1268: Zelyse the Genius Alchemist

「Zelyse, time to die.」

「I’ll end you personally!」

Fran and Sierra approached Sword Zelyse, who seemed to be struggling to escape. However, all his attempts to teleport were blocked by my evil energy, keeping him trapped within the barrier.

『There’s no way I can die here! I have to carve my name in history as the most terrible sinner ever!』

Looks like Zelyse can use telepathy too. He shouted angrily with a shrill voice. There was no trace of his usual carefree demeanor; he genuinely seemed panicked.

「Hmph. You will disappear and be buried in the depths of history.」

Upon hearing Sierra’s declaration, Zelyse started screaming even more madly.

『What the hell is wrong with you guys!? All you do is get in my way! It’s not even the least bit entertaining! You’re just supporting characters, so your role is over once you entertain me! Get off the stage and stop with your annoyances! Know your place!』

「…There’s no point in listening to this damn bastard any longer.」

「…Nn.」

Naturally, Sierra and Fran were unswayed by his words, and began swinging their respective weapons.

『Uwaaaaaaah! Fine! If that’s how you want to play, I’ll take you all with me! You’d better believe I won’t die for free! Try this, morons!』

Sword Zelyse shouted again, before dropping several magic stones containing a tremendous amount of evil energy. It seems that my evil energy couldn’t interfere with whatever means he used to store and release these items.

Or perhaps he was only pretending to have his teleportation sealed? He might be trying to catch us off guard.

Either way, dealing with the magic stones comes first.

Each one contained a dangerously high level of evil energy, so much so that they were about to blow.

They were practically bombs made from infusing magic stones with evil energy, and I saw them rapidly approaching the critical point. Even I have to admit Guardian Deity’s Shield isn’t enough to stop this.

In other words, we would take significant damage unless we disable the barrier and do something about the magic stones. That must be Zelyse’s goal.

Forcing us to disable the barrier would give him the prime opportunity to escape.

（Master!）

『On it!』

Fran called out, and I enveloped myself in evil-divine energy. Then, Fran swung her weapon downwards, aiming directly at the magic stones. Her slash slipped right through the barrier to hit its target.

『What!?』

Of course, Guardian Deity’s Shield allows our attacks to slip through effortlessly. With his plan foiled, Zelyse could only shout in surprise. Serves you right!

While the magic stones were quite durable, they didn’t possess the same invincibility as the giant crystal. I transformed my blade into numerous spears, absorbing all the magic stone bombs.

Yet for some reason, Zelyse expressed joy instead of regret.

『Ahahahahaha! You fell for my trap! Those bombs weren’t just filled with evil energy! They contain the ultimate poison that would drive even me crazy! No matter how strong or excellent that sword is, there’s no way it can stay sane after absorbing them!』

Fran looked worried. If Zelyse called it the ultimate poison with that much confidence, it’s definitely trouble.

『What you just absorbed was the “madness” of the Evil God! I filtered that out from the evil energy and compressed it into those magic stones! In other words, it is unadulterated destruction and slaughter! The Evil God’s curse which drives crazy any and all existences in this world, with no exception! Now descend into madness!』

Oh… yeah, that… Indeed, I can definitely hear the voice.

『DESTROY! DESTROY! MASACRE ALL!』

It felt like someone was shouting into my ear. Apparently, Zelyse somehow extracted the Evil God’s “power of dominion” from within the evil energy, and condensed it into this small package.

Regardless of my personal opinions about the guy, his techniques were ridiculous. It’s blatantly obvious how much of a genius Zelyse is. Being showered with such evil energy would make anyone succumb to an intense urge for destruction and run amok.

Well, normally speaking. To be more precise, anyone born in this world would be in danger, even quite powerful individuals. However, it didn’t affect me at all.

「…So?」

『Impossible!』

「Just some evil energy won’t make this sword go mad. It was probably tasty.」

Well, to be precise, the Evil God Fragment inside me was the one absorbing it. We gained a great deal of evil energy, in exchange for degrading the magic stone points I would have earned to 1.

『W-What’s with that sword! Unbelievable! How much longer do you have to mess with my plans before you’re satisfied!?』

「Forever.」

『Ugaaaaah! Don’t you mock me!』

This time, it was a genuine scream. It seems me being completely unaffected was that big of a shock.

「Done with your final struggle yet? If so, I’ll put you out of your misery.」

Sierra raised the sword Zelos Reed, cloaked in swirling evil energy and the flame-attribute, emitting a red-black aura. The same one that Fran called the “super spicy curry” aura earlier.

『Y-You think this is some kind of joke! You don’t get to look down on me! This stupid barrier! Ahhhhh!』

「Uncle, let’s go.」

Sierra muttered a few words, then nodded lightly. He must be conversing with the sword Zelos Reed.

『Stop!』

「Fran, can you synchronize the timing?」

「Leave it to me.」

『Uwaaaaaaaah!』

Zelyse seemed intent on surviving, and desperately tried to put up one final barrier. The barrier containing all of Zelyse’s mana could not be nullified with any small amount of evil energy.

Thus, I decided to return the favor.

『Here, have a taste of concentrated evil energy.』

『Gah! Guh… Guguh! Gaaaaah! Wha-…Des…troy…? GAAAAH!』

I showered Zelyse with the same dense evil energy he had infused into the magic stones from earlier.

Unable to withstand it, the vibrantly colored sword froze and screamed.

「Disappear, Zelyse! Haaaah!」

『I am…! The great alchemist Zelyse…! My name belongs in hist——』

Those were the last words of the genius alchemist who toyed around with the lives of so many people.

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