Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Although Delphus was utterly shocked, he was at least a Ninth Ring who’d climbed up on his own, so while his counterattack was weak and harmless, his defenses were actually quite solid.

Aislin’s chain of attacks only managed to leave a few blade‑like cuts on his face... which were then quickly filled in by wriggling muscles.

”Tsk~” The one who’d struck, Aislin, actually looked rather annoyed instead.

Hill couldn’t help nodding slightly.

Delphus surviving to this day isn’t just because he’s shameless and vicious; his brain works well enough too.

He knows very clearly that he can’t afford not to resist, but he also can’t afford to resist too much... and you can’t really blame him for still harboring a sliver of hope about Sia Tower.

After all, even though the story of the frog at the bottom of the well is made up, the moral isn’t wrong.

People who fundamentally don’t understand what Devils really are will always cling to wishful thinking.

If not, his counterattack wouldn’t be this soft and feeble.

Although Delphus doesn’t dare use the Order Jewel in his hand right now, that’s just his trump card, not his everyday weapon.

There’s no Mage who doesn’t prepare offensive Strange Objects for themselves; after all, even if there’s no limitation of Magic Slots, Mana still has a limit.

The stronger the Mage, the more Strange Objects they have around them... not letting your opponent judge your Mana consumption is extremely important.

But he didn’t use his powerful Strange Objects—partly because he didn’t want to seriously clash with the one calling herself Glaysia, Aislin, at this moment, and partly because he wanted to deliberately show weakness in front of the powerhouses on both sides.

He’s probably still clinging to a final sliver of hope, counting on those two to start fighting each other, and then just let him go like he’s nothing.

Hill made no comment on this little scheme of his, but he did quite appreciate another move of his... deliberately using the bit of energy inside his body in public to repair his damaged face.

Anyone who knows how they’ve been getting along lately would understand why Aislin swung that whip at his face.

She just can’t stand Delphus’s ugly mug.

Delphus latched onto this thought of Aislin’s and simply made himself even uglier and more twisted right in front of everybody.

In truth, he obviously cares a lot about this himself; otherwise back on the Airship, he wouldn’t have spent the whole time lying on the sofa with his back turned.

But at the life‑and‑death moment, Delphus did not hesitate to weaponize the side of himself he least wanted to face... his character may be lousy, but you can’t say he’s incompetent.

Hill glanced at him again and lightly waved his hand.

Delphus’s thinking was sound enough; unfortunately, he’s the one who understands the current situation the least.

So Hill wasn’t surprised at all to see him shout ”What? Who?” and then clutch his half‑healed face, which had suddenly stopped regenerating, and howl loudly.

Meanwhile, Aislin, who had been a bit hesitant and honestly too disgusted to make a move, paused for a few seconds, then decisively drew her whip.

This time, she didn’t even spare those few attendants of Delphus.

Hill pressed his fingers to his forehead... that Silvermoon is still quite principled when exerting her strength... only the Black Whips aimed at Delphus have that faint silver‑blue glow.

But come on, you’re already working with Devils—and not just any Devils, but the ones who’ll flay you, tear out your sinews, grind your bones and scoop your heart—what exactly are those principles supposed to be?

Hill has always felt that Silvermoon in this world absolutely isn’t humanoid... Deities whose Innate form is an animal or even an insect aren’t unheard of.

They may be powerful, but they’re prone to making utterly inexplicable decisions because they act too impulsively.

Like that world‑ending serpent that once appeared in Chult on Toril.

He had also once been a World Master, yet in the end he chose to devour every luminous existence in his world simply because he disliked seeing light... the Sun and moon were the first to go.

And that world isn’t like Toril; it wasn’t a world that Innately only had faint glimmers.

Anyone can imagine what happens to a world that suddenly loses all light... the only reason it didn’t instantly wink out of existence was that the serpent kept it bound with his body.

But his efforts were pretty much pointless; in his world, any planet that had life was struggling to find light.

When the serpent discovered there were still people trying to create light sources, he simply swallowed the entire world into his belly.

And so he directly became a powerful Wild God that no world ever wanted to lay eyes on.

The serpent Dandell was actually truly formidable... if he hadn’t been trapped in the shadow world for so many years and suffered severe energy depletion, there’s no way Heim could have killed him with a mutual‑destruction tactic.

This is the biggest flaw of animal‑type Deities: they put their own preferences first.

They absolutely refuse to allow the needs of the living beings in their world—like needing space to survive—to even slightly impinge on those preferences... it doesn’t even have to touch their actual life; if it just annoys them to look at, that’s unacceptable.

Hill now can only hope that the Silvermoon of this world is in the same sort of situation as Dandell.

Otherwise he truly cannot understand... Delphus is the more evil half of that twin consciousness! Even he is merely emotionally indifferent and ruthlessly disposed, not actually brainless.

As for Delphus’s fate, there’s no need to watch further... the moment Aislin chose to strike at him while that Dawn Believer clearly intended to just sit back and watch, it was already sealed.

Delphus being able to struggle on this long by sacrificing his own Strange Objects already proves he’s actually pretty damn strong.

He didn’t let that ”Dawn Fruit” go to waste.

Though Delphus has committed countless sins and really does deserve a thousand deaths, Hill still doesn’t want to watch him die... living worse than an NPC, that’s the cruelest possible torture of human nature.

He lowered his head slightly and gently flipped through some blueprints on the table with his long, slender fingers.

”Hm?” the Dawn Messenger suddenly asked in surprise, ”You came out...”

”Teacher!” Carpenter’s shout was razor sharp, his emotions clearly a bit out of control, ”Someone came out! It’s the one Delphus has been glaring at this whole time!”

Hill raised his head in surprise, watching on the giant screen as that Male Mage in a silver-gray robe, dressed prim and restrained, walked step by step out of the stronghold.

”Delphus, I’m sorry. A lot of things, I only learned afterwards.” He spoke with a very serious face. ”Even though all of this was a necessary sacrifice, still, to you... to your family...”

Sounds nice enough. If he weren’t watching the Dawn Believers out of the corner of his eye, and if he hadn’t been staying right next to that person who could reach him with a wave of the hand, some people might actually believe he felt any real guilt toward Delphus over his family’s actions.

Very clearly, that Dawn Believer, though he ultimately helped them complete that plan, did so only because ”things have come to this, there’s no point wasting it,” and not because he genuinely felt they had acted decisively or shown capability.

Well, Lansendel’s people have always been the most fiercely protective of their own.

Even though they’ll screw their own people too, it’s usually the kind where they drag themselves down together.

So this Dawn Messenger inevitably showed his displeasure, even contempt, for behavior like theirs.

So this bastard came out to take a stance?

To exploit Delphus’s death?

Is he insane?

Hill sometimes truly can’t understand what the hell humans even are... That guy can live in a camp personally overseen by the Dawn Messenger, so at worst he should be Neutral.

And a Neutral who doesn’t dare do anything truly nasty.

Yet at this moment, the disgust he gives Hill far surpasses Delphus’s vicious evil.

Hill can also figure it out: that silver-gray robe must know the other will within Delphus’s Soul will be rescued by the Dawn Messenger... so all this pain and humiliation is borne only by this ”worthless” will of Delphus.

And the one being saved is still Delphus, isn’t it?

So he simply doesn’t treat this Delphus’s will as a person at all, even forgetting that if not for them, Delphus would never have become what he is today.

Maybe he would still commit countless crimes, but at least that would be something he himself chose.

It’s honestly, profoundly disgusting.

Behind him, Russell and Carpenter, who know the truth, clearly can’t bear it either... Carpenter even can’t help retching twice.

”Heh heh~ heh heh~” Under the chaotic radiance, the bent-over Delphus let out a strange laugh.

Even though inside his Soul the other will is still fighting him for control, leaving him unable to focus his Spirit to cast his most powerful Spell; even though his head feels like it’s splitting and his voice has gone hoarse, Delphus still forces himself to look at the silver-gray robe.

”You... you shameless bastards, how dare you even come out here?” Delphus asked, laughing in a voice that was half groan. ”Looking down on me, is that it?”

Then, without the slightest hesitation, he Detonated the ”Order Jewel” in his hand... on himself.

Even if the other will is the actual master of this ”Order Jewel”, Delphus shares the same Soul with him!

Earlier he couldn’t bring himself to do it because he didn’t want to die.

But now, Delphus has something he wants even more.

”Aislin” stumbled back in panic, even severing her connection with the Black Whip at all costs, despite the considerable energy loss.

The long, silver-blue moonlight became especially conspicuous as the Black Whip snapped, bit by bit turning to ash.

”Hurry up and throw it away! I’m not ready to die with you yet!” Aislin’s shrill screech was also very clear to Hill’s ears.

But his eyes had no time to pay attention to Aislin and the Goddess of the Silvermoon’s frantic confusion.

The roaring Fire engulfing Delphus’s body had already shifted from bright red to orange-red, even faintly approaching a Rose hue... he was feeding the Fire with his own Soul.

Then that mass of Fire, without a shred of hesitation, charged straight toward the Rose-colored Aura sheltering the camp overhead.

”Damn it!” The silver-gray robe quickly understood that he was right in the path that Fire had to take, and immediately tried to flee.

He ran back to the camp edge at his fastest speed, only to be blocked by that thick, semi-transparent barrier.

”I said earlier, the reason this barrier is so strong is that it only lets people out, not in.” The Dawn Messenger’s voice sounded lazily behind him.