The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 44

The group battle had reached its peak before we realized it.
Boom!
We defeated the seventh Apostle.

Seron and I took charge of the frontline, while Card and Grantoni supported us from the rear.
Thanks to our combined efforts, we managed to bring down the seventh Apostle after a hard-fought struggle.

“Huff, huff.”
Beside me, Seron was panting heavily.

The intense battle with the Apostle had left her in a battered state.
If Grantoni hadn’t mended her wounds with necromancy, she would have been forced to retire long ago.
Yet, considering her original capabilities, she had exceeded expectations.

Seron’s skill level was mid-to-upper tier.
For someone like her to fight all the way to the seventh Apostle was entirely due to her sheer determination.

Even I, with my high stamina, was out of breath.
Seron, needless to say, was struggling even more.

Tick-tock—
In that moment, I heard the sound of time passing.
The clock mounted on the ceiling now read 25 minutes.

It had taken us over 25 minutes to defeat the seventh Apostle.
Iris’s team, on the other hand, had taken only 31 minutes and 21 seconds to defeat their Apostles.

In essence, if we couldn’t take down the remaining three Apostles in six minutes, there was no chance of taking first place.

“Seron, can you hold on?”
“Huff, huff… who do you think you’re calling weak?”

Seron gritted her teeth, gripping her dual axes tightly in her hands.
Her determination to continue was evident.

“Six minutes left to take first place.”

Seron bit her lip hard.
We had fought desperately to close the gap, but the difference between us and Iris’s team was far too large.

It had taken 25 minutes just to bring down the seventh Apostle.
The next Apostle would be stronger, and the one after that even stronger.
The final Apostle, even for Iris’s team, had taken 10 minutes to defeat.

Despite this, Seron didn’t loosen her grip on her axes.

“Tch, more than enough!”
She scoffed, showing her unyielding spirit.

Seeing this, I couldn’t help but curl my lips into a smile.
“That’s the spirit. Well said.”

We had fought relentlessly to defeat the Apostles as quickly as possible.
Now, it was time to reap the rewards of that effort.

“It’s enough.”

Boom!
As soon as I finished speaking, a massive coffin fell from the sky.

Screeech—
The coffin’s lid creaked open, and an Apostle in a formal suit emerged, hands folded over its chest.

Its face was shrouded in darkness, but its long fangs gleamed from the only visible mouth.

The eighth Apostle.
A vampire.

A ferocious aura flowed from the Apostle, harshly brushing against Seron and me.
It was a suffocating killing intent that made the hairs on our skin stand on end.

But for me, there was no killing intent more welcome than this.
The previous battles had all been leading up to this moment.

The vampire opened its wide mouth and began to spread its wings.
If it managed to take to the skies, we’d be in serious trouble.

“Sharin.”

So—

“Yesss, it’s finally time~.”

I prepared a special move.
The staff spinning at the tip of Sharin’s fingers began to rotate in a smooth, circular motion.
The mana she had accumulated without casting a single spell until now started to visibly swirl.

“Wow.”
Even Card, another mage, gasped in amazement.
The sheer amount of mana emanating from Sharin was absurd.

“Nice and clean~.”

The surroundings began to be engulfed in a radiant white light.
The earrings dangling from Sharin’s ears swayed wildly under the immense energy.

And then—

“I’ll erase it.”
Sharin’s staff slashed downward.

—– ——- — !

All sound in the area was swallowed whole.
A blazing white light pierced through the vampire just as it was about to take flight.

The light was so intense that not only we, but even the spectators outside, had to shut their eyes.

BOOOOOM!

A delayed shockwave ripped through the space, shaking everything violently.
I barely managed to steady Seron, grabbing her by the back of her neck as she was about to tumble over.

What remained was a landscape bleached white.
Of course, not even a trace of the vampire—or its coffin—remained.

It was a stark reminder of how destructive Sharin Sazaris, the genius of arcane magic, could truly be.
If I had taken that spell head-on, there’d be no escaping a one-way ticket to the afterlife.

“Phew.”

Sharin blew lightly on the tip of her staff.
The eighth Apostle, the vampire, had tragically met its end mere moments after its dramatic appearance.

Including the time it took to show up, the vampire had lasted just 50 seconds.

“If you could do that, why didn’t you just use it from the start?!”
Seron, who had been stunned into silence, suddenly burst out in exasperation.

“That wouldn’t have won us first place.”
I helped Seron to her feet and glanced at Sharin.

The spell had drained a significant portion of Sharin’s mana.
Even for her, it took an extraordinary amount of power to obliterate an Apostle in one strike.

‘And besides’

Chi-i-i-i-iik—

Sharin’s staff disintegrated into powder right then and there.
With a slight frown of regret, she dusted off the remnants and pulled out a new staff from her waist.

Modern staffs simply couldn’t withstand Sharin’s overwhelming full-power output.
Because of this, she was constantly forced to wield less than her true potential.

‘A mage’s staff is like a launcher.’

No matter how many bullets you have, without a gun, you can’t fire them.
Likewise, without a staff, a mage faces numerous restrictions in unleashing their magic.

Sharin might possess the best bullets in the world, but modern staffs were incapable of fully unleashing her potential.

‘And these staffs are supposed to be top-of-the-line, too.’

Yet they still couldn’t handle her magic output and broke under the strain.

Because of this, Sharin’s maximum output magic was inherently limited by how many staffs she could afford to lose.
Technically, she could cast spells without destroying a staff, but doing so would mean she couldn’t take down the remaining Apostles in time.

“Grantoni.”

That’s why I assembled this party.

At my call, Grantoni’s skull flickered with an eerie, glowing light.

“It’s your turn.”

The sky split open.
From the gap emerged an Apostle, draped in translucent veils that fluttered in the air.
Beneath those veils were dozens of long arms, each wielding merciless weapons.
Within the folds of the veil, multiple eyes gleamed ominously.

The ninth Apostle.
Warden of the Underworld.
An Apostle that appears to claim the lives of the living.

The Warden exists halfway between the physical world and the world beyond.
Because of this, it is immune to physical attacks and highly resistant to magical ones.

To defeat the Warden of the Underworld, the key lies in divine magic.
Only blessings of the gods can harm it.

Iris’s team managed to defeat the Warden using their second-best divine magic specialist.
Even so, it took them a significant amount of time to bring it down.

As for us…
How will we fare?

“Ah.”
Seron finally realized why I had recruited Grantoni.
Just as she now understood, it had all been for this moment.

A humble mausoleum.
Grantoni, the Soul Conjurer.

For someone like him, who could traverse the world beyond,
An Apostle that lingered halfway between reality and the other side was the easiest prey imaginable.

Clack, clack!
Grantoni’s teeth clicked together, a sound of unrestrained delight.
At the same time, a gray world began to spread rapidly outward from beneath his feet.

Everything around us lost its vitality and color, fading into lifeless gray.
The grayness expanded further, engulfing even the Warden of the Underworld.

The otherworld.
Grantoni had pulled the Warden into his own backyard.

With his hands clasped together—

KAGAKAKAKAKANG!

Dozens of chains materialized in midair, wrapping tightly around the Warden.

Though immune to physical attacks,
The Warden couldn’t escape the chains and was completely bound.

Thud! Crash!
The Warden, visibly startled at its unexpected captivity, showed signs of confusion.
But it was too soon for it to panic.

Woooom!
The chains began to emit a brilliant blue light.
As they did, the Warden’s previously translucent body began to solidify.

“Heheheheh.”
Grantoni chuckled, his teeth clicking together as he laughed.

“This is my world.”

In the otherworld, Grantoni’s authority far surpassed that of the Warden.

The Warden belatedly started to struggle, but the chains only tightened their grip further.
It was impossible for the Warden to escape.

The chains had already latched onto the Warden’s very soul, binding it completely.

Grantoni flicked a finger that peeked out from his sleeve.

“Leave.”

CRASH!
Gray fragments shattered from the Warden’s body.

The Warden of the Underworld, tethered between the worlds, had been forcibly expelled.

As a result, the Warden of the Underworld was fully materialized into the real world, no longer tethered to the otherworld.
And what awaited the now-materialized Warden—
Was none other than Sharin’s magic.

Once again, a blinding white light exploded in the sky.
The Warden, previously resistant to magic due to its spectral nature, had lost that advantage upon materialization.
This meant its magical resistance reverted to a normal, manageable level.

BOOOOM!
Sharin’s magic, unleashed at full power with the sacrifice of a premium staff, tore through the space once again.
The Warden of the Underworld was ripped apart, shattered into countless fragments.

But this time, one strike wasn’t enough.
Sharin didn’t stop. She grabbed a fresh staff and followed up with repeated volleys of devastating spells.

Crash! Shatter!
Amid the fragments of broken veils, a tiny childlike figure that remained hidden was consumed in the white-hot light.
Even the Warden’s second life, its hidden trump card, was utterly eradicated.

“Phew…”
Sharin exhaled softly, letting the powdered remains of her disintegrated staff scatter from her hands.
Sweat glistened on her forehead.

To unleash maximum firepower three consecutive times, even for Sharin, was a tremendous drain on her mana.

“We’re… already at the tenth one?”
Seron, stunned and still recovering, hastily checked the time.

The Warden of the Underworld had been defeated in just 2 minutes.
The clock now read 28 minutes and 10 seconds.
That left only 3 minutes and 2 seconds to defeat the tenth Apostle.

“If you ask me, we’ve got plenty of time! Sharin’s magic can take care of it!”
“No. Sharin’s magic alone won’t be enough anymore.”

Despite Seron’s confident grin, I couldn’t agree.
It wouldn’t be that easy.

CRACK!
The ground beneath us shook violently and split apart.

Card swiftly used shadow magic to lift us off the crumbling floor, preventing us from falling into the widening chasm.
From within the fissure, a being began to emerge.

A long, slender form, topped not with a head but adorned with clusters of feathers.
Its small, glowing, palm-sized body radiated phosphorescent light.

This Apostle had been a challenge even for Iris, the most formidable combatant in martial arts, and even with blessings granted by the divine magic specialist,
it had still taken them 10 minutes to bring it down.

The Tenth Apostle.
The Thunderbird.

It had appeared.