Chapter 345

"Kwaaaaaaaaaak!!"

As Child-Fourth entered the shrunken corpse doll-Duncan, Duncan began to move.

Duncan let out a shriek, drawing a bone and flesh-formed tonfa from behind his waist. The tonfa spewed out stored black magic, Black Armor, to wrap around Duncan's body.

Wearing the armor made from black magic, Duncan dodged Theodore's touch with swift movements and lunged toward him.

"This little trick—"

—Bang!!

Mid-sentence, Duncan slapped Theodore's face.

The combined strength of Duncan's physical abilities, the Black Armor crafted by Oliver, and the special tonfa made by Ewan was quite formidable.

Nonetheless, Theodore's head only slightly turned.

That was to be expected. Theodore's body had high durability, and he had deployed a magical shield just before the attack.

The surprise attack had failed. It merely disrupted the flow of the battle and delayed time.

'That's good enough.'

Oliver internally concluded and reached out his hand to extract Theodore's emotions.

Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh——!!

He could have created a Black Suit to guard his unprotected body, but Oliver risked it and opted to extract emotions.

It was an action he would not normally take, but given that Theodore was almost invulnerable to most attacks, Oliver made this choice.

Draping a Black Suit and exerting effort to create another artificial soul wouldn't matter if it were to be destroyed by one punch from Theodore, so finding an opening in the attack was better.

—Snap!!

Seeing Oliver trying to extract his emotions, Theodore immediately swung his opposite hand to sever the extraction.

Too bad. He hadn't extracted enough yet.

'And not just emotions, but also Life-force...'

Frustrated by Oliver's unusually aggressive maneuvers, Theodore readied his giant fist to swing once more.

Duncan tried to interrupt Theodore again, but Theodore released an overwhelming amount of mana from within his body, pushing Duncan away and shot a shockwave, shattering the armor that Duncan wore, and flung him far away.

Due to the overwhelming difference in strength, Duncan couldn't resist and was sent flying, leaving Theodore and Oliver in a one-on-one situation again.

Theodore bent his massive fist and lunged at Oliver, who instead of dodging, threw two pieces of paper to activate magic.

Whirring......!!

The paper, attached to his wrist and head, emitted a unique but clear noise, generating a purple magical portal that split Theodore's fist into three sections.

An average person would either die from shock, faint, or become severely injured, unable to continue fighting.

However, Theodore, who was able to manipulate his body with mana to suppress pain, spread a magical net in the air and conjured multiple mechanical arms.

To capture the explosive corpse doll fragments coming out of the portal and throw them back at Oliver.

Not a bad choice.

Even if they immediately came out of the portal, Theodore's mechanical arms could easily intercept and neutralize something as trivial as explosive corpse dolls.

His mechanical arms were that agile and deadly.

If it had been explosive corpse dolls.

Zzzzzz... Snap!!!

What emerged from the portal were not explosive corpse dolls but corpse doll-Bathory and Corpse doll-Shamus.

Upon their arrival, Child-First and Child-Third, who had secretly moved, entered into Duncan and Shamus respectively and used blood magic and druidic spells. They sliced the mechanical arms that Theodore had conjured and blew them away.

Theodore's eyes widened at this completely unexpected turn of events. Seizing this moment, First summoned multiple blood balloons to amass a large volume of blood and fashioned a spine-shaped spear.

"Kwaaaaakaaaaak!!"

Utilizing the blood magic known as [Spine Pile], First, who resided within Bathory, drove a sharp, spine-like stake vertically into Theodore's giant arm.

Thump——!!!

Despite its formidable piercing force, the stake halted midway due to Theodore's exceedingly high physical durability.

At that precise moment, Third, who inhabited Shamus, swung the spine stake with all its might, piercing through Theodore's fist.

Bang—!!

"Kaaaakaaaaaaka......Rip it!!"

Observing this, First screamed.

Following First's command, a giant blood-colored spike sprouted from the spinal post, tearing through one of Theodore's arms.

His enlarged fist was torn apart and scattered in all directions. Seizing this opportunity, Bathory, Shamus, and even Duncan, who had been flung far away and returned, launched a fierce attack on Theodore.

Bathory's blood-colored blade aimed for Theodore's heart,

Shamus's fist, infused with the power of nature, aimed to crush Theodore's face,

And Duncan's tonfa moved unpredictably, aiming to destroy Theodore's body.

Nevertheless, all these attempts were thwarted by the magical shield deployed by Theodore.

Even with one of his arms torn off, he remained steadfast in his defense and swiftly restored his torn arm using a mechanical one.

Recognizing that they couldn't allow him to recover, the children clung desperately to prevent his recuperation, but Theodore's defense proved unyielding.

No, it was more than that.

As all the children closed in, he unleashed a potent shockwave, pushing back the corpse dolls and Oliver. The lake trembled as if struck by an earthquake, deterring them from approaching him.

But it didn't end there.

Theodore conjured numerous magic circles above Oliver and the Corpse dolls' heads, from which he rained down bullets of magical energy, lightning, ice, and fire.

It resembled a bombardment orchestrated by dozens of collaborating wizards.

Already in a disordered state due to the intense battle, the lake trembled once more, creating numerous water pillars. Oliver and the Corpse dolls focused all their attention on evading the catastrophe raining down from above while attempting not to be swept away by the turbulent lake.

Meanwhile, Theodore concentrated on healing once again. It was truly impressive, a type of magic that demanded unwavering concentration.

Crack!

While evading the falling mana from the sky, Oliver tossed a mana-infused paper into the air.

Dodging the incessant magical barrage, a portal materialized from the paper that had soared higher than the magic circle. Through that portal, Corpse doll-Sniper emerged, and Child-Second entered and activated it.

"Kahahahahaha!!!"

Delighted to be called last, Second, inside Sniper, unleashed a laugh. It drew multiple enhanced guns from its numerous hands and fired bullets toward the newly created magic circles in the air.

Although it appeared indiscriminate, Sniper, true to its name, obliterated the magic circles with unerring accuracy.

As a result, the magical bombardment subsided.

With the sky now stabilized, Oliver channeled the absorbed mana from the lake into both hands and challenged Theodore for control over the mana.

Theodore's intent to agitate the lake and Oliver's determination to stop him clashed through the mana, and the turbulent lake gradually calmed down.

This was the moment when Bathory, Shamus, and Duncan made their move.

As the sky stabilized, Bathory formed wings of blood to approach Theodore, taking the lead. Shamus and Duncan followed suit, launching their attacks.

Theodore attempted to disturb the lake once more by increasing the amount of his mana, but Oliver countered by adding his own, and every time Theodore tried to create new magic circles in the air for bombardment, Sniper in the rear shot them down.

Thanks to this, the other Corpse dolls were able to safely close the distance and press Theodore once more.

"Kyaaak!"

Bathory let out a piercing scream and focused her Blood Sword on a single point, creating a small crack in Theodore's magic barrier.

Duncan zeroed in on the crack, enlarging it with a swing of his tonfa, infused with black magic.

Meanwhile, Shamus hurled a beanstalk spear charged with the power of nature. It not only shattered Theodore's magic shield but also impaled his recovering arm.

"Grrr... Annoying...!"

"Grow!"

As soon as the beanstalk spear was lodged, Third, who resided within Shamus, shouted.

Following the druid's command, the bean implanted in the spear's tip began to grow inside Theodore, causing significant internal damage.

"These scumbags!!"

Theodore erupted with rage, suppressing the beanstalk with his mana while generating countless hands from his other arm to form a gigantic tentacle-like appendage.

The children's vitality waned due to the drained life force, mana, and emotions.

[Parasite]

Oliver, who arrived later, joined in and cast black magic using the emotions he had previously extracted from Theodore.

It was a black magic of the disease class known as [Parasite], draining life force through bugs or mushrooms.

Once the beanstalk growing inside Theodore's body turned dark black, multiple mouths sprouted from it. These mouths indiscriminately siphoned away the target's emotions, life force, and mana, much like the mouth of a Voracity.

Theodore, who typically didn't even flinch from ordinary attacks, screamed in agony as his mana, life force, and emotions momentarily slipped out of his control.

The evidence was his massive arm, which seemed on the brink of tearing apart.

Although he appeared to have seamlessly integrated the powers of other wizards, it seemed that this was not the case.

Moreover, there was no way to wield someone else's power without risk... Oliver was reminded of a story Merlin had shared with him in the past.

When he had inquired about the apocalypse, he had heard, 'Cheap people always try to steal old authority and wear it inappropriately on their bodies.'

Although he, who couldn't create anything independently and relied on others, had no room to judge, at that moment, Oliver couldn't think of anyone more befitting of those words than Theodore.

Oliver reached out his hand toward the suffering Theodore and absorbed the emotions, life force, and mana that the parasitic beanstalk had drained. He used these as components to once again envelop himself in the Black Suit.

Swoosh!

Oliver assaulted Theodore with a quarterstaff woven from emotions and life force, delivering a powerful blow.

It was a strike that made Theodore cough in pain.

Already having his physical freedom stolen by the parasitic beanstalk within him, not to mention his mana, emotions, and life force, Theodore became disoriented. Under the influence of this turmoil, numerous arms sprouted from his body, releasing a barrage of high-powered magic spells.

From standard elemental magic to pure magic spells, and even [Temptation] and [Thunderstorm] mixed with emotions and mana.

Although it was a blind attack, the force was so formidable that the corpse dolls retreated. Theodore seized this opportunity to swing another massive fist toward Oliver.

"Huff-"

Oliver stepped back with the corpse dolls, reinforcing his Black Suit by recreating an artificial soul from Theodore's emotions, mana, and life force. With all his might, he swung his quarterstaff once more.

Though Oliver wore nothing more than a plain black suit without any special magical enhancements, his quarterstaff sliced through the air and Theodore's fist, cleaving the lake in two.

"......Huh?"

Theodore stared at his arm, which had vanished cleanly, emitting a bewildered sound. His emotions swiftly transformed into confusion, intimidation, and fear.

"Everyone."

In response to Oliver's call, the Children, sensing an opening, rushed toward Theodore, who had lost both his arms.

Bathory thrust a blood-red stake into Theodore's exposed body, piercing through it. Duncan skillfully wielded his tonfa to shatter Theodore's form, while Shamus slammed his fist into Theodore's face, imbued with the power of nature.

"Last! The hero!"

From behind, the supporting Corpse doll-Sniper eagerly sprinted, leaped into the air, and fired the sawed-off shotgun.

Bang——!! Bang——!!

Theodore's body transformed into a rag, accompanied by a massive hole.

He was now engulfed in the terror of imminent death. As that fear peaked, he inflated like a balloon and burst, spewing a significant amount of blood, entrails, and flesh.

Oliver and the Corpse dolls who had been attacking Theodore were swept away by the unexpected explosion.

Despite its loudness, the explosion's destructive force was relatively low. Aside from Corpse doll-sniper, who was closest and had the lowest durability, no one suffered injuries or destruction.

Nonetheless, it was profoundly perplexing. They never anticipated that Theodore would meet his end in this manner. Numerous questions raced through Oliver's mind...

'Huh? Dead?'

Oliver cocked his head while gazing at the blood, entrails, and flesh floating on the lake.

Most had lost their Life-force, mana, and emotions following Theodore's demise, but a small portion of the flesh still retained Life-force, emotions, and mana.

No, it went beyond mere retention; it wriggled and moved in a specific direction.

Towards Oliver's rear.

Thunk!

As Oliver turned his head, Theodore, now brimming with survival instinct, stabbed Oliver's back.

It was an entirely unforeseen assault.

He screamed in madness.

"I... I will not die!"