Ch.1193Then Die.

The battle with the half-god of the Orcs, War Devil Caljarat, revealed him to be a typical warrior relying on strength, speed, and martial prowess.

Of course, being one who had achieved the status of a demigod, he likely possessed some threatening power beyond pure martial arts…

– CLAAANG!

“Is swordplay all you know how to do?”

He charged at me with six great swords without revealing even a fragment of his power.

“Swing all day if you want, do you think that will kill me?”

“Well, we’ll find out once I cut you enough!”

Even after this brief clash, he must have already realized he couldn’t defeat me with swordplay alone.

‘He doesn’t want to reveal his hand yet…? Despite looking brutish, he’s surprisingly cautious.’

Though there are individual differences, a demigod’s power—or divine technique—is typically powerful and lethal enough to decide a battle in an instant.

However, this also meant that once the opponent figured it out and countered it, one would immediately be at a disadvantage.

And at the demigod level, one typically has the ability to block or avoid carelessly unleashed divine techniques.

You need to use them effectively at the right timing—using them recklessly only to miss would be worse than not using them at all.

I was saving Defying Fate and Sky Slash for that very reason, so it wasn’t strange that Caljarat was holding back his power for similar reasons.

…Am I saving Leviathan for the same reason?

That’s a different case. Using Leviathan now would essentially be self-destruction.

Leviathan is a technique where controlling its power is nearly impossible, so once used, I wouldn’t have strength left to fight the other two.

So I continued my swordplay with Caljarat using only the Severing Slash I had shown earlier.

“Do you ignore me? Your arrogance pierces the heavens!”

The spider demigod, Hubrisia, finally approached me, rushing on her four legs and about to attack.

“I’ll make you pay for that arrog—”

Finally here. Taking twenty seconds? Slower than I thought.

“—make me pay for my arrogance? Go ahead and try.”

I created distance using the recoil from blocking Caljarat’s sword, and pointed my index finger at Hubrisia as she aimed her spider legs at me.

“Kenaz!”

– WHOOSH!

A stream of crimson flame flashed forth. The ultra-compressed, high-temperature heat beam raced toward the Spider Queen’s head.

“Flames? Such a thing…!”

Hubrisia gathered her eight spider legs in front of her head, then spread them apart like tearing open the skin of prey.

The crimson heat beam I fired became trapped in the middle of that space, twisting erratically and forming a sphere-like vortex.

Spatial interference. Probably spatial distortion. Well, manipulating space would be easy for a demigod. This was within expectations.

“No matter how powerful a force that could melt mountains, it’s meaningless if it doesn’t reach its target. Now, I’ll return it to you.”

I didn’t expect her to reflect it back at me.

– WHOOSH!

The compressed heat beam, no longer containing my will, transformed into a thick pillar of flame as it returned.

The heat within was equal to or greater than a dragon’s breath. Even a demigod would be injured taking it head-on.

‘What a waste of effort.’

But for me, who cannot be injured by flames, it posed no threat—

—wait, hold on.

“Hagalaz!”

Instead of just taking the flames and enduring them for a counterattack, I twisted my body and manifested the rune of collapse due to a sudden ominous feeling.

– CRASH!

The flames shattered upon colliding with the power of collapse.

Like meat thrown into a blender, the shattered flame streams scattered in all directions, rippling like foam before dissipating.

– TSSSSS!

Along with a poisonous purple beam that had been hidden in the center of those flames.

‘As I thought, it wasn’t a simple reflection.’

Pretending to return my flames while secretly hiding deadly poison inside—how spider-like, her methods were truly insidious and vile.

“Phew…”

I’m glad I instinctively blocked it. That purple beam wasn’t just some poison liquid, but more like the concept of poison itself manifested in visible form.

If I had taken it head-on, even my internal organs and blood vessels would have melted.

“You blocked it. Your instincts are at least at beast level.”

“You’re acting exactly as you look. Don’t you often hear that you’re underhanded and vile?”

I waved my arm to disperse the residual heat and steam while glaring at the spider woman below. Yet Durandal remained pointed at Caljarat.

Though he had said he had no intention of fighting alongside a spider, he had already retreated about ten meters back, but no one knew when his mind might change.

“Rune magic…? You’re from Xanten?”

However, instead of charging at me again, Caljarat tilted his head slightly and mentioned the name of an empire from four thousand years ago.

He seemed to mistake me for a demigod from that era… which was understandable.

A demigod’s lifespan is immensely long, making it impossible to guess their age by appearance, and certainly only humans from the Xanten era could forge runes with such output.

Well, I don’t care what he mistakes me for.

Surely he’s not about to claim he’s also from the Xanten Empire and offer to cooperate with us. He’s an Orc, after all.

That Xanten Empire, though prosperous, was apparently a discriminatory state where everyone except humans was treated as slaves or sacrifices.

“I don’t understand. Why would a remnant of Xanten be with a naga?”

Perhaps knowing this well, Caljarat expressed doubt at seeing me, supposedly a Xanten person, together with rock monkeys and nagas.

“That’s because—”

I was about to answer that I’m not from Xanten when—

“I thought a Xanten demigod would naturally be with that Undead Duke.”

He uttered a name I never expected to hear.

“…Garmerlic? He was here too?”

I was genuinely startled. I never expected to hear that name here.

The Undead Duke Garmerlic.

Right after I collapsed alongside Invidius, he sent his subordinates to target Invidius’s divinity and corpse—a demigod from the Church of Bellona.

After being hit by my Sky Slash, he hadn’t shown any movement, so I was curious where he had hidden himself… perhaps he was in central Naraka as I suspected.

This was an unexpected clue I hadn’t even hoped to hear. My interest flared up like wildfire, instantly captivating my mind.

“You didn’t know? This is surprising.”

“I’m asking because I don’t know. You seem to know about that bastard—do you also know where he is now?”

“Are you curious?”

Caljarat grinned. As if taunting me. With that orc face, his grin was hideously ugly.

“Ha, is this where you say you’ll tell me if I defeat you—something like that?”

“The opposite. Why would I help an enemy!”

Caljarat charged forward, kicking off the air. His tattoos glowed twice as bright as before, and his charging speed was so fast it seemed to distort time.

“You have leisure to chat in my presence? There are limits to disrespect!”

Almost simultaneously, Hubrisia also leaped into the air, spreading her eight spider legs like claws targeting me.

The claws at the ends of her eight legs hummed and distorted the air, while purple energy unraveled like threads from her two slender arms covered in carapace.

“Oh, really?”

I glanced down at the spider woman, then looked back at Caljarat who had approached right before me, gripping my sword hilt and letting out a short sigh.

And then.

“Then die.”

If you won’t tell me, I’ll just rip out your soul and ask it directly. Our mage is very good at that sort of thing.

So, I’d appreciate it if you’d just die quietly, leaving only your soul.

【 Defying Fate 】

My soul unfolds. The timeline splits. The world of stopped time covers the mortal realm with me at its center.

Everything in the universe freezes before my eyes.

Not only the spider woman about to shoot something from her claws and fingertips, but also the six great swords that had already touched the surface of my armor.

Whether they had no countermeasure against time stop, or they had one but didn’t expect me to possess such power and were caught off guard.

I had no time to ponder which it was.

I had unleashed Defying Fate with just a moment’s gathered power, fearing they would notice and prepare if I openly gathered strength, so the duration was extremely short.

– Snap.

Even thinking and judging was a waste of time. I closed my thoughts and surrendered to instinct.

One step. One swing.

The next moment, I was behind Caljarat, cutting his arm.

The reason I didn’t aim for his head or back was because I instinctively felt I couldn’t cut his vital points without the power of severance.

– CRASH!

The world of Defying Fate shattered before my sword completed its swing.

As the blue-silver blade cut off one of Caljarat’s left arms and half-severed a second, a fountain of blood erupted, hot on my face.

“Kugh…! So this is it. It was ‘time’…!”

Caljarat, his face contorted with sudden pain, kicked me away.

– BOOM!

The explosion and impact. Due to the recoil after Defying Fate, I had no time to dodge, so I blocked with my left arm and was thrown backward.

“Kuh…!”

My left arm felt like it had ruptured. Well, thanks to that, I was able to avoid all the attacks from the two demigods, so it was a gain in its own way. And there was quite an achievement too.

“How dare you take my arm…!”

“How dare? You should be grateful. I’m personally fixing your disability.”

I taunted him, waving his forearm that was stuck on Frosting’s claws.

Even as I was kicked away, I swung Durandal to the end, completely cutting off the half-severed arm, leaving Caljarat with only four arms.

If I cut off two more, he too could proudly claim to be a “proper” Orc. Though judging by his distorted face, he wouldn’t welcome that.

“…But how amateurish! If you could stop time, you should have aimed for my head!”

“You talk big for someone who’s protected that area so well not even teeth could penetrate it.”

My instinct sensed it first, and now my mind understood it too—the role of the tattoos engraved on Caljarat’s body, the divinity that substituted for a halo.

He was using it to protect his flesh.

Perhaps lacking the strength to perfectly defend his entire body, the intensity varied greatly between body parts.

The arm sections were at a level where I could somehow cut them without the power of severance.

But the tattoos around his vital points were distinctly darker, clearly indicating a massive concentration of divinity.

It was like stacking thousands of divine barriers in that area.

If I had aimed there, Defying Fate would have been released before I could properly cut, exposing my hand without any gain. My instincts and intuition had worked overtime.

“But now I understand. There won’t be a next time…!”

“Time stop and spatial severance… indeed, your arrogance isn’t without foundation.”

In reality, I had just scored the first point.

The fierce battle had only just begun.

All I had discovered about their abilities were divine protection, spatial interference, and some kind of poisonous beam, and the army of hundreds of thousands of arachnes hadn’t even advanced yet.

“———.”

Above all, I still knew absolutely nothing about that eye monster that continued to just flap its wings above our heads.

…What is that thing really doing?

Its lack of reaction even as we openly clashed was so suspicious that I couldn’t possibly lower my guard.