Ch.1116Another Evil God

The battle was over.

I didn’t want to admit it, but reality is merciless. Gritting my teeth and denying it wouldn’t change anything.

“Haa, kuh, hnngh…”

Wounds that wouldn’t heal despite my depleted strength. A halo that would no longer unfold. A body that could barely stand upright. All of these things were telling me one thing.

A perfect defeat with no room for excuses.

—-

“Kyahaak, kuh, kuhurk…!”

Boiling blood escaped between my clenched teeth as red steam.

My body was a mess inside and out. While my head and chest burned like they were on fire, my pierced abdomen felt strangely cold, as if filled with ice.

Probably because of the evil god’s left arm impaled through my stomach.

The replicated Frosting would be imbued with the curse of cold, just like the original.

Normally, my mana resistance would have blocked the curse, but… I couldn’t count on that anymore.

The blessing of mana resistance has clear limitations.

Just as the protection of the Fire Seal is helplessly penetrated by attacks above a certain power, mana resistance couldn’t perfectly block every curse.

In my exhausted state where I could barely stand… it wasn’t enough to block the netherworld’s cold seeping into my body through my pierced abdomen.

‘First, somehow, I need to pull this out…’

With trembling hands, I grabbed the Frosting embedded in my abdomen and exhaled another breath mixed with blood mist.

Though I couldn’t see the details because my chest was in the way, I could roughly guess how serious the condition of my stomach was without looking.

When I was impaled, I managed to cut off his arm at the shoulder to prevent my internal organs from being completely shredded, but that only meant I had barely avoided instant death.

My abdomen pierced by Frosting had lost half its sensation to the curse’s erosion, and some of my internal organs were still convulsing inside, pierced by those claws.

‘…I might die if I pull it out.’

A wound that would inevitably cause severe bleeding the moment I removed it. If it had been anything but Frosting, leaving it in would have been the wiser choice.

But what had pierced my stomach was Frosting’s claw, carrying the netherworld’s cold. Considering the curse within, I couldn’t afford to worry about bleeding right now.

[Pull it out first. I’ll try to stop the bleeding and the wound somehow.]

Hersella, who could speak to me again now that my demigod transformation had been released due to exhaustion, whispered in a grave tone.

So she would use what little remained of the Karma of Murder to seal the wound.

It would be nothing more than a temporary measure, not even proper first aid… but it was the best option available now. I had to trust her.

‘Alright, I’ll pull it out now. Get ready.’

I gripped the replica of Frosting stuck in my stomach and gritted my teeth.

– Tseugek.

The wet, squelching sound of torn flesh soaked in blood.

A sharp pain shot up my spine, making even someone like me, who was accustomed to pain, grimace.

“Kuuuuh…”

…Ha, yes, I can endure this. I can bear it. This much is fine. I can handle it. So,

Let’s try pulling it out.

“Kuh, huu… gruuuuuugh!”

– Jjeok!

I gathered what little strength I had left and pulled it out in one go.

The fake Frosting came out with a slick sound. The intense pain made my back arch involuntarily, and blood gushed out.

“Kuh, augh…!”

My vision flickered black like a broken TV screen. My knees buckled, and my consciousness momentarily blurred.

[Hold on!]

A familiar voice thundered through my mind, awakening my fading consciousness.

My vision cleared again, drawn to that voice.

The next moment, Hersella urgently deployed the power of Karma of Murder, compressing it to the extreme to stitch my wound like needle and thread.

The intense pain snapped me back to full consciousness.

“Ugh…!”

[Are you alright?!]

Hersella asked worriedly after completing the emergency treatment.

Honestly, it hurt terribly… but I couldn’t complain about that.

In fact, I should be grateful. Thanks to her, the blood that would have gushed out was reduced to a mere trickle.

“Kuh, huu… That was close, really.”

I tossed aside the evil god’s left arm, which was soaked with my blood, and used Durandal, which had been stuck in the ground, as a cane to stagger to my feet.

While I did this, Invidius didn’t interfere.

He was boasting arrogantly, enjoying the victor’s leisure… but I guess he was quite exhausted too. He could only run his mouth but was too drained to move right away.

Well, that was fortunate, I suppose.

Thanks to that, I had time to pull out Frosting before the curse worsened and stanch the wound.

“Do you intend to continue? With that body that can barely stand?”

“Well… I’m still alive, aren’t I…? As long as I’m alive, I can still fight…!”

“Your bravado is admirable. The light of the star has already waned, and even the master of Gram has retreated exhausted, yet what can you alone possibly do now?”

As he said, I was the only one left here. Demian had already left the battlefield long ago.

Of course, he didn’t flee because he couldn’t win; I had forced him to withdraw despite his determination to fight to the end.

It was necessary. Demian carried not only his own life on his shoulders but also those of Persiella and Millia.

So, just before Demian became too exhausted to manifest his Tale of Heroes, I ordered him to retreat with the two of them.

So that even if I fell here in defeat, the survivors could gather strength and forces to eventually fill my place.

Demian, Millia, and even Persiella strongly objected, saying they couldn’t flee while leaving me behind, but they couldn’t change my mind.

And so the three of them seized an opportunity to withdraw from this place, leaving me alone on the battlefield to struggle desperately until I ended up in this state.

…No, strictly speaking, I haven’t fallen yet. Not yet.

“Haa, haa…! What can I do, you ask…? If you’re curious, then watch carefully…!”

I wrapped the power of Karma of Murder around my trembling legs to forcibly stand.

Nakgoe, the art of Karma that weaves crimson threads over an immobile body to manipulate the limbs like a puppet.

Hundreds of threads of crimson Karma mist enveloped my entire body like a net, constricting me.

“That red light… the power of Vanirgand? Yes, yes, struggling desperately to the very end…”

With his eyes not smiling at all despite his upturned lips, Invidius glared at me as he set foot on the ground.

Perhaps he had no strength left to fly? Yes, it seemed so. It certainly looked that way.

A dimming halo. The black flame cross star fading out. A dress becoming so transparent that what was inside was clearly visible.

Though his rank exceeded mine, allowing him to barely maintain that form, he was in such a state that the slightest touch would dispel his demigod transformation just like mine.

Moreover, his limbs were all cut or broken, with the missing parts replaced by the darkness of dark mana.

“How foolish and amusing. What meaning is there in your struggle? Even if you awaken it, with that divine power of predation that you can’t even properly control…”

Of course, even in that state, he was still in much better condition than I was.

Invidius, who had descended to the ground, pointed his half-broken sword at me and bared his fangs in a fierce smile, as if this was the end.

“It’s nothing more than a crude struggle that can’t even block a single strike!”

A vertical slash delivered with a lunge from the ground. The moment I saw it, I knew. I couldn’t block that.

I had to dodge—no, my legs wouldn’t move.

So I had to block it, but could I? If I squeezed out every last bit of my remaining strength, could I block it?

…No, I couldn’t. If I did, the wound in my abdomen would reopen.

My stomach was currently held together by the power of Karma, but the hole wasn’t actually closed and healed.

But then, what should I—

“Meet your end. In the embrace of death!”

There was no time to think.

Even with his severely damaged and exhausted body, Invidius’s speed was still as fast as lightning.

In an instant, he was already thrusting his sword down toward my head, leaving no time to formulate a response.

“Kuk…!”

I supported the blade with my left arm, raising it above my head while gritting my teeth.

A defensive stance that came reflexively from muscle memory.

It was a slanted posture meant to deflect the slash sideways rather than blocking it head-on.

“You think that will work!”

Of course, Invidius had also anticipated the meaning of that stance.

The blade that was descending vertically suddenly twisted slightly to the side, driving in at an angle that couldn’t be deflected.

‘I can’t block it.’

Indeed, I couldn’t block this.

‘Then, at least my right arm…!’

Abandoning defense, I extended my left arm toward his sword.

If I couldn’t dodge or deflect it, there was only one option left: sacrifice a non-vital part to avoid instant death.

‘If it only costs me an arm, I’m getting off cheap…!’

As I extended my arm, prepared for it to be severed at the shoulder, gritting my teeth.

And then—

– Bbeoeoeoeoeok!

With a deafening sound that made my eardrums ache, Invidius, who had been swinging his sword at me, suddenly vanished.

“…Huh?”

Turning my head in bewilderment, all I could see was Invidius, who had been flung hundreds of meters away in an instant and buried deep underground, and a cloud of dust.

The meaning of that sight was clear.

Someone had attacked Invidius.

From a distance so far that we hadn’t even noticed, with enough force to create a long, deep ravine in the ground.

‘What is this now….’

Wondering what had hit him to send him flying like that, I immediately turned my head to look at the sky in the opposite direction.

And then.

– Kwaooooo!

The thick black clouds suddenly dispersed like an explosion, and with the red evening sunlight, something massive descended with a thunderous sound.

‘A dragon…? No, not a dragon. That’s…!’

What descended onto the battlefield, scattering the clouds, was a being that was both a dragon and not a dragon.

Metallic scales reminiscent of black iron. Complex and bizarre mechanical devices occasionally visible between the scales.

Wings spewing fierce flames backward, and an unidentified circuit diagram glowing like a tattoo across the center of its chest.

If I had to describe it in one word, it would be a mechanical dragon.

What had ambushed Invidius as he was swinging his sword at me and buried him deep underground was a massive mechanical beast in the form of a dragon.

One of the four monsters that humans called the Four Evil Gods.

The ultimate weapon and god-substitute weapon created by the ancient dwarves with all their might to defeat the gods and demigods of other races.

The Dragon of Sloth and Greed.

The Mechanical Dragon Fafnir.

A monster from ancient times, certainly no ally, cast a massive shadow on the battlefield with a roar that shook heaven and earth.

With Invidius, Vanirgand, and now Fafnir, three of the Four Evil Gods had gathered in one place.

Though among them, only Invidius could truly be called an evil god.