Chapter 55. The Fragaria Family & The Serpent of Ash (FINAL)

The serpent whose scales shone red, wagged its tails several times before slamming it hard into a wall, creating tremendous cracks all over the thick concrete that went far and beyond. The cracks reached our side within a split second, taking us by surprise as the serpent suddenly vanished from its spot. All I could see was the blur as it slithered its way around, creating a loud rumbling noise with each move.

“You aren’t getting anywhere…” the elderly man’s voice reverberated around the room, raising his staff up in the air as it shone bright ruby before he slammed it straight onto the floor, creating a loud roar around the room as a bright red ball of flames materialized from atop. The ball was thick, it was like a cannonball yet far larger.

In an instant, the fireball slammed onto the floor, creating a sea of blaze as the serpent vanished out of sight. There was no blur left from the serpent as several chains of flames appeared from the ceiling, thrusting towards the center of the blaze before a loud hiss echoed around the room. The hiss sounded like it was in drastic pain, screaming as a window appeared on the side of my eye.

Serpent of Ash: [982,582/10,000,000,000]

The window showed the health points of the serpent, decreasing in a tremendous pace. The decrease was around a thousand per second which made me shiver. A thousand per second would kill me within forty seconds or fifty seconds. It was that terrific of damage.

“Fire an arrow now!” the elderly man screamed at me. I was a bit taken aback, but speedily regained composure as I positioned myself for firing range, pointing the bow in the direction of the blaze before my wings flapped, bringing me in a higher ground. I could see everything clearly, the serpent was at the center of the sea of fire, chained up by hundreds of chains that were all of flames.

After positioning myself and my bow, I soon tried to draw the bow, but it felt like a billion stones were weighing down on me. It was like the entire planet was situated on my shoulders. I kept trying and trying, each burst of force I planted onto the bow only pulled it a tiny bit, but it was enough for me to get my hopes high as I tried even harder before the scarlet eyes of the serpent glared at me.

“You stupid snake!” Aurora’s voice reverberated around the room as her figure suddenly vanished from spot, appearing above the serpent in a split second, her hands were above her shoulders, pointing her starry night dagger towards the serpent as it shone like a diamond above the skies. The dagger was so bright that it felt like I was staring at the sun.

Almost instantly, Aurora slammed onto the serpent at full force. A crater was formed in an instant, followed by a thick wave of shock that blasted the sea of flames for a second as her figure vanished once more as her cries echoed, “GO!”

The time she had bought was more than enough for me to pull the bow at its maximum, sweat was already dripping from my forehead as I pointed the bow upwards before several holograms appeared all over the center view of my eye. The wind speed and all those other details were before me as a green light appeared in the center.

“HAAAAAAAAAA!” I screamed, releasing all the energy I had accumulated in the past few seconds as the bowstring flung back to its original position, propelling the arrow forward as my body blasted backward like a large hammer was flung at me. I soon slammed onto a thick concrete wall, staring at the magnificent sight that was brought by the arrow.

The arrow flew high up towards the ceiling, turning into dozens if not hundreds more of arrows. The multiplied arrows were all medium in size, all of which sparkled as the arrow at the very center, a gigantic trident looked down at the serpent with a bright sparkle. It was the galaxy itself looking down at its prey.

“Holy Trident…” a name came out from my mouth as the hundreds of arrows rained down onto the serpent, creating explosions left and right as the serpent’s cries echoed around the area. The rain of arrows kept on going and going until several minutes passed as all of the arrows vanished, leaving one large trident at the center.

The trident was exerting pressure onto the sea of blaze, extinguishing all of the flames as the serpent looked at it with its scarlet eyes shining bright. Its mouth opened wide as it tried to reach the trident while the trident made its way downwards.

The earth vibrated tremendously, shaking, and shaking as the trident inched closer to the serpent before a loud bang exploded from the center, followed by eighteen different shockwaves, forcing me deeper onto the concrete as all of my bones cracked at the same time.

“HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!”

The serpent’s loud cries exploded from the center as the bright light slowly dimmed, revealing the serpent standing upright. Almost all of its scales had fallen, its right eye was no longer there, and its left fang had melted. The arrow had done tremendous damage to the serpent.

Serpent of Ash: [20,122/10,000,000,000]

But… the battle was far from over as the serpent stared at me with hostility. Its eyes brimmed with anger, bloodlust exploded from left and right, all of which pointed at me. Immediately, Seele’s and the red-haired lady’s figure appeared from atop the serpent.

The two carried their contrasting swords as their backs touched one another, swinging their swords up in the air as the two swords shone bright red and blue. It was like the ocean and lava were meeting at a center point, the two colors didn’t mix but instead grew together as it formed a gigantic sword.

“HIYAAAAAAA!”

The two cried at the same time before the sword slammed onto the serpent, creating another tremendous vibration that caused the ceilings to crumble. The entire palace was breaking apart slowly but surely as the gigantic sword vanished before another figure appeared above the serpent.

“You are not going anywhere; you pain in the stomach!”

The figure wore thick armor with his entire body shielded in a thick shield of red. The figure carried a lance on his right arm and a shield on his left hand as he floated up in the air, pointing downwards before his body descended at a fast pace.

In an instant, a loud slam echoed around the area as the man’s figure returned back to its original position. The three of them looked at me as if reassuring that the serpent was no longer here but all of a sudden.

“HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!”

A loud cry exploded from the center as the serpent emerged from the dust cloud, flying towards my direction as thick bloodlust exploded all around the area. All of the bloodlusts were directed at me, its scarlet eyes glared at me as if I was its mortal enemy.

“AYUMMII!!!”

Seele’s and Aurora’s cries reverberated as I stared at the serpent that was flying towards my position. My body froze in place, I couldn’t move… my bones were all broken, my ribs were damaged heavily from the smash… there was no exit.

I felt time slowed as the serpent inched towards my direction at a slow pace. The reaper of death was already before me in an instant, my heart stopped, and my nose stopped inhaling and exhaling as I continued to watch the impending doom before me.

‘I see… this is my end again…’ I thought to myself, staring at everything that was occurring in slow motion. The sight of Aurora and Seele running towards my direction at a super slow pace, the view of the red-haired lady and the elderly man desperately casting a spell at the serpent, but it was all useless as the serpent was now before me. Its fang was crisp clear.

‘I am sorry… Mana… Flora… it seems like I am leaving ahead of time. It was a great time toget—’ I mumbled under my breath before a voice whispered from behind. It was a man’s voice that took me by surprise.

“You better not let my daughter cry…”

All of a sudden, time resumed as the figure of an armored man standing before me with its shield protecting the entire surrounding around me, appeared. The man had red armor and a lance with a shield. It was none other than Mana’s father.

“NOOOO!” I screamed, but it was all useless as the serpent soon sliced through the man’s armors, smashing the shield into pieces along with his armor as the man flung back at me while also flinging the serpent back miles and miles away as Seele and Aurora finished the serpent off together with the red-haired lady and the elderly man.

I watched in horror as the man who was to be my father-in-law rested before me. His shirt was scratched as blood spilled from his chest, the armor he wore were crystals together with his shield… not long that but his foot had turned into crystals.

“Why…” I asked before he looked at me with his eyes turning dark, smiling.

“It… because… my… daughter… loves… you…” he replied as I stared at the man with disbelief… is this the same man that abandoned Mana… is this the same man I thought as someone heartless… it was a different man… it was someone who cared for her daughter a lot.

“You didn’t have to…!” I shouted before he smiled.

“I… didn’t… but… I… want… to… atone… for… my… sins…” the man said as a tear fell from his eye, dripping from his cheeks as it reached the floor before his weak voice sounded, “Ayumi… correct?”

“Yes…?” I responded before he closed his eyes and smiled.

“Please… take… care… of… my… daughter… say… that… I… loved… he–“ he replied only for his voice to vanish as his entire body turned into shards of crystals. His eyes opened once more as he looked at me with a gentle smile on his face… a smile of a brave father.

I couldn’t understand… why…?! I couldn’t even ask as the man’s body soon enclosed itself in crystals with the man’s eyes closed as my heart ached… it was not what I wanted… it was not what I expected when I came here… why?

All of a sudden, his body started shining bright as it rose itself up in the air before exploding into shards of crystals as papyrus letters materialized themselves, falling onto my lap as I opened it before two drawings and a letter came to view.

The drawings were drawings that clearly belonged from a child, it was a drawing of a pink-haired girl together with a red-haired man and a light pink haired lady, holding each other’s hands. All of those drawings were drawings from none other than Mana herself.

I couldn’t hold back my emotions as I opened the letter with tears dripping from my eyes before marvelous handwriting came to sight. It was a letter that was as if him predicting what would happen in the future.

To whoever may hold this letter,

This letter can only be received after my death, as such, I am already assuming that I may have died at this point. There is a separate letter on the back of this. I hope that whoever may find this letter, please give this to my daughter, Mana Fragaria. As for the rest of my family, she will be the one to inform them, though, I assume the one reading this letter might be my daughter’s partner right?

Hey, you stupid boy or girl… You better not make my daughter cry, do you understand? If you even make her tear up even once, I will not forgive you even in the depths of the abyss. I may have failed her many times, abandoned her dozens of times but inside, she is my most beloved daughter. Don’t you dare make her cry!

The (Former) Head of the Fragaria Family.

Mihou

How was it, did you like the sudden change of events? I wrote four variations of this chapter because I am clearly not good at these kinds of genre, I am more of a fluff person than an action. I hope you can forgive me for the weirdness of this chapter.

Also, I have recently started a short side project called The Waifulogy, it is still in its early phases but feel free to check it out: https://waifulogy.fun

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