Chapter 226 : Chapter 226
Chapter 226
Five minutes. We had to subdue Ouroboros within that time.
But even those five minutes weren’t certain.
The tremors had somehow stopped, but the space was collapsing quickly.
“This is a little dangerous.”
Could this space really hold out for even five minutes?
Isn’t it practically one minute?
The moment I even began to doubt myself, I shouted with all my might.
“Lucian, three steps back!”
The command fell like a bolt of lightning, and Lucian moved three steps back. Ouroboros’s massive tail slammed down into the spot where Lucian had been standing just moments ago.
Ouroboros curled its body. It was the warning sign of a shockwave.
“Prepare for a shockwave!”
Had it decided we had noticed its attack?
Ouroboros, which had been gathering the shockwave, stopped charging it further and fired the shockwave straight toward us.
Knowing that a shockwave was coming and dodging it were two separate matters.
I can’t dodge this!
I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for the pain that would follow, but no pain came.
When I opened my eyes, the world was upside down.
No, the world wasn’t upside down. My body was.
“Young Master, are you okay?”
“Fel.”
I was slung over Fel’s shoulder like some piece of baggage.
With my speed, weaving in and out of Ouroboros’s attacks was basically impossible.
Since it had come to this, I had no choice but to entrust my body to him.
“Can I leave myself to you like this?”
“As much as you want.”
That sure is reassuring.
I took a brief deep breath and watched Ouroboros’s next movements carefully with both eyes.
At the same time, the flow of mana it swallowed was clearly visible through Inscription.
“Lilia Sunbae, fall back. Laurel Sunbae, move forward! Cecilia Sunbae, throw your sword hard enough to lodge it in the scales at the nape of Ouroboros’s neck!”
No sooner had my order fallen than the three of them moved in perfect order, without the slightest doubt.
If my order had been wrong, they might have died, yet their movements were precise and swift, without a hint of hesitation.
The sword Cecilia Sunbae threw lodged itself in the snake’s nape and scattered the trajectory of its attack. The attack that had been heading for Lilia Sunbae and Laurel Sunbae missed both of them exactly and struck the center.
But that attack pattern had a follow-up.
Ouroboros’s body fluid, filled with Extreme Poison, slowly melted the sword, but it still retained its shape.
“Zephyros, the sword’s handle!”
Zephyros, smart bastard that he was, quickly understood what I meant.
Zephyros leapt powerfully, used the sword as a handle, and rushed toward the snake in an instant as I shouted with all my might.
“Kick it just like that!”
BOOM—!
Zephyros’s foot struck Ouroboros’s jaw upward with enough force to make that sound.
At the same time, Ouroboros’s mouth snapped shut, nullifying the poison-spewing attack that was supposed to follow.
The next pattern was—
It was at that moment.
The tremors began again.
I tried to tell Fel to brace for the next attack, but I bit my tongue because of the damn tremor.
The attack struck Fel directly, and the aftermath was transmitted intact to me, who was being carried by him like baggage.
“Kh!”
I was thrown to the floor. I tried somehow to use the staff to balance myself and stand, but it was not enough.
“This is a little dangerous.”
If the earlier tremor had been the first warning sign that the magic was about to collapse, this was the second. No, at this rate, the space itself would collapse.
“Tch!”
Ouroboros was a beast, but at least it wasn’t stupid.
So that’s why it used a shockwave for no reason…!
If a shockwave occurred in a space this extremely unstable, the collapse would naturally have no choice but to accelerate.
“This is a little dangerous.”
We still hadn’t properly subdued Ouroboros.
Would this end with all of us being crushed to death together in this space as it collapsed? Or would we go outside with Ouroboros and face this disaster there?
Whichever one it was, it was a deadly forced choice.
Now there wasn’t even room for the negotiation Iris had proposed.
If the whole Empire rushed in to face it, we would reach a battle for survival, but—
‘Then it will 100% become the Academy’s fault!’
We would get blamed for refusing when there had still been room to negotiate!
If they decided to pin the blame on the Descendant of the Hero like this and collect from him properly later, there would be no answer!
If there was one point better than the Original Storyline game, it was that the professors, the last resort who would protect the Hero, were still intact.
“Damn it!”
It only made the worst-case situation slightly better by turning it into the second worst.
Do you think I’m going through all this suffering for that?!
Could Ouroboros, which had swallowed Iris, use magic?
I had no certainty. It might even be an even more dangerous choice.
Still, what else could I do?!
I released the Writer skill that had sealed Iris’s magic and opened the Writer skill window again.
But what appeared before my eyes was not the familiar parchment form that appeared when I used the Writer skill, but a familiar System window.
+++
Overt skill use before the snake that swallows the world is not recommended.
Overt skill use before the snake that swallows the world is not recommended.
Overt skill use before the snake that swallows the world is not recommended.
Overt skill use before the snake that swallows the world is not recommended.
Overt skill use before the snake that swallows the world is not recommended.
⋯⋯.
+++
The System windows filled my vision.
Even though it was a screen, it felt noisy.
It really seemed to hate showing itself in front of Ouroboros.
“Then you shouldn’t have come to me in the first place.”
Face Ouroboros, but don’t use the Writer skill?
Why not just tell me to give up and quietly offer my neck instead? Do your worst—cut me open!!!
「The space stabilizes」
With that seven-character Writer skill alone, the space that had been shaking as though it would tear apart subsided in an instant.
But this wasn’t enough.
I had to touch a more fundamental law.
How much mana would this take?
I didn’t know how many minutes I could endure after using a skill like that, but if I could at least stretch a moment into eternity!
「Time in this place flows more slowly than time outside」
With the second skill as the turning point, my vision instantly went white.
It felt as though my heart had stopped altogether.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who felt it, because I heard Lilia Sunbae, supported by Laurel Sunbae, spit out a sharp curse.
“That crazy bastard.”
The only thing I could say was that I’d pay back this debt later.
I was laughing awkwardly, ha-ha, and trying to check Mordin’s condition when it happened.
At that moment, my eyes met Ouroboros’s.
“Huh?”
This is dangerous.
Like prey that had met a predator, I averted my gaze.
But that persistent gaze clung to me like gum stuck to the floor.
What do I do?
How can I run away from the monster in front of me?
There was no way I could run away.
That thing would follow ‘God’ to the very end of destruction.
It was a curse that existed that way.
“Theo!!!”
Even at Lucian’s and Zephyros’s shouts calling me, my body wouldn’t follow.
Before that overwhelming gaze, every voice was replaced by nothing more than faint groans.
But at that moment!
My field of vision shifted like before, and Ouroboros’s tail slammed down fiercely into the place where I had just been.
“Are you all right?”
“Mordin.”
“Ouroboros’s attitude changed after an excessive amount of mana was used. Is it related to that?”
At Mordin’s question, I slowly nodded.
So the System hadn’t put up that warning window for no reason.
Still, thanks to Mordin interfering on his own, my mind had returned to some extent. It seemed I could somehow move my body too.
I clenched and unclenched my fists a few times. A moment later, Lucian blocked the snake’s tail as it charged toward me again, and a fierce storm rose. It was Zephyros’s wind.
“The space and the passage have stabilized.”
“Yeah, they have….”
“Then does that mean you can close this space whenever you want?”
At Mordin’s question, I nodded.
The space had only just closed.
In other words, both the passage that should originally have shattered and the passage that should have closed completely tight were being forcibly held open by me.
That meant I could close it whenever I wanted.
There wasn’t even any need to use complicated magic or argue this or that. I just had to close the space once all of us got out.
“That should be enough. How long can you hold out?”
“Ten minutes at best.”
“That is a little difficult. Still, it may somehow be possible.”
Normally, I would have thought that still wasn’t enough and felt impatient.
But at this moment, I had no choice but to agree with Mordin’s judgment.
Ouroboros would try to deal with Hero Lucian first, but for that purpose, it could also target someone other than Lucian.
But now that Ouroboros had confirmed the System—the trace of a god—it had lost its mind and was openly targeting only me.
That was likely why Lucian was able to block its attacks a little more easily than before and cut and stab Ouroboros’s flesh again and again.
In other words, I had become more endangered, but the danger to everyone else had lowered.
“What the hell did you do?”
Zephyros, who had flown almost all the way to Mordin’s side on the wind, sent the snake’s poison that had just tried to burst my head far away with wind as he asked.
“Somehow, I ended up pulling massive aggro.”
It wasn’t intentional.
I could answer that much proudly.
Zephyros opened and closed his mouth for a long while, as though he had a lot to say, then lifted his sword with a sigh.
He’s actually using a sword for once?
Before I had time to ask, Ouroboros finally sent Lucian flying far away.
In that gap in the defense, Zephyros barely filled the opening.
“Mordin! Can you carry this guy and lure its attacks?”
“It is possible.”
My vision flipped again as I became baggage once more.
Just as I was starting to get used to upside-down vision, of all things, my eyes met Ouroboros’s.
“Ugh.”
A killing gaze.
No, was it closer to killing intent tinged with obsession?
“Wow.”
Can I survive this?
The moment I wondered that, Lucian, who had been thrown far away and returned, aimed for the end of Ouroboros’s neck.
“Not the neck! The scale under its eye!”
At my shout, Lucian quickly twisted the trajectory of his sword toward the scale under its eye.
Ouroboros, fully exposed to the attack whose path had abruptly changed, twisted its body violently.
That wasn’t enough.
“Zephyros, spread open the attack point with wind.”
“Got it.”
A gale blew, and I saw the snake’s body twist even further.
“Laurel Sunbae, please follow up with your trump move.”
“Got it.”
She emptied an Elixir in one gulp.
“Hartain and Fel, prepare Holy Magic.”
“Understood.”
The fight wasn’t over yet.
“Please, let’s end this already.”
At last, the time had come to end this dragging battle.