Book 21 Chapter 19

Episode 209: To the Land of Decisive Battle!

The City of Beginning and End, <Laptas> Decisive Battle (13)

"You, the most pathetic of the Light's minions I have ever seen… dare to defile my royal path? Your sin is too light even for eternal annihilation."

Mauna Loa's roar was like the echo of a volcano, its violent tremor spreading through his entire body like the shaking of a volcano.

"However, if you abandon the Light and sink into the abyss… I will mercifully pardon and utilize you."

Shuan didn't even reply.

Instead, he only accelerated the unfolding speed of the Incarnation of Peach Blossom.

Leonia and Ryuminik were running up the spiral staircase at full speed to protect Shuan.

"Damn it, damn it! Why doesn't that son of a bitch care about us?! Are we not even worth that much?"

"Be careful there, Princess! Lava is flowing down the surface of the watchtower! It's entering through the windows!"

However, Mauna Loa himself was a colossal disaster, measuring 25 to 30 cheok.

Even the immense height of this Visc watchtower could be climbed to the very top with just a few touches.

Even after thrusting his head to the top of the watchtower in a single breath, Shuan's fingertip movements were endless.

"Ah, are you so foolish that you don't even realize your own body is at the boundary of life and death?"

Mauna Loa had wrapped its tail around the watchtower, and the lava gushing out like its very marrow instantly melted the core of the watchtower.

"Did you really think such a paltry barrier would protect you?"

Shuan began to fall along with the ground at the top of the watchtower, which had been severed at its waist. It was then, for the first time, that his fingertip movements stopped in shock.

'I haven't completed my mission yet… if only I had a few more minutes…!'

Since he couldn't overlook the area, the plan to restore <Laptas> with the Incarnation of Peach Blossom and stop Mauna Loa was as good as shattered.

"Kaze to shu makuha! Disappear into the dust of my kingdom!"

Just as Mauna Loa was about to snatch the falling Shuan and crush him like an insect!

"Lava and flames…!"

Flames enveloped Mauna Loa.

"…Let's decide which one of us will completely wipe out the other first, Mauna Loa!"

It was not a metaphorical expression; a being born from flames and clad in fire… the Red True Dragon Pyras, attacked Mauna Loa from the air.

"Oh Light, rely on me!"

Thanks to this, it wasn't Mauna Loa that snatched Shuan, but one of the red wyverns.

"We shall be your eyes, use us to your heart's content!"

The red wyvern carried Shuan on its back, staying airborne, while two others flew on either side, protecting Shuan.

'Red Dragon? No way.'

What entered Shuan's eyes was the hero's party, rapidly returning to the battlefield. Lista waved her hand towards Shuan.

'Yes, it's still… it's not over yet.'

Yes, they're right.

It's not over until you give up.

If you don't give up, it won't end!

"You, a despicable beast… do you still not understand the power gap stemming from the difference between true immortality and false immortality?!"

Mauna Loa, who had been clashing back and forth, sweeping through Pyras's body and the city, let out a roar.

"There is no longer any land for your cruel and lawless hegemonic rule, Neigalath. Disappear back into the ancient abyss!"

Amidst the fierce struggle, he spewed flames at maximum output from the shortest distance, flames that could even incapacitate high-ranking demons instantly…!

"Her zu su nak… What is cruelty, and what is lawlessness?"

…Against those flames, a vast breath of lava erupted from Mauna Loa's snout, and even the True Dragon's flames began to be pushed back.

"Who dares to apply the measure of good and evil, of reason, to me, the echo of Neigalath?!"

At the end of the brawl that swept through the streets, it was Mauna Loa who gained the upper hand. It seized Pyras's head with its lava-filled hand.

"The absolute one of the abyss has granted me the right to decide the life and death of all beings existing in this desert…!"

The lava that exploded in its grip hideously melted half of Pyras's skull, causing even its eyeballs to burst and stream down.

"Lin, no! His Excellency Pyras is at his limit now!"

Lista, who had been watching the tragic situation while hiding, cried out.

"Wait, Lista! Lin is still looking for an opportunity!"

"But if this continues! Friede, your heart will break, won't it?!"

"Winning is important! If we don't win, His Excellency Pyras's sacrifice will be meaningless!"

When Friede, who looked sadder than anyone else, spoke so resolutely, even Lista had no choice but to momentarily back down.

"…You, a fallen minion of Light, are too poor in intellect to comprehend cosmic perception, so I shall make your lowly body realize it directly!"

Mauna Loa, who had flung Pyras across the city, then concentrated the seething lava from its entire body into its snout.

"This victory and defeat were already decided before the universe even came into being, you ignorant fool!"

Pyras stumbled but managed to get up, spewing flames with all its might, but…

"To a finite speck of dust that merely received a fragment of immortality, not true immortality, I shall make you realize infinite wickedness!"

…The lava, surging through even those flames, pierced Pyras's chest. Pyras, from the impact, was slammed into one of the pillars of <Larien> before collapsing.

"Your Excellency…!"

"Mauna Loa…!"

It was at that very moment that the hero burst into that transcendent battlefield.

"Have you also come to pay homage? To the true king's… Hegemonic Rule!"

No… it's not time yet.

In Pyras's fading vision, as its last breath was about to be severed, someone suddenly flickered into view.

"Rise, Pyras."

It was his eldest sister Alakish and eldest brother Shalesarum, whom he had longed for throughout his life, for a thousand years.

"Rise and complete your mission."

Even at this moment, with half of his spirit and flesh engulfed by the abyss's lava, and indeed, unable to even breathe, he must not give up…

- 10 seconds, just 10 seconds is all I need.

My mission…

- Just hold that guy's ankle. If you can do that… I'll stake my life on it, and I'll extinguish that guy's lava.

Hadn't Pyras sworn on the flames of his soul to those children walking the path of courage?

- To have to risk one's life to restrain the King of the Abyss, as an avatar of flame, there could be no greater glory.

- But surely… you'll die doing that.

- Death does not frighten me. If I cannot reach the beacon of my mission, I will have no face to show Alakish, who has lived a life of vigilance for over a thousand years, and Shalesarum, who sacrificed himself to bring dawn to this land.

I, too, shall dedicate this one body.

Victory, by its very nature, is like a flame, and a flame inevitably requires firewood.

- The calling our Red Dragon Legion was born for is firewood! So that the flame of your mission can burn, I will gladly burn my body as firewood.

The moment Mauna Loa was about to strike Lista into the vast abyss, Pyras once again became a brilliant flame and surged towards him.

- Even if I die at Mauna Loa's hands… if your intended moment has not arrived, do not act rashly. Strike at the clear moment, Vessel of the Black Sun!

Surely, his breath should have been severed, yet the surprise attack from behind precisely targeted the blind spot of the King's Avatar.

For just a moment…

It was merely creating an extremely brief moment's gap, but it was a moment that perfectly achieved the single moment Lin had requested.

[Coordinate Transmission!]

Kaptilt-II dashed directly in front of Mauna Loa and shot a laser signal at its chest.

Beacon Artifact.

The technology of <The Ones Who Came>, where the coordinate space reached by the laser ascends to the sky, clearly illuminating the target location even from a distance.

'There's no other way!'

Since the laser couldn't travel long distances due to lava and volcanic ash, he had no choice but to approach this closely to pinpoint the coordinates.

"Are pieces of trash less than dust daring to defy the king's authority now!"

The lava spewed by Mauna Loa melted Kaptilt-II and even Niels in the cockpit… but it couldn't devour him.

It was thanks to Link.

Link had thrown himself and embraced Kaptilt-II, and because of this, Link's entire body below the chest instantly melted away in the lava.

"Link, you idiot! I have an emergency escape device!"

Crying out, Niels immediately kicked out of the cockpit and, pulling out the pistol at his waist, shot Link in the chest.

'Quickly, before Link's breath, his breath is completely severed.'

Since the artifact armor itself had melted, the time could be drastically shortened.

The bullet, refined from heart-blast, penetrated Link's core, and its power soon manifested… returning everything to a past point in time.

The chimera's body melted away like a shed skin, and from beneath it, a boy who was Lin's age but larger than an adult could be pulled out.

"You're done now, Link. You can stop fighting! Let's go meet Lin again soon. She'll be astonished!"

However, Niels and Link's courage, verging on recklessness, was not meaningless.

"Beacon signal arrived from His Excellency Niels Brants!"

"Currently in engagement, highest priority operational target coordinates delivered!"

"Firing angle confirmed, drop anchors and open all fleet gunports! Fire!"

The warships of the Ain Naval Fleet were pushed back as if sinking, and the iron cannonballs they fired in quick succession… rained down on the Transcendents.

Even as his entire body was shattered by that rain of steel and his insides tragically melted by lava, Pyras did not let go of Mauna Loa.

Of course, that too was an extremely brief moment, and the naval fleet's cover could not maintain its initial fierce attack due to the Naga's assault.

"Severe damage to the stern! It's Nagas!"

"Onboard combat! Load weapons!"

"Naga approaching! Artillerymen, do not stop the turret loading phase! Marines, defend the artillerymen! Support for the terrestrial battleground must not cease!"

Mauna Loa was not damaged by the continuous barrage of iron cannonballs, but it showed signs of fury at the disrespect.

"I am immortality itself; I am Neigalath, before whom even eternity kneels in worship!"

At that moment, Lin, the 11th Archmage, lifted her head from the notebook she had been scribbling furiously in with a quill.

'My memory of the place where I fought Meister Greta Viser is strangely hazy…'

Yet, the memory of the creature she saw then remained vivid in her mind.

'Its name, Hleim!'

She had searched documents in the Holy City Grand Library and definitively found out.

'That it was an amorphous magical creature created by the Black Sun Kalenden to counter Neigalath.'

Originally, the dissolving action of lava occurs when each molecule of lava melts and engulfs each molecule of the target.

'Hleim completely reverses that process.'

The moment it is about to be melted and swallowed, Hleim's molecules, conversely, cling to the lava's molecules.

Simultaneously, the rune of extinguishing fire activates, suppressing its transcendent heat from its very foundation.

Replicating Hleim exactly was impossible in such a short time, but…

'With Sval, I can roughly imitate it!'

She had already gone through numerous trials and errors to imitate her comrades' powers.

In that process, reinterpreting what she had witnessed with magical power could be said to have already reached the master's realm.

This time, for Lin to imitate Hleim, she first needed to use the 10th Archmage Hurk's summoned spirit, Undine, as the magical foundation.

'Undine is originally a 3-star summoning magic, but since summoning isn't my specialty, I'll exclude functions like autonomous action and caster's magic support… and add heat tracking and cooling functions.'

With Kalenden's magic, it would have been possible to completely extinguish that lava, but I, regrettably, cannot use that level of magic.

'I have to cool it down!'

If I can freeze the molecules themselves, it should be possible to neutralize that lava, which makes approach impossible, for quite a long time.

'I'll leave the decisive blow to you, Lista.'

All my magic, right here, right now.

Even a mere minute is fine.

No, even 10 seconds is fine.

It doesn't matter even if it's only 1 second.

'Because I believe that even if I can't do anything more in that 1 second, my comrades will surely accomplish something!'

The problem was where to procure a large quantity of water, as she needed to use all her magic to imitate Hleim, but there was a separate expert for that.

"Eur (Water)…"

"Ruaidina (Like a covering)…"

"Shidina (The sea)…"

Kies had carried Rageldaran, the Blue True Dragon, who had wished to accompany them to the very end by taking the form of a dragon-human, all the way here.

"Let's go, Sval. You're a dragon by name, you can't lose!"

"Ggyuuuuiiiiiiit!"

The raindrops pouring down on Mauna Loa converged into hundreds of forms.

Undines of freezing attribute.

The chill emitted by the Undines resonated with Sval's roar, amplifying at least tenfold, and their forms also grew in direct proportion to that chill.

'If the Undines themselves had expanded, the surface area exposed to heat would have increased, accelerating the evaporation rate.'

But our Sval!

My partner Ice Dragon Asurva!

It can amplify only the cold flowing on the surface of the Undines, meaning it can create multiple layers like a barrier of cold!

"It's a direct confrontation, Mauna Loa! Which is stronger, our freezing power or your lava!"

The Undines clung to Mauna Loa, focusing on the phenomenon that occurs when lava touches liquid.

"Hmm, this is…?"

If lava mixes quickly with liquid, an insulating layer of steam rapidly forms. The water's volume expands unstably, which can cause an explosion.

"Avatar of wickedness, such sacrilege again against this Mauna Loa…!"

However, if lava and liquid come into contact slowly.

A stable steam insulating layer forms, so no explosion occurs.

Only the outer part of the lava cools and solidifies.

"Mauna Loa! If your body, seething with lava throughout its interior, solidifies at a molecular level in a short period… you won't even be able to move that massive weight! Both your lava explosions and movements are completely sealed off!"

As Mauna Loa began to writhe, it required more magic and magical power.

'I won't give up.'

Even as she coughed up blood from the rapid magical overload, Lin never slowed down the forging of her magic. Squeezing out every last drop of her magic, until the very last.

"Yaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh─────!"

Have I become an idiot too?

The kind of shouts that hot-blooded idiots like Lista sometimes make…

To be shouting a battle cry to not give up until the very end.

"─────Ggyuuuuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"

Sval, who let out a battle cry with her, his body shrinking as if ice exposed to the sun was melting.

He was shrinking so much that the fear that Sval might completely disappear like this surged through her.

Sval had actually overused his power several times, sometimes shrinking to the size of a booger.

Each time that happened, he would disappear somewhere for several days and not reappear.

'The lava has subsided…!'

'That's not all…!'

'The cooling phenomenon is spreading throughout Mauna Loa's entire body, which is practically the source of the lava…!'

The opportunity is this very moment.

This one moment that will never come again.

If they miss this moment, they will never seize victory.

"──RuAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The roars of the red wyverns instantly became flames, engulfing Neigalath, and through the gaps in that fire, Lista and Kies raced side by side.

'Shirpen, this is really the last time.'

Lend your strength to the very end.

Grant me enough leeway to finish this entire journey and, with everyone, smile and share my thoughts, saying, 'It was truly a fun journey!'

"Dimension Overlay Setting─────!"

A single dimensional field couldn't penetrate Mauna Loa's carapace.

Then multiple ones simultaneously!

Overlaying all five dimensional fields in one space so that all five runes used by the Genesis Poem can be used!

[Karit: Annihilation.]

[Benekom: Breaking.]

[Shetadum: Division.]

[Bakhu: Isolation.]

[Yanabatsu: Penetration.]

Five superimposed cubes, formed by Lista while spitting out congested blood, overlap.

The runes engraved upon them and their meanings are as above…!

The next moment, the Creator's command of revelation descends upon that entire space, as both a blessing and a curse.

"─────Providence Overlay Engraving!"