I Built a Divine Zoo in Another World

Chapter 137: Against the Rat King (5)

The Rat King moved hundreds of tails to intercept them.

Thick. Thin. Covered in spikes. Poisonous. Each one moved at astonishing speed, creating a wall of flesh and bone that completely blocked the warriors’ path.

A living wall rose before the two of them. The tails intertwined, forming a barrier that seemed impenetrable, a forest of giant serpents moving in unison to protect their master.

Hark roared.

The sound that escaped his throat was not human. It was the roar of a warrior who had faced the impossible and survived.

His spear erupted with a golden light so intense that Lukas had to squint to keep watching. The light was so brilliant that it seemed to have mass, creating waves of heat that distorted the air around it.

The golden mana did not merely envelop the weapon. It burned. Small flames of golden light danced around the spear, consuming the air, consuming the darkness, consuming everything they touched.

It looked like a miniature sun trapped at the tip of the spear. The light was so intense that the surrounding shadows stretched and twisted, as though the darkness itself were fleeing from that energy.

"ADVANCE!"

Hark’s command was immediately followed by an explosion of movement. The golden spear surged forward, piercing the first tail that stood in its way. Flesh was torn apart, bone shattered, and the golden mana spread instantly.

Clavor responded immediately. His sword rose above his head, the blade pointing toward the sky like a silver needle piercing the darkness.

Silver mana began to condense upon the blade. First, a few inches, a thin layer of light shining with intensity. Then, several feet, the energy expanded, grew, and took shape. Then, dozens of yards, a colossal blade of pure mana stretching toward the heavens.

A gigantic sword of pure mana was born above him. The silver light was so intense that it outshone the moon itself, creating a second sun that illuminated the entire clearing.

The spiritual pressure caused even the ground to crack. Fissures spread outward from Clavor’s feet in every direction. The surrounding rocks began to float, levitating several inches above the ground before shattering into pieces.

The hundreds of tails descended.

Hark attacked first.

The spear pierced the first tail with the force of thunder. Golden mana spread instantly through the flesh, like fire racing through dry straw. The light spread in every direction, consuming everything it touched.

It was not ordinary fire. It was not a flame that burned slowly, consuming its fuel over time. It was something far purer. The golden mana was like sunlight concentrated into a single point, an energy that simply annihilated everything it encountered.

Everything the energy touched simply burned until it became ashes. The combustion spread through the entire tail in a fraction of a second, turning flesh into charcoal and then into dust. The light advanced relentlessly, consuming every inch of tissue.

Then it reached another tail. The golden mana leaped from one to another, as if it possessed a will of its own, searching for new targets, new sources of fuel. Then another. The chain of destruction spread like a raging wildfire.

Within moments, dozens of tails were being consumed by the golden light. The air filled with the smell of burning flesh and blazing mana, a sweet, metallic scent that clung to the throat.

The King let out a scream of pain.

For the first time since the battle had begun, the creature showed something resembling suffering. Its entire body trembled, and the eyes on its chest contracted in an expression of agony. The corrupted mana flowing from its body began to waver, losing its cohesion.

But it was too late.

Clavor brought his sword down.

"Heavenly Slash."

The name of his technique was whispered, almost like a prayer. There was no pride in his voice, no satisfaction. Only the acceptance that this was the final moment, the strike that would decide everything.

The colossal blade swept through the forest.

No sound accompanied the strike. There was no roar of the wind, no crack of the air, no metallic clash as the blade met flesh. It was simply too fast. The movement was so swift that sound itself could not keep up.

Trees vanished. The trunks standing in the blade’s path simply ceased to exist, their fragments disintegrating before they could even fall. Stones were split apart, cut cleanly in half with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. Even the air itself seemed to be severed, creating a momentary vacuum that pulled everything toward it.

The gigantic mana blade struck the King’s body directly through the center. The impact was so precise, so perfect, that it seemed to have been calculated down to the smallest detail.

For a brief instant...

Nothing happened.

The Rat King remained motionless, its body still standing, its eyes still open. The silver blade was buried deep within its flesh, yet there was no movement, no reaction.

Then...

A perfect line appeared, stretching from its monstrous head to the base of its colossal body. The line was so thin it was barely visible to the naked eye, a thread of silver light running across the creature’s entire length.

The King had been split in half.

The two halves slowly began to separate. The separation was gradual, almost as though the body itself refused to accept its own destruction. First a thin crack, then a wider opening, and finally complete separation.

Black blood erupted in unimaginable quantities. The thick, dark liquid burst from both halves of the body, forming a cloud of droplets that spread throughout the entire clearing. It was like a grotesque, dark, heavy rain that covered everything in its path.

The entire forest was drenched beneath a black downpour. The leaves were stained black, the grass was soaked, and the soldiers raised their shields to protect themselves from the blood falling from the sky. The smell was metallic and sickening, a mixture of iron and decay that made their stomachs churn.

But Hark was not finished.

The Count charged between the two halves of the body. His feet splashed through the black blood, scattering it across the ground as he sprinted toward the creature’s core. There was no hesitation in his movements, only the certainty that the battle was not yet over.

He leaped.

His body soared into the air, propelled upward by an explosion of golden mana that launched him several yards high. For a brief moment, he hovered in the air, his silhouette outlined against the sky blanketed by black clouds.

He spun the spear above his head. The weapon traced a perfect circle, its golden tip carving an arc of light through the air. All of his golden mana gathered at the spear’s tip, forming a sphere of light so brilliant that it was impossible to look directly at it.

His smile returned.

"Perish."

The spear pierced the monster’s heart. Or what remained of it. The golden tip found the creature’s core, the point where all of its mana was concentrated, the center of its very existence.

The instant it struck...

All of the golden mana exploded.

The light spread throughout the creature like thousands of radiant rivers. The energy flowed through every vein, every muscle, every bone, illuminating the monster’s interior as though its body were made of glass. The light could be seen spreading through the flesh, creating brilliant patterns that flowed like water.

Everything was consumed by the energy. Every inch of the King’s body was reached by the golden light, every cell filled with Hark’s pure mana. There was no place left for darkness, no room for corruption.

Its entire body began to carbonize. First the chest, where the spear still remained embedded. The flesh darkened, shriveled, and began to crumble away. Then the shoulders, which sagged beneath the weight of their own destruction.

The countless tails. The thousands of eyes. The black plates. Everything burned from the inside out. Golden light burst through the cracks in its flesh, creating a web of glowing fractures that spread across the creature’s entire body.