Ch.1255Hey, Get Up Again.

# The Power of Death

The power of death coiled around my arm, extending and thrashing about.

Vanirgand, who had obtained the power of blood.

These two unpredictable variables led this battle in a quite different direction from before.

…Well, the outcome itself didn’t change much.

“Haa…haa…damn it, still not enough…?”

A cataclysmic battle where mountains collapsed, plains tore apart, and ravines filled in.

After a magnificent fight that turned the world into ruins in just over ten minutes, I gasped for breath with half my limbs severed, tasting defeat once again.

Vanirgand’s front paws were half-severed, his entire body covered in cuts and tears, and his left eye had been cut out…but that was the limit.

This time I thought I could at least bring him to the brink of death, but I ran out of strength before I could inflict even one fatal wound.

You might ask if blowing out one eyeball isn’t a fatal wound?

A fatal wound must be something that can never heal or severely impairs combat ability.

That injury, like my limbs, would be perfectly healed by next time, and he seemed to compensate for his halved vision with other senses, as there were no gaps in his defense when I approached from the left.

Essentially, it was no different from a wound in cloth. Regrettably so.

‘Well…I’ve at least narrowed the gap considerably.’

Of course, compared to before when I was utterly crushed, I put up a decent fight.

I’m confident I could have definitely cut off two or three of his limbs if he hadn’t pulled out his new ability.

It’s probably thanks to growing stronger by killing and absorbing the power of many formidable enemies. Though he’s also grown stronger than before, which diminished my progress.

【 K҈̧̲͎͚̫̲҇̽̽r̴̨̉̊͝rrr̴̪̞̜̗̯҇͛͊̚͢rr. Your limit. Better than before, but is this all? 】

Anyway, certain of his victory, he looked down at me and spoke arrogantly. His tone was so heated it could make a dying old man jump to his feet.

“Limit? Whose? Don’t talk nonsense. I’m still alive, aren’t I?”

It’s true that my strength was depleted. My body was also so damaged it was hard to find an intact part. His claim about my limit wasn’t entirely wrong.

But I was still standing, and as long as I could stand, I could still fight.

“So watch carefully with that one remaining eye. See what I can do.”

Winning might be difficult, but taking another eye…perhaps that much might be possible.

No, it will be possible. With a bit of luck, I might even tear that annoying muzzle halfway off.

With that resolve, I straightened my slightly bent back and raised my sword, which I had been using as a cane, pointing it at him.

【 Not interested. I’ve seen and experienced enough. 】

But Vanirgand, far from being wary, merely sneered with a growl, his one remaining eye still fierce and menacing.

Blood from his torn and cut wounds dripped through chains that were broken and severed, with only 20% remaining of their original form.

“I told you not to talk nonsense. Whether it’s enough or not isn’t for you to decide—”

As I gritted my teeth, bending my one remaining leg to leap toward him, annoyed by his arrogant attitude.

【 That’s enough. Begone now. 】

With those decisive words cutting off mine, my vision suddenly darkened, and my consciousness was thrown outside this world.

“…Huh? Huh? Wait, hey! You bastard! What is this…!”

And so I woke from the dream.

—-

Strangely—no, infuriatingly—after that day, I was never invited to Vanirgand’s world again when I slept. Not even once.

‘Ha. This bastard won and ran away.’

It was maddening.

Though I had only experienced defeats, the gap was gradually narrowing, and I had no doubt that someday I would be able to exact revenge.

But now, it became impossible to ever repay the humiliation of defeat.

How should I put it? It’s like being beaten hundreds of times in a fighting game, and just when you start to improve, the opponent blocks you saying it’s no longer fun.

Anyway, the nightmares themselves had stopped, so fundamentally, the original reason I came down to Naraka was resolved…

‘…But this isn’t how I wanted it resolved. Damn it.’

It only has meaning and gives a sense of achievement if I resolve it with my own power. Being resolved this way only left me with humiliation and frustration.

Besides, with far more important problems overflowing now, I wasn’t in a position to rejoice over resolving one nightmare anyway.

You might ask, if I achieved my initial goal, couldn’t I just leave the Naraka folks to their own devices and return to the surface?

…Well, that’s probably impossible now. At least not right away.

Others who came down with me like Ophelia, Jahan, or Leonore might be able to, and if they could, they would probably want to go back immediately…but it was impossible for me.

Because I had become too strong. Far beyond the limit of power permitted by Heaven’s Wall.

If I were to ascend to the surface now, I would probably burn up like a torch, just as Varnir did.

Thanks to the Twilight Rune, ordinary flames couldn’t harm my body, but the flames of Heaven’s Wall were no ordinary fire, and even the power of the rune couldn’t withstand them.

In fact, Astraea had warned me with such nuance.

That descending to Naraka would be a momentous choice not easily reversed, so I should take care of any urgent matters before going down.

At the time, I thought she meant it would take a long time to become strong enough to overcome the nightmare…but looking back now, it was probably her own warning about Heaven’s Wall.

Once you go down, you can’t come back up as you please.

As long as Heaven’s Wall’s restrictions remain, you won’t be able to intervene in surface matters again, so resolve any potential problems before descending.

That was probably what she actually meant. I just misunderstood her indirect way of speaking.

…If she was going to warn me, couldn’t she have been more clear?

Gods always have this bad habit of unnecessarily speaking vaguely and elaborately.

It seems they adopted this manner of speech to show their authority and dignity as gods, but from my perspective, it was honestly frustrating and difficult to understand.

Those who spoke so elaborately and arrogantly would eventually start speaking like ordinary people once a sword was stuck in their body.

If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be easier for everyone if they just spoke honestly, directly, and concisely from the beginning?

Even in this case, if she had done so, I would have made a more careful decision, but now that things have become complicated, I have no choice but to trust that those above will handle it well.

…Surely, she didn’t think I would avoid going down and keep postponing it if she explained in detail that I would be trapped underground?

If that was the reason, I’d honestly feel a bit hurt. Did I seem like such an unreliable person?

Of course, since I am clearly a responsible, righteous, and trustworthy figure to anyone who sees me, she probably didn’t deliberately speak indirectly for that reason. Probably.

—-

Ah, so what happened to the power of death I inexplicably wielded in my dream?

Well, about that….

– Crack!

“…It’s not coming out.”

“Goodness! Miss, why are you suddenly destroying a perfectly fine hill? Are you checking how much of your strength has returned?”

“Uh…let’s say that’s it.”

It seems that was only possible in that dream; in reality, the Severance Slash extended as usual instead of black waves. My arm just felt a bit numb from the recoil.

In other words, it was impossible to use that power in actual combat…well, that wasn’t something to regret.

Considering how Erzsebet, who had awakened that power, met her end, perhaps I should be grateful that it remains dormant now.

At least the recoil seems to have weakened a bit…

‘Without knowing why, it’s meaningless.’

I couldn’t tell if this was due to naturally adapting over time or because I had become accustomed to it after using it freely in my dreams.

Without knowing the reason, I couldn’t derive a fundamental solution.

—-

Anyway, I had faced the calamity of Erzsebet and the left arm of death and emerged victorious with minimal damage, and I was also freed from the nightmare problem that had been disturbing my sleep.

I can definitely say I’ve overcome one crisis. Although it almost got complicated, in the end, it was resolved smoothly.

“Things seem to have worked out well for you. Over here, it’s been quite chaotic.”

On the other hand, the wild dogs who had tried to use me seemed to have quite a headache. Just as I had intended.

“From our perspective, isn’t that also things working out well? Since we guided it to turn out that way.”

I spoke in response to the voice that came with static through a small creature that looked like a mix between a snail and a worm, which I held near my cheek.

Instead of the previous communication homunculus that had died from exhaustion, this was another homunculus that had been sent to a predetermined retreat point in advance.

This one also had a short lifespan, making lengthy conversations impossible, but it was sufficient for receiving brief reports on the battle situation.

“That’s true. Though things got a bit…rougher than expected.”

“Rougher?”

“First, the Geirods and giants were annihilated. All of them died without exception.”

“Total annihilation? Was Caliburn’s force that powerful…? That’s quite surprising.”

I had expected Caliburn to win. From what I could see, he was the type who wouldn’t fight at all if he didn’t have a chance of winning.

Although he had schemed to delay his attack much later than us to pass off the danger of Garmerlic, this conversely meant he was confident of victory as long as reinforcements didn’t arrive.

So, the news of victory was expected.

The problem was…

“Even after giving them advance warning of the attack, they didn’t just lose but were completely annihilated? That’s…quite absurd.”

The giants had suffered a much faster and more overwhelming defeat than expected.

I thought they would hold out for a while or at least about 30% would survive and retreat. Not be completely wiped out without a single survivor in an instant.

“Either the giants were more incompetent than I thought, or those beasts were stronger than expected.”

“It’s closer to the latter, but that’s not the complete answer. The Werebeasts’ military strength didn’t exceed expectations. However…two ancient dragons joined them.”

At minimum, two ancient dragons at Leviathan’s level.

The sudden collapse of Geirod’s army was due to the participation of these dragons. That’s what Ophelia reported.

With two ancient dragons whose pure destructive power surpassed most demigods, plus the powerful demigod Caliburn, they couldn’t overcome the power difference even with their utmost effort.

“That’s unfortunate. I was hoping Caliburn would suffer heavy losses too.”

It was regrettable.

I knew well that two ancient dragons had joined hands with Caliburn, but I didn’t expect him to commit both of them to this battle.

Honestly, I thought he would leave at least one in the rear. To prepare for any unexpected variables or emergencies, as a reserve force to be mobilized if such situations arose.

As cunning as he was, I expected him to be cautious, but he was surprisingly bold?

If things had gone wrong, he might have suffered an irreversible defeat, but since he achieved an overwhelming victory, his boldness paid off.

“It’s certainly a better result than being annihilated ourselves…but we must remain vigilant going forward.”

From my perspective, it was a middling result, neither the best nor the worst.

“Anyway, good work. You can come back now. We’ll be returning soon too.”

In any case, Ophelia’s mission was accomplished.

As planned, the vampires and giants were crushed, so now we needed to return to our respective bases and see how Garmerlic would respond.

It was a bit puzzling that there was no response even though two of his allies were under attack, but well…we’d soon find out the reason.

That’s what I thought.

“…I haven’t finished my report yet.”

Until I heard the rest of the report.