Ch.999Heavenly Demon Debate

“Phew… I can finally breathe a bit. Thanks for your hard work, Demian.”

Right after Demian’s healing roughly finished restoring my shattered eye, punctured left arm, right leg, and internal organs.

I stood up using Durandal as a walking stick and lightly stretched my aching shoulders.

My body was healing at an incredible rate. Perhaps because my strength had somewhat returned, the cellular regeneration was remarkably fast even without fully opening my demigod state.

“Huh… these wounds shouldn’t heal this quickly…?”

“You’re not even a werebeast, yet you’re regenerating new flesh at an alarming rate after just a bit of healing magic. Are you really human?”

Demian and Ophelia van Sigmillus gaped at the speed of my recovery.

Perhaps because they were witnessing critical injuries that should have been fatal healing in an instant, they looked at me as if I were some kind of planarian rather than a human.

I couldn’t help but laugh at their bewilderment.

“I am human, you know?”

Half of me, at least.

The other half could no longer be called human… but well, that’s something Demian and Ophelia wouldn’t know about.

“I don’t think so…”

Ophelia stared at me suspiciously, earning herself a verbal beating.

Her expression made me want to smack her, but unfortunately she was a mage so I couldn’t. Unlike Demian who had decent durability, Ophelia might actually die if I so much as tapped her.

Consider yourself lucky you’re a mage.

—-

After recovering enough to fight, though not at full strength, I headed toward the World Tree with Demian’s group.

“KWAAAANG!”

“Haha! That was quite decent. But you’re still far from matching me!”

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

In other words, we were walking straight into the disaster zone where Persiella was engaged in fierce combat with the World Tree’s monster.

“Manseol Bingcheon!”

Lightning ricocheted through the downpour, forming a net-like pattern in the air, while icy spikes from the blizzard collided with the lightning bolts, bursting like fireworks.

Melting and shattering ice fragments carved rough scars across the monster’s face as if sanded down, and the monster’s massive ice sword shattered like glass against Persiella’s slash.

“Falling Star Sword, Pagoon-!”

Her follow-up thrust became a whirlwind of cold energy that shredded the monster’s wings like a blender, and the monster’s formless roar struck Persiella, slamming her into the ground.

“Kyhaaaaak!”

Seizing the opportunity, the monster created a massive ice hammer, grasped it with its front paws, and raised it high.

Just as the monster was about to bring down the glacier-like hammer to crush Persiella along with the earth beneath her.

【Extreme Ice】

Persiella’s Tale of Heros, despite being only half Dragonborn, wielded the power of Karma. The authority of spatial freezing stopped the monster’s hammer along with its front paws.

Then.

“This is the martial art of the Heavenly Demon that shatters stars. Receive it if you can!”

Persiella, who had been buried underground, spread her wings wide and leaped out, swinging her grasped longsword mercilessly toward the frozen space.

Falling Star Sword Ultimate.

Star Splitting.

The supreme technique that once blocked my Sky Slash was now unleashed with even greater force than before.

CRACK!

The air shattered like glass fragments.

A space-collapsing sword strike that froze and destroyed space itself. Everything within range was reduced to dust and scattered.

Lightning, rain, blizzard, the ice hammer, and even the monster’s front paws. All of it.

“KAAAAAAAAK-!!”

The massive monster, now left with only its hind legs, slammed its jaw into the ground and roared. It was a scream-like howl filled with bewilderment and rage.

“How amusing you look, groveling there! Surely this isn’t the end? You still have two legs left, don’t you?”

Persiella charged through the blizzard and struck the monster’s horn with her sword. Her voice resonating from behind her mask was filled with ecstasy.

…She fights well.

She mentioned slaying a dragon called a Tarasque, didn’t she? Perhaps because of that, Persiella had become noticeably stronger since our fight.

“Regenerate and rise! Rise and come at me! With that magma-like blood, try to quench my unquenchable, insatiable thirst!”

She seemed more violent than before, perhaps because she had grown stronger and closer to becoming a true dragon.

“You guys wait here for a moment.”

I left my companions behind and flew up using Karma Fire to approach Persiella. Sensing my presence, she turned to me and shouted.

“So you’ve come, you cowardly and barbaric human scrap of a woman!”

What a harsh assessment. I even complimented her on getting stronger. Well, we were enemies originally, so I suppose it’s natural.

“At last I face you again, yet I lament that I have no time to settle our score!”

“Why are you here?”

I ignored her vitriol and asked why she had flown all the way to this great forest.

“My brother commanded it. He said your human empire paid a hefty price to request assistance.”

“Leopold sent you?”

“Yes. My brother accepted the empire’s proposal. He must have deemed humans more trustworthy allies than fairies. I merely followed his decision.”

Surprisingly straightforward answer.

Honestly, I didn’t even expect a proper response when I asked.

“That’s the only reason I’m sparing your life, so you should properly thank the Emperor and the ruler of the Dragonic Kingdom. They’ve extended your miserable lifespan.”

“Oh, really?”

I doubt it. If we fought one-on-one at full strength, I’d win easily. Ever heard of a demigod punch?

“For someone who calls herself a Heavenly Demon, you sure obey your brother well. Such brotherly love. Even though you probably don’t share a single drop of blood.”

I smirked as I said this, while deftly flying behind her back to make her deal with the ice spear the monster had launched at me.

KWAAANG!

Persiella slashed the massive ice spear with her sword wrapped in blue breath, then turned to me and clicked her tongue.

“It’s only natural. You wouldn’t understand, having slaughtered most of your family and relatives.”

Persiella retorted to my sarcasm. It seemed her verbal skills had sharpened along with her strength.

“You talk big for someone who knows nothing. By my standards, they all deserved to die for their character.”

“Like you?”

Ha, look at this. Wish I can reveal demigod.

“Are you in any position to criticize my character? Lady Heavenly Demon who burned down ‘Small Forest.’ Those bald ones still grind their teeth at the mere sight of you, don’t they?”

“No worse than the slayer of Amitamir, the sect’s ancestor. How cleverly you survived. Did some gods who favor only your kind bestow their grace upon you?”

“Yes, exactly. And without such favor, your organization was completely destroyed by just one dragon, wasn’t it? How unfortunate.”

“That’s…!”

Just as Persiella was about to retort, the World Tree’s monster whipped its tail and struck her body like a lash.

THWACK!

The ice armor covering the blue half-human half-dragon’s body shattered, and the Dragonborn Heavenly Demon was buried like a mole hit by a hammer.

“Kyaooooooh!”

The lava monster in rock armor roared with equal parts rage and ecstasy, swinging its tail again to target me.

“How annoying!”

Its tail was ground off by a whirlwind of cold energy and snapped off.

Persiella, who had pierced through and destroyed the monster’s tail, turned the lava pouring down like blood into stone the moment it touched her, then took flight again.

“Having a tough time, I see.”

I looked at her and gave her an obvious smile, then turned around to head back to Demian’s group.

Now that I knew why Persiella had appeared here, there was no reason to stay and risk getting caught in the crossfire.

If she came to help humans and exclude fairies, she’d fight that monster well enough on her own.

Personally, I’d prefer if they destroyed each other… but from the looks of it, that seemed unlikely.

If I wanted them to destroy each other, I’d have to help the monster rather than her. But that wasn’t an option.

So I quietly left the scene.

“Keep up the good work. I’m rooting for you!”

I offered my own sincere encouragement to Persiella who was struggling on our behalf.

“That… that woman! I’ll tear her to pieces…!”

Persiella roared like a true dragon.

—-

“You seemed to be talking with that Dragonborn woman for quite a while. Did you learn anything?”

Ophelia asked when I returned.

“Yeah. She said she was sent by Emperor Leopold as reinforcement. So we can leave her be and focus on our own task.”

“Our task?”

“We need to burn it. That massive tree.”

I turned my head to look at the center of the great forest. The enormous tree god stretching endlessly in the middle of the forest that had been desertified by the battle with Varnir.

The World Tree.

“Once we burn that, everything will be over. This war, and the ambition and arrogance of the fairy race.”

“Can you actually burn something that big?”

“Well… I guess we’ll have to find out.”

I answered Ophelia’s question without even turning my head, focusing solely on the World Tree.

I could feel it.

A new sense beyond the five senses conveyed it to me. The god of trees and fairies was looking down at us.

That gaze contained clear and blatant hatred.

And mixed within that blazing hatred was a small trace of fear unique to those facing a life-threatening crisis.

The final moment for the fairies was approaching.