Chapter 121: Battle [1] – Paul’s Courage
Ghostly energy surged across the battlefield like a raging tide and dense green mist twisted and condensed into countless forms.
Some became beasts.
Like an ox with hollow eyes, a fox made entirely of ghostly smoke.
Wolves, serpents, birds, and other strange creatures emerged one after another.
Some didn’t even resemble living beings.
Boxes, broken weapons, shattered statues, pieces of armor.
And among them were humanoid figures carrying rusted weapons and wearing angry expressions.
The battlefield instantly became crowded.
[I will once again return to the world of the living!]
The monstrous Present roared as her voice shook the surroundings.
The countless creations immediately charged toward the group.
"We’ll do it like before! Me, Bonjour, and Jojo will handle the front!" Caelum raised his sword.
"The rest of you stop the underlings from reaching us!"
Without waiting for a response, the three of them rushed forward.
The Present slowly raised her hand and her nails elongated.
Then she swung them.
Multiple Aura-infused slashes tore through the air.
The attacks headed directly toward the three of them.
Caelum immediately intercepted the incoming blade waves.
His sword flashed repeatedly as he clashed against the Aura projectiles as each collision released a shockwave.
Meanwhile, Bonjour hurled his axe.
The weapon spun through the air with terrifying momentum.
Unfortunately, it missed the Present by a small margin and crashed into the ground behind her.
Boom!
The battlefield shook as a large crater instantly appeared.
At the same time, Jojo moved.
His body drifted through the air like a cloud, yet his speed was frightening.
Within moments, he arrived beneath the gigantic being.
He gathered power into his paw and struck upward.
However, the Present suddenly became ethereal.
Jojo’s attack passed through empty space as his expression changed.
Immediately rolling to the side, he narrowly avoided a giant foot descending from above.
Boom!
The ground exploded where he had been standing.
The Present didn’t stop there.
All ten of her nails suddenly transformed as their tips curved and edges sharpened.
In an instant, they became enormous scythes with long chains extended from each blade.
The scythes sliced through the air as they shot toward Caelum and Bonjour.
Meanwhile, the Present repeatedly tried to crush Jojo beneath her feet.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Caelum continuously deflected the incoming attacks.
The force behind each strike was immense.
Under normal circumstances, he should have been sent flying.
Yet his feet remained firmly planted on the ground.
Using both swordsmanship and footwork that he had gained from the Knight of Karthenheim’s memory, he redirected the attacks one after another.
Bonjour adopted a much simpler strategy.
Whenever a scythe approached him, he punched it as Arder poured out like waves swallowing the ground.
Boom!
Every collision released a deafening explosion.
Then, in the middle of the battle, Caelum suddenly shouted.
"Aren’t you much uglier than the Past and Future?!"
For a brief moment, the battlefield became silent and the scythes stopped moving.
Even the underlings seemed slower.
"..."
The Present also froze.
Then ghostly energy around her began fluctuating violently.
The green Aura coating the scythes deepened before transforming into a reddish-green color.
An overwhelming aura of slaughter erupted from them as the chains rattled violently and the scythes trembled.
The Present slowly turned her head toward Caelum.
A terrifying killing intent descended upon the battlefield and the surrounding temperature seemed to drop.
Caelum immediately realized he had made a mistake.
He had somehow provoked her way too far.
"...I-I am sorry, I probably shouldn’t have said that."
With the dignity of a cute child, he apologized, leaning a life’s lesson with this encounter.
Unfortunately, the killing intent intensified as Caelum’s expression stiffened.
The Present did not appear interested in accepting his apology.
The next moment, all ten scythes with Enhanced Aura shot toward him simultaneously.
***
As a non-combatant, this was easily the worst situation Paul had ever faced in his life.
’Damn it! Was I too greedy? I didn’t sign up for this! I don’t even have a job yet!’ he complained internally while grabbing Voomie and running around the battlefield.
Fortunately, he had reliable teammates.
Whenever a ghost got too close, someone would appear and deal with it.
So technically, his life wasn’t in immediate danger.
Still, Paul was terrified.
Most of the time, he was simply avoiding fights and somehow redirecting ghosts toward the others with Voomie’s assistance.
It was surprisingly effective.
Then he noticed something.
Though he didn’t say it out loud, his observational skills were second to none and he was confident in them.
There was a ghost.
An invisible ghost, which was silently approaching Skyler.
The reason Paul noticed it was because of the strange footprints appearing on the ground.
The ghost was constantly being pushed back by Skyler’s divine power, creating subtle disturbances that revealed its movement.
Paul narrowed his eyes as he noticed something else.
Several ghosts were unconsciously making way for it.
As if helping it reach its target and that target was clearly Skyler.
The distance continued shrinking but sometimes that ghost was pushed back by the divine powers.
Meanwhile, Skyler was still flooding the battlefield with divine power, completely unaware of the threat approaching from behind.
And if this continued for some time more, Paul was sure that Skyler could get hurt.
’Damn it! Do I really have to use my trump card?’ Paul bit his lip.
Immediately, a certain memory surfaced.
One of Caelum’s random midnight speeches.
Sometimes he would suddenly become philosophical for no reason while pretending to stroke a long white beard that didn’t exist.
Paul entered a flashback.
"Listen, Paul."
Caelum stood beneath the moonlight, that shined from their window as his hand stroked an imaginary white beard.
"You have a timid nature though that’s a problem too but, there may come a day when you face a trial that seems impossible to overcome... When that moment arrives, the choice will be yours."
His voice became deep and mysterious.
"Will you stand with your eyes open and stare directly into the face of impossibility? Or will you let it pass by like the unseen wind? Choose, Paul. CHOOSE!"
Caelum pointed dramatically toward the moon but silence followed.
Snore...
While snoring silently, Paul had already fallen asleep before the speech ended.
Even so, his ears somehow remembered those words.
Returning to reality, Paul opened his eyes as his expression became difficult.
Anxiety threatened to overwhelm him and his hands trembled.
Yet he still reached into his Private Badge removing his ultimate trump card.
A children’s jumping toy.
A simple T-shaped pogo jumper.
Except it had been modified personally by him to a great extent.
"What are you doing, woof?" Voomie asked suspiciously.
Paul swallowed as he made up his mind.
"Damn it! I’M DOING IT!"
Voomie immediately felt something bad was about to happen.
Paul positioned her behind his back.
"Grab my neck tightly."
Before she could refuse, Paul tapped the end of the jumper as his glasses flashed.
A red trajectory appeared before his eyes, a giant inverted U-shaped path.
Its endpoint landed directly on top of the invisible ghost.
Paul took multiple deep breath as his hands shook even harder.
The anxiety wasn’t disappearing.
To make matters worse, Voomie had already wrapped her paws around his neck so tightly that breathing was becoming difficult.
Paul stared at the battlefield as everything seemed to blur.
His heartbeat accelerated.
’I can do it...! I can do it! I CAN DO IT! LET’S GOOOOOO!’
His eyes flashed with madness.
For the first time in his seven years of life, Paul’s testosterone reached its absolute peak.
Then he started hopping.
Boing! Boing! Boing!
Faster, higher, harder.
The modified jumper creaked under the pressure.
Then, a random moment when Paul slammed it into the ground, his glasses flashed crimson.
BOOM!
A loud explosion erupted beneath him.
"WOOOF?! Nobody asked for my permission!" Voomie screamed.
The two were launched into the air like a missile.
Halfway through the flight, Voomie’s grip loosened.
"WOOOF—!"
She was thrown somewhere completely unrelated to the plan.
Paul didn’t notice it because at this point, he had transcended fear, anxiety and testosterone itself.
Or perhaps become too scared to think properly.
"YYYAAAAAAHHHHH—!"
He screamed while soaring through the sky.
At the peak of his flight, he detached both handles of the jumping toy.
Then he connected them together, creating a long pole-like structure.
Blue mana erupted from it and a protective shield formed around his body.
His final descent began.
Swish!
The wind roared around him.
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
Paul screamed with every ounce of courage he possessed before crashing downward seven feet behind Skyler.
Directly onto the invisible ghost.
BOOM!
The ground exploded and the invisible ghost was instantly smashed into the earth.
Unfortunately, Skyler was also caught in the shockwave.
"WAHHHHH—!"
The saint was launched through the air.
Paul didn’t care anymore.
He had already used every last bit of courage he possessed.
The moment he landed, his legs became weak, his throat felt dry and his soul felt exhausted.
But somehow, he had actually done it.
It was in this moment, Paul underwent a profound metamorphosis, casting off the last remnants of his timidity and unfurling the wings of courage that would carry him toward greatness!
His name was Paul Johnson!
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