Chapter 832: How to Make an Impact (1)

When that monster first began fusing into a single enormous form.

The Russian awakened had no choice but to bite their lips in tension.

They had thought they were almost going to succeed in escaping, only to wonder whether their journey would end here after all.

But then.

The sound of enormous wings beating came from beyond the sky.

And the moment a man appeared atop them...... the situation changed.

The enormous dragon he had arrived on was more than enough to draw attention.

But what truly mattered was what happened after he appeared.

FWAAAAASH-!

‘......What in the world is that.’

‘I can’t even properly tell what he’s doing.’

The man who had fallen from the sky.

From the moment he approached the monster, its body suddenly began collapsing at a tremendous rate.

Every time that knife swung, enormous chunks of flesh were sliced away.

‘It wasn’t that dragon the monster was afraid of.’

‘It was that man.’

Only then did they realize the identity of the being that monster had feared so much.

What was even more chilling was that those watching could not even begin to guess what was happening.

Enormous chunks of flesh were being cleanly severed, yet nothing could be seen.

If he had at least been swinging sword energy with tremendous mana, they might have understood.

But there was nothing like that to be seen, and yet the flesh was still being sliced apart.

And so, those watching gave up trying to understand it.

They had no choice but to think that something beyond their comprehension was happening.

Fortunately...... if that was the right word.

Since the destruction began, this was not the first time they had witnessed such incomprehensible miracles.

The being traveling alongside them right now.

When they had first seen the Witch of Snow, she too had been utterly incomprehensible.

“How can something like that.......”

......Though there was one slight difference in that even the Witch of Snow, that incomprehensible being herself, was staring wide-eyed in shock.

In any case.

Seeing something they could not understand and simply accepting it was nothing new to them.

And so the monster was sliced into piece after piece.

Those watching believed the crisis would end like this.

But then.

-No!

At that moment.

The monster screamed and looked up at the sky.

It appeared to be looking there and speaking with something.

And before long.......

RUMMMMMBLE.......

Something began to make its presence felt from beyond the sky.

It could not be seen.

But the Russian awakened could tell.

‘There’s something beyond the sky.’

At their level, they could not see it directly.

But they had already experienced something similar not long ago.

The man they had thought was a trustworthy comrade.

When that man had offered their other comrades as sacrifices to a demon, they had felt something similar.

‘A demon!’

Or something comparable to one.

It was exactly the same presence they had felt when something had been watching this land.

“......No. We must not allow it to converse with that thing!”

The old man, Vasily, who had realized what was happening, shouted.

They had to end this fight before it could finish speaking with that being.

But...... for some reason, the unidentified soldier who had been eliminating the enemy so quickly did not actually finish the monster off.

And in the end.

THUD.......

The sky opened.

And a beam of light poured down onto the ground from there.

At once, everything changed.

The monster that had been devouring this land disappeared, leaving only a single form behind.

The power contained within it was overwhelmingly vast.

‘It’s over.’

Everyone who saw it fell into despair.

A monster so overwhelming that their instincts screamed warnings merely from looking at it.

No matter how powerful that soldier was, defeating something like that would surely be impossible.

But...... at that very moment.

“Prepare yourselves.”

Beside Vasily, who had fallen into despair.

A soldier spoke calmly.

The words were translated through [Mental Language] and embedded clearly in Vasily’s mind, but he could only stare blankly and ask back.

“What did you say......?”

“I’m warning you beforehand because I think you’re going to be surprised.”

“......?”

“Prepare yourself mentally in advance. It might be pointless even if I tell you this...... but since you’re an old man, I figured you should at least brace yourself.”

And at that moment.

Before them...... a brilliant mass of light erupted.

“Besides.”

And.......

The moment that light touched their bodies.

“This is something you’ll be experiencing countless times from now on.”

Vasily began to feel something inside his mouth.

***

FWAAAAAAASH!

The monster began attacking me at tremendous speed.

Of course, I had no intention of simply letting it hit me.

SHWAAAAK-!

I ‘foresaw’ the attacks that my eyes could not see and held my knife out where it would come.

I did not even need to thrust the knife myself.

The place where my knife was positioned was the exact spot where I could perfectly prepare it.

It had charged into my knife at tremendous speed and practically cut itself.

-Right...... this is why I feared a being capable of doing something like this.

The creature, sliced apart by me, spoke calmly.

-But not anymore.

It had been split into two by my ‘preparation’.

But.

FWASH!

The two severed pieces each formed a complete body.

The two monsters began pouring attacks toward me once again.

‘The splitting trait is still the same....... No, has it become even more troublesome?’

Its power had been halved.

But now there were two places the attacks were coming from.

After realizing that, I swung my knife again and cut it. ℴ

This time, just in case, I tried striking it with the flat of the blade instead of the edge.

-Pointless.

The moment I struck the two monsters, their number became four.

The more I cut them, the more they multiplied.

‘Hmm.’

After realizing that fact, I thought for a moment.

SHWAAAAK-!

Then I continued swinging my knife.

-Foolish. I regret ever having feared someone like you.

The monster divided every time I swung my knife.

Although the power contained within each individual body continued to weaken, perhaps because the amount of land it had devoured was so enormous, even after splitting, each body still possessed considerable power.

In fact, the more of them there were attacking me, the harder they became to deal with.

And...... when their number had grown close to a thousand.

‘This should be enough.’

I looked at the awakened around me and used a skill.

[Five Loaves and Two Fish]

In the past.

The food I had prepared in advance when I first saw the awakened of this land.

Those dishes began appearing above the heads of the awakened.

-......That light.

Back when not much time had passed since the destruction began.

Whenever this light spread, enemies would often let their guard down.

After all, it was merely something a chef was doing.

Most of them assumed the result would be nothing special either.

Thanks to that, I had gained quite a few advantages against enemies who had let their guard down...... but.

-I know this light.

I wasn’t sure whether I should be pleased about that or not.

Over the course of surviving this destruction until now, I had grown considerably stronger.

And with that increased strength, I had accomplished quite a lot.

Because of that.

-I know of the battle that took place in that distant land. I know what happened to a being terrifyingly powerful at your hands.

Thanks to that...... the otherworldly beings living in this land.

Especially those with broader vision among them.

Their reactions seemed to have changed somewhat.

For example.

-I also know that I must kill you before all of this light finishes seeping into them!

FWAAAAAAASH!!!

The monster had already been powerful.

And now, with nearly a thousand of them thrusting their fists toward me, there was no blind spot left for me to evade through.

-I am perfect now.

Perhaps putting its soul up as collateral to a being outside had not been for nothing.

The monster had already been powerful, but not only had the flaw in the rank of its soul been perfectly compensated for.

I could feel that a considerable amount of additional power had also been bestowed upon it.

That being outside had probably made an enormous investment in this creature.

An investment reckless enough to place a burden even on a divinity.

-No matter how terrifying a power you possess! Unless you summon a massive light like you did back then...... you cannot defeat me as I am now!

On the other hand, circumstances were somewhat different for me this time.

When I fought Avaritia, I truly had to use everything I had.

I used all of Bimana as a restaurant and even used Morzan’s fragment.

I had to amplify the strength of every Legion member there to the absolute limit.

Right now, I had neither such an extraordinary restaurant nor Morzan’s fragment available to me.

“You can’t be defeated?”

But...... how should I put it.

Watching the fists rushing toward me without a single opening, I tilted my head and spoke.

Because [Mental Language] was closer to communication through the soul, my intent was transmitted to it instantly without even needing air as a medium.

“Aren’t you...... being a little too arrogant?”

Just as it said.

The light I had summoned now was weak.

Compared to the enormous light that had settled into every Legion member when I fought Avaritia, it was laughably small.

But.......

“I guess you started looking down on me because I played with you for a while.”

-......What.

In the first place.

My purpose in coming here right now was not to defeat this thing.

‘If all I wanted was to take this thing down, I could do that however I wanted.’

If I started thinking of methods, I could come up with more than twenty of them right now.

It was true that defeating it with nothing but my own body would be somewhat difficult.......

But frankly, even that would be entirely possible with a little effort.

‘If killing it were the goal, I would’ve done it long ago.’

The strength I had built up through surviving until now was not so weak that I would struggle against a monster of this level.

If I had wanted to kill it, this thing would already have been a corpse long ago.

What mattered was...... my objective.

‘Build fame.’

To do that, simply fighting and winning was not enough.

Great strength certainly fascinated those who saw it.

They were overwhelmed by that strength and shocked by it.

Those reactions gathered together and became fame.

But.......

‘There’s a limit to what strength can do.’

Great strength certainly created fame.

But only up to a certain point.

‘When people see power that goes beyond the realm they can understand, they simply give up trying to understand it.’

If the level of strength someone could comprehend was 10, then the moment it exceeded that 10, they would simply think of it as ‘power from a realm I don’t understand’ and move on.

Whether it was 100 or 100000, to someone who could only perceive up to 10, both were treated the same because they had ‘exceeded the standard’.

And the people of this ruined world were far too accustomed to ‘events of an incomprehensible scale’.

‘I’ve already shown them power beyond what they can understand.’

Therefore.

What I needed to show them was not simply me overwhelming this thing with strength.

‘I need to show them...... something even harder to believe.’

That was the only reason this thing was still alive.

But it had no way of knowing any of that.

FWAAAAASH!!!

Even now, thousands of fists were rushing toward me.

After hearing what I said, the creature seemed to think something had gone wrong.

But at this point, that part no longer mattered.

Because.

‘It doesn’t matter how it responds in the first place.’

Whether it could kill me quickly or not.

Whether the being outside intervened through this creature or not.

‘None of that matters at all.’

......From the moment I appeared here.

Its defeat had effectively already been decided.

And.

Just as its fists were about to reach me.......

At that very moment.

CRRRRSHHHHHHH!

-......!

Countless fists had reached right in front of my face.

Attacks carrying enough tremendous force to crush my flesh if they touched me.

“What are you doing?”

Just before they touched my body.

With only a gap measured in millimeters remaining, they had stopped.

......Naturally.

It was not as though the creature had suddenly decided to stop attacking because it wanted to get on my good side.

“Ever since leaving my homeland.......”

CRRRRSHHHHH.......

“This is the first time I’ve felt this refreshed.”

A freezing chill that seemed capable of freezing even the soul.

Had swept in from somewhere and bound its body in place.