novelraw Chapter 135 : Chapter 135
Chapter 135 : Chapter 135
Chapter 135. The Legendary Demonic Beast
Muno realized this time that when faced with an utterly absurd situation, one's mind would just go blank.
He just stared blankly at the brutally shining green giant.
Drrrrrng.
Only when the monster's breath blew in front of his nose once again did his senses jolt back.
“This piece of shit!”
Feeling completely ignored, he reflexively drew his sword and swung it at the monster.
‘Damn….’
Thud.
The moment he felt his creaking body, suffering from the aftereffects of excessive demonic energy absorption, move clumsily contrary to his intentions, he thought, oops.
But the already-swung sword, cloaked in a shimmering gray mana blade, was striking near the mouth of one of the monster's heads.
Kwaaaaaang!
Kadeudeuk.
Perhaps because of his improper stance, Muno's expression distorted the moment he heard the sound of the sword's hilt slipping in his grip.
“Damn it!”
He was worried that his clumsy attack might have needlessly alerted the monster.
Drrrrrrrrng.
But the moment he felt the snoring continue just as before, his expression could only distort further.
“Ha……?”
He corrected his stance and glared at the monster.
Only then did he notice that there wasn't a single scratch on the part of the head lying before him, the very spot the mana blade had directly hit.
“Is this, for real……?”
True, he hadn't put his full weight into it, and his stance was awkward.
But it was a mana blade, and his sword was a spell created through Spirit Arts.
Yet there wasn't a single scratch, and it was still just sleeping?
At that moment, it felt like he could hear his pride cracking.
“Alright. Let's do this properly!”
Woowoong.
Woodeudeuk.
He moved his mana to push out the excessively absorbed demonic energy and soothe his overloaded body.
Woodeudeuk.
Just by closing his eyes and adjusting for a moment, his body returned to perfect condition.
He hadn't been injured in this battle in the first place.
“Right, keep sleeping.”
Kadeuk.
“In the meantime, I'll take that head of yours…….”
Woodeuk.
“...and split it open!”
Thud.
Acceleration.
The moment he took a powerful step forward, in a sensation where time around him seemed to slow down.
Wind Slicer.
Muno fiercely swung the massive greatsword.
Putting the full weight of his body, which possessed a massive mass nearing a ton.
The giant greatsword, accelerated by the secret art of Drasen, struck the monster's head, its grayish mana blade flickering like a flame.
However.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang!
Geugeugeugeugeugeuk.
‘Kuh.’
Contrary to his expectations, due to the rough resistance, both his hands gripping the greatsword just shook as if they would burst.
At that moment, ‘Blade’ reflexively bent, reducing the resistance somewhat, which prevented it from being flung from his grip.
But.
“Damn……”
The moment he recognized that only a faint scratch mark was left on the green scales of the head he had aimed for.
“……it.”
Thud.
In the accelerated time, Muno once again recalled the strongest move he could make.
Chwareureureuk.
The chain shot out again, wrapping around one of the massive necks and sucking in demonic energy with all its might.
‘Brute Strength.’
Woowoowoong.
On top of his accelerated body, another layer of armor made of gray mana was overlaid.
In that situation.
“Come!”
Tudeudeuk.
Woowoowoong.
In an instant, the metal weapons and armor of the victims scattered around the plaza began to fly toward him.
And they stuck directly to his raised ‘Blade’.
Woodeudeudeuk.
The ‘Giant's Blade’, which had grown to a length of over ten meters in an instant, ignited a gray flame on its surface.
Kadeudeuk.
‘I can do it! To kill this thing, this is the only way.’
The moment Muno, gritting his teeth, focused his mind as much as possible.
The gray flame burning on the greatsword also grew several times in scale.
‘Space Slicer.’
Using Brute Strength while having created the Giant's Blade, and in that state, even using Space Slicer.
It was an unreasonable combination he had never tried before, but the spirits that hadn't yet vanished helped by dyeing his armor red again in response.
‘It's, it's working!’
Just before the strongest strike he could execute, no, one he had only ever imagined until now, was about to be swung.
‘I'll split not just the head, but the entire torso in one go!’
The moment he smiled in his own accelerated time, he suddenly saw the monster's eyelid snap open.
‘What……?’
At the same time, a pair of giant red eyes glared at him.
The moment the red snake eyes, perfectly focused as if it had never been sleeping, stared at him.
An eerie feeling came over him along with a sudden, immense headache.
Jjiiiiiiiing.
“Ugh!?”
At that moment, his concentration broke, and his mana began to run rampant.
Thud.
Jjeojeojeojeojeok.
The Giant's Blade he had barely created collapsed, and the mana he had mobilized beyond its limits scattered uncontrollably.
As a result.
With the feeling of all the muscles and organs in his body twisting, Muno had no choice but to collapse on the spot.
“Pwuhak. Uweeek.”
Blood burst from his mouth.
As his entire body lost control, Muno felt his life was in danger.
‘I have to, have to run…….’
Thud.
He tried to force his body to move.
At that moment, he saw the monster's eyelids slowly close again.
‘……What?’
……Drrrrrng.
The monster's snoring, which started again soon after, snatched away his bewilderment as he was trying to get up.
“Ha…….”
Thud.
His body flopped down, collapsing to the floor.
The tingling pain that spread from the ends of his body proved that this was not a dream.
Soon, he looked around.
Keureureureung.
The monster's snores and the unpleasant smells echoed through the plaza once more.
The blood he had vomited and the metal fragments scattered everywhere.
All of it felt absurd.
“Th, this fucking……”
How dare you play with me?
Anger surged up again, but he had no choice but to force himself to cool his head.
‘If brute force doesn't work……. maybe.’
Chwareureureuk.
He tried to absorb its demonic energy by extending his chain and wrapping it around a part of the creature's massive body.
Woowoowoong.
“Hup!?”
Because the flow of demonic energy was rougher than he expected, he couldn't even touch its essence, the Origin Mana.
Metaphorically, it was like trying to fish something out from the depths of a sea with giant waves using only a chain.
Only a portion of the demonic energy radiating from the monster's exterior—already used energy that could only be converted into usable mana—was absorbed.
Naturally, that was nowhere near enough to subdue it.
Geugeugeung.
And then, the moment he felt the monster's eyelids rising again.
Muno quickly retracted the chain.
“Damn it!”
He had to admit it.
‘This, this monster is too much for me alone.’
The moment he reached that conclusion in his state of dismay.
“Sir Muno!!”
A familiar voice came with an approaching presence.
“Rauel……?”
Turning his head, he saw Rauel aiming her bow at the monster.
Even her arrow was already glowing blue.
‘Crap!?’
The moment he was about to stop her, worried she would suffer the same fate as him.
Rauel's already-fired arrow shortened the space like lightning and struck the monster's eyelid.
Kwaaaaaang!
“……?”
However.
Contrary to his worries, Rauel's attack failed to pierce the monster's eye and was deflected.
……Drrrrrng.
The snoring, which had paused for a moment, flowed out again.
He could perfectly understand how she felt, frozen by the baffling sight.
A hollow laugh escaped him.
“Don't waste your energy. That thing isn't moving.”
Rauel, who had been frozen like an ice statue, reacted belatedly to his words.
“Yes?”
“Anyway, help, help me up…….”
“Ah. Ye, yes!”
“That thing, it's ridiculous, right?”
“Ye, yes. It's a monster I've never even heard of. How……”
“Me too.”
However, Rauel's recent attack gave him one certainty.
He didn't know why it was sleeping, but ordinary attacks didn't even leave a scratch, so he couldn't wake it.
Even with his chain, he could only barely absorb the external demonic energy it breathed out.
And on top of that, it even seemed to have the ability to immediately react and neutralize any attack that could threaten it.
“We need to call people. A force that can finish this thing off completely while it's sleeping.”
As he spoke with determination and forced himself to stand up.
A step behind, another familiar presence, no, scent was felt.
“I couldn't believe it, but……”
“Victon?”
The guy Rauel had taken to safety was stealthily approaching with a pale face.
He was probably trying to help, even with his exhausted body.
“……Really, a Hydra?”
He couldn't help but perk up his ears at the words that followed.
“You, you know what that is?”
“I've seen it in documents. The Monster Lord that caused an uproar in the Iron Kingdom and the Deus Empire three hundred years ago.”
“Ah……!”
Only after hearing that did he remember.
The story that was written in the old book Lian found during the Miya incident.
The Monster Lord of the past that had headed south in search of its young.
“Then that's……?”
“Yes. It's undoubtedly the Hydra, the immortal monster that three Seven-Stars in the past couldn't kill and had to seal in another dimension!”
At those words, Muno had no choice but to whip his head back around to look at the sleeping monster.
‘No wonder…….’
The form, which seemed familiar even from the stories of his past life, now caught his eye anew.
A monster with nine heads, and its name was Hydra.
Why did the monsters of this world have names so similar to the monsters of legend from his past life?
The question arose again, but there was no point in pondering it, as no answer would come.
The important thing was the fact that the legendary monster was right before his eyes.
“You, it's impossible, right? Even with that strike of yours?”
“Yes. Probably.”
The hope that perhaps Victon's strike could damage that monster vanished at that moment.
“But that human-like head, I've never heard of anything like that……”
It was just that one following sentence that bothered him a little more.
* * *
[The matter in the Empire is concluded to that extent……Hmm?]
The shadow in the crystal sphere, which had been talking for a while, paused for a moment, and then a hearty laugh burst out.
[Hahahahaha! I can feel the restriction has been lifted! The Hydra has returned to this dimension! Now that old man will have no choice but to move. Puhahahaha!]
At that sound, the one who was prostrated flinched and raised his head.
“However, contact with Elder Sieran was lost after that. There was no mention of that experiment either……”
[Hmph. That can't be helped. Once the great cause is achieved, that guy will soon fall into my hands anyway.]
“However, I wonder if you haven't entrusted too great a weapon to Elder Sieran……”
The old voice conveyed a worried heart, but.
[Puhuhuhu. Ridiculous. That's nonsense you can only say because you, too, don't know about the Hydra.]
“……Yes?”
[Tell me what you know about the Hydra.]
The shadow in the crystal sphere, the Demon Cult Leader, spoke in a rare, gentle tone, as if he was in a truly good mood.
“Well……. Three hundred years ago, the master of the Dragon Sword and two mages. That is, I know it as a monster that three Seven-Stars subdued with a combined attack. However, because it wouldn't die from any attack, they had no choice but to seal it in another dimension.”
[Kekekeke. Yes, what's known to the outside is only that much.]
“……Yes? What do you mean by that?”
[How strong do you think the Hydra's might is?]
“……Even excluding its known characteristic as an immortal monster, I presume it's a monster with might greater than an average Seven-Star.”
[In reality, it's not merely at that level. The three Seven-Stars didn't subdue the Hydra; they merely managed to hold on and lure it to another dimension. Using the corpse of its already dead young, its trace, as bait.]
“Yes?”
[Such a Hydra is also known as just one of the Monster Lords of the Demonic Realm, so there's a reason humanity doesn't touch the Demonic Realm of the Iron Kingdom's north at all.]
“If that's the case, won't it be an even bigger problem? If Elder Sieran controls such a monster……?”
[That's why I'm saying there's no way a guy like him could control it. It's something even I can't do.]
“……Yes?”
Then what in the world did Elder Sieran accomplish?
The shadow answered the old man's questioning gaze with a sneer.
[In the first place, that Sieran fellow wasn't researching magic to control monsters. He was researching chimeras. All while arrogantly thinking he could deceive me.]
At those words, the old man who was prostrated trembled.
“Chimeras? Don't tell me!?”
[Yes. He was researching a way to use a monster's body to overcome a magician's weakness and be reborn. He probably wanted to become a head of the Hydra. He, too, must have known the Hydra only as a mindlessly strong monster…….]
“……Are you saying it's not?”
[Do you think a mindlessly strong monster can defeat the great masters of magic, the Seven-Circle mages?]
“I suppose not, but……”
As the old man's common sense and the story he had just heard about the Hydra's power clashed, cold sweat began to run down his spine.
[In the first place, the Hydra is a super-intelligent being that employs its own unique magic. That's how it was able to possess such might. Of course, it is recorded as being very crude magic, but it was said to be tricky due to its unique characteristics.]
“Then……?”
[Yes. It was a creature with reason. And because of that, it must have had no choice but to make such a decision.]
“Yes?”
[It must have wandered for three hundred years, or even more, in the rift of a dimension where space-time was distorted. No matter how immortal it was, no, because it was an immortal monster, it must have been even more agonizing. It might have even gone mad. That's why it would have had no choice but to accept even an absurd proposal. For example…….]
“……?”
[Even if it was to lower its class by accepting an absurdly inferior species into one of its nine heads.]
“Ah……!”
[Puhuhuhuhu. A degraded Hydra will make a good match for the Dragon Sword Duke. To the extent that it wouldn't be strange if either of them died. Given the Hydra's characteristics, it will take quite a long time to reach that conclusion, too.]
“In that case……!”
[The moment the Dragon Sword departs for the south, we will execute the great undertaking!]
“Finally!”
[Yes. The time has finally come!]
“I will! Obey your command!”
Thud.
Along with the sight of the old man bowing his head amidst a cry full of ecstasy, the light of the crystal sphere slowly faded away.