Survival Story of a Sword King in a Fantasy World

Invasion (3)

One of the Four Prohibited Areas, the floating island, Avalta.

There was a maritime city about 10 kilometers west of it in the middle of the sea.

It was a place with a decisive difference from other cities on the continent.

It was floating on the sea.

Avalta was the land on the sky above the Mediterranean Metis.

People couldn’t get in and out of it as they would in other cities. They could only access it by flying up, and to do so, the help of those who were good at it was necessary.

Magic Swordsmen were the best in that regard, but their skills were individually focused. They couldn’t take a lot of people with them.

Therefore, the Hunters that wanted to attack Avalta first boarded a ship, invited a Mage to levitate them up from the bottom of the floating island, and finally entered the forbidden area. Their ship would remain anchored in the sea under Avalta.

Over the years, the number of Hunters entering and leaving the islands had increased.

The number of ships anchored near Avalta also did.

Hence, the captains thought.

‘Wouldn’t it be safer to join hands with others than be alone on the sea?’

‘Wouldn’t it be safer to tie chains to all the ships as a precaution?’

‘Wouldn’t it more convenient to make it easier to get in and out of each other’s boats when tied up?’

The gathered ships began to band together one by one.

Once they joined forces, the process became smoother.

Due to the influence of the floating island, there was no storm and treacherous waves near it. The weather was never dangerous enough for a ship to capsize.

Of course, there was someone on Earth who tied up all the fleets like that and blew them away by fire, but they didn’t have to worry about that either.

Unlike on Earth, in Latna, fires were easily extinguished by magic or spiritual arts.

It became some sort of base camp for those who wanted to target Avalta.

The number of vessels grouped together increased.

Among them were also large ships that had to be docked. Most of them were old and impossible to navigate, but the aging vessels were sufficiently capable of floating.

Since large ships were grouped, space increased considerably.

The scaffoldings between the ships were turned into plots, and houses and towers were built on them.

It had been more than 100 years…

Starting with a few anchored ships, it quickly turned into a large maritime city with thousands of connected vessels.

They named it Ser Avalta, a forbidden city managed by the Mage Guild Sinkers to support the wealth of the Mado Kingdom.

* * *

At the Governor-General’s residence in Ser Avalta, A servant opened a door, seemingly mesmerized.

“Governor-General! Governor-General!”

“Why are you making a fuss again?”

Boreltas frowned. She was a middle-aged woman in her 50s, a senior Sinkers Mage, and the city’s general manager.

“Didn’t I tell you to keep your cool unless the sky is collapsing or the ground is sinking?”

The sky couldn’t just be taken down easily, and they were in the middle of the sea, so the ground didn’t descend.

The servant pointed out the window and shouted, “The sky is collapsing!”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

She shifted her gaze to where the servant was pointing and soon found herself in disbelief.

It wasn’t bullshit.

The atmosphere was howling. The clouds were being torn apart.

The floating island, located at an altitude of 1,000 meters, went through it.

One of the Four Prohibited Areas, Avalta, was falling.

“…”

Boreltas couldn’t say anything. She couldn’t even breathe properly.

What would happen when that huge piece of land fell into the sea?

The meteor-like descent dug into the surface of the water and accepted it as a part of it.

Boom!

The waters soared up, creating a liquid wall of immense height that seemed to reach the clouds.

A gigantic wave hit Ser Avalta.

No matter how big the maritime city was, it was just a leaf before it.

The entire city was overturned, smashed, and destroyed.

Tens of thousands of people sank into the waters.

It was a terrible catastrophe.

But human life was persistent.

Somehow, survivors appeared one by one on the surface.

As it was a city near one of the highest-level Dungeons, there were many high-level Hunters and Mages around.

“Save the commoners first!”

They didn’t have time for that, however.

Avalta, the huge island, was no longer floating.

Hence, countless monsters poured out of it.

They swarmed through the sea and burst into a roar with murderous energy.

Grrrr!

An angel was watching the scene from above.

“Glory to heaven, peace to the earth.”

He was an apostle of Omphalos, Pecrelum of Water.

He looked at the monsters on the waters, and his wings shook, seemingly touched by the scene.

“Ah, the grace of our Lord is full of glory!”

* * *

One of the Four Prohibited Areas in the west, Ice-Flame Forest.

Hithran’s flames had been extinguished, and its ice melted.

The frozen forest became a normal one, and black ash flew into the city.

Incinerating and gelid monsters moved out of their territories.

They headed to the outside world, guided by countless angels flying in the sky.

Serhithran, a once vibrant city filled with tens of thousands of people, became a hell of burned and frozen bodies.

“Praise…”

Walking through hell, Megisto of Fire, an apostle of the Devil, smiled joyously.

“The new owner of this world.”

* * *

One of the Four Prohibited Areas in the north, Tower Mountain Rufus.

Thousands of towers that had formed a long-existing mountain range collapsed in unison, creating an awful lot of rubble that formed a group of mountains.

If some time went by and a forest grew over it, newer generations might consider it a normal mountain range.

“Fortunately, your descendants will not be allowed to exist.

Neacelli of the Wind put his hands together.

“Thank you, my Lord.”

He then prayed as he looked at Ser Rufus, the forbidden city swept away by escaped monsters.

“We saved them before it was too late.”

* * *

One of the Four Prohibited Areas in the east, the first and most dangerous Dungeon.

There were huge holes throughout the vast land where the Grand Maze Kaltan was located.

Grrrr…

Grrrr!

The Hunters of Serkaltan fought valiantly against the Alien monsters that filled the skies and the lands with great ruination.

Those gathered to attack the most powerful Dungeon in Latna were certainly Latna’s best hunters. They succeeded in defending the city to some extent initially.

However, their beautiful resistance became meaningless after a huge group of angels appeared from the heavens.

“Pick them up.”

Ectos of Earth delivered a command with a cold smile.

“Pick them up and take them.”

Serkaltan’s Hunters died helplessly before their offensive.

“Argh!”

“Argh!”

They were certainly strong, but they were only Hunters in the end.

Oddly enough, people tended to value Hunters who had wandered freely more than knights and Templars belonging to a state or denomination.

Well, they were certainly higher in terms of fame.

Few people recognized the best knights of the Three Continental Powers, but the name of the Hunters that closed powerful Dungeons was widely spread.

However, it wasn’t well known that most high-level Hunters’ ultimate goal was to be named and invited to join the Three Continental Powers.

Was the existence of the Sword King Baotolt the problem?

Since he reigned alone and dedicated his life to swordsmanship, the public thought ignoring nations and the Churches was something other Hunters did as well.

However, the reality was that no matter how confident the Hunters of Serkaltan were, they were a step below the regular knights of the Three Continental Powers, whom the angels of the Devil slaughtered.

Hence, they could do nothing.

Their brothers and sisters died in vain as they tried to escape.

Again, the angels did not chase away those who fled. They just fluttered gracefully and sang a beautiful ode.

“Praise and worship,”

“Bow and pray,”

“To the true owner of this world.”

“The power of Omphalos hung over this Earth!”

* * *

Looking at the screen of light, the woman, once Latna’s strongest Mage, asked.

“… Do we have to do that?”

Looking back, Omphalos replied with a question of his own.

“What do you mean?”

“The apostles and the angels’ praise for you.”

What was strange about creatures glorifying their Creator?

“Can I be honest with you?”

“Sure.”

“All I can think of is that their pitch is completely off the mark. I’m embarrassed to watch it.”

Finishing her sentence, Genovia felt aghast.

Her soul was under his possession. It was not wise to venture against the owner here.

Omphalos’s response was unexpected.

“Finally, someone who feels ashamed of that! Oh, I’m glad for some reason.”

He shook his head and muttered, “Oh, the kids learned the wrong thing on Earth. Tsk.”

Upon reading some of that world’s popular religious scriptures, they became strange.

Omphalos himself didn’t seem to like their attitude very much.

Genovia found that weird.

“If you don’t like it, why don’t you tell them not to do that?”

“I did.”

Feeling as if he was treated unfairly, Omphalos pointed to the screen.

“That’s the result.”

He stopped them from doing it before.

Then they found another way to glorify the Devil more shamefully.

So he stopped them again.

Then they began to praise the Devil in an even worse manner.

It was a yo-yo phenomenon revolving around worshipping him.

“That’s why I gave up. If I told them not to serve me at all, they would try to stop, but they can’t, can they?”

“Isn’t it a matter of teaching them how to serve you right?”

“I don’t know.”

Genovia was dumbfounded.

‘You don’t know? Does that concept suit a god?’

“Weren’t gods almighty?”

Omphalos looked up and down at Genovia curiously.

“You still have enough free will left to question me after becoming an apostle?”

He nodded afterward, seemingly convinced.

“As expected, it’s better to steal other people’s masterpieces than to make them myself. Well, that’s the nature of the Kaldera people.”

Staring at Genovia, the Devil grinned.

“You think gods are omnipotent, right?”

The truth was, gods didn’t know everything and couldn’t do everything.

“But mortals are so ignorant and incompetent. It’s a relative assessment.”

The limits of a god’s power were clear, and there were times when they couldn’t do more than mortals.

“In fact, in terms of magic, you know more than I do.”

“Well, that’s…”

Genovia stammered.

“Gods aren’t immortal or omnipotent.”

Omphalos straightened his back.

“Just gods live as long as they needed, gains what they need to gain, and know what they need to know.”

She thought about his words.

‘You can get whatever you need?’

In a sense, that was omnipotence.

“Do you want your apostles to be foolish?”

“Why would I want that?”

“Then why?”

‘If you can get what you want and know how to do it, why don’t you do it?’

At Genovia’s question, Omphalos casually pointed to the screen of light.

“That’s what I’m doing right now.”