Divine Beast Rollodeen plunged through the air, spiraling. Following her with a slight delay, Shuuya and Eva also took off, das.h.i.+ng across the sky.
As soon as those three had left, the Burning Knights made their move after having surrounded Demi-G.o.d Golgonshura before that.
“We’ll follow Three-Eye!”
“Adomos, we’re going to match the Demonic Marquis’s movements with our Dance of the Impure Bone Sword.”
“――Roger.”
Golgonshura had fixed her posture and was now dodging the blades of Adombraly’s whip-staff.
“How dare you attack me! Know your own standing, inferior being!” She shouted while glaring at her vicinity, her eyes slanted upwards.
Golgonshura dodged the combination attack of Zemetas’s s.h.i.+eld bash and Adomos’s sword slash by twisting her body to stand sideways.
“――You insolent bones! I shall let you get a taste of the blade that burned down the Ancient Wolfman Clan Dollcel!” She spat out roughly, and ama.s.sed mana in her remaining arm.
Then she swung her arm to the left and right as if to release the stored mana, “!”
The instant she snarled the name of skill similar to a peculiar sound wave, rainbow-colored mana blades with the shape of b.u.t.terflies shot out of her hand. Those blades immediately clashed against the Burning Knights.
“Guuaaah――”
“Gnuuhh!”
The Burning Knights were blown away from the front line. It was the same for Adombraly, too. Adombraly had crossed the whip-staffs in his hands in front of his chest, but he still got directly hit by Golgonshura’s mana blades.
While the skin on the puppet’s arms and legs was torn away, exposing the bones, some parts got disconnected.
“Milord, this one’s dangerous,” murmured Adombraly while splitting away from the puppet soldier’s head.
Once he had returned into being a simple eyeball, he fled behind Rebecca by flapping his small wings.
In the meantime, Golgonshura’s mana blades also pierced the Death b.u.t.terfly women.
“A flock of b.u.t.terflies? It kinda reminds me of the evil G.o.d’s black tree spears――” Rebecca commented with a calm expression while her blond forelocks swayed.
Going by her face, the curtain of blue flames, which she had expanded in a fan shape, easily blocked off Golgonshura’s mana blades. In the end, Rebecca saved Tsuan and Adombraly, and at the same time it served as a display of her strength as .
However, Golgonshura’s power was mighty. The round blue fireball, the power source of the curtain, was gradually whittled down. At the same time, the defensive barrier kept getting reduced.
However, the blue flame technique employed by her had definitely evolved.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t worry. Rather I’m counting on your ranged attacks to come.”
Tsuan nodded at Rebecca’s remark. After bowing his head at her once more, he grabbed Adombraly who had floated over earlier, and back-flipped.
After taking some distance, he became cross-eyed.
“Ugh! Bucktooth! I ain’t no pillow! Don’t rotate while pressing me against the ground! Besides, you’re a hundred years too early to grab me just like that!”
“Be quiet and stay by my side. You’ll only get in the way of the blue flames used by Bloodkin-sama.” Tsuan addressed the eyeball as he clad himself in mana while remaining cross-eyed.
Simultaneously he was having a telepathic conversation with Catiza and Purin.
『Tsuan, it’s trinity time』『Right. I’ll apply mana as center』『Roger』
The three pooled their efforts while chatting like that.
“――”, Tsuan muttered a skill name Shuuya had never heard before.
The kukri in his hands vanished as if falling apart, replaced by small kukri blades manifesting all around Tsuan.
The mana blades unleashed by Golgonshura clashed with the small kukris, offsetting each other.
However, the kukri didn’t manage to completely offset the G.o.ddess’ attack, resulting in Tsuan getting injured.
“――A pain like this doesn’t work against me as .”
Adombraly watched Tsuan keeping his c.o.c.ksure att.i.tude even while getting wounded…and thought, 『No wonder that this guy’s milord’s subordinate. He falls in the category of handsome men. But! I won’t rescind his nickname!』.
On the other hand, Rotalz took refuge high up in the sky. Meanwhile, Kisara deployed the filaments of her witch spear in front of herself.
Her trademark mask also transformed. It turned into a refined helmet of the Ogre Princess Armament with the tip of its nose adopting the shape of a condor’s beak. This was its desert crow version, the one for a high-speed battle.
Now equipped with a helmet, Kisara lightly brandished the witch spear of Damo’Anun, making the skull spearhead with its pretty blood patterns collide against the approaching mana blades. Moreover, she manipulated the swarm of filaments, too.
The magic spear and the filaments repelled a part of the countless mana blades released by Golgonshura. Right after, Kisara decided that she wouldn’t be able to defend herself with just the witch spear.
As soon as she had defended against the mana blades to an extent, Kisara performed a cartwheel, letting her slender feet dance through the air while also exposing her panties.
The moment, which Shuuya would most likely use to take a good look if only he had watched, pa.s.sed in an instant.
While Kisara evaded the blades with graceful movements, she closed the distance to Golgonshura, and unleashed a -based technique at her.
“――Ugh, for you to slip through my and shorten the distance so much――,” snarled Golgonshura while swiping away Kisara’s spear with her remaining arm, and falling back by flapping her pair of wings.
But contrary to Kisara’s expectations, Golgonshura immediately kicked off the ground, and while swiftly turning sideways, she transformed her arm into a tentacle blade.
“――” Golgonshura muttered as Kisara approached.
The tentacle blade, reminiscent of a shark fang, split apart into smaller parts which then stretched out towards Kisara.
“――Hyureha――desert crow,” Kisara used the supernatural voice of .
She stepped to the left and right, apparently applying an explosive acceleration. At the same time, she nimbly swung her spear, drawing a 卍 in the air, bisecting all the tentacles approaching her body from Golgonshura like snakes.
The objects that used to be tentacles fell to the ground and turned into a poisonous-looking flower, and then, once it metamorphosed into a b.u.t.terfly, it carried flower buds.
“How disgusting――” Kisara blurted out, and kicked the eerie flower away.
The magic garment laying atop her nun’s habit fluttered.
“You cheeky――”
At that moment, Tsuan’s kukri blade penetrated Golgonshura’s chest.
“Guh, a light attribute? You move well, considering you’re a humanoid,” Golgonshura commented while grabbing the kukri and pulling it out.
At that moment, Rotalz charged down at Golgonshura from the sky, stabbing her with his horn.
“How about this!?”
“――That hurts, you know? Besides, it smells like fis.h.!.+”
Golgonshura broke the horn off at its base. And then she created a bone-pipe-like tongue with a sharp end in her mouth, and thrust it out towards Rotalz. The tongue immediately pierced Rotalz’s huge forehead.
“Guaaah!”
Rotalz retreated back into the sky while winding his huge frame. A pixeled, violet fart escaped his b.u.t.t.
“Hyureha, get angry, get angry, oh meager flying papers.”
Kisara announced with her after going around towards Golgonshura’s right inner flank. It was a movement different from the time when she practiced with Muu.
The witch spear’s filaments stabbed into the ground, affixing the spear in midair.
Kisara pressed her now free hands against the ground. The rosary marks on both her wrists were engulfed by light. For an instant the marks turned into real rosaries, but then they took the shape of crows. However, those crows also melted into a black liquid.
That liquid crept across Kisara’s arms onto the ground. At the same moment, the grimoire dangling at her waist gleamed, resulting in a magic crest being completed on the ground.
The glowing grimoire independently flipped through its pages. All the while, sc.r.a.ps of paper flew out of the book.
“Flying magic familiars, hyureha――”
This was the 88th of the 100 Ogre Paths. It was technique related to the grimoire which she had also used during her training with Muu.
And, Kisara’s cherished grimoire…was one of the best magic books even in the Spirit World. The ninja-type Chikata and the samurai-stype Jyuubei of the , and ordinary soldiers in the shape of paper dolls ― ― spread out. Chikata had exceedingly valuable abilities which allowed to categorize him as Aras.h.i.+ki, but…Kisara herself hadn’t yet realized his true powers.
The paper dolls coiled themselves around Golgonshura’s feet, and Jyuubei performed a vigorous, diagonal slash, followed by a reverted diagonal slash, cleanly cutting through Golgonshura’s feet.
He had definitely chopped up her bare legs. But, because the cuts were way too small, they didn’t bear much of a meaning.
Chikata threw paper shuriken, but since they were smaller than needles, they didn’t bore much meaning either.
“Ugh, what the heck are these things!? Artifacts?” Golgonshura felt shaken because those attacks were so meaningless.
At that point, Rebecca’s blue fireball impacted on Golgonshura.
“Gyaa――”
With her movements dulled down, the fireball slammed into Golgonshura’s belly. Her bluish dress went up in flames, exposing her naked body. Her chest was revealed as well with the blue flames licking at them so vigorously that her naked skin got hideously burned. And then her skin regenerated, just to get burned off again. Over and over again.
Even though her back bent back and forth, Golgonshura managed to restore her combat stance.
“Kuh, I’m feeling pain for the first time in a long while! That and those blue flames wrapping up my body…hey, blondie elf, you’re different from the others, aren’t you? A G.o.d’s manservant?” Golgonshura scowled at Rebecca alone as if trying to kill her with her eyes while talking with a voice as frosty as a blizzard.
“You’re wrong. No, maybe you’re not as I used to be a high elf. I can’t really tell, but right now I’m Shuuya’s chosen bloodkin. One of the who have inherited his Lucival blood.”
“A high elf, huh? For someone like you to be added to a family with a bloodline…” Golgonshura furrowed her eyebrows.
She flapped the wings on her back like a b.u.t.terfly fairy. Despite possessing a semi-transparent color, you could see how her wings kept changing their color from a bluish hue to one similar to a rainbow. As soon as scales were being released from those wings, the blue flames, which had been scorching Golgonshura, vanished and Kisara’s paper dolls also withered away.
Golgonshura gazed at her surroundings with a carefree att.i.tude, “To make me use mana for each and every single thing…”
Her opponents thought that she’d begin her next attacks just like that, but Golgonshura suddenly turned her eyes at the Death b.u.t.terfly women who were writhing on the ground. Just moments ago she had kicked those two away.
“…For my kin to have tied a corrupted covenant with a filthy, blood-reeking mortal is a truly wretched reality…,” she muttered while releasing mana all around her.
The pressure of her mana was endowed with an ancient, mysterious power as it’d be only held by a G.o.d. It was also proof that this s.p.a.ce and area belonged to the domain created by Golgonshura.
No one except for Rebecca could comprehend the mightiness of this power. Golgonshura’s eyes were beautiful, but at the same time they emitted such a fiendish aura that they appeared ugly to anyone looking at them.
She scanned her vicinity with the gaze of someone possessing absolute power as if she was going to crush ants underfoot. Having stopped all movement around her, Golgonshura smiled in satisfaction.
At that instant, her withered arm transformed into the shape of crooked straw.
“Become mine nourishment――” Golgonshura declared, and extended the straw-like, warped bone arm with its sharp end towards Jody.
The pointed end penetrated Jody’s chest.
“Eeek!? W-Why G-Golgonshura-sama…?” Still alive, Jody asked while crying bitter tears.
As her expression changed from sadness to despair, her white moths repeatedly split apart, becoming ever smaller…before the b.u.t.terflies that were Jody disappeared altogether. Even the pretty, white gem in her center which she had shown Shuuya…rolled away as if to make some kind of declaration.
“W-Why…even though we protected――” Ciel frantically groveled on the ground, apparently unable to use her legs while she crawled towards the gem that used to be Jody’s core.
“Jody has――Jodyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”
Ciel rubbed her cheek against the white gem as if cheris.h.i.+ng a memento, wailing and screaming. The name Shuuya Kagari was carved on the gem’s surface. Blue blood filled the area with the characters forming ‘Shuuya,’ almost as if appealing and complaining to him.
“You girls were beings I created for the sole purpose of maintaining my domain. It’s only natural for you to become my power once you’ve served your due, don’t you think? Rather than that, Kizeleg――I’m coming for you.” Golgonshura announced while staring up into the sky.
The instant she clad herself in mana, she suddenly vanished.
◇◆◇◆
The pa.s.senger plane, already a tattered clump of metal, came into view. Its subsidiary and tail wings were still fine. However, countless holes pierced its central frame. Smoke was escaping from its side wings’ engines. Shuuya guessed that the pa.s.senger plane had been attacked by the fighter jets behind it.
However, the noses of all three planes were currently shaking violently. It was understandable for the crumbling pa.s.senger plane, but for some reason, the same applied to the fighter jets.
Are the laws of inertia and aerodynamics different in this world? Or has the aircraft’s trim gone awry? They’re swaying as if affected by a strange mach tuck phenomenon.
Small parts tore off the planes, drifting away. The unnatural vibrations caused the fighter jets to extend their wheels.
Those planes also seem like they’re going to collide with jellyfish and huge whales. Though it appears I’ll make it somehow in time if I go at full speed.
I looked at Eva who was flying next to me. Her body, as she was engulfed by violet mana alongside the wheelchair, was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with a mysterious force. Within the instant of several milliseconds, we communicated through our eyes.
Eva’s smile, obviously telling me to leave those aircrafts to her, was truly like that of an angel. The metals she had deployed around her were already falling towards the ground. And then her angelic smile ended abruptly.
With a grim look, she grunted a faint, “Nn!”, while using her . Her violet , which was hard to describe as its form could represent anything, headed for the business jet as if to dye the sky violet.
Smoke was billowing out of the business jet’s rear.
It’d be great if she’s in time, but…
Rollodeen, who was flying ahead of us, also extended several of her black tentacles towards the pa.s.senger plane. But, it wasn’t a distance she’d be able to cover, even with her divine beast speed.
Many people were ejected outside while still sitting in their seats. And at that point, the pa.s.senger plane crashed into a flock of whales. One of its side wings was snapped off entirely. Half of its long frame was torn away, and exploded.
A lot of the pa.s.sengers died after getting dragged into the explosion. Amidst that, Rollodeen’s tentacles coiled themselves around a part of the burning pa.s.senger plane. At the same time, she spread out other tentacles in all directions, rescuing the people, who whirled through the air without having been hit by fragments or scorched by the explosion, by wrapping her tentacles around them.
But, since she was also using her tentacles to support a part of the plane itself, she couldn’t save all of them. Yet, her appearance as she was desperately extending her tentacles to save as many people as possible was wonderful. She looked like a G.o.ddess who was offering men a helping hand. She had the form of a black beast, and yet she looked like a true divine beast right now.
The pa.s.senger plane stopped rotating thanks to Rollodeen’s tentacles.
I’d like to believe that there won’t be any further victims.
While praying for it, I kicked off , continuing to plunge onwards. Flares released from the fighter jets behind the pa.s.senger plane. Engine flares reminding one of angelic twins. It’s the dance of angels visualized by pretty, military, man-made steam trails.
However, even those trails…bore no meaning to the various monsters such as flying rac.o.o.ns, jellyfish, whales, or dragons.
One jet clashed against a flying racc.o.o.n monster, and exploded.
I activated , approaching the detached rear of the pa.s.senger plane. The plane itself had a peculiar structure. The tail had an escalator-type ramp as owned by transport planes. The huge ramp reminded me of Rotalz’s forehead.
That ramp was whirling around like a spintop. With the centrifugal force doing its job, pieces of luggage were successively hurled out through the ramp.
I wrapped my around a protrusion on the ramp, and reeled myself in. Instantly moving atop the ramp, I charged, or rather, tumbled into the hold bay.
After another twenty seconds pa.s.sed, my trump card ran out, ending the acceleration time.
The interior of the hold bay was one big mess. I maintained my balance while focusing on the blood at my feet.
“Aaaahhhhh――”
A girl was clinging to a chair. She had skillfully coiled a rope around her waist. Her face was full of desperation, but the round gla.s.ses suited her.
“What’s this semi-transparent spear wielder!?”
Eh? Golgonshura?
Her beautiful b.u.t.terfly wings remained unchanged, but her arm had transformed into a tentacle. Using that tentacle, she was furiously fighting an armored, semi-transparent spear wielder while changing her posture.
At her feet lay a black-haired girl. She wore a military uniform similar to the bespectacled girl. It looks like she’d been saved thanks to a wire that had entangled itself with her uniform.
“Cursed mortal…that strange magic…doesn’t seem to be an enslaved familiar, I suppose.”
Golgonshura being here means she used a teleport-type skill or spell, huh?
『Rebecca, Golgonshura is up here in the sky』
『Mmh. The battle down here was proceeding well, but then Golgonshura absorbed one of the b.u.t.terfly women and vanished. Looks like she moved over to your place straight away』
『That means I’ll deal with her in my own ways』
We exchanged blood messages for a short moment.
The corpses of foreigners were scattered on the ground, and weapons, including a.s.sault rifles, were also laying on the floor, but I ignored all of them.
Though it looks like Mysty would proceed to research the guns if I gave them to her… Then again, they’re rather meaningless in this world. It’d be limited to increasing the number of moves for an a.s.sa.s.sin to snipe their target.
An anti-tank weapon like a Javelin would come in handy, however.
“――The guy who selfishly concluded a covenant with my kin, huh…?”
Golgonshura was fighting the semi-transparent warrior, but still noticed my presence. Though I think she’s realized it from the very start anyway.
She s.h.i.+fted her eyes several times towards a rectangle object that looked like a silver coffin.
At once, it hit me. That coffin must be the reason why Golgonshura summoned the airplanes. The coffin itself was slanting right now as the wires, which had affixed it, had come off.
I guess that must be something precious to her. However, right now we’re in a section of a plane that’s in the middle of cras.h.i.+ng…
I’ll rescue the collapsed girl and her bespectacled friend――
And while at it, I’ll quickly retrieve that coffin as well, seeing how Golgonshura is in the middle of battle.