143

Flash!

Hamel flinched at the sudden downpour of light.

‘This light?’

It was a familiar warmth. He easily recognized it as Antonio’s power.

“Kiririririk!”

At that moment, the ‘Nine-Headed Serpent,’ touched by the light, twisted its body as if in agony.

‘Why?’

The opponent was an Old God worshipped by the Ashitaka. They were beings of divinity, not demons. Why did they suffer so much from Antonio’s light? But now was not the time for questions.

“Now!”

‘This is the chance.’

At Antonio’s cry, Hamel did not miss the opportunity and broke into a sprint. Another violent burst of light poured toward the Nine-Headed Serpent. The serpent’s black eyes began to flare up. It didn’t just twist its body; it began to slink backward.

The extreme toxins, gravity manipulation, and iron spikes the Nine-Headed Serpent had been raining down were gone. Hamel ran in a straight line toward the beast. The monster, seemingly unable to recover its sight from the burning light, failed to notice Hamel’s approach.

The next moment, Hamel leaped as if taking flight and concentrated all his strength into his sword. It was the power he had realized before—the true ‘Blue Flame.’ It was the authority of Ehurshika, the dragon who became a god. Hamel pulled out a fragment of that power.

Just doing that made Hamel break out in a cold sweat. Time seemed to slow to a stop, and his sword vibrated as if it would swallow everything in its vicinity. A massive force dwelled within the blade held in Hamel’s hand. He suppressed and suppressed that unstable power. He couldn’t let it explode, nor could he let it leak out. He was sheathing the force within the strike.

And then—.

‘I’ll sever it in one breath.’

Hamel twisted his body and swung his sword in a great arc. The void itself was torn asunder. The Blue Flame blooming from the tip of his sword swept forward in a semicircle, literally incinerating everything in its path.

Slice!

In an instant, four of the seven remaining heads fell to the ground. Only grey ash remained on the severed surfaces of the necks, as if they had been seared by extreme heat.

‘……It’s done.’

Hamel gripped his sword tight. Only three heads remained.

‘I have to follow up immediately and finish it—’

Just as Hamel went to take a step—.

Stagger.

His knees nearly buckled. He had drawn out a significant amount of power. Hamel realized he couldn’t maintain this state for long. What should he do? As he deliberated, the Nine-Headed Serpent suddenly…

“Shiririk!”

It turned its body and began to flee.

“……?”

Hamel’s bewilderment was brief, replaced by great fluster.

“Stop!” he shouted, a useless command escaping his lips.

Naturally, the Nine-Headed Serpent didn’t listen to a word Hamel said and slithered rapidly in the opposite direction. Having lost four heads in an instant, it felt a mortal threat. If even the remaining three were lost, its defeat would be absolute.

And there was one thing Hamel hadn’t expected. It was the nature of the power he had used: the Blue Flame. Ephursika’s ‘Blue Flame’ was a fire containing the power of extinction that even gods feared. Even divinities who usually remained stoic in the face of death were forced to tremble in terror.

‘Is it trying to buy time?’

Hamel hurried after the beast, his mind racing. This was the worst-case scenario for him. If he lost the monster here, there was no telling when he could catch it again—or what kind of damage it might cause in the meantime.

Ssssss.

Despite its bulk, the creature was incredibly agile. It cleared a path by crushing trees and rocks with its massive body. It slithered away with startling speed, roughly equal to Hamel’s full sprint. It was impossible to deal a fatal blow while running.

‘This is bad…!’

Just as Hamel panicked at the unexpected situation—.

Crunch!

Something blocked the serpent’s path.

“……That is?”

“Hiss, hiss!”

The Nine-Headed Serpent let out a rough, panicked sound, threatening the opponent that had seized it. But the opponent did not budge, instead tightening its grip on the serpent with thorny vines. It was none other than—.

“……The Thorn Giant, Colossus.”

It was the Thorn Giant Ono had summoned using the ‘Root of All Wisdom.’

“Well done, Colossus! Bind it tighter!”

Cra-cra-cra-crunch!

The giant, covered in hundreds of thick thorny vines, wrapped itself around the Nine-Headed Serpent. Though the thorns couldn’t pierce the serpent’s hard scales, they were enough to block its path. As vines sprouted even from the dirt floor and clung tenaciously, the serpent thrashed in disgust, tearing through them. Infuriated, it coiled its body around the giant in an instant and bit down on its head.

“Oh no!”

Ono, who had been perched on the Colossus’s shoulder, hurriedly leaped to the ground. The giant began to collapse powerlessly. It was a humble exit for such a grand entrance, but it had fulfilled its role.

Tap, tap, tap.

Hamel leaped into the air, stepping off the collapsing body of the giant. The pupils of the Nine-Headed Serpent, which had momentarily forgotten Hamel’s existence, filled with horror.

And in the next moment—.

Cr-cr-crack!

In Hamel’s hand, instead of a sword, was a massive, dark lightning spear. It was the most destructive single-target technique Hamel possessed: Talisman Control Formula Open, 2nd Style: Shadow Lightning Strike.

Using the power of Dragon Blood, its might was now far more formidable. Hamel had reinforced the technique solely to maximize its destructive power.

“It’s over.”

Hamel thrust the spear forward with every ounce of his strength.

Vrooooom!

The spear, grinding the surrounding air as it flew, struck like a thunderbolt, blowing apart two of the serpent’s heads.

“Eh?”

The party froze in unison. There had been three heads remaining. Two were gone, so one should be left. One head had narrowly dodged the Shadow Lightning Strike.

“Shiriririririk!”

The last remaining head lunged at Hamel in desperation. Hamel, meanwhile, was falling toward the ground, having lost his balance in mid-air.

“Hamel!”

The party cried out his name in horror. However, the serpent’s head was faster than their screams.

Crunch!

The serpent’s maw snapped shut around Hamel.

“Uh….”

“Everyone, snap out of it! We have to save him—!”

The moment the party started to rush forward—.

Thwack!

With a sound like a smashing watermelon, the serpent’s last remaining skull exploded. Hamel, his body pierced in several places by the serpent’s fangs, emerged from the beast’s mouth. His armor had already vanished. The moment he was bitten and swallowed, he had swung his sword to slaughter the serpent from the inside.

“……Heh.”

“Crazy bastard.”

The party muttered in disbelief.

“……This. What on earth is this?”

Azinos of the Bremen Musicians trembled, his eyes filled with ecstasy. He was struggling to even breathe as countless inspirations flooded his mind.

“We won.”

“Yes.”

As Antonio spoke with deep emotion, Hamel nodded lightly. They had fallen into Leo Benedictus’s trap, but contrary to his expectations, they had survived—and without a single casualty.

‘With this, I’ve twisted his plans once again.’

He didn’t know exactly what Leo was planning, but it was surely something he had put immense effort into, given it was a plan intended to swallow the entire West. Hamel slowly approached the headless torso of the ‘Nine-Headed Serpent.’

At that moment, the body turned to dust and vanished, and something dropped to the ground with a clink.

“What’s this?”

Hamel tilted his head as he picked it up. It was a round, bead-like crystal engraved with a crow’s brand. Examining it, Hamel easily guessed its identity.

“So this is it. The method they used to help the ‘Nine-Headed Serpent’ accumulate a new divinity.”

A bizarre divinity could be felt from the crystal—one alien to the Nine-Headed Serpent itself. It was clearly the divinity the creature had built up by borrowing Azidahaka’s name.

But.

“The fact that it’s marked with a sacrificial brand… it’s obvious now,” Daniel muttered, scowling.

Indeed. The Crow Worshippers had intended to use the ‘Nine-Headed Serpent’ as a sacrifice from the beginning. If they had offered the Ashitaka god—which possessed a divinity strong enough to rule the West—to their own god, their deity would have gained immeasurable power.

“That was dangerous.”

“Yes.”

Hamel nodded in agreement with Daniel. It was a relief they had stopped their plan just in time. Hamel placed the crystal on the ground and raised his Talisman to strike it down, ensuring Leo Benedictus could never offer it as a sacrifice.

Crunch!

The moment Hamel’s blade shattered the crystal—.

Whoosh!

“……This?”

Hamel’s eyebrows shot up. A black energy flowing out from the shattered crystal was being absorbed into his Talisman. The Talisman absorbed only demonic energy. In other words, the divinity contained in this crystal was… demonic.

“So that’s how it was.”

Hamel finally realized why the ‘Nine-Headed Serpent’ had suffered so much from Antonio’s Solemn Exorcism. Though it was a divinity, it had already become a being close to a demon—transformed by the Crow Worshippers’ artifacts and its own accumulated sins.

“…….”

A new brand was etched into the Talisman. Or rather, it was more like a language than a brand. Having already absorbed other demonic energies, Hamel easily accepted this new power into his body. He felt a different tier of strength. Now, it seemed he could perform other techniques using the Talisman. He could feel himself reaching a new stage.

It was an unexpected gain. Nevertheless, Hamel felt a bitter aftertaste.

‘It’s too late.’

Too many victims had already suffered. The power he gained was derived from the sacrifices of countless people. Hamel stoically composed his emotions. What was done was done. Therefore:

‘I must use this power for the right reasons, if only to soothe the vengeful spirits of the victims.’

Leo Benedictus, the culprit behind these events, and the Evil God he served, the Crow—defeating them would be the only true consolation Hamel could offer.

Looking at the now-ruined Ashitaka temple, Daniel muttered with a bit of pity, “It was a beautiful garden. A shame.”

“Hah, what does it matter? There’s no god left to worship here anyway.”

“……Well, I suppose that’s true.”

As everyone nodded at Ono’s reply, Antonio approached Hamel with a dark expression.

“What is it?”

At Hamel’s question, Antonio hesitated before finally speaking with difficulty.

“Those last words Leo Benedictus said before he left.”

“……?”

After a moment of thought, Hamel recalled the words.

‘It means that place has likely already suffered the same fate as the Rengbaster family.’

“Ah, that.”

As Hamel nodded, Antonio spoke with a tearful face. “It seems they’ve pulled some scheme on the estate… I don’t know what to do….”

Hamel stared at Antonio. Antonio, not understanding the meaning behind the gaze, paced back and forth in anxiety. Meanwhile, the others listening to the conversation looked at Antonio with indifferent expressions.

“Didn’t he tell you?”

“Eh? Tell me what?”

“Sigh, figures. I wondered why you were worrying about nothing.”

As Antonio tilted his head in confusion at their reactions, Hamel replied with a faint smile.

“You don’t need to worry about the estate.”

“But….”

“Judging by how confident he was, he must have put quite a lot of effort into it, but…” Hamel muttered, looking toward the direction of Haidern.

“That place is being guarded by real monsters, after all.”