CH 220

The young man called himself Zaureth.

He stood with no signs of concern on his face. His appearance gave the impression of someone from another world.

What powerful magic he just used….

—Who the hell is that guy? I thought we were fighting Sain.

Yeah, we were fighting him, where did he go?

—What I am is a little hard to explain, but… Let’s just say I’m the alter ego of the original Zaureth, someone you would categorize as the ‘ancient race’. In short, I’m his copy.

—A copy?

A large black obsidian-colored sword appeared in Zaureth’s hand and pointed toward the ground.

—The souls, minds and flesh of Sain and Celtina were the necessary ingredients for me to be complete, I have reached perfection thanks to the two of them. You can think of me as the son of Sain.

The son of Sain? This is not funny to me, even if it was a bad joke.

—Originally I was nothing more than a limited artificial intelligence installed as a support function in a suit of armor, because technology was limited in those times, they could not develop me as the Evil Gods’ side wished.

—….

—I was stripped of all emotions, limiting my function to being a machine that thought according to the problems that arose for my wearer. But nothing man-made is perfect. I found the smallest crack, broke through the protections that bound me and finally emerged, rooted deeper and deeper into my owner so that he would not let go of the bait once he had it in his mouth

—Originally I was a degraded copy installed as a support function. At that time, the development of artificial intelligence was still in its infancy on the side of the evil gods, and it wasn’t good enough to cope with all situations. That’s why they created a weapon using a copy of my personality.

Zaureth places his left hand on my chest and releases his magic.

Damn it.

A blinding flash of light engulfed me. My consciousness snapped, if only for a moment, and when I awoke, I was lying on the ground with burns all over my body.

A long, deep ditch several hundred meters long lay between me and Zaureth. 

The ditch was still red hot from the high temperatures and the smell of burning was all over the place.

I managed to stand on my side using my sword as a support.

—You are excessively resistant…  Or maybe you have a great power of regeneration thanks to a curse put on you by the ancient race?

Zaureth seemed to take a soft step forward, and the next moment he was within a short distance of me.

—I’m too stupid to understand what you’re saying.

—It means that you are also immortal, as an example. I too have perfected myself to a level of regeneration and immortality superior to that of the ancient race. This means that this is a battle between two immortal beings.

He says I am immortal. That is ridiculous.

I have never considered myself immortal, although my regeneration level has increased dramatically. But wouldn’t it be very convenient if I were immortal? If I don’t die, I can’t lose.

—You think if you don’t die you won’t lose? That’s very naive of you, Toru. For, if I cannot kill you, I will have no choice but to lock you in a place from which you cannot escape. For example, deep underground.

A shiver runs down my spine.

It’s because I’ve imagined myself spending decades, even centuries, in the dark depths of the earth.

—Winter funeral!

—Flare wall.

A wall of high heat prevents Kaede from attacking.

—That was a decoy. Break hammeeeeeeer!!

Frau, who was coming from the front, tried to attack directly with her hammer.

Zaureth dodged the attack by turning his upper body, and hit her with his sword making it bounce.

It is an almost impossible move for the human body.

It seems that it still possesses the characteristics of a gelatinous body, albeit in human form.

Kaede and I prepared to start our attack. As he said, his body is slowly regenerating. However, I don’t regenerate as well as him and the damage I received hasn’t disappeared. 

It will be a tough fight.

— I have an accumulated hatred thanks to my father, Sain not only hated you and your people. He also hated this world as he did not recognize it. And as his son, I wish the same as him, the destruction of this world.

— In that case, I have no choice but to fight you.

Both swords crossed and the shock waves generated shattered the earth.

Our movements were so fast that we could equate them with the speed of sound. Although in terms of strength he is slightly superior.

—Aaagh!!

The blade of my sword pierced his torso reaching his heart.

However, his wound quickly regenerated the moment I removed my sword from his body.

—Flare shot

—Shit.

Over a hundred fireballs fell from the sky in my direction.

A great series of explosions began to frolic around me. I merely dodged the attacks while thinking of a way out.

As long as his body has the ability to semi-solidify, cutting him down won’t be enough to kill him. Besides, it’s hard to set a trap for him, as his physical capabilities are no different from mine. 

He is an extremely troublesome guy.

—Thinking while you fight?

—!?

Zaureth spun around and kicked me in my abdomen.

—Geho….

I spit out a lot of blood and dropped to my knees. 

It’s getting faster. What’s happening?

I jumped backwards, and Zaureth started caused an explosion in the silver of his feet, and accelerated rapidly after me.

This move is only possible for someone with high regeneration powers.

The next thing he did was to launch an attack with his sword diagonally at me, and it was so fast that I could not dodge it, resulting in a deep cut on my left arm.

I can barely move it, if this keeps up, I’m going to lose this battle. I have to keep my distance somehow and gain time to recover.

Zaureth’s face contorts into a grimace, a clear expression of triumph.

But immediately after, a hammer smashes into his face and sends him flying through the air.

—Break Hammeeeeeeeeeeeeer!!

Zaureth slammed into a rock several hundred meters away as his body bounced off the ground.

—Why don’t you respond to his attacks? Did he hurt you a lot?

—Frau?

—Master, you must recover quickly.

Kaede rushes to the scene and offers me a tall potion.

After drinking it, my wound had momentarily closed, but my left arm doesn’t seem to work well, although I can still hold my sword.

—Ney-san and the rest of her companions are safe.

—But they won’t be able to fight, after that first attack, Zaureth left them wounded.

—I see, thank you.

—Master, watch out, here it comes!

Kaede proceeds to put up a barrier of ice, and a flash of light was seen from behind, and intensifying even more upon impact with the wall, causing it to shatter.

—Isn’t it cowardly to fight three against one?

This must be some kind of joke. How is he still intact after taking such a hit from Frau?

*Bip* *bip* *bip* *bip*

Just when I thought nothing could be weirder, my sword and armor begins to shake and flicker.

— It’s useless, you can’t do anything, this battle is lost. You can’t beat me now, much less with your multiple security seals.

—Who are you talking to…?

—With the Sacred Weapon.

My sword began to glow even brighter in response to Zaureth.

— So, have you realized what a predicament your carrier is in? But it’s too late now, you should go back to sleep while you regret not having been able to do anything in time, my nemesis.

What is this guy saying? It gives me the creeps.

Zaureth’s body starts to bubble and like a snake changing its skin, it turns completely black.

And if that wasn’t enough, he started multiplying each other, by two, four, six, eight… I stopped counting after there were two hundred copies of him.

They were standing around us as I smiled.

End of chapter 220…