Chapter 447
Ian’s body seemed to drop away from Diana's embrace simply.
"Ian! No, this is crazy." Diana gasped, her head snapping down reflexively. She couldn't believe he'd really just let go like that.
In reality, he was just moving away along the ground. But to Diana, hanging there, it felt as if Ian were plummeting off a cliff. The sensation he was experiencing probably wasn't much different.
Yet Ian seemed completely unfazed. He flicked the sword from his left hand to his right. Then he twisted in mid-air, gliding away along the ground's surface. All Dianna could see now was his back growing more distant.
"Agent of the Saint!" Just then, an exclamation from behind them faintly reached Diana's ears.
Gripping the sword hilt with her left hand as well, she turned to look back. Off to the side, Hyked's form became clear. He too was holding on with one hand on his sword, which was plunged into the ground.
It was quite a distance, but Diana could clearly make out the darkness flickering like a torch around his body. She could even see his dark blue eyes behind his visor, seeming larger than usual. Soon, Hyked's eyes narrowed into thin slits.
"Haha!" A laugh, clearly filled with genuine admiration, followed.
That was enough to make Diana scowl.
Don't tell me...Immediately, the darkness clinging to Hyked's full plate armor deepened. He swiftly ripped his sword from the ground. Then he kicked off, angling himself into a headfirst dive toward the amalgamation.
"My goodness." Diana watched him shoot away like a black arrow. She let out a deep sigh.
To think even His Highness would join such a mad stunt.
It almost made her feel like she, still clinging precariously to the sword, was the odd one out. However, she realized that wasn't true just a moment later.
Shocked cries erupted from higher up, a beat too late.
"Y-Your Highness? Your Highness!"
"Your Highness! You mustn't! Your Highness—"
Diana tilted her head up. Seren desperately clung to her two-handed sword, which was firmly planted on the earth. Further down diagonally hung Gwellrod.
Gwellrod hung at a diagonal angle, having stopped a moment after her. He had embedded his longsword in the ground, where it barely held.
After staring down at the departing Hyked with wavering gazes, the two knights turned to look at each other.
The silence lasted only an instant.
"For His Highness's victory!"
"Willingly, even if death awaits!"
Shouting to solidify their resolve, the pair kicked off the ground one after another, pulling their swords free.
Diana watched the two black trajectories fall like meteors. A short breath escaped her—an involuntary chuckle.
Humans....
She was well aware that Hyked often engaged in reckless acts. Come to think of it, the same was true for Ian. It had been like that in almost every battle she had experienced alongside him.
Maybe it was only natural for two such reckless individuals to casually commit insane acts together after finding each other. Besides, perhaps now was precisely the moment when such recklessness was needed. After all, they had to face a monster that seemed utterly impossible to confront by any normal standard.
Pulling with both arms, Diana carefully placed one foot on the pure white blade of the Light Sword, as if stepping onto a tree branch. She remained crouched, gripping the hilt tightly with both hands. Her head naturally tilted down, and the giant shape rising sideways in the distance came into sharp focus.
What on earth is that?
It hadn't even moved, yet, strangely, it felt even further away than moments before. That was probably why she was able to see its entire form at a glance.
It was a hideous shape. Countless demonic beasts seemed embedded within or sprouting from its flesh, all fused together. Blade-like bones jutted out everywhere. Dark red tentacles writhed among the flesh, snatching incoming corpses from the air and slapping them onto the main body. The whole thing was even swelling upward; it looked like a small hill had risen from the ground.
This is too much to be Inaskurgl's true form. Is its chaos just running rampant?
Diana's gaze drifted to the top of the grotesque hill. There, Inaskurgl's haphazardly reassembled torso protruded as if on display.
Woosh—
Right in the center, nestled between ribs that shot upward like blooming flower petals, the massive eyeball shed an ominous red light. Its red, cross-shaped pupil stared up at the sky.
Has its chaos taken physical form? In something that grotesque?
Diana's swamp-colored eyes trembled. Of course, she couldn't know the answer. This was just a desperate attempt to define the monster, to make it feel slightly less terrifying.
Her gaze swept blankly over the eye of chaos. Above it, a shimmering gray ring, like condensed mist, pulsed. Gray magic swirled endlessly into it. Just looking at it distorted her vision, made her feel like her soul was being sucked away—a shudderingly ominous sight.
Skreeech—
Startled by an eerie, crackling roar, Diana blinked and looked away.
Ian had already fallen near the base of the monster's hill and was swinging his sword. Purple arcs flashed around him. Severed fragments of flesh flew in all directions, spraying fluids. The tentacles writhing across the mound had lashed out as he approached—and they were still thrashing now.
Slash!
Gripping the black sword that radiated a purple haze, Ian sliced apart every incoming tentacle before they could touch him. She couldn't believe how fast he was, despite seeing it herself. Despite the fierce battle he'd already fought with Inaskurgl, it looked as if new strength was surging from somewhere within him.
He wasn't even standing on the ground. Yet, as if pure physical strength were enough, Ian carved countless purple arcs through the empty air. Everything touched by those arcs was mercilessly torn and dismembered.
Crunch! Crash!
Of course, his slashes couldn't continue forever. The mass of writhing flesh, sharp bones, and reanimating, mutating demonic beasts was rapidly closing in.
Ian's choice was simple. He thrust the golden, hexagonal shield on his left arm forward and momentarily curled up in mid-air.
Clang—
He crashed down, crushing a sharply protruding bone and a reanimated shadow beast beneath the shield. For an instant, the shield's golden light flared dazzlingly bright, and a purple haze exploded from Ian's entire body.
Thooom!
The next moment, Ian bounced up like a ball, soaring again. He twisted his body, planting both feet firmly on the ground as if landing on a cliff edge.
Whoosh—
Kicking off the ground, he shot upward. His posture showed his intent: to leap straight to the top of the hill in a single bound. In response, countless writhing tentacles convulsively surged toward him.
Thwack! Slash!
Purple trajectories instantly swirled around Ian.
With the tentacles torn to shreds, Ian landed in a parabola near the middle of the fleshy hill. He hit the ground rolling and dashed forward, scattering purple light from his body while continuously swinging the sword. His posture made it look like he was running on flat ground, not up a hill.
No way.
Diana's mouth fell open.
It was almost always like this with Ian, but the scene still felt utterly unreal. It seemed more fitting to call it a battle of gods, or at least a clash between the transcendents, a fight where ordinary people couldn't even hope to interfere.
Crash! Crunch! Slash—
Besides, something similar was happening off to the side.
Hyked, enveloped in burning dark blue darkness, cut down and batted away the surging tentacles and demonic beasts. He must have landed similarly while Diana's attention was on Ian. However, he couldn't charge forward as recklessly as Ian. He appeared valiant, yet struggled—though that was only for a moment.
Crack, boom!
Black meteors landed around him, unleashing deafening sounds. Hyked, who had just thrust his sword into the maw of a mutated shadow beast and was trampling it, turned his gaze. The blazing darkness around his entire body flared intensely.
"Follow me—"
Right after that command, dark blue darkness erupted around the bodies of the Black Lions, who had seemed frozen in shock. They sprang up, roared like beasts, and swung their weapons fiercely at the attacking tentacles and demonic beasts.
Crash! Whack! Crack!
Purple and black arcs of destruction climbed the monster's hill from different directions.
Atop the hill, the body of chaos, which had been looking up at the sky, finally turned its gaze. The cross-shaped pupil locked onto Ian below, flaring a brighter red.
"-----!"
"-----!"
The demonic beasts writhing everywhere shrieked in unison. Immediately after, a gray shockwave erupted from the central eye, sweeping across the hill.
Crash! Boom!
Ian raised his Platinum Barrier, tumbling down the slope, leaving a purple trail behind him. The Black Lions stabbed their weapons deep into the ground, cloaking themselves in shadows as they were forcefully pushed back.
"Insane…" Diana, caught in the shockwave's aftermath, gasped for breath, gripping the Light Sword's hilt tightly. Her body slid the rest of the way down, and she slumped to the ground. As the pulling force vanished, the world, which had seemed tilted sideways, finally righted itself.
Squish... gurgle...
The gray shockwave left the amalgamation and the fused beasts unharmed. If anything, it seemed to do the opposite. Amidst a shimmering like thick fog, they swelled and mutated further, accompanied by eerie, wet sounds.
But something else made Diana's eyes narrow behind her mask. It was supposed to be flat ground. Yet the entire area centered around the Amalgamation of Chaos looked and felt like it had sunk inward, like a basin. But the ground hadn't actually collapsed.
"This is... don't tell me...."
The edges of her vision were distorting. Her senses felt strangely out of sync. It felt just like the sensation she got when walking near the edge of a rift.
Of course, the distortion wasn't as severe as being right beside a rift, but the fundamental nature felt the same.
Crack... creak...
Hearing the eerie sound, like a fissure spreading, Diana stared blankly up at the hill of flesh. Above the chaos eye that had spat out the shockwave, the gray ring still shimmered. The vortex of magic swirling into it also remained unchanged.
Crash! Boom!
It was then that explosions erupted again. Ian, who had tumbled down, was already climbing the hill once more. So were Hyked and the Black Lions.
Crack! Boom!
Their charge was still valiant, but both sides had clearly slowed down. Not only were the tentacles more numerous and vicious, but the demonic beasts fused into the flesh had also become more hideous.
"Before everything goes to hell...." Diana, watching the scene unfold, muttered Ian’s words blankly. She finally understood what he had meant. He had realized early on what would happen if they let this chaotic entity be.
Skra-boom! Boom!
Her guess became a certainty when she saw Ian desperately climbing the hill. He was even flinging fireballs and causing explosions with sweeps of his left hand now.
It was unbelievable, but it looked like he was using magic, not relying on an artifact or a tool. Of course, this was no time to be marveling at such things.
"Fuck!" Diana sprang to her feet, grabbed the hilt of the Truesilver Steel Sword plunged into the ground with both hands. Ian had jammed it in so forcefully that she had to use all her strength just to pull it free.
Stumbling slightly, her gaze darted outward, toward what felt like the slope leading away. It was a behavior driven almost purely by fairy instinct.
But there was no escape route in sight. The area outside the immediate battlefield was already shrouded in thick, gray fog. Inaskurgl's domain barrier hadn't broken yet. It would likely only shatter after something irreversible occurred.
"Damn it. Fuck…" She cursed under her breath, glancing around for a moment before her shoulders slumped.
The thought that she never should have gotten involved with heroes and their like flashed through her mind. Yet, at the same time, her life now depended entirely on those very heroes.
"Ha...."
That paradoxical thought drew a humorless chuckle from her lips.
Well, at least she had seen her clan's enemy die. She had even helped kill him and witnessed his disgusting downfall.
As the last moments go, this isn't too bad.
Diana violently shook her head, cutting off the thought. "What the fuck am I thinking? Why should I? I'm not dying. Never!"
Muttering affirmations, she glanced down at the Truesilver Steel Sword in her right hand. Its blade was beautifully white. Then, raising the sword before her face, she tightened her grip, staring intently at the blade as if trying to pierce it with her gaze.
"Damn it. Still no good." Diana muttered, her expression crumpling. It was a dragon’s armament, meaning that only Ian, the Dragon's Agent, could unleash the sword's full power.
"What more can I possibly do here…" As she muttered, Diana’s head suddenly turned to the side. Amidst the explosions and roars, she finally registered the heavy hoofbeats drawing nearer.
Moro, scattering purple light, galloped diagonally down the slope. And riding him, Lucia’s form became clear.
"Diana—" Lucia leaned forward, shouting as their eyes met. An orange divine light gleamed in her eyes. "Let’s go! This is no time to just watch!" she added, stretching out her hand forcefully.
Diana stared at the offered hand for a moment.
Smack!
Catching Lucia's hand in hers, Diana leaped smoothly onto Moro's back.