Volume 9, Chapter 4 - Tragic Resolution, Part 4
“As I thought, you――!”
As if to deny it, Stobel attacked Liz. In response, Liz met him head-on.
The collision of overwhelming force created several large holes in the ground. The ground looked as if it was carpet bombed, and the spirit of the rippling sound pierced through it. As the gusty wind blew up the ground, a large amount of gravel fell on the battlefield as rain. In the midst of this, Stobel, who had shaken off the dust, pressed close to Liz with a face distorted and ugly with rage.
“Because of you, we are!”
Stobel suddenly began to lose his presence of mind. The words he was uttering were incomprehensible to Liz.
Liz wondered about Stobel’s boiling hatred toward her, but she did not know the cause of it. Considering the treatment she had received from him up to that point, there was no reason for him to resent her, let alone bear a grudge. She had been watching Stobel to find out his true intentions, but she was at her limit.
She couldn’t let the opportunity pass her by.
Liz repelled the “Thunder Emperor” with all her might and held her blade horizontally.
“Bloom―Flame Emperor!”
Flames erupt from the blade of the “Flame Emperor,” dyeing the world red. No one, not even the gods, can approach this inviolable realm.
“Do you think you can stand it?”
Liz held up her hand, and Stobel readied himself.
A heat wave blasted through the ground.
But that’s all―Stobel turned around and tilted his head back with a question mark on his face.
“Wasn’t it just the wind?”
It was sudden. It really happened in the blink of an eye.
When the wind that burned the skin passed, a pillar of flame piercing the heavens gushed out onto the ground.
The next thing Stobel knew―half of his body had been blown away.
“Wha… why…?”
An ordinary person would surely have died, but Stobel was a transcendent being.
――The half of his body that was mourned was instantly restored by high-speed regeneration.
But the shock still pierced through his body to the core. Stobel was down on one knee, violently shaking his shoulders and breathing unevenly. Sweat poured out in profusion, trickling down his cheeks and falling to the ground.
“This isn’t over yet, little girl…”
Stobel roared. In his right hand, the “Thunder Emperor,” and in his left hand, the “Wind Emperor” appear.
A strong wind blew in response to Stobel’s emotional outburst of rage, creating a tornado with electric currents. Seeing the soldiers, both friend and foe alike, being sucked up into the air, Liz clicked her tongue and raised the “Flame Emperor.” The next, a flame serpent appeared on the ground and swallowed the tornado as if it were twisting around it.
“Did you know that? People don’t like persistent men.”
“Shut up! You little girl!”
The wind blades snatch the cheeks, the thunderbolts pass overhead, and the impact is transmitted from the ground to the feet.
A deafening reverberation shook the eardrums, and the screams of the Five Emperors of the Spirit Sword were heard around the world.
The “Wind Emperor,” who was forced to follow Stobel, was screaming.
The earnest wish to be released was conveyed to Liz through the wind.
“That’s enough!”
The red blade and the huge axe collided with each other without a struggle.
Stobel aimed for Liz’s neck with his powerful arm outstretched, but he was swatted away with one hand.
Liz crushed the distance by stepping in, moving forward, ducking through the tyrannical storm.
Quickly, she reaped the “Flame Emperor” to the side, hoping to reap her opponent’s life. But, with the cost of a piece of flesh, Stobel succeeded in avoiding it.
But―this was where Liz’s pursuit began.
She struck her fist, twisted at the waist, dug her heel into his side, crushed his vision with flames as he tried to counterattack, closed the distance, and drove her elbow into his chest from zero distance. Then, aiming at the staggering giant’s abdomen, Liz unleashed a front kick and used the kick’s momentum to deliver a slash.
The air roared, the wind was drawn in a whirlwind, and the sharp blade shaved away at Stobel’s body.
Even though his cheeks were cut, blood poured from the cuts, the flesh was gouged out, and organs spilled out, Stobel’s movements did not stop, and he pursued Liz with a snarl that carried a grudge. The wounds were meanwhile being repeatedly restored. The battle seemed to go on forever, but Liz showed no signs of impatience; rather, she attacked with the force of a raging wave.
Liz was doing everything in her power to finish off Stobel.
She repeated her full force attacks until his cells were eradicated to the point that they could not regenerate, until he suffered almost eternal pain, until his energy was exhausted, until his soul was shattered.
In this battle between superhumans, there was no room for ordinary people.
A non-standard being who wielded god-like power was rampaging through the middle of the battlefield.
You would feel fear. You would be prepared to die. You would want to run away.
In fact, the front line of the Six Kingdoms had collapsed, and the long-eared people, including the first and second groups, had begun to retreat out of fear and were disorganized in their ranks.
In contrast, the Grantz kept their distance to avoid getting in Liz’s way, and no one was scared and fell back. They were struggling to push up the front line and help Liz.
The tornado created by Stobel tried to attack Grantz Army but was engulfed by the flames created by the “Flame Emperor.”
However, it was not one-sided because the “Flame Emperor” power was powerful.
The opponents were the same Five Emperors of the Spirit Sword, the “Thunder Emperor” and the “Wind Emperor.” In terms of numbers and power, Stobel had the advantage. If there was a difference between the two, it’s because of the person who possesses the sword.
“Agh…”
The battle comes to an abrupt end. Stobel’s body had begun to disintegrate.
Liz kept her distance and looked at Stobel.
The power of the Five Emperors of the Spirit Sword was raging inside Stobel. It was consuming his body like poison. No, it was originally the uncontrollable “curse” that had transformed Stobel’s appearance.
This was a natural consequence. Stobel’s skin was melting, his flesh rotting, and his bones exposed.
Yet, Stobel’s eyes were not dead. He stared at Liz with a strong will in his eyes. Although he could no longer even walk, his will to fight had not waned in the slightest.
Liz frowned at the strange smell that filled her nose.
“What did you want to look like?”
“I want strength… overwhelming strength. I need the power to overturn everything, the power to take control of the world…”
The white liquid flows down from his eyes. His eyeballs melted like wax.
“Oh… Ooooooooooohhhh.”
Stobel roared as even his speech became distorted.
He could no longer be called a human being. He no longer even had a form. His skin was burned and sore, like a piece of candy melted by the heat. He had turned into an ugly monster, like a mud doll.
“Not yet… I’m not finished yet. We are… not finished yet.”
Shrieking like a beast, Stobel came toward Liz. But it was pitifully slow.
“I’ll make it easy for you.”
Holding her right hand up to the heavens, a ball of flame appeared.
Liz waved her hand lightly. The ball of flame headed in a straight line toward Stobel, but…
――The ball of flame disappeared just before it reached Stobel.
“That’s enough for today.”
Nameless was standing there, protecting Stobel. Behind him, Stobel was lying on the ground, perhaps having run out of strength. It is difficult to say whether or not Stobel, who has turned into a bubbling mud doll, was alive, but if he were to escape at this point, it would be a great disaster.
“You think I’m going to let you go?”
Liz wields the power of the Flame Emperor without mercy. The ground where Nameless and Stobel had been exploded.
A cloud of dust covered the ground in front of them.
“You like to get behind me, don’t you?”
Liz turned around and unleashed her fist.
“It’s the easiest way to stab you… so I’ll just let you get away now.”
Liz’s fist just rattled the hood of the Nameless and cut through the air.
“Well then, have a good day.”
Nameless waved the tin cane in his hand. The bell’s tone propagated, shaking the air and distorting the space. The figure of Stobel, who barely retained his human form, disappeared.
At that moment, the space where Stobel was, exploded.
Like black smoke billowing out of a window, smoke containing a pungent odor rises from the cracked space into the sky.
“…Is it interference?”
Nameless, who sounded slightly surprised, looked at Liz.
“But you managed to escape, didn’t you?”
A smile appeared on the mouth of Nameless.
“So it seems…”
Liz kicked the ground, leaped, and attacked Nameless, but his figure disappeared in a haze.
What kind of technique was it…? Nameless appears a short distance away.
The flames pursued him, crawling on the ground like a snake, but they were unable to catch Nameless.
Still unable to escape, Nameless was coiled by the flame serpent. Just then, Nameless appeared in another place and was again engulfed in flames. However, Liz did not feel any response, and when she shifted her gaze to the side, she saw that Nameless was still standing there, unscathed. As the weasel words were repeated, it was Liz who made the first move.
“We’re getting nowhere, aren’t we?”
Liz said and slammed her fist on the ground.
A tremor rushed through the air. The ground shook so much that numerous cracks were created in the ground.
The next moment, several pillars of fire erupted. In the midst of this hellish scene, Nameless was still standing unscathed.
“Fufu, that’s wonderful. So you have mastered the “Flame Emperor” to such an extent?”
Saying this, Nameless slammed his tin cane on the ground.
“But I was one step ahead of you.”
He disappeared completely.
Liz stood alone in an empty world.
As the fire subsides, the clamor returns, breaking the silence. The war was still going on. There was no time to regret letting them go.
This battle must be concluded without the death of more soldiers.
The most powerful enemy WAs gone. Perhaps she should be glad for that. Liz let out a deep breath, calmed her anger, and raised the “Flame Emperor.”
“Destroy the enemy!”
She rushed out onto the battlefield, inspiring her allies.
She squashed the doubts that welled up in her chest… thinking only of the priority now, victory on the battlefield.
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