1029: Hellflame

「I’ll take care of the rest.」

「Nn…」

「Sorry for stealing the best part from you.」

「Izario, are you okay?」

「Well, you girls did most of the work. I’ve gotta do my job too.」

Fran could not be happy about this because she was worried about Izario. His aura was clearly weaker than usual.

His level must have diminished after continuously releasing his divine sword, combined with his exhaustion from so many fierce battles in succession.

Izario should be aware of his own limitations, but his face showed nothing but a confident smile. An act to stop Fran from worrying.

「Little lady, can you still move? Get as far away from me as you can.」

「Nn…」

『Don’t worry. I’ll make sure Fran and Sophie reach safety.』

「I’m counting on you.」

『…You take care of that hugeass for us.』

「Of course.」

Izario waved his hand in the air and ran toward the giant antidemon. Not that fast though, probably to give us time to escape.

『Let’s get outta here!』

「Nn…」

I picked up the immobilized Fran and Sophie with telekinesis, then took them as far away as possible.

This should help out Izario, even if only a little. Our other allies were moving out too. Our retreat might have been faster if Urushi could help them, but he’s still stuck in the shadows.

He must have spent all the mana he had in that single blow. I’ve recovered enough mana to move thanks to the cannibalism, but we might have been in serious danger otherwise.

As I focused solely on movement, I sensed a large amount of divine energy flowing behind me.

Despite being over 100 meters away, the tremendous heat wave radiated by Ignis still reached us.

The shimmering heat haze emitted by Ignis began distorting our vision. Moreover, Izario’s body was lit aflame with smoke rising.

Not even he could fully control the super-dense divine flames swirling around Ignis right now.

Flames danced around Izario as he finally swung the blade. It was a beautiful sight, but the earth bubbled up into lava from a slight spark. Exactly like how I would imagine the cauldrons used to boil the sinners in hell.

The giant antidemon began wriggling wildly, likely sensing the danger of those divine flames. I saw it send a powerful wave of evil energy.

It released an aura of evil so dense that I almost mistook it for a fragment of the Evil God. Then, several shapes burst out of its body.

Dozens of tentacles, which promptly reached out to grab Izario. That antidemon still had enough power left to pull off something like this?

In the face of this monstrous form, Izario simply activated his technique.

「Divine Sword Art, Hellflame.」

Izario swung down Ignis, releasing a small orb of fire. It looked almost like a novice failing the basic Fireball spell.

But of course, this was nothing of the sort. The red orb flew directly at the antidemon and…

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A gigantic pillar of flame rose up from where the giant antidemon had been. A brilliant pure-red inferno rose to pierce the heavens.

The giant antidemon’s tentacles flailed wildly within that pillar, before quickly burning up and dissipating.

Thanks to Izario’s control, the temperature we experienced was about the level of a sauna. That said, the amount of heat trapped within the pillar of flame was probably far beyond our imagination. As the name of the technique suggested, it was truly the flames of hell.

The excess energy leaking out into the surroundings was enough to create a pseudo-typhoon.

This state continued for a few seconds, before the explosion and shockwaves suddenly vanished. The pillar of flame was gone too.

And the giant antidemon was nowhere to be seen. Izario’s Hellflame had completely annihilated it without anything remaining. I could not sense any trace of its mana.

Furthermore, the purple dome covering the region went away too.

We won.

「Master, it’s over…?」

『Yeah! We defeated the giant antidemon!』

Fran’s condition stabilized thanks to the restoration magic I’ve been casting on her the entire time. She won’t be able to fight for a while, but she’s no longer at any risk of death.

Since I gained a lot of mana capacity, the excess mana put a greater burden on Fran, adding onto the usual backlash from using the divine attribute. We should be more careful about this in the future.

「Iza…rio…」

『Huh? Ah! Izario!』

Izario collapsed, and I could see his life force rapidly fading away. This rate was extremely dangerous.

The price of using the divine sword dropped his level too low, and as a result, he was no longer capable of withstanding the recoil. Another factor was him maintaining Divine Sword Release for a much longer time than usual.

（Master… save… Izario. I’m fine… on my own now.）

『…Got it. Urushi, take care of them if anything happens.』

（Woof!）

I gently laid Fran and Sophie down on the ground before flying towards Izario. Shit! I need to hurry!

『Izario! Hang in there, I’m here to help!』

「…」

He’s already unconscious!

I attempted a series of Greater Heal infused with divine energy, but it didn’t work in the slightest.

Did I need a more powerful healing spell? My Restoration Magic is currently at level 5, giving me plenty of spells for healing status ailments and area healing. However, I don’t have any better spells than Greater Heal when it comes to pure healing.

Maybe there’s a chance if I raise the level by 1 or 2…? No, Izario has saved our asses a bunch. I won’t be stingy on self-evolution points if it’s to pay back the favor.

I applied my self-evolution points while maintaining my restoration magic, life magic, and support magic. Then, I found the spell I was looking for after raising Restoration Magic by only a single level.

『Maximum Heal!』

He recovered a little! But this still isn’t enough! Even if better than Greater Heal, his life force is draining faster than I can heal it!

『Fuck!』

「Sword.」

『!』

What the hell? Someone popped up right next to me!

「It appears Izario is in a predicament.」

Why now?! Was he aiming for this moment?!

『Trismegistus!』

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