Chapter 99 - Anilis - 3

The instant the space shattered, Anilis belatedly realized her mistake. There was no time to restore the formula. The apostle was already right in front of her, swinging his sword.

Grinding her teeth, Anilis dismantled the formula, then scattered her own body.

The teleportation formula [Ember].

The sweeping sword cut through Anilis as she turned to flame. Dispersing like a heat haze, she reassembled at the opposite end from where she had just stood.

Anilis felt her heart pounding.

'I'm losing my reason.'

The apostle's provocation had momentarily scattered her thoughts. It was hardly something worth flying into a rage over, yet her head had grown hot and she had snapped.

'This is dangerous.'

Anilis swiftly wove a formula. There was no time to take things easy. To suppress the serum's side effects, she had to leave this place quickly and bring her body back into balance.

Six square arrays assembled into a cube. A separate formula manifested on each of its six faces.

High-level fire magic [Hellfire].

The cube blazed with light, beginning to burn every space within Anilis's sight.

Seeing flames begin to surge out of thin air, Bera drew a deep breath, his expression twisting into a scowl.

'I can breathe again.'

With the spatial formula gone, all he had to do now was press the attack. But that was easier said than done.

The problem was that the master of the Magic Tower specialized in long-range firepower. Whenever he tried to close in, she used teleportation magic to widen the distance again, leaving him unable to attack.

And even landing an attack posed another problem.

'She regenerates.'

He was certain of it. He had fired divine energy at her several times during their exchanges, inflicting minor injuries, yet there wasn't a single wound on Anilis's body now.

Why did every enemy he met have such incredible powers of recovery? Irritation welled up despite himself.

Bera shot forward, moving so fast that he seemed to fold space as he ran. Divine energy burst from the Holy Sword. With its swing, a straight line was scored through space.

As expected, Anilis suffered no damage. Glaring at Bera with her pink eyes, she unleashed Hellfire.

Feeling the divine energy surrounding his body burn away, Bera began drawing even more from the divine realm.

Anilis chanted far too quickly. Only one way of contending with her came to mind.

"You're pretty spry for an old hag. Then again, I suppose all that thrashing around in bed every night keeps you healthy."

Provocation.

Her inability to control her emotions was plain to see. Continuing to get under her skin and disrupt her chanting was the right approach.

Anilis's face contorted once more.

"Shut uuuup!!!"

Hellfire condensed. Dispersed. Aligned.

Spears of Hellfire packed the ceiling before shooting toward Bera. Even as they flew, fresh Hellfire surged out of thin air.

"You're the one who should shut up. Don't you think climbing into a coffin and shutting up forever would do the 'young' people a favor?"

Even as he spoke, he kept moving. He wasn't simply charging at her. He darted throughout the garden, honing divine energy and firing it at her.

"Ancient-species serum, huh? Yes, I understand. You're about at the age when even dentures won't fit anymore, so you must have wanted some new teeth. How are they? Nice and strong?"

"Fuuuuck!!!"

BOOOOM!

Her jaw trembling, Anilis sprayed magic everywhere. Her thoughts were growing ever hazier, but she no longer noticed.

Only one thought remained in her head.

'Kill him!'

She would kill him. Tear him apart, burn him, break him, and scatter him in every direction.

Mana surged endlessly like a spring that never ran dry, beginning to blaze with her rage as its fuel.

Enchantment magic [Overclock].

Firepower support magic [Blazing Heat].

The two spells were added to the flying spears of Hellfire. The spears flared brilliantly and exploded, sweeping the entire garden away with their force.

Bera ran. Avoiding the centers of the blasts, he dispersed the explosions while taking as little damage as possible, all the while cramming divine energy into the Holy Sword.

He was aiming for a single decisive blow. Minor attacks wouldn't work. Even severe wounds healed almost immediately.

He had to strike hard enough to bring her down in one move, inflicting damage she couldn't recover from.

Divine energy raced forth and enveloped the Holy Sword. It condensed, sharpened, and solidified. He layered still more divine energy over it.

Throughout his provocative mockery, Bera's mind had been growing colder and colder.

He had watched her constantly in search of a weakness, and at last he discovered something unusual.

'The corners of her eyes.'

Although every other wound had healed, blood still flowed from the torn corners of her eyes.

'Her head doesn't heal.'

Once he reached that conclusion, he acted swiftly.

Bera swung his arm, thrusting the Holy Sword forward.

The distance was great, but it didn't matter. What pierced toward her was not the sword, but the divine energy gathered upon it.

The divine energy raced forth as a wedge. Spotting it, Anilis twisted her body to take the attack in her chest.

A huge hole opened there.

'Failed.'

Bera frowned.

'Tenacious bitch.'

A hole big enough to fit a human head had been punched through the middle of her chest, yet Anilis showed no sign of alarm. Her spine extended through the gaping hole and reconnected. Muscles and organs filled in around it, followed by a covering of flesh.

As Bera began honing his divine energy once more, an explosion erupted right in front of his face.

BOOOM!

"Got you!"

That was the cry that reached Bera's ears as his thoughts momentarily blurred.

* * *

Bera steadied his reeling mind.

... Or tried to.

He failed. The explosion in front of his face had rattled his thoughts. As he staggered from the momentary impact, spears of flame rained down upon him.

A rapid series of impacts was followed by thunderous explosions that shook his eardrums.

'I'm all right.'

Struggling to hold on to his senses, Bera reassured himself. Divine energy still covered his body.

The dizziness came from the disturbance to his semicircular canals. If he could buy just a little more time, just a little, he could recover completely.

His ears rang. A shrill laugh threaded its way through the ringing.

It must be Anilis's voice. An old hag who had nothing left but to wait to keel over, laughing without knowing her place.

Bera pressed his lips shut and bound the divine energy more tightly around his body. This would let him withstand the magical impacts.

'Next. Next, I...'

He had to think about what to do after weathering this attack and recovering.

How could he hit her head? Could he close in? Was there a way to stop her teleportation? What could he do to win?

His head spun. He was dizzy. His thoughts broke off again and again, and he pieced them back together.

The ringing persisted, a long, high-pitched whine.

Ancient-species serum. An ancient species. Could he win?

The gateway to the divine realm. Its divine energy. A sword honed with divine energy. Was that enough?

What had he missed? He had avoided all her earlier spells. What was different now?

His thoughts stretched on, each question leading to another as he searched for an answer.

Then Bera felt irritation well up.

'... Just.'

He was furious at himself for falling prey to a mere master of the Magic Tower, a mere spellcaster.

Ancient-species serum. It didn't matter. She was still human.

Hadn't that old hag said it herself? No matter how great the divine powers were, she had overcome them because he was the one wielding them.

That couldn't apply only to him. However great an ancient species might be, Anilis was the one wielding its power. A mere human.

And he was being beaten by that mere human.

His spirits sank, as though he had fallen into a clinging swamp, as though he were buried in a heap of black ash. Something churned within him. Disgust and rage surged up.

He didn't know where those emotions came from. He simply felt that way, and it made him angry.

The ringing grew worse.

Surely it should have faded with time, but now it felt as though the ringing was turning his vision white.

It felt as though a thick, black swamp were swallowing his entire body. A strange resonance joined his heartbeat, and just as his grip began to loosen—

HUMMM.

The sword resonated.

At the same time, a brilliant flash burst inside Bera's mind.

He flinched, his body shuddering involuntarily as his senses abruptly awakened.

His wavering gaze turned to his right arm. The Holy Sword was shedding a faint light.

'... Just now.'

What had he been thinking?

His thoughts slowly returned. He tried to recall what had been in his mind a moment earlier, but couldn't.

The ringing subsided. The explosions sounded louder.

The world, drained of color, was turning red again.

Bera furrowed his brow, trying to trace the thoughts he had just had and the source of the change, but—

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

There was no time.

The explosions intensified. Amid them, he saw Anilis weaving another spatial formula in the distance.

He didn't know why, but even amid all this, Bera could clearly feel the change that had occurred.

'The Holy Sword reacted.'

The Holy Sword, which had shown no reaction whatsoever since its completion, had just reacted for the first time.

Something that could serve as a trigger. Something that could turn that reaction into a manifest effect.

As he considered it, Bera soon thought of what might have triggered the Holy Sword.

'... The sacred mark.'

When the Holy Sword was completed, his sacred mark had certainly dwelled within it. And just now, he had been about to release the sword. He had been about to break his vow.

Yes. The sacred mark had reacted to the vow he had made.

Bera adjusted his grip on the sword.

'There was no price attached to the vow engraved in the Holy Sword.'

But that couldn't mean he received nothing in return.

The sacred mark of oaths was made complete through absolute balance. It only functioned when there was something to gain.

"Haaah..."

A long breath slipped from Bera's lips.

He would have to investigate further to understand the precise mechanism, but there was something he could already feel.

'The divine energy has grown denser.'

Its concentration, not its volume, had increased. The same amount of divine energy could now produce greater power. The change came as the faint light flowing from the Holy Sword entered his body.

'In that case.'

Bera knew what he could do with this.

Could he do it? Would it work? He cast aside all such questions.

His eyes gleaming, Bera raced forward.

Explosions followed him.

Anilis's expression stiffened.

Seeing Bera abruptly take the offensive and charge, she suddenly sensed danger.

It was an intuition bordering entirely on animal instinct.

A formula unfolded.

The teleportation formula [Ember].

Anilis reappeared far behind Bera.

Bera stopped and looked toward her from where he stood.

He hadn't approached because he didn't know she would evade him. Rather, he had feigned an approach precisely to make her open up this distance.

Bera gripped the sword with both hands.

'A sword that can harm an ancient species.'

He knew exactly one such thing.

The move Bargo had shown him three years ago, while they were bringing Renée to the Holy Empire. The very move he had used against Terdan, the Mountain-Pushing Giant.

That move remained etched in his mind. With divine energy this dense, he could at least imitate it. His insufficient output had kept him from doing so until now, but this time the Holy Sword was supporting him.

'An imitation will do.'

His opponent wasn't a true ancient species either, after all. Wasn't she merely a fake, imitating one through its serum?

Divine energy seethed, coiling around his entire body. Then all of it concentrated upon the Holy Sword.

Distance didn't matter. Neither did that hybrid's regeneration.

Cut.

By imbuing the sword with that intent, he could cut Anilis.

The sword Bargo had shown him belonged to that realm.

CRACKLE.

Bera slid his right foot far back. His knees bent. His sword drew back behind his waist.

The stance was full of openings, yet those very flaws began to come together into a single balance.

Watching him, Anilis swiftly linked formulas together as instinctive dread rose within her once more.

Seven arrays appeared. There was no time to form a cube. She simply stuck them together like lumps of clay and fired them in their incomplete state.

Watching the white Hellfire hurtle toward him, Bera honed his intent into one and shaped it into form.

His sword swung diagonally.

Intent honed into form, and the single phenomenon born of it made into a rule.

It needed a name.

By naming it, he had to anchor the newly created rule in reality.

Sweeping his sword through space, Bera engraved the name that naturally came to mind upon that form.

Recalling the moment when the mountain-like giant had toppled.

'Mountain Cleaver.'

He created a single ultimate technique.

RIP.

The blade tore through space.