I Obtained Sword God Level Talent

88 – 088. Tool (1)

After much back and forth, the guild ‘Round Table’ had been assigned to be a special task force.

The mission handed to us, full of confidence, was simple.

“Kill monsters, you say. There couldn’t be an easier mission than this.”

Lancelot mumbled, lowering his voice as he ascended the mountain. As he said, we were currently on a strange mission of “monster extermination.”

“Right. They said the situation was quite serious. Was it an idea that came from Friedrich’s head?”

Chun Hwa-young also asked, kicking off the ground as if dissatisfied.

“It probably wasn’t. More likely, some nobles who like to make noise.”

I, the target of the question, shook my head. Judging from what I’d seen in the meeting hall, the Crown Prince was merely a figurehead commander. It seemed the authority of the subjugation party was torn in all directions.

“Right?”

“Y-yes, that’s right…!”

Turning my gaze, I looked ahead. There, walking in the lead, were the meeting hall’s ill-fated pair, Helios’ Hert and Jaden.

Hert, who initiated the confrontation with me first, and Jaden, who, oblivious to the situation, had attacked me with fervor. Both of them were magic users.

After Ariel awakened her Saintess powers, they were a good replacement for the gap left in our guild.

“…….”

There was something else funny too. Walking while releasing their mana, they had been glancing at Ariel, who walked beside me, since a while ago.

“What are you staring at?”

“Ah, ah! No, sir!”

Those rigidly disciplined men, having witnessed my power, were now treating me with utmost politeness.

Well, they probably couldn’t imagine that I, whose rumors were just beginning to spread, was actually an 8th-rank master.

…And there’s also the fact that anyone who sees me comments on my ‘youthful appearance.’

“Sir Frey, are you sure it’s alright to head north?”

“Yes. There shouldn’t be any major issues. The main subjugation force is also set to slowly advance tomorrow.”

I answered Hert’s question indifferently.

Friedrich had discreetly informed me of this as we were leaving the garrison. The entire main force would be slaughtering monsters as they moved north, meaning I should handle things as I see fit.

But.

‘Swift and decisive is better.’

That was my judgment. The reason was simple. A massive swarm of monsters had surrounded the Papal See. That was the current situation.

And…

‘Beneath the Papal See’s clock tower, there’s a rift leading to hell.’

Most outsiders didn’t know this fact. Even Friedrich hadn’t mentioned it, so I was probably right.

If things were to take a turn for the worst… something unimaginable to ordinary people would happen.

“Frey.”

“Hm?”

I was walking while thinking about that. Ariel, who had been silent until now, called out to me. I turned my head to the side and saw Ariel, her face filled with an indescribable unease.

“Something… feels ominous. A feeling of anxiety is washing over me.”

“…Don’t worry too much. Pope Sullivan, the priests, and the holy knights aren’t weaklings.”

Ariel’s uneasy feeling was obvious. It was likely about the plight of the besieged Papal See.

However.

“No, it’s not that. The cause of this anxiety… it’s that this entire situation feels unnatural.”

“Unnatural?”

“Yeah. It’s weird, isn’t it? The sudden mass outbreak of monsters, and the fact that it’s happening near the Papal See.”

“That is true.”

Ariel’s thinking was valid.

Even I, if I didn’t have the knowledge that this mass outbreak of monsters was an event in ＜Silvering＞, probably wouldn’t have been able to assess the situation so calmly.

“In the worst-case scenario, could this even be the will of God…”

Ariel muttered, carefully and quietly, as a final thought.

Ariel, the owner of the ＜Divine＞ mark, supposedly chosen by god himself, and the newly born Saint. She seemed to want her unholy thoughts to be unheard by others.

But.

“It’s not impossible.”

“L, Lancelot?”

There was one b*stard with disgustingly sharp ears. Lancelot, with his usual stone-cold face, approached and said that.

“I also think it’s strange. Monsters are fundamentally the furthest beings from god. But this time, that common sense has been overturned, hasn’t it?”

“Hey, Lan, what are you talking about?”

“Frey, you understand too. Monsters instinctively fear ‘god’. It’s obvious they’re extremely wary of priests and paladins who wield their power.”

“Right.”

“Then, as Ariel said… this situation itself might not make sense to our common sense. It means considering the worst-case scenario is a viable option.”

Lancelot’s voice, agreeing with Ariel, was full of an unusual weight. Something, perhaps he was also feeling a sense of unease, close to instinct.

“The worst, the worst-case scenario…”

Already, two people had expressed doubts about this incident. I, too, had been expecting something serious would happen ‘if the Vatican fell’.

“The worst is, what if the reason monsters appeared was god’s and the pope’s will, and it turns out their goal is to return the world to its primordial state, as god intended? Something like that?”

“F, Frey…!”

Ariel yelled in shock at my rapid-fire words. Her voice was quite loud, so Maria, walking at the very back of the group, came over and asked.

“Have you discovered something unusual?”

She’d seemed deeply troubled since earlier… no, for the past few days. But even when asked for the reason, she wouldn’t tell.

“No, it’s not that. I was just predicting the worst possible outcome.”

“…I see.”

Maria said with a cold expression. Was she also consumed by an intense sense of unease? Maria, seeming to hesitate to speak, eventually said in a small voice, uncharacteristic of her.

“The will of god. You are doubting that.”

“Y, you heard everything!”

Ariel said with a flustered expression.

‘Well, she’s an 8th tier.’

No matter how quietly she spoke, Maria was a transcendent of the 8th tier. Someone who could detect the noise from hundreds of meters away; how could she *not* hear?

“The reason I am here, that is also part of it.”

“……Huh?”

But the words that followed from Maria were unexpected.

Even Ariel, who had been worried that her distrust towards god might provoke her anger, was left gaping.

“As I mentioned earlier, an intense sense of unease. I felt it too.”

“……”

“……”

Maria’s cold, low voice made everyone’s faces stiffen.

“But I can’t explain it. That’s the strangest thing. It’s an ominous, chilling sensation.”

“A premonition, perhaps.”

“Similar.”

Maria, after that brief statement, finally dropped a heavy subject.

“It’s like… this entire incident is someone leading Frey-nim. Like a trap, drawing an ant into an antlion’s pit, if you will.”

A trap, a trap, she said.

My own expression gradually hardened at Maria’s warning, if not a warning. Who would lay a trap on such a massive scale? And even worse, using the Vatican, a place completely separate from outsiders, as its stage.

“A god?”

My thoughts quickly turned to one kind of being.

Keres, the god of life and death, Aldehain, the god of war, the god I encountered in the darkness, and finally, that thing that tried to descend through the rift in the western border.

Their thoughts, so far removed from those of mortals, were something I couldn’t even begin to grasp. I could only conclude that they were far removed from common sense.

And lastly.

“…A False God. In the end, there’s a chance that being could be involved.”

I muttered under my breath.

A being I first learned of at the western border, a False God. Could it be that they, these so-called false gods, and the current gods, were waging some kind of secret battle?

‘And we’re just going to end up being crushed like shrimps in a whale fight.’

Tsk, I clicked my tongue, feeling a sudden surge of irritation. The level of 7th or 8th Circle felt insignificant in front of them. After all, all I managed to do was stop a god’s descent back at the western border.

But.

‘I have no intention of just letting it happen. Whether it’s a god or some street thug.’

My face hardening, I slowly scanned my surroundings.

Under the name of ‘Round Table’, many had gathered around me. With so much on my shoulders, I had no intention of falling apart meaninglessly.

“Fr, Frey-kyung…!!!”

“Th-there’s a huge monster horde ahead! They’re approaching us at high speed!”

Just then, Hert and Jaden, who were searching the surroundings with mana, shouted, their faces ashen.

“They’re good, I’ll give ‘em that. Magic is really convenient sometimes, you know.”

Using two human comm sets, I shook off my thoughts and spoke.

“Y-yeah? Y-you can’t possibly be planning to fight them like this? Looking at the scale, there must be at least thousands of monsters…!”

Hert shouted, his face pale. I just stared at him, a look that said, *so what?*, and tossed out,

“Doesn’t matter.”

“This is recklessness! We’ll all die here….”

“Enough.”

Lancelot, with a frown, slapped Hert on the back, pushing him aside.

“We are the ‘Round Table.’ Our exploits haven’t become widely known on the front lines yet, but we’re a small elite guild gathered around Frey.”

Oh, ho, Lancelot’s actually stringing together some nice words today.

“Yeah. God or whatever. Let’s take care of the enemies right in front of us first.”

I let out a cheerful chuckle, echoing Lancelot’s sentiment.

“Pull yourselves together! No, we can’t win!”

“T-this is impossible! Even for an 8th-circle transcedenter…!”

Following Hert, even Jayden, that old nemesis from the conference room, yelled, jaw agape.

*Shhhrrrring!*

I didn’t answer the two mages’ blustering. I just quietly drew my sword.

*Thud thud thud thud…!*

Indeed, the two mages’ warnings weren’t wrong. A massive horde of monsters was cascading down the mountain like a landslide. Their target was clearly us or the main subjugation force.

*Tch.*

But they were no match for us. That was common sense, that was reality.

“Watch how your older brother does it.”

*Wooong…!*

My body’s mana began to stretch, responding to my will.

And.

“My basic attack is my ultimate skill.”

“Y-yeah? What kind of nonsense is….”

“B-basic? Is there even a skill name like that?”

Ignoring the two mages’ screams, I threw myself towards the enemies.

*Zzzzzt!*