Chapter 176
“Just as I was wondering what you were going to say… of course I refuse. If I was going to falter at this point, I would have never fought you guys in the first place.”
Pollux decisively rejected the Wood Ouroboros’s proposal and took out a small vial from her pocket.
What she took out was something called [Mana Drink F], which was an item used to recover the user’s SP that she had never thought she would have to use.
There were three types of mana drinks and they were ordered in terms of their efficacy: namely, [Mana Drink], [Mana Drink S] and [Mana Drink F]. The one that she was using now was the type which completely recovered the user’s SP. She was only carrying one of them around in case of an emergency.
If one considered the fact that an item used to recover SP only ended up seeing any use after they had gotten to the final battle, they might understand how out of the norm the SP reserves of Ruphas’s company were.
But then again… Pollux had been holding onto this item not for herself but in case one of her allies ran out of SP. She had never even imagined that she would be the one to use it.
She drank the entire thing in one go and stood back up.
Although her SP was now fully recovered, Argonautai still had a horrible SP consumption rate.
If she were to summon about ten heroic spirits, her SP would run out very quickly.
She was not short of recovery items. If anything, there was an abundance of them.
Even whilst the planet was being destroyed, the Mafahl Tower was standing strong, undisturbed. Within it, there should be mountains of recovery items lying around. Not only that, in preparation for the final battle, the Argo was stocked with a large quant.i.ty of HP recovery and debuff cleansing items.
But Pollux had never thought that she would need an item to recover her SP.
It was because she had thought that she would be able to endlessly and repeatedly call upon heroic spirits as long as she was alive. Furthermore, she knew that those heroic spirits would be summoned with full HP and SP. As a consequence, there was no need for them to recover anything.
Exactly. She had never included the act of recovering SP in her battle plans. It was because there was no need for such a thing.
The only reason she even had an SP potion in her possession was due to her cautious and prudent personality. That very personality of hers had allowed her to salvage the situation, but there would be no second time.
The progress of the battle was extremely unfavourable for them… but the option of walking away from the fight was not one that was available to them.
“I don’t want to swindle the world anymore. I don’t want to betray the people anymore. I’m sick and tired of sending lovely children to their certain deaths. Even if there’s barely any chance of winning, I choose to fight alongside them.”
「I understand your feelings. Indeed, the G.o.ddess has imposed a harsh condition. But even then…」
The Wood Ouroboros sighed out loud with a hmm.
With just that, there was a blast of wind and part of the surface of the planet was shaved away.
「Even then, you should stop. There is nothing but death awaiting you at the end of all of this. No one can win against the G.o.ddess.」
“…”
「You’re standing on a thin tightrope. There’s no need to continue a fight where you know you’ll end up dead.」
Hearing the Wood Ouroboros’s words, Pollux closed her eyes.
She recalled watching the backs of heroes who were always br.i.m.m.i.n.g with hope as they headed off to their certain deaths.
They were the ones whom she had personally sent to their certain deaths.
After having sent countless heroes to that place of certain death, now, she was standing there herself.
Karma has come full circle… After thinking that, Pollux could not help but laugh bitterly.
“What an absurd thing to say. Until now, I’ve been sending countless people to a battlefield where death was the only possible outcome. Yet I’m supposed to run away when it’s my turn? Don’t joke around with me. If I run away now, I’ll never be able to show my face in front of those children!”
「You’re saying that despite knowing that you cannot win?」
In response to Pollux, who had a determined expression, the Wood Ouroboros looked at her as if he was pitying her.
However, that pitying look of his immediately changed due to an interruption from the devil goat.
Aigokeros crossed his arms and proceeded to float in front of the Wood Ouroboros’s eyes.
“Oi, you… I’ve been patiently listening to you for a while now, and all you’ve done is insult my master. You say no one can win against the G.o.ddess…? How stupid! We’re the ones who should be saying that. No one can win against our master! And as one who’s loyal to her, I will not fall short against a follower of the G.o.ddess!”
Aigokeros’s eyes shone and dark clouds loomed and blanketed the sky. He then spread his arms wide and shouted in a loud voice.
“Gather to me, the power of darkness!”
Heeding Aigokeros’s voice, mana throughout Midgard came swirling into him as if he was the centre of a whirlpool.
Aigokeros a.s.similated the vast amount of mana, turning himself into such an enormous size such that he was even comparable to the ouroboroses.
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Aigokeros VS The Wood Ouroboros. Ill.u.s.tration from AWLBA Light Novel V8
In an instant, he had turned into his true form as the Devil King, surpa.s.sing even the size of the humanoids’ territories. He then grabbed the Wood Ouroboros’s head.
Seeing Aigokeros’s new form, even the Wood Ouroboros could not help but be surprised with a stiff smile.
Aigokeros was an existence unlike that of Leon’s or the Dragon King’s. Fundamentally speaking, Aigokeros was not an existence which had been born under the G.o.ddess’s settings.
He was a major bug that had been born outside of the G.o.ddess’s settings, just like Ruphas… as such, the extent of his power could not be fully grasped by even the ouroboroses.
「Interesting, interesting… It seems that good things can come out of living for a long time.」
“Play time’s over. Sink into despair… toy of the deity.”
Aigokeros, relying purely on his physical strength, slammed the Wood Ouroboros’s head into the ground.
With just a single hit, Midgard’s land shattered. The fractures which ran out from the impact were large enough that the planet might have been divided into two.
Aigokeros then picked the ouroboros back up and sent the Wood Ouroboros flying away with a tightly clenched fist.
He then leapt up, chasing after it. He grabbed the nearby Moon with both of his hands and slammed it down on top of the Wood Ouroboros’s head.
Then a second time, a third time – unable to withstand its severe misuse by the Devil King, the Moon crumbled into bits and pieces. The Devil King then opened his mouth, gathering an intense black light within it.
It was the same dark destructive ray which had blown away even the Mutant G.o.d.
In response to Aigokeros’s action, the Wood Ouroboros charged up a lightning bolt from its mouth, firing it at the same time as Aigokeros.
The two extremely dense energies clashed with each other. Unable to withstand the collateral force, approximately a third of the Midgard broke away, making it lose its spherical shape in the process.
The one who ended up losing the contest was Aigokeros. As a result of the ouroboros’s roar, he was pushed all the way to Mercury before slamming down on the planet.
Nevertheless, Aigokeros stood right back up with overflowing bloodl.u.s.t. He took hold of the Mercury and spun it around him.
Although it was slightly smaller than Midgard, he was still throwing a genuine planet at the Wood Ouroboros.
To top it off, he repeatedly fired Deneb Algedi from his mouth. This shattered Mercury’s core, and the Wood Ouroboros was caught up in the resulting explosion.
But it flew out of the explosion then wrapped itself around Aigokeros’s body.
Unwilling to give in, Aigokeros seized the Wood Ouroboros’s jaws and pulled them, intending to tear them apart.
But the Wood Outoboros repeatedly fired destructive rays from its forcibly opened mouth, blowing away everything which was above Aigokeros’s neck.
There were not many living things which were able to continue living after having lost their heads. However, Aigokeros was a devil.
Since half of his body was constructed out of mana, common sense did not apply to him.
His head which had been erased was instantaneously restored. This time, it was Aigokeros’s destructive ray which burned the head of the Wood Ouroboros at point blank.
「Shyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!」
“Ruwoooooooooooooo!!”
The Devil King and the Ouroboros of the Wood roared as they wrestled with each other.
From an outside perspective, it might look like they were evenly matched.
But if one looked at the damage that had been dealt to each other, the discussion of who was at an advantage would not even need to happen.
Exactly, Aigokeros would not be able to win against the Wood Ouroboros. He might be able to put up a good fight, but that was about it.
If anything, the mere fact that he was able to put up a good fight one-on-one was praiseworthy.
The Wood Ouroboros’s fangs shredded Aigokeros’s arm, and a single whip from its tail hollowed out his torso.
Subsequently… Aigokeros’s giant body fell onto the half-destroyed Midgard.
*
A silvery light was dashing around freely.
The silvery light recklessly shot into the Fire Ouroboros’s body and then quickly escaped away before it could be hit by a counterattack.
The one who was fighting against the Ouroboros of the Flame was the Vampire Princess Benetnash.
She forced the laws of inertia to present a letter of resignation as she continuously turned at a 90-degree angle despite her speed. Drawing an impossible path, she relentlessly struck the Fire Ouroboros.
The Fire Ouroboros was the personification of flame. As such, the surface temperature of its body reached tens of thousands of degrees Celsius.
Ordinary living things would not even be able to get close to it before being burnt to death.
But Benetnash was not ordinary. Without minding how her fist was being scalded from the heat, she repeatedly dealt damage at a speed faster than the Fire Ouroboros, who was backed up by the world, could recover.
By this point, Midgard had already lost its original form as a planet and half of its land had sunk into magma.
The only locations which were still left intact were the places under the protection of Ruphas’s shield.
In a few minutes, Midgard would most likely explode and cease to exist in this universe.
Yet Benetnash utilised that lava as footing and was fighting against the Fire Ouroboros with an advantage.
“Haaaaa!”
As she raised a warcry, the Fire Ouroboros’s jaw was kicked up.
Due to the size difference between the two parties, it looked as if the Fire Ouroboros was bending backwards on its own, making the whole scene look quite stupid.
The Fire Ouroboros opened its mouth and fired flames, but Benetnash was no longer there.
This time, Benetnash kicked it from the side, submerging it into the magma.
“Lunatic Rain.”
Benetnash launched a silver-coloured attack high up into the air.
That attack then scattered mid-air and turned into countless raindrops of light, falling back down onto the surface.
There were thousands of these destructive lights, each capable of erasing the entirety of the humanoids’ domain on its own. All of them simultaneously poured down onto the magma, showering the Fire Ouroboros.[2]
Eventually, the attack concluded, but the Fire Ouroboros did not come out.
She understood that it was not an opponent that would die from something of that degree.
Benetnash crossed her arms and then clicked her tongue quietly.
Tsk… the power behind that arcane magic dropped drastically. That stupid goat… he gathered too much mana.
There needed to be mana to use arcane magic.
But currently, the mana on Midgard had been gathered by Aigokeros. As a result, it was on the brink of being exhausted.
As a consequence, Benetnash was not able to raise the power of her arcane magic to the extent that she had been hoping for.
In other words, even if Benetnash was to use her ultimate skill, [The Maiden Who Fires The Silver Arrow], it would most likely not be all that powerful.
Humph… whatever. I’ll just have to finish it off with a melee battle.
Even if Benetnash did not use her arcane magic, she still had overwhelming power and speed.
Even if she was unable to use arcane magic, it did not mean that she had become weaker.
Benetnash decided that if the Fire Ouroboros did not want to come back out, all she had to do was chase after it. Just as she snapped her finger, the Fire Ouroboros struck its head out from under the magma.
As expected, the damage done to it was not significant. Although the rate at which Benetnash dealt damage to it was higher than its regeneration rate, she still had to prepare herself for a long battle.
The Fire Outoboros quietly looked down on Benetnash and then spoke.
「… Impressive. To think that there’s someone who’s able to actually touch me. I’ve never been hurt to this extent. 」
What came out from the Fire Ouroboros’s mouth was honest praise.
It narrowed its eyes as if it was being carried away… in fact, it was being carried away… and it spoke in a delighted tone.
「This sensation that’s running through my whole body, ohhh, how pleasant! I understand now, so this is that so-called feeling known as love!」
“… Huh?”
「Ohh, you may be small, but you’re beautiful, my princess! I’ve fallen in love with you! The time has finally come in this long but pointless life of mine! Your silver hair, white skin, crimson eyes, ohh, everything about you is so lovely! This is love! This is love! Right now, I’m feeling euphoric! Ohhhhhhhhh! Reach, my feelings! Reach the Vampire Princess! Elope with me, my princess!」[3]
“………”
「Ahh, you must be shy. Those innocent aspects of yours are also so lovely. It’s alright, I am a gentleman. I won’t be violent with you. You don’t need to worry about the difference in size. I’ll work hard and learn a skill that lets me turn into a humanoid form, so please wait for me, my sweet honey. Oh no, this isn’t good. I’ve been too hasty. Let me make it clear that I’m still a virgin. Wait no, that’s not right, I’m not saying that I’m a virgin, alright? I mean sure, I’ve never had s.e.x before, but as a perfect being and a representative of a deity, I’ve never needed to. So the definition of a virgin that the humanoids use doesn’t apply to me. Don’t get the wrong idea, okay? Oh yeah, I’ve heard before that a man who’s too forceful isn’t liked. Right, everything must happen in order, huh? Let’s start with a date. Yeah, let’s go on a date. Since Midgard’s been destroyed already, I want to take you out to Mars. ………… Wait, Mars is destroyed already—! Who destroyed Mars!? To destroy the dating spot that I was planning to take my dear princess to, what kind of hara.s.sment is this, d.a.m.n it! No, it’s still fine, then let’s go to s.p.a.ce! That’s right, I want to take you out to a sea of stars. Please be at ease. Let me emphasise that I’m a gentleman. I’m not sc.u.m who’ll demand something of an unwilling lady. First, I’ll start by raising your affection. Don’t worry, I have confidence in my looks, you see. I’ll definitely get you to look at me. And for our anniversary every year, I’ll celebrate it by giving you a ring. I’ll gather diamonds from s.p.a.ce and turn them into a planet-sized ring. It’ll be a superma.s.sive engagement ring. How about it? Aren’t I generous? Where should we build my home? That’s right, did you know, independent of this universe, there’s another universe called ‘the original universe’? I’ve heard that universe is a place where magic doesn’t exist and it’s instead ruled by the laws of physics. I’ve heard there’s this planet called Earth there that has quite a developed civilisation. It has a lot of yummy food and many luxurious things. Mmhmm, let’s build our house there. How many children would you like to have? Oh yeah, of course, I have no plans to force you to have them. Although I want them, if you say that you don’t want them, I’ll give up. And and and—」[4]
Without even minding Benetnash’s response, the Fire Ouroboros prioritised his emotions and endlessly said what it wanted to.
Looking at it prattling on, it had no form of dignity whatsoever. If one were to be blunt, it was actually quite creepy and disgusting.
Benetnash sighed out loud as if she had lost any motivation to keep fighting, and was looking at the Fire Ouroboros as if it was excrement.
Similarly, Ruphas and Scorpius, who were waiting some distance away for Dina to arrive, also heard the Fire Ouroboros’s confession and were left speechless by how forceful it was.
“… It seems the ouroboroses are quite far off from the beings that I imagined they would be. I thought that they would be a more majestic bunch, but…”
“Whaa, how lame. Seriously lame. Speaking like a machine gun without minding what the other party thinks is just exposing how much of a virgin you are. To think that something like that is the pinnacle of this mistress’s Fire attribute, gimme a break already. It’s so lame. You think so too, right, Ruphas-sama?”
Although Scorpius said so disdainfully as she spoke from her heart, Ruphas could not help but recall the dangerous words that had been previously spoken by Scorpius along with her countless stalker behaviours, as well as the fool (Mars) that Ruphas had twice sent flying with a punch.
“…… No, actually… personally, I feel like everything makes sense now.”
The ouroboroses were the personifications of something transcendent and were the pinnacles of their own respective attributes.
If the Fire Ouroboros is like that… yeah, I can understand why the fire attribute has a lot of those weirdly overbearing people.
Aries is the only soothing one amongst those with the Fire attribute. He’s really done well for himself to be so decent.
Well, Aries has his own issues. After all, once he makes up his mind, he’s really stubborn to the bitter end, to the point where he could be described as too rash. I suppose those parts of him are due to his Fire attribute nature.
… I hope the Sun Ouroboros is a normal and decent guy.
Ruphas looked up at the sky and prayed from the bottom of her heart that the pinnacle of her own attribute was not a weird guy like the Fire Ouroboros.
… Now that I think about it… the one at the receiving end of that prayer is the G.o.ddess. Yeah, this prayer’s probably not going to be answered.
__
(Author note)
Aigokeros used Slam!
Midgard HP: 750 002 / 999 999
Midgard: “（；゜Д゜）Gyaaaaaaaa—!!”
Aigokeros used Hyper Beam!
Midgard HP: 700 003 / 999 999
Midgard: “（；TДT）H, help meeee!!”
The Wood Ouroboros used Hyper Beam!
Midgard HP: 690 004 / 999 999
Midgard: “（；TДT）Please stoppppp!!”
Aigokeros used Body Slam!
Midgard HP: 630 004 / 999 999
Midgard: “（；゜Д。） Nooooooooooooo!!”
Benetnash used Rain Dance! (Lunatic Rain)
Midgard HP: 600 000 / 999 999
Midgard: “（；゜Д。）Agyaaaaaaa!!”
Aigokeros used a Moon Stone!
The Moon’s HP: 0 / 250 000
The Moon: “Amelia————!”[5]
Aigokeros used Rock Slide (Mercury)!
The Mercury’s HP: 400 000 / 480 000
The Mercury: “Abaaa!?”
Aigokeros used Hyper Beam! Hyper Beam! Hyper Beam!
The Mercury’s HP: 0 / 480 000
The Mercury: “Goodbye!”
[The Earth Ouroboros]
Personality: Stern and merciless. Its personality is the most like how ouroboroses are imagined to be. Slightly plain and boring.
Relevant persons concerned: Taurus, Saturnus, Mizar, the Crab
[The Wood Ouroboros]
Personality: An easy-going geezer. Has a relatively high emotional quotient amongst the ouroboroses.
Relevant persons concerned: Castor, Pollux, Virgo, Jupiter, Phecda, Merak
[The Fire Ouroboros]
Personality: Weirdo. Long-winded.
Relevant persons concerned: Scorpius, Mars, Aries, Phoenix
[The Moon Ouroboros]
Personality: Relatively calm and collected. Cold on the surface, but is emotional deep down. If it’s for the person they love, they may even throw away their lives.
Relevant persons concerned: Benetnash, Aigokeros, Luna
[Water and Metal (Alovenus)]
Personality: Comes across as a sophisticated tactician, but is actually quite a klutz. Tends to scheme too much and have it come back to bite themselves. Clumsy.
Relevant persons concerned: Dina, Megrez, Libra, Mercurius, Hydrus, Pisces, Mutant G.o.d.