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“ROOOAAAR!!”
A roar akin to that of a wild beast erupted.
Not just Hector and I, but Zenon and Adrang turned their attention as well.
“I’m ready. Big guy.”
The owner of the roar was the Grenade. Grenade spoke with a proud face.
I carefully observed Grenade’s demeanor. He had his two legs and arms firmly planted into the ground, his shining, burning eyes directed at me.
This is not a metaphor.
It’s as if real beams of light are about to shoot from his eyes.
“Get out of the way! Big guy!!”
Grenade muttered a short sentence to me and began sucking in a deep breath.
The earth shook with an ominous sound, “Gurrrr.” A brilliant mass of light surged between Grenade’s tightly clenched teeth.
“…!!”
Though I didn’t know exactly what Grenade was trying to do right now, my weak imagination and Hero Sense told me something massive was about to happen.
So, I ran with all my speed to get out of Grenade’s line of sight.
‘Ah.’
At that moment, I instinctively understood Grenade’s posture, which resembled a cannon embedded in the ground.
Yes. Just a bit of thought would make it clear. Isn’t this what comes to mind when you think of a dragon?
Breath. He is currently preparing a Breath attack.
“Massacre of the Weak Breath!”
Grenade shouted the name of his malevolent technique and opened his mouth wide.
A flash more blinding than the roar whitewashed our vision a moment earlier than the sound.
KWWWAAA!!
I swallowed hard at the overwhelming torrent of power.
It might as well be called a laser beam rather than a breath. A pure white and enormous beam of light gushed from Grenade’s mouth and dyed the entire garden in white.
“Lowly peashooter! I’ll eliminate all of you!”
KWAAAK! Each time Grenade’s Breath touched the black light orbs, an explosion occurred.
The area touched by the Breath was erased as though wiped out cleanly, black light disappearing like it was erased.
“Are you the leader, Big guy?!”
Hector Cassas was spotted in Grenade’s gleaming white eyes. Whether because of the ferocious energy, Hector Cassas, who usually flies and acts confidently, trembled slightly upon making eye contact.
Grenade, opening his mouth even wider, barked at the opponent.
“Leave our Big guy alone and disappear!!”
The continuous gusts and blinding light surrounded the area. Water droplets scattered all around.
A pure white straight line of light flew directly towards Hector.
“Oh Goddess, this senseless…!”
Hector, startled, widened his eyes and quickly surrounded himself with a dark protective shield.
SSEEEEEING! The beam of light collided with the dark barrier and blasted out fierce shock waves. The surroundings flickered with black and white.
“The overwhelming power of sheer brute force…! T-this is not Paraiso’s technique…!”
Hector gasped out with a weakening voice.
The clash of light and darkness, centered around Hector and Grenade, grew more intense. Tearing sounds and flashes of light poured out incessantly.
“GROOOOOOAAAAR!!”
“HAAAAA!”
Trying to see the end of the clash, I could no longer endure.
I crouched my body and covered my eyes with the sleeve of my clothes. Securing my body so it wouldn’t be blown away was the best I could do.
“GRGHHH…!”
How much time had passed? The brightness behind my eyelids dimmed. The deafening sound of explosions ceased, and only the sound of rain filled the air.
I slowly opened my eyes.
‘Such madness…!’
The surroundings were completely devastated.
There was no sign of Hector. For a moment, I thought he might be dead, but as there wasn’t even a trace of a corpse, it seemed he had escaped when he had the chance.
“This is insane….”
Even those who were far away—like me and the lackeys of Cassas, and even where Ceseona was—had been hit by the blast’s aftermath.
Trees were uprooted and flew away, and the surface of the ground was entirely flipped over.
‘The others….’
I turned my gaze to a corner of the garden far away.
Ceseona, Knightrea, and Ruci, who had fainted, lay tumbled among the bodies.
“Ugh… damn… this is exhausting… Kek kek.”
Grenade, who orchestrated all this mess, muttered faintly. Having planted his legs firmly on the ground, he swayed forward with a thud and didn’t get back up.
Apparently, with a powerful move like that, he exhausted himself after using it.
“…Ah.”
I fixed my gaze on a spot in the garden while tightening my grip on my sword.
SHA-A-A. The sound of the rain seemed especially loud.
“Uuuggghh….”
While everyone else had either become corpses or fallen unconscious, three figures still stood.
One was me. Another was Adrang with bloodshot eyes glaring fiercely. And the final one was Zenon, who wobbled on his feet with the Extinguishing Blade gripped tightly in front of Adrang.
“Grgh… Ugh…!”
Adrang’s eyes rolled up, and his grip on Zenon slowly loosened.
No wonder—his internal organs must have been burning from the pain. It’s impressive that Zenon had even managed to keep holding on.
“That’s enough! Die, you bastard!!”
With a raspy voice, I shouted.
Hector who had been interfering was gone. And now, there’s no better time to strike Zenon’s neck!
I launched the two swords I had retrieved toward Zenon. The swords flew towards him on different trajectories—one from the front and one from the side.
“Ssssuuu… Sssu…!”
And finally, Espada reached Zenon first, its gleaming blade aiming for his neck.
KA-AAANG! Zenon had no choice but to pull out the Extinguishing Blade from Adrang and block Espada.
“I still have one move left!”
I poured an insane amount of mana into the sword I had thrown at Zenon from the side—Vestark.
BOOOOM! The sword flew towards Zenon faster than a bullet. Instinctively, Zenon raised the Extinguishing Blade to protect his vital spots.
“SSuu…!”
KIIIING! The blades clashed, and the fire violently burning around the sword blade evaporated the raindrops.
In that brief moment the Extinguishing Blade touched Vestark, I smiled confidently.
“Stinger!!”
KA-A-A-AANG! The mana overcharged into Vestark transformed into energy and exploded directly in front of Zenon’s face.
The tremendous shock wave shook the entire garden.
“SSuuuu…!”
Despite his entire body being scorched and drenched in blood, Zenon didn’t budge from his spot.
He had anchored himself there by embedding the Extinguishing Blade into the ground.
‘This is a gamble!’
Ah, you have the big fat luck, bastard. Let’s see if you can dodge this one as well.
So far, the only ones who could preemptively detect this technique have been Adrang and Halsenberg. Will you be the third exception?
‘Hunt Mark!’
I fired the skill at the wobbling Zenon. A dark force flew swiftly, marking a skull symbol near Zenon’s forehead.
The moment it was detected, I quickly raised my hand high above my head.
‘Amplification!’
Amplification is a skill that’s usually possible only when a sword is equipped.
But Dark Sword Technique is a skill of Sword and Self as One. As long as the Dark Sword Technique is maintained, Amplification can be used without holding a sword.
That’s the way I thought of using the skill, and the result matched my expectation.
“Done it!”
SWIK. My vision flickered. There ahead of me was the swaying back of Zenon.
THAP. Espada, which had bounced off Zenon during the first pass, settled accurately into my hand.
“Dieeeeee!!”
A lightning-fast stab was unleashed.
The skull pattern hovering on Zenon’s forehead flashed, emitting an ominous red light. This was the sign of a fatal blow.
CRUNCH! The blade stained red emerged from Zenon’s chest.
“SSs… uugh…!”
The metallic sound that came out of Zenon was distorted strangely, trembling in pain.
At that moment, the muscles in his shoulder twitched—he was about to counterattack! I needed to deliver the finishing blow!
I could feel Zenon’s wildly beating heart through the tip of my sword like a mad pulse, and I vomited my soul out.
“HAAAHAAHAA!!”
I don’t know if I was laughing or screaming.
Anyway, I gathered all the remaining mana and unleashed Stinger without hesitation.
Zenon’s twisted face momentarily bloated up like a balloon.
“SSS…!”
PUUUHHH!
With a squelching sound, Zenon’s body blew apart in all directions.
Drip, drip, drip. Shredded pieces of Zenon’s flesh mixed with the downpour. Cold rainwater and blood, hot like flames, simultaneously struck my cheek.
I stood immovable, eyes wide open, like a rock mourning a lost lover.
“… Ah.”
It was over. Zenon’s upper body had completely disintegrated.
THUD. Zenon’s lower body collapsed on the ground. The mixture of rainwater and blood dyed the ground red.
“.. Damn.. you, son of a b..!”
An Extinguishing Blade was stuck there.
It was surely a surprise attack, but Zenon seemed to have countered right before Stinger exploded.
What a troublesome bastard to the end!
“Ahh… ghh…!”
A red flame flickered in my lower abdomen. With trembling hands, I pulled out the Extinguishing Blade.
Crackling. The feeling of my innards being torn out and the sensation of my whole body being seared by a hot iron surged at once.
Pushing aside the excruciating pain, I let out the breath I had been holding.
“… SSuuu… ssuuuu….”
A chilling metallic sound came out of my mouth.
I clenched my mouth tightly.
“SSuu…”
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
My heart began beating faster. The sound of rain was swallowed by the sound of my heart. My head grew heavy.
The world shook and crumbled in sync with my heartbeat. Everything turned crimson. I couldn’t see anything.
Just red. All I saw was red. Like the flames Zenon had ignited.
“Hmph. Hmphahaha. Kekekeke… Kekkkkkekkekkekee!!”
I laughed. I didn’t know why I was laughing. It was just funny. Like a madman.
If this is what it feels like to be hooked on drugs. If this is what it feels like to go insane, I should have lost it sooner.
“Kekehekeheheeheheeee!!”
What an amazing feeling.
Isn’t half of life wasted?
“…!…!!”
Amidst the all-encompassing red, there was one clear thing. A figure was running towards me.
A pure white silhouette. A graceful body forming elegant curves. Snow-white hair fluttered, and three black horns protruded from it.
“Hey… why did you come?”
No. Don’t come. It’s dangerous. Run. Tell the others to run. Hurry.
I squeezed out my last strength and spoke to her.
“Run… Away… Huff. Hahaha.”
Huff. All senses were cut off.
An overwhelming darkness descended.
