Ch.129Chapter 129: The Fierce Battle at Year’s End (4)

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KWAAANG-!!

With an explosive sound, a pitch-black projectile surrounded by dark energy flies toward me at a ferocious speed.

The holy sword… the holy sword that approached me by cutting through the void and taught me light, I swing it wildly, completely obliterating every projectile coming at me, but.

KWAAAK-!!

“Kuh…hup!”

Somehow, a pitch-black hand wrapped in darkness breaks through the wave of projectiles and grabs me by the nape of my neck.

“What a shame, really. Everything was good, but you just lacked the finishing touch.”

The words from my opponent who gripped my neck carried an ominous feeling that contradicted their casual tone, which showed none of the tension of someone fighting for their life like me.

WHIIK-!!

The right hand of my opponent gripping my neck swung roughly to throw me away.

I managed to break my fall to avoid crashing into the ground and immediately tried to create distance, but.

“Ah, can’t you do this properly?”

A sinister voice from behind me sent chills down my spine.

When? How?

I was certain I had created distance between us.

“You’re full of openings! This is really no fun!”

SHIIIK-!!

Why do I hear the sound of cutting wind behind me, as if something is about to pierce my back?

“Tch!”

Clicking my tongue, I barely managed to turn my body and avoid the opponent’s sudden attack, but.

THUD

As a result, my body met the ground where all traces of snow had disappeared due to the heat of our fierce battle.

Though the snow on the ground had melted, the damp soil didn’t raise any dust.

It was a situation full of openings, even worse than what my opponent had pointed out earlier, caused by my desperate evasion and loss of balance.

But until I could regain my balance and stand up.

“Haaawn…”

The demon woman who had been fighting me, rather than taking advantage of my fallen state, was repeatedly yawning as if bored.

From that attitude, which seemed to suggest she wasn’t bothering to finish me off because it wouldn’t be entertaining enough.

“…”

Before feeling displeasure, I felt powerlessness.

I must defeat her.

She is an obstacle blocking my path and.

I cannot simply let her be, sensing the malice from someone who seems intent on extinguishing the many lives in this fortress, so I swung my sword at her, but.

I couldn’t even inflict any significant damage on her, while she was treating me with such leisure.

How could I not feel powerless?

But even so, I cannot lower my tail and run away from here.

If I don’t do it, who will?

WOOWOONG-!!

The holy sword responds to my firm resolve, rippling with golden light.

As if lending strength to punish the demon standing proudly before me.

The warm light infuses courage into my shrinking heart.

“Come on, don’t disappoint me. Let’s do this properly this time.”

The demon’s appearance remained threatening, not showing any sign of being disturbed even when facing the flash of light so intense it seemed like it could blind anyone who looked at it, but.

“HAAAA!!”

With a shout that infused courage and.

BWOONG-!!

The sound of the holy sword cutting through the air, swung with a heart determined not to yield to evil, sounded louder and clearer than before, and at that moment.

CHWAAAK-!!

At last, the sensation of the holy sword cutting through something made of flesh and blood transmitted through my fingertips.

“Huu… Huu…”

This is not the sound of my breathing.

“Haha… Did I go too easy on you? That wasn’t just decent, it was quite impressive.”

As the demon woman who had been blocking my holy sword with her right arm instinctively now had a wound from my holy sword.

“I was planning to play around a bit since you’re just a youngster…”

She was muttering quietly, healing her body’s wound and catching her breath.

Though it wasn’t enough to be called a fatal wound.

“Hmm… The bleeding has stopped, but the wound itself isn’t healing. As expected of a holy sword, I suppose.”

Seeing the opponent’s troubled expression as the bleeding stopped but the mark I had made remained unhealed.

I could feel some of the vague frustration that this opponent wasn’t completely unbeatable lifting.

I can do this.

Just a little more…

“…Playing around too much is a problem.”

Before my thought could continue, the opponent vanished from my sight.

“Now then…”

An eerily sinister voice was heard from behind me again.

It was both surprising and terrifying.

I had helplessly exposed my back like this earlier too.

Though I had been at a disadvantage throughout the fight with this demon woman.

When she first got behind me, I could at least vaguely track her movements with my eyes.

But this movement was one I could never follow with my eyes.

Was everything she had shown while fighting me until now just a warm-up?

It was surprising, and at the same time, terrifying.

But I cannot retreat just because I’m afraid.

I quickly turned my body toward where I sensed the opponent’s presence, trying to unleash the golden radiance wrapped around my holy sword to widen the opponent’s wound, but.

KHUUK-!!

A pitch-black hand grasped the blade of my holy sword, which had been shining with enough intensity to instantly dye the surrounding darkness with light, and suppressed that radiance.

…How?

A question mixed with fear beyond astonishment was about to burst forth, but.

“Oh my, oh my, that won’t do. You shouldn’t unleash such dangerous power at close range.”

After effortlessly extinguishing the radiance of the holy sword, the demon woman spoke as if scolding a child playing with something dangerous.

“So, I’ll have to confiscate this!”

BWOONG-!!

The opponent’s left fist, not holding the holy sword, was flying toward my shoulder at a ferocious speed.

As mentioned earlier, it was a simple attack with no technique whatsoever, clearly intended to disarm me by making me drop the holy sword, but.

For me, letting go of the holy sword in this critical situation would be tantamount to suicide.

PUHUK-!!

It was an unavoidable blow.

“…!!”

The sudden intense pain in my shoulder momentarily made me almost lose grip on the holy sword in my right hand, but I struggled to maintain my grip and tried to break free from the opponent’s hand that was holding my sword.

“Hmm. You’re not dropping it. Usually people would drop it by now.”

Speaking in a tone that paradoxically combined flatness and ominousness, the demon woman gripping my holy sword showed no intention of letting me retreat.

The road ahead is long.

And there’s a mountain of tasks to do.

Yet here I am, unable to handle even one demon looking down on me, instead being pushed back by the opponent’s strength, my situation is truly…

“Then how about this?”

SHIIIK-!!

A sinister voice that dispelled all the random thoughts I was having while struggling to break free from the opponent came along with the sound of cutting wind.

PUHWAK-!!

I could only blankly watch as the opponent’s left hand, wrapped in pitch-black battle energy, penetrated my right shoulder.

Someone once said.

When a blade too sharp pierces flesh.

The pain comes belatedly.

PUHWAK-!!

As the opponent’s left hand that had pierced my shoulder withdrew, red blood filled my vision.

“…!!”

I finally had to kneel down to endure the pain that felt like my shoulder was being burned by fire.

The demon woman who had left a wound on my shoulder slightly widened the distance between us.

“Wow… You still won’t let go of the holy sword even like this. Amazing.”

She was showing an incongruous appearance, expressing admiration in a voice tinged with ominousness.

The frustration and anger at not being able to reach the opponent.

Even now, they were being blurred by the pain making my shoulder ragged, and the sky at this moment…

Whioong…

Along with the cold wind blowing mercilessly, it was very cloudy and dark.

It’s dark.

Very dar…

#

Thud

Though trying hard to suppress the pain from the decisive blow, the opponent couldn’t completely overcome it and finally lost consciousness and collapsed.

There wasn’t a dramatic scene of the entire body crashing to the ground.

But it was clear that the consciousness of the holy sword wielder, Liliansis Proxian, had been cut off, as she remained motionless except for faint breathing with her head bowed deeply.

“Oh my, did she faint from the pain?”

Adorator murmured quietly toward the holy sword wielder who hadn’t completely fallen but showed no movement except for faint breathing.

Her expression, which had been colored only with boredom, now showed a slight ripple of emotion.

Undisguised admiration for the holy sword wielder who hadn’t let go of her holy sword even while losing consciousness.

Clap clap clap

She expressed this by softly clapping her hands.

“Amazing. Truly amazing.”

Though her voice was still stiff and monotone, which would be well described as ominous compared to her expression.

Anyone who knew Adorator well would not disagree that her current behavior was her own way of showing respect.

It’s surprising compared to her usual behavior, where she’s busy despising even demons and devils of the same affiliation, calling them cumbersome things rather than being friendly.

It’s extremely rare for Adorator to express positive emotions in this form, as she is now.

“If we had met about 5 years later, I think it would have been a much better match.”

Even this wasn’t just empty words.

No matter how much she hadn’t fully recovered her strength due to unhealed wounds from the last Great Holy War.

Adorator was a being who sprinkled divinity indicating that she had touched, albeit weakly, the mystery of transcendence, whose occupation was to guard the Black Obsidian Palace where the divine body of the Demon God, Desire, was enshrined.

In other words, even the flesh that constituted her was a divine body, yet.

Who would have thought an opponent would appear who could inflict even a slight wound on such a divine body?

And that too, a human girl who, judging by appearances, seemed to be at an age before her talents had fully blossomed by human standards!

Perhaps, if it had been Adorator from a thousand years ago, during the Great Holy War.

Upon recognizing that a wound had formed on her body imbued with divinity, albeit insufficiently.

She would have likely lost her reason, bursting with uncontrollable anger while uttering the aforementioned lines.

Having spent a thousand years relatively quietly to heal her wounds.

Could it be that the blind rage that had dwelled in her heart had faded along with the healing of her thousand-year-old wounds?

Step step

Stopping her respectful clapping.

She took steps to narrow the distance she had appropriately widened with the holy sword wielder.

Her footsteps showed no trace of the primal rage.

Indeed, has the fierce quasi-deity, recorded to have mercilessly taken the lives of defeated opponents and bathed in their blood, achieved such mental growth that she would show mercy even to an opponent who had been defeated by her?

“To the point of being regrettable.”

Lick

Repeating the word “regrettable” while licking her lips with an extended tongue, Adorator’s expression was full of regret.

What made her feel such regret?

Was she expressing regret that the confrontation couldn’t continue because the opponent had lost consciousness?

“That I have to end your life with these hands before you truly entertain me.”

…It seems that wasn’t the case.

Even though she showed a much warmer attitude than usual.

Adorator was a lesser deity who had been bestowed with distorted divinity, favored by the Demon God.

Even though she hadn’t fully regained that power and her peculiar twisted nature had softened compared to usual.

Her heart hadn’t softened to the extent of breaking the basic premise of not showing unnecessary mercy to enemies.

Business is business. Personal is personal.

As Adorator murmured quietly in a voice that would hardly be heard by anyone, her right arm.

GUUUU-!!

With a loud roar.

Was wrapped in darkness much thicker than what had enveloped it during the confrontation with the holy sword wielder.

The lips of the one who summoned this dizzying darkness, capable of taking away the light dwelling in all living things its trajectory touched.

“You probably won’t have any resentment since you fought to your heart’s content, right?”

Even though there was no way a reply would come from an opponent who had already lost consciousness and fainted.

“Seeing no answer, I take it as affirmation. I’m glad it was a satisfying final battle.”

While uttering words so brazen that anyone listening would be dumbfounded.

“Let the execution begin.”

Adorator, who mentioned execution in a louder voice, grabbed the nape of the unconscious holy sword wielder who was kneeling with her left hand, which wasn’t wrapped in battle energy.

WHIIK-!!

She threw her body into the air with all her might.

Immediately after projecting a monstrous strength that was hard to believe came from a physique not much larger than the holy sword wielder’s.

Adorator, seeing Liliansis’s body soar to an extremely high point, changed her expression from one of joy that had risen earlier to solemnity.

“Farewell.”

Showing minimal respect to the enemy who had briefly engaged with her after a thousand years of restlessness.

She moved her body to the spot where she predicted Liliansis would fall.

“If I raise my arm here, it will reach the heart.”

She uttered a soliloquy that would feel savage to anyone who heard it.

Adorator’s right arm, matching her words, shot up toward the sky.

At that moment.

KUUUUU-!!

As a final act, she amplified the energy dwelling in her right arm, which was already enveloped in pitch-black darkness.

With this, Adorator completed the preparation for the execution of the opponent to whom she had shown respect.

And as if waiting for these preparations to be completed.

Liliansis’s body, which had soared high into the sky, slowly began its descent toward the ground.

“Ten.”

A number flowed from Adorator’s lips.

“Nine.”

With each decreasing number, Liliansis’s body heading toward the ground gained more and more acceleration.

“Eight.”

If she didn’t regain consciousness, Liliansis was in danger of having her heart pierced.

“Seven.”

Despite Adorator’s cold voice continuing to count down echoing through the void.

“Six.”

There was no sign of her regaining consciousness.

“Five.”

Adorator, confident in her victory, turned her gaze from the ground to the sky.

“Four.”

With each decreasing count, she felt the body of her opponent, who had offered her victory, approaching her right hand.

“Three.”

Now only three numbers remained.

“Two.”

After counting down to a number that would disappear in the blink of an eye, Adorator’s lips.

“One.”

Showed a twisted smile tinged with satisfaction at ending a rare duel in victory.

HWAHRUHRUK-!!

“…!!”

Seeing a crimson flame suddenly manifesting and trying to envelop her vision and body.

If she hadn’t immediately broken her stance and moved away from the execution site in surprise.

Adorator’s death sentence would have undoubtedly proceeded.

“…What?!”

Perhaps because her certain execution had been rendered futile.

Adorator’s voice, which roared toward the still undiminished flames, clearly rippled with anger that she hadn’t shown since arriving at Night Haven.

“How dare you! Interfere with my execution! Who are you?!”

To vent her anger at having her execution interrupted, she transformed the darkness gathered in her right arm into projectiles and launched them toward where the flames were, but.

HWAHRUHRUK-!!

The flames, which had been fierce when they first manifested, intensified their momentum as her projectiles approached and burned away the darkness.

Without a trace.

A rage similar to the flickering flames was about to ripple within Adorator, but.

“…Could it be?”

Seeing the flames effortlessly burning away the darkness she had created, a certain scene suddenly came to Adorator’s mind.

It was from long ago, when she had just awakened her twisted divinity and was building her arrogance while sprinkling blood and darkness on this land.

The flames were very similar to those that had left a burn mark on her divine body, specifically on her back, which even now hadn’t faded, despite not being easily wounded even by holy swords.

Feeling an instinctive unease due to the scene that gave her déjà vu, as her body tried to move away from the flames.

HWAHRUHRUK-!!

As the intensified flames subsided with a loud noise.

The instigator of the flames revealed themselves.

“…”

Adorator’s expression twisted into a complex form upon seeing this.

Anger, shock, fear, hatred.

At the end of her gaze, which revealed a colorful spectrum of emotions that couldn’t be expressed in a single form, was…

Someone who was holding the body of the opponent she had been trying to execute in a very careful posture, while also glaring at her.

“…Hey.”

With a voice filled with killing intent that made even her, possessing divinity, flinch despite its low register.

A mysterious being wearing full-body armor made of crimson dragon scales.

Ah, it’s not that she didn’t know the identity of the armored opponent.

She knew all too well what that armor was.

How could she not know?

“…Ugh!”

The moment she saw it, she felt the pain from the burn mark on her back that occasionally caused her suffering.

It was the armor worn by that detestable dragon when it took human form, treating it like its own body.

“…Fafnir.”

In Adorator’s voice, as she uttered the name inferring the identity of the opponent wearing that armor while enduring the burning pain on her back.

There was not even a trace of the languidness she had shown when facing Liliansis.