Chapter 140 - Rikrakhamur (3)

The ground collapsed, and Rikrakhamur fell with it. It struggled desperately to keep from plunging into the abyss. But with no swamp left, it could no longer move, and its struggles only made matters worse.

■■■■■!!

In the end, Rikrakhamur plunged into the abyss with a horrific shriek. Alon immediately dropped after it, thinking,

'That takes care of all the conditions.'

In truth, none of this was meant to be accomplished in one go. The battle against Rikrakhamur in Psychedelia normally had to proceed through three phases.

First, Elivan fought alone in the swamp. Then the companions who had followed him turned the four pulleys to the north, south, east, and west, draining the swamp. Their return marked the beginning of the second phase. Once that stage was over, the floor collapsed, and the third battle began in an abyss-like underground cavern.

In other words, it should have been an extremely long battle, but Alon had effectively skipped two of its three phases. He had deliberately brought the allied army along to turn the four pulleys and deal with both phase one and the intermittent monster waves.

By landing a damaging blow on Rikrakhamur, he had made it spray black bodily fluid, nullifying the magic that kept the floor beneath the water-filled swamp from collapsing. He had then broken the floor to bypass phase two.

All that remained now was phase three.

As he fell into the abyss, he gulped down a mana potion and formed a hand seal for the final part of his plan.

'I may have to push myself a little, but there's no other way to kill it.'

He made his decision swiftly.

KABOOOOOM!!!

At the tremendous crash from below—the sound of Rikrakhamur hitting the bottom of the abyss—Alon finished forming his seal and recited the phrase.

"Connection—"

But when he finally descended into the underground cavern, faintly illuminated by blue moonlight, he stopped in bewilderment.

Rikrakhamur should have begun convulsing the moment it crashed down, rampaging in an attempt to destroy everything around it. Instead, it lay completely motionless.

"...?"

Just as a little question mark formed in his mind—

"...!"

He belatedly noticed something.

'... A hole?'

The dead abomination lay belly-up, with a hole through its middle far larger than the one Alon had made.

####

In fact, Alon had sensed something strange from the moment he first encountered Rikrakhamur. It was because of its eyes.

Defeating this abomination required three phases. During phase three, when its health fell to 30% or below, its eyes turned red and it went berserk, making one final desperate stand.

Yet its eyes had already been red when Alon launched his first attack. That meant Rikrakhamur had gone berserk before he even attacked.

However effective Alon's strike had been, it had not been enough to threaten its life. Rikrakhamur was an abomination, after all.

Even Elivan, who grew at an astonishing rate and possessed several overpowered abilities thanks to his protagonist advantages, struggled to inflict meaningful damage on Rikrakhamur with a single attack unless he took the mage route.

"..."

Alon stared at the fallen abomination. In the middle of its belly was an incomparably larger hole that he had not made.

'... What is this?'

His head tilted to one side of its own accord.

Of course, the situation itself could not have been better for Alon. He had easily dispatched Rikrakhamur, which he had expected to defeat only by pushing himself. Still, he could not simply dismiss the question.

'Why did Rikrakhamur have a wound like this? Or was it part of the original setting that it had fought someone and been wounded around this time?'

After pondering it, he gave a small shake of his head. No matter how he considered it, that explanation seemed unlikely.

Rikrakhamur's regenerative ability was not particularly strong. Healing that enormous hole alone would take decades, and even if it healed, it would leave a large scar.

That left only one possible scenario: someone had fought the abomination before Alon arrived to dispose of it.

Who could have dueled Rikrakhamur?

Narrowing down the candidates was not difficult. As far as he knew, only a few individuals could not only fight the abominations guarding the discarded remnants of the Five Great Sins, but also inflict a wound of this magnitude.

'... At most, a handful of hidden powerhouses and the Four Great Factions.'

Of course, this world held far more vast secrets than the setting Alon originally knew, so drawing conclusions too readily could be premature. Still, those were the only ones he knew capable of inflicting such a wound on an abomination.

'Was this Curse's doing?'

The speculation left him with an odd feeling, but he soon shook his head. Curse would certainly be reluctant to act until its "objective" became clear.

After mulling it over, he decided to get moving for now. His reason for killing the abomination had been none other than obtaining a discarded remnant of the Five Great Sins.

Alon walked into the gaping hole in the dead Rikrakhamur. Under his original plan, he would have had to enter through its mouth and endure another ordeal dealing with the barbed tentacles inside its body. But with its belly torn open, there was no need.

Before long, Alon discovered a vast cavity that hardly seemed like the inside of a living creature. Only one thing drew his eye in that enormous space.

He immediately spotted the red spear embedded in its center—one of the Sin of Wrath's discarded remnants.

Without hesitation, he approached and pulled it from the ground. The red spear came free with remarkable ease, requiring no particular force.

Its appearance was exceedingly plain for a discarded remnant of the Five Great Sins. Apart from a round recess at the end of its shaft, it bore no patterns or ornamentation.

Nor did he sense any particular aura of evil or sin from it. Nevertheless, Alon was certain it was a discarded remnant of the Five Great Sins. He had already seen it in the game.

He collected the spear without hesitation.

THUD! RRRRUMBLE!!!

"?"

He soon realized that the entire cavity was collapsing. The discarded remnant of the Five Great Sins was what had allowed Rikrakhamur to become an abomination in the first place. Now that the remnant inside its body had been taken away, it had begun to crumble.

What puzzled Alon, however, was the speed.

'It wasn't this fast before.'

Briefly wondering about it, he began moving to get out of there first, then let out a sigh.

"Ah."

He looked around the cavity where the spear had stood. The moment a red pearl caught his eye—

TAP!

He snatched it up and made his way straight out of the cavity.

What greeted Alon upon his safe escape was—

"???"

Blackie, absorbing Rikrakhamur's crumbling body.

####

The following day, having disposed of Rikrakhamur, the expedition set out for the border again.

The one regrettable point was that they had found no clue as to why Rikrakhamur had sent monster waves at the wall. Still, they had eliminated the culprit, so they wasted no more time and left the swamp—or rather, what was now merely a forest.

They returned to the border with little changed from when they had departed.

If there was one difference—

"..."

It was that the knights and soldiers who had joined the expedition were staring holes into Alon's face. Every one of their gazes was filled with respect.

Alon turned his head slightly and glanced over those watching him.

'Those stares really burn.'

Of course, he knew they stemmed from admiration and awe, so he had no intention of saying anything. But he could not help feeling uncomfortable.

Especially since he had not dealt with Rikrakhamur all on his own.

... Of course, he had landed the finishing blow. Strictly speaking, though, it felt as if someone else had all but killed it and he had merely cut off its last breath, which left him a little uneasy.

Quite apart from that, however, something else currently occupied his attention.

"..."

Blackie was clinging to his chest. It had been looking around, but apparently noticed Alon's gaze and turned its head with a questioning "Mew?"

'... Is this all right?'

Yesterday, Alon had witnessed Blackie absorbing the collapsing Rikrakhamur with its whole body. About half of that enormous bulk had crumbled away and vanished, but Blackie, which had popped out from his chest before he knew it, had absorbed the rest.

"... Hmm."

Alon turned Blackie's body from side to side.

'It doesn't seem to have changed at all.'

Its appearance was entirely unchanged. It had not grown larger, nor did it seem particularly stronger. He had tried using magic earlier just to check, but the magic itself was the same as before.

It was quite strange to see so little change after it had absorbed such a formidable abomination. This was also the first time he had learned that a Death Shadow Dragon could absorb something, yet nothing at all had changed.

'... Rainicius said he knew about Unification of Shadows, but nothing at all about Death Shadow Dragons. Should I go ask Rine more about it?'

Under Alon's scrutiny, Blackie merely tilted its head in silence.

Despite it being spring, the midday sunlight was quite intense.

####

Exactly three days later, just after the expedition returned to the border—

"Welcome back, my lord."

"Yes."

"It seems you've made history again."

"What are you talking about?"

"I haven't heard what happened, but judging by the soldiers' and knights' reactions, you must have done something again, haven't you?"

As Evan pointed toward the soldiers, whose awe had yet to fade, Yuman approached, still smiling.

"You've arrived, Brother."

"Yes, Your Holiness. I've only just returned."

"I'm glad to hear it."

Then he asked,

"... Did Cardinal Yutia do anything?"

"... Cardinal Yutia?"

"Yes."

"... No, she didn't do anything."

With an even more serious expression than before, he whispered to Alon once again.

"... Brother, I keep telling you this, but do not get close to Cardinal Yutia."

"Pardon?"

"She is dangerous."

'... Wait, why this all of a sudden?'

Once again, Alon was inwardly bewildered.

They had returned safely.