episode_0242

Fading Light

“If you are that slime, I cannot spare you even more! A slime that follows humans… and a human that welcomes a slime! As a human!!! As a servant of that esteemed one!!! I cannot tolerate this! Hyaaaah!”

Upon realizing that Esti was the wizard’s slime he had previously sent soldiers to kill, Okute became enraged by Esti’s presence and began gathering divine power. Rubaea and Iruvan were already having difficulty with Okute, whose attacks had no effect on them. Now, as he gathered even more power as if to unleash his true strength, they became greatly perplexed.

“Wow… what do we do, Esti noona? That guy… seems to have more hidden power remaining….”

“This is bad… We don’t have much fire left either! If we continue like this, far from escaping his power, we’ll be unilaterally defeated!”

“You two, the fairy and the spirit, gather your strength from behind. As for me… I still have some power left… And I feel like my heart won’t be at peace until I send that guy to the afterlife with my own hands! Rezef’s enemy… I’ll avenge him here and now!”

Unlike the bewildered Iruvan and Rubaea, Esti, who was able to gather strength thanks to her anger, was grinding her teeth and walking towards Okute, emitting a dark crimson aura from her entire body. Seeing this, Iruvan and Rubaea looked at each other, then nodded as if making the same decision, and with a deep breath, began walking to Esti’s sides. Then Iruvan, emitting fire from his entire body, said to Esti,

“Though we knew you were stronger than us from the previous battle, noona… we can at least divert that priest’s attention and help you.”

“We promised not to retreat in the first place… To flee with Akada Former Village Chief-nim’s enemy right before our eyes… I don’t want that resolve to become meaningless… Shouldn’t we inflict a fatal wound, even if it means acting stubbornly?!”

“…I certainly thought I’d be fighting alongside Aria and Zeke… but to end up fighting with a spirit and a fairy I’ve never seen before… Well, even so… if you help me with my revenge, I won’t stop you. Instead… how about we move like this?”

“Huh? Do you have a good idea or something…?”

As Iruvan and Rubaea desired to defeat Okute even if it meant using their last remaining strength, Esti began explaining her plan to them. The moment Iruvan and Rubaea heard the plan from Esti, Okute, who had transformed into a complete Holy Radiance with a sphere of light swirling around his body, raised a dazzlingly shining hammer towards the three and shouted,

“I will eradicate all of you from this land, you filthy impurities!”

“Hmm… Remembering your earlier remarks… it seems you highly value human pride and dismiss the pride of other races, making you a racist… It looks like you discriminated against other races even before being influenced by Camilla’s divine power, am I wrong?!”

“Of course, you filthy slime! Because Goddess Camilla-nim promised to only keep pure humans on this land, I am following her!”

Esti, who instinctively understood from Okute’s remarks that he considered all races other than humans to be filthy, questioned him about it. When Okute’s answer confirmed her suspicion that he was a disgrace to humanity for disparaging all other races as she had thought, Esti let out a hollow laugh and said that such humans were precisely the type Rezef disliked the most.

“Rezef wished for everyone to live together… but it seems you will never fulfill Rezef’s wish, you damned human. No… you’re a degenerate who makes even other humans feel ashamed.”

“Degenerate?! Watch your mouth! I possess human pride and human glory! Inferior beings like you, who can’t even touch a human’s toes, dare not covet us or Goddess Camilla-nim!”

“Oh, really… And such a guy contributed to kidnapping and brainwashing our fairies and other races to turn them into followers? Haven’t you ever thought to yourself that your words and actions are completely different?”

“Poison purifies poison! You are all consumables anyway, so what does it matter to you?!”

Okute, who had been shouting about how he was right to reject other races apart from humans and use them as consumables based on that belief, became enraged and began charging towards the three. Rubaea and Iruvan then split to his sides, attacking Okute by spewing flames from both directions. However, Okute merely scoffed at them, as if the flames no longer affected him at all, and shouted,

“Hahahaha! I am now in a state of complete Holy Radiance! Your pathetic flames cannot stop me!”

“Then… how about my aura instead of fire?! Rezef!! Lend me more power! The power to defeat this guy and save the others! Crimson Rush!”

Even as Okute charged at her, breaking through Iruvan and Rubaea’s flames, Esti calmly gathered her aura, then unleashed a liquid wrapped in aura from her two hands, attacking Okute. Okute received the attack with his entire body, then scoffed at Esti and shouted,

“Do you really think such a pathetic attack can break through my charge?! As expected, the thoughts of a lowly slime are all the same!”

“Someone who can’t even charge at me because of my attack is boasting quite loudly… If you act so arrogant, you’ll lose everything. This is from my own experience, so you’d do well to heed it.”

“Hahahaha! Not feeling fear towards an opponent weaker than myself and displaying such confidence! That is the strength of a human, you lowly demon! If you yourself speak with such arrogance…”

“….!!”

“It’ll end up like this!”

Okute suddenly swung his hammer sideways, claiming he was showing confidence rather than arrogance, which greatly startled Esti. Then, Okute’s spinning hammer pierced Rubaea’s abdomen, who was to the side, then immediately spun around and pierced Iruvan’s abdomen on the opposite side. Esti was greatly bewildered, and Okute shouted at her,

“You let your guard down, demon! With your pathetic strength, you’ll never…!”

“I told you repeatedly. I wouldn’t leave you alone. And… if you’re arrogant, you’ll suffer a counterattack like this!”

The moment Okute, holding the hammer returning to him, was about to throw it at Esti, Rubaea and Iruvan, who had clearly been pierced in the abdomen, appeared behind Esti and spewed flames towards Okute’s face. Esti also concentrated and spewed liquid towards Okute’s face. Okute, unable to react to the sudden ambush, began to be attacked intensively on his head by the three. Greatly bewildered and unable to understand what was happening, he then saw Rubaea and Iruvan on his sides turning into liquid, and realized that the two who had been attacking from his sides were clones.

‘L-Liquid clones…!! Could it be that she created clones while I was awakening earlier?!’

“Rezef’s aura is an aura that can embrace others! Well, actually… I also learned fire magic from Rezef before.”

“And if our attacks didn’t work on your body from before… what if we concentrate the power of all three on your head like this?!”

“Ugh… Ugh, aaargh!!! Th-This damned…!! I can’t… I can’t accept this…! Cough…”

As the three’s attacks concentrated on his face, Okute felt an eerie sensation. His head was slowly being pushed backward by the three’s attacks. Okute desperately tried to deny that he was being pushed back and frantically tried to block with his hammer, but Okute’s neck, having already taken enough hits from the three, snapped backward. Thus, Okute met a futile death with his neck broken, and the three, who had barely managed to defeat Okute, sank to the ground, greatly relieved.

“Haaaaah… We finally killed him, that damned guy… As expected, when he fell into arrogance and got ambushed, he couldn’t handle it…”

“Moreover, although he seemed undamaged, we felt him being pushed back by our attacks, so when we concentrated our attacks simultaneously as Esti noona suggested… it really worked out like this…”

“Anyway… I told you, you damned priest… if you’re arrogant, you lose everything. I lost Rezef to you guys because of that very reason before… What are we to do if you don’t even know that yourselves? Hehehe… Serves you right.”

Esti looked at the fallen Okute, then smiled relievedly, glancing at the two people beside her who were as exhausted as she was, and began to rest with them. Meanwhile, Veronica, Karina, and Tess were struggling against Zerben, who was constantly moving fast and attacking them. No matter how many gusts Veronica created with the power of the wind spirit, and no matter how swiftly Karina and Tess attacked with their beastkin movements, Zerben dodged their attacks like an arrow, as if he had read their every move. Then Veronica and Tess panted and said,

“Gasp… gasp…. This is crazy… A kid even more burdensome than Alraune…”

“He’s fast, but also… so small that he’s incredibly hard to hit… And though I know he’s an enemy… it’s still hard to think of him as just a kid…!”

“What… is this it? I’m not even in my complete Holy Radiance yet, if you’re all this tired, it can’t get any more fun, can it?”

“Ugh… that damned brat… He’s treating this like some kind of game… while we’re dying from the pain of being constantly cut by that sword!”

As Zerben mocked them, Karina, who had been feeling pain from the scratches caused by Zerben’s sword, became enraged. Just then, Tess patted Karina’s head once, then exhaled deeply and said to the other two,

“Hooo… but his skill is excellent, incomparable to anyone in Kartun’s special unit, Karina. But right now, there are three of us! Remember that Kartun’s special unit doesn’t act alone; they move together, Karina. Veronica, do elves also form teams and move together?”

“We did form teams to protect Probelitu. But this is our first time fighting alongside beastkin…”

“Then there’s no problem. Trust each other’s abilities! Even though the numbers are different, think of it as fighting alongside those you fought with before! If we move together, we can defeat a little kid like him without any problem!”

“Hmm… those are really grand words, aren’t they? Then… I guess I’ll have to crush that hope! Hooooh!”

As Tess confidently declared that they could defeat him if they united their hearts and fought together, Zerben began gathering divine power with a shout of effort, intent on crushing Tess’s hope. Then, a sphere of light began to swirl around Zerben’s body, and Veronica, remembering Aria, realized that Zerben had transformed into a complete Holy Radiance.

“It seems we can neither retreat nor escape now. He’ll surely defeat us at a faster pace than before…”

“Right… Veronica. You help us with your wind ability. We, with the beastkin’s trait of high speed, will distract him!”

“…!! Ah… Alright, Tess. Then… here I go! Spirit of Wind! Provide more speed to my companions!”

Veronica, receiving some signal from Tess, immediately grasped Tess’s intention, then smiled widely and imbued the two with the Wind Spirit’s blessing. Karina and Tess then rushed towards Zerben with even greater speed, and Zerben, who had transformed into a complete Holy Radiance, also lunged at Karina and Tess with greater speed, immediately swinging his sword and shouting,

“You’ve gotten faster than before… but you still look truly slow to me, you long-eared races! Kihahaha!”

“Long-eared races, you say… Where did you learn such nasty words, you little brat!”

Karina, who swiftly blocked Zerben’s swung sword with her spear, tried to push back Zerben’s sword somehow. However, as Zerben’s sword slowly tried to break her spear, Karina was bewildered, but also instinctively knew that if she pulled her spear back now, Zerben would immediately swing his sword again to kill her, so she didn’t withdraw her spear. And at that moment, Tess rapidly approached Zerben’s side and shouted,

“Your side is open, kid…!”

“I left it open on purpose! I knew you’d think it was an opening and attack!”

The moment Tess, aiming for Zerben’s side, was about to launch a kick, Zerben instead pulled his sword from Karina’s spear and swung it, cutting Tess’s two legs. Though not severed, Tess, who had sustained deep wounds on his legs, was greatly bewildered and collapsed. Karina, seeing Tess, was greatly flustered and shouted,

“Te-Tess un… Ugh?!”

“Shut up, you damned long-eared races. You’re already annoying me to death, and now you’re screaming in front of me too, do you know how irritating that is?!”

The moment Karina reached out to Tess, worrying, Zerben, as if fed up with Karina loudly shouting around him, grabbed Karina’s face tightly and glared at her. Then, just as he was about to swing his sword to kill Karina, a sudden gust of wind flew in and struck Zerben’s hand. Zerben then instinctively dropped his sword due to the sudden strong blow to his hand, and Karina immediately kicked Zerben’s arm with her leg, freeing herself from Zerben’s grasp.

“He’s strong, but a kid is still a kid! He’s been winning so much that he’s become careless like this…!”

“Ugh… my arms… but it doesn’t matter… I still have intact legs! Legs that you couldn’t ignore…”

“Legs? Then what if I hold you like this?!”

“?!”

The moment Zerben, whose arms had taken a strong hit, said he still had his legs and was about to pick up his dropped sword to fight again, Tess, who had fallen behind Zerben, grabbed Zerben’s two arms. Zerben, bewildered that Tess hadn’t lost consciousness yet, began to struggle, repeatedly stomping on Tess’s injured leg with his foot.

“Let go…! Won’t you let go?! You damned beastkin…!”

“You say you have great speed… but don’t you know that if you only rely on your own strength like this, you can be counterattacked? Carelessness is forbidden in a fight, you quick-footed brat!”

“You damned…! Let go….?!”

As Tess continued to hold him despite the pain, Zerben, bewildered, kicked his injured leg even more violently. Just then, Zerben saw Veronica imbuing Karina with the wind’s blessing in front of him. Instinctively realizing that a direct hit from Karina’s attack could be fatal, he began to struggle even more violently. However, Tess, enduring the pain, smiled and said to the agitated Zerben,

“You have great speed, you say? Then what can you do if I bind you like this?”

“Kraaaagh! Let go! Let go!”

“Hyaaaah!”

“Uwaaaah!”

As Karina, having received all the blessings from Veronica, charged at him with her spear raised, Zerben, greatly startled by the fear he was experiencing for the first time in his life, promptly fainted. Karina then stopped her attack midway, and Tess, tying Zerben’s arms and legs with a rope from his waist, sighed deeply and said,

“Phew… As expected, killing a kid bothers me… Good job, everyone.”

“Ehh… Uncle… but what are we going to do if you give up both your legs like that…?! Ugh… I wonder if Aria Unnie can heal them…”

“Hahaha….”

As Karina sighed, perhaps having already guessed that he had intended to hold Zerben even if it meant sacrificing his legs, Tess let out an awkward laugh and took a deep breath, savoring his victory over Zerben. Thus, all of the Children of Light fell at the hands of the resistance. All the lights Camilla had cherished were extinguished. Now, only Camilla remained.