Ch.1120Spot It, Avoid. Simple

The dust rises like mist, sparkling as it catches the amber light of dusk.

Though the sun had begun to set, the battlefield of transcendent beings wielding natural disasters was brighter than before.

The dark mana clouds that had formed a massive curtain blocking the sun were now torn to shreds, riddled with holes like the curtains of an ancient abandoned house.

The flames of Heaven’s Wall had been burning through the curtain since it first appeared, along with the aftermath of clashing powers that crushed both sky and earth.

The veil of darkness that the Void Demon had cast at the cost of nearly half its ancient lifespan was finally reaching its limit and collapsing.

【GROOOOOOAAAAR!】

Beneath it, only the embodiment of evil remained, roaring with rage in the shadows where light had not yet reached.

And so.

“KUOOOOOOOOO!”

Between twilight and darkness, demons capable of destroying the world clashed, scattering a meteor shower of steel and flame.

======[ Haschal ]======

Whoooosh!

A storm of crimson flames burned through the atmosphere. A tower-like blade of black iron covered the world in blazing fire.

KWAAAAAAANG!

A thunderous sound echoed like the scream of a collapsing mountain or the roar of lightning.

Rivers of lava flowed and bubbled across the melted earth where the slash had missed, and shattered metal fragments wrapped in flames scattered like comets.

It was a magnificent, destructive, and overwhelming sight. Even watching through the translucent monitor screen that had descended from the ceiling.

【Do not interfere!】

Invidius charged through the wall of flames with a roar close to a monstrous scream, swinging its metallic claws like axes.

Perhaps because I was seeing through Fafnir’s perspective rather than my own eyes, it felt like facing a wild beast like a bear or tiger with just a sword.

“Kyaaaah!”

I moved my body as if swinging a sword while shouting a battle cry.

Clank, clank, clank…!

The mechanical armor encasing my entire body transmitted my movements directly to the machine’s drive system with metallic clicks.

When I raised my arm, Fafnir raised its arm; when I leaned forward and moved my legs, Fafnir likewise kicked off the ground and charged.

It felt like an extremely analog motion capture system.

Though there was a slight delay between my movements and the machine’s response due to the mechanical nature of the system, it was quite convenient—almost as if I had become Fafnir itself.

Of course, Fafnir’s ability—or should I say role?—wasn’t limited to merely mimicking my movements.

“Initiating regeneration, health recovery, curse purification. Determining optimal method. Beginning CE solution injection.”

Through the control device attached to my body, Fafnir injected holy water and recovery solution directly into my abdomen, while also pouring some unknown medicine into my mouth.

I was a bit anxious not knowing what kind of medicine it was, but I doubted it would backstab me at this point, so I obediently swallowed what it gave me.

…Well, after drinking it, I had no reason to be suspicious anymore.

The effectiveness and immediate results of the medicine were truly impressive.

Tssssssss!

From the moment the drug was injected, my flesh and muscles began to regenerate with a strange noise.

The recovery speed was so fast that the damaged areas seemed to writhe like they were half-dissolved in water.

And it wasn’t just healing wounds.

Like filling an empty glass with water, vitality returned to my exhausted body, and even the chills from the spreading curse disappeared completely.

“What the hell is this?”

The recovery speed was unbelievable. The healing effect defied common sense. Even I was shocked enough to gape in amazement.

Unlike simple external wounds, it seemed that recovering stamina wasn’t as easy, as my tired body didn’t return to perfect condition, but still, this level of treatment was practically resurrection rather than mere healing.

“What the hell is this made of to have such insane effects…”

A mutter of amazement, or rather shock.

“Celestial Elixir. Top secret. Request for formula sharing denied.”

Misunderstanding my comment as a request for the recipe, Fafnir coldly and firmly refused.

“Organic behavior control algorithm ‘conscience’ absent. Downgrading morality rating of bio-random number generator by 2 levels, equivalent to kobold level.”

Along with a sharp sarcasm suggesting that demanding such top-secret information showed I had the conscience of a kobold.

…This bastard, just an artificial intelligence attached to a machine, but its attitude has been terrible from the start.

At least its voice and tone were appropriately mechanical and cold, but the content was as biting as my soul roommate.

Honestly, it was quite an unpleasant way of speaking. Calling me a “bio-random number generator” was absurd to begin with.

“Enough chatter…! Here it comes! Move quickly!”

“Machine operation control is your role.”

“But you’re the one actually moving!”

I just let it slide because there was no time to argue about such things now.

—-

KWAAAAAAANG!

The flame-engulfed greatsword and the dark mana-covered claws collided like mountains crashing together.

Due to their enormous size, all movements seemed somewhat sluggish, like swinging arms underwater, but in reality, they moved at lightning speed.

The power contained within was far greater than any lightning bolt.

Thunderous noise, flashes of light. Black and red smoke and flames. A dance of swords causing explosive heat with each contact, shaking the air with blast pressure.

Clank, clank, clank…!

“Kugh…!”

It was not an easy fight—no, it required me to strain my concentration to the limit, enduring headaches that felt like my skull would split.

Not just because the enemy, Invidius, was so strong that it couldn’t be handled otherwise, but also because I had to fight with a quite different sense than usual.

“The movements are sluggish! The response time is too slow!”

The entire process—I swing my arm, the control system moves accordingly and sends commands to each part of the machine, and the drive system moves the machine according to those commands.

Through all these procedures, there was about a 1-second delay between my movements and Fafnir’s actions, no matter how fast it tried to be.

It felt like the machine’s control system couldn’t keep up with my reaction speed.

Therefore, instead of responding to Invidius’s attacks by sight, I had to predict several seconds ahead, moving almost like a prophet.

SCREEEECH!

Seeing Invidius’s shoulder twitch, I anticipated its foreleg would strike and swung my sword preemptively to check it, and when I sensed it was about to swing its tail, I jumped ahead of time to dodge at the exact moment.

【Why. Why do you keep getting in my way like this!】

Wings, teeth, shoulders, tail.

Invidius’s body, modeled after Fafnir’s dragon form, was already a weapon no different from a giant’s iron mace by its size and strength alone.

Even casual swings and charges delivered tremendous impact, so I had to somehow dodge or deflect all those attacks.

【This has nothing to do with those half-broken ones!】

But those were relatively manageable. Its claws were the real headache.

Invidius’s claws were like eight blades of black iron alloy enhanced with dark mana striking simultaneously.

They would clearly slice through armor like tofu upon contact, so I had to predict the expected path of each claw in advance and swing my sword accordingly.

Usually, I could respond after seeing the trajectory of an enemy’s attack, but with these claws, I had to respond even before the attack began.

How could that be easy?

Though it was only a 1-second difference, to bridge that gap, I had to overexert my brain and nerves to the point where my head throbbed.

“You’re too slow! React more quickly, will you!”

It was so challenging that I tried scolding Fafnir, but… would that really improve the situation?

“Procedural confirmation required. Allow neural connection? Spinal modification necessary if allowed.”

“…No, that’s a bit much.”

The answer was that to react faster and more sensitively, my spine would need to be modified for direct connection to the machine.

I couldn’t possibly allow such a thing, so I could only reluctantly shake my head.

Clank, clank, clank…!

Even with just that 1-second delay making my head throb, that wasn’t the only problem.

“Warning! Right arm shock absorber damaged! Warning! Left arm upper armor severed! Warning! Irreversible mana corruption in progress! Warning, warning, warning…!”

The cockpit shook violently with each impact transmitted through the machine, and my abused eardrums gradually went numb from the constant warning sounds and explosions.

“Ah, seriously! Shut up and fight!”

The vibrations and noise pollution were truly maddening, especially with my head already hurting.

I could accept the vibrations as unavoidable, but the noise pollution was really infuriating.

“Denied. Illogical command. Random number generator intelligence incapable of understanding non-verbal information display.”

“No, I can understand! Just display it on the dashboard!”

I shouted that damage information could be sufficiently understood if just displayed on the monitor, begging it to stop the warning sounds, but…

“Irrational falsehood. Brain damage suspected. Additional CE solution administration.”

It was just a meaningless protest.

Fafnir ignored my words completely, saying it suspected brain damage and would administer more medicine, stubbornly sticking to its vocal warning method.

Truly, I began to question whether this tin can was actually my temporary ally.