Ch.87Jealousy (2)

A skeleton with nine dragon heads wrapped around Khan’s arm and refusing to let go. As I was watching warily at the appearance of this creature that looked like a Hydra from the same world as my original race, the Minotaur…

The Hydra Skeleton simply stood behind Envy, as if protecting it.

With nine heads and countless ribs guarding what appeared to be its core, the Hydra stared at me silently while emitting a green ghostly aura.

Hissss…

The ground began to melt and scream as the creature stepped on it. Envy nodded proudly at the Hydra, touching its leg bones with a bright smile.

Hissss…

“Oh my, I prepared gloves for this… Well, replacements are plentiful, so it doesn’t matter. Ahem, about this child? I really went through a lot of trouble. Bringing ordinary ones would just be a nuisance to you. So I traveled to lands transformed by poison and succeeded in commanding this child. Despite being a corpse from 60 years ago, the bones are still intact—truly remarkable.”

He burned the leather in his hand with green fire. A skeletal hand was revealed. While Envy was dusting off his hands, chaos erupted among the humans.

“AAAAARGH—!!!”

“Don’t fall back!!”

The battle was still raging behind me and in front of Envy, and the undead rushed even faster toward the cult’s position, seemingly annoyed by the noise.

“Such noisy creatures. Dying quietly, without a word—that’s the art of death. Don’t you agree?”

“Mmmrrrgh (Your girlfriend kept babbling until she died, though.)”

“Hahaha! I don’t know what you’re saying, but it’s good we can communicate. I want to take back the legacy of her that you’ve taken. Will you hand it over? Then I’ll withdraw.”

Envy didn’t understand Khan’s words, but seeing that Khan was responding, he thought there was a willingness to talk and stated his demand.

Khan answered by flexing his muscles.

“I see… Then farewell.”

—!!!

With Envy’s gesture, the Hydra lunged at Khan, thrusting all nine heads forward.

* * *

Before Khan and Envy faced each other, a small being was struggling to break through the wall of light. The tiny creature’s shoulder had turned red from repeatedly ramming against it.

Despite panting from exhaustion, it didn’t give up its body-ramming attacks.

CRASH!

“I broke through!”

Mary, the fairy who had been wrestling with the wall of light for quite some time, finally managed to break through.

“Khan… I hope he’s not badly hurt…”

As she flew forward with her tiny body.

BOOM…!

“Eek…!”

A sudden heavy sound. Turning toward it, she saw a skeleton with nine necks facing off against Khan.

“A Hydra! Why is that monster here…!”

Mary worried about Khan as he confronted the Hydra skeleton—a creature that had died before she was even born.

The Hydra’s deadly poison was said to have killed gods. Though as a skeleton it couldn’t produce poison without venom glands, there was always a chance…

Thinking it impossible for Khan to defeat this alone, Mary looked toward the white group that was holding back the blue and green forces.

* * *

“Push forward!”

“Holy Hammer Squad, rotate positions! Holy Knight Order, move to the front line and block the enemy’s wave attack! Archbishops, bombard with holy spells alongside the remaining Holy Spell Corps!”

“Choir, stop singing and conserve your holy power! Clerics, heal those returning from the front lines after crushing the undead!”

The religious order was overwhelmingly busy holding back the waves of undead attacks.

From skeletons to skeleton archers, mages, knights, death knights, and even liches.

The number of ordinary skeletons alone exceeded fifty thousand. Envy seemed to control only some skeletons, death knights, and liches, as only they emitted green auras while the others glowed blue.

“There’s no end to them, Saintess. Even with our brothers and sisters strengthened by the sanctuary and the army of light, with the Knights of God all wiped out except for me… the Archbishops alone cannot handle this.”

“I know, Plok. But… the creatures approaching from three sides are blocking our retreat, and the only open path is where Wrath and Envy are currently confronting each other. It’s impossible to break through there.”

“Yes. That’s why… I’ll use a sacrifice spell. That should be enough to create a path through them.”

“…I understand Brother Plok’s thinking. But… our brothers and sisters haven’t given up yet. So just a little… let’s hold on a little longer.”

Plok looked at her with a regretful expression, but the Saintess’s face remained resolute.

As Plok sighed and returned to guarding the Saintess…

“Excuse me…”

“Who goes there!”

WHOOSH—!!

“Eek…!”

THUD—!

Plok’s mace swung through the air, sending the suddenly appearing entity flying. The sound and feeling were like hitting a rubber ball, suggesting the entity had blocked with a shield.

As Plok tensed at the presence that had penetrated his senses…

“Plok, stop. If they wanted to kill us, they could have done so silently. There seems to be no hostility, so put down your weapon.”

“But Saintess…”

Seeing the Saintess glare at him after he objected, Plok finally relaxed his grip on his weapon.

“Oh my, that startled me. It’s partly my fault for appearing suddenly, but swinging weapons like that could kill a fragile fairy like me in one hit.”

Once again penetrating Plok’s senses, the entity introducing itself as a fairy reappeared.

Looking in the direction of the voice, they saw a fairy larger than normal looking at them.

“I’m a fairy! I can’t tell you my name, but anyway, I’m here to offer you a good deal.”

“A deal?”

When the self-proclaimed fairy suddenly appeared and requested a deal, Aura the Saintess expressed her doubt.

She wondered why fairies, who disliked humans who kidnapped them, would suddenly appear before them.

“Yes! The deal I want to make is for you to help that Minotaur over there. In return, I’ll help you escape from here.”

At those words, Plok gripped his mace again, and the Saintess frowned deeply as she looked at Mary.

“You… Are you on Wrath’s side? If so…!!”

“Wait, wait!! Yes, I’m on the side of the Minotaur you call Wrath, but at this rate, aren’t you all going to die anyway? Wrath is holding back that skeleton Hydra, which is the only reason you’re still hanging on. If Wrath loses? You’ll all die afterward!”

“Even so, Wrath’s side is an enemy of Lord Uldur. Even if we all perish…”

At that moment, a beam of light descended upon the Saintess from above. The light from the heavens confused and bewildered her.

But believing that the god she followed wouldn’t say anything strange, she nodded.

“Archbishop Epaga! I leave this place to you! Plok and I will face the Hydra!”

“Yes, Saintess! I pray to Lord Uldur for your safe return!”

* * * * *

CRASH—!!!

“AAAAARGH—!!”

“Be careful! The impact of their collision reaches all the way here!”

“It stings…!?”

A single collision. The Minotaur Khan and the Hydra skeleton made from the corpse of the mythical beast. Khan standing 10 meters tall, and the Hydra with a body height of 10 meters excluding its necks.

An unimaginable collision sound erupted from the impact between a flesh-and-blood body and a skeleton animated by spiritual energy.

The powerful collision caused an unfortunate holy knight nearby to lose balance and get stabbed by a skeleton’s sword that flew with it, and the weak electromagnetic waves emitted from Khan’s body swept through the Holy Knight Order, giving them a tingling sensation.

With just one collision, they gauged each other’s strength.

Khan thought that despite being a skeleton, it had strength matching his own muscle power—indeed, these participants were difficult opponents.

The bone-only Hydra, essentially Envy’s summon, had strength equal to his own.

And judging by how his skin turned red where he directly collided with it, the creature’s bones seemed to be soaked in strong poison.

Though immune to poisons except for Hydra’s poison, the powerful toxin had already changed his arm and upper body from dark red to bright red where the Hydra had wrapped around him earlier.

Additionally, Envy had mobilized many skeletons to prevent the religious order from interfering in this battlefield.

Thinking it would be troublesome if the order collapsed and the skeletons joined the fight before he could deal with the Hydra, Khan decided to end this as quickly as possible.

Rumble…

Lightning gathered in Khan’s arm, and a stone axe formed in his hand. The axe was swung immediately after it formed.

Seeing this, the Hydra extended its nine necks, opening its dragon maws as it stretched toward Khan.

CRASH—!!

But Khan’s axe was faster. The axe was imbued with lightning flowing through Khan’s arm, and as Khan’s arm accelerated, it was swung at tremendous speed.

SLASH—!!

BOOM—!!

Three necks couldn’t withstand the blow and were severed, and the axe dug more than halfway into the fourth neck. Khan detonated the axe, severing the fourth neck as well.

“Oho—! Indeed, you need that level of skill to have taken what’s mine. Hmm. Fortunately, I was terribly worried you might collapse unable to withstand what I prepared.”

Despite losing four heads of his trump card, Envy seemed to think this level of challenge made the fight worthwhile, making Khan think he was insane as he continued his relentless attack.

Khan delivered an uppercut with his stone-covered fist to the Hydra’s middle head, sending the neck flying into the sky, and stomped on the neck targeting his left side, immobilizing it.

But there were still three necks remaining. Those necks once again approached Khan’s left side.

One of the three necks was restrained by Khan’s armpit, one by Khan’s tail, and the remaining neck was caught by Khan’s hand protected by a stone gauntlet.

CRACK—!

With a crushing sound, the Hydra’s neck bones went limp. As Khan released that neck, the Hydra’s middle neck that had soared high came down, swinging its dangling lower jaw and sinking its teeth into Khan’s nape.

Mrrgh—!

Even if it was just the corpse of a Hydra that had been feared as a mythical monster in this world, even if it couldn’t use the special techniques and poison it had in life.

Even as a corpse, the Hydra’s physical strength alone made it a top-class monster.

The Hydra’s teeth easily penetrated Khan’s shoulder, and from the penetrated shoulder, not red blood but green-tinged blood began to leak.

“Mrrgh…!”

A numbing sensation spreading from his nape. This feeling… it was like the poisoning he had experienced as a child. The Hydra’s poison flowing through his veins, racing hotly through his blood vessels, began to eat away at Khan’s body.

“Haha, though it’s not as powerful as the poison it had in life. The Hydra’s poison that has been aging in the bones for 60 years has soaked into them, making them as toxic as extreme poison. An ordinary person would have died spewing blood from every orifice, unable to withstand the poison floating in the air… But you’re much tougher than I thought.”

THUD…!

With Envy’s words, Khan’s legs could no longer support him, and he fell to his knees. The poison was so strong that even though only a few seconds had passed since being poisoned, it had already made Khan’s mind hazy.

“You’ve done well. Now, I’ll take her legacy.”

With those words, five heads approached Khan. Those heads slightly opened their mouths, showing off their green teeth as if boasting, and approached Khan to finish him off.

“El Rapim’s Holy Barrier!”

At that moment, a barrier of light formed in front of Khan.

That light barrier emitted strong holy power that undead greatly disliked, stimulating the instinct-driven bones of the Hydra.

—!!!

The Hydra lunged at the light barrier, opening its mouth wide as if roaring at it.

And from behind appeared the Saintess and Plok.

The Saintess, the shield of the order and God’s representative, and the Knight of God stood blocking in front of Khan.

And at that moment, a very small figure descended from the sky and managed to hide in Khan’s mane.