Book 21 Chapter 14
Episode 206
“220℃, this is insane… What, did the Lizard Lord awaken or something?”
Rista’s words, that they must proceed at maximum speed, proved true as the train approached the <Raptas> territory.
It was an ontological nightmare.
If a volcano could move with a kind of malevolence, it would probably take on such a form, he thought.
“High-level Demons, two of them! On both sides!”
Everything had been a mess since they approached the city zone.
Looking back later, he himself wondered how this operation could have succeeded.
Volcanic ash mixed with the sandstorm… Despite most senses being blocked by the sulfurous stench of rotten eggs and the eye-stinging volcanic ash, the demon’s desperate presence was distinctly felt.
“Link and I will stay! We have to stop them!”
“No! What do you take high-level Demons for? Especially with the <Forgotten Kings> nearby, they’ll be several times stronger than usual!”
“If we leave them be, they’ll jump onto the train!”
Friede panted violently, restraining Nils who was about to board the six-legged walking tank, Captilt-II.
‘High-level Demons, what happened? Did that Zernix bastard manage to control even the Lizard Lord’s avatars? No, does that even make sense? Neigalath taking orders from someone like Zernix?’
The train was speeding across the aqueduct leading to <Raptas>, and the high-level Demons seemed intent on subduing the train from that aqueduct.
At that very moment…!
In the canyons on both sides of the aqueduct, at the moment when the avatars of lava, whose mere existence transforms the surrounding terrain into volcanoes, stretched their hands towards the train!
“No, no… they’ll catch us!”
“We need to prepare for battle now!”
“These guys are under the King’s influence! They’ll be incomparably stronger than the one we fought under the sea back then!”
Just as everyone was in disarray!
A tearing sound, as if the sound barrier was ripped apart, erupted from the eastern sky, and then…!
A look of relief returned to Friede’s face.
“Lord Phyraas!”
Dozens of times faster than red wyverns, at a speed that even those blue true dragons couldn’t approach… Phyraas suddenly dove.
He slammed into one demon with his body, wrapped his tail around another demon’s body, and charged into the aqueduct.
The aqueduct, unable to withstand the immense pressure of the three colossal bodies, crumbled to pieces, and Phyraas and the demons were buried and fell amidst the debris.
“Lord────!”
Friede’s cry did not reach him.
The train continued to speed on, into the pandemonium where the destroyed aqueduct plunged into the desert below.
「Ku deg ru shakia… Do insignificant imitations dare to contend with true eternity!」
Amidst that debris…
No, from the moment the aqueduct began to collapse…
A transcendent clash had already unfolded fiercely between the avatar of flame and the avatars of lava.
「Eternity signifies a mission that never extinguishes, and that is our flame!」
The collision of the heat of evil annihilation and the heat of wickedness turned everything that could be burned or melted in the entire area into nothingness, leaving nothing behind.
At the end of that process, Phyraas, outnumbered, had his left foreleg torn off, and one of his wings was ripped and hung hideously.
But he was not defeated.
The torn-off foreleg exploded like a detonator, burning away the skull of one demon with a brilliant flame.
「──────!」
At the same time, flames erupted from the torn flesh and bone of the wing, temporarily blinding the other demon.
Phyraas wrapped his tail around the demon whose hyper-regeneration of the skull was not yet complete, and knocked it down.
He immediately bit into the demon’s chest, where its core was located, with his maw and spat out flames with full power.
Flame expulsion at point-blank range.
By releasing the powerful force of flame, stronger than any other attribute, at maximum power, he purified and burned away even the demon’s very existence.
Just then, the second demon, whose eyes had been temporarily blinded by the flames, seized Phyraas with both hands and began spewing lava from its entire body!
Phyraas transformed his body into a human form, a dragonkin.
His massive body, held by the demon, dispersed into flames.
「……?」
Phyraas leaped into the air, then transformed back into his dragon form and dove at high speed towards the demon.
He deeply pierced the demon’s skull with the sharply protruding bone from his recently torn-off foreleg, bringing it down…!
Then, he poured flames with full power into the demon’s body where the bone had pierced, making it meet the same end as the first demon.
‘The appearance of these lava kin is indirect proof that the King’s avatar, Mauna Loa, has appeared…’
As if the great chaos from just before was all a lie, Phyraas spat blood onto the vast, silent desert.
‘With Mauna Loa’s power, these guys will reappear as many times as possible…’
He repeatedly collapsed to the ground and then stood up again.
From the moment it permeated his body, he continuously spewed fire onto the abyss lava that boiled and melted his spirit and flesh…
He was trying to stop the abyss’s erosion and staunch the bleeding by burning his own body.
‘I must quickly return to the battlefield…’
This was merely a stopgap measure.
Because his very existential status had been altered by the King’s abyss, it was impossible to fully restore his arm and wing, even with hyper-regeneration.
As proof, Phyraas could not regenerate the bones and muscles of his foreleg and wing, merely forming a temporary shape out of flames.
‘Before the dawn, illuminated by <Those Who Came> with blood and tears, sinks back into the abyss…!’