Chapter 194 – Fragment of the Demonic God (2)

[Koo-goo-roo-roo-rooo-ga-ga-gahk!]

It was a bit late to mention this, but the Demon King had reached level 403.  Even if the Demon King had lived for a very long time, it was hard to believe that he had reached that level.  Moreover, he possessed Demonic energy and skills befitting his high level.

[Fragment of the Demonic God]

[Level : 408]

This monster had appeared out of the summoning circle.  Only its arm had escaped, yet it was at level 408

“Its Demonic energy is swelling!  Back off!”

“Nyaa-ah.  I can’t eat it all!”

Was it because it had been summoned through the Demonic King’s Demonic energy?  The Demonic energy of the arm possessed similar toxicity to the Demon King.  However, it was much more dense and foul.  Roa’s Greed ability and the Reclamation magic was getting rid of it whenever they could, yet it was still this bad.

“Sienna, don’t overextend yourself fighting it!  If we buy some time, we will win eventually!”

“Yes, unni!”

Fortunately, the Demon King had possessed much more intelligence than the arm.  (Although, the arm was as crazy as the the Demon King.)  In comparison to the Demon King, the arm was basically a being without consciousness.  It was provoked by the two strongest females in the party.  It instinctually attacked Sienna and Maetel.

The black hand was bumpy and rugged.  Each large finger possessed seven additional long demonic fingers.  These demonic fingers clawed at the empty air as if it was a mouth.  It was as if it was craving for its prey.  If one was caught between those fingers, the result would be unimaginable.

“I understand it now.  This is what the Demon King wanted us to experience.”

The magic tome with the Reclamation magic was given to Pipi.  He regained use of both his hands, and he was able to freely manipulate his Mana.  After a thorough examination of the Demonic god’s arm, he came to a conclusion.

“If such a monster descends into this world, it’ll be the end of everything.  If we don’t want the world to end, we have to defeat our opposition before they summon the Demonic god.  Basically, that is what the Demon King wanted to point out.”

“It would have better if he had just told us that…..”

Etna sounded sad as she mumbled to herself.  She lightly swung her arm.  A blade of fire arose from the arc drawn by her arm.  The fire blade hit the monster’s pinky finger.  Instead of cutting off the finger, the attack left behind a very small flesh wound.

[Koo-ohhhhhhhhhh!]

However, it was enough to make the arm turn towards Etna.  It was also what Etna had been aiming for.  In the fight against Sienna and Maetel, the arm had been slowly inching closer to the party.

“Maetel said we’ll win if we hold out for long enough.  However, Artpe….”

As the arm approached her, Etna sent shot a cannon ball made out of fire towards it.  She put all her power into the attack as she asked a question.

“Will we be able to do it?”

“It’ll be possible if the Reclamation magic is maintained until the end.  Roa’s Greed ability has no limit.  …..the problem lies with Maetel.”

Record Master was a cheat ability that gathered the Record of many into one, and she was able to distribute it as she liked.  Of course, such an ability would have a time limit.  Even if Mana was provided for her use, no one could help her with her mental strength.  She had lasted this long through sheer willpower.

“Hoo-ahhhhhhhhhhp!”

[Koo-gah-ahhhhhhhk!?]

Artpe and Etna continued to send spells towards the arm as they spoke to each other in a worried tone. At that moment, Sienna brought down her hammer.  She had been been given the strength of her entire party, and she was able to crush one finger with her fierce attack.  As if she had been waiting for this, Maetel quickly snatched Sienna, and she retreated backwards with Sienna in tow.

Afterwards, the enraged Demonic god’s arm grasped the space around it.  While Artpe manifested his spells, he had been monitoring the arm’s movement, form and energy.  The arm kept repeating the same grasping gesture, and Artpe realized that nothing was left behind in the space grasped by the hand.

Everything within the space was gone.  Air, dust, Mana and even Demonic energy…..

“My god······.”

[Koo-goo-rooooooo-goo-ahhhhhhk!]

The power didn’t differentiate between Mana and Demonic energy.  It destroyed everything, and Artpe was sure that this was part of the arm’s Innate ability.  It was the most simple and destructive Innate ability that Artpe had run across up until now!

Even as Artpe saw it with his two eyes, he was having a hard time believing it.  How could so much power be given to such a creature!   Its finger was crushed by Sienna when its Demonic energy was consumed, but it recovered from the damage.  In front of its Innate ability, the regenerative ability of the arm looked like childsplay.

At that moment, dust settle atop Artpe’s head.  He had been monitoring the ceiling with sharp eyes.  At long last, Artpe let out a shout.

“The cave is collapsing.  Regina!”

“Understood.”

The arm was letting out too much Demonic energy.  Even though the Demon King had put his heart and soul into creating this Dungeon, it had reached its limit.  Regina used her cold air to temporarily stop the collapse of the cave.  Then she directed the large pieces of the ceiling to fall on top of the arm of the Demonic god.  She tried to damage it a little bit more.

[Kee-haaaaaaaah!]

A surprising fact was revealed thanks to her actions.

“The rocks disappeared before they could get near the arm.  It didn’t have to make that grasping motion!”

“It was a feint.  Its Innate ability can be activated without the hand making that grasping motion.  If it wasn’t for Regina….  Shit.  Sienna!  Maetel!  Don’t approach it until I can suppress its ability!”

Artpe busily moved his hands.  Several thousand strands of Mana Strings appeared from the tip of his fingers.  The Mana Strings kept changing direction as they expanded to fill the cave.  The Mana Strings stopped the charge of the arm.

“Koohk!”

The arm had charged forward as if it was going to swallow up the party alongside the cave.  However, the arm was stopped for now.  Artpe frowned.

“This son of a bitch is sending its negative energy through my Mana…..!”

When the arm’s Demonic energy made contact with Artpe’s Mana, a connection was formed.  A frightening image appeared within Artpe’s mind, and a curse flowed into his mind.  It was intended to mess with Artpe’s mind.   It was trying to negate Artpe’s spell.

The arm possessed overwhelming Record, so Artpe had guessed that it had possessed more than one Innate ability.  He had been right.  As expected of a being called the Demonic god, it had splendid abilities!

[Koo-goo-roo-rooooooooooo!]

“Ha!”

However, the Mana Strings didn’t melt under the assault of its Innate ability.  Artpe also wasn’t lacking in terms of mental strength.  At the very least, it wouldn’t work when Artpe’s eyes were letting out the bright purple light.  It was truly an amazing attack that contaminated the mind of one’s opponent.  Unfortunately, the arm had used it against the wrong opponent.

“I’m immune to attacks on my mind, bitch!”

Artpe didn’t buckle under its mental attack.  He poured more Mana into his Mana Strings!   Dozen layers turned into hundreds of layers.  The layers of Mana Strings stacked upon each other as it continued to stop the charge of the arm.

When Etna took Artpe’s hand, a bright fire ran along the strings, and the flame lit up the Demonic god’s arm.  She had the blood of an Elemental, so she was weak against mental attacks.  However, she was just adding her power to Artpe’s Mana.  She could accomplish this without succumbing to the mental attack.

“If we can’t melee it······!”

At this point, Maetel had correctly assessed the situation.  She moved on to her next attack.  She held her long sword instead of her bastard sword.

The sword had the ability to compress and shoot out Mana.  Maetel preferred the bastard sword, so the long sword rarely got used now.  Despite this fact, the long sword had a top tier ability that allowed her to condense her Mana.  It was also possible to stop the sword from shooting out the condensed energy.  The condensed Mana became fixed to the sword!

The Demonic god’s arm was trapped by Artpe’s Mana Strings, so it was barely moving.  She aimed for the weakest point on the arm.  She used Accelerate as she threw it towards the wrist joint.  She put all the power of her Innate ability, and the power granted to her by the Record Master into this deadly throw!

The weapon was invaluable, yet she had basically used it as a one-off throwing weapon.  The party was close to being wiped out.  It was a desperate situation, so no one stopped her.

[Koo-goo-goo-goo-gahhhhhhhh!]

The arm of the Demonic god sensed the weapon flying towards it.  It tried to destroy the sword, but Artpe’s Mana Strings desperately held back its ability.  It resisted against the Mana Strings as it let out a massive amount of Demonic energy.  The nearby region was destroyed as Demonic energy filled the cave!

The Reclamation magic and Roa’s Greed ability stopped the Demonic energy from reaching the party.  However, it couldn’t stop the Demonic energy from changing the course of the sword.  When Maetel saw this, she tried to rush forward despite the risk of her mind becoming corrupted.  Artpe stepped forward before she could do so.

“Materialization!”

In a flash, the long sword grew several dozen times larger.  The massive sword extinguished the Demonic energy in its vicinity, and it stabbed into the wrist joint.  The hand was severed at the wrist!

“We did it!”

“We aren’t out of the woods yet!  G…get rid of the arm!”

The severed arm and hand was in shock.  However, it started moving again in short order.  The handless arm was much larger than the hand, but Artpe didn’t hesitate to attack it first.  He determined the Demonic energy of the Demonic god was nested within the arm.  The Demonic god’s abilities was concentrated in the hand.

“We can’t get rid of that easily.  First, we have to get rid of its arm since it supplies the hand with Demonic energy.!”

As he spoke, Artpe blocked the hand with his Mana Strings.  A more dense Demonic energy assaulted the ground and the ceiling.  The ceiling continued to decay as it threatened to fall atop the whole party.  Artpe’s Mana String deflected the debris with his Mana Strings!

It wasn’t just that.  The giant long sword was still under the influence of the Materialization magic.  It slowly floated into the air then it shot towards the hand again.

The Materialization had a special characteristic.  It took a lot of Mana to use it, but it barely used any Mana when trying to change and maintain the spell!  The Demonic god’s hand became preoccupied by the enormous sword infused with powerful Mana.

Maetel and Sienna had been waiting for that exact moment.  They charged forward.  Maetel gripped her bastard sword as she climbed atop the flailing arm.  She started degloving the arm with her sword.  Sienna ruthlessly pounded on the severed wrist with her hammer.  It was as Artpe had said.  The Demonic god’s abilities were focused within its hand.  The arm was being directly attacked, yet the two girls didn’t suffer from any mental attacks.

“Hoo, hoo-ooh······.”

“Maetel, just hold out a little longer!”

“Little longer?  I can do this all day······!”

“Unni, get out of there!  Hoo-ahhhhhhp!”

[Koo-goo-goo-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga!]

Everyone realized that Maetel was lying.  She couldn’t keep this up.

Despite Regina’s intervention, the underground cave was slowly collapsing.

In the end, the Demonic god’s hand broke free from Artpe’s Mana strings, and it crumpled the enormous sword.  Artpe bit his lips.

At this point, it really looked like the Demon King had planned on killing them with the summoning.

‘I thought it wouldn’t be worse than the Demon King.’

He wanted to punch himself for having such thoughts.  The mere existence of a creature with such massive energy and abilities was a calamity in itself.  It was a terror, and it possessed the absolute power of the gods.  It didn’t need intelligence or consciousness to be a dangerous.

“Back off!  The hand is coming!”

“Tsk······!”

“Regina, over there!”

“Denied.  It is impossible to use this spell multiple times all at once.”

“Eh-eet······!”

The party members were doing their best to resist against the Fragment of the Demonic god.  At that moment, Artpe suddenly remembered the Demon King’s last words.

‘He told me to rise above the gods.  He really was laughable until the end.’

Even a portion of the Demonic god overwhelmed the hero’s party, yet the Demon King expected Artpe to overcome all of it by himself.  He knew the Demon King was a psycho, but he had a renewed appreciation of this fact.

Artpe grumbled as he raised one hand.  Several hundred thousand Mana Strings appeared from his hand.  He once again restricted the movement of the hand.  Despite the Reclamation magic and Roa’s Greed ability, the hand’s power couldn’t be weakened.  It started to suppress and break apart Artpe’s Mana.

Artpe furrowed his brows as he sensed the hand’s innate ability.  How could such an Innate ability exist?  It was pure destruction.  It truly was something….

“Ssssp.  I have no choice.”

Artpe cleared his palate as he desperately gathered the Mana that was being suppressed by the hand.  Fortunately, there was a portion of the Mana leftover after it suffered under the Demonic god’s Innate ability.  It really showcased how much control Artpe had over his Mana.  He had reached the peak In terms of controlling Mana.

“Record of Destruction….   Please work.”

“Artpe······?”

When Etna heard the words mumbled by Artpe, she looked at him in disbelief.   Artpe didn’t answer her questioning gaze.  He put all his will and dearest wish into the spell he spoke.

“Materialization.”