Chapter 21 – Night Attack (Conclusion)

~~ Cecil Point of View ~~

When I accepted this mission from the capt, I was thinking it was just a normal quest for hunting some troublesome monster, but this is getting more and more irritating.

How come there’s such a huge mana outburst effect in all those years and not even one of the men commanding this country noticed? This is strange.

Well, it’s not like I don’t understand how they couldn’t notice, since they are just hyumans in the first place, but still there’s a limit for their incompetence.

Normally that wouldn’t matter for me at all. I’m not the type of girl who would fuss over details, but this time it’s troublesome.

This dryad is strong, much stronger than a normal intelligent monster would be or a hyuman who achieved Riviera, how many years did she absorb this raging mana and controlling monsters and people alike until now?

Still that wouldn’t matter much for my strength.

“You impudent human girl!”

The moon dryad shouted while glaring at me, as if seeing the reaper, what an impolite guy.

The trouble is that after exchanging blows with me a few times she clearly understood she couldn’t win and retreated towards the place with most mana, the center of the outburst while using almost a hundred possessed persons as shield.

What about the other giant monsters?

Frankly they were weak, well, not like I can expect any challenge here. With a few minutes I’ve finished all of them.

Usually I would use a big magic and destroy everything, but this time I don’t what would happen if I were to burst this whole place open with all this volatile mana, furthermore I’m pretty sure capt would be mad if I were to kill all the people possessed by the plants or hurt his precious men in the after effects.

I’m sure capt has some thoughts about releasing them and with the priests from the church it’s probable to rescue their bodies, though I doubt it would be anything left from their spirit, after all this dryad is a mutation specialized in feeding from other people mana, the soul energy, after so many years messing with it.

Well, if I can kill the dryad and release their control I can make the souls enter the Samsara (cycle of reincarnation) again, though they probably wouldn’t be reborn as people.

While thinking such stupid thing I had to maneuver my way towards the dryads while avoiding or knocking out the people without killing them.

The problem is that these guys use the tentacles popping out of their heads to link their own bodies like some a giant human whip to hit me, are they even human at this point?

While evading such attacks, despite their uttermost opposition I take it easy, since the dryad was cornered, or so I though.

If I had rushed with everything I got, I could have finished her before this whole mess.

The dryad dug herself into the earth right in the centermost part of the burst effect and ate like crazy the raging mana.

She must be aware what would happen if she did that, since she lived for how many years while being nurtured by it.

Yes, right in front of my eyes a tree sprouted from nowhere. It was huge, easily being bigger than the tallest tower from the royal castle of this country and having a width that could easily house dozens upon dozens of people.

Right in the mid of that enormous trunk I saw what was supposed to be the dryad.

A deformed face that lacked the beauty it had achieved when evolved, not it turned into a complete monster, throwing away its own reason to drink more power.

In this universe there are infinite ways to get more powerful, yet the huge majority of those are about strengthening the soul, acquiring more mana.

What the dryad did was the simplest way out of all the methods, consume mana, that’s why when people kill their enemies they eat a little part of their soul to strengthen their own, the most primordial method known to people.

Yet when taking huge amount of foreign mana into the body the bigger the side effects, for example when I call upon the “conduit” to channel the power, I can excess superb power for some time, but I will be considerably weaker for the day after and won’t go back to my peak for a week.

Her own ability is using her own mana to intrude other bodies and command them from inside.

She must be aware of the effect of having foreign mana that exceeds their limit. Yes, she had their own soul eroded by the huge amount of power surging to her body that wasn’t made to house such a huge quantity of mana.

Although the soul is the key part of the person, the body has the same importance, if not more, after all the body is the receptacle of the soul and no matter how strong the soul is, if they don’t have a body capable of exercising their strength, it’s just useless power.

Now what would happen when the soul reach the limit of their own body? They enter the state called Riviera and can enter samsara to get a new body that’s compatible with one own soul while leaving the old body as energy to the universe, their new body can be stronger than the one from before, making the people soar new heights.

Well, it’s another story if the new reincarnation wishes the same as the past one.

Now, going back on topic, what would happen when one forcefully make the body break past the limit while feeding with such a volatile mana?

They have their soul eroded and pulled out of the wheel of the souls, making it impossible to reincarnate. Now with a body not bound by the laws of the universe (Riviera) now having its own soul connected with the reincarnation cycle, they become an alien existence to the providence of the universe commonly known as calamity, renegades, true demons and the likes.

From the entire universe, truly the most horrendous beings.

Or so that’s what I’ve been told, but from what I could see she simple didn’t know better and did it because she was cornered.

Well, regardless of she is really a existence that go against the law of the world, like I was told, or just a cornered rat, she is an enemy.

That is enough for me. I will let the hard thinking for the scholars.

While drawing my sword a huge whip, that was large as the trunk of an old tree, came in my direction.

“Even if you got this big, you are still just a plant!”

With a swing of my sword, already bathed in flames, I cut away the huge tentacle cleanly.

“RRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIRRIRIR!”

The dryad-tree-thing screeched like feeling pain, but her whips came flying one after another. With consecutives cuts I severed her tentacles while hearing her soar voice in the background.

Within half minute I’ve already cut almost half hundred tentacles, still they kept coming without stop.

As I was going to complain about her attack not working, a huge purple beam was shot from the distorted face of the dryad.

“Ah diversion, huh?” – Lifting my sword in the air I shouted – “[Earth Wall]”

A brown wall surged at my front and blocked the dryad attack completely.

So I jumped towards the top of the wall and saw the dryad preparing another beam attack to me while their tentacles started assaulting me again despite I had cut them in half seconds ago. Looking at the surroundings of the aberration I could see the tentacles being healed or new ones popping out of the dryad body.

This is going to be troublesome, so let’s finish this thing quickly with a big attack.

Moving my sword back at the scabbard, I pointed it to the dryad while dodging the countless swings.

“Let my will be heard. Wrathful ****, Lord of the Flames, take my mana as payment and my body as vessel, let thy anger consume the my enemies and thy power be known to the world”

My body was wrapped in flames and I could feel the energy surging with each word, my mana being offered to it and he giving me its power to burn the world. Staring at the dryad, I finally released my attack.

“[Inferno]”

The flame didn’t stopped, they kept increasing, more and more. Seconds later my surroundings were all dyed red. Fire was everywhere and started moving with me in the center, the sound of it was unnatural and didn’t sounded as fire, but as a higher voice of something that was singing the requiem for everything it was about to consume.

When the ‘music’ stopped the giant walls of fire that encircled everything started to fall, as if a god hand coming to punish the foolish mortals.

Moments later, all the flame abnormally vanished as if the events from before were just an illusion, but the place leveled into a desolate scenario was real.

“Everything is over?”

I couldn’t help but mutter, although it was troublesome keeping the damage at minimum at my back, so I wouldn’t kill capt et al.

Moving towards the center, I finally saw why I still have this weird feeling.

“So you still didn’t died.”

Looking at the earth, it seems “it” sealed the problem while being summoned, since I couldn’t feel the boundless mana of the world being released anymore.

Without their source of power, the dryad couldn’t regenerate and what’s in my front was just what’s left of her body, a human trunk without limbs and a head partially burnt.

“To live after all that… I finally understand why they told me that you guys are calamities. Despite having such weak soul and body in the beginning, to think you could strengthen it so much to the point it could endure inferno.

Still, I can’t let you live, after all you’re the worst type of vermin that uses his power to rob other people control while using them as puppets.”

Ops, my real intention leaked a little, well, doesn’t matter.

With several stabs into its head and trunk with my flaming sword, the whole body turned into ashes quickly. She finally died, as I could sense part of her power being absorbed by me, after all this trouble, finally I get a reward.