Chapter 697: The Covenant

A flash of lightning streaked across the sky.

As the lightning struck the ground, everything in the world vanished.

Color, shape, sound—everything.

It was as if the world had returned to a blank canvas. Fortunately, this didn’t last long.

The lightning that erased the world for a moment didn’t last long compared to its immense power, and everything that had disappeared began to return.

Sound, shape, color.

The first thing to return was sound.

Caw caw caw caw aaaaaaaaaaaaaang━━━━━━━━!!!

The cries of over a hundred birds echoed across the heavens and earth.

It was none other than the cry of the Thunderbird, a spirit of lightning, which had belatedly followed the lightning’s speed.

Soon after, form returned to the world, and vision was restored.

In one hand, there was a medical staff, and in the other, she held the Thunderbird that had attacked her.

The Woman on the Camel effortlessly captured the creature that God had created to manage nature, as one would casually catch a chicken.

“Hmm… it’s hard to say whether this is clever or foolish.”

The Woman on the Camel spoke with a sly smile.

“Using a spirit to compensate for your lack of skill and unstable condition is indeed a clever approach, but to use it against me of all people? I think you understand this was not a wise choice, don’t you?”

She was precisely correct.

A Devil who rules over Hell and a spirit created by God.

Though these two were categorized as ‘Beings from Beyond’ by humans, that was a mere arbitrary classification, and there was a clear difference between them.

One could tell just by noticing how spirits fled at the mere presence of demonic energy.

“It seems you used the Archive’s petty tricks to summon a spirit forcibly, but if you thought that would work against me, I’m deeply disappointed.”

The smile disappeared from the Woman on the Camel’s face.

“It’s already bad enough that you’re the weakest Archive in history, do we really need the most foolish one on top of that?”

“First answer.”

This time, Kevin spoke up.

“So what?”

[……]

“Weakest Archive in history, foolish or not, I don’t care what you think. I didn’t become an Archive to earn your approval.”

“Hehe… and what’s your second answer?”

“I didn’t force the spirit to fight. I merely convinced it. Told it the fight was worth it.”

“What does that even…”

The Woman on the Camel tilted her head in confusion. But she soon got her answer.

Kevin pulled out a very old book from the air.

It was a book left behind by the first Archive. When he opened it, the power of the first Archive embedded within the book entered the world, overwhelming the Thunderbird.

The power was not infused into Kevin himself but into the Thunderbird.

At that moment, the Thunderbird spirit wriggled free from the Woman’s grasp, and lightning struck the ground from the sky, incinerating everything within it.

Kwarararararak━━━━!!!

Even the Woman on the Camel was no exception.

A burned arm holding a sword was proof of that.

The Woman on the Camel looked surprised, and Kevin didn’t miss this chance, using the weakened ground of the Hill to trigger a massive landslide.

“Bury her.”

His plan was to collapse the ground entirely and bury the Woman on the Camel.

Not a bad strategy. After all, even a Devil, once descended, would be bound by some of the world’s laws.

Kugugugugugung…!!

The deafening roar of falling earth and stones echoed, and the Woman on the Camel was swept down along with the collapsing ground.

Kevin seized the moment to shout.

“All Holy Knights who can move, defend the Pond! If she’s here to retrieve Holy Power, we cannot let her get near the source. Stay alert!”

The Priests and Holy Knights, who had been half-dazed by the overwhelming presence of the Devil, were snapped out of it by Kevin’s cry. They immediately tried to heal Joanna, until… the telepathic voice rang out.

“Will that even matter? They might as well not be there.”

The Woman on the Camel had already climbed back up by reversing the collapsed ground that Kevin had destroyed.

At the sound of that telepathic voice, the space above Kevin’s head distorted, and—

Bang━━!!

—the distorted space struck down like a hammer on Kevin.

Kevin used space magic just in time to defend himself, but the sheer mass trapped him, and before he could move, the Woman on the Camel had closed the distance.

She aimed the medical staff she held in her hand at Kevin, stabbing quickly but firmly.

Pahak—Zzong!!

Just as it seemed the staff, which looked capable of shattering everything, was about to impale Kevin, Joanna, who had recovered on her own, intervened and deflected the Woman on the Camel’s attack with her Mace.

A massive shockwave swept through the area, and in its midst, Joanna spoke.

“Whether it matters or not is for us to decide!”

Saying this, Joanna raised her submachine gun and fired rounds at the Woman on the Camel.

The Woman on the Camel effortlessly blocked the Holy Power-infused bullets by spreading out her golden-threaded dress like a curtain.

At the same time, the camel, which bore the face of a nun, opened its mouth, extending its tongue like a tentacle to grab Joanna’s head.

Slish!

Dozens of tentacle-like tongues reached out to grab Joanna’s head, but this time, Kevin sliced through the camel’s neck with a swipe of his Paper imbued with spatial power.

The camel’s head dropped to the ground.

Even beheaded, the camel’s head still tried to find its way back to its body, but Kevin punted the head off the Hill.

“Feel free to go pick it up.”

“It’ll come back by itself.”

The Woman on the Camel responded playfully to Kevin’s remark, then continued to exchange blows with Archive-powered Kevin and Joanna, who had absorbed Holy Blood.

In what seemed like an instant.

The staff clashed with Joanna’s Mace, causing a spatial crack. Kevin intercepted the crack intended to shatter Joanna using space magic.

When the Woman on the Camel’s ice crown flashed, an illness-ridden cold spread, freezing even the surrounding space itself.

In response, Kevin summoned a Salamander, imbuing it with the first Archive’s power to create a blaze.

The Salamander’s heat infused with the first Archive’s power melted the cold laced with poison. The Woman on the Camel reached out to seize the Salamander.

Pahak!

Joanna intervened, striking her shield to deflect the Woman’s hand, while emitting light to amplify the Salamander’s flames.

The Woman on the Camel began to suffer burns.

In response, she made the nuns making up the camel recite a prayer.

As the prayer echoed, the flames subsided, and the Woman on the Camel pounded the air as if playing a keyboard, smashing the space relentlessly.

The countless distorted spaces struck the ground like hammers, dealing a heavy blow to the Salamander.

Kevin and Joanna had to defend themselves using the Archive’s power and the Holy Blood.

Thunk! Thunk!

Just then, the Woman on the Camel jabbed her staff swiftly, striking Kevin and Joanna’s weak points.

Kevin and Joanna staggered but, despite the intense pain, didn’t crumble. Instead, they swung their book and Mace, forcing the Woman on the Camel back.

Slishhh!!

The headless camel resisted using the limbs made from the arms and legs of nuns.

“Wow, this is tricky for just the two of them.”

The Woman on the Camel muttered a blatant lie. But her next words were no falsehood.

“I suppose I’ll need some help.”

With those words, a sharp blade materialized out of nowhere, aiming for Kevin.

Something that looked like an upside-down person moved at an almost incomprehensible speed, swinging a sword made of blood, intestines, and flesh at Kevin.

Incredibly, this grotesque being was a Holy Knight, a corpse Holy Knight, summoned from hell using dead bodies as sacrifices.

The sword composed of blood, intestines, and flesh carried Holy Power, making it difficult to block with ordinary magic.

‘If I overuse the Archive’s power, my body will collapse.’

Kevin concentrated his magical energy, dodging using his agile movements.

Overusing the Archive’s power would cause his body to collapse.

However, as if mocking his efforts, more corpse Holy Knights appeared above Kevin’s head.

They were grotesque corpse Holy Knights, about a dozen of them.

“It’s a small City of just a thousand people. But that means there are a thousand materials.’’

The typically straightforward yet sharp swords of the Holy Knights formed perfect coordination, falling down on Kevin with no gaps.

Joanna tried to help, but the Woman on the Camel jabbed her medical staff to block her.

As a result, Joanna missed the timing to assist, and Kevin had to use his Archive power to deflect the onslaught of the Holy Knights.

Crack… Crack…

Fine cracks appeared on Kevin’s skin.

This was a side effect of using more power than expected due to the exponentially increasing strength of the Holy Power as the number of enemies increased.

But before he could even regret it, the Woman on the Camel was right in front of him, swinging the staff.

━━━━━━!!

Kevin lifted his book to defend, but the moment the staff touched it, the book shattered, and Kevin was sent flying, crashing into the ground.

The Woman on the Camel moved in to strike at Kevin, but Joanna stepped in to block her path.

Still, the grotesque corpse Holy Knights were unstoppable.

Even with the Holy Blood absorbed, Joanna only had one body, and even that was needed just to keep the Woman on the Camel at bay.

As Joanna kept the Woman on the Camel occupied, dozens upon hundreds of Holy Power-infused blades targeted Kevin, who had to minimize his use of Archive power to fend off, dodge, and counter their attacks.

In the storm of yellow light swords, Kevin’s body was slowly cracking, but fortunately, the number of corpse Holy Knights was visibly decreasing.

At this rate, they’ll all be defeated and—

“You’re doing well. Should I increase the numbers?”

At the Woman on the Camel’s words, a number of corpse Holy Knights—more than double those Kevin had already defeated—emerged on the Hill.

It was now certain. The Woman on the Camel intended to make Kevin self-destruct.

If the fight dragged on, Kevin’s body would collapse regardless of victory or defeat.

Kevin tried to summon spirits to escape, but the corpse Holy Knights hindered this with unrestrained attacks, even inflicting significant damage on the spirits themselves.

Of course, the number of corpse Holy Knights decreased, but it was meaningless. To the Woman on the Camel, corpse Holy Knights were expendables, like arrows.

If they could slow down and wear out Kevin, their purpose was fulfilled. Any missing numbers could be immediately replenished anyway.

And so, despite taking down dozens of corpse Holy Knights, Kevin was increasingly cornered, forced to defend himself from blades infused with Holy Power coming from all sides.

Chwajwajwajwang!!!

As their numbers increased, the power of Holy Power also doubled, making it harder to deflect. But then, an ominous cry echoed from below.

Gooooooong…

A Holy Knight with a camel’s head.

The camel’s head that Kevin had kicked earlier returned, taking over a Holy Knight’s body.

As the Woman on the Camel had said, it had come back on its own, drawing a sword made of Holy Power in mid-air.

Taang!

It disappeared in an instant as if it had vanished, rushing towards the trapped Kevin at blinding speed.

Pahak!

Following the charge, the Holy Knight with the camel’s head jumped at Kevin, holding the Holy Power-infused sword in a reverse grip, aimed to stab downward.

Paang━━━━━!

A gunshot rang out, and one side of the camel’s head was blown off.

It was the result of Armand, who had climbed the Hill, firing his Cross-shaped sniper rifle, and that wasn’t the end.

“Shield of Humanity!! Are you really going to leave it all to them?!!”

Roderick, the Dark Priest, created a massive giant made of Holy Power, smashing the corpse Holy Knights surrounding Kevin with a Warhammer as he roared.

At his cry, a light as bright as sunrise shone from below the Hill, and over a hundred Holy Knights ascended with their weapons in hand.

“For God!!!”

“Aaaaahhhh!!!”

“Let’s go, Shields of Humanity…!!”

“Fight against the Devil!!!”

While Joanna and Kevin were battling the Woman on the Camel, the Dark Priests Armand and Roderick had traveled around the Holy Capital, persuading the shattered Holy Knights who had been crushed by disaster and sin to stand up once more.

The Holy Knights who had risen again struck down the corpse Holy Knights summoned by the Woman on the Camel and aided Kevin, then charged toward her without stopping.

Rebuilding their broken bodies and uplifted spirits crushed by sin and disaster.

Responding to such resolve, the Holy Power resonated, shining even brighter, clearing away the darkness on the Sacred Hill, momentarily turning it as bright as day.

In that light, all the Holy Knights aimed their swords at the Woman on the Camel.

Roderick’s giant, created by Holy Power, raised its Warhammer to strike down the Woman on the Camel.

Armand, clad in full iron armor, abandoned his gun, forging a giant sword made of Holy Power and leaped high into the sky.

All the ordinary Holy Knights united their will, pointing the tip of their swords at the Woman on the Camel as trained throughout their lives.

It was a scene as if all the light in the world had gathered to obliterate evil.

Amidst this, the Woman on the Camel put away her staff, made from a nun’s spine, raised her empty hand into the air and commanded.

“Recall.”