Chapter 220 - Miasma 1

Lucia, Ainz, and Velicia had pressed on forward in the midst of the Nocturne Lions' and Silver's exchange.

They didn't see any attacks coming from Cecil and this puzzled them. Shouldn't he be darting around the battlefield right about now? There's just no way he would miss such a fight.

"There's something wrong with Cel..."

Lucia said as she blocked an attack from one the beastmen and slashed her katana across their neck only to be blocked by another beastman who came to support the one she was attacking.

"Tsk...These guys are really annoying!"

"Tell me about it! They've got strong mages and warriors. The mages support and the warriors just come rushing at us in abandon!" Ainz replied as he sent numerous elemental bolts at the surrounding beastmen.

"They—HAH! Aren't even—take this! Focusing on us—HIYAH!!" Velicia punched her way through the beastmen, but time and time again she was forced to back off.

Despite all 3 of the beastkin supporting each other, they couldn't go past the blockade of black clothed beastmen.

Yes, they were outnumbered 8 to 1, but even after blasting their opponents with some pretty deadly spells and rushing at them, they still couldn't break past.

The 3 knew that these beastmen were only buying time since some of them had the audacity to even turn their backs on them and send an attack or two at Silver.

"I've had enough...Ainz, Veli...we're going in for the kill."

"Huh? Shouldn't we leave some of them alive to question them later?"

"Who cares?! They want Cecil and I'm NOT letting them have him! Cover me! It's about time I let these bastards know how wrathful I am if they aim for my Cel!"

Lucia backed away, Ainz and Velicia formed a 2-man wall in front of her and the girl began mustering up her mana.

"Let's see how you'll deal with this!"

"L-Lucia! Th-th-the residence!"

"Dammit, we'll figure that out later!"

"O-ohhh..."

Lucia and the rest had been holding back a little. They've only relied on high-tiered mid ranked spells and haven't resorted to using any high ranked spells yet. The foxkin girl had grown impatient at their stubborn resistance and decided to just wing it.

What irked her most was the handful of shamans in the enemy group who possessed pretty potent healing spells. Even when she and Ainz sent multiple deadly spells to bombard them, the beastmen would move to protect their bodies from any fatal damage and let their shamans heal them back up to perfect health.

Lucia had sheathed her katana and was currently only holding onto her kodachi. She pointed her finger at the front and concentrated her mana into her finger. A large purple orb of mana formed just in front of her finger and she fired it straight at the beastmen.

"TURN TO DUST!!! SOLARIS LASER!"

She aimed her first laser at the front most beastman's heart. The laser instantaneously pierced the beastman's heart and continued piercing through the other 3 unfortunate souls behind him. Lucia then quickly cut off her mana and aimed her finger at another beastman.

She didn't dare let her laser run rampant inside the estate since she might hit an ally, or worse, Silver.

Lucia continued to fire laser after laser at the beastmen. They thought that the spell's damage could be healed easily, but they realized too late that the struck beastmen had all instantly died. For the ones that were pierced later, their wounds wouldn't heal even after casting healing spells and they would die from being immolated by the purple flames.

The uniqueness of the Solaris Flame was that it wouldn't extinguish itself unless Lucia willed it. The beastmen tried to dodge the lasers, but once Lucia had a clear aim, the laser was able to pierce through their bodies regardless of how fast they moved to dodge.

Most of the time, the laser would have already pierced their bodies without the beastmen even realizing it.

Lucia was using her 2-element fusion Elemental Burst and she was using the hypersensitivity that came along with it to take aim at her opponents.

The beastmen changed their approach and tried to attack Lucia, but with Ainz and Velicia obstructing them it was now their turn to experience the suffering of not being able to break through a thick wall.

Some did succeed in making it past the two, but they would soon collapse dead on the ground with a hole through their heads or hearts.

After another 5 minutes, all the beastmen obstructing the 3 had all fallen dead on the ground.

"Haahh...haaahh...I used up a bit of mana for that..."

"Let's go! There are still a lot of those bastards attacking Cecil and Silver!" Ainz said as he pulled up the exhausted Lucia.

"W-wait...Release!"

Lucia released one of her tails' cores and resupplied herself with mana. Vigor returned to her and the group quickly rushed further into the compounds of the estate.

Velicia was looking around the place with a rather apologetic look. There were multiple holes inside the surrounding buildings. Lucia's earlier rampage hadn't affected the buildings and areas much deeper into the estate, but the ones closer to their earlier battlefield were all nearly at the brink of collapse or were wrecked beyond repair.

"I'm sorry Lucius...but you can't blame us, it's those beastmen that are to blame!" Velicia offered a silent apology to her fiancé.

******

Elsewhere, Lucius was currently pinning down the other black clothed beastmen, but he still saw the multitudes of purple lasers being fired off into the skies and he could also hear the sounds of destruction coming from the area Lucia and the rest had gone off to.

"Oh goodness..." Lucius who saw this immediately began crying inwardly. How would he explain things to his father once he's seen the damage caused to their home?

"Agghhh!! It's these stupid beastmen's fault! Men! Use higher ranked spells!"

"Young master, what about the estate?!"

"Ah who cares about the estate now?! They've gone and ruined it already! What's the problem in just ruining it altogether?!"

"B-but—"

"No buts! I'll take responsibility for it later! The faster we take down these bastards, the faster we can end the conflict here and go support the men at the walls! Besides, this place could use some remodeling!"

Lucius took out ominous vials of concoctions from his spatial ring and threw them at the beatsmen.

BANG BOOMMM BBBAAAAAANNNGGGGG

Large explosions deafened the surroundings. Lucius' earlier attack had blasted away many of the beastmen assaulters dead. The buildings and areas near the impact zone were wrecked. Seeing their young master take the lead, the estate guards began using higher ranked magic spells and combat skills.

Their earlier passive approach had turned much more aggressive and the beastmen were caught off-guard.

Many of them instantly fell from this abrupt change of pace, but they soon quickly regrouped and continued obstructing the guards.

"LEAVE NONE OF THEM ALIVE! KILL THEM ALL!!" Lucius roared as he threw more potion vials at them and blasted them with mid ranked spells.

"Y-young master, shouldn't we leave at least one of them alive so that the Master can question them later?"

"Hahahahaha! NO! We'll leave the capturing to my fiancé and her friends! We don't have that leeway! Just go in for the kill! Let's teach these audacious bastards the consequences of provoking and assaulting our family!!"

"Y-YES!"

The guards responded vigorously, but after the initial surprise, they still couldn't get anywhere. Instead they were met with an even stronger retaliation. The beastmen were strong and the estate guards were now experiencing more and more casualties.

Suddenly, a large black wave of mana bombarded the beastmen in front of Lucius and the guards.

"AAAHHHH!!"

"OWAAARRRGGGHH!"

Screams of pain and agony were raised from the beastmen currently engulfed in the black wave of mana.

When the screams subsided and the black mana dispersed, what remained of the beastmen were bones and a large pit of corroded earth.

"What?!"

It was then that black smog began permeating the air and it was coming from deep within the estate's compounds.

Lucius raised his head and noticed the towering wolf...which now had a thick coat of black fur. Silver's change was now made apparent to everyone in the city.

Even from afar, Eli, Fina, and Yuna noticed this change. The maddening aura and the oppressive atmosphere had grown twice as strong as earlier.

Lucia and the others were in the thick of it and they couldn't help but worry. For some reason, all the beastmen around them were currently being corroded by the black smog. They however were still fine.

Lucia, Ainz, and Velicia all had barriers of aura protecting their bodies, but the aura was sizzling and being corroded by the smog as well.

"M-Miasma?!" Ainz shockingly exclaimed.

"Miasma?"

"This black smog is miasma! It's extremely poisonous and corrosive!"

"W-why would something like that be here?!" Velicia asked in worry.

"G-guys! Look! Silver...something's wrong with Silvy!"

Looking over at what Lucia was pointing at, the three saw the black furred Silver towering above them and Ainz immediately raised his voice.

"What's happened to him?!"

"I don't know, but let's hurry! Silver and Cecil might be in trouble!"

"Y-you guys go ahead! I'll go back and warn Lucius and the guards! If this is miasma, then it's fatal to them!" Velicia said as she separated from the two and quickly dashed back towards Lucius' location.

"It's a good thing we have our auras..."

"Let's go, Ainz!"

The two quickly made their way over to where the sounds of battle and the cries of pain and agony were being raised.

They kept their eyes on Silver and noticed that the large wolf was slowly shrinking. When they finally arrived at the battlefield where Silver was at, the two saw an appalling scene.

Multitudes of beastmen were collapsed onto the ground writhing in agony with many of them were crying out in despair. Lucia and Ainz noticed that their bodies were slowly being melted down.

The fur of the beast men were all turning black and their skin was peeling off slowly. Some of them already had their flesh being melted off of their bones. The two could practically imagine the pain they were experiencing and couldn't help but tremble in fear.

"Wh-What happened?" Ainz looked around and asked. Even for their enemies, this was just a little too gruesome and appalling.

"Cel! Silvy!" Lucia quickly found the two people she was looking for. Cecil lay collapsed on the ground with a large black wolf circling around him protectively.