Chapter 1547 - 219 - Sins Vs. Leon (9)
The Guardian finally shattered into countless fragments, and all of their weapons immediately came crashing through the space where its protection had been standing just moments ago.
Before any of those attacks could actually reach me, however, a massive explosion suddenly erupted between us without the slightest warning.
The violent blast threw everyone who had been charging at me several meters backward, and even the puddle of slime beneath my feet instantly melted away until nothing but scorched earth remained.
I quickly turned around to see where such a powerful explosion had come from, already having a rough idea of who it might be.
Someone had arrived to reinforce me.
"You told me I didn’t need to come because you said you could probably overwhelm them on your own," she said while crossing her arms. "Looking at you now, though, you aren’t exactly proving yourself right."
I couldn’t help letting out a tired little laugh despite everything that had just happened.
"Yeah... I guess I wasn’t doing nearly as well as I thought," I admitted with a shrug. "Still, thanks for showing up, Lucielle. That timing was honestly perfect."
The woman standing before me was Lucielle of Pride.
She was one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Her sudden appearance completely changed the atmosphere of the battlefield within only a few seconds.
The moment Satania recognized who had arrived, her eyes widened with unmistakable disbelief before immediately filling with rage.
"LUCIELLE!!!"
Her furious shout echoed across the battlefield loudly enough that it almost made the surrounding air vibrate from the sheer force behind it.
Lucielle calmly turned her attention toward Satania, and the relaxed expression she had worn only moments earlier completely disappeared from her face.
"Hello, Satania," she replied in a calm and composed voice, sounding almost as if they had simply run into each other by coincidence.
The atmosphere instantly became much heavier than it already had been.
A tense silence settled over everyone present before Satania spoke again.
"WHY?! WHY HAVE YOU BETRAYED US?!"
Satania looked far angrier than she had at any point during this battle so far. Calling her furious honestly didn’t feel like enough anymore because she looked like someone whose entire family had just been slaughtered right in front of her.
Lucielle, on the other hand, remained perfectly calm despite Satania’s obvious rage.
"From the very beginning, I have always been loyal to Mother," she answered without even the slightest hesitation. "The only reason I joined all of you in fighting her was because Mother herself ordered me to."
Silence spread across the battlefield for several long moments after those words left her mouth.
Satania slowly clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white from the sheer force she was putting into them.
"So you’ve been betraying us from the very beginning..." she growled through gritted teeth.
"I never intended to think of it as betrayal," Lucielle replied in the same calm voice as before. "Besides, if we’re truly going to discuss betrayal, then I believe you’re the one who bears far more responsibility."
Her words remained calm, but every single one of them struck with incredible weight.
"You were the very first person to betray Mother. After everything she gave us and everything she sacrificed for our sake, you abandoned her without hesitation and without even the smallest hint of remorse."
Lucielle never looked away from Satania while speaking.
"So naturally, I chose to remain loyal to Mother’s true wish."
She paused briefly before finishing her sentence.
"And that wish is her resurrection."
"I already told you," I interrupted before either of them could continue. "I’m not going to let Lilith resurrect, especially if the price is my own body."
Lucielle shifted her eyes toward me without changing her expression.
"You should stop holding onto that thought," she said calmly. "That future has already been decided. Fate has already chosen its path, and you won’t be able to stop it."
Trying to argue with her honestly felt completely pointless by now.
Any explanation I could possibly give would eventually circle back to exactly the same conclusion.
To Lucielle, I wasn’t Leon.
I was simply Lilith’s vessel in her eyes.
Nothing more than that in reality.
Nothing less than that either.
"How about we save this discussion for another time?" I said while letting out a quiet sigh that I couldn’t hold back anymore. "I’d appreciate it a lot more if you helped me deal with these guys first."
"The reason I came here was to preserve Mother’s body," Lucielle answered almost immediately. "Helping you was never the reason behind my decision."
I blinked for a brief second after hearing that.
She really did sound like a complete tsundere sometimes.
Maybe she actually was one.
Either way, now definitely wasn’t the right time to think about something so incredibly random.
"I’ll kill both of you!" Satania roared while glaring at us with bloodshot eyes that seemed ready to burst from pure anger.
The moment those words left her mouth, she exploded forward with unbelievable speed that almost blurred her figure from sight.
Belphegor stayed directly behind her exactly as before, following so closely that she practically looked glued to Satania’s back.
Seeing them rush toward me together, I immediately leaped backward to create as much distance as possible.
Once I had finally created enough room to breathe and reduce the overwhelming pressure of Satania’s attacks, I pushed off the ground with all my strength and charged straight back toward her.
Our attacks collided head-on without either of us showing even the slightest intention of backing down.
The impact alone created powerful shockwaves that spread across the battlefield in every direction.
While I remained occupied fighting Satania directly, Beelzebub and Asmodeus had already begun closing in from both sides without wasting even a second.
Meanwhile, Lucielle stepped forward and intercepted the remaining two before they could fully surround me.
The battle had now changed into six opponents against only two of us.
Calling something like this fair would honestly be one of the funniest jokes anyone could ever tell.
Still, compared to how hopeless everything had looked only moments earlier, this situation was at least manageable enough that we still had a chance.
Satania’s punches felt significantly heavier than before, and every single strike carried enough force to make my arms ache after blocking them.
It didn’t take me very long to realize exactly why that was happening.
Belphegor remained attached to Satania like a stubborn cicada refusing to leave a tree during summer, constantly pouring mana into her without stopping for even a second.
She continued reinforcing Satania’s already monstrous physical strength, making every punch hit even harder than the one before it.
Although I managed to block many of her attacks while slipping in strikes of my own whenever an opening appeared, I could already tell the situation was gradually becoming worse for me with every passing moment.
Fighting Satania alone was already difficult enough.
Beelzebub and Asmodeus kept attacking me from different directions at the same time, making sure I never had even a brief opportunity to catch my breath.
"Well," I said with a bitter smile that I couldn’t help showing, "I guess this really proves just how ridiculously difficult it is to fight all of you at once."
Thankfully, Lucielle managed to pull several of them away from me before the pressure became completely unbearable.
Having even one less enemy to worry about immediately made the fight feel far more manageable than before.
That alone gave me enough breathing room to continue fighting properly.
With all of that finally happening around us, phase two of the battle had officially begun.