Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: Chapter 9: When Meeting the Dead (7)
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Shhhhhhh!
Dark tentacles extended from beneath Niberis's feet. Azel narrowly dodged them and retreated.
"Urgh... You got the better of me. I underestimated you."
Blood flowed from Azel's body. His leather armor was torn like a sheet of paper, and a beast-like gash marred his chest.
Azel had lost this exchange. Niberis had seen through his scheme and counterattacked.
Dozens of dark tentacles, formed from clumped shadows that reflected no light and thus had no sense of depth, writhed around Niberis. From within them, her voice emerged.
"I can't kill the Dragon Demon Princess... but you? I can kill you as many times as I like."
"Figures. I'm the one taking the loss here."
Both Azel and Niberis had been observing each other fight their respective foes even before clashing directly.
Niberis had gained the advantage in this preliminary scouting. Azel had unleashed his full power to swiftly overwhelm the Dragon Shadow members for a quick resolution, but Niberis had held back entirely, unable to kill Arietta.
A mage's true strength couldn't be gauged from surface appearances alone. The facts that Niberis was a Dragon Demon, possessed exceptional mana, and demonstrated refined mana control were far too scant to estimate her full power.
Niberis spoke.
"The secrets in your head are valuable, but sometimes one must discard the small for the greater prize. From here on, I'll get rough."
The voice came from another Niberis who appeared behind Azel. But he didn't turn around.
Another Niberis materialized beside him.
"Heh. Not falling for the clones, are you?"
"Unfortunately..."
Azel grinned and stomped his foot once.
Boom!
Vibrations radiated out from Azel. This was the standard counter to illusion magic creating clones. One could distinguish the real body from fakes by how they reacted to the vibrations or changed when dust touched them.
Even Niberis's clones couldn't overcome the weakness of being illusions. Azel identified the real one and charged without hesitation.
Yet his sword sliced through empty air.
"I thought you had a bit of brains."
Niberis appeared behind the astonished Azel. Even the textbook method he'd used to pinpoint her had been bait she'd laid!
The dark tentacles then lashed out toward him, coiling around his body.
"You would."
Azel's expression suddenly shifted to a smile. At the same moment, a storm of swordplay deflected the dark tentacles.
This was exactly as Azel had planned. With his "Eyes of Truth," he hadn't been fooled by the clones from the start. Yet to mislead Niberis, he'd deliberately used the standard response.
"I thought you Dragon Demons had a bit of brains."
"What?"
It was the moment Niberis was startled.
Flash!
Something invisible grazed her cheek. A sharp cut appeared on her face, freezing her in place.
'What...?!'
She couldn't comprehend it. What had sliced her cheek?
She knew it had nearly pierced her skull. The layered defensive spells she'd prepared at the cost of dispersing her focus had saved her life.
Niberis instinctively turned her head, though her mind screamed not to. She couldn't stop the reflexive motion.
There, a dagger lay fallen after flying past.
'This broke through my barrier?'
Horrified, she quickly realized her mistake and shuddered. To glance away amid fierce combat!
When she whipped her head back, Azel stood before her, levitating five swords he'd secretly drawn from the dead monsters, glowing in midair.
"Dragon Army, advance!"
With his shout, blue flashes in the shape of dragons enveloped the swords. They shot forth like arrows at his command.
"Urgh!"
Niberis hastily deployed defensive magic, blocking all the incoming swords wreathed in flashing dragons.
At the same time, she felt puzzled.
'This is all the power it has?'
She'd expected a lethal strike after her lapse. Yet blocking it was laughably easy.
The reason soon became clear.
"Princess! Now!"
Arietta charged from behind Azel. Following his instructions, she'd recovered her stamina while awaiting this moment!
The dragon demon energy loaded into her pure white sword erupted explosively in response to her spirit chant.
"Unique darkness, part!"
Fwoooosh!
A flood of light slammed into Niberis. At the same moment, she realized the nature of Azel's trap.
'To think such a devilish technique existed!'
The five swords embedded in her defensive spells emitted varying mana wave patterns, linking with one another. When Arietta's light beam struck atop them, it rampaged, constantly shifting the mana patterns.
It was a mage's nightmare. An assault that altered mana patterns by the second, varying by location, shredded defensive spells mercilessly!
And beyond it, Azel moved.
"Dragon Army! Full bloom!"
With his spirit-chant-infused cry, Azel unleashed his full power, having amplified his energy over time.
The light dragons coiling around the swords roared as they engulfed Niberis.
"Kyaaaaaaaah!"
Niberis screamed.
She would die like this! Swallowed to the bone by the rampaging light dragons!
Even maintaining her crumbling defenses felt like her brain was burning. With desperate resolve, she invoked another spell. Unlike human mana, dragon demon energy could force phenomena through will alone. Concentrating it enabled the normally impossible.
"Void... Mirror...!"
With her strained cry, the tidal wave of light bent!
Kwaaaaa!
The light dragons about to devour her curved away, piercing the sky. The grand curtain of darkness enveloping the area tore, revealing the night sky.
Whooooosh...!
The roar faded rapidly, and the air began to shift.
7
Faint light pierced the space once dominated by perfect darkness. The moon was dim, but compared to the pitch black sealed by the dark veil, it felt brilliantly bright.
"Haa, haa, haa..."
Niberis staggered as if about to collapse.
But Azel didn't attack her. Not from exhaustion—if so, he wouldn't have stopped the charging Arietta.
Arietta turned to him with questioning eyes. Azel explained.
"Go in now, and she'll take you."
"...What?"
Instead of elaborating to the surprised Arietta, Azel beckoned with a finger. The sword that had grazed her earlier rose from behind Niberis and flew toward them.
But as it neared her, it twisted grotesquely and snapped. Watching it, Azel thought.
'She induced mana overload in a fixed area, then forced the uncontrollable rampage in one direction.'
Mana overload was inherently uncontrollable. The moment a mage failed control and it surged, death was expected.
Yet Niberis had triggered it deliberately, then reined it in using Dragon Demon methods.
'Even if the control spells are crude, dumping massive dragon demon energy—with its power to impose will on reality—makes it work. Possible in theory, but pulling it off... She's no girl to underestimate.'
The difference between mana and dragon demon energy was simple.
Mana fundamentally required refinement through will, then manifestation via spells or Spirit Orders to affect the natural world.
Dragon demon energy, by contrast, could impose phenomena on nature through the user's will alone, bypassing complex processes. Focusing it with a strong image of fire igniting could spontaneously cause combustion.
This trait was why Dragon Demons and hybrids vastly outclassed humans as mages. The gap narrowed among high-rank mages, but some feats remained exclusive to those with dragon demon energy.
Her recent defense exemplified it. She'd deliberately overloaded her barrier's mana, then used dragon demon energy to focus the surge in one direction. The light dragons, on the verge of shattering it, got caught in the overload and blasted skyward.
Niberis laughed darkly.
"Heh. Quite shameful for a mage."
Mages pursued precise control of spells for desired outcomes. Yet she'd been forced into a crude, life-risking gamble against a far weaker foe after losing the technique battle. Utter humiliation.
Shiiiii...
Once mana overloaded, turbulent flows lingered. That was why Azel held back, and why Niberis seemed still but was defending against those flows.
Regaining her breath, Niberis spoke.
"I lost the technique exchange. I admit it."
Wounded pride in her eyes, she glared murderously at Azel.
"But tell me, bearer of a sinful name—do you have any worthwhile moves left?"
Her killing intent crushed Azel and Arietta's senses.
Azel stared at her, face rigid. Niberis took a step forward.
"Your techniques surpass any human I've seen. However... regrettably, you lack the power to back them."
Azel had pierced her guard with brilliant techniques and psychological traps. But Niberis crushed it all with her absolute power gap.
No matter how superior the skill, without strength, it meant nothing. Against others, perhaps—but Niberis was beyond technique alone.
Suddenly, Azel spoke.
"Well, it wasn't entirely unexpected."
"...What?"
Niberis raised an eyebrow at his relaxed expression.
Azel said.
"Attacks can be blocked."
Azel rated Niberis highly. Even compared to the Dragon Demons he'd fought in the Dragon Emperor War, she ranked strong.
Thus, for his decisive blow, he'd laid two prior traps.
First, he'd feigned breaching her impenetrable barrier to induce panic.
The technique "Sage of the Earth" exploited how her barrier didn't extend underground. He'd disguised ground-based energy projection via foot stomp as swordplay, but actually bypassed via the earth with mere sensory mana stimulation—a light prick to unsettle without real power, avoiding her counter.
Then, in that instant of her fluster, he'd infused energy into part of her ever-shifting barrier mana, priming it to alter patterns on his cue. His fierce strike then rent the barrier, and constant distractions kept her oblivious.
That created the critical opening. He remotely manipulated a hidden dagger nearby, exploiting the gap.
Startled, Niberis glanced back, exposing herself fatally—primed for Arietta's assault. Yet Azel had anticipated her block.
"The barrier trapping us is gone now."
Niberis's eyes widened. The dark veil, conjured via pre-prepared magic tools, had torn away.