Chapter 129: The Constellations

The sky was dark, even though the sun continued to shine above. Its light barely reached the ground, as if an invisible veil had been stretched across the heavens and was swallowing the sunlight before it could touch the earth.

The soil below was darker than it should have been, almost black in certain places, with strange patches where something seemed to have mixed into it and stained the earth from within.

The ground had been trampled countless times, with footprints overlapping one another alongside broken weapons, shattered shields, and pools of blood that had already dried into the soil.

Smoke drifted across the battlefield, carrying the smell of burning wood, metal, and something rotten that refused to disappear. Every breath carried the remnants of the war, making it impossible to forget that countless people had already died upon this land.

Years had passed since the first conflict between the churches began. Countless lives had already been claimed by the different ideologies spreading throughout the world, as what had once been disagreements between followers of different gods eventually transformed into open warfare.

Kingdoms began choosing sides, churches began gathering armies, and entire populations were dragged into conflicts they had never asked for. The longer the war continued, the more difficult it became to even remember what had started it in the first place.

It all began when the Blood Demon Queen invaded the lands of the Selea Kingdom. Her massive army of zombie-like humans poured across the kingdom like an endless tide, tearing through settlements and killing thousands.

Villages were burned, roads were stained with blood, and those who survived were forced to flee toward the deeper regions of the kingdom. In response, the Selean Kingdom declared war, and other kingdoms soon joined them.

Since then, the armies of both sides had been attacking one another back and forth, neither managing to completely overwhelm the other. The war had become a stalemate, with every victory costing hundreds of lives and every defeat creating another reason for retaliation.

On the battlefield, a human suddenly looked toward the sky. His eyes widened as a familiar figure pierced through the clouds above, descending toward the battlefield with tremendous speed.

"The Sword Magician is here!!"

His voice immediately rose above the chaos, and his expression lit up as though someone had just handed him victory itself. "We’re saved!"

He immediately turned and began running toward the others. Hundreds of individuals noticed his reaction and followed, their exhaustion temporarily forgotten as hope spread through the battlefield.

"The Sword Magician is here!"

"Quick! Follow the Sword Magician!"

Warriors who had been barely standing moments ago suddenly found enough strength to run. Others raised their weapons toward the sky, shouting with excitement as the appearance of a single individual completely changed their morale.

They ran for several minutes before finally catching another glimpse of the Sword Magician. However, the excitement that had filled their faces disappeared almost instantly.

Two figures were fighting above them.

They moved through the sky at speeds that the soldiers below could barely follow, appearing as nothing more than blurs before suddenly colliding in midair. Every impact produced an explosion that spread through the clouds, while countless magical attacks flew between them and illuminated the darkened sky.

One figure swung a sword while the other raised an arm to defend himself. A massive wave of energy collided between them, causing the clouds to split apart for hundreds of meters before the resulting shockwave swept across the battlefield below.

Dust and debris were thrown into the air as soldiers struggled to remain standing. Some were forced to shield their faces while others desperately grabbed onto nearby objects to avoid being blown away.

The sky flashed repeatedly.

Fire, lightning, blades, and magical energy erupted above them, turning the heavens into a battlefield of its own. Every time the two figures collided, another explosion shook the earth, and every time they separated, another attack was already being prepared.

The man who had been celebrating moments ago stared upward in disbelief. His face slowly lost its color as he realized what he was seeing.

"FUCK!"

He clenched his fists. "One of the Constellations is here too!"

The man standing beside him clicked his tongue, his eyes remaining fixed upon the battle above. "Just when we thought victory was within our grasp."

There were the twelve Constellations.

They stood at the very top of the world’s hierarchy, a title given to individuals who had displayed such enormous power that their appearance alone could change the outcome of a battlefield. If one of them appeared as an enemy, it was rarely considered a battle anymore.

It was considered a catastrophe.

They were not called Constellations because they shone brightly like stars. The name came from something far more peculiar.

The twelve were infamous for hating one another to the bone. Their conflicts had become so frequent that people joked that if their positions were marked across the world and connected together, they would resemble an actual constellation in the night sky.

The soldiers below knew exactly what that meant.

If a Constellation appeared, ordinary warriors were no longer participants in the battle. They were simply obstacles standing in the way of beings who could decide the fate of an entire battlefield with a handful of attacks.

The man slowly tightened his grip around the hilt of his staff. Across the battlefield, the enemies who had been preparing to charge were doing the exact same thing.

Both sides had suddenly stopped attacking, their attention completely focused on the two monsters fighting above them. There was no reason to continue fighting when a single stray attack could erase them from existence.

If one of those attacks reached them, they would die before they could even react. Their purpose as ordinary soldiers was merely to delay the enemy for a few seconds, not to stand against beings capable of destroying entire formations with a single attack.

Then someone shouted from below.

"GO, SWORD MAGICIAN!"

Another voice immediately followed.

"KILL THAT MAN! LAPACE THE OVERPROUD!"

Soon, the battlefield erupted with shouting. Warriors from both sides began cheering for their respective Constellations, completely abandoning their previous attempts to fight one another.

"GO, SWORD MAGICIAN!"

"DESTROY HIM!"

"DON’T LET LAPACE WIN!"

Instead of fighting a physical battle, the soldiers had somehow turned into spectators. Hundreds of warriors stood beneath the battlefield, shouting and cheering for their respective Constellations as though they were watching some kind of grand tournament.

Some raised their weapons into the air, while others screamed insults toward the opposing side. For a moment, they looked less like refined warriors and more like an enormous group of cheering spectators.

Above them, the real battle continued.

One attack followed another.

The Sword Magician swung his blade, releasing a massive arc of energy that tore through the sky. Lapace moved aside at the last moment, causing the attack to miss him completely.

The energy continued downward.

BOOM!

It struck the ground.

The earth shattered beneath the impact, creating a massive crater in the middle of the battlefield. Dozens of soldiers who had been unable to escape were swallowed by the destruction, their bodies disappearing beneath the collapsing earth.

Lapace immediately retaliated.

A destructive blast descended toward the Sword Magician, but the Sword Magician twisted his body and dodged it as well. The attack continued downward and struck another section of the battlefield, throwing soldiers into the air and turning the surrounding ground into a burning wasteland.

The Constellations did not care who they hit.

They only cared about defeating the person standing before them.

"DODGE THEM!" an experienced druid warrior suddenly shouted. His voice desperately cut through the cheering and explosions as he looked toward the sky.

"IF YOU CAN’T DODGE, THEN HIDE!"

The warriors around him finally looked toward him. His expression had become increasingly serious as another attack began forming above them.

"THEY DON’T CARE WHO DIES!"