1293: Evil God Fragments

Chariot fell to the ground with a thunderous crash. Billows of smoke spilled from the machine’s red frame.

The one who knocked Chariot out of the sky was the newly revealed Evil God Fragment, still glowing red from the flames it had unleashed.

I could only describe it as a mass of red flesh. Judging by the tremendous amount of evil energy it contained, we could be sure it was no mere spawn of the Tear Gland, but an Evil God Fragment in its own right.

The red mass, which would not look out of place among the innards of a beast, was surrounded in the shimmering distortion of a heat haze. It radiated a tremendous amount of heat at all times.

In fact, the debris beneath and around its body were already glowing red hot.

『So that’s the Evil God’s Flame Sac…』

「Seems really hot.」

『Chariot… looks like it can keep going.』

The red mech propelled itself back into the sky by releasing mana from the thrusters on its back.

Portions of frame had melted away, but regeneration was already underway. As expected of a divine sword, it has every feature you could ask for.

That said, the Flame Sac was not about to let up the pressure either. Flames began spewing out of the countless holes on its surface.

These formed nearly a hundred fireballs, which fell from the sky with greater speed than gravity should allow.

Accelerating rapidly, they began homing in on Chariot.

The mech elegantly evaded the rain of fireballs, but this was only the beginning.

One of the fireballs suddenly exploded right as it passed Chariot, thus capturing it in the blast zone.

Perhaps that served as a detonator, as the rest of the fireballs detonated immediately afterwards. The tremendous shockwaves scattered rubble in all directions.

A few rubble chunks were over 10 meters in size, yet they got blown away as if they were as light as styrofoam.

This debris went on to crash through entire houses, wrecking distant parts of the city.

As for Chariot… We saw a beam of light pierce through the black smoke and hit the Flame Sac. Looks like it’s still up and running.

This scattered the smoke, revealing the mech again. Except now, it was carrying a giant bow that resembled Madred’s relic Dusk Rain in its right hand. Well, this was like a hundred times bigger though.

The Flame Sac’s massive chain of explosions and Chariot’s bow likely packed as much power as supreme-tier spells. Yet despite the exchange, neither had suffered much visible damage. Their regeneration was enough to keep up.

This only serves to remind us of how divine swords and fragments of the Evil God were beyond mortal comprehension.

「Let’s hurry up and beat the fiends so we can help.」

『Hold on. Rushing ahead will only put us in danger. Besides, we’ve already sent backup.』

As the fragments were busy with Chariot, a purple mist snuck up on them from the side.

「Maleficent!」

『Yeah. That must be Hell’s divine poison!』

I could feel the divine energy contained in that mist. Maleficent had decided to start with maximum firepower.

Any debris that made contact with the mist evaporated almost instantaneously. Even the fragments began roaring louder than ever before when infected by the poison. He had clearly dealt a heavy blow.

The surface of the Tear Gland began slowly turning purple and dissolving. Meanwhile, the Flame Sac was forced to cease its attack on Chariot and shield itself from the divine poison with a cloak of flames.

Not even the fragments of the Evil God could ignore Hell’s poison. That said, it wasn’t enough.

The fragments were simply ridiculously tough, to the point where they could withstand a poison capable of eradicating all traces of life. At this rate, Hell won’t be enough to defeat them outright.

But we have two divine swords present. Perhaps Maleficent had already taken this into account and prioritized stalling the fragments? I think so, at least.

Chariot finished readying its next attack as the fragments were dealing with the purple mist.

It had summoned five metallic spheres, which were several times larger than the flasks from earlier. Their surfaces crackled with electricity, emitting a purple glow.

I also sensed a vast amount of power concentrating on the bow, manifesting as an arrow of pure, concentrated divine energy. The metal spheres appeared to be devices for assisting Chariot’s control over this energy.

Mana flowed through the stretched bowstring, and the entire bow glowed red.

「Urah! Take this! Crimson Meteor!」

Kareid’s voice resounded, and the arrow descended from the sky like a shooting star.

This so-called meteor shook the atmosphere as it flew, before landing right in between the two fragments. Then, it exploded with a brilliant flash.

The arrow formed a crimson dome of light covering not only the fragments, but also the royal castle and its surroundings. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel much in terms of impact and shockwaves. All of the destructive energy must be contained within.

I also sensed a faint mana presence right outside the red dome, so Maleficent managed to avoid getting caught up. It seems they coordinated this combo well.

The red dome burst open, revealing the severely damaged bodies of the fragments. The Tear Gland had been reduced to half its original length, and the Flame Sac had lost most of its 30 meter wide upper half.

Their regeneration was also slowed to a crawl, so they had clearly sustained heavy damage. Could this be our opportunity to finish them off?

Kareid certainly seemed to think so too, as he summoned several lines of golems to launch a barrage of arrows and fireballs. Maleficent began readying another wave of his poison.

Can we finish them off? I’d never say it out loud because I don’t want to raise any flags, but it seemed as if the fragments were as good as dead… But much to our dismay, the tide of battle reversed without any warning.

「The pillar! Something’s coming out again!」

『No! The remaining two fragments just broke out at the same time!』

Two massive figures emerged from the pillar to strike at Chariot.

Amidst the rain of explosions and blasts of evil energy, both Chariot and Maleficent had no choice but to cancel their offensive.

One fragment had a body about 50 meters long, even thinner and longer than the Tear Gland. Its entire body was covered with hard, white scales, and it had a nasty looking scythe-like blade jutting out of the tip.

There were countless wriggling tentacles growing out of the opposite side, which I guess is the base. This must be the Evil God’s Blade Tail.

The other fragment could only be described as a giant mouth. It had the form of a smooth purple sphere, which was almost completely dominated by a mouth containing rows of shark-like teeth. Additionally, there were about ten tentacle-like appendages growing out in random places, each with an eyeball attached at the end.

By process of elimination, this must be the Evil God’s Malice. Rather than “repulsive”, my first impression was “unsettling”. Just having it in my view gave me an uncomfortable feeling.

「…No! We can’t fight that!」

We had defeated only three of the giant fiends, and Fran almost screamed out at this sight. The color drained from her face.

I suppose not even Fran can remain unfazed when up against four fragments of the Evil God.

The sinister aura of the fragments could reach us even at this distance. Even if we had confidence in our resistance to its control, the aura seemed more than enough to disturb Fran’s calm.

OROOOOOGH!

『If we act now, we can still esca――』

「I won’t run!」

『Hahaha, I knew you’d say that. In that case, let’s finish up these fiends first! You can be quick, but make sure not to rush!』

「Nn! Thanks, Master. I was feeling a little scared.」

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