Those time travelers that year

Is it simply about darkening the soul and sinking it into the abyss, or turning a person into an ahegao (a type of malevolent spirit)...?

Okay! Let's not talk about that.

Faced with Ciel's sudden change of attitude, Alice was stunned. Meanwhile, Erica, on the other side, was in a terrible predicament, hurriedly and humbly begging Ciel for forgiveness. However, Alice, realizing what was happening, quickly lowered her tone and apologized profusely, her face pale. The ability to read minds, and even bypass the mind of a powerful priestess, made Alice uneasy. If things went wrong, she could become a sinner in the council.

"Don't worry..." Charles, showing no trace of his earlier threatening words, elegantly picked up the teacup on the table. "I was just joking, really..." After confirming several times that Charles was just joking, Alice and Erica finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although they knew that people with such powerful abilities were basically prone to madness, Alice didn't dare to relax her guard any longer. Instead, she secretly used magic to seal her outward thoughts, and just to be safe, she dared not even let her mind wander anymore.

"Alice, is it!" Setting down the tea, Ciel addressed the girl (in her early twenties) before him. "...Don't worry, I have absolutely no interest in fighting with a delusional teenager. Why would I play house with a fighting maniac?"

"It's wonderful that you understand!" Alice complimented. "Thank you for your understanding, Your Majesty!"

“Enlightened my foot!” Charles said. “I just don’t want to waste my time playing with a guy who doesn’t earn anything from fighting… By the way, have either of you ever played online games?”

"Huh?!" X2

“You see… fighting a disobedient god, defeating it is like grinding through dungeons and defeating bosses in an online game; you get equipment, reputation, and so on. But…” Charles spread his hands, “What do I get from fighting a Campione? Just asking?”

"What's the point of fighting a battle that doesn't even have PVP points or levels?!"

……

Ciel's comparison of the battle between Campiones to a PvP game made Alice and Erica feel a sense of incongruity. Indeed, in this world, describing something as high-class as a Campion as a game was—truly apt.

Anyway, Alice breathed a sigh of relief when Ciel expressed that he preferred to cause trouble for the heretics rather than fight Campiones. Their goal for coming here had been achieved; whether fighting the heretics would destroy the city's flora and fauna was no longer so important.

After all, ordinary people can't see disobedient gods, so they can just use the excuse that it's a natural disaster to fool everyone. At most, they can send someone from "Approaching Science" to come and give them a runaround...

"So let that guy who plans to run across half of Europe take his time with long-distance running," Charles said. "Running a marathon is good for your health!"

"No matter what, I don't have time to play games with a marathon runner at a time like this."

"I... I really dislike it when someone dares to spy on me!"

Ciel smiled and spoke words that left Alice and Erica bewildered. But soon, a chilling cold enveloped them. Darkness began to spread after Ciel finished speaking, instantly swallowing all the light. However, the darkness quickly vanished, but Alice and Erica were not at ease.

"Your Majesty, this is..."

"Don't worry, there won't be any trouble," Charles said calmly. "...That part of the darkness is a manifestation of the power I control. After all, there are two peeping Toms outside the hotel. To prevent them from escaping, I put in a lot of effort to create a mirror world that covers the entire city." Seeing that Alice and Erica were completely bewildered, Charles didn't say anything more, but pointed to the window, indicating that they should go and take a look.

Alice and Erica exchanged a glance, then stood up and walked to the window to look outside. The sky, which had been clear with white clouds and blue skies, was now shrouded in darkness, with only a black sun emitting light above, as if the world were shrouded in a total solar eclipse.

At that moment, they also saw a figure flash by on a distant rooftop. Erica couldn't see it clearly, but Alice Louise Of Nafal, the former president and current special advisor of the Greenwich Sages Council, caught sight of the figure and recognized who she was.

"God Ancestor Gnevia!??"

Just as Alice was surprised to see the greatest enemy of the Greenwich Sages Council, Ciel also disappeared from the room.

——————————Divider Line——————————

A girl of about twelve or thirteen years old, who was clearly not born in the East, with fair skin and golden curly hair that outlined elegant curves, was running across the rooftops, highlighting her extremely beautiful features.

Although the scene looks incongruous, the little girl is not actually moving her body, but is using the power of magic to give herself agility far beyond that of humans.

This is perfectly normal for someone of her status. If she hadn't been reincarnated and lost her mythological identity and position, she, as the former Earth Mother Goddess, wouldn't have needed to go through all this trouble.

"I miscalculated!" The girl thought to herself, nimbly sprinting across the rooftops. Just now, through a magic spell called "Witch's Eye," she had been secretly observing the Rosencranzton Hotel in Oslo. She had assumed she wouldn't be discovered, since even Princess Alice, who had always been her adversary, hadn't noticed her spying.

Unfortunately, what she didn't expect was that her main target was someone far beyond her expectations.

The girl looked up at the sky. The pitch-black night blocked everything, as if a god who controlled the power of the underworld had obscured the sky. But this was not night; it was another dimension, a vast barrier that enveloped the entire city and pulled in all individuals who were not ordinary humans.

The creator of this barrier was none other than the 'being' the girl had recently spied upon—a being whose appearance and aura were comparable to the Earth Mother. It wasn't the application of power, but simply magic, that created this world reflecting the city.

Even she herself, the girl knew, could only create such a spatial barrier at will if she were at her peak, still in the state of a noble and unruly earth goddess. For her now, doing so would be extremely difficult, requiring specific time, specific place, and the assistance of divine artifacts.

In other words, the person she was spying on was at least on par with her in her prime in terms of creating this interdimensional barrier.

'I didn't approve of you taking the risk at first.'

A sudden sound echoed in the girl's ears.

467. Grenivia

'My beloved son! You are too confident…'

That voice still lingered in the girl's ears.

"It was my carelessness, Uncle..." the girl replied, and with a light leap, she crossed the dozens of meters between the two buildings and landed on the roof of another building on the path ahead.

'If you want to escape this city's reflection, you either need a blade strong enough to slice through space, or you can only reach the city's edge... There's no time! Let me go!'

"Wait, Uncle..." the girl said as she ran, "You are not a non-submissive, and there is a time limit for your actions. Now is not the time."

'No, my beloved son… in your current state, there is absolutely no way you can escape that…' The voice was filled with a serious tone. 'Haven't you realized yet? Here, darkness will not help you as you might have thought.'

"What!?" Upon hearing this, the girl's pupils constricted. She was a divine ancestor. Even though she called herself Guinevere, the immoral queen of King Arthur, before being reborn as a human, she was a genuine disobedient god, an earth mother goddess favored by darkness. The fact that she could still roam freely throughout the world despite the pursuit and hostility of the Council of Sages of Greenwich and the Black Prince was largely due to her 'guardian deity' and the remaining power of darkness and the underworld.

In the past, when she fled, she could easily evade her enemies by blending into the darkness. Even the Black Prince, without his divine speed, would have been unable to track her. However, her 'guardian's' words immediately made Guinevere tense. She hurriedly tried to call upon and merge into the darkness and shadows, but found that in this city reflected by the barrier, the darkness and shadows no longer favored her as before… something was forcefully holding them back, refusing her request.

“This is impossible!” Guinevere’s face turned pale; this had never happened before. “I am clearly the progenitor of the gods, why do darkness and shadows reject my call?!”

'It's too late... Get out of the way!'

"What?" Hearing the anxiety in the 'Guardian's' tone, Guinevia was taken aback, and then subconsciously looked up.

Above, fiery red clouds churned, and just as Grenvia looked up, a deafening roar followed, and the clouds shattered. Countless flames transformed into a torrential downpour, falling from the sky.

"He...he...he can unleash such a grand magic spell without using rituals or ley lines!?" Guinevere's face turned grim. The rain of fire falling from the sky encompassed every direction within her field of vision. At that moment, Guinevere realized something else: Charles wasn't using this spatial barrier to create a reflection of the city to trap her. On the contrary, only within this reflected world could Charles launch attacks at will.

In a real city, such a rain of fire would undoubtedly plunge the city into panic and unprecedented destruction. No one knows how many people would die, but the casualties would be at least in the tens of thousands. But here, it's different. Even if that person were to flatten the entire city in the next moment, it wouldn't harm the real world outside this reflected city.

Biting her lip, Guinevia swiftly leaped off the roof. In this rain of fire, remaining on the roof would make her an easy target. Normally, she could hide in the darkness and shadows, but not now; the darkness and shadows here refused to offer her refuge. She had to find a way to ensure she wouldn't be burned to ashes.

She jumped off the house, found a blind spot and rushed in, then used magic to create a barrier, intending to withstand the falling rain of fire.

Rumble rumble rumble...

The falling flames caused a series of violent explosions upon contact with anything. Each fireball falling from the sky was like a missile or bomb, blasting everything it touched to smithereens with its roar and shockwaves.

For nearly a minute, the fiery rain brutally ravaged a vast area, flattening countless buildings. Whether ordinary houses or skyscrapers, all were reduced to ruins in the face of this saturation bombardment.

But for Guinevere, this was fortunate. Even though she was now buried under layers of rubble. For ordinary humans, or even ordinary magicians, this situation would obviously mean certain death, but for her, it was utterly insignificant.

The ruins alone could neither kill nor trap her.

"Thank goodness!" She breathed a slight sigh of relief. The barrier created by magic had firmly kept the broken rocks and steel bars outside. Similarly, thanks to the magic, she didn't need to worry about suffocating. "...Fortunately, this is a reflection of reality. No matter how powerful he is, he can't completely control this reflected world."

"Hard to say!" But clearly, Guinea's "guardian" offered a different opinion. "After all, that one directly defeated two of the highest-ranking disobedient gods, one of whom was even the king of Asgard… Odin's divine nature wasn't limited to war; it also included magic."

"Uncle, are you saying that he may have seized the powers associated with magic and runes from Odin?"

"It's only a possibility! Of course, what's worse is if he can unleash such a powerful spell, and twice in a row, solely through his own spellcasting abilities," said Guinevere's "Guardian." "Then it's equivalent to saying that even at your peak, your spellcasting abilities are only at a similar level to his."

"A spellcaster from the Age of Gods?" Guinevere said in disbelief. "How is that possible?! How could there be monsters in this era comparable to magicians from the Age of Gods?"

'In the Age of Gods, killing a god was an impossible thing, but in this world where the Age of Gods has ended, there exist god-slayers who didn't even exist in the Age of Gods.'

Guinevia's expression grew increasingly grim.

She originally came to Norway for two reasons: first, to escape the Black Prince's pursuit; and second, to search for the Last King. Upon hearing the news that two of the highest-ranking deities had descended upon Finnmark County, she rushed there without delay. These two rebellious gods, possessing steel within their divine essence, also possess the potential to become the Last King.

Whether it's Odin wielding Gungnir or Surtr holding Laevatain, both possess the properties of steel, for their most famous representation is not their mythological identities, but rather the weapons they wield.

Gungnir, a weapon whose throws always hit their mark, is enough to reverse the course of fate.

Laevatain, in Norse mythology, was never defeated.

The most famous thing about the Steel Heroes is the divine weapon they wield, and the final king that she and her 'Guardian Angel' are searching for is a steel being.

468. Destruction

Unfortunately, by the time she arrived in Norway after traveling thousands of miles, it was all over. Odin and Surtr, two disobedient gods with the nature of steel, two who bore a striking resemblance to the Last King, both wielding steel that represented their identities, both kings of two different kingdoms, and both appearing on the battlefield of Ragnarok, a day representing the end of the world, had already been killed.

Because Guinevere wasn't present at the scene, she didn't know that the one who defeated and killed Odin and Surtr wasn't Campione as she imagined, but Dio che morso. However, during the war in Finmark, the humans who witnessed it couldn't recognize it at all. Only the participants and a Pandora recognized it.

Odin and Surtr, the two parties involved, have returned to mythology, while Pandora is hiding well. Not to mention, if Pandora were to appear, Guinevere would absolutely stop at nothing to kill this witch.

So, coincidentally, a misunderstanding arose.

'To be able to defeat two supreme disobedient gods wielding steel twice in a short period of time... based on this alone, my beloved daughter, your spying plan is lacking.'

"I'm sorry, Uncle!" Guinevia couldn't deny that she had been too arrogant or overconfident.

"But even if that person really did seize the power of magic and runes from Odin, so what?!" Suppressing her fear of Sharl, Guinevere regained her original expression. "...Even the Black Prince, with his divine speed, couldn't catch me. I refuse to believe that someone who just killed a god could possess much power!"

'No! If that person didn't obtain Odin's magical powers, but instead received Gungnir... then let me show myself and take you away from here.'

“Gungnir…” That was Odin’s signature weapon, a spear of oath from mythology, hurled with a certainty of hitting its mark, a weapon of cause and effect, a weapon of destiny. Even among divine artifacts, it would be at the pinnacle. Of course, this thought made Guinevere uneasy. If Gungnir were aimed at her 'guardian god,' that war god would certainly be able to withstand Gungnir’s attack. But if it were aimed at her, facing this sure-hit spear, even the war god might not be able to protect her safely.

“Alright! I understand, Uncle!” With a sigh, facing the likely prospect of confronting Sharl, who possessed Gungnir, Guinevere, the troublemaking progenitor of the gods, finally relented. After all, even if she broke the seal and regained her non-human form after being struck by Gungnir, it would probably be futile. “Once I escape these ruins, Uncle, I'll trouble you to lead me out…”

"Don't worry, although I'm not confident I can defeat that person in a short time, if I'm determined to escape with you, it shouldn't be a problem."

Guinevere nodded, as if to say something like, "Well..." However, her words were cut short. In Guinevere's perception, she could clearly sense a terrifying power seeping into the earth. It was a power filled with flames and an aura of destruction, and this power quickly combined in a spell Guinevere had never seen before, forming a terrifying omen of magic.

"Go!" At that moment, the war god's call snapped Guinevia out of her daze. Regaining her senses, Guinevia quickly used magic to try and break through the ruins to escape to the surface.

But it was too late...

Outside, Ciel, suspended in mid-air by anti-gravity, reached out his hand towards the city's reflection created by the barrier, spread his five fingers, and began to chant.

? ??? ?? , ? ?? .（Elemental chaos, calamity for all living beings）

A magnificent magical power surged from Ciel's body, then transformed into absolute destructive force. Spells unlike anything ever seen before were rapidly taking shape in this world.

(The sky collapses and the earth splits; black wings sweep across the sky.)

As the spell was chanted (cast), a violent earthquake began to form in the city of this reflected world. At first, it was only around level five or six, but it quickly soared to level nine and continued to rise.

??? ??? ?, ?? . (The earth cracks open in all directions, and flames engulf everything in its path—an apocalyptic end.)

? ?, ???. (Storms gather in the sky, the end of time.)

? , ?? . (Unavoidable, unstoppable.)

(Under the shadows)

(At the time of destruction)

The chanting, carried by the magic, reverberated throughout the city like the tolling of a great bell. In this reflected world, there were no ordinary people, only magicians, knights, and other members of the magical world who had been pulled in by Charles. They were astonished by the chanting, which sounded like the voice of the heavens, and terrified by the destructive magic that surged through their senses like a tsunami.

They all looked up at the figure suspended high in the sky with reverence, fear, and awe, like lambs in a pasture looking up at the Lord who sat at the highest place.

In religion, what is the best way to demonstrate one's authority? It is not by doing good or eliminating evil... but by using absolute power to stir up endless storms and easily bring about natural disasters.