Chapter 112
“Storm Harpoon!”[2]
At the same time as Castor swung his favourite anchor down, a current of wind with a visible pressure was thrust into Leon’s head.
It was nothing more than ordinary arcane magic. However, when it was used by Castor, it was strong enough to leave a fissure a few hundred metres wide on the ground.
Nonetheless, for Leon, the impact of that skill felt no different from being hit by something lightweight.
It served no more than to slightly draw his attention away.
But even that was enough. The mere fact that he was distracted by something was already a job well done.
“Luna Tentacle.”
Following up on what just happened, Aigokeros called upon tentacles made out of darkness and rushed them towards Leon.
One should not be asking; who is going to benefit from tentacles on a giant lion play. That was because the person using the skill was actually being serious.
However, the constriction only lasted for a fraction of a moment. By the next moment, the tentacles had already been shredded to a thousand pieces and Leon was already charging towards Aigokeros with the intention of sending him away.
Nevertheless, that charge did not end up where Aigokeros was. It was because there was a head-on collision between a giant crab and a lion as Leon was interrupted by Karkinos who stepped in between them.
Due to the shockwave caused by the two of them colliding, the trees in the vicinity broke and the ground shook like an earthquake.
The counter skill Acubens successfully threw Leon away. However, immediately after that happened, Karkinos himself also collapsed onto the ground.
It was because he had finally reached his limit after repeatedly taking Leon’s attacks.
Karkinos’s defence was the highest amongst the members of the Twelve Stars and ordinarily, would even surpa.s.s that of Level 1000 Leon.
Furthermore, his defence enhancement skill [Tegmine] would raise the numerical value of his defence to be above 20 000. Thus, against him, the majority of attacks would not have any effect.[3]
But the current Leon was abnormal. He could even forcibly overwhelm Karkinos’s defence with raw strength, allowing him to defeat Karkinos who stood in a naturally advantageous position when matched against Leon.
If one were to consider that Leon was still going berserk even after managing to defeat Karkinos, one could only describe the situation as crazy.
“Graffias!”[4]
Scorpius doused him with a poisonous breath attack.
The poison released by her was different from ordinary poison as it had the effect of stacking on itself.
As Ruphas had previously said, an annoying point of this scorpion was that she was able to further pour and stack poison on those that were already poisoned.
a.n.a.logising, in ordinary situations, poison worked by inflicting the enemy with a poison that would deal 1 damage every second.
However, she was different. She could repeatedly release poison towards the enemy and make the poison stack such that she was able to increase the damage per second to 2, 3, 4 or even 10 as long as she continued to stack them.
But even that was nothing more than slowly shaving away at Leon’s enormous vitality.
A poison that could not be cleansed would eventually but surely kill the enemy. Nevertheless, that eventuality would not arrive until far later in time.
At the very least, it would not happen during this particular battle.
“Ya pesky s.h.i.t!”
Leon leapt into the air and moved to attack Scorpius’s giant body.
Now that the shield known as Karkinos had shattered, there was no technique that could stop Leon’s attack.
After just a single attack, Scorpius was taken down and subsequently suffered Leon’s stomp which caused her outer sh.e.l.l to crack into pieces.
Although Aigokeros jumped in from behind, without even turning back to look, Leon dispersed Aigokeros’s illusion into a fine mist by swiping at it with his tail.
“You….!”
“Stop, Aries! If you charge in recklessly….”
Aries leapt in from Leon’s blindspot and kicked.
However, as if he had read the attack beforehand, Leon turned his head towards the attack, dodged the attack and spun on the spot. Or so it seemed, but in the next moment, Aries was captured by Leon’s tail.
“Ga… a!”
“I’ve finally caught ya… ya’ve been dilly-dallying around me for a while now… If I keep letting a small fry like ya b.a.s.t.a.r.d keep doing whatever ya want, it’ll damage my pride. So it’s enough already, if ya’re trash, be good and quietly act like trash.”
Leon said as such in an irritated tone and strengthened the hold on his tail.
When he did, the ominous sound of bones breaking resounded from Aries’s body, and with it, a face distorted in pain.
Libra and Sagittarius quickly tried to snipe Leon to improve the situation. However, Leon with his giant body swiftly leapt aside and avoided their attacks.
He possessed agility that did not match up with his large size.
“I’ll take care of ya b.a.s.t.a.r.ds later… stay in line, be silent and wait there patiently.”
Leon said this without even looking at Libra and the rest as he increased the grip with his tail even further.
He was probably meaning to slaughter Aries just like this.
No, it was not anything soft like that.
Leon lifted Aries’s body in front of his mouth and bared his fangs out.
“I’ll give ya b.a.s.t.a.r.d a fitting finale. I’ll kill and devour you, ya fodder monster.”
Aries was no longer in a condition where he could register those words.
It was because his eyes were already rolled up to show its white and he had lost consciousness.
Ultimately, this was the reality of the difference in strength.
One could say percentage damage or anything else they wanted to. However, when one party possessed overwhelmingly higher status, it was a given that the one with the stronger status would win.
Leon was now convinced of his victory and opened his mouth wide –.
“—Hermes Trismegistus.”[5]
A voice resounded from thin air and the mana in the surroundings intensified.
Immediately afterwards, as if to blanket Leon’s large body, magic arrays appeared from three different directions at the same time, flooding torrents of muddy water onto him.
The amount of water that came flooding would equal that of a deep blue sea, turning that original place into something of a pyramid that secured that entire location.
After condensing an enormous amount of water in place to secure whatever was inside, the pressure applied by the liquid easily surpa.s.sed tens of thousands of tonnes.
Due to this sudden attack, Leon accidentally released Aries, but the intruder’s attack did not end here.
“X-Gate.”
s.p.a.ce-time distorted.
The entire s.p.a.ce-time continuum around Leon turned into an empty pitch black dimension. What appeared in front of Leon, who was trapped in place inside of a water pyramid, was just a single young girl with blue hair.
There was nothing else. Whether it be the centaurs in the forest or the village, nothing existed in this s.p.a.ce.
The only things left were Aries, Castor, Sei and others who were organic. However, everything inorganic including Libra was nowhere to be seen.
The young girl looked down onto Leon and as if sneering at him, smiled towards him, causing a few hundred magic arrays to be simultaneously deployed.
“Dawn Star!”
Invocation.
At the same time, from the empty s.p.a.ce, meteors started storming down.
The solution deployed by Dina to solve the dilemma of this arcane magic which would cause a major catastrophe if it was activated normally in Midgard was exceedingly simple.
It was to suck away everything in the location – within a radius of a few kilometres of where they were using X-Gate.
As a result, anything and everything that compromised the world was temporarily stored away in an alternate dimension created by Dina’s X-Gate, leaving only organic matters that did not consent to being sent away by X-Gate behind.
She did not take Leon away using X-Gate.
Using X-Gate, she stored away all inorganic matters, thus giving birth to a temporary location with the special characteristics of having no collateral damage occurring due to whatever was done within the area.
Meteors shining in a golden colour collided one after another directly onto Leon after going through the pyramid causing chain explosions.
Furthermore, whilst she was sealing Leon’s movement, she also created shields around other people at the same time to prevent the shockwaves from harming them.
Not only that, she even pointed her finger towards Aries who had pa.s.sed out and applied recovery divine magic, completely healing up the damage that he had suffered.
Simultaneously using two arcane magic spells and two divine magic spells as well as X-Gate.
After noticing such superhuman feats being used simultaneously as if it was just the most common thing in the world, Cruz’s jaws dropped in astonishment and he was muttering, “It’s impossible”.
Once the magic was over, she then returned the world to its original appearance.
After Dina verified that her surprise attack was successful, she noticed that Libra’s strong gaze was fixated on her.
After sweating a little about that, she quickly fled into a rift in s.p.a.ce to reflect on whether she had shown too much of her own tail.
“The rest is up to you, Aries-sama. Don’t worry… you will be able to win.”
After leaving those final words behind, the storm finally cleared away from the area they were in.
Aries, who was left behind in place, opened his eyes in a daze, not even fully registering what had just happened. Meanwhile, Leon stood up to frantically look for the intruder. However, he was not able to find any figure.
Dina understood her own limits. She was also well aware of her own weakness.
As such, she would not make such a foolish mistake as staying back in the battlefield indefinitely. After all, she would not fall behind anyone when it came to the speed of running away.
“s.h.i.t, who the h.e.l.l was that s.h.i.tter just then!? Come out now, I’ll kill and eat you!”
Looking at Leon who was going mad with rage, Aries was able to faintly understand that he had just been helped by somebody.
Based on the situation, he thought it was most likely Dina. The damage that he had suffered had been completely recovered and there were simply not many individuals who would be able to so easily and perfectly conduct a surprise attack as well as recovery magic.
Amongst all of this, he could not say that he did not think how good it would have been if even his clothes were repaired.
Aries’s clothes were in the same tattered condition as it previously was, and he appeared to be in quite a perilous condition.
He sighed out loud, not realising that Dina did not repair his clothing because she thought his current clothing’s condition was a feast for the eyes.
With what had just happened, their situation had reverted back to the beginning, but even with that surprise attack just then, Leon did not suffer major damage.
To be more precise, in terms of numerical values, it would have dealt quite significant damage to Leon. However, due to his enormous vitality, it did not even match up with a single punch from Aries.
As such, the only viable attacker present in their current location was Aries. Nevertheless, the difference in their ability was as was previously displayed.
If everything was back to how it had been, it would be nothing more than a repeat of what had just transpired.
But to help ease that worry, someone placed their hand onto Aries’s head… or so he felt.
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When he instinctively turned to look back, he saw the appearance of his master, Ruphas, for just a single instant.
However, the expression on that Ruphas’s face was from that of the olden days. An expression she donned back when she was feared and called the Supreme Ruler. An expression overflowing with self-confidence.
“Why are you afraid, Aries? You are one of the Twelve Stars that I have recognised and approved of. You are not lacking compared to him. Have self-confidence – you are strong. Ahh, you should teach that fool. The strength of the one he called a small fry.”
After saying as such and smiling inappropriately, she disappeared as if she was a phantom.
Immediately afterwards, a power rose up from within Aries’s body.
This was not like support divine magic where he was buffed up on top of what he already had. It was more like his fundamental statuses themselves shot straight up.
When he looked around, with the exception of Libra, everyone, including Castor and Aigokeros, were looking at their own bodies and showing a surprised response.
Could it be? – after thinking such, Aries decided to check with everyone else.
“Umm… it felt like I suddenly levelled up….”
“Yeah, same here.”
The abnormality happened to every member of the Twelve Heavenly Stars except Libra and Leon, and this only signified a single thing.
“Ahh, looks like Ruphas-sama decided to get serious. It was nice knowing you, vampire midget-chan.”
Scorpius said as such in a cheerful expression, and that line stated the answer to this very abnormality.
Excluding Libra who was manufactured by Mizar, the Twelve Heavenly Stars’ levels were capped at level 800.
That was a limit based upon the monster tamer cla.s.s of their master, Ruphas, and as long as she remained at an overall level of 1000 and cla.s.s level 100, their own levels absolutely could not change.
However, the fact that the absolute limitation changed could only mean one thing – that Ruphas’s level changed.
The highest cap on level was 1000. That was the ceiling set by the G.o.ddess and this world’s common sense.
However, Ruphas had long climbed past such a wall and the Twelve Heavenly Stars were well aware that she would shoot straight past even level 4000 at her strongest moment should she decide to get serious.
And only when Ruphas decided to get serious could the Twelve Stars show their real and true abilities completely, utilising their talents to the fullest.
“She’s won.”
Libra muttered a quick and short but fully convinced line, which received unanimous a.s.sent from everyone else.
It seemed Benetnash had put up a very good fight. At the very least, the fight was good enough to make their master fight seriously.
Therefore, everything was already over. By this time, the conclusion would have already been reached.
There was no individual in this world who would be able to fight against Ruphas Mafahl when she was fully serious and still come out victorious.
In the past, she had once said to Parthenos that if she wanted to fight her, she would need to at least bring one or two “ouroboroses”. However, that was not particularly a bluff. In actual fact, Ruphas possessed such overwhelming battle prowess that it was simply the truth.
“Wi, with this, me will also have more roles to play….”
In response to the collapsed Karkinos who muttered such a thing, everyone simultaneously said in unison, “That’s not going to happen.”
Even Dina quickly showed her face from the gap in the s.p.a.ce-time continuum and said, “Even if the level of the tank goes up, it’s not like there are more roles for them to fulfil.”
Aries and the others ignored and left Karkinos, who was mentally shattered, on the ground, and looked up towards Leon, ready to fight.
“You understand, right, Aries? Right now, our power’s been heightened to our greatest, but it won’t last long.”
“Yeah. Now that Ruphas-sama has gotten serious, a fight won’t last long…. It wouldn’t be strange at all for the whole fight to have finished in less than a second.”
A battle involving Ruphas in a serious state was beyond the understanding of an ordinary matter of course. It was an extremely fast battle conducted in a state of an extraordinarily compressed matter of time.
In other words, it would not be strange for all the enemies to have been annihilated in merely one second after Ruphas got serious and then reverted back from her serious mode.
She was just that strong and just that fast.
Ordinarily, the concept known as having to battle would not even have been established in the first place. Benetnash just happened to be one of the rare exceptions who could actually establish such a thing.
Nevertheless, unfortunately for Benetnash, she would still not be an enemy for Ruphas.
It by no means meant that Benetnash was weak. It was just that Ruphas was too strong.
“Then get going, Aries! Slam all that you have into that guy!”
Sagittarius fired his arrow and Aries grabbed onto that.
Straight afterwards, Aries was teleported right above Leon and firmly gathered his flames in his fist.
Aigokeros and Castor used their arcane magic to obstruct Leon’s movement whilst Libra conducted supporting fire at Leon’s eyes.
Scorpius used her sting to keep Leon’s feet in place and even Karkinos, who was believed to have no role to play, had a sudden lightbulb moment and quickly activated a skill.
“Please receive this, Aries! [Altarf]!”[6]
It was a skill which could only be activated once when he was rendered unable to battle. It was an awkward skill of Karkinos which was better described as a last-ditch struggle rather than a counter. That was Altarf.
The effect of that skill was one-off. The skill doubled the damage of the buffed individual’s next attack and just for this single hit, the wall of 99 999 damage placed as a limitation by the world could be ignored.
Aries, who had turned into a flaming body, cried and dropped onto Leon’s head just like a rainbow-coloured meteor.
If Ruphas was present in that place at that moment, she most probably would have overlooked the situation using her Observing Eyes.
The terrifying scene where Leon, who had over 800 000 HP remaining, was reduced to a state of only having 1 HP left after just a single attack.