Mushoku Tensei: Reincarnated as a Beast Race Chapter 384: 383 - A Power Beyond Mortal Reach

The Conflict Zone, on the Central Continent.

A vast territory that had been in constant war for more than a hundred years.

Originally, that entire region had been part of a single kingdom.

But it was not an ordinary kingdom.

It was a kingdom completely dominated and governed by a religious cult. Unlike Milis, its practices and rituals were far more extreme and violent, even involving human sacrifices.

For a long time, the people of that place lived under the control of priests, inquisitors, and nobles tied to the cult.

Everyone within its territory obeyed religious decrees, and entire families could disappear in the name of rituals.

Even lands and possessions were seized under accusations of heresy, and children were born, grew old, and died without ever knowing any other form of government.

But, because of a certain hero, that country was freed from the clutches of its tyrants.

That was one of the great feats of the Second North God.

A brilliant feat.

Freeing an oppressed kingdom from the tyranny of deranged cultists.

However, although his actions had come from good intentions, they did not bring true liberation to the people of the old kingdom.

No.

Instead, due to the lack of an existing absolute power capable of controlling the region, every state, every independent territory, and every noble house with power saw an opportunity.

The fall of the cult left armies without central command, armed local lords, ambitious mercenaries, and entire populations with no idea whom they were supposed to obey.

Instead of saving them, the destruction of the only state institution capable of maintaining order, even if that order had been tyrannical, plunged the kingdom into civil war.

Power was too scattered.

And none of those powers was strong enough to subjugate the others definitively.

Because of that, no conclusion was reached even after decades of war.

Where there had once been a particularly cruel and tyrannical kingdom, the Conflict Zone emerged.

A place where small kingdoms and powers rose and fell at every moment.

Where slaughter and cruelty were routine.

Where old wars had already become bloody feuds that crossed generations.

In recent years, the Iron Legion had been sending scouts, diplomats, and skilled warriors to begin a large-scale infiltration of those territories.

This was one of the many secondary plans of the Kingdom of Gaia under Rygar's guidance, commanded by Aisha and the kingdom's higher authorities.

Rygar received some news from time to time about the progress of the operation, but he did not receive every detail.

There was no problem with that.

Because right now, he was having the opportunity to observe firsthand what the situation in the Conflict Zone was like.

In a dense jungle, with trees whose leaves had turned yellow because of the season, two armies were engaged in a large-scale battle.

At least more than a thousand soldiers were on the field.

The ground was covered in mud and blood. Torn banners swayed between the trees, some stuck to spears, others fallen on the ground beside corpses.

Intermediate and Advanced-level magic flashed across the battlefield from time to time.

But, overall, it was the warriors, swordsmen, and archers who truly took over the battlefield in a bloody frenzy.

House Redace and the Mainthree Coalition were fighting their final battle to decide who would become the new ruler of the Thistle Region.

Both sides were willing to go all the way.

Their soldiers fought with desperation and violence, knowing there would be no surrender in the event of defeat.

Only a complete massacre.

To lose was to die.

Fight and win, if you wanted to live.

That was the level their conflict had reached at that point.

A young hero named Talvor, carrying an enormous tower shield and a large morning star, led a platoon of twenty men toward the leader of the Mainthree Coalition.

Talvor was a great talent.

Big as a bear, strong as a wall, and raised like a demolition machine because of the chaotic environment of the Conflict Zone.

His armor was scratched by dozens of blows, and the tower shield in his left hand already had many arrows embedded in its surface. Even so, he advanced.

An enemy soldier tried to stop him with a spear, but Talvor did not dodge.

The tip struck his shield, slid across the slanted surface, and snapped when he pushed his body forward. In the same motion, his morning star came down on the man's shoulder, crushing his armor, bones, and flesh.

"Advance!" Talvor shouted.

His platoon followed him.

They were getting dangerously close to the center of the enemy formation.

If they reached the leader of the Mainthree Coalition, perhaps the battle would end there.

But before anything could settle into place, the sky lit up.

At the same time, a tremendous roar sounded from very far away.

Even from that distance, it was strong enough to make the ground tremble violently.

Several soldiers fell, and archers lost their balance on the branches.

Horses neighed and thrashed.

Improvised towers were knocked down.

Some trees rose from the ground as their roots were torn free by the tremor.

The battlefield, chaotic until then, stopped for a moment.

The screams diminished, and swords froze in the middle of their swings.

A man who had been about to drive a knife into another man's neck went still, looking upward without understanding.

Then everyone's eyes were drawn to the sky.

Dense storm clouds covered the heights, but there was no rain.

For a few moments, there was only wind, a wind that grew stronger and stronger.

It passed through the jungle like a wave, bending the treetops and scattering yellow leaves across the battlefield.

Then red lightning covered the sky, and it was definitely not natural lightning.

It spread through the clouds and immediately converged on a point not far from there.

Talvor felt the danger before he understood what was happening.

A barbaric shout tore from his throat and covered the battlefield.

"TAKE COVER!"

The allied soldiers did not hesitate for long before seeking shelter.

Some threw themselves behind shields, others crouched behind trunks.

Even many enemies heard the warning and obeyed by instinct.

A moment later, an electromagnetic wave struck them together with the roar of violent lightning.

The sound burst the eardrums of countless unprepared soldiers.

Many men screamed, bringing their hands to their ears, while others fell to their knees, disoriented, blood running between their fingers.

The wind came immediately afterward, and it blew with enough force to easily throw soldiers across the ground.

The very surface of the earth deformed, as though the jungle had been pressed down by a supernatural force.

Everyone looked toward the source in horror.

Then a greater flash appeared in the sky.

Among the storm clouds, a man wearing shining black armor appeared.

In one of his hands, bluish-purple flames burned in the shape of a blade.

In the other, red lightning condensed.

In the next instant, a ray of silver light cut through the storm clouds with a single movement.

The storm split open.

And, on the other side, a being dressed in white appeared, with wings and long silver-white hair.

He carried a spear that emitted a brilliant white light.

The being in black armor hurled the red lightning toward the man in white.

The man in white advanced through the lightning, and the soldiers could see nothing more than an intense flash.

For an instant, only two shining silhouettes could be seen in the sky.

Then flames, lightning, and light covered everything.

It was as though the Apocalypse itself was descending upon them.

The impact on the jungle was as if two divinities were colliding above their heads, without caring who the mortals playing at war beneath them were.

The earth trembled, and the air heated in an instant. Leaves were burned while still on the branches, and mud began to release steam.

Some threw themselves flat onto the ground without even knowing where the danger was coming from.

In the next instant, the same roar sounded again. But this time, it was farther away.

Before anyone had time to breathe, a thunderous laugh echoed across the sky.

"BWAHAHAHAHA! GET BACK HERE! MAN, I WISH I HAD WINGS RIGHT NOW!"

A golden titan, with a divine aura around him and standing more than three meters tall, suddenly fell from the sky into the middle of the battlefield.

Both sides went on alert.

But the golden titan paid them no attention whatsoever.

The golden monster landed, but then, without even a second of pause, he jumped once again.

His body rose hundreds of meters into the air, chasing the two calamities that were already moving away.

He disappeared from everyone's sight as quickly as he had arrived, becoming nothing more than a point of golden light.

But the collisions did not stop in the following moments. They only grew more distant at a dizzying speed.

The three figures continued moving farther and farther south, going far beyond the Conflict Zone at a speed that could only be described as godlike.

Something beyond what humans were capable of.

Soon afterward, rain fell over the jungle where the armies had been fighting before.

It drenched the wounded and exhausted soldiers.

Those who were still lying on the ground with their ears bleeding.

Those who were standing, but could no longer raise their weapons.

The water mixed with the blood of the dead, forming red streams that ran through the mud between roots, stones, and fallen blades.

But none of them raised their weapon again.

They only watched the rainy sky.

There were still remnants of unnatural colors among the clouds, and the jungle had been crushed.

Sections of the ground had sunk, others had risen, and some stones had been vitrified by the heat.

Not because that place had been a target of those gods, but simply because it had witnessed a battle of that level.

The soldiers looked at one another with empty eyes.

Some still held swords over fallen enemies, and others had arrows prepared on their bows.

Others remained kneeling, trying to understand whether they were still alive.

They seemed to have forgotten even the reasons why they had been fighting for their survival minutes earlier.

The rain continued, until a soldier, who had been holding his disarmed enemy and ready to kill him only moments before, suddenly dropped his sword to the ground.

Because of the silence, the sound of the blade echoed across the entire battlefield.

The enemy fell backward into the mud, stunned.

The soldier looked at him for a few moments.

Then he looked at his own hand, and then looked at the sky.

Without saying anything to anyone, he turned around and began to walk.

As he walked, he took off his helmet and let it fall to the ground.

Then he released the knife from his waist and rid himself of all the extra weight on his body.

And he kept walking, speaking to himself:

"Why am I rotting away in this hell...?"

He simply left, and no one stopped him.

But his departure triggered a chain reaction.

Perhaps not for the same reason as that soldier.

Perhaps some were afraid.

Perhaps others had realized that no victory there meant anything.

Perhaps others were simply too tired to continue.

But, as if it had been agreed upon, everyone began to drop their weapons.

Little by little, soldiers from both sides silently withdrew.

Some helped the wounded, and others simply left on their own.

Some did not even know where they were going.

The young hero carrying the tower shield, meanwhile, was still looking at the sky as the rain soaked his body and his armor.

Talvor had not dropped his weapon, but he did not raise it either.

He looked at the point where the three calamities had disappeared, then looked at the soldiers abandoning the battle.

But he did not try to stop anyone.

He only stood there.

On that day, the century-long conflict between House Redace and the Mainthree Coalition was completely brought to an end for reasons most of the soldiers did not even understand.

----

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