958: Giant Antidemon

A shadow that seemed to be a gigantic creature suddenly appeared from beneath the earth. However, the full extent of the creature’s body was still unknown.

Perhaps due to the low humidity of the continent, the dust cloud was dense enough to persist for some time.

Slowly, but surely, the dust started to clear. Revealing the identity of the shadow within.

Finally, we saw it, the figure of a giant antidemon. Its shape was similar to that of a swordsman-type, just ridiculously huge.

However, something was off.

The giant antidemon remained seated on the ground, holding its knees. Moreover, it was surrounded by a strange, viscous liquid.

The figure almost looked like a baby protected by amniotic fluid in the womb. Could this really be a baby antidemon? It seemed unfinished somehow…

「Izario, what’s that?」

「No clue, I’ve never seen an antidemon that big before. Pretty sure there wasn’t anything like this in the records either.」

In other words, this was the first sighting of a super-sized antidemon. I think this finally proves the current antidemon season was out of the ordinary.

「What do we do?」

「All antidemons must be destroyed, of course. We don’t have much choice.」

「Nn! Got it!」

What, wait! At least pause to think for a second! What if we accidentally wake it up with our attack?!――On second thought, the guy next to us was a divine sword wielding Rank S adventurer.

If this man can’t take the antidemon down, no one can. When Izario decides something needs to die, I doubt anyone or anything is capable of stopping him.

Izario said all antidemons must be destroyed. Therefore, destroyed they will be. Despite the shabby appearance of the man before us, his words become fact.

『Fran, we need to avoid getting caught up in Izario’s serious strike.』

（Nn!）

Fran also trusted Izario’s judgment, nodding in agreement to my words.

「First, we’ve gotta get in close. I want to know what’s going on before I take him down.」

「Okay. Urushi, let’s go.」

「Woof!」

Fran jumped on Urushi again, as Izario launched his magic board.

「I’m gonna go max output. Can you keep up?」

「Urushi, don’t lose!」

「Woof woof!」

Urushi and Izario’s magical tool blasted through the light clouds of dust still dancing in the air. I thought Izario’s tool would be pretty slow, but he managed to keep up with Urushi’s max speed.

His ridiculous acceleration was all thanks to shooting flames from the rear of the board, the same principle as the flame spell Vernier. That said, it’s amazing he could maintain his balance the entire time.

「Now it’s overflowing with more antidemons!」

「Nn.」

「Woof.」

There didn’t seem to be any obstacles, so we thought it would be easy to reach the giant antidemon…

But suddenly, a wave of magical power blew through the area, along with the presence of antidemons. An entire horde had suddenly sprung up out of nowhere.

The dust made it difficult to see the whole picture, but I could sense at least 1,000 of them. Moreover, the waves of power kept flowing. Meaning these antidemons will continue popping up without end.

「Let’s just erase them and keep going, shall we?」

「Nn.」

「Woof!」

The antidemons that appeared were mostly the black-colored greater antidemons. Their power would be considerable despite the horde being rather small in size.

Not that it meant much to Izario.

Each swing of Ignis sent out a wave of flame, engulfing the antidemons in front of us. They only managed to become a minor speed bump before we accelerated back to full speed. Izario kept pushing forward while completely erasing any antidemons in our path.

Fran and Urushi had no chance to do anything. Our group continued blasting its way through the horde with flames trailing behind them.

At the same time, a powerful gale blew in from the front, forcing Fran to squint. This was caused by the sheer physical pressure from the giant antidemon’s massive amounts of mana.

Also thanks to the wind, the dust surrounding the giant dispersed, giving us the full view.

「Its huge!」

「Woof!」

「Yeah, that’s pretty damn huge this close!」

Even Izario had to exclaim in amazement while looking up at the antidemon the size of a small mountain. The giant antidemon’s pressure even surprised him.

It was still floating in a mysterious liquid that seemed to defy gravity. Seeing it this close reminded me of a fetus again.

Fran and Izario shared the same thoughts.

「A baby antidemon?」

「I’ve never heard of such a thing… Besides, he’s way too big to be a baby.」

「Mmm…? He’s sucking power out of me.」

『Me too!』

「Must be this guy’s doing. He’s sucking mana from not just us, but everything here, including the earth itself.」

Izario was completely right. The giant antidemon seemed to be drawing huge amounts of mana from his surroundings, with an ability similar to Magic Plunder.

That said, Fran, Urushi, and I were relatively unaffected, while Izario seemed to be completely immune.

This type of ability barely works against the more powerful opponents. Though the giant antidemon had an immense amount of mana, it seems like its abilities were no exception to this rule.

「Seems too dangerous to leave alone. We don’t know how far he can grow.」

「…So, we take him down?」

「Yeah. I’ll be using a bit of a flashy move, so you might want to stand back.」

「Nn.」

If Izario says he has to do something flashy, it must really be dangerous.

『Fran, let’s get really far away. Even more than last time.』

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