Chapter 68
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 68
The bizarre monster, devoid of fear, shrieked again and lunged at Swallow.
Simultaneously, the spell Erebos had prepared in anticipation of Swallow’s arrival manifested.
God’s Domain Magic: Against God’s Will.
A magic circle covering nearly half the hill formed on the ground. The complex, chaotic array glowed with a violet light, bathing the darkness in a somber hue.
The light converged in an instant. From the ground to the sky, a massive bolt of lightning—one that seemed to defy the heavens themselves—shot up and pierced Swallow’s underbelly.
A thunderclap so immense it seemed to incinerate all surrounding sound erupted.
As the thunder subsided, several more bolts of lightning flashed, striking various parts of Swallow’s body.
Despite an attack of such magnitude, one on a completely different level from high-tier magic, Swallow simply swung a forepaw and swatted Maek to the ground.
It wasn't just effortless; it was absurdly simple.
“……Truly, a strength befitting the majesty of an ancient monster.”
Erebos showed not a flicker of agitation, even after witnessing Swallow’s counter and Maek’s fate.
Fragments of the ruptured Maek splattered in every direction.
However, that alone was not enough to end Maek’s life.
Like a slime that divides endlessly unless its core is destroyed, the dozens of fragments that had once been Maek began to wriggle.
Then, they started indiscriminately devouring the surrounding undead.
The fragments swelled in size. Since Maek's body was itself a composite of the undead, there was no issue with him consuming them.
By the time the fragments, having gorged themselves on thousands of undead, merged into one, Maek had taken on a form far more grotesque than before.
The enlarged Maek lunged again. Once more, he collided with Swallow, and his body, unable to withstand the impact, burst apart helplessly.
“…”
But it was different from before.
He had become noticeably stronger.
Swallow glanced back and forth between Erebos and Maek, who was once again expanding his mass by absorbing the nearby undead.
“Clever,” Swallow remarked.
But that was all.
This time, Swallow, who had merely been observing until now, moved his entire body.
A massive forepaw swept away everything standing before Erebos. Even Elders were among those who burst apart on contact. Hundreds of undead were annihilated in a single strike, and in the opening created, Swallow’s second attack shot toward Erebos.
At that moment, a gatekeeper leaped in front of Erebos, blocking Swallow’s attack with everything he had.
It was Revenant, one of the Ten Calamities who had been commanding the left wing.
Even though it was a strike from a mere flick of a paw, Revenant’s body was sent flying into the air after barely managing to block the single blow.
Swallow swung once more at the defenseless, airborne Revenant.
Despite being a gatekeeper of a Great Evil Cave, he was obliterated in just two strikes, leaving behind nothing but a hideous stain.
In the meantime, Erebos finished casting and manifested his second spell.
God’s Domain Magic: Aggregation of Souls.
This time, instead of a magic circle, the atmosphere around Maek turned pitch black.
The undead within the black mist shrieked. Their cries sounded less like the moans of the dead and more like vivid screams of agony. Soon, the cold corpses collapsed to the ground one by one. Hundreds more undead met their end.
The magic was manifested not with mana, but with the worn-out souls of the undead.
The spell, fueled by souls, gathered into the Rotting Vein, Maek. Immediately, Maek raised his massive frame and charged at Swallow.
He unleashed a strike far more powerful than anything he had shown before the God’s Domain Magic was activated.
CRACK!
Under the weight of the high-speed attack, Swallow was pushed back for a fleeting moment. Upon impact, a burst of dark energy erupted from the ancient monster’s entire body.
For a brief instant, Maek’s body froze as it took the dark energy head-on.
Caught in a defenseless posture, Maek was hit by Swallow’s counterattack and burst into pieces once more, scattering in all directions.
“…”
Watching Maek in silence, Swallow reached a conclusion.
He had been pondering a question for a while.
What exactly was that creature? It wasn't just a hodgepodge of undead. If such a monster could be born so simply, there would be no need to go through the trouble of creating an entire undead legion.
The massive size, the regeneration and consumption, the seemingly mindless behavior…
“You picked up a good corpse.”
The Rotting Vein, Maek, was a being created by draping a skin of undead flesh over the body of an Ancient Slime—a former boss monster of a Great Evil Cave.
Erebos, who had paused for a moment, reached out his arm again. That brief hesitation was significant. In that interval, the corpse of the former boss slime, having regenerated and recombined in an instant, was charging at Swallow once more.
This time, instead of a frontal charge, it spread its body wide, attempting to coil around him.
Maek, having split his form into several fragments, wrapped around Swallow’s two legs. The flesh in direct contact with Swallow’s body began to discolor slowly under the influence of an alien energy.
As if its very essence were dying, the rotting flesh lost its luster and sloughed off onto the ground. Nevertheless, Maek clung to Swallow’s legs until the very end, hindering his movement.
In the meantime, Erebos, having finished preparations for his final spell, began casting.
Not content with drawing on all his remaining mana, he began sucking even the mana from the atmosphere into his mana stone.
The wind that had been blowing across the hill vanished in an instant.
As the wind died down, the swaying of the grass and trees ceased. The undead hordes, reacting to the currents of mana, also froze.
In the static space, only the shadows on the ground grew deeper.
Judgment revealed its grand form without light or sound.
God’s Domain Magic: Fangs of Evil.
Eight sharp stakes materialized in the air.
The shadow cast by each stake was large enough to cover hundreds of undead, and the killing intent radiating from them was potent enough to kill even a giant Ancient Dragon in a single blow.
Positioned in eight directions, every stake pointed its fangs toward the monster known as Swallow.
Erebos was certain.
God’s Domain was the pinnacle of magic.
As long as something was a living creature, it was impossible to remain unscathed after being hit by such a spell. Against God’s Will might not have shown much outward effect, but it had surely damaged Swallow.
And this Fangs of Evil was his strongest and final magic, on a different level entirely from his other God’s Domain spells.
An ancient monster, a demon, or even a god—it didn't matter. No matter how great a being was, if it possessed a soul and a physical body, it could not withstand this.
“Marvel at this.”
The short sentence echoed in layers, reaching every undead below the hill. Having spoken, Erebos spread his arms wide, and the two stakes aimed at Swallow’s black body moved first.
Swallow swung his legs to shake off Maek. With every swing, the ground he touched was torn away. Despite this, Maek remained stuck to the ground, desperately keeping one of Swallow’s feet pinned.
In that interval, the two stakes flew toward Swallow.
Like finely honed daggers, they pierced the ancient monster’s body without resistance.
Thud. Thud.
There was no shriek from the ancient monster.
However, as if the stakes were churning through his insides, dark energy exploded from various parts of his body. The surrounding undead, unable to withstand the energy, collapsed one after another.
Giving him no room to breathe, Erebos immediately redirected two of the remaining six stakes.
Meanwhile, Swallow kicked Maek away with his other foot. The strike must have been laden with considerable power, for Maek’s body exploded instantly before he could even be pushed back.
Fragments of the ruptured Maek were once again strewn across the hill.
However, the scattered pieces began to swallow the surrounding undead as before, growing in size and merging back into a single form.
In that time, the second set of stakes plunged into Swallow.
Impaled by the stakes, Swallow stopped moving.
His massive body trembled, as if he had lost control over his physical form.
Erebos shuddered.
This feeling, which made his rotting skin crawl, was undoubtedly euphoria.
It was a faint emotional shift that didn't affect his rational thinking, but even such a change was something Erebos had never felt before.
He is dying.
The ancient monster, Swallow, who had existed alongside the world for thousands of years.
Right here, by his hands—
“…”
If he could just get his hands on that ancient monster’s corpse and recreate it as an undead…
The extinction of humanity would be trivial. He could become the ruler of the continent—no, not just the continent, he could place all creation beneath his feet.
He could dye the entire world in the colors of the undead and become a transcendent being who truly ruled over death.
Erebos stared at Swallow through his hollow eye sockets. The unbelievably massive monster showed no movement.
It wasn't that he wasn't moving, but that he couldn't move. Any living creature touched by the stakes had the flow of all energy within their body, including mana, suppressed. He probably couldn't even scream if he wanted to. Since magic was also a flow of energy, he wouldn't be able to use that either.
The fact that he could move his body and strike Maek earlier was a testament to a sturdiness that defied all common sense.
The remaining stakes all aimed at Swallow simultaneously.
There were four left.
This was more than enough to kill him. Swallow’s body was already a mess, unable to contain the alien mana coalescing and leaking from within.
“Take pride in the fact that your thousands of years of wandering shall be concluded by my hand.”
Once again, he aimed two stakes at Swallow’s heart.
Still without a sound, the stakes flew at an incredible speed.
The faint tremor running through Erebos’s body ceased.
This time, it was Erebos who stopped moving.
It felt as if he, not Swallow, had been pierced by the stakes.
It felt as if time had not only stopped but was flowing backward. The situation was unnatural and, therefore, utterly incomprehensible.
The two massive stakes flying toward Swallow were blocked by his massive paw.
Effortlessly.
“Ah. That hurts like hell.”
Swallow spoke. His voice didn't travel through the air but through mana, resonating as vividly as if he were speaking right beside him.
The stakes, their advance halted, fell to the ground and evaporated into nothingness, as if they had lost their power.
Only then did Erebos realize.
Something was wrong.
He was far off the mark.
He had been mistaken about something fundamental.
The very premise that Swallow had taken significant damage might have been wrong from the start.
“…”
“I don't think I have the heart to let the rest of them hit me. They hurt too much.”
The voice echoing in his head was infinitely weary, like a creature that had just woken up. Because of that, there was no pretense.
They were words without a shred of exaggeration or humility.
He literally said it hurt.
That was all.
The strongest magic was merely ‘painful.’
“……Could it be?”
“This is the strongest magic you can use, right? There’s nothing stronger than this?”
Erebos’s entire body twitched again. The monster’s four eyes looking down at him were perfectly calm.
As soon as he heard Swallow’s question, Erebos understood the true intent.
The ancient monster had been taking all the attacks on purpose.
To see just how much of a threat God’s Domain Magic posed to him.
…There was no chance of winning.
Having regained his composure in an instant, Erebos made his judgment. He couldn't possibly face a mad monster who gauged strength by taking the strongest blow with his body, especially now that his mana was depleted.
I must secure distance and escape.
Erebos immediately deployed a magic circle, intending to sacrifice hundreds of undead to replenish his mana.
THOOM!
The ground shook.
The magic circle, easily disrupted by the tremor, lost its light.
His magic thwarted, Erebos looked up at the ancient monster.
Four yellow pupils were fixed solely on him.
“If you have something stronger, hurry up and use it.”
The same question repeated.
It seemed the ancient monster before him didn't care about anything else, so long as he got an answer to that one question.
“I’ll take that as a no, then?”
The moment Erebos answered the third question with silence, Swallow opened his mouth wide, as if he had been waiting.
Tens of thousands of teeth were revealed.
Inside his mouth was an abyss whose end could not be fathomed. Erebos couldn't grasp the full meaning of that gaping maw, but one thing was certain.
—The ancient monster had no intention of being patient any longer.
Immediately, Swallow lunged toward the undead in front of him.
He moved with a speed completely different from before, a speed unbelievable for a creature of his size.
With a simple swing of a forepaw, the undead legion was swept away. No matter their number, no matter how many Elders were mixed in, it was utterly meaningless.