Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 248
Chapter 248
The reason Turan hadn’t removed the world barrier in advance wasn’t arrogance at thinking he could win without it.
It was simply that, having already gathered the souls of hell, the power he could control was already near its limit, and he was wary of the various side effects that would arise when the world barrier thinned or disappeared.
Such as the sight of the people who directly witnessed the transcendent beings faintly visible through the sky just now.
“Wha, huh? What?”
“Ugh……”
“NOOOOO–!”
The moment the blue sky darkened to pitch black and a black shadow showed itself, most people who were outdoors fell into madness.
As if having seen something utterly incomprehensible — some could only express confusion, some groaned in pain, some screamed and harmed themselves.
Even animals went mad and foamed at the mouth, while machines had their lights go out or their internal circuits burn and billow smoke.
“Evacuate people inside! Don’t let them look at the sky!”
“Come in over here!”
The reason the situation could be managed at all was because relatively clear-headed mages were there.
“They’re running too… wild!”
“Use domination magic to suppress them!”
“That’s illegal–”
“I’ll take responsibility for that later, don’t think about it!”
Most of these were soldiers of the empire, and the imperial army was not as numerous compared to other typical nations.
After all, armies exist to invade somewhere or to protect something from invaders, and with the whole world under their rule there was nowhere to invade and nowhere needing defense.
By that measure, they performed roles closer to police than completely separate armed forces, and thanks to that they could control civilians more efficiently.
“Things seem a bit more under control now.”
“But what on earth is that in the sky?”
“A monster of unknown nature and…… a golden eagle?”
“Could it be the Former Emperor?”
Since only shadows were cast through the sky above, it was difficult to clearly make anything out, but the silhouette of a grotesquely shaped monster and a golden eagle clashing was plainly visible.
And in the scattered other shadows visible beyond, one could also read beings wielding power like the Cradle’s mages clashing with monsters of unknown nature.
The orders transmitted from above before long gave certainty to what they had already been thinking.
[At this time, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor along with the ascendants of each lordship are engaged in battle with powerful enemies. Isolate civilians indoors to minimize the spread of damage and prepare for enemy incursion.]
“Enemies — who do you mean?”
[Consider any being not ordinarily visible to be an enemy.]
Brief confusion at the excessively vague explanation, and then they shuddered learning that the shadows visible in the sky were truly those of mages who had reached a great realm.
They also felt fear toward an enemy that even such beings could not easily repel and were struggling against.
And before long, they understood why their superiors hadn’t bothered to explain the enemy specifically.
“Is that them?”
“If not them, what? Hurry up and shoot!”
Birds of grotesque form dropping from the sky.
The Urukas — scouts of the Cycle World — cheered as they entered the Cradle for the first time, taking advantage of the gap in the world barrier.
Welcoming them was a hail of bullets from anti-aircraft gun turrets pouring in from all sides.
“Kill them–!”
“Those who’ve run out of magic power, switch out quickly! Shoot like your lives depend on it!”
The creatures that had displayed overwhelming power on Earth in the past could not rampage as freely in front of the imperial army.
Over the past decades, the empire’s military technology, having had no need to project force, was only slightly more advanced than old Earth’s, but every single person wielding weapons was a mage.
As large-caliber machine gun shells with enhancement and tracking magic poured down, the Urukas rampaging everywhere were shot down one by one.
“Aaargh!”
“Dodge!”
Of course, enormous casualties could not be prevented in the process.
The Uruka horde crushed the anti-aircraft gun turrets firing at them or, avoiding those, trampled the residential areas where civilians lived gathered.
As the homes where families had been hiding together to escape the collective madness collapsed, people who had witnessed the deaths of their parents and children cried out.
The Cradle’s residents, who had lived their whole lives only in a place like paradise.
Confronting tragedy for the first time in their lives, they naturally sought something to depend on.
Naturally, the only one they could pray to was the god of the Emperor’s faith that had reigned as the state religion for the past hundred-odd years.
“I pray to His great Imperial Majesty……”
“Please save these feeble sheep!”
Commoners who, knowing nothing, could only despair and pray. And mages who understood the situation to some degree, praying that their Emperor could repel the external enemies, while facing the enemies dropping from the sky.
The faith of all of them soared high into the sky, toward the shepherd facing the wolves that had invaded the pasture.
* * *
A place higher than the highest point of the material world, the boundary of the world that people often call the place where heavenly palaces exist.
Turan wielded the enormous Essence filling his entire being and continued to ravage the opponent.
Thrusting in ice picks then vaporizing to explode them, wrapping the body in shadow tentacles, directly digging into where eyes might be with small beak and claws.
Beyond that, using every creative method available, he tore into the opponent.
Now the opponent standing before him, the Moon-Devouring Bird, was no longer wrapping its entire body in pitch-black darkness as before.
The jet-black blood pouring from exposed areas no longer reverting as if time had been rewound, as before, was evidence enough that damage was accumulating adequately on the opponent’s side too.
[To think you’d withdraw the barrier yourself……]
Its voice murmuring as if dumbfounded no longer held the composure it had before.
Understandably so — Turan’s power wielding the enormous Essence obtained by destroying the world boundary was now, unlike moments before, sufficient to counter the opponent fairly decently.
At this moment, it was thanks to the enormous control that arose from all the people of the Cradle suffering from the suddenly arrived disaster harboring intense emotion toward him.
The amount of presence conveyed from there was even more powerful than what he had received at the time of showing the first miracle on Earth in the past.
Had that not been so, he likely would not have been able to control all the Essence maintained in the world barrier due to insufficient control capacity.
Even the surrounding situation was now more favorable to Turan.
The other ascendants who had been struggling against both multiple powerful enemies and the Uruka horde coming from all sides.
They too were now able to focus on one-on-one battles, as the Uruka horde that had been circling around them distracting them had descended to the surface.
“Just, die, already, you piece of–!”
Barking as he scolded, Solif hammered a white flame into the beast biting him like a nail and beat it in with his fist until it was properly driven in.
From the other side, Ruska too moved fluidly as a shadow, using the throwing techniques taught by Turan to throw off other enemies and assist allies.
As for Meisa — she had incinerated both powerful enemies surrounding her, converted them into Essence and absorbed them, and was now flying toward Turan.
“Watch out!”
With the warning, a giant ice hammer formed in Meisa’s hand.
Having seen that the Moon-Devouring Bird was resistant to light and heat, she used a technique from outside her specialty.
At the advance warning, Turan quickly dodged, and the hammer that passed where he had been flying struck the Moon-Devouring Bird’s flank.
When her all-out strike — with raw strength even greater than Turan’s — landed on an area not covered by darkness, the sound of bones and flesh being crushed rang out.
“Over here too!”
Next, Haram shouting as he thrust a beam sword, then flustered as it was consumed by darkness.
While there were minor hiccups, as the ascendants resolved their opponents one by one and attached themselves to this fight, the Moon-Devouring Bird was gradually cornered.
It looked at the enemies surrounding it with thousands of eyes, then fired the same beam as it had used to threaten Turan earlier in counterattack.
“Ugh!”
“Careful, Mila!”
While Ruska quickly rescued the ally in danger and drew her into his arms, Turan aimed at the opened gap and physically plunged in, desperately tearing up the insides before withdrawing.
The injuries from the counterattacks of the birds composing the creature’s body received in that process didn’t even need to be healed personally.
Thanks to Osel, now with breathing room, recovering him more efficiently.
[More impressive than I thought, to think it would come to this……]
“It would have been better for both of us if you’d left when I told you to.”
The Moon-Devouring Bird’s voice no longer carried the ease of addressing weak beings as before.
Something closer to anger and frustration, if anything.
Even while taunting the opponent, Turan did not slow his offensive momentum.
He had seen far too many times the sight of someone gloating at being ahead and then collapsing.
At that moment, the Moon-Devouring Bird suddenly threw itself into the spatial cut flying at it.
Its body being split in two, its massive frame exploded and scattered in all directions.
An action that made one wonder if it was trying to commit suicide unable to bear the anger.
“Mm?”
“What is this……”
“They’re Urukas!”
As Meisa said urgently, the Moon-Devouring Bird’s body exploded and transformed into a horde of over thousands of Urukas.
Come to think of it, had it been said that all Urukas were something like avatars of this creature from the beginning.
The sight of the monstrous birds with dog and cat heads on each side all letting out a roar and descending to the material world was truly a scene reminiscent of the apocalypse.
“This is……”
“We have to stop them!”
“Wait, the main body is escaping over that way?”
Solif, who had the sharpest eyes among the ascendants, saw through the enemy’s main body flying toward the corridor and informed the others.
Whether because it had shed the birds composing its body and weakened, it was much smaller than before and moving that much faster and more covertly.
Perhaps because it now had breathing room, it was also covering its entire body with shadow as before.
Turan made his judgment after a brief moment of contemplation close to an instant.
“Everyone handle the surface enemies! I’ll pursue alone.”
A pursuit was ultimately a battle of speed after all.
Since even Meisa couldn’t move as quickly as Turan, he calculated it would be better to minimize surface casualties even a little.
With no time to spare, without even seeking agreement from everyone, Turan threw himself into the dimensional corridor following the enemy.
Just as when moving to Earth in the past, getting on the ash-grey branches, his body naturally glided along.
However, the enemy proceeding ahead was a little faster.
‘As I thought, my spiritual rank has grown larger now, so I can’t move that quickly……’
The movement speed of a being crossing worlds was inversely proportional to the power they held.
Since Turan, who was stronger than the creature that had weakened by shedding countless avatars, moving speed had actually decreased.
A moment later, arriving in the second world, Turan could feel that this was a closed world unwelcoming of him.
Because unlike Earth or the Cradle, simply remaining at the boundary created pressure trying to push him out.
Quickly looking around, he could see the enemy that had arrived a little ahead of him already moving to board the next corridor.
The Golden Eagle’s wings swept the empty void a few times and his body reached it in an instant.
[Damn–]
“Where do you think you’re escaping!”
Bang, together with the impact, the steel storm Turan had raised swept the curtain of darkness wrapping the Moon-Devouring Bird’s body.
However, gritting its beak, it endured the attack and barely succeeded in boarding the second corridor and fleeing.
Naturally, the pursuit continued.
While moving along the ash-grey branches the distance would widen, and upon arriving in another world he would quickly close the distance and attack, then board the next branch again.
Having passed through several worlds repeating this kind of pursuit.
After tumbling, biting, and clawing each other in the void many times over, Turan finally succeeded in pinning down the battered opponent and completely subduing it.
“Tenacious creature……”
[Those are exactly the words I’d like to say.]
Turan, who had won the fight, was also not in a particularly comfortable situation.
Because the further they moved from the Cradle and the closer to the Cycle World, the weaker Turan’s power became and the stronger the Moon-Devouring Bird’s became.
He had barely won by continuing to hold the initiative and whittle their power down, and if things had gone slightly wrong there was a distinct possibility he could have been counterattacked instead.
At that moment, the Moon-Devouring Bird’s body, writhing under the Golden Eagle’s feet, went limp as if in resignation.
Turan, briefly catching his breath in preparation for the final blow, was puzzled but kept his guard up.
However, contrary to expectation, rather than attempting a new form of counterattack or escape, the creature only grumbled quietly.
[To have come out so confidently and end like this — I have no grounds to face Mother.]
“I don’t think you’ll be able to see her.”
[Being defeated and devoured by someone is not the first time for me, and probably not the last. Mother can give birth to her children again any number of times.]
At truly unimaginable words, Turan nearly let out an incredulous sigh.
After all this hardship barely managing to repel it, all it took was being born one more time?
No, it surely couldn’t be as easy as just popping one out again.
If it were, they would have long since given birth to tens of thousands of such monsters and been going around conquering every world.
It wouldn’t have tried to ugly scatter its own avatars like before when it seemed it would lose, then attempted to flee.
The Beast Queen would surely have to pay an equivalent price to give birth to the Moon-Devouring Bird again.
Turan, guessing as much, was gathering his power to land the finishing blow when the opponent glanced sideways and spoke.
[Regardless, I congratulate you on your victory, young hero. I hope we can settle scores in my homeland next time.]
“A horrifying invitation.”
Declining the invitation that was as good as parting words, Turan continued to crush its body in a massive iron ball bombardment.
The head, torso, and all six wings.
The Moon-Devouring Bird lay still and did not groan or scream until it could no longer maintain its form.
‘At least it went more cleanly than the enemies fought so far.’
Of course, unlike other enemies, it was probably composure it could afford because even if it simply died it could come back to life.
Before long, as Turan began absorbing the Essence of the creature that had been completely pulverized, he noticed a foreign power was following along with it.
Something whose true nature was difficult to grasp even with the sense that contemplates all information.
‘What is this……?’
Beings of the Cradle World, with flesh made of matter and souls made of Essence, were quite alien compared to other worlds.
Put another way, rather than proper spiritual beings, they were closer to a kind of information life form.
However, at this moment, for the first time among the elements constituting Turan’s being, something not based in ‘Essence’ appeared.
A soul.
The spiritual source of power that life forms — and among them, intelligent beings — in many worlds are born with.
As this appeared, the being called Turan was reconstructed into an entirely different form from before.
With the soul of a transcendent who had swallowed many intelligent beings over long ages as the core, the information constituting memories and cognitive systems surrounded it, and the physical flesh made of matter was positioned on the outside.
After a moment as brief as an instant, or perhaps as long as an eternity.
Turan, having come to his senses, became aware that his spirit form was no longer just a collection of information.
He had become the first among the Cradle’s beings to possess a true soul.
Not even an ordinary being’s, but the soul of a mighty transcendent.
‘I never imagined something like this would happen.’
Turan could now create a divine name, a name signifying his existence, make it known to others, and receive prayers made in that name.
It was also now possible to receive the power of the soul or the soul itself as payment and bestow his authority in return.
Until moments ago he had been nothing more than the first ascendant who handled the largest amount of Essence in the Cradle, but now he had truly become something like a god.