Chapter 1018

The giant antidemon, which had yet to get back on his feet, began making strange movements. All four of his limbs went limp, and his entire body started convulsing.

However, this was a massive giant the size of a skyscraper. Those convulsions resulted in earthquake level tremors.

Even the physically capable dwarves lost their balance. Wouldn’t it be really bad if the goliath struck back while they were defenseless?

Orfalve must have understood this too, so she immediately evacuated her men. Though stumbling several times, they slowly but surely retreated from the goliath’s side.

With no one left nearby, Adol joined in the attack. Still, this did nothing to stop the convulsions.

The goliath’s convulsions gradually increased intensity, with yet another change suddenly coming over him.

His body began twisting and deforming with a nasty cracking sound, accompanied by the high pitched noise of bending steel bars. Something must be happening deep within the goliath’s body.

Over the course of a few minutes, the shape of the giant antidemon transformed drastically. Though the color and size were the same, he was no longer humanoid. That multi-legged form reminded me of an insect.

The only part mostly unchanged was the torso.

All of the goliath’s limbs had morphed into a long and thin shape, each containing several joints, but without hands or feet at the end. And now, there were seven of these insect-like limbs. In addition to the four original limbs, two more had grown out of the hips, and one out of the rear.

The head didn’t change too much, but the neck had just about disappeared. This new shape probably gave the creature a wider field of view of everything in front.

I found the form incredibly disgusting, but the logic seemed to fit. We could no longer easily knock down the goliath by focusing on the legs.

This guy might have the ability to transform its own body to adapt to the situation.

「GWOOOOOOOOOOOOOORH!」

「Shields!」

「「「 Roger! 」」」

The dwarven shield division launched their shield arts simultaneously. At about the same time, the giant antidemon shot out a mass of evil energy from its mouth.

It took a cone-like shape as if mimicking the breath of a dragon, before impacting the blueish-white magical shield. Not only did the transformation make it more resistant to knock downs, it also seemed to unlock additional methods of attacking.

And these new attacks seemed more effective at dealing with armies. Immediately after the shield art’s effects disappeared, it swung one of its legs to cleave us down.

The dwarves reacted quickly by propping their shields again, but were unable to block the massive force of the blow.

Nearly a hundred dwarves got blown away, rolling on the ground.

Even if the legs had gotten thinner, they were still over 10 meters in diameter. I have to say, they did well to block the goliath’s onslaught up until now. However, this was also the most damage we’ve sustained so far.

「We’re going to fall back a bit! This position is too dangerous!」

「Then we shall draw its attention! Join up with the rest in the meanwhile!」

The giant antidemon’s transformation meant we had the disadvantage at close range. Jayne and Orfalve changed their strategy immediately.

The dwarves courageously took the front lines again. They needed to buy time for the rest to evacuate.

This role was most dangerous, yet none of them uttered a single whimper or complaint. They only marched forward following Orfalve’s lead.

There was no time for hesitation. The longer we take, the more damage the dwarves will suffer. But the giant antidemon had different plans. As if predicting our movements, it moved to interfere.

「GRAAAAAAAAAAAAH!」

「It jumped!」

With those seven legs folded wide, the giant antidemon hopped like a grasshopper.

It landed with surprisingly little impact, right in the path of our retreat. Judging from the huge distance it managed to hop, running away seems very ineffective.

We were now tightly cornered. Maybe our only choice left was launching an all-out attack with everything we’ve got? At least we’re outside of the castle’s ward now, so I should be able to use Dimension Gate. That said, it could catch up to us in no time, even if I used my space-time magic to transport the whole army.

The giant antidemon was still getting supplied more and more mana. The more time passes, the stronger it gets. At this point, stalling for time would just be digging our own grave.

Everyone understood this, so their expressions were grim.

We all hesitated for a moment to consider our options, aside from one man.

「As I thought, I must defeat the creature myself. You all stay back and watch.」

Adol, the Divine Sword Knight of Silard. He walked slowly toward the giant antidemon, his whole body radiating divine energy. It seems that’s the result of him focusing his powers for a while now.

「Hold it. If we are to go on the offensive, we should have everyone match the timing. Allow us to support you.」

「There is no need for that.」

「Ah, wait!」

Orfalve and Jayne tried to change his mind, but Adol refused to stop.

Right after saying that, Adol vanished. He had leapt faster than we could follow, and was already right in front of the giant antidemon before we knew it.

Not even this giant creature could keep up with Adol’s ridiculous speed, showing a bit of what looked to be surprise. Nonetheless, the counter attack came almost instantly.

Four of the creature’s legs came flying at Adol from all directions in an attempt to crush him――but they were all torn apart. Adol must have hacked them all off, though I couldn’t even notice him moving.

No matter how many times I see it, Adol’s movements with Alpha active were just insane. I hope I never have to fight him.

I have to wonder what kind of technique Adol will unleash after charging all that power…… Since none were capable of stopping him, all we could do was watch. Of course, we were also focusing our own energy for a follow up.

「Divine Sword Art, Evil God Slayer.」

That’s one straightforward naming sense! Still, the slash contained as much power as the name suggested. Truly something that seemed capable of striking down the Evil God.

The pure divine energy cloaking Alpha extended over twice the length of the blade. Then, Adol swung his blade vertically downward.

It seems a bit similar to Fran’s Heavenly Judgment. A simple slash with the divine attribute and god-like speed.

However, the sheer power was just on a different level. No matter what tricks we tried to pull, we could not achieve anything on the same level.

A flash of light covered the land in white, causing everyone to avert their eyes. A short moment later, the terrifying force slammed into the earth.

It caused a single tremor, yet more than half of our troops fell down. The shockwave of mana blasted out swept down the other half. These were the elite troops, the most talented people on the continent.

And they couldn’t even stay standing. A single slash from the distant Adol was all it took. But the real shock came after.

The light subsided, revealing a horrific sight to Fran and the others.

「……Amazing.」

「W-Woof!」

「Those divine swords are truly unbelievable.」

「Even with a divine sword, only the ones specialized in direct combat can do something like this.」

The rest were so awestruck that they couldn’t speak properly.

What remained in front of us was the right third of the giant antidemon’s body. The left ~70% had vanished, leaving only the right flank and the three legs sprouting out from it.

And behind the giant antidemon was a deep canyon stretching straight into the horizon. As if the gods themselves had popped it into existence.

I couldn’t even see where the canyon ended. Was this really the work of one man?

We’ve seen a similar scene when Fran unleashed her ultimate move in Divine Beast Form, the Black Tiger Thundercrash. However, this scar was wider, deeper, and longer.

The awe had caused my mind to go blank for a moment, though Fran and the others managed to run forward. We found Adol lying motionlessly on the ground.

No one wore a smile, including Fran.

『It’s still alive, even like that?!』

The giant antidemon had begun to regenerate. All of the warriors returned to their senses and began their assault on the giant’s remaining legs. However, our ordinary attacks did little to interfere with the regeneration.

『Shit! If only Jayne’s ritual magic was ready!』