Chapter 31: Arc 2 – Chapter 16: To Slay A God

“Move!”

 

I pushed everyone next to me to the side with my wings; unfurling them as quickly as I could, then dove forward tucking my wings and myself into a roll between its legs as it rushed forward smashing two of its arms onto the ground where we were standing.

 

*BOOM*

 

The earth shook and a cloud of dust blurred my vision when I turned to face its direction. I sensed danger immediately and lunged to the side. As if on cue, a massive wall smashed onto the ground where I was, splitting the earth. Before more clouds of dust could block my sight, I took to the air. Flying up, I now saw that the ‘wall’ was actually its axe, and it just tried to get me twice in a row. Seems this thing is really out to get me.

 

“Foolish reptile! The sky offers no refuge from my wrath! Burn and become cinders and ash!”

 

As soon as he yelled out those words, he made an action and pose that I’m very quite familiar with… one that I’m not used to seeing being directed at me.

Right on the mark, jets of flame started spewing forth from its mouth coming towards me. The flames were black and looked sinister but since I knew what type of move it was gonna use, I was already prepared. In my hands was another of my father’s weapons, a giant boomerang.

In truth, my dad didn’t really know it was a boomerang, but seeing its shape I immediately knew what it was. He presumed it was an oddly shaped two-handed sword with an impractically small handle and said it was a gift from western tribes that lived all the way near the end of the western side of Paluvia(*). They created it to show the King when they visited the Kingdom, but they never divulged the secret on how it would be properly used.

Lucky for me, I already knew what the secret was considering what it is, and because dad couldn’t figure out how to use it, the enchantment he had created for it was a basic Element Clad spell. As its namesake, the boomerang has the power to clad itself in whatever element it comes in contact with… which brings me to why I chose it for the current situation.

I held the boomerang in front of me and charged it with my mana. I then raised it high and threw it at the coming black fan of flames. It spun and tore through the flame’s center, but as if drawn to it, the flames wrapped itself onto the boomerang as it flew towards the giant. Despite its surprise, it managed to move and tried to intercept the boomerang with one of its arms, but the boomerang changed its trajectory as if to avoid the arm. It then flew around the giant avatar in spirals and covered it in its own fire. Of course, a normal boomerang wouldn’t move like that, but when I heard that the people who made it had the gift of manipulating the wind, I had a hunch on how it should be properly used. My mastery of wind magic is lacking, but I can still do basic things like controlling how the wind moves.

 

“Hahaha! Pathetic lizard! Did you honestly think my own darkfire would harm me? Foolish! How utterly foolish!”

 

Of course I felt it wouldn’t work seeing how its head and hands are wreathed in it, but it was still worth a shot in my opinion. I mean, even I wouldn’t come out unscathed if I was hit with my own ensorcelled flames. Now that I think about it, how about I give that a shot?

I take a similar stance as the giant earlier and took in as much air and mana as I could. Seeing what I was doing, it suddenly tried to strike at me with its spear, but just because I was charging up doesn’t mean I couldn’t move, especially in the air. I kept avoiding its somewhat quick blows while circling around it to keep it in the same spot, and as soon as I charged enough I timed my flight and let it all out on this thing’s face.

 

*fwooooooooooom*

 

“Gaaaaaaah! Damn you cursed reptile!”

 

Heh. Looks like it’s working. Never try to out fire-breath a dragon, dumbass.

 

*swoosh*

 

Woops! Almost got hit by its sword there. I circled around still unleashing my fire-breath onto as much of its body as I could before I ran out of the charged mana.

 

“I will peel off your scales and carve out your flesh as I devour your innards morsel by tiny morsel!”

 

Right… perhaps it’s time I give you a real lesson in pain. Hm? I noticed my friends and some of the adventurers were lying in wait in the surrounding areas. Did Gren set up some sort of plan? And more importantly… where’s Fenril?

 

[Fe-]--!!

 

Just as I was about to call out to him, he makes a sudden appearance coming out from one of the buildings while jumping onto the roof and… is that Gren on his back!?

While the giant was distracted with me, it never noticed them heading towards it running along rooftops. I kept avoiding the giant’s swings while annoying it with some flame bursts. Whatever those two are planning, I’m interested to find out.

As they got pretty close, the monster giant finally noticed them and swung one of its swords in a sweeping motion at them. Fenril leapt upwards avoiding the swing while timing his fall to drop on the flat of the giant sword. Not stopping, he kept running up the blade. By the time he reached the shoulder, he leapt up once more in a forward somersault and launched Gren using the back of his tail like an improvised catapult. Gren’s fist started flaring silver-white as he raised it up to smash it onto the thing’s face.

 

*TWHACK*

 

With a loud smacking sound, I just saw one of the giant’s cheeks cave in from that powerful-looking straight. After Gren’s fist connected, the giant teetered to the side, but didn’t fall. However, Fenril wasn’t finished as he latched onto one of its thighs when he fell and charged up a big ball of spiraling white-blue energy, which I presume to be his signature move, Howling Cannon. When it finally grew larger than his head, he fired the energy blast onto the giant’s kneecap, tearing into flesh and bone with a terrible crunching noise.

 

“Gaaaaaaaah!”

 

With one leg barely attached to it, the giant finally fell with a boom. I see it struggling to get up while it kneeled on one knee.

 

“Damn all of you wretched insects! I will make sure to crush you all as the bugs you are!”

 

It cursed as it tried to get up when I suddenly heard Gren call out to everyone in hiding.

 

“The Avatar’s down! Everyone! Unleash your all and send it back to the Nether!”

 

In a collective and grand display of magic and skills, everyone unleashed ranged attacks upon the fallen giant.

 

*BOOOM*

 

A loud crash or explosion can be heard from the impact site where the giant was along with what appears to be a mini mushroom cloud(**). The area suddenly became quiet as if waiting in tension for the results, but I knew this thing won’t be so easy to take down.

 

“Graaaaaaaaaah!!”

 

As I expected, the giant suddenly rose up from the dust and stood up once more, appearing to be more enraged as the flames around its arms and head started flaring in a more menacing way.

However, I wasn’t simply idling by and admiring everyone’s teamwork. While everyone bought time, I was charging a lot of energy into my next bow attack with Ichaival angling myself just below its chest. Why did it take longer this time? Because I wasn’t going to use mana energy as the arrow. In the space where an arrow should be, World Breaker floated in place. I know I could use something that makes more sense as a substitute arrow like a lance or spear, but there’s something amusing about the idea of using my 1-ton greatsword as ammunition for my next attack.

Impractical? Yes… illogical? Yes… About to unleash several levels of comical butthurt on my target? A definitive yes…

The giant locked eyes with me just as I finished, and its expression upon seeing what I was doing was priceless. I fired World Breaker like a tank releasing its salvo and the next thing I heard was a boom and a loud ringing sound like a hammer striking a gong mixed with the giant’s metallic screams.

I saw it fly high into the sky as it drew a parabola and crash-landed a fair distance from the town. It was already the size of a small action figure when I saw it land far away. It wasn’t too far, but it was far enough to stop causing further damage to the town.

 

[That was incredible, My King!]

 

I hovered down when I heard Fenril. After finding him I landed next to him on the rooftop.

 

[I know right? But stay on guard since it isn’t over yet… by the way, since when did you and Gren get along well enough to pull off that coordinated attack?]

[You mean the lion-man? He spoke to me in the same language as Lord Father and asked why I was helping the town. I pointed towards you indicating I served under you and he politely requested that we attack the ugly giant together. I thought his plan was crazy, fun, and bold, so I agreed to it.]

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[… I’ll have to talk to you about your priorities and thinking process at some point, but I’ll let it go for now.]

I put the questions to the back of my mind as I saw the giant slowly getting back up. I noticed it’s trying to grow a new leg so I can assume that it either has incredible regenerative or healing capabilities. I could also see that World Breaker is sticking out of its chest. Looks like it needs more force to punch it all the way through… now that I think about it, I never did check its status. While it’s still down, I should take this opportunity to determine its capabilities.

 

[Status]

 

 

… Fucking hell, seriously? Another error? Also, this one seems to have a message as if something like a computer was doing the scanning. I really hope I’m not in a situation where my body is back on Earth while this place is a virtual world created by some advanced tech so that I could be used in some sort of experiment… seriously, let’s not think about that.

Hmm… if I remember correctly, the last time this happened was when I tried to check the status of World Breaker. I’m not sure how the two are related, but if I’m to hazard a guess then perhaps they’re both involved with divinities? Well no matter… if anything, this is just proof that I shouldn’t rely on Status too much. I’ll just have to ask the Dragon Gods once I meet them.

Speaking of gods, it’s about time I finish off that so-called avatar before it pulls off something surprising or devastating.

 

“GRAAAAAAAAAAH! COME TO ME O’ SERVANTS OF THE NETHER! ANSWER THY MASTER’S CALL!”

 

As if syncing with my thoughts, the bastard roars in the distance and screams out calling its minions. I noticed the straggling monster remnants that attacked the town all seemed to be homing towards it. Regardless of what’s in front of them or in what condition they’re in, the monsters all seem to be heading towards the giant. My gut feeling tells me this can’t be anything good, so I flew up high to prepare my own little surprise.

 

[Fenril, I plan to end this so have your minions kill as many of the monsters leaving town as they can, but don’t chase them too far. Most importantly, protect everyone especially my friends.]

[Of course, My King!]

 

…

 

As Camus flew high, Gren and some adventurers stood in one of the watchtowers while confirming his suspicions of the events with the Avatar in the distance.

 

“…Not good. As an Avatar of Tyrannos, I was wondering why it was so weak.”<Gren>

“What do you mean?”<Ellen>

“An Avatar is as its namesake, an avatar of a superior being. In this case, it’s supposedly the Avatar of the Savage God, Amanusa Hasta Tyrannos. This Avatar should only allow the possessed access to divine strength and brutality while borrowing one of the forms of the said god, but changing into Tyrannos specifically would make one lose all reason. Did you notice earlier? The Avatar was still able to speak coherently and single-mindedly attack Camus.”

“Hmm. You’re right, but what does it mean?”

“It means he somehow circumvented a part of the process of the Avatarization. If Merik had completed the entire ritual, he would have had become an all-encompassing mass of destruction and instinct that attacked everything indiscriminately. We actually wouldn’t have been able to suppress him as easily as we did earlier.”

“So you’re saying that he somehow gave up a portion of his strength to retain some of his reason. However, I also remember that he simply acted like a child with a tantrum stupidly swinging his weapons around. Because of it Camus along with everyone was able to exploit his many openings. If it only made him weak enough for us to control the fighting then why?”

“I was wondering earlier as well, but now I see… look at the remnants of the beasts that have gathered around him.”

“… ?! W-What!? They’re… changing!”

 

As Ellen pointed out, the ones with good eyes could clearly see that the monsters surrounding the Avatar have somehow begun to convulse and twist into grotesque shapes with different black oozing pustules forming all over their bodies. Pus and other substances erupted from their flesh as they grew malformed limbs or tentacles while portions of their body ballooned into pulsating masses of membranous flesh glowing with eerie dark green light. Most even split into multiple smaller creatures. The nightmare creatures’ transformations elicited more than a few disgusted reactions from the adventurers. Some even released their earlier meal off the side of the railing while others simply grimaced.

 

“Not just changing… they are being twisted… mutated… that’s not Tyrannos’ handiwork… that’s Gosphaem’s, the Decaying God. I also found out that Merik was able to manipulate others with miasma using the powers of Zenistra, the Corruptor God. I don’t know how, but he has the blessings of multiple Dark Gods.”

“It can’t be! Is it possible he’s a Pariah!?”

“Hm. I understand why you would think that, but fortunately he’s not. A Pariah would have been able to use the Dark Gods’ blessings without the need for rituals and incantations, so it’s very unlikely. However, it doesn’t change the fact he has access to their powers and must be stopped.”

 

As he said this, Gren took a step forward and jumped down towards the wall surrounding the town.

 

“All mages and archers at the ready! He’s turned all the creatures into Harbingers! Do not let a single one of them enter the town! Once a single one does, the plague cannot be stopped! I repeat, do NOT let a single one pass or Orgo is lost!”

 

At this statement, a lot of the guard and adventurers paled. To ask them to prevent a single one of the tide of creatures from passing is like asking them to stop an army of ants by stabbing them with toothpicks or needles.

 

“Sigh… and I was just about to enjoy living in this town.”<Angela>

“Come now Angie, I know you love this town as much as everyone living here ever since you arrived more than five years ago.”<Ellen>

“Hmph. Fun indeed. Do you have any idea how hard its been looking for the latest trends living in this backwater town? I’ve had to endure wearing the same clothes for who knows how long until my father finally convinced the merchants at the capital to open up branches here. It’s an atrocity to be wearing the same robes for days I tell you!”

“Um… Angie… you had over fifty sets of clothes even before those shops opened back then.”<Silvi>

“That’s the point! I’ve been wearing the same fifty sets for almost four years! Oh the humiliation I had to endure!"

"Gah! Don't be so melodramatic princess. Some o' us can't even afford three sets a' clothes back then an yer complainin' about havin' nuthin' new to wear the next day. D'ya have any idea how annoyin' tha' sounds ta most of us?"<Lawrence>

"Sigh... and this is why I dislike talking to monkeys. Can't you tell I was simply lightening up the mood you half-wit? It was all a joke."

"Ya' call that a joke? A jokes meant ta be funny, not annoy the hell out of ya'!"

"I believe the right word is 'sarcasm', milady."<Dustin>

"Hey, who's side are you on? And what did I say about calling me that?"

"Hehe... as you said, I'm simply lightening the mood."

 

At Dustin's words, everyone in the party gave a light smile as they all remembered the times they spent together.

 

"Gregor is glad to have met all of you... especially Gregor's lovely wife, Silvi. Even if this is to be our last fight, Gregor will always stand with everyone."

"Oi, Greg, don't go off spoutin' some disappointing crap like that. There's no way this is our last fight. Don't go forgettin' about our scaly friend now."

"Now that you mention it... where is Camus? And Glenn? In fact... I haven't seen Glenn at all since we entered the portal."<Ellen>

"Hmm... as I recall, Glenn was acting strange ever since we met up with Bolgruk. He was being unusually quiet."<Dustin>

"... Did he even enter the portal?"<Alma>

Everyone was stunned into silence as they all realized that Glenn had disappeared since before they even entered the portal. They would have stayed that way longer had they not been shaken from their stupor by Gren's deafening commands.

 

"All hands ready yourselves! The Harbingers approach! Everyone to positions!"

 

"... there's no point thinking about this now. We still have to save the town. Once things have settled, we'll let Camus know."<Ellen>

The others gestured their agreements albeit with some difficulty since they knew how close Glenn was to Camus.

 

As everyone prepared themselves for the coming of the swarm of plague beasts called Harbingers, an adventurer suddenly called out to everyone's attention.

"Oi everyone, look up! What in the gods names is that!?"

As everyone looked up, the sight before them left them all speechless in awe... and in fear.

In the sky above everything, shining in radiant blue light... was a sun.

A sun so large... that it seemed to swallow the sky.

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