Severing the Threads
The magic was born from everyone's desperate struggles. The Frozen Field the mage finally managed to cast filled me with such joy that I almost laughed out loud. But for Shurika standing before me, it clearly had the exact opposite effect.
The fire of Shurika's trait Dry Tinder has been extinguished by Frozen Field.
The effects of Shurika's trait Flame Affinity have been halved by Frozen Field.
Frozen Field applies Slow and Regeneration Delay to the caster's enemies until its duration ends.
I quickly scanned the flood of system messages. Even with the massive stat gap of three or four ranks, this was doable. No — not just doable. I was going to win.
All I had to do was get rid of the evil god's tentacles and threads clinging to Shurika's body. Once those were gone, would she return to normal? If she did, should I kill her or spare her as a victim of possession? I didn't know. I'd decide after finishing what needed to be done.
Cough!
"Kyaaah! Hey!"
"Oi! You okay?! Open your eyes!"
"I've done all I can. I gave everything, so you better save me and take me back—"
Thud.
A commotion erupted behind me. Still watching Shurika, I slowly turned my head, keeping the movement minimal so I could react instantly. Thanks to my sharpened Chaos Eyes, I understood the situation at a glance.
Blood pooled across the floor. Blood smeared around mouths. Faces drained of all color.
I may not be a mage, but I know casting magic that surpasses one's rank is dangerous enough to risk your life.
Now it was time to repay that sacrifice.
"Hoo… Let's go!"
The me who had only blocked, dodged, and rolled was gone. If they weren't coming to me, I'd go to them!
BOOM—!
I kicked off the frozen ground, pouring mana into the leap. The moment I charged, Shurika finally moved, her eyes flashing. She lashed out with a whip wreathed in blazing flames.
SWISH!!!
The tip of the whip stabbed toward my upper right, shattering the sound barrier with a vicious crack. It was fast — yet somehow felt slow. Maybe the slowing effect was stacking with the rain I had to push through. Either way, dodging before the whip could reach me was almost laughably easy.
BANG!!
SHWAAAK!!!
I ran. I never stopped moving my legs. The version of me that rolled and tumbled to survive no longer existed. I simply twisted my body by a hair's breadth.
—ROOOAR!!!
Before I knew it, I was right in front of Shurika. The same technique I'd seen during the five-minute survival challenge — a flame lion lunged at me. But it had overlooked one thing: this place was flooded with water.
I stopped and focused. In that split second, I traced a single path in my mind from hilt to blade tip, then activated Biting Frost through the hand gripping the sword.
"Eat this!!!"
I swung. It started as an ordinary horizontal slash, but the blade, infused with the faint chill of a Transcendent, turned the ordinary into something extraordinary. Countless raindrops touched by the sword edge instantly crystallized into ice, leaving a clear trajectory in their wake.
FWOOOSH!!!
At a glance, it looked like a sword wind or aura slash. The single swing cleaved straight through the flame lion's body and vanished. The flames lost their shape and flickered out.
Shurika's eyes widened. Was that her own reaction, or the evil god's?
"Haaaaah!!!"
I finally reached her! One down!
SLASH.
"How dare a mere mortal strike my true body!"
When I severed one of the tentacles wrapped around her arm, the evil god's voice burst out.
Persistent bastard. It threw a fit about causality and still hasn't left? Fine. Let's see who dies first.
Realizing I could affect its true body, the evil god began controlling Shurika's flesh with even greater precision. She discarded the whip and closed in for hand-to-hand combat. Her mane glowed red as flames surged around her fists.
Dodge? No — I'd take the hits and cut anyway!
BOOM!!!
"Kgh, heh heh heh."
It hurt, but it was bearable. Compared to the pain Shurika must have felt as the evil god's plaything, or the agony of the adventurers burned alive by spirits, this was nothing!
"This much is nothing!"
SLASH.
One cut.
BANG!!!
BOOM!!!
"Hahaha!"
SLASH! TING. TING!
Three more followed. Right now I was stacked with high flame resistance, high knockback resistance, weak defense boost, and the Blessing of Water that gradually increased my regeneration. All the evil god could do was watch its severed tentacles and threads while throwing meaningless punches and kicks.
"Why?! Why are you still fine?! You're far weaker than this human, so why won't you fall?!"
CRASH!!!
"Kgh… Damn it. Some god you are."
TING! SLASH!!
"All you can do is whine like a ten-year-old brat? That it?"
TING. TIIING—!
All the threads are cut. Just a little more!
Victory was in sight when the evil god spoke again.
"Fine. So be it! The apostle who paid such a massive price in causality is already dead, and the host I've poured the rest of my power into will soon slip from my grasp anyway."
SLASH!!
Two tentacles remained.
"Mortal. I will kill you no matter what!"
BOOOOOOM—!!!
The hellfire that had destroyed Leihagen and melted my armor erupted at point-blank range. Even with Chaos Eyes slowing the world, I couldn't dodge. It was everything the evil god had left — its own power combined with every last drop of strength in Shurika's body.
The flames engulfed me before I could pull away.
"■■■■■■!!!"
It felt like someone was sawing through my brain to cut the fuse. My entire body burned as if dipped in boiling oil. Lightning exploded in my skull, and the sound that tore from my throat wasn't human language — only a beast's roar.
Even so, I couldn't give up.
The monk who never woke from the flames. The twins with their bodies crushed. Asan, who lost an arm and had his path broken. The dozens of adventurers trampled by elephants, bellies pierced by hooves, burned to ash.
Their sacrifices. I couldn't let everything become meaningless.
Goddamn it, you bastard!!!
My index finger twitched. Then the rest of my fingers. From hand to arm. From arm to torso. From torso to my whole body. Was this power surging from somewhere else? Or was it simply the will of a man named Aren? It didn't matter. What mattered was that my body moved.
Still burning, I refused to let go of the sword hilt. I gripped it so tightly it could shatter and I wouldn't care.
I recalled Asan's light footsteps and the honest path of his sword.
Step.
"It moved, you say?"
My eyes remembered the clear sword light reflecting off his blade.
TSZZZZ—
With half my mind gone, I took an unknown stance and moved my mana. I had no strength left to think about proper techniques or forms, and I didn't need them. I simply raised the sword the way my heart and body told me to.
…WHOOSH!
It was faint. A gray flame, so weak it looked ready to die at any moment. Yet somehow, I felt an unshakable certainty.
Tap.
With this, I could end it.
"…Two."
In that instant, I swung the sword from bottom to top.
SLASH!!!
"No… If I'm severed even here, then I, I—"
And then—
"One."
SLASH—
From top to bottom.
"I can't be forgotten like this! I only just got the city to accept me! After everything I went through to get here!!!"
Clang.
The moment I finished the downward swing, strength drained from my body. I nearly collapsed, but managed to drop to one knee and hold on.
"How does it feel to lose to the mere mortal you looked down on so much?"
Purplish energy — or rather, pathetic remnants that barely deserved to be called energy — leaked from Shurika's body.
"No. I don't even need to know how a loser feels. Just disappear quietly, you damn evil god."
"Even if I vanish here, the other gods won't stay silent! Just you wait, mortal!!!"
A god resorting to "just you wait" after everything was over? It wasn't even a third-rate villain cliché. The sheer stupidity made me laugh.
"To end so meaninglessly…"
Thud.
Still on one knee, I caught Shurika's collapsing body.
Is it over?
The evil god's voice was gone. Nothing could be felt from her body either. The most reliable confirmation was the status window.
Traits: Awakened Bloodline, Advanced Spirit Magic, Intermediate Whip Technique, Turbid Mana, Extinguished Tinder, Flame Affinity, Scarred Soul
The corrupted flesh and soul contamination had vanished. Many things had changed — mostly for the worse. Her mana dropping from A- to B+ was a heavy blow, but that wasn't important right now.
I separated her from the evil god, but should I save her? Or kill her now?
I didn't know. The thunderous noise from Sena's direction and the battle sounds from the spirits had both stopped. It seemed everything was over.
I needed a break. If I lay down and rested, someone would come eventually.
Whether the rain had stopped because the battle ended or simply because the duration ran out, the ground was thawing. I fell backward with Shurika still in my arms, sprawling out.
"I shouldn't sleep, right? …Ah, I'm so damn tired. If I ever come watch another circus, I'm not human — I'm a dog."
"Mmm. Huh?"
Had she woken because the evil god was gone? Shurika, now awkwardly cradled in my arms, met my eyes after regaining consciousness.
"Don't even think about going anywhere. It's over. Got it?"
Sorry, but even if you were a victim controlled by an evil god, too many people died. I can't guarantee you'll be spared.
"Y-Yes. Um… thank you for saving me. If it weren't for you, I…"
Her words felt awkward to respond to, so I just gave a small nod.
"Heeey!!!"
The survivors were coming.