Chapter 93
“Helion! Helion! Helion…!”
Right in front of Helion, the Archbishop filled with intent to kill was pushing forward with a massive scythe.
Fortunately, he was using a yellow aura as a barrier to fend off the attack, but it wasn’t looking easy.
During his arrival here, Vargan had said to him:
“Lord Helion, there’s one more besides Frikkanrisk. Please take care of that one.”
Could that opponent be Archbishop Ami?
This feels like a fated encounter, or maybe just a twist of fate.
Helion faced the joy of his opponent who had taken his arm.
“It’s been 15 years.”
“Do you know how much I’ve missed you all this time? I’ve been starving to taste your remaining flesh…! Every other flavor felt like garbage—hell on earth!”
But that ends now.
Let me savor that aged delicacy!
“You look just like you did back then.”
He recalled the time just after he had become a Hero, not long ago. Ami from back then didn’t seem much different in appearance or personality than the Ami now.
For Helion, these 15 years were enough time to bring about change.
“This isn’t the right place for our reunion. Let’s move.”
Helion caused a reaction from the aura he was using as a shield, deflecting the scythe.
Then, with a fierce stomp that kicked up dust from the ground, he made his escape.
In an instant, he was gone.
Ami grinned widely and pursued.
“Ha ha ha! Good. These kinds of teases make it so much more flavorful!”
Leaping across the rooftops, using them as a springboard to race through the sky, Helion sensed that he was being followed.
With a tranquil gaze, he glanced back at Vargan, who was left behind.
Meanwhile, Frikkanrisk, witnessing this, said:
“Wait, Ami, I…!”
Trying to follow after them as well, she suddenly felt the grip of a giant’s strength restraining her. It wasn’t visible, but as the force was applied, it became clear.
It was the partially summoned ogre’s hand.
“Frikkanrisk, if you leave too, I’ll be left alone in this graveyard, won’t I? Let’s stick together; I’m scared there might be ghosts.”
Vargan grinned as he said this.
With icy resolve in her eyes, Frikkanrisk shot him a glare. Around her, particles of ice began to freeze.
“I don’t have time to waste with scum like you.”
She expelled the cool mana contained within her.
With a soft, slushy sound, like water-soaked fabric, the green skin enveloping her gradually turned to ice.
She needed to move for revenge.
To kill her first target, Ami.
“I don’t know who you are, but if you interfere with me any further, I won’t hold back.”
She was dead serious.
She was already fed up with the human race.
She wanted to torture every human, except for her husband Aintern, to death.
A race that always spewed lies.
A weak race, easily deceived and lured.
A tribe where betrayal was commonplace!
That was her current concept of humans.
“Well then, I guess there’s no other way. I’d rather not see my Familiar get hurt.”
Vargan shrugged and canceled the partial summoning. He moved before she could break the Familiar’s hand.
The control over Frikkanrisk’s body completely loosened.
She said.
“Die.”
With a hand shaped like the essence of cold summoned from hell, she stabbed.
She planned to swiftly end their lives and pursue the two who had fled.
The dark shadow met her blue-bladed hand.
Just before her blade pierced Vargan’s neck, it was stopped by the shadow Familiar that extended outwards.
“Turns out you’re more bothersome than I thought.”
As one of the Twelve Divine Beasts commanding monsters, she could easily tell.
The Familiars, no, the monsters contracted with this man were not to be underestimated.
Even this guy standing against her would require significant effort and strength to break.
‘I miscalculated.’
She never expected that ending their lives would take more time.
If she used more mana here, it was obvious more Heroes would join in….
Perhaps having caught the sound of Frikkanrisk’s thoughts, Vargan smiled and spoke.
He called her by name.
“Iris.”
Not as a title but by her true name.
“…What?”
She thought she must have misheard him. Nobody knew her true name except for Aintern.
“Only now do you pay attention to me, Iris.”
His tone shifted to one of condescension.
After calling her true name, he wore an unpleasant grin that revealed his original personality.
“……”
Frikkanrisk tried to hide her startled expression.
As he called her name again, she realized she hadn’t misheard after all.
His slippery tongue wriggled like a serpent.
“I have no intention of harming you.”
What he uttered was sweet, infused with mana.
As if a delicate fragrance was rising, like a snake targeting its prey.
Carefully and calmly, that smoke twisted around her body. The more it did, the more it created openings in the woman’s wounds, slipping through them.
“I will help you with your revenge.”
*
Having moved from Dortmund to a wide plaza, the two continued their battle.
Helion unleashed a relentless assault without giving any openings.
It was so continuous that one would doubt if he was even breathing.
Basic elemental energies intertwined, giving rise to new forms.
What was once mere fire became seething magma, and the waves he created, charged with high-pressure currents, became a typhoon that swept over Ami.
If a spell like this had been unleashed in Dortmund, that area would have been reduced to rubble by now.
Ami was extremely agile.
Despite his merciless attacks, he had sustained only minimal damage. Most of his strikes were deftly avoided.
Whether it was Helion closing in or Ami wielding his scythe to dodge, anyone witnessing their battle would be left tongue-tied by their level of skill.
If you were to see it, you’d be left in awe.
Ami felt it.
Just how much stronger he had become over the past 15 years.
The remarkable pace at which a human grows.
As of now, their battle could be considered equal.
Injuries sustained and mana consumed were similarly balanced.
However, there was a clear difference.
‘It’s becoming hard to breathe.’
Ami was in a situation where he couldn’t reveal all of his power.
He wanted to return to his original form through “Liberation,” but it required a bit of “Time” and “Extreme Focus.”
A definite gap of 0.5 to 1 second was necessary.
It was obvious why Helion was pressing so hard. To deny him the time and energy to liberate.
Ami was also continuously firing his Magic Cannon or striking with his sword to create an opening, but Helion effortlessly blocked and countered this.
If only he had liberated from the start…!
Had he underestimated it too much?
No, more like he was too distracted by the delicious food he hadn’t seen in a long time to grasp the situation properly.
Speaking of which, Zagan also met a similar fate and got done for. He should’ve been more careful…!
“Our edible human has become surprisingly strong, hasn’t he?”
Ami spoke as he aimed his scythe at Helion’s face.
While still smiling broadly, there was a slight change in his demeanor compared to the beginning.
Helion picked up on this.
“Indeed. Ami, seeing you made me realize something.”
Having read him, he smirked with a sardonic expression on his emotionless face.
“Now it’s my turn to hunt you.”
Ami’s eyes narrowed at the ridicule, veins popping, looking like he could devour something at any moment.
“Is this what happens when you’re treated nicely? You crawl up?”
Boom⎯⎯!
A massive wave erupted from Ami.
It possessed a fierce power capable of swallowing everything around, forcing even Helion to furrow his brow as he was pushed back slightly.
Yet, the assault towards Ami did not cease.
A great sword imbued with holy power was summoned from the air and shot forth like a bow.
As the radiant blade zoomed by,
The tumultuous atmosphere calmed into a serene sea.
The raging mana settled down.
At the end of the light sword’s path stood Ami.
With blood-red eyes bulging from burst veins,
He grabbed the blade with his bare hands and shattered it.
“I hate this half-assed form, you know.”
The younger sister Zagan, who despised learning and found everything bothersome, had not grasped this.
It required a certain level of skill.
“Helion… You keep provoking me, so I had to show you.”
The typical boyish figure of Ami vanished.
In its place stood a warrior clad in violet armor.
Ami’s skin had hardened to the extreme, almost resembling someone in full-body armor. A thin shell pressed tightly against his skin.
His feet were grotesquely twisted, and a long tail grew behind him.
“Imperfect Liberation.”
The liberation of his power was not complete, but he could wield a certain degree of strength. It was a mode used only in emergencies.
Ami’s lips curled up in a wide grin.
He was ready to feast.
From now on, not just the Judgment Weapon, but every creature that came into contact with his body would have its soul ‘consumed’ by him.
Ami stuck out his tongue and licked his lips.
His stamina was restored above its original state, and his mana and strength were unparalleled to what they were before.
“Can you still say the same thing now?”
“Can you talk?”
In response to Ami’s question.
“At that level, I should be able to handle it on my end.”
Helion replies nonchalantly.
He shows neither arrogance nor pretension.
What he speaks is but the truth, and what he desires is only a favorable outcome.
“Ha ha ha ha! Alright, let’s see. Will my head roll first, or will you rot away first?”
Ami assumes a stance to charge.
Like a beast, she plants her feet into the ground.
She raises the scythe that absorbed into her body, forming a tail.
Watching her, Helion sensed something from afar, in the cemetery located in the center of Dortmund.
“This has turned into quite a situation. This is why Vargan has excluded others… I should finish this quickly and head there.”
He draws out his full power.
“I need to know what kind of wild future he’s trying to show me with such outrageous behavior.”
The atmosphere begins to tremble again.
This was partly due to the intense mana produced by the two entities.
⎯⎯⎯⎯!!
In the distance.
The holy dragon emerges from Dortmund’s cemetery.
The divine beast Frikkanrisk roars loudly, displaying its presence as it flies toward the snow-capped mountains.
*
The aftermath reaches the Dortmund branch church.
“W-What is happening…?!”
A hooded man is thrown into confusion.
And it’s no surprise.
“Why is Frikkanrisk out? Could it be… that Ami did this?”
Even though a deal was made, that guy is an unstable mind who serves as the Archbishop of the Goddess Church. Has he gone wild breaking the pact…?
“No, no… My child is here, there’s no way that could happen. No way…!”
He knows that Frikkanrisk cares deeply for her child. She wouldn’t just flee like that. Why… it’s not even the predetermined time!
‘Did someone intervene?’
As the hooded man rolled his unstable eyes, he quickly activated his brain and began to recall memories.
He knows that Helion’s team is in Dortmund carrying out a mission to hunt Frikkanrisk.
He has the largest stake in guiding them here.
It’s a grand void when he orders her to be “hunted” rather than “converted”.
How much effort did he put into blaming her for the villages destroyed by Archbishop Ami?
Then, did something like this happen because a member of Helion’s team came into contact?
…But surely, the mission is a hunt.
When he saw Frikkanrisk unfurl her wings and fly without any restrictions, it seemed as if no one was there to interfere.
As he was deep in thought.
Outside the city, another set of immense mana sent chills down his spine.
Before Frikkanrisk roared, its presence was already formidable, but now its intensity grew even stronger.
One was human.
The other seemed to be otherworldly and ominous.
‘Ami? It feels like Ami… but why is she over there now…?’
In that moment of confusion.
The two mana forces clashed, intertwining for a brief moment.
Before long, the otherworldly aura quickly abandoned its position and distanced itself.
As if it were fleeing, struggling for its life.
“I-If this continues…”
As the man’s hood was removed, his face was revealed.
A hero who primarily handles familiars. A veteran of Dortmund.
Craine’s normally dark and dreary voice was now tinged with disbelief.
