The Ancient Missing Link (10)

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Franc remained lying face down, showing no signs of getting up. She was still breathing. Her back rose and fell so subtly it was almost impossible to notice, but the movement was definitely there. It had to be. The red liquid had to be from a potion. The metallic stench of blood stabbing my nose had to be from my own nosebleed. There was no way it was all Franc’s blood. Dana would never have treated me first when Franc was in such critical condition.

“I had my suspicions ever since I saw that ring on her finger, but was that girl your wife too?”

—Heh heh.

Yerna let out a bewitching laugh as she asked the question. I could see Dana saying something from within my arms, but it was like watching a muted video—the words entered one ear and slipped out the other, leaving me unable to understand any of it.

The blood in my veins grew heavier, weighing down my steps. My body temperature plummeted as if I had sunk into a quagmire, and my feet turned to lead. Yet strangely, from this body that had gone cold as a corpse—only my left eye burned as though it had been seared with a branding iron.

……Hoo.

The mana of Beast Regression had vanished. The instant my body—clad only in cheap armor—was left completely defenseless, Yerna blinked like a radio that had been playing a pleasant tune suddenly breaking down.

“What’s wrong? Did your adorable wife get badly hurt? If you hurry up and defeat me so you can treat her, she might still survive. This is no time to stand there in a daze—”

Yerna, who had been speaking, suddenly knitted her brows into a perfect The finger she had raised to brush back her hair had sliced through nothing but empty air.

Yerna turned her head, as if she had noticed the alien sensation coming from her hand. Her hand was gone.

“────Huh?”

Only her thumb and pinky remained, dangling limply from the pierced palm.

—Splurt!

As if it had been waiting for Yerna to realize the abnormality, blood erupted from her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠palm. But Yerna had no leisure to stare at her impaled hand. Because that ‘something’ was still floating right beside her.

“……A spear?”

A half-spear wrapped in black mana hovered in the air. It wasn’t that the enchantment on the shaft had activated. The magical ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠formula had collapsed the moment the vine snapped it. Besides, the Puppetry placed on the spear was never a spell that moved by coiling mana around itself like this. It certainly didn’t possess the power to fly at a speed Yerna couldn’t perceive and pierce straight through her palm.

──Under normal circumstances, anyway.

—Piiiing!!!

The spear spun 180 degrees and flew into my hand at a velocity ordinary superhumans couldn’t even perceive. I dragged the other half of the shaft from the ground and pressed the broken ends together.

—Kiiing.

The shaft had shattered into dozens of fragments, so the joint shouldn’t have aligned at all, yet when light flashed, it fused cleanly as though the damage had been an illusion.

—Whirl.

When I released it, the spear shaft spun once and floated beside me like a loyal servant attending its master.

“──Kuh!”

—Flash!

Light mana regenerated Yerna’s pierced hand. To the light mana the ruins had spent centuries accumulating, restoring missing body parts was child’s play. Simpler than striking a match. And the uses of light mana were not limited to healing alone.

“──Kyahahahahahahahahaha!! The power was decent! But you should have aimed properly!!”

Having tasted the spear’s strength with her own body, Yerna radiated killing intent and manipulated her magic. The vines empowered by light mana spun like drills and charged forward at twice the speed of her first attack.

Kwaaaaaang—!!

The vine slammed into my lowered chest. My armor exploded like an old soldier caught in a grenade blast. It was only natural. An attack that could inflict critical wounds even when I used Beast Regression’s defense had grown incomparably stronger. My weakened body, with all reinforcement magic released, would be pulverized like a watermelon struck by a hammer, turning even Franc and Dana behind me into ground meat.

—Kagagagagagagagagagagaga!!!

Yet I stood as solid as a layered cliff and took every blow with my body. My armor shattered, and everything in my pockets scattered like the contents of a wallet tossed into a fan. Still, I did not retreat even a single millimeter. The magic output strong enough to turn armor plates into rags spun uselessly against my skin without piercing it.

Because I felt no pain, my mind grew terrifyingly clear. Like a patient seized by mania, I hallucinated the white flame I had seen in my inner world. A black stigma bloomed at its center. It spread like contamination, dyeing the entire flame pitch black.

It didn’t feel as if someone else was controlling me. I realized the identity of that black flame.

It was the mad rage blossoming from my own chest.

──Don’t be consumed by madness; tame your rage.

The words someone had spoken in my dream rose to mind. Perhaps Odin had left that advice anticipating this very moment, but the counsel was swallowed by the surging fury and vanished.

—Grit.

I gripped the spear. Black mana coiled around my left arm like Beast Regression. From my hand, as though eroding everything it touched, the spear too became covered in mana. I swung it at the rampaging vines that thrashed like a factory shredder.

—Slice!!

A moderate strike reminiscent of sweeping with a broom sliced the spinning bundle of vines like paper. As if the act of tearing ivy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had been magnified thousands of times, vines thicker than a man’s waist poured onto the floor. A pool of blood splashed. A bronze mirror bounced from the severed vines and rolled to my feet.

The reflection in that mirror had no left side to its face. Black smoke billowed out, painting over the expressionless man’s features ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as if covering them in ink.

Kiiing—! Kiiing—! Kiiing—!

As if urging me, as if anticipating what came next, the black mana roared like a dragon. The output erupting from my left arm shook the underground tomb with an earthquake.

“……Dana. Heal Franc.”

With the last fragment of my reason, I spoke only those words, then placed my hand over the face consumed by darkness. The pitch-black face felt like touching a soul, as if even light feared it and fled. Just as one closes the eyes of a corpse during a funeral── I closed my left eye.

—Boom.

……Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

“……Rrrrrrr….”

Black mana rode up my left side and covered my entire body. My throat produced a beast-like howl. Ignoring how the earthquake shaking the underground tomb grew stronger, I roared with all my strength.

The underground tomb built with ancient civilization’s architectural techniques split apart in a radial pattern. The moment Yerna’s expression changed and she drew her petals closed, the thrown spear tore through the wall of air and soared. It was a full-power defensive stance—five layered shields plus a compressed shield.

The air pierced by the spear left behind storm-like aftershocks that whipped wind through the underground tomb. The tomb vibrated with signs of collapse, but I wasn’t worried about being buried alive. Because the next instant, the ceiling of the underground tomb—tens of meters of solid rock—had been blown away without a trace.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah──!!!!”

—Kwarururururung!!!!

The mithril throwing spear easily pierced Yerna’s defenses and tore away half her body. Light mana healed the fatal wound that should have caused instant death. The regeneration speed surpassed even trolls. The aftermath of destruction pulverized the ground above, creating a passage to the surface. Yerna’s half-regenerating body, caught in the storm, was hurled hundreds of meters into the sky.

I won’t let her escape.

“RRRRRRrrrrrooooooooooooooo──!!!!!!!”

I leaped dozens of meters from where I stood and chased after her. The thought that I had to save Franc clung to a corner of my neurons like the charred corpse of a mouse burned in a fireplace, but it was not enough to calm the boiling killing intent and rage.

The hurricane erupting from underground demolished part of the city of the dead. Catching the spear that returned to me like a swift marlin, I leaped toward the ruins filled with corpses.

“Keheuk, kyahaak?! Kkeuhahaak……?!”

Yerna, whose half-body had regenerated in mere seconds, writhed in agony. Perhaps even light mana couldn’t regenerate clothing, because she rolled across the ground completely naked. When she spotted me, her eyes widened.

“How dare a piece of trash from a lowly false god make me kneel……”

Yerna ground her teeth and muttered. A wool dress covered her naked form.

“I’ll cut off your limbs and bury them with your idiot comrades and your wives’ corpses. Until both your body and mind rot away and fester completely—I’ll use you as fertilizer for my carnivorous plants!!!!”

“Rrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

I roared and charged. Yerna, her face twisted ferociously, made flowers bloom from the ruined buildings. A hundred-meter straight-line distance was filled with Rafflesia-like flowers in full bloom.

—Karurururuk!!

The Rafflesia vines shot up like savage death spears. It was a wide-area attack meant to overwhelm the entire space. There was nowhere to dodge, yet I continued my charge. I extended the claws of Beast Regression. I swung the blade-like nails that had grown over thirty centimeters to the side.

“Syaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa──!!!!!”

Pitch-black steam and mana erupted like soot. The vine prison was shredded by the claw strike. The remaining force of the nail mana flew all the way to where Yerna stood.

“Do not look down on high elf blood──!!!!”

Yerna tried to deploy even more petals than before. But her plan failed.

—Kwaduk!

The threads of mana erupting from my fingers had bound Yerna’s body. They were no longer threads—they were nearly as thick as ropes. Yerna’s body, touched by the threads, was wrapped in black mana and compressed. Blood sprayed out like a broken fountain.

“Kyaaahyaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh──?!!!!!”

Trapped in a 360-degree sealed space, Yerna was crushed as if caught in a hydraulic press. Her limbs were pulverized. I pulled my arm back. Yerna shot out from her petal shield like a cannonball.

—Paaaang!

Like electromagnetic motion, Yerna’s crumpled torso floated in the air. Ten meters. Twenty meters. Thirty meters. The mana threads kept lengthening without end, and the height from which Yerna would fall rose accordingly.

“No way……! No way no way no way no way no way no waaaaaaaaay──?!!!”

Even while regenerating her mangled body, Yerna seemed to sense her impending doom.

Shweeeeeeeeeeeek─!!!!

I slammed Yerna into the ground as if smashing a torn kite. Like fishing line wound on an electric reel, her waist bent backward and snapped. Though even that would feel lukewarm compared to the hell that was about to visit her.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!”

—Splat!!

Yerna’s body burst apart like a water balloon filled with paint. With her vocal cords destroyed, even the scream born of terror and pain fell silent. The scattered blood and flesh began to gather. The grotesque lump of meat instantly reconstructed the beautiful naked form of an elf. The light mana left in the ruins would not be depleted by something of this level. That body would remain immortal until the mana ran out.

The body, at least.

“Agh, haa……?! Hii, hiiiiii………!!”

Yerna, who had been reassembled like clay, groped at her own face. She didn’t even try to hide her nakedness. Even though the dress she had worn with pride had vanished without a single thread remaining.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiyah!!!”

Driven mad by phantom pain, Yerna severed the threads I had extended. She probably hadn’t experienced much pain in her long life. Showing signs of delirium from pain that felt like being put through a blender every ten seconds, Yerna convulsed like an epileptic and used her magic.

—Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

A spiral of water shot forward in a straight line. The pressure felt like an abyssal current reproduced on land! It was undoubtedly a massive water current weighing several tons.

I spread my palm toward the waterspout. I felt no fear. The reason that created fear had already been paralyzed. The only thing controlling my actions now was the rage mixed with madness.

“Awuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!”

Extreme cold erupted from the palm aimed at the waterspout. It instantly froze the atomic motion of the energy within the vortex, turning it into a block of ice. With the output of a compressed jet exceeding one hundred meters per second, the cold reduced the ice block to powder and froze Yerna’s lower body solid.

“Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa──!!”

I stomped, shattering the icy ground. I drove my fist into Yerna’s stomach. Her belly exploded and her spine snapped.

“Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stoooooooooooooop─!!!!”

I wrapped Yerna’s screaming throat with my intestines like a necktie and pulled. When I drove my knee into her solar plexus, crimson ice scattered and her upper body burst apart.

“Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!”

Tukwagagagagagagagak─!!!

I beat and beat and beat Yerna’s body. I avoided the head. Even with my reason lost, a cruel thought had surfaced—that she wouldn’t feel pain while her brain was destroyed.

Shrrrrrrrrk─!!

The light mana was being depleted. Healing physical damage consumed a great deal. The enormous mana could not be used for attacks and had to constantly replenish Yerna’s organs and flesh as she died dozens, hundreds of times without rest. The light mana that had been invisible to me earlier was now clearly visible. The mana was decreasing. An amount as vast as the sea—something that would not shame hundreds of years of accumulation—was evaporating at a terrifying speed, like an ocean into which the sun had fallen.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

—Boom!!

I grabbed the head of the comically bouncing Yerna and slammed it into a wall. I ran while grinding her head against the ground, punching through walls as easily as sugar cane. Red paint drew lines across the road like road markings.

“Hiiiyuaaaaaaaaaoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaah──!!!”

With her broken arm, Yerna tore at her own body. Unable to withstand my grip strength, her upper body rolled across the ground.

—Roll roll!

By the time the body that looked like nothing but a corpse stopped moving, Yerna had already fully regenerated.

“No, no, no, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo──!!!!”

Clutching her head, Yerna chose to flee. She scrambled across the ground on all fours before using mana extravagantly to fly into the sky. Instead of pulling her back with mana threads, I leaped after her. Black mist gathered at my feet, stabilizing my posture as though I were standing on solid ground. Using the steam jetting from my feet, I pursued the fleeing Yerna.

When Yerna saw me chasing her, she tore at her hair and went into a frenzy.

“Don’t come near me, get away!!!!!! I said don’t come neaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!!!!!!!!!!”

Yerna raised one hand to the sky. Light vanished from the heavens. The night sky of this other world, where starlight was clearly visible, transformed into a pitch-black expanse devoid of any light whatsoever.

—Kiiiiiiing!!

A pure white orb of light rose in the black sky. It was magic that absorbed and compressed every bit of starlight and sunlight in the heavens, converting it all into karmic flames. Yerna trembled, her disheveled hair whipping in the wind.

“How dare an inferior species that committed original sin try to kill me!!! You humans have no right to enjoy the legacy the gods left behind!!!! To my eyes, the nations of humans sprawling all the way to the horizon are nothing but garbage dumps where trash gives birth to more trash!!!!!”

The sphere of light grew exponentially as it absorbed the mana Yerna supplied and the light of nature. Every time Yerna spat while her mind seemed broken, the radiance intensified. It was undoubtedly the strongest spell she could deploy.

“Rrrrrrrrrr…….”

I grabbed the spear floating beside me. Holding it like a staff, I drew up my mana.

—Kooong.

A magic circle appeared behind me. It was a simple circle containing only a single rune character. It spun pitch black and unconsciously multiplied. When I counted the sixth, there were already nine. By the tenth there were twenty, and before I could count thirty there were fifty, then ninety. Like a mandala embroidering the sky, over a hundred magic circles traversed the jet-black heavens.

“………Ah, aah.”

Yerna drooled from her blood-covered mouth and despaired. She had realized that in firepower, number, and deployment speed, she had been utterly overwhelmed in every aspect. My magic, activated a few beats later, had completed itself stronger, faster, and more perfectly than hers.

I lowered the corners of my mouth that had been baring fangs and waited arrogantly for the final flame.

—Kung!

Yerna’s magic was completed.

The magics collided. The falling sun and the ninety-nine heaven-defying flame storms intertwined, illuminating the dark sky. The struggle lasted less than an instant. Yerna’s sun was swallowed by the flames I emitted like a match thrown into a furnace and vanished without a trace. Crimson flames that could incinerate even screams spread out like tree branches, covering the space where Yerna had been. From the blazing sky, I lowered the spear I had been using like a staff. Not even a handful of ash fell from the sky.