Encounter (3)

The bizarre battle continued even after that.

Even when Kyle cast magic with all his might, she just scoffed and took it all in stride.

No, everyone in this place couldn’t be said to have taken it in stride.

In order for that expression to be accurate, there had to be at least some sign of deflecting, blocking, or dodging it.

Pajijijik!

“Hehe, you use quite a variety of magic. It’s like watching a spectacle.”

“Tch.”

But even when lightning struck from the ceiling, even when fire rose from the floor, even when the space where she was standing was distorted entirely, she was unfazed.

As if the attack itself was useless.

Kyle watched this and felt like she was in another dimension.

‘Not yet.’

However, Kyle wasn’t just mindlessly casting attacks that didn’t work, wasting his mana.

No, rather, he kept glancing at Sylvia whenever he had the chance, drawing her attention by continuing to launch even more conspicuously large attacks.

Because he had some idea of what was going on.

What kind of trick that woman was using right now.

However, assuming that method was correct, he couldn’t deal with it alone, so he had asked Sylvia for help.

“Kyle! I’ll join in too!”

But Vermillian, who had no way of knowing their plan that they had discussed through telepathic magic, felt impatient and tried to leave Anise’s side to fight alongside them.

Kyle’s sharp voice followed.

“I told you. You just focus on protecting Anise and Sir Drake. Sylvia and I will take care of this.”

“But…!”

“Shut up and mind your own business. I’m fine.”

Kyle snapped harshly at Vermillian, who was trying to argue with his words until the end.

It wasn’t just because he was annoyed that he wasn’t listening to him.

He was just angry at the way he was assuming that he and Sylvia might lose to this woman in front of him.

Just you wait and see.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay? Brat. You should be begging for even a cat’s paw right now.”

The woman scoffed at the sight, but Kyle wasn’t one to back down from words.

As if he had been waiting for that reaction, he lightly twisted his neck from side to side and responded with a relaxed attitude.

“If it looks that way, then the goddess’s eye for talent is dead too. Ah, but you’re not a goddess anymore, are you? You’re a fallen villain who’s fallen as far as you can fall.”

“You bastard…!”

Kuung…!

And as if that provocation had worked successfully, an enormous sense of oppression constricted them from all directions.

“Heueuk…!”

“Anise! Are you okay!?”

“Ugh, yeah. I’m okay.”

So much so that not only Kyle and Sylvia, who were facing her in front of them, but also Anise, who was quite far away and focused on healing Persis, groaned.

It’s not a concept like mana or divine power.

Should it be called the energy that only someone who has lived a transcendent life that humans cannot even fathom can emit?

Even the great Kyle felt a cold sweat break out on his hands for a moment, but he didn’t back down.

No, rather, he smiled with a look of competitive spirit, as if he had met a worthy opponent.

It was then.

“Kyle! I’m ready!”

Sylvia’s eyes sparkled as she delivered the news, this time through her voice instead of telepathic magic.

As if he had been waiting for it, Kyle lightly loosened his fists and drew up his mana.

“Alright, shall we give it a try?”

“……!?”

Kwagagak!

At the same time, a heavy atmosphere comparable to the one from before spread in all directions.

But it wasn’t just because of that that the woman’s eyes widened.

How could she be called a goddess if she succumbed to the pressure of a mere human?

Rather, it was because she had noticed what that cunning bitch with the Fragment of Lethe had mentioned as ‘preparation’.

“So you noticed too?”

Kyle also noticed that the opponent felt a sense of incongruity and smiled deeply.

He didn’t expect her to notice this so quickly.

He was planning to take advantage of the gap before she noticed this and give her a good blow, but is a goddess still a goddess even if she’s fallen?

But knowing that doesn’t change much.

“It seems like you like to trick people with tricks…”

Kkigigigik!

The black mana flowing from Kyle’s hand resonated with something, creating a deafening noise.

It floated into the air and gradually increased in size.

At first, the sphere of mana was only the size of his palm, but before he knew it, it had grown to a size that could swallow the woman’s body and still have room to spare.

Bueook!

Then, it made a sound as if it was about to burst at any moment, like a balloon filled with air to its limit.

“Tch…!”

Feeling something was wrong, the woman quickly waved her hand.

Silver divine power enveloped her surroundings, but Kyle’s magic swallowed her up even faster.

“Did you think no one would notice if you left your main body somewhere else and played puppet games?”

His mocking expression, as if it were absurd, was the last thing the woman saw, and soon her entire body was swallowed into the black sphere.

Kkureureuk…!

A bizarre sound, like the croaking of a toad filling its belly, echoed from within the sphere.

“If you’re a mastermind, wait at the end point like a mastermind.”

Kwajik!

Kyle raised his hand and clenched it as if crushing something, and the sphere, which was easily 3m in diameter, returned to its original size in the blink of an eye.

Even in that state, Kyle frowned slightly, as if he wasn’t satisfied.

“You’re still struggling until the end.”

He put more strength into his clenched fist and crushed the sphere that had appeared in front of him with mana, as if crushing an egg.

Seureureu….

Only then did the magic disappear without a trace, and Kyle turned around with a light snort.

The battle, which had felt so intense, was settled in a matter of seconds, and everyone who watched it wore dumbfounded expressions.

Except for one person, Sylvia.

“You were going to end so anticlimactically, why bother struggling? You just wasted time.”

Vermillian blinked as she watched him shake off his hands and walk towards the bed.

What did I just see?

If that woman was the goddess Erze, as Kyle said, did he defeat the goddess so easily?

“K-Kyle. What was that magic just now? And was that woman really Erze? If so, how did you defeat her so easily…?”

“Ask me one thing at a time. It’s making me dizzy.”

He frowned and picked at his ear, but surprisingly, he answered all of Vermillian’s questions one by one in a calm manner.

“That was a magic called NetherSwell. Well, it’s a type of black magic, so it’s not unreasonable that you don’t know it.”

“Heo, what a fearless man. You dared to try to learn that magic?”

Then, the first to react was not Vermillian, the questioner, but Persis.

“Father, do you know about that magic?”

“Of course I do. Nether, as the word suggests, the underworld. It is said that all black magic with that word attached to it can only be used by making a contract with the king of the underworld. It’s that dangerous of a magic. Among them, NetherSwell is said to be a magic that summons the swamp of the underworld, which is said to be the burial ground and tomb of sinful gods.”

Vermillian’s eyes widened at Persis’s erudite explanation.

He knew better than anyone that Kyle was a great wizard, but he had already learned that much magic?

But it has a difficulty level that is among the highest in black magic.

That means that the burden on the body must be considerable.

“Sir Drake has explained the magic for me, so to continue answering your questions… That woman was probably Erze. What I felt at the end was definitely divine power.”

“Then did you really defeat Erze? The two of you?”

“No, I don’t think so. I wanted to see the conclusion, but it seems like that guy didn’t really intend to do it properly either.”

Kyle frowned and said, as if he was really disappointed.

If he could finish off the leader of those guys here, the next fight would be much easier, and maybe he wouldn’t have to shed innocent blood.

“So he sent an avatar, a puppet. To be exact, it was a ghostly avatar without even a physical form.”

“So that’s why there was no impact.”

“Yeah. Thanks to that, it was dangerous. I don’t know what would have happened if it wasn’t for Sylvia.”

“No. I didn’t really do anything.”

When Sylvia joined the conversation with a smile, Kyle scolded her, saying that being too humble wasn’t good either.

From the beginning, there was no exaggeration in his words.

He had roughly predicted that it was Erze’s avatar, but Kyle had no way to destroy it.

An avatar that has no physical form but can inflict damage on the opponent with his own attacks was a technique he had never seen before.

Moreover, most of those avatars disappear when they take a certain amount of damage, but even that didn’t work.

So, after thinking about it carefully, something felt strange.

Can such a ridiculous level of magic or technique really exist?

There must be some kind of penalty.

Then Kyle came to a conclusion.

That the avatar has an invincible state in which it does not take damage and an attack state in which it can attack.

And that it was a technique that confused the opponent by going back and forth between them in a very fleeting moment.

That’s why he deliberately mixed in provocations to make Erze unleash her divine power and force her to attack them.

After that, it was a simple principle.

“As soon as the body materialized, Sylvia used her eyes to cut off the connection. In the end, that guy had to take my attack in a materialized state.”

“Such a detailed operation in such a short time… Amazing.”

So that’s why he drew attention by using all kinds of magic to cover the opponent’s eyes.

Vermillian was impressed by the two’s teamwork and clicked his tongue.

Erze, who escaped by taking out her body in the meantime, was also amazing in many ways.

“Besides, even if it’s materialized, it wouldn’t be the real body anyway. Maybe 1/3 of her own power… No, 1/10? It would have been another body made with that much power.”

“But doesn’t that mean you inflicted damage? After all, it’s connected to the main body.”

“That’s right.”

Kyle nodded and smiled as if he was quite refreshed.

No, since she was hit directly by that level of magic, even if she was a goddess, she probably wouldn’t be in a situation to laugh right now.

It’s just a pity that he can’t see that face.

＊＊＊＊＊

Cough!

Dry coughs and blood flowed from the mouth of the woman sitting on the throne.

It was an unexpected attack.

Even if they noticed it, it was secondary, but to think that they would find a way to cut off this connection.

It must have been done by that bitch with the Fragment of Lethe.

“Damn it, how dare the minions of a whore…”

With a distorted expression, the woman gripped the armrest of the throne so hard that it crumbled.

Vowing that there would be no leniency the next time they met.