963: Bultori's Casualties

「…」

Fran watched the disappearance of the giant antidemon with displeasure.

No doubt she’s frustrated about being unable to defeat him with her own strength.

（…I couldn’t beat him.）

『Still having trouble mastering Black Lightning Divine Claw?』

（Nn… It’s hard.）

The convergence of the black lightning lost stability the instant she slashed, which partially diffused the lightning to the surrounding area.

As a result, we couldn’t focus all the power on the giant antidemon.

Fran also made similar mistakes in controlling black lightning in the past. It seems very difficult to combine with other techniques.

She could easily pull it off under the effects of Divine Beast Form or Potential Release, but it required tremendous concentration under normal circumstances.

Even Fran found it difficult to use her ultimate move while flying through the air and activating a large number of skills at the same time.

Since she still remembered the feeling of pulling it off during Divine Beast Form, her frustration at being unable to manipulate her powers perfectly must be amplified.

Fran clenched her fists and turned to the ground for a few seconds.

However, it wasn’t solely her fault.

『To be honest, I made a bit of a mistake myself.』

（Really?）

『Yeah, it’s pretty hard to control Golden Formula and Divine Energy Manipulation too…』

Golden Formula was the new skill Announcer-san left me that gives a bonus toward destroying antidemons. If I had managed to use it properly, our attack against the giant antidemon might have done way more damage. No, I’m sure it would have.

But I also recognized that I wasn’t using Golden Formula properly yet. The same went for the Divine Energy Manipulation.

I’ll have to practice these two skills more in the future. Oh, and Evil Domination too.

Rather than applying Evil Domination on the Evil God Fragment within me, I might be able to drain the evil energy from the antidemons and convert that to my own mana or divine energy. That would be like killing two birds with one stone.

I’ve tested my skills on goblins and other mooks in the past, but never against these kinds of more powerful enemies. I’ll have experiment with these skills way more while we’re in Gordicia.

It’s also true that failing the usage of these skills reduced the burden on my blade.

My blade would be in absolutely awful shape if both Fran’s Black Lightning Divine Claw and my skills had been fully activated. I managed to get away with only a few cracks since we both failed to reach max output.

（We need more and more practice.）

『You can say that again. Just don’t overdo it. Let’s start with what we can do and work our way up.』

（Nn.）

『Besides, you’re definitely growing.』

（Really?）

『No doubt about it.』

The last time she failed to use Black Lightning Divine Claw, it didn’t even activate. This time, she still managed to pull it off, though the damage was reduced.

That’s a clear sign of growth.

A figure approached the still gloomy Fran.

「Hey, little lady!」

「Izario.」

「Come on, why the long face? Did something go wrong?」

「…Nn.」

He could tell something was up with Fran’s mood. Izario patted her shoulder lightly.

「Being young is all about trying things and making mistakes. Besides, you’ve definitely made my job a lot easier. Thanks.」

「Nn.」

Izario’s words were not the only thing comforting Fran.

「You’re amazing, young lady!」

「That’s our Black Lightning Princess!」

「Wooooh! We’re saved!」

The adventurers we saved all started cheering. They knew Izario was not the only one here for them.

Fran smiled happily when she saw the brawny men running over to her.

『We’ve saved Bultori. Let’s be satisfied with that for now.』

（Nn.）

Fran and Izario returned to town after everything settled down, resulting in them getting cheered by the adventurers again.

Some thanked her with words, and the more touchy ones showed their appreciation by patting her roughly on the shoulder or head. With a slightly annoyed but always happy look on her face, Fran accepted all of this.

We celebrated the victory for a while, but Izario soon began to give some orders. The adventurers started to do a patrol of the town.

Then we found that only the people who were originally weak, such as the old and sick, lost their lives to the giant’s mana absorption. The rest were safe and sound. Both the mana exhaustion and evil intoxication would recover after a good night’s sleep.

For a town under siege by such a large force, the casualties were very few. This was thanks to the adventurers putting their lives on the line.

A few hours after the defeat of the giant antidemon.

With the sun gone, the black of night covered the land of Gordicia.

However, a section of Bultori remained enveloped in a light illuminating the darkness.

Izario was cremating the remains of the fallen.

Since land was so limited on this continent, burial was usually impractical. Cremation seemed to be the norm. Furthermore, they generally dug mass graves for large groups of people rather than individual graves.

The warm bonfire with a purifying power dissolved the remains until only the bones remained. Then, those bones gradually changed shape as well, before finally crumbling into ash.

These ashes were collected and carried to the graves by the bereaved families and friends.

「Now we have to figure out what we’re doing next. I’ve got no clue how the other towns are faring.」

「I’m worried about Nocta and Sendia.」

「Well, my vote’s on heading back to Nocta first and hearing the latest news. Can your wolf run, little lady?」

「Don’t worry. Even if Urushi’s tired, I can still fly with Ma――my sword.」

「Oh, true. Then let’s leave Bultori tonight and head over to Nocta.」

「Nn!」

If those giant antidemons appeared all over the place, I could easily imagine them wrecking entire towns. We needed more info before deciding our next course of action.

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