Chapter 39
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Transformation in the Miasma
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A warning blared in his head.
He knew instinctively.
*This is dangerous!*
Cracks spiderwebbed across the crystal, and a thick miasma billowed out from between them.
A moment ago, Hemeren had been engulfed by the leaking miasma and seemed to have lost consciousness.
“Sir Hemeren!”
Claire rushed over urgently, praying.
Her divine power was pushing back the miasma that had encroached upon Hemeren's body, but it didn't seem to be an easy task.
Before long, Claire's face, drenched in sweat, began to contort.
*Fshaaaaa!*
The miasma erupting from the crystal began to rage even more fiercely.
If they couldn't shatter it completely.
*...Everyone will die.*
He could tell how dangerous the situation was just by looking at the miasma-poisoned monsters, which were now rampaging even more ferociously.
*What about the others?*
It seemed even the small fry had started to run wild, giving them more trouble.
No one else had the luxury to help.
*Shhhk.*
Demian looked at the crystal floating before him.
He didn't know if it was possible, but...
*Still, it's already cracked.*
The crystal had taken a major blow from Hemeren's attack.
Its wild thrashing must be a desperate attempt to protect itself.
*Grip.*
Demian tightened his grip on the spear he held.
At this very moment.
*I'm the only one.*
The only one who could destroy the crystal.
Demian began to draw upon all the mana in his Mana Hall.
He had already exhausted a considerable amount of mana in the fight against the werewolves.
*I'll scrape the very bottom.*
He had to end it in one blow.
There would be no second chance.
*Wooooong.*
A cold calm settled in Demian's eyes.
Soon, his body was enhanced by the mana, and his muscles tensed.
At the exact moment his spear began to glow with a faint light from the mana.
*Pabat!*
Demian charged toward the crystal.
The goal was a single strike.
To destroy that monstrosity in one blow.
“Hyaaaaaaaah!”
*Fshaaaaa!*
The crystal surged with miasma, as if in a final, frantic resistance.
An ominous energy wrapped around his entire body, but.
*Tak!*
Kicking off the ground, Demian leaped and thrust his spear toward the crystal with all his might.
In that instant.
*Kwwaaaaang!*
It exploded with a deafening roar, and the cracks in the crystal deepened.
*Crack, cra-crack!*
A sound like it was about to shatter.
But Demian's expression was stiff.
*It's not enough...!*
He could tell from the sensation in his fingertips.
He lacked the power.
Landing back on the ground, Demian bit his lip hard.
Then, one more blow...!
But in that moment.
*Fshaaaaaaa!*
“De-Demian!”
“Demian!”
Dianal and Kyle, who had turned to Demian at the roar, screamed.
The black miasma pouring from the crystal had swallowed Demian whole.
* * *
...Huh?
For a moment, the world turned black.
He couldn't see anything, couldn't feel anything.
Except for one thing.
*I don't think I'm dead...*
A sensation he could be sure of, having died once before.
But then.
“Gyaaaaaaaah!”
Demian screamed involuntarily as a pain like his body was being torn apart wracked him.
He thought he'd grown quite accustomed to pain.
“Guuuuuuuh...!”
The pain was so intense it was hard to bear, and Demian instinctively curled up.
What in the world was this pain...?
But he soon understood the reason.
“You son of a bitch...!”
An alien energy was slithering into his body.
Miasma.
This ominous, wretched feeling was the same as the miasma the crystal had been spewing.
In that case.
“...Are you trying to make me a host?”
Is the plan to poison me with miasma and make me its puppet, just like the other monsters?
“Not a chance, you bastard!”
How could he lose this second chance he'd been given?
Wasn't this the only opportunity to change his god-awful life?
*Sssssssssssssk!*
But regardless of Demian's will, the miasma that entered his body gradually expanded its influence.
And soon.
*Swaaaaaa!*
Having found the best place for it to reside, the miasma quickly began to nest there.
It was the Mana Hall in his lower abdomen.
The miasma burrowed into the space, which was completely empty of mana.
Soon, the miasma filled Demian's Mana Hall, and as if that wasn't enough, it began to push against the walls.
“Guuuuuuuuuuuuuh!”
Demian's small Mana Hall was being pushed and broken by the miasma.
The amount of miasma surpassed what the Mana Hall could handle, but it continued to force its way in.
Demian broke out in a cold sweat and clenched his jaw against the pain, which felt like his abdomen was being carved out with a knife.
*Shudder.*
His whole body trembled.
Blood trickled from his tightly clenched teeth and ran down the side of his mouth.
*It's... it's breaking...!*
Is my Mana Hall going to be destroyed again like this?
Is this chance at life, which I grasped like a miracle, going to disappear just like this?
But the moment cracks appeared in Demian's Mana Hall.
*Sssssssk!*
Was it trying to protect what it considered its new home?
The miasma began to regenerate the cracked Mana Hall, gradually expanding its size.
The Mana Hall, which had been barely the size of a walnut, began to grow until it was about the size of a fist.
The expansion of the Mana Hall.
*Flash!*
Demian's eyes flew open at the sight.
He didn't know what was happening, but.
*This... this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity...!*
His Mana Hall, which had refused to grow, had expanded.
Now, all that was left was to push it out completely without being corrupted by the miasma.
*Grind!*
The sound of his molars cracking was distinct, but Demian focused all his senses and began to control the miasma.
*I survived my last life on mental fortitude alone...!*
Grit and tenacity.
That made up eighty percent of who Demian was.
You think I'm going to lose to some shapeless miasma?
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
*Crack! Cra-cra-crack!*
He heard something breaking inside his body.
Demian, trying to wield the miasma like mana and force it out of his body.
The miasma, trying to coil up and settle inside Demian's body.
Demian and the miasma began a tense power struggle.
*Woooooong!*
At that moment, the residual mana in his body that hadn't entered the Mana Hall began to react as well.
*Swaaaaaaaa!*
The mana began to fuse with the miasma inside Demian's body.
*Zzzzzzzing!*
In that instant, Demian felt another power flowing in from the outside.
—Don't give up!
A voice echoed in his head, along with a warm, comforting energy.
The sound was muffled, as if heard underwater, but.
*Flash!*
Demian absorbed the comforting feeling and began to use it to purify the miasma.
And after some time had passed.
*Kugugugugugugugung!*
Demian's body began to tremble like an aspen leaf.
His miasma-corroded body began to float into the air.
*Paaaaaaaaat!*
It began to restructure itself amidst a brilliant light.
*Tuduk! Tududuk! Ududuk!*
His bones, which had not yet finished growing, lengthened and reformed.
*Jureureureuk!*
The impurities from the miasma that had filled his body began to be expelled as a black fluid.
Demian, his physical reconstruction complete, accompanied by a foul stench.
And finally.
*Swaaaaaaaa!*
The purified mana began to rapidly fill his Mana Hall, which had grown several times larger.
*Thud.*
Standing in place, Demian raised his spear.
Unlike before, the crystal now shimmered with a murky, almost black purple light.
*I don't know what just happened, but...*
Power is overflowing from my body.
Demian gripped his spear tightly and kicked off the ground.
*Kwang!*
An explosive dash.
Surging toward the crystal in an instant, Demian twisted his drawn-back torso powerfully and extended his spear toward it.
“Shatter!”
And the moment Demian's spear struck the center of the crystal once more.
*Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!*
With a tremendous roar, the crystal shattered into grains of sand and scattered in all directions.
“Kuaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”
“Kieeeeeeeeeeeek!”
“Gguooooooooooong!”
At that moment, the three giant monsters began to clutch their heads and scream.
Seeing this, the members of the special task force who had been fighting them quickly fell back.
“Fall back! Fall back!”
“The crystal is destroyed! We did it!”
“Everyone, get back!”
There was no telling what unexpected situation might arise.
Bertos calmed his pounding heart but didn't let down his guard against the creatures.
*Thud!*
Soon, the monsters collapsed.
Watching the unmoving creatures, all the members of the task force swallowed hard.
“...Are they dead?”
Just then, Tarone strode over to check on them.
The light in their pupils was gone.
Looking at the monsters, completely dead with their tongues lolling out, Tarone finally let out a long breath.
“Hah... They're all dead!”
“Damn it... We succeeded.”
“Is it over?”
Everyone felt like collapsing to the ground.
Fighting giant, miasma-poisoned monsters was just that dangerous and exhausting.
*Shhhk.*
“That kid...”
Tarone turned his head to look where Demian was.
Dianal and Kyle were fussing over him, hugging him tightly.
Tarone found the corners of his mouth turning up.
*Pfft.*
“He really is a peculiar one.”
Just like the feeling he got when he first saw him.
A wide smile stretched across Tarone's lips.
* * *
“Kieeeeeeeeeeeeeek!”
A scream like a wailing ghost echoed throughout the Bronserian Forest.
As the crystal containing the miasma shattered, hundreds of monsters all died.
*Thud, thud, thud!*
The sight was truly a spectacle.
The sight of all the creatures that had been baring their fangs and charging just moments before, now dead.
The soldiers felt a sense of relief at having survived, but also a strange sense of emptiness.
“...Is it over?”
“We survived... We survived...!”
It hadn't been a long battle.
But in that short time, nearly half of the subjugation force had been killed.
The sight of a comrade next to them being mauled by a monster, screaming as they died.
The sight of heads being smashed and bodies torn apart by the axes and clubs swung by monsters.
The faces of their comrades who had cried out for help were still vivid in their minds, but.
“We won... We woooooooooon!”
“We were victorious!”
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The surviving members of the subjugation force cried out, their shouts like howls.
And Wilkis, watching them, silently gazed in the direction the special task force had gone.
“...They really succeeded.”
He had thought they might fail.
He had thought this place might become his grave.
“...I survived, too.”
The Bronserian Forest subjugation was the last chance given to a loser.
He had thought that if he couldn't seize this chance, it would be the end for him as well.
But the subjugation was a success.
And he had been given one more chance.
Wilkis stared in the direction they had gone. And from there...
“The special task force is returning!”
“The special task force is coming!”
The figures of the task force members gradually appeared in the distance.
Every one of them looked worse for wear, but.
“Hm?”
The man walking at the very front.
He was sure it had been a boy when they left, but something about him felt strangely different.
But Wilkis could recognize him at a glance.
That he was the hero who had ended this.
“...Am I in his debt now?”
Murmuring to himself, Wilkis walked toward the heroes who had accomplished a great feat.