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Chapter 423: A Cousin’s Legacy. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2023-05-30 06:49:13 +0000 UTCEdit: Fixes to typo. I also added a resolution to Maagneil's eldritch body, which I had forgotten with the first draft.
Edit 2: I've changed Hestia's song at the climax of the battle into a new, unique one to fit the moment. This is the high point of Grimnir's first character arc, so I wanted it to end well. Song is "Again" from Fullmetal Alchemist/YUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLfMrBfqCu8
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<[Music Resonation (Major)] [Lifetaker (89 Kills)] [Shield of [The Light]] [Various Spell Buffs] [Shadow Armament (Full Body)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]>
[“I leave the rest to you guys! Sis! Saori! Ellaine. Grimnir. Rajah! Shadow Pack! Vifi’Yok!”]
My head slightly glanced to the side as I heard Hestia’s voice enter my mind, noticing the body of a man dissolving inside the body of a house-sized spell golem made from her corrosive slime. A shiver ran down my spine as I was reminded of that little dragon’s nasty toxins, and how I used her concoctions in the past to perform actual biological warfare.
Even Varya’s toxins hadn’t reached the point of turning into an acid bath.
Regardless, seeing her being carried to the ground by Tasianna made it clear what she meant by that statement. She was relying on the rest of us to finish this battle. To end the casualties and nightmare Maagneil was causing to this city and to Grimnir!
[“Leave it to us!”] I shouted with everybody else as our telepathic messages were all linked to each other, so I was essentially hearing multiple voices all at once.
“Leave it to us, lass!” The only one who didn’t give me a headache was Grimnir, as it was impossible for dwarves to gain [Telepathy] with their physical limitations.
Galg the dragonslayer was dead, so now only Maagneil and Manethala were left.
I directed my attention back to the fight on our side. While I hadn’t exactly visited Inkoran-Tazul for leisure just yet, I quickly understood from Ellaine’s explanation that the Hub below us, as the locals called it, was where cultures foreign to this dwarven city would go to live in. In other words, elves, humans, beastmen, all those races lived here alongside their nation’s embassy. It was a thriving melting pot of races.
And now this splendid neighborhood had a large section of it stomped and destroyed by Maagneil. His army of gnomacotta warriors had swarmed through the walls, doing even more damage, but thankfully Hestia’s [Symphonie des Feuergottes] had destroyed about half of them while a good number of the remainder were culled by the local soldiers or adventurers. Still, there were plenty of them left and nobody else to help us.
Through a messenger, all non-Aurora and expedition members retreated to make way for the arrival of the actual army of the city. Ellaine, Grimnir, Vifi’Yok, my shadow pack, and I were the only ones sticking around to minimize Maagneil’s destructive path. Even then, collateral damage was unavoidable, but it thankfully didn’t include any more lives.
A giant earthen wall with the top glowing red hot separated the northern side of the city, while the ruins of the houses swirled around Maagneil’s body like an asteroid ring. The giant “gundam” had lost its gun barrel, but it replaced it with a hand made from floating earth, while its drill could now shoot out like a missile. In fact, this supposedly “iron” golem was more a rock golem at this point, with its appearance having so drastically changed it looked more like a kaiju from one of those giant monster battle movies.
Or, to be more accurate, this snapping turtle-headed golem with a shell on its back looked more similar to the Earth Elemental Emperor Vifi’Yok and Hestia had battled. When the former told me about it, it made me seriously question what Maagneil was doing. In fact, he hadn’t used that gravity attack for a while now, only relying on his impeccable control over the earth.
[“It’s exhausted, definitely,”] Klea’Hatma, Ellaine’s archdemon of lust, commented. [“But I’m still sensing demonic powers being streamed through the entire construct. In fact, its polluting the elemental’s mana, darlings.”]
[“… I must stand side-by-side with this filth as our prodigies fight in our stead. What has this world gotten to?”] Belzac’s less than enthusiastic voice slightly distracted me. His history with the demon was clear to everybody in our party.
Klea’Hatma, though, could only chuckle in elation. [“Hehehehahaha! Oooh, darling, only you bear a real grudge here.”]
While Vifi’Yok was ignorant of their squabbles, Klea’Hatma already confirmed the demonkin might have probably learned of the latter's existence when she woke up. We just didn’t want to add even more fuel into the mix in case Vifi’Yok felt it was just a misunderstanding.
Regardless, all of this information racing through my head only made me worry even more, as we didn’t have access to Hestia’s usurpation power right now. Nevertheless, it was also our duty to be good enough to deal with this sort of situation in case Hestia wasn’t around. Everybody in Aurora had trained to not rely on Hestia’s one-woman army powers!
“GrrrrriiiiieeeeeeekaTHUNK!” The grinding shrieks of rocks clashing together emanated from the gundam, filling the air with its ear-throbbing noise as it swung its arm up, pulling up the very ground that Uno and Song were using to hold him down with mana threads and [Dark Tendrils].
They hopscotched through the air with [Air Walk] before using the abundant shadows cast by the sun and the flying debris to escape into the shadow world just as gundam slammed its hand into the ground. Rock pillars grew from around the impact, but Vifi’Yok was already handling them with Hestia’s glaive.
With both red lightning and fire bullets on her side, she was turning any attempt by the golem to fight back into dust. However, instead of actually dashing around too much like during my fight with her, she was riding on the back of Quatre, my fully armored fenrir. For everybody who had been fighting Maagneil since we met him in the dungeon, stamina was a huge problem, and to mitigate this, everybody was either riding on my shadow back to fight or was resting in the sidelines.
“Go!” Ellaine shouted as she appeared from behind a roof top while riding on Varya, using the evolved virgarcuga’s high agility and flexibility to bypass Maagneil’s attention.
When he finally caught onto her, black lightning crackled around my legs as I slingshotted myself into the sky with [Dark Tendrils]. Grimnir, who was riding on my back, climbed up to my head and held onto one of my ears as he aimed his blasthammer at the gundam’s chest. With an ear-piercing sound, it shot out a focused mana blast, causing some cracks but nothing else on the rock chestplate.
“Grriuuuek?” The golem’s attention was diverted.
“We need a better idea, lass! Or you need to hit that thing really hard!” Grimnir shouted as I got us out of the golem’s attack range.
I slid onto the remains of a floating Loatryxian house, before snapping my head around as I shot out six [Stygian Lightning]s at the rock asteroids the gundam threw at Ellaine, allowing her to jump off Varya and turn her arms into bloated tendrils—her newest demonic power, [Flesh Strings].
Throwing her arms forward as if she was using [Whiplash], a giant tendril flew out, slamming against the gundam before it split apart, leaving a mass of squirming “flesh” behind. This bit then shot out its individual tendrils, sticking themselves into anything nearby like a spider string.
This effectively replaced the [Dark Tendrils] holding it back for a moment, while also giving Ellaine lamp post-thick strings to stand and maneuver with her tentacle-like [Whiplash] and whipsword. She then snapped her head around and threw her whipsword out with their runes glowing, aiming straight at the spot Grimnir hit.
While standing on one of the flesh strings, through the slits of her armor, black tendrils escaped them as they turned Ellaine’s armor into muscular arms. With the single pull, she tore a ball-sized chunk from the armor off, and before it could regenerate, Ellaine twirled her whiplade to the sides and up and down, whipping the chest armor, leaving large scar marks behind.
While she didn’t do any substantial damage, her role in this was to apply her [Attack Rune: Defense Ripper] effect from her weapon on the gundam, effectively reducing its vitality. All so the next person to attack could land an actual attack!
“Voltaic Red: Thunderspee—” Vifi’Yok charged up glaive’s with her red lightning, intending to land one decisive blow onto the gundam’s power source; however, before she could, the ground before Quatre split apart, causing the two of them to nearly fall into the ravine.
However, my garm mother and Rajah quickly came to their rescue, lassoing them back up with their [Dark Tendrils], only for train-long rock serpents to emerge from the ground to attack them. Meanwhile, gnomacotta warrior statues would shoot arrows at them.
Summoning his army to fight us was Maagneil’s whole shtick. The reason why I had 89 kills so far was due to this fact! Even if I were to atomize the rock golems, Maagneil’s Earth Elemental Emperor could just turn those atoms back into dust and then to stone to be used. All of this just to stop us from landing even one high-damaging move. Even performing a [Hadaen Dragon Thunder] or [Voltage Impact] was impossible with the number of obstructions and interferences.
[“This really isn’t going anywhere. We need the extra firepower like you said,”] I agreed with Grimnir as we saw our next attempt completely fumble.
“… Then I have an idea.” Grimnir jumped off my back and opened the visor of his helmet. As I questioned him on what he was planning, he pulled out his hammer and artificer pen. “I’m bloody giving us some damn firepower.”
[“We do not have time—”] I wanted to scold him, but Grimnir shouted back.
“Then buy me time! I got a damn idea that can do something, I just need time!” Without even spending a second more to discuss things with me, Grimnir went to work. However, he was about to do artificer work despite always saying his fingers were too thick for it.
Didn’t he need Ellaine?
[“Enough! We are already understaffed here with Tasianna and Hestia resting! The ones who fought with them against Galg are also out! We cannot lose even more—”]
But I was once again interrupted. I felt a signal closing in to us as my fur began to stand up in response to something worth worrying about. I snapped my head around.
[“I ran an entire month away from Galg and his bastards. You think a few fights will pepper me out? I am stamina!”] It was Fargryneill. I had overlooked Hestia had also mentioned her “Sis” when she addressed everybody. [“Freikugel!”]
From the sky, the kirin-dragon unicorn horn glowed up. Maagneil’s gundam didn’t reacted fast enough as the beam of pressurized mana pierced right through its head, cutting right through any rocks trying to stop it.
“Arrraaaaghhhhh!”
The hole wasn’t huge, about the size of a hand, but the blood and flesh spraying from it and Maagneil’s wailing confirmed she hit. The hole closed up and the rocks went into action to protect their master, but Hestia’s older sister danced around the sky as if she was a pegasus.
[“Whether the sky or earth, we Kargryxmors alone are the tyrants above all others! Not even dragonslayers will take away our right as rulers!”]
My gosh, killing Galg really gave her a high, huh? I grimaced at the extremely competitive kirin-dragon. Her bragging was new to me, but Hestia did describe her sister as the ultra competitive type when she met her in Elyonda. Maybe this was how her personality was before she met Galg?
But this … Yes, this was exactly what I needed. Three strong hitters, one debuffer with plenty of complicated eldritch abilities, and a pack of tricky agile combatants to help us keep this thing in check. Even better, Hestia’s songs were still going, meaning arcane corruption hadn’t gotten her yet. We were still on a clock here, but even without Grimnir, Fargryneill could carry his load and more!
[“Shoyi!”] I called my slime out of my shadow and had him transport Grimnir away from the battlefield, for as long as he needed. [“Fargryneill! Vifi’Yok! We need to breach his chest and take away that aberration!”]
[“Leave it to me!”] Fargryneill exclaimed with full confidence, for her dragon paths were the perfect armor killer.
However, just like Hestia, she needed full contact for it to perform its full destructive power. From range, it was like a projectile or an explosion of mana.
“You keep on the crowd control, human!” Vifi’Yok shouted. “If there is one thing lusties do best, that’s control with all their powers!”
[“Wouldn’t expect anything less from a demonkin and a military girl, huh?”] Klea’Hatma quipped, causing Ellaine to nod her head before running closer to the gundam through her flesh strings.
As the asteroid ring got stronger and it began to destroy the strings, Song immediately went to support her with her speed, while Uno and Sarasa flanked them as supporters. Uno shot out shadow flames, and while they couldn’t melt the flying rocks, they blasted the stones away as if they were firey clubs. Meanwhile, Sarasa would just bulldoze through them like a charging bull.
I also joined them by using [Shadow Dash], getting behind the giant before launching [Hel’s Thunder] from its shadow, breaking more and more rocks around it. When it tried to turn around, it had to block a kick from Fargryneill, only to see blue seams grow on the floating rocks of its left rock hand before they exploded, learning the destructive nature of the kirin-dragon.
She continued dancing around, dodging every single projectile while shouting, [“This is so much slower!”] probably referencing her fight with Galg. She would also use a fire spell or let out a dragon breath here or there, but her primary job was to break through that thick rock armor of the gundam.
It was then that I asked myself why she wasn’t using her Territory, but I immediately remembered how she was using it just a moment ago. In other words, it was the same case with Vifi’Yok and me since producing a Territory demanded so much mana just to exude the aura into a wide area, large enough to do what it needed to do.
I used it twice, while Vifi’Yok used it twice in quick succession and for a very long time. I could probably handle one more with my mana pool, but the demonkin was already dangerously close to [Arcane Fever] and [Exhaustion]. That was why she was riding Quatre.
“Grrrkkkkkaaa!” Rocks clashed together as the drill became active, rotating around before the gundam shot it at Fargryneill before jumping away.
The dragon was flustered, as she didn’t see it being shot out before. She was running away from it as the drill acted like a heat-seeking missile, but she warned any of us against following after her, saying she could outmaneuver it as long as we used this chance to deal damage to the gundam.
They might not have grown up together, but those two sisters really resembled each other when it came to tackling the hardest task. And just like fighting with Hestia, I listened to Fargryneill and used my final cast of [Yomi] for the day.
<Mana Release activated. Aura used as control unit: [True Wolven Bloodlust]. Territory [Yomi] has been established>
My shadow overflowed onto the ground, turning the entire area under the gundam into a swamp of liquid shadow. I aimed my sight up, causing the shadow to stream up, only for the gundam to simply abandon its legs and levitate up. It didn’t fly up at all, though, probably because that would cost too much mana.
However, its body jerked closer to the ground, causing it to turn around to see Ellaine, Uno, Sarasa, Varya, Rajah, and mother pulling him back down with [Flesh Strings], [Dark Tendrils], and mana threads. The gundam tried to attack them with rocks, but my shadow swamp quickly came to rescue by devouring the rocks, before I sent them all back, including a hefty dose of [Hel’s Thunder].
“Gruuu!” Rocks clashed as my stygian lightning destroyed its floating rock hand, allowing me enough time to latch a tendril on it to climb onto it.
Black lightning channeled from my white fur entered my front paws, allowing me to tear the rock armor in front of me off. As I was about to send a stream of lightning through the golem, the earth underneath us suddenly rose up, as if somebody pushed the crust up a bit. Flabbergasted as I saw Ellaine and the others so close, my mind went into a bit of a panic as I saw the golem was about to smash us into the ground.
I jumped off and pulled everybody into my [Yomi] and used [Shadow Dash] to get us away from the location, only for us to witness giant stone spikes rise up from the ground, destroying even more of the area. Total destruction became even more clear as the giant snakes and statues rose in size and numbers, respectively.
Once again, any attempt we made to try and bring Maagneil down failed. We couldn’t get a good hit on him without something ruining our tries. I guess this was what happened when you literally had a semi-god on your side, even if the Earth Elemental Emperor was weakened.
[“Hey, bastard!”] Fargryneill’s voice entered my mind before I heard the neighing of a horse coupled with the roaring of a crocodile.
In the distance, outside of the wall and coming down the giant wall Maagneil created was none other than Hestia’s sister. The drill was still chasing her, but the kirin-dragon was still sliding through the air calmly as if she was ice-skating. She was aiming for the gundam!
It tried to stop her from reaching it by creating more and more walls, but she would just bust right through them, having no chance against the house-sized dragonkin. Even the rain of rocks couldn’t even touch her as she breezed through them, but instead of hitting the gundam, she jumped into the sky just a few meters away from the enemy, causing the drill to almost pierce right through its chest if it hadn’t stopped it.
I thought that was just another failed chance, but my mood made a sudden change for the better when I heard Fargryneill’s next words.
[“Fire now!”]
Boooooom!
My senses rocked as I heard a massive explosion from behind me, followed by the gundam losing its entire right arm, the drill falling to the ground. Blue smoke exuded from the area as rocks were blown up, spraying onto the ground like a fountain of debris. My ears shook due to my stronger hearing, causing some vertigo, but my instincts forced me to see who caused it.
And there, the most unlikely candidate showed itself. On top of the railroad tracks of this city’s minecart transportation system, my eyes widened as I saw a giant mana cannon and two ballistas moving on them. In between all of them were multiple minecarts with numerous dwarven engineers, all handling the equipment.
That thing is large enough to be artillery for a modern army! I noted the cannon. Definitely nowhere close in appearance to the German’s Gustav cannon, but it looked bulky enough that only a train could possibly transport that thing around.
How did the dwarves manage to put that on the minecart rails?!
“Ooooooh, High Queen Dravlia, forgive me!” In the front of the minecart, I could see an elderly dwarf with a white beard praying to the skies. I didn’t know if he was crying or not, but the way he shouted sure sounded like it. “I have betrayed her creation’s intent! But as you said, war sometimes is inevitable! A weapon large enough that only your noble train can ferry! But, even you must have seen that we dwarves can overcome this with our runes and artificers!”
“Master Metosei?” Ellaine screamed in complete confusion, prompting me to ask her who that was. “T-that is the artificer and blacksmithing elder of the railroad guild! The one also acts as Goddess Chihiro’s church! He’s Master Broggart’s former master! I-I learned some tricks from him when I went there with Master Grimnir, but what is this—”
However, her bellows were quickly silenced when we all heard music coming from the eastern side of the Hub. It wasn’t Hestia’s music, no, definitely not. It was a far cry from what I usually heard from her, although, maybe her [Dragon Fire] was close, as it sounded like rock or metal. It was blaring up with a guitar, only to then be followed by the singing, or shouting, of a man with a heavy accent.
“Gotta let it out, gotta let it out, yeah! ♫
Feel the curse in your soul, the greed that blinds you all ♫
Anything that captives you, the glimmer of the golden goose ♫
Tempting your heart until it dries, until it turns your body plump and FAT! ♫
The demons that reside inside of you! ♫
The taints that stains your soul! ♫
Rooooock it all back! Tis revolution’s for you ♫
Remember that past of where you all began! ♫
Until the heavens reduce all to dust! ♫”
<[Bardic Tale of Rock (Strength)] [Bardic Tale of Story (Intelligence)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]>
Bardic? A bard?
If you excluded Hestia, this was actually the first time I ever heard the sound of a bard playing on Peolynca. I darted my eyes around, only to stop when I saw four minecart drive over to the one with the three siege weapons. There, I saw a group of five dwarves, playing their instruments and making me feel like I was inside a rock’n’roll concert!
“T-that’s Rosserto!” Ellaine exclaimed, explaining that was a beats’N’rocks musician from the band “Punker’s Paradise.” He was supposedly one of the people who helped shelter my students when they got falsely accused by Maagneil. “I cannot believe this! Where are—Our reinforcements!”
That single word was like a melody in my ears as I finally understood why they had come. A siege weapon to fight from the distance, while a bard to support everybody. However, this couldn’t be all of them, right?
And that suspicion was proven true when I saw the gundam roar out and send out a giant earthen spike at the cart tracks, causing it to start to crumble, only for the spike to stop. In fact, [Terra Wall]s were growing from the ground to further support the cart, providing an even better foundation for the weapons to sit on.
“Mages! Protect the artillery! Rangers and offensive mages, fire!” Through that command, an arrow barrage that blanketed the skies in projectiles descended upon the gundam, either bouncing off its armor or piercing it.
And it wasn’t over.
“Dragoons! Griffon and hippogryph knights, stop! Aim!” Coming from the massive castle on the western side of the Hub, numerous dragonewts and flying beast knights swarmed the sky, catching me in surprise as it looked like their numbers could equal an elite battalion of knights or so.
As more arrows flew out, I also began to faintly hear the sound of footsteps through all of them. Rows upon rows of dwarves equipped in the thickest and heaviest armor I’ve ever seen appeared, holding onto polearms and giant shields.
“Earthshakers, halt!” A command caused them to stand their ground. “Target the golems! Give an opening to our allies!”
“For the Earth Mother!”
… We held on long enough.
“Warriors!”
And this fact became even clearer when I saw four figures appear, prominently showing themselves. All wore something decorative to show off their status. A commander showing and leading the troops themselves wasn’t just a movie trope, but an actual thing as it rose morale like crazy. It was just risky and incredibly rare … However, in Peolynca, these leaders had the power of the System to protect them unlike Earthen humans.
One was an elf appearing with an assortment of elven rangers and mages, acting like his bodyguards as he skulked the remaining roofs and buildings. A beautiful white wooden crown decorated his head while he held onto a wooden bow with a magical string and arrow.
The other was an arvisian man flying with a retinue of griffon knights as he held his blade up high. His crown was made from feathers, giving him a bit of a native American look despite how regal it looked with his armor.
<Artificial Allied Territory detected! [Dhuinn Rune: Territory] activated. [Earth Ruler’s Reign] activated>
<[Earth Ruler’s Protection] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]>
The third was a dwarf riding on a tidal wave of earth, holding his axe up high. His Territory once again was active, protecting us by increasing our vitality and wisdom by 50%. Instead of a helmet, a metal crown with gemstones embedded onto them now protected his head.
The last of the four was a black-scaled dragonewt, having the same color as Hestia’s rank D form when she was still a black dragon. He flew with his band of dragoons, all following his command as he rose his onyx glaive up high. He was not wearing any crown, but the coat made from black and red scales gave him the appearance of a non-typical commander or general.
“Saelari!”
“Artorians, Estralians, Yeosians!”
“Tazongs of Ankor-Nazta!”
“Scale-kin! Fellow Loatryxians!”
King Elutis of the elves, King Drangleic of Artorias, and King Fugnarus of the dwarves. I’m unfamiliar with the dragonewt commander, but he most likely was a member of the kinkyuro, the leadership of the Republic of Loatryx.
The alliance leaders had all come.
With all four addressing their kinsmen, they all now shouted in unison, “Let the world know our alliance! Let the world know that not even the Folschreck Empire or Bole’Taria will scare us! Not even the demon princes of sins! This is the Summit of Ankor-Nazta! This is the Shakaie-Narn Alliance!”
They all pointed their weapons at Maagneil.
“As I open my hand, releasing the sound of searing hot metal. ♫
But I tighten my grip, the pain that follows me with every single thought. ♫
Regretting it all would only taint my efforts, or the dream that we hold. ♫
Of course, brush it aside! ♫
These tears will dry, and this rage will cool ♫
As I realized that the world ain’t stopping for me. ♫”
My ears perked up as I turned around to a crimson-haired dragonewt riding on the backs of a white-scaled wyvern, while an elven girl with blue hair was on the twin wyvern next to her. I could hear her voice echo throughout the battlefield, almost drowning out Rosserto’s song.
It was a new song of hers, but it wasn’t part of her custom spells. It was baffling how this girl was able to churn out songs like this, not to mention, songs that had meaning to them. Songs that fit the moment. Songs that fit people’s life stories.
She raised her finger up.
“A final stroke on this sin-stained page ♫
The blood on my hands will fuel me ♫
All while the sun watches me ♫
I won’t forget about you ♫
I’ll witness everything this path will show me ♫
So I can relay everything to you later ♫
I’ll push forward with this fire burning inside of me ♫
The strength to fight on, or the wisdom to accept life ♫
It doesn’t really matter now ♫
Because this is my choice ♫
I’ll grin through this pain, because this leads me to the truth ♫
So I can soar ever higher! ♫
I weeped for sadness—I cry and cheer ♫
For despair is also fleeting ♫
Rise above it! ♫
This pit won’t hold me ♫
For I will grasp hold of my dreams! ♫”
It was Hestia and despite looking like she could pass out at any time, she continued to sing. Switching from her new song into [The Will to Fight and Survive], she lowered her finger at Maagneil.
“He is our enemy!”
That was all that was needed for the alliance leaders to follow through their alliance head’s orders. “This is the alliance’s first mission! Destroy this invader and murderer of our people!”
The ballista’s shot, hitting the gundam by its shoulder and began to pull it back. This was the second signal for the continuation of the battle, and it wasn’t something Maagneil could fight back against.
Even if he tried to stop the chained bolts, mages and rangers would shoot at him, blocking his attempt while the flying units from the sky dropped down. The dwarven soldiers would engage the gnomacotta warriors and serpents, saving Vifi’Yok and Quatre from them, allowing them to regroup with us.
Not only Hestia, but even the holy mages from the elven army shot out [Sacred Field] upon [Sacred Field] to heal as many people injured as possible. After all, the emperor was still a master of the earth even with King Fugnarus now with us to defend against it. Damages happened here and there, but this was the chance we needed.
“Lass!” And Grimnir’s voice was our sign to finish this fight once and for all. “I’m done! Get me to the chest! I can short-circuit this thing even with all its defenses!”
[“What? How?”] I questioned, but it was my mistake to do so to our resident blacksmith.
“I saw Broggart’s damn blueprints, did you forget?! I could never forget the details! I know how to take this down even if it shrugs off all the damage! That elemental is gaining its mana from somewhere, and it ain’t the air! It’s from Maagneil and Broggart!”
[“… Got it!”] I nodded. [“Vifi’Yok! Ellaine! I need your help!”]
Without further ado, all of us sprang into action. With no army and more distractions to deal with, the gundam couldn’t react to us when I teleported us forward with [Yomi]-enhanced [Shadow Dash]. With all of us jumping out of it, Ellaine led my shadow pack to control the golem, pulling him down and immobilizing him with all our thread-like options.
The gundam tried to defend itself, but King Fugnarus and the elven earth mages had our backs, countering whatever Maagneil was trying to do. It was still tricky since the earth wouldn’t stop shaking as if we were having an earthquake, but it beat getting dropped into a ravine.
“Go!” Ellaine shouted before shooting out her whipsword at the chest of the gundam. Due to all the eyes, she had stopped using her demonic powers when the first reinforcements came.
Grimnir got on my mother’s back, riding with her through the air while I had my [Yomi] fill the gundam’s whole body in shadows, preparing my attack. It was the same thing with Vifi’Yok, as this was our coup de grâce.
Once both of us were ready, Mom kicked the air and howled and sent a telepathic message to every flying attacker to retreat. They did enough! This message also stopped the archers, giving us all this single moment to end it all.
“Voltaic Red: Thunderspeed Roar!”
“Hadaen Dragon Thunder!”
Vifi’Yok threw Hestia’s glaive right through the gundam’s chest, piercing through anything standing in front of it, while my spell targeted the cockpit of the gundam, my attempt in taking out Maagneil, or if that failed, forced him to focus on his own survival so Vifi’Yok could finish her part.
However, there was a miscalculation. When the dust settled, our eyes widened as we saw the results of our attacks. Vifi’Yok’s attack certainly pierced through the chest, but not right through, instead, it was stuck mid-way in the torso!
“No way!” she shouted, baffled.
Meanwhile, the front part of the gundam’s helmet was reduced to nothing, revealing Maagneil showing his blackened back to us. The man fell to the side, looking like a carbonized corpse as he held onto the shards of the rebellion orb while protecting the catalyst where the elemental emperor was.
… He protected his son from our attack.
“B-Broggart …” He reached his hand downward, revealing that Vifi’Yok’s attack had actually pierced through the chest enough that we could see Broggart’s hand. “M-my s-son … I lo-lov … uuuuuuh.”
His hand limply fell, dropping the orb with the elemental within it. Maagneil was dead … was what I would have loved to say, but it seemed like his allegiance with the demonkins wasn’t a fluke. Not only did he get that damn aberration, but he also revealed a little trick I hadn’t seen in a long time—that black eldritch-making potion.
For while it didn’t show on his body before his death, the moment he did, Maagneil’s body spasmed around until it contorted into a bundle of tentacles, horns, and bloated muscles. His tusked face roared out, sounding like the desperate cry of a man shouting, “Brroooooooogiiiiert!” He grabbed the catalyst, causing it to light up a golden brown, causing a voice to suddenly enter all our heads.
[“My creation wishes to destroy me! I will destroy them!”]
I didn’t know who this was, but it didn’t matter at this moment. It didn’t matter what they threw at us at this point, we would not lose here!
While something like a body with arms and a head formed around the gundam’s ruined helmet, Elliane pulled herself closer to the chest with her whipsword before pulling out Hestia’s glaive. Using those two weapons, she cracked the shell even wider open while using the glaive’s fire and her whipswords runes to keep it open before it regenerated.
Above us, Maagneil’s mangled corpses was somehow able to use the catalyst, constructing a second body with a snapping turtle’s head and giant ram horns. Fargryneill and the other flying attackers kept it at bay, preventing it from attacking us.
This gave Grimnir just about the time to reach the chest, prompting me to climb up and use my thunder to open the chest armor even further. With [Yomi] covering it now, it was having an even harder job recovering the rocky shell.
‘What do you wish for most?’
<[Mental Attack (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]>
Urgk!
‘Right, money for your ill mother, right? You needed it so very much, right? … Or, did you want all the money after everything happened?’
I heard my own voice speaking to me, but it wasn’t any of my thoughts at all. It felt like a foreign presence was inside my head right now, giving me a massive headache as it caused me to suddenly feel like I was reliving through some of my memories.
Of my father dying, of my mother being hospitalized and being diagnosed with depression, or my endless struggle to juggle between my college life and part-time jobs, and my search for a decent paying job. All of this culminates into me sitting on a pile of gold coins, causing my eyes to sparkle.
I-I needed—But I also wanted to be as rich as my students. I wanted to buy the clothes they all bought and bragged about. I wanted to properly pay them for a meal back then, instead of relying on them to pay for it! Argh, what is more embarrassing than having your students—
[“Saori!”]
However, before I could fall into that pit of self-regret, I was woken up by Belzac.
[“This is a mental attack. Even if you are resistant against demonic corruption through that dragon whelpling’s title, you aren’t immune to the voices! Do not fall for the aberrations last line of defense! You are a Belzac, we are the masters of mental attacks!”]
A mental attack? Right, right, dammit!
I shook my head, shaking off those memories before I drew closer, only for the voices to get worse and worse. I jerked my head back, only to turn around as Ellaine expressed her worry to me.
“Broggart!”
Before I could explain anything though, Grimnir began talking to Broggart’s body, covered up in a thick fleshy suit with skin turned to purple. He looked like a victim of [Arcane Fever].
“I know you can hear me there! I know you’re dead, but I know that aberration somehow maintains your memories and skills! I would know them everywhere! I know!” he expressed. “A fake copy would never be able to 100% replicate his skill nor his damn memories we shared! I don’t know how you did it, but you were like Broggart! With Maagneil dead, you are the only who can tell me! How did you bring back my cousin!”
… But his question was never answered, for this Broggart was nothing more than a mana battery. Grimnir clenched his fists and held something looking like a battery up.
Ellaine’s eyes widened, shouting, “Master, that’s the battery for your blasthammer!”
“And you will improve on its design, Ellaine! You heard from Broggart when he analyzed the blasthammer. That is the real Broggart’s skills, even if it was a fake, reanimated body! He was the real master you wanted to learn from!” Grimnir handed the mana battery over to her. “You and I, we can continue his legacy. We can further improve on his creation and all the blueprints we read! We can do it, my girl!”
“Master Grimnir …”
“One last move, though … Just like the bomb Broggart gave us! These dumb, thick fingers, might be unable to do fine artificer work, but they can still overcharge a battery and create enough mistakes to make it explode like an industrial-tier mana battery!” Tears began to well up in Grimnir’s eyes, causing him to grit through them. He handed her his artificer wand. “But you are the only one who isn’t hearing the words from that aberration. You need to, Ellaine. Please, I ask you this as a friend, please, end my cousin’s misery and the defilement of his body! You saw those blueprints as well.”
Ellaine sheathed her sword, taking the wand from Grimnir. Maybe Klea’Hatma was explaining things to her, but we couldn’t ask Hestia for help right now. [My Darkest Thought] would certainly reduce the strain on our heads, but her two current songs had to remain active as the soldiers around us depended on [The Heir of Hope] and [The Will to Fight and Survive] to live through this battle.
Ellaine, understanding this, nodded, before climbing into the hole with Broggart’s body. The aberration started using its gravity ability, but it suddenly stopped and squirmed, almost as if it was out of energy. It didn’t matter to me how this happened, but I counted our lucky stars as Ellaine successfully installed the battery.
Before it could blow up, I transported everybody away with [Shadow Dash] and disabled [Yomi], as I actually had just reached my limits after all of that, although Hestia’s song kept me from gaining [Exhaustion]. I fell onto the ground as the entire torso of the gundam was blown to smithereens, disappearing from sight completely as the last remains of the master artificer Broggart disappeared with the aberration itself.
With some help from Hestia, we as a group finally managed to destroy the demonic influence; however, to me, it wasn’t enough. Regardless, now we knew what to expect during our next encounter with the soul cores of a prince of sin.
<[Yomi] deactivated>
Sadly, the fight wasn’t over for we still had one more target to deal with, and it wasn’t Manethala. For up in the sky, the second body of the gundam was nearly finished. Fortunately, due to losing its power source, the construction slowed down and halted completely when a [Warp Point] portal opened up right in front of the Maagneil’s corpse.
Hestia appeared out of it before snatching the catalyst with the Earth Elemental Emperor in it. As the corpse screamed, Hestia’s music completely stopped, probably because she had [Arcane Fever] with all the mana she used up. But it didn’t matter, for she had done far enough already.
“FIRE!”
With nothing more to protect it, Maagneil’s eldritch corpse was hit directly by the railroad guild’s mana cannon, obliterating it and the body of the second golem. With the ground littered with its remains, the rest of us threw some of Hestia’s holy flame grenade onto it, assuring Maagneil and any demonic bits of it was gone for good.
All of us fell onto the ground, exhausted. The battle on our side was finally over.
“… I will chase you down, Prince of Greed. This I swear, upon my honor as a Luedbrumdar!” Grimnir mumbled after our fight had ended.
The last battlefield left was Manethala, but that wasn’t my problem any longer. I couldn’t fight any longer, and neither could the rest of us … aside from Fargryneil. Funnily enough, that girl was an important reason why Galg and Maagneil were defeated, but she also was the primary reason for how Manethala had calmed down.
Even with Tehmrayn around, it was Fargryneill who finally revealed the true powers of a Kargryxmor who mastered [Battle Frenzy (Major)]. I wasn’t fighting with her there, but everybody could hear her shout and the resulting attack throughout the city.
“Dragon Paths Maxima: Tyrant’s Will!”
Manethala’s body was completely filled to the brim with mana seams from afar, to the point you couldn’t see his brown shell any longer. With the blink of an eye, it all exploded, with the residue mana even destroying a portion of the mountain behind it, causing one of the two dwarven statues guarding the valley into Loatryx to collapse through the sheer impact of the attack.
A catastrophic power able to take down a rank A monster despite Fargryneill only being a rank B. Even if he was weakened by Tehmrayn and the blessed, nobody could be faulted to believe the kirin-dragon had done everything.
This was [Battle Frenzy (Major)], and one of the reasons how Kargryxmor became the Black Tyrant of the Skies. This was Hestia’s goal on her path as a dragon of that lineage, and her older sister just showed her a taste of that power.
[“… Do not be jealous. You too shall possess a power indescribable once you are done with your Divine Quest,”] Belzac tried to cheer me up, but that wasn’t what I was saddened about.
I looked at the collapsed statue.
That’s your sister, Hestia. I’m not paying for that.
_____________________________________
Thank you guys for following until the end of the Summit of Ankor-Nazta! Hope you guys enjoyed the arc, and if you have any feedback, I would appreciate it!
Comments
Divine Quest fulfilled, now its time to talk to Crustacia
Hey, money doesn't grow on the trees and Saori wasn't born into a family with money.
Diego Rossi
Very nice, thank you. So, the Earth Elemental Emperor is saved. I think Hestia will get a very good reward. her newest demonic power [Flesh Strings] she . - missing something here. my farm mother - my Garm mother but my instincts forced me to see who caused. - who caused THAT. IOn fact - In fact a native American look despite hoe regal - hoW regal almost drowning out Maagneil’s song. - Rossetto's song forceD him to focus on his own survival From above as something like a secondary body with giant ram horns and a snapping turtle head form, Fargryneill with the support of the flying cavalry preoccupied it. - I think I get what you mean, but it isn't clear or my endless search struggle between my college life - or my endless struggle between my college life I wasn’t fighting with here there, - I wasn’t fighting with HER there,
brunoid
Thanks for the chapter. LOl, Saori, priorities and all that, she's not paying :)
