The Corrupted Phoenix Falls
Cold sweat slid down the back of my neck as I watched the flashburst detonate right in front of me.
"…Utterly ridiculous. I really thought I was going to die caught in that explosion."
I had wrapped myself in mana just before the blast, so I escaped serious injury, but the sheer force still hurled me a considerable distance.
Far off, at the center of the enormous crater that had swallowed even part of the forest in the explosion's wake, Jack Richmond stood clearly visible.
The flames engulfing him were changing color.
The sacred blue fire that had been scorching everything around him was staining itself black, as though someone had flung ink across it. The mana jetting from his back took on more and more the shape of wings.
The one-handed sword he had been holding was nowhere to be seen; in its place, massive flames burned sharp as a raptor's talons.
—It looked for all the world like a miniature phoenix.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaah!!"
The black flames covering his entire body erupted outward, and a scream closer to a death-cry tore free.
While I was still wondering what the hell I was supposed to do about this, Beatrix's voice rang inside my head.
Do you remember when this body told you it had sensed a repulsive mana?
Ah… now that you mention it, she did say that.
I had been so overwhelmed after entering the subspace that I had completely forgotten. Beatrix's words from before we stepped inside came flooding back.
It is him. That one is unquestionably the culprit.
So it was him after all…
Well, the moment she mentioned that repulsive mana I had more or less guessed. Even looking at him with my own eyes I still couldn't catch the distinctive mana scent of the Light of Dawn, so I couldn't be completely certain—but if Beatrix said so, it was certain.
The waves of mana washing over my skin made the truth unmistakable either way.
Light of Dawn or not, that volume of mana was simply dangerous.
This was nothing like the times I had always fought from a position of overwhelming mana superiority.
He comes.
Boom!
Before I could even react to Beatrix's warning, he moved.
The ground beneath his feet caved in, and everything he touched melted under the black flames.
"Kyaaaaaaah!!"
With a cry more beast than man he charged, the air itself screaming as he tore through it.
Fast!
Too fast for my eyes to follow. Even though the distance had been considerable, the instant I registered the fact he was already right in front of me.
"Khup!!"
Richmond—now a miniature phoenix—latched onto me and drove those talon-like flames straight at my shoulder.
Clang!
I caught the strike with Gungnir in my left hand.
But the moment he discarded his sword he had gained a second weapon.
"Kyaaaa!!"
Crunch!
Hissss—!
I raised my right hand—now gauntleted—and blocked the follow-up, yet a nauseating melting sound rose from my scales along with searing pain.
With him this close I could feel it too.
Those black flames carried the same ominous taint I had sensed from the Light of Dawn's corrupted mana.
"Kakakakak!!"
Both of his hands occupied, he still managed a grotesque laugh, face melting, eyes unfocused, as though the whole situation delighted him.
While I was still reeling, another set of talons burst from his chest.
"You crazy bastard—!!"
I kicked hard into the open space at his side—the only place not currently trying to kill me—and barely twisted free of the attack.
"Kyaak!!"
Truly repulsive and hideous. At this point one can scarcely find any difference between him and a monster.
Yeah, something's definitely wrong. He's using the Phoenix skill, yet his wounds aren't healing.
When the flames had still been blue, any injury had closed almost instantly.
Now the sight before me looked more like he was wounding himself with his own fire.
The figure spewing flames from every pore was already ruined enough to be called a corpse.
It wasn't only his face that had melted.
Ugly liquefaction spread across his body, and the wound Gungnir had left in his chest showed no sign of recovery whatsoever.
"Kruuuuuaaaah!!"
Richmond, knocked down, dropped to all fours and roared in pure rage.
The flames surged violently, forming a black halo of light above his head.
The sight was so much like a fallen angel that goosebumps raced across my skin.
Attacking mid-transformation was an unwritten rule of the industry, but there was no way I could just stand there and watch that thing finish.
""
Dragon Claw
The instant the crimson mana touched his body—
"■■■ ■■ ■■■■"
An incomprehensible language erupted, and the jet-black halo blazed with dazzling light.
Enormous wings of flame unfurled wide; a torrent of mana shot out like a laser and swallowed the dragon mana whole.
In the end the black flames succeeded in erasing part of the Dragon Claw.
Impressive. Degraded though it may be, to possess firepower enough to burn this body's mana…
Yet the portion that had not burned continued on, tore straight through the mana barrier he had raised, and sheared Richmond's entire shoulder clean off.
Dragon Claw did not stop there.
It left a wound on the black halo floating above his head as well.
In that instant—
KWA-AAAAAANG!!
A massive explosion erupted from the point of impact.
It was on the same scale as the blast when he had first awakened.
Smoke billowed upward; dust and debris scattered in every direction.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaah!!!!"
Richmond's agonized roar shook the air as the surrounding ground collapsed, forming a smaller crater.
The threatening waves pouring from the cracked halo made my blood run cold.
"…."
I could only watch the scene with a blank expression.
If I hadn't interrupted it mid-cast, that halo would have gathered every scrap of mana and fired the laser. I would have died, or come close enough that it wouldn't have mattered.
This was exactly one of the things I had been dreading.
A character who never existed in the original was now using abilities that never existed in the original.
Which meant that whether I had regressed, been possessed, or reincarnated, the future had already diverged. I was nothing more than an ordinary person who had experienced an IF world.
There was even the possibility that the knowledge I carried was wrong—and therefore more dangerous than no knowledge at all.
Then it happened.
Flutter.
The roaring stopped. Before I could even think of blocking, he made the halo blaze and slowly began to rise into the sky.
"■■■■"
Again that string of unknown words.
Dozens of hands shaped like raptor legs sprouted from his body and stretched toward the heavens.
Gooooooo—!
In the sudden stillness, black mana compressed into a sphere.
It grew larger and larger, the horrifyingly dense mana sucking in even the light of the surrounding area.
The world darkened in an instant, and panic clawed at my chest.
"Shit! What the hell am I supposed to—!"
This time there was no way to interrupt it mid-cast.
Dragon Roar and Dragon Claw were mid-to-close-range skills only.
I had nothing that could reach an enemy floating high in the sky.
Then Beatrix spoke, sounding thoroughly unimpressed.
How frivolous. Cease your flailing and look carefully with both eyes.
"What?"
Her calm voice snapped me back to myself. I lifted my head and stared upward.
The black mass of mana had already swollen to the size of a house and was radiating terrifying waves.
But the one maintaining it—Richmond—did not look well at all.
Hovering in midair with the halo blazing still gave an overwhelming impression, yet the human body inside seemed unable to endure it.
Moreover the dozens of hands holding that enormous mana could not keep their shape; they collapsed, reformed, collapsed again, and reformed in a desperate cycle.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
And at last a hand failed to regenerate in time.
The giant sphere, its balance lost, developed a hole—and once that hole opened it could not be controlled.
Ominous black flames burst from the sky and began to rain down across the entire area.
Among them, one particularly pitiful, tiny fireball dropped right in front of me with a soft thud.
It was Jack Richmond.
"Grrrrr—"
Almost nothing of the person I had first met remained.
The jet-black halo had shattered into fragments; the black flames had gone out.
The water-blue hair that had been his trademark was gone—burned away completely.
His skin had melted red; his left shoulder was severed; a massive hole punched through his chest.
Whether he had already lost his sense of self or not, he let out a bestial growl and rolled the only thing that still marked him as Jack Richmond—those water-blue eyes—to glare at me.
Even that, however, could not last. Gray ash began to flake away, and he slowly vanished.
"Beatrix."
Watching him disappear did not feel like someone else's problem.
"If your mana ever swallows me, I'll end up like that, won't I?"
Hmph. Do not compare yourself to a flaming bird. You would become a far more dangerous calamity, without question.
As my mana rose and my skill levels climbed, the time I could maintain Dragon Blood while still sane had lengthened.
But facing an opponent this strong would drag the fight out, and there was no guarantee I wouldn't go berserk.
I was just thinking I needed to work even harder when Richmond's body finished crumbling. In the place where he had vanished, items lay on the ground.
One was a coin that had clearly been his; the other looked like a brooch shaped like a coiled serpent.
The coin was only natural—high-grade magic was woven into them to prevent destruction during battle—but the fact that the brooch had survived that inferno was surprising.
I picked the brooch up from the ground, and a hologram appeared before my eyes.
◈ A brooch containing the blessing of the Demon God. Amplifies the wearer's mana and conceals the nature of that mana.
"So it was one of the Blessing series."
I had encountered the Demon God's Blessing series in the original, so I understood roughly what it was and nodded.
Judging by the description it carried a concealment option, and the fact that it had even slipped past Beatrix's senses suggested the item's performance was quite high.
Ugh… you are not seriously thinking of using that item, are you?
"Of course not. Even I don't want to wear something this creepy!"
Besides, the Demon God's Blessing series could not even be equipped unless the wearer was already corrupted.
Not that I would have used it even if I could.
It was a blessing from the Demon God, after all.
I was not nearly adventurous enough to casually equip something that dangerous just from the name alone.
And even though it was Legendary, options this modest would start pouring out in bulk later on, so there was no need to get attached.
"Now the real problem is how to find Elizabeth and the others in the middle of this wildfire…"
I was worried about Enri too and wanted to locate them quickly, but I had absolutely no clue to their position.
I already gave them the map, after all.
On top of that, the fire Richmond had started had turned the entire forest into a sea of flames, making everything even more hopeless.
"Huh?"
While I stared at the hellscape unfolding before me, my senses picked up an unusual mana wavelength.
I turned my head toward the source and saw, far in the distance, a colossal pillar of water rising high into the sky.
The rising water spread outward like rain and began rapidly extinguishing the forest fire.
That is the aura of a spirit.
At Beatrix's words something clicked in my mind.
"Ahahaha!"
Laughter burst out of me before I could stop it.
"Thank god. They made it too."
The item I had given them for Enri's treatment was Trisha's Grace.
A ring that housed the water spirit herself.