Ch.123Final Battle (6)

[“Aaaaargh!”]

The monster retreated with a scream.

[“It hurts, it hurts!”]

Two voices rang out simultaneously—a girl sobbing about why she was being hit, and another voice demanding to know who dared harm her.

“The light of a hero?”

Tiria muttered.

“Was Major Rachel from a hero’s bloodline?”

“What are you talking about?”

“That holy power isn’t something just anyone can use. It’s the power of evil destruction bestowed only upon the hero’s clan by the Goddess of Battle.”

Adora mumbled while blowing a bubble with her gum.

“I don’t know anything about heroes or whatever, but simply put, that power is our hope, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then we need to cover her.”

With those words, Adora darted out like an arrow.

The next moment, tentacles flew toward Rachel. I raised my hand to pull up rocks. Crystals jumped up and transformed into magic stones, becoming Piercing Blue Stones.

I chanted a spell.

Pababak!

The magic stones activated, severing the monster’s tentacles. Adora sprinted through the gap. While I focused all my attention on Rachel, the fox sisters and Salvira blocked the attacks aimed at Adora.

“Major, watch out!”

The monster’s arm lunged for Rachel’s blind spot.

Adora’s blade blocked that arm.

[“Falling Flower.”]

Screech!

Like falling petals, her blade descended, simultaneously severing the monster’s right arm and leg. Dark blue flames infused with magical power flickered.

Rachel pulled out her spear and quickly retreated alongside Adora.

The two women exchanged glances. Both wore complicated expressions.

“See? A sword works better than a gun, doesn’t it?”

“What are you saying?”

“Never mind if you didn’t understand.”

“Just keep your eyes forward. Want to die from being distracted?”

The monster writhed.

Having essentially lost half its body, it had weakened considerably but remained threatening.

That long tongue emerging from between those teeth, the hair sticking up like a porcupine’s quills… we couldn’t predict how it would attack next.

After scanning the corpses scattered around, I spoke up.

“We should finish it quickly before it goes wild again.”

The strategy was simple.

Concentrate overwhelming firepower in a single moment to obliterate it without leaving a trace.

Now that its mobility was greatly reduced, this was our opportunity.

But something was strange about the monster’s condition.

[“Grrrrrr.”]

The monster twisted grotesquely.

Like a pupa preparing for metamorphosis, its shell began to peel away. Then its back split open, and a huge hand covered in yellow eyeballs emerged from within.

Truddddd.

The vibration was so intense it felt like the world was being turned upside down, making it difficult to keep balance.

[“Is that… the Demon King?”]

“Lord Demon King?”

Salvira and the vampire shouted simultaneously. One muttered that it couldn’t be, while the other stood up with a bright smile.

“That’s the Demon King?”

“It just looks like a giant arm to me.”

“It must be the Demon King’s arm! When it tears through that shell, the main body might be born!”

The arm that had risen high into the sky clenched its fist.

What it would do next was obvious.

“Everyone retreat to the corridor!”

The slowly descending arm began to accelerate. Actually, Salvira was deploying spider webs to slow its descent. Even without being directly hit by the arm, the impact could cause injuries, so we ran like mad.

Kwaaaang!

As the arm fell, debris flew up as expected. Fragments grazed my cheeks.

[“Ah, Lord Demon King!”]

Looking back, I saw the vampire walking toward the hand while still bound.

In my haste, I had forgotten to drag her along.

[“You’ve finally revived!”]

[“Bepisya! What are you doing? Come quickly!”]

Salvira pulled on the binding thread, but the vampire didn’t budge. She had planted her legs deep into the ground and was looking up at the giant arm.

[“Do you recognize me?”]

[“That’s not the Demon King! It’s just a shell!”]

[“I know. You don’t recognize me. You’re already dead, and what’s here is just a pitiful soul that hasn’t fully recovered. But I don’t care either way. Because I’m going to die anyway.”]

[“Bepisya!”]

[“Salvira, even if I die, I won’t die at the hands of traitors like you or those despicable humans. Military trial? Revealing the truth? What a joke. Who are you to make me a scapegoat for your reconciliation? I’m a vampire with the blood of the ancestors. I was originally a noble princess!”]

The vampire was truly prepared to die.

The look in her eyes as she turned to us showed not a hint of hesitation—that was the proof.

“Erich Lohnstein.”

The vampire looked at me and muttered in the Magic Kingdom’s language.

“I might not acknowledge the others, but I’ll acknowledge you. To use a forbidden spell for someone else rather than yourself… It’s a foolish choice, but compared to those who only talk big with narrow minds, you have consistency, I like that.”

She grinned.

“So watch carefully. Just as you were sincere about saving those women, I’ll show you how sincere I was about this.”

The giant arm spread its palm wide. In the center of the palm was a mouth that looked like a seven-star eel.

The hand that had been rampaging until just now slowly descended before the vampire.

“Humans and demons cannot coexist. Farewell.”

The vampire was devoured by the arm.

There was no crunching sound, no blood spurting like juice being squeezed.

She vanished as if she had never been there.

Was the Demon King’s will still present in that foreign object, like the daughter of the late Admiral Dietz?

I couldn’t be certain.

What I did know was that we had lost one potential justification for ending the war, and that the enemy before us had become more troublesome.

The arm, having completely absorbed the vampire, spewed blood and charged at us.

We immediately took our positions against this charge that didn’t allow even a moment of silence.

Salvira, with a grim expression, deployed her five-colored threads and bound the arm once more.

“Everyone grab on!”

“Ooooh!”

The golems grabbed the extended spider webs and sat down firmly. We needed to somehow restrict its movement and attack during that opening.

“It will get stronger the longer this goes on!”

We truly had no time.

Since these were already hopeless lives, I decided to use all my remaining magical power without holding back.

“Don’t think about what comes next—use all the strength you have!”

No one objected or added anything to those words. Everyone instinctively knew that if we couldn’t stop it here, we wouldn’t be able to stop it with just our few remaining forces.

Tiria raised her baculus high.

“———.”

Divine Word, the Goddess’s melody.

A beautiful singing voice echoed in my head. As strength surged through me, my body, dulled by the forbidden spell, temporarily regained vitality.

A divine steroid.

And as my mind cleared, I saw something.

Just as magic stones had been found in the monsters we had defeated, there was something similar inside this foreign object.

A core.

Normally, I would need direct contact to touch it, but now I had reached a level where I could manipulate rocks without touching them through surgical precision.

“Erich? Are you okay?”

“…I think I can deliver a critical blow to that thing.”

I stretched out my hand.

“Ugh.”

The resistance was extraordinary.

Yes, that means it’s something that shouldn’t be broken, right?

But if I could somehow manipulate the mana and make it flow backward, it wouldn’t be impossible. It would require a lot of mana, but what did that matter now?

Gritting my teeth, I planted my feet.

My head throbbed as if it might burst at any moment, but ignoring that, I concentrated all my mental energy and advanced step by step toward the magic stone that would become the demon’s source.

I grabbed it.

Just doing this made my mouth go dry and my legs tremble. The signs of mana depletion were clear. Knowing I couldn’t hold on for long, I burst the core before my strength gave out.

Pabak!

Woooooong!

A sound like a roar.

At the same time, the arm began to crack like plaster. With a cracking sound, the pinky finger fell off.

The Demon King’s arm writhed in pain, tearing at the net Salvira had painstakingly woven, constantly trying to charge forward. The golems attached to the net were dragged along.

“Johannes! Hold it properly!”

“I’m doing my best! Damn it, why am I suffering like this even after death!”

“At least we’re not like those people!”

“What people?”

“The National Security Department members!”

Grrrr.

Perhaps enhanced by the vampire’s abilities, the already dead members rose as corpses.

“Oh, this is just getting ridiculous!”

“I’ll hold them off!”

Riyo, having used all her crossbow bolts, picked up a rifle lying around and continued to check the corpses.

I wanted to help too, but having used all my magical power in that concentration, exhaustion overtook me.

“Huff, huff.”

“Erich!”

Tiria supported me.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. So, that thing first…”

“You’ve done your part. I can feel the monster suddenly weakening. We’ll handle the rest, so Erich, please rest. Okay?”

I silently nodded.

Consciousness was beginning to fade.

***

After Erich destroyed the core, the once-imposing foreign object was losing its form and collapsing.

Nevertheless, the threat remained.

Rachel realized that to end this definitively and safely, she needed to strike with radiance once more.

“Woman.”

“Me?”

Rachel tapped Adora’s shoulder.

“Help me.”

“Well, alright.”

Rank and nationality were meaningless here. Adora also gathered all her remaining magical power and concentrated it into her sword.

Rachel, taking a risk, requested the maximum amount of holy power from the goddess.

“———.”

[“Heavenly Punishment.”]

The two women, uttering words in languages incomprehensible to each other, charged toward the monster making its final desperate attempt.

White light is light, and black light is also light.

Either way, it was bright.

Tiria, who had briefly been caring for Erich, and Riyo, who had been checking the corpses, were both captivated by the dazzling light. They also joined their hands in prayer.

“Goddess of Creation.”

“———.”

This was not a simple wish.

Riyo’s prayer made the two women’s spear blades stronger, and Tiria’s Divine Word had the quality of amplifying immense holy power and bestowing a strong mentality that did not fear the enemy.

Truly, they gave everything they had.

Tiria and the fox sisters, depleted of holy power, collapsed to their knees.

Soon, the blade carrying the two lights flashed and cut across the foreign object’s arm.