Chapter 394: Quickening (9)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 394: Quickening (9)
Akaron, one of the Babayagas, honestly felt a flicker of hope that hadn't existed even when the Black Tree split the sky above the Royal Castle.
The Black Wood he had seen near the castle was so magnificent that simply knowing its creator was an ally brought peace to his mind.
But just a moment ago, Akaron had plummeted into despair once more.
The first reason was the endless stream of unique entities.
The second was the colossal 'thing' that had appeared in the heart of the Colony.
Just looking at it made one’s breath hitch and their mind go numb. Its giant, spider-like form offered Akaron nothing but despair.
'It' did nothing.
It simply looked down upon the earth with a lofty air.
Yet, even without taking any action, those who looked up at it from below felt a sense of utter futility, unable to even conceive of fighting back.
It was natural.
No, it was inevitable.
Everyone present realized instinctively just how foolish it would be to oppose that thing.
Whether it was a powerless old man or a Babayaga, who could be considered the strongest within this Colosseum—no one could defy that instinct.
And so, everyone watched blankly as a giant web began to unfurl across the sky, trapped in a hollow sense of hopelessness.
Sssssss—!!
"R-Run!"
"Aaaagh—!!!"
The moment the venom began to rain down upon the earth, sending everyone into a panicked frenzy—
Rumble—!!
An anomaly began to occur.
"That’s—"
The sky, which until a moment ago had been raining venom that melted even the earth, was suddenly overtaken by pure white ice that began to freeze everything.
The falling venom.
The giant web spread across the sky.
Everything. At the moment everything froze as if time itself had been halted—
"Ah—"
A milky way rose above the frozen world.
And behind it...
A guardian deity descended upon the earth.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■—!!!!!
With a blood-curdling sound that momentarily ensnared everyone's psyche, Black Armor began to form over the guardian deity's body.
And with that, the battle began.
A clash between the giant guardian deity and the entity that had instilled such hollow despair in everyone.
"Crazy..."
The word escaped Akaron’s lips before he could stop it.
Faced with a situation that looked like a battle of gods straight out of mythology, even the citizens who had been paralyzed by deep terror stared blankly into the air.
Seeing Marquis Palatio continuously hurl lightning from between those gods, Akaron unconsciously recalled his moniker.
"The Lightning Receiver, Kalanon..."
At that moment, Akaron realized the truth behind the countless rumors surrounding Marquis Palatio.
They weren't exaggerations.
Akaron had heard many stories about him.
But he could say this with certainty: every rumor Akaron had heard—the ones he had scoffed at, calling them impossible and filled with hyperbole—had actually been understatements.
"..."
Akaron silently turned his gaze to the side.
Kazan, who had also agreed that the rumors about Marquis Palatio were too exaggerated, was also staring blankly into the sky.
"...This is absurd."
Kazan muttered to himself. The truth slipped out of his mouth involuntarily.
Akaron could tell that Kazan was feeling the same way he was.
Because those eyes were already filled with the emotion of awe.
"W-Wait!"
Just then, the voice of a fighter rang out.
Akaron and Kazan turned their heads.
A fighter who had been staring blankly at the sky was now frowning and looking in a different direction.
Over there...
"...Tsk."
Unique entities were swarming over the walls of the Colosseum.
There were so many that even Seolrang couldn't stop them all, and a portion of them had broken through.
Seeing this, the two men, who had been filled with skepticism just moments ago, looked at each other with newfound resolve.
"...We have to stop them."
"I suppose so. The mage said he has something prepared, so we should trust him."
A brief exchange.
But it was enough for both of them. That short conversation was sufficient to feel the spark of hope ignite within them once more.
* * *
"Whew—"
Alon let out a heavy sigh, having lost count of how many spells he had cast, yet he continued to move incessantly using his Thunder God Form.
Akaron, Kazan, and the fighters inside the Colosseum had begun to find hope, but unfortunately, Alon's situation was not quite so optimistic.
He felt his head heating up as he surveyed his surroundings.
Ahead, the Poison Eater and Basiliora were fighting to land a fatal blow on each other, and the entire area was covered in ice.
No, to be precise, it only appeared to be covered.
The cost of maintaining this is too high.
Alon frowned slightly behind his expressionless mask.
To an observer, everything seemed frozen, but unfortunately, that was only because Alon was continuously layering spells to maintain the state.
The Poison Eater's venom was not something that could be easily blocked by Alon's magic.
Furthermore, the unique entities appearing endlessly from somewhere forced Alon to keep using his Thunder God Form.
As expected, there are limits.
Alon looked down at Seolrang, who was flashing across the ground like a madwoman.
She was doing well.
No unique entities remained in the wake of her passage.
However, despite her struggles, the sheer volume of unique entities crawling out from somewhere was beyond expectations.
It was a wonder how they had gathered so many in such a short amount of time.
In any case, the conclusion was that Alon was maintaining two major spells at all times.
...If I hadn't completed even a half-baked version, I would have had to sacrifice one side or the other.
He let out an internal sigh.
If he couldn't cast spells rapidly, creating this situation would have been impossible.
In truth, maintaining things like this was merely stalling, so it couldn't be called a positive situation.
Nevertheless, the reason Alon remained somewhat composed was because of Basiliora.
All the abilities the Poison Eater had shown so far had been sealed by Alon.
Basiliora, fused with Blackie, was not only leading the battle with a significant advantage—
[Urgh—!]
But was clearly seizing the victory.
Now.
Seeing Basiliora completely entwine the Poison Eater's body, Alon immediately gathered his mana.
Simultaneously, the six Hand Ice Seals moved according to Alon's will.
And then.
"Shadow Tree."
With Alon's murmur, sharp thorns suddenly erupted from the Black Armor Basiliora was wearing.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■—!!!!!
The Poison Eater began to thrash and scream frantically.
Having taken massive damage, red blood—unfitting for its form—burst out from all over.
Just as Alon let out a sigh of relief at the sight—
Twitch!
The Poison Eater turned its eyes toward Alon.
[If it’s come to this... I have no choice.]
■■■■■■■■■■—!!!!
It suddenly began to emit a bizarre sound.
It wasn't a scream of madness; it was as if it were reproducing a specific sound it had memorized.
And then.
[I admit it, vermin. There was a reason they put a bounty on your head from above.]
Along with the Poison Eater's admission—
[I’m glad I spoke with him in advance.]
Alon saw it.
"!"
The Royal Castle, visible in the distance...
Was beginning to sink entirely.
Grrrruuuumble—!!!!
A bone-chilling, ear-splitting sound echoed.
The area, including the Royal Castle, began to slowly drop below the ground.
No.
That wasn't it.
It wasn't falling into the ground.
[To The Devourer.]
Beneath the earth that had swallowed the Royal Castle...
There was a mouth.
A mouth so gargantuan it could swallow the entire Royal Castle whole.
And then.
The one who had swallowed the Royal Castle in an instant—'The Devourer'—began to move with a thunderous roar.
Alon realized where it was heading without difficulty.
No, he had no choice but to realize it.
Where it was coming...
"!"
Was right here. The Colosseum.
The moment he realized this, Alon's mind began to race at a frantic pace.
Can I block it?
No, can I at least stall it?
Questions surfaced in Alon's mind.
But unfortunately, he currently possessed no magic capable of stopping The Devourer.
At this point, all Alon could do was watch as the Colosseum was sucked into The Devourer's maw.
I can't let that happen.
Gritting his teeth, Alon immediately began to block the entire Colosseum with Frozen Ground.
He would make it so massive that it couldn't be sucked into The Devourer's mouth from the start.
But just as he was about to act—
"...?"
He noticed something strange.
The Devourer, which had been rushing fiercely toward the Colosseum until a moment ago, was no longer heading there.
Instead...
"!"
As if it had been waiting for this very moment...
It was suddenly gaping its maw directly beneath Alon.
The moment he realized this, Alon saw invisible threads suddenly gather and manifest around him.
Snap!
He was instantly bound by the threads.
[I knew you would make that choice, vermin.]
And then.
[Die.]
With a tremendous roar, The Devourer's mouth began to close.
A grotesque sound, like machinery being crushed, erupted.
To any observer, it was a desperate situation.
Think.
Alon assessed the current situation as calmly as possible.
In fact, this situation might be slightly better than the future he had anticipated.
If The Devourer had ignored him and tried to swallow the Colosseum, there would have been nothing he could do.
But since both The Devourer and the Poison Eater were targeting him simultaneously, the factors Alon had to consider had actually decreased.
The problem was that no matter which path he chose, he would have to accept some sacrifice.
"..."
To prevent the Poison Eater's threads from slicing through his body, he had surrounded himself with a mana field just before the threads tightened.
And for Alon, who was essentially calculating to his limit to maintain that field, there were now two choices.
One was to give up on blocking the venom falling from the sky and escape from The Devourer's mouth right here.
If not, he had to expand the already deployed mana field to its maximum to snap the threads.
After agonizing, Alon finally made his decision.
I'll use the mana field to snap the threads.
The Poison Eater's threads certainly wouldn't break easily, but Alon decided to go through with it. There was still some time before The Devourer's mouth fully closed.
The moment he made that choice—
Woooooom—!!
Alon turned his gaze at the sound of a bone-chillingly massive resonance of mana.
And he saw it.
The red blood flowing from the Poison Eater began to defy gravity and float into the sky.
Simultaneously, the threads extending from the Poison Eater began to intertwine and shoot toward the sky.
And so, in the blink of an eye, an unbloomed red rose began to form above the Poison Eater.
It was a beautiful sight, utterly unfitting for the Poison Eater's appearance.
But as Alon stared at that rose—
"!"
His eyes widened.
His eyes, capable of seeing mana, easily identified the mana fluctuations around that rose.
Mana is... being extinguished.
Literally, mana was being annihilated.
By the mana—no, the poison—flowing very faintly from the rose.
"!"
Once he grasped that much, he easily realized the structure of the magic.
That rose was only beautiful in appearance; in reality, it was closer to a spell designed to scatter poison.
A poison so potent that even a minute amount flowing out could extinguish the mana in the atmosphere...
A poison so lethal that an ordinary person would die instantly upon inhaling even the tiniest amount.
And judging by the scale of the magic, if that thing were to bloom and spread, its reach would cover the entire Colony—no—
Even further...!
[You're quick on the uptake.]
As if reading Alon's thoughts, the Poison Eater spoke.
[I didn't want to use this because faith doesn't gather as thickly if I just kill you and turn you into a puppet, but I have no choice.]
Alon frowned.
He had to stop that thing from blooming at all costs.
Alon might be fine, but that poison would be fatal to everyone else.
To the citizens here.
To the fighters.
And to Evan and Penia.
If it had already bloomed, it might be different, but the current Alon could somehow coordinate with Basiliora and Seolrang to stop it.
The problem was time.
He lacked time.
To calculate the time to escape from here and stop that thing...
The time given to him was insufficient.
"..."
Agony flickered in Alon's eyes.
* * *
"Mentor!"
Seolrang, who had been running around frantically slaughtering unique entities, cried out.
She saw Alon get bound by the Poison Eater's threads and saw The Devourer open its maw. She immediately turned to save him.
But there was nothing Seolrang could do.
Literally.
She could do nothing.
The Poison Eater's threads binding Alon didn't even take a scratch from Seolrang's attacks, even while she was in her Thunder God Transformation.
And The Devourer, which was slowly closing its massive hole that didn't even look like a mouth, didn't budge at Seolrang's strikes.
Rather...
"Urgh—!?"
Seolrang's right arm, which had delivered the attack, simply shattered.
The situation was spiraling toward the absolute worst.
When Seolrang stopped her hunt, the overwhelming number of unique entities began to pour into the Colosseum.
And Basiliora, deprived of Alon's support, began to be pushed back in the fight against the Poison Eater.
It had only been a few dozen seconds.
In just a few dozen seconds, everything was falling apart.
Yet, even as everything turned for the worse, Seolrang could do nothing.
"Ah."
A dry breath escaped Seolrang's lips.
Clutching her right arm, which had been crushed from striking The Devourer multiple times, she felt a profound sense of helplessness.
If Yutia had been here, would things have turned out like this?
...If Line had been here, would things have turned out like this?
Seolrang knew the answer.
If they had been here instead of her, it wouldn't have come to this.
She knew it all too well.
...Actually, Seolrang knew the answer.
She knew what she had to do here.
In that brief, fleeting moment, Seolrang saw the Essence.
Hesitation flickered in Seolrang's eyes as she identified the Essence, which shone as brilliantly as her own golden lightning.
It was only natural. If she used the Essence, she would now────
"..."
Seolrang cut off her thoughts.
This was the only thing she could do.
So she had to do it.
She made her resolve.
The moment she made up her mind, Seolrang found herself standing inside the temple.
A temple bathed in dark moonlight.
And there...
[You've come.]
Seolrang met a beastkin standing inside the temple, just like before.
[So, are you ready?]
The beastkin had the same golden hair as her.
[Ready to discard everything and receive the power of the Aberrant Blood.]
A beastkin with glowing red eyes.