisted Kindness. It will be a waste of Thunders. The Parasite Queen is obviously out of the question too.]

[Who should you choose? Hmm, if I were you… I would pick Unsightly Humility.]

Because of this, Seol Jihu chose to prioritize Unsightly Humility as the Army Commander to kill if a horn of victory rang in either of the wings.

The light that dyed the sky slowly subsided. Next, a black figure began to grow within the cluster of light.

A drop of sweat rolled down Vidalif’s face.

Not yet, not yet. The light hasn’t disappeared completely.

[Do you know when the Army Commanders are most unguarded?]

[It’s immediately after releasing their divinity. They become drunk on their heightened strength and become overconfident. There usually isn’t anything to threaten them too, since there aren’t many that can withstand the shockwave from divinity release.]

[If it were up to me, that would be the moment I would aim for.]

That was what Black Seol Jihu said, and Seol Jihu naturally relayed the information to the allied force.

The moment when an Army Commander released their divinity and the raging energy calmed down…

That moment was now.

“…All troops!”

Vidalif shouted. The Dwarves pointed their cannons all together.

[For the record, Undying Diligence survived even after we trapped him inside all sorts of barriers and magic spells and detonated 100 Special Thunders in two phases.]

Black Seol Jihu advised Seol Jihu to prepare at least 200 Thunders and make half of them Special thunders.

The Dwarves prepared 107 Special Thunders for this attack and 511 normal Thunders.

That wasn’t all. There were hundreds of Earthlings and Sky Fairy snipers that were aiming at Unsightly Humility. The arrows they had on their bowstrings were all shining blue.

This attack was a gamble by the allied force. If they did things in a half-assed fashion and failed, they would only have wasted precious Thunders that normally would have been valuable assets in the war.

If they were going to do this, they had to do it perfectly. Rather than blowing the opportunity and wasting Thunders, Vidalif made the bold decision of using all Thunders in this one attack.

Soon, the light died down, and a knight clad in jet-black armor began to emerge.

It was then. In this volatile situation of absolute stillness and silence…!

“FIRE!”

Vidalif shouted at the top of his lungs.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

At last, the 618 muzzles pointing at Unsightly Humility fired simultaneously. The Dwarves had shot the Thunders without a moment of hesitation.

The hundreds of snipers also fired their arrows…

“El Jinn Acceleratio!”

And the Sky Fairies stretched out their arms and chanted acceleration spells.

Big and small Thunders, as well as blue arrows, blanketed the sky in an instant. At the same time, a fierce wind raged out.

And thus.

Chweeeeek!

The precious Thunders cut across the battlefield in an instant, all aiming at one being.

[Huu….]

Unsightly Humility lifted his head. However, immediately afterward, he clenched his teeth.

[?]

It couldn’t be helped. When he raised his head, he saw a swarm of blue light covering his vision.

However, he didn’t have time to take a good look. Whish! A stormy wind raged as soon as his divinity release ended. What followed afterward was a flurry of Thunders that came hurtling toward him with a menacing light.

Unsightly Humility gripped his sword unwittingly.

[Wait…!]

BOOOOOOM!

The earth stood up. That was the only way to describe it.

In an instant, the earth rose chaotically. A massive cloud of dirt also shot up but was swallowed by a blue flash of light that erupted a second later.

The explosion didn’t end with just once. There were overlapping chained explosions. Along with the explosions, the Thunders’ unique cross-shaped light overlapped with each other and expanded in size like a smoke cloud.

The blast shook the entire battlefield, and the heaven and earth rumbled as if the world would be destroyed. Even an earthquake started because of the explosions.

Ddududududu!

Not only that, the ground was cracking, even where the allied force was located.

Despite Priests being prepared for the worst, the barriers they cast shattered like crumpling pieces of paper, just from the explosions’ aftermath.

Shrieks broke out in all directions. Both the allied and enemy forces fell to the ground screaming.

The war came to a momentary halt. Even Seol Jihu and the Parasite Queen drew back to keep their balance.

[Don’t tell me.]

The intensity of the light reaching even the Empire’s capital was so great that the Parasite Queen suspected that another Army Commander fell.

How much time went by?

Guoooooooo….

As the blue light gradually subsided and the aftermath of the explosions calmed down….

Cinzia took one hand off her ear with a frown.

“Argh… Ugh….”

Beeeeep—a ringing resounded in her ears.

She was still partially deaf.

Thanks to witnessing such a catastrophic calamity, even her body convulsed sporadically. Looking down, she saw the earth with spiderweb-like crevices, still vibrating faintly.

“Insane….”

Cinzia cursed unwittingly. She looked completely dumbfounded. She had teleported far away from the epicenter of the explosion and even squeezed out every ounce of her energy to cast a powerful barrier. Yet, she had still suffered such damage.

She did not doubt that anyone could survive from a direct hit of this explosion.

However…

“Rise, everyone!”

Cinzia shot up while whipping those around her to do the same. It was because she remembered what Seol Jihu said before the war.

[Would we be able to kill him if we go all out?]

[I frankly don’t know the answer to that. How would I know? It’s not like I’m a god.]

[What’s important is what you do next. I’m sure you know since you fought Undying Diligence. Army Commanders are cockroaches. Goddamn cockroaches, you hear me?]

[It’s not so easy to kill them. This is especially so for Unsightly Humility, who had the immortal-attribute as an undead.]

[You might be wondering, what am I trying to say?]

Cinzia prepared to use Teleport while gazing at the area where smoke was rising up. She couldn’t see Unsightly Humility because of visual hindrances.

However, what was certain was that she could not feel a presence from within the cloud, despite Unsightly Humility having released his divinity.

Even so, Cinzia did not lower her guard.

[Just pretend he didn’t die. That will be better for your heart.]

[If the attack worked, he definitely would have suffered heavy damage. Don’t miss that chance.]

[I’m telling you, don’t stand around like an idiot, thinking, Is he dead?]

[Remember. Jump in as soon as the explosions subside. Whether Unsightly Humility perished or not, bring everyone you can and gang up on him, got it?]

‘…Is what he said.’

Shortly afterward, after having teleported near the epicenter of the explosion, Cinzia summoned the Valkyries.

Some had come beforehand and were rushing toward the epicenter.

[Go! Gorgonu!]

[Gorgor!]

A massive evil spirit pounced in the direction that Flone’s finger was pointing.