Chapter 91
Teiti and Shio are leaving the elf habitat and walking through the forest.
But there is no conversation between them.
They had contacted the World Tree as they wanted and finished talking with her, but for some reason, the atmosphere floating between the two is utterly gloomy.
“Heh, really. Heh…….”
Teiti kept murmuring like this,
“Really, life is full of strange things, but I never dreamed something like this would happen. How fascinating.”
Shio was scribbling in his notebook while repeating the same words.
Because the content delivered by the World Tree was literally enormous.
“Heh…….”
Teiti, who had been sighing repeatedly, asked with a blank expression.
“But, how do we tell her this.”
“Hm?”
“How do we tell Daphne. Can we just tell her the truth?”
Shio rolled his eyes around.
“Hm. We can’t lie, so we probably have to tell her. But I’m worried about where to start and how to say it.”
As Shio was pondering like that, Teiti suddenly thrust out his hand in front of him.
“Rock, paper…… scissors!”
“Ah!”
Shio hurriedly put out scissors, and Teiti put out paper but slyly hid his hand behind his back. But he was caught by Shio.
“This kind of thing usually falls on the person who suggests it first.”
“……Tch.”
Teiti pouted.
“Anyway, we won’t see Daphne for a few weeks, so I’ll try to organize it until then. You have to help me. I can’t do it alone. I can’t handle pissing off that crazy dragon. Are you listening to me?”
“Uh…… Yes. I am listening, but don’t you smell something?”
Shio asked while sniffing.
“Smell? What? I don’t smell anything?”
Teiti also twitched his nose, but he seemed not to have noticed yet. However, Shio clearly felt something was off.
“Hey. Don’t try to set the mood for nothing. I’m not falling for it.”
“I think it’d be better not to go that way.”
“Not falling for it, urk! What is this!”
Teiti fell backward with a thud. In front of him, several corpses of already dead monsters were lined up.
“Why are the monsters dead like this? What’s going on?”
Teiti quickly raised his head and looked around. Then he sniffed again. Only then could he immediately recognize the ‘strange smell’ Shio had mentioned.
“Rotten smell.”
“It’s the aura of death.”
“Ack, damn. Those cockroach-like bastards are even here.”
Convinced that the source of this smell was a black magician, Teiti scratched the back of his head and stood up. Then he waved his hand to purify the surrounding air. It was to get rid of the smell.
“Is your nose better than an elf’s? Aren’t you actually not human?”
“Isn’t it suspicious that the aura of death is even here?”
Shio lightly ignored Teiti and changed the subject.
“There probably isn’t a village nearby or anything, right? If there are people, it seems pretty dangerous.”
“This is the middle of the mountains. Even beasts rarely come because the terrain is rugged, so people, what people.”
Teiti snorted as he spoke, but Shio didn’t back down.
“Still, wouldn’t it be good to check once?”
“Eh, do we have to?”
Teiti picked at his ear.
“Do we need to bother with that? Can’t we just hurry back?”
“……People might die.”
“It’s not really our business, is it.”
Shio’s eyes narrowed. His usual droopy eyes that gave a gentle puppy-like impression sharpened like a fighting dog.
“Ah, wh, what. Why are you looking like that.”
Teiti swallowed hard. For some reason, that guy’s eyes seemed half-crazed.
“If you don’t go.”
Shio said with wide eyes.
“I’ll tell Daphne. If Daphne finds out, she’ll say something like, Fine, it’s not my business if you die, so just die here— An elf dying to a dragon would be an honorable death—”
“Ack, seriously!”
Teiti shuddered as if genuinely creeped out and covered Shio’s mouth.
“Let’s go. Go! Let’s go! You’re really petty. I’ll tell Daphne everything about you later too.”
Shio glared intently at the back of Teiti as he stomped away.
From his perspective, humans and elves are all the same beings, yet why does Teiti despise humans so much. Even though the reason elves have dwindled like now is because of humans.
“Weaklings are bound to die anyway, so I really don’t understand why we have to save them. Neither you nor Daphne make sense to me.”
Teiti chattered as he walked.
“Honestly, there’s no way people live in a place like this. What kind of crazy people would come deep into these remote mountains to li……ve? What’s that.”
The moment Teiti discovered something, Shio, who had been silent the whole time, dashed forward like a spring.
In his eyes, a shabby building came into view. To be precise, a banner hanging in front of the building came into view.
“War……rior Training Center.”
Shio looked back at Teiti, and their gazes met.
The one who shouted first was Teiti.
“Oh no, Daphneeeee!”
Shio chased after him as he ran ahead. While looking around……
‘Blonde?’
He thought he glimpsed a man with blonde hair.
‘Maybe an illusion.’
He wanted to check, but Daphne was the priority for now, so Shio quickly started running toward the building.
***
[Kueeeek!]
The chimera twisted its body toward Teppy and Bunny buzzing in front of it. But Cilia entered its other field of vision. As the chimera turned its head toward him, it couldn’t dodge the attack coming down from above.
[Kuueok!]
“Damn, why is this so tough!”
“I need to put more strength into it.”
Rachel and Morris wiped their sweat-soaked hands on their clothes and gripped their swords tighter.
-With the feeling that power is in each of my fingers.
-Grip the sword. Grip it with the thought that this is my lifeline!
Who knew the swordsmanship lessons that seemed like just being treated like a dog would come to mind at a time like this.
But since it was helpful, they put strength into their fingertips and swung their swords, and the attack succeeded.
“Huaap!”
However, it wasn’t that great of an attack. At best, it would only cause a scratch.
“What. Even with this much strength, the sword doesn’t go in?”
“An elephant’s skin is three times that of normal beasts…… Since it became a chimera, the thickness must have increased even more…….”
“Morris! Get out of the way!”
[Kueek!]
Rachel grabbed Morris by the waist and narrowly dodged the chimera’s attack.
Even an all-out attack only left a small scratch. And because of that scratch, the chimera seemed even more pissed. Gulp, they swallowed hard.
Are we going to die here?
A negative future they didn’t want to imagine drew itself in their minds. In the midst of that, the only thing they could hold hope in was none other than Daphne.
“Hey. Hey! Daphne! What are you doing! When are you coming!”
As the chimera charged again toward Cilia who was shouting.
“Buy a little more time. I’m preparing right now!”
“No, what preparation is taking a whole damn day! We’re all going to die like this!”
“Quiet!”
The chimera charged once more toward the noisy kids.
The kids narrowly dodged the attack, but their stamina was already at its limit, with their breathing up to their chins.
“This…… what……! Should we run? Wouldn’t that be better?”
“Didn’t you see how fast that thing ran earlier? I bet we get caught before ten steps.”
“Hueeeng. I wish that thing was just a test given by the instructors. Heuuueng.”
“She’s still saying stuff like that…… Huh?”
Cilia’s eyes widened as she was about to get annoyed. Because an enormous flow of magic power was felt right behind them.
“Hey! Spread out to the sides!”
Cilia’s judgment was excellent.
Kwaaaang! Because Daphne’s sword, wrapped in bright red flames, fell directly onto the chimera.
“That…… damn, what is that.”
“……She wrapped magic around the sword?”
Rachel and Morris also opened their eyes wide. But Daphne gripped her sword tightly without even glancing at them.
[Kueeeek!]
Daphne closed her eyes and concentrated until the chimera was right in front of her,
“Black Flame Dragon, Black Flame Dragon…….”
Kwaang!
She opened her eyes sharply and swung the sword.
The flames wrapping the sword blade were no longer red. As if darkness itself was transplanted, they were black flames.
[Kup! Kueek!]
Even the chimera’s thick skin couldn’t withstand the fire. The chimera let out a pained scream and rolled on the ground.
“Hoo, huhuhu.”
Daphne clung desperately to her fading consciousness and smirked.
“This is precisely Galaxy Sword First Form, Comet Wave Slash Black Version.”
“Too long.”
“Corny.”
“Shut up.”
Daphne glared at Cilia and Joshua who were nitpicking, then gripped her sword tightly again.
[Kuuuueok……!]
The chimera was charred all over but still alive. So she had to end its breath in one go. Because the current Daphne was barely holding onto her stamina.
Daphne concentrated her mind.
“Huuup!”
And just like that, she infused mana into the sword blade and jumped upward.
She wrapped the same black flames as before around the sword, but the texture was somewhat different. This time, she had overlaid the magic she used when absorbing the aura of death.
‘Absorb it and turn it into power……!’
Chwaaak!
The chimera’s body was split in half. The snake-shaped head and elephant-shaped torso were completely separated.
“Crazy.”
“Insane.”
[Kk, guee…….]
The chimera groaned and opened its mouth, and Daphne landed in front of it with her sword tip aimed. Thin magic like vines spreading from the sword tip wrapped around the chimera’s body.
The aura of death, Daphne’s original power, began to be slowly absorbed.
‘If I eat all this, my magic power will increase more.’
Daphne panted as she murmured.
‘Then I’ll be able to use even better magic than now.’
Heouk, heok. Breathing wasn’t easy, though.
‘The kids aren’t hurt, so it’s fine.’
Not bad.
No, rather a good result.
But…… why is there no strength in my body?
“……phne!”
“Hey! ……Snap out of it!”
“Daphne!”
Daphne barely lifted her fading eyes, and immediately realized she was having a nosebleed.
“Ack! Right. I heard Daphne had an incurable disease!”
With Cilia’s shout behind her, Daphne lost consciousness just like that.
It’s not an incurable disease, you idiot…….
Murmuring like that.
☆▪︎¤¤☆
