Chapter 959

Fran hurried away from Izario, before turning to watch him face off against the giant antidemon. Izario cloaked himself in a layer of red mana after confirming our departure.

Along with the mana, Izario’s body burst into flames. The blazing inferno swirled violently around him before suddenly converging on his right hand.

Just like we saw before, his hand now held a mass of flames with a crimson glow.

The antidemons we broke through on the way here caught up with Izario, but they burnt to a crisp simply by approaching him. Even these powerful black antidemons were no different than moths diving into a flame.

「The divine swords…… Super amazing as always.」

「Woof.」

『Yeah.』

「And Izario himself too.」

『There’s no way any ordinary guy can become the blade’s wielder.』

Izario still had the same outward appearance as usual, but the presence he exuded was overwhelming. It wasn’t just his sword. The man himself radiated an intense brilliance.

This aura was more than a match for the giant antidemon’s.

「Izario’s starting.」

『Just in case, we should stay on our toes in case we have to run further.』

「Nn. I know.」

There were no guarantees for our safety even this far away. The sheer power in the air made that very obvious.

Izario looked more serious than when he took on the 10,000 antidemons. This giant antidemon was that much of a threat.

What’s more, his opponent had yet to move. This gave Izario the chance to focus the immense power of the divine sword even further.

「Haaaaah…… Pheeeeew……」

With each breath Izario took, the Brilliant Flameblade shone brighter and brighter. The sword raised in his hand became as bright as the sun, forcing Fran to squint lightly.

A long time ago, I had the chance to see a high level flame spell from Velmeria in the capital, while she was under Fanatics’ control. At that time, I compared those terrifying flames to the sun.

But the brilliance cloaking Ignis right now far surpassed even the flames from back then.

Fran and Urushi took a step backwards. They had subconsciously readied themselves to flee at a moment’s notice.

The blade’s glow had grown so intense that no human could look at it directly. Then at long last, he swung Ignis downwards.

I see…… “Talentless”, huh?

Izario’s slash was pretty decent, probably reaching the level of experts. In other words, Holy Sword Mastery.

But that’s it, I didn’t see any extraordinary talent behind his swing. Ignis must not have the ability to give the wielder Swordking Mastery.

What I could see was his enormous amount of practice and obsession with the blade. The precision of his swing was the culmination of all his training.

This was a man who knew his limits, which was precisely why he could carefully put everything he had into one strike.

Indeed, Izario’s own abilities might be meaningless when compared to those of his divine sword. It’s like the difference between dealing 100001 damage or 100000 damage. He could swing Ignis randomly without any effort, and his enemies would fall all the same.

But even if that’s true, perhaps Izario was recognized by Ignis because he had this kind of sincerity?

Izario understood the power and weight of a divine sword, which is exactly why he would never abuse it. He also had the mentality to continue striving for improvement, which was worthy of respect.

Fran’s gaze was filled with awe. She must feel the same way as me.

A beam shot out before our eyes.

The flames had become so bright that they turned completely white. The white ray over a hundred meters long cleaved through the giant antidemon and dug a deep scar in the earth beyond.

「IEIIEIEIEIIIIEIIIEI!」

The giant antidemon, cut cleanly in two, let out a horrific scream. It felt like someone set up a row of megaphones and screeched into them.

Despite being so far in the skies above, even Fran and Urushi had to cover their ears.

Was Izario okay? The powerful screech was practically a sonic blast.

Oh, as expected from a divine sword wielder. He simply stood there without any signs of damage.

『It’s over.』

「Nn.」

The flames spread outward from the section sliced open by Ignis, consuming the giant antidemon’s entire body. Before the antidemon could regenerate itself, his building-sized body was reduced to ash in a matter of seconds.

We don’t know why the giant antidemon was born, or for what purpose. All we can say for sure was that this wasn’t his final form.

The creature suddenly burst out of the ground in a seemingly defenseless state, and I still have no clue why. Maybe he was confident that his toughness would repel most ordinary attacks, or maybe he couldn’t grow any further underground?

At any rate, he never performed any hostile action against Izario. No, I suppose his ability to absorb mana would normally drain his enemies to power himself up. That could be considered both a potent offensive and defensive technique.

If up against a large army, he could feed on them by absorbing their mana. Against a powerful single enemy, he could defend himself with his innate vitality and durability from being so large.

I think that was supposed to be the intention.

Unfortunately, he found a bad match-up.

The antidemon failed to absorb Izario’s mana, while Izario’s pure destructive power could erase any foe. There was nothing the antidemon could do against him.

「Izario’s calling.」

「Woof!」

Izario must have decided that everything was over. He waved over at us.

When we returned to his side, we could still feel an intense heat from the aftermath of his technique.

Perhaps Izario chose to stay in Gordicia because he didn’t want to cause too much damage with Ignis’ flames. Gordicia’s been called the ruined continent for ages, so a few alterations to the terrain wouldn’t bother anyone.

「You okay? Tired?」

「Hahaha, maybe I got a little too serious.」

Just as Fran pointed out, Izario looked exhausted with sweat covering his forehead. Although he could walk, he seemed to have a hard time doing so.

However, Fran’s concerns apparently lied elsewhere.

「……What about the price?」

「Oh, you’re pretty well informed. Don’t worry, I’ve been using the divine sword for a long time now. I know by feeling what price I have to pay for the duration.」

「That’s good.」

「Well, I’m not complaining since I can unleash such a powerful strike for only one or two levels.」

I guess Ignis’ price was indeed levels. Although this wasn’t Fran’s intention, we managed to accidentally bluff our way into learning this fact.