novelraw Chapter 204 : Army of Nature (1)
Chapter 204 : Army of Nature (1)
Chapter 204: Army of Nature (1)
Raion’s attack looked as though it slipped past without ever touching the surface of the hide.
“Did it pull some kind of trick after taking on that form?”
Every time I dealt with a demon race, I saw a new ability. And now, even while fighting this one, new abilities kept emerging.
“So what is it this time?”
Zelphinia did not stop, thrashing her tail about frantically.
On top of that, the authority of earth and cold she possessed was loaded into the ground, causing it to surge upward in places all around.
Papak! Papapapak!
Spiked pillars and rocks formed from various minerals did not pose a major threat.
However, Raion did not let his guard down.
‘It’s just that my power is great. It’s not like my physical body itself is that tough.’
After being hit by Kamio, he had even suffered a nosebleed. In the end, a human body still had its limits.
Even now, thanks to his fast reflexes, he was perfectly avoiding fatal attacks, so it was not dangerous.
‘I need to raise the output even more.’
Raion made the Aura Circle spin faster. From the recoil, he felt a dull ache below his solar plexus.
As mana swirled, it even felt as if something was being sucked in.
‘Is natural mana gathering?’
When using high-level magic, not only one’s own mana but also that of nature was drawn in.
However, it could not be fully converted to suit the body, so there was a limit.
But now was different from back then.
Judging it to be an opportunity, Raion increased the rotational force of the Aura Circle even further.
Shuaaaaaaak!
Perhaps because of the circulation of energy within his body, the resonance of speed felt like it was rising all the way to his head.
“How dare you deceive me while standing before me!”
Because he had pulled back slightly and was concentrating.
That gave Zelphinia an opening.
Her massive head lunged toward Raion.
Shuaaaaak—! Kwakwakwakwakwakwang!
In an instant, Raion opened the eyes he had briefly closed and blocked it with his sword.
Unable to fully withstand the weight due to the laws of physics, Raion was pushed back so hard that the ground beneath his feet heaved upward.
“To take me head-on and not be blown away……!”
“This time, it’s my turn, right?”
“Kugh……. Even if you fall into hell, can you return?”
“What? Hell?”
Kugugugugugu!
Suddenly, the ground shook and began to split apart wildly.
Startled, Raion tried to leap upward.
But as if Zelphinia had anticipated it, she swung the tail she had prepared in advance, smashing Raion away.
Kwajang—!
The shaking ground began to open up, revealing a chasm with no visible end.
“Ah—! Fly! Wind!”
Raion, who had tried to get up immediately, fell below. First, to rise upward, he used magic to float and tried to increase his speed by combining it with Wind.
“Hell is only just beginning!”
“What the……, huh?”
Zelphinia opened her enormous mouth and spewed a breath mixed with pitch-black darkness and blue cold.
Phaaaaaaaa!
Because of its overwhelming scale, Raion could not quickly evade while suspended in midair. He barely managed to protect his entire body by using the energy of the Aura Circle.
‘How far am I falling?’
Kukukukung!
Wrapped in pitch-black darkness and blue cold, Raion could no longer see his surroundings.
Then, just as he heard a strange rumble from the ground, he felt the presence around him closing in from all sides.
“Don’t tell me it’s closing the ground?”
He had not expected this kind of attack.
Startled, Raion hurriedly drew up the Aura Circle’s energy, adding natural mana to it, and loaded it into his sword to split the breath.
Chwaaaaaaaak!
Raion’s overwhelming Slashing Strike surged upward, cutting through the breath in reverse.
Only then did his surroundings begin to come into view, and Raion discovered that the situation was exactly as he had sensed.
“Damn……!”
Below him flowed a river of scorching magma.
Despite the Aura that had been cutting through the breath growing incredibly small the further it went, there was still no end in sight, making it impossible to tell how far he had been forced down.
Kugugugugu!
The ground kept closing in, the gaps narrowing more and more.
“No!”
Raion increased his speed by using ‘Wind’ along with ‘Anti Gravity’.
Shwaaaaaaak!
The speed at which he shot toward the surface was terrifying.
Kugugugugu!
But the narrowing gap from before ended up closing completely.
With his body completely wedged in place, Raion could no longer rise and came to a stop.
“Is it trying to trap me here?”
For now, Raion used mana to extract only the oxygen mixed within the soil, first securing his breathing.
No matter how immense one’s mana was or how supreme one’s swordsmanship, a human was still a human. If you could not breathe, you died all the same.
“How am I supposed to get out?”
Raion’s entire body was stuck underground.
He immediately tried to recall magic, but even that required the right environment to use.
Basically, fire, water, and lightning required oxygen and weather.
As for earth, what use was moving soil when completely sealed underground? Its effects could only be seen above ground.
“This is driving me crazy……!”
The situation had become absurdly and thoroughly dire.
Raion racked his brain to break out of this deadlock.
.
.
.
Above ground, Zelphinia gazed at the completely sealed earth, a smile spreading across her face.
“Hahahahahaha! You dared deceive me, and now look at you! Serves you right! Serves you right!”
Despite the continuous attacks, Raion had not suffered serious damage.
Instead, through the gaps in her hide where mana flowed, he kept striking with Aura imbued with holy power.
Moreover, from that Aura, she even sensed an energy surpassing holy power.
“But then, just what was that?”
Sensing danger, Zelphinia had used her final resort.
Of course, as a duke of the demon race, I might have had to endure humiliation.
But even Kamio, a marquis of the Demon Realm, had been helplessly defeated……, and my pride would not allow me to meet my end right here.
And so, I managed to sink Raion beneath the earth.
“It is regrettable that I could not present that bastard’s head to the Demon King…….”
Zelphinia’s gaze shifted to her surroundings. In that space, the lightning of ‘White Castle’ was still flashing brightly.
“Is he not dead yet? Or……, does he not disappear even if he dies?”
Raion had fallen to a depth so profound that it was impossible to gauge the distance.
How could a human survive in that place, which was harsh even for the demon race? Unless one was a perfect god, survival was absolutely impossible.
“Then I will at least offer that one to the Demon King.”
She needed a symbol that she had defeated a great enemy. At that moment, Grapheos, who had been flying through the sky, entered Zelphinia’s field of vision.
Grapheos, the sacrifice of the Dark Temple,.
Once, he had been a sacrifice created to hasten the resurrection of the Demon King.
Of course, now the black-hearted greed of the emperor, blinded by desire, had been deeper than expected, allowing the Demon King to revive sooner.
For the moment, Grapheos might no longer have been necessary, but if she took him along, she might find another use for him.
Thud—! Pajijijijiji!
“Kuaaaak!!”
Zelphinia slammed her body into the wall of ‘White Castle’, which was filled with lightning.
Whether its power was still intact, pure-white lightning leapt onto the massive serpent’s body, inflicting tremendous pain.
“Don’t tell me……, that I cannot leave this place?”
Zelphinia clenched her teeth, then slowly opened her mouth once more.
“Infelix puer qui decidit in caelum, frigidus tactus in terram(A wretched child who fell from the sky, a cold touch that shakes the earth). Corpus meum offero temeratum(I offer this eroded body).”
Zelphinia’s body, which had been a gigantic serpent, began to crumble into soil.
The soil that fell to the ground vanished as if sinking into a swamp.
Puk! Pupuk! Puk! Pupupuk!
The massive bulk, large enough to completely crush an entire village, continued to shrink until it was about the size of her original body.
“Hoo…….”
The appearance of Zelphinia as she let out a sigh was different from before.
Unlike the refined yet cold woman with long pitch-black hair she had been at first, her entire skin and even her pupils now resembled those of a serpent, all while emitting a blue-tinged cold.
“It would be best to concentrate my power.”
The White Castle Raion had created was an ‘anti-demon barrier’. It allowed only organic beings that were not demons and ordinary inorganic matter to pass through.
It could confine only demons, which reacted antagonistically to holy power.
Earlier as well, attacks using soil or cold had merely passed through.
To break through the barrier, she had to pour in even more demonic mana, which was its direct opposite.
“Hostia vitae, piceum frigus et tremulum(Sacrifice of life, pitch-black cold and trembling earth).”
Zelphinia drew soil up from the ground, then forged a gigantic sword and hurled it toward the wall of the barrier.
Even the cold authority that had once belonged to Kamio was layered onto its surface.
Shuaaaaaaaa! Pak!
Pajijijijijijijik—!
Perhaps because it was packed full of demonic energy, the gigantic sword made of inorganic matter did not pass through and instead collided with the energy of the barrier.
Pitch-black smoke and pure-white lightning intertwined and clashed.
“Kuh! So this is as far as it goes!”
The backlash of the clashing energies was transmitted even to Zelphinia. It was all to destroy Raion’s ‘White Castle’.
In response, Zelphinia drew up even more of her power and poured it into the sword.
“Kuaaaaaaaaa!”
With her battle cry, the sword entangled with the barrier’s lightning began to advance little by little.
Pajijijijik!
The lightning surged and began drawing energy from other walls. Then, the wall on the opposite side gradually started to fade.
This was because even the power source of ‘White Castle’, created solely by Raion’s strength, had its limits.
Pajijijijik!
At that moment, Zelphinia’s energy surpassed that of ‘White Castle’. The pure-white lightning was swallowed by pitch-black smoke, gradually dimming as it scattered completely.
The barrier had been broken.
“It’s done!”
“Pu—ha! It’s done!”
The instant Zelphinia cried out in triumph, the ground suddenly surged upward and Raion burst out.
“…….”
“…….”
For a moment, silence hung in the air.
She had been absolutely certain that she had sent Raion to the other world, yet he appeared like this.
Moreover, how he had managed to come up from such depths underground was also a mystery.
“What? Did you break mine? You look different too.”
She identified who it was through his energy.
Raion did not care in the slightest what she was thinking. He immediately pulled his body completely free from the ground and stood up.
Soil was packed densely between the gaps of his armor.
Raion washed it all away forcefully with the magic ‘Water’.
“Puha! I can finally breathe. But looks like you had a rough time?”
That question was directed at Zelphinia, who was still standing there in a daze.
Zelphinia was not merely shocked. She had been ready to attack the moment she saw any opening.
However, she could not see even the slightest opening in the grumbling Raion.
Instead, a provocative momentum radiated from him, enough to make it feel as though he would cut her down no matter what she did…….
“To think you would come up so quickly from there.”
“Thanks to you dropping me properly, I really thought I was going to die.”
Srrrng.
Raion took out the sword he had left stored for a while in his storage.