1008: Fran's Current Best

「Black Lightning Divine Claw!」

The black lightning surrounding Fran’s body converged onto my blade and covered it entirely.

『You’re controlling the technique perfectly!』

The black lightning flowed out so smoothly, probably also thanks to the Beast-Bug God’s Blessing. As I thought, her control of divine attribute related techniques had become remarkably smooth.

Moreover, Fran still maintained Sword God Transformation as she activated Black Thunder Divine Claw. She pulled off a fusion of her two most powerful techniques.

As expected, going this far wasn’t easy. My durability values began dropping rapidly, so this isn’t something we can use whenever we feel like it.

「Take this!」

「Kuh…!」

Fran raised me in preparation for a swing. Having already lost her composure, Meltritte easily fell for the feint.

She reflexively raised her cross-sword in an attempt to block Fran’s strike. However, she then quickly withdrew her blade.

After seeing me clad in black lightning, Meltritte must have thought her cross-sword might be in danger. That’s why she wanted to avoid a clash.

And so, Fran slammed a kick into her wide open abdomen.

「Gah!」

Her hardened chest cracked open, with her body sent flying backwards. Fran dashed right after her, and this time, she readied me for real.

Meltritte was spinning wildly in the air unable to do anything. Meanwhile, Fran could use aerial hop to move however she pleased.

Our next blow was sure to hit.

『We’ve had the advantage up until now, but I don’t know if this will actually be able to finish off the antidemonized Meltritte. More importantly is――』

（Her sword!）

Just as Meltritte thought I might be a threat to her sword, I was confident in her assumption being correct. From our previous clashes, I already had a good idea of how tough her weapon was.

With the power of Sword God Transformation and Black Lightning Divine Claw, I could surely cut right through her cross-sword.

（If we can just destroy her sword, we might be able to thwart Meltritte’s plan for good.）

『Exactly.』

「Nn!」

Fran set her eyes on her target, then inhaled and exhaled lightly. That’s all it took. We were ready.

「No! I was so close!」

Meltritte must have realized that Fran’s target was not her but the cross-sword in her hands. She screamed in despair.

That instant, her face looked like that of an ordinary girl’s. She was no warrior, no antidemon.

Just a girl who hated the world. If she never decided to seek out revenge, she might have lived the rest of her life in peace.

Fran looked sad, but only for a moment. She quickly regained her determination and swung down the blade of condensed black lightning.

「Raaaaaaah! Heavenly Judgment!」

Sword God Transformation, Black Lightning Divine Claw, and now Heavenly Judgment. This was the absolute greatest move the current Fran could pull off.

「NOOOOOOO!」

Meltritte tried to protect the cross-sword by covering it with her own body, but she couldn’t manage to do so while still flying through the air.

In the first place, the cross-sword was so large that Meltritte’s tiny body was unable to cover it completely.

My black blade closes in the cross-sword and…

BAAAAAANG!

「!」

With an explosion sounding nothing like a clash between swords, the black lightning and golden mana collided.

「Nrgh!」

「…!」

The weapon I slammed into wasn’t the cross-sword. Right when I was certain my blade would sever Meltritte’s weapon in two, a silvery-white falchion intervened.

The man holding it was a golden dragonkin. He had blocked my strike in a poor position and got sent flying with tremendous force.

Fran and Meltritte turned to the man interrupting their fight and shouted his name at the same time.

「Trismegistus…!」

「Trismegistus!!!」

Both of them had bitter looks on their faces.

I’m sure Fran’s pissed at his interruption, but Trismegistus just saved Meltritte. Why was she glaring at him too?

The black lightning had incinerated his body after conducting through the falchion. He had a deep gash on his shoulder from being unable to cancel the force of our slash. Still, he stood up while clutching the wound with his burnt hand. Yet the golden dragonkin seemed more concerned about his beloved sword than his own injuries. He stroked the blade with his red, blood-soaked hand and nodded a few times.

「So I might have been in danger had I not spent so much mana. I see.」

With our strongest move blocked, Fran back-stepped away from Trismegistus and deactivated her Sword God Transformation.

Her instincts must have warned her that it was too dangerous to keep going. In fact, the drain on my durability was starting to accelerate. She might have gained the ability to recognize the stopping point as well.

（He blocked us…）

『Yeah. Trismegistus seem to have infused an immense amount of mana onto his blade. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s as durable as a divine sword.』

（Nn…）

The frustrated Fran exhaled heavily. It’s no wonder. She put everything into that slash, and someone blocked it with just a minor wound.

Well, I think it’s pretty amazing we managed to injure and knock away that absolute monster. Especially since he was using Divine Dragon Form.

While Fran was catching her breath, Meltritte shouted at Trismegistus. The look in her eyes was one of total hostility.

「…Why? Why did you save me?! Answer me, Trismegistus!」

「Because my beloved sword Fannabelta told me it was the right thing to do.」

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