Ch.129Derikson Village Purification (3)

Atop the bizarre and grotifying… massive flesh golem’s head.

Whether he was kneeling or had embedded his lower body into the golem was unclear. The necromancer, whose lower body was barely visible, wore his hood pulled down deeply as if reluctant to show his face.

Nevertheless, strangely enough, I could clearly see his lower jaw contorted with rage as he pointed a staff made of twisted, rotting branches at us and spoke.

“You dare destroy my army and attempt to purify this village…? Such ignorant fools who don’t understand the glory of the blessing of decay…!”

It seems all necromancers share this kind of perception.

“In decay, there is only suffering. Only through the radiance of the sun and the blessing of fire can we purify corruption and drain the pus from festering wounds. You are the pus of this village, a member of the decay that gnaws at humanity.”

Of course, being lumped into the same category as him was utterly disgusting, so I cut short his verbose speech and marked him for elimination.

“You dare speak of purification before me! I wonder what expression you’ll wear when your flesh rots and decays!”

“By the power of the sun, I shall judge your sins! The light is with us!”

“Die!”

With those words, the flesh golem’s massive hand came crashing down upon us.

We scattered to avoid it, and Simon and the elf sisters began firing flames and arrows.

Bang! Bang-bang-bang!

“Hahaha! Do you think you can stop this golem with those pathetic fire tricks and toothpicks?!”

“Uwoooaaargh!!!”

Unfortunately, neither attack managed to inflict significant damage on the flesh golem.

To be precise, the attacks were landing well enough, but whenever the golem sustained damage, the necromancer would summon zombies and skeletons, crush them, and use them for repairs, rendering our efforts completely futile.

The elves’ arrows in particular were especially ineffective against this type of enemy, so I realized we needed to change our strategy.

“Simon!”

“What is it?!”

“Create a curtain of fire to keep the corpses from coming in! Trap us in with it too!”

“…Got it!”

“Elves, aim for the sorcerer, not the golem! I mean put armor-piercing arrows in the necromancer’s head!”

“Understood!”

“Switching to armor-piercing arrows, sir!”

Soon, with a wave of his staff, Simon created a barrier of fire that enclosed us with the necromancer, and the zombies trying to break through turned to charcoal in the magically created flames.

The skeletons held up somewhat better, but their charred bones only made them more vulnerable. Grinding his teeth, the necromancer began hurling green orbs at us.

“Damn you all! Do you really think you can win like this?!”

Boom! Boom!

“Dodge!”

Hissss!

“Acid solution! Our buffs should protect us from a hit or two, but after that, we’re in real danger!”

“Damn it!”

Now we had to contend not only with the golem itself but also with the spells being cast by the necromancer riding atop it.

We’d successfully prevented the enemy from regenerating, but with acid being flung at us, we couldn’t find an opening to attack.

Raisha and I were somewhat better off, slashing away at the legs from directly below where the acid was difficult to aim, but the 30-meter giant’s legs were disgustingly thick.

It was fortunate my sword was enchanted with fire. If I had to rely solely on the blade’s cutting power and my aura, it would take ten hours to sever even one leg.

“Simon! Elves! Help us out here!”

“Help the boss! We can’t shoot! Casia!! Look out!!!”

“Kyaaaah!”

Crash!

As damage gradually accumulated, the sorcerer made the golem rampage even more violently. Unlike Raisha and me, who as martial classes had no particular restrictions on weapon use, the elf sisters and Simon—who needed to aim their weapons—had to dodge frantically to avoid being crushed by the golem’s massive arms.

“Eek! Die already!”

Thunk! Thunk!

The elves could at least shoot armor-piercing arrows during brief openings, but Simon—already slow and frail as a mage, plus needing to aim his staff and chant spells—was literally fighting for his life.

“Raisha!”

“Yes?!”

“Go help Simon! I’ll figure something out!”

“…Alright!”

Hearing my words, Raisha dashed toward Simon, who was soon fluttering like a flag in the hands of a woman much younger than himself.

Looking at the flesh golem that was tearing up the ground like a hydraulic press, I sheathed my sword and drew a pair of daggers I had kept hidden in my clothes with binding magic.

“Hup!”

Sizzle!

I experimentally stabbed a dagger into the golem’s leg, but it only drew blood without doing much else.

But what if I added aura?

Fzzzzzt!

Clack! Clack!

“Yes… this is it!”

Aura is the power of the soul, and the soul’s natural partner is the flesh.

And regardless of its state, the flesh golem is a being made of ‘living’ flesh mashed together… With aura-infused daggers, I could use the attractive force between aura and flesh to ‘climb’ it.

With that thought, I infused my other dagger with aura as well and began to ascend the moving golem’s leg.

“Nngh!”

It was incredibly difficult, but I had no choice.

With spells, arrows, and sword strikes all failing to deal significant damage, the only way to defeat this flesh golem was to take down the necromancer controlling it.

Thunk! Thunk!

“Eek!”

Thud! Thud!

“Damn it…! Why does this thing have to be so tall…!”

In my previous life, seeing buildings over 100 meters was commonplace, making 30-meter structures seem insignificant. But now that I was climbing a moving 30-meter monstrosity, such thoughts vanished completely.

Of course, as an aura user, I wouldn’t die from falling, but if I fell and got stepped on by the golem, that would certainly kill me.

The necromancer was already in a rage and would show me no mercy. In the worst case, he might force my body—if not my soul—to serve his evil purposes.

That was something I absolutely refused to allow.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

I continued climbing the golem by embedding my daggers, but eventually, the necromancer must have detected the accumulated impacts and noticed my ascent.

“You wretched creature! How did you climb up here?!”

“Determination, you villain! I’ll be taking your head soon, so you might want to clean that filthy body of yours a bit!”

“How dare a bastard child of the dead sun!”

Whoosh!

As our brief exchange ended, the flesh golem began moving even more violently, desperately trying to shake me off.

The necromancer himself couldn’t directly do anything to me since his lower body was fused with the golem, but the golem’s explosive movements were more than enough to put me in danger.

“Arrrgh!!!”

“Fall! You moth chasing the sun!”

“Master Nariakira Saburoshi!!! Grant me strength!!!”

Slip!

“Waaaagh!”

But despite my prayer, I lost my grip on one dagger’s handle.

I tried desperately to hold onto the remaining one, but the flesh golem’s frenzied movements as it jumped around trying to trample my companions and wildly swinging its arms caused me to lose my last dagger as well.

But…

‘Aksen!’

As I fell, I twisted my body as much as possible and succeeded in embedding my greatsword into the golem’s back. Having narrowly avoided the fall, I used the straight blade as a foothold, retrieved my daggers, and began extending them toward the necromancer.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

“You damned pest! Why won’t you fall?!”

“I’m quite skilled at many things! And among those skills, killing people is my greatest talent!”

“To speak with such arrogance before one who commands death! You shall pay for that sin with your life!”

Though the necromancer’s fixed lower body prevented him from attacking me properly, he made the very rational decision to attack me with his staff instead of his arms.

Twisting his staff and chanting a spell, a yellow beam shot from its tip…

“What?”

And that was it.

“What?! The paralysis doesn’t work?!”

At the same moment the necromancer gasped in shock, I felt greatly relieved as I remembered receiving a buff against paralysis spells before the battle began.

And now, those layers of buffs were finally proving their worth.

Thunk! Thunk!

“Stay away from me!”

I ignored his words.

The distance between us had greatly decreased, and had this situation been horizontal rather than vertical, the necromancer would have fallen to me long ago.

“Eek! In that case! I’ll dissolve you so thoroughly there won’t be bones left to pick!”

Facing the prospect of becoming a necro/mancer himself, the sorcerer held his staff back and doused me with acid solution repeatedly. It was so potent that my entire body felt like it was on fire despite my acid resistance buff.

“Aaaaargh!!!!”

“Dieeeeee!!!”

Hissssss!!!

My armor melted, my clothes disintegrated, and my skin peeled away to reveal dermis and muscle.

Tremendous pain washed over me, but I activated Fentin to forcibly reduce the pain and finally succeeded in embedding my last dagger as a final foothold.

“You damned creature… it’s time for you to die!”

“W-why won’t you die?!”

“It’s the power of the sun! Corpse-eater!”

With that declaration, I grabbed the necromancer’s head and ripped it out along with his spine.