Chapter 198 - Irregular mana concentration site #7

"Looks like this is it… Are you ready?"

(I'm always ready for a slaughter~✿ Let's do this.)

Overlooking a solitary church which stood in the middle of a wasteland, Dax clearly saw trough their poor attempt of camouflage.

"Still, what really reveals them are those clearly formed petrol patterns by those poor nuns who are watering flowers in the moonlight… Well, let's go say hello."

Swinging his rifle over the shoulder Dax jumped down from the tree he had been perched on and started to walk slowly up to the church, making sure that they had time to put their defences in place.

"Can we do anything to help you? Did you perhaps get lost?"

As Dax approached the church serval 'nuns' and 'monks' went to greet him, with the one best at handling people in front.

(All of them are armed to the teeth huh?)

Quickly glancing over the guard hounds Dax identified the litter of hidden weapons they kept hidden.

"No, I'm not lost in the slightest. As for your first question, there is something you can do to help me. Please show the way inside this facility you're guarding, the rest of you can go ahead and die."

Tossing his cursed sword at the largest monk Dax's mana forge flared before countless spikes of compressed rock shot out from the ground around him.

"GHA!-"

Before any of them could react, the guards had been wiped out. With the sole exception being the one which was closest to Dax, but she had not been left unscathed.

"ARG!"

"Come on, it's just a few shattered ribs. Don't be a wuss."

Grabbing the 'nun' by her hair Dax started walking towards the church, being joined in his leisurely pace by another person.

"I clearly remember tossing you at one of the monks in the back."

"That you did~"

"Then why the f.u.c.k did you use wind magic to redirect yourself towards that nun instead?"

"Because she looked cute~✿"

"For f.u.c.k's sake…"

Continuing to drag the guard he had let live by her hair she finally overcame the initial pain and became able to focus on her surroundings.

"Ahg! Abigale, W-why are you helping him?"

"You appear to be confused dear sister~ Abigale is no longer here, I've already eaten her~✿"

Looking into the eyes of her long time comrade, the 'sister' was utterly terrified at what she saw, while they were the same eyes as always it was like the light that had been behind them had gone out and been replaced by something completely alien.

-

"Hey, what's going on out there?..."

As one of their comrades entered the church the guards calmed down slightly, a mistake they didn't get to contemplate as the nun raised an empty hand towards them.

"Blood rush."

Out of nowhere spikes of blood formed around the nun before they seemed to get a mind of their own and rushed towards their targets.

"W-wait, what are you doing!?"

Watching his long time comrade massacring their friends the guard could only watch on in horror until he was also killed.

"... It's clear~"

"Well then, where is the secret entrance?"

Walking in after the cursed sword had cleared the area with his guide, Dax looked around with an overall relaxed aura.

"W-why should I!- Gha!"

"Because I'll let you live if you tell me within 3 seconds. 3, 2, 1…"

As Dax started counting down the guard appeared to have decided to die instead of telling the intruder anything, but her subconscious mind betrayed her as she glanced towards a wall next to the altar. Tossing his guide aside Dax walked over to the wall and after poking it for a bit he smashed it open with an open palm strike, revealing a staircase leading down into pitch black darkness.

"I feel multiple creatures up ahead."

After walking down the seemingly endless stairs for about 5 minutes the cursed sword suddenly broke the silence.

"Yeah I'm seeing traces of serval heat signatures as well, they must be waiting for us."

Reaching the bottom of the staircase Dax and the cursed sword found themselves in a ridiculously large mostly empty room only populated by sparse stone pillars supporting the roof which was about 12 meters above the pair.

"This sure is a large room…"

"Yeah, no kidding… You could land a spaceship in here, if not for the pillars."

Looking around in the pitch black void Dax got a strong impression that he was being watched by something hostile and quietly disabled the safety on his gauss rifle. As the pair walked further into the gigantic room, the cursed sword also realized that they were being watched and started circulating mana within its host body.

(This is an arena… No, more like a kill zone that's been designed specifically for one kind of hunter… There you are!)

Spotting something large that was crawling near the ceiling around one of the large pillars, Dax crouched down and took a firing position as he squeezed the trigger and created flashes of light in the dark world.

"Contact, 10 O'clock high! 50 meters!"

Saturating the target with ultra high velocity armour piercing ammunition Dax only heard the unmistakable sound of ammunition ricocheting and hitting the stone roof above the qiton frowned as he filled his body with mana.

"Blood rush!"

"It's no use!"

Grasping the cursed sword and the body it currently possessed Dax jumped to the side as some large creature crashed down where they stood just a few seconds before and knocked out a large amount of smoke and stone shards.

"What are you!-"

"My shots bounced off without doing anything, whatever it is, that thing is heavily armoured!... Here it comes again!"

Not giving Dax or the cursed sword a moment to rest, the still unknown creature once more charged them, forcing Dax to hug the ground as the qiton formed a dagger out of golden crystals and cut towards the creature as it passed over them, carving out a part of its outer skin in the process.

"What the f.u.c.k are you!?"

Getting a proper look at the creature which was attacking him Dax wished he could unsee what he just saw. With an approximate height of 2 meters and length well over 20, it was by far the largest creature Dax had ever seen and the largest artificially created life form he had ever but his eyes on. Scales more sturdy than a dragon with countless legs down its body and strong jaws surrounding the base of the creature which Dax speculated to have been an original inhabitant of the church the creature looked like a gigantic hunting centipede with the distorted face of a priest which still had his rosary around his neck.

"Eat its soul, I'll cover!"

Flaring with mana Dax ripped out large chunks of stone which he tossed after the centipede creature as the cursed sword immediately understood his intent and charged forward as it was surrounded by a dense crimson aura.

"No matter how large you are, all I need to do is touch you and you're dead!~✿"

Reaching the monster in record time the cursed sword sliced off a large part of its outer scales as the crimson aura flared in intensity.

"Thanks for the meal~✿…. Eh?"

But even as the cursed sword did its best at devouring the monster's soul, its movements weren't hindered in the slightest as its claws bore down on the cursed sword and the body it was possessing.

"You gotta be f.u.c.k.i.n.g kidding me!"

Reacting faster than the sword did, Dax sent a surge of mana into the ground with a stomp and created a stone pillar which shot up from under the sword's possessed body and launched it to safety, but not before the monster managed to rip an arm off.

"There's no soul in there! It's somehow not alive, what do we do!?"

Flipping in mid air the sword closed up the wound on its possessed body it landed on a pillar before shooting off it and avoiding some kind of acid that the monster spewed out in an attempt to dissolve the pesky fly which had disturbed its rest.

"Cut it apart! Alive or not it can't do anything if it can't move!"

Deciding to fight magic with the power of magic Dax formed two longswords made out of golden crystals and charged the monster, passing underneath the front part of it that reached up and tried to eat the cursed sword and its borrowed body.

"Hard!"

As the qiton struck at the underbelly of the creature, one of the golden swords shattered apart as the scales were harder than Dax had expected, but the qiton didn't really take no for an answer in such a situation.

"Oh no, you f.u.c.k.i.n.g don't!"

Reforming his still remaining sword into a thin needle like stinger that he plunged into a gap between the monster's scales, making the monster scream out in pain.

"Now die you f.u.c.k.i.n.g bug!"

Using the needle like construction like an entry vehicle Dax compressed the nearby air and heated it before he challenged it into the monster.

(That must have done something…)

Rolling away from the screaming monster as it trashed around and the unmistakable smell of burned flesh Dax assessed the damage on target as he formed multiple more needle like spears which floated around him in the air.

"Target the gaps in between the scales! If you can't reach far enough into the creature to do critical damage then at least block up the gaps so it has a harder time moving!"

"Yes sir!~✿"

Adopting a hit and run doctrine the cursed sword drew the monster's attention by pelting it with rocks and forming crimson wedges which it accurately mashed in between the gaps in the monsters otherwise impenetrable armour. 

(ICI how does it look?)

While the cursed sword occupied the centipede monster Dax wasn't idle in the slightest. Having jumped halfway up a stone pillar the qiton had taken a position where he could observe his opponent in its entirety, allowing ICI which used his cybernetic eye to locate weak spots in the creature.

(ANALYSIS COMPLETE, NEAVE CL.U.S.TER LOCATED. PAINTING LOCATION.)

(As expected~ Even if it doesn't have a soul or whatever it still has some kind of brain.)

Gathering up mana as he formed a single needle spear and strengthened his entire body with the use of magic, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

"NOW!"

Finding set moment when the centipede monster chased the cursed sword halfway up a pillar and was locked down for a split second Dax sprung into action. Completely shattering the thick stone pillar the qiton shot of with incredible speed and landed right on top of the monsters head, focusing the entirety of his own momentum onto a single point which ICI had located and priced it with the spear before sending superheated air in through the hole. Letting out another ear shattering scream the centipede monster froze up as whatever served as its brain was shock heated and it eventually died.

"That was one resilient f.u.c.k.i.n.g bug… Sword, are you still alive!?"

"I am~✿ Can I eat it now?"