Chapter 76 Embodiment Of Light
'Sword Dance Maiden' Final Skill――[God's Descent]
Fiona prays.
Oh, God, come forth.
The descending god is chosen within my unconscious mind.
[Selection――Skill God: Sword God]
Only her consciousness accelerates, and time seems to freeze, but Fiona senses that "something" is entering her.
And then time starts moving again.
No one, not even Eva or the 8 guardians, nor those who witnessed it from afar, could comprehend what happened in the next instant.
Not even Fiona herself grasped the details. In her hazy, dream-like consciousness, Fiona's body moves without her awareness――.
――But suddenly, without any warning, the false angel's body exploded.
It wasn't a gentle, liquid-like explosion. The intense shockwave turned her entire body into a bloody mist that dispersed into the air. The deafening sound of something being smashed was heard a beat later.
Fiona's figure stood before the exploded false angel.
It wasn't the stance she had just before.
She stood with her feet wide apart, her right hand holding a sword, ready to strike.
"......"
As the false angel's body, now a bloody mist, slowly reformed, Fiona swiftly stood up.
Everyone gasped at her figure.
"F-Fiona...?"
Eva called out her friend's name.
Fiona's hair tie, which had been holding her hair, snapped.
Her hair flowed freely, spreading out in the air, blown by the wind.
However, the color of her long hair wasn't red.
No, it was hard to describe. It was as if it had no color at all. And it wasn't just her hair; Fiona's entire body was like that.
――It was radiating light.
It wasn't an intense, blinding light.
It was a soft, gentle glow, like a firefly's light.
This gentle light gathered, took shape, and created Fiona Ackerman's figure... it was that kind of appearance.
Her entire body was enveloped in an aura, but the way it shone was clearly different.
She was like a being of light itself. Fiona herself was radiating light, making it impossible to recognize her figure clearly unless one was close enough, as her shadows were lost.
It could be said she was an incarnation of light.
Before this Fiona, the false angel finally finished its restoration and regained its form. With its 6-to-12-feet wings spread wide, it transformed its hands into jet-black swords. The false angel was a terrifying monster, as if its entire body was made of crimson-black blood.
Fiona, standing opposite it, was also holding twin swords in her hands. Her radiant figure was too fantastical, clearly abnormal, and non-human. Yet, her mysterious appearance seemed to be in stark contrast to the false angel.
However, what they shared in common was the golden light emanating from their eyes. Not just the false angel, but now Fiona as well.
And then――
The 2 opponents locked eyes with their golden gazes, and without any signal, the battle resumed.
* * *
The false angel's magic activation speed was incredibly fast.
It was a speed that surpassed human thought, weaving together magical energy and constructing the spell's framework before even thinking about it.
――Magical energy release.
A massive amount of magical energy was released towards the space where Fiona stood.
Space magic――[Space Rupture]
With a faint sound, a crack ran through the space. Inside the crack, something rainbow-colored was peeking out. It was an unbelievable, fantastical sight that one wouldn't normally see.
If they touched that crack, no defense other than the same Space magic would be effective. Anything caught in the rupture would be mercilessly cut off, no matter what it was.
But――
"————."
Magic couldn't manifest faster than magical energy.
Sensing the magical energy being released towards her, Fiona moved.
Hero Battle Technique――[Flash Strike]
When the crack ran through the space, Fiona was already behind the false angel.
It was as if time had been cut out for an instant. The snow on the street danced up, and the air was stirred up by the high-speed movement――even faster than that.
Before the false angel even realized it had moved, Fiona struck its exposed back with a spinning kick.
Hero Battle Technique――[Thunder Kick]
The aura poured into the false angel's body from the soles of Fiona's feet, converting into a shockwave. But it wasn't a rough, violent shock like shattering rocks or sending water flying, but a quiet, penetrating one.
The false angel's liquid body vibrated finely, and for a moment, it lost control of its body.
At the same time, the false angel was kicked forward with intense force, getting caught in the rift in space it had created and having its body torn apart, flying dozens of meters away.
Finally, it crashed into the snow, and after its momentum weakened, it reconnected its severed body and restored itself.
And then――
Hero Battle Technique――[Flash Strike]
The false angel, which had rolled around on the snow, regained its footing, and just as it stopped, Fiona suddenly appeared inside it, already having infiltrated, and swung her dual swords at high speed.
Hero Sword Technique――[Ten-Flash Slash]
Ten slashes pierced through the false angel's body in an instant.
The speed alone generated a shockwave, turning the false angel's body into a bloody mist.
BOOM――Its entire body burst apart.
"~~~~~~~!!?"
The one who panicked was the false angel.
Panic. Fear. Confusion. Shock.
Among the attacks it had received so far, there was none that could deal effective damage to itself. Yet, it was driven by the various emotions that surged up, prioritizing the elimination of threats over its own recovery.
Most of its body had turned into a bloody mist, but it quickly gathered its remaining "self" and cast a spell.
Gravity Magic――[Destruction Sphere Crush]
The magic's power filled a 20-meter radius (≈ 65.6-foot radius) around the false angel.
It created a temporary area where the effect of gravity was amplified several times.
With a heavy, dull sound, the snow on the snowy plain was crushed into a beautiful circular shape.
The "self" that it had gathered was the only one that could escape the influence of super Gravity using a different Gravity magic. However, the tiny "selves" that had turned into blood mist couldn't do the same. The false angel stretched out its tentacles to collect and integrate those that had fallen onto the compressed snow, searching for its enemy.
No――there was no need to search.
[Fiona] had escaped the circular destruction zone using [Flash Strike], and was now standing right outside the snowfield, sword at the ready.
Hero Sword Technique――['Blast Bullet']
She fired an aura cannon bullet from the tip of her sword, which flew at high speed despite being affected by Gravity magic, hitting the false angel's body without fail.
The aura collided and exploded, scattering the false angel's body once again. In that instant, the false angel temporarily lost its ability to think, causing its magic to collapse and the super Gravity zone to disappear.
"~~~~!?"
Fear.
If one had to put into words the emotion that struck the false angel at that moment, it would be nothing but terror.
As a living being, its instincts screamed of a life-or-death crisis, and every cell in its body awakened.
It had to escape.
It had to survive.
Those were its top priorities.
That's why it had to eliminate the enemy in front of it, no matter what. Even if that enemy was a necessary existence.
All its cells resonated with each other, rapidly regenerating its body. But by then, Fiona had already moved to the false angel's side.
She took a deep stance, sword at the ready.
The next moment, the sword would strike.
Hero Sword Technique――['Heavy Blast Blade' - Shockwave]
The moment the blade pierced its body, an intense shockwave struck its entire being. The cells that made up its body trembled, and although it was almost imperceptible, its cells were indeed dying one by one.
But that wasn't the problem.
It would be impossible to kill it with this attack, even if someone hit the same attack a thousand times.
The problem was that the shockwave would spread throughout its body, limiting its actions, no matter how slightly.
So――,
Gravity magic――[Heavy Attribute Bestowal]
Just before the attack hit, the false angel managed to activate its magic, granting about 20% of its constituent cells heavy attributes, making them round and hard.
As the shockwave transformed 80% of its physical body into a bloody mist, the false angel, now a black sphere, began to cast magic. The scattered fragments of "itself" might also suffer some damage, but that didn't matter.
If it could defeat this enemy...
Thunder Magic――[Stormbreaker]
The remaining 2% of "itself" unleashed a wild storm of lightning from the black sphere, covering the entire surroundings.
It knew.
The false angel knew. It knew how fragile human bodies were.
Right after the attack, there was no time to defend against the all-directional assault. There was no way to dodge, and the false angel's enemies were consumed by the lightning.
――On the other hand.
In a dreamlike, hazy state of consciousness, Fiona sensed the warning signs of the impending lightning.
She understood.
If it were her now, she could defend against the [Stormbreaker] released at this timing, and even retreat to a safe zone. It wasn't an unavoidable attack, at least not for her.
But Fiona chose neither.
She understood.
That this attack was unavoidable for her current self.
From her stance with her sword drawn, she prepared for the next strike. For an instant, she focused on the sword in her left hand, deciding that it was okay to lose it. If she were holding the dual swords "Black Radiance" now, Fiona's consciousness might have hesitated.
Immediately after, a fierce lightning engulfed her entire body.
The overwhelming power that could take a human life ten times over licked her skin, but it didn't harm Fiona's skin. Her clothes, however, were incinerated in an instant.
When the [Stormbreaker] cleared, Fiona emerged unscathed.
By daring to take the attack head-on, Fiona managed to infuse her left sword with sufficient aura. A short, crisp ringing sound echoed.
She swung her left sword towards the floating black sphere.
Before the blade could touch the sphere, the sword lost its shape and disintegrated into dust.
Sword God Technique――――[Absolute Death Prison]
The massive aura released from the dust-covered sword was perfectly controlled, neither wild nor unbridled, and swiftly enveloped the sphere in an instant.
The spherical aura surrounding the black sphere radiated a dazzling light.
At the same time.
SCREEEEEEEEEECH-CLANG!――――――a metallic screeching sound echoed.
Immediately after, the light vanished.
The pitch-black sphere had also disappeared somewhere.
It was an overwhelmingly dull and uneventful scene.
However, only Fiona and the False Angel understood that the sphere had completely vanished from this world.
"―――――――!!?"
Fear. Fear. Fear.
The False Angel, who had turned into a bloody mist, gathered and restored its scattered selves while trembling in fear at the recent attack.
The restored physical body had become slightly smaller than before. The "selves" that made up the pitch-black sphere and those that had received the [Stormbreaker] attack in a bloody mist state had lost about 30% of their total number, resulting in a decrease in volume.
The False Angel realized that the enemy's current attack was a technique that could completely kill it.
As soon as it restored itself, it turned its back to Fiona and flew into the sky, desperately trying to escape as fast as possible, as if throwing everything away.
――I can't be defeated.
――I must flee.
The False Angel forgot that it was bound by the contract's orders.
And so, the False Angel flew high into the sky.
Hero Battle Technique――[Sky Drive Instant]
In an instant, Fiona caught up and struck with her sword――.
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