CH 198

[Combined Superpower]

What was he going to do?

Upon seeing Valon suddenly extend his tentacles in all directions, Magmell and the others naturally directed looks of apprehension at him.

After he pulled back his extended tentacles, Valon said in a somewhat regretful manner, “Haa, as I thought, Tougen didn’t taste good… Those people along with him were even worse… I could still feel the taste even after eating the other 《Sacrifices》… How unfortunate…”

From his words, it appeared that, including Aetia, he had also eaten his other comrades.

How disgusting… Magmell frowned, and Sinus, who had fused with her, said in an indignant tone, “Agreed. We must not let him continue such barbaric acts any further. Let us use our full power to hand down divine retribution on him.”

“H-however, he is literally ‘eating’ our Magic Arts. Wouldn’t we be only empowering him, instead…?”

Indeed.

The reason why they had yet been able to take Valon down despite the addition of the fused Shiva and Fluga was that he had been eating all the long-range Combat Arts and Magic Arts Magmell and the others had fired at him without exception.

All those very powerful attacks were only taken as a treat by Valon.

“No,” But Sinus shook her head and said, “Even though he has the ability to absorb all kinds of Magic Arts, there has to be a ‘limit’ to it. Remember what Exa said? He was able to defeat the demon named Kitezh because the demon’s power ‘couldn’t contain’ his. Which means that if we attack him with more power than he can absorb, we should be able to destroy him.”

“…I see. That surely sounds worth a try.”

“Yes. And with Fluga and Shiva here, we can hope for support in both offense and defense. Now, make your decision,” said Sinus.

“All right, let us do it,” Magmell decided promptly.

Naturally, she conveyed the plan to the other girls as well.

“Very well. We will act as bait, then. Let’s go, Zana!” Igniver shouted.

“Yeah!” Zana responded.

“Okay! We’ll be protecting them with all we have!” Fluga raised her voice.

“Yes, understood!” Shiva said.

Each of them kicked off the ground to fulfill their roles.

“Here gathers the seven principles, emerge from the light, and return to the dark night—

Magmell, meanwhile, held out her Hallowed Sacred Treasure with both hands and started ‘chanting’ to activate the strongest Magic Art she was capable to cast at present.

‘Chanting’ was a technique to cast Magic Art, by which the user could maximize the power of their Magic Art, but the downside was that it took some time and that if you move, the effect of the Magic Art would be halved. There was no such leeway on the battlefield, except in very rare cases, it was shortened to a minimum like “Pierce! Purifying Fangs of Light.”

“—Coalesce, coalesce, coalesce, coalesce! The progenitors, twin maidens who rule over all creation!”

――Crackle, crackle, crackle!

However, with the support of Zana and the others, Magmell was now ready to release a Magic Art with full chanting.

“Unending circle of transmigration! Phinis-Olg—”

However.

“—Stop it, Magmell.”

“—!?”

Out of nowhere, Freyr, the Castellan of the fortified city of Algren, appeared before her. Her sad expression made Magmell stop involuntarily.

And in the next moment.

“Magmell… let me eat youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!”

――Fwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooossssshhhh!

““—Wha!?””

A swarm of tentacles burst out of Freyr’s body and rushed straight toward Magmell and Sinus.

““Magmell!!””

Naturally, as Magic Arts would only get eaten, Shiva and Fluga promptly stood defensively in front of Magmell, but the tentacles swerved in multiple directions just before hitting Shiva’s shield and headed toward Magmell.

“K-kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?”

However.

“—Oraaa!”

““““—!?””””

SLASH! Ophir appeared out of nowhere and took a giant swing at Freyr with her battleaxe, sending her flying away while spattering tentacles and pieces of meat before rolling on the ground.

“…Ophir-san?”

“Ha, that was a pretty cute scream, M woman.”

Ophir showed a fearless smile, but—

“…That hurts, Ophir…”

““—!?””

—right after, Freyr, who had been blown away, regenerated in the form of one of the children from Turbo’s temple, causing Ophir and Turbo to freeze in place.

But the surprise didn’t stop there.

As all of them gathered in one place so as to surround Magmell and strengthened their vigilance in response to the gravity of the situation—

“Ophir…”

“Goddess…”

“Magmell…”

“Sinus-sama…”

“Zana…”

“Fire God-sama…”

“Shiva-san…”

“Fluga-sama…”

—the people they knew appeared one after another.

“M-mother, why are you here…” Zana stuttered.

“Don’t let it fool you, Zana. This is the same trick that the demon named Aetia used against us earlier. It is meant to lower our guard by reading our thoughts and mimicking the appearance of those close to us. Perhaps, he has made her superpower his own after absorbing her,” Shiva said.

“I see. That explains the presence of the young child from my island. If so, all of them are fake, are they not? Let us not hesitate and burn them to ash,” Igniver said.

“B-but still… B-before that, is this some kind of illusion…?”

In response to Magmell’s question, Turbo, fused with Ophir, denied, “No, this is not an illusion,” and said, “The ‘Shield’ Saintess mentioned earlier that this comes about from the superpower of a demon he has devoured, right? A tentacle had suddenly attacked the demon we were fighting and devoured him. If this guy has assimilated his superpower, I’m afraid these guys are actually undying puppets with faces of those we know. They are far worse than mere illusions.”

“Furthermore, he himself has the ability to ‘eat’ any energy-based attack. Good grief, getting eaten by your close ones, huh… I dare say there’s no situation more horrible than this.”

『……』

As Shiva shrugged her shoulders, the others were left lost for words and bit their lips.

Then, Valon, who appeared to be assured of his victory, said with an eerie smile, “Ah, now I can finally eat you… including the goddesses fused to you, that makes a total of 8 people… ahh, I wonder how all of you will taste like…”

Valon, his tentacles, and his puppets all drooled.

Then.

“Well then… let’s eaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttt!!”

『—!?』

Valon was swooping down on the saintesses with his tentacles and puppets, and Magmell and others were going stiff with fear on their faces, but—

“Get away from my womeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnn!!”

Fwooooooooooooooooooooooossshhh!! Silver flames swept everything before their eyes.