Ch.1109The Beginning of the Blood War

Through the combined efforts of everyone gathered on the ground and in the air, each fighting valiantly in their own position, we finally reached striking distance of Invidius.

Close enough for my sword to tear through his flesh and sever his bones.

The distance I—we—had longed for so desperately.

Hovering slightly above Invidius’s head, I looked down at his grotesque cranium with a sneer.

“At this range, you can’t use those wide-area attacks anymore, can you?”

His primary means of attack were his space-devouring power, the black beams fired from his wings, and various high-level spells that consumed Dark Mana.

Though powerful enough to demolish fortresses with a single strike and wide in range, such strength made them awkward to use at close quarters like this.

If used carelessly, he might injure himself with their power.

“Or should we see who dies first in a proper duel?”

Of course, this mad evil god would gladly accept that risk, but I had nothing to lose.

I could simply block or dodge, but with his massive body, evading his own attacks wouldn’t be so easy.

He’d have no choice but to take the hits… Well, no matter how strong he was, could he withstand being struck by his own power that way?

If not, I could win.

“Let’s see how well that ridiculously huge body of yours holds up!”

That was as far as my mental calculations went. Gripping Durandal with both hands, I changed direction and plunged downward like a falling star.

My target: the bizarre head-like structure atop his neck, shaped like two hands spread toward the sky.

I wasn’t sure if it could truly be called a head, but… it was attached to his neck, so it must be.

【 There҈̢͉̳̍̒̌̈́̕ is no҉̛̱̥̗́̓̃͢ escape. 】

Within the slowly rotating halo of flesh, in the darkness of the void, Invidius’s floating eyeball spun around to glare at me.

– WHOOOOSH!

The next moment, the two hands forming Invidius’s head writhed violently.

Petroleum-black liquid oozed between the massive fingers covered with countless human torsos sprouting like scales.

The fingers contracted, expanded, and intertwined in complex, grotesque movements.

“Grooooah…”

The human torsos sprouting from those fingers also moaned faintly, extending their arms in all directions and wiggling their small fingers.

All these movements were hand signs for casting magic at high speed without incantations or tools.

【 Dark Root. Black Cannon. Void’s Embrace. Silent Thunder. Shadow Chains. Blade Prison. Call of the Abyss. Gravity Reversal. Thread of Weakness. Creeping Corrosion. Vengeful Ghoul. 】

All kinds of high-level magic unfurled like blooming flower petals.

“Tch…!”

My survival instinct screamed, warning of danger.

Heat surged through my body, carried by boiling blood to my brain, where it bleached away distracting thoughts and accelerated my thinking.

Defying Fate…!

Ah, I can’t use that. It’s been sealed.

Then I’ll have to respond without Defying Fate somehow.

With all my might—no, beyond that.

“KYAAAAH!”

The cross-shaped stigma in the center of my chest shone more intensely, expanding endlessly. It covered my entire body with light, completely permeating me.

Mimicry of Divine Flesh.

I infused divine power of stars and dawn into everything that made up my physical form—muscles, nerves, down to each cell—pushing my capabilities beyond their limits.

– CRRRRACK.

Muscles swelling with giant-like strength. Bones compressing with a cracking sound, becoming as solid as silver. Nerves accelerating like lightning.

Senses that blocked unnecessary information while amplifying what was needed. Intuition that read danger signs before they manifested.

Thus, I raised my power slightly beyond its limits to face his fierce attack.

– CRRRUNCH!

Hundreds of thorns spreading like tree roots, Dark Root.

“Kenaz!”

I wrapped myself in runic flames, melting them before they could touch me, and those thorns that penetrated the flames were blocked by my armor and the protection of the fire seal.

– SCRAAATCH!

The dragon scales covering the fur beneath my dress-like aurora cracked as the thorns scraped against them. None penetrated my flesh.

– KWOOOOOSH!

Black beams—Black Cannon—somewhat reduced in power but faster and more numerous.

“Hagalaz!”

I dispersed those coming from the front with my left hand, shattering them, while slicing through those targeting my back with Durandal.

The beams that grazed the back of my head vaporized my hair, shortening it to a bob before it rapidly regenerated.

So the regenerative power of the divine awakening state applied to hair too. That was new to me.

– WOOOOOM!

Void’s Embrace, creating a black sphere in empty space that pulled in and crushed everything around it.

“Resorting to cheap tricks!”

Persiella shot ice thorns like a downpour, destroying it. Since everything was being pulled in anyway, aiming must have been quite easy for her.

– CRACKLE-BOOM!

Silent Thunder, black lightning that split and merged, tracking its targets.

“Leave it to me!”

Demian stepped in front of us, deploying a divine barrier. The approaching lightning streams were blocked by the pure white barrier, shattering along with it.

– CRACKLE-ZAP!

A few lightning bolts did manage to slip through the gaps in the divine barrier and strike my armor, but that level of damage was already anticipated.

My pauldron and skirt exploded outward, my shoulder and side were torn open, spraying blood, but it was still manageable.

– SWISH-CLANK!

The problem came next—black chains that sprang from our shadows, wrapping around our limbs and constricting. In an instant, we were all completely bound.

“Ugh…!”

“Danger-“

If we remained bound like this, we’d be torn to shreds by all manner of spells in the next moment.

“GRRRAAAAAAH!”

As soon as I was bound by the chains, I immediately filled my arms with strength, breaking the chains that constrained them with divine-infused might that exceeded my limits.

Once my arms were free, I cut the rest with Durandal, also slicing through the chains binding Persiella and Demian with vacuum slashes.

Demian could have escaped the restraints using Skywalk to cross space, but why waste energy when two sword strikes would do?

“I am indebted to you! Chihahama!”

“Thanks!”

“Block that first!”

– SWOOOOSH!

Black slashes poured in from all directions, reaching right before our eyes during that brief moment we escaped our restraints.

The name was Blade Prison, if I remembered correctly? Quite an intuitive name.

“Leave it to this lady!”

This time Persiella stepped forward again.

“Falling Star Sword, Greedy Wolf!”

Her sword, claws, wings, and tail drew countless arcs in the air. Blue slashes shot out like a storm, colliding with the approaching black blades and shattering them.

“Whoa…!”

“Hey, hey! We’re getting hit too!”

“You should dodge those yourselves!”

But those slashes had no eyes, so Demian and I had to hastily move our bodies to avoid some of the slashes that tried to cut us as well.

Of course, Invidius’s magic continued even during this.

– KUGUUUUNG!

Call of the Abyss, a gravity magic that greatly amplified gravity in a certain area.

Persiella and I quickly escaped the area, but Demian was caught directly and plummeted toward the ground.

“Did he get hit?!”

“Ignore it! He has Skywalk, so he’ll return on his—”

Persiella, who had turned her gaze downward in surprise.

Before my warning could finish, her body shot upward in the opposite direction of the falling Demian.

Gravity Reversal. Magic that reversed gravity to send the target flying high into the sky.

Whether it flipped the gravity amplified by Call of the Abyss or not, the speed of her ascent was lightning-fast for a simple gravity reversal.

Thus, Persiella too left this position.

I wasn’t particularly worried. She had wings, so she’d find her way back. If anything, I was in more danger.

– WOOOOOO….

Three spells remained.

Thread of Weakness, Creeping Corrosion, and Vengeful Ghoul.

All of them concentrated on me.

My limbs lost strength and began to rot from the extremities, while bizarre masses of flesh wailing ghostly cries opened their maws wide and charged toward me.

“Mere curses like these…!”

I focused my consciousness on the divine core in my chest. Brighter, even brighter. I burned the starlight within me more intensely until my entire body was dyed in starlight and shone brilliantly.

– WHOOOOSH!

The divine power of stars erased the curses of weakness and corrosion, and my rotting limbs regenerated instantly, regaining their original color.

– KIEEEEEEEK…!

The masses of flesh approaching me also let out death cries and scattered like dust the moment they touched that light.

After blocking all of his high-level magic in one round, I exhaled the breath I’d been holding and smiled boldly.

“Whew, is that all you’ve got? I blocked everything!”

My armor was shattered with only scraps remaining, and I’d used more power than expected to neutralize the curses… but ultimately, no wounds remained on my body.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t been injured—I had been, but regenerated—but the fact remained that I had broken through all those spells without a single wound.

“Seems like you struggle to fight at this distance, huh? Your attacks were all so crude!”

The blade I swung finally reached his head. A slash that could cut half the fingers forming his head in one go.

“With this-!”

【 Devouring Teeth. Eight-Chain. 】

No, that’s cheating!

A chilling sense of terror ran down my spine as I kicked off his fingers and desperately created distance.

– CRUNCH-CRUNCH-CRUNCH!

Eight tooth marks engraved in the empty space as soon as I retreated. The space-devouring power. Traces of it being cast eight consecutive times.

“Wow, shit. That was close.”

A streak of coldness seeped into my heart, and cold sweat trickled down my blood-soaked cheek.

It truly was a moment when I nearly died.

I barely avoided it thanks to near-prophetic intuition combined with flight speed and jumping power. If any one of those had been lacking, I would have been swallowed whole without even time to scream.

“Ha, so you can use that consecutively too?”

I wiped the cold sweat from my chin and glared at Invidius’s head as if I wanted to devour it.

In my haste to dodge, I’d only managed to cut off a single finger.

It was a somewhat monumental first achievement since this battle began, but after nearly losing my life just before, I couldn’t exactly be happy about it.

【 How҈̨͍͎҇̓̇̈́ amusing҉̢͙͉̙̦̞͊́̀͂͡. To҈̨̛̬̣̮̣̈́̋͂͋ think҉̢̘̥̍̌̅̓̽̕ you҉̨̳̠̜͎̟҇̈̑̔̍́ believed҈̨̯͓͐̇̋͞ͅ it҈̛͖͙̝̤́̾͜ impossible― 】

“No need to answer. I understand, so I’ll prepare accordingly.”

Anyway, he had revealed two hidden cards, and on our side, we had miraculously endured without major injuries and even managed to wound him in return.

“So let’s continue.”

That was enough.

The fact that he desperately unleashed magic and powers like this meant that he had no other means to use in close combat with us.

The initial prediction that he would be vulnerable to close-quarters attacks due to his excessive size had proven half-correct.

What I needed to do hadn’t changed at all.

One finger probably doesn’t hurt much, right? Let’s see how many cuts it takes to make you scream properly.

Without waiting for his response, I charged again and thrust my sword.

Demian and Persiella, who had belatedly rejoined, fought alongside me, supporting my attacks.

This marked the beginning of a desperate and passionate bloody battle, revealing that everything until now had been merely a light skirmish.

Cutting and being cut, tearing and being torn, our mingled blood formed a red and black lake amid the roaring sounds.