Chapter 1297: Continued Efforts

Just as Fran and the others were about to reach the fragments, Chariot sprang into action once more.

This time, the mech had diverted all power to the thrusters and charged at the Flame Sac. Then, it latched on just barely above ground level and began pushing it south.

Thus, we no longer had to confront the Flame Sac ourselves. This was honestly quite helpful.

The Flame Sac was constantly surrounded by a cloak of intense heat, and it had the ability to unleash mass explosions that were practically undodgeable. We would have a tough time even getting close enough to hit it.

But it was a different story for Chariot, which could take the heat with its sturdy metallic body.

Kareid probably realized that, which is why he chose to drag the Flame Sac away from us.

With this, we had successfully separated four fragments from each other.

To the north, Dimitris, Neidhart, the Northern Knights, and the Vermilion Eye Knights were up against the Evil God’s Tear Gland.

To the west, the army of Phyllius was up against the Evil God’s Blade Tail.

To the south, Chariot was challenging the Evil God’s Flame Sac one-on-one.

And finally us, up against the Evil God’s Malice alongside Maleficent and the others at the former location of the royal castle. A distance of a few kilometers doesn’t mean much to the huge fragments of the Evil God, but at least they won’t be able to easily team up on us like they did earlier.

All we had to do now was defeat them one by one.

Sibylla ran up next to Fran on the front line and shouted our strategy loud enough for everyone to hear.

「I hate to admit it, but we don’t have the stamina to chip away at this thing! Going all in is the only we can win!」

「Nn!」

Everyone present nodded in agreement at Sibylla’s words. We had come to understand that weak attacks were futile in the face of fragments’ ridiculous durability. Especially since we didn’t have as many members as the Northern Knights or the demons.

Fran was the first to move.

（I’ll use Potential Release, it’s time get serious!）

『Yeah, let’s do――』

Huh? Wait, what?! Why am I allowing this to happen?

It’s obvious what will happen if Fran activates Potential Release in her current exhausted state. Yet I gave her the go ahead. Why? Why did I accept her suggestion without question?

A chill went down my spine. What’s happening to me? Could it be that I’m becoming more sword-like?

Sword Transformation Rate at… 88%? Fuck, I had no clue it was rising so quickly! Why didn’t Announcer-san warn me? Was she mad at me for ignoring her earlier?

〈――will――in――〉

Announcer-san? For some reason, she started to sound like a radio with bad reception!

〈――〉

Now I can’t even hear anything! No, right now, I need to stop Fran…!

（Potential―）

No! Anything but that…! I know, upgrade Potential Release into an SP skill! Announcer-san, please!

「―Release!」

〈――〉

Announcer-san’s voice was still completely covered in noise, but it seems I made it in time. Fran failed to activate Potential Release since it was upgraded into an SP skill, which only I can use.

「Master? Why did you do that?」

『Sorry, Fran… Guh…』

What is with this intense pain…!

（What’s wrong?）

『It’s okay, I’m fine. More importantly, let’s hurry up and attack!』

（…Got it.）

Fran tilted her head slightly, but we were in the middle of a battle with a fragment of the Evil God. She quickly turned her attention toward our fearsome opponent.

「Here I go!」

Fran activated Sword God Transformation and charged forward. In her hand was me, imbued with evil-divine energy. The Sword God was capable of manipulating this perfectly.

「Haaaah! Black Thunder Divine Claw!」

Fran delivered a powerful blow infused with black lightning and evil-divine energy. This was the strongest blow we could muster in our current state.

「SUBMIT!」

Meanwhile, the Malice began emitting a thought pulse imbued with evil energy. This was an attempt to dominate Fran and force her to stop the attack, but it had no effect on us.

That said, I felt overwhelmed by another wave of pain. Seriously, what’s happening to me…? I can’t afford to break my concentration, or the evil-divine energy will disperse…!

『Uroooh!』

「Teyah!」

Fran’s blade carved a deep scar into the Malice. The black trail in her wake had also severed two of the eyeball tentacles.

I sensed a slight reduction in the evil energy contained within the fragment. Our attack had definitely dealt a meaningful blow.

Both Fran and I were pretty exhausted after this, but our friends had our backs.

Urushi dove in before the Malice had time to fully regenerate.

「Grrrh!」

At maximum size, he had managed to outgrow the Evil God Fragment.

Urushi delivered a bite imbued with divine energy. His giant fangs shrouded in darkness crunched down on a few of the Malice’s remaining tentacles, tearing them off at the root.

The fragment’s grotesque eyeball tentacles went straight down Urushi’s throat.

But soon enough, Urushi reverted to his original size. He simply couldn’t maintain his huge form due to the fatigue. The Malice immediately began regenerating the damage, but our efforts were not in vain.

After all, the fragment needed to drop everything in order to focus on healing.

Next to act was Sibylla.

「Thanks for being so big, I don’t even need to aim! Here I go! Red Sword, factor activation!」

Sibylla’s body underwent a rapid transformation as she ran. Her skeletal frame and muscles swelled up, and red scales began popping up all over her skin. By the time it was over, her body mass had practically doubled and she had grown way taller.

While her face remained mostly human, the area around her ears was distinctly dragon-like. She had sprouted horns from her forehead, wings from her back, and a long tail. Her pupils split vertically like those of reptiles.

Pretty much the only thing human about her was her face and hair. I assume her armor and boots were magically enchanted to adjust for this transformation, since none of her gear burst off.

「Ouuurgh!」

Sibylla roared, unleashing a surge of red mana and an overwhelming pressure. This must be the trump card she refrained from using on us during the martial arts tournament.

As if second nature, Sibylla pressed the Red Sword against her left wrist and slid it across. The scratch of metal against her hard scales made a grating sound, as a geyser of red blood spurted out.

Something strange was going on here. A simple cut should not bleed with that much force. What’s more, her blood contained a ridiculous amount of power.

This must be the same blood manipulation ability she once used against Fran, except this time her blood was infused with even more mana.

Soon enough, Sibylla had clusters of red blood orbs circling around her like satellites.

At this point, any ordinary person would have already died from massive blood loss. But Sibylla simply glared at the fragment and shouted eagerly.

「Uroooh! Take this!」

The countless blobs of blood danced to Sibylla’s will.

The Malice attempted to shoot them down with a barrage of black flames, but the red blobs broke through and latched themselves to the fragment’s surface.

「Evil God’s Malice or whatever your name is, you’d better believe such feeble flames aren’t doing shit to me! I’ve gotten a boost to regeneration and flame resistance thanks to the mementos from my parents!」

Sibylla’s body had been scorched by the black flames, but that did nothing to damper her smile.

Her face twisted into a fiercer grin as she unleashed her ultimate move.

「Explode! Million Nova!」

The small clusters of blood surrounding the Malice twinkled simultaneously, before exploding with a blinding flash.

There was no sound, yet I sensed a tremendous divine power imbued into this strike. Yes, without a doubt, Sibylla had used divine energy.

Once the beautiful red light subsided, we saw the Malice riddled with countless tiny craters all over its body.

Each of those tiny blobs contained enough power to pierce through the Malice’s armor of evil energy.

This may appear to be a minor wound against such a massive foe, but consider how the power would easily evaporate a human-sized target. Sibylla had managed to launch several hundred of them.

ORHOOOOOOOH!

The Malice screamed in pain as it lowered in altitude. Our plan was working.

「Next is my turn!」

Jean stepped forward, and for some reason, Yuvel and Oldona stood with him.

「I leave everything to you.」

「You’d better make good use of us, Mr. Necromancer!」

「Fuhahaha! Rest assured that you are good hands!」

「…I wonder if we can really trust this guy?」