920: The Power of a Divine Beast
「Divine Beast Form!」
Along with Fran’s words, her divine power was unleashed. That energy transformed into black lightning, which wrapped itself completely around her.
The vortex of lightning enveloped Fran in several layers, as if taking the shape of a black lotus bud. Those black petals crackled violently as they blocked Fran from the outside world. Meanwhile, the power levels contained within continued swelling up at a frightening rate.
Only a few moments later, the petals exploded, vanis.h.i.+ng into the air. There stood a new Fran.
Divine Beast Form. That seems to be the true nature of the power――or rather, skill――that Fran activated just now. Based on the name, it must be similar to the dragonkin’s “Divine Dragon Form”.
However, her physical changes weren’t nearly as spectacular compared to Velmeria’s usage of Divine Dragon Form.
Her hair, nails, and fangs have gotten a little longer, but that’s about it. She didn’t grow fur everywhere or anything like that. In contrast to the magical girl-like transformation scene, the differences weren’t all that impressive.
But her appearance was the only thing that could be called unimpressive. Anyone capable of sensing the terrifying power inside her body would smack the people unfazed at this sight.
Flashy, then? No, that’s still a huge understatement.
Even her aura was just on a completely different level. It now felt supernatural, one befitting a transcendental existence. Her cloak of black lightning pulsated with an intensity incomparable to before.
Bolts of lightning crackling around Fran coiled multiple times like countless snakes. It’s almost as if the incarnation of black lightning had manifested itself on earth.
Her stats got a ridiculous boost too. “Divine Beast” was added to her race, and her status became “Divine Beast Form”. Her strength and vitality both went over 1000, and her agility and magic stats even exceeded 2000.
And these were only her base stats. After activating her other strengthening skills and spells, her stats would only grow higher.
「Hmm?」
Fran pointed her palm at the antidemons, as if trying to test something.
「Hmph.」
『Whoa!』
As soon as Fran gave a light push, a bolt of black lightning shot out from her palm with great force. However, that bolt was as thick as a telephone pole.
The black lightning scorched the antidemons, as well as the air itself, traveling about 20 meters before finally fizzling out. It left a void in its wake, created by the erasure of so many antidemons.
「Oh, cool.」
『Y-Yeah, that’s pretty d.a.m.n ridiculous.』
Fran probably felt that was as simple as snapping her fingers. However, I could sense the tremendous amount of mana moved by the light exercise.
After staring at her own palms in surprise for a while, Fran turned her expression serious, and thrust out her palm again.
This time, with more concentration.
「Hah!」
With a short exhalation and even more mana, she let loose another burst of black lightning.
The lightning grew thick enough to easily swallow a human, before rampaging through the antidemons hordes like a serpent with a mind of its own.
『Whoa! d.a.m.n……』
「Hehe.」
With this one technique, she obliterated over a hundred of the high-ranked antidemons. This easily matched the power of Black Lightning Advent, one of her last resort moves.
Unlike Black Lightning Advent, which would cancel her Awakening after being used, this new technique could be fired off in rapid succession.
Fran responded to my surprise with a smug look on her face. However, her enhanced control over black lightning was barely scratching the surface of her new powers.
Next, Fran lightly folded her knees and readied herself. She wanted to test her physical abilities now that she understood her control over mana.
「Hmph!」
With Fran’s light leap forward, the scenery around us flew by at an astonis.h.i.+ng speed. All I could see were black and red streaks, the blurred colors of the antidemons.
I hurriedly activated my s.p.a.ce-time magic. Only after accelerating my time even more than before, was I able to recognize anything.
I had been using time acceleration on myself up until now, but I still couldn’t keep up with Fran’s new speed until boosting it even further.
「Oops.」
『F-Fran, are you okay?!』
「I’m fine.」
Even Fran misjudged the extent of her own acceleration. She only wanted to jump a bit forward, but we accidentally flew a full 50 meters, slamming ourselves into all the antidemons in our path.
Fran got away unharmed. The mana cloaking her body right now was thicker than any barrier.
After turning a bunch of antidemons into roadkill, Fran clenched her fists a few times before nodding her head. It seems she finally got a hold of her newfound abilities.
「Nn.」
『You’ve gotten so dang strong!』
「Now I can protect everyone!」
Yeah, let’s do this! I tried to respond to Fran, but the words wouldn’t come out for some reason.
Instead, I heard Announcer-san’s voice.
《The name of individual Master has become capable of temporary alteration.》
Eh? Announcer-san? What’s that supposed to mean!?
《Wolfking Blade, Fenrir――Naming conditions not met. Naming process canceled.》
I-Is something weird happening?
Wolfking Blade Fenrir? Doesn’t that sound kinda like a divine sword!?
Please explain what’s going on!