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AN: ↑ Subtitle. From the review of the previous chapter, it hit the spot for Shirakome, so I used it.
You who wrote the review, thank you very much!
Thank you very much for the other readers too who are always writing fun review!
Bloody wind was blowing violently, cracks ran through the ground, and there were countless mountains of rubble and craters.
There were black clouds in the sky. Hell fire was running between the clouds, it was like magma overflowing from crevice on the ground. Thunder was roaring constantly, the world was being dyed with the redness of blood and flame.
"The world at the other side of the glass"――the other side of the unknown large glass hidden underground Vatican was truly a place that was worthy to be called as "hell".
「Tsu!? ――My clone!?」
The one who slipped out the shocked voice was Kousuke who rushed into hell in answer of the voice of a young man who was seeking salvation.
The moment he passed through the glass, his link with the clone at Grant house was severed, at the same time his sense was telling him that he could summon clones at maximum number. His clone was dispelled unintentionally.
「As I thought, the world is different……」
No matter how excellent Kousuke's clone was, it couldn't be maintained continuously when he crossed over world. Even though the clone was able to move independently, its source of power was the magic power of the main body. As expected when the connection was severed by the interval of worlds the clone became impossible to maintain.
An ashamed feeling crossed at the corner of his mind that surely he made Emily and others worried with this, but the strange and supernatural pressing situation before his eyes didn't allow for unnecessary thought.
Countless shadows were squirming inside the bloody wind that became even more terrible like a thick sandstorm.
「Shit-. How troublesome……」
He unconsciously let out a curse.
Whether it was the condition, the environment, and then the situation, everything was the worst.
It appeared the blood wind had quite that bad effect on human body. Since the moment he stepped in here, Kousuke was feeling it all the time――the pain as though his lung was stabbed, his prickling skin as though he was burned, stamina and vitality, and then his spirit, the energies for the sake of living felt like they were slipping out from the core of his body.
This world wasn't kind at all for living person.
In addition, due to the bloody wind that was increasing in thickness and intensity, he lost sight of the strangely shaped humanoid and his rescue target.
Kousuke's Presence Detection normally had the range around 150 meters in diameter. If it was a presence that he had memorized, it was possible to continue to sense the presence within 300 meters at maximum, but he couldn't detect his target's presence within his range.
In exchange, the presences of a great number of "something" where it seemed stupid trying to count them were astir.
Anyway, he at least understood the direction to a certain degree. He had to advance toward that direction, caught the presence of the woman within his range once more, rescued her, then escaped.
(The time limit is……ten minutes I guess.)
He pushed up his sunglasses. He readjusted the position of the mask that was covering his lower face until his nose. He muttered inside his heart and imposed a time limit over himself.
Instantly, repulsive voices resounded directly inside his brain.
――Human-! Human-!
――There is a human-! Living, human-!
――Feed-, feed-
「These things talk-!? Or rather, they noticed me!?」
To even say he was thunderstruck was not enough to express how shocked he was. In addition, he wasn't happy at all even though he got noticed. Rather, he got goosebumps and it felt like there was a block of ice sliding down his spine.
But, there was no free time to stiffen from the indescribable repulsiveness. The many "something" mixed inside the surrounding bloody wind attacked.
Their speed was like a wild cheetah assaulting their prey with its top speed. In addition, their tricky movement that made use of the surrounding rubbles and craters was like monkey freely going through sea of trees as they pleased.
The bizarre movement and abnormal speed made it next to impossible to deal with them at the first encounter. A normal human would surely get done in by the first move.
「I've got no time to care of this!」
*Hyun*, a streak of sword flash ran inside the bloody wind. Right after that, Kousuke's figure appeared a few meter ahead. His pose with one hand pushed up his sunglasses while staying unmoving was truly striking. Even though he still hadn't entered the Abyss Lord mode for real.
The result was naturally……
The attacking "something" ――bloodshot dark red eyes, hair and teeth that grew sparsely, bizarrely long limbs, thin and ashen body that had deficit here and there. And yet it was only their stomach that was strangely bloating up. It was as though they were monster like ghoul――all their head tumbled on the ground without a single exception.
And then, they got up normally.
「No way!?」
Kousuke-san who entered Abyss Lord mode for a bit. He reflexively returned to normal mode.
The ghoul-like things that he had definitely beheaded was regenerating their head with the cut section bubbling and swelling up. Their tumbling heads were withering rapidly and were blown away by the bloody wind.
Even during that time, the ghoul-like things attacked him one after another.
「Chih. Even though I don't have time, it's rea~lly troublesome!」
He also unsheathed his second short sword.
He dodged the ining hands and beheaded them while passing through.
He trampled those that came crawling toward him, used those who came leaping at him as footstool, and jumped further. The kunais that he let flew using Telepathy Stone skewered five of the things altogether.
With a midair rotation, he mowed down the ghoul-like things that jumped at him, and crushed the enemy underfoot with his feet when he landed.
And then, all those enemies regenerated and got up as though nothing happened.
「They're immortal!? There is no end to it!」
They came from all directions. The rain of ghoul-like things that leaped out from the bloody wind even caused the sky to bee temporarily not visible.
「Can't be helped-, ――"Black Vortex"!」
Gravity magic "Black Vortex" ――a magic that deployed gravity field to the selected direction.
Kousuke made himself freefalling toward the sky and forcefully blew away the swarm of ghoul-like things falling from over his head, opening the path to break through.
And then, below, the ghoul-like things who were reaching out their hand at Kousuke were piling up to form a small mountain. He got goosebumps seeing that sight while deploying gravity field to the horizontal direction. He began freefalling toward the direction of his target.
「Guuh, it's harsh as expected-. Yue-san is seriously a monster.」
The body was burdened because it radically changed direction from freefalling to above toward horizontal direction, and also due to the enormous magic power consumption from using gravity magic continuously. Kousuke raised an anguished voice.
In actuality, the gravity magic that Kousuke could use in battle was extremely limited. The change of gravity's direction to stand on ceiling or wall, the conferment of gravity field, increase and decrease of gravity with him at the center――he could do things at that level.
If he wanted to do things like Yue, pressing the enemy to death instantly, swallowing all enemy attacks and pressed them while making a gravity sphere in return, mixing elemental magic with gravity magic, and so on, he had to spend much time on it, and he also couldn't use them consecutively.
Yue could activate something like basic gravity magic "Black Vortex" as easy as breathing without any incantation and did pseudo-flight freely with it. She made it looked simple, but in actuality even that was only possible with super advanced skill of simultaneously controlling multiple gravity magic from speed adjustment and direction adjustment, and even continuous neutralization of the normal gravity.
The same like how Hajime and Shia had no magic talent and were unable to properly use gravity magic.
Although Kousuke possessed some talent, he was originally a frontliner, in addition he couldn't manipulate magic power directly, and to speak further, he didn't even possess abnormal amount of magic power. For him, the age of god magic called gravity magic was his trump card, at the same time it was also a magic that was too advanced with bad usability.
Also, Kousuke's flight time was only around thirty seconds. Though it would be a different story if he was in Limit Break state or in the deepest state of Abyss Lord mode.
Once more he grumbled that the bride of the monster of the abyss was a monster as expected! which he wouldn't be able to say face to face even while continuously activating gravity magic desperately. However, he finally detected the presence he was expectantly looking for as the pensation of consuming magic power like crazy.
His remaining flight time was about ten-odd seconds, but his speed was that of someone freefalling. It was more than enough to close the distance of a few hundred meters.
Kousuke held his breath and shifted his mask to drink recovery medicine during that time to recover his body's damage and magic power. And then, he took out a recovery medicine from the Treasure Warehouse and moved to drink it……
Just before he could,
――iaAAAAAAAH
There was a repulsive shriek piercing his ears.
「Kuh!?」
Kousuke instantly stopped the "Black Vortex" and shifted his trajectory by falling normally. Instantly, very bizarre creatures passed through in grazing distance to him.
They were ghoul-like things with wings of thin membrane that looked transparent. Other than wings, they had trait of sharp fangs and extremely irregular head that had their brain exposed, bringing about an unimaginable ugliness.
「What is it this time!?」
Kousuke raised his voice with irritation mixed in because he dropped the medicine when the impact from the graze in passing and because he breathed in the bloody wind without mask.
He returned his mask position to normal, at the same time he used the technique "Wood Splinter Dance" ――the derivation skill of "Shadow Dance" to leap using dust and dirt midair as instantaneous foothold――to leap and avoid the "thing" that flew toward him from another direction.
But, even here the problem was the pure number of the enemies as expected.
The winged ghoul-like things that rushed at him from all directions while letting out shrieks that disturbed the mind were rapidly approaching one after another in trajectories that totally ignored aerodynamics. Finally, one of them succeeded in tackling Kousuke.
「Woaahh!?」
――Living-, human!
Kousuke got cold sweat seeing the jaw that snapped close *gakin-* before his eyes. Of course, he didn't make the blunder of getting hit directly and firmly guarded using his short sword, although no matter what he was at disadvantage midair.
He was pushed by the momentum of the enemy's rush and they plunged through the storm of bloody wind like that. From behind, a new player came in a pincer attack!
Kousuke's eyes slowly narrowed.
「――Can you all, stop already? ――"Gouka Beni SenpuuWhirling Dark Flame of the Abyss"」 (TN: Hell Fire Crimson Whirlwind)
――Abyss-style KatonFire Ninja Art – FutonWind Ninja Art bination Skill Gouka Beni SenpuuWhirling Dark Flame of the Abyss
A vortex of flame swallowed the surrounding while spreading to the sky and earth. It was a defensive magic toward all direction that created a tornado of flame that was whirling with the caster at the center.
The ghoul-like thing that was biting on the short sword and also the one who attempted to do pincer attack from behind, and not just them, even the things below and above that were looking for chance were also dragged into the magic flame altogether.
And then, *PAN* after the sound of wind bursting acpanied the disappearance of the flame tornado, the person who was pushing up his sunglasses meaninglessly……
That was, Kousuke……
No, starting from the irritation that the situation wouldn't progress smoothly, his binding of the heart finally came off――it was the Abyss LordAbyssgate!
「Hou. It appears their regeneration is faltering before my abyssal skill isn't it?」
Lord Abyssgate was staying midair with the power of the Air Force boots while narrowing his eyes behind his sunglasses with a striking pose.
Just as he said, the winged ghoul-like things who got hit by "Gouka Beni Senpuu" were turned into dust and carried by the wind without regenerating.
Were they weak against flame? Or perhaps because it was an attack by magic? If it was the latter, then would physical attack be effective as long as he coated it with magic power?
Although, the time to verify that was scarce.
Inside the thick encirclement where the winged ghoul-like things were surrounding him in spherical shape, the lord made a fearless grin and readied his short swords in cross shape.
There was no particular meaning in that!
「If you think you can stop this me, the noble of the abyss, then feel free to try! The dead of the hell!」
It was unknown since when he became a noble! But, he was always introducing himself as lord, so let's not pick at minor details!
The lord bent his knee midair like a tightened coil, then the next instant, he leaped out like a cannon shell. At the same time, he activated gravity magic "Black Vortex" once more.
He barrel rolled his body while cutting apart the winged ghoul-like thing that came from the front.
Following the orbit of his slash, the two short swords carved the afterimage of shining red cross midair.
The short swords that were originally jet black were containing radiant light right now.
――Short Sword Brilliant Lightning and Flame Sword of Ruin
It was an artifact that performed "pseudo light sabe○ transformation" by pressing advanced flame element magic to coat the sword.
Magic
blade of super high heat that melted everything. It was unclear which one of them was effective, but as expected, the winged ghoul-like thing that was slashed withered and vanished without regenerating.
The lord sneered 「Fuh」 toward the things that rushed at such lord only with number as expected.
The winged ghoul-like things came attacking from left and right.
「Where are you looking?」
「Your above is empty you know?」
There were two black silhouettes. They were falling from above, at the same time the heads of the two winged ghoul-like things were sliced and their bodies were falling with tailspin.
A newer reached out its long hand from the front.
「Who do you think you are standing against?」
It was pierced from right below and vanished while getting blown away. The third black silhouettes twirled midair and took position.
The three silhouettes――the three clones surrounded the main body of the lord from left, right, and the front in delta formation.
Although the enemies were pushing using their number, the three clones attacked suicidally with the resolve of taking down the enemies with them. When any of them vanished, a new clone would appeared from the outset and unleashed a one hit kill.
The winged ghoul-like thing had no way to stop that advance that was like a surging wave. The lord finally broke through the encirclement.
「Muh, out already!」
At the same time, it seemed like that also meant breaking through the very thick storm of bloody wind.
*Bobah* The lord slipped through the storm of bloody wind with such sound and got out to the other side. However, he unusually lost his words and got into a daze.
「What is……this place?」
Black clouds and cracked sky. Although the density was lowered, the bloody wind that was blowing violently and the dried and cracked ground hadn't changed.
But, there was something that made the lord gazed at wonderment.
「A, city? This place」
Yes, what was reflected in the lord's eyes was a devastated city's townscape.
There were numerous half-destroyed buildings that gave the impression of skyscraper. Roads that were bulging or gouged. There were also sections that were turned into mountains of rubbles, and also a large hole that reminded anyone watching of hell.
Far away at the other side of the spreading devastated city, there were mountains glowing red with flowing magma. A gigantic lake that seemed to be made from the magma could be seen too. The expression of "kettle of hell" was truly fitting for it.
The saying of the world of the end undoubtedly referred to this.
The lord thought that without any particular reason.
――IIIIIIIII
――HUMAaaAAAAAAN
The lord brought down the winged ghoul-like things leaping out from inside the storm of bloody wind behind while scolding himself for stupidly getting dumbfounded like this.
He concentrated and searched for the location of the presence he detected in more detail.
And then,
「――Found you.」
The lord became a streak of shadow and rushed through the air.
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A voice could be heard.
A repulsive voice that disturbed the heart.
The voice of the arch-enemy that she had heard for thousands, tens of thousands times.
The heat of hell and slimy shadow caressed her skin.
Aa, it was the usual dream again……
Claudia thought so, but she wondered why.
Even though it should be a dream, it felt more real than usual.
She wondered if that demon that continued remain clinging inside her brain was something that granted pain and suffering that was this raw.
――The time, came
She wondered why.
Its words were different from usual. "That guy" first would sneer, and then said it. "If the time e". Like that, it would the continue, saying "I'll violate, lodge inside you, and go to the boundary of interval".
'Aa, I see'. Claudia understood inside her hazy consciousness.
The time, had e. The reason why "the guy" who took away both her parents let only herself escaped. It was the time, to carry it out.
It was the time, the most terrifying time!
「Uh, a?」
Buzzing and thunderous wind hit her ears. The wind that caressed her skin acpanied by disfort and agony and the dull pain in her solar plexus were gradually awakening her consciousness.
Claudia groaned while slowly opening her eyes. She was in a state where her consciousness was still half in the dream world, but the disfort and agony, and the intense out of place feeling that gave her the sense of weightlessness was pushing her consciousness rapidly to the surface.
「――kuh」
Her consciousness that became clear made her noticed the thing coiling around her torso. That sensation, presence that made her feeling sick in display of her soul's rejection of that thing that was just too repulsive.
『The time, came.』
A terrifying sneering that was unthinkable to e from this world reached her ears.
It wasn't a dream. It wasn't a voice that could be heard from dream. The voice definitely, reached her ears right now!
「――!?」
Claudia raised a soundless scream. Her hazy mind was noisily raising the red alert alarm sound. The warning her soul gave her was rapidly restoring her consciousness.
『The false kings has vanished, the annoying seal was undone. My empty body, will obtain――I've been waiting, Claudia. The body that will give birth to me.』
The sneering laugh that sounded like metal getting scratched by claw resounded once more. Just from that, it felt like human's heart could be easily turned mad. The laughing voice was just too blasphemous.
What entered the sight of Claudia who lifted up her gaze was a nightmarish reality.
"Shadow". A condensed "shadow" that took the shape of human. Countless flames were rushing like blood vessel, spurting out from the cracks of the "shadow". Its eyes, mouth, nose, were existences shaped by hell fire. The left arm stretching out from the thing's body was holding Claudia's body!
「You are-――kafuh, cough-!?」
Claudia opened her eyes wide and tried to say something, but the dull pain on her solar plexus caused her to cough.
At the same time, that dull pain shook her memory back.
「-, Aziz! Aumale!?」
She looked around while still being carried by the thing's arm. She could only see storm of bloody wind and desolated townscape. The people she was looking for, weren't there.
But, the answer unexpectedly came from her arch-enemy.
『Kakaka-. If it's that human, he already became the nourishment for my body. It was his reward for being useful.』
「A, aa, such thing……」
"That human" ――Claudia guessed that it undoubtedly referred to Aumale.
Aumale Garret. He was Claudia's rade and also her subordinate. And then――the "traitor" who caused the incident this time.
Claudia recalled. Due to Aumale's report, together with Aziz she hurried to the "hall of mirror gate" that connected to the foreign world――to "hell" in a hurry.
Aumale reported in panic that the seal of the "mirror gate" was loosening, that at that rate the "gate of hell" would open.
But, what was reflected on the eyes of Claudia who arrived at that hall was the "mirror gate" with its seal in pristine condition.
When Claudia was going to ask what was the meaning of that, it was Aziz's anguished voice which entered Claudia's ear.
When she turned around to see what happened, she saw the figures of the two clinging on each other as though they were embracing. It was as though, when Aziz turned around just like Claudia to ask what was going on, Aumale grappled him.
And then, her important step-younger brother fell on his knees.
They weren't related by blood. However, since the time he was taken in when he was a child with similar circumstances like her, Aziz became her family as though he was her little brother. And that beloved little brother of her was sinking on his own puddle of blood.
Why? Why, Aziz was collapsing? Why, a knife was stabbed into his stomach? Why, was so much blood flowing out like that?
Claudia who was unable to immediately understand the scene happening in front of her eyes screamed to call out at Aziz. Aumale smoothly approached her who was like that.
What Claudia remembered was the impact she felt right after that on her solar plexus, and how the "Heavenly Light Cross" she carried was taken and thrown away.
There, Claudia was taken aback with surprise and felt around her chest. Because she was made to abandon the "Heavenly Light Cross
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