Ch.286286. Southern Desert (4)

[Die, slave of the gods───!!]

The battle began with the Lich Lord casting a spell with a gesture of his hand.

───Kuguuuuuuuuuung!!!

The gentle breeze formed by the Lich Lord’s gesture rapidly grew in scale, becoming like a massive storm, sucking in surrounding sand and glass fragments to form a giant sand tornado.

While it wouldn’t cause significant damage against a high-level opponent, the key was the immobilizing effect from its extremely strong centrifugal force.

[───Come, my steed!]

During the time gained, the Lich Lord summoned Mushushu, once a divine beast granted by the gods but now degraded to a mere undead—a high-level monster.

This powerful beast ‘was’ once a magnificent creature with the head and body of a giant venomous snake, two horns growing above its eyes, and a scorpion tail, possessing elegant dignity.

Its front legs were those of a lion, and its hind legs belonged to a bird of prey.

Additionally, it had a magnificent pair of raptor wings on its back… that’s what it ‘was’.

But during the Lich Lord’s betrayal of the gods, he transformed Mushushu into an undead—specifically a skeleton—and enslaved it.

The result was the current Mushushu Skeleton—a massive snake with only bones remaining, an undead.

[Go! Mushushu!]

At the very moment he summoned the Mushushu Skeleton, the Lich Lord climbed onto its spine and commanded it to take flight.

Though only bones remained of its wings, they were covered with tightly packed bone plates replacing the original feathers, allowing this undead snake with a dragon-rivaling bulk to soar into the sky.

‘……..What is that?’

Meanwhile, Lisa, who had just broken through the sandstorm raised by the Lich Lord, was somewhat taken aback by the sight of Mushushu… but what of it?

[Light!]

Without the slightest hesitation in her heart, Lisa, mounted on what was once called Barca XIV, a Vampiric Dragon, offered a prayer and drew forth holy power.

[Earth, rage!]

Simultaneously, the Lich Lord unleashed his refined spells with preliminary phenomena, and Lisa countered with magic manifested from holy power.

The two had transcended the formal constraints of magic, casting magical power almost like divine authority.

Their clash resembled two angry gods bombarding each other with offensives.

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAANG!!!

KUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUNG!!!

The Lich Lord manipulated the sandy terrain to attack Lisa.

It was basic for him to create weapons from transformed sand that rained down like a shower, or to attack with fake skeletal monsters composed of sand-formed bones.

PUEEEEEEEEEONG───!!!

He split the ground, magically processed the crimson lava seeping through the cracks and hurled it, while raising the earth itself to instantly create an enormously massive golem.

This Lich Lord, closer to the realm of Transcendent (Rank 0) than anyone else, was drawing power from the ley lines of Yuptes’ earth and using it directly for his magic.

[Heavens, pass judgment!!]

WOOOOO──KWAANG!!

Meanwhile, Lisa, facing the Lich Lord, was using overflowing divine magical power to draw upon celestial forces and process them into magical forms to bombard him.

KURRRUNG!! KURUNG!! KURRRRRUNG!!

WOOOOOOONG────KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAANG!!!

Starting with a meteor shower of light formed by gathering overflowing energies from the firmament, she unleashed area attacks with endless holy lightning and pillars of light.

Both sides were effortlessly displaying destructive power approaching natural disasters… but power drawn from external sources inevitably has limits.

Having consumed all the energy from the nearby sky, Lisa drew upon her inner strength instead, and the Lich Lord, sensing the depletion of most ley lines, was in a similar position.

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAANG───!!!!

Thus began the battle between the Holy Maiden and the Necromancer.

[Judge───Divine Weapon!]

As Lisa formed an enormous sword of holy power from high in the sky, attempting to drive it into the ground, the Lich Lord gestured to create a massive partial skull to use as a shield.

And immediately after.

As weapons made of bone flew from all directions, curses suddenly descended to try to bind Lisa’s body, but───

“───Useless!”

Lisa easily shook off the curses by emitting holy radiance from her body, then formed compressed spheres of light around her──and shot dozens of light beams from them toward the Lich Lord.

[Hnngh───!!]

The Lich Lord had to avoid the light beams by forcefully expelling necromantic energy from his body in the form of a shock wave, but….

‘───Now!’

Lisa, who had been watching the Lich Lord, immediately gathered red holy power, concentrated it at the tips of her fingers, and fired shot after shot.

Pyung! Pyung! Pyung! Pyung! Pyung!

The sound of the laser firing seemed childish, like from a toy gun… but its power was truly worthy of an attack Lisa had prepared with gritted teeth.

Of the five shots Lisa fired, Mushushu Skeleton took three to the skull, not only creating holes but the last shot hit its neck, separating its head from its body.

The Lich Lord also had a red beam graze his rib area, so while not dead, he was suffering considerable pain…

[……..How dare you, HOW DARE YOUUUU!!!]

With arrogance reaching the heavens—befitting one who had been buried underground for thousands of years after literally piercing the sky—the Lich Lord finally made a move he absolutely should not have.

[Come, my slaves!!!]

The moment the Lich Lord’s command fell, dozens of undead began to emerge from the black mist spreading from his shadow.

Zombie Dragons and Skeleton Dragons—5 in total.

Skeletons made from divine beasts, creatures bestowed by the gods, all at least high-rank—12 in total.

Undead knights who were once his subordinates, at minimum mid-rank Aura Awakeners—500 in all.

As the Lich Lord, who out of pride had kept these forces hidden in the shadow dimension, brought them out and looked up at Lisa—at that very moment.

“Now, Ben!”

[Yes, understood! «Little Boy»!!!!!]

The moment Lisa gave the signal, a mass of power was fired through the Vampiric Dragon by Ben’s spell.

It was an eruption of power.

※ ※ ※

Shortly after, Lisa jumped down from the Vampiric Dragon and landed at the epicenter after the explosion had ended.

“……..Ugh, hot.”

Lisa momentarily frowned at the tremendous heat rising from the ground, but her body still had various protective spells that had been cast to withstand the earlier nuclear heat magic.

CHIIIIIIIIIII……..!!!

Thanks to this, Lisa could move around the epicenter without any issues, benefiting from cooling magic──

“……..Tsk.”

Lisa’s eyes fell upon ‘undead remains’ piled up as if someone had tried to use them as a shield.

WHOOSH!

After dispersing the remains, which were little more than dust and ash, with a wave of her hand, what was revealed was the Lich Lord—in a miserable state but still “alive?”

Not only were all his clothes burned and equipment destroyed, exposing his ugly bone body, but even the exposed skeleton was far from intact.

Like a bust, only the upper chest and head remained, with all other parts gone—barely alive.

‘……..Perfect timing.’

Lisa forcibly stuffed the Lich Lord into a time-stop preservation container she had received in advance, feeling indescribable emotions about the ground that had turned to glass after two nuclear heat magic attacks…

[Regent, it’s an emergency!]

Suddenly, news that hit like a bomb was delivered through communication magic.

[The Isle of Albion has fallen! Most High Elves escaped, but… the island is completely destroyed!]

“……..W-what?!!”

Lisa couldn’t hide her genuine shock at this completely unexpected situation, and her aide revealed everything to her.

[The Seven Demon Lords have united! It’s an invasion of demons!!]

An unprecedented situation had occurred—the unprecedented alliance of the armies of the Seven Demon Lords.