Chapter 205 - Sloth and Thunder (7)

Everyone held their breath. The knights who had fallen into despair. Reinhardt, who had been racking his brains for a way out. Sircal, her mouth hanging open in surprise. Deus, who had been maintaining his threads to hold back the black mana however he could.

["—!"]

Even the Apostle of Sloth, who had been bringing a leg crashing down to kill Alon.

With everyone holding their breath, Alon silently extended his hand and gave it a tiny flick, blue lightning pouring from him brightly enough to illuminate the gray world. It was the slightest of movements, almost impossible to discern without looking closely.

Yet the lightning born of that tiny movement shot out in an instant and began slaughtering the smaller spiders.

CRACKLE!!!

Blue lines began tracing a chaotic pattern through the gray world. Sometimes shooting straight, sometimes swerving unpredictably, the lightning mercilessly pierced the spiders' bodies, wiping out every spider in the ruins in mere seconds. The first to move at that sight was the Apostle of Sloth.

'I have to finish him now!'

Now one with Kraksha, the Apostle of Sloth felt an instinctive threat from the being before him. He withdrew the leg that was crumbling into dust, then, without a moment's delay, scattered black mana and hurled his body forward to crush Alon.

He knew it with desperate certainty. His only chance to deal with the being before him was now. No—even now, he was already too late.

["Diiiiie—!!!"]

Roaring to drive away the fear that threatened to suffocate him, the Apostle of Sloth hurled his enormous body at Alon.

But Alon's gaze remained utterly calm in the face of the apostle's desperate struggle.

"..."

As though what was happening before him meant nothing at all, he simply watched the enormous body charging toward him in tranquil silence.

Just as it was about to reach him, Marquis Pallatio raised his hand toward the sky. At the same instant—

BOOOOOM!!!!

A sound like the entire world exploding rang through the air, and what he grasped in his hand was—

CRACKLE!!!!

Lightning. As though torn straight from the heavens, it traced countless streams of current across earth and sky before flowing into Alon's hand. Seemingly ready to burst at any moment, it twisted and twisted until at last it settled into his grip.

As the charging Apostle of Sloth raised another leg, a voice rang out.

Heavenly Smite.

A very quiet voice, yet unmistakably clear.

And what the Apostle of Sloth saw immediately afterward was—

["Ah—"]

A pure white world blooming amid the gray.

ROOOOAR!

Light swept across the earth. A shrill mechanical whine, easily surpassing any threshold, devoured everyone's hearing, and the pure white light blinded the knights. Everything was swallowed up, and a sensory “void” seized the world.

At last, when their senses returned, what appeared before them was the motionless corpse of an enormous spider, pierced through from head to torso, and Alon, wreathed in lightning, silently looking down at it.

"..."

"Ah—"

A quiet gasp escaped one knight's lips. The vivid awe in his eyes spread contagiously to everyone around him. Not just the knights, but Reinhardt, Deus, and Sircal as well.

"..."

She stared blankly at the dazzling man. Not once had she failed to believe in the being before her. Even so, that did not mean she had been free of doubt. However devoted her faith, a tiny doubt had remained. After all, Sircal had never actually seen Kalanon.

There were stories passed down through the generations. There was conjecture bordering on certainty. There was the conviction of the previous chieftain, who had never been wrong about anything. Yet there had been no sight of the real thing. That single fact had planted a small seed of doubt in Sircal's heart.

Perhaps—just perhaps—she was mistaken. Perhaps the previous chieftain's conviction, never wrong before, was wrong this time. A tiny, tiny doubt.

But now, in this moment—

"Ah..."

It vanished without a trace. For she knew what the blue lightning lingering around Marquis Pallatio's body was. She knew what the deer antlers growing from his head proved.

And so Sircal simply bowed her head in awe and faith. To Kalanon, the Receiver of Lightning. To her great god.

####

"Whew..."

Alon felt his spiked hair slowly settle, while the antlers that had grown from his head gradually disappeared. He sighed softly and clutched his left hand. It was trembling uncontrollably. A prickling sensation filled it, as though its circulation had been cut off, making him worry despite himself that the hand might have been damaged.

Even so, he could not focus solely on his left hand just now.

'My body feels like it's going to break apart...?'

Apart from his hand, pain that literally felt as though it would shatter him was battering his entire body.

'Even the slightest movement would make me scream.'

The pain was enough to make his eyes widen, worse even than when Ultultus had left him bleeding all over. Yet Alon did not show it. He could not.

Everyone looking at him wore an expression filled with awe. No, awe did not even begin to describe it. They gazed up at him with eyes wide and jaws hanging open, as though they had witnessed a truly great being—a god made manifest.

'... Those stares are a little intense.'

Alon was not normally one to care much about how others looked at him, but that applied only within ordinary bounds. With such blatant reverence focused on him—

'I'll just have to... try to bear it.'

He did not want to start rolling around in pain.

... Even for him, having those looks of “awe” abruptly cool into “contempt” would be a little uncomfortable and embarrassing.

But that lasted only a moment.

["Still, I'm glad the first attempt seems to have gone well."]

"!"

Kalanon's voice sounded in his head, continuing before Alon even had time to be startled.

["There's no need to answer. I couldn't hear you even if you spoke right now anyway. This is just a one-way message from me, so simply listen."]

Kalanon went straight to the point without wasting a word.

["I'll tell you three things. First, even with my help, successfully manifesting is impressive. It isn't normally something you can accomplish that easily."]

["Second, your body probably couldn't withstand it, so you must be in terrible pain. But if you intend to keep using divine stature, leave it alone rather than treating it. I'll tell you why next time."]

["Lastly, please retrieve my possession. It's a deer antler in the ruins. It should be buried underground by now, but make absolutely sure you get it! Without it, we won't be able to talk anymore, and I won't be able to teach you about divine stature."]

“Understood? Make sure you do! Make sure! Please, I'm counting on you!” Kalanon stressed it over and over, then cried, “I'm counting on you!” one final time before falling silent.

"... It seems the job is done for now."

Having committed the girl's words to memory, Alon let out a small sigh. At that very moment—

THUD!

A tremendous rumble came from far away. Though he had certainly dealt with the Apostle of Sloth and the abomination Kraksha, Alon turned toward the sound.

"... What?"

His mouth fell open before he knew it.

Not even a few dozen seconds had passed since his relieved sigh, and now a pack of monsters so enormous that they were clearly visible even through the forest had entered his field of view.

"Wait, what are those?"

"They're the mutants from the Selvanus Zone! It looks as though the black mana drove them out of their territory, and now they're coming back as soon as its power has vanished!"

"Why can't anything ever just be over?!"

Reinhardt and Sircal's urgent voices reached his ears as they grasped the situation.

THUD, THUD, THUD!

Even in that brief interval, however, the mutants had already drawn close to Alon's party. Reinhardt quickly drew his sword, but his face was filled with dismay.

Naturally. One or two would not have made him this tense, but unfortunately, at least eight were charging toward them. In other words, Reinhardt would have difficulty facing them alone.

Yet Deus already looked exhausted beyond his limits, and Reinhardt had realized that Alon, despite appearing fine after that unbelievable display of divine might, was not in good shape either.

"No other choice...!"

He knew he would have to take the lead.

Just as he gripped his sword and prepared to charge forward, the mutant at the head of the pack let out a grotesque roar.

■■■■—

Its head—

CRUNCH!

Burst apart.

"?"

It happened so suddenly that confusion filled everyone's eyes.

THUMP! THUD-THUD-THUD!

As though to prove the sight before them was real, the charging mutant's head rolled along the ground, spilling greenish-red blood as it tumbled through the shattered ruins. And that was not all.

Next, the head of the serpent following it split into upper and lower halves, scattering blood. The head of a wolf-shaped mutant was crushed helplessly, splashing brain matter in every direction. A strange creature with dozens of tentacles had its torso burst open, staining the green forest red.

It was a slaughter that took place in an instant, before the enormous mutants could pose any threat. As everyone stood dazed by the utterly inexplicable situation, a voice spoke.

"Well, well! It's been a while since I got out there. Feels good to loosen up a little."

In the distance, a girl sauntered into view through the slaughtered mutants. At her appearance, everyone caught their breath.

Because the girl had appeared leading a bizarre entourage? No. Because she was beautiful? That was not it either.

The reason they all stopped breathing was the overpowering aura emanating from her.

"Well—I am a little late, though."

An aura that stirred the primal fear that moving even an inch might mean instant death. It did more than stop the knights in their tracks.

"Urk—"

"Gah—"

It made them faint.

One by one, they began to collapse, unable to withstand that overpowering presence. Yet the girl—no, the King of the Hundred Demons—turned her gaze away as though she had no interest in those knights whatsoever.

"Anyway—long time no see!"

With exuberant gestures and an equally lively voice, she greeted Alon.

"??"

"??"

Those barely managing to remain conscious turned their eyes toward Alon in unison.

"...????"

But Alon was every bit as confused as they were.