Chapter 198
Chapter 198
An Aura Master’s awakened Aura Blade fell under two broad categories. One was the type that maximized the scale and application of power, like Al Razzaz and Varg, while the other manifested special abilities, like Cedric or Karen. In general, the latter was rarer, but that didn’t mean it was stronger or more exceptional.The concept itself wasn’t too difficult. If there were arrows whose trajectories could freely change, avoiding them or knocking them aside would be extremely difficult. However, what if there were arrows so fast you had no time to dodge, ones that could pierce even shields? Could one say those were inferior to the former?
The difference between the two kinds of Aura Blades was just like that, and Leon’s Aura Blade, the Sun Sword, belonged firmly to the first category. Not just that, but it stood among the very highest in terms of output.
“Here I come,” Leon muttered.
Icarus Wing burst from his back, and Prominence surging up from the Holy Sword turned the ground below molten like flowing lava. Bathed in radiant golden light, even his hair looked gilded. His very presence radiated such overwhelming power that no one could dare approach.
Yes, it was as if—
“The... Sun...” Elahan muttered as her gaze shimmered, holding even a trace of reverence.
She thought of the old legends of heroes of an age long past, depicted in murals across temple walls. At the center stood a man brandishing his sword with pride: the Holy King Rodrick himself. Leon seemed like his incarnation.
However, her awe only lasted a moment. Elahan gauged the weight of the Holy Iron Breaker in her grip and narrowed her eyes.
Then, Leon, wings unfurled, shot into the air.
“Grand Chariot, Heavenly Core, First Form, Reverse: Dubhe.”
The inverted arc of his swordlight, slashing not from above to below but the other way around, tore through the Winter Serpent’s massive body. By the time it twisted too late, hundreds of scales had already been ripped away.
“Kyaaak?”
The serpent shrieked in agony it had never imagined. After swallowing several spheres of Leon’s Flare, his body had grown to seventy meters, and now it thrashed violently. The ground within the barrier heaved, soil shooting dozens of meters into the air.
Then Elahan struck that wound with her Holy Iron Breaker. With a deafening boom, the Winter Serpent’s body bent into a U.
Watching from the shadows, Karen’s jaw dropped.
“Holy hell...”
This was none other than the strongest Saintess in the history of the Holy Church. Her reputation applied not only to her Holy Power but also to sheer physical strength. Even as a child, she had bent coins with one hand, and once she could walk, she bent iron spears as if they were reeds.
Amplified by Aura and Holy Power, her strength rivaled that of colossal monsters. Naturally, it was strong enough to land a true blow on the Winter Serpent.
I really shouldn’t play around with Elahan...
Every time she’d locked arms with her, that assassin’s instinct had sounded warnings, and apparently, it had been for good reason. If Elahan had ever harbored ill will, Karen would already be nothing more than dried jerky.
Shaking off that thought, Karen brought her hands together. She had to seize the chance her comrades created.
“Pitch-Black Dance.”
From beneath the Winter Serpent, several shadows rose in Karen’s shape, racing up its long body. The serpent absorbed heat not only through its maw but through every scale. Yet shadows had no temperature, allowing them to approach unhindered. Such a thing was impossible for her true body.
Perhaps unaware of what lacked heat or weight, the Winter Serpent left itself defenseless until the shadows leapt into its maw. It had never faced an attack like this.
“Kyah? Kraaaah!”
“I want to see you shit blood!”
Grinning fiercely, Karen moved her shadows. Even Leon’s strike had only peeled away some of its hide. But, maybe from within, where it was weakest, she could bring out a more positive result.
“Shadow Arts, First Form: Parasite in Lion’s Belly.”
All six shadow clones detonated at once. It was a technique so deadly it could instantly kill even colossal monsters, made infamous for felling Sandworms in a single blow. Certain of her success, Karen looked up at the beast with pride.
“Huh...?”
Seconds passed. The Winter Serpent did not thrash or convulse. It simply regenerated its missing scales. It was as if nothing had happened at all, an outcome far beyond expectation.
Was it because of the shock? Karen was a step slower to react than the other two.
“Karen!”
Elahan rushed to her instinctively, planting her foot and pulling Karen away from the Winter Serpent with explosive force. Only then did Karen realize she had lost all sensation in her left foot.
“Well, looks like I got hit.”
The spot she had stood moments ago—within fifty meters around the Winter Serpent—was sealed in thick ice. It must have absorbed all the heat in that area during its recovery right after taking damage. At that speed, even a Master would be caught if they were a beat too slow.
Karen’s left foot remained frozen in place.
“Karen! Your leg!”
“Calm down. How long would it take you to regenerate it with your Holy Law?”
“To regenerate a lost limb from the start... at least ten minutes. The leg over there wouldn’t work even if we tried to attach it, so...”
“Then it can’t be helped. It’s my fault for letting my guard down,” Karen reassured Elahan, who was more shaken than she was, and then naturally rose to her feet—on both legs.
Elahan’s eyes widened.
“W-what? Karen, how... Oh!”
“Huh, this works better than I expected. I can’t keep it up long, though.”
Karen flexed the shadow-forged left leg she had reconstructed from her ankle and grinned. It was an idea she’d had ever since seeing the puppet form of Pitch-Black Dance. If shadows could be given form and used to manipulate objects, why not parts of her own body as well?
“Don’t worry about me anymore. We’re leaving the Hero to fight alone as it is.”
“Understood. But please be careful, Karen.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t let my guard down twice.”
After another quick exchange of encouragement, Karen and Elahan returned to their positions. Though she had disrupted their formation unintentionally, she had also discovered something from her injury. Karen raised her voice toward Leon, who was drawing the serpent’s attention high above.
—Leon!
Her voice, carried on a thread of Aura, reached him.
—Be careful of that monster’s mouth. It seems to have no internal organs, but rather a special ability inside that disassembles energy.
Leon tilted his head at her words and thought, No internal organs? Is that possible?
El Cid replied, —It is. A creature that devours ‘heat’ has no reason to chew or swallow anything. Then, digestion is unnecessary. Don’t assume its physiology is the same as lifeforms of this dimension, just because it looks like our snakes.
Then what’s inside its body?
—Most likely an internal subspace that absorbs ‘heat’—energy. That’s why it devoured your buddy’s Aura shadow constructs so easily.
Its absorption speed was staggering. From the moment Karen’s shadows leaped into its mouth to the instant she triggered her technique, only a few seconds had passed. And in those few seconds, the serpent had already absorbed all the energy of the shadow clones.
“If I actually get bitten, I’m in real trouble...”
Realizing the danger, Leon tightened his grip on his sword. The Winter Serpent, its body already fully healed, was glaring straight at him. Elahan’s strike had done significant damage, but his value as prey was too great to be put off by the attack of the Saintess.
Its defenses are too strong. If I use large-scale techniques back-to-back, it’ll just regenerate from the residual heat. Attacking would be meaningless.
Even Grand Chariot had done little more than scrape scales. Judging from his experience fighting powerful enemies, not even the North Star Cross or Three Stars in Heaven’s Jar could finish it off.
It seemed like the only option was erasing its existence in a single blow with Four Stars in Vast Heavens. Anything less, and it would regenerate.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
As Leon was deep in thought, the Winter Serpent lunged. No—“lunged” wasn’t quite right. From the ground, it straightened its massive body and opened its maw wide to swallow him whole.
“Dammit, it won’t even give me time to think!”
Even after evading with sharp turns, the Winter Serpent did not tire. With no concept of stamina, it only smacked its lips at the residual flames of Icarus Wing, swallowing them hungrily.
Elahan’s strikes could stagger it, but it could never deal a decisive blow. Karen, weaker in offense, had no chance at all.
Then, an idea struck Leon. With a grunt, he shot two lines of Aura to his companions down on the ground.
His explanation was brief. The plan seemed reckless, but Karen and Elahan nodded without a word of protest, proving their trust.
Alright. Let’s give this a go.
To execute the plan, he had to keep its attention locked on him. Dodging the beast’s pursuit with acrobatic flight, Leon raised his sword. The entire sequence of this plan had to be brilliant, in a literal sense. Leon had to make sure that the massive serpent couldn’t turn its eyes to anyone else.
“Grand Chariot,” Leon muttered as two massive slashes crossed in the night sky. “Chained Secret Technique: North Star Cross.”
A golden cross crashed down upon the Winter Serpent’s head. Leon’s counterattack, darting like a gnat, drove the Winter Serpent’s head deep into the ground, its massive body rebounding a beat later.
Even that wasn’t fatal. The scales near its head had been ripped away, flesh torn, and beneath it, dark bone gleamed intact, marked only by a cross-shaped wound.
One... more... time...!
He had reached the stage of chaining together four strikes, but for Leon, the Chained Secret Techniques were still a finishing move. Once unleashed, he needed a moment to steady his breath. These decisive moves were techniques that wrung every muscle and every ounce of Aura past their limits, and using them in succession was enough to tear his body apart.
“Grand Chariot,” he muttered again.
Using the split second where North Star Cross buried the serpent into the earth, he carved out an opening for a final wedge.
“Wandering Light, Seventh Form, Deep Application, Piercing Moon: Alkaid.”
Leon pulled together the last of his focus, even burning his own “will” to push through. Without it, he couldn’t pierce that thick, hardened body. He had to skewer the serpent’s twisted frame as if roasting it on a spit. His sword flashed in his grip as if it were hinting at a thrust that could pierce through just about anything.
The blade impaled the Winter Serpent, punching through again and again. After several charges and thrusts, when the light finally faded, the serpent flailed, its body riddled with eight gaping holes, spewing darkness like blood.
“Kryaaaah?!”
And then, a voice came from the shadows.
“Finally, my turn to shine!”
Karen burst from the shadows, dragging out every ounce of Aura.
Four would be enough, she thought to herself.
Sweeping her gaze over the Winter Serpent’s body, she shaped something massive from shadow. She needed something long and thick. She could have stopped at a spear, but to serve the exact purpose Karen wanted, it had to be larger.
More than twenty meters long...!
“Pitch-Black Dance, Shadow Arts, Fourth Form: Impaler.”
A colossal stake of shadow, once a symbol of the Keeper in the slums of Blaine, speared through the wounds in the serpent’s body. She wasn’t aiming to harm—it was restraint she needed. Even for just a moment, the giant serpent had to be pinned to the earth.
“Kraaaaah!”
As if mocking the effort, the Winter Serpent twisted violently. And then came Elahan, who had leaped onto its body at some point, brought her Holy Iron Breaker down on the stake with all her might.
The shadow pike that pierced the serpent was driven deep into the ground. Not one, but four.
Before its wounds could even knit, Elahan hammered the four stakes into the earth. Each strike of the Holy Iron Breaker made the monster writhe, but buried deep into the ground, reinforced with Karen’s full strength, the stakes would not be pulled free.
Having finished her part, Elahan leaped clear and called, “Hero Leon!”
The area was alight. It wasn’t dawn, but the aftermath of a power conjured in the night sky, driving even darkness beyond the horizon and casting its gaze down upon the earth.
“They say a ghost of a man who died with a full stomach is a happy one,” Leon muttered, tightening his grip in both hands, looking down at the serpent nailed to the ground like a mounted specimen.
The scale of energy drain was so immense that even the Stigma of the Guardian couldn’t keep up with it. After unleashing so many secret techniques in succession, he was on the brink of collapse. The only thing keeping him conscious was the Hero and Warrior’s duty to finish this battle.
“Chained Secret Technique...”
His body and mind, slipping into a trance, swung four times of their own accord, aiming for the serpent’s futile attempts to writhe away. He needed an attack of a wave of light that erased everything it touched. Especially, no chance for regeneration. From above, a radiant horn of brilliance struck the Winter Serpent.
“...Four Stars in Vast Heavens.”
Scales evaporated. Flesh evaporated. Bone evaporated.
The Winter Serpent screeched, feeling its very existence burned away, dragged back to its original dimension.
It didn’t want to be cast out of this paradise. It didn’t want to return to that frozen hell.
“Choke on it and vanish, serpent.”
However, the light was merciless. At Leon’s words, the monster’s last remaining head crumbled to ash, and shortly, it was gone,
Back to the eternal permafrost, the Winter Serpent was banished once more to the hell from which it could never be saved.