Chapter 443: - Ruin
Chapter 443
443 - Ruin
I am thrown backwards. My back crashes through a wall, and I sink down. As I open my eyes, I see a circle of destruction around the iridescent sphere. Perhaps because of her [Mirror Counter], the area behind where Lilixira was is less affected.
But even with a protective barrier, it doesn't change the fact that she was the closest to the blast. I can't imagine she got away unscathed. I don't know whether she was blasted apart or swallowed by the collapsing floor, but there's no sign of her anywhere.
"L-Lilixira-sama...? Lilixira-sama? Where are..."
Similar to me, Alphiss, Balear, and the adventurers were blasted outwards, and are moaning by the edge of the hole in the ground. Aro is kneeling down, but because her enlarged arm acted as a shield, it doesn't look like her body took much damage.
J-just how big is that skill...? I had some distance so I was able to get away without too much much damage, but anything near the centre of it would get ridiculously hurt.
As I watch, the monster itself easily ploughs through the ceiling head-first, disappearing to the floor above.
"OoOOO, OooOOOOOOh!"
With another strange cry, iridescent light spills down through the hole in the ceiling. It's the same skill that hit Lilixira. The ceiling breaks apart, once again revealing its figure. The parts that are hit directly are annihilated without a trace, so fortunately no rubble rains down on me.
The monster's appearance, colours, and vague shape remind me of the appearance of the [Chaos Ooze] just before using [Colour Change]. But while that was clearly made of slime, this appears to be entirely made of light. Could it be a monster that, like the [Gigant Slime], was looked away underground by the slimes?
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Species: Ruin
Condition: God of Destruction
Lv: 54/150
HP: 1279/2422
MP: 1185/2716
Attack: 1871
Defence: 1016
Magic: 1995
Speed: 1287
Rank: L (legendary)
Characteristic Skills:
[Automatic HP Recovery: Lv8] [Automatic MP Recovery: Lv9] [God's Voice: Lv1] [Ruin: Lv-] [God of Destruction: Lv-] [Absolute: Lv2]
Resistance Skills:
[Status Condition Nullification: Lv-]
Normal Skills:
[Autoregeneration: Lv9] [Ruin: Lv4]
Title Skills:
[Former Demon Lord: Lv-] [Magic of Ruination: Lv-] [Final Evolution: Lv-]
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L-legendary!? All of its stats are over 1000!? Its attack and magic are almost 2000. Why was a monster like this sleeping underground?
Apparently it's a former Demon Lord, so... No way, that's the slime!? Wh-what does this mean? I know that at higher ranks, the early levels become faster to progress through, but even so, level 54 is abnormal. Did it kill the seraphim?
[[Ruin]: L (legendary) rank monster.]
[The incarnation of the magic of ruination.]
[An amorphous monster that arises from the gathering of evil magic power.]
[As long as things that have shape still exist in the world, its urge to destroy will not abate.]
What nonsense did God's Voice tell me? How does this fit with the slime's death being certain? It's not just full of life, but even got a power up.
[Characteristic skill [Ruin]]
[To touch the body that is a colossal mass of magic power is death.]
[MP consumption is halved when using the magic skill of the same name.]
Wh-what is that... Does this mean its body is constantly covered by a magic skill? That makes close combat completely impossible... Against similar or stronger enemies, I'm usually reliant on close combat to deal damage though.
[Characteristic skill [Absolute]]
[Regardless of the user's will, MP is constantly absorbed from the surroundings.]
...On top of the crazy high stats, it's fully equipped with MP recovery. It's also got [Autoregeneration], so I can't hope to chip away at it either. If it really is that slime, then it should be still be suffering the mental strain from [Life Mana], but the ruin shows no sign of exhaustion.
The combo of [Absolute] and [Autoregeneration] also doesn't suffer from limited uses like [Life Mana]. I can't hope for it to become exhausted.
[Normal skill [Ruin]]
[Shoots iridescent light, bringing destruction to a wide area.]
[The power scales significantly with closeness from the epicentre.]
The skill it used a moment ago was the one with the same name as its species, [Ruin]... It looked like it was inside the radius, but it doesn't seem that it does any damage to the user. Probably, because it is [Ruin] itself, it doesn't receive any damage from the skill.
There's no way to fight this monster. Wh-what am I meant to do now...? Ah, no, what's this skill...?
[Characteristic skill [God of Destruction]]
[Any who touch power beyond their means will crumble away without fail.]
[Maximum HP and MP rapidly decreases.]
[This skill cannot be turned off. Absolutely never.]
The ruin's demerit skill...? No, that's probably wrong. Power beyond it's means... Perhaps that means it shouldn't have been able to evolve, and doing so was a mistake. In order to evolve to legendary class, it's supposed to be necessary to have one or two divine skills.
...Aah, I understand now. When I consider how obsessed it was about defeating me, it starts to make sense. Unable to beat me through normal means, the slime had no other choice but to forcibly evolve, even though doing so caused it to gain [God of Destruction]. That's why, even though it looked like the slime had a chance to escape, its death was already certain.
It's no longer clear whether there's any consciousness left in it... It's too pitiful a sight. The slime was cruel and self-centred, and all around a horrible individual, but now that it's like this, I feel pity for it too. It makes me wish all the more that I had been able to kill it back then.
...But, if it really has no capacity for thought left, I might be able to use it get away.