Chapter 348: A Hopeless Battle For… (3)
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Neji took care of Mordred in under a few minutes. In that short time, the war at the gate of Uruk had progressed quite a bit.
The big battles against Sir Tristan and Sir Lancelot were still going strong, but the soldiers' side was nearly ending. The Hollow Armor soldiers were stronger than the Babylon soldiers on average, however, the Babylon soldiers had three strong leaders leading them.
So not only did that balance things out, the Babylonians actually had an upper hand.
The 500 number of the hollow soldiers had come down to nearly 100. While the Babylon side only lost half a dozen.
– Klink!
"Impressive."
On the other hand, Mash was going strong against Sir Lancelot. In the canon timeline, she had defeated Lancelot on her own—though it was worth noting that Lancelot wasn't going all out against her due to recognizing her shield that once belonged to his son.
In this timeline, though Lancelot still recognized that Mash, in a way, had half of his son's soul—he didn't hold back. Because he knew he couldn't be defeated if he wanted the world to live. So the chance of Mash losing was high.
Thankfully, Mash also had a benefit unlike the cannon timeline. In the form of Leonardo da Vinci who was aiding her in this battle. Though the universal genius wasn't much of a fighter, she could use her invented gadgets and magic to at least help Mash from the side.
Still, it didn't look like the battle would end anytime soon.
"Watch out for your openings…!"
On another part of the battlefield, Jaguarman yelled as she leaped to dodge an incoming magic projectile. That side of the battlefield was filled with musical tones as Sir Tristan played music in his lyre-like bow. Each time he stroked a string of the bow, it shot out mana bolts of great speed.
Jaguarman wasn't physically that strong—but her Tier 10 was focused on her speed. A jaguar, while not as fast as a cheetah, was still one of the faster cat types. So she could dodge the bolts that easily broke the sound barrier.
"Akk-!"
"Are you all right?"
"I-I am… Keep going!"
Someone who did have trouble against those beams, though, was Jaguarman's current partner. Fujimaru Ritsuka.
The red-haired Godako was Tier-3 when she first came to this world, but thanks to Neji's [Sage Seal] her base stat increased to Tier-6. In her hybrid dragon form, she was Tier-10.
A dragon was an all-rounder creature, and in hybrid form, it was fast too. But still, Fujimaru couldn't dodge all the incoming projectiles. Some of the elongated mana bullets hit her, piercing her in and out, causing her expression to twist in pain. At the same time, she could heal right away and continue fighting.
"I am good now. Let's push him."
In truth, the wielder of [Sage Seals] could be considered half-a-Neji's Avatar. It was similar to the three girls from back then, in the Nawab battle, when Neji used his temporary God Authority to grant the girls his abilities—using the authority to choose three [Avatars].
With the Sage Seal, however, he could 'bless' multiple people a part of his Dragon power—without losing any power himself.
What this allowed was that the pseudo-Avatars like Fujimaru could collect faith points for him.
When a person prays to an Avatar of a God, the faith point goes to the aforementioned God. So on this battlefield, as Fujimaru got hurt continuously but still continued fighting, it generated a lot of faith points through the observers and soldiers.
All that Faith Points rushed to Neji, through Fujimaru's link.
"Good grief, what a harvest. Desperate people do provide more points."
That's why Neji didn't enter the battle even though he reached the battlefield a while ago. He stood in the sky, casually observing the battle and only acting when a soldier of his was about to die.
A few soldiers had already died, sadly. Thankfully for them, the Goddess of the underworld was present right beside Neji, floating beside him. Rather than beside him, she was in his arms, resting in a princess carry.
"Um—there, that man will lose his life in ten seconds. Look out for him."
Wearing a gentle blush, she often pointed down at the field to notice Neji about a man who would soon lose his life. She could feel his death incoming from earlier.
For sure, just like she said, one of the hollow soldiers threw a spear to sever the soldier's head. Thankfully, Neji locked on it with long-ranged Kamui and erased it from reality.
"Thanks."
"…Welcome."
The blonde goddess nodded and avoided eye contact. Actually, even if she didn't have romantic feelings for him—if he continued acting that way… Well, the Gods have never been picky about incest.
"Um, by the way—if you can heal the wounded dead bodies, which I heard you can, I should be able to bring the souls back. Ah, it's entirely up to you though if you want me to do that… or not."
"All right, sure."
Neji ended the talk short and focused on the battle. Ereshkigal looked a little down hearing his stern response. She had assumed he would look happy, glad that such a thing could be possible, and proud of her for being able to do it.
Sadly, Neji didn't want to entangle with girls emotionally too quickly anymore. He was fine grabbing her like a princess, but he noted recently that perhaps he should be more mindful of his emotional connection. He knew this reflected him from his first life, but perhaps… that was better in this situation. If he was judging wrong, he could always stop.
Neji made a mental note to give them back the love they deserve one day—after he is done with his search mission.
"I will join the battle now. Please stay on top of the border wall. I will leave a clone with you, you should be fine."
Neji dropped her on top of the wall that was circling Uruk, and spawned an Omni-copy to protect her.
Turning his back to her gloomy self, Neji rushed to the battlefield.
* * *
The air exploded behind Neji. His form broke the sound barrier and he rushed at Sir Tristan first.
A bolt of lightning fell from the heavens, trailing behind his moving figure, and locked up on his form like a samurai armor made of lightning. Neji only used this transformation, as Sir Tristan could be overpowered with this alone.
Artoria, or Ryuko in this case, adored her knights. So the same logic of not killing Mordred applied here too.
So Neji went light on Sir Tristan, ignoring his barrage of mana bolts by turning on Kamui, and launching a shocking Jutsu titled [Black Lightning: Hyper Shock] that worked to shock his nervous system.
Usually, that wouldn't be enough to take down a Tier-12 enemy, but Neji's [Heavenly Lightning] that was the armor around him amplified the black lightning—and he also spent a bit of the recently gained divinity into the attack.
So,
"…?!"
Sir Tristan blacked out in an instant. He couldn't even scream, his eyes just widened and then went cloudy. Lastly, he fell to his face.
"Tie him up."
Neji motioned towards his soldiers, including Fujimaru and Jaguarman.
"Good fight, by the way."
Sir Tristan would have been taken care of soon, even if Neji didn't interfere. The fight was that clone. Sadly, he had apparently received a quest—as stated by Sisty—so he had to beat all three of the Knights.
Speaking of quests, he had received a quest when the fight with Ozymandias and her group began too. Sadly, as the fight ended in a draw, the quest was a failure. Neji did gain a title after pumping Ozymandias out of this world, though.
It was called [King Among Kings] and it gave him a 25% stat boost when fighting against a fellow great King. That'd be handy when he would fight against Ryuko.
"Hyup-!"
While thinking about all this, Neji had already moved on to Sir Lancelot. Unlike Tristan, he didn't go out by Neji's single attack. And being a Tier-13 close-combatant, he could counter Kamui's phasing too.
Neji didn't want to take a risk. So while the huffing and panting Mash, along with Vinci, took steps back from the battle—he launched right into the Eighth Gate and also Tenseigan Mana Mode.
"This will hurt, brace yourself."
Neji warned—and then blitzed him. Instead of a Jutsu this time, Neji used a quirk. His quirk—the original Surge.
"Output 100; Surge."
The devastating wave of the shockwave that was further enhanced by the aura of the eighth gate, and the mana of Tenseigan, blasted into the chest of Sir Lancelot and threw him back. Except he didn't fly away—an Omni-Copy of Neji appeared behind him to keep him locked in place, using Kamui to avoid the attack himself, while keeping Lancelot in the face of the attack.
"Arg…gh."
Lancelot groaned, and lost consciousness, inside the blue wave that had nearly peeled his skin off. His bones felt as if they had been separated from the flesh, the wave was too strong.
Finally, Sir Lancelot's unconscious body fell to the ground, just as the Omni-Neji vanished into essence.
"Last one done."
"…But why isn't the quest completed yet?"
There was a secret "???" bonus objective on the quest page. Usually, the quest got completed as long as the main objective was dealt with. The main objective was to defeat the three Knights with his own hands, However, this quest appeared special. It wasn't yet completed.
Neji supposed dealing with the remaining soldiers would do. So he turned to them and activated Jōgan.
"Everyone, step away from the enemy soldiers."
Neji shouted, and the soldiers followed. It was rather awkward to move away from an approaching enemy, but the soldiers worked it out somehow.
Then, Neji channeled [Blackflame] into the enemy soldiers' bodies via his Jōgan. Their bodies flared up before turning into golden light.
Due to having assimilated Sasuke's eyes, he could now use his Voidmancer Skill, Blackflame, by mixing it with Amaterasu. It meant he could snipe-skill people with more skills than just Kamui.
In an instant, the enemy soldiers vanished. Sadly, as they were hollow soldiers, Neji didn't receive any experience from them. It was a pity.
"Guys,"
Neji looked around the soldiers, giving everyone a victorious grin.
"Tie Sir Lancelot too. We have won the battle."
There was a short silence, as the soldiers exchanged glances. They broke out into a cheer, as the morning sun started to rise over the mountains in the far, greeting them with the light of victory.
The Demonic Beasts will soon come—as it was morning. But nobody worried about that. Their king would take care of it.
"Huh? What's- Holy shit?!"
The joyous mood suddenly turned gleam.
The cheers stopped, replaced by an eerie atmosphere.
While the sun was rising in the eastern sky, another light was shining down at Uruk from the high sky.
It was a glowing point that stared down at Uruk—sadly, staring wasn't the only thing it did. It was coming down.
The construct that was mostly hidden by clouds, the size of a small country, was rushing down at the city of Uruk.
"That's…"
Neji floated up a little while focusing on it with his Jogan.
"…The spear, Rhongomyniad."
The entire region of Sumeria was in an existential crisis.
And their King, Neji, had zero ideas on how to counter it.
Neji could do nothing.
It was a hopeless battle for them, against the Anti-Planet Attack, Holy Judgement.
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