Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Chapter 27: Wind (2)
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Scarlet demonic energy erupted from the ground like molten lava.
[I can't help you dodge it!]
"Got it!"
Vena pulled off acrobatic maneuvers in midair to avoid the demonic energy.
It was astonishing even to her.
[Your flight talent is among the best I've seen in any Valkyrie.]
It was hard to believe she had only just grown her wings.
Vena felt a swell of pride at the praise, but unfortunately, she had no time to bask in it.
"You're quick, too!"
Rueta chased after her, surfing the waves of demonic energy like a board.
In the meantime, the demonic energy swirled like it was alive, targeting Vena from multiple angles.
It was unbelievable that a single person could control it with such divine precision.
[No wonder she's a demon noble! Keep your wits about you, or you're dead!]
Vena shot up high into the sky.
She figured he'd lose her if she put some distance between them.
But as if to prove that notion wrong, the demonic energy spread across the entire forest gathered into a massive pillar that reached the heavens.
Rueta, now higher than Vena in an instant, sneered down at her.
"No place to run, huh?"
The demonic energy encircled Vena in a ring. It expanded upward and downward, forming a crimson wall.
[This is bad.]
Phillion muttered gravely.
[So when's your master jumping back in?]
"No idea..."
[He already bailed, didn't he?]
"N-no! He's not like that."
[You sure?]
"Yeah."
Phillion recalled the little boy Vena trusted unconditionally.
The emerald-haired kid looked ragged, but even to him, the boy didn't seem ordinary.
That said, he didn't look that impressive either.
[We'll talk about this later.]
"Huh?"
[Focus on surviving for now.]
Vena stared tensely at Rueta.
Despite his promise to end it quickly, he kept grinning at her.
It was a deeply unsettling smile.
Rueta opened his mouth.
"Shall we start with those wings?"
[Dodge!]
Swoosh-!
Vena felt her balance shatter.
She glanced left to see her severed yellow wing falling away cleanly.
And where there shouldn't have been, a crimson arm appeared right below her. A fist bristling with blades slammed into her chest.
"Gah!"
[Vena!]
Blood sprayed from her chest as her bones and muscles shattered.
"Kehhehehehe!"
The demonic energy crashed down on Vena.
The hammer glowed golden and swung on its own.
"That little brat earlier, and now you. You've got some fun toys."
Rueta caught the incoming hammer with one hand.
Phillion channeled Vena's power directly into his own body.
The hammer opened, and the blue gem inside glowed once more.
"Another explosion?"
Rueta scoffed dismissively.
A massive blast erupted.
But Rueta was fully serious now. The red demonic energy swallowed the explosion whole.
It flowed over his skin and wrapped around the hammer he gripped.
[Graaaaaah!]
The demonic energy corroded Phillion.
His ego was on the verge of collapse!
"N-no..."
Vena barely clung to her fading consciousness and gripped Phillion tightly with both hands.
"Raaah!"
I've got the strength advantage!
She yanked the hammer with all her might, squeezing out a battle cry.
Rueta snorted and released it. No point in a tug-of-war when he was outnumbered in raw power.
Vena clutched Phillion to her chest and plummeted to the ground.
"Boring."
The wall of demonic energy rippled, then poured down like a solid liquefying.
If she got swept up in those waves, she'd vanish without a trace. Her power would naturally absorb into the demonic energy, becoming Rueta's in turn.
Now was the time to hunt down that human brat again.
'The souls over there look tastier anyway.'
Rueta licked his lips with a serpentine tongue.
Once the demonic energy blanketed the whole forest, he'd have no choice but to show himself.
Then, a golden light burst through the waves of demonic energy.
"You're no fun anymore."
Rueta's smile faded.
Countless blades protruding from his right arm curved in a graceful arc, then spun in one direction. He clenched his fist, and they began rotating clockwise at blinding speed.
The scarlet demonic energy swirled around him with pulverizing force.
Boom!!
The waves covering the ground surged up, carving out a massive crater.
There lay Vena, drenched head to toe in blood, gasping raggedly.
He thrust his right fist toward her.
The vortex of demonic energy descended to tear her apart.
[You can't block it.]
She couldn't draw out her full power.
She couldn't stop that.
A gruesome death by dismemberment awaited.
Yet Vena smiled.
"It's okay..."
Phillion couldn't ask what was.
With those words, Vena's consciousness snapped. But her body didn't hit the ground.
Someone caught her before she could.
"Always making me worry."
Jamie looked at the smiling Vena.
Even unconscious, she hadn't let go of the hammer.
Jamie faced the falling storm of demonic energy and spoke.
"Your turn."
-Thanks to your late decision, my forest is a mess.
"Sorry, but I didn't have the luxury."
-Excuses.
"Think what you want. Just go wild."
-Don't order me around, you plunderer!
The ground trembled violently.
Jamie shouted as the demonic storm closed in.
"Shut up and come out already!"
The earth cracked open.
Enormous boulders burst upward through the fissures.
It was like a colossal caldera erupting.
Jamie smiled at the overwhelming crustal shift.
From it rose a massive beast boasting a hulking frame.
The jet-black fur-covered giant swung its forepaw blindly.
The demonic storm Rueta had unleashed vanished without a trace.
"...What the hell is that?"
Rueta grimaced at the new foe.
Its sheer bulk evoked the giant demon beasts of the demon realm.
"Keep your promise."
The fifty-meter behemoth, Teberon, glared with yellow eyes through the dust and warned.
Jamie met the thick killing intent unflinchingly.
"If you want your stolen prize back, give it your all."
"Hmph!"
Teberon charged at Rueta without another word.
Boom—the elevated ground collapsed as if it had never risen.
'How with that lump?!'
The hundreds-of-tons body leaped like a feather.
Its size closed the distance in an instant.
"Filthy demon. This land isn't yours to ruin!"
"Stinky furball's not my type either!"
Rueta tensed up this time.
Not an opponent he'd lose to, but a monster incomparable to the playthings he'd toyed with earlier!
Demonic energy enveloped him, forming blood-red armor.
He maximized his corrosion power and swung his blades at the incoming forepaw.
Groooooaaar-!
Teberon bellowed in pain.
Nasty gashes marred its massive forepaw.
The blood gushing out was no small amount.
Rueta wasn't faring much better.
"Gah, that hurts!"
His right arm was crushed.
Immense mass. He'd tried to sever it on impact, but the hide, muscle, and bone were too thick and tough.
He'd naturally been overpowered, and his arm shattered.
"Die already!"
Feeling true peril for the first time in ages, Rueta thrust his intact left arm at Teberon.
Dozens of blades shot out, aiming for its chest.
Knowing it was tough, he'd sharpened them finer.
Teberon gritted its teeth in agony and shielded its chest with the wounded forepaw.
Splat splat-!
"Groooaaaar!!"
The blades pierced the arm and burrowed deep into the chest.
But mercifully, they didn't penetrate fully.
Teberon wrenched its bulging eyes wide and yanked the impaled forepaw outward.
"You mad bastard!"
The raw power dragged Rueta helplessly along.
Crack—all the blades shattered.
Exposed, Rueta suddenly felt the world darken.
Alarms blared in his mind.
He instinctively curled up.
"...!"
His consciousness shook violently.
An unbelievably heavy force struck him.
Even a demon noble couldn't shrug off that impact; it rattled his mind.
"Guh!"
He slammed into the ground from hundreds of meters up in under five seconds.
Rueta's limbs twisted.
The world darkened again.
Then he saw a massive rear dropping from above.
KABOOOOOM!!!!!!
The impact shook all of Upton.
A crater vast enough to erase part of Mirene Forest formed.
"Huff!"
Rueta rolled across the ground with ecstatic relief.
He'd barely escaped being crushed at the last second.
Blind in the dust, he summoned blades across his body, certain of victory.
He'd dice that giant into pieces.
"Forgot about me?"
A familiar voice came from behind.
Rueta whipped around to see two purple eyes glowing in the dust.
"Fuck."
One crisis cleared, another emerged.
And the pest he'd dismissed was now drawing a razor-sharp blade at his throat.
Rueta hated this situation, but blocking was impossible.
Ultra-condensed black light pierced Rueta.
Teberon wasn't the only preparation.
Jamie grinned.
"Told you not to let your guard down till the end."
Jamie smiled at the crumbling demon baron writhing in agony.
He'd never expected Teberon to finish him. The matchup favored the bear heavily.
He just needed a tiny opening.
Like right now!
"Urgh...!"
'Path of Ruin' was black magic unleashing all the power absorbed from Leviathan.
Dark in nature, it wielded the mighty force of 'annihilation'.
"Wouldn't have worked if you had no gaps."
"Cough, cough!"
"Tables have turned."
"Not... bad at all?"
The black flames in Rueta's eyes dimmed.
"It's been ages since I've been this cornered. Yeah. Ages."
Rueta staggered to his feet.
Jamie gathered black mana in his hand, ready to blow his head off at the slightest twitch.
But maybe it was impossible from the start.
"Whatever. Let it play out."
The darkness erased his head.
Preventing any last moves.
"Ha!"
Jamie exhaled in satisfaction at the limp Rueta.
He'd taken him down.
A low-tier master class, sure, but a master class nonetheless.
Its power had chilled him to the bone after so long, a taste of despair at his current level.
But he was the one standing.
Or so it should have been.
"..."
Jamie froze mid-turn at the sudden anomaly.
Rueta's head was gone. He should be dead.
Dead meant no more movement, forever.
So why was that monster twitching?
"It's melting."
Rueta's corpse liquefied like sludge.
Black ooze soaked the ground stickily, spreading out.
"You bastard, don't tell me..."
Some demons took on new forms after death.
Losing their wits, becoming destruction-crazed monsters.
Just like Rueta now.
"Damn it! Of all things, this freak hatches!"
Such types were rare among demons, and since Rueta was humanoid, Jamie hadn't considered this nightmare scenario.
No time to think.
Isolate it before the monster fully mobilized!
Jamie opened the gate to the ruins.
The writhing mass dropped below.
But the ground quaked like an earthquake, and it burst up through the earth like Teberon.
Incredibly, it ignored the magic-enforced gravity and collapsed the passage itself.
"Gotta dodge...!"
A mindless monster with master-class power.
If it rampaged—
Jamie stopped thinking.
Disaster would follow.
Nothing more to do here.
He headed straight for Vena. But even mindless, it wouldn't forget the one who'd wrought this on it.
Jamie gave a wry smile as blade tentacles hurtled toward him.
"Damn—"
Splurt!
Blood sprayed into the air.
Jamie closed his eyes, face contorted.
"Bad habit. Mistaking your senses."
Jamie's eyes snapped open at the voice. A cleanly severed blade tentacle whisked past.
What had happened?
Jamie checked himself.
He was in someone's arms.
He looked up dazedly at his holder and yelped in shock.
"Wh-what are you doing here?"
"The Welton count's son is quite the troublemaker."
Beryl Onix smiled faintly at Jamie.
He'd heard Beryl left Upton. Why was this sword master here?
As Jamie stared blankly, Beryl gently set him down.
"Stay here. You know it's dangerous enough."
Then he strode toward what used to be Rueta.
"Graaaaa-!"
Demonic energy-reinforced blade tentacles flew at him ferociously.
The Gale Sword swung his greatsword in a straight line.
Jamie felt refreshing coolness from the gentle breeze.
All the blade tentacles were sliced soundlessly.
And Beryl vanished.
Jamie whipped his head around searching, but saw nothing.
A fresh breeze blew again.
There stood Beryl, where he'd been invisible before.
Behind him, Rueta—split into dozens of lines—parted along them.
Gale.