Ch.1200Then You Die Too

The air shook with a thunderous boom as rock fragments shot up like pebbles.

I kicked away the pile of debris that had accumulated over my head and calmly walked out from the hill-like mound of stones.

“Damn, I lost that one…”

The Fallen Angel’s attack had been too sudden.

The flash that erupted faster than sound had literally shattered Hubrisia before she could react, and as a bonus, struck and sent me flying as well.

It was an unexpected ambush, and the shockwave spread so damn fast that I couldn’t avoid it.

So I just blocked it with my body.

Fortunately, I had been keeping my distance to avoid the spider woman’s poison, so I had just enough time to protect my vital spots.

Thanks to that, I was merely thrown backward into a pile of debris, without suffering any serious injuries.

‘Armor, intact. Bones, intact… just some torn flesh.’

Actually, once I took the hit, I realized it was just fast, not particularly powerful.

It could probably pulverize a human like dust, but it wasn’t enough to break dragon scales or bones.

So only my clothing was damaged a bit.

Even then, I had protected my face and torso with the Hagalaz rune, so the only bleeding parts were my arms and legs.

Quite different from Hubrisia, who was shattered by that single attack.

“Hey, poison spider. Are you really dead?”

“……”

No answer. Seems she really is dead.

That’s right. Hubrisia, who had been too busy sealing her fatal wound to defend herself, took a direct hit from the light explosion and died.

It was such an anticlimactic end that it was hard to believe it was the death of a demigod.

‘…Did her divinity transfer to that one? That’s… going to be troublesome.’

Honestly, from my perspective, it was a difficult end to welcome.

Stealing the finishing blow on prey that I had already fatally wounded—this was honestly a case where even Buddha would abandon mercy and beat the kill-stealer to death with a full-charged divine palm.

Beyond my emotional frustration, it was also tactically serious in many ways.

Power that should have either escaped or become mine had now transferred to another enemy who didn’t have a single visible scratch.

“Grooooar…!”

The nameless Fallen Angel spread its wings wide, emitting a noticeably heavier aura than before.

Having consumed and digested Hubrisia’s divinity quite efficiently, its presence had grown to more than one and a half times its previous level.

‘I think it’s stronger than me now…’

While the actual combat ability couldn’t be known until we fought, its aura had long since surpassed mine.

“Hmm… it absorbs power quickly. A racial trait perhaps?”

Caljarat, sensing that things had taken a serious turn, was keeping his distance and cautiously watching the Fallen Angel instead of recklessly swinging his greatsword.

So this guy was capable of thought after all. Given his personality, I expected him to charge in and start swinging his sword right away.

‘…Can I use him?’

I quietly observed Caljarat, measuring his potential usefulness, then kicked off the ground and soared up to the same height as them.

“What is this? Have you come to interfere?”

Caljarat glanced at me as I flew up beside him.

“Who knows?”

Look at this. This orc’s audacity is truly insane.

The first thing out of his mouth upon seeing me wasn’t caution like “Are you joining in?” or “Are you both going to attack me?” but actually “Have you come to interfere?”

Does he really intend to fight that thing one-on-one if I say I’m not here to interfere?

“Grooooar…!”

【Foreign Divinity Fusion Complete. Increased Output Reflected. Annihilation Formula Amplification Deployed.】

…It’s obvious he can’t win, right?

Having risen to the same altitude, I could now clearly see the Fallen Angel’s true form that had been hidden by its wings.

Twelve wings covered not with feathers but with eyes that stared at us, and a red crystal floating in the middle, connected to those wings by vein-like tentacles.

And inside that pointed, complexly shaped blood-red crystal, a fetus-like mass of flesh that writhed bizarrely, bubbling as if breathing.

“Is that your true form? Disgustingly ugly.”

I sensed it immediately. That flesh was the Fallen Angel’s true body and its divine core itself. The weakness revealed as it switched from defensive to offensive stance.

In other words, break that crystal and it dies.

The power it gained from killing Hubrisia was so immense that it could afford to flaunt such an obvious weakness.

Now, what should I do…

“Hey, orc.”

“It’s Caljarat! The last orc warrior, War Devil Caljarat!”

Like I care. Why should I care about an orc’s name?

“Yeah, yeah, Cal-whatever. I’d like to make you an offer you can’t refuse. Interested?”

“I refuse!”

Caljarat shook his head firmly.

“…At least hear me out first.”

What’s wrong with this crazy bastard? He’s refusing before I’ve even stated my proposal.

“There’s nothing to hear. You can’t win alone, so you want to join forces, right?”

Well, he’s not completely dense. That’s correct.

“Something like that. Let’s call a temporary truce between us until we take that thing down, and if you’re willing, form a temporary alliance.”

I pointed my sword tip at the Fallen Angel and gave Caljarat a questioning glance.

Asking if he really thought he could defeat that thing alone. Suggesting that despite our reluctance, we should cooperate to take it down first.

“What do you say? Time’s short, so I’d appreciate a quick ‘yes’ or ‘I agree’—”

“Disgraceful, utterly disgraceful!”

Caljarat’s response was quite dramatic.

“Hmm? Why not? It benefits you too, doesn’t it?”

“This is absurd. Not only do you lack the warrior’s resolve to defeat enemies with your own strength, but you beg for cooperation from someone who was your enemy? You don’t have a shred of warrior’s dignity!”

This was heading in a somewhat unexpected direction.

“With your skills, aren’t you ashamed to act so cowardly before your sword and yourself?”

“…What are you saying? You sound like some annoying old-timer.”

What’s all this about warrior’s dignity?

As expected of a centuries-old orc fossil, his way of thinking was hopelessly outdated.

“Maybe in your era, dying stupidly while standing your ground was considered virtuous, but our era’s virtue is different. The only thing that matters is winning. That’s all.”

At least, that’s far from my virtue. Such inefficient—frankly, stupid—sense of fair play.

“The rightness or wrongness of means and methods… that’s something to leisurely contemplate in front of the corpse after killing it first.”

“Ha, no better than a beast…!”

After I explained my philosophy, Caljarat looked at me like I was filth beneath contempt.

I should just gouge his eyes out.

“So, you won’t cooperate?”

How stubborn. Then I’ll have to kill him.

“Are you sure? You came to fight me, right? If you face that thing alone now, you’ll never get the opportunity you wanted.”

One final attempt at persuasion before swinging my sword with the words ‘then die.’

“No problem. I came because I heard of a strong warrior, but fighting a strong angel isn’t bad either!”

“Ah, I see…”

If that’s how it is, there’s nothing more to say, so I’ll just…

“If that warrior had been female, I would have asked her to be the great mother who would revive our orcs… what a shame.”

…Wait, what did he just say?

“…What?”

“I’ll have to give up on that. I cannot pass such cowardly blood as inheritance to my descendants.”

He’s talking nonsense. What great mother? I’d rather die than give birth to a hundred orc brats.

Now I realize that it was incredibly fortunate that I was somewhat stronger than this orc and that the situation had become such a mess.

Judging by what he’s saying, if by some chance I had lost to him in a one-on-one fight, I wouldn’t have simply died—I would have become the final orc mother tasked with reviving the extinct orc race.

Whether the birth of a mass of human-hybrid half-orcs could truly be called a racial revival is somewhat questionable…

‘No, why am I even thinking about this? I shouldn’t have imagined it.’

…That’s something I neither want to know in detail nor need to know.

“The great mother of orcs… is that possible between different races? Can hybrids maintain the species? That’s quite interest—”

【Defying Fate】

—ing my ass.

The seemingly academic question about whether half-orcs are racially considered orcs was all nonsense meant to capture this orc’s interest.

The moment Caljarat showed even momentary interest in my words, I didn’t miss the opening and launched a surprise attack by stopping time and swinging my sword.

My target was, of course, the orc before me.

Isn’t it obvious? If he doesn’t want an alliance, he should at least become my nourishment in death. That’s the only way I can match that Fallen Angel’s power.

With that intention, I swung my longsword.

*Swish!*

However, unfortunately, Durandal’s blade cut through nothing but empty air.

‘…His reaction speed is insane. When did he get all the way over there?’

Caljarat, who had been within reach of my sword until just before I stopped time, was now standing hundreds of meters away from me.

In that brief moment before I activated Defying Fate to stop time, he had sensed it, immediately reacted, and urgently created distance. About hundreds of meters worth.

An impressive reaction speed and effective countermeasure.

If, as he predicted, my attack methods while time was stopped were limited to close-range attacks within sword reach, that is.

But here’s the problem.

【Skywalk】

My ultimate technique is a slash that cuts even the heavens, severing space and time.

*CRACK-BOOM!*

“What…!”

Death that reaches you the moment you perceive it.

The space-time severing slash that tore through both axes of time and space became an invisible giant blade that cut through the old orc’s flesh.