604
Chapter 604
The Black Corps members stepped forward at Baron's command, their eyes filled with madness.
CRUNCH
Black energy flowed from their hands, transforming them into demon-like claws with sharp nails neither aura nor magic power, but something entirely different and alien.
Nigel raised her sword as several Black Corps members lunged at her.
SWOOSH
Their dark energy-infused claws surprisingly tore through Nigel's sword strike itself.
'They can tear through formless energy?'
Even Nigel, who had lived over a thousand years, had never seen such a phenomenon.
Other Black Corps members exploited this opening.
SWOOSH
Though barely grazed, the claws tore Nigel's special fabric clothing that was stronger than iron armor.
The Black Corps members' black claws possessed power exceeding that of an Aura Blade.
Nabu shouted.
"Ivan, you idiot! This isn't the time for us to fight! Help us quickly!"
Ivan remained still, guarding the door with his summons despite his slightly twitching eyebrow.
The Black Corps members charged at Nigel and Nabu. While Nigel blocked with her sword, Nabu had to retreat.
"I'm not a fighter! Can't you tell just by looking?!"
Nabu summoned a flying carpet and flew toward Ivan, with the Black Corps members in pursuit.
WHOOSH!
Ivan's Death God and half-beast clashed with the Black Corps members.
CLANG!
The summons were pushed back. More surprisingly, the Black Corps members' black arms began devouring the summons' energy like beasts.
CRUNCH!
Their black energy expanded after absorbing Ivan's curse and the summons' power, now covering their entire arms.
"Damn it all!"
Nabu frantically read an incantation for light magic.
FLASH!
A brilliant light spread throughout the stone chamber.
The light summoned by Nabu illuminated the Black Corps members in the distance.
Surprisingly, the black arms that received the light had grown even larger than before.
"I-Impossible!"
Having consumed Ivan's curse and spirits, they should have shown an adverse reaction to the power of light. But instead, they absorbed that power too and grew stronger - it was unbelievable even while watching with their own eyes.
The Black Corps members swung their now more grotesque arms, defeating Ivan's summons before grabbing and devouring them all.
They approached where Ivan and Nabu were, wielding the dark energy that enveloped their arms and shoulders.
Seeing this, Nabu shouted at Ivan.
"What exactly are those things? Tell me what power I need to use to stop them!"
Even Ivan, who had the deepest knowledge of magical beasts within the High Table, couldn't readily speak since he knew nothing about the power dwelling in the Black Corps members' arms.
But then.
BOOM!
A massive impact sound rang out from behind the approaching Black Corps members.
Seeing the dark energy ripple, it seemed they had been hit by something.
When Nabu rose into the air on his magic carpet, he saw it was the sound of Manna's prayer beads exploding after he had thrown them.
"Manna! How did you do that? What did you use to damage them?"
Instead of answering, Manna continued throwing prayer beads at the Black Corps members.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Black Corps members tried to block the incoming prayer beads by swinging their black claws, but the damage continued.
Unlike Ivan and Nabu's attacks, these were clearly causing harm.
Just as Nabu was about to ask Manna again, Nigel appeared beside them, swinging her sword.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Her sword strikes were also damaging the Black Corps members.
After landing nimbly, Nigel shouted to Nabu and Ivan.
"Only attacks imbued with soul technique works against them!"
At Nigel's words, Nabu shouted in confusion.
"Attacks imbued with soul technique? What does that mean? I can't use something like that!"
Unlike Nabu, Ivan seemed to have a method as he put away his crossbow and took out a different weapon from his pocket.
He pulled out several segmented rods and assembled them into a long staff.
He took a stance with the staff and approached the Black Corps members ahead.
WHOOSH!
Ivan's thrust staff flew at high speed toward a Black Corps member.
The Black Corps member raised his arm to block Ivan's staff.
But when the Black Corps member's arm and Ivan's staff collided, a massive vibration occurred.
CLANG!
The Black Corps member had to step back from the impact.
The part of the black arm that collided with the staff rippled and couldn't maintain its original form.
Seeing this, Nabu nodded as if realizing something.
"Aha. In other words, we need attacks that target their very essence."
Like the sage he was, Nabu understood the method before long.
FLUTTER! FLUTTER! FLUTTER!
He immediately levitated dozens of books into the air and searched for text containing applicable content.
And he found one passage.
"My sword is me. I am the sword. The moment that sword rises and aims at the enemy, it might as well already be embedded in the enemy's body!"
When he read the passage with word magic, a sword rose up and immediately flew toward the Black Corps member.
WHOOSH!
The Black Corps member once again tried to deflect Nabu's sword by swinging its black claws.
The sword and black claws collided.
CLANG!
A huge sound rang out as the Black Corps member stepped back.
"UGH!"
The Black Corps member frowned as if surprised by the sword's unexpectedly strong power.
Having gotten the hang of it, Nabu smiled wickedly.
"Very well then. Let's do this!"
Nabu's terrifying aspect was that he could repeat any attack indefinitely as long as he had the appropriate text.
"My swords imbued with my spirit. Rise up. Those swords shall become hundreds and block these enemies who threaten me!"
In that moment, hundreds of swords rose up before Nabu.
Those swords began raining down on the Black Corps members all at once.
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
Looking at each individual sword, their power was weaker compared to Nigel's soul technique.
But hundreds of spirit-imbued swords falling from the sky simultaneously was enough to break the Black Corps members' momentum.
SLASH$ SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
The swords rained down not only on the Black Corps members charging at them, but also on those waiting with Baron.
CLANG!
TING! TING!
The sound of Nabu's summoned swords colliding with black corps rang out everywhere.
Some Black Corps members collapsed, unable to withstand the impact while blocking the falling swords.
Nigel, Ivan, and Manna launched attacks at those who showed openings.
SLASH!
"URRRGH!"
The Black Corps member fell with a groan after taking Nigel's sword strike.
More than half of the Black Corps members who stepped forward had fallen from Nabu's summoned sword attacks.
However, Nigel's expression remained tense.
'Those ones weren't affected by Nabu's summoned swords at all.'
The swords had all vanished before even reaching the Black Corps members standing with Baron.
The vanguard sent ahead must have been their weakest members.
Baron, who had been watching, slowly spoke.
"Ingel, handle this."
Ingel, the Left Wing Commander, bowed her head to Baron.
The waiting Black Corps members moved at her gesture.
SWOOSH!
Ingel stepped forward and stretched her hand toward the fallen Black Corps members.
HISS! HISS! HISS! HISS!
Dark energy flowed from her hand into the fallen members.
Amazingly, their wounds healed and they regained consciousness and stood up.
Seeing this, Nabu was stunned atop his magic carpet.
"This is insane..."
Summoning Soul-imbued swords consumed significant karma.
His energy drained seeing them casually revived after he had barely managed to reduce their numbers.
Nigel also frowned at this sight.
She spoke to Ivan beside her.
"Ivan, call the Leader. We can't stop them with our power alone. We need to awaken this tower's power."
Ivan shook his head at Nigel's words.
"Contact with the Leader has been lost."
Nigel's eyes widened at his words.
"Lost contact? What do you mean…?"
Before Ivan could finish, the revived Black Corps members charged at them.
WHOOSH!
They swung their claws with even sharper movements than before.
SLASH!
Nigel blocked the attack with her sword, but it wasn't over.
This time, dark energy surged through their feet as well, displaying strange movements like martial artists as they swung their limbs through the air.
SLASH!
Sharp claws flew from all directions, and blade-like flying kicks targeted their vital points.
SLASH!
Ivan, who was protecting Nigel's back, got grazed on the shoulder by the Black Corps members' attack.
"Ivan!"
As Nabu shouted from behind, Ivan calmly tore off the clothing from the grazed area.
The wounded area was already black with necrosis and spreading.
Seeing this, Ivan unhesitatingly drew a dagger and cut off his own arm.
SLASH!
Ivan's arm fell to the floor with a thud.
Despite cutting off his own arm, Ivan's expression remained unchanged.
Soon Manna approached and cast a healing spell on Ivan's arm.
Ingel, who was behind them, grinned at the retreating High Table members and shouted.
"Attack! Kill these relics of the old era!"