“Shoo!”
René dodged the silver whip that Diana had sharply launched.
The whip, which missed its target, struck a nearby tree and completely cracked it. The tree tilted with a cracking sound, and eventually fell down with a ground-shaking sound.
There was no way that a thin silver whip itself could have such power. It was the destruction caused by the magical power that had been imbued into it. And it was a magic power so holy that it was irresistible. It was not hard to imagine that the undead René would suffer a heavy blow if she got hit.
However, Diana’s emotions were so warm that she felt a chill as the powerful blow was delivered.
–What is this emotion …? It can only be called compassion. How can she fight with such feelings!?
Every opponent René had fought so far had attacked her with a mind painted with hostility, anger, impatience, and fear. Just as Hugh did.
But Diana was different. Although she had a grim face and attacked like a lion, the feelings she had towards René were warm and compassionate, like a mother singing a lullaby. Of course, there was anger and sadness (probably over Iris’s death), but compassion coexisted there.
“Haaah!!”
The silver whip was swung in all directions, and a trail of silver light was drawn in the darkness. René, who had been denied to approach, caught the whip with the red blade.
The reaction was heavy. There was an unpleasant sensation as if something was resonating deep inside her body, and the cursed red blade chipped off as if the blade had been damaged.
–It doesn’t matter much if the sword is damaged, but to damage the blade … this is a dangerous power…
The red blood blade was a crystallized form of magical power that was kneaded from resentment and curses. If it were half-baked, it should be able to repel the purification power.
A moment later, Hugh slashed at her like he was crawling out of the darkness.
“Oodoraaah!”
René, who was able to detect out of sight with the power of emotional sensing, could not be caught off-guard.
However, the moment when she was unable to genuinely counterattack was the moment she was targeted.
René barely struck back at the knives in Hugh’s hands with the red blade, and just as she was about to pierce Hugh, she received the next blow of the silver whip, gave up the attempt to follow up, and took her distance.
Hugh’s knife had deep cuts. The next time we meet, it will probably break.
“It’s tough! Even with «Consecration», the weapon will be ruined soon!”
“Even though I applied it with the [Boost Stigma]…!”
The two were astonished, rather than surprised that René could not slice the knife in half.
All of the weapons that had been cut with René’s red blade, with the exception of the magic sword Terra Ayur, had all been sliced cleanly and easily.
That’s how powerful «Consecration» was.
“You’re strong! I would have died in three seconds on my own!”
“No wonder.”
When Diana shook the skirt of her robe, silver-colored sharp objects of various shapes fell down and pierced the snow. «Consecration» was already applied on them, and René felt sick just by looking.
“Throwables! You know how to use them.”
“Thank you.”
“Cover me!”
Seeing that hand-to-hand combat was impossible, Hugh started to pick up the throwing weapons.
Renée unleashed a magic attack in a path that would smash through both of them.
“≪Calamity Flash≫”
Reddish-black light gathered at the tip of the red blade and emanated in a straight line.
Hugh held the weapons he had picked up and ducked to the side, but Diana did not … avoid it.
She held the silver whip between the fingers of both hands, taut and tight, and held it up as if it were a shield.
–Magic power…is it gathering in front?
A flash of red and black impacted Diana.
Or, more precisely, the force field she had erected.
It was as though Diana was unfolding an invisible umbrella. The flash branched off in front of Diana and flew backward like it was avoiding her.
“Oh, oh, oh, oh!”
“Aaahhhh!!”
René concentrated and increased the output.
Diana closed the distance from the front, breaking the reddish-black flash.
Hugh followed after Diana.
— Damn … magic output doesn’t go up as much as I’d like! I mean, to be honest, it’s the same as before! I can feel the power increasing! Could it be that “it takes time for what you eat to become part of me” or something realistic like that? Why don’t you just use the RPG type of easy strength increase, Evil God?
A huge amount of energy was swirling in René’s soul. But it was hard to discharge it out. It was flowing around violently as if searching for the right form to settle in, bringing both pleasure and discomfort, like being tickled from the inside out.
It was said that it takes around three hours for a human being to digest and absorb food as energy. How much longer, moreover, would it take to turn it into her blood and flesh?
In René’s case, we would be talking about souls, not bodies, but there was no way that a major transformation that doubled the power of a soul could be done in an instant.
When some distance was closed, Hugh leaped and got out of the flash’s line of fire. He then released a silver throwing blade into the air.
–If I don’t avoid it, it will hit me …! But …!
Diana was still rushing forward. The blade approaching from diagonally above.
René stopped the «Calamity Flash».
“≪Wind Shear≫! “
A shield of wind was deployed to repel the throwing blades. However, even the wind was broken by the approaching silver whip!
–Hot…! Damn, I should have teleported!
Unable to catch it with the red blade, the silver whip slashed René’s side.
The moment the silver whip touched her body, an unpleasant heat burned René.
Not real heat, this was an illusion. It was the pain of being corrupted by the power of the Great God, which was incompatible with the impure Undead.
When Diana turned her wrist, the silver whip wriggled as if alive and tried to twine itself around René.
If her body was wrapped tightly,… it would be bad no matter how she thought about it.
“«Countermagic Field»! “
The magic power erupted from René.
This absolute defensive magic neutralized the opponent’s offensive magic as long as it was magic.
The holy power granted by «Consecration» was no exception. The silver whip was a mere physical attack that only shallowly wounded René’s body.
–But now with the «Countermagic Field» the enhanced physical reflection buff is gone…
Diana approached before her.
“Wha…”
“Iaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
Diana’s kick pierced René’s small body.
The Undead have nothing like kryptonite, but it caught her squarely in the solar plexus.
There was a creaking sound from her body.
Her body lifted off the ground, and René flew in a straight line and slammed into a tree.
Naturally, the tree snapped and fell.
René was wobbly from the impact, but quickly got back up.
–It was just a kick that did this much damage… to an Undead! This strange magic, how much of a ghastly enhancement buff did she apply!?
If one may add, Diana’s judgment was also brilliant.
While using «Countermagic Field», naturally another magic cannot be used, and furthermore, the strengthening buff magic that had a continuous effect also disappeared.
This was the perfect opportunity to close the distance and launch a physical attack. Diana did not miss that opportunity.
Diana closed the distance like the wind and began the follow-up attack.
Once the «Countermagic Field» had been used, the contents of the reinforcement buffs are almost always known from then on. It was no longer easy to create a trap like having a hidden physical reflection in advance.
“≪Stone Wall≫! “
“I won’t let you!”
A thick stone wall rose up through the snow.
Diana swung her silver whip and chopped it into tiny pieces without slowing down her rush.
However, immediately after putting up the wall, René did not run away, but on the contrary, closed the distance.
“Nnn…!”
Immediately after breaking through the stone wall, the cutting edge of the cursed red blade protruded out.
The trajectory of the thrust pierced through the middle of her chest.
“Whoops!”
Diana evaded it by bending her upper body back with a super-reaction that exceeded human limits. Her robe was shallowly sliced open and exposed.
The fatal blow was averted, but Diana was greatly out of position. René naturally tried to deliver the finishing blow to her.
“[Descend Stigma] Activate! “
Holy power enveloped Diana.
With a movement that completely disregarded the laws of physics, as though by jet propulsion, Diana zigzagged and slid away from René, and her attack came up empty.
–Movement magic!
Sliding on the ground and spinning herself up in a spacewalking motion, Diana swung her silver whip.
–Then … how about some low-grade magic that is completely chantless and could be used to break things down! «Telekinesis»!
“Ah?”
The trajectory of the silver whip shifted. Although the holy energy wrapped around the whip repelled magical interference to some extent, it was enough to create an opening.
René used the red blade to flick away the silver whip that deflected off, and she came in close to Diana.
Diana tried to respond to this by wrestling, but she was not allowed to do so.
–≪Ground Erosion≫!
“Ah!”
Diana’s body sank.
≪Ground Erosion≫. It was a low-grade earth elemental magic that created a crack in the earth. It was not so large that it could be called a fissure in the earth, and at most, it was just enough to catch a foot. To put it bluntly, it was regarded as a useless magic for practice purposes, but it could be used in this way.
“Let’s go!”
The red blade was thrust out toward Diana, who had been knocked out of her stance.
Diana used her left arm, which did not hold the silver whip, as a shield.
Diana’s left arm was cut off.
… While her arm was cut off, Diana changed the trajectory of the slash and forced herself to defend herself. And.
“[Divine Punishment Stigma] Activate! “
The crest glowed around Diana’s waist.
A brilliant white light blasted out from her right hand holding the silver whip. It was as if she was holding invisible fireworks along with the whip.
The slightest touch of the light caused a searing pain, and René reflexively jumped away. She was forced to take another step back when she was hit by Hugh’s projectile.
–Short-range, immediate-activated attack magic…! Finish off!
And Diana caught the cut-off left arm with her right arm and slammed it into the severed surface of her shoulder.
“Diana, are you okay!”
“I’m fine!”
One moment the flesh was healed with a watery sound, and the next, the fingers had already begun to move.
–That’s right, healing is a specialty of holy magic… Which one of us is the Undead?
“I knew I shouldn’t have gotten closer… [Halo Stigma] Activate. “
As a crest glowed around the nape of Diana’s neck, a halo of light appeared above her head. It is the very appearance of a fairy-tale angelic halo.
The holy presence from Diana intensified, and it seemed to René to be a dazzling radiance. The holy energy, which had only been dissipated as an aftereffect, was now being jetted out in a combative manner, as a weapon and a shield at the same time.
–Probably this one will damage me just by getting close to it, and it will slow me down. I’d like to attack it with magic, but …
Magic has been proven to be warded off.
The laser, which would have been well-done even by an elephant, was repelled by holding up the silver whip.
–If it’s magic that manifests its effect directly on the target, the whip can’t prevent it…? No, it’s subtle. The whip shield from earlier was just concentrating all the defenses on the front of the body. Hugh could probably be dropped with a direct attack if the protection was burned off, but there’s no room for that. I need to do something about Diana first, rather than stopping the throwing blades, which are only annoying at best.
Diana’s silver whip whined. René dispelled the incoming silver shine with the red blade. The silver whip tried to entangle the red blade like a morning glory wrapped around a support rod. Each time it did, René struck it down with «Telekinesis».
If René stepped forward, Diana would fall back, and if René ran away, she would close the distance.
In between, she would release «Pain Whip», but they did not reach Deanna and were canceled out by a swing of the silver whip.
It seemed that she was planning to prevent René’s approach and magic, while gradually knocking her down from a distance just barely reachable by the silver whip. This was a good thing, as it gave Diana an overwhelming advantage.
If the attack and defense continue to lack decisive moves, the Undead usually have the advantage. After all, the Undead do not experience physical fatigue.
However, it was doubtful if Diana even had the concept of fatigue. Moreover, the longer the fight went on, the greater the risk of being noticed by the town’s residents. That was not good for René.
René, who was searching for a way out of the situation, suddenly noticed something unusual about the silver whip.
–The “bad feeling” I was getting from the whip is fading?
The holy energy that clung to the silver whip has weakened slightly.
Although Diana now maintained magic in a multiplicity of ways that are impossible for an ordinary magician (that crest probably maintained magic without the need for mental concentration by using itself as a magic item and consuming itself), there must still have been a limit to its output.
The more magic she sustained, the less effective each of them seemed to be.
–If this is the limit now, it means that the output will not go up any further. That new technique is too incompatible with Diana. If that is the case, it is better to use that…
René’s offensive moves slackened slightly as she considered her plan of action, and Diana immediately condemned her for it.
Wielding her whip, she chanted holy magic.
“[Boost Stigma] Activate …≪Illumination≫!”
It was holy magic that scattered and exploded holy energy like a shotgun pellet over a certain area. The blink of light approached like a wave.
–Cancel each other out!
“≪Calamity Flash≫!”
In response, René releases a reddish-black flash of death. The light bullets were heading directly for René, but they were drowned out, and more rays were aiming at Diana.
“I’ve seen enough of that!”
Diana held her whip at the ready and held on. A thick beam, like a laser, cracked in front of Diana and passed behind her in a series of tributaries.
–I knew it. It’s just barely close enough.
It was a brilliantly executed move.
It seemed that René’s magic attack power had been measured by the previous shot, and that she was putting the remainder into another “crest”, leaving only enough defense to withstand it. She was fighting on the very edge and finally making it a head-to-head battle.
–Then … let’s decide here!
Hugh, out of the line of fire, launched a throwing blade. No sooner did it hit.
At the same time as she stopped the release of ≪Calamity Flash≫.
René used the unchanted ≪Short Teleport≫ for the first time against Diana.
“”She disappeared!?””
Both of them were astonished.
Diana turned around to face René, who had teleported behind her.
It was a wonder that she turned around while holding up her silver whip for protection.
For Diana, who can apparently detect her with the crest on her chest, losing sight of her is only a matter of seconds.
However, she was slow to react to unexpected movements. Even if it is only for a moment, it created an opening.
–Before she gets used to it! Before you have time to think about anything else!
“≪Calamity Flash≫! “
Diana defended against further attack magic in the same way as before.
The muddy stream of death was dispelled by the holy brilliance.
But this was just a distraction.
Diana would not be able to see the change in René now that she was being hit by the laser from the front.
Gently putting her head back on her head, which she had been holding in her left hand, René felt herself becoming lighter.
–Again!
In addition, René transitioned to Diana’s side. So that Diana and Hugh stood in a straight line.
“Choo…!?”
Diana’s eyes were staring in amazement as she turned around.
If she were to objectively describe what she saw at that moment, it would be “a child-sized skeleton in a robe”.
The flesh was stripped away and the skin was stuck to the bones. The silver hair was intact, but the silver eyes no longer existed. The cold silver light in the empty eye sockets gave René vision.
The cursed red blade had also been transformed into a … magic wand with a texture that looked like it had been carved out of ruby.
“What…”
“≪Calamity Flash≫”
The reddish-black flash, which increased its output to nearly double that of the previous one, engulfed Diana and Hugh.
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