127. Contact (1)
127. Contact (1)
- 1 -
The war that continued from the champion duels until the final battle went on through the entire night without pause.
If I were to sum up everything that happened on this battlefield in a single phrase.
'The most important thing in war is the will of those who fight in it... wasn't that how the saying went.'
This could be called a case that perfectly demonstrated that saying.
In the small-scale group battles that followed the champion duels, the Dungeon Lord's faction was helplessly pushed back.
It was the result of having earned the grudge of one and succeeding in breaking the morale of all the others.
"I acknowledge defeat."
This was true not only of Kyricia's dungeon, which had been testing the waters for the right moment to raise the white flag.
- ... I surrender.
Perhaps influenced by that atmosphere, even Melzeros surrendered with surprising ease.
It wasn't without exceptions, but it was practically a very easy victory.
"Kill them all - !!!"
"Master! You mustn't! If you go out first...!"
That exception, of course, was the Greenskin Dungeon Lord, Zarkra.
The only problem was that Zarkra was alone.
"Kill... kill!!"
"Master!"
Zarkra, who had lost two warriors who were like family to her, threw herself into the vanguard of all three factions and clashed with ferocious momentum, but her subordinates couldn't keep up with that pace.
Except for the orcs and ogres who were naturally prone to rage, even the goblins and trolls who were her physical kin were hanging back, one could say.
They did join the fight, but they were not active at all.
"You...!! How dare you...!!"
- Kkiruk...
- Kuruk...
As if she only realized their attitude after the battle ended, Zarkra's resentment-filled glare was directed not only at me but also at her own subordinates and the other Dungeon Lords.
But no matter how much she directed her grudge elsewhere.
What was late was late.
Her forces, which had continued in a reckless group battle, were already cut in half.
"From now on, we shall begin the final battle!"
With the atmosphere solidified like that, the outcome of the final battle was also already decided...
But that battle continued with an intensity beyond my expectations.
It was because of a hidden card played by the last one, who had not shown any presence until then.
- 2 -
When war breaks out, if there is a commander or general who switched to your side before the war began.
The task of securing their 'face' in advance is more important than one might think.
This is to give other potential surrenderers the impression that 'nothing strange will happen if you surrender too,' while simultaneously preventing the surrenderer themselves from acting rashly.
In this case, securing the face of Dungeon Lord Kyricia was exactly that.
Kwakwang - !!
"Ugh...!"
- Keureureu...!!
Hwareuk - !
The method of preserving her pride and reputation was, precisely, 'a fierce battle that appeared life-threatening.'
For that purpose, Libertas deployed Shue and Ran against Lady Kyricia.
Shue's 「Bloodlust Feast」, filled with explosions and bombardments, and Ran's 「Foxfire Sorcery」, blooming with brilliant and beautiful purple flames, were perfectly suited to make the battle appear more desperate than it actually was.
"Fufufu. How about surrendering now, at a suitable moment?"
"Not... not yet...!"
The two did not retreat an inch against Kyricia and her two close aides, nor against the occasional other monsters that rushed in.
No, rather, they overwhelmed them.
Kwajik! Eudeuk!
Sswaahk!
This was because monsters that charged in clumsily or were blown in from other fights immediately became prey for the two.
Flesh became the mana and stamina for Shue to absorb blood, and souls became fuel for the foxfire Ran cloaked herself with.
"Don't come near meeee!!"
"Die."
Kwajik!!
Perhaps because of that, after a certain point, no monsters recklessly interfered, and there were even cases where, in the middle of fighting Kyricia, the two would break into other fights to resupply materials.
"Don't act so filthy. Shue."
"Better than you, who gets in the way of rest."
"Are you asking for a fight?"
'...What are they doing?'
Fox and wolf. White and red-black. A fire that burns steel and spirit.
The two, filled with opposing elements, bickered throughout the entire fight, leaving their opponent Kyricia dumbfounded.
Yet at the same time, they repelled every enemy with teamwork more coordinated than anyone else's.
Just as Libertas had assessed, it was a sight where 'they didn't get along well, but their teamwork was excellent.'
"..."
While Ran and Shue continued their flashy battle against Kyricia on one side, there was a place that was, on the contrary, quieter than any other battlefield nearby.
The battlefield of Monster Lord Melzeros and Evangeline, who was facing him, was such a place.
'There's no opening.'
Baron Melzeros was a magic swordsman who wielded magic and sword simultaneously, a being who primarily used illusions and swordsmanship mediated by light.
However, on this battlefield, his illusions were half-sealed.
Seuak!
Melzeros tried experimentally bringing a sword created by illusion close to Evangeline, but the sword immediately lost its form and crumbled.
The cause was a fog created by water vapor that scattered light itself in directions he could not predict.
It was mist that Evangeline was manipulating through water current magic.
"For a being called a Dungeon Lord, you are far too timid."
- Well. If one cannot command a monster like yourself, it is only natural to be more cautious.
Melzeros had only moved passively until now.
Evangeline tried a simple mockery of him, but he merely made a smile appear on his featureless face and deflected it slyly.
Kaaang!
"And you fight dirty."
- I wish you would say clever, rather.
Evangeline was equally frustrated.
The other ability of this Dungeon Lord, who primarily used illusion magic, was none other than 'body separation and transformation.'
Kung! Kagang!
Now that he could not use illusions, he actively employed this ability to repeatedly evade her every time she approached.
He transformed into numerous flying swords and shields, blocking and dodging through parts of his body.
"Come out and face me yourself. How long do you intend to keep running away?"
- Honor is something achieved only by surviving.
Kaaang!
Even when she tried to concentrate her power and blow him away at once, it wasn't easy, as he would eerily sense it and send parts of himself to interfere.
'All he does is run.'
The 'judgment superiority' and 'defense reduction' she possessed only activated when directly clashing with an opponent who used mana.
They did not properly manifest against someone focused entirely on evasion.
Even so, Evangeline was not impatient.
'Still, just with this, I am completing the main mission the master gave me.'
The mission Libertas gave her was, strictly, to tie this unknown Dungeon Lord down to her.
It was difficult for Evangeline to finish him off, but conversely, it was also difficult for Melzeros to shake her off.
Because he had seen that if he did not block her with swords and mirrors transformed from parts of his body, the battlefield would tilt drastically toward Libertas.
'Just by me holding her here, I am pulling my weight on this battlefield. So...'
The one who needed to be impatient was Melzeros. Not Evangeline.
Because while the two Dungeon Lords were tied up like that, the other one was dying.
'Hurry.'
And in fact, that was exactly what he was waiting for.
"He-e-eok...! He-e-eok...!!"
Her eyes and heart burning with grudge not cooled at all, Zarkra moved, forcing her exhausted body along.
She, whom Libertas was personally dealing with, was destroying herself not by the enemy's power, but by her own.
"How about stopping there."
"Absolutely...! There's absolutely no way...!!"
She was so exhausted that her body was swayed by the rough movements of waving her arms in refusal.
Yet Zarkra squeezed out her spiritual power and shot it at Libertas again and again.
"「Fal'tharion Drath」!"
"「Zygra'then」...!"
"「Mai'gorith Tepla」!!"
The three chants heard most often among them were precisely the chants for 'murder,' 'weakness,' and the 'bio curse' that exploded a part of the body separated from oneself.
What was currently withering her body was not just a stamina issue, but largely the fault of the last spell.
Kwang!!
It was the result of her having cut off and thrown her arms to explode them like a lizard's tail, many times over.
No matter how excellent a troll's regeneration might be, as long as it was biological regeneration and not magical, nutrients were essential.
The reason her body was withered now was because all the spare fat and protein had been sucked away for the regeneration of her arms.
"You are pitiful."
Would you believe it if I said that her initially plump and voluptuous figure had completely dried up into something like a starving thing from the outlands, all in the span of a mere ten minutes?
Her dark green skin made that grotesque impression even more painful to look at.
"Don't, k-heuk! pity me!!"
Even so, Libertas did not hesitate to look at her with pitying eyes.
With contempt for an enemy.
And with sincerity in her own way.
"How could I not pity you. You who, through your foolishness, lost your subordinates and kin, and are driving even yourself to ruin."
"Keuruk...!"
Zarkra glared, her bloodshot and dried-up eyes turned crimson, as she shouted her chant.
From her mouth came only seething phlegm sounds instead of the chant, but the spell dutifully read its master's will and activated.
Kwang!!!
Once again.
A dried and withered left arm flew and shook Libertas's protective barrier.
'Her power is still strong.'
The power was certainly mighty enough.
So much so that among the mages in her faction, none could withstand it except her.
'In sorcery, the influence of the sacrifice is greater than in magic. However.'
Certainly, her offensive sorcery, which disregards self-destruction and uses the body of herself, a Dungeon Lord, is incomparably powerful.
It was just that it was merely that.
As long as she could not overwhelm Libertas with greater mana, no matter how great the amplification rate of the sorcery was, all it could do was simply hold her in place.
"It is over."
"Ah, kruk, not... yet...!"
And now, her arms no longer regenerated.
It was because the nutrients in that body had finally been depleted.
Even so, Zarkra had no intention of stopping.
No, on the contrary, she smiled.
Because she had been waiting for the moment just before her complete death, the moment when her emotions would surge the highest.
"Melzeros...!"
- I have been waiting.
Puhwak - !!
A turbid white blade burst through Zarkra's body in multiple places.
Libertas turned her head to look at the part of the battlefield where Evangeline and Melzeros had been together.
Before she knew it, the countless turbid white mirror barriers that had been confining Evangeline had vanished.
- Ny'thulaak... Ny'thraxen... Ny'thulaak... Ny'thraxen... Ny'thulaak... Ny'thraxen...
Zarkra's body, which was becoming meat, was accepting some unknowable material and swelling in size.
The completely dried-out flesh bulged, taking on a rounded shape, and countless fleshy protrusions rose on its surface.
It resembled the udders of countless beasts, but the shape was not organic, lacked strength, and was utterly blasphemous.
- Khat khat khat khat!
- Keuruk!
It was even more so when the tips of that vile thing split open to sprout teeth, and the tentacles formed by the twisted fingers and entrails of trolls, sprouting from all over, connected together.
"I see. Your anger, hatred, and grudge were that deep."
Deep enough to call upon an 'outer realm' and plant it in your own body. Deep enough to burn your own end and rest to wish for power.
So muttering, Libertas stared directly at the form that was dyed black.
A terror so immense that an ordinary human's mind would distort and warp just from seeing it.
That form was descending upon a green body.
Melzeros's body and power, which had pierced through Zarkra's warping and expanding body all over, were weaving together with her body and sorcery to create some kind of shape.
'The Black Beast.'
A giant black goat, or mountain goat.
It was a blasphemous beast with a body made of udders and eyeballs with square pupils.
She saw the bundles of eyeballs hung behind it like a giant shadow observing her.
"I do not feel malice worthy of its reputation."
"It is merely an apostle, not a god itself, and our mentalities are not that weak, Master."
"How foolish..."
And even while looking upon a being that ordinary demons could not face directly, she realized her own heart was not shaken in the slightest.
Even her close aides were the same.
They didn't seem to be at the level of merely feeling displeasure like her, but a mere 'apostle,' not the main body itself, had little effect on them.
'Dantalion. That must be his knowledge.'
The one who bore the name of 'Secret' among the Six Dukes of the Surface Demon Realm, Dantalion.
He who took secrecy and deceit as his names was known to grant his followers knowledge not permitted in this world, allowing them to use it as power.
That forbidden knowledge was precisely the 'outer realm.'
Knowledge of worlds and beings composed of disciplines unimaginable by the common sense and laws of this world.
The result of accepting that knowledge was now manifesting through Zarkra and Melzeros.
"Perhaps, having failed to attack even a single faction, she considered herself unable to go on living..."
As Shue said, something called honor also existed in the world of demons and Dungeon Lords.
Though it was an honor built on power and cruelty instead of etiquette and tradition.
The despair of knowing she could no longer build such honor, and the grudge and hatred from losing her kin.
That must have been what decided her to use Zarkra's body and soul as a sacrifice to summon an outer being.
"Now that it's been dyed by the power of the outer realm, I can't even eat that."
"...Yes."
As Ran said, a being contaminated by the laws of the outer realm could no longer be used as material for the dungeon.
That was what Libertas found regrettable.
In the practical sense that their cores could only be used in an incomplete form.
And as she overlapped the image of Zarkra with a loss that might happen in the future.
For her, who cared more about the sacrifice of one of her own summons than an enemy's elite, she would have done the same even if she turned back time, but the regret was still regret.
"Let's go."
"Yes, my husband."
Libertas turned her body on the spot.
For the moment they had imperfectly fused with the outer realm like that, the matter was already over.
If she remained close, the one prepared would not be able to use his power properly.
- 「 」 - !!!
As if telling her not to ignore it, a desperate howl of hatred made of an indescribable sound.
Along with it, a rampage that broke down its uncompleted body began, but.
"「You shall return to equilibrium」."
A wedge had already been prepared for this Black Beast.
An attribute of the outer realm that rejected this world.
And a divinity that governed that world.
A giant sword that targeted both.
Kwadeudeudeudeuk - !!!
- 「 」 - !!!!
That was the light of judgment poured out by a hero.
『Dungeon Level has increased. Lv. 4 ▶ 5』
『Demon Lord Candidate, the One Who Dyes, Libertas's Dungeon Lv. 5』
A light that the 'Judge of Absolute Good' once used to pour upon beings of the outer realm.