924: Divine Beast vs Antidemon

「My eyes!」

Mea continued covering her eyes and screaming. Who could’ve imagined her blinding herself with the light from her own divine sword…… If my metal wolves hadn’t taken out all the antidemons around her, she might have been in big trouble.

「G-Gugya?」

Lind――no, Lindwurm was pretty confused too. He stared down at his master screaming at his feet, unsure of what to do.

The form of Lindwurm appearing before us was exactly as the legends say, enormous. He must be nearly 100 meters long.

That’s more than twice the size of the water dragon we saw a while back. Naturally, the aura of power he radiated was similarly huge. When one normally encounters a dragon thsi big, retreat would be the first word coming to mind.

Well, all that solemn dignity kinda got ruined by his master. At least he’s diligently protecting Mea from the charging antidemons by surrounding her with his tail.

「Nrgh…… To think it would be so bright! Such a grave blunder!」

「Grgh!」

「Whoa? L-Lind? Fuhahaha! You’ve certainly grown into a valiant form, huh!」

「Gao!」

Such a touching scene, so why does it feel so comedic? Anyways, now’s not the time for fooling around!

『Mea! We need to take out the antidemons!』

「Oh, that’s right!」

Mea already knew my identity, so it’s okay for me to talk to her. She seems to have quickly regained her bearings.

「Hmmm. Five strong ones………? Lind, you’re in charge of the surrounding antidemons! Exterminate all the weaklings!」

「Gaaaooooooo!」

So we’ll take the commanders while Lind prevents the mooks from reaching the city. Lind could use his own body as a giant wall if need be, so he’s definitely the best suited for the role.

「We shall slay the commanders. I take it there are no objections?」

「Nn!」

「Of course!」

No one voiced any dissent. Mea’s words contained a majesty that made us naturally want to follow her. Perhaps the enhancement affecting her body also boosted her innate charisma or something similar.

Her appearance was now a little more intimidating than usual. She didn’t have a beast face like Zefmate’s, but her hair grew very long. That loose and disheveled hair reminded me of her dad, the Beast King. It wasn’t just the hair, the atmosphere she gave off matched him completely too.

You can practically feel the father-daughter relationship. Her fearlessness, violent aura, and belligerent smile must have all been inherited from him too.

The current Mea truly felt fit to be a ruler.

「Then let us begin!」

「Nn!」

And so, each of the five challenged the commander in front of them.

「This one is mine!」

『That’s my Fran! You chose the strongest looking one!』

(Master, use the wolves to kill the weaklings.)

『Got it!』

The one in front of Fran certainly had the smallest size, but also contained the most mana within his body.

The antidemon carried a katana in his hands, with a sleek body befitting a swordsman.

Recognizing Fran as his opponent, the crimson colored knight-type with three long horns took a step forward and waited for her silently.

Almost as if he was a proud warrior challenging the enemy to a duel. Antidemons weren’t supposed to have personalities, but maybe those at the commander-level displayed a bit more individuality.

Fran and the Tri-Horn antidemon continued glaring at each other.

「Uraaaaah!」

「Shiaaaaaaah!」

After a moment’s pause, Fran and Tri-Horn broke into battle. Both moved at blinding speeds with their swords clashing countless times.

The shockwaves alone were enough to send all the weaker antidemons in the vicinity flying.

As expected from his small stature, Tri-Horn’s speed was simply terrifying. He combined that with a powerful regenerative ability. All the cuts Fran gave him healed almost instantly.

We would’ve been in real danger without Sophie’s song. I don’t think we could have guaranteed a victory, even if we activated Potential Release.

But in our current state, we outmatched him.

Be it speed, swordsmanship, or even regeneration, we had the upper hand. Yeah, Fran also regenerated instantly after each scratch from the antidemon’s blade.

And comparing the weapons of the two would simply be unfair. After all, I’m at peak performance right now.

(Master, are you okay with all that evil energy?)

『Oops, I think I’m leaking a little! It’s fine. Don’t worry about it!』

(Nn!)

There was a bit of evil energy mixed in with the divine powers cloaking me. Fran seemed a bit worried about my condition, but there was no problem at all. My evil energy levels were just so high that I accidentally leaked some out.

Maybe it would be a big problem normally, but evil energy has no effect on me. It’s not much different than being overflowing with mana. The current Fran could also ignore this small amount of evil energy without any negative impact.

I boosted my power with evil energy, divine energy, and also the Golden Formula skill.

Golden Formula was the skill Announcer-san created from Overgrowth’s Golden Devourer skill.

In exchange for losing the ability to absorb power from antidemons, the antidemon slaying ability got a nice boost. No matter how many antidemons we cut down, Fran would never turn into an antidemon like Nadia. Thanks to this, we could use the skill as much as we wanted.

「Shh! Sei!」

Fran, who was already fast enough to leave her own shadow behind, accelerated even further. She must have mastered her new physical abilities, after being boosted by Divine Beast Form.

Moreover, she sometimes made ridiculous movements that seemed like teleportation. It seems that in her Divine Beast Form, she could activate Black Lightning Roll at will.

Normally, people flying around at such ridiculous speeds would barely be able to recognize their own movements. Even the blood spurting out from Fran’s wounds instantly turned into mist before dissipating into the air.

However, Fran was in complete control of her speed. In addition to her body’s physical abilities, it seems her dynamic vision and spatial recognition had been enhanced as well.

Fran was now capable of seeing everything around her in slow motion, even without using time acceleration. Meanwhile, I needed time acceleration to simply keep up with her.

I guess this is how the world looks through the eyes of the Rank S transcendents.

Even in this state, I can’t say for sure if Fran would be able to beat Ashwrath or Weena Rhyn. Those guys have complete mastery over their powers, after all. I could, however, say that Fran had certainly stepped one foot in their territory.

「Teyaa!」

「Shwiiiiiii!」

She’s just too damn fast. Even with Divine Beast Form, I could sense her body beginning to scream from the sheer speed.

And this antidemon was capable of clashing with her head-on. Tri-Horn was plenty extraordinary himself. I never could have imagined we’d see so many of these ridiculously powerful antidemons…… The season of antidemons really is something else.

But regardless of his speed and power, Fran was a step ahead. She quickly started reading the antidemon’s movements, and evading his strikes.

Fran began to clearly outperform this antidemon of the highest level.

「Ruaaaaaaaaaaah!」