Chapter 225 : Ribenia Anti-Demon War (6)
Chapter 225: Ribenia Anti-Demon War (6)
An SS-Rank Beast.
The pinnacle of all Beasts.
Just like the Supreme Evil Spirits, they represented the upper limit of a Beast's strength.
No Beast above SS-Rank could exist, and every single one of them was a calamity to humanity.
Considering their overwhelming strength, they usually appeared as the final boss in every mode except Apocalypse.
Of course, MAGA was fundamentally a raising game, so the final boss rarely had much influence over the ending.
However, because Apocalypse Mode placed a far greater emphasis on combat than any other mode, most of the lore regarding the Beasts was revealed there.
Among the most representative settings were the following.
First.
Beasts of A-Rank and above did not experience death in the conventional sense.
Second.
Beasts of S-Rank and above could forcibly control all Beasts below their rank.
Third.
Among the SS-Rank Beasts, every individual except two could speak the human language.
Fourth.
Non-humanoid Beasts possessed superior close-combat abilities compared to humanoid Beasts.
Fifth.
Among all SS-Rank Beasts, Mastema alone could temporarily surpass even his own specifications.
That...
Was the proof.
His earlier display of power had already demonstrated it.
There was a reason he was called the King of Beasts.
Boom!
Booooom!
After absorbing the power of every high-ranking Beast, his body had expanded dozens of times over, and with that immense strength, he was turning both the Imperial Palace and the capital into complete ruins.
As though refusing to remain helpless, nearly twenty of the Allied Forces' strongest combatants had gathered to resist him.
Among them were Karen, who had achieved Complete Awakening...
And Francia, who had inherited the authority of the Divine Sword.
It was true that I had played a role in helping them overcome their obstacles.
In helping them grow.
But...
They no longer needed my help.
Even if I no longer existed in this world...
They would never collapse.
They would never repeat the countless deaths...
Nor the endless despair that I had witnessed.
Of course, that wasn't why I was standing here merely observing them.
To launch a surprise attack beyond the enemy's expectations, I needed to move separately for a while.
That was why I had hurried all the way here.
Along the way, I encountered several new messages.
As a result, I quickly altered the plan.
That was all.
Mana Devour 改 EX
Devours the target's mana.
※ Devoured mana can now be converted into abilities.
※ The time required for Mana Devour has been drastically reduced.
※ Mana Devour can now be used on Beasts that are not incapacitated.
The ability of Mana Devour had changed.
More accurately...
It had become even more powerful.
'An already broken EX-Rank ability...'
The reason I had always aimed for short battles against high-ranking Beasts was because I couldn't use Devour on living Beasts.
Now...
That weakness had disappeared completely.
It was almost as though...
It had been waiting for Mastema to enter his final phase.
'Could this also be part of someone's plan?'
If so...
The most likely candidate would be the Creator God mentioned in the message.
Abrel.
The reason He had been unable to intervene just before my battle with Mastema...
Was probably because some unknown condition had prevented Him.
If the ancient creation myth passed down since time immemorial was true...
Just as they had told me...
Then the one who created the Beasts was Alu, the Creator God and Supreme God.
To oppose Him...
The Guardian God Paladion...
And the Successors had come into existence.
The message calling me the "Representative Chosen by Abrel"...
Must mean that I had become humanity's representative against Alu's will.
I still didn't know...
Who had brought me into this world.
But if they were willing to arrange everything this thoroughly...
Then as someone pursuing salvation...
I had no reason to refuse.
Even the Beasts, born solely for humanity's extinction, were risking their lives like this.
So how could I...
As humanity's representative...
The embodiment of free will...
Be the one to back away?
“…Clina.”
“We'll have to change the plan.”
So...
I conveyed my decision to Clina.
“…Looks like I'll have to risk my life as well.”
There was only one objective before me.
Kill him...
Before he reduced the capital and the Imperial Palace to rubble.
.
.
.
In truth...
The plan Clina and I had discussed hadn't changed very much.
The mutual-destruction strategy centered around the spear...
One of the two Artifacts Lea had given me earlier.
A trump card that could only be used because I was contracted to Clina White—
The pinnacle of Evil Spirits.
The Supreme Evil Spirit.
Originally...
Even that attack wouldn't be enough to finish Mastema.
The plan had been to leave everything afterward to the others.
But now...
With Mana Devour's new ability...
It was possible.
If I converted every bit of absorbed mana into energy to resist Trishula's Curse...
I could simultaneously undo his gigantic transformation...
And minimize the damage inflicted upon myself.
'I'm right, aren't I, Clina?'
As I asked...
I calculated the point where I should leap onto him.
— Certainly...
That much is true.
Her reply was far more lukewarm than I had expected.
— But for that to work...
The prerequisite is that you absorb every bit of that murderous mana filling Mastema.
'Naturally.'
'That's the only way to undo his transformation.'
— Even the mana of dead Beasts, after most of their malice has faded...
Cannot be completely absorbed by humans.
Even your Devour ability cannot eliminate those aftereffects.
'...That's true.'
— This time...
Even Divine Magic won't be able to minimize the damage.
The best I can do is prevent Trishula's Curse from completely consuming you...
And the pain you'll experience during that process...
Will far exceed anything you can imagine.
Even under the original plan, I couldn't guarantee your mind would endure.
And now...
You're proposing something even worse.
'There's no helping it.'
'No one else can do this.'
— You don't have to go this far!
“……”
Hearing Clina suddenly shout inside my mind...
I relaxed my posture for a brief moment.
— As someone equal to him...
I can say this with certainty.
He became greedy.
Even the King of Beasts cannot withstand that much power.
If we simply endure until his rampage burns itself out...
Victory is assured.
Now that he's grown this large...
He can't even target specific individuals anymore.
“……”
— The people you cherish have all awakened even further here.
They won't lose.
Only some of those who scorned you as someone with tainted blood...
Will die in this war.
Many of them have probably already died.
'...So you're saying we should simply leave it at that?'
'That those sacrifices are necessary...'
'For the Empire's renewal?'
— The regular army has already arrived!
Isn't that enough?!
Why risk a life that doesn't even need to be risked?!
Of all people...
You know better than anyone how the Ribenia Empire treated you!
'...I know.'
'Better than anyone.'
Standing upon a battlefield filled with endless explosions...
I picked up a spear instead of my sword.
I immediately poured the refined mana produced by the Grimoire Bright Book of Shadows into the mid-grade Artifact—
Adivati's Spear—
Transforming it into the supreme-grade Artifact...
Trishula.
Raising the spear high...
I completed my throwing stance.
Then I quietly spoke.
“I'm not doing this for the Empire.”
“I'm doing it for them.”
Those who live for others...
Are called heroes.
People who pursue noble purposes and noble lives through sacrifice.
Everyone standing here...
Including myself...
Had wagered their lives not for themselves...
But for those precious to them.
One day...
History would call us heroes.
The people I sought to save.
The values Edel Ribenia wished to protect.
They existed within us heroes.
So I too...
As someone bearing the title of War Hero...
Would wager my life.
“Because...”
“It's the only path toward a new era.”
No more words were necessary.
In an instant...
I gathered every last bit of mana within my body into my entire right arm.
Then...
Using all of that power...
I hurled Trishula.
The cursed spear that brought ruin to both its wielder and its target.
While its blade implanted a deadly curse into the enemy's body and soul...
I would suffer a proportional Curse of Erosion.
Just before the spearhead struck Mastema—
I sprinted forward with my body lightened by Enchant Magic.
Leaping from the edge of the fortress wall toward his head...
I poured every remaining ounce of mana into my sword and unleashed a slash.
Then immediately activated my skill.
— Activating 'Mana Devour 改.'
His gigantic body convulsed violently.
Whether from agony...
Or because his mana was being devoured...
There was no way to know.
No...
I didn't even have the luxury of thinking about that.
Pain so intense that I couldn't even scream...
Engulfed my entire body.
And naturally...
The emotions that flooded in alongside it were killing intent and rage.
The accumulated hatred of decades...
Even centuries.
Clina was right.
Why are you going this far?
They're just game characters anyway.
Being dragged into this world was unfair enough already.
If your life ends like this before you've ever truly lived...
Isn't that enough?
Even after seeing the way they look at you...
Those eyes that never even considered you human...
You're still going to sacrifice yourself for their sake?
Just give up.
Come with us.
Deep down...
You want to throw everything away anyway.
Let it all go.
Rest.
Then...
Take revenge on everyone who made you this way.
Whether it's this world...
Or the world outside.
You didn't do anything wrong.
It was your parents who abandoned you.
It was the world that left you to rot.
As long as you can vent all your resentment upon them...
Wouldn't that be enough?
So let's kill them.
Let's kill them together.
Now!
Pain...
Accompanied by those emotions...
Rose like auditory hallucinations, clawing at my sense of self as though those thoughts had always belonged to me.
A single minute...
Felt like an entire hour.
Whenever I found myself wondering whether I should simply obey those voices...
I remembered the thousands of failures I had experienced.
Because I had immersed myself more deeply than anyone else in their despair and frustration...
Ironically...
I was able to avoid being completely consumed by those emotions.
“Kh... Ugh...!”
The darkness clouding my vision finally receded.
But...
Everything was still ongoing.
Standing upon Mastema's shoulder...
As he howled in agony just as I had...
I continued devouring his mana without ever releasing my sword.
His violent struggles conveyed a message all on their own.
How...
Could a mere human who had lived only a few decades...
Endure this pain?
“……Who knows.”
Of the tremendous amount of mana extracted from more than a hundred high-ranking Beasts...
I had intercepted over sixty percent before it could reach him.
More than half of that was being used as fuel to inflict pain upon him.
The remainder was devoted to preventing the spear's curse from consuming me.
He still maintained his gigantic form...
But even that was reaching its limit.
The proof...
Was that more than eighty percent of the thick hide and protective barrier that had once seemed completely impenetrable...
Had already disappeared.
The pain...
As though thousands of red-hot needles had been driven into every inch of my body...
Continued to ravage me.
Even so...
I never loosened my grip on my sword.
Instead...
I gathered the enormous torrent of mana threatening to burst from him directly into my blade.
Then...
From within his own body...
I unleashed another slash.
And left him with a single sentence.
“Try failing over three thousand times across six years on a challenge you'll never clear.”
KYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!
A scream powerful enough to rupture eardrums echoed across the battlefield.
The flesh surrounding the place where my sword had been embedded was torn away completely.
The sword that had barely been supporting my weight lost its footing.
My balance collapsed with it.
At that same moment...
Having finally regained control over his body...
Mastema's enormous arm rushed toward me, intent on tearing me to pieces.
And at that instant...
My consciousness faded completely.