Chapter 446

The Marquis's mansion burns up. With that as the background, Marquis Ashtner, who was engaged in a fierce slugfest with Fran, laughed vulgarly, still wearing the same expressionless face.

「Nice work, little girl! I haven't felt pain in hundreds of years!」

First pain in hundreds of years? I knew it, this wasn't Marquis Ashtner himself.

「What are you?」

「Well, I wonder? We'd love to know too. What are we?」

It sounded like he was trying to smoke me out, but strangely enough, I didn't feel that he was trying to hide it. He seemed to be serious about it.

「Was it 100 years, or Was it 500 years, or even 1000 years? I'm not sure anymore. But I vaguely remember that I was about to be destroyed by the Holy Order!」

Holy Order? I remember it! It's one of the divine swords that Alistair taught me about! Holy Order, the Spirit Sword - Holy Order. It's said to have been made to be used against Fanatics.

This is already clear. Fanatics are behind this incident. No, on the contrary, it seems that something inside the Marquis was Fanatics it self.

However, a question remains. The Marquis is holding a pseudo fanatic sword. Is it a fake or does he have a real one hidden somewhere?

But still, Fanatics was an Intelligence weapon the same as me....If that's the case, then it's possible for Marquis to be a puppet and the mastermind is Fanatics.

「Haaa!」

「Kuh!」

Naturally, the high-speed sword fights continued even during the conversation. The sword fights were so fierce that Colbert and Eliante could not intervene.

Marquis Ashtner, who has the Sword Saint Skill: Lv. 10, and Fran, who has not yet perfected the Sword King Skill. As a result, the two of them were almost evenly matched in their sword skills.

「.....Are you Fanatics」

「Fanatics? Come to think of it, do we have a name like that....? Hey, are we Fanatics?」

「I'm the one asking you」

「Kuhahaha! You're right!」

In the first place. We? Why "we" and not "me"?

「Why "we"?」

「Aah. We are. One in many. All in one. We're all of us! Ha ha ha! Even in your sword, there's us!」

What? They're inside me?

「What do you mean?」

「It doesn't even have an ego, it's just a fragment separated from us, but it's still us! That magic sword of yours, does it have the power to absorb magic power?」

Could it be that he was referring to the power of the pseudo fanatic sword that I absorbed through cannibalism? Maybe the pseudo fanatic sword was imbued with a small amount of the magic power from Fanatics.

As I recall, the Fanatics' ability is to take in the consciousness and memories of the person they cut and identify them with themselves. If that's the case, it wouldn't be surprising if he had more than one consciousness.

I'm gonna be okay, right?

「That's it! Give me that sword! It's made of Orichalcos isn't it? It might heal our wounds!」

「I refuse!」

「Kahahaha! Even so, you're pretty good, aren't you? I never thought you'd go this far with this special body!」

The topic has changed again. It was either too manic, or too talkative, or just talk too much.

As I slammed my sword into the Marquis, Fran asked a question. The Marquis, who had caught me with his sword, replied with a cool face in the midst of the tremendous shockwaves rolling around us.

「What do you mean?」

「This is a special body that has been adjusted over nearly 40 years!」

「40 years? Adjustment?」

「That's right. The only way to create a body with transcendent power is to slowly modify it with drugs and our abilities over time! Goddamn it! In the past, I could create as many strong troops as I wanted! Now I can only give them a few skills they're suited for!」

So, not only can Fanatics integrate the powers of others, but they can also give them? If they can give skills and experience as they please, then they could mass produce the most fearsome soldiers.

What if this legion of soldiers was as powerful as Marquis Ashtner were to work in perfect coordination under the Fanatics' consciousness? Moreover, given the Fanatics' capabilities, they could be replenished at any time. It would be terribly dangerous.

「I've experimented with his sons, his vassal's sons, and all kinds of random people I've captured in this town!」

Could that be Serdio or Auguste? I let Fran ask.

「Serdio? Auguste?」

「Ooh? You know them? In the end, I couldn't recover the mental manipulation skills and unique skills I gave them! Unlike swordsmanship and magic, which can be replenished as much as I want, those skills are very valuable!」

So, the skills that Serdio and Auguste had been given to them by Fanatics.

「On that note, this guy's has been modified for 40 years! Most of the skills we have can be transferred! Hyahahahaha!」

The Marquis laughs loudly. He talks a lot, doesn't he? It seems he can't stop talking even during battle. Thanks to him, I can get a lot of useful information, but it's difficult to know how much to watch. In addition to the Steal skills used by the Marquis, Fran's life and magic power are gradually diminishing due to the wear caused by the Brilliant Lightning Rush, even though it looks like an even fight.

Somewhere along the line, we had to stop gathering information and start pushing at once.

However, it was Marquis Ashtner who made the first move. He may have realized that this fight would get nowhere, or he may have grown tired of talking. The Marquis distanced himself from Fran.

「For Example, we could do something like this! Magma Wall! Earth Shooter! and, Sword Sonic!」

The Marquis shoots out a huge rock at the wall of lava that has been created and the bursting lava rained down on Fran like a spray. In addition, the shock waves created by the sword saint skills fly after her.

If we try to dodge the bullets and shockwaves of earth magic, we will be damaged by the rain of lava. If we try to catch them with barriers, our movements will slow down. If we try to completely avoid a wide range of attacks, our movements will become monotonous.

I guess they want to take advantage of that.

But we are also looking for an opening. We'll use this attack against them.

「Earth Wall!」

Blinding him with an earth wall――.

「Haaaa!」

「Kihihihi! You used teleport huh!」

「Tsk!」

He's as perceptive as a monster! A slash from behind was easily deflected! But I've already factored this in!

『Fran! I'm all set!』

「Nn! Haaaa!」

Fran slashed at him again, nailing the Marquis in place. The Marquis, who doesn't mind a prolonged battle, gladly responded to the slash. Without knowing what its aim is.

「I'm fine with it! Another slashing match huh?」

「Wrong」

『Eat this!』

There, I unleashed Kanna Kamui again, it rained down on him. And it was a converged and more powerful version.

「Wha, Even if you are in this too?」

「Won't let you go!」

「Damn!」

He can't afford to be in the middle of a slashing match with Fran. Fran has a thunderbolt nullification. I just need to use my Dimension Shift for a moment and pass it off.

「Haaa!」

「Little Girl!!!」

It's finally 100K page views!!, it doesn't really mean anything tho lol XD