Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Chapter 22 Infection Lord
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That didn't mean she was planning to use Pure Magic. There was no way such a horrific monster clump could connect with the noble and beautiful Pure Magic.
What she aimed for was implementing Triple Magic that surpassed Double Magic, through extreme brain acceleration.
'Yeah. I knew drinking several of these potions at once would make it possible. It's about creating a new domain. Up until now, two was the limit...'
Just as the human body is divided into left and right, the brain is also divided into left and right.
Ordinary people might not know it, but wizards could perceive it. And Tollari, who transcended all wizards, anticipated that by extremely accelerating the left and right brain hemispheres, a third domain would open.
But there was a huge difference between anticipating it and actually doing it.
Drip.
As the calculations exceeded their limits, nosebleeds began to flow.
She couldn't even wipe the nosebleed, let alone the drool leaking from her mouth. Both her hands were already compressing two Tempests each.
Whirrr...
And between her outstretched hands.
In the empty space spread out in the center, a third Tempest began to compress without anyone touching it.
But maintaining a domain that hadn't existed before was no easy task.
"Uh, ugh..."
Her eyes started rolling upward.
If her concentration slipped for even an instant, it felt like her brain's switch would turn off.
No, it wasn't just a feeling—it was like she had to turn it off right now or disaster would strike. Continuing like this might leave permanent brain damage.
Or she might even die.
But she didn't stop.
'I'm crazy too...'
It hurt, but it was enjoyable.
Curiosity about Triple Magic, a new form of magic that had never existed before.
And competitive spirit toward the enemy before her eyes.
The first was familiar. But the second was a new desire she'd never felt before.
Could her magic sever the breath of such an absurd monster and bring victory?
If it did, how joyful would that moment be?
'No idea. I've never tried it before.'
That's why she wanted to try.
"...There you are!"
At that moment, the count spotted Tollari's position and unleashed tentacles with ferocious momentum.
Swish!
But before the tentacles could reach Tollari's body, the three Tempests she fired first scorched the count's body.
* * *
A localized disaster struck the western forest of Lunenbreath.
A massive vortex.
The swirling storm pierced through the forest and shot up into the high sky, swallowing everything around it.
Inside the storm, three central points of wind blades rotated at ultra-high speed, grinding everything trapped within like razors.
Yet the count endured.
Crunch crunch crunch!
The sound of tough shells being shaved off.
Before long, the hard clumps attached to the count's epidermis were shaved off first, protecting his body.
This happened in the brief moment when Tollari had lost her mind in her new realm.
The count pulled in all his infected subordinates at once—already torn to shreds but still mentally linked—and covered his body with them.
Like armor.
"Harden! My slaves! Harden endlessly for your master!"
The infected flesh masses faithfully obeyed the count's command, endlessly hardening their own flesh.
The flesh armor took the first impact of the Triple Tempest in his place, and afterward forcibly endured, buying time.
"Ugh! Hold! We have to hold! Grk!"
The count writhed as he watched his flesh pile being shaved away.
The moment the barely enduring flesh armor disintegrated, his relatively softer true flesh was quickly torn and flown away.
Like fruit flesh being sliced off layer by layer, leaving only the central pit.
Once only that skeletal branch remained, the count sensed the storm vanishing at some point and began to roar.
"Ooh, oooh! I endured! I won! I, an Arch Wizard, have been defeated!"
An Arch Wizard was a symbol.
The symbol of the strongest individual human.
The ecstasy of surpassing that filled the count's heart with bliss.
Of course, he'd taken enormous damage.
But this one skeletal branch left in the center was enough. He could just regenerate the severed flesh.
"O, oh, good. Regenerate right now!"
Without needing to do anything, flesh began bubbling from the center and swelling like a balloon.
"Impressive. To think such a perfect body exists. Still, just in case, I should replenish my subordinates. How many people are in that Claude bastard's mansion...?"
In the midst of that, he saw Tollari wobbling far away and crashing to the ground. Smacking his lips, the count shot long tentacles toward her.
"You'll be my new subordinate number one!"
The moment the tentacles he fired were about to pierce Tollari's nape.
Slash!
Something snatched Tollari's falling body like lightning and fled.
"Grk!"
The count retracted the tentacles that pierced empty air and began swelling his entire body bright red once more.
"Claude! You damn bastard! You've finally come!"
* * *
Nice catch!
After catching the falling Tollari in both arms, he dodged the incoming tentacles simultaneously and surged upward into the dim sky.
Phew. That was close.
One minute later and it would've been disaster. Worth flying at full speed the moment I heard the news.
"...!"
Far below on the ground, a meatball-like lump writhed wildly, shouting something.
Ugh. Makes me want to curse. Truly at a loss for words.
It's a real Infection Lord!
An otherworld invasion monster that starts appearing from the third wave of the otherworld invasion.
In terms of sheer headache, it's far worse than those berserkers. Death Worms aren't even comparable.
"I was really hoping it wasn't..."
What makes this guy scary is that it infects surrounding creatures with tentacles and uses them as shields.
Even excluding the shields, its own durability and regeneration are absurd. Knight orders or physically organized armies can't even oppose it from the start.
And magic doesn't work well either.
The overflowing flesh does burn decently with fire... but unless the thin central core is destroyed, it regenerates endlessly.
Infinite regeneration.
Back when no one knew how to counter it, even pouring Double Magic Fire of Tempest wasn't enough momentary firepower.
So for Tollari, whose specialty is wind, it's the worst matchup? Wind of Tempest would just shave off some flesh and end it.
But what the hell is that?
Around the Infection Lord, there's a massive hole patched up. A stadium-sized chunk of forest is gone? What the hell happened?
"Ugh..."
At that moment, Tollari in his arms opened one eye and groaned.
"Tollari! Are you conscious?"
"Ugh... That monster..."
"Leave the rest to me. Huh? But why's your face twitching like that? Your muscles are jerking unevenly left and right?"
"P-Prince... Sorry. Even though you told me not to..."
"What?"
"That elixir. I drank them all at once."
"Elixir? You don't mean the brain acceleration elixirs?"
"But it still wasn't enough. That monster... keeps regenerating..."
Then she closed her eyes again and went limp.
Wait a sec.
What did she just say? She downed five bottles of brain acceleration elixir at once?
Why?
Don't tell me she tried to use Pure Magic?
"Are you an idiot? I told you Pure Magic only works on magic?"
But the unconscious Tollari couldn't respond. Sigh, I'll ask properly when she wakes up later.
"Come down, Claude! You dwarf-like runt stuck to the ground! Are you ashamed of that puny body? Come down right now and fight me!"
Meanwhile, the Infection Lord had sprouted eight spider-like legs from its elongated lower body, propping up its entire form.
Conversely, the thick upper body resembled a blunt cactus studded with spines.
An appearance impossible to believe was a normal creature. And he knew each of those spines could extend and move freely. The lord was shouting loud enough to shake the entire forest. Damn, even at this height, I can hear its voice clearly.
But what the hell is this rotten bastard saying?
Doesn't it know I've grown a whopping 7cm taller recently?
"Hoo..."
Of course, that still puts me just over 150cm.
Anyway, I need to shut it up quick. Listening to it is rotting my ears.
I immediately moved above its head.
Slash! Swish!
The Infection Lord immediately fired tentacles vertically, but it was pointless.
Its tentacles' max range is about 150 meters, and I'm hovering at least 300 meters above ground.
"Claude! You coward! Come down! You haven't forgotten that underground prison, have you? I'll repay the humiliation you inflicted on me right now! I'll tear your body to shreds with my own hands!"
Oh scary. But from the way it talks, it sounds like Talisman Count? Did this guy turn into an otherworld monster in a human body like Jess?
"Why do these non-existent events keep happening...?"
"Claudeeeee!"
"Got it! Shut your mouth already, you're annoying!"
But my voice was too small to reach its ears. I took a light deep breath, measured the distance to the ground, and calculated the timing.
"About 300 meters... Takes around 10 seconds to hit the ground?"
That should be plenty. First, I summoned the rock spirit Lukkar and let it free-fall to the ground without any control.
Whoosh!
At the same time, I released Tollari from my arms, then accelerated toward the ground faster than both of them.
"It's coming!"
Swish!
Dozens of tentacles flew in chaotically, blocking his view.
But no problem.
The Infection Lord's tentacles could be dodged by eye if you had even a regular knight's reaction speed.
Slash!
Slash!
After narrowly swerving to avoid all the incoming tentacles, he slammed his palm into the face of the count, who could no longer be called human.
"Where!"
The guy instinctively tucked his head into his body.
But head or not didn't matter. He smacked his palm anywhere on the guy's flesh and cast holy magic.
Healing.
Holy magic that heals wounds and regenerates.
And he poured it out wildly, exploding all his mana at once.
Healing.
Healing.
And healing again.
The moment dazzling radiance enveloped the Infection Lord's entire body.
"You bastard! What are you doing!"
Freshly extended tentacles from the count poured in from all directions in quick arcs. He escaped the spot with a backflip using flight magic.
Thud!
Thanks to that, while the tentacles burrowed into the flesh where he'd been attached, he rapidly circled the guy's body, continuing to pour recovery magic.
"Grk! This is Healing? What the hell is this runt scheming!"
"Take a hit before you die."
"What?"
At that instant. The pre-summoned rock spirit from the sky dropped onto the count's head.
"Hm?"
Simultaneously, a massive fist accelerated by free-fall smashed into the count's body.
Boom!
The sound wasn't that loud.
Instead, like ground rippling in an earthquake, all the count's flesh began undulating in massive waves.
"Uguuuuuh? Ha! As expected, this is my body! Such attacks won't work on me!"
In the meantime, he caught the sequentially falling Tollari with a cushion of wind and immediately flew far away from there.
"Claude! How dare you run... Huh?"
The count's leisure didn't last over a second.
The guy, greatly shaken by Lukkar's blow, suddenly cracked all over its body and exploded massively in an instant.
Followed by the gruesome sound of wet squelching.
Ugh! Don't wanna hear this! My ears!
He wanted to plug his ears. Or rip out his eardrums.
What remained afterward was an indescribable scene of carnal excess.
No alcohol, so just carnal? And the surrounding forest is gone, so just flesh?
Flesh.
Chunks of meat.
Such things were scattered across a field-sized clearing.
"..."
Amid it all, the rock spirit that had been directly doused in the exploding meat stared at him with an expressionless face. Uh... Sorry, Lukkar. In my haste, I gave you a lifelong trauma.
But what came from his mouth wasn't an apology, but an attack order.
"Now!"
-Got it.
Receiving the command, Lukkar swung his fist at a nearby pillar-like object.
Crack!
The pillar snapped in an instant, wobbling before collapsing to the ground.
That was the Infection Lord's true form. A log-like pillar endlessly regenerating flesh masses.
"U, ugh..."
A pained groan leaked from the count's head atop the pillar. Moments later, he aimed his palm at the guy's face and prepared his final flame magic.
"Ug... One minute... No, just 30 seconds more... I can regenerate again..."
"No, Infection Lords can't regenerate if the core breaks."
"I-Infection Lord? What the...?"
The count gasped with clouded eyes for a moment before breathing his last. He sighed, recalling once more the Infection Lord counter method he'd found after countless trials and errors.
An Infection Lord's body always has immense regeneration power applied.
If you pile on recovery magic like Healing on top of that?
Boom!
At some point, it exceeds limits and enters super-regeneration state, unable to handle its own regeneration speed and self-destructs!
Then only the withered internal core remains, and if you break that before it regenerates again, it's over.
-What is this?
Lukkar asked, looking at the already dead Infection Lord.
What is it?
He had a lot to say, but for now, he could only sum it up in one short phrase.
"It's the enemy."
-Enemy?
"Yeah. The enemy."
-The previous enemies and this one both seem problematic.
"Yeah. Very problematic."
Right then, darkness lifted from the sky as dawn slowly rose in the east.
"Hoo..."
By then, the count's corpse had reverted to human form. He wiped sweat from his brow and began burning the corpse with fire.
-The world is getting strange. Call me anytime another enemy appears. I'll lend my strength.
"Yeah, anytime. But..."
-But?
He started to say something but closed his mouth.
The situation had changed too much.
Nine years from now, when the otherworld invasion begins, the monsters that should appear then.
But already emerging from now, barely escaping the first year of regression.
Berserkers, Death Worms, Slimes.
And now Infection Lord.
Why?
He didn't know the reason either.
What was certain was that if this kept repeating, one rock spirit wouldn't cover it.
Of course, Infection Lords were easy to handle now. He'd found an efficient counter.
But if a monster whose weakness he hadn't found popped up?
Or if otherworld regular troops that weren't even monsters poured out?
...Sigh.
Just imagining it made his vision spin.
What to do?
Not even a full year since regressing... How much faster does he have to advance the schedule?