「Even the Divine Attribute… That’s not… fair…」

Like a crucified saint, Zelyse, with his hands stretched out to either side, spat out a large amount of blood and fell backward to the surface of the lake.

But I felt something was odd with my slash. I aimed my blade at his heart, but it collided with a hard object on its way from his left shoulder to his right side.

If I were an ordinary sword, I might get caught in his spine or ribs. But what we just unleashed was a killing blow from the current Fran…

Her slash should have been able to cut through not just bone, but even some hard metal like tofu. So, there must be something inside Zelyse that was strong enough to withstand our blow just now.

Actually, I remembered a similar feeling to this. It was during the incident in the Royal Capital of the Kranzel Kingdom.

It was the same feeling as when she slashed someone who had the pseudo fanatic sword stuck in him. However, there should be no way that Zelyse had a pseudo fanatic sword stuck in him――.

「…So, this is it, huh…」

With a slamming sound, Zelyse’s body fell into the lake. The blood that flowed from his body then dyed the surface of the lake red.

And it wasn’t just blood that was flowing out. It seemed as if even the life force within his body was dissolving and vanishing into the lake.

The light and fervor drained from Zelyse’s eyes, and his presence faded rapidly.

「Aah… Goodbye――…」

Zelyse smiled at the last moment when his life force was entirely gone. Immediately afterward, his body swelled from within, swelling several times in an instant.

With that momentum, Zelyse’s body spewed out a purple mist from within. No, it wasn’t from inside the body. But Zelyse’s body itself turned into a mist and dispersed.

Bushwooohhh!

『This is bad!』

My danger detection started to ring like crazy, but I didn’t even need it to know that it was something that we should never get close to.

『He won’t just simply die, isn’t he!?』

Urushi and I hurriedly used teleport to get some distance. We were more than a hundred meters away, but my danger detection was still ringing. But I guess it couldn’t be helped. We could see a waterfowl between us and the spot where Zelyse had fallen, thrashing and suffering to death.

『Let’s hold it back with wind!』

I enclosed a large area with my Wind Magic and then narrowed the wind wall as if I were compressing it. It seems that I’ve managed to block out all the poisonous fog with my Wind Magic. At the very least, the purple mist was not in the visible range.

There’s nothing we could do about the amount that had dissolved into the air and water, but since my crisis detection was hardly reacting anymore, it shouldn’t be a problem.

In the end, I would just devour them all with my Poison Absorption Skills. Even if it was a skill like a vampire that turned his body into a poisonous mist, he shouldn’t be able to revive once it was all been absorbed.

『Wait, was Sierra okay?』

「Over there」

『Ooh, so he’s safe…』

Before I knew it, Sierra had also distanced himself from it, and he didn’t seem to have been poisoned. It seemed that Zelyse’s last attempt was in vain.

「…Did we win?」

「Woof?」

Fran and Urushi looked somewhat unconvinced. I too felt the same way.

『Is this the end?』

It seemed to be a suicide attack. An attack that assured him that he could pull off an eventual comeback even against a superior opponent.

But was it really this easy to win against him?

Our opponent was Zelyse, right? Differently from our fight with the Lich, he should have been a difficult opponent to fight against.

Honestly, deep down I knew that he might have been able to dodge even that attack.

And yet――.

But we definitely witnessed it. The moment when Zelyse lost his life force and died. That moment when Zelyse’s face, body, and limbs crumbled and turned into that purple mist. And the moment when that mist was devoured by me.

Without a doubt, Zelyse had perished, and his body vanished.

Fran and Urushi seemed to feel the same way, and there was something other than joy on their faces. But there was no way he could have survived in that situation.

Even though we were not convinced, we had to admit that Zelyse was dead.

While we were standing still, Sierra came up to us.

「…Did you, killed Zelyse…?」

「Nn」

「I see… I was saved…」

I was slightly surprised when Sierra bowed to us. I hadn’t expected him to thank us so frankly. I was expecting him to say something like, 「Don’t do something you shouldn’t have」 or 「That was my prey」.

I guess that was how much Sierra wanted to defeat Zelyse.

Sierra returned the jet-black sword, which still radiated a weak evil aura, to its sheath at his waist. Fran’s eyes were then drawn to his sword.

「Hey, Is that sword… safe…?」

The tremendous evil that had just been emitted, and the ability to counteract skills. Even if it wasn’t Fran, they’d probably be wondering about the same thing.

In response to Fran’s not-so-specific question. Sierra nodded back.

「No problem. As long as I can handle it, no harm will come to me」

「Is that so?」

「Y-yeah」

Sierra looked surprised when Fran nodded easily at his words. He was probably expecting to be pursued further.

For Adventurers, it was bad manners to persistently ask about the origin or source of a weapon that someone else was using.

But the point about whether Sierra really could handle it or not could have been pushed further.

After all, the existence of a powerful sword that emitted a large amount of evil was a problem that could even cause a lot of damage if left unchecked.

However, Fran was satisfied without asking anything further into the matter. She seemed to have lost interest in it.

Well, Fran had me, and I was a hell of a sword. I have free will, I have fragments of the Evil God sealed inside of me, and there were many other secrets within me.

Compared to that, a little bit of an Evil Spirit was tolerable, I guess.

Fran then asked Sierra, who had a subtle look on his face.

「You know Zelyse?」

「Y-yeah… We have a bit of history…」

He apparently didn’t try to brush it off by saying 「It’s none of your business」.