Ch.1173I Knew It Would Be Like This.

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

Inside Kudsedra’s wildly shaking head. With my feet wedged against the roof of its mouth to stabilize myself, I was constantly thinking about my next move.

To deliver an attack the beast could neither evade nor block at the precise moment.

‘Should I use Sky Slash? If so, when…?’

The opportunity to freely wield my sword while using Kudsedra as a shield would likely come only once.

After that, I’d be on my own again, so considering what would follow, I needed to either inflict the deepest possible wound with this strike or kill it outright.

For that purpose, Sky Slash would indeed be perfect, but…

‘…what if it’s blocked or misses?’

Sky Slash boasts enough power to fatally wound even a demigod, but it has the critical weakness of being extremely susceptible to certain counters.

It’s a one-hit kill if the enemy lacks the ability to counter time-stop or spatial severance, but if they possess such abilities, using it offers little advantage.

And unfortunately, most—no, almost all—enemies strong enough to warrant my Sky Slash possessed exactly those abilities.

The technique is lethal if it hits, but no one honestly just stands there and takes it. That’s why I always have to worry whether it will actually work each time I use it.

What about Leviathan then?

Let me think. It evaded my first Sky Slash. It couldn’t dodge completely and lost part of its head and one wing, but it did manage to avoid a direct hit.

Does it have the ability to counter time-stop? Or did it dodge during that brief moment after the time-stop ended but before Sky Slash could make direct contact?

If it’s the former, it could counter regardless of distance; if the latter, it couldn’t dodge at close range. There’s no way to know which is true without actually trying.

What about spatial severance?

As we know, spatial abilities like the Art of Severance can be countered with other spatial interference abilities.

While perfect defense isn’t guaranteed due to compatibility and output differences, learning even one such technique can at least reduce the impact.

However, Leviathan sustained quite serious injuries from Sky Slash. It couldn’t completely nullify or properly defend against it.

And it’s not just Sky Slash.

For the Severing Strike as well, it chose the highly inefficient method of nullifying it by colliding its ocean-like mana against it rather than using spatial interference abilities. That must consume enormous amounts of mana.

Why was that?

Was it because it had such abundant mana that it didn’t even think to conserve it?

Or was it trying to demonstrate that it didn’t need to worry about preserving or distributing power when facing a mere human demigod?

Or perhaps… could this water snake actually be unable to use spatial arts?

Is that why it maintained maximum distance from me while lavishly expending mana on indirect attacks?

It seems unlikely, but… it’s not an entirely baseless speculation. Everything would make sense if that were the case.

Should I bet on that possibility? Launch a Sky Slash?

‘No, perhaps…’

I didn’t have the luxury of lengthy deliberation. Kudsedra could hold out for at most a few dozen seconds from now. Maybe even less.

“Huff…”

I exhaled a sigh laden with all my hesitation, worry, and confusion, then infused Durandal in my grip with divine power.

And then.

—-

【 KYAAAAAAAAAAH-! 】

Within the violently swirling vortex of lava and seawater.

Relying solely on my flame resistance, I charged forward while concealing myself in Kudsedra’s breath, then burst out of the vortex at the critical moment.

– Grooooooar…!

Before me was the nape of the blue-scaled dragon’s neck. In my hand, the goddess’s sword pulsating with powerful divine energy. Perfect timing.

“———!”

The blade descended, wrapped in flames and steam, accompanied by a silent roar.

The moment I swung, I was certain. A Sky Slash delivered at this distance, at this timing, would be an unavoidable, guaranteed hit that even a god would be too late to evade.

…Of course, being unable to dodge doesn’t mean it can’t be blocked.

【 Did you think I wouldn’t anticipate this, foolish monkey! 】

A triumphant roar. A high-density mana field erupted as if it had been waiting for this moment. Time acceleration and spatial distortion arts spread widely, covering its entire body.

Ha. This bastard could use spatial magic after all.

It was a trap.

A trap designed to make me waste this critical opportunity to strike at its neck by using Sky Slash, which wouldn’t work anyway.

I understood. If I were to swing the space-time severing strike now, it would be blocked by its spatial distortion field and miss pathetically, leaving me open to counterattack.

And if I tried to withdraw and retreat, that itself would create an opening for its attack.

‘Did it anticipate this far? Did it know all along this would happen?’

Was the entire flow of events calculated by this creature? A binary choice with no escape whether I advanced or retreated. A simple but lethal trap.

…If I had been using Sky Slash, that is.

But here’s the thing—what I had prepared wasn’t Sky Slash at all.

– Grrrrrrrr…!

The fire dragon’s breath and steam scattered in the vortex. The blade that had been concealed within until the very end finally revealed its true form.

The twilight flame that had been quietly burning like a wick, cleverly mixed with the fire breathed out by the fire dragon.

– KWAOOOOOOOOO!

Lævateinn.

A pillar of flame that pierced through the ocean current and tore apart the darkness of the deep sea.

—-

The ocean currents boiled, evaporated, and dispersed like they were being erased.

Like the sun rising through the darkness of night, the twilight flames pushed back the deep sea and filled the void, burning brightly.

【 What…! 】

Leviathan’s eyes widened in shock. Perhaps due to the unexpected situation, its movements momentarily stiffened and slowed.

【 It’s not space-time severance…?! 】

That’s right, it’s not.

“Did you think I wouldn’t recognize a trap? There’s a limit to underestimation.”

Judging by your character, I figured you’d have set some kind of trap. That’s why I chose Lævateinn instead of Sky Slash. You wouldn’t know about this one yet.

“The one caught in a trap is actually you!”

Do you understand now? The reason I endured the fire dragon’s breath with my whole body while hiding within it?

To burst out and launch a surprise attack at the critical moment? That would be too simple.

Since you knew I was inside the fire dragon’s mouth, you’d spot me immediately anyway, so what would be the point?

What I truly wanted to conceal wasn’t myself, but the blade of Durandal in my grip.

I wanted to make you mistake Lævateinn’s flames for the fire dragon’s breath, to deceive you into thinking my only trump card was Sky Slash.

And the result is as you see.

– Fwooooooosh!

In the pseudo-sun where seawater had vanished and only flames remained.

It had exposed its neck completely, and in my hand was the divine-destroying flame that could erase spatial distortion fields along with their mana, ready to swing.

A strike delivered too late to dodge, one that couldn’t be blocked by spatial distortion.

“Burn to death, you all-talk water snake!”

You said I should sink into the deep sea?

Well, I’m afraid there’s no deep sea before my eyes right now.

The twilight flames devoured the dragon of the deep sea.

—-

Flash. Roar. Pressure and heat. A storm of extreme heat burning everything around.

The overwhelming heat released at the moment of impact instantly evaporated the pillar of deep sea water created by Leviathan, causing a massive steam explosion.

Its power was so great that even I, who had swung the sword, couldn’t withstand it and was thrown back. In an instant, I found myself flying backward.

“Kya, ugh…!”

Due to the recoil from expending such enormous power in an instant, I groaned as I experienced extreme exhaustion that made even breathing difficult.

‘First, I need to stop…!’

– Grrrk.

Gritting my teeth, I stretched my arm upward and drove my left arm into the ceiling of the cavern that had come within reach.

With a cracking sound, Frosting’s claws pierced and shattered the ceiling rock.

I twisted my body like a bat clinging to the ceiling, then dragged my claws along the rock to kill my momentum and barely managed to stop myself.

Immediately after, I raised my head to look at the epicenter where Lævateinn had swept through.

– Groooooar….

The first thing that caught my eye was the storm of flames and ashes. A literal inferno had unfolded there.

The vast land had dried up from the heat and was crushed by the impact, torn to shreds like a mutilated corpse. The lake where the massive water pillar had stood until moments ago had not only dried up but melted, flowing with red-hot lava instead of water.

A river of lava surged like waves, slowly filling canyons and pits. The ashes of burned merfolk drifted on its surface, adding to the thick smoke in the air.

And at the very center.

In the middle of the heat haze that rippled like waves.

【 Krrr…ugh, Krah, Kahaaak…! 】

The dragon of the deep sea that had taken a direct hit from Lævateinn lay sprawled on the lava, groaning.

In a miserable state with half its body melted away as if dissolved. Writhing in agony while coughing up blood.

…Why are you still alive?

I was too dumbfounded to speak.

Although it was barely clinging to life and clearly dying, the very fact that it was still alive was truly astonishing to me.

Seriously, I can’t believe this.

Even the World Tree died from this attack, so how did you survive?

The unspoken question swirled in my head, dizzy from exhaustion.