Published at 21st of June 2023 6:07 pm

Chapter 397 – Night of Chaos

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

The night sky was dyed by a cold, silver light. Demons bustlingly gathered underneath the spearmaster and the black cat as if to transform the night sky into the same kind as it could be seen in the Spirit World.

Those demons were hostile to each other. They were in the middle of showing off their individual might and prowess.

One of them was a plant-based demon who moved around, repeatedly using the clouds for cover. That demon glared at the twin moons that flooded the area with their glow. It wasn’t as though the demon particularly loathed the twin moon gods.

The two bulges at her chest betrayed the demon as a woman. Repeatedly swaying her plant arms, she remembered the god-slaying flash triggered by the spearmaster. She harbored deep interest in that tough spearmaster of Sela.

While pondering whether she should try to destroy him, muttering, 『Maybe I should test him out with a strike of ancient magic♪』, she created pebbles and wooden stakes around herself, before beginning a charge. She kept creating vortexes of pebbles and stakes while swallowing up countless demons within.

◇◆◇◆

“Vaa-chan’s favorite spearmaster, I’m going to back you up――”

The gigantic, black rabbit Shaysad fought against a freaky wakame demon with countless wakame stalks growing out of its body as if to cover me. The two swords swung by him moved very quickly.

Something similar to shark fangs protruded out of the wakame body, but he bisected its body alongside the fangs.

At that moment, another wakame monster approached me as well.

“Sacrifice, sacrifice! Devour, devour――” It babbled with a rough tone.

Rollodeen dealt with that monster.

“Nyagoaaa――”

Widening her muzzle, she suddenly spat out terrifying, crimson flames. Their tremendous heat was even passed onto me, the one holding her tentacle rein.

Monsters with wakame stalks or huge moth-like objects growing out of their bodies were enveloped by the flames, vanishing. The scent of baked seaweed spread into the vicinity.

But, they burned down so quickly that I couldn’t even confirm their carbonization. My partner’s flames were just that powerful.

――Yet, the number of enemies was huge.

A demon closing in from the right entered my visual field. A horned demon? It was a demon with its wings and hands fused.

It drew closer at high speed, but got counterattacked as I had swung Baldok from the lower right to the upper left while twisting my right hand. As soon as the red ax blade struck its right flank, it cleaved its body open all the way to the left shoulder, resulting in its torso being sliced apart. Blood and intestines sprayed into the sky as if forming a circle.

Moreover, I heard a strange “Girelmo girelmo――” squeaking from above as a demon charged at me. The demon’s appearance was as weird as its voice. It looked disgusting with its accumulation of long tongues. Violet red tongues extended in all directions from its body while at the same time coiling around themselves as well.

I’m not sure whether you can actually call that a body in the first place.

Up in the sky, I also happened to spot monsters or demons consisting of a single arm like Sabeed Kenziro of the demonic labyrinth, but…I think it’s my first time to see a demon made out of nothing but tongues.

It scattered mucus, melting the earthworm-like demons around it. And while revolving around its own axis, it charged at me who was right below it.

That mucus is acidic, huh? That’s why I don’t intend to let that huge tongue cluster get close to Rollodeen.

Ice magic would have been fine as well, but I first activated three instances of <Shining Chain Lance>. Even the sudden appearance of the light spears didn’t cause the tongue bastard to stop its descent.

But, once all three spears stabbed the core of the tongue cluster, it came to a halt.

It’s a light-based spear skill, so I guess it works well against some tongue abominations.

And then, just as usual, the rear part of the spears squirmed and transformed into light nets while revolving. But, the tongue monster was huge. Even the three light nets couldn’t cover all of its body. Even so, a part of the nets clung to the monster, and cut its tongues apart in a mesh pattern.

Several net-shaped wounds were created in the tongue flesh, and a part of the divided tongues turned into cubes before dropping down towards the ground.

Alright, its movements have completely stalled.

Shifting Baldok from the right to the left hand, I rolled Baldok’s handle around on my palm for a few milliseconds, then changed the angle of its butt end, and finally thrust the Magic Dragon Gem out at the tongue bastard.

While glaring at the tongue demon, I passed mana into Baldok through my left hand. My rich mana reached the gem, triggering a synchrotron-radiation-like, dazzling flash of light from within the Magic Dragon Gem in the next instant.

At the same time as light energy, which would probably look differently depending on the angle of observation, was generated, a broad, ice blade extended in a straight line from the dragon gem. Ice Claw had activated.

The point of the ice sword stabbed deeply into the center of the demon’s crowded tongue cluster. I added my right hand to the handle of Baldok, shifting to a two-handed hold while adjusting my gripping locations.

It might now look as if I’m wielding a huge two-handed sword.

“It can’t cut space, but chopping up tongues is a piece of cake!”

With that declaration I swung Baldok as if severing space right in front of me, diagonally to the right. As soon as the ice blade bisected the upper half of the tongue monster, I cut off my mana supply to the Magic Dragon Gem. It caused Ice Fang to vanish in the next moment.

While feeling a cold wind grazing past my head, I shifted to a one-handed hold of Baldok. I whirled around Baldok on my right palm as if playing with a pencil. After I let Baldok roll across my forearm, I arrested the violet, metallic handle under my right armpit.

I didn’t check the final moments of the tongue monster. Instead I leaned on Rollodeen while being careful about not injuring her with Baldok’s ax blade. As I pressed my body against her fluffy black fur on her back, Rollodeen dashed straight ahead while releasing explosive flames as if creating a burning path in the air.

At that point…

“Shuuya-sama, I might be late, but I shall participate in the battle!”

“Sorry for keeping you waiting――”

Rotalz and Kisara had arrived. Instinctively I checked the sky above me.

The filaments that had radially expanded from the hole in her witch spear had transformed into blades. Each time the blades swayed, many demons were chopped apart. When she swung its spearhead from the left to the right, a gargoyle-shaped demon, which had approached her, was bisected.

The witch spear caused a big whirlwind.

Kisara looked wonderful in her sleeveless witch outfit. She was confronting a demon with a crown of roses as she unleashed continuous kicking techniques to the left and right as if dancing.

She shifted to a one-handed hold of the witch spear, and immediately after dodging a whip attack by nimbly shifting her body, she exhibited her <Magic Breath>.

Following that, the grimoire at her waist started to gleam as she continued pulling cartwheels. Small, layered magic crests manifested at her wrists.

Crows from her rosaries? Or it might be daggers.

Taking some distance from the rose monster that had unleashed the whip attack, she kept her combat distance.

Rotalz released a diffused light spell, severing a great number of demons crosswise. The demons were slaughtered at the same levels as previously from Rollodeen’s flame breath.

At that point, my visual field quickly changed, triggered by Rollodeen suddenly altering her flight. Rollo took a sharp turn as if to force her way into a cluster of demons.

Even as I felt an intense pressure pushing against my body, I spotted an eyeball demon on my left side. And then a big soil cluster passed the place where Rollo had been moments ago.

Huge! So Rollo evaded that, huh?

Going by the blast power as it blew away a part of the Sea of Trees below, the quality of the clustered mana was extremely high.

Was it ancient magic? It looks like someone is targeting Rollodeen and me from the distance.

I checked the direction from where it came, and could only spot a plant-based demon fighting Shaysad while moving every now and then.

They say the darkness of nothingnessrecklessness is scarier than true darkness, but I guess that rule also applies to some demons. The skeleton mage Hazes was nearby as well.

He had created a magic crest which summoned countless black umbrella-like objects. As he muttered, “I guess I’ll show this child, of the second generation, to Shuuya-san, the new master of the Sea of Trees…” he created a child with flames within its body out of thin air by swinging his wand.

The flame-clad child made rapier-shaped flame swords appear from its hands, and began to fight while dancing through the air alongside Hazes who wielded his wand. Moreover, an eerie cackling could be heard from the skull at the tip of Hazes’s wand.

As soon as he held the wand up, countless golden skulls appeared from it, all flying towards a demon with a caterpillar-shaped lower body.

Those guys are his enemies, huh?

Without minding him any further, I shot <Chain> at another enemy. An eyeball monster was the target. The chain’s tip penetrated the monster which resembled Adombrally, and kept piercing through other eyeball monsters behind it.

I continued manipulating <Chain> so as to make it plunge through the sky, succeeding in slaying dozens of eyeball monsters. But, thanks to all the eyeballs hanging on the chain, the chain itself became somewhat heavy.

Accordingly I erased <Chain>. At the same time, chunks of meat fell down like powdered snow. A spectacle similar to the blood banquet – though I didn’t use the skill – unfolded in the air. Of course, Rollodeen and I enjoyed the blood with our bodies, absorbing all of it.

I perceived lively movements from the tentacles attached to Rollodeen’s neck.

『Prey』『Hunt』『Sky King』『Play』『Prey』『Delicious』『Blood』『Blood』『Play』『Sky』『Hunt』

At the same time, she passed her feelings on to me. They clearly told me that she had a blast. As expected, it might stem from the good affinity. Far from running away upon seeing Rollodeen, the swarming demons came chasing after her as if asking to be preyed upon.

While continuing her high-speed maneuvers, Rollodeen deployed her tentacle bone swords in all directions. Each time my partner passed a flock of demons, countless of them filled the night sky with chunks of their bodies.

Suddenly, Rollodeen targeted a big demon. Swooping down skillfully by folding her black wings, she firmly grabbed the demon with the sharp claws of her forepaws, bit into it, and started to devour its flesh.

She looks like it’s very delicious…

At that moment, Kisara’s fighting entered my line of sight.

“Kisara! Don’t try the impossible! Don’t chase too far!”

“Okay, I will create a safety zone――”

Kisara was calm. Together with Rotalz, she was aiming for places where Rollodeen and I definitely wouldn’t wreck havoc. As if to create a safety zone in the sky, she continuously mowed down and stabbed winged demons with her blood-stained spearhead, slaying one of them after the other.

Moreover, the battle between the demons had become more intense, too. As it was convenient, we took some distance from them, gazing at the battlefield from a bit further away.

The divine domain’s warrior team, which was fighting Hoffmann and his ilk, was quite powerful. A slender divine warrior, who was releasing a golden aura, deployed rosaries from both arms.

I think it’s the one who introduced himself as Deltabard Buu?

The deployed rosaries formed layered, golden magic crests and flew alongside those crests. The number of those flying crests was enormous. The crests seemed to be explosive spells.

An apparently superb humanoid demon with multiple eyes on Hoffmann’s side tried to cut those crests, but the instant his sword touched one, the crest exploded, blowing the demon into smithereens.

However, even if his friends got finished off, Hoffmann himself was powerful. I happened to watch the fight between him and the Death Butterfly women, and this was just like back then.

Hoffmann’s body had parted into two halves. One maintained its human form while the other had changed into a world of darkness.

Is the darkness world a big, dark mantle? Or a huge aura of darkness? I suppose it’s a wave of another dimension. It’s kinda hard to describe it, though.

The darkness half swayed suspiciously. Meanwhile, there was no change to the human half. The magic swords extending from the five fingers of his normal hand looked classy with their kanji inscriptions.

His hand with the five magic swords, which could teleport around within the darkness of his dark body half, were no different from before either. He was using a magic claw swordsmanship with both his body halves. An extremely combat style at that.

I felt somewhat jealous of his overly magnificent sword fighting. A ultra-high-level swordsmanship making use of a darkness world.

Moreover, those test tubes were still stuck in the back of his hands. The small bugs living inside those tubes were going strong. They were cooperating with the ten magic swords.

At the same time as his dark side’s arm stabbed forward, the magic swords on its fingers were quickly brandished, creating three crimson trails in the air. Following that, five bluish-white traces were created. Then several yellow-green wave-shaped sword lines were created too, looking as if they were chasing the crimson and blue traces.

A divine warrior, who had approached Hoffmann, was instantly turned into small pieces. Another divine warrior swooped down on Hoffmann. But, the blade of the warrior’s longsword was cut by five of Hoffmann’s magic swords. And at the same time, a dark blade, which stabbed out of his darkness world, pierced the warrior’s golden loop.

I didn’t know about that technique yet.

The arm, which I got used to seeing, rushed out of the darkness world, quickly brandishing its five magic swords to instantly slice the warrior’s head apart in five parts.

Hoffmann advanced, killing one foe after the other.

A divine warrior in front of him thrust the head of his spear at Hoffmann. Hoffmann repelled it with one of his magic swords, and used moved the other four magic swords on that hand up and down, instantly creating sword lines in all directions. The warrior’s arm was cut over and over again together with the spear it held, turning into chunks of meat.

Moreover, as if copying the human body half, the other arm from the dark body half extended forward alongside its five magic swords. Those swords gouged out the heart of the divine warrior in front of him.

The swordsmanship of his tent fingers was very precise, despite it being night.

Hoffmann stopped moving and looked at me, saying, “The number of enemies sure is huge. Now that I lost Schmihazar, I don’t really feel like showing you my real power…,” with classical music playing from the coffin in the background.

Immediately following, he summoned a female magician with a reddish tinge from his dark body half. The magician floated in the air with a bluish-white, force-field-like defense spell cladding her whole body, including her red hair.

Suddenly, a great number of black-colored doll-look-alikes popped out from her bluish-shining body. Those dolls were different from Kisara’s paper dolls. They stuck themselves to the divine warriors, and exploded abruptly.

A small divine warrior instantly crumbled apart alongside his armor. And a part of the divine forces started to fall back.

A fishman-type subordinate, who had been around from the start, let his blades, made out of scales, fly off in all directions, continuously offsetting the golden boomerang-shaped loops of the divine troops.

But then, a tall divine warrior confronted him. He had eight metallic arms, unlike the ender Deltabard Buu. It was the guy who introduced himself as Jenga Buu at the start. His eight arms wielded clubs consisting of golden loops that had been stacked into spirals.

Even right now he was heartily swinging his clubs, crushing one of the clubs against the fishman’s torso. Alongside a loud gong, the fishman had its abdomen pulverized into bits, falling while scattering bloody vomit.

Jenga Buu was powerful.

I think the battle between Hoffmann’s forces and the divine warriors is even.

“Priest Solck, here I come!”

“Priest Delgack, likewise!”

Two humans with shaved heads yelled while adopting poses as if chanting Buddhist prayers with one hand lifted. They were clasping a steel staff in their hand.

Are those guys also on the side of the divine domain? They’re wearing chain mail with battle-designed aprons.

Exactly because I couldn’t sense an ounce of mana from them, I could tell that they had to be fairly strong. I don’t know from where they popped out, though. Maybe from the Sea of Trees below?

A tall tree was violently shaking.

Maybe they’re vampire hunters?

At that moment, Rollodeen took a sharp turn. The priests, and the battle between Hoffmann’s forces and the divine troops left my line of sight.

Since I’m curious about the being that named itself a Spirit World Knight earlier, I’ll look for them, I guess.

While at it, I poured mana into my Dark Hell Bone Knight. As usual, magic beams extended from the ring. With a release of smoke, the Burning Knights manifested behind me.

Rollo’s tentacles coiled themselves around their armors.

“I’ve summoned you guys, but we’re currently up in the sky. It’s different from usual. And this is the situation here――”

“Your Excellency, is this a battlefield in the Spirit World?”

“No, you’re wrong, Adomos. This is Sela.”

“It’s as Zemetas says. We’re in the skies of Sela. It’s a chaotic battlefield, nonetheless. Anyway, I spotted a Spirit World Knight-like group over there earlier.”

At that moment, Rollodeen folded one of her big wings, boosting the turning.

“――We know…those knights on the left side.”

“――They’re the Spirit World Knights of Demonic Moth King Zebal. They’re right riding Mugu-ranked demonic beasts.”

All names I don’t know.

“――Demonic Moth King, huh? That name’s new to me. I was sure they’re the famous Dead Sea Knights.”

“――None of those under Tyrannical King Boshiado’s banner are present.”

At that moment ― though I don’t think they’ve heard our conversation ― one of those riding black horses approached us. He had the appearance of a tall and broad black knight. The skin of his demonic beast steed had black-steel-like line patterns. Crimson flames dwelt inside those lines. His limbs were engulfed by flames as well.

“――Would you let me have a duel with you, spearmaster?”

“Ah, Delhart, that’s not what was promised!”

A female knight, who had been fighting against a demon that looked like a fusion of two eyeballs, cut that demon apart while creating a yellow and a bluish-white sword trace, and immediately cried, “Delhart, are you stealing a march!?”

“Ah, wait!”

Two female knights rushed over as if to chase after Delhart. Both rode demonic beasts who were similar to Delhart’s. All of them used demonic horses who could keep up with Rollodeen’s speed.

According to Zemetas, they seem to be under the command of Demonic Moth King Zebal, but…since they’re riding such imposing beasts as befitting for Spirit World Knights, they look strong.

“Zebal’s knights, why are you here!?” Zemetas yelled.

“Addressing Zebal-sama without any honorific titles!? You asked for it, so bring it on you lowly foot soldier!” The black knight yelled back, seemingly thinking that Zemetas had insulted his lord.

He stabbed out a magic spear with a conspicuous spiraling form. Its violet metal stood out even in this night sky as he used a thrusting technique.

“No! I’m a Burning Knight!”

“Right, we’re His Excellency sole Burning Knights!”

Zemetas and Adomos roared while squaring off against the black knight. But, the range of his spear was naturally different from that of their shields and swords. And seeing how we were up in the sky, they couldn’t cope with his attack.

Rollodeen was about to unleash her tentacle bone swords in their stead, but I dealt with his attack. I extended Baldok so as to cross Delhart’s approaching magic spear. I met the violet spearhead with a spiraling <Thrust> of my red spear.

Red and violet spear clashed, releasing an intense metallic clank alongside large amounts of sparks.

“――The lowly was unnecessary, you know?” I commented in passing.

In the next instant, Rollodeen turned around with a speed as expectable of a divine beast. It’s not like it was linked to the Burning Knights’ angry voices, but I made use of <Divine Beast Serene Mind ・ Soaring> to share my senses with Rollodeen.

As Rollodeen performed her turn, I swung Baldok upwards from below. The red ax blade caught the knight’s back. A sound of metal suddenly being dented could be heard from his back.

“Guuaaaa!”

The ax blade was stuck in his broad back. I felt a solid feedback from the hit. Continuing to rotate, I aimed to severe Delhart in one swoop, but――

A yellow-gleaming magic blade came flying. At this rate, my right arm would be chopped off.

“What maneuverability! Delhart!” The female knight who had unleashed the magic blade shouted.

I let go of Baldok, allowing the yellow blade, which flew at an extremely high speed, to pass between my hand and Baldok. The continued towards directly below Rollodeen.

“Shuhelia, huh? You have my thanks!”

“Don’t mind that――”

The female knight charged my way in order to save the black knight. The point of her glistening magic sword grazed the tip of my nose.

――Ouch, that hurt.

My blood sprayed into the air.

『Your Excellency, her swordsmanship is fast――』

Just as Helme said, the female knight was quick. And the trajectory of her sword was hard to read. Her magic sword created several yellow sword lines.

It was in passing, but her sword handling of attacking me thrice with her sword was proof of her terrifying skill.

If it’s only sword techniques, I assume that she’s far above the third rank of the Eight Divine Sword God Ranking, Revel, but…well, even if compared to beastmen or demonic knights, her strength is in another league, I guess.

There was a Demonic Eye on the hilt of her magic sword. An eyeball that seemed to glare while embedded in a tapered cone-shaped container.

“Your Excellency――”

“Leave it to us――”

The Burning Knights tried to cover me by swinging their bone swords and shields in the back. But, Rollodeen was fast. Rollo turned for them, but the Burning Knights’ attacks didn’t reach. It was pointless as we had already passed each other.

On the other hand, Delhart, who had been rescued by her, wriggled, trying to get the ax blade out of his back.

As the one having let go of it, you can’t really call it very persuasive, but I don’t want others to touch Baldok.

While thinking that, I focused on <Saraten’s Secret Art>. But, I wasn’t targeting Delhart. Instead I had Saraten head for the other approaching female knight.

『Good decision――』

Saraten praised me while buzzing. It was a fast secret art which had been impossible to cope with even for that demi-goddess. The instant Saraten tore through the knight’s demonic horse’s head, let alone her magic sword, the knight’s head also popped and dispersed in all directions.

『The quality of her blood is great!』

Saraten cheerfully told me via telepathy and divided into three. Unlike before, they didn’t overlap like a mille-feuille. She really split into three separate swords. Midgets were riding on top of each sword’s hilt. They were acting as if surfing on the swords while each wore different clothes. Their hair styles and colors were completely different, too.

And immediately after she told me, 『Vessel, I shall accept the blood and flesh!』, the three swords charged at the falling horse and knight with a tremendous speed.

It was only one who had sent me a telepathic message, though…

The three divine swords with their respective midget riders tore horse and knight to shreds as if rejoicing over the bloody festival they were creating themselves.

It was horrifying. I guess you can actually describe the first blood spray as no more than an overture.

The three swords chaotically raced through the air as if greedily devouring the flesh and blood. The female knight’s body dispersed within a second.

“――Elimia has…!”

The other female knight stopped moving, and her demonic horse neighed in blatant terror. The horse made its two front legs point upwards, clearly confused.

In the meantime, I shot <Chain> at Delhart. At the same time I told Rollo and the others, “I’ll leave for a bit――”

While jumping, I followed the trajectory of <Chain>. The chain got repelled by Delhart’s magic spear. Baldok still remained embedded in his back, however.

Even so, Delhart had rotated his body and defended against the chain by quickly and compactly brandishing his spear.

It allowed me to predict his spear skills to be formidable. Also, he had apparently given up on removing Baldok from his back.

After feinting with the chain, which had headed to the right with a warped trajectory, I erased it.

Thereupon, the Time Tapir, who had been rampaging at the left corner of my sight, shouted, “Guhahaha! ―― <Reluctant Face – Beast Face>!” 1

He was grasping chakram weapons with big links in both hands. In the next moment, he summoned a giraffe-like monster. That giraffe unleashed lightning strikes into its surroundings, and after cladding itself in lightning,it charged through a group of monsters. The giraffe’s lightning also reached the red magician on Hoffmann’s side, who retaliated by attacking the Time Tapir with a swarm of magic spears. A part of those spears stabbed the shell of the turtle he was riding. 2

The battle between Kisara and the rose-crowned demon was even.

Intense battles all over the place, huh? Ah, no, Rotalz is quite motivated, one-sidedly eradicating the demons around him.

Now then, I’m also worried about Eva, but let’s clean up this place here first.

I held up the palm of my left hand with its hole, and strictly ordered Saraten, who had continued flying around while devouring other demons in the vicinity, telepathically to get back

In an instant, the three holy swords homed in towards my left palm and rushed into the hole. Saraten, who usually acted like a restive horse, had behaved this time.

『…Helme, I leave the magic swordswoman on the right to you』

『Okay――』

Helme immediately left through my left eye, heading straight for the Spirit World Knight who had fixed her posture just now. Helme’s style of flying while spreading both arms was lovely. It made my heart race the most today.

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