Chapter 128
128 . Rynford: Evil God's Incarnate
Rynford reacted to Zerrosreed's betrayl with a hateful shout, which, in turn provided me yet another chance to assault him with a telekinetic cata-port . [1]
A loud grinding noise filled the temple as I smashed into Rynford's automatic barrier . That, however, was still just the onset .
「Burst Flame . 」
『Burst Flame!』
「Arooooo!!」
I'd said it all haughty-like, but to be completely honest, my actions hadn't really changed much at all . I was still draining his mana and keeping him from moving by spamming a bunch of weak skills at him . His barrier would probably end up dissipating if he ran out of magical energy , so I figured it was probably the right thing to do .
「Nraaaghh! Not this shit again!」
Rynford was looking pretty desperate, so we might actually be able to finish him off if we kept this up a bit longer .
「Damn it! The Path has yet to fully open... but it simply cannot be helped . Oh great God of Evil, grant me your power!」
Orrrrr not . Well, I figured he wasn't about to just sit there till he died .
The old man started to chant, his face still twisted in rage . All the evil energy within the temple gathered around his frame .
The fuck? It almost looked like the temple was giving Rynford its power . Was it because of those crystals he had...?
Shit . Crisis Detection had kicked itself into full throttle . It was reacting just as much as it had been back when we ran into the Midgard Wyrm .
『Fran! Urushi! Get out of there!』
I teleported Fran and I out immediately after confirming that Urushi had dove into the shadows . Our escape was accompanied by the sound of a large explosion . Dust and stone erupted from the temple as it collapsed .
「Gugaaaaaaaa!!」
A roar echoed throughout the night, and with it came a wave of evil-aligned magical energy .
Holy crap he's huge!
A muscly, black skinned giant, a fifteen meter tall Evil Human-like thing rose from within the temple's rubble .
At first, I'd thought that it was something Rynford had summoned, but I was wrong .
「Get back here! You're not escaping me, little girl!」
His shout contained such force that it almost seemed to make the air tremble .
The giant that stood before us was none other than Rynford himself, as evidenced by his mutated but still recognizable face .
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General Information
Name: Rynford Lorentia
Age: 100
Race: Evil God's Incarnate
Job: Master of Evil Arts
Status: Deified (Evil God)
Status Level: 99/99
HP: 5620
MP: 4458
STR: 2027
VIT: 1887
AGI: 598
INT: 1459
MGC: 1987
DEX: 115
Skills
Chant Shortening: Lv 7
Appraisal: Lv 7
High Speed Regeneration: Lv 6
Evil Detection: Lv 9
Resistance to Abnormal Status: Lv 4
Agitation: Lv 4
Compounding: Lv 6
Knowledge of Poisons: Lv 7
Magic Manipulation
Maximized Magic Boost
Maximized Strength Boost
Innate skills
Evil Arts: MAX
Evil God Arts: Lv 5
Evil God's Favour
Evil God's Cage
Titles
One Bestowed With the Evil God's Power
Equipment
None
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Holy shit . He was even more powerful than the demon we'd fought back in the day . His threat level was somewhere between an A and a B, and he even possessed skills the likes of which we'd never heard of before . Engaging him without first finding ourselves some backup was pretty much equivalent to committing suicide .
『Okay, we need to get out of here . 』
「Nn!」
「Woof!」
I started chanting as Fran and Urushi kicked themselves into top gear .
『Short Jump!』
The spell activated after we'd travelled about fifty meters worth of distance . It looked like Fran and I were going to be able to get away if we kept this up . Urushi had the ability to dive into the shadows and whatnot, so he'd be fine too .
That, however, was when things stopped going well .
『Gah!』
「Ow!」
「Whimper!」
Fran and I ended up colliding with what appeared to be some sort of thin wall . The same thing had happened to Urushi as well despite the fact that he was he was still hidden within the shadows .
「You shall not escape the Evil God's Cage, one of the new abilities with which I was blessed!」
Shit, so that's what that new skill did!? Looking around made me realize that the cage we were trapped in had was one that extended about fifty meters in every direction with Rynford at its centre .
『Inferno Burst!』
「Fire Javelin!」
I switched from spamming spells to using my Telekinetic Catapult against the barrier's outer walls .
『Shit! That didn't work either!?』
The cage, however, remained in tact . In fact, my durability had ended up going down instead . His defensive wall was even stronger than it'd been before .
『Dimension Jump!』
The next spell I tried was one that would let us teleport about a hundred meters . It was kind of finicky, but still better than Short Jump in either case .
Fuck, it's not working!? Does the barrier have some sort of anti-teleportation property!?
「Evil Flare . 」
If I were human, the sudden influx of evil oriented magic energy would likely have caused every single one of my body's hairs to stand on end . I felt a sense of crisis, a taste a fear . As a result, I ended up firing off the spell I'd been chanting .
『Short Jump!』
A fireball passed right through our previous location before exploding into flames . It was so powerful that it ended up hitting us despite the fact that we were a whole thirty meters away from its point of impact . Luckily, I managed to set up a magical barrier and prevent most of the damage . We would've been in a pretty bad spot if we ended up taking a direct hit from it .
「Not a bad dodge, but not good enough! Evil Barrage!」[2]
『What the!?』
「You think you can dodge this?」
Fifty volleyball sized lumps of evil energy materialized around him and started flying at us . Each moved differently; some flew in a straight line, others moved in a more circular arc . The different in movement patterns, combined with the fact that each projectile moved at its own speed, made the attack ridiculously difficult to avoid .
「Kuh!」
『Fire Shield!』
「Haaahh!」
『Wind Wall』
We defended ourselves against the spell by dodging, striking down the projectiles, blocking, and using defensive spells .
Luckily, the individual projectiles were rather weak, they didn't do that much damage . The problem lay in the fact that getting hit even a single time would lead us to flinch and thereby get hit by the rest .
Shit, what now? Let's see... we were going to have to somehow escape his barrier, which either meant we would either have to slip or break right through it .
Slipping through it seemed difficult as it stopped both space/time and darkness magic . Do I use up the rest of my points on space/time magic then? Ehh... nah, that seemed like a bad idea if anything . There was no guarantee that pointing stuff would allow us to pass through the barrier .
What if I used my points to get us a bit more brute force? I could probably shove a few into flame magic . Actually, I could probably change up my approach and go with something like purification magic instead . That'd probably be more effective given that he was classified as something evil . Probably .
Actually, we did have yet another option to fall back on if we wanted to go for pure destructive force .
(Master . Will use Latent Potential Release . )
『Wait, don't!』
Fran had hit the nail on the head . Latent Potential Release would allow us enough power to not only run away, but probably even kill him given how much stronger it'd made us during that whole Lich thing .
But I wasn't going to let her use it, absolutely not .
『I'm going to try a little something first . 』
I spent six of my remaining eighteen points and maxed out space/time magic, as I figured it seemed like the best option given the current circumstances .
〈Space/Time Magic has reached its maximum level . As a result, you have now obtained the unique skill, Dimensional Magic . Its level is currently set to 1 . 〉
With the unique skill came the Chronos Clock, Quick, and Slow spells, but as I couldn't really use them in the current circumstances . I instead tried to activate one of the new space/time spells we learned .
『Long Jump!』
But not even that would let us escape Rynford . We once again ended up with our faces against his barrier . It seemed that the amount of distance our teleport carried us was completely irrelevant .
The old man's projectiles quickly caught up to and swarmed us once more .
(Should use Latent Potential Release)
『Let me do it then . 』
(No . Me . )
『Don't . That skill's side effects are ridiculous . You might even end up dead . 』
(Still want to)
『Listen to me Fran! No means no!』
(Mrmmph . )
Our exchange was immediately followed by the situation spiraling out of control .
「Guhh!」
『Fran!』
We weren't able to avoid all the incoming projectiles; one hit Fran head on . Said projectile was immediately followed by many of its kind, and Fran was subject to bombardment . Shit! We lost too much focus!
I immediately teleported us a short distance away and set up a magical barrier .
We managed to escape the attacks and reduce the amount of damage we took, but Rynford didn't let up . He immediately followed his attack with another .
「Evil Flare!」
「Uaaahhh!」
The old man had managed to catch onto the fact that it was very difficult for us to use short jump several times in a row, so he'd intentionally forced us to use it while also engulfing our destination in scorching hot flames . Both Fran and I immediately deployed our magical barriers at full power in response .
「Kuuaaaahhh!」
『Fuuckk!!』
Our full powered, double barrier was unable to hold against his attack, and so, we were blown about twenty meters away .
「Finally managed you catch you . Quite the pesky little fly you were . 」
We narrowed managed to escape death, but it wasn't too far off . I'd been pretty roughed up, but Fran was looking even worse . She was barely conscious, and her left arm had been burnt black as coal .
『Fran!』
「Ugh...... . 」
It looked like his next attack would end up finishing us off .
『Fuck off! I'm not letting you harm another hair on Fran's head!』
I fiddled around with my status as I healed her up .
〈Chant Shortening has reached its maximum level . As a result, you have now obtained the unique skill, Chant Nullification . 〉
Chant Nullification: This skill eliminates the need to chant magical invocations . Spells can now be cast simply through the recitation of their names, but at a greater mana cost .
Sweet! I'd been planning to buy time by continuously chanting short jump and teleporting around, so having this skill really helped . It gave us the ability to teleport nonstop as opposed to having to risk damage every time . I was a bit concerned about its increased mana cost, but this wasn't the time to be brooding over something like that, so whatever! Let's just do this shit!
『Short Jump!』
『Short Jump!』
『Short Jumppp!!!』
I teleported all over the place in order to avoid Rynford's attacks and keep Fran safe .
「Argghhh!! I had suspected that you had that skill, but why is it that you can use such a difficult spell so many times in succession!? Just die already! Damn it! Die!」
Instantly casting the spell made it cost about twice as much mana, but that was honestly perfectly fine . It allowed us to spam it and escape Rynford's assault, which in turn caused him get frustrated . Hell yeah! Keep getting mad! Start messing yourself up by getting tilted!
I started looking for a way out of this situation as I teleported all over the place . If I couldn't find one, I'd probably end up having to use Latent Potential Release .
「Master...?」
『Let's see if we can try to find some sort of weak point or something . 』 [2]
We continued to dodge and dodge and dodge in order to escape his attacks, but we weren't able to inflict on him any sort of serious injury . His regenerative abilities outdid everything Fran and Urushi could output .
I tried catapulting myself at him a few times too, but even that failed . It didn't even actually inflict any major on him . In fact, using the telekinetic catapult ended up giving him an opportunity to counter attack us .
I made sure I at least appeared calm so Fran wouldn't end up panicking, but honestly, I'd begun feeling a bit frustrated and impatient . We were exhausting ourselves, my mana was starting to run low . I was on the verge of just saying fuck it and using Latent Potential Release .
But then it happened .
The Evil God's Cage vanished as a high pitched, clear, bell-like sound rang through our surroundings .
「W-What!?」
We had no idea what happened, but it seemed like it was something outside Rynford's expectations .
I immediately cast all my other thoughts aside and took advantage of the opportunity presented .
『Urushi, Fran, we're getting the hell out of here, right now!』
「Bark!」
『Dimension Jump!』
I hid us behind a building immediately after teleporting about a hundred meters away .
『You alright?』
「Nn... Somehow . 」
『Whew . Good . 』
「Woof!」
「You okay too, Urushi?」
「Ruff . 」
I didn't really know how or why, but we had managed to escape . Whew!
「Nugrahhhhhhhhhh!!!」
The next thing that happened left us in a state of shock . Rynford had let loose a pained scream . Not a howl, or battle cry, but a scream .
『Huh?』
We hurriedly turned around and beheld the sight before us .
『Holy shit!』
「Lots of swords . 」
The evil being's body had been filled with blades .
A large, snake-like thing had wrapped itself around him and restrained all his movements . Around him stood a small group of individuals .
One crushed Rynford's right leg with his bare fists . Another had impaled his left with a large, knight-like spear . Some dashed along the ground as others flew through the air . But despite their differences, they were all working together towards a single goal: Rynford's defeat .
「All really strong . 」
『Y-Yeah, they are . Who the hell are they anyways?』
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[1] Cata-port = Catapult + teleport .
[2]I'm not sure if this is the author messing up English, or me simply not getting a reference, but this skill is literally "Evil Familiar" (イビル・ファミリア) . Do let me know if you figure out what it's referencing, if anything .