Spawn of the Void (2)
The eagle struck without warning. A colossal white bird descended like a living tempest, swallowing everything in its path. The moisture-laden grass on the ground thrashed wildly in the gale, and a brilliant light bloomed that seemed capable of eclipsing the entire purple sky. It was a pure, pristine white radiance, the kind that instinctively made one think of Odin.
“Guhak!” Ratatoskr rolled across the dirt. The sudden impact left him shaking his head, every inch of his body screaming from the blow. A faint trace of blood clung to the corner of his mouth. He spat it out with a wet ptoo and raised his white blade, but I was already there to stop him.
I activated Swift the instant before he could regain his footing and charged. My body drew a straight line of light across the battlefield. Nidhogg’s Fang smashed into his sword with a deafening clang. Violet void energy writhed along my arm like it wanted to devour me whole. I didn’t resist it. Instead I bared my teeth and unleashed a Dragon Fear that threatened to chew him apart.
A hero swinging a demonic sword instead of a holy one. Anyone watching would probably think it was a bizarre sight, but what the hell did I care? It looked cool as fuck from where I was standing.
“Eagle! You again?!” Ratatoskr screamed.
“Eyes over here, dumbass. Look at me.”
Our blades clashed again and again.
“What the hell did you do to the Holy Sword?! Why can’t I connect to Odin?!”
“Heh heh heh. So that’s what you’re curious about?”
“Of course I’m asking because I’m curious! What other reason would there be?!”
A vein throbbed in my temple. I’d expected the pain, but expecting it didn’t make it hurt any less. Still, I had to endure. The void energy had completely overtaken my right arm, gnawing at it like a dragon’s fangs that refused to let go. I pushed through the agony and kept moving, determined to kill him.
“It’s simple. I erased your rune and stuffed a void rune inside instead.”
“...Fuck. You’re serious?”
“Dead serious.”
“You treated the Holy Sword like a piece of dogshit?! That’s blasphemy! Sacrilege against the divine!!!”
Fwoooosh!Nidhogg’s Fang responded to my irritation. The void energy that had swallowed my rage began to flicker like purple flames. Sword aura. Even though it wasn’t mana, it still took the shape of one. The blade burned with violet fire. A hero of light wielding flames this dark and wicked—it was the terrible inferno of Ginnungagap, the primordial void from which all things began.
A low growl rumbled somewhere. It wasn’t Nidhogg. The sound came from the weapon clenched in my fist. A dragon’s roar erupted from my right arm, triggering a massive Dragon Fear. It was like a unique passive attached to the equipment in a game—some special effect that went off every few minutes.
A gigantic dragon’s maw yawned open. At the same moment, the eagle shot forward with a sharp cry and snatched Ratatoskr up in its talons.
“Goddammit!” he cursed.
That was my cue. I triggered Nidhogg’s Fang to the fullest. The enormous maw of void energy sank its teeth into his left arm. Countless slashes tore through him in an instant. The sight was like watching someone thrown into a blender.
“Nice one, eagle!”
“What now?”
“Don’t worry. He’ll be here soon.”
Yes. I had been waiting for this exact moment. I activated Detect and tracked his movements. Something enormous was hurtling toward us at breakneck speed. Its jaws were spreading wide, gathering power.
“Puhuhu.” Tirgar read my eyes instantly and slammed a gigantic shield into the ground.
It wasn’t the brilliant light of a sacred dragon. This was the corrupted, fallen version. Scales the color of tree roots. A single blind eye and tattered, lopsided wings. He had taken heavy damage during our last fight, and the aftereffects were still obvious.
Slowly the scene came together: Ratatoskr pinned to the ground by the eagle, Nidhogg hovering in the sky, and me standing right in the middle. I flashed a crooked grin and raised my middle finger.
“Here’s your tooth, you fucking idiot. Come and get it.”
Riana and Bete sensed the colossal surge of power. The sheer scale of the void energy made Bete react violently. The feedback caused Riana—his current wielder—to tremble. The memory was still vivid: the corrupted dragon that had burned Seria’s arm and nearly killed the hero in a single breath. The dragon that gnawed at the roots of Yggdrasil was coming straight for them.
The hero had said he had a plan, but he hadn’t explained what it was. He had simply told them to trust him, to rip these bastards apart as much as possible, and to survive. No further orders. Nothing else.
[The hero’s planning to take both of them on at once.]
“...What the hell is he thinking?”
[I have no idea. But he must have something in mind.]
“Then we have no choice but to trust him. We need to support the hero with everything we’ve got.”
Riana and Bete exchanged words. Even Bete—who usually treated Riana like a crazy bitch—now relied on her in this situation. She was his owner, after all. It should have felt humiliating, like some twisted form of degradation, yet it didn’t feel bad at all.
...Maybe hanging around with these people is starting to rot my mind too.
Bete thought as he channeled void energy in sync with Riana’s movements. The power flared along the axe blade like dancing flames. They charged. The moment her foot left the ground, a massive crater formed beneath them. The earth itself groaned beneath the female warrior’s steps, and the darkness whispered.
It was strange to see a warrior who served the god of light wielding the power of corruption. But when the hero himself was forging and swinging a demonic sword, who was left to complain?
Riana wasn’t consumed by the void. She simply used the power known as void energy. Her mental fortitude wasn’t weak enough to be corrupted by mere whispers. The eagle drove its talons toward Ratatoskr. Taesik swung his blade wreathed in void sword aura. A sharp ringing sound sliced through the air. Then something even larger tore through that sound, drawing a massive arc.
It was an axe steeped in solitude and a shield drenched in bitter frost. Riana and Tirgar. A warrior who served Odin and a giant—two races that were traditionally bitter enemies—were now fighting side by side. Well, Tirgar had always been an oddball. He hated Odin, but he didn’t want the world to collapse. He loathed the gods, yet he didn’t hate humans. Even if those humans believed in the gods, he didn’t pick fights with them. Above all else, he was Taesik’s one and only best friend.
“You pathetic little ants!” Ratatoskr roared.
“If you’re mad, fight us in your real body. Oh wait, are you too big and there’s too many places to hit?”
“Puhahaha! That was a good one!”
Taesik and Tirgar laughed at Ratatoskr’s complaint. Even though Taesik was in a difficult fight, the presence of his comrades helped him regain his composure. The situation was completely different from before. It was far better than the days he had spent with Ragner, Fina, and Lunaris, rotting away in Helheim. Honestly, he would rather the world end than go back to those days. They had been that miserable.
When the nameless eagle spread its wings, another storm howled across the battlefield.
“Kroaaaaah!” Nidhogg answered with a roar of his own. The Dragon Fear spread outward like a shockwave. Seria’s body shook. The memory of that day, the terror, had been burned into her soul. But she couldn’t stop here. She couldn’t become a burden to the hero she loved.
Useless woman. Woman with no power. Woman who only holds him back. Would he come to hate her?
It was a baseless fear, but the mere possibility existed. Seria was so anxious that her terror had transformed into a kind of madness.
“...I won’t fall behind. I don’t want to be hated.”
She muttered to herself, then—
Fwoooosh! Blue lion sword aura began to blaze.
“I hate this…!”
She recited the runes for Swift and Flame. The characters flashed and instantly fused into her blade. It was a scroll.
“Haa… Hero…!”
Anxiety gripped her. She tried to calm her racing heart, but it wasn’t easy. Nidhogg looked down at Seria and the others and bellowed. His thunderous Dragon Fear filled the air.
“Insignificant worms!”
How dare you interfere with the great plan?
Nidhogg’s throat began to swell. Taesik saw it from afar. Right as he was clashing with Ratatoskr, he felt the heat gathering in the dragon’s maw.
“Seria, dodge!”
“...If I don’t want to be hated.”
I can’t fail.
“Kroaaaaaaaah!”
It was a Dragon Breath. A thick violet pillar of flame shot forward. Against the backdrop of raging storm and crashing lightning, it looked even more terrifying. A vicious, malevolent being. This was exactly the situation Taesik had feared. Drawing the dragon’s attention was dangerous. If the eagle could pin both of them down at once it might have been different, but Ratatoskr was far more agile than expected.
“Riana, Tirgar! I’m leaving this one to you!”
“Go on, hero.”
“...I have to protect my wife, after all.”
There was no time to smile at the joke. Before the breath could reach Seria, I wanted to rip that giant corrupted dragon’s throat out. The rising impulse made me use the ability I gained from the incarnation contract. When I had been Odin’s incarnation, my agility, stamina, defense, and attack had all increased across the board. But the ability I gained from contracting with the eagle was simpler and far more broken.
Flight.
It was an unfamiliar sensation, but my body could now soar through the air. Without wings, I simply ignored the laws of gravity. I shot straight toward Nidhogg.
“You son of a bitch dragon whose mother died!”
Seria still had her hand on her sword. Was she planning to cut the breath? Impossible. There was no way her slender body could withstand that savage, colossal energy. She might be from the Lionblood family, but even a lion flinches from fire. Unless she used a weapon of the void, she would take catastrophic damage.
“Struggle all you want! The void’s plan will be completed!”
“Bullshit. You’re all psychotic bastards who kill innocent people!”
My body, flying at blinding speed, crackled with lightning. Crackle. It was the familiar power of thunder. Even though I no longer carried Odin’s blessing, I felt the same tingling sensation I used to get from Gungnir. It was because I had become the incarnation of the nameless eagle, Odin’s own kin.
“Huu…”
I steadied my stance. Remember. Picture the mentor in my mind. The one who smiles in the face of crisis is the one who wins. Smile. Smile seriously. Show them a grin.
“Breath of Lightning, First Form.”
Lightning, pure thunder, wrapped around my entire body. The fastest drawing technique. With this power, I could shut the mouth that was about to unleash the breath. True supersonic speed!
Nidhogg’s Fang howled! Reacting to the lightning, it spat out Dragon Fear with grinding force!
“Aah…”
This is—
“—the Breath of Lightning.”
And right then, I saw it. The gap. The thread of an opening.
“Lightning Flash!”
From now on, I become the yellow-haired Thunder God.
...Or I should have.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
The energy I poured out at full power spun uselessly through empty air. My sword had missed by the smallest margin. That tiny difference had caused the dragon’s jaws to shift by just one centimeter.
“What the hell is this?”
“...Hero?”
Seria tilted her head, wondering why he was here, then giggled.
“Did you come because of me?”
“...Ah, well. I guess that’s part of it…”
Fuck. My cool moment…!!
Separate from Taesik’s shock, Seria’s slash pierced straight through the breath and shattered Nidhogg’s fangs. With a heavy thud, the scales rang out and began to crack apart. The lion’s sword aura. Her furious fighting spirit had penetrated the dragon’s tough hide. The two largest fangs broke off, and the beast screamed in agony. With only one working eye, he flew unsteadily. What everyone had thought impossible, Seria had achieved—she had pierced the void with six-layered sword aura.
The woman who cuts through the impossible. That was Seria Lionblood.
At the pinnacle of six-layered sword aura, Seria poured her hatred toward the one who had tormented the person she loved. In a single instant even she didn’t fully register, the true lioness sank her teeth into the dragon.