Chapter 100
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: The Darkness that Swallows Gods☆ (3)
An elf girl in plain farmer’s clothes let her dazzling blonde hair fly. She leaped up, using the massive, newly sprouted yew tree as a foothold.
“Clara, can you keep up?”
“Ooh—☆”
I followed behind her.
Like in a classic video game, I jumped from tree to tree, ascending higher.
*Thump-thump—!!*
While I climbed one step at a time,
Anna dashed up the tree as if she were gliding vertically.
She looked like a beautiful elf girl straight out of a manga.
‘I mean, they *are* beautiful elf girls, but their cultist image has been so strong until now…’
Seeing her look so elven for the first time in a long while was a welcome sight. But the distance between us widened so quickly that it was hard to even appreciate the view.
*Tap-tap—!*
I was sure I was faster in a pure sprint.
But now, I was struggling to keep up with Anna, who was already far ahead.
It seemed elves really did get a buff in plant-based zones.
Just before reaching the top of the tree, Anna drew her bow. A green ether, like the leaves of a plant, shone brilliantly from the tip of her arrow.
“[Ydalir]—!”
*Fwang—!*
The arrow cut sharply through the air.
The green arrow struck the conifer that had shot up dozens of meters from the ground. Then, from that spot, another yew tree, dozens of meters tall, grew out lengthwise.
*Rumble—!*
On top of the vertically growing tree, another grew diagonally.
Like an endless series of slashes.
A tree growing from another tree.
After a few repetitions, it became a wooden ladder reaching for the sky.
A tall yew tree, rising majestically like a ladder to the heavens from a fairy tale. The farmland where we had been fighting looked like a distant speck below.
The scene truly brought the fairy tale *Jack and the Beanstalk* to mind. Of course, we were chasing a dragonfly, not treasure.
‘It’s amazing this isn’t collapsing… Is it because it’s a structure made with an ether skill?’
Normally, it should have collapsed at some point, unable to bear the weight of its own trunk… but Anna’s ether skill continued to hold, defying collapse.
Anna fired another arrow at the trunk.
“Grow! [Ydalir]—!”
*Fwoosh—!*
Yet another tree grew from the end of the trunk.
We were now within striking distance of the giant dragonfly. What’s more, even though it clearly saw us approaching, it didn’t actively try to escape.
‘Why isn’t it running? I should be able to hit it now.’
If you don’t dodge, you get hit.
Though I planned to hit it even if it did.
“[Blue Sweet Macaron]—☆”
I swung my greatsword at Góinn, who was now close enough to strike. A pink sword wave, imbued with ether, surged toward him.
*Vwoooom—!!*
A heavy blow launched into the air.
[Tch…!]
The price for not actively evading the attack came for him.
He barely dodged the attack, but his exoskeleton was scratched. Some of the many horns on his body were severed.
The brown dragonfly flinched, then hastily flapped its wings to ascend. Its long, translucent wings made a sound like a massive drone.
“We’ve caught up now!!”
Anna fired an arrow toward it, and the shaft of green light flew toward Góinn, fluttering like a fish.
*Shwoong—!*
The arrow narrowly missed the dragonfly’s enormous eye, and the brown creature froze, startled.
It was clearly flustered.
As expected, Góinn was an even bigger wimp than Ófnir.
‘I thought there’d be more to it, but he really came empty-handed…?’
Well, not entirely empty-handed. He came with an infinite regeneration cheat that seemed to be the handiwork of that Jinsu-kun. But that, too, was utterly pathetic.
Pink-haired girls have always been destined to become teasing brats around pathetic wimps. The spirit of a bratty imp was slowly awakening within me.
‘So weak♡’
The spear and greatsword created by Lotha’s magic answered my call.
-Loser—♡
-Pathetic—♡
“Loser, loser—♡ Just die—☆”
I leaped onto the trunk and spun like a whirlwind.
A strike mixed with the mockery of two girls. The waves of [Blue Sweet Macaron] flew at Góinn like a vortex.
I call it the Bratty Whirlwind Swordsmanship. An attack that deals 25% bonus damage to pathetic wimps rode the waves of pink ether, rising toward the dragonfly.
-Loser♡
-Loser♡
*Swiiish—!*
The Bratty Whirlwind Swordsmanship rose valiantly like a pink waterspout on the sea. Riding its momentum, it tore a small rip in the wimp’s wing.
‘If I were just a little closer, I could have severed it completely…’
But for a wimp, that much pressure was enough to shake him mentally. As expected, he was a pathetic weakling in mind as well.
[Gah?! You, you insolent inferior species…!]
“Loser, loser—☆ Pathetic thing that can only fly—♡ Just die—☆ You wimp, hiding behind your little sister’s ass and just summoning things—♡”
[I’ll tear your head off myself—!]
“Ahaha—☆ Even a wimp’s shouts are pathetic♡”
Properly triggered, the wimp roared and charged toward us.
‘The strategy to provoke the enemy is finally working.’
It seemed my cute, pink-haired appearance required multiple taunts to be effective. Everything in this world has its pros and cons.
Góinn closed the distance in an instant.
Aiming the sharp stinger on its mouth, it stretched out its long body and charged like an arrow. It was his only close-range attack.
“I don’t think so—!”
But his charge was intercepted by the radiant elf girl’s suppressing fire. Five green ether arrows, fired simultaneously in a fan shape, flew like guided missiles.
*Shwaaa—!*
The wimp, flying like an arrow, panicked.
Because while he might fly like an arrow, he was still afraid of real ones.
[Aargh—?! Dammit!!]
Góinn performed an aerial circus act, using its momentum to evade.
He dodged this way,
and that way, trying to escape.
But with a torn wing, he couldn’t reach his original speed and failed to avoid two of the arrows. He ended up taking the hits on his long body.
*Pshuk—!!*
Blood burst from where the arrows struck.
An explosion of green ether followed.
[Kahaak…!]
Even though he was a dragon, he gasped and trembled. But even then, he spat viscous fluid from his mouth and hurled it at us.
From within that sticky slime, adolescent Chaos Insects the size of bears materialized and rushed toward us.
*Shyaaaa—!!*
Hmph, a wimp’s actions are always so predictable.
This is why girls don’t like you.
…
‘Did I always think like this?’
Ever since awakening the rainbow vision,
it felt like the macaron levels in my blood had strangely increased.
“…”
But for now, I had to deal with the wimp’s summoning technique.
I sent them to heaven with my Bratty Whirlwind Swordsmanship once more. A burst of pink ether erupted from my body.
-Loser♡
-Loser♡
*Kieeeek—!!*
A storm created by my greatsword and spear.
The adolescent Chaos Insects caught in the pink whirlwind were shredded without even leaving a scream.
The ones that failed to ascend were struck by Anna’s arrows and fell. The insects that plummeted down the dizzyingly high tree trunk died with a splattering sound.
And just like that, the summoned Chaos Insects were completely gone.
[…]
Góinn, watching this, let out a groan while maintaining a precarious distance.
[Dammit, they said there was only one to watch out for…!]
He looked utterly desperate, like a lone support trying to defend a lane against two well-fed, fully-equipped heroes.
But Góinn didn’t flee.
[D-dammit…! How long do I have to keep this up…!]
“…”
We continued to alternate, unleashing a barrage of sword strikes and a volley of arrows. The damage slowly stacked up, becoming burdensome, and Góinn flew higher into the sky.
“…”
I thought he would disappear into the distant sky, but he just hovered around, loitering. He lingered just out of the range of my and Anna’s attacks, hesitating.
‘If you’re going to run, then just run. Why is he doing that?’
Watching him carefully,
I realized why Góinn was hovering around.
“…!”
I hadn’t noticed it from below, but there was a tricky condition attached to Góinn’s seemingly advantageous high-ground position.
He had to maintain a low-altitude flight, keeping a delicate distance from his targets, so that the Chaos Insects he summoned wouldn’t be smashed to bits more than necessary.
‘So it wasn’t as simple as just throwing them wherever. A hit-and-run strategy is useless if the hit doesn’t land.’
Just by moving slightly higher to avoid us, the Chaos Insects he summoned were smashing into the ground, shattering into pieces faster than their regeneration could keep up.
*Splat—!*
*Splat—!*
The ones that regenerated incompletely were useless as a fighting force.
The longer our fight dragged on,
the noticeably weaker his summon waves became.
‘The others fighting below should have some breathing room now.’
All that was left was to catch the dragonfly. If he had a risk like this, it was definitely possible.
…
And something I’d been feeling for a while now.
‘That guy…’
Anna, her arrow drawn, muttered beside me.
It seemed she was thinking the same thing I was.
“Doesn’t it look like he’s stalling for time?”
“…Yeah.”
We looked at each other.
As expected, we were on the same page again.
“We should go for a big one, right?”
“Yup—☆”
We didn’t know why he was stalling.
But we knew we couldn’t let him succeed.
“Now!”
“Now—☆”
Then we would change the situation with our strongest techniques.
Forget conserving ether; we had to hit him with everything we had right now.
Anna drew her bowstring,
creating a green ether arrow as massive as a ballista bolt.
I stabbed my greatsword into the tree trunk,
raised my spear, and began to slowly envelop it in a pink spiral.
*Rumble—!!*
The air vibrated and resonated.
The tree shook and swayed.
[…!]
As the users of [Unique Ether] prepared their ultimate attacks, Góinn, flying high above, felt the threat and faltered.
[Th-this is…!]
He abandoned his defensive stance
and tried to flee at full speed.
[Dammit, dammit, dammit—!! Damn it all, how much longer—!! I’m really at my limit—!!]
But…
A world in an instant.
Rainbow-hued vision.
Heightened senses.
Everything foretold that our attack would land.
Less than half a second passed.
In that slowly flowing time, we finished our preparations.
“[Ydalir]—!!”
“[Pink Lemon Sherbet]—☆”
Pink and green.
A thrown spear and a giant arrow.
The two attacks, made of different ethers, flew toward the faltering dragonfly. And without giving it a chance to dodge, they scored a direct hit.
*Rumble—!*
[Grrr… Aaargh—!!]
The dragonfly struggled between the two pillars of green and pink. Trying to escape from the inescapable attack.
Its wings were torn,
its exoskeleton peeled away,
and blood flowed from its long body.
Just as I sensed the end of the battle in my heart and was about to deliver the finishing blow.
“…!”
An unbelievable rainbow-colored vision appeared before my eyes.
Giant fangs.
Eyes burning like flames.
A mane steeped in darkness.
-You held out well, Góinn. I’ll take it from here.
A black fissure appeared in the air.
And in an instant, it widened into a large hole.
He was coming.
“Anna! Dodge!”
“What—!”
I instinctively grabbed Anna and leaped off the tree trunk. At the same moment, I heard the sound of the trunk being brutally torn apart.
*Craaack—!!*
Even as we fell far below, I could see fragments of the green tree trunk, formed by an ether skill, in the corner of my vision. They crumbled into dust as they fell.
A pressure that shook me to my core.
Even amidst the shock of the fall, I could clearly feel killing intent.
“Ugh…!”
I struggled to lift my head as I fell.
“That’s…”
Above, on the tree trunk we had just fallen from, the head of a giant wolf cast a shadow.
*Grrrrr…!*
A massive mouth that looked like it could swallow the moon itself. It opened its jaws, each tooth the size of a human torso, and bit into the tree trunk.
The remains of the wolf that claimed to be a god from mythology.
It was protruding from the arms of a man in a black robe. It was tangled chaotically within the robe’s shadow, with only its head sticking out, glaring down.
The man who had summoned the wolf’s head opened the hood of his black robe and looked our way. His eyes were the color of a pool steeped in the abyss.
“…”
The Prophet looked surprised when he saw my face as I fell, holding Anna.
“…You are.”
You are.
…
That face was so familiar.
Even though the right side of his face was twisted by a burn.
It was a face I could never mistake.
“…”
It was ‘me’.