Chapter 142 - Explosive Conclusion

“Ow!”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Would you stop that?”

Fafnir lifted Minerva up to keep her fists from hitting his stomach.

“Stop it.”

She kept swinging her hands at the air, sending shockwaves that were nothing more than a breeze to him.

“You will not be able to injure me, you know?”

“RAAAAAAARR!”

“You have terrible breath.”

Fafnir raised his eyes and looked at her. In contemplation, he hummed for some time before coming to a conclusion. His claymore whizzed into his hand. A rip sounded as he cut open Minerva’s stomach with his weapon and her golden blood flowed out.

“You are going to be in a lot of pain.”

His sword was suddenly ablaze with white flames that went right through Minerva’s wound and into her body, burning her up from the inside. Minerva’s pained cries boomed throughout the burning forest. Even the villages that bordered the forest could hear her cries, as well as see the forest fire.

Most were scared, unaware of what would happen later on.

_____________________________________

The necromancer waved her hand and a wave of blue spread across, passing right through us. I had assumed it was going to injure me, but what happened was far worse. From behind I could hear the undead army standing up once again.

‘Is she planning on fighting us with the undead again?’

‘Looks like it.’

‘That’s stupid though… we still have the shadows.’

At least that was what I thought.

‘There’s your first mistake, child. You assumed with my new burst of power, the undead would still be weak. Go forth, my army!’

‘WHAT?!’

At her order, the undead army moved out. They charged at my shadows that were floating in the sky. On instinct, my army charged in as well and there was a massive disastrous clash. The result, was the undead army actually proving to be a match for mine.

At first, all the undead had on us was their immense number. But now, they possessed number and power. So, my shadows were basically out of their depth at this point. They had to strike from above, but the giant undead snakes were problems too, firing off their own breath attacks and slamming some soldiers into the ground for the others to destroy them.

Things were looking very grim and my body still hurt like hell.

“W-What is that?”

Zana pointed into the sky. In the clouds, I identified something zooming towards us. A red streak flew past in the sky and with it came a sound much like a jet fighter.

“Incoming!”

I found myself yelling and jumping at Zana for her to duck like I’d always see in those war movies.

BOOM!

Whatever that red streak was, landed right where the necromancer was. I was scared to think that it was possibly more power for the necromancer.

‘Oi, oi, oi! Sensing a new presence here. And it’s scary!’

Akira yelled in my head.

‘You could have told me before it came.’

‘I’m a little busy with the system screens shouting about how you’re about to die if you don’t run away. Tch, there’s no mana too.’

‘Yeah, about that. What the heck happened to all my mana?!’

‘Hehe, funny thing actually. But that’s not the point here. Just try to run away.’

‘Sure. I’ll just call one of the shadow demon generals. Hey! Can you hear me?’

‘UGH! LADY HINOTORI… WE ARE CURRENTLY DISTRACTED.’

‘Oh shit. Did they really get that powerful?’

‘Use the mist! Tell the mist to get you out of here.’

‘Mist! A little help here? Mist? Oi, mist!’

‘Forget it. It’s too busy with Zana.’

I looked at Zana and noticed that the mist was swarming her, forming something like a shield. I jumped to her side and looked at her face.

‘Now would be a good time to run, Zana.’

‘Buh…’

‘Tell the mist to teleport us out of here.’

‘Buh…’

‘But what?’

As soon as I asked this, I sword a flash of red light from the dust where the necromancer was standing. Suddenly everything was quiet. The undead had completely paused in their movements and so had my army due to confusion. The whole battlefield became dead silent in an instant due to one flash of red.

PLOP!

Something fell. From the dust cloud, something rolled over to us. It was like a ball, but with black strands. Within seconds, it fell at Zana’s feet.

‘Oh shit…’

It was the necromancer’s decapitated head. I looked up at the dust cloud and from behind it, violently glowing red eyes stared at me. There was a powerful gust of wind that cleared the mist, revealing a petite girl in a black battle gown with rose ends, a symbol – three swords through a crown – on her chest, white, short, frilly hair and a tiny tiara with rubies fixed in it on her head. Over her neck was a necklace, and in her tiny hands, she carried a huge cleaver. A weapon of the same size as Krull’s, but with a blunt end and shaggy sides. It seemed to be made out of fine sturdy metal, with the edges being red in color.

The girl was staring intensely at me and carried a completely expressionless face, as well as a terrifying bloodthirsty aura.

“My name is Rulis Tepe Miksari Eldiro Furialt.”

She dragged her sword in front of her as if it weighed nothing more than paper. The torn-up ground was proof of its weight.

“You are the one who caused the destruction of various establishments in Keimen and presumably the murderer of Noble Percy McAllister.”

I gulped once she said that, confirming my fears that she was here for me.

‘Um… I think you have me confused for the other blonde with wings. They went over to that si-‘

I was in the sky, way above the ground. I had a clear view of the battlefield. The ground was torn up, piles of dead bodies had collapsed on the ground and my army made this complete dark spot from above. There were also some huge snakes among the undead. Kind of creepy.

“You are before the Judge and Jury. Make you plea.”

I could hear multiple voices in one. Looking up, there was the girl, but her eyes were silver this time.

She stood on an invisible platform with ethereal blood red flame horns floating on her head. Her free hand had been stretched out towards me while I was floating. She pointed her blade at me, then with a simple clutching motion of her hand, my body was sent forward towards her.

‘H-Huh? W-What just happened?’

[You have received a direct attack on your heart]

[You are losing several health points]

[The status [Super Severe Bleeding] has been inflicted upon you]

[You will lose 1000HP per second]

[Due to the skill [Sturdy] you have 1HP remaining]

So many things happened at once, that the next to follow looked quite normal to me.

<<Alert! Alert! Master! Y-Your health! The skill [Evolver] has started to take effect. >>

The agent’s voice resounded in my head, like some scared kid.

‘Kek… you just called me master… Who… are… you… LOL-‘

***

‘You? Eh? Again? Seriously? Again?’

I heard a voice, prompting me to open my eyes.

‘W-where am I?’

I looked around myself, but there was only darkness surrounding me. My inner thoughts echoed like I had screamed.

‘Let’s just hope it goes good this time.’

The voice repeated.

‘Who is that?’

There was a bright spark in the darkness. From it, something started to uncoil itself, growing larger till it managed to be as big as Aeri in her tiny form. It was a muscular body that was set ablaze, with curly horns protruding its forehead. Its lower body did not possess any definite features, much like a ghost or poltergeist. It carried a sword much similar to the one the girl from before carried and had a mean looking face. This was what I expected fire demons to look like.

‘Satan?’

I simply couldn’t help myself.

[The Devil Viscount has appeared before you]

[The Devil Viscount is judging you]

Once this was said, I saw various images of my life flashing before me. I even saw some images that weren’t mine. I saw bloodshed. Wars and death. A little girl crying in a field of ash. A valiant warrior in a suit of golden armor with a spear piercing the sky. An emperor, ruling over several people. My time, avoiding school and just playing games. Childhood days with Akane before she dyed her hair red and turned all emo and stuff. That time I had to teach Ken math because he was new at school. When I took some cash out of mom’s wallet to go buy a kebab.

[You have been judged as Unworthy for life]

‘Unworthy for life?’

“Have thou any last words?”

A cute, almost angelic voice asked. That part was a bit creepy, but since this was the end. How about going out with a bang?

“That kebab was worth it.”

The giant creature raised its sword, the great sword glowed brighter as it came down and I braced for impact, but it never came. When I opened my eyes, the creature wasn’t there anymore, leaving me confused.

A screen popped up in front of me, showing me a video of… Minerva. And she was bleeding severely in the arms of a man in black armor. He seemed to be saying something, but there was no audio.

‘LOL, I think you need to hurry.’

I looked behind me and I could see an eye staring at me from the darkness. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel creeped out about it. In fact, my main concern was what it was showing me.

‘What the hell is the meaning of this?’

‘It is as you see. Minerva is being dragged away by someone in black armor. You should be able to make it there if you hurry. Just stab the [Soul Consuming Orb] and you should receive sufficient experience points to level up.’

The eye said calmly.

‘Who are you?’

‘Oh? I thought I was doing a pretty good impression of Alpha. Was I that bad?’

‘She’s twisted. She’d probably use my mother’s body at a time like this.’

“Oh, what a bore. Never mind me then. That person is in trouble, isn’t she? If you don’t hurry, this might be the last time you see them.”

She faded into the darkness while saying,

“Hurry up. Time’s ticking.”

<A/N: So the first volume of the story is done. Lots and lots of things happened, especially in this arc. I feel like it lacked any suspense though. Welp, I simply couldn't logically put in any suspense when it came to an overwhelmingly powerful being like Fafnir. I mean, he did go toe to toe with Zett and Fell back in the old days... sigh. Anyway, how was it? Any suggestions? Reviews? Thoughts? Just let me know. Like, just go over to the review section and drop one if you feel like it. It'll really help me in the long run! I will also be going on a short break, but hopefully, I will continue posting before the end of this month.

Funny how this was supposed to be chapter 69 in the original story, right? >>