106

“She’s outside!”

Apophis burst from the burrow and shouted urgently.

It sounded like an order to attack at once.

When Lamia emerged from the burrow, her movements would inevitably be restricted.

If they were going to strike, that moment would be perfect.

But for some reason Hamel didn’t move.

“We should be getting ready…”

“Wait.”

“……?”

Apophis tilted his head, puzzled.

─Kwagagagagagak

The ground trembled and a thunderous roar approached.

Even hearing that, Hamel murmured calmly.

“Announcing the start of a fight isn’t really my role.”

And then.

─Bang!

Lamia revealed herself.

“Oh no, already too late…”

Apophis let out a strangled gasp.

─Kugung

A tremendous roar shook the earth.

At the same time, something enormous plunged down where Lamia stood.

No — they poured down without respite.

Gigantic, tree-like spears.

“This is surely the Root of All Wisdom…?”

Hamel answered Apophis’s admiring question.

“I heard it’s a finishing move he recently learned.”

I think it was called the Thorn Giant’s Spear.

It takes every ounce of strength to use, and afterward one must rest for days…

“At least its firepower is the best.”

Hamel watched the vast, instant forest and murmured calmly.

Huge spears bristling with thorns rained down, blanketing the shoreline.

It was a sight like divine retribution.

“Perish! Haha!”

A faint shout came from Ono in the distance.

Having poured out his last strength, he collapsed and gloriously perished.

“Well done.”

Hamel quietly voiced praise that could not be heard.

“Ugh… ugh.”

Lamia, who had burst from the burrow, was a complete wreck.

Three of her arms had been torn off, leaving only five.

Her body was lacerated and ruptured in countless places; she staggered from exhaustion.

And above all.

“Slow, is your recovery.”

Hamel stared intently at Lamia’s body.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t recover.

Flesh had already begun to knit her ragged wounds.

But it was slow.

About half the speed it had been before.

Or even slower.

Could it be the effect of having one eye taken?

“I’ll leave this to you.”

Hamel handed the eyeball he held to Eleora.

Then he popped off and leapt down from atop Apophis’s head.

It was a rare opening Ono had created.

He could not afford to waste it.

─Shraaak

Black armor cloaked Hamel in an instant.

A mask like a bird’s beak—or the curve of a dragon—covered his face.

Only blue eyes burned within the mask.

From now on.

“It’s time for the counterattack.”

---

‘I’ve been caught.’

Lamia’s head went white.

Where had things gone so wrong?

Was it when they unquestioningly took that pretty boy who had simply come to the shore?

Or when they let that arrogant wench—who had smashed his mind and left him half a corpse—recover enough to use the Winter Palace?

Or had they failed to foresee that they would only pretend to prepare and then launch a surprise attack?

No.

None of that.

At the root of it all was that man.

“…Hamel Gilmore.”

Lamia watched the armored man approaching.

A butcher who had severed the necks of hundreds, even thousands, of demons.

A man who had fought alone against a super-class demon for more than a day.

If it weren’t for him, the boy, the woman, and that dim-witted priest would’ve been easy prey.

“Hamel Gilmore. Hamel Gilmore. Hamel Gilmore… Hamel Gilmore!!!!”

Spitting his name like a curse, Lamia flew into a frenzy and charged.

The problem was she wanted him entirely for herself.

She was bewitched by the handsome face she’d found after so long.

‘Now I don’t need anything else.’

I’ll tear him to pieces.

I’ll roll those pretty blue eyes in my mouth and savor them.

I’ll twist his body to squeeze out his blood, drink it, and chew the sweet flesh.

Lamia curled her lips and swung her poison-drenched claws.

A potent toxin that rots flesh on contact.

She hadn’t used it earlier, but this was Lamia’s lethal trump.

Whether it landed or was blocked, the venom would slowly eat him away.

─Clang!

As expected.

Hamel easily raised his sword and blocked her strike.

However.

─Plop

The poison spraying from Lamia’s claws splattered across his armor.

“It’s over.”

Lamia’s mouth stretched into a long grin.

No one had survived after being struck by this toxin.

No matter how mighty a giant.

Nor the monstrous birds that once darkened the sky.

Countless human heroes who came to kill her had all, without exception, died spewing blood.

This would be no different this time…

“……?”

Lamia flinched.

Her ecstatic thoughts stalled, arrested by a sudden, wrong sensation.

Why.

‘Why is he still standing?’

He wasn’t merely standing.

Hamel looked up at her as if nothing had happened, his eyes cold and unnervingly sunken.

─Stagger

Unconsciously, Lamia removed her hand from the crossed blades and stepped back.

Only then did she understand why she’d done it.

‘…I was afraid? Me?’

What reason could there be for that?

He was little more than a walking corpse…

As Lamia denied her own senses.

─Step

Hamel took a single step forward.

Even that made scales rise across Lamia’s skin.

‘An illusion… this is not.’

An instinct honed over centuries shouted a warning.

Louder than ever.

‘You must run from that thing.’

Why hadn’t she noticed until now?

Lamia bit her lip hard.

She had let her guard down.

Anger had dulled her mind, and she realized it too late.

That was…

A monster.

─Whoosh

Lamia spun, trying to flee at once.

At that moment.

─Swhick

A blade aura laced with blue flame grazed her side.

“…!”

With a sharp slicing sound, one of her arms flew up into the air.

It took her a moment to register that it was her own limb.

“…Guh!”

Still, centuries of experience steadied her mind.

Lamia clenched her teeth and retreated.

The monster made no move to let her go.

The knight wreathed in blue flames stood motionless, watching.

He planted his greatsword in the ground and held his stance.

In the brief standoff, Lamia muttered,

“…What is he trying to do now?”

No answer came.

He simply watched.

That arrogant gaze seemed to say:

Is that all you’ve got?

Don’t you have anything more to show?

─Gnash

Lamia ground her teeth and spread her remaining hands.

Swords slid into being from the air and were seized by her grips.

Pushed to the limit, her mind surged forward as if drugged.

‘I still have four arms left. But he only has a single sword.’

There was one technique Lamia had yet to reveal.

Sword Dance.

A secret art taught by the Apostle.

If she could draw on that power, she could unleash force exceeding what her four severed arms could do.

No—she could demonstrate overwhelmingly superior strength.

Using it once would demand recovery afterward, but what of that?

‘I only need to survive.’

Then everything could begin again.

She had endured countless near-death crises.

How many times had she cheated death to earn the name Immortal?

It couldn’t end like this.

She would pour every ounce of strength into this and flee, whether he died or not.

Even if her tail were cut off, even if all her remaining arms were torn away.

As long as she survived.

Then she would recover again.

Glimpsing a faint hope, Lamia steeled herself.

The next moment.

─Thwack

Her tail struck the ground like a spring.

She launched at Hamel with lightning speed.

Despite her bulk, Lamia moved with uncanny swiftness and swung her four swords in rapid succession.

Like a dance, the blades wove intricate patterns through the air.

Then, in an instant,

those four swords shifted, multiplied to eight, then sixteen.

Amazingly, each of the sixteen blades was real—no illusion.

This was Lamia’s hidden final secret.

The Immeasurable Sword Dance.

The technique that had saved her countless times unfolded at her fingertips.

Her opponent remained still, merely watching.

‘Now it’s too late for anything!’

She could kill him now and escape.

Lamia cried out in triumph.

“Got you…!”

─Clang

But a metallic sound rang out.

The first strike was halted by a bloom of blue flame in midair.

The flame took the shape of a sword.

─Clang clang!

The next met the same fate.

Her sixteen blades were forced to stop against the blue-flame swords.

─Clang clang clang clang clang clang clang!

Lamia’s blades struck the blue flames and sent sparks flying.

That was all.

“What is this…?”

For a moment Lamia was so stunned she couldn’t close her mouth.

Sixteen swords surrounded the armored knight.

Blue flames that mirrored his held sword.

He wielded the blue-flame swords freely and deflected her secret art with ease.

“I can’t finish it like this…”

As Lamia ground her teeth and tried to rush him again.

─Vrrrr

The floating blue swords vibrated, split, and duplicated.

Thirty-two swords.

And once more.

─Vrrrr

They multiplied again.

Sixty-four.

Again.

And again.

The next moment.

Hundreds of clear-blue swords filled the black sky.

“…Ah.”

Lamia simply stared upward, dumbfounded.

And in that instant Hamel’s tightly closed mouth opened.

“Immeasurable.”

As if to say:

This is what true Immeasurable is.

─Pahat

Lamia burst into a bitter, self-mocking laugh.

She muttered in disbelief,

“…How could one possibly overcome that?”

The intelligence they’d relied on had been wrong from the start.

Hamel Gilmore.

That he thwarted their plans at every turn was no coincidence.

Hamel Gilmore was truly the dagger and spear meant to drive a blade to His throat.

His…

Adversary.

“Ah, if I’d known this, I should have smashed that flask no matter what.”

Too-late regret escaped her mouth despite itself.

Her greed had needlessly ruined everything.

“It’s a pity I won’t see that face one last time.”

Lamia glanced at Hamel, then tilted her head to the sky.

Blue flames stained the night like falling meteors.

They plunged straight toward the ground.

As if determined to burn away all impurity.

Lamia neither dodged nor fled.

She dared not.

─Kugugugugung

The tremendous sound filled the shore and echoed into the distance.

It continued until silence finally fell.

Relentlessly.