Ch.26Fury (1)

As I emerged from Fairy Tail, all I could see were countless corpses of monsters and demonic beasts. They looked as if something had torn off chunks of their flesh—the nape of their necks completely stripped away.

The skill difference must have been substantial. Most monsters had their necks targeted, while smaller demonic beasts had their faces torn off, and the larger ones had their entire torsos ripped apart.

They hadn’t been fighting each other over food, nor had they invaded human settlements. The fact that so many demonic beasts and monsters had died simply to protect Fairy Tail…

I couldn’t contain my anger.

“Moooooooo—”

My low-pitched bellowing clearly expressed how furious I was.

I mourned these monsters and demonic beasts who had sacrificed themselves for the fairies—just as long ago, the fairies had sacrificed their bodies to protect themselves. To avenge their resentment, I set out to find those who had done this to them.

-Ding!

-Minotauros ‘Khan’ has fulfilled the conditions and acquired the new trait [Frenzy].

—Condition fulfilled. Traits [Frenzy] and [Rage] can be combined. Would you like to combine them?

Notifications suddenly appeared, cluttering my vision. I ignored them and continued searching for the intruders…

—Time elapsed. Forced combination of traits will begin.

Since I didn’t make a selection, it started combining them on its own. Golden orbs suddenly emerged from my body, rose in a circle, then emitted a bright light and transformed into a rainbow-colored orb.

—Ta-da-da-da!

—Traits [Frenzy] and [Rage] have been combined to create the new trait: Wrath.

Wrath

A perfect word to describe my current state. I would kill those who suddenly invaded another’s territory and attempted to murder innocent beings. I would decorate this place with their bones to ensure they never invaded again.

With that thought, I headed toward where I believed the intruders were located.

* * * * *

“Moooooooooo———!!!!”

“Cleric!!! Looks like the beast is pissed!”

“Hmm, I suppose living as a beast for over five years has made his mind bestial too. Be careful, this one seems formidable.”

“Ahahahaha! When has an opponent not been formidable? Be careful, Cleric. If you’re about to die, I’ll finish the job for you.”

The man called Cleric merely nodded at those words. He positioned his skeletons at the front line, preparing for the upcoming battle with the approaching Minotauros.

Thud… Thud… Thud…

The beast’s footsteps drew closer. As if matching the rhythm of my heartbeat, the Minotauros’s footsteps overlapped with my pounding heart.

Thud…! Thud…! Thud…!

The sound of its footsteps grew louder. My heartbeat accelerated in tandem, pounding so loudly it was almost deafening.

THUD—! THUD—! THUD—!

Now the beast was nearly upon us, its footsteps causing trees to fall.

Crack…! BOOM… BOOM… CRASH——!!

With a thunderous sound, the tree in front of us went flying, and the beast’s arm swung toward me.

“Kuk…!”

Faced with that overwhelming crimson body, I abandoned any thought of resistance and threw myself backward to focus on evasion. But… despite its massive size, the beast instantly caught up to me.

“Gah—!! You damn bull bastard!”

I swung my saw to attack it, but… it ignored my attack and stubbornly pushed forward with its body.

In an instant, its fist came toward me, about to crush me…

But I wasn’t alone.

CRASH——!!!

The Cleric’s green flames struck the Minotauros, setting it ablaze. It was fascinating how the flames burned vigorously without harming nature… surely this would damage the beast.

Or so I thought.

“MOOOOOOO——!!!”

The beast ignored the fact that its body was on fire and reached out to grab me. Just as I was about to be caught off guard…

WHOOSH———!!

A burning wagon wheel circling around the Cleric saved me. I narrowly escaped the beast’s fist and regrouped.

“MOOOOOOO——”

This crazy bull didn’t seem to care that its body was burning. It just stared at us with reddened eyes.

“Cleric, do you think you can pierce its skin? If we can just break through, we could deal significant damage.”

“Hmm—, I doubt it. Seeing how it remains unharmed by my flames, it must have some magic resistance.”

The Cleric’s green flames, which only burned targets he designated, were a familiar attack whose power I knew well.

When used on humans, it would burn away all flesh leaving only bones in just one minute. One minute to reduce a person to nothing but bones—that’s how hot these flames were.

Yet this Minotauros acted as if it were merely in a sauna. And…

“That beast… hasn’t it gotten bigger?”

It seemed like its body was gradually growing larger. Earlier, its horns didn’t reach the branch next to it, but now they were touching it.

Its hands, feet—everything seemed to be growing. As I began to feel uneasy about this…

The beast moved again.

“MOOOOOOOOO———!!!!!!”

Thankfully, I had wrapped my ears with mana in anticipation of the Minotauros’s roar; otherwise, my eardrums would have burst.

CRACK——!!!

After stunning us with its roar, it uprooted a nearby tree and hurled it at us.

“Cleric!”

At my warning, the Cleric moved away, positioning his skeletons in front of him. I also dodged sideways to avoid the tree.

CRASH——!!!

As I glanced at the tree embedded in the ground amid a cloud of dust, I was startled by the Minotauros’s horns suddenly appearing before me and hastily activated my artifact.

“Blink!”

With a whoosh, she teleported to the Cleric’s side. This skill activated an artifact embedded in her shoes, allowing her to teleport to a desired location twice per day…

“Ah— recharging this with mana stones is so expensive… Tsk—, Cleric, we need to go all out today.”

“I’ve been waiting for those words.”

With that, he threw off the clerical robes he was wearing. Underneath was… a body reduced to bones. The Cleric was a skeleton, with only his face remaining intact.

“Sigh— to think I’d have to show this cursed body in public again… The price for this is high, you bull bastard.”

Around the Cleric, skeletons burning with green flames began to float in the air, similar to the burning wagon wheels embedded with skulls.

At the center of these corpses, he began conducting as if with a baton, using what appeared to be someone’s rib that he had snapped off.

“This is my unique ability, Maestro!”

The skeletons opened and closed their jaws as if singing in a choir. Above them, wagon wheels flew around, cackling “hee-hee-hee—” and adding to the eerie atmosphere.

As the skeletons began to sing, a strange mana wave emanated from them.

Sensing danger, the Minotauros immediately charged at the Cleric, but I blocked it with my strength.

“Ha— is that all the strength you’ve got?”

I, who had taken on the form of a Minotauros with only red hair growing, completely prevented the Minotauros from approaching the Cleric.

“This bastard is incredibly strong! Cleric! I’m definitely taking this one’s corpse!”

The red-haired woman delivered a punch to the Minotauros’s cheek with her right hand. When struck with its own power, the Minotauros seemed to take real damage, spitting blood from its mouth.

Seeing this, she pressed her advantage, continuing to assault the Minotauros. She threw punches, headbutted it with her horns, and attacked. Just as she was beginning to feel satisfied with the mounting injuries…

The Cleric, who had been conducting all this time, finally finished his piece. The mana waves emitted by the singing skeletons culminated in a single spell.

“Tremble in fear! The wrath of God that purifies all shall fall upon you! Extinction Ray!”

With his incantation, the sky opened.

This wasn’t a mere metaphor—a black line appeared and literally tore the sky open. From within emerged a black skull with a halo.

The skull grabbed the black line with its hands and tore it wider, displaying an overwhelming presence like a skeleton that had ripped open the sky. It began charging a black beam in its mouth.

“Dopl—! It’s about to fall, get back now!”

I, who had been pummeling the Minotauros, leaped backward at the Cleric’s warning.

And then, the judgment of the evil god descended.

The black beam struck the Minotauros and began erasing the ground beneath it. The surface melted away, completely corroding everything around it, transforming the land of the living into the land of the dead.

That’s when Dopl noticed something strange.

“Hey, Cleric… does that beam also have the function of making monsters grow?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. That beam decomposes the living—it’s literally a light of extinction. If a living being is hit, it means instant death.”

“Then… why does that beast keep getting bigger?”

Hearing this, the Cleric carefully observed the Minotauros and realized she was right.

Despite being hit by what could be considered his ultimate technique, the beast maintained its form. No, it wasn’t just maintaining its form—it was growing even larger.

When first seen, it was about 8 meters tall, already considerable for a Minotauros. Now, taking the beam of extinction head-on, it had grown beyond 15 meters and was still expanding.

Its upper body had developed enormously, looking capable of crushing anything, with black lightning circling its arms. Its lower body had grown massive enough to support such a torso.

A tail that it didn’t have before had also appeared, crackling with black lightning.

The horns on both sides had grown tremendously, appearing to be about 4 meters long, and the horns behind its eyes curved forward, resembling those of a demon.

When the Extinction Ray disappeared, the area had become a hellish land where no living being could survive. The ground had turned purple, and the surrounding grass and trees had completely turned gray.

Standing on the purple cracks was a demon with four horns on its head, enveloped in lightning and flames.