What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 623

#623

Liberation (2)

Following that, the Hand of the Sacred Object came crashing down!

-Kwakwakwakwa!

“Kids, get over here! Be careful!”

-Kkyaaaa!

Amidst the ear-splitting roar, I hugged the Lesser Pandas and dashed towards the center of the temple.

Decorations and furniture shattered by the impact, sharp fragments grazing my cheek.

The broken pieces of planks falling from the ceiling all bore the symbol of the Church of the Main God—the downward arrow pattern.

‘Prince Yeser!’ A man with a startled expression rapidly approached.

I quickly grabbed his wrist, placed him on an intact pew nearby, and protected him by surrounding him with several tables.

I took Tete from Ms. Gain, kissed her repeatedly, and soothed her.

Meanwhile, Lady Elisabeth seated Shu-nim on the floor.

Marquis François urgently deployed a defensive magic formula, and the Crown Prince drew two sharp daggers instead of his broken white sword.

Stilettos, a common weapon in this feudal state.

-Kugugugu…!

“Move further inside, Princess!”

“Yes!”

At the Vice Commander’s shout, Princess Christel quickly crawled over.

Clang, clang! The sound of shattering was deafening.

I thought the Duke Evlyns’ fight had destroyed almost everything, but it seemed there were still things left to break.

The building, shaking up and down, felt like it would collapse at any moment, filling me with dread.

Hiding the children, I abruptly turned to look at Christel. Blood was streaming from her palm.

“Princess, I will heal you. You’re injured.”

“Yes? Ah, thank you.”

She blinked and held out her hands to me.

Calmly taking them, I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

Though the ground beneath me trembled incessantly, I clenched my teeth, trying to remain composed.

It’s okay. The ceiling won’t collapse like this.

The temple was meticulously designed and built by the best artisans of the era. So, it will definitely be okay.

-Saaaa…!

And the moment I opened my eyes and deployed the healing circle,

-Kwaaaang!

“Uwaaa!”

“Oh, merciful Valery the Great!”

A terrifying impact, as if it were the final blow, pierced through the temple.

Simultaneously, the beams across the ceiling began to crack with a dreadful sound: crack, crack, crack!

Christel and I looked up at the same time, our faces paling.

Even in the worst-case scenario, I tried not to imagine anything worse.

I didn’t want to despair if I could help it—

-Jeojeojeok!

The Sacred Object, enraged by the destruction of the temple, was finally trying to punish the intruders by smashing through this place.

A large piece of the ceiling crumbled like a biscuit.

A sensation like thorns running down my spine made my heart plummet.

-Kwareureureung…!

“Uhhh…!”

“Shu-nim! Duck your head!”

I shouted at the top of my lungs, hugged the children, and curled up into a ball.

Christel’s red blood stained my clothes.

The sight of Tete embracing the trembling Lea was vividly etched beneath my eyelids.

A chilling premonition ran from the back of my head to the depths of my mind. And—

-Uuuuung!

-Huddeuk, huddeukhuddeuk…!

…Huh? My eyes flickered open again.

Realizing that the back of my head and the crown of my head were intact, I quickly raised my head.

The collapsing marble and beams were, unbelievably, suspended in mid-air.

Stunned, I could clearly see even the stone dust and sawdust that hadn’t reached us.

A translucent dome was firmly enveloping the group.

Only then did the blood begin to return to my pale fingertips. From behind, a refreshing voice rang out as always.

“I can hold out for a while. Don’t worry and look for a way to escape.”

“…Sir Johan! Thank you!”

“Ah, seriously, that was amazing. For a moment, I forgot about Teacher’s existence and thought I was just going to die!”

I know, right! Relieved, Ms. Gain and I simultaneously collapsed backward.

No, I wanted to, but there wasn’t enough space, so we just leaned against each other.

Demi, overly excited—it seems my child enjoys thrills a bit too much—bounced on my thigh, puffing out air.

If Hyung saw this, he would scold me for forgetting there was a Cardinal [high-ranking priest] in my group, but I couldn’t help it that my vision narrowed in that desperate moment.

I straightened myself, confirmed that the Prince and Shu-nim were safe, and then took Christel’s hand.

Thankfully, she seemed fine except for her frightened expression. Once again, blue aether particles slowly flowed out.

-Saaaaaa…!

“I, I will heal the wounds. It’s one of the things I’m good at, so you can trust me with it.”

“…Until now, I just thought it was similar, but hearing it like this, you really do have the exact same voice as the Prince. The name too.”

“…Something like that.”

She was looking around when she made that unexpected remark, so I vaguely nodded and averted my gaze.

I could feel her blue eyes observing me, but I diligently pretended not to notice.

-Tododeok, tuk…!

“…Oh my god.”

Soon, a gruesome scene came into view.

The temple we knew was completely gone.

The space where the group could gather and hold out had also drastically shrunk.

The apse [semicircular recess], including the altar, still had most of its structure intact, but over 90% of the nave [central part of a church] and aisles [passageways] had been swept away.

Beyond the ceiling, which had been split like a cookie, was not the sky but the Sacred Object, resembling rusted scrap metal.

The dark void, lacking the purple pisces [a pair of crescent shapes] and delicate wings, seemed more like a demon.

I felt like something terrible would happen if I kept looking at that darkness.

The main door and windows were naturally gone without a trace, and now, replacing them was an immense presence of…

-Kkigigigik, kkigigik…!

Claw legs. Moreover, they didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving us alone.

Main God, is this right?

“Isn’t that thing going to move again? What should we do? Should I sing a song?”

“Just a moment, Ms. Gain. Calm down.”

Let’s postpone the singing for a bit.

I released Christel’s cleanly healed hand and whispered to my friend.

The Princess seemed to want to ask me something more, but she was cut off by someone’s interruption.

“Speaking of which, I was actually curious about this too…”

“You.”

Flustered, I trembled and raised my eyes.

The Duke with the red eyes was standing, looking down at me.

Then, the Prince gently extended his arm, blocking my path.

Demi and Peri jumped down and prepared to pounce on the man!

-Kkya!

“I have no intention of killing.”

“Your Highness.”

“…I won’t intimidate you either, so stop that.”

He had a frighteningly calm face, a look I had seen countless times in the Liester military camp.

That was the look Cédric had when he suppressed all emotions and was only focused on reason and authority.

So, the man’s words were not a lie.

He clearly wanted to ask me a few things.

“Do you know anything about the current situation?”

“…This is also the first time we’ve encountered something like this, Your Highness. However, to be honest, we have awakened the sleeping Ark and greeted the true form.”

“…The Ark’s true form?”

“Yes. It’s completely different from its current appearance. Perhaps Duke, you have learned about it through imperial records or fairy tales. Also, considering that the Holy Knights are not detecting any special aether, the Ark is not currently awake. This is more like it sensed a sinner while in a dormant state…”

“Like an alarm spell. Or is it?”

Suddenly, Shu-nim interjected. I quickly nodded.

Then, Lady Elisabeth sighed.

“We had a bit of trouble because of Shu-sensei’s magic.”

“I’m sorry about that, young Mute Lady.”

“It’s a very simple yet clear magic formula. Do you have any intention of commercializing it?”

“No, Marquis. It’s too much greed for an old man like me.”

“As you all know, the temple is a place where, in principle, magic should not be used. These days, many mages don’t adhere to it, but originally, that is the etiquette towards the Main God. Moreover, violence in the temple… is absolutely forbidden, isn’t it.”

I glanced at the Crown Prince of this area and added.

He stared into the air for a moment, then looked down at me.

Well, of course, we were a group of rebels.

“Is it the fault of the Imperial Family?”

“You have decided not to hold lineage accountable for individual faults, Your Highness.”

“That’s right. I told you it’s a bad habit. It’s also true that Your Highness was the first to leave bruises on such a slender person!”

The Prince gently admonished, and Christel chimed in as if she had been waiting for it.

The man looked back and forth between the two of them and chuckled lowly.

It seemed to be a story only the three of them knew. After a moment, he spoke again.

“What is the solution?”

“Pardon?”

“The fact that you have awakened and met the true form means you know how to control the Sacred Object to some extent.”

Um…

“Is there an owner among you?”

He looked around at us and asked. Ms. Gain glanced at Sir Johan and quickly lowered her eyes.

Well, Master’s father is here.

“Hmm…”

Furthermore, I struggled not to recall a certain Holy Knight’s infamous lullaby.

I also decided to forget that she was already contemplating her song choice next to me.

“First of all, I remember that my aether was needed to awaken the Ark. But seeing that the healing aether I used a moment ago had no effect… it seems we’ve passed the stage where it can be appeased with that. Next is tone-deafness…”

“Tone-deafness?”

Christel blinked as if she had heard a word completely unrelated to her.

I didn’t know how to explain this, so I just moved my lips.

No, how do I explain that my friend’s father is tone-deaf, and the Sacred Object, who is my father’s friend, only prefers tone-deaf songs?

Would it be better to just say that the Ark originally only likes tone-deaf people?

I wasn’t friends with this Crown Prince, so there were more than a few things that bothered me.

If not—

-KwaKwaKwaang!

“Eek!”

-Awoo!

Just then, another intense explosion erupted from outside the claw legs.

The dome of air vibrated faintly before quickly settling down.

I quickly turned my gaze and looked through the gaps in the Sacred Object.

Hot flames flickered through the white, shining gaps.

Ah…!

“Your Highness!”

“…Receive this well, and don’t forget to eat it at every meal. Oh, and there’s also corn. If you grill and eat about ten of them, you’ll be full.”

“…”

Cédric Liester was merely staring intently at the white, slender fingers that repeatedly reached through the cracks in the Sacred Object.

Occasionally, Charlemagne—strictly speaking, it wasn’t his horse, but the creature seemed to recognize Cédric and was quite pleased—and other horses nudged his back with their noses as they passed by.

It was fortunate that the horses weren’t startled and didn’t run away, but other than that, everything was utterly unfortunate.

Especially what was happening before his eyes was close to a disaster.

“Did you pack everything?”

Through a gap narrower than half a span, gentle brown eyes were visible.

The Duke Evlyn nodded curtly.

“…Yes.”

His partner and the rest of the group had all been trapped by the curse of the Sacred Object.

Duchess Juliette was behaving quite calmly, but Cédric knew well that he was skilled at such pretense.

The current situation could not be described as hopeful, even with empty words.

The Ark did not release its grip no matter what they did, and rather, it gradually tightened its hold on everyone.

Johan Haines was a powerful Cardinal, but the only problem was that he was not the Sacred Object.

The teacher had already been defeated once by Stubborn de Liester.