Ch.1279Changed, You Are Not Alone

“Kyaeu, heu, kiaaaat!”

Slashing, slashing, and slashing again. A wall of severance created with singular focus in a state of trance.

– KWAGAGAGAGAK!

Would its breath run out first, or would my sword stop first?

I had no luxury to gauge which would come first, so I stopped thinking and endlessly carved countless trajectories into the void.

Until my vision, filled with black torrents and golden sword traces, finally cleared again.

—-

– Passssss….

Vision brightening, darkness fading.

The black pillar of light that had rushed in like deep-sea currents gradually thinned and eventually dispersed like smoke.

The creature’s breath, which had seemed eternal, finally came to an end.

“Haa…haa….”

I raised the longsword I had swung down with all my might back to my shoulder and took a deep breath that I had been holding.

‘Is it…over?’

Perhaps due to the damage from the brief direct hit of its breath and the rapid consumption of strength, my entire body tingled and my vision blurred.

It wasn’t complete exhaustion, just temporary weakness that would improve with a few deep breaths, but…anyway, that was why.

“…Huh?”

It was because of that that I realized a beat late that beyond the pitch-black breath that had dispersed like smoke, the enemy that should have been there had disappeared.

‘Oh no…!’

[ Below you! ]

An urgent cry echoed in my mind.

I reflexively increased my altitude and swung my sword downward, but even as I swung, I already knew. My response was half a beat too late.

【 KRAAAAAH! 】

A roar erupted from close range. The skeletal dragon’s wide-open mouth was touching the tip of my foot.

‘This bastard cut off its breath midway and dove…!’

Durandal, as I swung it, only broke a few of the protruding teeth. Before I could do anything more, the creature’s mouth bit into my lower body.

– Kwaduk!

My already tattered armor completely crumbled, and enormous teeth pressed down on my lower abdomen.

Dragon teeth can crush black iron alloy, which is incredibly sturdy, like a cookie. If bitten directly, even another high dragon would not escape serious injury.

“Kuk…! You bastard!”

But my body withstood it. The teeth of the creature that bit me were no longer sharp.

【 Indeed, it’s not so easy. To think you’d shatter them before being bitten. 】

Just before being bitten, I had cut and shattered its upper teeth with Durandal and kicked and broken its lower teeth with my heel.

Unless they were pointed and sharp, those broken, flattened teeth couldn’t pierce through my body and split me in two.

Of course, considering a dragon’s bite force, even flattened teeth could crush and pulverize most things…but I’m an exception.

The protective power of holiness itself spread throughout my body, and muscles hardened to the extreme, boasting a density greater than black iron.

With these two qualities, one can certainly withstand being bitten by a dragon with broken teeth!

– Euddeuk…!

…Of course, it wasn’t completely without damage…but still, it was bearable. Though it felt like the pressure would make all my internal organs spill out.

“Sorry, but my body isn’t as soft as yours!”

If I could withstand it, I had to counterattack immediately. While caught in the dragon’s mouth, I fired a severing slash toward Garmerlic’s main body protruding from its forehead.

【 Meaningless. 】

A laugh strangely quite different from my memory. Garmerlic, wrapped in a black robe, formed a black scythe in his left hand.

I’ve seen that somewhere before.

– Hwooong!

The scythe traced a black trajectory in the void. My severing slash, upon touching that darkness, shattered the scythe but scattered into pieces. As if the power contained in the slash itself had been lost.

It was the same type of response as Erzsebet’s “Left Arm of Death.”

…Well, I had guessed it would be blocked. Those who couldn’t block this much were long dead anyway.

【 Spatial severance. A truly threatening ability…but no match for the power of death. All things in the world eventually decay and perish, so that power too— 】

“Oh, really?”

– Chwaaak!

I fired another severing slash. It was again blocked by a newly formed scythe.

【 Do you lack the ability to learn? 】

“Are you talking about yourself?”

Once more, and again.

I fired slashes repeatedly, breaking his scythe again and again. Until he became sufficiently familiar with this repetitive exchange.

And then.

【 I don’t understand what you’re trying to do. 】

Perhaps bored with the predictable attacks, Garmerlic’s concentration wavered slightly as he parried my slashes.

【 What’s the point of this meaningless waste of power— 】

– Shwaeaeaek!

In the middle of swinging my sword, I let go, firing not just a slash but Durandal itself.

It was a time-delayed attack that Garmerlic, who had just swung his scythe, couldn’t respond to in time. The tip of the thrown sword grazed his left arm, cutting off about half of it.

【 Kuk…! 】

“Hagalaz!”

Following that, I unleashed the True Heaven Collapse Fist. I thrust a spiral fist strike imbued with the power of collapse toward him, while simultaneously commanding the thrown Durandal to return.

So that if he focused only on the fist strike flying at him from the front, the longsword would pierce his head from behind.

– Seueu…!

Durandal, having flown far away, changed direction and stealthily returned. The sound of the storm caused by the bright dragon’s wingbeats masked the sound of the sword cutting through the air.

【 Such tricks…! 】

But as if sensing something, Garmerlic extended his left hand holding a new scythe forward while simultaneously swinging the thorn sword in his right hand toward his back.

– Kwasseuk…! Chaeng!

Two different sounds of collision.

The fist strike mixed with the power of collapse collided with the scythe imbued with the power of death, crushing each other, while the flying true silver longsword was deflected by the black thorn sword.

Perfect defense.

However, this momentarily sealed both his arms.

“Kenaz!”

At that perfect moment, my secretly concealed right hand spewed fierce flames that engulfed him.

– Kwareureu!

Flames more like a waterfall than fire. Garmerlic, having used both arms for the previous attacks, was engulfed in the torrent of flames.

【 Keu, euuuuuk…! 】

Garmerlic staggered in the flames. The black robe he wore instantly turned to ashes and scattered, and even the pressure crushing my lower body momentarily weakened.

‘Good, this should be enough…!’

I took that opportunity to strike the dragon’s teeth touching my stomach with Frosting.

A dull sound of rupture, Kwaddeuk. The teeth, already broken at the tips, shattered even more from the impact. The pressure instantly disappeared completely.

I immediately kicked off as if leaping through the void, extracted myself, quickly retrieved the deflected Durandal, and landed on top of the dragon’s skull.

“Well~it’s been a while! Have you been well? Are you hurt anywhere? Let me see your face after so long, you bastard.”

【 That…flippant…mouth of yours…is still the same…! 】

Garmerlic, enraged by my mockery, emanated an incredibly fierce aura.

With a whoosh, the flames rapidly subsided. Something like black mist flowing from his entire body erased the runic flames as if devouring them.

Thanks to that, I could finally clearly see with my own eyes his body that had been hidden under the robe, and.

“…Huh?”

At that moment, my mind went completely blank. My thoughts stopped for a moment from the tremendous shock. In fact, anyone would have reacted the same way to such a sight.

“You…what the hell happened to you…?”

Porcelain-white skin. Black hair reaching the knees. Sleepy, indifferent-looking eyes with inverted white and black pupils. High nose bridge and slender jawline.

And below that, a pair of breasts, smaller than mine but still quite large.

“Breasts…?”

Flesh that showed a definite presence even while pressed against half-melted armor. Even rubbing my eyes didn’t change what I was seeing.

That’s right.

Shockingly, Garmerlic had become a woman when we met again!

—-

The reunion with Garmerlic was shocking. I’ll say it twice because it’s important.

A sight as shocking as if Lena had turned into a bearded old man overnight.

What stood before me wasn’t the corpse-like giant I had fought before, but a mysterious woman with long ebony hair.

Do you understand what this means?

Having lost the precious thing in his lower body and fallen into despair, he decided that rather than living as a eunuch, he’d be better off as a woman and voluntarily chose the path of female corruption!

How could one not be shocked?

[ Um…well…that’s…bizarre…truly bizarre. ]

Even Hersella was so shocked she could barely speak.

“You…had such tastes…?”

Moreover, she was quite beautiful. Though she had a somewhat eerie impression with dark blue veins covering the left half of her body including her face.

【 …Don’t misunderstand. This form is not preference but necessity. 】

Garmerlic muttered as if making an excuse.

“Necessity?”

【 For one who has awakened divinity, the holy, the spirit, and the flesh are three yet one, inseparable. This form is merely the result of my flesh responding to the power I’ve awakened. 】

I wasn’t sure what it meant, but it seemed like even his soul had become female.

Good heavens.