Chapter 1473

“Aaaargh!”

“Ugh! My arm! My arm!”

“Damn it! Snap out of it, Max! Don't you dare die on me!”

“Too late! Charge!!”

“Save me... save me, please save me!”

The battle was horrific. It had devolved into a chaotic mess.

Baron Lafore, an officer who had served in the past war between the undead and the allied forces, looked down at the battlefield with a pale face.

“Baron! We're out of time!”

“Ah. Mage Corps! Commence bombardment!”

Identical incantations rang out on cue, sending dozens of fireballs raining down across the battlefield.

It truly was a gruesome melee. Between friendly fire and enemy attacks, far too many people were dying in far too short a time. Since the war with the undead began, the casualties were estimated to be in the hundreds, if not thousands.

The problem was that Gargantia, a dragon who wielded devil mana, was turning the dead allied soldiers into his own troops.

An officer shouted, “First Legion! Retreat!”

A massive horn blared to signal the troops. The soldiers quickly pulled back before a massive wave of mist swept past the allied forces and engulfed the undead.

Lafore, in shock, muttered to himself, “Good heavens! To cast Cold Mist—especially such a massive amount—in a place lacking any moisture...”

They still held an overwhelming advantage. Still, if it weren’t for the beautiful young woman standing on the high platform and unleashing a relentless barrage of magic, the casualties would've been several times higher. Without her magic that seemed to encompass the entire battlefield, the allied victory would've been far from certain.

“Baron... you have experience fighting undead legions, am I correct?”

“Yes. Although I didn't participate in the initial phase of the conflict, by the time the Saint of Tionis briefly appeared on the battlefield, I was leading a company of troops behind him.”

The noble, his face deathly pale, mumbled, “Was it... like this back then, too?”

Baron Lafore shook his head. “No.”

“Well, the Grand Duchess of Heins with her magic is certainly overwhelming...”

“No, it's the exact opposite,” Baron Lafore argued.

The noble had a puzzled face and gulped down a mana-doping potion. “Gulp! What do you mean? How could it be the opposite?”

“I mean exactly what I said. The soldiers in that war didn't die nearly as horribly as the ones here.”

“Didn’t die horribly?”

“Yes... perhaps I took war too lightly after that. I mistakenly believed the buff magic the Saint put on us back then was just a low-circle spell. Seeing it now, it's different. It wasn’t something a mere human could imitate.”

Perserque’s magic was incredible, but not even she could protect every soldier from death.

Ultimately, they had to rely on the priests’ buffing magic to survive, but the spells they were capable of using were nothing compared to the ones the soldiers had received from Davey during the previous war. It was a disparity similar to how her magic was overwhelmingly stronger than the combined spells of the entire mage corps.

“Please... may this war end quickly so no one else has to die.” Face pale, Lafore clasped his hands and offered a silent prayer. Then, he shouted with a hardened expression, “Second Wave! Prepare to fire!”

Prayers were one thing. Right now, it was time to fight desperately with life on the line.

According to the plan, their role was not to advance, instead designated to maintain the defensive lines. Their only job was to contain the undead and prevent them from spreading further.

That was when it happened.

“Baron! The enemy's offensive is weakening!”

Gargantia's undead, which had been exuding strength incomparable to normal undead, were slowly losing power.

* * *

A sudden change.

Gargantia, involuntarily exposed to the S-DoS attack that Davey named[1], couldn't concentrate due to the bizarre sensation. He felt like a thousand knives were stabbing his entire body. He lost a massive amount of power, the effect observable in real-time.

He furiously yelled, “You half-baked piece of scrap metal!”

Clank!!!

An immense Fear momentarily crushed everything around him as Gargantia drove his fist toward Rinne. Yet, she didn't back down an inch. She fluttered her three pairs of wings, raised her crowbar, and blocked his punch.

A tremendous boom echoed, far too loud to have come from a simple clash. Rinne was sent flying backward, but her expression remained unfazed.

That only seemed to annoy him further. He plunged in again to finish Rinne, but a flying energy sword instantly bound his movement before Illyna’s blade energy slashed him another time.

“Full swing. Rinne evaluates it highly.”

Rinne flew at him again, targeting his groin.

THUD!!!

Gargantia instinctively crouched into a defensive stance, but his movements made it clear that the previous attack had dealt a significant blow. He muttered, “Strange... This is strange. What is this alien feeling? Pain? Suffering? I don’t know... I DON’T KNOW!!!”

Gargantia should've been able to sweep away the allied forces, but Heins's strike team kept him at bay.

A message came over the military’s communication device.

- The undead are weakening, so a further push should work. It's time to end this!

Just as Perserque, who had been unleashing spells from the allied side, linked up with them, Rinne tossed aside her crowbar and gripped her spear like a javelin.

Her gaze was aimed at...

“Hmph?!”

Fwoosh!!

His groin.

He instinctively dodged the attack, his eyes widening in shock as he glared coldly at Rinne.

At the same time, a massive amount of power began to gather within him, and the air around them grew heavier.

Since creating something from nothing was impossible, his power could only come from one of two sources. First was the undead he had scattered throughout the world. Second was rapidly using the fragments of his consciousness scattered across the world to draw power back into his body.

He was the type to grow stronger over time with an extended battle, but drawing a large amount of power in a short period was structurally impossible.

He was currently on the outskirts of the Ahm Kingdom's capital, not too far from the battlefield. Reina, Evangeline, Illyna, and Rinne had all surrounded him.

Rinne was the only one among them covered in soot and grime from the struggle. But considering the sheer number of enemies she'd wiped out, her current strength was astonishing compared to when she had first awakened.

“Aha... Ahaha! This is fresh. A new feeling. It's fascinating... so unfamiliar. Is this what real sensations are like?”

He seemed to be enjoying the situation, flashing a smile mixed with madness.

At the same time, power began pouring from his entire body, and he slowly began to change, likely having triggered some kind of transformation.

Though he was pressuring them with tremendous Fear, the people surrounding him were, unfortunately for him, no ordinary individuals.

He was facing Rinne, the icon of betrayal and a member of the Gourmet Research Society; Evangeline, hardened by constantly getting blindsided and stabbed in the back during her streams; Reina, who had cast aside her dignity and was ready to charge in like a dog at Davey's command; and finally Illyna, whose traditional values and morals as a knight had naturally crumbled after repeatedly falling victim to Davey's antics.

It was obvious what they were going to do next. It was the most optimal move, honor be damned.

Illya scoffed and Evangeline frowned.

“Is he seriously transforming right in front of us?”

“Is he nuts?”

In that fleeting moment, Rinne plunged in first, drove her spear into the ground to create a spatial barrier, and immediately struck him with her crowbar.

“GAAAH?!”

The transformation was bound to be brief, but they weren’t the sort to stand by for that brief moment and watch it finish.

The four of them began to beat Gargantia like crazy the moment he showed an opening. The more they hit him, the more his Fear shook violently, and his mana became unstable.

Cowardice? Honor? They couldn’t have cared less about that.

With Illyna and Reina, both former knights, already acting like that, it was only natural for Rinne and Evangeline, who betrayed others on a daily basis, to do the same.

Facing the sudden, overwhelming attack, Gargantia screamed at the top of his lungs, “KRRR!!!”

“Kill him! Kill this bastard!” Evangeline growled before executing a takedown.

With his transformation forcibly canceled, Evangeline, who was on top of him, raised her fist without hesitation and punched him relentlessly.

POW! POW! POW!!!

Each powerful blow created a massive depression in the ground. She rained down punch after punch, refusing to stop until he no longer had the strength to resist.

WHAM!!!

However, he also wasn’t the type to keep taking hits.

He felt an unknown sensation from the repeated attacks. Gargantia, startled by the unfamiliar yet chilling feeling he was experiencing for the first time, pushed Evangeline off and frantically tried to distance himself.

However, his recovery was unusually slow thanks to the brutal beating he’d taken after boldly trying to forcefully transform in the middle of battle.

Frankly, his recovery had already been continuously slowing down for a while.

He couldn't help but lament that he should've taken his true form from the very beginning. Nonetheless, he staggered and successfully broke through their siege. He crashed into and smashed every structure in his path, then took a large breath and trembled. “Strange... It’s been strange... It's been strange for a while now.”

“It's not strange. That’s normal,” Illyna coldly told him.

His eyes widened, and he glared at her before remarking, “My love... what are you saying?”

“Your love? My ass! Do you have a death wish?”

When she frowned and raised her killing aura, Evangeline restrained her, advising, “Calm down, Mom. It might be a trap.”

She quieted down, and Evangeline told Gargantia, “It means that’s normal, you idiot. The fear of death is a natural instinct for every living being. Until now, you were closer to a machine or an undead than a living being.”

Gargantia looked down at his hands with a confused expression. He eventually came to understand that the alien sensation that made him unable to concentrate and smile for a while now was the feeling of fear, something he had never experienced in his life.

The trembling running through him was his instincts screaming at him to run because he could actually die.

Normally, he would’ve rejoiced over having a newfound feeling. After all, he was insane enough to turn an entire nation into a necropolis over the slightest stimulation. But because of his very nature, the sudden flood of intense sensations instead became a deadly poison, like a starving man gorging himself on food until it killed him.

“Ah... I can't... I need to get out of here first!”

He frantically moved to escape. In a way, he had finally gotten what he truly wanted. He could finally properly experience sensations, though he didn’t quite understand how.

Yet, he knew he couldn't stay like this. The thought of everything ending so pointlessly, beheaded before he could fully savor those newfound sensations, filled him with dread.

So, he opened his eyes wide and furiously worked his mind to find a solution. They weren't the sort to let him leave, even if he retreated. It was a shame that he couldn't possess Illyna, but the sensation he felt was more important to him than she ever was.

- BZZT. This is the commander. We've confirmed a massive weakening of the undead army’s power! We will continue to use the Ahm Kingdom's local feudal lords as vanguards and advance to the capital.

“Ah, ahaha, ahaha!” Gargantia maniacally laughed out loud. “Yes! This is it... this is it! It’s a shame, but I’ll have to stop here.”

He raised his hand, and a huge black orb appeared at his fingertip.

“What's that?” Illyna wondered aloud.

“Devil magic. It looks like he’s trying to recover all the power he's dispersed,” Perserque said, having arrived without anyone noticing. She lightly landed on the ground after dispelling her flight magic and announced as she looked at Gargantia, “In the end, Davey took half the spoils.”

She looked regretfully at the three arrows in her hand. “But that’s not what matters.”

Even if Gargantia was weakened, once he recovered all the vast power he had scattered throughout the world, he would unleash explosive power once again. Moreover, even though he was weakening, no one knew how much life he had left in the tank.

Perserque was worried whether the prototype Immortal Slayer Arrow she’d created could truly put an end to his life.

“You're going to use it, right?” Illyna asked while keeping her eyes on Gargantia.

“I have to. He won't die easily otherwise.”

“Then I'll create an opening for you. Fire it when I do.”

Perserque opened her Pocket Plane and pulled out a World Tree Branch Bow she had made and brought from the Divine Tree's Land.

It was an infinitely weak bow compared to Davey's bow, the Divine Bow Brunaak, but it possessed a level of elasticity incomparable even to typical masterpieces.

She quickly cast a strength-enhancement spell, drew the bowstring, and aimed the arrowhead at Gargantia.

The three Immortal Slayer Arrows each possessed different abilities. Therefore, they had to be fired in a specific sequence.

“Ahahaha!”

Regardless, Gargantia was in a strange state, torn between frowning in discomfort and jubilantly accepting the sensations he was experiencing.

It was too much pain for anyone to laugh through, yet once he understood what was happening, he couldn’t help but laugh. For the first time after awakening his power, he was experiencing such intense emotions!

He didn't even realize that such sensations were what was killing him.

“I lost today. I never expected a situation like this to happen so suddenly, so I'll let all of you live to see the next sunrise. It’s the least I can do, since you all managed to make me feel this sensation,” he said, apparently still thinking he could escape.

In response, Rinne slung her crowbar over her shoulder in a casual posture and said, “Rinne detects the reptile talking too much.” ℯℯ𝑙.

“Does he really think he can escape from here?”

With Perserque finally joining the fight, warp magic was no longer an option for him.

He no longer thought with reason. His mind had been consumed by the single thought of abandoning everything, hiding somewhere, and savoring the newfound sensations. In that case, he had no choice but to kill everyone and leave.

It was true that he was obsessed with Illyna because her existence provided a leeway to the intense stimulation, but, now that he could feel sensations, he had no further business with her.

He manifested his true form at tremendous speed and turned into a colossal black dragon. He then fired a breath attack without hesitation.

Perserque stretched out her hand and created a massive barrier, but she couldn't prevent the tremendous explosion and dust cloud that erupted.

Forced to use soulspeak to communicate, he gave a remark.

[Hmm... Well, whatever.]

As he was about to follow up with another attack, he shivered at yet another strange sensation running through him and put on a chilling smile.

Judging by the lack of any immediate counterattack, he believed he must have finally taken them all out with that blast. He tried to seize the moment and finally flee.

However, the first thing he saw after turning his massive body was a tiny human foot.

BOOM!!!

With a tremendous blast, his gigantic body reverted back to human form and plummeted to the ground.

“GAAAH!!! COUGH!!!”

Horrific pain hit him all at once. It was hard to maintain his posture, and his vision was blurry. Yet, he wouldn’t die that easily.

He slowly raised his head and saw a young man standing before him, holding only a giant skull. The young man casually asked, “Are you Gargantia?”

The question was simple. But more importantly, the aura the young man exuded felt strangely familiar.

Gargantia had been infected with the virus that Davey had custom-designed and deployed. Therefore, what was currently encroaching his entire body was basically his power.

That was why he felt familiar. Yet, he also felt another source of familiarity. After a little bit, he finally realized what that familiarity was.

“Ah... Father?”

It was coming from the massive skull the young man held in his hand. It didn't take him long to realize that it was the head of Nyx, the very being Gargantia had been trying to resurrect.

The form was too hazy and indistinct to be considered the full physical form, but it was unmistakably Nyx's head.

“Ah. This?” Seeing the enemy’s gaze fixed on Nyx, Davey grinned. “Yo, your dad was easy money, pretty much washed-up dog-ass.”

Nyx's coarse voice echoed in their minds.

[You repulsive Horne bastard...]

Davey smiled and provoked Gargantia further, mocking, “So, where were you running off to? Did you get scared when it was finally time to die?”

There was no reply.

“Sorry, but I’m a little busy. I’m going to leave now, but I’ll see you by the river a little later. You can have your father-son reunion then.”

‘River...?’

Gargantia showed clear confusion, then slowly raised his huge body.

The moment he raised his head, he found that Davey, who'd been smiling and radiating an overwhelming aura just moments before, was nowhere to be seen.

It was as if he'd been seeing things the whole time. Then, before he could relax even for a moment, Evangeline attacked him from behind. At the same time, Illyna charged in from the front.

‘No! I just regained my true, proper sensations and stimuli. I can’t die like this!!’

The attack was far beyond anything he could have imagined, knocking him unconscious for a moment before he abruptly came to. No matter how sharp Illyna’s attack was, he had never lost consciousness like that.

‘Wait, then...’

Once he came to his senses, he spotted a green arrow pierced in his body. Before he could even touch it, the arrow crumbled into dust and seeped into his body.

At the same time, his power began twisting as if caught in reversal.

“Two more left.”

“GAAAH!!!!”

He staggered with a groan, feeling a sensation brought about by the Immortal Slayer Arrow.

The first arrow seeped into his dragon heart and began branding it with death marks.

1. This is a reference to Denial-of-Service cyberattacks, which effectively prevent users from utilizing a network or resource. You may know about these forms of attacks from the modern DDoS attack. It isn’t quite a virus like what Davey initially described, but given the horribly stunted naming sense he’s shown in the past, it isn’t unusual for his cheesy brain. ☜