Chapter 738 – Antagonistic Game and Vine

000

Kang! Kang!

When you think of the sound of swords clashing against each other over and over again, fireworks explode and scatter in all directions.

If the swords had collided dozens or hundreds of times, it would not have been surprising if a tooth fell out or which one broke first, but unfortunately, their fight was a battle between special swords that only exist in the world of holy swords and demonic swords.

Even though its strength was not perfect, it was not easily broken.

However – even if the sword does not break, a person can break, and even in a dream, the mental and physical fatigue that builds up while constantly moving is slowly starting to eat away at Cleon and his previous lives.

Although Cain was pouring out his complaints, he didn’t seem to have any intention of making a fuss in the battle, and went straight to the front of Lesia, alternating with Cleon, who was sent flying backwards after being kicked in the abdomen due to the collision a little while ago.

She held a greatsword as tall as him with both hands and swung her sword from top to bottom.

A great sword is an object that, due to its nature, is better classified as a blunt weapon rather than a sword.

This is because, rather than cutting power, it specializes in using weight to destroy the opponent’s entire armor.

His magic sword with a bloody weight – Pandora, even though it does not have any special power, becomes a weapon with a threatening mass just by swinging it.

It was a blow that seemed to tear the heavens and earth apart, but Resia easily blocked it using her holy sword – Kala de Bolg.

No, saying it lightly would have been a bit absurd.

Kagagak! As Kaladbolg and Pandora collided with each other and did not back down, sparks flew out due to friction, but compared to Cain, who launched a desperate attack, Lesia’s eyes were not looking at him.

Her gaze was directed at the figure of a Rakshasa leaping into the sky as if it were hiding behind Cain’s large back.

He held up a long sword made of adamantite, which was his favorite sword that he had used in his lifetime, and when he rotated in the air as if the positions of his head and legs were changing, his sword was aiming for Lesia’s head while drawing a trajectory like a crescent moon. .

It is an attack similar to the movement of Rubera’s specialty, and Rubera, the assassin, has decapitated several targets with this attack.

Unfortunately, Rakshasa didn’t seem to be able to do that, although I must say that the opponent was not good.

The moment the Rakshasa’s body began to rotate in the air, Resia suddenly lost strength in the balance between herself and Cain and leaned her body back.

And just when I thought she had extended the hand that wasn’t holding her sword to Cain ─

Pop! And, as the explosion sounds, her body flies backwards.

What was fired from her hand towards Cain was not some special magical power or explosive, but a lump of her divine magical power.

It caused a strong explosion, causing damage to Cain, and sending Lesia, who was close to the explosion point, completely relaxed, flying backwards as a reaction.

Thanks to this, Cleon’s body, which lost his balance, leans forward and at the same time swings the Rakshasa sword, so naturally, what the sword cuts through is Cain’s body.

＂Wow! Wait!”

If the Rakshasa, who was embarrassed by the sight, had not somehow twisted his body to change the trajectory of the sword, the situation would have ended with the ally’s head falling off.

However, the cost of forcibly changing the orbit was the loss of the body’s balance, and Lesia was not foolish enough to miss it.

＂$!@!#@$%!＂

I don’t know what she’s talking about, but it’s probably the defining line she spits out when she gets the chance.

The magical power bursting out of her body spreads out through her muffler like wings of light.

The torrent of power flowing through her body is concentrated on the holy sword Kala de Bolg that she holds in her hand.

＂Oh, big trouble-＂

When the Rakshasa, who was so embarrassed that cold sweat broke out, muttered like that, the next moment her sword was swung towards the Rakshasa, albeit from a slightly distant position.

Since he is in the air, let alone evading, his posture has collapsed due to the excessive movement just now, so he is unable to even defend himself.

True!

What protrudes from the holy sword swung into the air is a blade of magic with extremely compressed density, but also a slash of light that becomes gigantic in proportion to the amount of magic used.

Normally, it would be difficult to perform a slash like hers without concentrating her magic power for a few seconds, which would be quite a long time in a battle situation, but what makes it possible is a non-standard monster called Hero Lesia.

A huge ball of light flew right above Cain’s head, enough to cover his entire field of vision.

If all of that were a blow of destruction that destroyed everything it touched, there wouldn’t even be a bone left of the Rakshasa there.

After the slash of divine magic flew to an unseen place, Cain staggered to her feet, perhaps having succeeded in recovering from the shock suffered from her front.

She sank her greatsword into the ground with a clanging sound and took a deep breath, but the fatigue accumulated in her body was considerable.

＂… Has there been one less person with this? It’s the worst.”

Even though I don’t like it, it’s a situation where only 3 people are balancing against Resia.

If there was one less person, the victory that seemed so remote seemed even further away.

“Hey! “I’m not dead yet!”

However, when he thinks he hears Rakshasa’s voice from behind, Cain and Lesia also turn their gaze in that direction.

There, next to Cleon, there was a Rakshasa sitting on the ground with a chain tied around his waist.

The one holding on to the end of the chain is Cleon.

He, too, seemed to have just gotten up from his seat, looking at Lesia in a hesitant pose, trying to catch his breath.

＂%#!@… #%^@*$＂

Cleon, who saw Lesia smiling faintly while looking at her, muttered quietly.

“… Is that a compliment?”

“I don’t know, but… By the way, isn’t that girl Hero too strong…? This attack doesn’t work at all, and we’re being dealt a one-sided attack.”

The Rakshasa looked exhausted as she got up from her seat, as if she had not imagined that she would be such a difficult opponent.

That’s right, we’ve been exchanging words like this for hours already.

If it were an ordinary human being, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he had collapsed from exhaustion a long time ago, and in the case of Cleon, who uses magic, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he suffered a depletion of magical power.

However, Lesia was still leading the flow of this battle, even though she did not seem to be tired or depleted of her magic power.

No matter how much it was in its prime, Rakshasa seemed a little tired of the enemy whose output was beyond common sense.

But Cleon speaks.

“… That’s right, because it’s Lesia. I’ve never seen Lesia get tired after fighting with someone.”

The Rakshasa flinched for a moment at Cleon’s words, then turned to him and spoke.

＂… Is that so… ＂

The expression on his face was as if he had seen something, something unbelievable, so Cleon looked back at him as if asking ‘what was that?’

“You said this world was reconstructed based on your memories and was a nightmare that brought you despair. But you can’t imagine Lesia getting tired – and seeing her defeated. So, the girl who exists in your dreams must always win, and she must be indomitable.”

When Rakshasa spoke calmly and muttered, ‘I should have noticed from the beginning…’, Cleon kept his mouth shut for a moment.

However, the strength of Lesia that she shows now is because she felt like nothing was different from what she had experienced in the past.

To cross-verify this, Cleon was raising his voice towards Cain.

“Hey, Cain! What do you think? Is she stronger than what you’ve experienced?”

＂What…?＂

When Cain suddenly asks a question during a confrontation with Lesia, she looks back at Cleon as if asking what he is talking about.

Then she looked back at Lesia with an annoyed expression and answered.

“What are you talking about, idiot?”

＂…＂

Rakshasa sighs as if he is a little relieved by Cain’s answer.

Yes, no matter how much the title of legendary hero – the strongest in history is given, there is no way a human being so invincible could exist.

There was a time when he thought, ─.

“With your poor memory and imagination, you cannot properly embody this guy’s strength. At the time of my last duel, Lesia was a guy who could literally split a mountain with a sword.”

＂No, you too!＂

The Raksha seemed dumbfounded and scolded Lesia towards the two fools who had burned her brain.

“Hey, Cleon. Is it true… No, yes it can be. Calm down first, Lesia is human too. He strongly reminds himself that there is a possibility of defeat. Otherwise, all three of us will be caught up in your image of Lesia, and we won’t be able to leave here!”

＂…＂

Cleon frowned at her words for a moment, but then nodded as if he understood.

Because her attitude was quite ‘I can’t help it,’ the Rakshasa couldn’t help but hold out her tongue as to how strong her admiration and fantasy for her were.

From Cain’s perspective, Lecia was weakened compared to the last time she fought him.

Even though she is unable to use the abilities of the demon sword and is fighting against three demon swordsmen, including herself, who has become a thought body and has lost most of her life powers – Cain is her opponent who competed with her as an equal.

In other words, out of these three, we can evaluate her skills most fairly.

If it were the woman he knew, it would not be strange if the upper body of the three of them were separated from the lower body by the sword she swung, but it was Cain who was prepared to meet her in front.

Unexpectedly, that did not happen, and the battle was in an antagonistic state.

‘Is it because this is the memory of that little girl, or has she really become this weak after 20 years?’

Although her standards were a little strange, she was confident that she could not be wrong in Cain’s sentiments.

However, she thought for a moment and what Cain noticed as he focused his gaze on Lesia was-

＇No, no way-＇

The point was that she didn’t have any magical power flowing through her body, except when she was releasing it.

Even for original swordsmen, the moment they are able to use magical power, it can be said that their rank as a swordsman jumps not one level, but ten levels.

This is because various simple magics made possible through magical power create absurd variables in battle, but the most basic use of magical power is to strengthen physical abilities.

This is also the reason why people who cannot use magic on their own try to get a wizard or priest to join the party, just by flowing magic into their blood vessels, bones, muscles, and skin.

In addition to strengthening endurance, stamina, and muscle strength, it also has the effect of protecting the body from injuries.

Of course, when she had a decisive battle with Cain and Resia in her lifetime, she channeled her magical power into every part of her body, making up for her relative physical shortcomings.

No, of course it was the same on Cain’s side, and one of the reasons why Cain was defeated was because she was eventually depleted by Resia’s ridiculous amount of magic power.

And even now, Cain was using her magic power to strengthen her own body, but in comparison, she, Lesia, was confronting them without using any magic power reinforcement.

What it means is that Resia became stronger in the time between Cain’s last memory and Cleon’s memory.

Even without magical power surrounding his body, he was showing such strength.

“Damn, that’s unreasonable.”

Cain mutters like that, and she looks at the agent of deterrence who brought her down.

Then he raises his voice towards the two people resting comfortably behind him.

“Hey! How long are you going to stay sleepy! If you want to go outside, fight more desperately!”

＂Haa…＂

Sighing at Cain’s words, Rakshasa took his stance again, and Cleon held his sword tightly as if he would not fly away this time.

＂Go!＂

With Cleon’s slogan, the two rushed toward Lesia.

001

Amelia and Lilim looked up at the huge wall blocking their path, unable to say anything for a moment.

If you ask me if I encountered a barrier again and couldn’t move forward, that wasn’t the case.

That’s because the wall had a grotesque shape with black tentacles wriggling, and was moving in some direction, albeit little by little.

＂… No way, this is it? ＂

And what came out when Amelia finally opened her mouth was a reaction of disbelief.

That thing so huge that you can barely see the top if you look up at the sky is the magic sword starfish, the artificial monster that swallowed Cleon.

It clearly had a similar shape to the illustration in the book Lila showed me, but the size was so different that I couldn’t easily accept it.

＂It’s definitely… Bigger than any magic sword starfish I know, but I can feel it. And-“

[Lilim…]

[Save me…]

[Take it out…]

The voices of my fellow countrymen full of grief and despair are heard from inside.

However, that was not a sound that could be attributed to the magic swordsman’s will remain within them.

It’s all like the residue left behind when the magic sword starfish absorbs the magic sword and the magic swordsman.

They use it to imitate them and interfere with the spirit of the Black Demon Clan to attract them towards them.

However, perhaps because Lilim was not her magic swordsman, she only summoned her and did not show any signs of trying to absorb her.

＂As expected, Cleon-sama is clearly in here.＂

＂… Then.＂

At Lilim’s words, Amelia nodded her head and held the scythe in her hand tightly.

Lilim, too, was at the moment trying to follow in Amelia’s footsteps and raise her magic power from her own body.

“Now, wait!”

When Lilim and Amelia turned around again at the sound of a voice coming from behind, they saw Shitaka running towards them with a confused expression.

“What are you guys doing!? You’re trying to swing a weapon against ‘vine’!”

＂… Vine? Are you talking about this magic sword, Starfish?”

Although it is an unusual title, I was able to sympathize with the fact that it was a being so big that it had to be called ‘nim’.

Shitaka talks to the two people with a hint of excitement.

“Okay! Because we have Vine, we can survive to some extent…!”

“… I don’t know. “I know you’re not targeted because you’re not a magic swordsman, but why?”

Shitaka looked frustrated at Lilim’s words.

But then.

[He is a lively human being.]

When Amelia and Lilim looked up at the sound of a voice coming from above her head.

There was a devil with red skin flapping his wings and looking down.

＂Devil!＂

“… I don’t think you need to be so careful. It’s low class.”

Unlike Amelia, Lilim looks relaxed.

But for Amelia, it is an evil that no devil can forgive its existence.

If Amelia tries to engage in battle with him right away, the devil may not be able to estimate the opponent’s skills, so he creates a fireball in his hand and speaks.

[Now that this body has finally descended into this world, all living beings in this world will offer their souls to this body. Behold the one who will be your master. My name is-]

A demon who tried to throw a fireball while speaking long-winded lines-

But the next moment, the upper half of the body disappeared, as if a candle had been blown out.

The devil’s lower body, unable to even scream and disappearing in vain, falls to the ground and is simultaneously dissipated by magical power and disappears.

＂… That was just-＂

When Amelia and Lillim both looked surprised, they could see that the one who killed the demon was the magic sword Starfish- Vine that was moving next to them.

“Did you see it? It is said that Vines attack and defeat demons that come near them like that. If they move randomly and leave the base where we live, we will have to follow them, but…’

“… As expected, they are using it like a scarecrow to chase away the devil.”

As Lilim said this, she let out a sigh at the strange symbiotic relationship.

“… But we have to save our precious people trapped inside this starfish.”

“Ha…? The person who entered Vine-nim is a magic swordsman, right? Is the person you think you want to save a magic swordsman?”

Shitaka looked at Amelia with an expression of disbelief, and Amelia nodded her head in agreement.

After a moment of silence between the two, Shitaka ponders deeply and nods her head as if she understands.

“… If that’s the case, my sister might be able to help. It’s right down here, follow me. I’ll let you meet me.”

＂But if you miss the starfish-＂

＂After Vine uses its power to kill the demon, it stays there for a few hours. “Don’t worry.”

The girl who said that was waving her finger as if to ask me to follow her.

He took his group with him and overturned a seemingly empty pile of dirt in the nearby wilderness.

A door in the floor, hiding a staircase leading down to the basement, was revealed.

＂… Welcome. In room 3 of my house.”

Then, he opened the door and invited Amelia and Lilim to their hideout.