Side Story 3: Visiting a Remote Island 14

The man looked quite strong after obtaining power from the Evil God’s familiar.

On top of his considerable skill as a fiendmancer, he now possessed beast-like physical abilities. Not to mention how he radiated so much evil energy that simply standing nearby was enough to erode an ordinary person’s mind.

He seemed to be around Threat Level C, though he might qualify as B due to how difficult evil energy is to handle.

But unfortunately for him, he was up against the wrong opponent.

「I’ll kill you and offer your corpse to the Noble Envoy!」

「Try again when you’re strong enough to beat me!」

The man swung his greatsword down on Ouna, who decided to deflect it head-on rather than dodging. Having lost a contest of strength against an old woman, a look of shock crossed his face.

「What…?! How can an old hag like you possess such strength…?!」

「Haha! Because of my training, of course! I suppose that is something trash like you, who acts all high and mighty after receiving the power from someone else, will never understand!」

「Then how about this! Go mad!」

「Hmph. Such a pittance of evil energy won’t affect me.」

「H-How…?!」

The man confidently blasted Ouna with a dense wave of evil energy, but Ouna simply took it to the face like it was a light mist.

Either way, it seemed like he had no clue how to judge the strength of his opponents. If he had a proper understanding of our abilities, he would never have challenged us to a fight.

Ouna possessed swordsmanship on par with us, and was strong enough to beat dragons head-on. Well, it seemed her actual profession was blacksmith rather than swordsman though.

Someone at her level could probably endure much greater amounts of evil energy than this.

「Fine! Then I just have to whittle you down from a distance! Behold, the high-level fiendmancy I gained through the Noble Envoy’s power! Evil Familiar!」

（That’s the spell Linford used!）

『Yeah. Same spell, though far weaker.』

His spell created twenty bullets of evil energy, which flew at Ouna from every direction. Their power and numbers were vastly inferior to the version used by Linford after he ascended to a Vilefiend, but this was probably the spell’s original form.

This spell focused on trickiness rather than power, making it very difficult to evade. Each of the projectiles targeted Ouna using different trajectories and different speeds.

However, Ouna still managed to block it perfectly. She sliced apart every single bullet in a single breath, swinging her cursed blade too fast for the eye to follow.

「Impossible…!」

The man’s scream echoed through the cavern yet again. It already felt like the tenth time he’s done that today.

In contrast, Ouna put on an amused smile.

「Fiendmancy, you say? Then how about this? Mimic him, Sarumane!」

She brought out another new sword. This one was a short katana mostly white in coloration.

Ouna gave it a light thrust forward, and five bullets of evil energy shot out of the blade. This was unmistakably Evil Familiar, the same exact spell the man just used.

「Wha—?! Gaaah!」

「It seems even fiends will take damage from evil energy.」

「H-How can you use evil arts…?!」

「Via the power of this katana. It can reproduce any spell cast nearby within the last thirty seconds. Though it will be at half effectiveness and triple the cost.」

So it’s a sword for creating an inferior copy of your opponent’s spell. Even if it consumed three times the mana, just being able to copy evil arts seemed pretty incredible to me. That means it can produce evil energy from mana.

「This sword is mostly a failure, but it’s perfect when you want to taunt someone. So? How does it feel having the power of your so-called Noble Envoy copied so easily? Getting mad yet?」

「Y-You dare to mock me!」

「Hahahaha! Yes, I do!」

It seems Ouna had quite the personality. She must be the type to show zero mercy to her enemies.

「But I think that’s enough now. Let’s put an end to this.」

Ouna raised Senbonwan into the air. It looked frighteningly natural in her hands.

「Die. Scattering Blossom.」

「…!」

Ouna dashed forward at a blinding speed, delivering a slash across the man’s torso. It was over so fast that he couldn’t react at all.

She released a surge of mana from her entire body the moment of the strike. So much that even we felt the force standing some distance away.

This mana was incredibly dense, but the truly terrifying part was how she charged all of it in an instant. In other words, Ouna could unleash a powerful art or spell with the same amount of mana, without needing any time to focus.

To be honest, her skill in mana control was probably better than Fran in her Awakening state.

「Ouna is amazing.」

『Yeah, and terrifying.』

I knew she was strong, but she exceeded my expectations by a wide margin. If she became an adventurer, she would easily make Rank A. Her strength was backed by superior skills as well.

But even after getting cut in half, the man still wasn’t dead. As expected of someone who received power from a familiar of the Evil God, he was as tenacious as a cockroach.

『…!』

Uh-oh, the Evil God’s Innocence got angry about that one. Apparently, she didn’t appreciate me associating the Evil God with cockroaches.

『…!』

Yeah, my bad. I didn’t mean it. The comparison just kind of happened because you’re both associated with the color black.

After my apology, she seemed satisfied and retreated back inside. I guess I’ve been forgiven? Even the Evil God hates cockroaches, huh…

「Dammit! If it comes to this, then at least I’ll take you with me…! Die! Evil Revenge!」

「Gah…! This is…」

「Kuhaha! A spell for sharing my injuries with my opponent! And it’s packed with evil energy too, so you’ll never be able to heal it! In exchange, my own wounds become unhealable as well, but that means little at this point!」

The bastard managed to get in one last hit! Being unable to heal yourself meant this was essentially a sacrificial technique, but it must be incredibly potent if it worked on Ouna.

Ouna dropped to one knee and started coughing up blood. A deep cut suddenly opened from her shoulder down to her abdomen. I was about to rush over and heal her, but…

「Too bad… Lend me your power, Senbonwan.」

「I-Impossible…」

The man could only watch as Ouna regenerated before his eyes. The glow from Senbonwan caused the wound to close, and then her body knitted itself together with cracking sounds.

What should have been a mortal injury vanished completely in less than a minute. The man wasn’t lying about the evil energy in her wound, so how…?

「I’ve always been difficult to kill, you see. Even if I lose an arm, it simply grows back within half a day. When combined with Senbonwan’s power, a wound like this is nothing more than a scratch.」

「H-How can this be…」

Perhaps that’s due to a powerful regeneration skill. And if her sword has healing powers too, then she must be unbelievably tough.

So she has insane regeneration on top of Rank A strength. She must be a complete nightmare to her enemies.

Translation Notes

Meanings for the sword names:

- Senbonwan = Thousand Arms (usually referring to the Buddha)
- Ananri = Secrecy
- Tsutsumotase = Honey Trap
- Soumatou = Constantly Changing Scenery (like when your life flashes before your eyes)
- Sarumane = Monkey See, Monkey Do

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