Ch.1122Ah, You’re Watching!

The ultimate battle at the extreme of destruction.

A struggle between gods too barbaric to be called divine combat, and thus all the more desperate and majestic in its final clash.

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

【 GROOOOOOAR! 】

I—no, Fafnir and Invidius continued to crush and tear each other apart with complete disregard for defense, spraying fountains of black blood and dark iron flesh everywhere.

– Whoooosh!

【 Grr, ugh, KRAAAAGH! 】

Even as the dark clouds finally cleared completely and Invidius’s body began to burn, engulfed in pure white flames, it continued.

【 Not yet…! It’s not over yet…! I will never… stop or yield… to such interference…! 】

“Insufferable bastard. Just… give up already…!”

Invidius continued the frenzied bloody battle without stopping, even while engulfed in Heaven’s Wall’s flames. By this point, even I was getting sick of it to the point of horror.

“Your head’s cracked, limbs shattered, and you’re on fire—just die already!”

How deep was his grudge for losing one arm that he would fight for revenge while unhesitatingly burning away his own life?

If it were possible, I’d want to spit his arm back out and negotiate, offering to return it if he’d just quietly go away.

「 External armor critically damaged. Drive system damage rate 72%. Power core overload. Operational limit approaching. 」

Now that Invidius had begun burning in the sacred fire, his life was essentially in its final countdown, but Fafnir too was nearing his limit from accumulated damage.

“Already at your limit? Weren’t you supposed to be on the same level as him?”

「 Cause: Poor maintenance. Loss of additional armor and strategic weaponry. Central control network connection impossible. Tactical prediction system and satellite support system unavailable. 」

“Ha, your excuses flow like water.”

「 Negative. Actual critical performance degradation. Random number generator originally unnecessary. 」

According to Fafnir’s explanation, just as Invidius wasn’t in peak condition, Fafnir too was significantly weakened compared to his prime.

Perhaps because of this, despite joining the battle late, Fafnir couldn’t establish overwhelming superiority and was damaged almost to the point of mutual destruction.

Just as I had intended.

‘I’d like them both to die here… but that insufferable monster Invidius just refuses to die.’

After this catastrophic battle, we too had become a terrible mess, but strictly speaking, it was only Fafnir’s body that was breaking apart, not mine.

Looking at the facts, thanks to whatever elixir Fafnir had injected, I was actually becoming healthier.

Which meant my chances of reaping the benefits had increased significantly.

[ How devious, how very devious. Is this how you feel toward the mount fighting alongside you? ]

‘What does it matter? Fafnir has been constantly trying to stab me in the back too.’

[ Hmm… well, that’s a fair point. ]

Hersella criticized my intentions as devious and despicable, but I felt completely justified.

Fighting together doesn’t make everyone allies.

I’d been too busy fighting to make an issue of it, but throughout the battle, Fafnir had been trying various tricks on me.

Like attempting to extract some of my divinity to use as power, or subtly interfering with my mind through some kind of electromagnetic waves or whatever.

[ You can thank me if you wish. I’ve been blocking all those annoying tricks. ]

But all those tricks were blocked by Hersella, and after several persistent attempts, Fafnir seemed to realize it wasn’t working and finally gave up.

Of course, just because he stopped midway doesn’t mean the karma of trying to stab me in the back disappears.

So I had no reason to feel guilty about using Fafnir and then discarding him.

I’ll use him well until he’s worn to rags, then throw him away.

「 Estimated remaining operational time: less than half an hour. 」

Though it seems this will all be over in thirty minutes anyway.

“Less than half an hour… so at least you can still fight a bit longer?”

「 Affirmative. 」

“With that much time, couldn’t we win? Look, he’s already dying.”

「 Mutual remaining strength analysis. Estimated win rate 57%. Error margin 20%. 」

Hmm, I just casually suggested we might win, but Fafnir seriously calculated the actual win rate and gave me an answer.

Though with such a high error margin, it was completely useless.

“…Isn’t a 20% error margin meaningless for prediction?”

Between 37% and 77%—what kind of calculation is that? I could probably get a lower error margin just counting on my fingers and toes.

「 Auxiliary computing device performance limit. Computational resource shortage. Precise measurement impossible. 」

“Ah, is that so…?”

Just how degraded is his performance? From what he’s saying, it’s not just missing one arm—it’s like fighting with all limbs severed.

…Of course, that was quite fortunate for me.

If this monster had retained all his prime power, he would have tried to eliminate both me and Invidius from the start.

—-

How much time had passed?

– Kuuuuung…!

Metal fragments pouring down like sand in an hourglass. Oil burning and overflowing like lava. Fierce sparks like armor of lightning.

After endless accumulation of damages large and small, Fafnir finally declared his limit and completely collapsed.

It happened right after Invidius, who had kept charging even while burning, fell to his knees, coughed blood, and still roared fiercely as if he could fight more.

「 Warning, warning. Body damage rate 95%. Operational limit reached…. 」

“…You can’t move anymore? …Well, fine. I’ll handle the rest somehow.”

My wounds had mostly healed, but my energy recovery was still incomplete and unsatisfactory.

So, clicking my tongue in disappointment, I prepared myself to fight directly again and instructed him to let me out.

However, the response was completely different from what I expected.

「 According to Autonomous Operation Protocol Article 12, Section 3, initiating final defensive posture to preserve core components. 」

A report that was almost like talking to himself, meaningless to me.

“Final defensive posture? What’s that—”

Just as I was about to ask for details:

「 Unnecessary foreign object, ejection. 」

– Clank!

The head portion of Fafnir, whose armor plates had fallen off exposing the grotesque frame, opened wide with a thud.

– Ptooey!

And Fafnir spat me out from inside his head like half-chewed gum, throwing me forcefully through the open passage.

“Waaaah you crazy bastaaaaard!”

My body flew smoothly and briskly like being ejected from a spring-loaded chair.

Cursing in disbelief, I hurriedly spewed Karma flames to stop my body that was flying like a cannonball.

“…Ha, unbelievable. Hey, I did ask to be let out, but did you have to do it like this…?”

After stopping in mid-air, I turned my head to throw some words at him, and what entered my sight was…

– Crack! Crunch! Kwaduk! Kudududuk! Chiiik…! Wooong. Click. Kirik, kiririk. Kaduduk. Wiiing…! Kwagagak, clank!

With a symphony of all kinds of mechanical sounds, Fafnir’s form was grotesquely twisting and gradually compressing.

‘…What is that now?’

It looked as if an invisible giant hand was grabbing the heap of scrap metal that was Fafnir, twisting it and crushing it like a ball.

Damaged metal plates that no longer fit together fell off with sparks, and auxiliary gears and cogs mixed and bound together in complex ways, gradually reducing in volume.

Cylinders spewed steam, cutting off unnecessary armor with heat rays, and the heated cut sections stuck together and welded, forming new armor configurations.

The transformation process seemed endlessly long due to its complexity, but in reality, it ended in an instant.

– Click, guuuung…!

After completing all those transformations, Fafnir emitted a low vibration sound and then fell completely silent. What remained before my eyes was not the crumbling dragonoid war machine, but…

“…An egg?”

A large, black metallic egg that had compressed its massive body to the limit, explosively increasing its density.

‘Oh, so… this is the final defensive posture?’

[ It seems so. Indeed, curling up like that would make it sturdy, but… ]

‘It’s ugly.’

[ It’s ugly. ]

Honestly, it was too ugly even for something ugly.

Feeling like he’s about to die, he abandons his entire body and just protects the core components inside an iron-clad shell. What is he, a turtle? What kind of behavior is this?

Moreover, judging by the various broken parts during the transformation, this was clearly an irreversible change that couldn’t be restored to its original form without major repairs.

In the past, even if it ended up like that, the ancient dwarves could recover and repair it, so this could serve as a desperate defensive measure… but not anymore.

Perhaps a thousand years ago, but after Carlos the Great, Himmel lost its former glory and declined to the point where they now had to form technological alliances with humans.

It didn’t seem likely that such people would discover this egg lying here, and even if by chance they did, it was questionable whether they could properly repair it.

‘…If I just leave it, will it remain abandoned like that forever?’

In other words, this was essentially suicide—a disgraceful act that had no way of revival without my help.

Even a lizard that cuts off its tail to escape knows how to regenerate its tail after safely escaping, but this was truly worse than even a lizard.

【 Khuuu…! Kuu, kaaak…! Even if it’s a flame that cannot be extinguished…! There must be… a way to shake it off…! 】

…Well, when it comes to being ugly, how could anyone compare to that Invidius?

“Haah… instead of trying to shake it off, couldn’t you just die?”

I sighed deeply toward the blazing Invidius and stretched my right hand to the side.

– Kwachang!

Breaking through the ground that had melted and resolidified like glass, a blue-silver longsword flew toward me like lightning.

Durandal, which had been dropped and buried underground when I was abducted by Fafnir, responded to its master’s call and returned to my grasp.

– Kwajijijik!

The entire blade instantly turned golden, and the surrounding space touched by that light cracked, split, and completely collapsed repeatedly.

The spatial severance ability at its extreme.

In contrast to my body condition, which had regenerated but could hardly be called fully healed, Durandal, back in my hands, was filled with more intense power than ever before.

– …….

Through that sword, the presence of the goddess who had been watching over me also felt closer and more intense than ever before.

“……”

I could feel it.

I could intuitively know it.

That someone from the heavens was watching the end of this battle. That they were watching and lending me strength, albeit indirectly.

The ancient ascended god who forged twelve oath swords by infusing her divinity into the remains—true silver—left behind by the fallen Ausrine, and bestowed them upon humans.

Elpinel of the sky and grace.