Chapter 351

Chapter 351

Under the tremendous heat, the sand on the ground softened and melted.

The melted sand bubbled and boiled like lava.

It was one of Zeon’s Skills, Sand Gehenna—a scorching sand hell.

The sand boiled like lava and swallowed the Awakened around Zeon.

“Ghk!”

“Damn it!”

“Get away!”

The Paladins, Heresy Inquisitors, and others were horrified and tried to escape Sand Gehenna’s domain. But Zeon did not let them go.

Craaaack!

The sand swirled and trapped those who had attacked Zeon in the center of Sand Gehenna.

The Dark Saints and Heresy Inquisitors, whose bodies were relatively light, could lift themselves into the air and escape Sand Gehenna, but the Paladins wearing heavy armor could not.

Because of the tremendous weight of their heavy armor, their ankles sank deep into the sand boiling like lava.

At least the defensive power of their heavy armor and Holy Shield protected the Paladins from the high heat for a short while.

In the meantime, the Paladins tried to escape the lava, but the more they struggled, the deeper they sank into the mire.

Hiss!

The heavy armor began to melt.

No matter how powerful its defensive power was, heavy armor could not endure for long inside ultra-high-heat lava.

In the end, as the joints melted, the hot lava poured into the armor.

The lava that entered the heavy armor melted the Paladins’ flesh and bones.

“Craaaagh!”

“S-save me!”

In the pain of their entire bodies melting, the Paladins forgot all dignity and screamed as though they were dying.

Hiss!

The sound of flesh melting inside their heavy armor was clear even to their own ears.

No one could understand the horrific sensation of hearing their own flesh and bones melt until they experienced it themselves.

Even Paladins armed with faith in God could not endure such pain.

It would have been better if their breath had been cut off in an instant. Then they would not have had to experience such horrific agony for so long.

As beings who possessed power incomparably greater than ordinary people, their life force was also several times stronger.

Because of that, they had to experience, while fully conscious, pain that would have made an ordinary person faint or die long ago.

“Craaaaagh!”

“Aaaagh!”

The Paladins’ desperate screams rang out again and again inside Sand Gehenna.

The Dark Saints and Heresy Inquisitors who had managed to escape were so horrified that their hair stood on end, and they could not say a word.

Something terrible was happening inside the sand-laden wind spinning at terrifying speed.

It was happening within the thick sand-laden wind.

Because they could not see it with their eyes, it stimulated their imaginations even more.

The desperate screams flowing out through the sand heightened that imagination to the extreme.

“This cannot be!”

“Good God!”

The Dark Saints and Heresy Inquisitors shuddered at their own horrific imaginations.

They were not people who feared others.

Rather, they were existences who made other people afraid.

Yet they trembled in fear without realizing it.

The trembling of their bodies did not easily subside.

Their fine hairs stood on end and shook precariously.

It was the first time in their lives they had ever felt this way.

“Oh! Lord…….”

“Lord Johan!”

At the Paladins’ cries, Johan’s complexion hardened.

He could tell without needing to see it with his own eyes.

His believers were dying inside that sand-laden wind.

Johan opened his mouth.

“How?”

He could not understand it.

He had clearly poured every kind of curse on him.

No matter how powerful an Awakened was, their strength should have weakened under such curses. But Zeon was displaying his full power without being affected at all.

“Does he perhaps have an item that can defend against curses?”

Johan chewed hard on his lip.

His lip split, and blood flowed, but he did not even have the mental room to feel pain.

Because even at this moment, the Paladins’ screams were burrowing into his eardrums.

Johan ordered the Dark Saints and Heresy Inquisitors,

“What are you doing? Hurry and save the Paladins. Rescue your comrades from Satan’s hands. God’s blessing shall protect you…….”

Fighting spirit returned to the faces of the Dark Saints and Heresy Inquisitors who had frozen at the Paladins’ desperate screams.

They had shrunk back for a moment at Zeon’s unbelievable majesty, but they were fanatics who would gladly throw away their lives at Johan’s command.

They felt ashamed of themselves for having been intimidated, even briefly, by Zeon’s presence.

Shame became anger, and to release that anger, they willingly threw themselves into the sandstorm.

“Die! Unbeliever!”

“Woooo!”

CLATTER—!

They pushed through the sandstorm and approached Zeon.

What entered their vision was the horrific sight of Paladins submerged in lava, melting away.

Most had died after half their bodies melted, but some still had breath left and were letting out painful groans.

“May you go to heaven.”

“Damn it!”

The Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints swallowed their tears and ended the Paladins’ lives. Their intention was to ease their pain.

Even under the attacks of the Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints, the Paladins did not show even a trace of resentment. Instead, they welcomed death with gratitude.

“Aaaaargh! Zeon. I will tear you to pieces and kill you.”

“Cursed Sandmancer. You will never die peacefully.”

They stepped over the corpses of the Paladins melting inside the lava and approached Zeon.

At the eye of the whirling sandstorm, Zeon stood holding a massive scythe.

It was the Reaper’s Scythe he had obtained after killing the Grim Reaper long ago.

Thanks to the Reaper’s Scythe, he had been able to erase all the curses Johan had poured on him. But the price of using the Reaper’s Scythe was harsh.

A tremendous backlash struck Zeon.

Enduring the pain, Zeon quickly shoved the Reaper’s Scythe into subspace.

It was not an item he could use for long.

Once he put the Reaper’s Scythe into subspace, he became somewhat free from the backlash.

SWOOSH—!

At that moment, the attacks of the Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints poured down.

Chain sickles and all kinds of Skills rained down like a storm.

There seemed to be nowhere for Zeon to dodge.

At that moment, Zeon’s body shot into the air.

The sand on the ground had launched his body upward.

Thanks to that, he was able to escape the wave after wave of attacks from the Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints.

High in the sky, Zeon looked down at the Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints.

The sight of him brought to mind a god, or a demon.

The Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints kicked off the corpses of the Paladins and launched themselves toward Zeon.

Whoooosh!

The Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints approached Zeon at terrifying speed.

In midair, their gazes collided with Zeon’s.

In their eyes, Zeon read terrifying killing intent.

Their gazes were filled with the will to kill Zeon no matter what.

In contrast, Zeon’s eyes showed no emotion whatsoever.

At his indifferent gaze, as though he were looking at objects rather than humans, the Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints felt goosebumps rise all over their bodies.

At that moment, Zeon spoke in a low voice.

“Sand Storm!”

Rooooar!

In that instant, the sandstorm swirling around Zeon expanded as it rotated several times faster and more violently.

The sand piled up in the slums was drawn into the sandstorm Zeon had created. Not only that, the sand from the desert outside the slums was also sucked into the sandstorm, increasing its size.

Everyone’s jaws dropped at the majesty of the monstrous sandstorm that had grown several times larger in an instant.

Roooooar!

The massive sandstorm spinning as it blackened the sky swallowed those who had been attacking Zeon.

“Ghk! Sand like this is nothing…….”

The Heresy Inquisitors strengthened their Holy Shields.

They believed that with Holy Shield, they would be able to protect themselves even inside the sandstorm. But their belief shattered in an instant.

SHATTER—!

Unable to withstand the tremendous pressure of the sandstorm, the Holy Shields broke apart like glass.

The sandstorm that shattered the Holy Shields ground away the Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints with tremendous pressure.

The Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints whose Holy Shields had been shattered could not endure the fine grains of sand digging into their flesh.

As their flesh tore and their muscles were ground away, they let out desperate screams.

“Ohhh! God.”

“Craaaagh!”

They cried out desperately for God, but there was no answer.

The Heresy Inquisitor at the front turned into bloody sand and vanished without a trace. After seeing that, the Heresy Inquisitors in the rear threw their chain sickles with all their strength.

Even if they died, they were making one final struggle with the intent to drag Zeon down to hell with them.

Whoosh! Swoosh!

Countless chain sickles flew in like flashes of lightning.

At that moment, Zeon raised his right hand, wearing the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat, toward the sky and murmured,

“Fire Rain!”

Fwoosh!

No sooner had Zeon spoken than a rain of fire fell from the sky.

Boom, boom, boom!

The rain of fire intercepted every chain sickle, and it was not satisfied with only that. It also struck the Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints.

They were already being ground away by the sand, and when the ultra-high-heat rain of fire exploded on top of that, the Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints could no longer endure.

“Craaaagh!”

“Aaaagh!”

Like flies struck directly by insecticide, the Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints fell.

Thud! Thud!

The Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints who crashed down at terrifying speed were crushed beyond recognition and died.

Hundreds of lives were lost so fleetingly.

Even then, those near Johan did not know exactly what had happened.

Because the sandstorm had blocked their vision.

Whoooosh!

Then, as if it had been a lie, the massive sandstorm slowly vanished.

The tremendous amount of sand that had blackened the sky flew away toward the desert, and Zeon could be seen floating in midair.

The Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints who had attacked Zeon with such terrifying momentum could not be found anywhere.

That was because even their final traces left on the ground had been covered by sand. But just because nothing could be seen did not mean the people did not know what had happened to the Heresy Inquisitors and Dark Saints.

Johan, the remaining forces of Dongdaemun, and the people who had come out from the slums to watch all knew.

Something horrific had happened inside the sandstorm Zeon had unleashed.

Something so tremendous had happened that the Paladins, Heresy Inquisitors, and Dark Saints had vanished without leaving even a single proper corpse.

And all of it had happened in less than ten minutes.

There was only one person who could have done something so tremendous.

The man standing alone in midair, using sand as a foothold.

Zeon.

The corner of Johan’s eye trembled.

“You beastly bastard! The second coming of Satan.”

He had never expected that even after mobilizing the Paladins, Dark Saints, and Heresy Inquisitors all at once, they would still be unable to do anything to Zeon alone.

There was not even a single wound visible on Zeon, who was floating in midair.

Even after devouring so many lives, he had not suffered so much as a small scratch himself.

That sight made Johan afraid.

For the first time in his life, Johan felt the emotion called fear.

He had never expected that he would feel such an emotion toward another human, not God.

Goosebumps rose all over his body, and every hair stood on end.

His convulsions did not calm, and his breathing grew so ragged that he felt as if he would vomit at any moment. Even so, Johan desperately suppressed those bodily reactions.

Though he trembled in fear, he was the master of the Church.

If the central pillar known as the Church leader collapsed, the remaining members would lose cohesion like sand and scatter in every direction.

If that happened, Dongdaemun would be finished as well.

He had to prevent that worst-case scenario at all costs.

He had lost all his forces because of a momentary misjudgment, but as long as he himself remained intact, Dongdaemun could be rebuilt any number of times.

He opened his mouth with difficulty.

“Let us negotiate.”

“Negotiate?”

“Yes! Let us resolve this through dialogue like civilized people.”

Johan looked up at Zeon with an anxious expression.

Zeon looked down at Johan and found it laughable.

Because the man who called himself God’s representative was looking up at him in such a miserable state.

His trembling fingertips and ragged breathing showed just how anxious Johan was.

Zeon shook his head.

“It is true that I am a civilized person, but I have no intention of speaking with you in the slightest.”