Book 18 Chapter 12
Episode 131
Underwater Battle Royale, Naga Kingdom (5)
"Wait!"
Rista was able to obtain information about a hidden threat through the trembling of Shirpen in her hand.
"This guy is emitting a powerful echo of the abyss. Looks like he has [Flesh of the King]!"
Friede put a pipe in her mouth with a condescending smile.
"Hmm, so you're a great chieftain, huh? Unlike the others, you possess the [Flesh of the King]?"
Menosya, the Naga Great Chieftain's arms split! Four arms become eight arms!
Having many arms, even at a rough guess, provides an absurd advantage in close combat!
Can't you restrain an opponent's hands with two hands, and aim for their vital points with the other two hands!
"Liiiink!"
Link directly receives such a charge from Menosya!
"How ridiculous, Shururrut! What do you intend to do with just two arms!"
Menosya was confident of victory.
It was a natural inference. Wasn't he twice as big as Link and had six more arms?
'Once I subdue this guy on the front lines, I just need to deal with that witch, archer, and hero in order.'
But what in the world happened!
It's bending!
The wrist, whose hardness and strength were amplified by being covered in fish scales, snapped, exposing the bone!
"What…?!"
How could this be.
Could he be pushed back by mere humans?
Even though Nagas boast stronger physical strength and grip than Uruk on the seas.
"Heh, hehehehehehe."
[!(>ㅁ<)!]
"Hah, hahahahahaha."
Seeing that abnormal sight, the hero party began to laugh. Menosya was the only one who couldn't laugh.
"You guys, Shururup, what in the world is so funny!"
Nils Blantz, the chief tinkerer, tapped his hand with a wrench and said.
"Link is a weapon created to capture demons. What can a lowly creature like you do? Hahahaha!"
Friede exhaled cigarette smoke out of the oxygen membrane and chuckled.
"Indeed, instead of holding gloomy banquets or whatever in this backwater underwater village, you should have properly checked what was happening on the surface."
Menosya tried to aim for Link with another arm, but a teal arrow and a luminous light bullet would never allow it!
"And you don't even know that on the surface right now, there are countless guys who have gathered several times more [Flesh of the King] than you!"
That power, which accurately pierced through only the joints, severed all of Menosya's arms, which had been his pride, from his main body!
"To show off with mere booger-sized flesh!"
That was Menosya's last moment to be Menosya!
The moment the flame of purification burned his smooth abdomen, precisely locating his internal organs! The moment the violently, fiercely pulsating [Flesh of the King] was detected!
A roar of light, tearing through even space and time, flew in and separated it from Menosya's body! Master! Mad master!
"How can the leaders of the Six Great Demon Races have no flesh to show for themselves except for their boss? They're ridiculously weak. These country bumpkins of the sea."
Friede trampled and laughed at Menosya's body, which had been torn into a dozen pieces by Shirpen's slash.
"Now, you're even making regional discriminatory remarks against demons, you shaman…"
[(ㅇ-ㅇ);;;]
"Friede, even if they are demons, that's a bit…"
As soon as that was said, verbal attacks flew in from all directions! Friede, dumbfounded, rebelled!
"No, ha, what the hell, are you kidding? What did I do to be called a bigot every time something happens! Huh? You bad bastards!!!"
Of course, the joking stopped there.
Rista's eyes were the first to turn cold.
"Friede, it certainly can't be 'this' much, can it?"
"Yes, the power of the abyss we detected… was incomparable to such an insignificant fellow. We should have found out what those sacrifices were used for."
"But the location is accurate. Look. Shirpen has been burning so brightly since a moment ago that my retina hurts. It's nearby. I don't know why it isn't showing itself, though."
Nils Blantz immediately opened an artifact.
It changed from a cube form to a folder form, displaying an image in the air.
This detection artifact was the very one used effectively during the old Sbalag subjugation battle.
"I don't trust intuition, but in this case, it seems you're right."
"What are you saying?"
"Look at this image, a tremendous wave is constantly spreading around us, isn't it? This location is correct. But why is there nothing?"
The next moment, the first to sensitively detect the presence of the abyss were the archer Kies and the White Spear Bow Serwebon.
Almost instinct!
Weaving a magical arrow onto Serwebon's bowstring was incredibly fast! But the direction to aim was terribly wrong!
"─────Friede!"
Because the enemy attack came not from the left, right, front, rear, or above, but directly from below!
It was madness (狂氣).
Something formed haphazardly into the shape of a tentacle, with the concept of frenzy wildly entangled.
"It's a tentacle!"
Over a dozen translucent tentacles were surging upwards.
And yet, wasn't its size extremely abnormal?
A size large enough to easily entangle humans and crush their bones, with plenty to spare! What else could that size itself be but madness!
"Link, Link, Link!"
Link slammed the ground powerfully.
He intended to create a shield for primary defense, but not even a scratch appeared on the floor with Link's strength!
It was the light of the holy sword that swept down, entwining and cutting the tentacles that flew towards the party! The second offensive was blocked by Friede's psalm barrier!
"Damn it… these Naga sea serpent bastards, surely… crazy."
"Friede, what happened? What is this?"
"This space, this very altar stone was a tombstone! They set up an altar stone on top of a tombstone. These dog-like, foul-mouthed serpent bastards!"
The tentacles that collided with the psalm barrier were fiercely repelled, bouncing off in a repulsion where their very existence was contradictory.
"Tombstone?"
"Yes, a tombstone! This is a Demon's tombstone! An Avatar of Kings!"
"No way!"
Demon, Avatar of Kings.
Although classified as one of the Six Great Demon Races, it is said to be an entirely different entity from demons, merely categorized that way to classify its danger.
"A Demon is not a living creature that has fallen and been created!"
"!"
"It's the power of the <Forgotten Kings>, whose thoughts, even after being exiled through a rift in dimensions, could not abandon their lingering attachments to this land, taking form and embodying themselves!"
The tentacles, realizing they couldn't touch the psalm barrier, finally changed their target.
The corpses!
The corpses of the Nagas, deliciously spread out on this tombstone! Having risen to the position of chieftain of the Eight Sea Tribes, the quality of their spiritual and physical essence would naturally be excellent.
"Look at this, the ritual process is carved into the tombstone."
"What, this is too horrible! Is this a ritual that was actually performed?"
"Yes, originally, it seems they would rip out the heart of a victorious human from this mad banquet alive and offer it here. It was obvious, though, what these Naga bastards, famous for rituals more cruel than any demon, would do!"
Nagas believed that they had to appease the anger of the old king whenever the sea raged violently!
So, the Nagas!
They would kidnap humans as sacrifices, then offer their living blood! Their hearts! Their souls! On this altar! On the tombstone of the Demon, the old king's thoughts!
"Muhuhuhuhahahahahahaha…"
How long had it been since the tentacles dragged the corpses of the Eight Sea Tribe leaders into the tombstone?
It's audible, the trembling of madness!
As if there were parasites rummaging around in the brain, an echo of frenzy resonated directly in their minds, not their ears!
"Kur du haz… I feel the madness… of your soul…"
If it weren't for the barrier of the Divine Love Psalm, merely being ambushed by this madness while defenseless would have already been enough to inflict a fatal blow to their brains!
"Crazy, so the 'last banquet' meant this? It was about to awaken? An avatar of the Lord of the Deep Sea?"
As described in myths, the Demon form of the Lord of the Deep Sea, Shu'yulkulla, was a colossal octopus named 'Kraken'.
"There's unlucky, and then there's this unlucky! On top of that, that bastard! He even absorbed the [Flesh of the King]!"
Is the ancient sea trembling in fear? Or is it raging with joy at the return of its old master?
The sea begins to heave.
This deep sea, this seabed, this space that should be the calmest among all depths of the ocean, is it not raging wildly with storms?
"No, it's actually for the best! Because it awakened when we arrived!"
Before that storm of madness, before that core of frenzy that made even the deep sea tremble.
Rista Alter Shirpen!
The last hero of this era!
Aimed the tip of the noble holy sword Shirpen forward, without even a trace of tremor.
"The <Ones Who Came> sealed the <Forgotten Kings> and gifted us a thousand years of peace. Now, it's time for us to inherit their will!"
Someone once said. A hero is a being who speaks not with their 'mouth' but with their 'back'.
At that moment, they clearly felt it.
In that place, at that time, seeing the dignified back of the hero facing the old king's avatar head-on, at the very forefront, more than anyone else.
"Why are you seriously refuting? Just pretending to be scared a little. That way, won't that guy also save some face?"
"Right, right, right, Friede is a genius."
"We can't just leave it to you Manukis. It's a good chance to test the maximum performance of my Kaptilt-II."
[<(■-■)>]
"Link, Link, Link!"
Demons are classified into three hierarchies.
The 'Avatar-class - Mauna Loa', called by the very pronoun 'Avatar of Kings' and a nightmare fitting of that name.
Three avatars created by Mauna Loa, the High Demons.
And three subordinates, each created by those High Demons, the Lesser Demons!
"So, to save our face, it's not some Lesser Demon but a High Demon that has appeared, huh?"
Even Lesser Demons are more than enough to cause the worst disaster in history!
They!
The hero party, who had pacified the era of turmoil! They even exchanged smiles in the face of that madness!
"This is a perfect opportunity for the epic of Friede, the Priestess of the Fire Dragon, to become several layers thicker. Everyone, just don't hold me back. I'll use the Genesis Psalm. I'll sing a lullaby so it can sleep soundly for another thousand years."
* * *
Meanwhile, at that moment, Lyn, the mad wizard who had turned the Naga 'hunters' into 'prey', felt something strange.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, the heads of the fleeing Nagas exploded all at once! Had someone gotten ahead of him?
"Rista, is it you again? Stop it! No, is it Kies? Hey, you drunkard! Stop!"
No, something is strange.
Clearly, their skulls seemed to have been completely crushed, yet their heads were perfectly attached!
"Surely, this isn't Phase 2, is it?"
But until now, it was distinctly different from the bizarrely intertwined forms of sea snakes and humans.
It was a devil (惡魔).
If the appearance of an octopus and a human could be hideously intertwined amidst the malice of an Outer God, it would probably look like this.
"Gurgle, gurrrgle…"
It doesn't end there.
Grotesquely twisted wings sprouted from the backs of the Nagas, and their serpent tails transformed into a mass of tentacles!
"You pathetic human, grrrgle… kneel before the power bestowed by the Lord of Madness."
People were struck with terror.
The very origin began to go mad with frenzy, with madness, with the savage waves that covered the entire sea before that mutation began!
The boy's eyes trembled, his hands shook, and then he bent at the waist and began to laugh with difficulty.
"Ha, ha, yattahahahahahaha!"
Asruba the Ice Dragon circled him with worried wingbeats!
"Kyuu, Kyuwoo, Kyuwooo!"
Had even the boy been swept away by that wave of madness and gone insane?
No way!
Don't forget that this wizard of the hero party was already insane, a madman among madmen!
"Phase 2 actually existed?!"
Look!
The boy, that boy who proudly held the position of madman in the hero party!
With an exclamation of delight, he raised his head, his eyes sparkling brightly!
"This is amazing! Seriously so good! If I try harder, won't you show me Phase 3 too? Then I'll also do my best! Come on! Let's play more!"
As the old king's madness ran wild, the Naga hunters, reborn as demons by its blessing…
"…"
"…"
"…"
…After exchanging silent glances for a moment, they decided to flee from that 'true madness'.
"No, why! You guys, you transformed so coolly into Phase 2, where are you going! Waaah! Let's do more! Where are you going! Don't gooo!"