Chapter 36
“Grrk, ghheeek!”
This world was, in the end, a game.
After the enemy’s attacks continued and one turn ended, there always came—almost without exception—the best possible timing to strike.
Like now, when the shadow had spewed out sludge and fallen into a groggy state to recover its strength.
The shadow screamed as Aquila seized the opening.
However, the result was not satisfactory to him.
‘As expected, it is too shallow…!’
Perhaps thanks to the Godslayer title, the black inner flesh was exposed and dangled loosely, but he had not been able to sever the arm completely.
Sssss!
Worse still, the blade was melting, likely because it was not imbued with divinity.
Clicking his tongue, Aquila had no choice but to retreat.
‘…So the title does not protect the weapon. Only the attack power is boosted.’
With an irritated expression, Aquila glanced at the sword whose blade had melted by half.
He had chosen to fight with a sword because spellcasting was unstable, but now neither option was particularly efficient.
“Young master! What on earth… are you all right?!”
“Sir! You said blades would not work, then how did you even attack…?!”
Yujelia and Shen rushed toward him, each voicing a different question.
Aquila thrust out one hand to stop them from coming closer.
“Stay back! Once its regeneration finishes, it will start again anyway!”
“Again?!”
“Grrrrrk….”
The shadow’s entire body, which had been in a groggy state, began to boil and churn.
Gurgle, gurgle!
As if nothing had happened, the wound Aquila had just inflicted began to close almost immediately.
It returned to the same state as before.
“The arm…!”
Shen cried out, his eyes wide.
The arm that had been deeply gouged and left hanging was filled back in with sludge and restored to its original form.
Looking around desperately for another weapon, Aquila instead tightened his grip on the sword once more.
“That thing has a core. If you do not destroy it, you cannot kill it.”
Shen’s shocked gaze turned toward the shadow.
Now that he thought about it, even after being hit squarely by a powerful fire spell, there were no deep craters left on the monster’s body.
It had been a spell whose heat alone made the skin prickle, something that should have reduced anything it hit to ashes.
“…No matter what kind of attack it takes?”
“Unless the firepower is great enough to engulf its entire body… well, there is a set number of times. But before we reach that limit, we will probably fall first.”
Those who became monsters after consuming Black Swamp sludge.
These creatures Aquila broadly referred to as “shadows” possessed characteristics entirely different from monsters that were merely enraged by being splashed with sludge.
In other words, they could not be defeated by simply beating them down.
Among them, the Corrupted Shadow of Ecstasy was a monster that moved using its arms.
Its close-range attack power was high, and the speed of its arm swings was fast, but its greatest weakness was its slow movement speed.
The most ideal strategy was simple.
‘Destroy the core with ranged attacks from outside the reach of its arms.’
If the core was not destroyed, the shadow would regenerate its body again and again until the designated number of times was reached.
That was why the easiest method was to finish it quickly with ranged attacks during phase one, when its movement speed was slow.
Once phase two began, as seen now, the number of attack patterns increased, and the ground became heavily contaminated by corrupted sludge.
“The core’s location is random, but it should be in the chest, the arms, the eyes, or the head… Tsk! It never gives us any breathing room. It is coming!”
When the shadow, which had been motionless with both arms braced on the ground, lifted its head, Aquila ran once more toward a space free of others.
The same pattern was about to begin again.
And just as he ran, the shadow leapt powerfully and came crashing down toward where Aquila had been.
“I-it is dangerous, young master…!”
BOOOOM!
Aquila rolled forward with all his strength.
Dust flew again, stinging his entire body, but Aquila sprang up and shouted.
“Lady Yujelia! Can you use Divine Imbuement?!”
“Huh? Y-yes, probably…!”
“Then please imbue the weapon with divinity!”
WHOOOM!
An attack identical to the previous one.
Watching Aquila slip away like a loach, Yujelia stamped her feet anxiously.
“…I can do it, but to that sword?!”
A sword whose blade was dulled, half-melted.
Just as Aquila lifted it and was about to shout that there was no other choice—
“Use one of my blades, young master!”
Shen shouted and raised one of the daggers he was holding in each hand.
It was undoubtedly the dagger Aquila had found earlier while searching with his Authority.
“W-where did you even get that…?!”
Seeing the dagger in Shen’s hand, which he had no idea when it had been drawn, Yujelia’s eyes widened.
“Should I throw it while avoiding the black stuff?!”
Aquila shouted as he moved sideways to evade the arm slamming into the ground.
“It will head that way anyway!”
“When it spews stuff from its mouth, right?!”
Shen nodded.
It seemed he had realized the same pattern was repeating.
“I will help too! What should I do?!”
As the shadow raised both arms high, Aquila drew in a sharp breath.
“Ordinary blades will not work!”
“Should I imbue Shen’s blade with divinity as well?!”
Yujelia raised her hand.
Given how frantic the situation was, the coordination was remarkable, but imbuing two blades with divinity at once was not something just anyone could do.
“Can you manage it?!”
“…Yes! I think I can! No, I will try!”
Yujelia shouted as she brought her hands together.
Even in this situation, she took a slow, deep breath, clasped her hands around the brooch on her pure white robe, and began reciting a prayer.
Then—
WOOOONG!
A soft yellow light began to gather on the blade Shen was holding.
Gentle yet resolute energy.
Yujelia’s firm and pure Divine Power slowly condensed on the blade, and at some point, it rippled like a golden tide.
Shen’s eyes widened.
Just holding the weapon sent a strengthening sensation through his heart.
Aquila, who had rolled away to avoid the last strike, spotted the glimmering light and curled his lips upward.
“The timing is coming. Get ready!”
“Yes!”
Shen took a deep breath and gripped the blade in a reverse hold.
He wanted to rush in and help Aquila immediately, but with the monster thrashing like that, it would be difficult to aim properly.
One misstep, and he would be swallowed by sludge and become a hindrance rather than a help.
So he had to wait.
He had to wait.
Feeling the gentle Divine Power humming in his palm, Shen clenched the hilt tightly.
“I will aim for the eyes!”
“With a short blade like yours, getting close will be… tough. Are you sure?”
“Yes! Do not worry, young master!”
‘Shen will go for the eyes. Then I will… use magic on the rest?’
Since the core’s location was random, failing to strike accurately would only repeat this situation.
Caution filled Aquila’s eyes.
Even as he avoided the downward smashes of both arms, his body was pushed and rolled forward a bit more.
Hiiiii!
The sound of a horse neighing.
“This… what in the world is this dreadful creature…?!”
“…My goodness!”
Panicked voices rang out behind the frantic whinnying of horses.
Four holy knights.
Before their terrified horses could throw them off completely, one of them leapt down first and grabbed the spear strapped to his back.
Sharp at the tip and gradually rounding toward the shaft.
A weapon distinctive to holy knights.
Wearing armor engraved with the emblem of Sun God Raspalara on the chest, he ran toward the struggling figures in the garden.
“Lord Reschenhardt!”
It was Heinen, Second Captain of the Temple Knights.
Slower than when mounted, but quick for someone in armor, Heinen had just witnessed the Corrupted Shadow of Ecstasy launch another attack at Aquila.
“…I apologize for being late. I will help!”
Even upon seeing the monster dripping with black sludge, Heinen did not voice any questions, only those words.
Seeing the long-awaited reinforcement, Aquila’s lips curled upward.
There was no longer any need to gamble with magic.
Springing to his feet, Aquila shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Can you sever its heart?!”
“…I will try!”
As Heinen and the holy knights charged across the garden—
THUD! THUD!
The shadow trembled violently and stabbed both hands back into the ground.
“KIEEEEEK!”
“Ghk…?!”
The sudden roar made Heinen and the holy knights following behind him flinch.
FWOOOSH!
But only for a moment.
The shadow opened its mouth wide and spewed corrupted sludge once more.
Because Aquila had turned its attention toward an empty direction, there were no casualties, but it was only natural for Heinen to be shaken at the sight of the garden melting into black ruin.
“What…?!”
But as if to snap him back to his senses, a golden tide began to gather on Heinen’s spear as well.
Gentle energy, like a hand cradling the heart.
Looking up in surprise, Heinen saw Yujelia in her pure white robe, one hand on her brooch, gazing toward them.
She had imbued Heinen’s spear with divinity as well.
The noise continued without pause.
BOOM!
After spewing sludge, the shadow staggered and planted both arms on the ground, tilting its body.
No one needed to say it.
This was the best possible opportunity to strike.
“…Young master, here—your blade!”
As Aquila rolled back to avoid the sludge, Shen tossed him a blade.
Aquila caught it by the hilt.
As he turned, the golden light clinging to the blade drew a fierce smile from him.
‘Perfect…!’
This would be enough.
And he could hide it as well.
WOOOONG!
A completely different energy from mana flooded his body.
It did not take form externally, but surged violently from the hilt of the blade he held.
Sword aura, usable only by those who had reached the realm of true swordsmen.
Aquila’s fighting spirit from a past iteration, when he had lived as a Sword Master, erupted violently, manifesting as aura that clearly coated the blade.
Coincidentally, it was a golden aura similar to Divine Power.
Thump!
His heart pounded wildly.
Yet, as if time itself had slowed, Aquila calmly regulated his breathing and focused on what lay ahead.
A short blade.
But the golden sword aura extending from it had grown longer than the blade itself, slicing cleanly through the sludge-covered right arm and left arm.
SLASH!
Both arms were severed without resistance, yet no core was visible.
Aquila turned and shouted.
“…The rest!”
But even without his call, the next attack was already in motion.
“Hup!”
Heinen, eyes sharp beneath his fully enclosed helmet, stomped one foot into the ground with a thunderous crack.
Using that foot as an axis, he swung the spear he held with all his might horizontally into the monster’s body.
SWIIISH!
Heinen’s blue sword aura and Yujelia’s golden Divine Power layered upon the spear.
The sharpened force surged as if to pierce straight through the monster.
SLASH!
A single strike.
Yet that alone was enough for Heinen’s aura to cleave through the shadow’s heart and split its torso clean in two.
“KIEEEEEK!”
The shadow screamed in agony.
Sludge boiled and writhed, trying once more to regenerate its body.
The core had not been in the heart either.
But the assault did not end there.
“Shen!”
At Aquila’s shout, Shen kicked off the ground and lightly vaulted into the air.
Without hesitation, he stepped onto the sludge-covered body and drove his blade into the grotesquely swollen eye.
SSSSS!
Ignoring the fact that his foot was beginning to melt into the sludge, he thrust even deeper.
Then—
CLANG!
The core buried deep within the eye shattered, and at last, the monster’s body began to collapse.